Long time, no post!

It's been quite some time since I've posted anything to the blog due to a little person occupying every second I have, but I would like to get back to writing about the cake discoveries and tips I have encountered along the way. I thought the best way to start off is reflecting on how far I've come since I started this whole cake-venture. A lot of things I have perfected from pure and utter repetition. Learning from mistakes is invaluable. Some other tricks I've picked up from Youtube tutorials which, if you are a visual learner like my good self, is a fantastic way to learn any new technique. I've put together my top 5 basic lessons I've learned that I think would help an baker of any level:

Lesson 1: If in doubt, go all out!

This is in reference to going from a round cake to a square cake. My gorgeous mammy gave me her family-famous Christmas cake recipe to me one year and we spend ages doing all sorts of calculations (in Rainman-esk style) to make her square cake recipe in to a round one. She deduced that you need 25% more mix in a 12" square than a 12" round so we took this away from her 12" square recipe. Now that sounds easy, doesn't it? Well taking 25% of an egg is not so easy let me tell you! This is where changing recipes to suit your needs gets tricky. I have found that if you divide by 2 and multiple by 3 it will bring all the ingredients up to a little bit more to give you a taller cake. If you find a large recipe and want to reduce it.........don't bother, just throw the extra mix in a loaf tin, bake and keep the extra in the freezer (all cakes frozen fresh last a good few months) or sit down and relax for yourself with a cuppa and extra cake! You deserve it!!

Lesson 2: Plan like Stan

I am not a natural planner, or overly organised person, or like overly planning and organising things in general (all my family and friends will vouch for this), but my wise old years have thought me it is best to plan ahead with baking so you are not caught out. I still slip up on this every-so-often, so it is something I have to remind myself to do. When you are designing a novelty cake/treat you want to get your vision in to cake form as much as possible, especially if it's a completely new design. If you want to make an exact replica of a logo or cartoon character, it's best to Google the image and print it out to the size you need so there is no "odd" looking look-a-likes in the end!

Lesson 3: Low and Slow

This is my mantra for baking ANY cake. Low temperature, approx 150°C, baked for a long time. Now we all know the saying "a watched cake never bakes" but I have found that the more you rush the bake, the worse it turns out. There's lots of tip and tricks online about wrapping the outside of the tin with wet newspaper or, if you've a few spondoolies to hand, baking strips! Don't forget that you have a domestic oven, and it bakes things very differently than a professional kitchen's oven, which is in a more steamed environment. Some people try to get this effect by placing a large pan of water at the bottom of the oven and letting it steam away during the bake. I tried to do this once and burnt the pan of water!! I know it can't be possible to burn water, but it happened. True story. I didn't realise you had to keep refilling the water if it evaporates, but a major rule of baking is DON'T OPEN THE FRICKIN' OVEN DURING THE BAKE! So all in all I have found that just sticking to baking low and slow generally gets the best bake in the end.

Lesson 4: Room to improve

I'm talking about the temperature of your ingredients. I always keep my eggs in the press as room temperature eggs act as a better, lighter, raising agent in your cakes. I make sure the butter is taken out the night before (and left out of direct sunlight in summer) to ensure it is nice and soft. The less you have to beat the cake batter, the lighter the cake will be. Of course the opposite applies for pastry, the butter needs to be chilled because if the butter is already soft in pastry it will burn, or give you those burnt pockets when cooked, as the wet to dry ingredients ratio is higher than cake mix (a bit of fancy science for ya!). It's amazing the effect the temperature of your ingredients will have on the finished product so this is one not to be skipped.

Lesson 5: Spoon licking gooooood

Much like cooking, it is very important that you taste what you bake. I mean you wouldn't want to give someone cake that doesn't taste good, would you?? So stick on your "quality control" badge and start licking! I usually have sugar coated teeth after a day's baking. Niiiice
On a serious note, home baking is all about good wholesome tastes and natural flavours. Therefore you need to be sure those flavours are coming through. A lemon cake recipe may indeed have lemon, but does it have the right ZING of lemon you want? You're not going to know this without tasting and worse still it will be too late when baked. Be careful of really strong flavours like coffee or mint. Play with flavours, push the boundaries. Anyone can buy a vanilla cake mix in a box, what makes your vanilla cake different? Go for really good flavourings instead of extracts, so less liquid gets added to the mix but more flavour comes out. You can also bring out more flavour in the toppings; such a buttercream or frostings. I've always said time and time again, never ever compromise on good quality ingredients.

And last of all......

The Writing Is On The......Cake!

When I met the lovely couple Martin and Bebhinn, I knew there was something special about their plans for their big day. They had a clear vision on what they wanted, yet leaving artistic creation to myself - best of both worlds!! This was not to be just an ordinary wedding cake, this was to be a statement cake on both the inside and the outside.

Starting on the inside; they wanted the first tier to be a chocolate biscuit cake. I told them they can add whatever confectionery they wanted to it. So like kids in a sweet shop (literally) they started naming their favourite chocolate bars so we ended up adding Moro bar, Daime bar, Maltesers and Marshmallows! Along with copious chocolate, biscuit, butter and sugar, this was a sure bet to send you in to a chocolate-coma!!!

The next tier was to be a Rainbow Cake. This type/style of cake has become increasingly popular in the last while due to the vibrant colour surprise you get when you cut in to the cake. This is especially evident when it is covered in a white or soft pastel colour like Martin and Bebhinn's cake! The thing to remember with rainbow Cakes is it is 6 sponges with cream cheese filling in between so it is easily 4 inches in height when all put together and covered. What I learned in regards stacking for a wedding cake, the other tiers need to be the same height for visual balance. So if you are doing an important cake such as a wedding cake, it's best practice a rainbow cake before hand to get a real idea of size. The recipe I used was as follows:

• 375g butter, softened, plus a little extra for greasing
• 675g plain flour
• 450g golden caster sugar
• 9 medium eggs (very important to use the correct size)
• 3 tsp baking powder
• 3 tsp vanilla extract
• pinch of salt
• edible food colouring - red, orange, yellow, green, blue and purple (to get the best concentrated colour you should use the gel colours instead of the supermarket liquid food colouring)

Method:

Heat oven to 180C. Grease 6 x 20cm round sandwich tins and line the bases with baking parchment. 

Most recipes tell you to put all the ingredients in to one electric mixer bowl and mix together, but I still think it is better to go the traditional route and cream the soft butter and sugar together first until light and fluffy, then add the egg and dry ingredients (flour and baking powder) alternatively until it all comes together. The less lumps you have and the more time you spend on mixing it all on a low speed, the better the sponge in the end. (Trust me, I've done extensive research on this!!)

So here comes the tricky bit; I learned that in order to ensure you have 6 even sponges you need to ensure you put 6 of the same quantity cake mix/batter in to 6 different bowls to then be coloured. I had a cup measuring set (see here) I got for Xmas from my loveliest husband and just scooped out 2 cups of batter in to each bowl. From here you need to take a toothpick and dip it in to the gel colouring pots and then in to the batter; so a different colour in to each bowl and mix vigorously with a spoon in each to bring up the colour like the picture below.

Rainbow coloured cake batter

baked rainbow cakes

Once you have your cake mix all coloured, spoon in to each individual cake tin and level off with a small spatula or knife so the batter is completely flat going in to the oven. Now if you're an avid cake baker like me you'll immediately freak out that there isn't enough cake mix to fill the tin and it seems quite a stiff mix compared to the usual light sponge. Fear not my troubled baker, this is perfectly fine. The mix will only be a tiny bit up the side of the tin and it is a dense mix so it won't rise that much. The reason for this is back to my point earlier; you have 6 cakes in this overall cake - therefore you only need the slightest bit to get the effect, but you don't want a massive mound of cake! I hope you get what I'm trying to say here. Basically don't panic if you think the individual cakes are very small. 

Try bake on the same oven shelf (I had 3 on one shelf and 3 on another shelf) for 12 mins until a skewer poked into the middle comes out clean. Gently turn the cakes out onto a wire rack to cool. Leave them all to cool.

When the cakes were completely cool I leveled off the tops of each of them to get them even as the top of every sponge always rises more rounded in the centre. Now it's time to whip up the cream cheese filling!!!
This is a simply 3 tubs of 250g cream cheese, 350g icing sugar and 1tsp vanilla extract. The key to this is to be gentle mixing it as it can go very runny the more you whip it, so just mix together by hand with a spoon. I also discovered that it's best leave it in the fridge for about an hr to slightly harden again before spreading on the cake. Then stack up the cakes on top of each other like the picture below before putting any icing on so you can make sure they are the same width. Take your time to get this right as there's no correcting once the icing is on!!

See the way there's more icing filling to the edge of each cake? Well that's because I didn't level it off enough. The layers should also be much thinner to get them completely even. I was afraid in my first attempt to take too much off each cake, but when they are all put together it really is a lot of cake so don't be afraid to shave off a good bit of cake. Think of it this way; the purpose of this style cake is that you see 6 different sponges of same size all stack in vibrant colours of the rainbow, so get your levels right and make sure you've used the gel colours to get the best result.

Now the outer layer doesn't need as much icing as the pic above as we're going put fondant icing on it all. So apply the same principal as "crumb coating" any cake before putting fondant icing on, which means a light layer of icing all leveled off so the fondant icing will stick to the cake. Do the same for the biscuit cake; coat the outside of the cake with chocolate fudge or chocolate ganache icing to give that even finish before applying the fondant icing. Some cake decorators go with a heavy layer all over the outside of the cake so it's perfectly smooth and level and then thick fondant over it to make sure it's extra even. I personally don't like cutting in to a cake with oodles of icing on it, so I try get the bake as level as possible to save on this. A tip for covering biscuit cake is when you are spooning the biscuit cake mix in to a lined tin, really push down on the biscuits to the point of crushing them so there's a complete layer of fine cake mix at the bottom - which will when turned out will become the top!

So now for the main event - hand painting on the cake! So when you have the cakes covered with the fondant icing you need to leave it dry for as long as you can. With all my cakes I like to bake them day 1 and cover & decorate them day 2, but in this case the writing is done on day 3. The thing to remember is once the cake is covered in fondant icing (and I mean well covered to the bottom) then the freshness of the cake is sealed in. Now, obviously it's not sealed in forever, but any good sponge or biscuit cake will stay as it's fresh state for 2-3 days, provided there's no fresh cream in there! This is why most cake decorators like to work and cover cakes with fondant than butter cream.

When writing on a cake there are several steps in the process:

Step 1: 

Write out your writing, passage, sketch, doodle, etc, on a piece of parchment paper in pencil. So in my example below I had them printed from a word doc and then traced over the words on to parchment paper. Then, most importantly, turn over the parchment paper and write out the words again in pencil to the exact style/font/outline as it is to the front. Remember to go very heavy on the pencil on this reverse side as this will be the side we will be placing on the cake to get the words on to the cake. This is also the reason you trace on the reverse side! Go back over the words as many times as you want on the reverse side so you're sure all the words are traced out. If there is any shading, for example in a picture or block writing, I would just draw the outline and we will fill in the space with the edible paint.

Step 2:

Place the parchment paper on where you want it to be on the cake, like the picture below, and end of a brush handle or a pencil over the whole piece of paper so the writing on the reverse side imprints on to the cake fondant

Careful not to lean too hard on the paper on to the cake as you just want the writing to appear and not your finger prints!! This is another reason why you need the fondant nice and dry before sketching anything on to it.




Step 3:
Continue on with whatever way you want to arrange your writing and pictures. For this cake I wanted it haphazard around the cake like so:

Step 4:

Next is the painting!! Dom dom dommmmm!

Well actually it's not that daunting now you have you're outlines done to be honest. I use this handy paint palette I got in an arts and crafts shop so I can mix the colour and thin it out to how I want it. You use Vodka mixed with the gel colour as the liquid to paint with as it dries in quickly. Do not use water as this will make it runny and seep in to your icing. As you can see from the pic I have the Vodka in one part of the tray and the concentrated gel colour in another part, and then take a small bit of each in to a third section in order to get the consistency I want. My advise is to start light in colour on to the cake and build up from there.

Make sure you have a good brush with flat head and short bristles so your writing is neater. This is a time consuming and patience game but with the help of the outlines already done and the Vodka to dry quickly, it actually goes quicker that you think.

So after all the words were painted on this was the result:

I hope this was OK to follow, and you liked the finished product!!

In the Navy!!!

It has been far too long since I have blogged any cakes, but for good reason......I've been busy making cakes!! Now that I have the chance to sit down with a nice cup of Barry's, I decided to throw up the last few cake projects I worked on. I'll start with a 30th birthday cake for Irish Naval officer, Conor Foley, who was stationed aboard the L.É. Niamh Naval Ship.

When Conor's now fiance Claire Doyle (I'm pretty sure it was my cake that sealed the deal!!), I was delighted to get the opportunity to stretch my 3-D cake skills (and boy were they tested!).

I started off by making the ocean on the cake board. I had seen a nifty Youtube clip that shows you how to blend a few colours of fondant icing to get the marble effect. Here are the different stages:

Blending to 2 different blues and a white together

 Blend and twist the colours carefully so they just mush together but don't completely blend in.

Water effect coming together

I then placed the fondant on the cake board, with a few ruffles/creases to give that 3-D effect of the boat going through the water. I have to say I was pretty impressed with myself at this point!

Ta Daaaaaaa!!

Resembling a speedboat at this point!!

So next for the ship. I used 2 loaf tin cakes of chocolate sponge and basically carved it out to a ship shape with the pointed front and separate bridge on top. Having looked at several pictures of our Irish Naval Ship, the L.É. Niamh, I was up on what letters and numbers had to go on the side. Not the kind of thing you want to get wrong!!

I covered the whole cake in fondant icing I had dyed to a very light grey. It is tricky to try get the coverage and smooth finish on an angular cake like this. For this reason there may have been a few lumps and bumps, but I do think this give the effect of a well traveled ship through the rough Irish seas!! No? Well that's my story and I'm sticking to it!!

So as you can see from the picture, it started to look a bit like a speedboat but there was still a lot of work to do!

I wanted to get the L.É. Niamh crest in somewhere so I decided it would go well as the 0 for the age 30 and also on the other side of the ship on it's own! I did my best to replicate the crest by hand with icing, and gave it a bit of glitter to make the gold stand out on the crowns. Not my best work, I must admit, but a "good effort" as my teachers use to often say to me.

So next came the resurrection of the ship's mast. Well this was a funny one. I had my friend Claire O'Connor with me when I was doing this and she kindly drew my attention to the mast resembling the cross our lord was put up on!!! Now I must explain this was because I had just a large stick standing vertically, covered in icing, with another stick going horizontally........like a cross. After lots of laughs, and several reenactments of Jesus on the cross from Claire, I got back to making it look more like a ship's mast. Now maybe you people still don't think it looks like a ship's mast, but I do challenge anyone to try construct a stick covered in fondant with another piece of stick covered in fondant going across it that has to balance on top of a ship cake.

To make the gangplank (check out my naval knowledge!) I just took a large block of white icing and ran it from the board up to the ship, securing on to the side of the ship with a cocktail stick. If I was to do this again I would construct a more solid gangplank from solid icing, leave it dry for a day or two, and then attached it. I placed the L.É. Niamh name here as I thought it was the most distinct place for it to be seen. I then placed a small ball of grey icing in the centre of the deck, with a thick licorice stick as the ship's gun. I ran florist wire around the sides to give the full look of ropes surrounding a ship's deck. I did give the customer Claire the full health and safety brief on what was edible and what was not in case you're wondering!

So the end result was this:

It was all packed up in this ginormous box to be delivered. It was actually the birthday boy himself that collected it but he was under strict instructions not to peak at it!!

It's funny looking back on this cake that was done in July 2013, and seeing the different things I would do better now. This is the benefit of taking pictures as I go along, something I've lost the habit of doing lately, is that I get to see all the little bits and pieces that look odd individually but come together to make the final product. I hope you liked this blog, and learned something!!