Where It All Began

Back in fall of 2009, shortly after I had gotten married, I found Tastespotting.  If you somehow haven't come across it yet, it's a wonderful image driven website that will lead you to the most gorgeous and expertly photographed photos of food, and of course all of the excellent recipes.  If I am remembering the beginning of my obsession with cakes and cupcakes correctly, it all started with Tastespotting.  I would see cute decorated cookies, perfect swirls of icing on cupcakes, and even a few decorated cakes.  All done by regular people, all done in a regular kitchen.  I thought to myself, hey! I could learn to do that!  So with the wonder that is the Internet, I started searching for recipes, blog tutorials, and You Tube videos. 

The first thing I really remember learning is how to make your own marshmallow fondant to cover the cakes with.  Let me tell you, it is no walk in the park!  Imagine a full bag of mini marshmallows completed melted down, heaped on top of two pounds of icing sugar, all gooing and oozing around on your counter top.  And on your hands.  Goopy, marshmallow mess stuck to your hands.  Then there's the kneading, oh the kneading!  It takes a good twenty minutes of kneading to get it to all come together and resemble ready to use fondant, and by that time you're sweating a little and arms feel like jello.

It all came together for my very first cake though.  My group of friends was going to be having a joint birthday party, since Megan's birthday is at the end of November and both Brett and I are the same day in December.  I decided to use this as the perfect opportunity to try out my first cake.  I think I did it all in one day: the baking, the icing, the fondant, and the decorating.

Here's the cake ready with the first coat of buttecream, the crumb coat:

And then the second coat of buttercream:

Then it magically turns into this!

Now that I look back on these photos, I can find so many things wrong with them.  The unfinished cake board. The shiny spots on the fondant. The crookedness.  The awful picture quality.  Yet when I take the time to silence my innner critic, I remind myself that for a first cake, this is pretty good.  Everyone at the party liked it too, so that's what counts, right?