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!