Baker Baker, Baking a Cake

This Wednesday night is the Lost Season Finale, and Cranky Fanatic Big-O is having a finale party here is Chicago. In my book, all celebrations need cake. Therefore, I'm attempting my very first fondant cake in an attempt to create something Lost-themed.

The cake itself is a Margarita Cake, basically a white cake that used margarita mix for the liquid. Honestly, I really haven't gotten the whole cake thing down. My mom, although she'll deny it, is a master. Mine are usually too dry or too dense or too bland or too something. I just finished making the cake layers, and the smaller top layer seems okay, but I used a single large round cake pan for the base and I think it was probably too big. Perhaps the reason that smaller, individual layer pans are used for conventional home ovens is that there isn't enough even air circulation for the big pans. I plan to use a strawberry preserve filling and frosting in between layers, though, so that will help if it's dry.

I'm going to decorate the base of the cake with regular shortening-based blue frosting. That should be easy since it's representing waves and doesn't have to be any sort of smooth. I would use buttercream since most people prefer it (I, myself prefer the supersweet stuff) but I can't refrigerate the fondant so this will be more compatible.

The fondant was a spur-of-the moment inspiration. I was listening to the Dharmalars Finale Predictions podcast earlier today and, oddly enough, they were discussing fondant with Jorge Garcia (he's an Ace of Cakes fan). I think that was the catalyst. The top, smaller layer will (in theory) be covered in green fondant to represent the island, and I plan on piping on a simplified version of the hatch map. I have absolutely no experience with fondant (other than eating it) so this is entirely experimental. I followed a recipe on the Wilton site, and it went so well that I'm suspicious. It can't be that easy. It's all wrapped up in an airtight container, and on a double-check seems to be fine, but I'm convinced that I will come home tomorrow to something rock-hard and unusable. Or maybe the hard part is getting it on the cake? We'll see, and I'll let you know how it goes!