Today is my birthday :)
The loving man that my husband is made it quite clear the day before my birthday: I was not to bake a cake for it. He had plans to bake something special for me, and he's a pretty good baker (even if he doesn't then make cakes adequately pretty after baking them). He said that on my birthday, surely a husband was allowed to show love and consideration and make something for me, for a change...
Well, I was onto his game, and there'll be none of that.
If you've stalked my blog as extensively as, well, I have, then you'd not be surprised at what followed... One time he absolutely forbade me to bake cupcakes for a gig that he played at last year, so I baked over 200 just to show him that he doesn't own me! ... Or something like that ;)
Now, to be fair on myself - when he told me not to bake for my birthday, I'd already baked the two bottom halves and had the entire cake planned out in my head... It would have pink. It would have silver. It would have stars bursting forth like one of those aliens from those movies where the aliens burst out from people's stomachs. It would be the cake equivalent to the Fourth of July, even though we don't do that in Australia; and near where I live- if it's not fireworks in the middle of the night, it's people setting fire to cars...
Sometimes when I make cakes or cupcakes for people, and they don't know exactly what they want, I ask myself: "What would I want if I were them?" I asked myself this same question when making my cake, and though the answer in my head was "something awesome", I figured that my birthday was a good excuse (not that I need one anymore) to try new things and further develop the skills that I'd already been teaching myself...
Upon arriving home and seeing what I'd spent the day making, my husband concluded that however delicious his proposed flourless chocolate cake was going to be (and it is very delicious because I've had it before), it would have lacked the Nyan-cat star-background quality of...
After covering the cake with white fondant, I used my biggest star cookie cutter as a guide to cutting five sections that would curl upward and outward to show the pink that was underneath.
I cut out stars, stars, and more stars of all different sizes. Some were pink, some were white, and some more were white that I knew in advance I was going to paint silver. I separated ones that I would be putting on sticks to be part of the explosion... And cut out my age to be part of that as well - you only turn 28 once, after all :)
I carefully pulled back the five parts of the open star, and with some rolled up glad wrap and sugar glue, stuck the corners down over the glad wrap so that the fondant would keep its shape overnight. I then started attaching the pink stars to the outside of the cake.
After painting some white stars with (looks like nail polish, but isn't) silver edible paint, I attached them around the cake as well, including one in the middle of the top of the cake for the sticks to stick into to (hopefully) not look as messy as sticks out of just the pink... But, because I didn't try the latter, I have no idea how they compare!
Once the glad wrap was no longer needed, I cut the sticks to various lengths, and poked them into the silver star on top of the cake!
But secretly I figured that he probably just wanted his cake on my blog.
Well, I was onto his game, and there'll be none of that.
If you've stalked my blog as extensively as, well, I have, then you'd not be surprised at what followed... One time he absolutely forbade me to bake cupcakes for a gig that he played at last year, so I baked over 200 just to show him that he doesn't own me! ... Or something like that ;)
Now, to be fair on myself - when he told me not to bake for my birthday, I'd already baked the two bottom halves and had the entire cake planned out in my head... It would have pink. It would have silver. It would have stars bursting forth like one of those aliens from those movies where the aliens burst out from people's stomachs. It would be the cake equivalent to the Fourth of July, even though we don't do that in Australia; and near where I live- if it's not fireworks in the middle of the night, it's people setting fire to cars...
Sometimes when I make cakes or cupcakes for people, and they don't know exactly what they want, I ask myself: "What would I want if I were them?" I asked myself this same question when making my cake, and though the answer in my head was "something awesome", I figured that my birthday was a good excuse (not that I need one anymore) to try new things and further develop the skills that I'd already been teaching myself...
Upon arriving home and seeing what I'd spent the day making, my husband concluded that however delicious his proposed flourless chocolate cake was going to be (and it is very delicious because I've had it before), it would have lacked the Nyan-cat star-background quality of...
"Exploding Cake 2013"
Here's a step-by-step of the exploding star cake-decorating process:
I had two 7" sized chocolate with pink swirl cakes put on top of each other with jam, and then cut out a 7" pink fondant circle and spread it on top.
After covering the cake with white fondant, I used my biggest star cookie cutter as a guide to cutting five sections that would curl upward and outward to show the pink that was underneath.
I cut out stars, stars, and more stars of all different sizes. Some were pink, some were white, and some more were white that I knew in advance I was going to paint silver. I separated ones that I would be putting on sticks to be part of the explosion... And cut out my age to be part of that as well - you only turn 28 once, after all :)
I carefully pulled back the five parts of the open star, and with some rolled up glad wrap and sugar glue, stuck the corners down over the glad wrap so that the fondant would keep its shape overnight. I then started attaching the pink stars to the outside of the cake.
After painting some white stars with (looks like nail polish, but isn't) silver edible paint, I attached them around the cake as well, including one in the middle of the top of the cake for the sticks to stick into to (hopefully) not look as messy as sticks out of just the pink... But, because I didn't try the latter, I have no idea how they compare!
Once the glad wrap was no longer needed, I cut the sticks to various lengths, and poked them into the silver star on top of the cake!
Ka-Boom! Exploding Star Cake:
Funnily enough, my beautiful friends surprised me with a birthday cake, cards, flowers, and singing, so I haven't had a chance to cut this one yet!
And as it sits waiting to be cut, I had an idea for some cupcakes, planned out in my head, and started measuring and mixing ingredients to make them...
My husband, bewildered by what he was seeing me do, right next to a <quote> 18 foot exploding cake that we haven't cut and eaten yet <un-quote> asked me: "Nat... Are you baking again!??"
"Uhhh"
.
.
.
To be continued...
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