Cake the First: Adding Machine
Devil's Food Stout Cake with Raspberry Italian Meringue Buttercream Filing
The underlying theme for both cakes this year was "cook with what you like to drink." For the first cake, I paired Ninkasi Oatis with a devil's food cake.
While researching Italian meringue recipes online, a common fix to any meringue-whipping troubles was to "just keep whipping" and the filing should straighten itself out. Lies. I eventually just gave up, mixed in a bunch of raspberries and smeared it all over the cake.
The YouTube "how-to" videos about draping fondant over an oblong cake did prove to be useful though, and my food pen brought my cake vision to life.
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| Will not do math |
Cake the Second: Master Tax Guide
Ginger Rum Cake with Citrus Curd Filing and Candied Citrus Peel and Candied Habanero
The second cake was a bit more complicated as it included components that I hadn't ever attempted before.
I made the citrus curd filing a couple days ahead just in case I screwed it up, proceeded to eat most of it on waffles, then made a second batch so that I'd have enough.
A small part of me wanted to shape the rectangle into a tax guide just so I could snack on the scraps.
While I don't see Geordi LaForge selling this book to kids any time soon, tax accountants got a kick out of it.
Maybe it was just the fully functioning flask of rum that I brought to work...
I think the best compliment I got was when I showed the adding machine cake to a non-accountant, she thought I was weird for just randomly having a picture of an adding machine on my phone. It's not weird, it's scrumptious.
--Isaac.
