Wednesday, August 27, 2008

At least it's edible

The day after the pipe cleaner shower, me and my MOH attempted to make our version of a Chicago style hot dog for the groom's cake (this is what we called a dry run, though in reality we had one hell of a watery mess all over the place).
This is our inspiration
To make it even more of a challenge our wedding coordinator and her fiance wanted to come and watch us try to make this thing along with my old roommate. So we had a full apartment watching me make an ass out of myself.
The first thing that I did way back was actually make the cake part. I used a loaf pan to bake the cake and then put it in the freezer for a few days to make it easier to handle. On the day of, I pulled the freezing cold thing out and started to carve it to look like a hot dog.
My MOH had the brilliant thought to use our vegetable peeler to make the curves of the hot dog. It worked out a lot better than me using our bread knife (which caused a nice gash on my finger before I switched).
Meanwhile she made some icing (and by some I mean more icing than a herd of 4th graders can eat) as well as started the rice krispie bun and I began the horrible horrible experience of trying to use fondant. We'd gotten some simple colored stuff from the local Hobby Lobby that was not in the mood to cooperate.
I swore and sweated trying to get the thing to roll out and also keep it from breaking (I failed a lot). We got the hot dog part covered pretty well but that bun was gonna be impossible, we just didn't have enough fondant in one color. So one side was yellow and the other orange.Meet our play-doh hot dog. The colors on the box had looked much more toned down and well more hot dog colored, but upon pulling it out we realized that it was actually a neon pink, orange and yellow.
But we kept plugging along. We had lots of other toppings to add, my old roomate smooshed up some lime jello with pineapple in it to make the relish while I added the tomatoes (cherry pie filling).
My MOH frosted a cookie with different colored green icing (I managed to dye one of my fingers bright green while messing with the food dye). Those were put on top to be the cucumber slice. The less we talk about the "pickle" the better.
This is the final product (minus the poppy seeds) and well we learned a lot of stuff. For one only the hot dog is gonna be covered in fondant, two we're leaving the pickle off, and three we're gonna make stronger rice krispies by mashing them up (also if I am anywhere near dye I have to wear gloves).

The only thing left to do was to try eating it. Oh man you want to talk about a sugar overload, we all only got through some of the cake before we had to give up. It's sad but I think it looked a lot better after we'd cut into it.

Well now I just have to try to make it again all by myself the wedding week. I'm insane aren't I?

6 comments:

Cate Subrosa said...

I've always thought there is something seriously gross about cakes made to look like savoury food. Is that just me? I'm sure he's going to love it!

jennifer said...

Okay that looks awesome! Very cool! BTW, I had a chicago dog for dinner last night!

Anonymous said...

OMG,that is too funny!I agree with Jennifer,it does look awsome!

valerie said...

That's an awesome first attempt though. Fondant is a bitch (cake making is my passion, but haven't the money to do it just quite yet). It changes depending on humidity and weather and it's just finicky. Seriously... an all around bitch.

Too much powdered sugar will cause it to crack and fall apart.

If you're really ambitious, I'd try out different fondant recipes (http://allrecipes.com/Recipe/Rolled-Fondant/Detail.aspx is apparently a good one. I personally haven't used it, but am strongly considering it!) to see if those work better than the boxed stuff.

:))

I am giving you a huge pat on the back for doing something so huge and stressful for your fiance. I made a practice groom's cake, but decided that I'd just be lazy and get it from a bakery.

Holly Cummings said...

awesome, awesome, awesome. did i mention that it's awesome?

Anonymous said...

To make the fondant easier to manage, put it in the microwave at 12 second intervals, it is easier to roll out and handle when it is slightly warm.