Birthday cake

Cute VW Kombi Cake Tutorial

Published on February 8, 2015February 8, 2015 by Bernice Camlin1 Comment

This cute Kombi is just 6.5″ long by 3.5″ wide and is a smaller and cuter version of my usual VW Kombi. It is made from dark chocolate mud cake filled and covered with dark chocolate ganache with a layer of sugar-paste on top. This little cake will serve 16 dessert portions.

Materials

9″ round cake board

thin card with a glossy side

white sugar-paste

blue sugar-paste

black sugar-paste

Cut out your set up board from a sheet of thin card with a glossy side. Shape it into a van shape approx. 6″ x 3″. Your board should be a little larger than your cake so that you fill the gap with ganache and use the edge of your set up board to guide your scrapper giving you a smooth finish. Use a non slip mat under your set up board.

Bake a 6″ square Dark Chocolate Mud cake

Ingredients:

220g unsalted butter

180g dark chocolate

4.5g instant coffee

1 cup warm water

170g caster sugar

230g self raising flour

25g cocoa

2 small eggs

1 teaspoon vanilla

Instructions:

Grease and line base and sides of cake pan with one thickness of baking paper, bringing paper 5cm above side of pan.
Combine chopped butter, chopped chocolate, coffee, and water in a saucepan.
Stir over low heat until chocolate is melted. Cool 15 minutes. Transfer mixture to bowl of mixer.
Add caster sugar to mixture and beat well until dissolved. Add sifted flour and cocoa, lightly beaten eggs and vanilla and mix till combined.
Pour mixture into prepared pan.
Bake at 150C for 1-1 hour 15 mins. Test with skewer. Cool cake in pan.

Make Ganache

For detailed instructions on making and using ganache click here

1 kg dark chocolate
400ml pure cream

Heat the cream until it just starts to bubble, pour over chocolate (which you have blitzed in the food processor to coffee granules size) and let it sit for about a minute to melt. Use a hand whisk to blend it all together then set aside to cool.
Your ganache at this point will be thin and you will have to let it set overnight until it thickens to a slightly thicker peanut butter consistency. Since I don’t have the patience to wait, I just let it cool to room temperature and then pop it in the fridge (don’t cover because you might get condensation). It would usually set in the fridge in under an hour. If it sets too hard, just microwave it in 10 second intervals (keep mixing it whenever you take it out).

Cut your cake in half and stick one half to your set up board with some ganache. Level the top.

Spread with a layer of ganache.

Add the remaining piece of cake on top and shape the roof. Use some of the cut offs to fill in the rounded front of the van and use a sharp knife to create a believable van shape then cover with a thin coat of ganache (crumb coat).

Put the cake in the fridge for around 30 mins to firm up then add more ganache and create the final smooth shape.

Pop the cake back in the fridge or leave overnight on the bench to harden. Cover with white sugar-paste.

Cut out a surf board template and use it to cut out a white sugar-paste surf board.

Cover the cake board with black sugar-paste.

Cut out a template for the blue lower section. I cut out each side separately and then joined them neatly at the back. Cut out the wheel arches using a cutter then use the same cutter to cut out the wheels.

Use black sugar-paste for the windows and white for the roof rack.

To make the VW badge cut out a large circle of blue sugar-paste then cut out the middle and replace with a white sugar=paste circle of the same size. Use a scalpel to cut out the VW detail freehand from a thin piece of blue sugar-paste. Decorate the suf board with cut outs or paint on a design.

Add lights, bumpers and number plates.

Attach the wheels with a blob of Royal icing.

Either place the surf board on top or leaning against one side.

Lightning McQueen Cake tutorial

Published on November 16, 2014November 17, 2014 by Bernice CamlinLeave a comment

What fun I had making this little beauty! He is only 10″ long but ever inch is packed with dynamite!

The cake inside is based on a 7″ square Chocolate cake (not a mud cake) with dark chocolate ganache covered in sugar paste.

MATERIALS

A sheet of card with a shiny or wax side for the set up board

A 12″ square cake board

950g red sugar paste

400g black sugar paste

300g yellow sugar paste

a small amount of white sugar paste

a tiny amount of blue sugar paste

Tylose powder

TO MAKE THE 7″ SQUARE CHOCOLATE CAKE

165g soft butter

300g caster sugar

2 tsp vanilla essence

3 eggs

65g SR flour

200g plain flour

1 tsp bicarbonate of soda

70g cocoa powder

250ml buttermilk

For the ganache

750g of dark chocolate

300ml pure cream

METHOD

1. Preheat oven to 180C. Lightly grease tin and line the base. Beat the butter, sugar and vanilla with electric beaters until light and fluffy. Add eggs one at a time, beating well after each addition. Transfer to larger bowl and fold in combined flours, bicarbonate of soda and cocoa alternatively with the buttermilk.

2. Spoon into tin and smooth the surface. Bake for between 1hr and 1hr 10 mins. A skewer inserted into the centre should come out clean. Leave the cake in the tin to cool for at least 5 mins before turning onto a wire rack to cool completely.

TO MAKE THE GANACHE

Heat the cream until it just starts to bubble, pour over chocolate (which you have blitzed in the food processor to coffee granules size) and let it sit for about a minute to melt. Use a hand whisk to blend it all together then set aside to cool.
Your ganache at this point will be thin. You will have to let it set overnight until it thickens to a slightly thicker peanut butter consistency. Since I don’t have the patience to wait, I just let it cool to room temperature and then pop it in the fridge (don’t cover because you might get condensation). It would usually set in the fridge in about an hour or two. If it sets too hard, just microwave it in 10 second intervals (keep mixing it whenever you take it out).

For full information on making ganache and covering your cake with ganache just check out this page
https://cutesweetthings.wordpress.com/2012/08/07/how-to-make-ganache-and-cover-your-cake-with-it/

SET UP BOARD

Use the plan below to help design the shape of your template. Enlarge the plan by 140% in a copier so that the car measures 10″ in length. Widen the car by adding a strip of paper down the middle of your template so that the car measures 5.5″ in width. This shape makes the best use of your cake pieces and it also looks cute for a young persons birthday ( Flynn was turning 3).

Lightening McQueen plans — Lightning McQueen plans

Use this template to cut out your set up board from a piece of card with the wax/shiny side up.

CARVING THE CAKE

Cut the cake into 3 pieces

7″ x 5″

4.5″ x 2″

2.5″ x 2″

Use a little ganache or Royal Icing to stick the pieces of cake to the set up board. Use ganache to join pieces together.

Enlarge one of the ‘side on’ pictures of Lightning McQueen below till the car measures 10″ long. Cut it our and hold against your cake as you carve to get the correct outline / shape.

As you start to carve the shape of the car, don’t throw out any lumps of cake but instead use them to fill in some empty spaces.

Once you are happy with the shape of your car cover it in a thin layer of ganache (a crumb coat) and place in fridge.

Remove from fridge when hard and with this nice firm base you will be able to add more ganache and smooth it to the required shape.

Use a round cutter to cut out the wheel arches.

Roll out your red sugar paste and cover the car in one go. I used a ball tool to press the sugar paste into the wheel arches.

While the sugar paste is still soft use a skewer or similar to fashion a smiling mouth shape.

Cut out a spoiler template in paper to fit the car and use it to cut out your spoiler from a nice thick piece of red sugar paste (add some CMC or Tylose powder to the sugar paste to help firm it up). This will take some time to harden, maybe even overnight.

Cut out hubcaps and thick wheels using the ‘side on’ picture of Lightening McQueen as a guide the the size. Add Tylose powder to the wheels to help them harden.

Leave the spoiler and wheels to dry out, meanwhile continue with the rest of the car details.

Use the ‘side on’ picture of Lightning McQueen as a guide to make the lightening bolt.

Coloured modelling paste i.e. sugar paste + Tylose powder

Make the two intermediate shades by mixing together some red and yellow.

Using this Rust-eze image as your inspiration, design a badge with the name of your choice.

Use yellow Royal Icing to pipe Flynn on to the badge or cut out some thinly rolled sugar paste.

Cut out the rear window and attach.

Cover your 12″ cake board with black sugar paste and place Lightning McQueen diagonally on top.

Lightening McQueen Cake — Lightning McQueen Cake

Abbey Monster High Cake Tutorial

Published on May 5, 2014May 5, 2014 by Bernice CamlinLeave a comment

Below are the instructions on how to bake, decorate and hand paint this cute Abbey cake but first…

…welcome to Monster High, the place where children of famous monsters rule the school! Abbey Bominable is 16 years old and the daughter of Yeti! She’s the coolest ghoul in the school and I love her trendy wardrobe and white fur boots. Her BFF is Draculaura and I have a Draculaura cake tutorial that you might like here.

Although Abbey is very pretty she says ‘I am cold in the touching and being touched’

Her favourite sport is Snow Boarding and her pet “shiver’ s an adorable baby Wooly Mammoth.

Instructions

This 7″ Abbey birthday cake is made from dark chocolate mud-cake and filled with dark chocolate ganache.

Materials

10″ cake board

7″ set up board

1.2 kg Ice blue sugar-paste

For cake topper….

Tylose powder

Edible Americolor gel colour in blue, white, pink and lilac

White sugar-paste

Make the 7″ round Dark Chocolate Mud Cake

190g unsalted butter

155g dark chocolate

4g instant coffee

1 cup warm water

145g caster sugar

200g self raising flour

23g cocoa

1 large egg

1 teaspoon vanilla

1. Grease and line base and sides of cake pan with one thickness of baking paper, bringing paper 5cm above side of pan.

2. Combine chopped butter, chopped chocolate, coffee, and water in a saucepan. Stir over low heat until chocolate is melted. Cool 15 minutes. Transfer mixture to bowl of mixer.

3. Add caster sugar to mixture and beat well until dissolved. Add sifted flour and cocoa, lightly beaten egg and vanilla.

4. Pour mixture into prepared pan.

5. Bake at 150C for 1 – 1.5 hours . Test with skewer. Cool cake in pan.

Make the Dark Chocolate Ganache

600g dark chocolate, finely chopped

250ml pure cream

Method:

Heat the cream until it just starts to bubble, pour over chocolate (which you have blitzed in the food processor to coffee granules size) and let it sit for about a minute to melt. Use a hand whisk to blend it all together then set aside to cool. Your ganache at this point will be thin. You will have to let it set overnight until it thickens to a slightly thicker peanut butter consistency. Since I don’t have the patience to wait, I just let it cool to room temperature and then pop it in the fridge (don’t cover because you might get condensation). It would usually set in the fridge in about an hour or two. If it sets too hard, just microwave it in 10 second intervals (keep mixing it whenever you take it out).

For more information on how to make ganache and cover your cake with it, please click here.

Assembling the cake

Cut the cake in half and fill with ganache. Attach cake to set up board with edible glue or some Royal Icing. Cover the top and the sides of the cake with ganache and smooth the surfaces. Cover cake and board in one application with Ice blue sugar-paste.

Using the Template Click on the image above and save image. Enlarge or reduce the image to fit your cake. I printed it out to fit a 6.5″ circle just a little smaller than the cake. Print 2 copies so that you can keep one copy intact and the other you can cut up to make smaller templates. 1. Face, ears and neck (cut out in Ice blue sugar-paste). 2. Hair and headband (cut out in white sugar-paste). You may wish to make a little modelling paste in white and some in Ice blue for the Abbey cake topper. This will help the topper dry quichly and make it stronger. Modelling Paste 350g sugar-paste 1 teaspoon Cellogen (if using CMC, Tylose Powder or Gum Trag then use only 0.5 teaspoon) Sprinkle the powder over the sugar-paste and kneed carefully till smooth.

Cut out the face and neck in Ice blue sugarpaste

Cut the hair and headband section from white sugarpaste

The two sections should fit together well

Using a few fine paintbrushes, edible gel colours and a little Vodka as a thinner start painting the hair / headband area as it is simpler and then paint in the facial features last. To help me place the eyes, nose and mouth in the right spots, I used the face template, tracing the outline of the features on the back of the template and then transferring the details onto the Ice blue sugarpaste by tracing over the outlines of the features with the template the right way up on top of the sugarpaste. You can see the fine graphite outline of the lips in the image below.

I have made a video of me painting Abbey’s face and will upload it here shortly.

Painting the face and hair with edible food colour

Add 'Chelsea' to the covered cake board — Add ‘Chelsea’ to the covered cake board

Pirate Ship Cake Tutorial

Published on March 4, 2014March 8, 2014 by Bernice Camlin24 Comments

I made this cake for Slade’s 1st birthday and his Mum didn’t want anything too scary so no skull and cross bones on this cake. It was fun to make the cake and like many of my cakes I didn’t have any idea how it would turn out and just made decisions as to style and colour as I went along.

Some materials you will need

12″ of 7mm diam wooden dowelling for the mast 12″ square cake board 375g pale blue sugar paste to cover cake board 900g brown sugar paste to cover ship

Dark Chocolate Mud Cake Recipe

I used my recipe for a 9″ square cake but I actually used a 8.5″ pan so that the cake was taller than usual. 400g butter 325g dark chocolate 1.5 tblsp coffee granules 2 cups warm water 2.5 cups of Self raising flour 1.5 cups caster sugar 0.5 cups cocoa powder 3 large eggs 1.5 tsp vanilla

Method

1. Grease and line base and sides of cake pan with one thickness of baking paper, bringing paper 5cm above side of pan.

2. Combine chopped butter, chopped chocolate, coffee, and water in a saucepan.

Stir over low heat until chocolate is melted. Cool 15 minutes. Transfer mixture to bowl of mixer.

3. Add caster sugar to mixture and beat well until dissolved. Add sifted flour and cocoa, lightly beaten eggs and vanilla.

4. Pour mixture into prepared pan.

5. Bake at 150C for 1.5-2 hours . Test with skewer. Cool cake in pan.

Make the Dark Chocolate Ganache

although I am asking you to make a lot of ganache, you will need a lot to give the ship its bulging shape and any extra can be frozen till your next cake project.

1.9 kg dark chocolate, finely chopped 600ml pure cream

Method: Heat the cream until it just starts to bubble, pour over chocolate (which you have blitzed in the food processor to coffee granules size) and let it sit for about a minute to melt. Use a hand whisk to blend it all together then set aside to cool.

Your ganache at this point will be thin. You will have to let it set overnight until it thickens to a slightly thicker peanut butter consistency. Since I don’t have the patience to wait, I just let it cool to room temperature and then pop it in the fridge (don’t cover because you might get condensation). It would usually set in the fridge in about an hour or two. If it sets too hard, just microwave it in 10 second intervals (keep mixing it whenever you take it out) till it is easy to work with.

For more information on how to make ganache and cover your cake with it, please click here.

Set up Board

first of all measure out a rectangle 11 x 22 cm then round the corners off to make the ship template which will also be used as the set up board and the edge can be followed when ganaching..

Once you are happy with the shape cut it out.

Building the ship

Cut the cake in half.

Use the template / set up board to cut out the hull shape on both halves of the cake.

Cut dome off top and turn upside down and attach to set up board with some ganache

Now cut in half horizontally and fill with ganache.

Now take the other half of the cake it horizontally into 2 pieces

Take one piece and cut into 3 sections.

Use ganache to attach 2 of these pieces to your ship.

Now take the final piece and cut into 3 pieces.

Use ganache to attach 2 of these pieces to your ship.

Use up all the leftover pieces of cake to create the Pirate Ship shape that pleases you the best.

Cover with a crumb coat of ganache (a thin layer of ganache to seal in all the crumbs).

Place in the fridge till it firms up.

Add ganache to create final shape, making a nice rounded shape.

Leave on bench to harden (overnight if possible)

Sugar paste

Paint a thin layer of water onto your cake board and cover with pale blue sugar paste.

Measure the length and sides of your ship so you know the size of the oval piece of brown sugar paste you will need to cover your ship.

Paint a thin layer of water over the entire ship and cover with the one large piece of sugar paste.

Use smoothers to smooth your sugar paste.

Decoration

Make marks on side of ship to resemble old wooden planks.

I created some stripes in Photoshop and a birthday message for Slade on lightweight card and cut out a small square with the birthday message as the top sail and a larger square as the bottom square. Use a ‘hole punch’ to make holes for the mast.

Create stripes and a birthday message in Photoshop

Roll out some of the left over brown sugar paste into a long thin sausage shape and cut 22 pillars of equal length. use fingers to make each one as cylindrical as possible and stick to ship with a little water, edible glue or egg white.

Cut out some port holes, windows, doors and handrails. Use a piping bag to pipe some pale blue Royal Icing around the windows etc. to add interest. Leave overnight to firm up.

Stick all the remaining bits and bobs to the ship and set sail for the open seas.

Draculaura Monster High Cake Tutorial

Published on January 23, 2014January 24, 2014 by Bernice Camlin4 Comments

Welcome to Monster High, the place where children of famous monsters rule the school! My favorite is Draculaura, Count Dracula’s daughter! She’s the coolest ghoul in the school and I love her trendy wardrobe and her scary cute pets, too.

She is so popular that Amelia decided she would like a Draculaura cake on her birthday!

This 7″ Draculaura birthday cake is made from dark chocolate mud-cake and filled with dark chocolate ganache.

Materials

10″ cake board

7″ set up board

1.2 kg fuchsia sugar-paste

For cake topper….

Tylose powder

Americolor Fuchsia gel colour

Black sugar-paste

White sugar-paste

Light fuchsia sugar-paste

Make the 7″ round Dark Chocolate Mud Cake

190g unsalted butter

155g dark chocolate

4g instant coffee

1 cups warm water

145g caster sugar

200g self raising flour

23g cocoa

1 large egg

1 teaspoon vanilla

1. Grease and line base and sides of cake pan with one thickness of baking paper, bringing paper 5cm above side of pan.

2. Combine chopped butter, chopped chocolate, coffee, and water in a saucepan.

Stir over low heat until chocolate is melted. Cool 15 minutes. Transfer mixture to bowl of mixer.

3. Add caster sugar to mixture and beat well until dissolved. Add sifted flour and cocoa, lightly beaten eggs and vanilla.

4. Pour mixture into prepared pan.

5. Bake at 150C for 1 – 1.5 hours . Test with skewer. Cool cake in pan.

Make the Dark Chocolate Ganache

600g dark chocolate, finely chopped

250ml pure cream

For more information on how to make ganache and cover your cake with it, please click here.

Assembling the cake

Cut the cake in half and fill with ganache.

Attach cake to set up board with edible glue or some Royal Icing.

Cover the top and the sides of the cake with ganache and smooth the surfaces.

Cover in fuchsia sugar-paste.

Draculaura character — She loves to splash her black outfits with some cheery pink, and even carries a frilly umbrella so she can take an occasional walk in the sun.

Using the Template

Click on the template above and save image. Enlarge or reduce the image to fit your cake. I printed it out to fit a 6.5″ circle just a little smaller than the cake. Print 2 copies so that you can keep one copy intact and the other you can cut up to make smaller templates.

1. Face, ears and sholders (cut out in white sugar-paste).

2. Hair on top of head (cut out in light fuchsia sugar-paste).

3. Hair bunches at side of head ( cut out in light fuchsia sugar-paste).

4. Earrings (white)

Prepare white and Fuchsia sugar paste and cut out hair, face and earrings. — Prepare white and light fuchsia sugar paste and cut out hair, face and earrings.

You will need to make a little modelling paste in white and some in light fuchsia for the Draculaura cake topper. This will help the topper dry quichly and make it stronger.

Modelling Paste

350g sugar-paste

1 teaspoon Cellogen (if using CMC, Tylose Powder or Gum Trag then use only 0.5 teaspoon)

Sprinkle the powder over the sugar-paste and kneed carefully till smooth.

fit pieces together and allow to dry out a little more

Painting Draculaura cake topper

I used Wilton and Americolor edible gel colours which I thinned with a little Vodka. I was not sure how I was going to achieve a good result but just got stuck in with ‘paint’ and brushes. I was quite pleased with the outcome and I have put together a video of my attempt on YouTube. Unfortunately the camera was not switched on when I was painting the eyes and mouth (the important bits) but the video is still worth watching as i have speeded it up to lessen the boredom and give you a laugh.

: Draculaura can’t see her reflection in a mirror, she has to leave the house not knowing if her clothes and makeup are just right. Of course, after 1,600 years of practice she’s gotten pretty good at it.

Draculaura low angle — Draculaura is a vegan. No icky blood for her, so it’s fruits, vegetables and a lot of iron supplements.

Jawa Cake Tutorial

Published on December 9, 2013March 1, 2015 by Bernice CamlinLeave a comment

This cake does not require any sugar paste which is excellent news for children who dislike sugar paste or the decorator who dislikes using sugar paste. The Chocolate ganache finish is a little rustic but suits our cheeky little Jawa well. There are no real instructions for sculpting this cake as I mostly used my fingers and a small pallette knife. The chocolate ganache behaves a bit like clay and when it gets a bit soft you just pop it in the fridge to firm up again. Ingredients for Chocolate Mud Cake I used 3 round cake pans 5″, 5.5″ and a 6″. The eyes are two yellow sweets (lollies) with a sugar coating.

435g butter
350g dark chocolate
2 tblsp instant coffee powder
2.5 cups warm water
330g caster sugar
360g SR flour
60g cocoa powder
4 eggs
2tsp vanilla

method:

Grease and line base and sides of the bowls with one thickness of baking paper, bringing paper 5cm above side of pan.
Combine chopped butter, chopped chocolate, coffee, and water in a saucepan. Stir over low heat until chocolate is melted. Cool 15 minutes. Transfer mixture to bowl of large mixer.
Add caster sugar to mixture and beat well until dissolved. Add sifted flour and cocoa, lightly beaten eggs and vanilla.
Pour mixture into prepared bowls.
Bake at 150C for 1 hours. Test with skewer. Cool cakes in their pans.

Ingredients for the Ganache to fill and cover Jawa’s head and body (for more information on making and using ganache click here)

1 x 600ml pure cream
1,900g dark chocolate

method:

Place pieces of chocolate in food processor and process till chocolate looks like coffee granules.
Put the cream in a saucepan and bring to boiling point. Pour the cream over the chocolate and mix with a hand whisk until the ganache is smooth. (Do not use an electric whisk, as you will create too many air bubbles in the ganache.)
Allow to cool completely and then leave to set overnight.
Ready for the oven

Proccess the chocolate to the size of coffee granules

To assemble the cake

(Sorry that I have no pictures for this part, I must have been so caught up in my work that I forgot to use my camera!) I cut all 3 cakes through the middle and filled them with ganache. I started with the smallest cake and shaped it roughly into a head shape, covered it in ganache roughly and put it in the fridge to harden a bit. Then I stacked the two largest cakes one on top of the other with the largest at the bottom. I inserted a wooden dowel down through the middle of the cake with a portion left sticking up through with a point on the end so that I could slide the head on. I used ganache to help stick the head to the body. I used the pieces of cut off cake ( I mixed the cake with some ganache to make it easy to mould) to help mould the Jawa shape e.g. his knee and foot but not his arms at this stage. Place in the fridge to firm up again. Cover all exposed areas of cake with a thin layer of ganache (crumb coat) Place in fridge to firm up.

I used this image as inspiration for my cake.

To build up the arms I used a few cocktail sticks and layered the ganache slowly adding to the size and shape while still popping the cake in the fridge to firm up each stage before continuing. I had a few saggy moments but that only made me more careful and determined to make it work. I made the gun in the same way and added it at the very end with the help of 2 toothpicks. I enjoyed mouling the shape with my hands and although it looks like s..t to begin with it soon starts to take shape and creating the hood and sleeves is just magic!

Making the top and bottom parts of the gun

I added some raw caster sugar at the base to look like sand.

Some more of my Star Wars Cake Tutorials

Click on the images below to go straight to the corresponding tutorial.

: Lego Millennium Falcon Cake

: Death Star Cake

Jawa Star Wars Chocolate Cake

Rainbow Cake

Published on December 7, 2013December 7, 2013 by Bernice Camlin11 Comments

This cake is similar to my Rainbow Layer Cake. Full instructions for making the Rainbow Layer Cake can be found here.

A slice of Rainbow Cake — A slice of Rainbow Layer Cake

I made this cake for Linda’s birthday. Her husband secretly ordered it from me and I thought that such a romantic gesture wouldn’t be complete without some love hearts!

It really is as simple to make as the photos look – you dye the cake batter, pour into the pans and bake!

It is based on a white mud cake, filled with white chocolate ganache and covered in sugar paste

This cake was so much fun to make and eat! I love the surprised look on peoples faces when you pull out the first slice ~ Rainbow cake is something that makes everyone smile 🙂

If you need more information on how to make ganache and cover your cake with it just click here.

Two things make this cake special

1. The Rainbow Inside. A really big surprise if the recipient and/or guests have no idea what is inside.

2. The cake is based on a White Chocolate Mud Cake. Lots of people are scarred to use colours with Chocolate mud cakes if they do not have the special chocolate colours. I did a lot of research before I used my ordinary food colours and the reason they work is because we are not colouring 100% pure chocolate. The other ingredients magically make it alright to use Wilton or AmeriColor (these are the only two makes that I have tried so far).

7″ White Chocolate Mud Cake (Planet Cake recipe)

I used 2 x 7″ pans
180g butter
180g white chocolate
160ml water
195g SR flour
180g plain flour
240g caster sugar
2 eggs, lightly beaten
1 tsp vanilla essence

Ganache

780g white chocolate, finely chopped
270g pure cream
Sugarpaste

730g yellow sugar paste

small amounts of orange, red, purple, blue and green sugar paste
White Chocolate Mud Cake Method

Preheat the oven to 180C.
Grease and line bases of both cake pans with baking paper.
Combine chopped butter and water in a saucepan.
Stir over low heat until butter is melted. Turn off heat, then add the chocolate and stir until it has melted and is well combined.
Sift flours into a bowl. Add sugar, a pinch of salt and make a well in the centre.
Pour chocolate mixture, egg and vanilla into the well then stir with a wooden spoon until well combined.
Divide the batter equally amongst the 6 bowls. Weigh your mixing bowl before you begin adding ingredients and then subtract the weight of the bowl from the final measurement after the batter is completed. Divide that number by six and add that weight of batter to each bowl, and then whisk a fair amount of the appropriate food colour into each bowl. Keep in mind that the color of the unbaked batter will be the color of the baked batter.
I poured 5/6th of the red batter into the pan that would be the top tier. I spread it out a little to touch the sides of the pan and be a little thinner in the middle.
I then poured 4/6th of the orange batter in the middle of the pan on top of the red. I moved it about a little to make a good circle.
I then poured 3/6th (i.e. 1/2) of the yellow batter on top followed by the green, blue then purple.
In the second pan that would be the bottom tier, I first of all poured 5/6th of the purple batter followed by the blue, green, yellow, orange and finally red.
Bake for 30 -35 minutes or until a skewer comes out clean when poked into the middle of the cakes.
Leave in tins to cool completely on a wire rack.
When cool, cut the domes off both cake and sandwich together with white ganache making sure that the bottom tier is placed upside down to create the design in my picture at the top of this post.

White Ganache

1. Place chocolate pieces in a large bowl.
2. Put the cream in a saucepan and bring to boiling point. Pour the cream over the chopped chocolate and mix with a hand whisk until the ganache is smooth.
3. Allow to cool completely and then leave to set overnight, if possible.

How to make a Dr Who Tardis Cake

Published on April 30, 2013July 18, 2013 by Bernice Camlin23 Comments

Tardis Where the Wild Things Are — A Tardis cake for Lochie on his 13th birthday. He is a big Dr Who fan!

The Tardis cake was on a black marble turntable and we hid it in the media room (no windows). Lochie was brought into the darkened room and someone swirled the cake around at speed while another person moved their hand rapidly up and down in front of a torch, creating a strobe effect while a third person (Alasdair) played the Dr Who TV theme tune on the laptop. All of this went down really well!

This cake was another of my dark chocolate mud cakes with dark chocolate ganache filling as all children seem to love it and adults too. The cake is quite straightforward and the instructions are easy to follow. It did, however, take longer to make than I anticipated so leave some extra time for the finishing touches.

Materials

8″ square cake tin

2 x 4.5″ set up boards

2 x 4″ set up boards. These boards will be used to separate the top and bottom parts of the cake.

1.5 kg blue / grey sugar paste

Small amounts of black and white sugar paste for windows, signs etc.

Dark blue petal dust

I used an 8″ square pan for the cake but I used the recipe for a 9″ square cake so that my cake would be taller than normal.

9” square dark chocolate mud cake recipe

400g unsalted butter

325g dark chocolate

1.5 tablespoon instant coffee

2.2 cups warm water

2.5 cups self raising flour

1.5 cup caster sugar

0.4 cup cocoa

3.25 eggs

1.5 teaspoon vanilla

Instructions:

1. Grease and line base and sides of cake pan with one thickness of baking paper, bringing paper 5cm above side of pan.

2. Combine chopped butter, chopped chocolate, coffee, and water in a saucepan.

Stir over low heat until chocolate is melted. Cool 15 minutes. Transfer mixture to bowl of mixer.

3. Add caster sugar to mixture and beat well until dissolved. Add sifted flour and cocoa, lightly beaten eggs and vanilla.

4. Pour mixture into prepared pan.

5. Bake at 150C for 1 to 1-1/2 hours. Test with skewer. Cool cake in pan.

Dark Chocolate Ganache

1.2 kg (2 lb 10 oz) dark chocolate, finely chopped

600 ml (21 fl oz) pure cream

Instructions

1. Put chocolate pieces in a large bowl

2. Put the cream in a saucepan and bring to the boil. Pour the cream over the chopped chocolate and mix with a whisk until the ganache is smooth. Do not use an electric whisk as you will create too many air bubbles in the ganache.

3. Allow to cool completely and then leave to set overnight.

For detailed instructions on how to make ganache and cover your cake with it click here

Creating the Tardis shape

1. Cut your cake into 4 small cakes, each 4″ x 4″.

2. Now cut each of these horizontally, giving you 8 pieces.

3. Make two cakes. The bottom cake will require 4 pieces filled with ganache sitting on the 4.5″ set up board. Also cover the top and sides with a thin crumb coat of ganache.

4. The top half is made up of 3 pieces sitting on the smaller 4″ set up board. Fill with ganache and again cover with a thin crumb coat of ganache.

5. Place the remaining 4″ board upside down on top of your bottom cake then place the top cake on top of this. Where the two cakes meet can eventually be separated when you cone to cut the cake. This will make it easy to cut elegant slices of cake.

6. Wait until your ganached cake firms up. You may need to put it in the fridge for half an hour.

6. You should now have one remaining 4.5″ board. Place it on top of the cake and use it as a guide to help you ganache the sides of the cake. If you use a set square you can run it along the sides of the cake using the 4.5″ boards at the top and bottom as a guide. Easy!

The final cake slice will be used as the roof so cut the sides off to make it a little smaller and cover it with ganache. You can cover it with blue/grey sugar paste as soon as the ganache forms up.

To cover in sugar paste, use a brush to apply a thin layer of water onto the ganache. Make a lid and attach. Measure the the height of the Tardis and the perimeter. Cut out the sugar paste a little larger and wrap around. Trim off the excess. The rough join is unimportant as corner pieces will eventually cover it.

3 Covered in sugar paste — Covered in sugar paste

4 Roof added — Attach the roof with a thin layer of water.

5 Neaten up the top edges — Add 4 thin pieces of sugar paste to neaten up the roof.

7 Cutting out the corners — Cutting out the corners using the width of the ruler as the width of the sugar paste.

8 Cutting out the door trim — Cutting slimmer strips to attach to the centre of each side.

9 Glueing on the trims — Paint on a little water to help each piece stick.

10 Adding more detail — Adding more detail

11 Cutting out the windows — Cutting out the windows. I used the width of my ruler as a guide but had to cut a little more off each to make a snug fit.

12 Roll out thin lines of sugar paste to make the small windows — Roll out thin lines of sugar paste to make the small windows

Use a dry paint brush to apply the dark blue petal dust to your cake. Use it to darken the shadows and to make the overall look distressed.

14 Tardis view from above — Tardis, view from above

16 Tardis Where the Wild Things Are — I used photoshop to place the Tardis cake on an image that I created a while back called ‘Where the Wild Things Are’. Details below

This photomanipulation is made up of several images. I took a picture of Callum on the boardwalk leading to the creek at Pottsville. I inverted the trees either side and added the steps from a picture taken at Norries Head, Cabarita. The fence is from a friend’s garden in Springbrook National Park. All the shadows on the boardwalk are just painted on in Photoshop and the birds are several shots of the one bird, a White-bellied Sea-Eagle, taken at Murwillumbah, flying overhead on the banks of the Tweed River near Dallis Park.

Angry Birds Cake

Published on April 1, 2013October 6, 2014 by Bernice Camlin5 Comments

Balin and his Angry Birds birthday cake (picture taken by my good friend Jillian Merlot, Balin’s gran) I **had** to do a little post processing in Photoshop of course!

Make the 8″ square Dark Chocolate Mud Cake

500g unsalted butter

400g dark chocolate

10g (2 tablespoon) instant coffee

2-2/3 cups warm water

380g (2 cup) caster sugar

520g (3 cups) self raising flour

60g (1/2 cup) cocoa

4 eggs

2 teaspoon vanilla

1. Grease and line base and sides of cake pan with one thickness of baking paper, bringing paper 5cm above side of pan.

2. Combine chopped butter, chopped chocolate, coffee, and water in a saucepan.

Stir over low heat until chocolate is melted. Cool 15 minutes. Transfer mixture to bowl of mixer.

3. Add caster sugar to mixture and beat well until dissolved. Add sifted flour and cocoa, lightly beaten eggs and vanilla.

4. Pour mixture into prepared pan.

5. Bake at 150C for 1 hour 45 mins. Test with skewer. Cool cake in pan.

Make the Dark Chocolate Ganache

1.2 kg (2lb 10oz) dark chocolate, finely chopped

500ml (17.5 fl oz) pure cream

For more information on how to make ganache and cover your cake with it, please click here.

I used the three images above as my inspiration. I tried to match the sizes, shapes and colours as I put together the birds, pigs and timbers. I also went online and played the game just to better understand the whole ‘Angry Birds’ thing.

I made all the pieces separately as they were being transported to the birthday party and with the cake being tall and slim (reflecting the 2D nature of the Angry Birds game) I was afraid that the cake would be top heavy and topple over in the car. I used cocktail sticks and wooden skewers to keep everything straight and the spikes came in handy for anchoring the timbers to the cake later on.

I made an 8″square dark chocolate mud cake and cut it in half and filled it with dark chocolate ganache. I then cut the cake up to resemble the online game silhouette finally covered the top and sides with the remaining ganache.

Now that you have mastered the Angry Bird cake you have to have a go at the Star Wars Angry Bird Cake that I made in September 2014!

Thong cake (Flip-flop cake)

Published on March 8, 2013November 19, 2014 by Bernice Camlin4 Comments

This lovely cake can be baked for many different special occasions. I even made one for a Christening!!

Materials

900g Pale blue sugar paste, coloured with Wilton Royal blue and Americolor Royal Purple (for cake, straps, plaque and flower centres)

200g Dark blue sugar paste, coloured with Wilton Royal blue and Americolor Royal Purple (for flowers)

300g yellow sugar paste (for top layer)

1 hollow plastic dowel

pale blue Royal icing for piping

clear A4 sheet of plastic acetate

Make the Dark Chocolate Mud Cake

Use an 8″ square pan but fill it with more batter than usual following the quantities below

500g unsalted butter

400g dark chocolate

10g (2 tablespoon) instant coffee

2-2/3 cups warm water

380g (2 cup) caster sugar

520g (3 cups) self raising flour

60g (1/2 cup) cocoa

4 eggs

2 teaspoon vanilla

1. Grease and line base and sides of cake pan with one thickness of baking paper, bringing paper 5cm above side of pan.

2. Combine chopped butter, chopped chocolate, coffee, and water in a saucepan.

Stir over low heat until chocolate is melted. Cool 15 minutes. Transfer mixture to bowl of mixer.

3. Add caster sugar to mixture and beat well until dissolved. Add sifted flour and cocoa, lightly beaten eggs and vanilla.

4. Pour mixture into prepared pan.

5. Bake at 150C for 1 hour 45 mins. Test with skewer. Cool cake in pan.

Make the Dark Chocolate Ganache

1.2 kg (2lb 10oz) dark chocolate, finely chopped

500ml (17.5 fl oz) pure cream

Making the templates

Draw around a thong and enlarge the line drawing in a photocopier to around 14.5 inches long (my AUS size 10 thong needed to be enlarged by 140%). You may have to enlarge in two steps if your copier is only A4 size. If your copier does not enlarge images, you will have to draw an enlargement by hand.

This is a right hand thong so make sure you don’t accidentally flip your templates and end up with left hand pieces that won’t fit your cake!!!

Copy this shape twice onto thick card. One will be covered in foil to make the set up board and the other will eventually be covered in cling film to make a top board to help with ganaching the sides of your cake.

Your paper template will later be reduced by 1/4″ all round and used to cut out the thong shape from the cake slab.

Make the cake board (rectangular) and the set up board (thong shape)

As it is next to impossible to purchase rectangular cake boards exactly to the size you need, it is best to make your own from 6 or 9 mm MDF covered in foil. Below is a picture of my efforts in making a rectangular board and a thong set up board at the same time. I use PVA glue spread by my fingers to do the job and it works well. Please note that I used the rectangular board with the yellow / orange thong cake at the very bottom of this blog. N.B. (another method I use is to cut the thong set up board out of a large square of gold or silver set up board. This way you won’t need to cover the board.)

Glue on the metallic foil

Slice the cake into 3 layers

Place your 8″ square cake on a turntable and cut the dome from the top (if necessary) of the cake to get a levelled surface. Place one hand on top of the cake. Hold a long serrated knife in the other hand, making sure to keep the knife level, then slice the cake twice horizontally to make three even layers. Spread each layer with syrup (whisk 100g of apricot jam with 100ml boiling water until smooth) as this will reduce the amount of crumbs when ganaching, help the ganache to stick to the cake and keep your cake moist. Then cut one layer in half to 8 x 4 in.

Make and fill a rectangle

Take one of the half layers and sandwich it on to the end of one normal layer with ganache. Put the other normal and half layer on top and sandwich with ganache. You should now have an 8″ x 12″ rectangular cake.

Build up the cake

Take your initial paper thong template and make it slightly smaller by cutting off 1/4″ – 1/8″ all round (this space will be filled with ganache later on). Place the template on top of your cake (the template will be too long for the cake but don’t worry) and using a sharp knife held at right angles, cut around it. Build up the shape of the thong with the cut offs using ganache as glue. Using some ganache to stick the shaped cake on the set up board. Brush the sides with the syrup.

Reducing the size of the ‘cutting template’ to leave room for the ganache

Apply ganache to the sides and top

Quickly cover the sides and top of the cake with a thin crumb coat of ganache. This will seal the cake and make it easy to add the next layer of ganache and achieve a perfect smooth finnish. Place the cake in the fridge till the outside is nice and firm to the touch.
Before applying the second layer of ganache, cover the remaining thong shaped piece of card with cling film and place on top of cake. Using the top and bottom card shapes as a guide add the ganache and smooth it off with a straight edge such as a ruler or set square. Pop the cake back in the fridge to firm up then remove the card and cling film and smooth some extra ganache over the top of the cake to fill any gaps.

Using a top board and set square to smooth the sides

Cover with sugar-paste

Knead 900g of pale blue sugar-paste to a pliable dough and roll to 1/8″ thick. Brush the top and sides of the cake with a little water as this will help the sugar-paste to glide onto the cake and also help it stick. Smooth the top of the cake first with a smoother. Next smooth the sides by gently pulling the sugar-paste away from the side before smoothing down with your hands and then the smoother. Roughly cut away the overhanging sugar-paste with scissors, knife or a pizza cutter. Carefully trim the sugar-paste around the base with a small knife. Now stick your cake to the display board with some syrup, Royal icing or edible glue.

Apply the top layer

Roll out yellow sugar-paste to about 1/8 in thick. Place the thong template on top and cut around it with a small knife or pizza cutter. Brush the top of the cake with syrup. Gently lift the sugar-paste and place it on top of the cake. Manipulate the sugar-paste till you get a good fit. Use a smoother to smooth it off and help stretch it if needed.

Prepare the toe area

Insert the hollow plastic dowel into the correct spot in the toe area using the template as a guide. Leave 4 cm (1 1/2″) of the dowel above the cake. Clip off any excess with scissors. Roll out some yellow sugar paste to 1/8″ thick. cut out a strip 5 x 2 cm (2 x 3/4″ ). Wrap the strip around the skewer and secure with a dab of water or edible glue. Because my dowel was made from yellow plastic and it matched the colour of the thong, I didn’t bother covering it in sugar paste. Fill the hollow dowel with yellow sugar paste as best you can and insert a cocktail stick as in the image below. The cocktail stick will help to anchor the straps and central flower. Mark the position of the straps (towards the back of the thong) with a sharp knife using the template as a guide. Cut out two acetate strips 2.5 cm wide and longer than needed (cut off any excess later). Join the strips at right angles and secure with sticky tape. Make a small hole in the centre with a pin and slip over the end of the cocktail stick. Cut the end off the cocktail stick now but leave a little bit sticking up to help secure the flowers. Decide how long your acetate straps need to be and cut off any extra at an angle while leaving enough to be inserted into the cake as an anchor.

Cut out two pale blue sugar paste straps to fit and attach with edible glue.

To make edible glue

Add 2 tablespoons of warm water to a quarter teaspoon of Tylose Powder and allow the Tylose powder to melt. Don’t worry if at this stage the glue appears not to be blending. Put a lid on the container and leave it in the refrigerator overnight and in the morning you will have a perfectly clear and ready to use glue.

The glue should be a dripping consistency. If it is too thick, just add a little more water and stir with a toothpick .

The edible glue should be stored in the refrigerator when not in use.

To apply the glue, use a good quality paintbrush and brush on to the area where you are going to be working. Leave until it begins to dry a little so that the area is just tacky to touch.

The acetate straps

Make the flower decorations

Roll out the dark blue and the remaining pale blue sugar paste to 3 mm (1/8″) thick. Using a small flower cutter, cut out up to 30 flowers and a similar number of flower centres in the pale blue. You will also need one large dark blue flower and a circular pale blue plaque to write your birthday message on. You can stick the flowers onto the thong in a random pattern but I have measured mine so that they are spaced 6.5 cm apart.

I used a piping bag with a size 00 nozzle. The RI was make up of 10g of real egg white, 70g sifted icing sugar, 3 drops acetic acid and water added a few drops at a time. Mix all ingredients together with a hand held electric mixer and a few drops of water. Add edible colouring and a few more drops of water until your RI (Royal Icing) reaches the required consistancy: it should take 7 seconds for stirred RI to flatten out. If your RI is too stiff add some more water and test again. If it is too soft,add more sifted icing sugar and test again.

Another variation to match the party invitations.

Stripe Thong Cake with Matching cupcakes and surf board toppers — Stripe Thong Cake with matching cupcakes and surf board toppers