Adventures in Icing
Why would anyone make a cake without drawing on it? I love homemade cake and buttercream as an artistic medium because it's super easy to impress people and make them think you are some kind of baking genius (HA!). Also, because it's ephemeral, there's no pressure to make something that will speak to the ages or even to next week. And you get to eat cake afterwards.
When I remember to take a photo, I'll post em here.
Money bird cake
I made this cake when our friends came back to the US from a stint in Palau, a wee island in the Pacific. I am a big fan of Palauan art and architecture, so I used a money bird motif, based on this photo taken of me at the Palauan capital in Melekeok:
The circles with a cross in the middle symbolize money, and the bird brings prosperity and the like. So here's the cake:
Octopus cake
Here's a birthday cake I made for James and me (our birthdays 4 days apart) in 2006. It's carrot cake with cream cheese icing. I am currently working on an octopus quilt, so I thought I'd make an octopus cake too, and call it a series:
That cake lasted all of 10 minutes before it was eaten by a mob.
Sugar Skulls
Okay, I love skeletons (here's my wedding cake), and the only time of year when this love is socially acceptable is Day of the Dead. As www.mexicansugarskulls.com says:
Sugar Skulls are a traditional folk art from Southern Mexico used to celebrate Day of the Dead. Mounds of colorful sugar skulls are sold by Indian vendors in open air village markets during the week preceding the holiday. Spirits of the dead are welcomed back to their homes with beautifully decorated altars made by their loved ones. Sugar skulls, marigolds, candles, incense and special foods adorn home altars. Families take the flowers and sugar skulls to the cemetery to decorate the tombs on November 2. Sugar skulls are colorfully decorated with icing, pieces of bright foil, colored sugars and usually bear the name of the deceased loved one being honored.
I've been meaning to make these for years, but always forgot to order the molds until it was too late. In 2006, I got my act together. These were pretty easy to make, but let me tell you, sugar was everywhere. And the Tuna Cat was constantly threatening to eat them (wha?) Here's a cute demo of how they are made.
I kept them in the oven because I have no kitchen counter space, what with all the veterinary supplies.
