Episode 55 – Simple 2-Tiered Birthday Cake

Episode 55
June 19, 2011
Simple 2-Tiered Birthday Cake

This episode is another cake I made for one of the ladies at Punkin’s doggy daycare.  As many of my followers know, I don’t actually have a cake business or anything – but when one of the ladies who takes such good care of my dog during the day needs a gourmet cake I just can’t say no!  The great thing is when I get to really use my creativity to make a nice cake like this one, it’s a great excuse to shoot an episode for you all.  Consider this episode another redemption for the simple tiered cake episode.

This episode is pretty straight-forward using very familiar recipes from the site – Devil’s Food Chocolate Cake and Chocolate Swiss Buttercream – two of my favorite recipes.  Click those names to download the recipes.

I think from the side the cake looks really pretty!

I’ve been making Swiss buttercream a lot lately.  At first, I made it for the German Chocolate Cake episode since the batch I made for the simple tiered cake episode came out so lousy.  But it kind of grew on me.  It’s a little faster and easier to make than my other favorite icing, Italian buttercream, and it tastes just as great.  That being said, in really large batches in a commercial mixer Italian buttercream would actually be easier to make since warming up egg whites on a giant double boiler is next to impossible in a professional bakeshop.  Not that it can’t be done but double boilers take up a lot of space and if something goes wrong… that’s a lot of egg whites in the garbage.

The difference between Italian buttercream and Swiss buttercream is how the sugar is added.  As you’ll see in the video, Swiss buttercream has the sugar added to the egg whites and then the mixture is heated on a double boiler to at least 120 degrees F.  Italian buttercream, on the other hand, has most of the sugar heated in a pot to 250 degrees F which is then added to a whipping French meringue.  Generally speaking, Italian buttercreams are supposed to be thicker, firmer, and stronger than Swiss buttercreams but in my personal experience I haven’t really noticed a difference.

Even though I don’t talk much during the fondant part of the episode I still feel that this is

Even though they are very simple fondant flowers, I'm really surprised how nice they came out. I actually used a leaf cutter for the petals so they'd have a little of a textured edge.

a good demonstration.  The fondant itself was very cooperative and I was able to take my time to show how I manipulate the fondant to slowly “stretch” it down the sides of the cake.  Keep in mind that it really isn’t really stretching.  What you’re doing is skirting the fondant around the bottom of the cake outward, then trying to guide it flatter against the cake while you are pressing the fondant closer to top of the cake flat against the cake.  The result is the fondant gets ever-so-slightly stretched outward.  Other excellent fondant demonstrations include the Covering A Dummy Cake in Fondant episode and the Juicy Couture Cake episode.

One new element on this cake includes the chocolate fondant flowers which I made using the same techniques found in the Gum Paste Flowers Basics episode – which are simply a variation on the wireless dogwoods.  If you remember from the Juicy Couture cake episode I had a little trouble with the chocolate fondant bow because even after two days the curls had not dried completely.  This time I was prepared – I gave the flowers a good week to dry.  While I know that not everybody knows a week in advance that they’ll be making a cake my point here is that chocolate fondant takes a very long time to dry.  You can add tylose powder to the fondant to make it dry faster.  Tylose powder is an ingredient that basically turns your fondant into gum paste though I have very little personal experience with tylose powder.  You can buy it at most boutique cake supply shops.

If I had to do this cake again I’d probably change the way I piped the curls along the sides and tops of the cakes.  Though the curls came out nice I think the cake would flow better if the curls actually wrapped around the edges/corners of the cake.  For example: A curl on the top of the cake would end up on the side.  This would help make the whole pattern more cohesive.  It might also be worth piping the curls just a little smaller as well.

One thing I should point out about covering cakes in fondant in the summer: In the video I recommend putting the cake in the refrigerator for an hour or so before covering it with fondant.  This is done so the icing is nice and firm while you are fooling around with the fondant – that way you’re not trying to smooth fondant on a squishy surface.  However, in the hot humid summers of Virginia this can work against you.  Think of a glass of water in a humid environment – see where I’m going yet?  The cake itself is cold and once the fondant is applied the fondant then becomes cold – it’s pretty unlikely (but not impossible) that by the time you finish covering your cake the whole cake is at room temperature.  When the air is humid, condensation forms on cold surfaces – whether it’s a glass, chocolate, or a cake.  With that in mind remember that fondant is basically sugar which dissolves when exposed to water.  So while your cake warms up to room temperature the fondant is sweating (which I point out in the episode) which creates a sticky surface that may interfere with piping decorations including chocolate and royal icing.  The solution?  Well, I suppose there really isn’t one.  I already had my A/C cranked in the house but it’s not really designed to be a super-dehumidifier I guess.  On top of that, you really have to work with a cool cake in order to successfully put your fondant on.  Off the top of my head, the only work around is to dab gently with a paper towel or use a hair dryer on a cool setting.

At the end of the video I also explain a strategy for delivering a fully finished tiered cake.  Home bakers all have different solutions for this and it’s important to realize no one method is better than the others – what it comes down to is what method makes sense and works for you.  For me I decided to tape a larger square gold board to the smaller round gold board which dramatically increased the surface area of the cake’s base.  I took advantage of this by finding a cardboard box the exact same size (if not a tiny bit smaller) as the gold square board.  The box was also taller, much taller, than the cake itself.  I sealed one end of the cardboard box and left the other open.  I used the flaps on the open end for flexibility while slowly guiding the box over the cake.  The flaps should land on the square board which ends up creating a lid while the gold board protects the sides of the cake in case the panels slide inward.  While it is preferable for the cake to be completely sealed it really isn’t necessary – all you’re trying to do is protect it from dust and the elements.

Now with all that being said, if I had the choice I would always finish the cake at the location.  I’d bring the finished tiers to where it was being delivered and just stack and finish decorating there – much like I did in the Juicy Couture episode.  I don’t know about you but I just have this incredible nightmare of the cake falling over while I’m driving – at least as a single tier I don’t have to worry about it falling over.  Whatever method you prefer to use, just remember to bring some extra components (like icing, piping chocolate, and royal icing) to fix any nicks that may have occurred during transport.

Anyway, like I said at the beginning of the post this was a pretty straight-forward episode and I’m pretty happy with the finished product – and from what I saw on Facebook the birthday girl was pretty happy too!  Here’s the recipe for Devil’s Food Chocolate Cake (remember I doubled the two 9″ inch cake recipe for the episode) and the Chocolate Swiss buttercream recipe.  Enjoy the video below and thank you for watching!

UPDATE: The chocolate it the video pipes much like buttercream because I seized it with a few drops of water. Seized chocolate is usually worthless because it’s a completely different texture but seized chocolate pipes very well – especially if you’re looking for a buttercream effect. Both real chocolate and coating chocolate can seize.