My favorite Red Velvet Recipe

It can be hard to find a really good red velvet recipe that balances the hint of chocolate, touch of vanilla and the creamy tang of buttermilk but after playing around with a few recipes and using my friends and workmates as guinea pigs I now have my recipe down pat. This one is popular with both my cake and Cakepop customers.  Please enjoy....

In a bowl sift the following ingredients twice:
125g plain flour
1/4 teaspoon of baking powder
1/4 teaspoon salt
10g of the best cocoa powder you can afford.

The quality of the cocoa powder will affect the overall colour of the finished cake. Pure cocoa triggers a chemical reaction with the vinegar added in the last step and actually deepens the red tine of the cake naturally meaning you can use less food colouring. This does not mean you can't use your everyday baking cocoa, you just need to add a little more red when mixing.

In a measuring jug combine the following ingredients mixing well to evenly distribute the colour:

130ml Buttermilk
1 tablespoon red liquid food colour (Queen Pillarbox Red is best).

If you don't wish to use the food colour, substitute 2 tablespoons natural beetroot juice (omit 1 tablespoon of the buttermilk) or 1 tablespoon of pomegranate syrup. Both of the will change the colour slightly from a rich red to burgundy shade. They are great for those with sensitivity to artificial colours.

Mixing the cake is best done in a bench top mixer but you can use a hand held electric mixer.

In your mixer cream the butter and sugar until fluffy.
57g unsalted butter at room temp.
150g white sugar (not caster sugar)

When fluffy add 1 large egg and 1/2 teaspoon pure vanilla extract. Beat for 2 minutes on medium.
Add 1/3 of the dry ingredients, mix until fully combined. Add 1/3 of the buttermilk mixture, mix well to combine then repeat this process twice with the remaining dry and wet ingredients. Once combine set your mixer on high for 2 minutes.

In a small bowl or cup stir 1/2 teaspoon of baking soda into 1/2 teaspoon of white vinegar. Add to the mixer and combine for a further two minutes.

This mix will make one 8"x 3 inch cake or 14 medium sized cupcakes.

Place in a preheated oven at 175 degrees C.
Cupcakes 18-23 minutes
Cake 28-35 minutes - test with a skewer.

This mixture will dome slightly on cupcakes but remains fairly even on a cake.

If you have the patience allow it too cool then serve with the buttercream,ice cream or frosting of your choice. Lemon cream cheese buttercream is a personal favorite!

Enjoy
xoxo
Sugarpie

Elegant Back and White wedding

On Saturday I had the pleasure of both styling and creating an amazing cake for Emma and Aaron's wedding. The brief was timeless elegance with the lovely heritage surroundings of Gipps Restaurant as the backdrop.

As Emma's stunning dress was a fitted lace creation reminiscent of the 1940's it was decided that a black and white classic clean look highlighted with deep red roses was the perfect plan.

So here are a few shots of the lovely tables.

And then came the cake.

The Centre piece cake was a 2 tier Raspberry and white chocolate mud cake with a double height top tier. Here are a few pics of the making of the cake. the top tier was wrapped in Sugarveil lace highlighted with edible pearls. The base tier was a black and white chevron pattern, gift box styles cake. The cake was topped with a floral bouquet replicating the look of the bridal and bridesmaids bouquets. White Sugar roses, rosemary sprigs, fresh red tea roses and diamantes created a dramatic top to the white cake.

 The cake was surrounded by tiers of cupcakes featuring piped Butter cream roses.

This was a cake of firsts for me - first chevron, first sugarveil and first piped roses! I am so in love with sugarveil and I can't wait to use it again!

 

I wish Emma and Aaron all the best and a long and happy life together.

xoxo

Sugarpie.

Recipe Time - Rich Chocolate & Buttermilk Cakes

So as promised here are two of my fail safe favourite moist cake recipes. Perfect for cake pops, sculpted and tiered cakes.

First up my favourite rich chocolate cake recipe. Chill this cake for a great carving medium.

My buttermilk cake is great base cake. Add you flavours of choice and get a perfect texture every time. If adding a liquid flavour that is more than 1tbsp as 10g plain flour for every tablespoon of liquid.

Please use my recipes and enjoy your baking.
xoxo
Sugarpie

Beautiful Blue Bird Cake Pop Tutorial

I adore these cute little birds which sold out quite fast at the Queens Park Handmade Markets last weekend. Thought I might share the process with you.

You will need:

• Crumbled cake
• Buttercream
• Melted White Chocolate coloured you favourite bird colour (I used ChefMaster Blue Candy Colour)
• White modelling chocolate
• Gel/Candy colours (I used ChefMaster Candy Colours -  Pink, Yellow and Blue)
• Small Black Sugar Pearls
• Heart or Blossom cutter
• Small Petal or Tear shaped cutter
• Petal Veiner or toothpick
• Paper Lolly sticks

Using a nice dense cake (I used chocolate mud with honeycomb crumble) and not too much buttercream, shape your small balls of cake (about 30g) into a tear drop shape bending the 'tail' up slightly. Chill then attach to your sticks with a little melted chocolate in the colour you will use for the body. Put aside to chill while you make your bits and pieces.

 To prepare the wings, beak and heart you will need white modelling chocolate. Never used it before? Visit www.craftsy.com and see some of their great tutorials or search www.youtube.com where you can find plenty of free videos. I plan to add some modelling chocolate tutorials to my blog at a later time so stay tuned.

Colour a small amount yellow (if you don't have the right candy colours you can use normal gel colours to tint the modelling chocolate, I would not recommend liquid colours as they make the chocolate too sticky), a small amount pink and a medium amount the same colour as your melted chocolate you have chosen for the body.

How much is a small amount? When I make 50 pops I use a piece the size of a ping pong ball for the beak and hearts - this will give you enough to play with. For the wings I use a tennis ball sized amount.

Rolling the chocolate is easiest done on a silicone matt. If you find it sticks use just the smallest amount of copha (Crisco in the US) on your hands and the mat.

For the beaks pinch off pea sized amounts of yellow and roll between your fingers to make a small cone. Put them aside to firm up as the temperature of your hands will make the chocolate soft.

Roll out the pink and use a small heart cutter (or a flower if you don't have a heart shape) to cut one for each bird.

Roll out the blue and use a small petal or tear drop shape - 2 for each bird. I then used a magnolia/lily petal veiner to get the feathered look. If you don't have access to a veiner you can use the tines of a small fork or a tooth pick dragged gently from the rounded end to the point to get a similar texture.

Then comes the fun part! Dip your bird in the melted chocolate and carefully shake off the excess. While the chocolate is soft add the beak and eyes to the rounded 'face' end.

Use a toothpick to pick up a small amount of melted chocolate and attach the wings to either side of the body. Place the wings rounded end forward and bend the pointed end of the wing out slightly away from the body

Use another small dot of chocolate to attach the heart to the back of the bird.

 

And there you have a flock of pretty birds ready for any type of celebration.

Have a few 'wings' left over.........just add a beak....

Hope you have as much fun making these feathered friends as I do!

xoxo
Sugarpie.

Kate & Matthew - a romantic black and white wedding.

When my lovely friend Vicki's daughter Kate and her fiance Matthew asked me to make their wedding cake I was thrilled. The beautiful couple had decided on a very romantic black and white theme and wanted a tower of 'gift boxes' to treat their guests to for dessert.

Using one of my favourites - white chocolate and fresh raspberry mud cake I set about baking 120 individual cube cakes ( I love my Alan Silverwood Mini Square Pans), covering each one in white chocolate Italian Meringue Buttercream.

 

Each cake was then covered in antique white fondant and decorated with a black chocolate fondant band, bow and edible black diamante ( I buy mine from www.cakesaroundtown.com.au). The top tier was panelled with a 50/50 blend of white modelling chocolate and antique white fondant to give it more stability. The band and bow where ten added along with a pretty brooch centrepiece to match Kate's wedding bling.

 

And just a few pretty pictures in the function room at Picnic Point (such a lovely backdrop).

A special thank you to my ever helpful hubby who very patiently sat and folded all the cake boxes!

 

More weddings to come in the next few weeks :-)

xoxo

Sugarpie



DIY Upcycled Wedding Cake Stands

After spending weeks looking for just the right black cake stands for an upcoming wedding I decided that the only way to get what I want was to make it myself. I looked over a number of great DIY blogs and videos and took tips from all of them and now I'll share the process with you.

After a quick trip (with my very patient husband) to Sam's Warehouse, Bunnings and Spotlight I came home with the materials to get started.

 From Sam's Warehouse I picked up two heavy glass candle holders and two ceramic bathroom vanity cups (toothbrush holders) spending a massive $7.50. I wanted two different heights to add visual impact to the wedding display. I will be making a 5th stand this weekend that is higher still.

 Then it was a walk across to Spotlight to pick up some dinner plates. I love a good sale and these heavy plates were 40% off so again it was a grand total of $22.00. I decided to stick with the pairs thing but allow a little variation. By selecting two plain and two scalloped plates I could create 4 stands that were each different but still looked like they all belonged together.

 

A little drive across town to Bunnings to pick up Black Gloss Spray Paint and a bottle of glue. Luckily hubby is a bit of a DIY guru and found the perfect glue. Total spend $24.00

  After a wash and dry of all the parts I set them out on his work bench and let him do the messy glue work (unfortunately the adhesive smell gives me migraines so luckily he is always willing to help). I wanted the stands to sit flat on the table so we checked which was the best way to set them - the candle holders needed to be upside down and the cups right side up.

 After allowing the glue to cure for the full 12 hours they were ready to paint. Because the plates and ceramic cups matched, if I wanted cool white they would be ready to go.

 Two coats of black gloss to underside, then when dry we flipped them and gave the top two coats. and here they are...... for a grand total of $53.50 ( that's a tiny $13.37 each) I have 4 custom black cake stands.

Oh and thanks to my lovely friend (and cake pop addict) Jess who made me the crotchet 'Tart'.
You'll see the final display in April after the beautiful Emma and Aaron's wedding.

xoxo
Sugarpie.

Homerlicious Maple Cinnamon Pancake Pops.

So this week is my second Handmade Markets and I'm really excited. Last month I almost sold out and it was a quiet day. I am really hoping for a ripper of a day on Sunday. To get there I have been working on new and fun pops to sell and I have to say this is my favourite so far.

Mould your chosen cake/butter cream combination (I've used  cinnamon sponge with maple syrup butter cream) into small discs. Stack then with a little melted choc between before carefully inserting a paper lolly stick.

Once they have set, dip them carefully in your melted pancake coloured chocolate. I added a small amount of paramount crystals (you can use copha instead) to thin the chocolate to allow it to ease into all the gaps between your pancakes. Allow chocolate to set.

 Using a brown petal dust (I have used Barco Dark Brown) and a flat sided medium bristle brush catch the ridges to give you pancakes a crispy cooked edge.

 Melt some white chocolate and colour yellow with candy colour. At the same time colour some white modelling chocolate to match. Roll the modelling chocolate into little 'butterpats', two for each pop. Drizzle a small spoon of yellow chocolate in top, teasing it down the sides in delicious buttery dribbles and position the butter pats on top.

Let them set completely then watch them all disappear.

Happy popping!
xoxo
Sugarpie