Christening cake

so, this is my first official 2 tier cake! and i had to go find out and source all the goodies involved. mostly i just got blank stares from shop assistants and flat; non capito's. anyway, this cake nearly drained my life force is took about 7 times my usual cake batter recipe. and im still trying to subdue the mighty fondant! but it turned out alright

 

so, i am also experimenting with making royal icing 3d shapes which is a lengthy process because you have to make and glue piece together but it is fun making 3 dimensional objects out of sugar. but if you are going to make something such as this pram a a cake topper, i suggest you attach it at the event, make a spare and keep them in a bulletproof box because they are really fragile. i couldnt take the cake to the event and got my lovely friend nina to do it for me. but, somehow or other, the pram got broken, and she felt really bad. but they covered the top in daffodils and im sure it looked beautiful in the end!

something that did not look beautiful in the end, was my kitchen. it looked like a sugar bomb hit it. for days i  was scrubbing cement like fondant marks off the counter top.

so the cake was, vanilla sponge layered with dark choc chip-white ganache icing. covered in a layer of  white buttercream ganache. covered in white fondant with white royal icing decoration. top tier was 18cm bottom tier 30cm

but at the eye of the storm was this banner and everytime things got too hectic and the cake threatened to  overtake my mind, i glanced over at this happy banner :)

i dont think im going to make a cake this big again, unless i have a shiny  kitchen aid to help me. i salute all home bakers who make wedding cakes, its really hard work!

Clare's rainbow birthday cupcakes!

Happy Birthday dear sister! may you have a wonderful year ahead of you :)
i made rainbow cupcakes to brighten up your day!

lets go fly a kite, up to the highest height.
lets go fly a kite and send it soaring...

sweet 19 today

is it a bird.. is it a plane.. no its super-pig!

i absolutely enjoyed making these, and got happier and happier as they came together
they are actually rainbow cupcakes (they never seem to work out perfectly for me so hope you have better luck)
buttercream covered in fondant with fondant decorations, buttercream clouds and royal icing banners

the banners are particularly fragile. i smashed 2 just photographing them, and i was being unusually careful!
(instructions on how to make them below)

make extras because they break break break!

Make Royal icing Banners: i printed out the banner shape and slid the printout under a sheet of baking paper. using stiff royal icing i piped the shapes and flooded them in white royal icing. also pipe lines of icing which will be the rods to hold up the banners. when the banners dried a few hours later, i piped the writing and outlines ontop with stiff purple royal icing. let that dry. carefully remove them from the paper, turn them over and glue the rods to the back of the banner with a blob of royal icing. let that dry.

The Fondant test..

I decided to try work with fondant but the thing is, you cant buy the ready made thing in Italy and  anyway, its tastes pretty bad. so i made my own using this kind person's recipe.
it went alright, but for rolling it into a gigantic sheet for the cake. this was impossible!

This weekend i made a baby themed party table with a half fondant covered chocolate cake, made from my usual black magic cake recipe
 fondant covered vanilla cupcakes (recipe below) and royal iced chocolate biscuits, recipe here

sleeping baby

working with fondant on small things like cupcakes is fantastic. except every speck of dust and lint is attracted to the fondant!!! its incredible how it picks up anything in its path!!. and if you over work it... it gets crumbly and cracks. yay.

baby shoes and imprinted icing. look around for any interesting textures you may have around the house and press them into the fondant! lots of fun, just make sure they are clean first!

this is a royal icing flower made with a wilton 2D icing tip. i made it before and let it dry first. the leaf is from fondant with a leaf cutter gadget thing.

some biscuits marked with D. 

if you had time, a few nice plates and glass bell jars this could really look spectacular at a party. but i have none of those things and besides, my colleagues at work ate up all the evidence

cake iced with white royal icing from a pattern i found on the internet. came out fantastically in spite of the gas oven that is my burden! because... i bought an oven thermometer!!!! yay
thanks to a friend, i found a fantastic baking shop in Rome!!! it has nearly everything i could ever need. its called Peroni and is in Piazza dell Unita.

flowers out of fondant

Vanilla Cupcakes

125gr butter (softened but not runny)
1 cup flour
1.5 tsp baking powder
125gr sugar (normal white sugar or castor sugar)
2 eggs
1 tsp vanilla esscence
3 table spoons milk

1. cream butter and sugar into a pale very fluffy mixture (beat for a long time2)
2. add eggs one at a time, mixing well after each, then add vanilla, mix well
3. add sifted flour and baking powder, alternating with milk. (start and end with flour)
4. spoon batter into cupcake cases until just over half full
5. bake at 200'C for about 12 min

xxx