April 29, 2008

Dear Cakehead: Pre Nuptial Cake Dispute

my blue heaven

Dear Cakehead,

My fiance and I are having trouble coming to a compromise. We can't agree on the color of the cake we'd like. Our wedding colors are Cornflower Blue and Champagne, and I'd like our cake to be Ivory, with Blue flowers. He'd like the cake to be Blue with Ivory flowers. Which cake would be best suited? Oh, my dress is Cornflower blue, so tradition went out the window a long time ago. Also, I'm not sure what flowers
would best work on the cake!!
Thanks,
Jen

Dear Jen,

This problem you pose is our most difficult quandary to date. The last thing we want is a bride and groom bickering over cake. Cakes were put on this earth strictly for tastebud pleasure, not to cause any kind of tension.

We want to turn the answer to your question into a metaphor for your marriage. I hope I'm not being presumptuous in assuming you fell in love with your man based on his insides and not the color of his hair, skin, or flower tattoo he made the mistake of inking into his skin.

With this in mind, why not make the inside of the cake the place where the celebration happens? Skip the blue exterior and save the food coloring for the cake's innards. Make the color burst in that private area tucked away under the frosting. (See the photo above for a sloppy example.)

Don't forget, while cake aesthetics deserve a conversation or two, be sure to quit the yapping long enough to put your teeth and tastebuds to work. You want your cake to taste good. The guests won't care about the color scheme if the "cake" tastes like cardboard and sweetened lard. You're the bride so travel far and wide to try all the free cake samples bakeries are eager to offer.

Let us know what decorating route you decide to take and send us a picture of the final results. No matter which exterior you decide on we hope that your tastebuds and marriage do cake dances for many years to come!

Cakehead

Posted by Cakehead at 09:33 PM | Comments (0)

April 24, 2008

Dear Cakehead: Help me get the pig into my cake

Dear Cakehead,

What cake would taste best garnished with bacon?

Love,
Mira

Dear Mira,

Pairing salty and sweet edibles is one of our favorite activities. To tackle this particular challenge was a special delight since we can think of little that we like to eat more than bacon and cake.

Salivating, we hit our test kitchen. We were pretty certain that chocolate cake would overpower the bacon, but afraid we might miss out on a surprising combination, we decided to give the flavor a chance. Sadly, we were correct. We want the salty fat rind of the bacon to cut through the sweetness. But instead the chocolate flavor was focus.

We whipped up a batch of old fashion yellow cake. Sprinkled with bacon, the cake didn't overpower, but was too sweet and left us very thirsty.

Carrot cake was too busy with the bacon. So finally, we tried a red velvet cake recipe (if you use this recipe replace the pecans with crumbled bacon). Not only was the combination absolute perfection, but we like how the red of the cake references the red of the bacon meat and the cream cheese frosting punctuates the crunchy fat of the bacon. We whipped up a big batch of itty-bitty cupcakes and called them bacon bitty cakes.

Give it a try and let us know what you think.

In case your tastes differ from ours, hereere are some links to others who discovered the magic of bacon cake:

Tender Lovemaking (okay, so the name of the blog makes us a little queasy, but they do like bacon cake)

Miss Ginsu likes the chocolate cake with bacon crumble combo.

Jews for Bacon's recipe for chocolate stout bacon cake turns a traif cake into something that's not even Kosher for the gentile gang.

Enjoy!
Cakehead

Posted by Cakehead at 01:14 PM | Comments (3)

April 01, 2008

Dear Cakehead: The Case of the Carrot Cake Conundrum

This photo of the perfect piece of carrot wedding cake comes from Ethicalweddings.com

We're introducing something new to Cakehead. Everyone's been doing it since the dawn of man. But it wasn't until we received a desperate plea in the form of a facebook message that we decided to enter into the advice-giving cakescape (a cakescape is like a landscape but in a world made of cake).

And now, our premiere letter:

Dear Cakehead,

After seeing that you're interested in all things having to do with cake, I thought you might have some ideas for my current cake conundrum.

I'm supposed to be making a carrot cake for the wedding of two friends in a couple of weeks. Although I never make carrot cake, since chocolate is my default mode, I found a recipe I like. My main concern, really, has been decorating with cream cheese frosting. When I did a test run yesterday it was kind of runny.

Do you have any tried and true carrot cake decorating methods? I've thought about doing cream cheese frosting between the layers and butter cream frosting on the outside. Or maybe pressing shredded coconut into the frosting on the sides. But I haven't hit on any solutions that grab me yet. Any advice?

Thanks,
Lucy

Dear Lucy,

We are very impressed with your ambition and you've earned your experimental kitchen street cred with your willingness to tackle a new recipe and decorating method just two weeks before the wedding. Sticking to the tried and true is so Home Ec circa 1952. That said, let's try to help you make a cake that is not only delicious, but has a firm, creamy frosting

My first question is how big is the cake you're making. Are we talking three-layers with multi-tiers and waterfalls? Unless you're hiring an architect and engineer, we recommend that you keep it simple. How about covering a whole table with tube cakes - lots of quantity but not much height? Then you don't have to worry so much about the frosting as an adhesive agent.

As for the frosting, let's troubleshoot. Was the cake really cool when you started the frosting process? Any warmth is gonna melt your icing. But I'm sure you've already thought of that.

Also, make sure you're using enough confectioners sugar in the frosting. That will help that creamy cheese to keep its form, making for a less runny frosting. You could also try making the frosting, then briefly chilling it before beginning to coat the cake. The butter cream frosting may have the same problems as the cream cheese version if you don't get the butter-to-sugar ratio just right.

When it comes to carrot cake and cream cheese frosting, my problem is always an aesthetic one. How do you keep the cake crumbs from getting all mixed up into the white cream? The solution is doing two layers of frosting. The first is the primer and with this layer, allow those crumbs to get mixed in. The second coating is the one they'll see, so make it pretty!

Such tricky stuff -- but very ambitious and I support you all the way!

Let me know what you work out with the cake/frosting combination. And I want to hear how your own wedding planning is coming along.

xo,
Cakehead

P.S. There are enough raisin-haters out there so for a large occasion like a wedding it is considered proper etiquette to make the carrot cake without them.

Hi Cakehead,

Because I was concerned about stacking (and transporting stacked cakes), I have been planning to do a couple of individual cakes instead of tiers.

Thanks for your other suggestions. I didn't let the cake cool completely and I hadn't really considered the effect that would have on the frosting.

I was also a little sloppy making the frosting. It seemed too stiff right up to the end when I added the vanilla and optional lemon juice. Then it seemed too wet, and I thought about adding more sugar, but didn't. Those two considerations give me hope though! When I do the real thing, I'll budget enough time for the cakes to cool -- I'm actually planning to make the cake the night before; hopefully that's not sacrilegious. I'll also check out some other cream cheese frosting recipes to see how much confectioner's sugar they call for and I won't be shy about adding extra if need be.

Maybe if I'm feeling really ambitious I'll try the 'crumb coat' the night before and see if I can minimize the number of crumbs that make it into the frosting that way.

Thanks again for your cake advice,
Lucy

Posted by Cakehead at 04:19 AM | Comments (0)