2D
Lemon Aid
by Suzanne James-Bacon · submitted Jul 18, 2009 · 2009 contest
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Description
I found the “Lemon Aid” design and I just knew it was the one. It’s a simple idea and design, but every time I looked at it I couldn’t help but smile.
The cake is Alton Brown’s gold cake recipe, a dense butter cake, with lemon curd filling (it seemed appropriate), and lemon butter-cream frosting. I made two 9” rounds for the main cake and six jumbo cupcakes to carve the cake-lemons from. When I was buying lemons for the curd I made sure to get a “beauty lemon” to use as a model for the cake-lemons.
As usual when I make cakes, the two rounds sunk a bit in the centers and I was a little worried the weight of the cake-lemons would cause problems. Luckily, I didn’t need all of the cupcakes for the cake-lemons and sliced wedges out of one of the extras to fill in the center of the cake. It wasn’t very pretty, but then lemon curd can cover a multitude of sins. After crumb-coating the cake and cake-lemons (which kept trying to fall apart so in the end were about 25% frosting) I let every thing rest overnight in the fridge.
The next day I did the top coat of the cake, put it in the freezer for about 10 minutes, then used wax paper to smooth it as much as possible. I darkened the remaining frosting to a more real lemon color and top coated the cake-lemons. After resting in the freezer for a few minutes, I used paper towels to get a lemon texture which worked a lot better than I thought it would.
To make the arms and legs I used traditional and flavored Tootsie Rolls. I let them warm in the sun then just rolled, shaped, flattened, and/or cut out the arms, legs, poles, and flags. Putting it together was easy and I finished it off with a trail of lemon curd blood. I had a lot of fun making it and surprised myself with how well it turned out. All and all, it was not a bad way to spend a 4th of July weekend and I think I might have to do it again next year.
The cake is Alton Brown’s gold cake recipe, a dense butter cake, with lemon curd filling (it seemed appropriate), and lemon butter-cream frosting. I made two 9” rounds for the main cake and six jumbo cupcakes to carve the cake-lemons from. When I was buying lemons for the curd I made sure to get a “beauty lemon” to use as a model for the cake-lemons.
As usual when I make cakes, the two rounds sunk a bit in the centers and I was a little worried the weight of the cake-lemons would cause problems. Luckily, I didn’t need all of the cupcakes for the cake-lemons and sliced wedges out of one of the extras to fill in the center of the cake. It wasn’t very pretty, but then lemon curd can cover a multitude of sins. After crumb-coating the cake and cake-lemons (which kept trying to fall apart so in the end were about 25% frosting) I let every thing rest overnight in the fridge.
The next day I did the top coat of the cake, put it in the freezer for about 10 minutes, then used wax paper to smooth it as much as possible. I darkened the remaining frosting to a more real lemon color and top coated the cake-lemons. After resting in the freezer for a few minutes, I used paper towels to get a lemon texture which worked a lot better than I thought it would.
To make the arms and legs I used traditional and flavored Tootsie Rolls. I let them warm in the sun then just rolled, shaped, flattened, and/or cut out the arms, legs, poles, and flags. Putting it together was easy and I finished it off with a trail of lemon curd blood. I had a lot of fun making it and surprised myself with how well it turned out. All and all, it was not a bad way to spend a 4th of July weekend and I think I might have to do it again next year.