Baby Blocks Cake

[onehsancare]

My goal: a cake that looks like two baby blocks stacked on top of each other, the one on top smaller than the other.

My plan (over-thought and overwrought):

Cake one: 8” coconut cake, filled with coconut filling. I think I use the Peninsula Grill recipe with a few tweaks—I’ve used it for so long and retyped it for my needs, its provenance is cloudy at best. The recipe calls for three 9” rounds, so it should make three 8” squares. I’ll make two batches, and will use four (or five, if necessary) layers to make the first big block. Instead of one four-layer cake (with three filling strata), I thought I’d make two two-layer cakes and stack them, with a cake board in between to increase stability.

Cake two: 4” yellow butter cake, filled with raspberry jam. RLB’s recipe, not worrying about a cake board in the middle.

Construction/Decoration: Bake and fill both two-layer coconut cakes, each on its own board, remembering that I have at least one extra layer if necessary for proper proportions. Ice bottom cake, including top. Insert straws, cut to measure, around the perimeter. Place upper cake in place. Do I need a dowel driven through the entire cake at this point? Finish white icing. Apply colored icing to big cake, except top. Ice small cake in white. Place on top of big cake. (No need for a board, right?) Insert two big straws through small cake and top two layers of big cake, down to first (upper) board? Finish decorating top of big cake. Apply colored icing to small cake.

Transport: 1.5 hours.

Am I doing everything in the right order? Am I worrying about the right things? Advice?

[Tri2Cook]

The only thing you may be overthinking, keeping in mind that I'm no cake artist, is that a 4" cube on an 8" cube probably won't need a whole lot of support. Just a little something to keep things from sliding during transport I would think and probably not even that if the weather's not too warm.

[JeanneCake]

I'd use a bamboo skewer or dowel to anchor the two together because you're driving with it for a long time. It won't hurt and gives you a measure of security in case the roads are bumpy or under construction.

You're building the 4" block on a cardboard, right? Otherwise I think you're fine. If you can, chill the finished cake overnight before you start on your trip and keep it on a flat surface - the floor or cargo area - while driving. I once had a woman pick up a two tier cake (it was small) and she put it on a suitcase (flat surface, remember?!) in the back seat and drove with it. The first time she went around a corner, it slid, and the top tier kept sliding after the bottom tier stopped

[K8memphis]

Let me hasten to say 'the bridge is out' on this one. In the first place, you cannot cut an 8" square out of a 10" cake.

You will have 16 right angles to make and 10 surfaces to get smooth connected by the 16 right angles. Then decorate 9 surfaces. This is not a project for beginners or the timid.

I understand how deceptive baby blocks appear. Believe me they are engineering nightmares.

So you definitely need two sets of dowel in a cake that will be 12 inches tall--a 4" cube on top of an 8" cube. Plus you need to secure the insides of the 4". No board under the 4" cube--you gotta be kidding.

All the manipulation for the smoothing smoothing smoothing--I have a friend who I admire who is a very accomplished sought after wedding caker and one of her baby blocks crumbled--she's a pro and pulled it out of the fire but still.

Baby blocks send shivers down the spine of most decorators who have attempted them. They are very difficult.

Do not use freshly baked cake--use frozen cake--I don't know if I would jetison the chichi foofoo fillings and cake--this needs to be made from sturdy stock performance cake that can be mangled a little and survive. I mean a pro could do it but fill a 4" cake? Why? You're gonna have like 2 inches of filling in there and why add the slippery factor to your list of things to have to watch out for.

I think you should bake your lovely cakes and put some chocolate baby blocks on there or something. Or practice this first. It's much more than you think it is.

But I mean plan on taking three times as much time as you originally planned and you should be fine. They are very deceptive.

Edited October 1, 2008 by K8memphis (log)

[onehsancare]

Thanks for the help!

K8, I don't know what you mean about cutting an 8" cake out of a 10" one--I'm using 8" square pans. I'll take your advice and ditch the filling--were you thinking that the four layers and two strata of filling would be 10" high? I'm not wedded to four layers--however many it takes with icing in between to be an 8" cube is what I'm going to use.

The raspberry filling will be just a thin layer of jam, so that shouldn't be a problem.

I'll put a board under the small cake and secure it all the way through to the bottom (i.e., use a 12" dowel).

I haven't sculpted with the coconut cake before, but it's pretty sturdy. Are you thinking I should construct with still-frozen cake layers? Then defrost before icing?

You guys are great!

[Tri2Cook]

Let me hasten to say 'the bridge is out' on this one. In the first place, you cannot cut an 8" square out of a 10" cake.

You will have 16 right angles to make and 10 surfaces to get smooth connected by the 16 right angles. Then decorate 9 surfaces. This is not a project for beginners or the timid.

I understand how deceptive baby blocks appear. Believe me they are engineering nightmares.

So you definitely need two sets of dowel in a cake that will be 12 inches tall--a 4" cube on top of an 8" cube. Plus you need to secure the insides of the 4". No board under the 4" cube--you gotta be kidding.

All the manipulation for the smoothing smoothing smoothing--I have a friend who I admire who is a very accomplished sought after wedding caker and one of her baby blocks crumbled--she's a pro and pulled it out of the fire but still.

Baby blocks send shivers down the spine of most decorators who have attempted them. They are very difficult.

Do not use freshly baked cake--use frozen cake--I don't know if I would jetison the chichi foofoo fillings and cake--this needs to be made from sturdy stock performance cake that can be mangled a little and survive. I mean a pro could do it but fill a 4" cake? Why? You're gonna have like 2 inches of filling in there and why add the slippery factor to your list of things to have to watch out for.

I think you should bake your lovely cakes and put some chocolate baby blocks on there or something. Or practice this first. It's much more than you think it is.

But I mean plan on taking three times as much time as you originally planned and you should be fine. They are very deceptive.

←

Ok, I already admitted I'm no cake artist but I was picturing four 8"x1 1/2" square layers (+ icing and filling) for the bottom and two 4"x1 1/2" layers (+ icing and filling) for the top. Something like this (random web image I searched up as an example) stacked which didn't seem too difficult in my head. Is the main difficulty getting everything nice and square?

Disclaimer: not being argumentive, just trying to learn from those who do this sort of thing.

[JeanneCake]

I do baby block cakes a lot; usually I use a 7" square and it's on the lines of the picture Tri2Cook linked to. I make four layers of cake and three thin layers of filling. The height isn't 7" tall, but more like 5 or 6 and it works. It isn't a perfect cube, but I don't need a perfect cube for the effect. It's a PITA to get squared edges but the reality is, there's a border or some other decorative effect at the edges that helps to hide any imperfections that might occur

Usually if they need to serve a lot of people, I suggest they get four individual blocks and have each one a different letter: B A B Y. It is more work for me, but it's easier for them to transport (I put them on separate boards, they move them close together when they display them).

If you already have a 4" pan, you could just bake a LOT of 4" squares and do the four layers cake/three layers filling idea and make four blocks and avoid the whole stacking issue altogether. But that's only if you like the idea and need that much cake. But there's nothing wrong with leftover cake!!

I love the Peninsula Grill filling, I use the food processor to grind up the shredded coconut so it's not quite so long when you're eating it. I think this would work with either size, because it is going to be thin and not a thick slather. (If it were a thick layer of filling, it would be a hazard, I agree.) Use a buttercream dam around the edge for insurance.

You'll be fine!

[onehsancare]

Tri2Cook--that's exactly what I had in mind! I thought it would be within my abilities. . .

Jeanne--Thanks! I was hoping that the borders would hide a multitude of sins; it's good to have that confirmed! Everyone loves the filling--if you think it won't be a hazard if I grind the coconut a little smaller, I'd sure like to use it. I was planning on a buttercream dam.

Thanks for the vote of confidence.

What about freezing the cake--necessary? construct with it still frozen?

[JeanneCake]

I think if you use well chilled cake layers you'll be fine. If you use rm temp layers, you get lots of crumbs and risk breaking/cracking the bigger layers. If I freeze any cake, I let it thaw overnight, but I know of other bakers who use the frozen layers and seem to have no ill effects.

I like grinding the coconut because the long shreds can be a pain, the shorter strands make handling and eating it easier. I have also found that I can use this filling the day I make it, I just dump in the coconut when the "custard" is still cooling but not too hot. I've also been known to add more coconut than it calls for

[K8memphis]

My goal:  a cake that looks like two baby blocks stacked on top of each other, the one on top smaller than the other.

My plan (over-thought and overwrought):

Cake one:  8” coconut cake, filled with coconut filling.  I think I use the Peninsula Grill recipe with a few tweaks—I’ve used it for so long and retyped it for my needs, its provenance is cloudy at best.  The recipe calls for three 9” rounds, so it should make three 8” squares. I’ll make two batches, and will use four (or five, if necessary) layers to make the first big block.  Instead of one four-layer cake (with three filling strata), I thought I’d make two two-layer cakes and stack them, with a cake board in between to increase stability. 

Cake two:  4” yellow butter cake, filled with raspberry jam.  RLB’s recipe, not worrying about a cake board in the middle.

Construction/Decoration:  Bake and fill both two-layer coconut cakes, each on its own board, remembering that I have at least one extra layer if necessary for proper proportions.  Ice bottom cake, including top.  Insert straws, cut to measure, around the perimeter.  Place upper cake in place.  Do I need a dowel driven through the entire cake at this point?  Finish white icing.  Apply colored icing to big cake, except top.  Ice small cake in white.  Place on top of big cake.  (No need for a board, right?)  Insert two big straws through small cake and top two layers of big cake, down to first (upper) board?  Finish decorating top of big cake.  Apply colored icing to small cake.

Transport: 1.5 hours.

Am I doing everything in the right order?  Am I worrying about the right things?  Advice?

←

I thought you were using round cakes to cut 8" squares out of--my bad.

The dowel need to go where they will bear the weight of the tier above--place them in from the perimeter.

If you don't board and dowel the middle tier you will have eight inches of cake stacked all on itself and I don't think it will make the trip. I might have misunderstood that part too. But you need to dowel every 4 or 5 inches of cake height. So two sets of dowel in the 8".

I tell my daughter that flourless cake is easy because it is, yes? But the first time she makes it she wants to kill me because the first time someone makes something it's unknown ergo difficult. So these are your first baby blocks and they ain't easy. Just be advised.

I know you'll do good especially if you plan on using lots more time than you have planned. Maybe you will be the exeption to the rule and be fast and wonderful at it. Great!

[onehsancare]

It wasn't until I saw your highlighted text that I realized I'd left out the part about using the 8" square pans. (I just meant the batter should fill three 8" squares.) No wonder you were concerned!

Thanks for all of your help. You're right--the first time for anything is going to be ten times as hard as the second . . . which is why I'm asking for all this hand-holding here!!

[onehsancare]

Report:

The construction worked out just fine. After putting together the larger cube, I realized that putting the smaller cube on top would look disproportionate--sort of pinhead-y and tower-y. So, I put it next to the bigger one, and I was satisfied. The dowels were easy.

K8 was right--I severely underestimated the effort and skill needed to smooth sufficiently, and I'm not particularly happy with what I settled for, but it was late and time to say good enough.

The other problem was the texture of the icing. I have only myself to blame for this--instead of using a buttercream that I know pipes well, lays smooth, and holds, I used a coconut cream cheese frosting that everyone loves that I make with sweetened coconut cream in addition to the cream cheese and butter. It tastes divine, but boy, is it soft! I ended up adding some extra confectioner's sugar to stiffen it before icing the entire cake (probably not enough), but needed to add cups of extra sugar to stiffen the colored icing enough so it wouldn't slide off the sides of the cake. So my piping (which only gets a B+ on my best days, anyway) isn't anything to write home about. (And, in retrospect, my judgment at 1:00 am was impaired--I should have spent the five minutes to find the star cookie cutter rather than free-handing a star shape.)

I'm at the office (where I dropped off the cake) and will post a photo when I get home. THANKS for all of your help--I wouldn't have felt confident enough to try it without you all!

Edited October 6, 2008 by onehsancare (log)

[K8memphis]

Oh you did Good!!!

For your first baby blocks with ribbly icing??

You da bombshabomb!!!

<insert clapping hands smilie face>

[gfron1]

those really are great - congrats! Wait til they grow up and want you to make full size basketball cakes and such

Edited October 6, 2008 by gfron1 (log)

[Tri2Cook]

Very nice.