Birthday Cake - Baking Questions
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Anonymous
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I'm planning to make a Lego Cake for my DS, but I'm definitely not a baking expert, so here goes. I'm using the design in the link below, but I'm not sure about what flavors would be best. Here's what I'm planning to do and here's what I need your help with:
- Baking a 9x13 cake - Using Duff Buttercream fondant to cover the cake - Will place Legos (made from candy melt) on top of the cake. I think I'll leave the sides w/o the Legos. Given that I'm using both fondant and candy melt Legos, I know the cake will be on the sweet side. That being said, what flavor cake would work best? Vanilla? (The lady that made this cake used chocolate cake and frosting, which I think might be overly sweet!!) Would I need to use buttercream frosting to adhere the fondant to the cake? If I go with vanilla, does anyone have a made from scratch recipe for vanilla cake? I've tried a few on my own and they tend to come out pretty dry or too spongy. I've not yet found a recipe where the cake is dense, moist, and flavorful. http://www.makoodle.com/lego-cake/ |
Anonymous
| Why would you need the fondant since the cake is covered with the candies? You could just use a buttercream vanilla frosting dyed any of the lego colors so the exposed parts would match. Just use a spatula on the sides so it's relatively smooth |
Anonymous
| pp again…not even sure the legos would stick to the fondant |
Anonymous
| I know you didn't ask this question, but did you know they have Lego candies? Those may be easier to deal with than candy melt Legos in a mold. I saw them at the Fresh Market bulk bin in rockville, but I'm sure you can find them online. |
Anonymous
I agree with this PP. Also, the kids don't care that it's too sweet. I don't understand why people insist on using fondant. It doesn't taste good. |
Anonymous
This is what I was talking about http://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/B003MYMXH4 |
Anonymous
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I agree with other PPs that fondant will just complicate things. I would suggest that you just make whatever flavor of cake and frosting you would usually make for your DS. The lego candy is almost a separate thing - people will take it off and eat it separately (or maybe not at all) from the cake itself. I can't imagine that anybody would actually take a bite that would include lego and cake, so I don't think that you need to worry about it being too sweet.
One thing that I was wondering: assuming this is going to be a birthday cake, where are you going to put the candles? Will you do something separate (maybe a cupcake or a small cake shaped like a LEGO brick) that can hold candles? |
Anonymous
| Don't use fondant. It doesn't taste good |
Anonymous
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Thanks for all the feedback. Alright, I think I may nix the fondant. I like the way that fondant looks and I picked up a batch of Duff's Fondant. I haven't tried it just yet but I read it tastes pretty good. I have a month before his birthday so I'm still in experimentation mode...
I am stuck with making the candy melts mainly b/c I picked up Wilton's candy melts for a great price at Michael's over the weekend. It's actually fairly easy to make LEGO candy molds with the melts so I am going to make the Lego candies at home. What I am planning to do is cover the 9x13 cake with the Legos. On top of the cake, I was only going to cover the perimeter with a few rows of Legos, leaving a middle space open for writing Happy Birthday and to include the candle. My biggest challenge is trying to find a cake and frosting combo that is not terribly sweet. I've tried a few recipes but again I'm not an expert baker. I know kids don't mind sweet cakes but I don't want the adults to gag! |
Anonymous
I made marshmallow fondant for DC's cake and I received a lot of compliments. This one tastes good! Adults were coming back for seconds, which makes it a winder in my book! http://whatscookingamerica.net/PegW/Fondant.htm Fondant is nice in that it gives a smooth appearance to the cake (will make it look more like a Lego) and you can create shapes out of the fondant, like the little connector circles on top of the Lego. You do need icing under the fondant so it has something to stick to. |
Anonymous
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We made 4 separate legos for our DS recently. It was easier than we thought. We used gluten free flour. You can try that because it tends to be harder and firmer after baking. We used the pound cake size pan, cut the top off and split into 2 pieces of cake. Cut into squares/rectangles.
Icing was made with sugar and butter, whipped of course. You can use regular vanilla icing. We added food coloring for the the different colors legos. For the knobs on the top, we used the large size marshmallow and dipped them into the icing which can be tricky. The hardest part was icing the lego blocks to a smoothness that seem perfect. We used just a knife for the icing and wait with warm water to smooth out the icing. Put in the refrigerator after icing each piece and the marshamallows. The green lego contrasting the chocolate cake was very pretty. It was very nice!! and it didn't even taste very sweet. I can't stand very sweet cake. I'm not a baker but i was impress with my creativity and its taste. haha |
Anonymous
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Good fondant is wonderful. Cheap crappy fondant is, well, cheap and crappy.
If you have never used fondant before don't assume you can pull it off. It isn't as easy as it looks to get it to look good. You also need at least one fondant smoother. And a rectangle cake is harder than a round one. |
Anonymous
| The adults won't eat the cake. |
Anonymous
I would!! |
Anonymous
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Wouldn't it be so much easier to
Make a sheet cake, and then put flat top cupcakes on top for the "Lego" pieces and the just ice in red, blue or yellow? This recipe uses large marshmallows. http://www.bettycrocker.com/recipes/building-blocks-cakes/ca36541e-624c-48af-ab78-68ef256e8903 |