Tag Archives: fondant

Chocolate Cake Box Tier

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I’ve been much to busy to bake, let alone post about it lately. Though, when my 23rd birthday approached I just had to make time to. My problem? My muse had totally abandoned me. I had no idea what to do. Then I randomly saw a picture of a round brown box with green trimming around the lid. I dislike green as a colour generally. There are precious few shades of it I like. Something stuck me about this colour scheme that I absolutely fell in love with. The whole theme for the party ended up following suit.

With the billion assignments I have, as well as working, my research project, general house duties and all the finger food I had to make for the party, I needed something simple, classy and not fiddly. This is an idea I had been sitting on for a while. Though I imagined it in white, as a wedding cake tier. I never imagined how ridiculously long it would take to make the boxes.

What’s in the box, in the box, what’s in the box today?

Sunken Ship Cake

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This is the first cake I’ve done that someone has actually asked me to do for someone else, from them.

I mean, lots of people have gone all, “Oh wow. Could make such-and-such for me?” But when it comes to the crunch, most people don’t really want to pay for it. Most people don’t understand the days of work behind a cake. But this for friend-turned-housemate, I was happy to make one for free of charge, despite the offer of money being there. This one was gonna be lots of fun.

This one was for her dad. She told me he has somewhat of a Peter Pan complex. So we thought this sunken pirate ship cake would be lots of fun as far as reliving ones childhood goes.

You are without a doubt the worst pirate I’ve ever heard of…

Christmas Bakerage Part 4: Cookie Tree

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Here’s for the final instalment of my Christmas bakerage 2010: the cookie tree.

This tree marks a pretty important milestone for me. See, this time last year I was failing with fondant. I couldn’t even get holy leaves to work for the cookie tree. So it had red berries and that was it. While this tree involves minimal fondant work, it reminds me of how much I have learned in a year. It also reminds me that I have so much more to learn, and so much more time in which to learn it. I’m forever getting frustrated at my ‘failures’, never happy unless it’s perfect (which it invariably never is). This reminds me that I haven’t been at this long; so here’s to a chin up and hopefully many more successes (or should it be less failures?) for 2011.

But enough of that and more of the tree, hey?

Christmas Bakerage Part 3: Truffle Tree and Truffle Puddings

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Here’s one that’s slowly becoming an annual tradition. The Truffle Tree. This usually involves a week-long one -[wo]man truffle creating extravaganza that leaves my fridge full of containers hosting hundreds of truffles.

This year, I decided to downsize the effort a little bit. One tree instead of two. Which basically meant a few hundred less truffles than usual. Oops.

Peek under the tree…

Christmas Bakerage Part 1: Poinsettia Christmas Cake

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Traditionally made as a log cake, I abandoned this idea a little over a year ago for the sake of aesthetics. I wanted the awesomeness of the ripple cake, but I also wanted it to look like an actual cake. Ever since I figured out how to make this as a round cake, I have never gone back.

Here’s a cake that requires more assemblage than baking itself, but the theme atop the cake can be applied to any cake. You can even skip the baking step altogether and just buy biscuits, but home made is always so much nicer. I will skip the cookie-baking step as the best thing really is to simply use your favourite chocolate cookie recipe. Choc chip cookies work really well. ANZAC biscuits are also great to use if you want the resultant cake to be on the more fruity/nutty side – in which case you would omit the peppermint and ganache. You want your cookies to be relatively flat and even, or else you will find it difficult to assemble the finished product. The choices are endless. Which is why the ‘recipe’ will be more of a general guideline. Quantities will differ based on your personal choices, and exactly how tall and wide you want your cake to be.

More photos and the recipe…

Baby Shower Cupcakes

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My cousin is pregnant with her very first baby. On the weekend just gone, she had a baby shower for him. This was also my very first baby shower. I wanted to do a little something special for her as a gift, as I wanted to give her something more than just the Baby Bunting voucher my Aunt said she wanted. Of course, any excuse to bake is a good excuse. Hence, these little ones were born:

Ready for more?

Marshmallow Fondant Tutorial

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After posting my Spotlight cake, commented saying saying she'd had trouble with the MMF. I'd heard a lot of people say the same thing in the past. So here's a blow by blow account how I do it, with pictures included.

Disclaimer: I always cook by feel, rather than exact quantities. Fondant especially cannot be measured accurately. Hence, I cannot give you exact amounts, but I can give you a rough ratio from which to go by.

Here we go!

Spotlight Grand Opening Neapolitan Cake…

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The reason for my prolonged absence from the kitchen, as previously mentioned, is my new job. After 3 weeks of non stop work to get the new store up and running, the end of set up approached and we got a day off before the grand opening. I seized the opportunity to bake a celebratory cake for the occasion:

This was a cake for firsts for me.

First layer cake.
First neapolitan cake.
First time making marshmallow fondant.
First time piping words.
First time not refrigerating a cake (I know I know, but I have some weird compulsion to refrigerate them, so I was wrought with panic over not doing so. You don’t need to tell me how irrational I am)

I could go on. But the main point is, I was a bit of a nervous wreck brining it in. Presentation wise, to be honest, I didn’t like it. I’m not even sure why. But it wasn’t like the picture of perfection I had in my head.

You be the judge.

It’s what’s inside that counts, right?