A few months ago, Jim and I became puppy parents! It has been a wild ride, but little Miss Sophie has been such a joy. We have watched her grow so much and it makes us cry! All the time!
Supervising her and training her has been our constant job, and we have had little time for much else. So my at-home, Sophie-watching activity has been cake decorating. It can be done in many phases so I can step away from it for a few hours to watch her. This is a chocolate orange cake that Sophie had a particular interest in!
Sophie is a breed of dog called a Brittany. Brittanys used to be called Brittany Spaniels, but the spaniel part was dropped in recent years. Spaniels typically flush, which means running through brush to get birds to fly so hunters can shoot at them. Brittanys do not flush; instead, they point, meaning they point at the birds so hunters know where to aim. Thus Brittanys fall under the pointing class instead of the flushing/spaniel class.
Anyway! We aren’t hunters! We chose this breed because Brittanys are very smart and easy to train dogs. And we love her look! Sophie is a bit unconventional for a Brittany because she does not have a full mask; she only has one eye covered in the classic Brittany orange. We think she looks great!
Sophie has a lot of personality and is extremely smart. We follow the dog trainer YouTube channel by Zak George, and he’s given a lot of really good training tips. So far we have trained Sophie to sit, stay, come, lay down, roll over, stand, spin, and leave it. Our latest training has focused on walking on leash!
Between training sessions and exercising Sophie (she needs A LOT of exercise) I have been learning about and making a lot of layered cakes. This is a 6″ chocolate cake with caramel buttercream and a caramel drip.
Something I learned about chocolate cakes is that they require a crumb layer of frosting. Chocolate cake kicks up more crumbs than yellow cake when touched, so it needs a light coat of frosting that the crumbs will adhere to. You chill it so the frosting hardens around the crumbs and now you can do the “real” / outer layer of frosting.
Some handy cake decorating hacks I learned from making this triple chocolate cake were:
1. To make a drip cake: make chocolate ganache (chocolate to heavy cream ratio is 2:1) and pour into a piping bag. Snip the tip to “draw” scallops around the circumference of the top of the cake. The curved part of the scallop will go on the top of the cake and the ends of the scallops become the drips. Then you can cover the rest of the top of the cake with ganache to cover up your scallops.
2. To create a sprinkles border on your cake: after frosting the cake, place parchment or wax paper around the cake so it sticks. Then cup sprinkles in one hand and gently press them into the exposed part of the cake.
More pictures of puppy life… When we first got Sophie, we were amazed at her super high energy and subsequent (and immediate) ability to pass out. She sleeps about 12 hours every day!
Anyway, back to these fun cakes. Above is a plain 6″ chocolate layer cake with a pretty sea foam green buttercream that I drew in roses and stars and sprayed with edible gold glitter. I like 6″ cakes better than 8 or 9″ because they’re easier to frost and more manageable for a small family to tackle over a few days. A bigger cake tends to stick around past its due date around here!
Creating a rose with frosting is actually the easiest / beginner skill to master when learning to frost cakes. These cupcakes were made with a big star tip in a simple swirl from inside to the outside.
The s’mores cake was a treat for my husband’s birthday and I found the recipe on Life, Love, and Sugar’s blog! I highly recommend it!!! The toasted graham cracker layers added SO MUCH oomph.
What cake decorating troubleshooting questions do you have?!