Believe It Or Not

I can't believe I made this cake - dark chocolate and orange (jaffa) mud with dark chocolate ganache, home made chocolate fondant, home made red, orange and yellow fondant, and some gum paste flowers I made.

Apart from the chocolate fondant and the colour orange, I had no real plan for this one...I made the design up as I went. I guess you could say it's inspired by all those cherry blossom cakes you see around with my own take on it. Every time I look at this pic, I can't help but think, WOW, I made that. Gotta say, I'm excited!!!

For Kathryn

A few weeks ago I got an invitation to a friends Hen's gathering. An evening with African drumming, food, games and possibly singing. Dress code - The Beatles. Kathryn LOVES The Beatles. The location was her mum's house. When RSVP'ing I asked is if it would be ok if I took a cake with me. Of course it would!!!

So, there was no decision to make when it came to the flavor of the cake - CHOCOLATE. And a theme - The Beatles. Nothing too difficult for a beginner such as myself though. Googling images I found this:

That image would make a pretty good cake. And not too difficult either. Not saying there would be no challenge involved, it's just that it would be achievable....surely....

Step 1 - Bake the cake. I made a largish one, so used what are called bake even strips (homemade ones) to help the cake bake evenly and not burn around the edges. Have to say, this was a great idea. I made the best chocolate mud cake ever!!

Step 2 - Torte and ganache. I trialled a different cream from what I had used previously in ganache. OH MY GOD - devine!!! The cake was cut into 3 layers and filled with the ganache. I then covered the cake following steps found at Sugar Sweet Cakes and Treats.

Step 3 - Some more experimenting. I decide to make my own fondant. Glad I did, it's easy enough and I think it tastes better than using bought stuff.

Step 4 - Cover the cake and decorate. i'm not going to go into much detail here, but I did discover how difficult it is to work with fondant in high humidity. I was making some silhouettes for the side of my cake and they were melting as I went. Argh...end result...ok, but would have been a lot better if I wasn't working with melting icing.

The Bride to be was happy, the other guests were impressed and the cake was one of the most amazing things I have ever tasted. Pure chocolate heaven!!

Improving and Learning

I had the urge to back the other day...white choc mud cake. I had enough mixture for

two tins, a 5" round and an 8" round. The bigger one burnt around the edges a bit (I really must give bake even strips a go), but the smaller one was fine...so I decided to decorate it, incorporating a flower I made last week, and edible lustre as well.

I learn so much each time I decorate a cake. This time, I learnt about the need for even, straight ganache under the fondant (if you are using it underneath). It makes a huge difference to the end product (in terms of neatness, overall appearance). Pity I didn't figure this out before I put the ganached cake in the fridge. I could have fixed it up more than I did.

Despite a few wonky bits, I can see that I have improved on my last attempts at covering a cake in fondant. It is a lot less bumpy and my edges are becoming sharper. Overall, I am happy with this cake. I think it looks pretty good actually.

So Pretty

I have started experimenting with flowers...making them, that is. After a few missed attempts, I thought it might be a good idea to start with something simple. And what better place to put a little flower than a cupcake. YUM!!!
The icing on these is another bit of experimentation. I found a recipe in a cookie book I borrowed from my local library.

It's softened fondant mixed with egg white. End result is something runny that you can spread on. I discovered that you don't need all that much icing on these ones...as you can see, it runs down the sides.

The Dinosaurs Where Dancing

OK, so maybe not really dancing, but I did get a new dinosaur cookie cutter and had to try it out. Yay, another opportunity to try out flooding cookies!!! These ones didn't make it much further than the kitchen bench.

I really love the variety of cookie cutters available. I seem to be developing a bit of a collection now!

A Belated Merry Christmas

I made some Christmas cookies for family this year!
A week after our wedding, and I was experiencing decorating withdrawal, so I thought I'd make these cookies. Kind of sad really...not the cookies, the withdrawal.
When icing the trees, I did try "flooding" for the first time. It's so much neater than slapping a bit of icing on, and hoping for the best. When decorating cookies in the future, I will definitely be using this technique.
The Santa's were iced with marshmallow fondant and further decorated with royal icing.
Anyway, (a belated) Merry Christmas from me.

My Wedding Cake

When I first started this blog back in September, I mentioned that I was getting married and that I was going to make my own Wedding Cake. Well I did it.

What an epic adventure it was...baking, torting (cutting into layers), filling, ganache, icing, piping, roses and the assembly. It took me weeks to make this thing.

Here some pics of the journey:

Not only did I end up with a cake that I was proud of, I also learned a lot in the process of making it. Do not expect perfection on your 1st attempt. These things take practice. If you want a level cake then each tier needs to be level. Something I didn't really consider...note, one of the tiers in the pictures above is not flat, so my cake had a bit of a lean...I am actually not bad at this, and in time could actually be really, really good!