Our challenge began by trying to decide what cake to make. Megan, very thorough in her search for the perfect cake recipe, went to Google and typed "the best chocolate cake recipe".... and went with the very first recipe that came up. Adam was originally going to make a white cake, but once he heard that Megan was making chocolate, he decided to make a chocolate cake as well. He spent more time researching different recipes for a couple days until he found one that he liked.
So now the actual making of the cake. We began by making the grocery list....and realized that we were going to be buying a ridiculous amount of sugar. For your enjoyment, here's a picture of all the healthy things we purchased that weekend:
I know what you're thinking, but no, we did not make a cake from a box, the cake mix is just one ingredient in one of cakes. So now that we'd loaded up on sugar, we were ready to begin!
We'll begin with Megan's cake. Megan's plan was to make a two-tiered cake (two layers per tier). Megan started off by realizing that she had forgotten to put two ingredients on the grocery list (SUCH a pain!). Luckily for her, Adam was nice enough to go back to the store and pick up the two missing ingredients. After that, making the cake was fairly easy. We did however, realize why people own more than one round cake pan. We were able to use one of our pie pans to make the other layer, since half the layers would be trimmed into smaller rounds for the top tier anyway. Mixing and baking went smoothly. Due to a busy weekend schedule, Megan made the frosting two days later after work. The frosting turned out pretty good, with no real problems. Then, the most challenging part.... how does she get two tiers of cake to work (this includes 1 hr and 20 min car ride plus another 20 minutes on the T and a 5 minute walk to the office). For anyone who hasn't recently picked up a two tier cake, they are much heavier than they look (especially when standing and holding the cake on a crowded subway line and walking to the office in the rain). Megan also had a large container of frosting in her backpack that helped weigh her down on the trip to work as well. Once Megan got the cake to the office, she met up with a co-worker, who had brought cake decorations, to complete the cake. Megan and her co-worker rolled out fondant frosting to cover the cake. The funny part here was that her co-worker forgot her rolling pin at home. You'd think that the grocery store would have rolling pins (or at least Megan and her co-worker thought they did), but it turns out they don't. Luckily, her co-worker is pretty creative, and returned with a can of vegetables that we were able to use to roll out the fondant frosting. This took a bit longer than originally planned, but it worked. Then we stacked the tiers and completed decorating. For the completed cake, check it out below! Megan's co-worker even found a bride for a cake topper that had the same color dress that Megan's friend was going to be wearing!
Now for Adam's cake.... Adam started his cake two days after Megan began her cake. Adam's recipe was fairly straightforward. One surprise, was that the uncooked batter was thinner than Adam had expected as it was fairly runny. The frosting that Adam made came from a separate cake recipe that must have been for a much larger cake as Adam ended up with a TON of left over frosting. All said and done, Adam ended up using about half the frosting that the recipe made. Because it was a chocolate on chocolate cake, Adam decided to use a pastry bag to add some decorations on the sides of the cake. Instead of making more frosting, he used a small portion of what was leftover from before. Because Megan had brought her cake to work on our one and only round cake storage container, Adam had to use a platter that ended up warping the sides of his cake. Other than that, Adam's mixing and baking went pretty well. See below for the picture of Adam's finished product!
Now the tough part... who wins?
Difficulty: Megan
Taste: Adam liked his better, Megan liked hers better
Presentation: Let's leave that to the readers! So vote by leaving a comment to let us know who you think should win based on presentation.
In our next post, we'll let you know who wins!
Next challenge: Entree! and more specifically - Pasta!
