Birthday cake
Sam’s third birthday was on Sunday and once again I decided to bake him a train cake. Last year I baked two train cakes. One was a chocolate cake in the shape of a generic steam engine, the other was vanilla in the shape of Thomas the Tank Engine. I borrowed two different cake pans for the jobs and learned rather quickly that decorating cakes with ziploc bags and butter knives isn’t easy.
This year I knew I’d be baking the Thomas cake again since Sam’s obsession with the blue engine has only gotten worse. But I also saw a cake pan at a friends house that made a little steam engine with train car cupcakes. I borrowed the pan with the bright idea to send the little cakes home with the kids as party favors.
The cake pan looked terrifyingly intricate. The directions called for using a brush to grease the pan and specified Wondra flour to flour it for easy release. I decided to give it a trial run well before the party. Despite the fact that I followed the directions exactly, the first batch of train cupcakes was a total disaster. The batter overflowed and spilled all over my oven and the cakes were essentially glued to the pan. I scraped out as much as I could with a spatula and used my fingers to get out the rest. Washing the pans required bottle brushes and toothbrushes, both wet and dry. It was a trainwreck.
But I couldn’t let it go. I bought a can of Pam for baking, a formula that combines grease with flour. It smelled disgusting and made me gag, but I sprayed the pans until they were dripping. It worked. The cakes fell right out of the pan.
Sadly I saved the second batch for the night before the party. I was tired and handed over the majority of the decorating duties to my husband. He’s not much of an artist but he did a reasonable job, especially considering it was 11pm and we were both a little bit buzzed.
My StumbleUpon Page
Leave a Reply