Trains, trains, and more trains!

My sister-in-law's baby shower was this last weekend (Nov. 7). We had a pretty good turnout for the occasion, approximately 35 people. I hosted and made the cake for Ling, I hope I did a good job and she liked everything!

We were expecting closer to 70 people for the event, so we had double the amount of food that we needed... including the cake. Because we were expecting so many guests I had decided to make two cakes, and because Hien had never tasted fondant I made one with that and the other with buttercream. I think they came out pretty good, and people seemed to enjoy them, so I don't feel so bad that not all of it got eaten. Also, I don't feel like all my time and energy that I spent making them was wasted. This is a good thing because I spent way to much time (~16 hrs!) and energy on them for them to not have turned out.

I feel that I am out of practice and should really make cakes more often if I don't want to lose my skills. There is no other good excuse that can explain why it took me so long to make two cakes. Because of my rustiness I had to go to the store three times, just to get more ingredients to make more frosting! (silly me thinking that one double recipe would be enough, try three double recipes) I ended up going to Sweet Mercantile twice, once for cake boards and another for adjustable dowels. I should have just bought them the first time, but I wasn't positive that I needed them. Another thing that slowed the process down was that I didn't get to prebake the cakes like I had planned and had to spend the entire morning mixing and baking six batches of cake batter. This would be a time when a woman wishes she had more than one oven and multiple baking pans and cooling racks!

By the end of the process, around 2 am, I was reminded why I love to make cakes for people. They are fun to decorate! I had lots of fun making the cakes look cute and adding little details and finishing touches. The first cake was a sheet cake that I cut out and frosted to look like a little train and the second cake was a two tiered fondant cake that I made train tracks for and a three piece train. I covered the board with green fondant to make it look like grass, and to cover up the pink! lol. I love my carrier, but pink wasn't going to fly for a boy baby shower! Pictures to come soon!