They say you can teach an artist to bake, but you can’t teach a baker to be an artist. I’m not sure which category I fall into, all I know is that we can all use some help with baking sometimes. I got this chart in an email from The Baker’s Kitchen and I thought I’d share it. Happy baking!
Cake Baking Troubleshooting Guide
Symptom
Causes
Crust too dark
- Oven too hot.
- Excessive top heat.
Cake too small
- Scaling weight too low.
- Oven temperature too high.
- Batter temperature too high.
- Batter temperature too low.
- Incorrect amount of water.
Cake burned on top
- Oven temperature too hot.
- Incorrect amount of water.
Crust is shiny and sticky
- Oven temperature too cool.
- Not baked long enough
- Too much sugar in recipe.
Crust too thick
- Excessive baking time.
Cake falls during baking
- Excessive jarring or moving of the cake during baking.
- Oven temperature too low. Excessive mixing of the batter.
Top of cake peaks and cracks
- Oven temperature was too hot. (the outside of the cake baked to form a crust too quickly. As mixture in center of the cake continued to cook and rise, it burst up through the top of the cake.)
- Cake wasn’t baked on the center rack of the oven.
Cake shrinks
- Excessive liquid.
- Batter too cold.
- Oven too hot.
- Improper mixing procedure.
- Baked too long.
Cake rose unevenly
- Flour was not blended sufficiently into the main mixture.
- Temperature inside the oven was uneven.
- Oven temperature too high.
Cake stuck to the pan
- Improper greasing/flouring of pan.
- Layers were cooled too long before trying to remove them.
Believe it or not, I did this cake just for fun. Just for me. A bride in Philadelphia commissioned me to make some sugar succulents for her wedding cake, and I wanted to photograph them before shipping them to her. I thought I’d change things up a bit, veering away from an all-succulent bouquet, and took my inspiration from the images below.
I love the juxtoposition of the green succulents against the brightly colored poppies in the bouquet below below by JL Designs (Photos: Stephanie Williams).
What can I say? I’m just a sucker for bright colors. By Farouche Shop.
I love this one. I tried to so hard find the source, but all I could determine was that it was seen on Style Me Pretty.
I took some artistic liberties, added some raspberries just for the heck of it, and asked Brooke to take photographs. Here’s what I came up with. Enjoy!
I think I’m going through another design style transition. While I still can’t seem to do a white-on-white cake, I now find myself more attracted to muted color palettes than the bold and bright colors I used to be inspired by.
While these two cakes couldn’t be any more different from each other, they’re both definitely very different from my earlier work. The first is sleek and blingy with different shades of gold and a brooch hand-crafted by my wonderful intern-turned-assistant Callan. (Check back in a week or so for a post all about her.) The second is soft and vintage with an antiqued sugar dahlia. Although I don’t necessarily feel either one represents me as an artist, I definitely like–but not necessarily love–them both.
Brooke Allison took all the photographs. You know those skinny mirrors that make you look thinner than you do in real life? That’s Brooke. Her photographs make my cakes look better than they do in real life, and I love her work.
There are benefits to living in a small town, such as knowing all the guys at the town buildings department by name (no lie: Bob, Bill, Jim, Joe) and that when you open a business and hold a grand opening, like we did on April 25th, the town arranges a ribbon cutting ceremony and sends the mayor. We even got press coverage! (Okay, it was this article in the Hamden Journal, but still.)
Here we are (me on the right, my sister on the left) with Mayor Scott Jackson. And the official golden ribbon-cutting scissors.
Our grand opening turned into a little fête of sorts. Of course the cocktails helped.
My consultation studio is now mostly finished, with the exception of the completely bare walls. My brother-in-law took this shot.
And my friend Brooke of Brooke Allison Photography took these. She is a wedding photographer and is rapidly becoming one of the top photographers in Connecticut. Keep your eye on her.
I created a special cake for the grand opening. I covered the cake in pink (one of my logo colors), made gold bunting for three of the tiers (I went through a serious bunting phase about a year and a half ago that thankfully passed. This was just a brief relapse.) and hand-cut the plaque and letters. (Photos by Brooke Allison Photography.)
The community has been so supportive, and we feel extremely fortunate to be in such a great place. Thank you so much to all of you who stopped by, and thank you to those of you who wanted to but, for whatever reason, couldn’t. Don’t worry : we plan to be here for a long, long time.
Special thanks to Brooke Allison, my husband and children, my mom, sister, Scott, Zachy and Kody, and Frank. Love you guys.
My husband says I change my mind a lot. I guess it’s kind of true. At some point, I decided not to have a press page on my website. (Read this post–it’s actually pretty funny–and you’ll see what I mean.) Then I guess I went ahead and changed my mind, ’cause now I have one.
I thought I’d share some of our most recent press here (although, of course, you could just look at my website.) I’ll not go into detail on every piece of press. Instead, I’ll just share the magazine cover and the page(s) on which my cake was featured. You’ll get the idea.
This is Tim. He is a student at a local high school.
This is Tim and his girlfriend, Taryn.
We met Tim when he came into the shop a couple of weeks ago to order a cake for Taryn. He wanted it to say PROM in big caps with a question mark, and Forever & Always in script. (It’s the title of Taryn’s favorite song, he told us, even though the lyrics are really sad. I’m pretty sure it’s this one by Taylor Swift.) You’re probably thinking: “How cute, sweet, and thoughtful is that?” So were we.
We asked him about her favorite flavors (chocolate chip mint), colors (Tiffany blue and light green), and whether he wanted any other designs on it (completely up to us). Here’s what we came up with:
Tim told us later (okay, after I emailed him to ask what happened) that he had it waiting on her desk in math class.
Oh, and she said yes!
Thanks Tim and Taryn. It was so much fun creating your cake.
Below is the reference chart I use to determine the tier sizes for all of my wedding cakes. I have always used this guide and have never had an insufficient number of servings. I shared a rather poor copy of the cake slice chart here in September of 2010. I knew it had to be available somewhere online, but I just couldn’t find it. Thanks to Angela from Sugar Sweet Cakes and Treats for sharing the link to the chart, and thanks to Wilton for providing the information.
A few notes: The baking times are for conventional home ovens. (Commercial convection ovens bake faster.) A 7″ round serves approximately 18 guests, and an 11″ serves about 48.
I hope you find this chart useful–and easy to find!
I started decorating cakes in 1995 and have picked up some really great tricks along the way. Some I learned from other cake artists, either by reading their books, taking their classes, speaking with them directly, or even watching them on t.v., and some I figured out on my own. I’m happy to share them here with you.
1. Smooth first. Rolling fondant smoothly is a skill unto itself, and it can be difficult to avoid minor irregularities when you roll by hand. If you use fondant, you most likely already use smoothers on your fondant-covered cakes, but you can also smooth fondant before you apply it. Once you’ve rolled the fondant, while it is still lying flat on a hard surface, use your smoothers to work out any bumps and eliminate any air bubbles. Source: Melody Brandon (www.mysweetandsaucy.com)
2. Set color by steaming. When used correctly, petal dust can really bring sugar flowers to life, but it can also give them a chalky, matte appearance. To reduce the dusty look and work the color permanently into your petals, boil some water and gently wave your sugar flowers over the steam for a few seconds. (I’m very accident prone, so I always set a strainer on the pot so that if I drop my sugar flowers they don’t end up in the water.) At first the flowers will appear quite shiny, but the sheen will almost completely disappear. Note that this method will also slightly deepen the color, so be sure to experiment first. Source: Jacqueline Butler (www.petalsweetcakes.com)
3. Keep a paint fan deck handy. Most brides have pretty definite preferences when it comes to color, but “peacock blue” can mean different things to different people. I’ve found computers to be unreliable for color matching, since colors on computer screens can vary greatly. Instead, I keep a paint fan deck in my office so that clients can tell me on the spot what color they want. This also saves them a trip to Home Depot for a paint chip. You can purchase Benjamin Moore fan decks online for about $15. Source: Erica OBrien
4. Refrigerate fondant. Whoever said fondant can’t be refrigerated obviously never traveled to Malibu, CA via the 405 Freeway on a blazing hot summer afternoon. (You can read more about that cake fiasco here.) Although some condensation might appear on your fondant cakes when they’re taken out of the fridge and exposed to warmer air (making them quite tacky to the touch), the condensation eventually evaporates and the fondant returns to its original matte finish. Just be sure not to touch it during the sticky stage or you’ll leave fingerprints. Source: Melody Brandon (www.mysweetandsaucy.com)
5. Use convoluted foam mattress pads to absorb shock. That’s right: I said convoluted foam mattress pads. You know exactly what it is–that egg crate-shaped foam used to add extra cushioning to your bed–you just never thought to use it with your cake. Since bumps, pot holes, or bouncing during cake delivery can all cause damage to cakes, it is important to minimize the shock. Placing foam padding beneath your cake board will help cushion the blow and protect your cakes from damage. Source: Nancy Kay (http://www.nkconfections.com/)
6. Try scalpels. X-acto blades are great for cutting fondant, but the sharpest blades available are the scalpels that surgeons use. You can purchase disposable scalpels online. They come in all different shapes and sizes and are quite inexpensive, so you can experiment until you find one that works for you. Source: Elisa Strauss (www.confetticakes.com)
7. Use blue painters tape on fondant. When I need to apply a horizontal band to my fondant, I first apply blue painter’s tape just below where I want the band. If the tape is not straight, simply take it off and start over. The tape acts to guide the application of the fondant band and ensure that it is level. It adheres just enough to remain in place, but peels off easily without pulling the fondant beneath it. Source: Mary Maher (www.thecakegirls.com)
8. Use vodka. Because of its high alcohol content, vodka evaporates very quickly and won’t dissolve the sugar in your fondant (unlike water), making it ideal for liquefying powdered food color and diluting paste coloring for painting on cakes. Vodka can also be used to wipe away stray marks and mistakes on your cakes. Moisten a paper towel with vodka and gently take away dirt and marks. For smaller areas, wrap paper towel tightly around a toothpick. I buy the largest, cheapest bottle of vodka I can find. Source: Charm City Cakes
9. Use foamcore instead of cardboard. Although convenient, pre-cut cardboard rounds absorb a lot of fat from cakes, weakening the cardboard’s structure. I use foamcore instead. It’s pricey, rough on blades, but nothing beats its sturdiness. Source: Colette Peters. (colettescakes.com)
Last year, I wrote about a cake with pleated pinwheels that I proposed to Bride’s magazine. The cake was inspired by something I had seen in Martha Stewart, and in the sketch (and my imagination) it was beautiful, with shades of peach, ivory, buttercup and pink. Once I executed it in sugar, however, it was lackluster at best, and the Bride’s editors passed on it.
I couldn’t let the idea of the pinwheels go though, and when The Knot asked me to do a cake–and left the design and colors completely up to me–I decided to revisit them. This time, I proposed a cake with more vibrantly colored pinwheels in an ombré that would pop against a white cake, as seen in the sketch below.
The Knot editors liked my idea, and so I hand-delivered the final product last spring to their offices. This time, the design really worked, and so does the photo by Devon Jarvis (to whom I am extremely grateful for sending me this high res image):
The photo appeared in The Knot magazine’s Spring-Sumer 2012 New York edition.
I’ll end with this: If you’ve been reading my blog for a long time (or, for that matter, a short time) or if you know me personally at all, you know I never say this, but…I love this cake!
Somewhere around the late ’80s, I swore off gold. No more gold earrings, gold bracelets, or gold necklaces for me. I also renounced pastels. Pinks and lavenders, mint and seafoam green, and especially mauve and peach were now officially anathema to me.
Then, almost overnight, I love gold and pastels again. I’m not sure when it happened or how, but I took a look at my cakespiration pinboard, and the majority of my pins were pastels and gold. Check these out and you’ll see what I mean.
And then it’s full speed ahead, with a new pair of gold earrings, a pastel duvet cover, and this cake with a gold chevron and pastel sugar flowers inspired by my Pinterest boards.
Special thanks to Brooke Allison for the photos. Damn, she’s good.
We would love to answer all of your questions! Feel free to contact Erica OBrien Cake Design. We’ll either email you directly or post your question on our blog.
Ready to step up from my old Rebel. Want to stick with Cannon. Obviously not a pro photog. What's my next camera? Recommendations?04:33:36 PM June 09, 2013from web
