This commission was a follow up from the last jungle cake I did. The gentleman ordering the cake was hosting a party for his son and decided he’d like a similarly themed tiered cake with a few changes. He also wanted a batch of cupcakes, but we’ll save that one for another post. This one is going to be fairly pic heavy, so if you’re on dial up you’re about to really dislike me.
Cake layering is one of those things a lot of us hate. It takes great knife skill, a great knife and practise. Many of use end up spending lots on cake decorating equipment to make the process perfect.
I was one of them. I wasn’t too bad at eyeballing it, but my knife would often dip towards the back and I would be left with a cake that had to be stacked exactly how it was cut in order to achieve a remotely level cake. For tiered cakes, this just did not cut it (whoa, pun). So I spent $50 on Wilton’s Large Cake Leveler and I can unreservedly say it is the biggest waste of money I have encountered since emptying my pockets on cake decorating equipment. It sits at the back of my cupboard collecting dust. The blade simply bows and what happened was that I ended up with cakes that were cut on a massive diagonal. The beautiful, flawlessly layered cakes it promised are, I am convinced, unachievable with this contraption.
So what if I told you you could perfectly layer a cake with this…
This week's recipe comes from Women's Weekly's "Easy cakes and biscuits". They are just what they say they are: easy.
My boyfriend loves jam biscuits, and I for some reason have never tried to make any sort of thumbprint or jam drop biscuit before. So here was one to tick off the list.
After I did the charity cake for my boyfriend's work, I got a sudden spark of interest in purchasing some baked goods off of me. One of his co-workers had his son's birthday in two days and wanted to know if I could do it. Because I'm crazy and clearly am not busy enough, I said yes.
The brief was for a small cake for 5 or 6 people with jungle animals.
Baking is fun at the best of times, but when it’s for charity it is so much more fulfilling. My boyfriend works for IBM, and currently he is on a project in an ANZ office. One of the ANZ offices he is located at decided to host a Big Cake Bake fundraiser for the Red Cross. I was more than happy to oblige when asked to do a cake, and more than happy for the excuse to make a cake I’d been wanting to do for a while.
The dish for this week came from another op shop pickup by my dad: "Inspiring Tastes". This book is another of those promo dealies, this one by Masterfoods. The theme for this is that every dish uses a Masterfoods product or four. But, despite the fact that I usually do buy Masterfoods products, they can be easily subbed for any brand, or even fresh herbs.
Now, lamb is my favourite red meat in the world. In fact, it's my favourite meat period. But it is also one of the most expensive meats going around, so it's seldom had in my household. As a poor uni student, I usually only stock our freezer with chicken, mince and sausages where protein is concerned. So this dish was a bit of a special treat.
For Cupcake Day, I made a batch of lemon meringue cupcakes. I never did a recipe post on them, so what better excuse to bake another batch?
Some time ago, my father picked up Family Circle's "Crazy for Chocolate" book for himself. Now, this is a rarity, as most dessert books he buys on his op-shopping expeditions are for me. I didn't see it for the longest time until one weekend he handed it to me to have a look through. He told me it wasn't great, that there was "nothing really decadent in there". It was in this moment my father was classified as certifiably insane. Not is it the greatest chocolate cookbook I have ever seen, it is right up there with my favourite desserts of all time. I want to bake this book from cover to cover, and I probably eventually will. He told me I could have the book, but I think he already knew I was not leaving his house without it.
Last night, I turned to it in an attempt to rid myself of some of the 7 punnets of strawberries my dad bequeathed unto me. I came across the following recipe and decided that it would be a suitable dessert for a lazy Sunday in: Chocolate Shortbread Stacks…
The cookbook I use for this weeks challenge was one of those "if you buy this product, you get this book free!" type deals from Leggo’s. In said cases, I usually expect nothing much. A few pasta recipes, some spaggy bol, nothing I haven't seen before. I was pleasantly surprised by the diversity in this book, with twists on old classics like a gnocci bake, and then there's the diversity of meaty dishes. The catch with said books is that you usually have to buy their products to make the recipes, however the theme is simply that all use Leggo's tomato paste, which can be subbed by an sort of tomato paste or puree. Whilst trying to think of something to cook for dinner the other night, I rummage through this book and found something that I both had never made (or eaten!) before, and had the ingredients for.
When my sister’s birthday approached she requested one thing: for a cake that involved mousse. Challenge accepted!
Cakecrumbs 