Baking

CAKE DESIGNS

•  Cakes with Fondant:  Fondant is a pliable dough made from sugar.  It is used to cover cakes in order to incorporate more complicated design aspects to a cake.  I make my fondant from scratch, so it doesn't taste bad.  It mostly tastes sweet, and the texture is chewy.  Fondant does not replace icing on a cake; it simply covers the cake and icing. 
  

• Carved Cakes: These are cakes that require free-hand carving in order to shape them.  They usually require a fondant covering in order to decorate.

• Airbrushed Cakes:  These are fondant-covered cakes that are painted with food-grade airbrush paint by usuing an airbrush.

• Hand-painted Cakes:  Some cakes require hand painting in order to apply intricate detaiing.  This is done by applying food-grade paints to fondant.

• Tiered Cakes: Tiered cakes are those in which two or more cakes are stacked on each other.  Most wedding cakes are tiered, and many special occasion and birthday cakes are tiered.  These cakes are great when you need to yield lots of servings (usually 50 or more).

• Mad Hatter Cakes: These are tiered cakes in which the tiers are offset and tilted to look as though the cake is unstable.  These are very fun and modern cakes that are great for kids and birthdays.

• Pull-apart Cupcakes:  These cakes are made entirely of cupcakes that are iced as though it is one cake.  They are easily pulled apart one-by-one, and children love them.

The type of cake layers, fillings, and icings you can choose for your cake will depend on how you want it decorated.  Many of the classic layer cakes from my "Cakes" page can be made into specialty cakes; however, some specialty cakes will limit you to simpler flavor choices.  Below are some of the basic cake types and flavors that will transfer nicely to most any specialty cake.  

CAKE LAYERS

• Vanilla Sponge Cake:  This is the classic "birthday" style vanilla cake.  It is light, fluffy, and moist and will work for most any type of specialty cake.
• Vanilla Pound Cake:  This cake is more dense than a sponge cake but is still very moist and has a great buttery flavor.  It works nice for any specialty cake, and is the perfect choice for carved cakes.
• Chocolate Cake:  This chocolate cake is surprisingly light and moist and has the perfect balance of rich chocolate.
• Red Velvet Cake:  Red velvet is a favorite of many because of the light texture and incredible moistness.  This isn't the best choice for animal cakes, unless you're going for that "bleeding armadillo" look.
• Lemon Sponge Cake:  The same classic "birthday" style cake, but with a fresh lemony punch.

ICINGS

• Swiss Buttercream:  This is a smooth European icing that is both light and rich at the same time.  It works great on most any cake layer and any decorating style.  It is not as sweet as "birthday" icing, so it may not be the best choice for children's cakes.  It can be flavored in many different ways like vanilla, lemon, chocolate, mocha, raspberry, and strawberry. 
• American Buttercream:  This is the typical "birthday" icing that is found on many commercial bakery cakes.  If you like super-sweet icing, this is the one for you.  This icing does not flavor well, so vanilla is the only option.  This can limit decorating possibilities in some cakes; however, if you want stark-white icing, this is the only choice unless fondant is applied.
• Fondant:  Fondant is a pliable dough made from sugar.  I make my fondant from scratch so that it does not have a bad taste.  Fondant does not really have a flavor other than sweet; it has a chewy, taffy-like texture.  It does not replace icing on a cake.  If used, the cake is iced like normal and then covered in a thin coat of fondant that acts like a skin, protecting the cake and allowing elaborate painting and decorating.

FILLINGS

• Cream Cheese Icing:  Decorated cakes cannot be iced in cream cheese icing; however, it can be used as a filling in some tiered cakes.
• Chocolate Cream Cheese Icing
• Lemon Curd
• Raspberry Fruit Filling
• Chocolate Ganache:  This is a very rich chocolate filling for chocolate lovers only.