The business of cakes

I'm baaaack!  It's been a long while, I know, but lots of exciting new things have been happening at this end of the world.  Aside from the return of global warming with tons of snow being dumped on us over Christmas and the start of a brand new sparkling year, the big thing is that I am now officially a cake decorator!!!

Since I finished the Wilton course http://loriensblueberrycake.blogspot.com/2010/02/fluffy-lemon-cupcakes.html I have been baking lots and lots of cakes - mainly chocolate, wouldn't you know - not to mention the trucks of decorating I've been doing.  This is the start of two cakes I made last weekend for a friend's daughters who were having a joint birthday party:

stacked and shaped chocolate cakes covered
in chocolate fudge icing, ready for the princess skirt

another chocolate cake, crumb coated and ready to be turned into...
...a 'DeLorean' car! (yes, really...!)

Having a fight with sugarpaste is becoming a less common occurrence in my kitchen now, thank goodness - although if you look (closer!) at the finished car you will see that it sometimes likes to pop up and bite me on the proverbial.

I'd be interested in hearing from any of you that have mastered the art of crack-less fondant using whatever kind / brand / make / combination of sugarpaste available :)  Or, even better, whether there are any specific brands you recommend that (dare I say it) don't EVER crack?!

The girls loved their cakes and apparently the slices just melted in your mouth - thanks to a simple (just six basic ingredients - I love it), quick and fail safe recipe from Annie Bell, the queen of Gorgeous Cakes.


In my years of trawling recipes for good (aka rich and decadent) chocolate cakes, this one is also probably the lightest-yet-still-chocolatey cake you could ever make.  Perfect for real lil princesses and their birthday parties!

     

The finished barbie cake.

Setting up a dream cake business...Dream 3

http://www.facebook.com/note.php?note_id=181061018594633

fluffy lemon cupcakes

Lemon!!

Who doesn't love the tangy, tasty, sharp and light savour of this lovely yellow fruit? I am now in week two of the Wilton course of cake decorating and this week's commission is to bring in some pre-iced cupcakes. Having long had a craving for lemon cupcakes, I baked a batch earlier:













and hastily iced them with some fluffy, well beaten buttercream. Delish!


The recipe was great, very quick and simple - perhaps a bit too much baking powder (it asked for 1½ teaspoons), as they nearly slobbed over the edges of the cupcake papers. I got the recipe from the Hummingbird Bakery Cookbook -

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Hummingbird-Bakery-Cookbook-Tarek-Malouf/dp/1845978307

At the course tomorrow I'll be learning how to pipe The Rose and I hope to come back a buttercream pro (to some extent...!). In the meantime, for anyone who hasn't come across him yet, here is the inimitable Dan Lepard's Lemon Butter Cake. All I can say to you is, beat it up, bake it and savour a lemon treat that's very hard to beat...

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Lemon butter cake (Dan Lepard)

100g unsalted butter, melted
125g condensed milk
150g caster sugar
2 egg yolks, plus 1 white
125ml lemon juice, strained
Zest of three large lemons
275g superfine self-raising flour
1/4 tsp baking powder
100g icing sugar

Heat oven to 170C (same for fan assisted)/335F/gas mark 3-4. Line the bottom and sides of a 2lb loaf tin with nonstick baking parchment.

In a large bowl, using an electric mixer, beat the melted butter, condensed milk, 125g of the caster sugar, egg yolks, 100ml of the lemon juice (saving the other 25ml in a cup) and two-thirds of the zest until smooth and the sugar has dissolved.

In a separate bowl, beat the egg white with the remaining 25g of sugar to a soft meringue. Sift together the flour and baking powder, beat this into the lemon mixture until smooth, then fold through the meringue quickly and evenly. Tip the mixture into the cake tin and smooth the top.

Bake for 40-45 minutes until an inserted skewer comes out clean. When cool, beat remaining lemon zest with the icing sugar and the reserved 25ml lemon juice (adding a bit of water to soften it if necessary), and slather this over the top of the cooled cake.