This fabulous cake took a good many hours to complete but I think it was worth every minute of my time.
Here are the dimensions of the cakes I made…………
4″ round x 3.5″ high:
5″ round x 4.5″ high:
6″ Dummy tier x 3″ high:
8″ round x 4.5″ high.
You could alter these sizes a little with no great consequence.
I would like to show you how to achieve a stunning lace effect on a cake using stencils and piping.
To get the best possible results use a different colour of stencil icing from the colour of your cake.
This cake is champagne and the Icing for the stencil is white.
I used 3 of the set of 4 Designer Stencils.
I will be stencilling the second from top tier of this 4 tiered cake, the tier with the buttons.
As this tier will be stencilled all over I will need to position my stencil vertically and fix in position with pins or tooth picks.
Mix up some white Royal Icing (RI) till it forms soft peaks and apply a thin coat using a bendy scrapper.
I made my scrappers in various widths from square and rectangular Lurpak / margarine tubs.
You can remove the stencil before it dries. You will, however, need to wait till the RI dries before re-attaching the stencil for the next section (5 – 10 mins)
Once you have stencilled the sides of the cake, this tier requires that you stencil on top. Try to align the stencil with the pattern on the sides and complete in segments.
To get the full lace effect on your finished cake you will need to outline all the stencilled flowers and leaves with RI using a piping bag fitted with a small tip ( 00, 0 or 1 ). This is very time consuming but gives a fabulous lacy texture to your cake.
Simply the best wedding favours ever. These cute heart shaped Bride and Groom cookies are quite simple to make but can be quite time consuming so please leave yourself some extra time so that you don’t end up with a rushed job!
The recipe below is for 24 heart shaped vanilla iced cookies each 8 centimetres high. The cookies are iced using the ‘Outlining and Flooding’ technique which is simple to learn. The outline works as a dam or wall to hold the runny icing which you use to fill (flood) in the main parts of the cookie.
24 Heart shaped vanilla cookies
Vanilla Cookie recipe
200g unsalted soft butter
200g caster sugar
seeds from 2 vanilla pods
1 egg, lightly beaten
400g plain flour
In the mixer with paddle attachment, cream the butter, sugar and vanilla till well mixed and just creamy in texture. Do not overwork or cookies will spread during baking.
Beat in the egg till well combined.
Add the flour and mix on low speed until a dough forms. Cover with cling and place in fridge for at least 1 hour.
Place dough on floured surface and knead briefly.
Roll out to 5mm thick.
Cut out your heart shapes, then, using a palette knife, lay them on a baking tray lined with greaseproof paper. Chill again for about 30 mins.
Preheat oven to 190C/170C fan and bake for 10-13 mins, until golden brown at the edges.
Transfer cookies to a wire rack and allow to cool before decorating.
Royal Icing recipe
270g pure icing sugar, sifted
4 drops acetic acid
1 egg white
Beat icing sugar, acetic acid and egg white with electric beaters on slow to begin then medium for 4 minutes for soft peaks.
Divide the icing between two bowls with airtight lids. Place lids on until required as icing dries out very quickly.
Add white colour and black colour to respective bowls and mix to required depth of colour. I used Americolor gel colour.
Add water (a 1/4 tsp at a time) and stir until you reach the thick or ‘outline’ consistancy. To test the consistency just drag the tip of s knife through the surface of your icing, letting the knife go about one inch deep and count to 10. If the surface of the icing smooths over in approximately 10 seconds then your icing is ready to use. If it takes longer, the icing is too thick. add more water. if your icing surface smooths over in less than 7 seconds, it is too runny. Add more icing sugar.
When your icing is the right consistency ( i.e. smoothing over in 10 seconds) place a quarter of the icing in a piping bag with a small tip number 0 or 1.
Add more water to the remaining icing till it smooths over in 2 – 5 seconds then pour the remaining icing into a squeezy bottle.
Thick black and white Royal Icing for ‘outlining’ in bags, thin black and white Royal Icing for ‘flooding’ in squeezy bottles. Cocktail stick for speading the icing and a cup of tea to enjoy. ( N.B. I have 92 chocolate and vanilla cookies here… hopefully you will only have 12 vanilla cookies to pipe).
Outlining
Outline your cookies first and leave at least 15 minutes before you flood the inside of the ‘dam’ (outline). When putting light and dark shades together as we are here (black and white), it is best to wait a few hours in-between so that the colours don’t bleed into each other.
To outline the cookie hold the bag at 45 degrees and position the tip on your cookie. Put enough pressure on the bag so that the icing comes out and you can start moving in the direction that you want your icing to go. Start lifting the piping bag till it is a few centimetres above your cookie and the icing just falls in a continuous line onto the cookie below. Come back closer to the cookie at corners and when finishing also reduce or stop pressure on the bag to go more slowly or to stop.
Cut out a small heart shape template in thin card or paper to help get the correct outline of the dress. The template will also help all the cookies to look identical.
Flooding
Use a squeezy bottle with a large round hole number 3, 4 or 5 tip. Filling one area at a time quickly zig zagging back and forth. Don’t worry if you haven’t filled in every spot: speed is more important at this point. To fill in these little missed bits just use a cocktail stick to push the icing into your missed bits.
Use the thick icing in your piping bag to outline the top of the wedding dress and add a fancy little design. While still wet sprinkle over with white sanding sugar then pipe some dots for a pearl necklace.
Use the same principles for outlining and flooding the ‘Groom’ cookies.
Storing
Let the cookies dry for 24 hours, if you possibly can, before you package them. Store in an airtight container in a cool dry place out of the sun (sunlight can fade your coloured icing, especially black icing). The cookies can be kept for up to 2 weeks and longer if heat sealed in food grade cello bags.
Cake pops have without a doubt become one of the most popular sweet treat trends in years.
While cake pops are certainly a fun treat to share and eat, they can be a challenge to create. I will start this tutorial with the recipes and method I used to make these Bride and Groom Cake Pops then I will expand the tutorial with a troubleshooting section that applies to all kinds of cake pops.
Cake Pops
Makes 20 pops
What you will need:
600g dark chocolate mudcake made from scratch or 600g of mudcake made from a box cake mix
115g cream cheese
160g sifted icing sugar
40g butter
0.5 tbsp milk
620g white candy melts
350g black candy melts
Lollipop sticks ( 7″ if possible )
Matching ribbon
1. Make the frosting by mixing together the cream cheese, icing sugar, butter and milk.
2. Crumble the cake into a large bowl or process in the food processor to fine crumbs then place in a large bowl and stir in half of the frosting. Mix with your hands until thoroughly combined and thick like a truffle center. Mix in additional frosting if necessary. You just want enough to get the crumbs to stick together when you roll them into balls. Do not add so much that the mixture becomes soft and mushy!
3. Roll mixture into balls weighing 30g and place on a cookie sheet. Place in freezer for 15 minutes then allow them to almost return to room temperature.
4. Meanwhile melt chocolate in the microwave at 70% for 1 minute then stir well. Return to microwave for 30 seconds and stir well. If the chocolate has still not melted then repeat in 30 second bursts until fully melted and smooth ( always stir well before returning the chocolate to the microwave to avoid overheating). Dip the tip of your lollipop stick in a little of the melted candy coating and insert into the the top of the cake ball. Insert a little more than halfway.
5. Place in freezer again for 15 minutes then allow them to almost return to room temperature before dipping them. Pops will crack if the temperature difference between the cake and the coating is too great. Carefully dip the cake pop into the candy coating by holding the lollipop stick and submerging in the chocolate till fully covered. Once covered, remove and softly tap and rotate until the excess chocolate falls off. Don’t tap too hard or the cake ball will fall off too.
You want the chocolate to come over the platform you created when inserting the chocolate-dipped stick, but you don’t have to cover it all the way to the stick.
Tap off the excess chocolate.
Once half the cake pops are on sticks that have been dipped in chocolate, I then put them in my freezer for 15 minutes and by the time they are ready to come out the freezer the remaining cake pops will be ready to go in. Chilling them helps set the chocolate and make the stick, chocolate and cake all come together firmly.
6. Melt the black chocolate as before and dip half of the cake pops to make the ‘Grooms’. Dip at an angle and rotate a little to create the jacket. Fit a no. 2 tip to a piping bag and fill with a little of the black chocolate. Pipe on the bow tie and buttons. If the chocolate hardens in the bag or tip just ‘neuk’ the piping bag in the microwave at 70% for 5 – 10 seconds.
7. Fill a similar bag with a little white chocolate and pipe the ‘Brides’ as per the picture.
Troubleshooting Cake Pops
Bride and Groom Wedding Cake Pops
Cake Pops Cracking
The challenge I find with chilling the cake pops is that there seems to be a fine line as to how long to chill them – as having them too cold often results in the chocolate cracking after dipping. I try and make sure my chocolate isn’t too hot, and that my cake pop isn’t too cold – letting it warm up a bit after taking it out of the freezer, even just a few minutes.
Another way I deal with this issue is that I do a “first dip” into chocolate. I then redip them in a second layer of chocolate, and decorate. Kind of like a crumb coat in frosting a cake. This sort of seals the crack into the first layer, leaving the second and outer layer looking nice and pretty, and yay – more chocolate! This is also an option if you make your cake pop and the chocolate hardens before you get the sprinkles on it. Just dip it again!
Here are some other sites that you can check out for more tips and advice on the chocolate on the cake pop cracking issue…
Dipping my cake pop sticks into the chocolate, then putting them into the cake pops and letting the chocolate set should avoid these problems. I do have a few other things that help with this issue.
1. Don’t make the cake pop too big. Keep cake pops on the smaller side between 27g – 32g as too much weight on that tiny stick has the potential to create problems.
2. When dipping the cake pop into the chocolate, dip it in and get it out – don’t twirl it around. Twirling it in the chocolate increases the chances of the cake pop falling off the stick or chunks of the cake pop falling off.
3. Never tap the stick on the side of the bowl too hard when trying to get the excess chocolate off. Too hard of a tap and bam, cake pop in bowl. Do a very gentle tap or two on the side of my bowl, and then twirl cake pop, slowly and constantly, over the bowl to let the excess chocolate drip off.
4. Holding on to the cake pop until the chocolate is close to set. Once the chocolate sets, usually the cake pop and stick are pretty good friends then you can confidently set it down.
Here are some other sites you can check out with information about preventing your cake pops from falling off of the sticks…
Getting the Chocolate Smooth and the Sprinkles To Stick
Keep the cake pops moving, slowly twirling the cake pop until the chocolate sets. It’s a bit of a balancing act to find when to add the sprinkles and when to put the cake pop down. If you put the sprinkles on too soon, they can slide off and take the chocolate with them. Wait too long and they won’t stick. There is definitely a sweet spot time wise to adding the crystals, and I think a lot of it just takes some practice and patience to find what works.
Stick to lighter sprinkles, the ones that weigh the least, such as sanding sugar, sugar crystals, jimmies and the like. The sanding sugar and sugar crystals are the easiest.
Do not submerge my cake pops in sprinkles. Hold the cake pop over a bowl, and sprinkle over it, catching the excess sprinkles.
This is a wonderful cake suitable for all sorts of occasions – birthdays, Valentine’s, Mother’s Day, anniversary’s etc. I made this cake for the first time for my friend Lesley’s birthday and it was such a success that I have made it many times since and each time I give it a different look. This cake was for an 65th Birthday surprise.
Below are the instructions you need to make this cake including my 10 minute video clip ‘How to make fondant frangipanis’ using an individual frangipani petal cutter and a step by step guide to making frangipanis using a one piece rose cutter. Decide which method you prefer and have a go.
Instructions are for a 6″ dark chocolate mud cake filled with dark chocolate ganache and covered in sugar-paste
Ingredients
Dark Chocolate Mud Cake
100g butter
100g dark choc
10g coffee
70ml water
55g SR flour
55g plain flour
20g cocoa powder
0.25 tsp bicarb
210g caster sugar
2 eggs
3 tsp oil
45ml buttermilk
Ganache
520g dark chocolate
260ml pure cream
Flower-paste
700 grams of rolled fondant (I used Bakels Pettinice, but any will do)
2 teaspoons of Cellogen (if you use CMC, Tylose Powder or Gum Trag then only use 1 to 1.5 teaspoons)
1/3 teaspoon raw egg white
2 teaspoons Cream of Tartar
a small amount of Crisco or shortening
Edible Glue 1 teasp Tylose Powder
Other
500g (17oz) pink sugar paste (rolled fondant)
30g (1oz) bag of chocolate buttons or Freckles
227g (1/2lb) box milk chocolate15cm (6″) thin card board for the lid.
Individual frangipani petal cutter or a one piece 5 petal rose cutter
Petal Dust in yellow
1. To make the Dark Chocolate Mud Cake
Preheat the oven to 160C. Grease the tin and line the base and sides with a collar that extends 2 cm above the top of the tin.
Put the butter, chocolate, coffee and water in a saucepan and stir over low heat until melted, then remove from the heat.
Sift the flours, cocoa and bicarbonate of soda into a large bowl. Stir in the sugar and make a well in the centre. Add the combined egg, oil and buttermilk and the chocolate mixture, stirring with a large spoon until completely combined.
Pour the mixture into the tin and bake for 2 hours (for 11’5″cake) or until a skewer poked into the centre of the cake comes out clean, though it may be a little sticky. Leave the cake in the tin until cold.
Measure the height of the cake.Roll out 200g of the pink sugar-paste so that you can cut a strip about 46cm (18in) long and 1cm (0.5in) wider than the depth of your cake.Brush the sides of the cake with a little water.Roll the sugar-paste up like a bandage, making sure it is not too tight and then unwind it around the side of the cake.Paint a light line of water around the inside edge of the chocolate box and neatly press the chocolate buttons into the ganache. My buttons were big so I cut each one in half first.Arrange chocolates on top of the box. Stick one of the chocolates on top of the others as this will help secure the lid at an angle later on.Moisten the top and sides of your thin cake board with a little water, roll out and cover with 100g (30z) of pink sugar-paste. Trim and neaten edges.Use 200g (7oz) pink sugar-paste to cover your base cake board (moisten with a little water first), if you are using one. Cut out a long strip of sugar-paste and roll up as if a bandage and unroll to cover around the board
4. To make the Flower-paste Flower-paste (also called modelling paste)
Prep Time: 5 minutes
Serves: Makes around 500 grams of paste
Instructions:
Use a little Crisco on your work surface and knead up your fondant so its nice and soft.
Sprinkle the Cellogen, or alternative, over the work surface and knead it into the fondant.
This flower paste is white as it is for a different cake. Sorry!
Make a well in the mix and pour in the egg white, knead until mixed through, it may feel a little sticky, add more Crisco to the surface if you need to.
Sprinkle the Cream of Tartar on the work surface and knead into the mix until all incorporated.
Wrap the paste in cling wrap tightly, a few times and place in an air tight container, leave for at least 12 hours before use.
You don’t need to refrigerate it, and it will last for months.
I cut mine up into four pieces, and generally freeze it. It defrosts with the heat of your hands in minutes.5. To make the Frangipanis
Soften the flower paste
Roll out till thin
Press down hard with your cutter
Lift up and check
Use the balling tool or something similar to push out the flower-paste shape
Stick the petals together one at a time using edible glue
Carefully paint glue along the last petal edge
Join together and make sure all the petals are evenly spaced.
Turn upside down and check that there are no gaps
Curve the petals a little
Squeeze the stem together firming everything up nicely.
Glue the flowers around the base of the cake using edible glue.To make the glue mix the Tylose powder with approximately 4 tblsp water. Any lumps will disappear if you put the mixture in the fridge overnight.I arranged the flowers in pairs as it made a more interesting arrangement.Arrange a few of the flowers together for the top of the lid. As the flowers were hard, I pushed them into a piece of the left over flower-paste which was still soft as I had wrapped it in cling film overnight.Stick the lid to the chocolates using a blob of ganache.
Below is a different colour combination that you might like to try.
This year I made my Valentine Heart Cookies from gingerbread. I did this as I will be selling them at Pottsville Beach Markets on Sunday 5th February 2012 and the biscuits will have to keep for a couple of weeks. Gingerbread easily keeps for a month in cello bags and is my best choice but if you would rather make a Buttery Sugar Cookie recipe then click here.
Gingerbread Cookies
90g butter
150g soft brown sugar
90g golden/corn syrup
425g Plain flour
1 tsp baking powder
2tsp ground ginger
1tsp mixed spice
1 medium egg (beaten)
Gently heat butter, sugar and syrup until dissolved.. Cool slightly for five mins.
Pre-heat oven 180C and lightly grease baking trays.
Sift flour, baking powder and spices tog into mixing bowl and make a well in centre.
Add melted mixture and egg into the centre. Bind tog with knife then use hands to form soft dough.
Sprinkle work surface with flour and roll out thegingerbread to 3mm (1/8in).
Bake in centre of oven for 13 mins.
Transfer cooked gingerbread to a cooling rack.
Outline and fill the cookies at the same time using RI (Royal Icing) with a number 2 piping nozzle and remember that RI takes 24 hours to set.
Royal icing
Traditional royal icing is made with real egg white, however, because of the slight chance of salmonella poisoning, I now prefer to use dried egg white instead.
20g (3/4 oz) dried egg white
90ml (2.5fl oz) cold water
500g (1lb 2 0z) icing sugar
method
Mix egg white and water in a bowl until smooth.
Sieve the icing sugar into a grease free bowl.
Tip in the egg mixture and beat on the slowest speed for 5 mins until the icing stands up in peaks.
Planet Cake Royal Icing using real egg whites.
250-300g pure icing sugar, sifted
2-4 drops acetic acid (white vinegar)
1 egg whitemethod
Beat icing sugar, acetic acid and egg white with electric beater on medium-high speed for 4 minutes for ‘soft peak’. Add extra sugar if the icing is too soft.
Achieving the right consistency for Royal Icing can be difficult but practise makes perfect, so if icing is too thick or too thin just empty your piping bag and add more water/vinegar or icing sugar. You will soon work it out.
Place icing in airtight plastic bowl with a lid. Lay a piece of cling film directly on top of the icing and replace the lid.
DONT put the cookies in an airtight container until they are set (24 hours to set) need the air to help dry out.
Pipe on your designs once the cookies are set using a number 1 piping nozzle. If you would like to use my designs then click on the image above to enlarge and then copy the same or similar on your cookies. For the straight lines, in particular, touch the cookie with the nozzle at the beginning and end of line only, pulling your line of icing in the air. This way you get the straightest line possible. For the heart-shaped outlines you sort of hold the nozzle above your cookie and let the icing gently fall/glide into place. Do not drag the nozzle along the cookie surface at any time. Very few of my cookies are identical as I adapt my designs as I go. Feel free to experiment.If you would like to make these cookies using a Buttery Sugar Cookie recipe then click here.
The label is wet in this photo. it dried out later on.
Step 1 – Make the wine bottle out of gumpaste or fondant at least 3 days ahead:
Use a real wine bottle as a mould and dust with cornflour to keep the fondant from sticking to it…a lot of cornflour. Knead some black fondant with Tylose (helps it dry harder and faster), roll it out to about 1/8″ thick, then lay it over the top half of the wine bottle making sure there is plenty of corn starch between the fondant and bottle. Smooth out the fondant over the bottle and trim off the excess.
I made two bottles just in case one went wrong!!
Tip 1: Be sure to trim it at the half way mark down the side of the bottle so that you can just slip the fondant off the bottle once dry. You can make 2 halves separately then glue them together with sugar glue if you want a 3D bottle.
Tip 2: Allow at least 2-3 days for drying time to avoid the fondant losing its shape.
Step 2 – Decorate the bottle:
You can paint the bottle with clear piping gel tinted burgundy (AmeriColor Gel Paste) if you want a shiny glass look but I just left it matte. For the label, I purchased an edible image but you may prefer to paint on the label yourself. Mark the label position before applying and lightly paint the area with water or edible glue.Tip 3: Pop the edible image in the freezer for 2 minutes before peeling off the backing paper.
Step 3 – Make the wood panels for the box at least 2 days ahead:
For the side panels of the box, make 2 shades of fondant, a light brown and beige . Rolled each color out into a thick snake them twist them together and kneaded it a little bit until it started to marble. Then rolled it out flat to around 3/16″ thick.
Tip 4: Don’t knead too much or else the marble will blend away. Rolling it out will help it marble more anyways.
Tip 5: You don’t want to roll it out too thin or else you risk the panels breaking apart.
Cut out 4 panels: 2 panels at 14″ x 4″ and 2 panels at 6″ x 4″. Lay them over parchment paper, then over a cookie tray to dry. Let it sit for about 5 minutes to dry a little then take some tools and score lines down it, poke holes into it, dent it, etc…just stress it out and get it to look like wood.
Tip 6: Letting the fondant sit for a couple minutes before scoring and marking it, it will help the design stay. If you start scoring it too early while the fondant is too soft and pliable, the marks will smooth away.
As for the base board, I used a 16″ x 8″ x 9mm thick MDF covered in decorator’s foil, firmly glued down with PVA wood glue.
Step 4 – Bake the cake 2 days ahead.
Dark Chocolate Mud Cake(from Planet Cake Cookbook)
Ingredients for 10″ square cake
330g butter
330g dk choc
35g coffee
240ml water
190g SR
190g plain
75g cocoa
.7tsp bicarb
720g caster
6 eggs
10.5 tsp oil
150ml buttermilk
Ganache
1800g dark chocolate
900ml pure cream
Dark Chocolate Mud Cake Method
Preheat the oven to 160C. Grease the tin and line the base and sides with a collar that extends 2 cm above the top of the tin.
Put the butter, chocolate, coffee and water in a saucepan and stir over low heat until melted, then remove from the heat.
Sift the flours, cocoa and bicarbonate of soda into a large bowl. Stir in the sugar and make a well in the centre. Add the combined egg, oil and buttermilk and the chocolate mixture, stirring with a large spoon until completely combined.
Pour the mixture into the tin and bake for 2 hours (for 11’5″cake) or until a skewer poked into the centre of the cake comes out clean, though it may be a little sticky. Leave the cake in the tin until cold.
Dark Chocolate Ganache Method
Blitz the chocolate in a processor till each piece is the size of a coffee granule and place in a large bowl
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. (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.
Step 5 – Torte, fill, and crumb coat the cake 1 day ahead.
The side panels of the box were cut to make a box 14″ L x 6″ W x 4″ H. Cut the 10″ square Dark Chocolate Mud Cake to fit. Torte each layer to 1-1/4″ tall and filled with 1/2″ of Dark Chocolate Ganache = 3″ tall cake. Place the cake over a 14″ x 6″ set up board covered in foil. Use piping gel to help the cake and board stick together. Cover the cake with ganache using the board that the cake is sitting on as a guide to getting the correct thickness. Leave the cake overnight to harden and make it easier to work with.
Step 6 – Final Assembly:
Use a very sharp blade to trim each panel to size, if necessary, and gently press up against the side of the cake using edible glue to stick them on. Gently place the bottle in the middle and fill the area around it with white chocolate shavings.
I made this cake for a wedding on the Gold Coast yesterday!
The top tier is a 10″ Hummingbird Cake filled with Cream Cheese Frosting and some Decorator’s Buttercream to go directly under the sugarpaste.
The bottom tier is a 12″ Dark Chocolate Jaffa Mud Cake filled and coated with Dark Chocolate Ganache and covered in sugarpaste.
Making and using black sugarpaste can be a nightmare and so for this special cake I purchased ‘Satin Ice’ Ready Made black sugarpaste. The white sugarpaste is Bakel’s.
Quantities of Sugarpaste
5 Kg white sugarpaste
1.3 Kg black sugarpaste
Three of the sketches used in the design stages.
Ingredients for the 12” square dark chocolate Jaffa mud cake
500g butter
500g dk choc
55g coffee
360ml water (replace some of this with the juice of 2 oranges)
280g SR
280g plain
110g cocoa
1.5 tsp bicarb
1080g caster
9 eggs
Zest of 4 oranges
16 tsp oil
225ml buttermilk
Ganache
2700g dark chocolate
1350ml pure cream
Method for the dark chocolate Jaffa mud cake
Preheat the oven to 160C (Fan Forced). Grease the tin and line the base and sides with a collar that extends 2 cm above the top of the tin. Add baking strips (made from damp cloths wrapped in tin foil) around the outside of the cake tin.
Put the butter, chocolate, coffee, water and fresh orange juice in a saucepan and stir over low heat until melted, then remove from the heat.
Sift the flours, cocoa and bicarbonate of soda into a large bowl. Stir in the sugar and make a well in the centre. Add the combined egg, orange zest, oil and buttermilk and the chocolate mixture, stirring with a large spoon until completely combined.
Pour the mixture into the tin and bake for 2 hours or until a skewer poked into the centre of the cake comes out clean, though it may be a little sticky.
Once removed from the oven, use a pastry brush (or similar) to brush the top of the cake with boiled water to keep it moist and save it from cracking and forming crusty bits on top. Then cover with a clean tea cloth to reduce evaporation. Repeat the brushing with boiled water step two or three times at half hour intervals as the cake cools.
Remove the baking strips once they can be handled or use oven gloves to remove them.
Let cake cool completely on a wire rack before taking the cake out of the tin.
Wrap the cake well in cling film (do not squash cake) and put in fridge till morning.
Method for dark chocolate ganache
Find out how to make ganache and fill / cover your cake with it Click Here
Ingredients for 10″ square Hummingbird Cake
A 250ml measuring cup was used for this recipes.
440g can crushed pineapple in juice or syrup [or 62ml (1/4 cup) pineapple juice/syrup and 110g (1/2 cup) well-drained crushed pineapple]
300g (2 cup) self-raising flour
150g (1 cup) plain flour
1 teaspoon bicarbonate of soda (baking soda)
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
6 large eggs (we use eggs with a minimum weight of 59g)
250ml (1 cup) oil (we use peanut oil, but any mild-flavored oil could be used)
780g (3 cup) mashed very ripe banana
450g (2 cups, firmly packed) brown sugar
170g (1 1/3 cup) pecan nuts, broken or chopped into pieces
Cream Cheese Frosting (to fill the cake)
245g (1 3/4 cups) icing sugar
40g butter
80g cream cheese
2 1/2 teaspoons (12.5ml) lemon juiceDecorator’s Buttercream (a nice firm buttercream to spread on the sides and top of cake)
(Very stable in very hot weather which we get in the summer here on the Gold Coast, Australia. Probably the best buttercream for covering the outside of cakes as it firms up nicely and forms a crust)
250g Lurpak butter
250g copha or solite
1 tbsp lemon juice
around 750g Pure icing sugar (just keep adding till you are happy with the consistency)
one and a half tablespoons of ‘Pavlova Magic’.
1/4 cup of water (don’t freak out if the icing seems to curdle, it comes together fine.)
Method for Hummingbird Cake
If using a can of crushed pineapple, empty the contents into a strainer over a medium bowl. Set aside to drain.
Grease a deep 10” square cake pan and line the base and sides with baking paper.
Preheat oven to 180 degrees Celsius (160 degrees Celsius fan-forced). If you are not using a fan-forced oven, adjust the oven rack to the lower half of the oven so the centre of the cake will be in the centre of the oven.
Stir or whisk self-raising flour, plain flour, bicarbonate of soda and cinnamon together in a large bowl until combined.
Place eggs, oil, banana, brown sugar, pecan nuts, crushed pineapple and pineapple juice in a large bowl. Stir the ingredients together until well combined.
Add banana mixture to flour mixture and stir until combined.
Pour batter into the prepared pan and smooth the surface with a spatula or the back of a spoon.
Bake cake for about 1 hour and 20 minutes, until a thin-bladed knife or wooden skewer inserted into the centre of the cake comes out without any batter attached.
Allow cake to cool in pan on a wire rack. Remove from pan.When cool cut in half and fill with Cream Cheese Frosting.
Cream Cheese Frosting
Place icing sugar in a mixer and mix on high speed for a few seconds to remove any lumps. Add butter, cream cheese and lemon juice to the food processor. Process on medium speed for about 30 seconds. Stop the machine and use a spatula to scrape down the side of the bowl. Process for a further 15 seconds, or until the frosting is smooth and creamy. Make a dam of Decorator’s Buttercream around the edge of the cake and fill in the middle with the frosting.
Decorator’s Buttercream
Melt/soften the copha (make sure soft all the way through, or just melt) (Solite is already soft, so just add straight to the bowl).
Add copha/solite and softened butter to mixer, start mixing, add lemon juice.
Add the icing sugar a cup at a time, once combined add pav magic, and water. Leave to mix for about 10 minutes.
Smooth over the sides and top of the cake and leave till firm.
Covering the cake with sugarpaste
Knead some white icing to a pliable dough and roll it out to 3 mm (1/8 in) thick, using a large rolling pin.
Cover both cakes with white sugarpaste.Making the strips
Cut out 3.5 cm wide strips of black and white sugarpaste the height of the cake. You will need 20 black strips and 16 white strips plus 4 white corner strips which you can custom cut to fit once all the other strips are in place. Start off each side by marking the midpoint and sticking the first black strip right in the middle.
Making the lids
Let the cakes sit for a couple of hours to allow the icing to dry before you make the lids. Brush the top of the cakes with a little water (or syrup) and run the brush around the top inch of the side of the cakes. Knead 700g of the white icing for the top box lid and 900g for the the bottom box lid.Once the dough is pliable, roll out each piece till they are at least 8 in larger than the width of each box. Roll the icing over your rolling pin, lift it up and roll it over the cake. Smooth the top and sides with a flexi-scraper. Use a ruler to mark the edge of the lid on all 4 sides. Trim the lid with a sharp knife.
Making the ribbon
Knead 500g of the black sugarpaste to a pliable dough and roll out. Measure length of ribbon needed. Cut out 4 strips of the required length by 3.5 cm wide. Trim one end of each ribbon into a point to help fit the ribbons together on top of the cake. Stick to the cake with water or edible glue and trim excess ends with a knife.
To make the bow simply follow this video.
Once the bow is completely dry use edible glue to stick it to your cake.
I hope you enjoy making the cake as much as I did.
This fabulous Beach Wedding Cake is covered in ivory sugarpaste and decorated with matching handmade and painted sugar-paste shells.
The bottom tier is a 10″ dark chocolate mud cake filled with dark chocolate ganache and the top tier is an 8″ white chocolate mud cake filled with white chocolate ganache.
How to make ganache and cover your cake with it click here
Sugarpaste I coloured all my sugarpaste at once using Wilton’s gel paste in Ivory. 1.475Kg for the bottom tier plus 1.150kg for top tier plus 500g for the shells
How to colour sugarpaste and use it to cover your cake click here
I used Poly-Dowels from GlobalSugarArt.com to support my cake this time and found them easy to use. They are easy to cut with scissors and more hygienic than the wooden ones, I think.
Sea Shells Using 500g of the ivory sugarpaste, I decided to make a 50/50 mix of sugarpaste/gumpaste (read ‘Successful Molding’ below for other suggestions for mediums to use with molds). I used the recipe below for gumpaste but only used half the quantities to achieve a 50/50 mix.
I used 3 First Impressions Molds which I ordered from America from GlobalSugarArt.com
S102 4 Shell Set S188 Shell Set 6 (21398) Clam Shell Press 2 pc.
I made 10 of each shell making a total of 130 shells.
Gumpaste Ingredients:
500 grams of sugarpaste (I use Bakels Pettinice, but any will do)
2 teaspoons of Cellogen (if you use CMC, Tylose or Gum Trag then only use 1 to 1.5 teaspoons)
1/3 teaspoon raw egg white
2 teaspoons Cream of Tartar
Instructions:
Use a little Crisco (here in Australia I use Copha which is a solid white vegetable oil) on your work surface and knead up your sugarpaste so its nice and soft.
Sprinkle the Cellogen, or alternative, over the work surface and knead it into the fondant.
Make a well in the mix and pour in the egg white, knead until mixed through, it may feel a little sticky, add more Crisco to the surface if you need to or some icing sugar to stop it sticking to your hands.
Sprinkle the Cream of Tartar on the work surface and knead into the mix until all incorporated.
(Thanks to Fran for this gumpaste recipe which I have adapted a little.)
Successful Moldingby Alan Tetreault GlobalSugarArt.com
Successful molding using silicone molds is all dependent on the medium you choose. Many decorators call me in frustration that they cannot get a good impression with a silicone mold using sugarpaste. Generally, for larger or detailed molds, I recommend using at least a 50/50 mix of gumpaste and sugarpaste. If the mold has a lot of details or undercuts (details that are cut out of the mold that you cannot see from the opening) I use 100% gumpaste. On a large mold that is very detailed, I recommend adding Tylose to gumpaste to make a very firm and strong gumpaste. The more detailed the mold, the firmer the gumpaste should be to achieve the best results. Here are my suggestions:
It helps to use a small dot of shortening (Crisco) on our fingertips while pushing the sugarpaste or gumpaste into the mold.
1. For small molds that you want to be able to cut through or eat, use only sugarpaste. For each pound of sugarpaste, knead in about one cup of confectionery sugar or enough so that the fondant no longer sticks to your hands or the surface you are kneading on. This will make molding easier and you can handle the finished product without it stretching out of shape. This also works well on side designs, drapes and borders that you are molding with a silicone mold. Adding a flavoring to the fondant (like orange, lemon, almond, peppermint, etc.) can be a nice finishing touch. Especially since it is usually the children that try to eat the decorations! Freezing the molded fondant for 5-15 minutes before removing helps keep the detail.
2. For larger figurines, flowers and borders like pearls and ropes, I recommend a mixture of 50% gumpaste and 50% fondant kneaded together. This makes a mold that can still be cut through with a knife when you serve the cake but you may not want to eat the pieces. Freezing the molded fondant for 5 -15 minutes before removing from the mold helps with removal and keeps the detail.
3. For large molds or molds that have undercuts, I use all gumpaste. Freeze 10 minutes before removing from mold.4. For very large or detailed molds, I add 1-2 teaspoons of Tylose to one pound of gumpaste and knead it well. Allow it to rest overnight in the refrigerator in a sealed bag. The next day, break off a piece and knead it well before using it to make a mold. It will be very firm. Freeze 10-15 minutes before removing from the mold.
These shells were molded using 50/50 gumpaste/sugarpaste with no added confectioners sugar.
I placed the filled mold in the freezer for 15 minutes then removed the shells from the mold and lightly dusted with non toxic Luster Dust in Spanish Moss (bronze metallic look) by Sunflower Sugar Art from GlobalSugarArt.com. I used a paintbrush to apply the dust.
This YouTube clip will give you a good idea how to use silicon molds even though it shows a baby mold and not a shell mold.
Leave the shells to dry for at least 24 hours before gluing them onto the cake with edible glue
Edible Glue
Also called Gum 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.
I left 16 assorted shells to place around the cake and sprinkled some raw caster sugar to look like sand.
I hope you like my cake and try making one yourself. Please share your efforts with me as I would love to see what you come up with.
Click here to learn how to make dark chocolate mud cake and dark chocolate ganache. Click here to learn how to torte and cover your cake with ganache. Click here to learn how to cover your cake with sugar paste.
The pattern on the top tier of the cake was inspired by Crewel Embroidery and I looked at many examples on the net for inspiration.
Sample of Crewel Embroidered fabric
I wanted to use simplified elements of the original designs to create a new and unique black and white design.
First of all I made a template for the top of the cake and the sides from some greaseproof paper…
….and then drew on my design with an HB pencil.
I turned the paper around and traced the design on the back, again using an HB pencil (do not use a softer pencil as it will smudge onto your pure white icing and really make a mess). Pencils are made from graphite not lead and are non toxic.
I transfered my design onto the cake using a sharp HB pencil, securing the template with sticky tape around the sides and holding the top down lightly with my fingertips.
I scanned my greaseproof paper templates for you to enlarge in your photocopier to fit the exact size of your cake. Once you have the outline transferred to the cake you can paint the motifs larger going over the lines a little covering up all the pencil marks as I have allowed for this by drawing the outlines smaller than i require for the finished work.
The bottom of each stem is covered by the green ribbon and the top of each stem I ended in an RI dot or two. Choose one of the central stems and line it up with the stem on the top of the cake.
I used Cake Art black edible colour on top but it was a little shiny so used Wilton on the sides and was happier with the finish. I used two round Taklon brushes a No 5/0 to outline and a No 4 to fill in.
If your colour is too thick, use a little Vodka to thin it down. I didn’t need to use any on this occasion.
Sorry that the video is so boring and has TV noise in the background but it is my first YouTube clip and I hope to improve. It also shows how slow I am at painting on cake. it took me 4 hours to complete! My brush was rubbish with hairs sticking out at right angles which I cut off making the brush almost impossible to use as there were only about 12 hairs left LOL! I have since replaced it.
Another tip! Use a brush with very long hairs as this helps with lines. Lay most of the brush on the cake and pull it along as this reduces hand wobble.
To make my design zing I wanted to add piped Royal Icing dots but decided to wait until the cake was fully assembled.
To assemble the cake I firstly placed the bottom tier on its base using some Royal Icing as glue. I then covered the bare edges of the board using a roll of sugar-paste which I unrolled like you would a carpet around the cake. Join at the back by first overlapping the sugar-paste and cutting with a knife through both layers, removing the excess and joining with a little Royal Icing.
Ali (my partner) marks the length of dowel to be cut while I take the picture.
I needed 4 dowels to support the top tier for this cake and one double height piece for the central dowel (this stops the top tier from sliding about while being transported).
Ali pushes in the first dowel
Ali carefully taps in the central dowel.
The central dowel cuts right through the middle of my design but it is easy to cover this up with a small black sugar-paste cut out, topped with a smaller white round piece of sugar-paste and crowned with a large dot of black royal icing.
Can you see the added dots!
I stuck the black ribbon onto the middle of the green ribbon using 12mm wide double sided tape but left the ends of the bow unstuck so that they could be hanging loosely from the bow as they would look too rigid otherwise.
I didn’t cut the ribbon in any way to form the bow. I just made it look good while holding it in my hand then slipped it through the diamonte buckle trying not to lose any of the nice shape I had.
This cake was made up of two square tiers. The bottom tier was an 11″ dark chocolate mud cake with dark chocolate ganache and the top tier was a 9″ white chocolate mud cake with white chocolate ganache.
Ingredients for the 9″ square white chocolate mud cake
400g butter
400g white chocolate
350ml water
400 plain flour
200g SR flour
520g caster suger
4 eggs
2 tsp vanilla
White chocolate ganache
1700g white chocolate
600ml pure cream
Fondant
1700g sugar-paste
Method for the 9″ square white chocolate mud cake
(adapted from Planet Cake Cookbook)
Preheat oven to 180C. Grease tin and line the base and sides with a collar of baking paper that extends 2 cm above the top of the tin. Add baking strips (made from damp cloths wrapped in tin foil) around the outside of the cake tin. Put the butter and water in a saucepan over medium heat and stir until butter has melted. Turn off the heat, then add the chocolate and stir until it has melted and is well combined.
Sift the flours together in a bowl. Add the sugar, a pinch of salt and make a well in the centre.
Pour the chocolate mixture, egg and vanilla into the well then stir with a wooden spoon until well combined.
Pour into the cake tin, Bake for 1 hour 45 minutes or until the cake is golden brown and a skewer comes out clean when poked into the middle of the cake. Cover with foil halfway through if the cake is browning too quickly.
Once removed from the oven, use a pastry brush (or similar) to brush the top of the cake with boiled water to keep it moist and save it from cracking and forming crusty bits on top. Then cover with a clean tea cloth to reduce evaporation. Repeat the brushing with boiled water step two or three times at half hour intervals as the cake cools. Remove the baking strips once they can be handled or use oven gloves to remove them.
Let cake cool completely on a wire rack before taking the cake out of the tin.
Wrap the cake well in cling film (do not squash cake) and put in fridge till morning.
Process chocolate till it resembles breadcrumbs and place in a large bowl
Put the cream in a saucepan and bring to a rolling boil. 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.
Ingredients for the 11” square dark chocolate mud cake
440g butter
440g dk choc
50g coffee
320ml water
250g SR flour
250g plain
100g cocoa
1 tsp bicarb
960g caster
8 eggs
14 tsp oil
200ml buttermilk
Ganache
2400g dark chocolate
1200ml pure cream
Fondant
2.6kg sugar-paste
Method for the 11” square dark chocolate mud cake
Preheat the oven to 160C. Grease the tin and line the base and sides with a collar that extends 2 cm above the top of the tin. Add baking strips (made from damp cloths wrapped in tin foil) around the outside of the cake tin.
Put the butter, chocolate, coffee and water in a saucepan and stir over low heat until melted, then remove from the heat.
Sift the flours, cocoa and bicarbonate of soda into a large bowl. Stir in the sugar and make a well in the centre. Add the combined egg, oil and buttermilk and the chocolate mixture, stirring with a large spoon until completely combined.
Pour the mixture into the tin and bake for 2 hours (for 11.5″cake) or until a skewer poked into the centre of the cake comes out clean, though it may be a little sticky.
Once removed from the oven, use a pastry brush (or similar) to brush the top of the cake with boiled water to keep it moist and save it from cracking and forming crusty bits on top. Then cover with a clean tea cloth to reduce evaporation. Repeat the brushing with boiled water step two or three times at half hour intervals as the cake cools.
Remove the baking strips once they can be handled or use oven gloves to remove them.
Let cake cool completely on a wire rack before taking the cake out of the tin.
Wrap the cake well in cling film (do not squash cake) and put in fridge till morning.
Process chocolate till it resembles breadcrumbs and place in a large bowl
Put the cream in a saucepan and bring to a rolling boil. 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.
Making the lids
Let the cakes sit for a couple of hours to allow the icing to dry before you make the lids.
Brush the top of the cakes with a little water (or syrup) and run the brush around the top inch of the side of the cakes.
Knead 400g of the pink icing for the top box lid and 600g of pink for the the bottom box lid.
Once the dough is pliable, roll out each piece till they are at least 8 in larger thad the width of each box. Roll the icing over your rolling pin, lift it up and roll it over the cake. Smooth the top and sides with a flexi-scraper. Use a ruler to mark the edge of the lid on all 4 sides.
Trim the lid with a sharp knife.
Making the ribbon
Knead 500g of the white sugar-paste to a pliable dough and roll out to 16 x 40 cm rectangle. Cut into 4 long 4 cm wide strips. Trim one end of each ribbon into a point to help fit the ribbons together on top of the cake. Stick to the cake with water and trim excess ends with a knife.
Making the bow
Instructions on making the bow can be found on this video.
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