Page 11 - Cake, Croquet & Corsets

T The real challenge for me was making these delicate- looking pastries taste great, travel to location well, and hold up without melting or falling apart outside in the heat and humidity next to the lake. Sure, no
problem.
I knew they had to be delicious because the models were going to be seen eating them and I have some pride in my baking. Even the props should be tempting right?
My daughter Dani’s specialty is a gorgeous glazed Kentucky Butter Cake that has a very classic look similar to the quarte- quart and tastes amazing. We knew from taking them to previous parties that they travel well and are dense enough even when glazed to look fantastic throughout the day. She made 2 different sized butter cakes, 7 cakes total. She decided to pipe the large one with cream cheese frosting, sprinkle the mini ones with powdered sugar, and decorate with berries and mint leaves on location to avoid travel mishaps. For the pair of 3-layered cakes we did a basic vanilla brightly colored and stacked in shades of lavender, ivory, pink, and yellow to look impressive even when sliced. I was really concerned that using buttercream frosting would be a disaster with the temperatures we were expecting. I opted for a recipe I had used for an Easter cake a couple of years ago that incorporates marshmallow cream into the mix. It held its shape and resisted melting in the heat! These 2 cakes were lavishly decorated with pearls, silk flowers, butterflies and birds to compliment the costume and hair
designs on our models and the Rococo theme.
Lastly we made small, colorful, layered ‘naked cakes’ with 3 layers of cake and 3 layers of mascarpone cream to look similar to a Mille-Feuille. These proved to be the hardest to transport and assemble while making them in the kitchen mostly because they tend to be top heavy. We waited until we were on location to decorate them with piped cream, berries, and mint leaves just to be safe. Oddly enough, the unforeseen obstacle we faced was a group of aggressive park squirrels who had a real sweet tooth and no fear! My daughter Dani and I had to take turns standing guard over the table of edible props to keep the squirrels from taking nibbles of cake and fruit.
It took us 2 days to make all the baked goods along with countless pounds of sugar, butter, and determination. Not to mention all the taste testing! It was a really fun challenge with my girls and the end product was something we are very proud of.
After a long, hot day of shooting and battling squirrels I can honestly say that they did all ‘eat cake’. Even the pesky squirrels.