Dark Tower Cake.

[Ves'Ka Gan]

I'm a cook, and sort of an aspiring cake decorator, and today I came up wtih an idea for "Dark Tower Cake"...what I have so far:

Has to be a very rich, chocolate cake (for the DT itself)
Has to be a layer cake (no 1-level towers!)
Has to have a red filling between layers, to symbolize the Rose (thinking raspberry)
Has to have 19 ingredients total.

The last one is where I think there may be a problem...anybody bake? Help out!

1)eggs
2)flour
3)chocolate
4) water
5)sugar
6)crisco
7)rasperries

That's only seven!...

[alinda]

chocolate jimmys or stuff like that? Or would that
count as # 3 ?

[LemurJones]

Dude, if I made a Dark Tower cake, it would be a red velvet cake with straight-black frosting. That way it's red on the inside! RED LIKE BLOOD.

And I would mix up dark gray frosting for drawing little squiggly carved windows, and I would have a layer of cake that was the field, and it would be frosted red and topped with red sugar.

And, I would get a sugar ghost cake decoration and color it red, and make it lurk around the tower's bum.

[Ves'Ka Gan]

THAT is an awesome idea, Lemur!!!!

Now to figure out how to make a red-velvet cake with 19 ingredients....hmm..(red velvet 'tis my favorite!)

[razz]

different colored candies to make a plate glass window at the top.

[Bethany]

white chocolate frosting
chocolate frosting
fondant.

[theBeamisHome]

Do you watch Challenge! on Food Network when they have to make really fancy cakes? They do things like this sort of. And I know if I were to do it it would take a very long time but idk if you're that bored. Cuz you could make a field of roses around the bottom on the Tower cake. You could use fondant too.. although I'm not completely sure how they color it.. I know sometimes they use airbrush... lol ok I'm getting completely out of hand, but I think it's a really cool idea and I can just imagine. My younger sister is an aspiring baker.. maybe I should give her the challenge

[Bethany]

you color fondant with coloring gel and knead it in.

for the record, i want chocolate cake now.

[Woofer]

I'm a cook, and sort of an aspiring cake decorator, and today I came up wtih an idea for "Dark Tower Cake"...what I have so far:

Has to be a very rich, chocolate cake (for the DT itself)
Has to be a layer cake (no 1-level towers!)
Has to have a red filling between layers, to symbolize the Rose (thinking raspberry)
Has to have 19 ingredients total.

The last one is where I think there may be a problem...anybody bake? Help out!

1)eggs
2)flour
3)chocolate
4) water
5)sugar
6)crisco
7)rasperries

That's only seven!...

Emphasis mine. DEAR GOD NO!!! Why would you want to ruin a chocolate cake with... that?!


Dude, if I made a Dark Tower cake, it would be a red velvet cake with straight-black frosting. That way it's red on the inside! RED LIKE BLOOD.

And I would mix up dark gray frosting for drawing little squiggly carved windows, and I would have a layer of cake that was the field, and it would be frosted red and topped with red sugar.

And, I would get a sugar ghost cake decoration and color it red, and make it lurk around the tower's bum.

Now that's the cake I'd make.

[LemurJones]

I think we should all get together now and have a DT cake party!! That way we can be like "ooooo" and also "CAAAAKE"

Someone should do a gingerbread tower too

[LadyHitchhiker]

That sounds awesome, Lemur!!!!

[Ves'Ka Gan]

I working on it--the red velvet has the added bonus of needeing more ingredients than a regular cake, it needs buttermilk, food coloring in addition to the other stuff...and the frosting uses more than the "usual" buttercreme, too.

As soon as I come up with a 19 ingredient recipe, I'm going to start on it.

And Beam--that's "The Ace of Cakes" it's here in Baltimore. They make good stuff but when they do samplings the cake is stale....kind of a turn off when the guy's minimum charge is $500!!

[Matt]

I would think if you made the frosting from scratch, all of those ingredients could be counted in the total.

Can't wait to see what you come up with.

[theBeamisHome]

I working on it--the red velvet has the added bonus of needeing more ingredients than a regular cake, it needs buttermilk, food coloring in addition to the other stuff...and the frosting uses more than the "usual" buttercreme, too.

As soon as I come up with a 19 ingredient recipe, I'm going to start on it.

And Beam--that's "The Ace of Cakes" it's here in Baltimore. They make good stuff but when they do samplings the cake is stale....kind of a turn off when the guy's minimum charge is $500!!

What?? $500?? Never for stale cake no matter how good they are.

And I know about Ace of Cakes too. My dad is from Baltimore, but on Challenge! they often do challenges in which chefs compete for like $10,000. They have to design a cake for someone's special something be it a birthday or wedding, ect.

psssh..... $500.. the madness..

[razz]

make sure you get a picture of it for the site

[educatedlady]

I have a recipe for red velvet cake & frosting...there are only 17 ingredients though.

[LadyHitchhiker]

So you add two kinds of frosting to the top...

[LadyHitchhiker]

Then it iwll be even better because it will represent the red and the white..

[Bethany]

red velvet cake is nasty/

[LemurJones]

red velvet cake is nasty/

then I'm taking your slice and there's nothin you can do about it.

[Woofer]

And Beam--that's "The Ace of Cakes" it's here in Baltimore. They make good stuff but when they do samplings the cake is stale....kind of a turn off when the guy's minimum charge is $500!!

Exsqueeze me? I watched this show the other night because it sounded cool. Never seen it before. I was extremely underimpressed with his work. The truly impressive stuff was not edible; it was frosted wood and metal. WTF?! I mean srsly. It was a wooden structure, with a sheet cake inside, and the cake and wooden bits around the cake were frosted. Well, damn, ace, just about anybody can build a model of Wriggley field with WOOD. I thought you were going to make it with cake and frosting and hot ribbon candy and decorator candy bits and creativity. Hrumph.

Mr. Woofer, who has worked as a professional cake decorator at Piece o' Cake (It was in Birmingham. Bethany, did you ever eat there? ) and who builds miniatures for hobby and, to an extent, current work, had plenty to say about their "methods". I have to agree. When I think specialty cakes, I'm thinking that the special bits will be edible TOO.

Phew! Sorry about that.

As far as the cake goes, I second adding the two additional frostings for the red and the white. Voila! You have achieved the tower and 19, too!

[Bethany]

No, can't say that I ever ate there.
Damn, I really want some chocolate cake.-

[Ves'Ka Gan]

Oooohhhh yes....I wish it weren't so ridiculously hot here already or I might have started this project already....

As an aside--when I was learning garnish and cake decorating (with the USMC!) the #1 rule was it should all be edible. I can see a smalle bit or two being cardboard or something, but when the majority of the "cake" is made of non-edible stuff, it really isn't an awesome cake as much as it's a cool art project with icing on it.

[jayson]

I watched this show the other night because it sounded cool. Never seen it before. I was extremely underimpressed with his work. The truly impressive stuff was not edible; it was frosted wood and metal. WTF?! I mean srsly. It was a wooden structure, with a sheet cake inside, and the cake and wooden bits around the cake were frosted. Well, damn, ace, just about anybody can build a model of Wriggley field with WOOD. I thought you were going to make it with cake and frosting and hot ribbon candy and decorator candy bits and creativity. Hrumph.

i watched this show a couple of times and thought the exact same thing. it would be significantly more impressive if they made the "cakes" out of cake.

[Bethany]

fondant is nasty.

[John Blaze]

wtf is fondant anyway?

[Bethany]

almond paste, sugar and some other crap.
it can be colored and rolled out to cover cakes to give then a smooth finish or shaped in to pretty much anything. i personally think it tastes like sweet play doh.

[Ves'Ka Gan]

Yes, fondant is pretty weird tasting. Most of the best 'decorating' frostings, are too, though...we learned a recipe that was basically 1 part crisco 1 part powdered sugar. It was greasy and really weird tasting--but it LOOKED awesome. Go figure.

[Ves'Ka Gan]

1 cup vegetable shortening
2 eggs
1 1/2 cups sugar
1 teaspoon cocoa powder
2 ounces red food coloring
2 1/2 cups cake flour
1 teaspoon salt
1 cup buttermilk
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon vinegar
White frosting, recipe follows

White Frosting:
2 tablespoons flour
1 cup milk
1 cup unsalted butter
1 cup confectioners' sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla extract

So that's[edit: 14 ingredients...flour & vanilla extract is mentioned twice.] ingredients. Add black food coloring to make the "white" frosting black and that is 15.

I'm thinking the inside of the cake (between layers) should be something else...so maybe that's where my last four ingredients are hiding...

[Bethany]

you can do an almond flavored filling (my favorite)

[Ves'Ka Gan]

A cherry filling from a black forest cake recipe..

2 cups sugar
1 cup water
1 1/4 cups kirsch
2 (15-ounce) cans dark sweet pitted cherries in heavy syrup
2 tablespoons cornstarch

That's 3 additional leaving us with one left... *off to look at almond fillings...*

[Brice]

To me even cardboard is cheating. All parts of a cake should totally be edible.

[Bethany]

haha! i'm making cupcakes with homemade chocolate frosting.

[Jean]

almond paste, sugar and some other crap.
it can be colored and rolled out to cover cakes to give then a smooth finish or shaped in to pretty much anything. i personally think it tastes like sweet play doh.
bears love fondant
they also love marzipan
fudge
any king of frosting
custard
creme-brulee
creme-caramel
any other kind of cream
condenced milk
pink chocolate
white chocolate
any other chocolate
and so on

are we still talking about the Tower Cake, or should part of this conversation be taken to Fatten Your Friends?

http://i91.photobucket.com/albums/k291/mishemplushem/Facilitation/0134-bear.gifhttp://i91.photobucket.com/albums/k291/mishemplushem/Facilitation/0134-bear.gifhttp://i91.photobucket.com/albums/k291/mishemplushem/Facilitation/0134-bear.gif

[Woofer]

Cherry's better than raspberry anyway. I still say don't ruin the chocolateness of the cake with fruity anything. Just make colored frosting and let it go!

[Ka-mai]

Try using chocolate squares (like from a Hershey's bar) as bricks to make the outside.

Only face the logo inwards.

Ooh! And use white chocolate squares for windows!

[LemurJones]

Red food color for BLOODY BLOODY BLOODY COLORS

I WANT A CAKE THAT BLEEDS WHEN YOU CUT IT

[Ves'Ka Gan]

Red velvet is red on the inside--hence the name...and if I used the cherry filling--it would "bleed"

[theBeamisHome]

I concur on the chocolate bricks idea. this one baker on Challenge made a dark castle almost completely out of chocolate it was pretty creepy and awesome looking.. i'll see if i can find a picture.. ok i can't but it doesn't much matter since it was a candy castle, but still a good idea..

oh and red velvet with bleeding cherry filling?? :drool:

[Ves'Ka Gan]

I'm thinking of getting several cake tins in different circumfrences as well, so that I can stack a few "teirs" to make it look like a real tower! I'll probably have to "cheat" and keep the layers together with wooden dowels through the middle--but I think it's gonna look COOL!

(I think the chocolate bricks win as the 19th ingredient, too! And instead of using different chocolate for the windows, I will leave small sections blank so the black frsoting will be in the opn to look like a sunken window...)

*this is going to be one crazy shopping list!!*

[theBeamisHome]

I love it! great ideas! and we get pictures!! then... cake! lol

[Ves'Ka Gan]

Depending on where I am living when it gets done (I am moving next month then again in October!) I'll invite who ever's close by to sample it!

[Ka-mai]

Holy crap, I had an idea people liked!

I am so excited! :D