Two-tier 50th Birthday Cake

For my first bake of the new year, I was asked to make a special two-tiered 50th Birthday cake. My initial thought was eeeek! having not stacked anything before, but as I began to read up about the process and started to plan everything out, it all became much clearer. 

The brief was for a two-tiered fruit or carrot cake with flowers and a No. 50 to fit in with a pink, black (but not too much) and silver cocktail themed party. I sketched out the design, and then sent it over to the client who was very happy with the design.

After baking a delicious carrot cake recipe with rum-soaked raisins, walnuts, coconut and a sharp citrus drizzle, I double iced both cakes and marked out my design using cocktail sticks. I drew out the arrangement of the stripes and position of the top cake using greaseproof paper. In the picture below you can see the cocktail sticks marking where the dowelling would be placed, and the rest of the details.

Top Tip: When marking out your design through the greaseproof paper, lightly score it onto the icing instead of poking it through with a point. If you make a mistake, a light line is easier to erase than a point.

I used plastic dowelling rods for the cake and made sure that I cut them a couple of millimetres shorter than the top of the icing. If they stand too far up the top cake will wobble on the rods and make the cake look unsteady. If they are bit shorter, the top cake will sit snugly and safely on top when stuck on with royal icing.

I marked out the arrangement of my stripes beforehand on greaseproof paper, but when I had finished the bottom tier and started on the top tier (you know where i'm going with this...) they didn't match up! If I had stuck to my original plan, some of the top stripes would have overlapped the bottom ones, and wouldn't have sat properly in between the gaps. 

When I do this technique again, I will only mark out the bottom tier, and then a circle on the top tier to show where the stripes should stop. With this method, all I will need to do is to to measure the length and width of the stripe (not the position) and work by eye to make sure that they sit symmetrically in the gaps between the stripes on the bottom tier.

After finishing the stripes, I wrapped ivory ribbon around the cake board, bottom and top tiers, and then piped a circle of sugar pearls around the top of each set of stripes. I think this finished the cake off very nicely and gave another decorative element to the cake.

My client had specified that she wanted a No. 50 on top of her cake so I decided to use the candycane method. The numbers turned out really well and the curly design contrasted well with the straight stripes. 

Top Tip: Do not try to use old icing when doing this, it is very difficult to make the two colours to stick together if you do. Whilst making one figure, keep the icing for the other wrapped in clingfilm to stop it drying out. 

I was very pleased with the white open roses I made for the cake. I used slightly larger flower cutters than for the flowers I made for my nan's cake and used three layers, all in different sizes. When they were dry, I dusted them with an edible silver lustre and piped the centres using black royal icing. The flowers finished the cake off perfectly and shone silver when under a spotlight, perfect for a party!

To clean the icing sugar off the stripes for the cake and to gloss the numbers, I used a paintbrush and a little water to go over the pink parts. Not only did this clean everything, but it gave a wonderfully glossy finish and a professional edge to the finished cake. 

'Pebbles the Penguin' 21st Birthday Cake

I was asked to make a themed 21st Birthday cake, this time for a girl who loved penguins! After a bit of research I decided on two separate domed victoria sponge cakes to make the body, and then use fondant icing to make the rest of the decorations. The snowflakes that I made previously were used on the background, and I added a cute black, white and orange scarf for decoration (well it was more to make it look like his head was connected to his body, but I think it worked in the two situations!) Have a look at the photos below to see the final result. 

To make the background look icy, I marbled blue and white icing together. It looked really effective one the snowflakes had been added, just like Pebbles was sitting on an iceberg!

I saw a picture of multicolour letters and numbers, and I decided to give this a go. I call it 'candycane' numbers or lettering, and it looks really effective! Much better than just piping it on in my opinion. 

To make the penguin glossy and to remove any icing sugar from the black icing, I used a pastry brush to cover him with water. As long as you don't use too much, it cleans the icing from any white marks and makes it look really shiny and clean!

Nan's Birthday Cake

Following on from my weekend of making the large open roses, I made the Birthday cake for my Nan. The cake itself was a 'luxury' victoria sponge of my own invention with vanilla sponge, strawberry and vanilla buttercream, strawberry jam and chopped strawberries for the filling. The brief for the cake was 'music notes and flowers' and see the photos below for the final result. I think it looks rather Coco Chanel inspired, and I'm looking forward to experimenting more with a monochrome colour scheme. 

I marked the design on to the top of the cake using tracing paper and a cocktail stick. However this rarely goes to plan, and I had to come up with a good way of hiding the odd little hole. Big flowers help!

In the middle of piping the music notes onto the cake. A treble clef is quite a difficult shape so some of them were a little wobbly...!

Close up of the flowers and piping with black ribbon.

I lined the cake board with a music score to continue the theme of the Music and Flowers which also added to the black and white theme. 

A Little Christmas Shopping

Whilst out and about today, I did pick up some lovely christmas presents, but also managed to get myself some very lovely decorations too, well who can blame me! I found some really gorgeous scandinavian style shabby chic baubles and a lovely felt flowery heart.
Plus a Missoni scarf, but we'll skim over that bit quickly...!

Cake Decoration - Large Open Roses and Snowflakes

This weekend I have been working on decorations for a couple of cakes I will be working on in the next couple of weeks. The first for my Nan's birthday, and the second is a commission for a colleague at work.

To make the large open roses for my Nan's cake, I followed a tutorial in the Cake Masterclass book by Mich Turner (If you don't have it get, it, such a useful book!) using white fondant icing. I had never used a ball tool or a petal pad before, but thinning and shaping the petals turned out to be a lot easier then I had imagined, and they looked almost life-like when they were placed on the crinkled foil. For the centers I used a fairly runny dark grey icing and then dotted the detail on with a thicker white icing.

The second items were snowflakes for a wintry themed cake! (I wont let the cat out of the bag until I've finished it but I will make sure I put up some photos) I bought some cutters last year to use for a christmas cake, but until now I've never got around to using them. The detail is really intricate and when dusted with some edible silver luster and a pearlescent ball in the centre, I think they will look really pretty!

A Weekend of Baking...Mini Victoria Sponges and Triple Chocolate Brownies

Last Tuesday it was my one year work anniversary, so I decided to make some treats to take in for my colleagues. I recently bought an individual loose-bottomed mini cake pan from Lakeland, so I was looking forward to trying it out to see what I could achieve.

The tray came with a victoria sponge recipe, so using this I set about making the cakes. Everything was going very well until I put the trays of batter into the over, went back to check on them a few minutes later, to find that four of the loose bottoms had sprung slight leaks and were dripping down into the tray below!

I was worried that I would have uneaven bakes with some burning and some still raw, but amazingly, they all turned out rather well! By the time I had trimmed some down, neatened them up, iced them and filled them, they were rather tasty!

My second bake was my triple chocolate brownies, a recipe I keep as a very closely guarded secret as they really are that good! (I'll let you into the secret...you need a lot of chocolate!) Delicious, moreish and decadent, they are the perfect thing to have for elevenses with a cup of tea.

A Weekend of Baking...An Excellent Steak and Ale Pie

Last weekend, as a bid to expand my baking repertoire, I decided to try my hand at an old favourite, a double-crusted Steak and Ale pie.
My family, boyfriend and I all love The Lamb in Stoke Goldington,  for its delicious real ales, proper scrumpy cider and amazing pies. Piled up with fresh vegetables and hand-cut chips, there really is no better way to spend an evening. If you fancy visiting, here is their website to take a look at. They were voted CAMRA Pub of the year in 2008, so it's definitely worth a look.

http://www.thelambatstokegoldington.co.uk/about.html

Before...

So, in an homage to them, I decided to have a go and make my own. I decided to make a simple but tasty steak and ale pie using proper butchers meat, a can of dark ale and some thyme. We used a traditional metal pie plate for the recipe, and this helped to create a beautifully crisp and brown bottom, nothing soggy about that! Glazed with beaten egg and with pastry leaves on top, it made the perfect hearty warming meal for a chilly Saturday night.

...and After! Obviously you can see that it was horrible!

Tip: When lining the tine with my handmade shortcrust, I made the mistake of trimming it before putting the meat in. This of course meant that it slipped down a little into the pan, and when I put the top on, there wasn't a lot of pastry to crimp. Next time, I will leave trimming both sections of pastry until last and then crimp them, hopefully this will mean that they will stick together better when baking.