Dumbo Cake

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Over on deviantART one of my favourite groups, Project Educate, is holding an Artisan Crafts contest. The theme this year is "Circus". I've been wanting an excuse to do a circus cake for forever. Alas, with the weather being as phenomenally hot as it is, I couldn't days working on an epic cake. So I had to downsize.

When I think circus, my first thought is my favourite: Cirque du Soleil. Particularly since I just recently witnessed their amazing Ovo show, as well as the Cirque du Soleil "Worlds Away" movie. I well and truly have cirque on the brain. But doing a cake that did that amazing circus justice was out of the question, do I went for something a little smaller.

Disney nostalgia…

31Oct2012

Mockaccino Fondant Puddings

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Over on BakeBakeBake this month, the contest theme is coffee. I’d been thinking of attempting some chocolate fondant puddings for a while, so I used it as an excuse to give them a go, with a little coffee twist.

Fondant puddings are great for those of us who love to lick the bowl of cake mix clean just as much as we like to eat the finished product. Which covers most of us, really. Is there anyone whose list of childhood pleasures doesn’t consist of getting to lick the bowl/beaters/spatula clean? This little dessert lets us relive those glorious memories, while pretending to be sophisticated about it on the surface.

Would you like a spoon for that?

27Jun2012

Joconde Imprime with Bumble Bee Mousse Entremet

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I've been wanting to try a joconde imprime for years. I'd always been a bit intimidated by it, so I filed it under O for "one day" and never gave it any serious thought. But when this months theme challenge on was "layers", I knew it was high time I gave this a go. I'd been looking for an excuse to do another honeycomb topper anyway and had been searching for the perfect dessert to do it with.

I knew I wanted the joconde to be patterned with chocolate stripes, but it was the entremet I couldn't decide on. There were just so many options. I'd tried a dessert with chocolate mousse and layers of honeycomb before, but the honeycomb dissolved and the beautiful layers I'd imagine became one disjoined, albeit delicious, mess. I was chatting to my boyfriend about this first world dilemma when he said, "What about bumble bee mousse?"

I felt like I was in my very own Old El Paso commercial.

Genius.

He’s not just a pretty face…

7Dec2011

Chocolate and Sherry Cherry Gift Box Cake

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Christmas is not that far away, and I am getting so excited conjuring up ideas for my Boxing Day feast. But before we tuck into the feast, first we have to unwrap the goodies bequeathed unto us by Santa! And what better gift than one involving chocolate?

This one was conjured up from a competition by Harris Scarfe. The task was to cook one of 6 different recipes, from the sweet to savoury. I, of course, had to go the sweet route.

Unwrap the gift…

28Nov2011

Baklava Scrolls

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There were so many middle eastern desserts I was wanting to try for Bakebakebake’s challenge this month, so I resolved to do two and then choose which to enter. In the end I only found time for this first one: baklava.

I have to admit to not being a huge fan of baklava. I find often they are soggy masses of sugar-dripping pastry that I don’t find as appealing as everyone else seems to. Then once I had baklava in a scroll form. I loved it. I’m not sure why it made such a difference.

So I decided that when I made it, I was going to try my hand at the scroll.

Time to unravel the scroll…

27Jun2011

Asparagus Cake

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I must admit, I had a bit of bakers-block for this month’s "green" theme challenge on bakebakebake. The only thing that came to mind was mint, and, well, that had been done. As had almost every other thing I thought of. When they did a pandan chiffon cake on MasterChef, I drew inspiration from there… until none of the pictures accompanying the recipes I found had the lovely green colour I wanted.

It was after a bout of Googling images using a green filter that I sprung upon the idea of an asparagus cake.

Sounds gross, no?

Well, it’s not flavoured asparagus.

Though I'm sure you've already guessed the flavour of the cake…

15Jun2011

Dragon’s Lair Cake

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The second I heard about the Zoology Master Baker Bake off at Uni, I was so excited at the prospect. To fill in some blanks, I’m studying a Master of Zoology at The University of Melbourne. The associated social club throws events just for post graduate students. Last year, in my gap year, I’d seen the signs for the bake off up around Uni and was so sad I couldn’t partake. So this year I was so excited. In fact, my friends told me they wouldn’t stop pestering me until I signed up.

The only dilemma: what to bake?