Baking

My parents worked a lot of hours when I was a teenager, so dinner was left to me to cook. I soon learned all the usual family classics Like spaghetti bologna's, shepherds pie, roasts and cooked breakfasts. I became a lot more adventurous when I had my own family and quite often get the recipe books out to try something new. I only really got into baking once our boys came along and wanted to make them homemade cakes for their birthdays.I remember the first cake I ever made was at school in cooking class. It was awful, it sated like a biscuit, the icing was a terrible hot pink color that ran off the sides of the cake as I hadn't let them cool enough. It was a disaster but with age I have become a lot more patient. When I started baking I Just tried Victoria sponges everyone that tried them said that tasted delicious. So then I went on to experiment with different flavors like chocolate, carrot and coffee and walnut and a variety of different flavor cupcakes.I still haven't tried cake pops even though I have a little machine to try them. Not all of my cakes turn out perfect, some sink In the middle or urn around the outside edges. It takes a while to get to know your oven , what temperature Is best to cook at and remember never to open the oven door to early. So now I had mastered the cakes it was time to get on with the decorating which is either easy and straight forward or a nightmare and you keep pulling the icing off and starting again.It can be really frustrating when the icing splits or cracks but what is really awful is when you've laid the icing over the cake and you turn and put your finger in it. That's not so bad if your covering the cake with flowers or other secretions because you hide it but if it has to be smooth you have to restart it or try and patch if it's not in a noticeable place. The first cake I made was for my eldest when he was three. He was crazy for fireman Sam. Looking back on what I can do now it wasn't really that good.For the cake I made a 8 Inch round Victoria sponge and covered It with white fondant. I colored red fondant and cut out a fire engine shape as seen from the front. I put a photo of our boys on the cake and laid the fire engine shape over the top so it looked like they were driving I added the blue lights, a few details to the fire engine, name, age and the happy birthday. Everyone loved it even though we couldn't eat the picture. I had found something that I really loved doing. I get a warm feeling when I see someone face after they have received their cake.I started making them for our boys but ended up making them for friends, their children and other family members. The first cake I made outside the family was for my best friends son on his third birthday. He wanted a treasure chest, this I was a little worried about as I had never tried to bake any other shapes other than circles r squares, and this needed to have a lid on It. I always start by looking in my cake books and the Internet. Ther e are millions of cake pictures on Google Images. I look at the pictures and decide what shape, flavors and colors I'm going to use.Then I get a piece of paper and draw a rough copy of the cake and add little notes as to what the color is going to be or the type of icing I'm going to use or where the decorations buying a Swiss roll to give the lid a curved shape. Whilst the cake was cooling I got to work on making the decorations so they would have time to dry out before putting hem on the cake. I then made up a pile of chocolate butter cream and sandwiched the cakes together and covered the complete outside and the lid which was made out of a cardboard rectangle covered with foil.Once it was covered I dragged a fork through the icing to give it a wooden effect and stared putting the decorations and the lid on. I put the lid resting on two skewers so I could have chocolate gold coins and some Jewels spilling over the top. I dusted all the yellow fondant with gold shimmer powder to g ive it some elegance. It was one of my successes and with allow sugar all around the bottom to look like sand. Just to add a little surprise I buried a two pound coin under the sand and placed an x on top then finished with the usual name age and happy birthday.Not all of my cakes have been so amazing. It depends on what the birthday boy or girl likes. One cake I hated making was a Manchester united football shirt . When it was finally finished it looked okay but getting it to the end was a nightmare. The icing kept splitting or cracking, I couldn't cover the sleeves without creasing the icing I ended up throwing the icing at the wall ND having a cup of tea. When I went back to it with fresh icing and changing tactics I got it covered but swore I would never do another one.I found it to be a very plain cake with very little decoration even so the little boy was delighted. It depends on what the â€Å"in† thing is with the children as to what I get asked to make. With girls it tends to be princess castles, horses or anything pink or sparkly. With boys the last couple of years it's been mine craft but they also like football themes, been 10 and the minions from despicable me. My all time favorite cake to bake was when my ingest asked for a yellow minion ( there are purple one too. I thought it was going to be quite complex but it turned out to be one of the easiest cakes I have ever made. Once I had baked enough cakes and cooled them I sandwiched them all together with butter cream and covered with yellow fondant. Whilst this was all setting I fashioned a pair of blue dungarees from fondant, his eye and goggle, arms and legs. When these were all ready I stuck it all together and it Just went together like a dream. He was awe struck when he saw it and everyone said it was amazing and tasted fantastic.