Cakes for Celebrations...my contributions...
When I told you about the Bonfire Cake, I said I would show you some of the other cakes I have made. They've mostly Lauren's birthday cakes, but there have been others and some not included here as I don't have the photos. For her first birthday I made a chocolate number one, decorated with Smarties which would have fed 100+ people, I was giving it away to people in oce cream boxes for days! She always demands a chocolate sponge and I usually make a variation on a chocolate Victoria sandwich mix, but with plenty of chocolate drops to keep it moist. I then ice them with shop bought royal icing and Dr Oetker or Silver Spoon writing or designer icing. I don't use marzipan as we don't like it, so I coat the sponge in jam before applying the icing to get it to stick. You can use any type of sponge you like as long as it's form enough to stand up to decoration, we even have a stockist near us who sells ready made slabs of vanilla or chocolate genoa sponge.
This was a big challenge. I nearly fainted when Lauren started telling everyone she was having a Lightning McQueen cake. I'd never made anything like it before, certainly never decorated a cake. Luckily I managed to pick up a mould, but I had to fumble my way through getting the icing big enough, it's really tricky to roll, you don't want to have your heating on or it will all go wrong. It was a real labour of love, I really enjoyed all the problem solving and concentration. The final result was fantastic, my second favourite of all the cakes I made. The outlines with the writing icing are the hardest, you need a strong grip and a steady hand!
This Christmas Cake was for a competition at work, they provided a ready iced fruit cake and we had to ice it...it won a prize...not a very good one!..but ultimately in the 12 days of Christmas competition we won a day trip to London, so it wasn't all bad!
They gave us a few items to decorate with and I had some bits left over from the Lightning Cake.
Typical me, I decided right at the last minute that I wanted to make my niece Molly a Spiderman birthday cake. I'd got the decorators bug! This really was a quicky I made a square cake and cut it into the shape of Spiderman's head, then coated in red royal icing! The web design was piped on with writing icing.
Something a bit different, a chocolate ganache cake for my mother-in-law's 70th birthday. I can't remember what it was called, something like the Ultimate Chocolate Cake and it was on the BBC Good Food website. On request made another for Tony's birthday later in the year and another for a cake bake at work. It really was gooey and chocolatey and very messy to make and eat, but ideal if you have family and friends who are mad on chocolate!.
Lauren's 5th Birthday cake, she had a big compendium of Little Miss Stories and this was her favourite page in the book. I really just made an identical picture out of icing.
The Avro Vulcan XH558. The most challenging cake to date, but definitely my favourite. I made copious amounts of chocolate chip sponge and cut the shapes, glueing them together with jam. Coated in grey icing, and then painted on the camouflage with edible ink and decorated. I had a lot of trouble with the grey icing and had to have 2 attempts, the second time throwing the house into freezing conditions in December as the heating was making it too unpredictable as it was such a large piece. The tail I made from a solid lump of icing and attached it with a skewer. If you like the look of the Vulcan, she is a truly amazing piece of British engineering, follow this link, she always appreciates new followers and is always desperate for donations to keep her flying, especially important nest year so she can take part in the Queen's Jubilee celebrations.
And finally the Bonfire Cake that you've already seen.
Apparently this year Lauren wants dinosaurs and dragons for her birthday, so I'll keep you posted. I've already got a good idea of what I'm doing, but who knows what it will turn out like!
I quite often forget to put this on the blog but please feel free to comment on what you have read or seen, or ask a question. Just click on the comment box at the bottom of each page.
Until next time, bye.
This was a big challenge. I nearly fainted when Lauren started telling everyone she was having a Lightning McQueen cake. I'd never made anything like it before, certainly never decorated a cake. Luckily I managed to pick up a mould, but I had to fumble my way through getting the icing big enough, it's really tricky to roll, you don't want to have your heating on or it will all go wrong. It was a real labour of love, I really enjoyed all the problem solving and concentration. The final result was fantastic, my second favourite of all the cakes I made. The outlines with the writing icing are the hardest, you need a strong grip and a steady hand!
This Christmas Cake was for a competition at work, they provided a ready iced fruit cake and we had to ice it...it won a prize...not a very good one!..but ultimately in the 12 days of Christmas competition we won a day trip to London, so it wasn't all bad!
They gave us a few items to decorate with and I had some bits left over from the Lightning Cake.
Something a bit different, a chocolate ganache cake for my mother-in-law's 70th birthday. I can't remember what it was called, something like the Ultimate Chocolate Cake and it was on the BBC Good Food website. On request made another for Tony's birthday later in the year and another for a cake bake at work. It really was gooey and chocolatey and very messy to make and eat, but ideal if you have family and friends who are mad on chocolate!.
The Avro Vulcan XH558. The most challenging cake to date, but definitely my favourite. I made copious amounts of chocolate chip sponge and cut the shapes, glueing them together with jam. Coated in grey icing, and then painted on the camouflage with edible ink and decorated. I had a lot of trouble with the grey icing and had to have 2 attempts, the second time throwing the house into freezing conditions in December as the heating was making it too unpredictable as it was such a large piece. The tail I made from a solid lump of icing and attached it with a skewer. If you like the look of the Vulcan, she is a truly amazing piece of British engineering, follow this link, she always appreciates new followers and is always desperate for donations to keep her flying, especially important nest year so she can take part in the Queen's Jubilee celebrations.
Apparently this year Lauren wants dinosaurs and dragons for her birthday, so I'll keep you posted. I've already got a good idea of what I'm doing, but who knows what it will turn out like!
I quite often forget to put this on the blog but please feel free to comment on what you have read or seen, or ask a question. Just click on the comment box at the bottom of each page.
Until next time, bye.
Why dont you make them for a business I know they taste better than professional ones.
ReplyDeleteMaybe one day....need a kitchen and separate utility first!
ReplyDelete