Melted Minon

College is a time for learning and experimenting. Me...I ran out of milk one day so I experimented with putting egg nog in my cereal in replacement (the logic? it's made out of milk and it's already sweet so I didn't have to sprinkle sugar on the cereal). Don't do that. A perfectly good bowl of unsuspecting and innocent cereal massacred. Most of us have stories to various degrees of hilarity of lessons learned in college. Hailey sent us in a lesson their apartment discovered while trying to make a Minion Cake. 

The Original Pin

http://rm16uhps.blogspot.com/2010/11/terrific-tio-cakes.html

Pretty good?! I'd give them a thumbs up. They did pretty good recreating the minion from Despicable Me.

http://www.amazon.com/Despicable-Single-Disc-Edition-Steve-Carell/dp/B0042U94UQ 

So, let's see what Hailey's roommates came up with. 

The Pinstrosity

I'll admit it...I busted up laughing when I opened this email. This is fantastic. Maybe it's a Jabba the Hutt Minon? 

According to Hailey, the roommates "made the red velvet cake in the microwave in a huge mug, first problem.  The frosting underneath was as thin as water.  She burned the fondant so it was chunky, and then tried to color it and the color wouldn't blend.  It wasn't dry enough so it drooped. It was the most horrendous thing I've ever seen, and tasted.  It tasted very spongy."

So let's address each point. 

1. "She made the red velvet cake in the microwave in a huge mug". Microwaves cook food not with direct heat but with, well...microwaves. When food is heated in the microwave it cooks differently that it would in the oven. The texture of the microwave mugs can be anywhere from mostly normal to Spongebob. According to hurryupcakes.com, "many microwave cakes have a rubbery texture and/or more than a hint of “poached egg” flavor. Another big difficulty with microwaved cake is how quickly they dry out — which is quickly. Very, very quickly." 

2. "The frosting underneath was as thin as water." Well...that's not good at all. You definitely need frosting the right consistency. A good test to see if the frosting consistency is about right is to scoop up a spoonful and then turn the spoon so the icing can slide off. If the icing runs of or slides off quickly it is too thin. It should slowly "slide" off the spoon. If it doesn't move at all, you might need to thin it out some. There are various methods for thickening icing. Buttercream frosting (which is the frosting that is suggested for use as the base under fondant) can be temperamental. Mixing it in high heat or humidity can make it melt and be too runny. Try chilling the frosting first to see if that "thickens" the frosting up. If that doesn't work you can add 1 TBS of powdered sugar at a time, mixing thoroughly. Some people use shortening instead of butter as shortening doesn't melt the same. If you're making your frosting from scratch, add less liquid than the recipe calls for...it's sometimes easier to add little bits of liquid later to thin than it is to thicken the frosting. 

3. "She burned the fondant so it was chunky, and then tried to color it and the color wouldn't blend. It wasn't dry enough so it drooped." Fondant can be tricky, especially if you're making your own. Having never worked with fondant myself, I'm not even going to try to pretend I know exactly what to do. I read a few great sites that I found by Googling "How to decorate with Fondant". One great one I found is http://www.wilton.com/decorating/fondant/, with helps on how to color fondant, shape it, smooth it, etc. 

One thing I did learn in college though...these projects that turn out funky are perfect for leaving on  your friends doorstep. Place it in front of the door, knock, run to a good hiding spot and watch their reactions. It's funny what college kids find funny, isn't it?