Ribbon Cutter Tool Fun

My son likes to decorate his own birthday cake. This is a tradition he started on his 4th birthday. I bake and ice a sheet cake, then he designs the top using food coloring markers and edible Rice Paper. This year, when we went to Sweet Wise to purchase the necessary supplies, the rice wafer paper was out of stock. Instead, we opted to cover the cake in FondX rolled fondant (don't worry, this brand actually tastes good!), and he then used the food coloring pens to draw directly on the top of his cake. He loves to play video games. Past birthday cakes have featured Guitar Hero and Rock Band instruments and Sackboy from Little Big Planet. This year, it's all about Crash Bandicoot. Here is the finished cake:

Originally he didn't want any kind of bottom border, but I suggested we have something to make the cake look finished, attention to detail and all that. He wasn't fussy about what went on the bottom, as long as it was red. Well, I'll take any excuse to play with my ribbon cutter tool!

First I tried using the striped embosser, but that made too wide of a ribbon.

You can see how short the cake is, and I didn't want to completely cover up the sides.

So, I tried using the zig-zag cutter with the 1/2" spacers.

But the zig-zag on the bottom didn't look right, and it was tricky positioning the ribbon around the cake evenly. Plus, the white bottom edge showed through.

So, I reloaded my ribbon cutter to make one edge straight and the other zig-zag.

This worked the best, and so that's what I ended up using.

It's a very versatile tool and a lot of fun to use. It's all about creative freedom, you know!

These are a few of my favortie chefs.

Television cooking shows have come a long way since the days of Julia Child and The Galloping Gourmet. While there's no shortage of "celebrity" chefs, some are more worth watching than others, in my opinion.

Two Fat Ladies: Clarissa Dickson Wright and Jennifer Paterson

I loved this show. The two of them would travel around the UK countryside on a motorcycle and sidecar, invading kitchens and concocting some of the most interesting dishes--most of which I would probably never cook let alone eat. Still, watching them make Edwardian tongue sandwiches, pheasant breasts and haggis, stuffed quail, and deviled kidneys was somehow fascinating in a "holy crap do people really eat that muck?" kind of way. Besides, their personalities were what made the show--that and their puddings always kicked royal pastry butt. Sadly, Jennifer Paterson lost her battle with cancer in 1999.

Delia Smith

Ah, Delia. She is the culinary diva that Martha Stewart can only ever dream of being. She is just as talented and knowledgeable, more charismatic, and without all the pretension. I love her How to Cook books. Not too long ago, she even showed the world a glimpse of her football hooligan side. Brilliant!

Ainsley Harriott

It was watching Can't Cook, Won't Cook and Ready Steady Cook that prompted me to finally learn how to cook (as opposed to just heat things up). Seriously. His flamboyant enthusiasm could probably motivate an agoraphobic to book a world cruise.

Anthony Bourdain

I've liked him ever since reading his book Kitchen Confidential: Adventures in the Culinary Underbelly (not the most family-friendly book and definitely not for the faint of heart). Talk about culinary exploration through world travel! In A Cook's Tour and No Reservations he goes to places I would never have the courage to venture and he certainly eats fare that I would shudder to look at.

Alton Brown

As you can see, I saved the best for last. If you haven't watched Good Eats then you just don't know what you're missing. It is by far my all-time favorite cooking show. Why? Because it is entertaining, informative, and Alton Brown explains everything simply yet thoroughly. He also traveled across the United States in his show Feasting on Asphalt, which was like a culinary version of Long Way Round minus the the Ewan McGregor drool factor.

More Fare Entries

In addition to my "Pick of the Crop" decorated cake, I'm entering 4 baked-from-scratch cakes in the County Fair (3 of them are recipes found in The Cake Bible). They're all boxed up and ready to go because I have to turn them in first thing tomorrow morning.
My "fruit-iced" entry is a Lemon Chiffon cake with raspberry and lemon glaze. The glaze for this cake turned out a bit too runny, but of course I didn't realize that until it was too late.

I'm also entering a chocolate cake with ganache filling and chocolate mousseline icing. I had some leftover ganache, so I used it to pipe roses and leaves on the top. I will most likely avoid piping roses with ganache from now on.

Below is my miscellaneous entry. It's a "Golden Luxury" cake with raspberry filling and white chocolate icing. I've been wanting to put raspberries and vines on a cake for a while now. I nicked the idea from The Wilton School Decorating Cakes book, page 69.

I forgot to add vanilla to my sour cream pound cake, so it will probably be bland. To try and compensate, I topped it with a sour cream and powdered sugar glaze. The shells around the bottom are to hide where some of the edge came out a little uneven.