Looks great. I have not worked with Marzipan myself. I think your cake
looks terrific.
I've taken a few cake decorating courses and loved them. I'm one of the
least artistic people I know so cake decorating is a huge challenge. In one
of my classes I spent lots of energy baking the cakes we were to decorate -
that was the easy part for me. Then I'd sweat buckets over the decorating.
Some of class mates picked up all kinds of prebaked cakes and made them look
beautiful with no effort at all! Wendy
----- Original Message -----
From: "-L." >
Newsgroups: rec.food.baking
To: >
Sent: Monday, January 23, 2006 1:04 AM
Subject: Birthday Cake report


>
> -L. wrote:
> > I made a "finding Nemo" Birthday cake for my son's birthday and
> > decorated it using marzipan to make sea weed, coral and sea creatures.
> > I am pretty pleased with the way it turned out, but next time will
> > color the marzipan before forming it, rather than painting it with food
> > coloring. This is only the second time I have worked with marzipan,
> > and although I am pleased with the results, I felt it could have been a
> > little more moist and pliable than it was - I didn't have time to
> > hydrate it more, so just used it as it was. I also am thinking of
> > taking a cake decorating course to learn more technique, as I am sort
> > of flying by the seat of my pants. Here's a photo for anyone
> > interested:
> >
>
> Sorry - That should be:
>
> http://pg.photos.yahoo.com/ph/usenetlyn/my_photos
>
> Let me know if you still can't see it. Two shots - about the same.
>
> -L.
>
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Wendy wrote:
> Looks great. I have not worked with Marzipan myself. I think your cake
> looks terrific.
> I've taken a few cake decorating courses and loved them. I'm one of the
> least artistic people I know so cake decorating is a huge challenge. In one
> of my classes I spent lots of energy baking the cakes we were to decorate -
> that was the easy part for me. Then I'd sweat buckets over the decorating.
> Some of class mates picked up all kinds of prebaked cakes and made them look
> beautiful with no effort at all! Wendy

My philosophy is that it needs to taste better than it looks! This
one was pretty tasty - lemon cream cake filled with a
strawberry-apricot filling.

-L.

-L. wrote:
> Wendy wrote:
>
>>Looks great. I have not worked with Marzipan myself. I think your cake
>>looks terrific.
>>I've taken a few cake decorating courses and loved them. I'm one of the
>>least artistic people I know so cake decorating is a huge challenge. In one
>>of my classes I spent lots of energy baking the cakes we were to decorate -
>>that was the easy part for me. Then I'd sweat buckets over the decorating.
>>Some of class mates picked up all kinds of prebaked cakes and made them look
>>beautiful with no effort at all! Wendy
>
>
> My philosophy is that it needs to taste better than it looks! This
> one was pretty tasty - lemon cream cake filled with a
> strawberry-apricot filling.

<LOL> Agree with the taste/beauty relationship. But sometimes you luck out.

My daughter is taking French in school and I'm not above helping her
suck up a bit - good grades are good grades. Over the past two years and
this, we've made baguettes a few times. Brioches. A couple
****aladieres. Fougasse. Croquembouche (She walked into class carrying
it and one kid who didn't see her come through the door and was standing
with the teacher finally saw it and blurted out, "Holy shit." Teacher
laughed so hard she fell into her seat.) Madelaines. Choux swans (filled
with Bavarian cream). A tall Eiffel tower in gingerbread for X-mas that
was wonderful and that she gave to her teacher. Smart kid.

Last evening we made the layers for a dacquoise and assembled it this
morning. Two different meringue layers - one with ground almonds like an
Italian amaretto cookie, the other with cocoa and orange zest. Fillings
were orange mousse and chocolate mousse, finished with mousse on the
sides, ganache on top with finely chopped pistachios sprinkled through a
paper doily onto the chocolate.

She ought to get about 150% for this one. It's gorgeous. Should taste
very good, too. She piped the layers out and, as you'd expect from a
kid, got them all bumpy and irregular. Tried too hard to make it perfect
and, of course, got them spluttery and uneven because of trying too
hard. Showed her a wet spreader/spatula and what a wonderful tool it is.
She made them more or less even and we dried them in preparation for
this morning. Perfect texture, still a bit less than perfect-looking.
But wait, here come the mousses and see how splendidly they mask all
those imperfections. I pointed that out to The Kid and she laughed at
all that worrying. She did the assembly while I made the ganache. I even
peeled a bunch of pistachios, rubbed the skins off and chopped them. How
good a daddy is that?

She beamed when it was done. "It's pretty good, isn't it," she said. I
laughed out loud. Many bakeries I've been in wouldn't have done as
pretty a job as that. Did I remember to take a picture? Why do you ask?
Of course not. Not until we were halfway to school and remembered that
we hadn't. Not that we were giggling like, well, schoolkids or anything...

There's Murphy's Law and Murphy's Dammit Law.

Pastorio

Sounds like a school I'd like to go to. I might even be able to learn
french....although I've tried so often I've about given that up.. However I
could certainly learn some good baking tips! wendy
----- Original Message -----
From: "Bob (this one)" >
Newsgroups: rec.food.baking
To: >
Sent: Wednesday, January 25, 2006 8:02 AM
Subject: Birthday Cake report


> -L. wrote:
> > Wendy wrote:
> >
> >>Looks great. I have not worked with Marzipan myself. I think your cake
> >>looks terrific.
> >>I've taken a few cake decorating courses and loved them. I'm one of the
> >>least artistic people I know so cake decorating is a huge challenge. In
one
> >>of my classes I spent lots of energy baking the cakes we were to
decorate -
> >>that was the easy part for me. Then I'd sweat buckets over the
decorating.
> >>Some of class mates picked up all kinds of prebaked cakes and made them
look
> >>beautiful with no effort at all! Wendy
> >
> >
> > My philosophy is that it needs to taste better than it looks! This
> > one was pretty tasty - lemon cream cake filled with a
> > strawberry-apricot filling.
>
> <LOL> Agree with the taste/beauty relationship. But sometimes you luck
out.
>
> My daughter is taking French in school and I'm not above helping her
> suck up a bit - good grades are good grades. Over the past two years and
> this, we've made baguettes a few times. Brioches. A couple
> ****aladieres. Fougasse. Croquembouche (She walked into class carrying
> it and one kid who didn't see her come through the door and was standing
> with the teacher finally saw it and blurted out, "Holy shit." Teacher
> laughed so hard she fell into her seat.) Madelaines. Choux swans (filled
> with Bavarian cream). A tall Eiffel tower in gingerbread for X-mas that
> was wonderful and that she gave to her teacher. Smart kid.
>
> Last evening we made the layers for a dacquoise and assembled it this
> morning. Two different meringue layers - one with ground almonds like an
> Italian amaretto cookie, the other with cocoa and orange zest. Fillings
> were orange mousse and chocolate mousse, finished with mousse on the
> sides, ganache on top with finely chopped pistachios sprinkled through a
> paper doily onto the chocolate.
>
> She ought to get about 150% for this one. It's gorgeous. Should taste
> very good, too. She piped the layers out and, as you'd expect from a
> kid, got them all bumpy and irregular. Tried too hard to make it perfect
> and, of course, got them spluttery and uneven because of trying too
> hard. Showed her a wet spreader/spatula and what a wonderful tool it is.
> She made them more or less even and we dried them in preparation for
> this morning. Perfect texture, still a bit less than perfect-looking.
> But wait, here come the mousses and see how splendidly they mask all
> those imperfections. I pointed that out to The Kid and she laughed at
> all that worrying. She did the assembly while I made the ganache. I even
> peeled a bunch of pistachios, rubbed the skins off and chopped them. How
> good a daddy is that?
>
> She beamed when it was done. "It's pretty good, isn't it," she said. I
> laughed out loud. Many bakeries I've been in wouldn't have done as
> pretty a job as that. Did I remember to take a picture? Why do you ask?
> Of course not. Not until we were halfway to school and remembered that
> we hadn't. Not that we were giggling like, well, schoolkids or anything...
>
> There's Murphy's Law and Murphy's Dammit Law.
>
> Pastorio
> _______________________________________________
> Rec.food.baking mailing list
>
> http://www.otherwhen.com/mailman/lis...ec.food.baking
>
> To unsubscribe send a mail to and
then reply to the confirmation request.
>
>
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> Version: 7.1.362 / Virus Database: 267.14.22/239 - Release Date: 1/24/2006
>
>

Bob (this one) wrote:
> Last evening we made the layers for a dacquoise and assembled it this
> morning. Two different meringue layers - one with ground almonds like an
> Italian amaretto cookie, the other with cocoa and orange zest. Fillings
> were orange mousse and chocolate mousse, finished with mousse on the
> sides, ganache on top with finely chopped pistachios sprinkled through a
> paper doily onto the chocolate.
>
> She ought to get about 150% for this one. It's gorgeous. Should taste
> very good, too. She piped the layers out and, as you'd expect from a
> kid, got them all bumpy and irregular. Tried too hard to make it perfect
> and, of course, got them spluttery and uneven because of trying too
> hard. Showed her a wet spreader/spatula and what a wonderful tool it is.
> She made them more or less even and we dried them in preparation for
> this morning. Perfect texture, still a bit less than perfect-looking.
> But wait, here come the mousses and see how splendidly they mask all
> those imperfections. I pointed that out to The Kid and she laughed at
> all that worrying. She did the assembly while I made the ganache. I even
> peeled a bunch of pistachios, rubbed the skins off and chopped them. How
> good a daddy is that?
>
> She beamed when it was done. "It's pretty good, isn't it," she said. I
> laughed out loud. Many bakeries I've been in wouldn't have done as
> pretty a job as that. Did I remember to take a picture? Why do you ask?
> Of course not. Not until we were halfway to school and remembered that
> we hadn't. Not that we were giggling like, well, schoolkids or anything...
>
> There's Murphy's Law and Murphy's Dammit Law.
>
> Pastorio
<snip>

Hell, with those skills she can pay her way through college working in
a patisserie! Sounds awesome.

-L.

-L. wrote:
> Bob (this one) wrote:
>
>>She beamed when it was done. "It's pretty good, isn't it," she said. I
>>laughed out loud. Many bakeries I've been in wouldn't have done as
>>pretty a job as that. Did I remember to take a picture? Why do you ask?
>>Of course not. Not until we were halfway to school and remembered that
>>we hadn't. Not that we were giggling like, well, schoolkids or anything...
>>
>>There's Murphy's Law and Murphy's Dammit Law.
>>
>>Pastorio
>
> <snip>
>
> Hell, with those skills she can pay her way through college working in
> a patisserie! Sounds awesome.

I was busy writing for a deadline yesterday and didn't pay a lot of
attention to her. We made dinner and I went back to my computer, she to
her homework. I heard kitchen noises and didn't pay much attention to
that, either. She came walking into my office with a yellow cake she had
made from scratch, covered with whipped cream with sliced strawberries
and asked "Exactly how busy are you?" Twinkle in her eye...

We ate cake.

Later she told me that the first time, she had "messed up some mixing
when I didn't watch it closely." Her cut layers were uneven (I told her
a few ways to deal with that this morning. She looked like a light bulb
went off over her head.), cake was a tad dry (She waited until it was
"brown" before sticking a toothpick in.). But I think it's cool that she
did it all alone. Recognized that she had made a mixing mistake and
dealt with it. And recognized that my telling her how to cut layers
evenly wasn't a negative criticism. I was in the process of eating my
third slice. How badly could I feel about it? I told her nobody's gonna
get up from the table and leave if the layers are uneven. She laughed.

I asked why she wanted to do it. She said, "Because." <G> Good enough
for me.

Pastorio

Bob (this one) wrote:
<snip>

> I asked why she wanted to do it. She said, "Because." <G> Good enough
> for me.
>
> Pastorio

She sounds like a real sweetheart. How old is she? The thought of
parenting a daughter terrifies me. Stories like yours make me want
one, though.
-L.

-L. wrote:
> Bob (this one) wrote:
> <snip>
>
>>I asked why she wanted to do it. She said, "Because." <G> Good enough
>>for me.
>>
>>Pastorio
>
> She sounds like a real sweetheart. How old is she? The thought of
> parenting a daughter terrifies me. Stories like yours make me want
> one, though.

She's the center of my universe. And she's growing up which means we can
share more sophisticated ideas, and she's growing away, which is
inevitable as she begins to shape her own life, which means she
approaches and avoids...

She's more fun than most adults and her sense of humor and mine
intersect most wonderfully.

She's 14, a freshman in high school, pretty, graceful, articulate and
generally attractive to boys. A couple seniors have indicated interest
and I only had to threaten one for both to understand that she's too
young for them and their intents. But she much likes their attention...

So I'm a daddy of an utterly unique child - just like every other kid...

<LOL> Her dacquoise drew a few teachers into that classroom and the
principal found his way there before it was gone. Kind of culinary
telepathy...

Pastorio