Ohmystinkinheck

This weekend’s recipe involved dark chocolate, butter, confectioner’s sugar, food dye, and an 11 year old’s creativity. Oh, one more essential ingredient…time.

Of all those, time was the most essential ingredient.

As I’ve written before, Emelie has been attending a cake decorating class at my mother’s church on Sunday evenings. Meredith started with it, but soon lost interest. Emelie, however, has carried on…gaining skill and confidence with each class.

This Sunday evening was their “graduation” - or as close to a graduation as a cake decorating class has, I imagine. The girls’ assignment was to go home, bake a cake, make their icing, and ice the cake. Emelie selected a pan in the shape of a clown’s hat and decided for a dark chocolate cake.

The cake was baked on Friday afternoon to give it plenty of time to cool before icing it on Saturday. When we turned it out it grabbed a bit in a couple of places, but overall, it was an easy go of it to get it out of the pan.

Saturday afternoon Emelie began measuring out her ingredients for the butter cream icing she planned to use (Special thanks to the cake queen herself, bethany actually for the icing recipe.).

Into the mixer it all eventually went, making for a nice, smooth and thick frosting that could be squeezed through a tip and yet, still hold a good form.

After mixing up a sort of citrus-y green (a pale lime color) she spread it over all but the hat’s topper; she had plans to make that into a sort of fuzzy ball.

Her biggest challenge was the part of the cake that had lifted away - it wanted to smear in with the icing. After fighting this a while, she gave in and decided she’d just rename it mint chocolate chip and all those flakes would look like they were SUPPOSED to be there.

When all else fails…improvising with creativity works like a charm.

She decided to start decorating from the top of the hat down. Emelie chose orange for the hat topper’s color, and after mixing it up, did a few practice runs on wax paper to test her technique.

Her hands grew tired after a while, but she was very efficient and did much better than I would have anticipated for her first cake.

And then she was done and ready to mix up her next color.

The blue curlicue squiggles were Emelie’s creation - and not such an easy task. She experimented with curly striped lines, talked about doing a sort of criss-cross pattern, but finally decided on the little squiggles.

I was a little fascinated at this point. I had watched my mother and my mother’s friend, Lil, try their hand at some curly lines and realized this was no small feat - this cake decorating business.

Yea, she’s got the knack; she’s the real deal.

Did I mention how cute she is in my apron?

Why do I have an apron when I don’t cook?

Ahem…you know, you aren’t as funny as you think you are.

Back to the amazing darling with the adorable blue curliques.

Now for the final color, yellow, for the bottom band. Mixing stiff icing isn’t an easy task - just ask Emelie. I think this was the one part of the job she’d rather turn over to someone else.

I would have helped, of course, but I was doing MY JOB - taking photos.

Being the family historian is such hard work.

Four hours later, the cake was fully iced. Four hours.

Me: “Emelie, did you expect it to take this long?”

Em: “No, not really…I knew it’d take a while, but not all day.”

Me: “So, is it worth it? The time?”

Em: “Yea, I could do this every Saturday!”

I quickly added 2 more bags of confectioner’s sugar, non-salted butter and vanilla to my shopping list. Seriously, chocolate cake every Saturday night? I’m SOOOOO for that.

Isn’t it cute?

As a sidenote, y’know how I told you that my mom (Em’s Izzy) and Lil came over during the icing part? Well, Lil, being from England, has an English accent - though she’ll say she speaks with a Geordie accent. All the while she was so complimentary.

“Oh, that’s just lovely Emelie.”

“Just brilliant - it’s beautiful.”

And I knew Emelie was eating it up - I mean even I was eating it up; who doesn’t eat up someone with an English accent? She could have been saying, “Yer mum is driving me crazy with her camera.” and I would have swooned.

I wonder if I can have Lil come read me to sleep. Pride and Prejudice maybe? My Fair Lady? Or perhaps she can just repeat over and over, “Oh, yer so lovely Heather. My what a brilliant smile.”

Heh heh.

Yes, I am an only child…why do you ask?

Oh! Yes.

Back to Emelie.

So, I took a few more shots of her after church today. I wanted some good light so you could see how truly fun the cake was when completed.

Of course, the cake artist isn’t at all proud of her work.

Oh, let’s see that smile closer.

I’m so proud of you Emelie.

Job well done baby.

We’ll let you know when she opens up for business. There’s just this one thing - she wants a dress code. All her cakemakers/decorators have to wear converse.

Preferably low tops.

40 Responses to “This weekend’s recipe.”

1. What Happens Next...

   Truly fantastic job on that cake. I am so impressed!

   And if she ever needs any help, I already have the shoes! Really.

   Well done!

2. MammaLoves

   An artiste and a hip chick? What a combo!!

   Great job E.

3. TheAngelForever

   Kudos to Emelie on a truly beautiful cake! I think her idea of Converse for all to wear in her future business is wonderful. Who knows maybe someday we will see her on Food Network baking her artistic creations. The possibilities are endless.

4. Christine

   That’s amazing. I’m 33 and can barely make kool-aid and she made a whole cake with frosting and everything. I am so impressed. Does she want to come over to my house and make us some cakes?

5. seven

   So pretty! And Cons are totally the way to go… they’re the shoe of cool people everywhere. :)

6. bethany actually

   Emelie, you did a marvelous job on your first cake! I looooove the swirls and the color choices. :-) I am so glad the icing recipe worked for you!

7. Kater

   Holy Schnikeys! That’s seriously impressive. I stand and applaud Emelie’s cake decorating skills. It really is something to be proud of. And kudos too to her for sticking to it - 4 hours is a long time!

8. jac

   wow! i am truly impressed with her skill and creativity! not to mention her patience, cuz that had to take some serious patience.
   you should have her check out http://www.charmcitycakes.com they are the folks shown on the food network show “ace of cakes”. they make some amazing cakes and mock cakes. i think your little emelie just might do them one better one of these days!

9. ukrainiac

   Wow! What an impressive cake — great work Emelie. Of course, kudos to the photographer as well…a fun series of photos…

10. Lanna

    Awesome! She did better than I could ever aspire to. Yeah, I’d totally rope her into making cakes every week, too. I just wanna know how it tastes now…

11. Bri

    So cute! (the cake and your daughter)
    I don’t like chocolate cake, but it looks yummy.

12. Lauren

    That cake is totally fantastic. Those swirls are just brilliant.
    I think she may have found her niche.
    I love decorating cakes, but I don’t think I love it near as much as Emelie appears to.

13. Lisa C

    How fun! Emelie, you did a FABULOUS job! I can’t ice a cake to save my life! :)

14. Andrea

    She did a fantastic job. the girl’s got talent.

    Tip: freeze the cake a bit befor eicing and those bits won’t get in the first go round as much. She could also do a thin layer of icing all over, then let it set a bit and re-ice to go really smooth.

15. Mandy

    Wow. Iam so stinkin impressed! 11 years old? Really? I don’t think I could make my own PB&J at 11 years old. That cake looks amazing! Well done Emelie. (I am partial to little girls with unique versions of the name Emily, I have an Emmalee. Very cute.)

16. Karen

    What a great cake! You did such a wonderful job Emelie! Wish I had half the talent you do. Awesome job!!

17. Leanne

    Woohoo! That’s one sweet cake! And hey! I have those shoes! Can they be mules? I’m totally applying for the assistant batter tester and frosting bowl licker gig.

18. Linda

    How pretty!! The cake AND Emelie!

    pssstttt … I’ll need a baby shower cake in September … hopefully something in pink with teddy bears … think her shop will be open by then … LOL

19. Jennie

    I’m totally impressed. She has such a steady hand to be able to make those swirls! I hope you’ll share her future cakes with us. Seeing photos is ALMOST as good as sampling the cake.

20. Tempered Woman

    Those curlicues are no joke~ they are perfect and that is something that cake decorators work long and hard to perfect- I’m incredibly impressed and you can tell her that comes from someone who has suffered through Wilton’s training! ;-)
    Love the hat and I bet there was some mighty fine tasting going on. Congrats Emilie! I need to start training my 11 year old I guess…she’s been slackin!

21. Kim

    I think some icing with an egg white, then spread it over the cake to seal the crumbs. If you have time, you can freeze it, but just air drying for a little while will give you a layer that icing will spread over without crumbs!

    Beautiful job! My son has made 2 for Boy Scouts and he got a 1st place and a 2nd place trophy. A fun cake is cutting a bundt cake in half and making a worm or snake. S

22. Busymomma66

    What a beautiful cake! She should be very proud of herself. I could’ve used her help when doing my son’s cake. While he was appreciative, he was critical that it did not look like the photo. So when is she opening her shop??????

23. daring one

    Okay. I make all my kids’ cakes and I’ve never made one that cute. So awesome! She does look fab in your apron too. Is it strange that seeing her so grown up makes my stomache clench just a bit thinking that Laylee will be old soon too?

24. Jules

    That cake looks awesome! Well done Emelie!

25. Aunt Betty

    Amazing job Emelie! I have some cake pans you can borrow for future cakes. . .stars, hearts, bells, Pink Panther. Remind me to show you what I have when you come over to visit.

26. SparklieSunShine

    This is so great! She did an amazing job. I can’t believe that is her first cake! She’s so talented. Are they doing a second level class?

    P.S. - I don’t think there is anything better than getting complimented by someone who has a British accent.

27. MMM

    awesome cake decorating skillz.

28. Bethany

    I’m drooling! we did family day in the kitchen for the first time, and ended up with pizza, lemonade, and peanut butter cookies. only one egg on the floor :) looks most lovely … the daughter AND the cake. congrats to you both!

29. Mrs. Wilson

    My word, she is amazingly talented!

30. evie

    Whoa! That is really impressive! I am going to keep my eye out for her on Food Tv. You know, one of those cake challenges that they have on there? Seriously, congrats to her on such a fantastic job on that cake!

31. Caitlin Domanico Photography

    Wow! I have a lot to live up to!

32. Mandy

    Hey I just saw where you can sell baked goods on Etsy. Who knew? I am seeing a mini-cake Etsy shop in Emelie’s future. No?

33. KYouell

    I worked at a bakery for awhile that was really just the owner’s fun hobby after she had retired. We didn’t use any mixes or frostings (whipped cream and glazes instead) so I never learned to do that kind of stuff. But I can cut a kiwi into the stems and leaves of flowers like nobody’s business.

    Blah, blah, meeeeee…

    I think Emelie should either go with a thin crumb coat next time or she should perfect the “chocolate chip” frosting. There’s cookie dough ice cream and birthday cake ice cream, so why not cake chip frosting? Go forth and make it so, Emelie!

    Woot!

34. Emelie

    Thanks for ALL the nice comments! I really enjoyed baking AND decorating the cake. It was really fun. (not that easy though) @:)

35. Keri

    OMG. That is so COMPLETELY amazing. I mean COMPLETELY!!!!!!!

    Emelie, I totally want you to come up here to Wisconsin and teach me how to not only MAKE cakes but decorate, too. Okay? And tell your mom not to take you to flickr and show you my macaroni and cheese failure, okay? Because that was a really long time ago and I do not have kitchen failures like that any more.

    No, really. I’m not lying.

    That is one seriously beautiful cake. WOW.

36. Stacey

    Love it, love it, love it! Em- God gave you a gift of artistry. You really did such a beautiful job on the cake… and might I add that you have turned into a little ‘beauty’ yourself. ;) love you!

37. Maire

    Wow, what dedication and hard work, very talented.

38. franticallysimple

    You must be so stinkin’ proud!
    I know you don’t watch tv at home, but next time you are at you MIL’s check out Ace of Cakes on the Food Network. Talent and Converse fit right in there.
    The bakery from the show has a website: http://www.charmcitycakes.com/. Check it out.

39. familymclean

    Beautiful, and beautifully captured!

40. Jenk

    That is one adorable cake. I would hire her if she had a business!