The Evolution of a Cake

The day has finally arrived to make the Easter Cake.  The cake has been baked, leveled, sliced in layers and iced. But, that is just the beginning. :)

I have the idea to make this an Easter basket.  The white icing is just the base layer, or crumb layer.  The crumb layer of icing is to hold the crumbs in place so that they do not appear on the outer layer of icing.  This layer of icing is usually thin and is allowed to set for about an hour til it is air dried.  Does not look like much at this stage, but it gets better. 

The basket-weave pattern is used to ice the side of the cake.  This gives the appearance of the basket.  It takes a little more time than just "throwing" icing on a cake with a knife, but not as much time as you would think and the results are really nice. 

You can not have an Easter basket without the grass!  Icing colored green and using a ribbon tip the grass has been put "in" the basket. 

The gum paste handle completes the look for the basket.  Chocolate Eggs added, sugar flowers and butterflies add eye appeal. 

In preparation for Easter

Today I will make the cake I plan to make for Easter.  The White Chocolate Whisper Cake is totally a favorite, but it has been hard to find an icing that compliments it properly.  We have tried just about every combination for an icing that I know and nothing seems to taste just right.  It was easier to leave it uniced and eat it plain.  Well I have an idea that I am going to try and if it does not work, then I will have to make a different cake for Easter. As I was melting the chocolate for the cake I had the idea to use the same chocolate for the icing.  So, I melted more chocolate, added butter, vanilla, powdered sugar and started mixing.  The icing actually tastes really good, the test comes when the cake and icing are put together.  Poor Jimmy has to be my test dummy for this experiment.  I know he will hate the job, but someone has to do it. 

(time lapses)

Yay,  Jimmy says that the cake and icing are "probably the best I have ever tasted". :)  I have to admit after tasting it I really like the combination.  It will not be so "scary" to try it for Easter.  Now to see what Rachel has to say about it. 

Sorry Rach---- no cake tops this time. 

Manicotti MAN I GOTTA be crazy!

Feeling full of energy and industrious this morning I decided to make manicotti.  Italian food has always been my favorite and I have been wanting some really good lasagne lately soooooo......  Hey, I had all the ingredients except the manicotti noodles.  How hard can that be, right?  The kids and I had made our own noodles years ago, right?  The big difference this time was that I did not have the luxury of little helpers (or any helpers for that matter).  But I put that thought aside and decided that I could do this, I had the time.  

So, after Jimmy left for work this morning (at 6:00) I took the ingredients out of the fridge so that the could soften.  I sat down to enjoy my coffee and dig out my recipes.  After all the ingredients had time to soften it was time to begin.  I started at 9:00 this morning and was done by 2:00 this afternoon.  

I started my spaghetti sauce recipe and let it simmer while I made the pasta.  The sauce is a mixture of tomato paste, water, oregano, basil, salt, a little sugar and a bay leaf.  It simmers to thicken and yum and I am hungry already, but still have a while to go before it is ready to eat.  While the pasta was "resting" it was time to put the stuffing together.  Simple concoction of cream cheese, ricotta, and mozzarella cheese, and an egg along with some spices.  

After rolling out the pasta dough in the pasta machine it was cut into lengths and the stuffing was rolled inside.  Four pans later!!! Manicotti is covered with sauce, sprinkled with cheese and ready to bake.  If I had had my wits about me I would have made lasagne, it would have been so much easier.  The noodles could have been larger and it would have been a whole heck of a lot less work putting it all together.  BUUTTTT NOOOO!  I started the morning out with manicotti on the mind and manicotti it was going to be.  

If I had had some help it could have been easier, rolling out the pasta dough alone is rather cumbersome and difficult for someone that does not do it very often.  Fortunately for me it is done and ready to bake.  I am quite proud of my accomplishment and can not wait for Jimmy to head home for dinner of manicotti and homemade rolls.   


OH!  Susie, that is Chocolate Dumpling for dessert in the background.  :)