Happy Anniversary: Completed

Happy Anniversary, Mark & Erin!

(+5 skill points -> 195/400)

Sigh ... I really had good intentions for this cake.  I couldn't seem to get it together enough to pull something special off.  Perhaps it was ok in the end ... my brother and his wife were too sick and congested to really taste anything anyways.  Oh well.  Happy Anniversary to Mark & Erin!

Stats:

• 8" round
• Betty Crocker's Milk Chocolate box cake mix
• white chocolate IMBC
• dark chocolate MMF
• reverse shell border on top; regular shell border on bottom
  

This is the first time I've used the Milk Chocolate box cake mix ... and probably my last.  It was too dry and not very chocolate-y tasting.  It also baked up real weird ... so tall in the center.  Here it is after using baking strips ... I've never had a cake do this:

 

 

That would be the least of my troubles.  The cake got torted fine, with still almost 3" in height.

I made IMBC with white chocolate again.  This is my fav from now on.  The chocolate just makes it so much more stable.

I had some left over dark chocolate MMF that I mixed with some other brown fondant.  Luckily it kneaded smoothly and I didn't need to add much moisture back in.  Here is my clear vinyl with my Wilton Cake Dividing Wheel underneath.  I dust it with cornstarch before rolling out my fondant.

My fondant was rolled to 14" (8" round x 3" high).  It went on pretty smooth; I was pleased.

I had several designs in mind, but decided to go with swirls on the sides.  The top would say "Happy Anniversary Mark & Erin".  To try the piping gel transfer method again, I printed the message out in reverse.

This was covered with parchment paper and piped over with a little piping gel.  This was then placed on the top of the cake and brushed (the back of the paper) lightly.

 

I thought I could make Royal Icing with a little Bailey's Irish Cream in it ... to give it some color and flavor ... that was my undoing.  It just didn't come together.  After piping it seemed melty ... my script was awful looking chicken-scratch.

I was so unhappy with it, I scrapped all the decorations and started over with more fondant.

 

I was going to use my left over IMBC to pipe.  It had been sitting in the fridge for over an hour and had begun to separate ... my Kitchenaid was still dirty from the Royal Icing, so I just went ahead and piped it without re-whipping it.  Another big mistake.  Now my icing seemed drippy and not smooth.  Oh well.  No script this time either ... didn't feel like rolling the dice on that either.

FAILs:

• runny Royal Icing (I must not deviate from recipe just yet!)
  
• runny IMBC (no matter what, make sure IMBC is stable)
  
• Betty Crocker Milk Chocolate box mix isn't good

FTWs:

• chocolate fondant was good to work with; it even tasted good!
• learned how to do reverse scrolls (thanks to everyone who answered my plea for help on cakecentral here)