Hi cake lovers
I really can't believe it's been 6 months since I logged into my blogpage!
I have been very busy with my grandchildren and have just recently renewed my passion for baking again, mainly inspired, I must say, by The Great British Bake Off TV series. It set me thinking how I would love to be able to cook perfect pastry, something I've never quite mastered! I would also love to bake a tiered wedding cake but it's quite a responsibility. My youngest son's girlfriend always maintains she will get me to bake their wedding cake and I am secretly hoping I will one day get the opportunity to do so.
Last weekend I decided to try my hand at baking bread and rolls which seemed to come out quite well. It's years since I baked bread but I had a crack at cinnamon rolls, sweet bread and a plain white loaf. On reflection I think I made far too much but it didn't go to waste as I made a couple of lovely bread and butter puds with the remainder once going slightly stale (which is traditionally called for!). The bread and butter puds were lovely (I'm not usually a fan) and I think this was due to the nice consistency of the home made breads. It didn't hang around for long!
I have in the meantime turned my hand to baking this year's Christmas cake; another thing I haven't done in many years. I did bake the mini Christmas cakes last year for a fete but this is a nice big 9" round dense rich fruit cake with quite a lot of grand marnier, not one for the children! It smells delicious at this 'feeding' stage and I am really looking forward to adding the marzipan and icing. I'm still deciding on my final icing: royal or fondant. Fondant looks very neat and tidy but I love creating a snow scene with the peaks of royal icing.
All for now cake lovers
Watch out for Christmas cake pictures as it develops :)
Wednesday, 13 November 2013
Sunday, 12 May 2013
Cake for Amanda
Well cake lovers, it seems many of you really liked the look of the last two cakes: for my mum and mum in law, it seems the pretty flowers appeal to many, which is fab of course!
Pat, a friend at the allotment, loved this design so much she asked me to bake one much the same for her daughters 30th birthday.
As hubby and I were away on a very exciting trip to Rome from 4 - 7 May I made sure I had all my ingredients ready and waiting for my return (the cake was needed for the evening of the 9th).
We had a fantastic time in Rome, very busy but well worth all the planning, walking and queuing!
We started our sightseeing as soon as we had checked into the hotel in the afternoon with a trip in the boiling heat to The Spanish Steps where we met a lovely Canadian couple to whom we chatted for quite some time. They convinced us that we should make our much dreamed of trip to Canada a reality by making a booking and braving the long plane journey! Next was the beautiful Trevi Fountain which was quite emotional for us as we threw in our coins which meant a lot to us personally. A beautiful meal at Ristoronte Streaga was lovely and relaxing and much needed by our aching legs and feet that evening! We had heavy rain and thunderstorms overnight and the following day a trip to The Colosseum, Palatine Hill and Forums which was brilliant but The Vatican Museums, Sistine Chapple and St Peter's Basilica the following day were breathtakingly awesome. What a fantastic trip! A real 'must do'.
Anyway, we arrived back on Tuesday afternoon and on the Wednesday afternoon I started to bake.
I had made lots of tiny pretty fondant flowers which unfortunately, due to my clumsiness, ended up on the floor complete with smashed plate......consequently they went straight in the bin! I set to once again, taking more care this time not to knock over my tray and the finished result can be seen below!!
All for now cake lovers :)
Pat, a friend at the allotment, loved this design so much she asked me to bake one much the same for her daughters 30th birthday.
As hubby and I were away on a very exciting trip to Rome from 4 - 7 May I made sure I had all my ingredients ready and waiting for my return (the cake was needed for the evening of the 9th).
We had a fantastic time in Rome, very busy but well worth all the planning, walking and queuing!
We started our sightseeing as soon as we had checked into the hotel in the afternoon with a trip in the boiling heat to The Spanish Steps where we met a lovely Canadian couple to whom we chatted for quite some time. They convinced us that we should make our much dreamed of trip to Canada a reality by making a booking and braving the long plane journey! Next was the beautiful Trevi Fountain which was quite emotional for us as we threw in our coins which meant a lot to us personally. A beautiful meal at Ristoronte Streaga was lovely and relaxing and much needed by our aching legs and feet that evening! We had heavy rain and thunderstorms overnight and the following day a trip to The Colosseum, Palatine Hill and Forums which was brilliant but The Vatican Museums, Sistine Chapple and St Peter's Basilica the following day were breathtakingly awesome. What a fantastic trip! A real 'must do'.
Anyway, we arrived back on Tuesday afternoon and on the Wednesday afternoon I started to bake.
I had made lots of tiny pretty fondant flowers which unfortunately, due to my clumsiness, ended up on the floor complete with smashed plate......consequently they went straight in the bin! I set to once again, taking more care this time not to knock over my tray and the finished result can be seen below!!
All for now cake lovers :)
Monday, 22 April 2013
'Pink Cake' for hubby's mum-83!
After an arduous day digging; I had decided to lift a small concrete path at the allotment and found this to have a couple of rows of bricks underneath that also needed removing, I was looking forward to a family get together and takeaway meal. My husband had a brainwave at 6pm: "Why don't you make a cake for my mum".
Ideally, I would have baked the cake for the birthday girl on the actual day of her birthday on Wednesday but agreed it was a good idea as we would all be together and mum would most likely not eat a whole large cake by herself! I set to work immediately but knew the time was against us as we had to leave to be at my brother in laws house, a couple of miles away, by 7.30pm latest!
It didn't take long to bake the cake but getting it cool enough to ice was frustratingly time consuming as it came out of the oven at around 6.30pm!
I decided to press ahead about 20 minutes later and even though the cake was still slightly warm I managed to get away with buttercrumbing and icing/decorating it successfully! It wasn't as 'polished' as I would have liked but it was presentable and I have to say, tasted good. Everyone enjoyed tucking in after a lovely meal.
Result shown below :)
All for now cake lovers :)
Ideally, I would have baked the cake for the birthday girl on the actual day of her birthday on Wednesday but agreed it was a good idea as we would all be together and mum would most likely not eat a whole large cake by herself! I set to work immediately but knew the time was against us as we had to leave to be at my brother in laws house, a couple of miles away, by 7.30pm latest!
It didn't take long to bake the cake but getting it cool enough to ice was frustratingly time consuming as it came out of the oven at around 6.30pm!
I decided to press ahead about 20 minutes later and even though the cake was still slightly warm I managed to get away with buttercrumbing and icing/decorating it successfully! It wasn't as 'polished' as I would have liked but it was presentable and I have to say, tasted good. Everyone enjoyed tucking in after a lovely meal.
Result shown below :)
All for now cake lovers :)
Friday, 19 April 2013
Impromptu cake for my mum's birthday :)
I decided to make an impromptu cake for my mum's 79th birthday.
It was just a very quick Sunday morning bake which i decided to make at the last minute but mum was really pleased with it.
All for now cake lovers :)
It was just a very quick Sunday morning bake which i decided to make at the last minute but mum was really pleased with it.
All for now cake lovers :)
Saturday, 13 April 2013
Guitar Cake-18th
Hello cake lovers.....
my latest challenge was given to me a couple of months ago and gave me plenty of time to think about it! Kerry, a friend of my sister, asked if I could create a bass guitar cake for her son, Brogan, for his 18th.
I set about drawing a template; the biggest challenge was making the proportions look right and after several freehand drawings I was finally happy with the result!
The next challenge was fitting the guitar onto a good size rectangular board but I was only able to source, locally, a 14" x 18" board and the cake was around 24" in length. I plumped for a 20" square board deciding to locate the cake corner to corner.
I set about making 3 large rectangular sponges, obviously making a test cake for us to all enjoy first (I had just had a new cooker and needed to try it out!)
The sponges were then arranged and cut into the shape of the template in three separate pieces; the main body, the neck and the head.
After sandwiching together with buttercream a buttercrumb coating was added. The following day the whole guitar was given a second buttercrumb coating to ensure a smooth finish and once again and left to stand until the real fun began the following evening with the icing!
The pictures below show the stages from the buttercrumb stage.
The icing took quite some time and the strings were a particular delicate piece to get right but it has all come together nicely and I am really pleased that Kerry was so happy with the outcome.
Please leave any comments
All for now cake lovers
my latest challenge was given to me a couple of months ago and gave me plenty of time to think about it! Kerry, a friend of my sister, asked if I could create a bass guitar cake for her son, Brogan, for his 18th.
I set about drawing a template; the biggest challenge was making the proportions look right and after several freehand drawings I was finally happy with the result!
The next challenge was fitting the guitar onto a good size rectangular board but I was only able to source, locally, a 14" x 18" board and the cake was around 24" in length. I plumped for a 20" square board deciding to locate the cake corner to corner.
I set about making 3 large rectangular sponges, obviously making a test cake for us to all enjoy first (I had just had a new cooker and needed to try it out!)
The sponges were then arranged and cut into the shape of the template in three separate pieces; the main body, the neck and the head.
After sandwiching together with buttercream a buttercrumb coating was added. The following day the whole guitar was given a second buttercrumb coating to ensure a smooth finish and once again and left to stand until the real fun began the following evening with the icing!
The pictures below show the stages from the buttercrumb stage.
The icing took quite some time and the strings were a particular delicate piece to get right but it has all come together nicely and I am really pleased that Kerry was so happy with the outcome.
Please leave any comments
All for now cake lovers
Sunday, 24 February 2013
Cake for Adam-21st
Well, after much deliberation about how best to present this cake I decided to go with a fondant covered rocky road base with a 2d pikachu sponge sitting on top. I then made a spherical ball cake for the pokeball.
The pokeball and the rocky road were, pardon the pun, a piece of cake but the pikachu was quite difficult. I like to make my sponges fresh, as close to the day as possible and although there are advantages to freezing a buttercrumbed cake (ease of cutting a pattern cleanly with virtually no crumbing) I decided to stick with the 'fresh' option and cut the pattern from a fresh sponge which was quite tricky due to the soft texture and the inevitable crumbing; it was also virtually impossible to buttercrumb the tricky edges of the pattern! It's also good to present a 'fresh' sponge as this means any cake left over can be frozen if necessary although I have to say that there is virtually nothing left of the cake as it was soon devoured by family and friends, mainly at the party and then again after lunch today!
It helped as I had a fantastic new birthday gift of 'The Mat' which enables the ultra fine rolling of fondant but this is then tricky to transfer when rolling to such a thinness. Hence the pikachu has a less than smooth appearance as although rolling the fondant thin was my aim to enable me to cover the tricky edges, nooks and crannies with a fine 'draping' in order to mould it easier, having a thicker fondant does serve to cover any lumps and bumps but I was worried a thick fondant may have damaged the delicate area's around the edges of the pattern. So I had to decide which would work best and thin fondant won the day!
All that said, after much anxiety about having the cake(s) ready and presentable for the night of my sons 21st birthday bash, it all came together nicely and I was quite pleased with the finished product. Pikachu could have been smoother but take a look at the pictures and judge for yourselves:
Pokeball with a thicker fondant covering:
Pikachu with an ultra thin fondant covering on a thick rocky road base; this was also covered in an ultra thin layer of fondant so as not to be over intrusive on the flavour of the rocky road but again not thick enough to hide the bumps (which should be present anyway in rocky road!)
The completed cake on a 20" x 20" cake board.
Pokeball sliced......very pleased when Adam sliced this open and revealed a lovely moist sponge; wasn't sure how it would turn out as it takes quite a lot longer to cook due to the dense shape but it has, once again, soon been devoured!
Please leave any comments :)
All for now cake lovers
Bev :)
The pokeball and the rocky road were, pardon the pun, a piece of cake but the pikachu was quite difficult. I like to make my sponges fresh, as close to the day as possible and although there are advantages to freezing a buttercrumbed cake (ease of cutting a pattern cleanly with virtually no crumbing) I decided to stick with the 'fresh' option and cut the pattern from a fresh sponge which was quite tricky due to the soft texture and the inevitable crumbing; it was also virtually impossible to buttercrumb the tricky edges of the pattern! It's also good to present a 'fresh' sponge as this means any cake left over can be frozen if necessary although I have to say that there is virtually nothing left of the cake as it was soon devoured by family and friends, mainly at the party and then again after lunch today!
It helped as I had a fantastic new birthday gift of 'The Mat' which enables the ultra fine rolling of fondant but this is then tricky to transfer when rolling to such a thinness. Hence the pikachu has a less than smooth appearance as although rolling the fondant thin was my aim to enable me to cover the tricky edges, nooks and crannies with a fine 'draping' in order to mould it easier, having a thicker fondant does serve to cover any lumps and bumps but I was worried a thick fondant may have damaged the delicate area's around the edges of the pattern. So I had to decide which would work best and thin fondant won the day!
All that said, after much anxiety about having the cake(s) ready and presentable for the night of my sons 21st birthday bash, it all came together nicely and I was quite pleased with the finished product. Pikachu could have been smoother but take a look at the pictures and judge for yourselves:
Pokeball with a thicker fondant covering:
All for now cake lovers
Bev :)
Monday, 4 February 2013
'Fish' Cake success! :)
After some fretting over the 'fish' presentation part of Steve's 50th cake it all came together really well!
A mirror carp was not so easy to model but I'm really pleased that the recipient of the cake was really happy with the end product! I am told it looked great and tasted fab too so I'm really pleased.
I had baked the cake fresh at 6am on the Friday and decorated it the same evening. I had to 'get into it' and think about the scene around the base of the cake and re make a few more fondant bits and pieces as the ones I made previous had started to break due to drying out (I had made them on the Monday so they would set for the decoration) but having had a trial run, so to speak, it came together quite nicely. It took about 4 solid hours to decorate to the finished cake but it was well worth the time and effort.
See pics below:
The finished cake:
Bait with tin and fishing rod:
Mini fish in keep net:
Must say the 'name' could have been a little better but practice makes perfect and I have my eye on some stencils for my next fondant lettered/numbered projects!!
Next project is Adam's 21st Cake....few changes in mind so watch this space cake lovers!
Bev
A mirror carp was not so easy to model but I'm really pleased that the recipient of the cake was really happy with the end product! I am told it looked great and tasted fab too so I'm really pleased.
I had baked the cake fresh at 6am on the Friday and decorated it the same evening. I had to 'get into it' and think about the scene around the base of the cake and re make a few more fondant bits and pieces as the ones I made previous had started to break due to drying out (I had made them on the Monday so they would set for the decoration) but having had a trial run, so to speak, it came together quite nicely. It took about 4 solid hours to decorate to the finished cake but it was well worth the time and effort.
See pics below:
The finished cake:
The mirror carp! (A few bull rushes showing at the base of his tail!):
Bait with tin and fishing rod:
Next project is Adam's 21st Cake....few changes in mind so watch this space cake lovers!
Bev
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