A 21st Birthday

Happy 21st

Another cake, another challenge and surprisingly not another destroyed kitchen! I’m gradually learning how to tidy as I go, much to the delight of himself! He arrived into a mostly tidy kitchen after this cake had been completed. I was up at 7.30am Sat morning to ice and decorate this cake, thunder over head and a flurry of snow and hailstones to keep me company. I love snow, it always gives me a lovely calm and peaceful feeling when I look out at it. Not so much when I’m slipping and sliding on the footpaths though! Which I did much of on Saturday en route to the Taste of Christmas (mmm Gino d’Campo!).

The only requirements for this cake was the size, that it would be chocolate and that the colour must be peachy pink and I think I delivered on all that. There were 21 bendy stars on it which were also edible and well, festive and fun. I was slightly concerned that the icing would crack as it was so cold but I think it went OK.

View from the top

Baby Shower Cupcakes

I made these cute cupcakes over the weekend for my lovely sister-in-laws baby shower. They went down a treat, though I do feel some of the little boy cupcakes looked like fishermen! I also wish I got better photos – I was in a rush taking them as I was running late. They were more time consuming than I realised, it took just under two hours to roll all the icing, cut and make the different pieces and decorate the cupcakes (vanilla cupcakes with chocolate ganache topped with the coloured icing). But, it was totally worth it!

Two Little Girls, Two Little Cakes

For the gorgeous twin’s first birthday their lovely Mum wanted them to have a cake each..Little Miss Wise and Little Miss Giggles…challenge!! I was very excited about these cakes and had more confidence doing them having gained some knowledge from the previous cake.

Little Miss Cakes

Little Miss Wise

The cakes were due Sunday at 1pm so preparation began on Friday night when I made the dark chocolate ganache to cover the cakes with. Saturday morning I then made the two cakes, both chocolate, in square shaped tins and left them to coll for the day.

Saturday night, when the cakes were both completely cool, I cut them to shape and covered them both with the ganache. Then the icing was dyed for the relevant colours, wrapped in cling film and left to develop over night..the colours get stronger when you leave them in the dark overnight.

Although I was up early Sunday morning , I had so much fun. Before the icing was placed on the ganache covered cakes they were hot knifed first to ensure they were completely smooth. Then came the fun task of icing them..and adding their individual features – hair, hands and faces!

Little Miss Giggles

The best tips I could give anyone who wants to create a  cake like this would be:

• Cool Cakes – make sure your cakes are completely cool before you attempt to cut and shape them and especially when putting ganache on, it could slide right off…not something you want to happen.
• Colouring the icing the night before – this allows the colours to develop properly over night so you know exactly what colour the cake will be.
• This Roll out the icing on plastic sheeting or cling film – I did this when making these cakes and it was far less messy. It was also much easier to transfer to the cake, though there were times when I could have done with a third hand!

Take One – A 50th Birthday Cake

Clacker Cake

My first cake order! I was so excited about making this but also a little nervous. What if I made a total f*ck of it?! I found a gem of a book called Planet Cake which I would advise anyone to get if they are interested in cake decoration. It’s a marvelous book that gives great techniques on applying ganache, applying rolled icing, how to fix any tears that may occur and much more.

The cake was made over three days. The first evening began with making the ganache, the second evening the cakes were baked and the third day was spent decorating and covering the kitchen in chocolate!

One of the most nerve wracking things was being thereat the party when the cake was being cut. Everyone had commented on how great it looked and one lady came over and said how sometimes cakes look beautiful but don’t taste the same! Argh! She later came back and said she was delighted to tell me the cake tasted delicious! Phew!

I absolutely loved baking this cake, I have another order to do this weekend and I’m very excited, two Little Miss birthday cakes, lets hope they turn out as well!