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‘Cake Decorating’ Category

  1. Week 17: White Almond Gift Box Cake

    May 23, 2012 by Nina Spezzaferro

    This cake was months in the making. What I mean by that is I baked the cake way back in March, the weekend before I started cake decorating class. Since I didn’t have the energy to assemble the cake on that particular day, I wrapped it up and froze it to be assembled at a later time. (more…)

    Category 52 Cakes, Cake Decorating | Tags: ,,,,, | 2 Comments

  2. Cake Deco Diaries

    April 5, 2012 by Nina Spezzaferro

    Last week I attended a weeklong cake decorating class at the Institute of Culinary Education. It was a blast and I’m so excited to execute all the techniques I learned in this year’s cakes. There was too much to pack into one post, so for now here’s an overview for how the week went down. (more…)

    Category Cake Decorating, Miscellaneous | Tags: ,,,, | 3 Comments

  3. “Too Pretty To Eat”

    March 25, 2012 by Nina Spezzaferro

    My mom has a theory that pretty cakes don’t taste good and ugly cakes taste the best. The theory holds true in some instances. For example, most wedding cakes I’ve ever tasted. I think most home bakers place more priority on taste than aesthetics. After all, you’re not trying to sell anything, you just want people to enjoy what you’ve made. But when I first started baking I didn’t care about taste. I wanted my cakes to look like the cakes I’d see in the bakery section of the grocery store. This was well before TV shows like Cake Boss and Amazing Wedding Cakes. I didn’t have that much to aspire to. (more…)

    Category Cake Decorating, Miscellaneous | Tags: | 2 Comments

  4. This is why I’m scared of fondant

    December 9, 2011 by Nina Spezzaferro

    Special thanks to my dear friend, John, for sharing this photo with me.

    This is a fondant cake made by the friend I previously mentioned asked me if I would be experimenting with fondant. And I think it’s pretty obvious why he asked.

    There are so many things wrong with this photo. Why are there straws beside the cake? Why is the cake so close to what appears to be a bathroom? What is the cake sitting on?

    When I first saw this cake photo, I forwarded it on to one of our mutual friends and she replied with, “Why does it look like a toilet?” John felt it looked more like a snowman.

    This is why I’m scared of fondant. Because it might result in a cake that looks like a toilet. It’s a valid concern.

    Category Cake Decorating | Tags: | 6 Comments

  5. To Fondant or Not to Fondant?

    December 5, 2011 by Nina Spezzaferro

    A gorgeous fondant cake from Flickr user, sweetpea0613.

    The other day a friend asked if I would be experimenting with fondant during my year-long weekly cake baking project because he himself was hoping to learn more about working with it. It seems silly not to since it’s such a trendy decorating technique, but I have some reservations.

    I’m not a huge fan of fondant because I find it intimidating. Up until last summer, I had never even tasted a fondant cake, but was pleasantly surprised to find it tasted much better than play dough, which is what it looks like to me.

    I did what anyone would do when trying to figure out how to do something new; I Googled it. There are a lot of YouTube videos on how to work with fondant, but I was disappointed so many of the videos used store-bought fondant. This video, however, shows you how to inexpensively make your own marshmallow flavored fondant and it doesn’t look too difficult either.

    Category Cake Decorating | Tags: ,, | 1 Comment