Goose Cake

Anyone who rows knows how annoying the geese on the river can be; they are slow to get out of the way when you are rowing and if you don't properly protect your dock they will defecate all over it.  So I was very excited yesterday when, for the first time, I hit a goose with my sweep oar while we were doing a piece (no, it did not die, I just whacked him/her on the head).  I decided to make a cake to commemorate the event!  On my row this morning, a goose starting honking at me in nearly the same location near Peter's Island.  I like to think (s)he was the same one that I had hit and remembered to stay away this time.

I made a simple chocolate cake using the 13" circular pans and put whipped cream with chocolate chunks in the filling.  The frosting was a simple butter cream frosting and the goose neck was made of melted dark and white chocolate piped onto parchment paper.  Since it is hot, I let the chocolate solidify in the fridge.  I used the same method for the oar, but added blue food coloring to the white chocolate.  The consistency of the white chocolate got a bit funny and stiff when I added the food coloring, but if worked well enough to to the second half of the oar blade.

Cake for the damaged boat

I stepped a bit too far back my first time getting out of a double and caused a slight crack in the deck.  I made an apology cake that documented the crack and also the lesson that I learned - watch your step.  I did put the seat on backwards though!  oops!

4th of July at Bachelor's 2013

This is the cake I brought to the Bachelor's boathouse July 4th party.  Simple outside, surprising inside!  It was made in the 13" cake pan and there are a lot of directions online how to make the cake pattern, here's one: http://www.bettycrocker.com/recipes/red-white-and-blue-layered-flag-cake/9aaef2a0-b01d-4cb8-9bab-c0d0451a1065

Wharton Sprints 2014

We had a lot of people at Wharton Sprints this spring so I made a very big cake for the post race party.  I believe it was made out of 6 cookie trays worth of cake.  Strawberry filling attached the layers and then White chocolate cream cheese frosting was used to decorate it.

We had boats from Yale, Harvard, and MIT participating in the race so I made a boat representing each of the teams.  The boats were frosted rice crispy treats and the oars were white chocolate with mini pretzels for the shaft. I used frosting to make the school's logos on the oar blades.

As you can see by the bow balls,  Wharton won the race (on the cake at least!)

I made ducks courting on the edge of the river out of frosting.

Engagement Cake

This is not officially a crew cake, but it's two of my favorite rowers and the proposal was at the boathouse, so I think it counts.

I believe the layers of the cake are 10" and 6" diameters.  the cake was a chocolate pound cake with a whipped cream and cream cheese filling accompanied by strawberries.  Again I used the white chocolate cream cheese frosting.  The tuxedo strawberries were dipped in white and then dark chocolate and the bowtie and buttons were added using toothpicks (my favorite decorating tool!).  I made extras in case some didn't work well or in something happened in transportation, but it was very useful to have the backups because at the party people kept eating them off the cake!

The interlocking white chocolate hearts were piped onto parchment paper and allowed to solidify.  I made sure to connect at as many points as possible to strengthen the structure so it could stand on its own.

The chocolate piped was done in the same way, following the instructions on this video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L-RM7JyToew.  The circumference of the bottom layer was too big for my fridge, so I had to make it in two pieces.

Final assembly of the cake:

And, the happy couple eating the cake - haven't we all wanted to just bit into a cake like this:

Frozen River

Our captain's birthday is in February, but following birthday tradition he still got thrown into the river, which was at the time partially frozen.  I had an extra cake from the Wharton Hammer event, so I made him a cake commemorating the event.

Wharton Hammer 2014

Someone on the team challenged me to make an erg cake for Wharton's annual indoor erg race, the Wharton Hammer.  This was made out of a single 9x13" cake pan and I free-handed cutting the cake to look like an erg.

Head of the Schuylkill 2013

For the head of the Schuylkill, I made a version of the Wharton Crew JL uni shirt (with a gold medal).  The cake was a basic chocolate cake and I think I used the white chocolate cream cheese frosting. I believe I used 4 9x13" pans to make the cake with frosting in between the two layers.  I assumed the cake, then cut off the shape for the arm holes in the sleeve. 

Navy Day 2013

For the Navy Day race hosted by the Schuylkill River Navy, I made this vanilla cake with strawberry filling and chocolate frosting.  I freehanded the logo of for the Schuylkill River Navy, mostly using toothpicks to spread the frosting and the writing was piped.

Cake was featured on row2k!  http://www.row2k.com/potd/10-13-2013/Navy-Day-Cake/2266/#.Vi-e5rTtJUQ

Dad Vails 2013

For Dad Vails I made a white chocolate paddy cake with a chocolate mousse filling.   It was frosted with a dark and white chocolate ganache.  This cake was also made in the 13" circular cake pan.  I just free-handed the decoration, looking a photo of a silhouette of a boat.  The first attempt for the coxswain looked a bit like a fetus, so I had to wipe it off and try again. 

I've decided to start blogging about my rowing cakes.  I'll start with my first rowing cake for Wharton Sprints in April, 2013.

This was a 13" cake and I believe this was a chocolate pound cake with white chocolate cream cheese frosting.  White chocolate cream cheese frosting is now my favorite frosting.  It is both delicious and a PERFECT spreading consistency.