These Cakes are Fakes!!

I nurtured my inner Martha this weekend in preparation for my dear friend Monica's bridal shower. I made "fake cakes"- one being a "cake" out of the sage towels she registered for a Macy's and the other were sugar cookies shaped like wedding cakes. Both turned out to be fabulous and delicious- in that order.

Cake Number 1: The Martha Stewart Egyptian Cotton Cake




This was the first time I have ever made one of these and I actually had planned to buy something else from M's registry but it had been purchased. When I saw the sage green Martha Stewart Towels, I seized the opportunity to do this. I went online for the directions but I realized I didn't have enough towels and safety pins- so I adapted the directions. Here's how I did it:

a) bought two sets of bath towels, hand towels, and wash cloths; bought ribbons (hooray for the dollar bin) and fake flowers from Michaels in the wedding section

b) folded and rolled the towels into the shapes thanks to Thinkwedding.com; did not use safety pins but tied things in place with the ribbon. I used a paper towel roll to fill out the hand towel and wash cloth layers because I didn't buy three of those just two. It worked out fine.

c) decorated with the faux flowers. There is a backside to this cake that isn't so pretty but everywhere else, it was terrific. And at the shower, the faux flowers greatly added to the bouquet that was made for M to carry at the rehearsal dinner!

I would definitely do this again and the sage green was a fun color to work with!

Cake Number 2: The Martha Stewart Wedding Cookies



I have been making sugar cookies using this Martha recipe for years. They are my specialty and I was up until the wee hours putting the final touches on- but I love doing it and all of the wedding shows were on TLC late at night, which was appropriate and fun! This time I used eggs from Full Belly Farms. They were expensive eggs but they are from chickens that are truly grass-fed and pastured (I've been there and seen it for myself!) and you know, the eggs look and taste differently. The eggs are speckled and the yolks are bright yellow and stand up. The dough turned a brilliant yellow and was the most supple dough I have ever made. Perfect!



The cookies have a simple royal icing frosting made with meringue powder- no raw eggs because of kids and pregnant women. The best recipes for this I have found in the Sugarbakers Cookie Cutter Cookbook, which is out of print but available used. It had recipes for outline, flow and base consistency icings with meringue powder or egg whites. So you can see the finished products. They were lovely. I put them in clear bags and tied them with ribbons. On my Great Aunt Enie's silver tray, they were lovely.







My final thought on these faux cakes is how many cupcakes and cake shaped sugar cookies I have made recently and how few cakes. I love making cake but it is a lot of dessert for the two of us to have in the house. When I was in college, I would make a sheet cake each week from scratch and share it with my friends and roommates. M reminded me of this at her shower today. I think I will have to make some cakes in between the pies. I love doing it too.