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!

Diary of an Online Sugarcraft Student

I have always had a real interest in sugarcraft as well as baking and, last year, completed a City and Guilds Level 1 online course in Sugarpaste (Confectionery). This particular course appealed to me as there were no deadlines involved so I was free to complete the modules as I wished and as time allowed. I was assigned a tutor(based in the UK) and she was incredibly helpful and encouraging throughout (as well as very patient when I let weeks go by without submitting anything!)

The course was assessed via a series of photos(up to six were required for each step such as making buttercream, marzipanning etc). However, I did find it a little difficult to remember to record every step when in the middle of something and 'caught up in the moment' as I tend to be in a warm kitchen!. A Q & A test page was also completed for each unit.

The first part of the course was all about gaining an understanding the basic principles of colour, line and texture and below are a couple of the images I submitted as part of that.

A collage of Blue shades with a suitable accent colour

Whilst I really enjoyed the course overall, some of the exercises did seem a little bit tedious. I definitely yearned to get stuck into the sugarpaste when drawing these lines with different materials.

But this study in texture was more fun

Hygiene was also prioritised in the course and knowledge of this was examined fairly extensively. Vearsed well enough in the three principles of design, I was unleashed on the icing!This is a 6 inch round cake that has been marzipanned ready for the sugarpaste.

We were permitted to use shop-bought cakes for decoration but I decided to make my own (not least because it was harder to find an uniced round fruit cake in Dublin than you might think!)


Sugarpaste on

And pre chosen design traced out(I used a mini cookie cutter here)

Throughout each stage of the course, we were encouraged to go back to the first module on design, keeping in mind the principles of colour, texture and line. I did get some (justified!) criticism here for my too-thick sugarpaste)

I wasn't so happy with my marzipanned square cake but the tutor assured me it was fine (as it would be covered with royal icing!)

And so it was (though you will agree I lost it a little on the piping at the bottom!)

I also found it really useful to learn how to make secure icing bags from baking parchment

Then, it was onto Gateaux, where we learned about masking

And feathering

before moving onto little tea fancies

Our final test was to decorate a cake that showed off our newly acquired skills

This was my effort

I really enjoyed the course but I have to say I did underestimate the amount of work that went into it by quite a bit!I was required to have the kitchen super sparkling (and rightly so but still....!) and to bake cakes in a range of specific sizes (yes, the option was there to buy them but that wasn't always possible or cost effective).

But I did learn how to do a whole series of wierd and wonderful things like colour desiccated coconut and got a tremendous sense of satisfaction from it all, so, all in all, it was well worth doing.