Monday, July 19, 2010

Shepards Path Cake












Beautiful isn't it? Yea I thought so too. And yes this is homemade. Well, not exactly. That gorgeous, piece of artwork in the middle of the cake is called an edible image icing. It was not made by I. There are several websites out there which will make it for you. The one I went to is called http://www.gogocakes.com/. This is the largest size they can make, measuring 7 x 10 for your standard 1/4 inch sheet cake. Simply upload an image- the dimensions must be at least 300-500 or bigger and they will do the rest.
So how did I end up making this cake? Well first I thought about searching online for general pricing of sheet cakes with edible images. Of course they are costly but I wanted to know the exact pricing. They were all around 35 dollars for a 1/4 sheet cake. Then I looked at prices for a 1/4 inch or 1/2 inch sheet cake without images. The typical price for a 1/4 inch sheet cake is 16.99, and 29.99 for a 1/2 inch. I needed a 1/2 inch cake with an edible image that could feed up to 70 people. So I decided to make the cake myself.
What you will need for this cake:
*Two Duncan Hines Cake mixes, French Vanilla Flavor
* Two cans of whipped cream flavor frosting, or any flavor you prefer as long as its white in color
*Betty Crocker's Yellow Buttercream cupcake icing
*17 xs 11 cookie sheet
*star tip, number 119 with piping bag
*pearl dust edible glitter
*frosting spatula

Follow the directions on the back of the cake box. One cake box batter at a time. So you will need to bake twice. I used a non stick metal cookie sheet so my baking time was reduced to about 20 minute each time I baked the cake. While your cake is baking, prepare your frosting by spooning your frosting out and putting it in a bowl. Mix the frosting 15-20 times. After making two separate cakes, let them cook for 10-15 minutes. Get a large tray and place one cake on it carefully using a spatula. Slide the other cake on top. Now its time to frost. Using a small amount of frosting you will need to frost the sides and top area with a thin coating. This is called crumb coating. This way you're sealing up the crumbs to prevent them from messing up the look of your frosting. Now you will need to place the cake in the fridge for about 10 minutes so the frosting on the cake hardens. After ten minutes take the cake out of the fridge and frost the entire cake using the rest of the whipped cream. Now its time to place your edible image icing on top of your cake. First freeze the image for about 3 minutes. It must be dry in order to peel off. If it doesn't come off there are a number of ways you can do to make it peel off. Place the image on the middle of the cake. Now you may pipe borders around the image and around the cake. Using you cupcake icing you can do whatever design you prefer. I piped leaves on every corner and a frame around my edible image. Then I used pearl dust glitter to sprinkle on top after everything was done. Place in the fridge, COVERED, until ready to eat.





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