Practice Cake # 2

I waited until last night to bake my second practice cake because we choose to send a cake into my husband's work since one of his coworkers is leaving.  Today is his coworkers last day.  I stayed up late baking all the cake sections, making the frosting and putting it together.  The good news is...the cake turned out great, I was able to practice making almost all the shapes I need for Sean's birthday party, and I got the frosting to turn out!  The bad news is...I tried to frost the cake quickly because it was late, and we wanted to go to bed, so the cake could have looked even better.

Let's talk the Italian Merginue Frosting for a minute.  First of all I would like to say that I really appreciate the information provided on this site regarding this type of frosting: Tips for Italian Meringue Frosting.  After my last disaster, I tried to research more about the frosting before tackling the cake again.  I really wanted to be successful.  Want to know the funny thing?  Once I added the last portion of butter to the frosting, it turned really runny and looked like my disastrous frosting from my first attempt.  I was so frustrated because everything about the frosting had seemed to be yielding much better results than last time.  I just kept the beater going, and after several minutes of beating, the frosting thickened back up and was perfect for using on the cake.  The worst part is, my original frosting attempt was probably fine...I just didn't beat it long enough.  I am glad to know that now though.  I was thinking I would need to do a simple buttercream recipe, but I was pleasantly surprised and pleased when my consistency was achieved.

Once again, time was not on our side, so I just dyed the frosting and spread it over the balls with a knife instead of piping it all fancy or taking more time to smooth it out better.  Below you will see the completed cake.  However, across the balls, I wrote "Mark, you have a lot of balls to leave _______!" (company where my husband works).  My husband came up with the expression.  Hopefully his office gets a kick out of the cake today.  I enjoyed putting it together...especially since I know I can do it again this evening for Sam's first birthday cake.  Success all around!  : )

Update: Everyone at my husband's work loved the cake!  Hooray!  However, I did get some good feedback for when I put Sam's birthday cake together.  I should make sure to fill the bigger sports balls with jam as well because they are so thick, and it is a lot of cake in those pieces.  Good information to have.  : )