Tuesday's Tip

I enjoy cooking and baking, but I don't pretend to be professional or even an expert.  Basically, I cook to keep my family fed (ok, maybe a bit more than just that...), but I bake for fun.  I enjoy it.  And I especially enjoy learning techniques that make the baking / decorating experience fun rather than frustrating.  Because, seriously, no matter how good the end result is supposed to taste, an all-out-battle with a layer cake can seriously ruin my appetite.  

I realize there is a good chance that most of you have happened upon these techniques before.  You may already be using them.  Like I said, I don't claim to be any kind of cake decorator or pastry chef.  Still, I am grateful for the little things I have picked up along the way and thought someone else might be, too.  

Ok... 

So, for the past 5 years, I have made this cake every year.  For my Grandma.  Grandma loves lemon anything, so when I stumbled upon Paula Deen's recipe for Lemon Layer Cake, I knew I had to give it a go.  And, boy, was it worth it.  This cake is amazing... but it is labor intensive and uses a whopping dozen eggs from start to finish (yikes!).  The good news is that my neighbor keeps me stocked with fresh eggs and all the work with the double boiler combined with zesting and juicing lemons gives me a great upper body workout.  

I love the idea of displaying a great cake on a cake stand, but I hate it when the cake stand or plate is messy by the time the cake is decorated.

So, I use 4 pieces of wax paper like this...

You don't want to cover the plate with one big piece of wax paper, for two reasons.  First, you can't get it off the plate when you're done.  And serving your cake on a plate covered with wax paper is about as aesthetically pleasing as sitting in Marie Barone's living room.  Secondly, if the plate is covered in wax paper, you can't do this...

That little dot of filling helps to keep your cake from shimmying around the plate as you decorate it.   Now, here is the partially assembled cake.  This cake has filling in between each layer.  But, notice that each layer is not even.  It is important to consider that as you assemble - alternate your layers so that all the thinner parts are not on one side.  Then, be sure to place your final layer on upside down - it gives you a flatter surface to decorate.

The filling then covers the entire cake...

And then the cake is frosted.  This frosting is amazing.

See how the filling and frosting have left a mess on the plate?

Well, when you gently pull those pieces of wax paper out from under your cake, you are left with a very clean cake stand!  

And then you can focus on the perfect finished product, instead of the mess underneath.

This beast of a cake barely made it under the cake dome.  Whew!

It made it safely to our Mother's Day dinner at my sister's house.  And it was so good.  And so worth the 4 hours it carved out of my Saturday.  Grandma loved it, and I am enjoying the fact that some of it is still in my kitchen...