Cake Weekends

Sometimes I go a month or two without baking/decorating a cake and I kind of hate those times because I start to feel out of practice.  Then I over-compensate and take on multiple projects.  I kind of hate those weekends, too.  Friday night and Saturday morning I spent gobs of time (and ingredients) on mini-cakes for a bridal event at work.  I started with a mini-cake pan that we sell because I was certain the little cakes would be perfect.  They weren't.  Not the first time (wrong batter, I decided).  Not the second time (should have beaten the pan on the floor to lose the bubbles, maybe?).  Not really the third time (though at that point, I was done and sprinkled the best ones with some powdered sugar).

In an effort to use the rest of the batter from my third attempt (and having had it with the cute pan), I made mini-cupcakes in a pan I already had.  After I took that batch out, I had a brainstorm--slice off the little cupcake tops, turn them over, and decortate them as little mini-cakes!  I quickly whipped up a batch of devils food cake batter and churned out four more dozen mini-cakes.

Saturday morning I had a devil of a time figuring out how to decorate the little things, but J saved the day with a quick trip to Kroger for sprinkles (did I mention he made a trip to Wal-Mart late Friday night for Pam and other non-stick sprays?).  Here's the end result:  mini-cakes glazed in royal icing, then topped with a bit more royal icing and a spattering of sprinkles.  How cute are these??

I went off to work with my mini-cakes in tow, then returned home to bake more.  Sunday morning, we said goodbye to our Youth Minister.  Lakeya is heading to Belgium for a year to serve as the youth minister at a church for American youth in Brussels.  After a quick brainstorming session, we decided that nothing says Belgium like waffles and chocolate!  Lakeya's favorite cake is traditional yellow birthday cake, so I did a three layer yellow cake with regular vanilla buttercream frosting.  In between the layers, I added chocolate shavings, then on top I placed a ton of chocolate shavings and waffle pieces.  Yum! 

After Friday night/Saturday morning, it was kind of a relief to just put together and frost a traditional layer cake Sunday morning.  As with any hobby, it is fun to immerse myself in it for the weekend, but it is also fun to finish the project and step back for a few days!