Finale Cake for Course 2!

So after 4 weeks of class, I managed to put this cake together with the help of my instructor, Barb. Let me tell you it wasnt easy. I shouldnt tell you this but I will just to explain how muc trouble this cake has caused me! The first 3 classes were the classes where we made the flowers and the colour flow piece (which in my case was the Innukshuk for the Olympics). I felt quite proud of my flowers except the daisys which I need to practise working on and the colourflow piece is nice but I would do it a little differently next time but both of these were simple compared to when I had to start the cake.

For those of you who know me, I am a baker. I consider myself a pretty good baker having never had something come out horrible. This all changed when I made this cake. There were a couple things that I did differently as I was trying new products.

1st: I used these cake baking strips where you soak them in water and then put them on the outside of the pan and while the cake bakes, it helps the cake settle so that the top is not higher than the sides. I must admit this cake worked out wonderful in that it seemed to have a nice shape, however it was dense and heavy.. dunno why?

2nd: I used oval deep pans which Ive never used before

3rd: instead of putting icing in the middle of the cake, i decided to get fancy and put lemon gelatin in the middle.

Well... i managed to make a dam around the cake to make sure the lemon didnt run, but i think the pudding was still too hot, therefore it melted the icing which I had already iced on the cake, and started oozing down the sides. With that being said, a normal 1 hour icing job became 3 hours to fix the lemoney goooo coming out and to ice the cake semi professional.

I wish that my problems stopped there but they didnt...

I left the cake overnight to harden, and when i was on my way to class, i thought i could handle all my bags: my tool caddy, my other icings which i needed to do the basket weave etc., my cake carrier and the tupperware with the dried flowers which I needed to put on the cake in class.

Needless to say, i didnt have a good grip on things and when I put my cake on the car hood for a moment, it fell off the hood and exploded....

Luckily it was still in the carrier so it was still sanitary!

I arrived at class royally pissed off and ready to cry "why meeee!" when i ran into my instructor who said there is always a plan B.

I was skeptical being that the lemon was on the outside and the cake looked like it was in pieces, but the picture below is the end result. I dunno about you but if you had of seen this disaster, you would be quite amazed at the final piece.... I should have taken a photo in hindsight but i was too devestated to do so at the time.

The weave technique!

Mine in the forground with what it was supposed to look like in the back!