My Latest Cakes

So, the latest on the cake front...

I made this little cake for my friend Deirdre's hen party and miraculously got it to Killarney (almost) unscathed on what turned out to be one of the hottest days of the summer. Being a prude, I was keen to stay away from 'willy' territory but wanted something suitably tacky so tried out this framed pink L Plate effect.

Since the advice is not to put sugarpaste in the fridge, by the time it was cut (2 days later) it was pretty warm and the chocolate orange buttercream inside had well and truly melted but the flavour was decent enough. I used that Hershey's Black Magic Cake recipe I am so fond of (but trying to get away from as it's just not sturdy enough for underneath heavy sugarpaste.)

The photo was printed in Decobake on Batchelor's Walk (the standard cost is €5 for any size up to A4). As you can see, I misjudged the border of the photo but it would have wrecked it if I pulled it off !I thought the little gumpaste roses were sweet though.

As the next cake I made was for a triple 30th birthday I wanted it to make a bit of an impact so used what is currently my biggest tin - 12 inches. I had considered making a 2 tiered cake but it just wasn't practical bringing more than one box on the train from Dublin.

Instead, I used the opportunity to practice the sugar peony I made as part of a recent Decobake class and it looked well against some gold and black. I don't particularly like these letter cutters as you just seem to see them on so many cakes nowadays but I have since bought some new ones :)

The cake itself was a carrot cake with cream cheese icing. I had never strayed far from Rachel Allen's Carrot Cake recipe before but, as I was keen to keep costs down a bit for this monster I consulted one of my cake decorating books which contained several 'basic' recipes(ie ones not containing a tonne of nuts and butter). This had ten large carrots grated into it (and lots of other things of course) but...it was really lovely! In fact, I actually like it much more than Rachel's and intend to use it again (sorry Rachel).

I am now working on my first ever christening cake which involves lots of different elements and I am very excited about. Pics to follow next week!


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