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.