When Eva told me that she wanted to order a birthday cake for 3 people's birthday that'll be celebrated at church, I got really excited! Eva was very flexible on the cakes too - there was no specifications of the kinds of cake that she wanted, I could choose to make 3 small cakes or one large cake, and I can dig my imagination for the design of the cake. At that time (which was about 3 weeks ago), strawberries were still in season. They were again at $0.97/lbs, had deep red color, and were super sweet! :) Of course, I had to buy them and use it for the cake.
After much thought, I decided that I wanted to give tiered cake another try. The first one that I made looked like 2 stacked cakes and was not how I had imagined it to be. So I learnt from my mistake and made this second cake a little better. :) I used a 12" cake for the bottom and an 8" cake for the top, giving them about 2" difference when stacked. The top layer was made of 3 layers of vanilla sponge cake filled with chocolate pastry cream and covered with white chocolate mousse. The bottom one was made of 2 layers of vanilla sponge cake filled with mango mousse and lots of lychees and pinneaple.
The chocolate "walls" surrounding the cakes was one of my favorite part of the cake as well as the hardest challenge for me. As I've mentioned several times before, chocolate decorations have always been a challenge for me. Ask Cess and she'll tell you. :p
But I had just bought a book by Bo Friberg called Professional Pastry Chef and inside there are clear instructions on how to temper chocolates. So I followed the instructions step by step and managed to somehow temper my chocolates! :) I have to tell you, tempered chocolates are great! They harden quickly and easy to peel off from the acetate/parchment paper. I made a bunch of milk chocolate and white chocolate rectangles with my tempered chocolate for this cake.
Just when I thought that everything was going smoothly, the strawberries that I had stuffed between the top cake and the bottom chocolate walls pushed the chocolates out, causing my walls to crumble and fall. >_< This happened about 1 hour before the cake was due. I calmed myself down and thanked God for the extra chocolate rectangles that I had made. :p I replaced them all and took out ALL of the strawberries that caused the trouble.
Transporting the cake from my apartment to church was also one frightening trip. Apparently, I had cut one of the dowel a little higher than the rest causing the cake on top to be wobbly. This really adds a lot of shaking-factor on the cake. Alvin and I were very much under a lot of stress during that trip. Praise God, we made it safely there. :) And the cake was enjoyed by all.
The chocolate "walls" surrounding the cakes was one of my favorite part of the cake as well as the hardest challenge for me. As I've mentioned several times before, chocolate decorations have always been a challenge for me. Ask Cess and she'll tell you. :p
But I had just bought a book by Bo Friberg called Professional Pastry Chef and inside there are clear instructions on how to temper chocolates. So I followed the instructions step by step and managed to somehow temper my chocolates! :) I have to tell you, tempered chocolates are great! They harden quickly and easy to peel off from the acetate/parchment paper. I made a bunch of milk chocolate and white chocolate rectangles with my tempered chocolate for this cake.
Just when I thought that everything was going smoothly, the strawberries that I had stuffed between the top cake and the bottom chocolate walls pushed the chocolates out, causing my walls to crumble and fall. >_< This happened about 1 hour before the cake was due. I calmed myself down and thanked God for the extra chocolate rectangles that I had made. :p I replaced them all and took out ALL of the strawberries that caused the trouble.
Transporting the cake from my apartment to church was also one frightening trip. Apparently, I had cut one of the dowel a little higher than the rest causing the cake on top to be wobbly. This really adds a lot of shaking-factor on the cake. Alvin and I were very much under a lot of stress during that trip. Praise God, we made it safely there. :) And the cake was enjoyed by all.
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