cartoon cake

I guess the title is pretty self-explanatory. This cake attempt was decided on quite a rush (which usually isn't my style). Normally, i'd plan carefully what I want to bake and then do my research on the internet and prep myself for the battle! muahaha!

So, this baking attempt came about as my younger sis was thinking of baking a little something for her friend's birthday and asked if i could "teach" her to do it. I obviously jumped at the chance and said YES! why not? So i began giving her ideas and asked what would she like and we finally decided on making a cArToOn CaKe.

It is actually just a sponge cake, filled with any filling of your choice (we chose cookies 'n' cream) and iced with yummy italian meringue buttercream. I learnt to do this cartoon cake at a baking workshop from Anna Chan. A very very nice, friendly and patient lady. Come to think about it, it seems like it's a good few months back that I attended the class and had never attempt to re-create what i did in class at home. So i thought it'd be the perfect chance for me to try it out at home =D

In class, we did a chocolate sponge but my sister requested for a strawberry one instead. I haven't done a strawberry sponge before. However, I recalled reading someone from another blog attemped a strawberry swiss roll using strawberry emulco. So i went ahead and added some strawberry emulco. As usual, my oven temp rose and fell ( i used a oven thermometer to increase temp accuracy). I was so afraid the cake would come out like crap. Luckily, it LOOKED fine. So we went ahead, prepared the whipped cream and smashed up some oreo cookies. After which, I attempted the italian meringue buttercream and was glad I finally made it! (though it was a little too sweet, perhaps due to the vanilla)

I was so excited, I totally forgot about doing about the "cartoon pictures" first before torting anf filling the cake. I dived straight into torting and filling the cake and realised just before i wanted to iced the cake that i havent done the pictures! so, i got my sis to put away the filled cakes and started with the picutres. It was alot of fun mixing up the colours, (but a TORTURE to do red) and ended up with bloodyyyy red hands. heh. I used almost half of the newly bought icing to get the nice birght red. *heartache*

In any case, the picture went alright and we started to ice the cakes. Now, THIS is the difficult part - icing a cake. I recalled how torturous i found this section in class and this time, i STILL found it difficult. However, I think, i THINK, i might have caught a teeny weent bit of the technique. Though the frosting still looks hideous. =X My piping skills kinda rusted and the piped shells were wayyyyy uglier than those i did in class. =(

Nevertheless, I am glad i braved myself for this attempt (thanks to my sis hehe) and i am pretty satisfied with the way the picture turned out =) Taste-wise...it was 11 plus plus in the night when we finished doing up the cakes and too full and tired to have a slice. Will update on the taste soon!

Here's a comparison of what i did in class and today:

In class...

today..

my sister's attempt..

*she did the picture on her own, I just demonstrated how it should be done. I helped her a little with icing the cake though she did most herself. I am very proud of her =D A nicer first attempt than mine!

Don't you think her hello kitty looks much better than my patrick? =p

note to self:

1. piping tip for shells too large!

2. remember to finish buttercream picture first!

3.work in an air-conditioned environment if not, buttercream will "melt"

4.stop machine to scrape splashed sugar syrup.

5.useful italian meringue buttercream tutorial

[update]

patrick - last shot before being mutilated

innards

Some things about how the cake tasted...

1. it was moist! yes..!
i guess brushing with syrup/water/juice/whatever liquid stuff really helps. =)

*note: i tried baking a choc sponge-mousse cake for D sometime back and the cake turned out REALLY dry and yucky. can't be lazy with the liquid brushing.

2. I think i can afford more cookies n cream filling. it felt a little miserable. The cake was pretty
tall with 3 layers.

3. The layer of frosting was quite thin. I dont know whether to be happy/sad. I had a hard time
trying to cover it up as i was frosting. The frosting was so thin, i could almost see through the
cake layer beneath. i really should brush up on my frosting skills!

My mummy tried the cake and said it was really nice! She liked the buttercream too..=D Not too oily and not overly sweet. I felt the same. Thank goodness for this buttercream recipe, it tastes soooo much better than the simple buttercream i tried doing for my cupcakes last time. hee.

one last thing! My mum asked if i could do a cake for my grandma's birthday..next week..I agreed immediately! But now..I'm wondering if i'd really wanna go through all that work again..hmmmm...

we shall see..