Baby Block Cake

Since I wasn't cooking for Master L's baby naming, I thought I would make a cake. I looked online and found a beautiful sheet cake with baby blocks covered in fondant with the baby's name on it. I decided that never mind the fact that I had a newborn and toddler in house, I was going to make this cake. Mister R reminded me how frustrated I was working with fondant on Master A's first birthday Curious George cupcakes, but I couldn't be deterred.

My first obstacle was going to be creating the block shapes. In looking at the cakes online, I was doubtful as whether I could cut a larger cake into squares that wouldn't fall apart and make perfect cubes. After much searching online, I found one 3x3 pan by Fat Daddio through Amazon and ordered some white fondant and pastel colored as well. (I wasn't crazy enough to dye my own fondant). Thankfully, I ordered the white fondant in 80 0z not 8- or I would have run out. I was planning on just using a 9x13 pan, but a few days before the baking was to begin, I became nervous that it wouldn't be enough for 16 adults and several cake eating kids. Forgetting that there would be four cubes that could be cut into four pieces each, I decided I needed a sheet cake. This was the night before baking and it was too late to order online. I did see one at Bed, Bath & Beyond online, but after going to the store, I learned it was not available in the tri-state area- only online. After panic set in and Mister R talked me and my hormones down, I decided to double the 9x13 cakes with a layer of icing in the middle.

The next morning, with Master A in his booster seat watching the action and crying Master L hanging on me in his sling I began baking. I'm not sure why I didn't wait for Master A to take his nap, but I had only had about four hours of sleep and the brain wasn't functioning properly. I had decided to use the Magnolia vanilla cake recipe that everyone seemed to love for cupcakes for Mama V and Miss L's farewell party (another mama friend gave me the Cook's Illustrated best vanilla cake recipe but since Gristede's did not have cake flour that morning - I could not bear another trip to Whole Foods). I knew I would need to triple the recipe but instead of doing it in batches, I just started throwing triple the ingredients in. It was more butter than I had ever seen. Nothing blended well and it took forever to get the wet ingredients to mix properly. By then, I realized my error and broke the rest of the dry ingredients to two equal parts. This required math and Mama N knows how much I enjoy doing math to figure out my knitting so this slowed me down a bit.

Finally, I put the first 9x13 pan in the oven along with a block. Both boys were asleep at this point, and out of the kitchen. Not thinking, I filled the block to the rim. After 10 minutes I checked the block, thinking it would cook faster but it didn't. After another 10 minutes, while mixing the rest of the ingredients and multitasking and making a call to UPS, I see a thick layer of smoke gathering in the kitchen. Frantically, I throw the phone and open the oven to see the block bubbling over and a mess at the bottom. Smoke kept pouring out of the oven. A few months ago, while Mister R was cooking bacon without a cookie sheet underneath to catch the grease, the stove caught on fire. Mister R was able to get it out just as six maintenance men in our building charged in the apartment. I had visions of this happening again. I cleaned up the mess and managed to prevent more smoke from forming, but the fog lingered in the apartment all day. Needless to say, that block didn't work out very well. Once I cut off its muffin top that formed, the whole block crumbled. I was in a panic that this mold wouldn't work and I'd have no blocks.

Baking took all day as I didn't really think about the fact that I needed to let the pans completely cool before removing and restarting the process. The rest of the blocks came out fine (filled only halfway) but after starting at about 10 am- the last one came out when Mister R walked in the door around 6 pm. I was not happy. I froze the cake for a few hours and then iced the cake (requiring another 10 pm run to Gristede's by Mister R for more confectioner's sugar). The large cakes were thicker than expected but I was afraid to shave too much off the top. I knew it was going to be a very tall cake. I froze the cake overnight and mentally prepared to work with the fondant.

Mister R helped roll out the fondant to cover the cake and blocks. When I watch the Ace of Cakes or Cake Boss, they just cover it and it seems to smooth nicely. However, when I tried to do it, I couldn't get the corners to smooth neatly. It was lumpy, cracked and created folds. I also didn't have a lot of extra pastel fondant and was initially afraid it wouldn't cover. Mister R was losing patience with me and we just covered the cakes. If I tried this again, I would read more about how to handle fondant at the corners and not end up with wrinkles. I cut out letters for Master L's name and then it was time to head out for a well needed break at Master K and Master L's 2nd birthday party.

Later that night, I decided I was going to decorate the other sides of the blocks. On one side I put Master L's birth date 8/16/09, weight and length, another side the word Baby (which I didn't realize was backwards on the finished product) and then for fun (yes I was actually having fun now) some designs, moon and stars, a bottle, a pacifier, a beach ball, heart, and my favorite- a bootie. By this time it was after midnight and I needed to get some sleep before the big day.

It really was a much bigger project than I expected. I probably spent about 12 hours on the cake (some time- just cooking time). I would recommend just using a sheet cake or one layer and possibly getting additional block pans to cut down on bake time. Also, not everyone loves the taste of fondant, so I might have just iced it and not used fondant on the base of the cake, just the cubes. Thankfully, for all the work, it was a big hit. The guests all seemed to be impressed with the look and taste of it. I ended up with two blocks and about half a cake left so I brought the cake to the park and some mamas got a treat for the afternoon as well. It's been four days and we are still eating cake!