Cake intern part two...

A double post today! This is the second part of my cake baking adventure. Read about the cake process here. I will be posting the final results when I get a chance. Cross your fingers...

If it's too hot it melts, if it's too cold it will pull cake up with each spatula stroke and if it's too thick it will not spread even.

In the cake world buttercream is the nasty aunt that bitches about everything.

Things I hate about buttercream:

It's basically sweetened fat
-Buttercream is made from butter or for a shiny, brilliant white - Crisco shortening. Dump in a bag of powdered sugar, some vanilla flavoring, or another flavoring of choice, and mix.

Mixing can be a challenge
-Using a mixer, much like the industrial looking KitchenAid I use, makes a fog of sugar as soon as the mixer is fired up. This fog dusts everything in sight from counters to stainless steel sink fixtures. Note: I later learned from Paula Deen to put a dishtowel over the top of the mixer as it starts and that won't happen. Where was Paula when I started this project...

It's finicky as all get out
-To make buttercream work there have to be perfect circumstances, and it should be kept at a certain temperature (sometimes a challenge). It can't be hot or humid, it can't be cold and using too much milk will get you cinnamon roll type glaze. The recipe is a must, which is not conducive to the dump cooks like me. You know, little of this, little of that - the "I can't tell you the recipe because I wing it." Doesn't work with buttercream.

There are things I love about buttercream:

It's delicious
-This stuff is heaven on cake. Nothing better than thick buttercream. That's why most people go to weddings, not to wish the happy couple well - let's not fool ourselves, it's the cake eating.

It looks good
-There is no better frosting than buttercream to create a clean canvas for decorating. It's easy to smooth out and gives you the best basis to start creating. It's also easy to tint and color because of the white color. Any color can be created and that's an advantage.

It's versatile
-It may be finicky and complicated to get perfect, but if you do - buttercream will do anything. Not only can you get a basic canvas, but it can be used to decorate. It can stand alone, or be complimented with other decorating tools - like gels or royal icing. It can also be used as a glue, fondant is stuck to cakes this way.

Get buttercream to work right, and you'll have a canvas to start creating an edible piece of art.

This is the double layer white cake, covered in vanilla buttercream - ready to decorate.

It's also been refrigerated to get a slight "crust", making the decorating process much easier. Although it may be set up, it's still soft enough to touch and ruin. I figured this out the hard way six years ago during a practice run while watching a Talladega race (it's a long story, maybe for another time).

Now, to get creative - I think I'll think like a two-year old.

And yes, I realize that won't be much of a stretch.