Mistake #1: Not practicing ahead

I wish I had been a little more cognizant of the fact that without practicing ahead, I may very well buy twice as many ingredients because I will inevitably need to make more.  My husband warned me this might happen, and my procrastinating self loves to ignore good advice.

My #1 problem: cake volume.  I’m using Rose Levy Bernbaum’s Cake Bible, and she is a chemistry wizard.  Of course, not having worked with pans this size before (and only some experience with the recipes), I’m doomed to hit a brick wall.  I was up last night leveling and icing my 14″ layers to put in the freezer, and it looked AWESOME.  Only when I started washing the pan did I realize the total height was only 2.5″, not the required 4″ for a regular tier of cake.  At 3 in the morning, you can imagine how devastating this realization would be.

My #2 problem: Only one pan for each tier size. I should have dropped the bucks on another set of pans, but being cheapo, this more than doubles my baking time since I have to wait for the tiers to cool before I can put another one in. I’m also probably compromising the batter volume by having the rest sit out for so long.

So here I sit, waiting for my ingredients to reach room temperature, making more to either add on top of the ones I made, or, if the heavens are with me, for each of the layers to rise to their 1.5″ potential.

Either way, the cake tastes awesome.  Thank frickin’ goodness.

So far (don’t know what I’d do without Costco):

-Cracked 50 eggs
-Measured 25 cups of cake flour and 12.5 cups of sugar
-Incorporated 12.5 sticks of butter
-Added 8 cups of milk
-Mixed 5 lbs of confectioner’s sugar, 6 cups of shortening, and 6 sticks of butter into buttercream icing

And after I get these layers baked, I’m halfway there. Except for the 8 additional hours of fondant, stacking, and piping ahead.