This was my first try at making fondant. Unfortunately, I didn't have glycerin, so I had to make a version of fondant that dries much faster and turns out much harder than regular fondant. This made rolling and cutting a huge pain in the neck, and I thought the results were sub-par. I originally wanted to make Mega Man (hence the blue), but this fondant simply didn't stay pliable for long enough. One of these days I'll find some glycerin, and then maybe I'll have a better fondant experience.
This was, as you may have guessed, the Independence Day cake I brought over to Newey on July 4th. For my first go at making white frosting, it went very well. This particular type of frosting is dairy-free, and tastes like marshmallow fluff, except instead of being full of crazy chemicals, it just has water, egg whites, vanilla, corn syrup, and sugar. And by the way, there are fifty marshmallowey stars on that buttercream flag. 
Jenni came over and made an upside-down plum cake with me! She gets credit for the pretty plum design. We both get credit for mutilating as many plums as we sliced. I get credit for pouring some brandy on top.
And finally, Ashley's 21st birthday cake! I'm very proud of how this turned out. It involved a lot of steps:1. I made the cake the night before. Chocolate cake is usually better the next day.
2. The bottom layer of the cake tried to fall apart on me; I made a double batch of buttercream to make sure I could put enough in the middle to make everything stay put.
3. Since the buttercream was so thick in the middle, I had to chill the frosted first layer in the fridge before putting the second layer on. Otherwise, the weight of the top would have made buttercream sploosh out the sides.
4. I frosted the whole cake with chocolate, then put it back in the fridge to harden the frosting a bit.
5. Using an Exacto knife and transparency paper, I made a stencil of the girl (Becca drew it for a Sopranos concert) and the number 21. It barely stuck to the cooled frosting at all.
6. After using the stencil with pink buttercream, I removed it (carefully!) and hand-piped the glass (you can tell...oops), the border around 21! and Ashley's name.
Seriously, isn't that some good cursive? I only recently learned how to do it, too.So, that was July. If you had the chance to eat one (or more) of my cakes, I hope you enjoyed them. I'm already excited to try more new things in August! :)
~Brianne
~Brianne
