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Show Custom Cake Decorating Adds Flair To Birthday j Cakes For Gardners LAYTON -- Custom cake decorating is a talent Cynthia Gardner has developed as she raises her family of four boys. HER INTEREST in cake decorating started several years ago when she made a cake for her one year old son. The boy wouldn't show any interest in his birthday cake. This was disappointing to Cynthia and her husband, hus-band, Ray. One year olds are supposed to get so excited about their first birthday cake that they will tear into it madly. Cynthia decided the problem was that the cake wasn't interesting enough to attract the child's attention. atten-tion. She vowed to make future birthday cakes and all cakes baked for special occasions personal and interesting. in-teresting. Because Cynthia has a talent for art, cake decorating comes easy for her. She has developed a decorating technique all her own. FIRST, CYNTHIA sketches out what the finished cake will look like. These patterns are kept to be used over again or to refer to when she needs new ideas. Cake patterns are made from large pieces of plain white paper. Facial details, clothing, etc. are included on the pattern. This makes it easier to mix frostings and to apply detail when Cynthia is icing the baked cake. IT IS IMPOSSIBLE to list all the designs Cynthia has used for cakes. The finished product reflects the personality per-sonality of the person who is to receive the cake. A cake that looked like a cake mix box was appropriate for a friend who didn't like to make cakes from scratch. A television addict received a cake decorated to resemble a T.V. set. For the youngster who enjoys after school snacks, Cynthia made a cake to look like a giant peanut butter and jelly sandwich. Another cake, oblong in shape, turned out to be a frosted calculator. Hamburger cakes, taco cakes, and disco hit record cakes are all other creations of Cynthia. Mrs. Gardner works as the secretary at Lay ton Elementary School. One of her cakes was shaped like the Layton Dragon symbol. THE GARDNER children can all trace their life's story through the pictures of cakes their mother has made for them. Baby cakes are cut into small squares and frosted to look like baby building blocks. Scouting achievements like earning the Cub Scout Bear, Wolf, Bobcat, Weblo and Arrow of Light awards were all honored by Cynthia who made special cakes to resent ble the award her child was receiving. When one of the Gardner boys was chosen to represent Layton High School as a Sterling Scholar, Cynthia made a scholarly-looking scholarly-looking cake. A Laytone cake was appropriate for a son who sang with this musical group. Two of Cynthia's sons have worked as checkers in local grocery stores. A cake decorated to look like a grocery bag was very appropriate for these boys. Cynthia purchased small packages of groceries and gathered sample products to "fill" the empty bag. Cynthia says she prefers baking the cakes she is going to decorate in a conventional round, square or oblong cake pan. "You are too restricted when you buy a cake pan that is made in a certain shape," she says. THE FIRST thing you must do when you want to decorate a cake is to decide on the design you want. Choose a pan to fit the design that you have sketched out. CYNTHIA SAYS any cake is alright to decorate. When baking the cake, she wraps a piece of moist terry cloth around the outside edge of the cake pan. Cynthia has a special piece of material cut that will just fit her baking pans. The moist terry cloth cools the outside of the pan and the cake bakes at a more uniform rate. The edges don't get done before the middle. This is important impor-tant because it is much easier to decorate a cake that is level and free of cracks. After the cake has cooled, Cynthia removes it from the pan and allows it to sit unfrosted overnight or for several hours. This dries the sides out a little and makes the cake easier to frost. CYNTHIA DOESN'T use any special frosting recipe. She combines powdered sugar, shortening, vanilla, canned milk and sometimes a little Cool Whip. She blends the frosting ingredients with an electric mixer. Colors are formed using the liquid food coloring. The frosting keeps well when stored in a covered dish in the refrigerator. CYNTHIA places her pattern in front of the cake and starts by doing the big areas first. Details are added by using a frosting tube and different shaped tips. Often cake decorating and other homemaking arts go unoticed and unappreciated. Recently Cynthia received re-ceived a special reward for her cake-decorating efforts. Her sons made her a rainbow cake for her birthday. |