My first effort at making a fondant daffodil - without a proper cutter

My very first effort at a fondant daffodil. Sure, it needs perfecting, but not a bad job for the first go I think.

Yes, I know you can spend money on a cutter just for making daffodils, but what do you do if you haven't got one?

Well, I used a star shapped cutter instead. It's very simple.  I'm not going to buy a cutter just for a daffodil, especially as this one turned out OK on the first go.

Improvisation is key :-)

My recipe for butterless buttercream

I've been asked to my recipe for buttercream using Trex. 

Here it is. 

I'm also leaving it on my blog in the Recipes tab 

Or click the book below

Glamorous Grandma - 72nd Birthday - August 2016

Now, I know I said "I don't make cakes for anyone else, only friends and family." But when a gentleman asks you, so nicely, to make him a cake for his lovely wife's birthday ... How on earth do you say "No"?

As you can see, I didn't.

This cake has the same colour sponge as the Liverpool cake earlier this month, which is what was asked for, as well as the white butter cream (only it's not butter, it's Trex).  I've put my recipie for Trex butterless butter icing on my blog, click here for it.

Not much went wrong really, except a slight disaster with the fondant. I rolled it way too thinly, but I had spare so started again.

I purchased the red and white roses from the cakey-bakey shop and made the other decorations myself.

The small flowers, mixed with live hearts (what was asked for) cascade down the right hand side as you look at the cake. It looks a tad strange and very bare on the left hand side, but if I put anymore decorations on there, it will be overkill.

Once the decorations, ribbon and diamante-style decorations were all in place, plus around the cake embossing, a generous spray of edible "luster" was applied. Oh that stuff smells scrummy.

And here is where I leave this entry, an impromptu cake for a smashing lady, requested by her lovely husband

Liverpool FC - August 2016

Well, the only things I had any idea about Liverpool FC was ...

It's a footy club

It's red and white

I was asked to make a Liverpool birthday cake for a young lady

Aaaaand that's about it :-)

I initially wanted a football shape but was unable to get the tin(s), so I bought football shaped pieces cutters.  Which, on the day of decorating I realised they'd only work on a spherical cake, not a flat one. No matter,  I'd adapt.

As you can see the decorations consisted of a large printed icing sheet and footy 'pennies', but it also includes the red cake board, red ribbon and a white ribbon printed with red footbàlls. Oh I hope that's not overkill on the football theme.

The outside was decorated in white because the delighfull vanilla sponge is bright red. I hope someone sends me a pic of the inside so I can add it here.

There's never a dull moment with my cake baking experiences, but nothing went wrong with the sponge on this one, I guess I was awake this time :-D

I had to adapt the football shape icing because I didn't have a spherical cake to decorate, but I think this one has turned out rather well.

There you go Cerys, I hope you have a great Liverpool birthday xxx

Yummy red sponge inside (",)

Patchwork Owl - August 2016

Well, I'm guessing if you've already made a cake for your niece, nephew and brother-in-law this year, then you'd best step up to the plate and make your sister one!

I'd had my own plans for my sister's cake but when your niece asks specifically for an owl for her mum, then an owl it will be.

I'd made a sort of 3-D own many years ago, which my sister had seen, so I wanted something so different, she wouldn't expect it. So, a patchwork quilted type cake it is!

Each cake I make is not without its, erm ... trials, and this one was no different. But this was my own fault. I have absolutely no idea where my head was when I was baking the sponge, but it wasn't on the task in hand lol.  It looked great coming out of the oven, then the inside just fell out! School-girl error! So I started  again.

I baked two 6" chocolate sponges, sliced them in half and sandwiched them back together with chocolate buttercream. Oh wow, the aroma was divine! I'm loving this cake already, but I can't have any.

Previous experiences have taught me not to put my faith in supermarket fondant for covering large areas, so cakey-bakey shop for supplies it was. I purchased the white fondant and food colour tube pastes as the colour fondant I wanted is not available. 

The base colour is pistachio green, mixed by me :-)

I also used a variety of cutters and shapes to make the pieces for create the patchwork owl. Each feather was individually cut and imprinted with a quilted pattern and various flowered patterns. I will post an image of all the shapes I used below.

The tummy of the owl originally had square quilted, individual pieces, but it didn't look good. So it was agreed that they would come off and be replaced by the individual imprinted circular pieces to resemble feathers.

After each feather was stuck on, because I didn't want to cover the green 14" board, I use a flower cutter to cut tiny shapes and stick them on the bottom to resemble a string a lace daisies. I stuck a single row where the cake meets the board and to outline the edge of the owl to define the whole shape on the edges. I think they worked out rather well.

A pic of the yummy chocolate sponge inside

I added a few flowers and leaves to the board so it didn't look so bare. 

As with all my cakes, I'm happy with the outcome. I just hope it tastes as good as it smells and looks.

Rugby Shirt Birthday Cake - July 2016

Have you ever made a cake that seriously pushed the boundaries of both your ability and patience? Well, this one is mine!

It was the second of two cakes made at the same time. This one was for my brother-in-law's birthday. My sister wanted a Scarlet's (Llanelli) rugby shirt and even hired the tin for me. It was way too expensive to buy for just one cake.

I already knew that the mini blocks of red fondant I had were not going to be enough to cover it, so I had to buy more from the same supermarket so the co!our was the same. First supermarket - sold out! I had to travel about 20 miles to get some. Bought three more packs. They're only 250g a pack.

Supermarket coloured icing is so mass produced and such poor quality that it simply would not cut the mustard, so-to-speak. This was also the opinion of a professional. I struggled, and ended up crying my heart out with frustrstion because it kept cracking even though I'd kneeded it to warm it up.

Failure! Dramatic failure. I had to strip the whole cake and bin eight 250g packs of red, ready to roll fondant.

Enter my saving grace! The cakey bakey shop :-)

2kg of professional grade red fondant later, oodles of advice, including "it might take two of you to get the icing on it" and voilà ... 

A red rugby shirt.

Trim it with a little shirt detail and pipe around the edges and it came out just fine. I wasn't going to ice the board because I thought it would detract from the pretty good work I'd done on the main piece.

Because this cake had seriously dented my self esteem and tried my patience to breaking point, I was not about to mess it all up by trying to, freehand, cut the rugby team's logo out of icing! Not a chance!

Cakey bakey shop saviour advised an ediible printed one. I agreed and paid to have one printed for me. Had to wait until the next morning to collect, which didn't turn out exactly as planned. But they don't look too bad

The cake itself also fried my brain. The biggest one i had ever made and a shape that wasn't round or square. I ended up baking three layers and having to discard one because it was so out of shape, it was useless.  

So, inside it has two layers of yummy vanilla cake with vanilla butter cream, made with Trex, of course.

Biggest lessons today! Learn to say "No", if I can't, get all the help I can get and, don't buy supermarket fondant for big projects, unless it's white, because that seems to work ok

Chess Inspired Birthday Cake - July 2016

Inspired by chess 

This chess inspired cake was made for my uncle's 65th birthday. He is positively chess crazy and even teaches primary school children how to play.

Anyway, I didn't want a chess board, but wanted a chess board effect on a round cake. Inside are two flavours of cake ... Chocolate and 'plain' these were cut in such a way that, when cut for eating, it should also look like a chess board. I'll add a picture to this post when it's cut. [See bottom of post to see if it's updated].

For a chocolate flavour sponge, buy a good quality baking cocoa and exchange about 12.5% of the flour for the cocoa

Again, a learning curve.  To decorate, I cut 2cm squares and stuck them onto the cake after a base layer of fondant had been put on it.  

However!!!! Here's my learning bit!!!!

I lost my way with the squares, as you an see, so next time, I think I'm either going to stop at the edge of the round then start in a different direction on the sides. 

OR

Cut out the squares and stick them to the rolled out base layer and then cover the cake as normal. Watch this space :-)

I also added home made chess pieces. I used dark chocolate and white chocolate. But that wasn't so easy either. They kept melting when I was trimming them off lol.

Lesson learned? Yes, put them in freezer, then trim. Instead of just putting them in the fridge.

But they look OK.

Once again, I've learned the hard way. But if my errors help you, and me in the future, I don't mind sharing.

Update:

The inside of the cake worked out perfect 

I'm a happy bunny :-)