Elements of a Cake Tasting

So, you are planning your wedding, and you're making a short list of bakers to try out.  What are the essential things you need to know and learn from your cake tasting? 

Welcome to my short and completely non-exhaustive series on cake tastings! 

First things first: if you have found a baker by reputation, trust his/her ideas. 

Try flavors you can' find at the grocery store.  Don't like lemon?  If it's the baker's trademark flavor, try it anyway.  You might be missing out on something amazing your guests will be talking about for weeks after you get hitched.

I'm prepping a tasting today for a couple that involves four flavors - Bake Lore's classic buttery yellow cake, lightly lemon cake, orange delight cake and spiced heaven cake. 

I'm also working to keep prices down and make the bottom line as palatable as the product I make.  The buttery yellow cake batter lends itself to new flavors so well, blending perfectly with the additional flavors to make a dependably moist and tender crumb.

From Left: lightly lemon, spiced heaven, orange delight and buttery yellow cakes

Adding real vanilla buttercream to any of these would automatically make it a hit, but I'll be soaking each in a flavored syrup and creating one additional buttercream flavor for each cake. 

These aren't your typical "wedding white or chocolate" flavors.  This is a twist on the traditional that will give wedding guests a tiny taste of how happy thier hosts are as they celebrate your marriage!

Cake Tasting Element #1: Trust your baker and try new flavors.

Studly Groom's Cake

It looks like Bake Lore is finally going to get some space at a bridal show.  My registration isn't final yet, but I'm already prepping things for my table. 

First on the list: a chocolate stud cake for the groom.  Ladies, let's be honest, the wedding day is all about us.  The least we can do is remind the groom that he is, in fact, the studliest man in our lives and what better way to do that than with chocolate?

Studly Groom's Cake

This is actually a dummy.  It's made out of cereal treat, and covered with royal icing so it will harden and stay pretty - er - I mean manly - for a long, long time. 

But the real thing would be a double chocolate cake, soaked in a sweet liqueur syrup and covered in rich chocolate buttercream, or ganache...and of course finished with chocolate studs, the mighty chocolate chip!

So brides, don't forget your stud.  He needs some chocolate on your big day, and if you're lucky, he'll share a bite with you too!

Accidental Baking

I baked a lot of bread yesterday.  It was fun, and it smelled great.

But I lacked the foresight I needed to complete my fourth loaf of bread.  That is, I forgot I had given the extra pans I had on hand back to my mother.  Tsk Tsk.

Panic ensued when I punched down the big doughy balloons only to realize there was no where for the final loaf to take shape and bake. 

So, I made accidentally on purpose cinnamon rolls!  TADA!

I had one for breakfast today, the equivalent of two slices of toast.  What a great way to wake up.  Coffee in hand, healthy and delcious cinnamon roll in the other...I'll take that any day. 

I used my usual soaking method with this recipe - basically a way of releasing the nutrition locked up in the whole wheat and making it taste that much better.  While I'm not offering bread and rolls here at Bake Lore anymore, I still enjoy making them for my family.  Perhaps one day when I can get the profit margin a bit healthier, I might consider returnign it t the menue. 

Until then, I will just suggest that you do some research into Sue Gregg's cooking methods.  I use her bread recipe and it's the best I've ever tasted, bar none. 

Why yes!  That is another new cake pedestal.  How kind of you to notice;).

And yes, they are square...because I used my super awesome Fat Daddio square cupcake pan.  For some reason, I love square baked goods.

Do you have a tried and true cinnamon roll recipe in your house?  What do you do to make it healthier for your family?

Sidetrack: Being Robbed

The holidays were rough on our little corner of existence. 

Two break-ins...that's right...old school, rob-your-house-while-you-sleep kind of break-ins.  One on Christmas Eve night, and the other on New Year's Eve.

If they come back on my birthday, I will have to shoot someone.  Why couldn't it have been a good story?  You know...ninjas broke down my door looking for the stone of stealth on my back porch...or pirates attacked and our house was in their wake of pillaging and theft...but some meth-head (presumably...I mean, I love rural Indiana, but come on...) who just thought it would be fun?  Come ON!

But I digress...

That kind of stress can really throw you for a loop and keep you otherwise occupied when you might be...I don't know...blogging. 

I'm officially over it now, and I'm ready to renew my passion for my business.  I have high hopes that I'll have a booth set up at my very first bridal show by the end of the month, and if that happens and goes well, we might be blogging a whole lot more...and maybe considering moving forward on some of those amazing plans I've been making. 

Stay tuned...Bake Lore is returning to awesomeness with vigor and determination. 

Also, if you are the person who broke into my house, you are banned forever from eating my amazing cake.  FORever. 

That is all.

Ribbons and More Ribbons

My sister-in-law, who blogs at Enduring Tri Girl, turned me on to a great idea.  She sent me a link to a cake that had been made not with cake, but...wait for it...with cereal treats.

That's right, an entire cake made solely out of cereal treats.  It blew my baking mind.

I immediately thought: cake dummies!  I've been wanting to invest in some cake dummies for some time now, but really, I make all kinds of models out of this stuff.  Why can't I made a cake model?

So I did!  I whipped up some sticky gooeyness and shaped it to my needs.  Then I got out some leftover royal icing I had on hand and practiced a technique that creates a folded ribbon effect. 


How fun is that?  I had a great time working with the icing and though there were a few imperfect places, I feel much more confident after all the piping practice...after all, practice piping makes perfect piping...right???

I still have a ton of dummies left - and  can't wait to try more ideas I've been sitting on. 

New Things...New Storage!

If you visit Bake Lore often, you know that I'm a sucker for a pretty serving dish.  I have a growing collection of cake pedestals, tea trays and pretty platters. 

I was thrilled this year when I opened a beautiful tea service from Pampered Chef, a gift from my Aunt Teresa (who is by the way an amazing gift-giver and all around very thoughtful and loving kind of aunt). 

Sadly I'm running out of shelf space for all these gorgeous items. 

I had to do some rearranging and repurposing, but I found a solution: how to store my new three-tiered pedestal while also serving a much needed purpose in my kitchen. 

So I give you, the most elegant potato, onion, garlic storage ever!

Of course it will easily wash up and do what it's really intended to do...provide a frame for something delicious and decorated...and also dainty, because big treats would just not fit!
I love this stand even more now that it is uber functional.  Again, anything that is extremely useful is going to be one of my favorite things.  Eggs...black pants...ok, black anything...white vinegar...but I digress!

I love my new toy, and I hope you are enjoying your gifts and thinking up ways they will make your life just a teensy bit better. 

Thanks, Aunt Teresa!

Best of 2011

It's the end of another year!  How did this happen again?? 

I am feeling reminiscent and looking over my year of projects, I wanted to share with you all again some of my absolute favorites.

First, the Incredibly Time-Consuming Shaped Cake Category...Winner is...The Guitar Cake!!!

Rock n Roll baby!

Up Next we have the Impossibly Cute Saturdays, that is Cake Pops, Category:  The Christmas Ornaments!

Soooo cute.  I love 'em!

Yes, I had to go with the Christmas ornaments.  I love them.  I want some of my own:).

And finally, my top choice for 2011, my chef d'oeuvre, my magnum opus, my awesomest of awesome cakes:  The Epic Wedding Cake Category and Best in Show...a little something I call the Colossus of Gant...best wedding ever got the best wedding cake ever (if I do say so myself...).



The Colossus of Gant!

2011 was a sweet year, pardon the pun, and here's hoping 2012 will be better still.  I want to see a full wedding calendar and a many, many new and returning customers. 

God bless you all and thank you for making time for Bake Lore.  Here's hoping I'll be sharing pictures of your very own Bake Lore creation soon! 

Happy New Year!!!