My Very Own Cake Wreck

Remember the pile of cake crumbs from last week? Well, I managed to turn it into a cake, after a fashion. I lined a cake pan with plastic wrap and filled it with cake bits. Then I threw it in the freezer for a couple of hours, and out came a cake! 

The first step to decorating a cake is to 'dirty ice' it, or apply a crumb coat. This is a thin layer of frosting that evens out the cake surface and catches any crumbs. After that sets up, you apply the final coat and any decorations. I just used some vanilla icing from a can and added some blue gel. I was going for a wintry feel, but it came off more Hanukkah-like. 

I used a petal tip and a round tip to make the bottom ruffled border. I really like this technique. It is fun to do and fairly forgiving. Then, still with the round tip, I piped the swags. This was surprisingly hard. I didn't put it in the picture, but the first couple of swags broke and just left gobs and streaks of blue icing. It's also really hard to keep your hand steady on a vertical surface. I switched to a star tip for the top edge. I was trying to do the classic shell border, but I can't for the life of me get it to tail off like it should. So I ended up with more of a swirly wave effect. And finally, I used a smaller petal tip to add some bows where the swags met. The icing was getting really warm so they are kind of droopy. 

So, all in all, not too bad for my first attempt at piping a whole cake. I decided to write Cake Wreck on it because of all the disasters that went into making it, and in honor of one of my favorite blogs of the same name, Cake Wrecks. And I have to give credit to the book  that I got the design elements from: The Whimsical Bakehouse. This is such a great book. They have delicious sounding recipes, easy to follow instructions, and great ideas. My plan is to essentially bake my way through this book. Let me know if you would like a cake and I would be more than happy to make you one because believe it or not, there is such a thing as too much cake and Joe and I are coming close to that.