Cake questions answered

Chocolate Mousse Cake recipe can be found here. You may notice that there is not one bit of flour in this recipe: only cream, eggs, butter, chocolate, and sugar. Those are the only ingredients, which, when prepared correctly, make the most rich and divine layered mousse cake you've ever had. I would suggest eating it with a heap of whipped cream; the chocolatey-ness begs for some fresh whipped cream to cut the richness, if that makes sense.


The white chocolate castle was not whittled from a solid block, although I'm sure Hubs could've managed that. I had bought some different shaped candy molds; one we used for the walls that turns out looking like a scored candy bar (as seen on the back wall of the castle). The other candy mold shape was like a Rolo shape, and Hubs stacked 3 of those on top of each other for each of the corner towers. He carved the tops of the towers, and cut out the doorway. I had given it a try but wasn't having much success with it; I'm truly not a sculptor. I'm sure it was late at night and I was trying to finish it up; I was very appreciative of his help with the castle! But I loved doing the rest of that cake.


The train cake (first cake on Part 1 of the Cake Tour) was not from any mold, in fact I don't have any cake molds except the princess skirt/volcano one, which is actually my mom's. For the train I used mini loaf pans; you can tell by looking at the cars (not the engine) that they are mini loaf pans turned upside-down. I just sliced a little off the rounded top so they would sit straight, but I wanted those nice squared-off edges for the tops of the cars. For the engine I started with a mini loaf, upside down, and cut off the side edges to make it rounded on top. Then I used an extra mini loaf and cut out a triangular shape for the front of the engine, a rectangular shape for the back part, and a small piece for the smokestack. These were all just "glued on" with frosting and I might have used a few toothpicks to help those extra pieces stay put.

Freezing cakes: bake your cake. Let it cool for a few minutes (10-15) and take it out of the pan. Let it cool on a cooling rack until it's warm, no longer hot, then wrap it up in plastic wrap and put it in the freezer. I always do this the night before and it makes the cake more moist & delicious, and easier to slice for layering, etc.

As for "recipes," I only ever use cake mixes. The only time I can remember not using a mix was when I made this cake (which was overlooked during the "cake tour"): This was a yummy coconut layer cake that I made for my Mom's birthday, 5 years ago, and it was made entirely from scratch - I think a Martha Stewart recipe. That was before I had a stand mixer and it was a pain because you have to beat it and beat it forever, really not fun with a hand mixer. But anyway, there's nothing wrong with cake mixes - they always turn out just as good or better than from-scratch. Although this coconut one was quite delish.

Royal icing recipe here. You can also make it with egg whites instead of meringue powder, but I use meringue powder - it's good to have around. Royal icing dries hard; it's for making little flowers, etc. ahead of time and then adorning your cake afterwards.

Here are the royal icing pre-decos I did for Noah's train cake. Piped them onto waxed paper, they dry hard (although a little delicate) because there's no fat in the recipe (butter or shortening). I put those little trains on top of cupcakes; and you can see the windows, etc. that I used on the main cake's train cars. The reason I did that is because I knew it would be hard to decorate the sides of the train cards since they're vertical, and since I was piping the little trains for the cupcakes, I just decided to pipe a few little decos for the main train.


Rolled fondant recipe here. There are lots of fondant tips on this page but the recipe's there too if you scroll down. There are strange ingredients like glucose and glycerin in homemade rolled fondant. I ordered my ingredients online from Wilton since there are no decent cake decorating stores in my part of town. BUT - if you want to do fondant you can buy it pre-made at Michael's... it is SO much easier.


Doing cakes for other people: Sorry, but don't ask me to make a cake for you (unless we're related)! It's one of those things like making a quilt: you love to do it for your kids or grandkids, but it's so time-consuming that there's no price you could put on it for doing it for someone else. I do enjoy it but the one time I made a cake for a non-relative, it felt like such a chore. It's all mental. However, I am willing to share all my tips & secrets with you :)