A Weekend of Baking...Lemon limoncello birthday cake

This last weekend I was working on a birthday cake for my Nan, and she had asked for a zingy lemon cake with a lovely fresh taste. I decided to try a different recipe and picked a peggy Porschen recipe from her Boutique Baking book. I liked the sound of this one as it included a limoncello and lemon syrup that is used to soak the sponges after baking. It gives them a delicious moist and extra lemony zing along with the lemon zest, and the subtle hint of alcohol never goes down badly!

I started as always by making the flowers, and made a mixture of sizes of daisies to decorate the cake with. I tried to use a shallow metal bun tin to set my flowers, but despite dusting the wells with cornflour, the shapes still stuck. I prised them out carefully with a knife and I was lucky that they kept their shape as they were removed earlier than I would have liked.

I wanted to make a marbled cake board, but unfortunately the mixture of yellow and white was a little too faint to be seen properly. I have seen some very effective cakes use marbled sugar paste, and I will look forward to experimenting with this finish in the future with a darker colour to make the pattern stand out. As I wanted to add some gold touches I edged the board with some gold ribbon to make it stand out.

Once the individual flowers had dried I layered them and added a sugar pearl to the centre of each one with smaller ones for the individual smaller daisies.

I then sprayed half of all the flowers gold to make them stand out and to provided a colour contrast against the pale yellow cake.

Once the three layers of cake were baked, soaked in the syrup and cooled, I layered and filled them with lemon buttercream. I did a thin first crumb coat layer, and then chilled it before applying the second thicker layer. This made it easier to get a nice crisp and clean finish and it was very addictive trying to get the smoothest finish possible with a side scraper.

I then added the cake topper (which I really should have measured first as it was a little tight to the edges!)...

...and then started to add the flowers in random arrangements and spaces to create a natural look.

The taste was lovely and fresh and light, and the use of the food processor to make the sponge again wins in the texture and taste category. I found that there was a little too much syrup for the three sponges, but it did go towards making delicious cocktails for the evening!

Cake International 2016

Following on from my previous post, I wanted to share a few (ok, a lot!) of my favourites from Cake International 2016. I was completely blown away by the incredible entries from bakers and sugarcraft artists from all over the world showcasing their amazing talent. From whole movie scenes to four foot tall wedding cakes, there was a spectacle in every colour, shape and size.

Alice in Wonderland Mad Hatter's tea party scene - Parts of the feast rotated which added to the presentation

Characters from the Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them film - My favourite was the Niffler with his cute little face and penchant for shiny trinkets.

Beautiful dusky pink frilly peonies and a lovely gold, dusky pink and white colour scheme.

This chalkboard effect on cakes is very fashionable at the moment, and I loved the dark plum colours against the blackboard finish.

A simple green and white scheme, but so effective with a clean and crisp finish.

I loved the textured Blu-tit against the bark textured stump and the plump golden apples.

One of my favourite sections was the cakes from around the world, as some of the techniques, finishes and ideas that they had used were amazing. 

I think the above used blue piping gel to give the effect of running water 

The beautiful bright cherry red really made the peacock pop.

The dragon handles on this vase defied gravity as they snaked their way down the sides.

If I had to choose one cake from the event that was my favourite, it had to be this entry from Taiwan. The colours, the detail and everything about it were just fantastic and I loved the shades of blue used in the curled patterns at the base.

A Parisienne Metropolitan scene.

 A gorgeous red and gold Chinese sedan style chair complete with intricate scroll work.

White chocolate and gold dragon

Siamese ballet style character.

My next favourites were this range of gorgeous Harry Potter owls. There were a whole range of them for all of the characters but I loved this Draco Malfoy owl for his detail and the expression on his face.

On the left you can see the Voldemort skeletal owl, and on the right the plump and comforting Mr and Mrs Wealsey owls with a small model of The Burrow.

The snake detail from the Voldemort owl, down to individual scales and fangs.

Straying away from the wonderfully carved and fantastical shapes, I was also very intrigued by the wedding cake section, as it gave me a change to gather some ideas for my own cake.

I loved the design and the colours of this cluster of flowers.

The sheer height of this cake and the gorgeous anemones, roses, dahlias and hydrangeas really stood out for me.

I loved the mixture of the sparkly golden ribbon and the frilly pink dahlias 

This cake defied gravity with its miniature cakes in the centre and its lovely silhouettes.

The gorgeous midnight blue and gold of this cake stood out a mile against the pale pastel shades, for all the right reasons

The French scene cake had a beautifully lacy scalloped bottom, a tranquil lavender field scene and lovely lavender sprigs for the butterflies to settle on.

I picked this snowman from the Christmas table for his cheeky face and lovely finish, and his lovely little red mittens.