Valerie is a 42-year-old, single, Reformed Christian lady who lives in Baltimore. She doesn't remember a time
before she knew and loved Jesus, but she does remember accepting John Calvin into her heart in March of 2000.
Valerie is a member of Christ Reformed Evangelical Church in Annapolis.
Though her career aspiration is to be a housewife, Valerie has not yet found anyone suitable who wishes to hire
her for employment in that field (or, more properly, anyone suitable has not found her), so in the meantime she
earns her daily bread working in communications -- editing, writing, print design and website management.
The cake got rave reviews -- both for appearance and taste. At least one person asked, in all seriousness, if it came from Charm City Cakes. Yeah...that one. And no...not hardly! I was pleased with it for a first effort, but it's pretty flawed: the tiers are crooked (I added a cake leveler to my Amazon wish list); the ganache isn't as smooth as I could have gotten it; I forgot you're not supposed to refrigerate fondant, so it got kinda slimy from condensation and started sliding off the cake in places; you can see the aluminum-foil-wrapped separators (I was too cheap to buy the Wilton Fanci-Foil), which I meant to camouflage with more fondant, but I ran out of time; I should have put more frosting between the layers within each tier. So while I was delighted with it overall as a "maiden voyage," there's room for improvement next time! I also have a much greater understanding of why fancy cakes are so expensive. The ingredients alone for this one were ~$50 (for which I'll be reimbursed), and I invested quite a few hours in it. But it really was an investment, and not a waste of time. And of course it took longer for me than it would have for a more experienced baker/decorator. And to answer a certain person who inquired along those lines, yeah, I think I would be willing to attempt a wedding cake.
Unfortunately, about half of our staff were out yesterday -- a conference, vacations, illnesses -- so lots of folks missed it. But on the plus side, I've got the whole bottom tier left over! I'll be taking it to church tomorrow for our fellowship time after worship. Yum!
Posted by Valerie (Kyriosity) at 11:46 AM
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7 comments
7 Comments:
On August 25, 2007 12:33 PMThe BadgerMumwrote... That is amazing. Did you make us the design, too, or get it from a book? Silly question I guess - if it were me I'd have to get it from a book, but I'm guessing you made it up.
On August 25, 2007 8:26 PMJanetwrote... Very nice Valerie!! It's amazing. My daughter and I watch Ace of Cakes. The cakes are so beautiful and designers are unbelievably creative on that show. The fondant would give me a panic attack, I'm afraid.
I almost sent you the link for Charm City Cakes a few days ago. :)
My daughters would love that in brown and pink.
On August 26, 2007 5:58 PMAngiewrote... And now I can speak from firsthand experience that the cake tasted as wonderful as it looked!
On August 27, 2007 11:20 AMCarol in Oregonwrote... Uh, you're not the overachiever type now, are you? Your first tiered cake? My, my, my. It's gorgeous, so festive. Bravo!!
