Cake decorating: Part 2

I've been watching Cake Boss a lot. Can you tell? If I start using a northern accent, you'll know why.

This morning, I got up and baked the cake. Jeremy picked out a chocolate fudge cake mix. I'm not brave enough to make the cake itself from scratch yet, but I'll get there. When the cake was almost finished, I started the icing. I have never made icing. If you had asked me how to make icing, I would have looked at you so confused because I have only known icing to come in a can. Now, my mom makes her icing.....so I know it can be done, but I am all about convenience....well, used to be.

So, I began the icing making process. One thing I learned from this process - I will never BUY icing again!!! It turned out to be so incredibly delicious and fluffy! I was very proud of myself. Once the icing was done, the cakes had had time to cool off (thanks to Jeremy helping me out by sitting them outside to cool off....he's good at helping :) ). The next step was icing the cakes. This is the part of cake decorating that I hate. I almost never get the layers on straight. So, I put the filling icing on first and tried to even out the sides. Jeremy so kindly told me that the Cake Boss cuts the top off of his cake before he layers them. He told me this AFTER I had put the layers together. I guess I missed that part on the show. It was too late....the top layer would have fallen apart. So, I had to compensate with icing. I don't think anyone will complain. After I iced the cake....oh, let me use cake boss terms....I "dirty iced" the cake. After I dirty iced the cake, I put it in the fridge to let the icing crust.

I'll leave that in until tonight, then I will put the fondant on. That's going to be the scary part. I'm so proud of myself so far, though! I think I have a knack for this stuff. My mom is really good at the "from scratch" stuff, and so is my grandma, so I guess I come by it honestly. I at least have a small percentage of "knack".

Here are some pictures from this morning:

Cakes baking....(please excuse the pan and pizza stone...)

Icing ingredients

Crisco and butter....mmmmm (I had to ignore this part)

Mixing the Crisco and butter

Finished cakes!

The rest of the ingredients ready for mixing

Mixing the icing

Finished icing - look at that fluffy goodness...

Icing the cake

Part Three: Covering with Fondant - coming tomorrow...or tonight.