Piece of cake

After Kid's Day Out yesterday, Bailey and I came home with the intention of baking a cake.  I had originally planned on making it while she was there, but really, what fun would that have been?  And so when I mentioned to her at the school that we were going to make a cake, suddenly it lit a fire underneath her and she was ready to roll, or at least leave.

 

She was curious what kind of cake we were making, and well, simply put, it's a practice cake.  There was something I had wanted to try in case I'd do it for an upcoming special occasion, but I really felt I needed some practice.  I don't usually do this with cakes, they're literally something I do the first time, but something told me, I needed practice.  The gut is never wrong, except when it's full of fat rolls and an extra ten pounds.

 

 

With my sous chef right beside me and my newly appointed title of "Chef Mommy," we began our baking expedition with my sous chef Bailey reading off the instructions.  She has them memorized by this point.  We made a simple French Vanilla cake.  That was the easy part.  While it baked, we went outside to play for a while.  We needed to relax until the next steps.

 

We had a blast outside since the temperature didn't even reach 80 for the day.  YAY!  (I better mention, Bailey has a blast outside at any temperature.)  We eventually made it back to the cake to do some icing work and to stack it.  Then I realized I was missing a critical ingredient, so out to the Retail Giant we went.

 

 

After this was in my clutches, we could again partake in our adventure.  Although, really, I could've used the vanilla I already had in my cabinet, but I didn't know which flavor I'd use until I arrived to the Retail Giant's flavoring shelves, or lack thereof.

 

This is where the real fun begins, right?

That funny looking substance right there has become my latest kitchen experiment.  I'm all about experimenting.  Well, okay, sometimes.

 

With my work space ready, I put my sous chef to work.

 

And after some continuous hard effort, we came up with this.

 

I let Bailey play with the left over putty.  She enjoyed making things with it, but once she realized it was edible, she decided to try a bite.  This stuff tastes like bland gum,even after the flavoring was kneaded into it along with my blood, sweat, and tears.  (Perhaps those extra flavors are what did it in.)  It was such a strange texture and taste, but we decided to go ahead with a piece of cake anyway.

 

It really did look quite professional, especially with Bailey's placement of the stars.

 

 

There was a constant among the three of us as we ate our decadent experiment: a glob of fondant was left on each of our plates.  We ate the cake underneath the fondant.  because as strange as the fondant tasted, it tasted worse on the cake.  It tasted like it didn't belong on the cake, as though it hindered the cake's wonderful flavors.  And I mentioned it tasted like gum, and well, you grow up knowing you're not supposed to swallow gum.  It was the most successful experiment, because after doing this, I have a feeling, Bailey's birthday cake will not be made with fondant, no matter how gorgeous that cake was going to look or how fantastic my design truly was.

Back to the drawing board...or the mixer.