Utes-Bears Poinsettia Bowl 2009

  This was done for the 2009 Poinsettia Bowl.  The Utes vs the Bears.  I had much higher expectations for this cake when I started, but my inexperience and lack of time really did me in.  The top of this cake definitely screamed for fondant as opposed to icing, but I was quickly running out of time and had zero experience with fondant so I just frosted it.  Alyssa pointed out she didn't like the 5 petal poinsettia, but I spent almost as hour looking for a template for a 5 point one because that is actually on the Bowl games logo.

  I had planned to sculpt a 3d poinsettia to put on the top, but as I tried to crumb-coat the smaller cake for the top, it literally fell apart.  It became such a mess of frosting, I just decided not to include it on the top. Definitely need more research into sculpting cakes before trying again.

Stats:

• 9" Cake Round
• 7 " Cake round for top - Scrapped.
• Duncan Hines Swiss Chocolate Cake Mix prepped per box.
• Iced with Butter Cream Frosting
• Filled with Costco Mousse Filling

  I decided that I wanted to actually put something between my layers other than frosting for this cake.  I found this recipe that is supposedly Costco's mousse filling and I love their filling so I decided to give it a try.  It tasted wonderful, but I whipped it up a little to long so it was stiffer than I would have liked.  The butter cream was your standard boring butter cream flavor.  I liked the texture of the Meringue butter cream I did last time and I think I will try more of the boiled frostings from here on out.  I really like the added flavor of adding a real filling in the middle of the cake, so I will probably be doing that from now on.

This was the first cake I did that actually baked nice and tall.

  I don't have any real Bake Even strips so I made my own out of tin foil and paper towels as explained here. I'm not sure if that's why it baked so tall, but until I get some real ones, I'll keep baking them this way.  Since it was a 9"x3" pan, I ended up using more than once cake mix as well.

This was a learning experience for me.  I'm beginning to realize how much of making a cake is hurry up and wait time.  Bake the cake, wait for it to cool.  Crumb-coat the cake, wait for it to harden.  Ice the cake, wait for it to set.  I had all these grand ideas in my head for this cake, but I'm still not a point where I can easily translate all my fancy ideas onto the cake yet.   I really wanted to do little Cal and U logos around the outside and a few other frills.


FTW:

• Earned "Cake Filling" Badge.
• Vanilla Mousse filling tasted awesome.
• Cake baked nice and high for once.

FTL:

• Cake Sculpting fail.
• The cake with the filling in it didn't stack as well as I expected
• Taste of the butter cream was meh.

 Till Next Time, enjoy your desserts first!