Cake For Girls and Boys

So,

I just finished day 3 of my new job.  I love it.  It is fast-paced, fun, the people are really nice, I get to be creative and innovative and really affect change.  The first couple days have been info overload, but I'm starting to get tasks and actually use all the info they have been downloading into my brain. Soon I will just be a normal worker going about my daily duties.  Tomorrow as part of our staff meeting we'll be watching a little March madness.  Like I said, I love this job.

Here's my latest cake:

I colored the batter bright green and pink, and then swirled the colors together. The pink turned out  awesome, but I 'll go for a darker green next time...this was a little too yellow.

We were celebrating birthdays for 1 girl and 2 boys, so I had to split the cake! I ran out of frosting so I was scrounging at the end.  That's why you see pink frosting along the bottom of the boy side.  It's supposed to be green.  

A couple things I've learned so far:

1. Made from scratch cakes are pretty good, but they're a lot of work (and mess) and most people prefer the light fluffy-ness of a boxed cake mix.  Made from scratch cakes tend to be dense.

2. Generic brand whipping cream doesn't thicken...either at all, or just not as fast as the name brand stuff. I beat that cream forever and it didn't turn thick. I wasn't willing to spend any more time on it, so this cake ended up with a little thinner strawberry cream filling.

3. I need a walk-in refrigerator to frost because it seems like my frosting kind of melts and de-thickens before I get done frosting.

4. Using more than 2 colors per cake is difficult when it comes to changing frosting tips...you have to wash it every time you need to switch the color.  Solution: buy duplicate tips.

5.  2 Layer round cakes are the easiest to maneuver.  Cutting a 9X13 in half long ways is really hard. It's also harder to move the cake around because it covers more area and is more likely to bend or break in half during transportation.  

I like making cakes. It's so fun, and I'm really learning to simplify the process!