Retirement Cake - 2nd time using Cake Cricut

The primary school is celebrating the retirement of a special teacher and wonderful guidance counselor.  They asked me to make the Retirement Cake for the event.

Sunday evening I stayed up late cutting lots and lots of flowers (50/50 gumpaste and fondant) using my Cake Cricut!  I had heard SO many bad things about the machine that I had been procrastinating trying it.  Now I am kicking myself for not trying sooner.  I think the trick is using Wilton Gumpaste.  I mixed that with my homemade fondant and it worked very nicely.

Napkin provided by the Social Committee

White Velvet Sheet Cake (uses White Chocolate)
Dream Buttercream with a Hint of White Chocolate

Cupcakes with Pink and Orange Frosting and filled with Lemon Curd

The (almost done) Anniversary Cake

Here's a picture of the cake I made for my parent's anniversary.  Yes, I ran out of frosting.  I forgot how much frosting those roses take.  I also double the height of the cake.  I combined all 4 layers rather than the 2 that "I Am Baker" used.

 (Above) The front covered with roses

As you can see the frosting was too soft for the roses and they didn't hold their shape like I had hoped.

Oh well, we'll see if my sisters like this frosting as they like the lighter and less sweet frosting.

(Below) Where I ran out of frosting and had to swirl the frosting I did have

Coming soon. . . Pictures of the inside!

Snow Day + Parent's Anniversary = Vertical Stripe Rose Cake

Today we had yet another snow storm and another day off.  I do love snow days but I would prefer not to be in school until July. . .so I am ready for the snow to end.  But I guess I don't have any say in that, do I?

I am a follower of I Am Baker and she made this cake for her birthday.  I fell in love with it.   I have been looking for an excuse to make it and I thought it would be perfect for my parent's 41st Anniversary.

I have also decided to start keeping track of the costs and time involved in baking and decorating a cake.  I am almost afraid to do this but I am curious. . .

TIME COMMITTED TO THIS 8" ROSE CAKE

Step 1:  Baking the cakes - for this one I simply used box mixes and only made one substitution to make the strawberry flavor; therefore, the cost for the cakes are minimal on this one.

• Mixing cake mix
• Preparing pans
• Washing dishes

     Time:  50 minutes (25 minutes per box mix)

Step 2:  Checking Oven and Preparing Baked Cakes

• Checking cakes in oven occassionally (5 minutes)
• Removing from oven (these cool only a couple minutes before leveling - HOT!)
• Leveling cakes with Agbay
• Wrapping cakes for freezer
• Placing in freezer
• Clean-up 

     Time: 32 minutes (16 minutes per box mix)

Step 3:  Making a NEW Recipe for Whipped Buttercream

• Ingredients out and preparing for recipe (5 minutes)
• Creaming 2 ingredients (8 minutes)
• Whipping next ingredients (10 minutes)
• Combining the 2 batches (10 minutes)
• Clean-up (7 minutes)

     Time:  40 minutes for 1 batch

Step 4:  Preparing and cutting the cake & Frosting the cake)

     Time:  35 minutes


TOTAL TIME: (50 + 32 + 40 + 35) = 2.61 hours

COST FOR THIS CAKE

$33.57

Cake:  (I simply used 2 box mixes and substituted one item to produce a strawberry cake rather than a white cake  Very inexpensive compared to my normal cake recipes.)  approximately $7.00

Frosting:  approximately $7.75

Time: 2.61 Hours x $7.25 (minimum wage) = $18.92

Items not accounted for:

• Electricity for oven, microwave and freezer (oven was run a minimum of 2 hours)
• Cost of pans, Kitchen Aid mixer, multiple baking racks, parchment paper, saran wrap, etc.
• Cake decorating tools:  offset spatulas, tips, pastry bags, cake boards, cake plate,etc.
• Dish detergent

If I were to make this cake again. . .

I would need a double batch of the frosting which would add an additional 40 minutes to make the frosting, additional 10 minutes to frost the cake

and ingredients for the frosting

$13.79

Total Cost would be: 

$47.36

(round up for unaccounted for materials):

$50.00

And, if I were to use my regular cake recipes

it would probably be $60