Airbrushing a Cake

So the airbrush gun is a horse of a different color. It takes a very delicate steady hand to produce the color consistency you want. As i've been learning in cake class, most of this stuff takes a patience that is hard to grasp at first. This is especially true for myself, who normally works at a rather efficient rate. But being in this class has taught me to pace myself during the creative and creation process to make sure my pieces turn out the way I planned...There's still a couple of rough spots to the cake coloration...I may have gotten a bit excited at times or the machine may have hiccuped...but here's my first major attempt at Cake Airbrushing:

Not terrible...In all honesty, I hadn't had to bake a cake in two weeks for the class, because we were concentrating on sugar flowers for a spell. But once again the pan insulating strip:

really really did the trick again.

i'm always impressed with its ability to make the cake so level! It really helps too considering my oven is completely for crap in my apt.

Therefore...if you are considering investing in insulating strips, its worth the money! Less waste of cake and it just makes things look pretty!

I've also been doing 'research' in preparation for my tour and class audit of the FCI which is coming sooner than I probably realize. Currently I'm engrossed in 'Basic Baking' by Lora Brody AND I was able to track down 'The Apprentice: My Life in the Kitchen' by the one and only Jacques Pepin. Brody's book is great information, written with a healthy tongue in cheek dose of 'Dr Phil'-esque kitchen common sense advice. I really appreciate the way it talks about the actual science of basic ingredients and how they work together to produce desired results. Pepin's is brilliant so far and I'm only in the 3rd chapter. I personally love autobiographies, so learning about his mother being a restauranteur in France and his father not being much of a sous chef, but having an extensive knowledge of wine, is fascinating. More to come on this title and a couple other baking essentials books I currently have on loan to come as I trudge through them happily. I'm also trying to work through 'The Nasty Bits' by Anthony Bourdain. But I think I'll finish Pepin's first, since I own 'TNB.'

This coming wednesday is the last class in the Advanced series. Funny to think about how I've been taking classes for the past 9 weeks! The 'finale' is a wedding cake. I have to bring in two double layer cakes: one 8-inch and one 6-inch, already crumbed and smoothed. I'm going for a tropical taste theme here. Each cake will be one layer of Spice cake and one layer of Pineapple cake. Then I plan on torting them and using coconut filling inbetween. I'll post pics of the progress I make there soon enough.

Tomorrow look for my rant on Shirataki noodles and the fact that they're everything the 'Hungry Girl' cracked them up to be. Also, I'll eventually be tossing up photos of sugar flowers that will keep forever! They can even be sent in the mail.

In a week or so, I'll be moving into a new apartment. Here's my new 'Test Kitchen':

it isn't much...but it'll do :)

Random fact about me: Thanks to friends in high places, I have a cookie with Anthony Bourdain on it. I plan on having it shellaced and then cased up tighter than the constitution.