I just finished making a birthday dinner for my step-daughter's

dawn_mo

dawn_mo

Well-known member
step-daughter. My step-daughter is out of town, so I made the dinner. This is what is making me crazy. I asked my husband to wrap up the birthday cake, which was on a serving dish. He questioned me about "won't the icing stick", I replied well it might a little but it will be okay, but you can stick toothpicks in it if you want. I go on about cleaning up and look over and see my husband picking up a porcipine cake from the serving dish, with half of it left behind on the dish, and trying to place it on a length of plastic wrap...acckkkkkkkkkkkkkkkk!

I had to leave the kitchen. Serenity now.

 
I'm impressed that you were even daring enough to ASK your DH to do it... mine wouldn't even

step foot in the kitchen if I was making a cake smileys/smile.gif

Deep breaths.... you can fix anything with enough frosting smileys/smile.gif

 
My 14-year-old is in the process of frosting his first cake... to be given to a favorite teacher...

...tomorrow.

I can't look.

I feel your pain.

Michael

 
Well that was nice of you! I'm genetically flawed with eyes that "speak" without my mouth ever

opening. Larry calls it the "Es.... Look" (my maiden name).

It's a matrilineal thing. Grew up hating it when my mother gave me "The Look"...and now I find myself doing it.

 
I'm of the opinion that any well trained...

...husband can glean volumes from his wife's facial expressions.

Genes do play a role. My wife, like her mother, can throw a shoe across a room and have it make a left turn in mid-flight, go down a hall and never make a mark on a wall. It only leaves a mark on its intended victim...

Michael

 
I left the room after he got the look...

too many sharp objects in the kitchen, best to remove myself. smileys/smile.gif

 
Soo funny! I've been amazed at how my intelligent, handle anything dh can screw up the simpliest

task in the kitchen. Another pet peeve. Can he not bend at the waist? Open refrigerator, stand in front, can't find it. I always reply "bend at the waist".

He's always willing to help, though and is a great pots and pan washer, dishwasher loader and, even better, unloader.

 
He did well, considering he's...

...left handed.

He blamed the inability to achieve full cake coverage on the fact that my frosting knife is not left-hand friendly.

I reminded him that the knife is perfectly symetrical, which makes it equally "friendly" to left and right handed cooks.

Practice...practice...practice!

Michael

 
LOL! "Bend at the waist"........

It's a genetic trait in my DH's family...smileys/wink.gif

I told my DH yesterday, when he was looking for something he "might" have put in the freezer last week - "Just let me look for it, you know you'll never find it." After all this time, he finally realized it was the truth, and stepped aside. smileys/smile.gif

 
That is so funny, my husband will often ask me where something is.

He opens refer/freezer/cupboard and looks..."it's not here", he announces. "Did you move things?" I ask. "No" "Never mind, I will come and find it for you!" So typical of men!

 
Michael, do you have a Lazy Susan (or a Lethargic Lucy?) handy?

Your son can try this idea:

Put some of that grippy rubber drawer liner stuff down, then set the cake down. Put a big old blob of icing on the cake, hold a knife or offset spatula PARALLEL to the cake surface, then gently spin the Lazy Susan. The icing will level out.

Same theory works on the sides. Smear icing all over them, then hold the knife/spatula VERTICAL and PARALLEL to the sides of the cake. Gently turn the base while lightly scraping the icing and the sides will smooth out.

Even easier on the sides is vertically holding a dough/pastry scraper or a 4" wide plastic spackling knife (although some folks will debate the safety of these plastics for food prep).

Once you get this concept down and want to go to another level of decoration, hold the rounded tip of the spatula at an angle on the smooth icing top, starting in the midpoint of the cake. While gently spinning the base, pull the spatula out toward the outside edges. It will make a spiral groove in the icing.

I'm sure I can find a YouTube that shows this WAY easier than I just explained it.

Okay, just found a YouTube that shows the icing principle. Doesn't include the spiral groove though....hmmm, that sounds like a disco dance from the 70's...."The Spiral Groove!"

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4o9n2uva4fw&NR=1

 
There is some very interesting research in the area - I remember discussing studies

that found women performed better than men in tasks involving finding one item in a larger group of a variety of items, while men performed better than women at directional related searches.

Interesting stuff!

 
I use a small Lazy Susan ( or a Lollygaggin' Lorraine) to make life easier.

Thanks for the spiral tip.

I also get a neat effect by barely touching the top of the cake with the tip of the knife and drawing parallel wiggly lines across the top, one right next to the other.

Thanks!

Michael

 
All I can think about is Rosanne Barr's line about how men must think the female...

...uterus is a homing device.

"Honeeeeeey! Wheeeeeres my Super Suit?" (Only pertinent if you are a Super Hero, or have seen Disney/Pixar's "The Incredibles".)

Michael

 
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