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

Leftover Cake & Piping Tips

Have you ever been making a cake and had cake batter left over? Well instead of over filling your pans just make a little cake or a couple cupcakes! Over-filled cakes never have a happy ending.This will also help you with your leftover icing. This method will work a lot better than eating it by the spoon. Not that i do that though.... Well this Easter after i was making my cake (post soon to come just waiting on pictures to be delivered, i forgot to take pictures for you guys!) I had some left over frosting and cake batter so i made a little 6 inch cake and practiced my piping skills. Which by the way aren't that great, which is why i practice! The old saying Practice Makes Perfect really comes into play here because unless you have been born with awesome amazing piping skills, unfortunately  most of us aren't, practicing when ever you get the chance really helps. Here are some tips to help you if your having trouble:

1. Make sure your icing isn't too stiff, if it is it will really hurt your hand and make it hard to push out of the bag. Especially with smaller tips.
2. Every once and a while cool down you icing in the fridge because the heat from your hand will make it too thin and it won't hold it's shape.
3. Make sure your icing doesn't have any chunks in it, if there are make sure you have a toothpick near by to clean out the tip, whenever you feel it getting harder to get the icing out. If you don't clear the tip you run a high risk of exploding you bag. Ya it appended to me. Not good
4. If you find that  your icing is really airy with lots of air bubbles, take a spatula and calm down the icing by gently stirring and folding it till nice and smooth. This happens a lot with royal and butter cream icing I find.
5. Always make sure your tip is clean, this will keep your piping looking clean and sharp.

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. 

Easter Cake Inspiration

With Easter coming up I'd just like to give you guys some inspiration for an Easter treat. One of my favourite cake pans out there in the wonderful world of Wilton is this cake pan they like to call a "Checkerboard Cake Set". It comes with three 9 inch pans and the dividing ring.

Why wouldn't you love this cake pan i mean like you can get chocolate and vanilla in the same cake!!!! Amazing i know. But with all seriousness i also like to use it for an Easter cake.

I would make a plain white cake and then separate them into 3 different bowls and colour them with colour gels. The end result i think is a really nice for a fun Easter cake.

A Comparison

Now for you out there  who think "i can't do that it's way to hard I'd like to show you some of my previous cakes. It takes practice and i think thats what some people might not understand. But if you keep at it and don't give up then you will get better. For me i got most of my practice at my Wilton cake classes and i took all the classes twice! So as long a you don't give up and have some patience i promise you: You will get better! I mean like look at my first cakes :P

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:)

Wilton Class Cake

So  me and my best friend Emily and I have taken Wilton Cake Decorating class to learn a lot of different techniques for decorating cakes. There are four classes all focusing on different things from butter cream to royal icing to fondant and gum paste. In the last class i took i made this cake that i thought was like my best in sooooo long. I made it as a 6 inch and thank God i did because the inside was absolutely deadly! It was a brownie cake with fudge frosting. The recipe for the cake was from Wilton as well. Tell me your thoughts on the cake do you like it as much as me? By the way if you wondering the flowers and decorations were all made from fondants and gum paste... and sprinkles:)