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.
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.
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!
After much anticipation (and years in the making), we’ve opened our retail shop. Okay, it’s not exactly “ours”. I call it our sister shop, and it’s quite literally my sister’s shop. My sister Jessica, The Soup Girl, and I share the commercial kitchen in the back of the house. The front is divided between her retail area and my consultation studio, but I’m selling my cupcakes on her side.
Since part of my personal mission is to educate the world about what a good cake/cupcake should actually taste like, retail is proving the perfect forum for me. Although most bakeries–even some high end cake design studios–bake from mixes and purchase large vats of “buttercream” that often contain no actual butter, we bake everything from scratch and use real butter. All of our fruit flavors are made in-house by reducing the whole fruit with sugar until all that is left is intense, concentrated fruit flavor. We use really good quality chocolate (Callebaut), fruit purees (Boiron), and vanilla paste (Nielsen-Massey). We sold out of every single cupcake the first two days we were open. (I’ve since increased production to keep up with demand.) Apparently Hamden, CT was just waiting for a quality cupcake.
We officially opened last Thursday, and I would describe the experience as exciting, exhuasting, exhilarating, and emotional. (Megan, if you’re reading this, forgive the alliteration. It was completely unintentional.) The neighborhood we’re in is extremely welcoming, and so many people came out to show their support. We couldn’t be happier with the location.
Below, some photos of The Soup Girl’s retail shop, our staff, and me and my absolutely fabulous intern working on some cupcakes. I’m saving the photos of my studio until it’s completely finished.
And if you’re in the neighborhood, please stop by!
My motivation for writing this post is strictly self-serving. The differences between edible gums and their uses is precisely the kind of information I can never commit to memory. So, tired of searching repeatedly through the many sources of information on gums, I decided to create an easy to understand reference guide. I did it for me. And, okay, for you too.
CMC Powder
Carboxy Methyl Cellulose or SodiumCarboxyMethylCellulose. The chemical name for Tylose. (See Tylose below.)
For cake design: Add to royal icing to strengthen. Create edible glue (or “gum glue”) by mixing 2 tsp. gum arabic with 2 ounces water (source: SugarCraft.com)
Natural or synthetic: Natural
Alternative names: acacia gum, chaargund, char goond, or meska
Most similar to: n/a
Gum Tex
Wilton brand name for karaya gum. (See karaya gum below.)
Gum Tragacenth
Uses: Drying agent. Adds strength and stretch.
For cake design: Used in making gumpaste and pastillage. Can be added to fondant to speed drying (sometimes called “emergency gumpaste“, see recipe under Tylose)
Natural or synthetic: Natural
Alternative names: gum trag, gum elect, gum dragon
Most similar to: Tylose
Karaya Gum
Uses: thickener and emulsifier, used to adulterate gum tragacenth due to their similar physical characteristics
For cake design: Ingredient in some gumpaste recipes. Can be added to fondant to speed drying (sometimes called “emergency gumpaste“, see recipe under Tylose)
Natural or synthetic: Natural
Alternative names: Gum-Tex (Wilton brand)
Most similar to: gum tragacanth
Tylose
Uses: thickener, binder, stabilizer, and suspending agent in glazes. Helps products retain moisture and gives a gum-like texture. Also acts as drying agent in fondant and gumpaste. Tylose is said to hold up better in humidity and is whiter in color. The more tylose you use, the stiffer and stronger the resulting fondant.
For cake design: Ingredient in some gumpaste recipes (including the one I use, Nicholas Lodge’s gumpaste recipe). Can be added to fondant to speed drying, sometimes called “emergency gumpaste“. To create emergency gumpaste, add 2 -3 tsp of Tylose powder to 1lb of fondant. The more tylose you use, the stiffer and stronger the resulting fondant. Tylose is said to hold up better in humidity and is whiter in color than gum tragacenth.
When you get an email from Anne Chertoff asking you if you want to contribute to the Vera Wang app, you jump on the chance and respond immediately with an emphatic Yes! Yes! Yes! Unless, of course, you’re me, in which case you think the email is just some mass marketing form letter and ignore it completely. Then, luckily, Anne Chertoff persists and emails you again to say she hasn’t received anything back from you, at which point you realize this is real and then you respond with Yes! Yes! Oh, if you’ll still have me, yes! And that’s the true story of how I came to make two cakes for Vera Wang’s new itunes app.
Eric Hildebrand, the stylist on the project, collaborated with Anne Chertoff, the Project Manager, and the Vera Wang art director to conceptualize several vignettes that would feature a Vera Wang dress, flatware, china, stemware, and a cake.
Eric sent over photos of the dresses and collages of the concept and asked me to present sketches. The most challenging part for me was creating a design that was true to my style but also worked with Vera Wang’s classic, sophisticated designs.
The first scenario was The Modernist and featured the Fiona dress in white with orange accents and parrot tulips.
The Modernist cake sketch originally featured three square tiers (I ended up adding a fourth tier but I can’t remember why) because I thought squares more contemporary than round. I incorporated the pleating from the dress and pops of orange found in the invitation around the plaque and dots on the pleats and edible parrot tulips.
In the end, the art director nixed the orange dots in the sketch so the pleats were plain white, and my lovingly hand-crafted gumpaste parrot tulips were replaced with real tulips.
Johnny Miller was the photographer on the project. You’ve definitely seen Johnny’s work before in Martha Stewart’s magazines and books, and while he obviously has a gift for bringing food to life through photographs, it is his personal work that really moves me. His photos are artistic and emotional, and the subjects seem so real (even when they’re not). There’s a rawness to his work that makes it accessible and not pretentious. I’m proud to say I’ve had my work photographed by him.
The Romanticist scenario featured the Hanna dress, shades of mauve, and platinum.
The cake I sketched was three tiers of ivory with a cluster of sugar roses and platinum scroll work.
I ended up with a fourth tier on this cake too. My sugar roses were beautiful, but were again replaced with real roses. (I still have them though and might need to photograph them in the future.) I do love this photo.
Cloth covered floral wire is used in cake design for wiring large petals on gumpaste flowers and for arranging edible flowers and leaves on cakes. If you’ve ever been utterly baffled by the way wire is sized, here’s a good way to remember it. Picture a very small ring, about a quarter the size of a wedding band. Now imagine sticking cloth-covered floral wire through it. You would obviously be able to fit more smaller wires through it than larger wires. That’s what the wire gauge indicates: the number of wires that would fit in a small ring. So, a wire gauge of 26, for example, indicates that you would be able to fit 26 wires in the ring. A smaller gauge wire, like 18, is a bigger wire, because you would only be able to fit 18 of them through that same ring. The bigger the gauge, the more you can fit in the ring, so the smaller the wire. And the smaller the gauge, the fewer you can fit in the ring, so the bigger the wire. I hope that helps.
Floral wire can generally be found in gauge 16 – 32. I find that use 18 – 24 most frequently. I I always sort of grabbed at wires randomly, until I purchased one of Scott Clark Woolley’s flowermaking DVDs. In it, he outlines the various size wires and their uses. I find it very helpful, so I’m sharing it here.
16, 18: heavy flowers with many petals such as roses, ranunculus, peonies
20, 22: stem work
24: medium flowers, single-cut larger flowers
26: small flowers (individual hydrangea petals, jasmine), petals (such as rose petals)
28: small petals, leaves
30, 32: fine work, such as baby’s breath and small leaves
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.
The cake I sketched was three tiers of ivory with a cluster of sugar roses and platinum scroll work.
