Sunday, March 13, 2011

St. Patrick's Day

This is my very sad attempt at a festive St. Patty's Day cake. I just wasn't feeling it. I am going to post it anyway just in case it somehow inspires someone to do better. Or maybe it will inspire me to try again?

I didn't have the pressure I usually have for this cake, so that may be why it looks poorly executed. My last-minute cakes tend to be more successful. I guess that means I work well under pressure!

This was my original inspiration: Beer Mug Cupcakes
I never use fondant because I like the taste of buttercream icing, and I don't have a rolling pin. Also, the buttercream icing can look like fondant if it is smoothed properly. This recipe needs fondant. Otherwise, it just falls apart. You will see.

I used white cake, green food coloring and buttercream icing. The handles were gummy letter "C"'s cut in half.

Cake must be green!
Building the mini mugs with 1.5 mini cupcakes
Just awful. Pathetic.
This wasn't working. I tried thickening the green icing and made about 8 of these before moving on. They looked a little better but essentially the same. I didn't even take a picture of them. Then I decided making a giant mug would be easier, so I started stacking the mini cupcakes.

Stacking mini cupcakes using left over pink icing as glue.
Leaning tower of cupcakes?

A sad looking mug. Note: the foam icing on top weighs down the cake a lot! Look how much shorter it got!

A stout beer. Pun intended.
Top view of the foam.
It looks like it's melting. I can't help but laugh at it.
There you have it. Next time I will definitely use fondant. Had I used it, I think this would have gone smoothly. (I'm adding a rolling pin to my birthday list.) Hopefully I have an opportunity to redeem myself soon!