Friday 9 November 2012

Next Challenge - pirate treasure chest cake

My second son is about to turn 7 and he has asked me to make him a pirate treasure chest for his birthday.  Like all of my projects, I have no experience in this, so it just comes down to researching the easiest way to do this.  Stay tuned for result which I will post around 29th November!

Wednesday 7 November 2012

How to make a rainbow cake

To make the rainbow cake for my son's baptism, I made a white chocolate mud cake courtesy of www.exclusivelyfood.com.au.  The cake was perfect as it turns out quite dense.  However, probably any vanilla type cake recipe would work.  It is great to cut into the hidden rainbow layers - kids get a really nice surprise and if you cover in fondant, you can make this cake in advance - I made it on a Thursday and it was cut on a Sunday.  I researched whether or not to refrigerate and after lots of conflicting advice, I popped the cake covered in fondant with cream cheese in between each layer into the fridge on the Friday.  It was quite a hot Brisbane day on the Sunday and when I took the cake out of the fridge it was fine.  There was a little sweating of the fondant but nothing noticeable, so there you go - I will not hesitate to refrigerate next time!

I increased ingredients by 50%, as follows:

450g white chocolate (Cadbury Dream white chocolate)
300g butter (if using unsalted butter, add 1/4 teaspoon fine table salt with the butter)
375ml milk
1 and 1/4 cup) caster sugar
3 teaspoons vanilla extract
3 eggs, lightly beaten
1.5 cup plain flour


I used 2 20cm square cake pans lined with baking paper.

STEP 1:

Stir chocolate, butter, milk and sugar in a saucepan over low heat.  Remove once chocolate and butter have melted, and stir until smooth, then allow to cool at room temperature.

STEP 2:

Stir in vanilla and eggs to the cooled chocolate mixture.

STEP3:

Stir flours together in a large bowl. Gradually add flour to chocolate mixture to avoid lumps.




STEP 4:

Use four containers the same size to equally divide cake mixture (this is to make a 4 layered cake).


 

 

STEP 5:

Add food colouring to each container to get desired colour - I tend to go a bit brighter than what I want as I find that the colour will be less intense once baked.



STEP 6:

Pour one layer into cake pan and bake (I did two at a time as I used 2 cake pans).  I found that for this recipe, I baked each layer at about 160 degrees (not fan forced) for about 15-20 minutes.  This will vary though depending on oven and you will have to watch them so they don't burn - look for little bubbles forming on the top as this is a good indication of when cake is baked.


STEP 7:

Once all layers are baked, allow to cool completely. Prepare either buttercream or cream cheese icing which is what I used.  Recipe to layer the cake as well as cover outside is as follows:
60 g butter, softened
1600 g cream cheese, softened
3 cups icing sugar, sifted
Beat butter and cheese in a small bowl with an electric mixer until light and airy. Gradually beat in sifted icing sugar until the icing is fluffy.

This recipe will make quite a lot of icing, I used a fair bit to get layers to sit fairly even and used left over to make swirls on some cupcakes I had made.  Keep refrigerated to make it easier to use for swirls.


STEP 8:

Use icing to stick all layers together and cover outside of cake. I finished my cake by covering with fondant!  But you could also just use the icing like below:


 


Sunday 4 November 2012

Teddy Bear fondant baptism cake

Am happy to say that the teddy bear fondant white chocolate rainbow baptism cake actually turned out okay ! I just need to improve my handwriting...... I will publish some details of how to make the cake later in the week.


Thursday 25 October 2012

Currently working on baptism cake

So my darling little boy is to be baptised next Sunday and I have decided to make his baptism cake.  Why would I do that?  I have never really attempted anything quite like this before, but I love a challenge.  So in the next week,  I am going to do a white chocolate rainbow cake layered with white chocolate buttercream and covered with a lovely lustre blue fondant.  For the top I am making two cute little gum paste teddies and to finish it all off, I will layer a blue bow around the bottom of the cake.  Good luck I say! I will post how it all goes.........

I will also add some of my cake bunting - I will post how to make that soon!

Tuesday 23 October 2012

November Giveaway, heart fondant plungers

As I have just started my blog, I think it is necessary to have a giveaway, win these awesome heart plungers that can be used for fondant or even try on cookies.  All you have to do to win is make a comment or become a follower between now and the end of November, so good luck!

Item image

Wednesday 17 October 2012

Party Paper decorations coming soon......

Marshmallow Fondant Flowers with bees

So, I have managed to actually create some cute little vanilla cupcakes topped with cute little marshmallow fondant flowers and bees. Keep reading to see all the steps...

Ingredients/supplies:
1 x packet marshmallows
food colouring
icing sugar
black edible writing pen
1 x set of flower plungers
white chocolate or slivered almonds for bees wings

Buy the flower plungers from here:
http://www.craftumi.com.au/detail.asp?id=79045


Pre-made, iced cupcakes

STEP 1:

Place marshmallows in a microwave safe bowl.  The amount of marshmallows depends on the number of flowers you want to make.  From my experience about 15 will make about 10 flowers with the centre piece and bees.  Microwave on normal setting for 10 seconds and then check, they should all melt and look something like this:

do another 5 seconds at a time if not melted
STEP 2:

Add icing sugar into the bowl with the melted marshmallows. I recommend about 1 tablespoon at a time, it will be very sticky but persist and it will come together as a sticky dough, like this:
STEP 3:

Place onto a hard surface dusted with icing sugar, may also be necessary to put some icing sugar on rolling pin to stop sticking.  Roll out quite thin - about 1-2mm.

STEP 4:

Take a flower plunger and lightly spray with oil (vegetable or canola is fine).  This will make getting the flower out of the plunger very easy. 

You will notice the plunger looks like the below when pushed fully in


Like the below when pulled out


STEP 5:

Make sure plunger is pulled out as in photo directly above and cut into the rolled fondant:

STEP 6:

Wiggle plunger side to side slightly until it completely comes away from fondant.  Then push plunger down and flower will come out:

STEP 7:

To make bees and flower centres- melt white marshmallows as detailed above.  If you want to make a coloured fondant, add the food colouring before adding the icing sugar.  So for the bees, add some yellow food colouring to the melted marshmallows and then add the icing sugar.

TIP - if fondant goes a bit hard, just microwave again.

STEP 8:

For flower centreslike in the pink flower picture - make a small ball from the fondant and flatten slightly, glue into centre of flowers with a little icing.

For bees - take a small amount of yellow fondant and make a small ball.  Slowly roll one end of the ball to make a cone shape.
STEP 9:

Use some icing sugar to glue on wings, I use thinly cut white chocolate or cut some slivered almonds to make the wings.  Glue bees to cakes or flowers.

STEP 10:

Use an edible black pen to make stripes and face:
EASY PEASY :-)

The fondant can be stored in a sealed bag inside ab air tight container for about 1 month.  Just microwave again to use.

Monday 15 October 2012

Hello world

This is my first ever post.  I have really only taken on the world of craft in the last year or two and now that I am on maternity leave, I thought it was time to make some sense of it all and share around so that hopefully I too can inspire others.  I really enjoy making things mainly for children as I love to see their little faces light up.  For my next post I will introduce you all to the cool world of making yummy flowers from marshmallow fondant.  You can just sneak a peek of these on the background of my blog.  I have placed these on the top of cupcakes and added some bees.  Although they are pretty and bright pink, this didn't stop my boys from devouring them!