Last Cake, Next Cake

Congratulations to the small but intrepid band of bakers who worked their way through the holiday pinecone cake! Only seven of us (eight, counting me) finished the project that many of us viewed as ugsome. (I had to work that word in; it was in the crossword today, and is an Old English word meaning dreadful).

Nobody thought the finished cake was dreadful, as in terrible, but a lot of us approached it with some trepidation. In fact, Vicki said that the fondant bested her, and she "humbly la[id] down her fondant covered latex glove." There were also a lot of comments about the shape of the cake, which Mendy's wife called "gnarly," and Nicola described as a "chocolate, flour-flecked rocket."

Rachelino did not have any trouble at all with the fondant, and has a picture of her cake alongside a couple of real pinecones, so you can see that it actually does resemble one of nature's own.

The FEATURED BAKER this week is GartBlue, who was so eager to make this cake that she baked it six days early. She gets a LOT of extra credit for tackling her cake in the middle of the rainy season in Malaysia, although she decided it was too humid to try to make the fondant. It's not laziness, it's the humidity! (Or so she claims). Extra credit, too, for attempting the ganache with a baby food processor. Literally, a baby food processor: she got it to puree food for the babies, who are now teenagers. (No, that's a joke. They're really five and six years old--but they'll be teenagers before you know it). Both GartBlue and the ex-babies fell in love with the ganache, but most of it managed to make its way onto the cake. Although GartBlue's cake is the most UN-pinecone-like of the group, she loved it, and it got eaten up, and that's really what matters.

As a reward for last week's travails, this week's cake is the seriously easy and very enjoyable whipped cream cake. All you need is some version of a bundt or tube pan and alot of whipped cream, especially if you serve it with a bit (or more than a bit) of whipped cream on the side.

Lois is the first baker to join our group in 2010. She lives in Arizona, and loves to travel and to cook. She's been following the group for a few months and decided it was time to join. Welcome!