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12/30/2010 0 Comments Acoustic Guitar Cake This belated birthday cake was a 'Chocolate-Covered Caramel Cake' made of four layers of chocolate cake soaked in a caramel sugar syrup and filled and iced with alternating layers of caramel and milk chocolate Italian meringue buttercreams.  The cake was then covered in a caramel-flavored fondant and painted with food coloring to look like the wood of an acoustic guitar. The neck of the guitar was made with rice cereal treats covered in fondant. The guitar strings were made with grey fondant and a clay extruder with a little bit of silver lustre dust thrown in.  The cake board was covered in fondant and then textured and painted with food coloring to look like a hardwood floor. The sheet music was made by handpainting black food coloring on a 3" x 5" sheet of white fondant.  The wrapped present is there because the neck of the guitar needs support and it seemed to work with the birthday theme. The cake is over 4" high and is only about 7" in diameter so the neck of the guitar would have been way too thick if I had made it big enough to lay on the cake board!  I really like how this one turned out, although perfectionist that I am, I do see lots of things I could have done better!
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12/24/2010 0 Comments Traditional British Fruitcake This was my first time making fruitcake and I must say it is a very complicated process! I have never baked a cake for going on 4 hours before! The pan had to be lined with brown paper and then lined a second time with parchment paper and then the outside of the cake pan had to be wrapped in newspaper. Good thing it's baked at a low temperature or putting newspaper in the oven could have been a very bad idea! Oh and before making the cake, the dried fruit soaked in brandy for the better part of a week!  Next up was my first time making marzipan from scratch. I found it very crumbly and had to use more liquid than was called for - not sure if I just had a bad recipe or if making marzipan is usually a frustrating experience! Once the marzipan is made, you fill all the holes in the cake with marzipan so that the surfaces are smooth.  Then a thin layer of apricot glaze is applied to the cake so that the marzipan will have something to stick to. Yum! However, rolling out marzipan was not as easy as the cookbook made it look. It falls apart when you try to work with it and requires great patience and many attempts before it actually gets on to the cake!! This then sits for a day to dry before the whole cake was covered in royal icing.  Once the cake was iced in ice blue royal icing and had the borders piped in white royal icing, I went back to what I know best - fondant! The snowmen and trees are fondant and were applied to the cake with royal icing. The snowflakes are fondant brushed with a pearl lustre dust. The cake board was covered in fondant and red fondant lettering and red ribbon completed the Christmas-y theme!
Merry Christmas everyone!  This is a Peppermint Meringue Cake with Chocolate Buttercream. I had a cake with meringue layers a few months back and have been wanting to try one ever since. My work Christmas lunch made the perfect excuse and the mint was a nice winter-y flavor!  The cake was composed of alternating layers of chocolate cake soaked in a Peppermint Schnapps sugar syrup and peppermint meringues. Each layer was separated by a gooey layer of chocolate frosting and a thicker layer of the frosting was iced on top of the cake.  The cake was decorated with Lindor dark peppermint truffles, fresh mint leaves and fresh raspberries and I think it ended up looking quite festive. The cake received rave reviews at the party and many people went back for seconds.  The recipe is from http://www.epicurious.com/recipes/food/views/Peppermint-Meringue-Cake-with-Chocolate-Buttercream-356317 if you want to try it out! Happy holidays!
 This is a Chocolate-Coffee Layer Cake iced in a Mocha-Mascarpone Frosting. The cake was then wrapped in a milk chocolate collar using a gold-patterned transfer sheet. Lettering and flowers are done with fondant dusted with gold petal dust. It didn't turn out exactly how I had pictured but it smelled amazing and I am certain it will be delicious!  |
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