As you are aware, I wanted to try to prep as much as possible so that I wasn't rushing to complete everything at the last minute. I probably spent more time making everything that I may have anticipated...but that's okay. I had a great time and really enjoyed every minute of it!
So... On Thursday, I decided that I would start the carrot cake, since its decoration was the most important. Whilst at work, I was daydreaming about the cake and going home to bake it...when I realized something. When I painted Kiana's name on the fondant, I didn't think to measure how large it was. I continued to think about this and just knew that it was going to be larger than the 6 inch cake that was ordered.
I had two options; either re-do the name or make a larger cake. I really liked the way the name came out and opted to do a larger cake and figured that this could be a nice surprise for them.
So I got home that night and compared the name to the 6-inch round cake pan. Sure enough, the name was larger than the pan. I made a 1/2 sheet cake and decided that I would cut it to the size that I wanted. Once it was ready, I cut a 10 1/2 x 6 inch rectangle and frosted it with the crumb-coat, set it in the refrigerator and told it I would see it the next day. This was completed by 12:30 AM... LoL.
Friday rolled around and I went straight home from work. I immediately started making the vanilla and chocolate cake batters for the cupcakes. The chocolate cake batter was dyed black and the vanilla was separated into 4 bowls and dyed pink, blue, yellow, and green - all VERY bright!
I baked 12 chocolate, 12 vanilla, and 12 marbled cupcakes. The chocolate frosting was also dyed black and I also tinted the vanilla frosting pink, blue, yellow & green.
I dyed the cream-cheese frosting a red-brown for the brick wall I was going to create with the carrot cake. Once the carrot cake was frosted, I refrigerated it to let the frosting set again. Once set, I scraped the tops and sides so that I could even out the frosting...this also created an awesome texture on the frosting that gave the appearance of brick! Then, I "carved" the lines into the cake where the "cement" would go. I filled those lines with white cream cheese frosting and once this was done, I placed the name on the top of the cake and outlined the name with black frosting.
Let me just say this... I was happy to see this completed. ... *sigh*... anywho... Once that was done I decorated all of the cupcakes and packed them into containers. FINALLY! I was done!!! Then, I took a step back and stared at my kitchen. Well, I knew it was a kitchen... a stranger walking into my home probably would have thought it was a disaster area. I was nowhere near done...sooooo... finally after cleaning, I was actually finished. At around 3:45 AM my bed was shouting for me; I obliged itl.
Today was the day. I woke up and went to the cake supply store to buy boxes for the cakes and cupcakes; came home, packed everything up, showered and headed to the home. I wasn't sure of what to expect and was feeling pretty nervous. I finally made it to the cake's destination and delivered the goods. I was so happy to hear the "Wow's" that I got. I wanted to cry, just a tear. I felt AMAZING! They loved the way everything looked. Hopefully, I'll receive an email from them telling me that they loved the taste too.
Summary of this project:
11+ hrs of work
3 very late nights
Countless dishes cleaned
1 10 x 6 x 2.6 inch cake
36 Cupcakes (I threw an extra in the box)
A happy 16-year old & Family
An Even Happier Yvie. =)
