For awhile I’ve been feeling as though I need to get away from the computer and physically make something with my hands. At the same time, I am not in a position to take on yet another project. I am a die-hard project-girl but even I have limits as to how many projects can be going on at one time. So, when my Village decided to celebrate it’s anniversary with a cake decorating competition, I signed up. Admittedly, making a cake / learning how to decorate a cake was another project, but since I could start and finish the whole thing in only two days it hardly counted.

I’ve always been a stress-baker. When I’m super frazzled I like to bake a cake or some cookies – my best theory on this is that it’s something I can cross off my list in only 1 hour – replacing some of my stress with a small sense of accomplishment. However, I’ve never really decorated my baked goods. Sure, I’ll do multi-colored frosting on cookies every once and awhile for special occasions, but I haven’t ever really decorated a cake. I decided it couldn’t be too difficult, afterall I have a degree in Industrial Design…

Gum paste turned out to be the gummiest material I’ve ever tried to work with. It didn’t behave at all like clay – which is what I was anticipating. So I adjusted my plan from handcut maple leaves to leaves cut out with a maple leaf cookie cutter (thanks Meaghan for the cookie cutter). That worked much better, so I did that for all of the leaves and then used a toothpick to make veins. I colored the leaves by painting on food coloring, and then I drapped the leaves over a muffin pan so they could harden overnight in interesting leaf-like shapes. At the end I still had some gum paste left so I cut out little circles and arranged them in measuring spoons, thinking that maybe I’d make them into flowers later if I felt like it.

We had a bunch of ripe bananas so I decided to make a banana cake. Cream cheese frosting was recommended in recipe and it’s obviously the best type of frosting there is, so that was a given, but I added some maple extract to tie the theme all together. Also, banana cake & maple cream cheese frosting sounded like a winning combination to me (and it was, the cake was crazy delicious). I LOVE the Cake Doctor and highly recommend all of her recipes, the banana cake recipe I used can be found here.

I originally thought I’d do white frosting since the leaves were already so colorful, but then I decided I’d have more fun decorating the more gaudy I went.

The final cake ended up being made up of five 9inch rounds, two cut down for snacking and tiering. I did decide to use the measuring cup flowers, I piped some frosting in the middle and added a brown Reeces Pieces and I think they turned out really cute. I also made a little “Happy Birthday” banner that listed ingredients on the back side in case anyone had allergies and needed to know what type of cake it was.

Competitions like this bring out my competive streak – I definitely entered to win. What’s the point of entering something like this if you’re not out to crush the competition in the 16 and up age bracket ? On that note, I am happy to report that I co-won the bracket and I now share the title of “Best Maple Bluff Baker” with the other winners. So don’t be suprised if you see me casually strolling down the street in my custom made “Best Maple Bluff Baker” apron, I plan on wearing it often.