Hello cakers!

I’m new to this forum, and loving it! I mostly bake doctored cake mix (Duncan Hines), and occasionally from scratch cakes when I’m feeling courageous.

As of late I have been obsessed with baking from scratch exclusively, and The Cake Bible has been just that to me. I am first an artist/cake decorator, a baker second. What my question is, from all the cakes in the book which of these cake are best for sculpted or heavily decorated cakes, and yummy after a few days from baking, as it takes me a few days at time to complete a decorated cake. Thanks!

I think it is good that you mentioned your emphasis as I think Rose’s is the opposite—the baking comes before the decorating. Her cakes are designed to be as tender as possible, so on the whole, they aren’t the best choices for sculpting. Sorry, I can’t recommend any books to you, but I’m sure that someone else here could.

When baking doctored mixes, I try to achieve pound cake like recipes which never are true pound cake textures but firm enough to sculpt and taking on heavy decorating. I only use Swiss Meringue butter cream, Ganache and fondant on my cakes, so I’m wondering if the pound cakes in Rose’s book will be too rich for my choice of filling, frostings & fondant.

First off, Cakerator, welcome!

I haven’t done any sculpting or anything like that, so I don’t necessarily know exactly teh texture you’re looking for, but I can tell you this much. I often let a cake get cold and then cut it so that I can put it in the freezer and freeze slices. The cakes cut pretty smoothly when they’re refrigerator cold. Off hand, I’d say particularly the white velvet cake. I’ve had the cakes in the fridge for as long as five days and they are still completely awesome. I know that an all butter cake will be firmer cold than a cake made with oil (which remain soft when cold), so I’d choose a cake that uses all butter.

Good luck to you, and I hope you will share some of your creations! I think you’ll find after making a few of Rose’s cakes that you will become as fanatical about the baking as the decorating!!! They are amazingly delicious!

I would think all her wedding cake recipes would work very well. They need to be sturdy in order to make stable tiers, so I would start there. I wouldn’t use Rose’s pound cake recipes, as they are very tender, and lighter than your average pound cake, and she bakes them in loaf or fluted tube pans, not layers. The white velvet cake is lovely, but you might want one a bit moister, like the all-occasion downy yellow cake. The yellow cake would help you use up the leftover yolks from your swiss meringue buttercream! Good luck!

Congratulations on making the move from box mixes to scratch cakes!  I’ve never tried to make a sculpted cake, but I agree that the wedding cake recipes might be a good place to start.  Once you feel comfortable working with the Rose Factor charts, you’ll be able to make almost any size (as long as the layer isn’t too deep).  The wedding cake chapter also gives information on syruping, which can help an all-butter cake remain moist for several days. 

Good luck!

Hi.  I very seldom post here but I saw your question and couldn’t resist replying. I’ve used the All Occasion Downy Yellow Butter Cake and the White Velvet (I forgot the exact name but it’s the one with melted white chocolate) to carve a 3D sharkhead, a castle, volcanoes, topsy-turveys, handbags and assorted spheres (e.g. soccer ball, bowling ball). They hold up very well to carving. I carve them cold or almost frozen.

I Have tried using the chocolate butter cake and chocolate fudge cake for shaped cakes (e.g. sphere & topsy turvey). Bad idea. They were way too tender and either crumbled or did not keep their shape.

The white velvet cake is lovely, but you might want one a bit moister

I’d certainly go with Patrick and Julie re wedding cakes, as they have much more experience than I.  However, I must say that I find the white velvet very moist.  I often eat it completely unfrosted/unadorned, it’s so moist and delicous.  To me, it tastes like milk.  It has a s light denseness, which is why I thought it would work well for you. 

At the same time, I haven’t made the downy yellow yet, so perhaps compared to it, the white velvet isn’t so moist.  In a vacuum, however, it is!!

Hi

I tried making a 3-D thomas cake with the chocolate fudge cake, and it was difficult to sculpt.  The cake was too soft, and it affected the look of the finished cake.  I think the all-american chocolate cake would work better.