The final piping

For the final cake, I tried to use some of the techniques from different cakes that I already made. I stuck with my theme of inspiration from upcoming events and people around me. So, the inspiration for this cake was Little 500. I made a rectangle cake and iced it with chocolate frosting, trying to mimic the color of the track that the bikes go around. Then I took piping bags and a variety of colors(pink, blue, green, red, and purple) and practiced drawing a track and mini bikes on a paper towel. This is probably one of the hard tasks I've had so far because it takes more artistic skill than I have. It was also hard to keep my hand steady, I had to practice more than once to get it down. Even though the cake doesn't look anything like it was made by a professional, it still challenged and helped to build my skill level and that was my main goal of this project. This project also helped me to think outside the box and to do things that I would never do on my own before. In addition, I learned how to connect to people and my surrounding environment by using it as my inspiration and making each thing I baked accordingly. This was probably the best part about taking on this project and now that I have some baking experience I will continue to bake and try to continue working on the decorating of each thing.

Spring Cake

As I've said before I like to try and use inspiration from other aspects of life and this week it was spring. I baked a round cake with two layers and strawberry flavoring that turned the batter pink. Then when it was cooled I thought about how I could make it symbolize spring in a different way. I was watching the Food Channel and they had the Challenge show on that usually is focused around making extreme and elaborate designs and shapes. I noticed how they would cut the cake so that it could be shaped into different things and used that idea.  I took the round cake and cut parts out so that it took on a flower shape. I then used pink frosting for the base and used the piping bag and yellow colored frosting to make a circle in the middle. This cake was fun for me to make and has me wondering what other shapes I could challenge myself to make by cutting and removing pieces of the cake.

Reflection

For this week, I thought I would reflect on my by hand project instead of baking something. I started this project of cake baking and decorating without having any experience except for maybe one batch of cookies I made 2 years ago. After the first two weeks I quickly found that I had bit off more than I could chew. However, while we were reading the articles about the crafts that people were making origianlly as traditinal  and  then adjusting for tourists and to make them more marketable, I really liked that idea. Anyone can bake a cake or a pastry and put some frosting on it, but to make it specifically for someone,it becomes personal and meaningful. The first time I really tried out this idea was for the Superbowl when I made a blueberry cobbler. I used blueberries to represent the Colts that were playing. The repsonse that I recieved from it was so positive and it made me feel good that I was able to make it for the people I was spending time with at the Superbowl party. I then found that I could get deeper into finding a focus group when I made the dog treats. This was fun because it was very different from everything else that I had been making, but still with ingerdients that were eatible for humans. The recipe book that I got the dog treats from is called "The Oraganic Dog Biscuit Cookbook", by Bubba Rose Biscuit Company. This was great because I found something that I couldn't eat anymore but could still enjoy making in a different way. Oh and don't worry there was no chocolate in that recipe since dogs can't have it. Instead, Carob was used, I wouldn't suggest eating it though, I tried it and it tastes nothing like chocolate. By hand project has also forced me to tap into my crative side, something I did not think existed. I never thought that I would think to used paint brushes as tools to apply frosting and color. It has been hard to show some of these cakes and goodies because my camera is broken and I can not upload pictures, the ones that I do have are from project when I was home and used my Mom's camera. I do believe that reading the articles and watching some of the slides during the power points, like the one about the Air Jordans and taking something and turning it into something else, inspired me to think outside of the box and use it in my own works. I'm currently working  on an idea for my last project because I want it to be my most challenging yet!

Paint

I found that for this blog I really like being able to bake a cake or pastry of some sort for a specific audience, but this past weeks I could not find one. Over spring break I was home and decided to paint my room. The process of going to the store, picking out the color from so many on the wall, and watching it pour into the paint can got me thinking. So, for inspiration I continued to think about the paint process and the process for making the right color, not to dark and not to light. Baking the cake was the same process as the rest, but this project wasn't about the cake is was more about the outside rather than the inside. I then frosted the cake with basic white and used it like a canvas. I then played with the food coloring I have. This part was fun because of the mixing and adding a little here and a little there and came up with a variety of colors: blue, green, purple, pink, yellow, and orange. Then I thought how could I make this more like the painting process? I used a few paint brushes in different sizes and started to splatter the colors all over the cake. To break the splatter up I used one of the brushes and put large strokes of color across some of the areas. I think in my mind that cake was going to come out differently than it did, but I'm still happy that I tried to mix up the decorating techniques that I have been using.
Pictures to come soon.

doggie treats

At the end of this week I had to go home for allergy related reasons and thought that I could use this to my advantage. I like the idea of baking for a specific audience and molding it to what they would like. However, this time my inspiration came from my dog. It was nice out and so she and I were playing fetch and it got me thinking about the stores that are all cakes and cookies for dogs. So, I went ahead and found a book about organic dog treats. I found out that I can no longer have peanuts which was upsetting because I love peanut butter and chocolate together, but I found a recipe for dog treats that were supposed to resemble peanut butter cookies with chocolate on them and I thought it was perfect. It was fairly simple, or a least a lot more simple than I thought it would be. Baking these doggie treats was completely out of the box for me and actually took me by surprise. I'm finding that the more I push myself the more I'm enjoying the project. Because my motivation and wanting to make a product for a specific group took elements from what was going on with me and the ones I love at home,my dog, had me thinking about how some of the crafters that we had been reading about made products using traditional elements to their culture but changing them some for groups such as tourists. I've been finding that mostly that is how my by hand project is fitting in with the material that is discussed in class.

Blue and Dots

I don't usually consider myself to be a creative person so decorating cakes is not a task that is coming easily. I looked online to try and get some ideas of what type of cake to make and most of what I found seemed to be far beyond my capabilities at this point. So this time instead of making a chocolate cake I made a vanilla one. This one is different though because I decided to do two layers and between the two layers I added a chocolate filling. I love chocolate so this cake had to have it somewhere on it! Then for the icing I used plain white frosting and put blue coloring in it. Then on top of the blue icing I used the rest of the plain white and decorated it with polka dots on the top and sides. The polka dots ended up different sizes because I have never done this before but it still turned out somewhat decent. Even though I was having trouble with thinking of a new idea what I created was still different from anything that I have done which I think is the main point of taking on a decorating challenge. I wasn't able to have anyone taste it yet, I hope it's good!

Happy Valentine's Day

This week was more difficult than the previous to think of something to bake. I while I think it is important to branch out from the norm I decided that my ideas were getting to far away from cake decorating which was my original idea for this project. So, for the upcoming weeks I am sticking to cakes. Even though Valentine's Day was this weekend I already made red velvet cupcakes a couple of weeks ago so this week was pretty simple. I made a simple round cake with with chocolate cake mix and chocolate frosting on the top. Now, even though I said I kept it simple I still stayed with the holiday theme just because its fun to do and looks pretty too! After frosting the top with chocolate I then used a pipping bag and formed pink hearts in different sizes on the top. Because I previous said that the important part of this project is to continue to challenge myself I deffinetly accomplished this. The cake it self was easy but working with the piping bag was hard! It was hard try to keep my hands still while making the shape. Unfortunately my camera isn't working properly but pictures are soon to come!