Got Cake?

Welcome back to the zoo! Yesterday was a migraine day...rough day...so I thought what better way to recover from that than with cake. Can I tell you that I live with a house full of cake junkies? If I make a cake or cupcakes for any function, it requires the making of two cakes or two batches of cupcakes, lest I leave this house headed somewhere with a cake full of finger holes.

We are getting to that time of year when there are more occasions to bring a cake...holiday dinners, potlucks, fundraisers, etc. Cake decorating can me messy, expensive, and time consuming. And am I the only one that cannot get the last little spatula crease out of the icing? It drives me insane!! So...I thought I would show you the Petal technique...its pretty easy and it is a step above a plain iced cake...and it helps hide those lines and creases.

Now...before we begin...let me tell y'all....I have used this technique before with success...but today was full of sh*t happens...the end result is not what I would call a great success. And the OCD in me really just wanted to scrap it and start over rather than show y'all  my crappy cake. But I decided I would take the opportunity to show you where I screwed up and save you the trouble. 

So, first you want to make your cake, obviously. 

No, he's not being punished...he participates in these things voluntarily....

And, you know, a costume change was necessary, cuz that's how we roll....

Now, if food is leaving this house, then I prepare it sans sidekick...but please know...if you eat cake at this house, there has more than likely been a superhero's hand in it. 

I'm not going to give you a tutorial on making icing...there are a ton of recipes on the web...HOWEVER...and this is very important...I would NOT recommend using a cream cheese icing for this technique. I have previously used a buttercream frosting to do this and it worked much better than the cream cheese icing I have used here. But it was red velvet cake...and you just gotta have cream cheese with red velvet.

Lesson number two....this cake is much more impressive if it is taller. I would suggest making two cakes...regular size cake pans...and then split those two cakes for a total of four layers. 

HOWEVER....my regular size cake pans have grown legs...they are no doubt full of little boy play things or man tool things somewhere in my yard. So, I pulled out a medium size Wilton cake pan and did the best I could.

Once the cake has completely cooled, you will want to give it a thin crumb coat...this serves a few purposes...first, as the name suggests, to keep the crumbs out of everything....and today, I learned there is another purpose....brace yourselves..I have to warn you this picture is graphic...

It happens. No other explanation.

Apply a thin layer of icing all over the cake...try to get it as smooth as possible, but it's going to be covered so its not a huge deal.

..

Yep, still ugly.

Put the cake in the freezer for about 10 minutes to let this set. You can get your piping bag ready while it is chilling. You will need a Wilton number 12 tip. I use a piping bag and a plastic coupler. You can just snip the end out of the corner of a Ziploc bag...but make sure you don't squeeze the bag too hard with this method. 

Fill your bag with icing...an easy way to do this is to stick the bag down in a tall glass and drape the excess bag over the edge of the glass.

Fill with icing and then pull the sides up...

Twist the top of the bag before you start squeezing or your icing will come out the top as well as the bottom.

Now...begin the petal technique...I'll tell you lesson three now...I'm going to go ahead and show you how I did this, otherwise my pictures wouldn't make sense, but I would advise doing the top of the cake first...you'll see why at the end...ooooh, the suspense!!!

Start by piping dots down the side of the cake...(remember, taller is better, but we're working with what we've got here, people)

Now, take your icing spatula (or a baby spoon if your cake is only an inch tall) and put it at the middle of the dot...push in and drag out...

Then, apply the next row of dots like so....

Repeat this over and over again until you have covered the entire side area. 

For the top, just pick an area close to the side and do the same...

 

Go all the way around the cake and then start a new circle inside that one..over and over again until the top of the cake is covered.

Now...I will show you the finished product...although I REALLY don't want to (haha)...

See the little "seam" between the top and the bottom? I think if you did the top first, this would be easier to prevent. But, even with the little flaws, it still makes a plain cake pretty!!