Happy Anniversary, Mark & Erin!

Happy Anniversary, Mark & Erin!
(+5 skill points => 380/400) 

Thanksgiving time also means it's my brother and his wife's wedding anniversary!  Since we had a multitude of pies already incoming for turkey day, I got to focus on making a cake just for them.  

Stats:

• 8" round of extended Butter Pecan box mix
• American buttercream using high ratio shortening
• filled with eggnog frosting
• reverse shell border on top
• bead border on bottom
• swirlies on the side

This cake really allowed me to practice some basic techniques.  I still need to log many hours in for leveling, torting, damming, and filling a cake ... only then can I also practice icing.  This cake went pretty smoothly.  I used my Wilton leveler to make 2" high layers.  My dam was made of cake spackle.  The eggnog icing was very stable.  This made for one of the straightest and tallest cakes I've made.  

Icing still is difficult me.  After crumb coating, I have difficulties maintaining consistent icing thickness around the cake.  I've been using a large tube tip to apply the icing, but I think I need to switch to something smaller.  My attempts to smooth things out end up moving the icing around too much.  My icing unfortunately didn't crush, so using Viva paper towels wasn't very helpful.  I managed to get some smooth and straight areas with a plastic scraper.  It made things easier when the cake was popped in the freezer for the base buttercream to firm up.  Afterward I could spread on some thin buttercream to even out or fill in any holes.

I free-handed some swirlies!

I wish I had more time to practice these kind of cakes over and over again.  This was still a great opportunity to gain a little experience.  I dream one day someone will ask me to do a wedding cake!!!