Bee Hive Cake, Part I

I thought I would do a two-part post on Sophia's birthday cake, since it took me two nights to make it. I baked the cake on the first night, then decorated it on the second night.

I thought about ordering a bee hive cake mold, but I wasn't totally thrilled with the one that is out there, and I couldn't bring myself to spend $39 on a cake pan (unlike last year, when I gladly shelled out $39 for this novelty cake pan). Anyway, I baked three round 9-inch cakes, which I stacked and then carved into a beehive-like shape.

I used Julia Child's awesome vanilla pound cake recipe, which I test-drove earlier with excellent results. Pound cake is great for layer cakes, because it's dense and sturdy. It's also super yummy.

Here's how it goes:

6 cups all-purpose flour
4 teaspoons baking powder
1 teaspoon salt
4 sticks unsalted butter
4 cups sugar
6 large eggs
2 cups milk
4 teaspoons vanilla extract

First, you'll want to get everything ready. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees and position your oven racks in the lower third of your oven. Grease and flour your pans. Also, for me, getting ready means realizing I haven't let my ingredients get to room temperature. So, here's what I do about that - For the 4 sticks of butter, put them in the microwave all together and microwave them for 5 seconds on each side. For the eggs, I whisked them together in a little stainless steel bowl, which I then set on top of my preheating oven. If you're more the planning type, let all ingredients come to room temperature before starting.

Now, sift together 6 cups all-purpose flour (or 12 half-cups, if you're like me and you've misplaced your single cup measuring cup), 4 teaspoons baking powder, and 1 teaspoon salt onto a large sheet of waxed or parchment paper; reserve.

Put 4 sticks of butter into the bowl of a mixer fitted with the paddle attachment or work with a hand mixer, and mix at medium speed until smooth. With the machine still running, add the sugar in a steady stream. Scrape down the sides of the bowl and continue to beat until very light and fluffy, about 5 minutes.

Then, with the mixer still going at medium speed, slowly add the eggs, about a tablespoon at a time. Increase mixer speed and beat until the batter comes together nicely, then decrease to medium speed again, another 3-4 minutes.

Reduce mixer speed to low and add the flour and milk alternately - starting and stopping with the flour. Scrape the bowl down frequently. Mix until the batter is smooth and add the vanilla, mix just to blend.

Spoon the mixture into the prepared pans and smooth the tops with a spatula.

Bake for 45-55 minutes, until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean. The cakes should look a little brown on the outside and should be springy to the touch. Let cakes cool in their pans set on a cooling rack for about 10 minutes, then remove the cakes from the pans to finish cooling.

I grease my pans the way my grandmother did - by rubbing the empty butter wrappers all over the pan and then sifting flour onto the pan and swirling it around. Usually this works perfectly, but for some reason one of my four cakes stuck to the pan last night. To unstick a cake from the pan, dampen a dish towel and wring it out well, then lay it over the cake for a minute and shake gently back and forth, remove the towel and the cake should come out (lay the cooling rack on top of the cake and then flip the whole thing over to remove the cake from the pan).

Let the cakes cool completely before icing the cake. Because I did not ice mine until the next night, I wrapped them in several layers of cling wrap and just kept them at room temperature (you can do that with pound cake). You can also freeze them - just be sure to wrap well in cling wrap and then aluminum foil. If you are going to freeze the cake prior to frosting it, just freeze until you're ready to use, and then defrost at room temperature in its wrapping. I don't have room for four cake layers in my freezer!

I wanted to share something else... I was up until 3 am baking, because I only have one cookie sheet (I can't even imagine what happened to the other one I had just a few weeks ago!) I have a wobbly little $5 rolling pin. I bake bread in a glass mixing bowl because I don't have a round loaf pan. I'm constantly doing dishes while baking, because I only have the one measuring cup set and one measuring spoon set that we were given as wedding gifts eight years ago. I dream of rolling pins, and measuring cups and spoons, and other very special things ... but the reason I wanted to share my baking supply poverty with you, is because I don't want you to think that you can't bake because you don't have all the right stuff. It's easy to feel like you can't do it when you watch cooking shows or look at pictures of some cooks/bakers whose kitchens are awesome outfitted. But really you can make all the same things, it just takes a little improvisation.

For example...

I made the gumpaste bees on top of the cake using this tutorial: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pOX79uoN_vo

But I didn't have that shaper tool thing, so I used my fingers to mold the wings. I used a Crayola paintbrush to brush water onto my gumpaste. I couldn't find my small round decorating tip last night so I used the end of an infant medicine syringe to poke the tiny eye rounds out. I don't own a pizza cutter (seriously, I have a thing about tools/appliances that only serve one purpose - it comes from always having a tiny kitchen, and it's why I'll never have a bread maker or a rice cooker) so I used a knife to cut out the stripes. It all worked out okay

Really, my whole reason for sharing my cake making adventures is to show you that anyone can bake a yummy, cute cake. I love baking and decorating cakes and cookies for fun, and I've gotten a lot more confident and better at it, but I am still learning lots myself! So, I'm no expert, but hopefully I can pass along a little knowledge or inspiration as I learn :)

Check back tomorrow for Part II - turning those cakes into a bee hive!