. . . OR . . . DON'T QUIT YOUR DAY JOB, ANDREA 28 JUNE & 9 JULY 2022
I've recently been going down the rabbit hole of cake decorating videos on YouTube, like THESE. I find them soothing to watch (without the sound). So I thought, "How difficult can that be?" I shared my enthusiasm for these videos with BobMyFormerBoss, so he sent me a 178-piece cake decorating kit. That was rather overwhelming . . . . . . but I did a bit of searching at amazon, and found an 85-piece beginners' kit for $15 which seemed worth a trial . . . (It's kind of a misnumber . . . 50 of those items are disposable pastry bags, so there are actually 129/36 items, several of them ALSO duplicated.) Of course, I also watched tutorials, like the one on THIS site.
So, I decided to try a simple cake, similar to this . . . One of the professional bakers advised to bake cake[s] one day, freeze them, then decorate another day, as both processes create quite a mess. Sounded good to me, as I cannot stand for very long. As with my previous hobbies (off-loom weaving, quilting, sewing), there remains the problem of . . . what do I DO with the end products? A cake we can eat, of course, but this was too big for just two people, so I decided to make two eight-inch layers, cut each in half, then freeze two of them for later.
And as is usual with me, things didn't go as planned; this project became more elaborate as time went on (which is one good reason to bake and decorate on the same day; there is no opportunity to plan elaborations). I thought to make one layer chocolate, the other almond, like an Almond Joy© candy bar. Then, this . . . . . . to make the checkerboard effect. We'll see how well THAT worked out. (The Korean street food videos are a rabbit hole, too.) Waiting for the cake mix; the parchment paper takes care of any overflow (something I learned from the Korean street desserts videos), and there are parchment rounds on the bottom of the pans (I recently discovered the wonders of parchment paper and use it constantly). I mixed almond flavoring (NOT this extract) into the mix in one pan; cocoa powder in the mix in the other. NOT a good idea, as I found out later. Finished baking; I also made a Spiced Pumpkin Loaf so we'd have SOMEthing to eat immediately . . . my first time making a cake entirely with a food processor (my Cuisinart is so old, it was the first and the only one on the market at the time). Cooling before freezing; this Cairn Terrier from Rita F. is the ONLY dog allowed in the kitchen whilst I'm baking. And believe me, the others KNOW it!

NAILED IT! THE DECORATING BEGINS HERE