Why the 6 Inch Cake is Awesome

A 6 inch cake is the perfect size to make cake accessible on more than just special occasions. Unless you have 12 or more people in your family, a 9 inch cake just doesn't make sense. It's too much cake. Even if you have cake every night, you'll never finish the cake before it goes bad. And if you do, well . . . you shouldn't be eating that much cake.

This is the finished cake (see picture). I went a little nuts with the fondant flowers, but I just got caught up in the spirit of Fall. But, back to my topic.


A 6 inch cake is a more reasonable size for families of 2-5 people. Even for larger families, a 6 inch cake may provide more options, by having two 6 inch cakes of different flavors, because there is no way that a family of 12 all wants the same flavor of cake (go ahead, prove me wrong). As The Physicist points out, "it already has a higher frosting to cake ratio, if you're into that sort of thing". Because they are smaller, they are less work to make. It's easier to experiment with flavor combinations when you aren't committing to a giant cake of licorice pineapple (I don't recommend licorice pineapple). And lastly, they're just so darn cute! Seriously adorable!



Here is an aerial shot of my cake, so you can see more of the fondant flowers. I made roses, calla lilies, mums, hypericum berries, and kinda generic little yellow flowers. This was a first attempt at painting the fondant, after I shaped the flowers and leaves, to give them more depth. Ain't half bad, if I do say so myself.

Syrup: Not Just For Pancakes

Yup, we're back to making the cake. And, yes, the topic is syrup. Not maple syrup (though it could be), but a sugar/water/flavor combo to make your cake spectacular. It's easy, it adds extra flavor, and it keeps the cake moist. Come on, if it adds all that, why wouldn't you put syrup on a cake?

Now, you can make a simple syrup, by boiling sugar and water in some ratio, and adding a flavor (The Physicist does this, because he loves doing things the hard way), but I have a much easier method, with much more flavor.

You will need (for a 6 inch cake):

2 Tbsp. Jam or Preserves

3 Tbsp. Liquid

Saucepan

Pastry Brush

Pictured are some of my favorite combos: Ginger Preserves with Amaretto, Raspberry Preserves with Rose Water, and Lemon Curd with Orange Blossom Water. I like the ginger for fall cakes, the raspberry for chocolate or spring cakes, and the lemon for citrus or summery cakes. You can make your own combination, and just go with what flavors sound great to you.

For our Spice Cake, I'm using Ginger Preserves and Amaretto. Put your jam and liquid into a saucepan, and heat over medium low heat until the jam melts into a syrupy consistency (see first picture).

Cut off the tops of your cakes, and using a pastry brush, mop the top surfaces of the cake with the syrup (see picture).

Now, when you add your filling and stack your cakes, you should have layers from bottom to top: cake, syrupy side of cake, filling, syrupy side of other cake, other cake (see picture).

If you are making a regular sized cake, just double the recipe.

So, next time you're making a cake, give a syrup a try. I promise, you'll like the results.

Fondant: It's Like Sugar Play-Dough

This week, I'm going to be blogging about cake, and since fondant is usually my first step when making a cake, I'm gonna start the week with it. I'm not good at piping icing, but I am good at sculpting. So, when it comes to decorating cakes, I use fondant. I sculpt it into flowers, shapes, animals, etc., but I don't cover my cakes with it. I'm a big fan of my icing (it'll be another blog topic), so I like cakes smothered in swiss meringue buttercream, with beautiful sugar flowers on top.

I was going to do a step by step guide, showing how I make the flowers . . . but there are a lot of books and kits to tell you how to do it, and a lot of them come with the fondant equipment anyway. So I'm going to just do an overview. I buy my fondant from Wilton. You can make it, I know someone who does (looking at you, Duckie!), but I like the ease of purchasing it, knowing I have a quality product. It's like sugar play-dough, so if you have fond memories of sculpting in your childhood, I recommend fondant. You do need some special equipment, and Wilton makes some great ones. (If you want roses, go get the Wilton Rose Step-Saver Kit, it's amazing!)

Now, you don't have to be an awesome sculptor to use fondant either. It helps, but it's not necessary. Beautiful fondant designs and decorations can be made just cutting out shapes in rolled out fondant, and attaching them to the cake. You can make a really pretty cake just cutting out circles in different colors and putting them all over the cake.

A few caveats: it does dry out quickly while you're working on it, so be sure to keep the fondant you aren't currently working on wrapped up, you sometimes need to give delicate pieces (like flowers) a good 24 hours to dry into the proper shape, and you need to use gel food coloring to color it. I'm a big fan of gel coloring in general, because it gives you more vibrant color, with less "color taste", so I don't see this as a drawback, but I know some people are addicted to squeezing drops out of tear shaped bottles.

I will be posting pictures of my finished fondant, but I'm going to wait to reveal them with the whole cake. Because it's cake, and it deserves a big reveal. ;)