Cake Boss of Geneva

      It all began with reality TV. Luc had opened a link to the TV show Cake Boss, posted over spring break by a school friend. On the show, a baker from Hoboken creates amazing cakes -- things like a life-sized NASCAR race car, a roulette table, or a replica of the jet d'eau (I made the last one up, but it's not so far-fetched). Inspired by the undeniable coolness of these cakes and spurred on by a French baking class in which I had enrolled him and Johanna over break, Luc decided he wanted to bake cakes. This seemed like a constructive use of free time to me, so I agreed to bankroll the investment in sugar, butter, eggs, decorations, and other necessities to make the baking run smoothly. I even invested in an electric hand mixer to ease the creation of frosting. (I needed one of those anyway, having been whipping cream in the blender since we moved here.)
       Luc's first cake (red velvet, though we were a bit short on food coloring, so it was kind of lavender) was delicious, if not quite professional in appearance. He second (sponge cake) never made it to the decorating stage. We were having company for dinner, and I asked if I could cut it up and use it in the trifle. At this point, Johanna decided to join the fun. We were unable to find a fondant supplier (fondant, if you are like me and didn't know, is that beautiful smooth icing that makes cakes look so professional), so she looked up a recipe and used about a kilo of powdered sugar to coat the kitchen with a sticky glaze. It only took a week or so of washings for the tiles to stop feeling like the floor of a cheap movie theater, and her second attempt was far more successful.
      The real fun began when Johanna decided to have some friends over for a sleepover. At first, Lucas offered to bake a cake for the party, but perhaps a bit daunted by his early attempts at splendor, he was happy when she decided that the girls would have a cake-decorating competition instead. Lucas agreed to be the judge. I offered to buy cake mixes to ease the process, but the kids decided that there was going to be a prize for taste as well as looks, and each team would have to make its own cake from scratch. So I  bought more butter, eggs, flour, milk, and sugar and cleared out of the kitchen. School-issued iPads were employed to search recipes for white cake, yellow cake, glaze, and buttercream frosting. My new mixer gained a month's worth of use in one evening. I ran to the store for more eggs, milk, and sugar. When the baking and mixing was finished, the decorating began. Plainly, these girls had been watching their Cake Boss -- and taking notes.

Julia is holding a tub of Betty Crocker frosting, which no one ended up using. Behind her, Johanna has set up a screen to keep members of each team from seeing what the other is up to. Lucas, as judge, was entirely banished from the main floor.

The marzipan flower created by Team One to adorn their cake. Below, Team One with their finished cake.
Keep in mind that, though I supplied the ingredients, the mixer was the only tool I had purchased. I'm not sure how the girls made those little swirls around the edge of the cake.

      While Team One went for simplicity and elegance, Team Two spent a great deal of time on the cake itself, creating a pure-white meringue cake with chocolate buttercream icing. Their  decorating scheme was ambitious as well. 

That's Hansel, Gretel, the Witch (her head kept falling off), and the collapsing candy house, all out of marzipan.

      Ultimately, simplicity triumphed. Luc, as judge, gave the win for appearance to Team One. 

The teams await the results.

      But all was not lost for team two -- the chocolate buttercream frosting completely justified the purchase of the mixer (and all the butter and sugar) -- and won them the prize for taste.

The judge declares his ruling.

           Though Lucas enjoyed being the contest judge, his enthusiasm for baking and decorating cakes himself has not diminished. He has taken orders for all of our birthday cakes for the next year (Drew wants a football field -- we are unsure if he means American football or soccer/football. Eric wants a University of Michigan cake). Sunday afternoon Luc asked permission to bake again (as if I would say no to more desserts). A few hours later, a beautifully decorated marble cake was the result.

The beauty of simplicity is a lesson he's beginning to learn.

      Okay, so the Aliens may not be ready for our own show yet, but I see a definite improvement. Cake decorating, like everything else, requires practice. The beauty of baking practice, unlike, for example, lacrosse practice, is that the results are often both aromatic and delicious for the rest of the family.