Cakes for Jan and Feb

With Elliot's birthday in January and Stevens in February it has been easy enough to keep up with my cake a month goal so far.

January-Elliot decided on a candy cake:

It was a two tear (10in and 6in round) chocolate cake

My original plan had been to use red, yellow, and blue fondent to cover the cake and then to decorate with both fondent and red, yellow and blue candies. The same weekend as Elliot's big day we ended up being in Moore to clean out my parents garage so his cake got set on the back burner. I had pre-made his cake but hadn't spent any time on the decorations so we ended up just covering it in chocolate butter cream frosting and sprinkling candies on it. It turned out cute but I was a little disappointed in not doing more on my first cake of the year.

Elliot loved it though and that is really all that matters.

The actual cake was a chocolate cake recipe in the Joy of Cooking cook book by Irma Rombauer. it had a good flavor but came out super dry. In addition to cake decorating practice I am hoping to find some solid cake recipes. I want cakes that are soft, moist, have amazing flavors but also are strong enough to be stacked.

February- For stevens birthday I always make him cannolis (an Italian pastry) so I decide to go with a smaller cake and incorporate the cannolis into the design.

I used a yellow cake recipe found in the Better homes and garden cookbook. I didn't want another dry cake so I watched it like a hawk while it was baking. It did turn out moist but it was also dense, I am looking for moist and fluffy cake so I will have to work on that. I baked the cake in two 6in rounds and cut them each twice so there were six layers in his little cake. I filled and frosted it with Chocolate mousse Frosting. I made and shaped fondent into a picnic blanket and I sculpted a bike out of wire and covered it in fondent. I was really excited about how the bike turned out I think it would have been better to cover it with modeling chocolate or even a fondent gum paste mixture but I used what I had. I plan on trying out some gum paste in the next couple months.

As for my March cake plan I only have two words "Hunger Games"!