A Tale of Two Cakes

As with all things Classic (SJ); it started with a plan. As with all things Organic (NF); it started with inspiration. Classic Freedom (SFJ) Kelly wondered how hard it would be to make her five year old son an Angry Birds cakes so she watched a You Tube video a month in advance and then created a professional looking cake that everyone thought was Cake Boss material. This, in due course, inspired her Organic Freedom (NFP) sister Katie to do something similar for her daughter’s 11th birthday. But what was an easy two hour project for for Kelly, ended up being a two DAY project for Katie, complete with the midnight finish time, and the wild search for 10″ square pans after the cake had been made, not to mention the physical recovery that is pushing on a week now. Ahh the difference between types. The results might be the same — or similar — but they execution is as different as Mars and Venus.

Here’s what Kelly says about the Angry Birds cake she did for Teddy:

I did the angry birds a day in advance of making the cake and put them in a Ziploc. And so all I did a day ahead was make cake and roll out green fondant for grass and then wrote Teddy on it. I watched a you tube video to see roughly how to do it about a month in advance. Ordered the Wilton pre colored fondant and then mixed the fondant like play dough. I thought it would be less messy than using Wilton stain. It was so therapeutic and fun. I looked at images online of the birds to make the details. I’ll send on photos. Everyone assumed I had it made and it was a little tough for me to brag about it. But when asked I told people I made it.

I laughed out loud when I read this. I knew it was easy for her, and frankly I knew it would be hard for me to make my cake. I have an 11 year old so this isn’t my first time round the making a special cake. For her 2nd birthday I made a Elmo cake using a molded cake pan and followed color by numbers directions. No sweat. So for her third birthday I decided to make the Cinderella version of this. Easy peasy right? Yeah, um. NO. It wasn’t like I wasn’t prepared. I usually go overboard with the planning because I know it’s not my strong suit. So I had the special Wilton frosting bags, attachments, and the pre-made gel food coloring for Cinderella, but it was a ‘friggin six hours at least of standing over that damn blonde and the end result, while pretty decent, did make her look like she had collagen injected lips. Afterwards the kitchen floor was covered in a greyish black sugar paste. I was younger then and don’t remember having to physically recover, but I didn’t make another cake for at least four or more years. And when I did, I printed out Charlie & Lola figures, glued them to toothpicks and stuck them on top. Voila. Easy peasy.

So it was with some trepidation that I attempted my latest project. It had been 8 years since the Cinderella cake and I didn’t forget. I still had some of the food coloring and frosting bags, but I was going fondant this time and I watched multiple You Tube tutorials, more than once and week in advance.

Instead of just following one, however, I used a cake recipe from one video, made my own modeling chocolate from another, and then made ganache filling instead of butter cream from another. Was this practical? Was this something an Organic Structure would do? Nah. Too time consuming. They would have chosen one and stuck with it. Would a Fun have done this? Not very practical. Unless they were an amateur bakers, I doubt they would have attempted the project, especially if there was something else they liked to do better. We do live in New York City, home of Cake Boss, isn’t this what bakeries are for? And like Smarts, unless they had a secret penchant for cake baking, they would have thrown money at this issue.

But I was resolute. Why? Because I was making a TARDIS cake. It’s the time traveling machine used by Doctor Who, the main character of probably the longest running television series of all time, celebrating it’s 50th anniversary this Saturday on the BBC and BBC America at 9pm eastern/standard. And I have a thing for layered cakes. It didn’t look easy, but it was a challenge and my 11 year old had told me it was probably going to be her last “theme” birthday party and so my sentimental Organic (NF) side took over and I had to give her this gift. This time machine made of cake, modeling chocolate, ganache, and Godawful sponge cake.

It took two days. I made the chocolate ganache frosting and modeling chocolate a day before, and then the following day (as both “frostings” had to set overnight anyway.) I made the cakes. (I had a feeling the yellow sponge cake that called for 7 eggs was going to be rock, but 11 year old had asked for yellow cake and I had to make sure it would work with an 8 layer cake, so I also made a simple two layer chocolate layer cake.) I also had store bought fondant on hand in case the modeling chocolate turned out to be a disaster.

But the modeling chocolate wasn’t a disaster. It was streaky and not perfect looking, but for you Doctor Who fans, neither is the TARDIS. I started out following the tutorial that called for the modeling chocolate, but then switched mid-way when that just became too hard. And then I kept working on it. All night long. And because of my perfectionist tendencies I even got out that Wilton cake attachments to write out my tween daughter’s name where the Police Public Call Box is written. The only corner I cut — and it was hard to do — was I just wrote on one side, even though on the real TARDIS each side has something written on it.

Well you can see the results. And this isn’t about anyone’s personality types being better than others. Our personality preferences, natural talents, and interests decide what, how or why we will take on a project like this. Would Classics like Kelly have done the TARDIS? Maybe. But she would have found one recipe — probably the easiest — and stuck to it. Funs and Smart Freedoms with the same kind of interest as mine, would probably have experimented a bit like me. Smart Structures would have to have an interest in baking or they would not go through the trouble. And, no, I will not be doing something this difficult for many years to come, but I will be using fondant to make cool cakes for some time to come.