My original plan was to make a cake for Zach to take to school at the end of his first week, but about mid-week he got a cake request from one of the girls on the volleyball team.
The girls were concerned about their coach and her son, both of whom are having some health problems. The girls wanted to have a spur-of-the-moment bake sale to raise money for incidental costs incurred while their coach's son has to be in the hospital in a few weeks.
I have to say that I'm really impressed with the caliber of students at Zach's school. Most of them are thoughtful, responsible, bright kids who do their best and are considerate of others. No one asked the volleyball team to have a bake sale; they just came up with the idea on their own. So, needless to say, I was happy to make a cake for them.
The kids actually requested that I make two one-layer cakes so that maybe they could get a bit more money out of the deal. The design, flavor, and shape were all up to me, so I decided to do one square and one round. I've been wanting to experiment with square cakes, so this gave me the opportunity to work with the square pan I have. Due to short notice and square cake board shortage, I elected to make the second cake round.
Usually I approach a cake with a serious plan that includes sketches and notes on color. But this time I was wide open, even as I mixed the frosting colors. I decided to use this opportunity to work on my flowers and leaves, since I was guessing a "pretty" cake might sell well at a bake sale.
As you might guess, cake decorating is messy business. It's probably the one reason (besides calorie/fat content) that I don't make more cakes. Here is how my counter looks in the midst of decorating:
Keep in mind that the frosting is made of Crisco, butter, cream cheese, and a variety of potent food colorings. I was warned during cake class to avoid putting butter cream down the sink, as it clogs pipes even quicker than it does arteries. So I generally wipe it up as best I can with paper towel, and then wash everything.
My kids, however, wish I would make a cake every week, because then they could do this:
Even though we've turned the calendar to September, we're still sitting around the 90s most of the time in Texas. And just like in May, Zach and I are still steadfast in keeping the thermostat at 80 degrees. And guess what? That's still a bit warm for butter cream icing. Luckily I managed to avoid the same fate as my strawberry catastrophe...
As I dressed up my round cake with little purple flowers, it became apparent that my frosting was too warm to form really nice flowers. But by the time I got the white centers and leaves put on, I was okay with how the flowers looked. And in the meantime, I threw my blue icing into the fridge in preparation for the next cake.
Making flowers is really fun, and so I thought I'd go a bit further with the square cake and make a vine of sorts that flowed all over the cake. These flowers turned out better thanks to the icing's stint in the fridge.
The bake sale was a big success. They earned just over $600 in one evening, and my cakes sold for $40 and $50, respectively. Not bad for a few hours of work!
