A young guy at my work has agreed to be my personal guinea pig When I brought in the leftover cake from my bridal shower he had at least 3 pieces of it, he thought it was sooo good. Then today I brought in a chocolate amaretto cake with buttercream icing, and brought a piece over to him and I barely got back to my desk before I got an instant message from him saying how good it was.....here's the conversation

Now I have someone to give all my practice cakes to as well as the cakes that I make for our contests/challenges here at CC. (He's really skinny so I don't think it's going to hurt him any.)

Very fun!!!

Doesn't that make you feel so good and proud of yourself. When I make a cake for my DH to take to work, he prints out any emails he gets about it. Otherwise I pester him to death to tell me what everyone thought of the cake--LOL!

Yes, I think my baking skills for cakes has greatly improved since this site. My decorating skills are starting to improve as well thanks to this site.
I love this site!!!

I have gotten the same kind of responses from the cakes I have made. I think I have set myself up as the official cake person for my whole family!

Well, I tried the recipe that cali4dawn has on this site and it was ok. But I think I like the buttercream recipe out of the cake mix doctor best.

is it possible to have that buttercream recipe from the book ? I have been looking around to find that book, but I can't find it , and since I'm from Montreal , even the bookstores don't know what i'm talking about...

Or can someone help me ?

Here is my email [email protected]

Thanks in advance..

Awesome, you have your own personal cake tester. That always helps.

Can someone send me the recipe that cookieman posted for cake balls. I can't find it now.

Great thanks, but I thought that there was another that gave a recipe so to speak. I must be incorrect, I'm going to try it tonight! mmmmmmmm mmmmmmmm good. I can taste it now.

Yep..there was another one but I couldn't find it, so I thought I would at least post that one! Sorry!! I did print out the other one awhile back but now I just need to find it !! LOL!!

ok, I found it

2 cups crumbled cake scraps
2 tablespoons confectioners' sugar
2 tablespoons cocoa powder (if cake scraps are not chocolate based)
1/4 cup chopped almonds (or any other nut you like; or mini-chocolate chips; or mini M&MS...you get the idea!)
2 generous shots of amaretto (or any other liquer you may like--a good non-alcohol substitute is any flavored coffee creamer)

Put all ingredients in a mixer and mix on medium speed until the ingredients form a ball. If the mixture seems too dry, add a bit more of the liquid used to make it moist enough to form into balls.

I use a tablespoon cookie scoop to make the balls uniform in size. Roll the scooped dough in your hands to form a nice smooth ball. Allow cake balls to set on a parchment-lined cookie sheet for a couple of hours, then dip them in chocolate (following) or roll them in confectioners' sugar or cocoa.

Melt 1 lb. of candy melts and add approximately a tablespoon of Crisco to make it a bit more smooth. Also, put the container (in my case, a Pyrex measuring cup) of melted candy melts in a very hot (I use almost boiling) water bath to keep the chocolate fluid. Dip balls into the chocolate using a spoon and a dipping fork (in my case, a plastic fork with the two middle tines cut out). Don't worry if the dipped balls have a "foot" at the base after drying. You can break some off after they have hardened, and once they are in the little cake liners, no one will notice. Also, you can decorate the tops with just about anything: sprinkles, candy confetti, candy confetti, chopped nuts, etc befor they dry. Or, after they've dried, pipe designs with royal icing or melted candy melts of different colors.

If you have any questions...just ask!


THANK YOU COOKIEMAN!

You said he's skinny huh? Sounds like he needs some of your cake!!!!!!!!!!!!

I got all ready to tell you about my new Beta fish when I saw the title on this post...sorry, wrong kinda of guinea pig! ROFLMAO Janice

I made cookie balls out of a sugar-free chocolate cake that didn't turn out well, heavy as lead, etc., and even the cookie balls additions didn't save it. I can see where they would be really good with good cake!

ps: Betas don't eat much cake!

That's ok Janice I suppose I could have titled put 'cake guinea pig' in the title
Momof3 and angelkiss- I emailed you the recipe along with my variation on it. Now I am going to bed, good night.

Nah, the title was okay, I just wanted to talk about my fish and couldn't get him into a conversation about cakes otherwise. Have a good night...Janice

That's funny Janice! I was going to tell about my sons new bunny!

That was good story m0use! I have a lot of guniea pigs myself!! The most important one is the guy who fixes my computer when it's acting up! He always wants my homemade manicotti & a cake to take home with him! I make him just that! I wish every computer genius would take food as pay!! That's a great trade!!

Ya'll have a nice evening~

Great news about your impressing folks kiddo, proud of you!
Hugs Squirrelly

Well Miss MOuse,
First of all you are going to get a lot of customers, just because you are so nice. Then once you do a cake for them, they will be so impressed, well you are going to be scurrying around like a mouse in a cheese factory!
Hugs Squirrelly