Sister's Birthday

OK so for my sisters birthday she wanted to go mini putting and the cool thing about the place we went was that it was indoors and it was glow in the dark. They used black lights and cool neon art to decorate the inside. You go into different parts of the building and every room has a different theme like some are underwater, some are in the jungle and some have a medieval theme.


So when I was asked to to her cake (no surprise there!) I had the best idea for a cake. It was going to make it  look just like it does inside the mini putt. I covered the cake in black fondant then put neon coloured circle inlays all over it. I finished it off with a ball border in the same colour. I'm really happy as to how it turned out but more importantly my sister was and so were her friends. Happy Birthday Sis!

Inside the beautiful exterior (if I do say so myself) was a white cake with a fudge filling and butter cream frosting. The filling was actually from a can; it was left over from the cake pops I had made... don't judge me! And the cake recipe I found on Allrecipes.com that's how rushed I was. But am I ever glad I've been busy because the cake was wonderful. White cake has a reputation for being dry but I found this cake to be very nice. It wasn't to dense, or dry and it had a good vanilla flavor to it. It was so good I want to share this recipe, it might be my go to white cake recipe!

 

 

White Cake

Yield enough batter for 2-3 9inch pans

 Ingredients

• 2 cups white sugar
• 1 cup butter
• 4 eggs
• 1 tablespoon and 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 3 cups all-purpose flour
• 1 tablespoon and 1/2 teaspoon baking powder
• 1 cup milk

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F grease pans
2.  cream together the sugar and butter. 
3. Beat in the eggs, one at a time, then 
4. stir in the vanilla. 
5. Combine flour and baking powder in a separate bowl
6. Add in flour mixture alternating with milk
7. Beat until it resembles a yellow whipped cream
8. Pour batter into prepared pans and bake for 30-40 mins
9. To test the cake insert a toothpick and if it comes out clean it is done or see if the cake springs pack into place after you press down on it. 

Resource: http://allrecipes.com/Recipe/Simple-White-Cake/Detail.aspx
Photographs courtesy of Steve Eymann

Fondant & Whipped Cream Recipe

Now normally covering cakes in fondant isn't that hard, you dirty ice your cake in butter cream then cover it in fondant. When iced it in whipped cream I didn't think there would be a problem since I was just covering it in fondant anyways. Although little did I know that whipped cream and fondant don't mix.

With butter cream in between the fondant and cake it acts as glue of sorts because it is thick and can hold its weight. But with whipped cream even though it holds it shape OK it's way to light to hold the fondant. With my cake all the whipped cream slid off the cake and started oozing out the sides. Ya not pretty :P I did my best to fix it but with the cake always moving and shifting it was quite difficult. I had to take things out of my design and add new concepts in just to hold the cake somewhat together!

But lesson learned now. Attention everyone: DO NOT USE WHIPPED CREAM IF YOU PLAN TO COVER YOUR CAKE IN FONDANT! But as you can see from my top tier fondant works really well if you use butter cream. Even cream cheese icing works better see here.

Whipped cream isn't all that bad though it is great on ice cream, pancakes, as a filling, and great on pie! So don't ever be intimidated by whipped cream. Here's my recipe for homemade whipped cream.

Whipped Cream

Yield about 4 cups

2 cups whipping cream
4 tbsp icing sugar


Place whipping cream and icing sugar in a bowl of a stand mixer and beat on high speed until light and airy like whipped cream.

Marshmallow Fondant

1 bag of mini marshmallows
500g icing sugar
1 cup vegtable shortning (Crisco)
 1 tbsp water

Clear a big work space for your fondant like a counter top or table

Throughly grease your workspace and a big microwavable safe bowl

Place marshmallows and water in the bowl

Mix the water and marshmallows together

Dump all the icing sugar onto the greased work space

Microwave the arshmallows and water on high for 30 secs and stir

Zap marshmallows and water in 15 sec intervals until all melted stirring in between

Grease your hands and beware this gets very messy

Pour melted marshmallows onto the icing sugar and knead until the icing sugar stops sticking to the fondant.

In the beggining it will seem like it's not working but keep at it and you'll make your fondant.

Store in a air tight container wrapped in plastic wrap. 

Red Rose Birthday Cake

My moms birthday was last month and i made a fondant cake for the first time for her birthday. I used marshmallow fondant to cover it, tinted a minty green and added red roses and a red bead border in buttercream (hey you got to stick to what you know right :D) Inside was my moms favourite; red velvet with cream cheese.

One thing i noticed about using marshmallow fondant instead or store bought is that 1. It tastes soooooo much better and 2. It will either break very easily (not have any stretch) or retract a lot (too much stretch). But the end result is always very nice and smooth. Just be patient and don't get too frustrated:)