Sunday, November 13, 2011

Masks

"As we ascend the social ladder, viciousness wears a thicker mask."
~Erich Fromm
Well, perhaps that's not the best quote to match up to this cake I made, but I just read it earlier today, and it's fitting in this age of digital social circles. Be kind to each other.

Well, I worried about it and I lost sleep over it, but I'm fairly happy with the way my pillow masquerade cake came out. What do you think? Yes, I'm aware my seam is a hot mess, but again I ran out of time and showed up an hour and half after the agreed drop off time. (What can I say? I'm having such a beast of a time trying to figure out how long my fondant work will take.) Most of it is rather smooth, except for that seam. I have two silicone molds that I've managed to employ on numerous occasions the last several years, and I think it's time I bought some new ones. Besides my offset spatula, it's one of my favorite tools in my arsenal. It's absolutely mind-blowing the things that can be done with silicone.

If you only have a few dollars to spend on some professional baking tools, I suggest a couple of silicone molds for edging. It will save you a load of time when working with fondant, and it adds a really nice finished look if you use them right. Unfortunately, a rush job made my edging look like complete shit. I'm working on it....

Other than that, check out my latest cake from yesterday. The Sweet 16 Mask Cake. Not bad considering I was working with a surgical mask on to keep my flu germs to myself. Do you see the dent right on the corner in the very front? I was going to hide that corner in the back, but it turned out to be the best side of the cake (despite the dent).

What happened was that I had the two pillow tops done and drying off to the side. My brother came by to see me and bring me some medicine and hot & sour soup. (That's a little secret to clearing out your sinus and respiratory system when you're ill. Chinese Hot & Sour soup. Since you're sick, you can't really taste it anyway, and the heat will help.) Well, he put his jacket down on the table where I had these two pillow tops. The little pillow top started leaned into the bigger one. It was too late when I realized what he had done, and I went nuts, but he apologized profusely and said he didn't know they were cakes. He swore they were just pillows. Anyway, he was trying to convince me the dent make them look more pillow-like. I beg to differ, but it was a funny story after the fact. Everyone was really impressed!




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