Everyone's turning 70

 Well hello there lovely people. Long time no speak (write???). Who knows if this will continue, missing some creativity in my life. It has been suggested to me a couple of times to get back into my blog. So here I am. 

I have heaps of things that I have made over the many years it has been since I last posted here. However, I thought that I would start with something familiar, cake decorating. 

It's 5 1/2 years since I move to the big city and I've been with the same company the whole time too. It's a pretty good work place. As much as I whine about my job at times (and it is stressful) but the majority of the people here are lovely. Amazingly, we have 3 of the people here turning 70 this year. One in May, one a last week and one in 2 weeks! I just told them that I was going to make the cakes without giving them any options. I still have one to go but thought that I would post the two I have already done. 

The first one was our office manager. She's very much an accessories person so I decided that it needed to be the theme of the cake some how. I did consider doing the whole handbag and shoes cake but I kind of missed the boat in timing, so in the end I made a handbag topper (which was also make of cake) to go on a standard round. I was pretty happy with the whole thing however I found that the white Satin Ice fondant was a little dry and the Fondtastic black icing was a little soft. In fact the black fondant started to slip on the little handbag but most people thought it was supposed to be that way given it was sitting on the "floor". LOL, I went with it. 

Our next 70th was a little bit more tricky, mainly because I really don't know what the big kahuna does outside of the office. There was a bit of investigating and checking with some of the "long termers" here (there's a lot of them) and came up with he likes to go walking/hiking. After doing a bit of googling and my own designs, I came up with a two tier cake with a walking track with boots and hiking poles. I was able to use the "chocolate stones" that I just had to have that would "come in handy one day" (and they did!). It was universally loved. The birthday boy took pictures of it himself to show his walking group. 😊

They were, of course, made with my regular chocolate cake. The hiking cake I alternated ganache and dulce du leche in the layers and coated with peanut butter buttercream. I had done a "snickers cake" for my birthday in June which was particularly successful so decided to go with that again. It was so amazingly delicious!

I have a plan for my 3 cake in a couple of weeks. That boss man isn't a big fan of chocolate cake, so will have to find a different base... maybe carrot. I'm not sure yet. Looking forward to it though. 

Cake Decorating

I have done a few cakes since I posted one. The first was a repeat on Peppa pig. My god-daughter was going to have a princess party until I was showing her mum photos of the Peppa Pig cake which said little girl saw too. Her mum said that for the next two weeks she went around telling everyone she was having a Peppa Pig party. lol

The next was a quick cake for a friend's daughter. I had to make this one for the weekend after being away for a week. I made the cakes before I went away and froze them. I decided to try something new and used buttercream and did the ombre look. It is a lovely cake and really wasn't hard to do but I much prefer working with fondant.

For the same weekend I made this little cake topper for a friend of a friend. Nice little quick one using leftover coloured fondant.

Finally, I made another Skylanders cake for the same little boy as last year. I was sent a screen cap of a cake by text and asked if I could replicate it. I have tried to find the source photo but have been unable to. I would love to be able to credit the person so if you know who did a similar cake design (with handmade figurines which I didn't make) please let me know. This one was lit up with lights again. Flickering again only this time the lights were green and purple. When I was asked if I could do them coloured I had no idea how I was going to do it. I ended up colouring them in with texta. It worked really well. However my lights are now permanently purple and green. If anyone else wants a lighted cake it will be purple and green. lol

Video of the lights

Cake Decorating - Peppa Pig

I love doing kids birthday cakes. I don't have children myself so I get to learn a lot of new things. New cartoons, new games, it is all very interesting and sometimes a bit mind boggling. This was an order and I loved doing it.

This was the first time that I have covered a cake in two different colours of fondant. The joins on the sides weren't the best but it still turned out well. Once the green and blue were on the cake I hit it with some lustre spray to give it a bit of a glow. The Peppa pig was fairly easy to do. I found a picture online which I printed out in a size I wanted, traced it onto baking paper, cut that out (with a scalpel) and then cut it out in fondant. I prefer to cut my baking paper templates with the scalpel I use for cutting out fondant because it gives a more precise cut. The flowers were done with cutters and then shaped with some tools. The lettering was done with my clikstix cutters, which are fabulous by the way. I loved doing it and the lady who ordered it thought it was gorgeous and on talking with her later she said that her granddaughter was so excited. 

Cake decorating - exploding hearts cake

So not literally an exploding cake. This is the first time that I have done a cake with the wires coming out of it, so the explosion. Most of the pictures of exploding cakes that I have seen online have the cashous in the middle. However I thought that if you use those then when you cut the cake they would go everywhere. I decided that I would use coloured sugar instead and it worked really well. The hearts on the cake look a bit weird. The cutter was a bit of a weird shape but that was the only one that I could get on short notice. I will have to get myself a better heart cutter. 

I had quite a lot of problems with it. The cake was really, really soft for some reason. It is normally quite dense, perhaps I beat it for too long. My ganache didn't set and then I had problems with the fondant. Everyone was really impressed with it though. I guess that we are our harshest critics.

Cake decorating - Bananas in Pyjamas

My friend's husband turned 40 this year and they were having a big party. My friend asked me if I could make a cake. She asked if I could make a bananas in pyjamas cake for him for a specific reason. When she asked me if I could make the cake she said that the B1 & B2 figures were difficult to get where we live. I just said that I could make something. I was so happy with how they turned out. I made them from fondant with a bit of tragacanth added to harden things up.

To make life easier I bought the satin ice blue fondant. The colour that showed on the website was nothing like what I received. It was an incredible electric blue so I ended up combining it half and half with some white. I had a few issues when it came to covering the cake. I was so worried about the heat and humidity affecting the fondant that I had my air conditioning cranked up but I think I probably should have had it at a higher temperature as the fondant dried out some and there was a little bit of, not cracking exactly, but certainly "pulling" on the edges in some places. I also had real problems with the corners. I have no idea why. I have never had any issues with corners before. It was rather frustrating.

For the lettering I purchased some of the Clikstiks cutters. They are so easy to use. I have a set of the Wilton letter cutters and I have never been able to get letters out of them without destroying them. I also have a set of FMM letter cutters. They are okay but still a lot more difficult to use. They are smaller though so they have their place. 

I was so very happy with the resulting cake and it was completely devoured at the party so everyone else loved it too. 

Cake Decorating - My Little Pony

I had a late request for a birthday cake for my friend's now four year old. She is such a beautiful little girl and, of course, I was happy to oblige. I am happy any time I am asked to make a cake either with plenty of lead time or short notice, it doesn't matter to me. I just love to decorate. I do my best to make every cake as pretty and good as I can within the time frame that I have. 

I was asked if I could do something that involved My Little Pony. My friend gave me one of her daughter's toys to put on the top of the cake. I do, sort of, remember My Little Pony from when I was young. All of these cartoons seem to be doing their circle and coming back around. However since I have no children of my own it has been a long time since I saw any of them. I did a quick google to see things that were associated. 

I made my standard chocolate cake, which everyone loves so much. I would like to come up with a recipe for a cake that is equally as good but different flavours. I think I have said that before but I might start experimenting, it could end up quite expensive though. Anyway, I did the cake in two 20 cm sponge tins and joined them with a quick little chocolate icing. I decided, that since it was fairly hot, I would do a buttercream using half butter and half crisco. It actually turned out fairly well. One other time it was really dry and hard to spread for some reason. I coloured it pink, keeping some white aside for piping. I made accents with fondant and raided my container of excess flowers and leaves I have made for other cakes to put on top. I even piped her name on top. I have had problems writing with icing but this time it just worked perfectly. Hopefully I will be able to do it again next time. 

Cake Decorating : Skylanders

A friend of mine asked me if I could do a cake and cupcakes for his nephew's birthday. He is mad for something called Skylanders. Neither my friend nor myself had any idea what that was. He had brought a couple of toys with him to give me an idea of what they wanted. It didn't look like it was going to be that difficult. Along with the cake they wanted around 30 cupcakes cupcakes. I have to admit be being thrilled at the prospect of making something like this. I did a bit of research. The toy that the cake was to be shaped like is called a portal. It lights up and changes colour. My friend asked me if there was any way that we could light up the top of the cake. I said that I was sure we could figure out away. 

It wasn't actually that hard in the end when I sat down and thought about it. My friend had strips of led lights so he wired 4 strips of those up. They, of course, wouldn't show through fondant icing so I needed to find a way to cover the lights. I remembered that you could get edible paper so thought that I might be able to get some of that to place on the top of the cake. I have attempted to use it before and it was pretty unsuccessful. I then remembered that I have some rice paper in the cupboard, the type used to make nougat. I also have a spray green colour. So I sprayed two sheets of the rice paper and used it to cover the lights. It worked really, really well. 

For the cupcakes I found something call "elements" that would make good cupcake toppers. I considered buying something but in my searching I found these which I thought would be perfect. However I didn't have enough time to purchase them and have them shipped so thought that I might be able to make something similar myself. Mine weren't as good but then it looks like they were done with an air brush and I just used paint brushes to do the colours. I was so very pleased with how they turned out though and so was my friend. The party was yesterdat and I received a message that afternoon to say that the birthday boy was so very excited by it all, especially the fact that it lit up. The battery and switch for the lights were hidden in a cupcake that I hollowed out. 

Mermaid cake

My friend's middle daughter wanted a mermaid cake for her birthday party this year. I was happy to fulfil her request. There were a few issues surrounding party days but in the end the cake turned out really well and the birthday girl loved it and that is what is important. 

Cake is the usual chocolate cake made in two 20 cm cake tins and filled with a chocolate cream cheese filling. Covered in butter cream with fondant decorations. The "sand" on the board is crushed biscuits. 

Cake Decorating - Thomas the Tank Engine

I had the honour of making a special cake for a wonderful little boy's second birthday. The little man in question is quite the fan of Thomas the Tank Engine so it was quite obvious that should be what his cake should be based around. I even had some ideas before his mother (my very good friend) asked me to make a Thomas cake. I was away on holidays for the week prior to the party so didn't get the chance to make exactly what I had imagined in my head. I had wanted to make my own Thomas figurine to go on the cake but I knew that I wouldn't have time to get it done and set before the party so while away I purchased a Thomas engine. 

The cake was, of course, my standard chocolate cake. However this time I baked it in two separate 20 cm cake tins. I then sandwiched the cake together with creme patisserie and covered in green buttercream. For some reason the buttercream was very dry going onto the cake. It was lovely and creamy in the bowl but just wouldn't cooperate for icing the actual cake so it certainly wasn't as smooth as I had would have liked. However I was very happy with the rest of the decorations. 

The birthday boy was very happy with it and happily drove Thomas over the grass on the cake. LOL. 

Cricket Cake

My latest cake decorating job was for a 40th birthday. Only request was that it have something to do with cricket. After discussing with some other friends about what I should do and joking that I should do a cake in the shape of an insect cricket, I got down to the serious job of working out what I would do. Okay so the insect would have been funny and I am sure the birthday boy would thought it was hilarious, his wife probably would have ripped my head off. LOL

I considered doing a large cricket bat but he is more of a bowler. So I thought that I could do a cricket ball but I don't have the sphere pans and I really didn't want to buy them. So instead I decided to make a cricket field. It turned out really well. I had wanted to set it up as a proper cricket field with players. However I couldn't get any little plastic cricket players. So instead I wrote "Stumps" on the scoreboard to explain while there were no players. LOL. I was really happy with how the cake turned out and it was a big it with everyone at the party. 

I have blanked out the name of the person as their surname was on the scoreboard.

Cake Decorating

A couple of new cakes that I have done recently...just my standard chocolate cake. I really should break out one of these days and work out a recipe for a different type of cake. Although I am not keen on all the testing that comes with it...what to you do with all the okay but not quite perfect cakes? 

A puppy dog cake for a friend's 3 year old, the paw prints were all individually cut out of fondant with 2 different sized piping nozzles. It was very hard to get them in place! 

A Christmas present cake for a recent Christmas party. I was pleased with how the bow turned out, although it could have been a bit thinner. Plus I didn't make it with enough time for it to dry properly so it deflated after a while, but not until after the party thankfully. 

Cake Decorating

So my latest cake was a lot of fun to make. What made it even better was that I got paid for it. Not just paid for the ingredients but paid for ingredients and time, so some pretty decent money. It added some pressure but I was so pleased with how it turned out. The birthday party had a Hawaiian theme. I was given a photo and asked to do something similar. I was so pleased with how it turned out and my client was overjoyed with it. 

The cake is a double layer of my standard chocolate decorating cake. The breasts are also chocolate cake baked in a couple of large tea cups. The cake was filled and coated with dark chocolate ganache then covered in fondant with fondant accents. I was particularly pleased with how well the Wilton flesh-tone colour paste turned out. I even managed to colour almost exactly the right amount of fondant to cover the cake which has got to be a first for me.

Cake Decorating

I love this post scheduling thing. It means that I can post a pretty little 1st birthday cake that I made last weekend for a friend's daughter on my own birthday. So happy birthday to the little one and happy birthday to me. 

This cake was made from my standard chocolate decorating cake, one mix in a 23 cm pan. I split it into three layers and filled it with Donna Hay's chocolate cream cheese frosting, which is just fantastic, covered with dark chocolate ganache and then covered with white fondant. The decorations are made of fondant to represent the hungry caterpillar. I had so much fun making this cake. The smarties on the cake board were an after thought but I think that they really added something to it. I was very pleased with how it turned out, with the exception of the rather large air bubble that you can see in the icing between the apple & the pear....grrr.

Cake Decorating - The Purse Cake with shoes

I did my first paid cake this past weekend. Yay! I was given carte blanche with it too which made it even better. It was for the 21st birthday of a lovely young woman that I know through work. I don't know her very well but know her enough to know that she loves shoes, bags, make up and the like so I decided to do a purse cake with a pair of shoes and some make up for decoration. I had wanted to make a pair of sunglasses too, but I couldn't find a template to use.

I purchased some midnight black fondant online, since it is so hard to colour your own black. I had a large amount of pink fondant left over from the carousel cake so I added some violet colour paste to turn it a lovely shade of purple. I added gum tragacanth to some of the black and purple fondant so that I could make the decorations. After waiting 24 hours for it to start to work I spent a lovely afternoon making a pair of shoes, mascara, lipstick, eye shadow palette, buckle & handle for the purse and flowers for decoration. 

I made 2 x 23 cm square chocolate cakes using my perfect decorating cake. I trimmed each cake and cut them in half (to make 4 loaf-sized cakes) and stacked them filling each layer with ganache. I then trimmed the whole thing again creating an angle on the front. This was then covered with ganache and left to set overnight. Finally it was covered with fondant, black on the front with purple on the sides back and creating a flap on the front. Unfortunately, the handle that I made had not dried for long enough and collapsed when I placed it on the cake so I made a new one. At first I tried to drape it, but it started stretching so I just sat it on top of the bag. The flower decorations were stuck on the shoes and bag. An embossing tool was used to get the stitching detail. 

It was such a fun thing to do. I just loved the whole process right from planning and searching flickr for ideas to the making and decorating. The birthday girl just loved the cake too however she did not cut it at her party on Saturday night but waiting until her actual birthday yesterday. It has also given me another possible 21st cake to do for an Enchanted Forest themed party...I hope I get the job. 

Cake Decorating - The Carousel Cake

I thought that I would share my latest cake with you all. My best friend's daughter turned 6 last week and we had a lovely party on the weekend. She is horse crazy so this year I made a carousel cake for her. They cake is my standard chocolate cake which I have posted about before here. The horses are made from sugar cookies from over at Joy of Baking which were then covered with fondant. The mane, tail and hooves are done with Kopykate decorating pens. The flowers, hearts and dots were all made with gumpaste in a FMM Sugercraft mould and then painted. I purchased some pre-coloured pink fondant, however it was a bit bright so I mixed it out with some white fondant to tone it down a bit. I bought way too much so have a lot of pink fondant left over. I was unable to find the right cookie cutters here in Australia so got a set of horse cutters from the UK. The top layer is a foam dummy covered in fondant but everything else (excluding the ribbon) is edible. I placed the cake on lazy susan, which I got cheaply from Spotlight and I am sure that it will come in handy in the future, so that it could be turned. I had so much fun making it all the decorations and putting it altogether. The birthday girl was very excited and every one else loved it too. I hope to get some decorating work out of it. 

Cake decorating

Okay, so I promise I will get on with posting from the September delicious magazine recipes soon, hopefully tomorrow. However I just wanted to post a couple of my latest cake creations. I just love cake decorating. I am quite happy to spend hours baking and decorating cakes. I would love to advertise and get paid for doing it but from what I understand I would need to apply for development approval to operate a business from home. I also understand in this situation you would also need to get you kitchen passed for health and safety. While I am sure I probably could do all that, it would involve a lot of application fees and all other associated costs and then you have the possibility of a neighbour objecting to the application and all that money going down the drain. The other thing that stops me is that cake decorating is a time consuming and, to be honest, pricey venture. There are a lot of associated costs and when you live in a country town I don't think that  you can charge what cakes are worth. So with all of that in mind I will just continue to make cakes for family and friends and leave it at that.

Over the last month I have had the chance to do two cakes, the first for my grandmother's 80th birthday and the second for a friend's daughter's 3rd birthday. For both of these cakes I made my stock standard chocolate cake. It is a wonderful recipe and makes the perfect cake for decorating without all the expense of a mud cake. The secret ingredient to this cake is the yoghurt. I have made it with sour milk and it is lovely but too light for decorating. I have made it with sour cream and the extra fat in the sour cream is too much for the cake. Yoghurt is just perfect for getting the density that is required for cake decorating. I even use this recipe for tiered cakes. Covered in either buttercream or ganache and fondant it is terrific, although I have to admit that I am partial to buttercream. The recipe handles being doubled and tripled without a problem. I do tend to use a lily nail in the centre in large deep pans though. I have had the occasional problem with lopsided rising, however I think that was due to my previous oven as I have had no such problems with my current oven. It is my most requested cake and is always highly praised by everyone who tries it, even my yoghurt hating uncle loves it. 

Chocolate Cake 

Ingredients:

•  125 g (1/2 c.) very soft butter
• 1 1/4 c. sugar
• 2 eggs
• 2 tsp vanilla
• 1 2/3 c. plain flour
• 2 tsp baking powder
• 1 1/2 tsp baking soda
• 3/4 tsp salt
• 2/3 c. cocoa
• 1 1/2 c. sour milk or plain yoghurt

Method:

• Pre-heat oven to 180 C
• Place all ingredients into mixing bowl. 
• Beat on a low speed until combined, approximately 2 – 3 minutes.
• The beat on high speed for 10 minutes.
• Pour mixture into a greased 24 cm round springform tin or bundt pan.
• Bake for 30 to 45 minutes or until a skewer comes out clean.
• Cool in the tin for 5 minutes and then turn out. 

For my grandmother's 80th birthday cake, I did a double mix in a 24 cm square pan and then did a second tier of an 18 cm square pan which used 2/3 of a mix (I made cupcakes from the rest). I had to trim a little bit but not too much. I coated it with white buttercream, which was very soft as it was very rainy at the time, and then had strawberries dipped in dark chocolate and then drizzled with white chocolate. My grandmother loved it and I was pretty happy with it too. 

For the 3-yr-old's birthday cake I decided to do a castle cake. I made a 18 cm and 10 cm square cakes from one mix and also made a slab cake from another mix to use for the towers. I cut the towers out using a pastry cutter and put buttercream between the layers and secured with a skewer down the middle. I also used skewers to secure the towers to the cake. Covered the whole lot in pink buttercream, the top of the towers are made from mini ice cream cones iced with buttercream and then rolled in sprinkles, and used fondant for the accents. I also covered the cake board with green tinted fondant. All of the little girls at the party were so excited by the cake. They just loved it. I also made a royal icing tiara to go on top of the cake, but I don't have a picture of it. I also got some little "princesses" from the bakery aisle at the supermarket and put them on for decoration. I was very pleased with how it turned out.