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

Raising the Tardis - Doctor Zimmo?

When Shannon asked me to create a Tardis cake for her husband Zimmo's birthday I jumped at the chance to refine my original version!So from the base up - here's how to raise a Tardis.
Before starting on the cake I rolled and cut sugar paste panels for the sides and tops.

The base cake was chocolate mus with chocolate ganache and a chic chip chocolate cream filling. Covered with a nice smooth ganache, it was ready to decorate.

 A nice shiny layer of black fondant.

 

 A black and white checkered band completed the 'police hat' - pommy colours of course.

 

Then it was time to build the Tardis. Inside were layers of chocolate mud cake and ganache, then grey fondant (to add a darker base for airbrushing later). Panels were attached with royal icing, and same was used to create nice sharp edges.

 

 

The came the fun and messy part ( and no I didn't do this in my kitchen!) - airbrushing. Hubby set up the booth in the garage and on went the layers of Tardis blue and a bit of black for shadow.

 

 With a big soft brush and dark and mid blue petal dust more shadows and highlights were added.

 Pop in some white fondant windows with a bit of dusty brown shadow for that 'Tardis needs a wash' look. Add the light on the top.

 

 Add the Police Call and St Johns Signs and a couple of door handles (to be painted silver) so the Doctor can get in and out of course.

 Attach the top signs and place on the base with a little gold birthday message complete with 11's signature bow-tie.

 

 

 

 

 

 I hear a good night was had by all at his party. Happy Birthday Zimmo.

XOXO

Sugarpie.

Pimp my cake - F250



So I was asked by a lovely lady called Sandra to make her husband Pete a special cake for his 60th Birthday. Apparently he was so taken with Tilson's Fire Engine cake that the decision was made to surprise him with his own personalised vehicle...and we made 'Pete's F250'.

 



So we started off with a 3 1/2 inch high real red velvet cake and cream cheese butter cream. So what is a 'real' red velvet cake you ask? Real red velvet does not get it's colour from food colouring but from the natural reaction of the acid in the buttermilk and vinegar with the cocoa. the reaction turned the cake a nice red colour dependent on the amount of cocoa (i use extra as the brown deepens the red). This will only work with real cocoa and not the processed dutch chocolate/cadbury/ bournville kinds.

 

 

With my trusty serrated knife I carved the basic shape from the cake, stacking and 'glueing' with butter cream as I go. A nice crumb coat of butter cream helps denote the shape - yep lots of crumbs with red velvet.  Looking back I would have liked to make the back end a bit longer and less angled but hey there is always next time.

 

 

 I then rolled out a thin layer of fondant tinted with the tiniest bit if the maroon colouring, working carefully along the corners and edges keeping it smooth but allowing a bit of movement - this more a caricature of the car than a replica.

 

 

With the excess trimmed off the cake was set aside to dry out before adding the airbrushed coats of maroon and silver.

 



 

 To protect my camera from blow back I decided not to take photos while the airbrushing. So here is the F250 with its coat of maroon mixed with a little bit of silver. Two coats in place and there is a nice depth and shine to the cake. Time to dry again.

The windows where painted in with black powder colour mixed with Rose Alcohol to create a quick dryng matt paint. The trim was added with black fondant and the Clay extruder. All the silver parts are pink fondant covered with a generous brushing of silver shimmer powder.

Side mirrors, ford badge and lights where all added next and finally the tyres. The base of Arnotts Caramel Crown biscuits where wrapped in black fondant and painted with silver 'rims'. To complete the cake the board was covered in brown fondant and when dry was generously brushed with Barco Powder Colours in Chocolate Brown, Crimson, Snow White and Flesh. Blue fondant letter were then added and the cake went off to surprise the birthday boy

 

I was told afterwards that Pete could not bear to cut in to the cake and was pondering how he could 'laquer' and keep it! Now that is flattery.

XOXO

chocoholics dream birthday trio

Last night we joined in the celebrations for our lovely friend Vicki's 60th birthday and what better way to celebrate such a wonderful lady than with a trio of her favourite chocolates. My original plan for a tea set cake sadly did not come to pass this time (very wet air in Toowoomba and a change of job at work put me on the back foot) but I do plan to go back to it at some point.
So anyway birthday cake phase two took shape as a cake version of three of Vicki's favourite chocolates.

Cake 1 - Chocolate Seashell.
Based on the Guylian Chocolate seashells with the praline ganache filling .... very yum. So I made the hazelnut praline to begin with, I have  half a jam jar full of the remaining nutty sugary powder, delish sprinkled on ice-cream.

I then filled a chocolate mudcake shell with delish mousse that had been gently mixed through with chocolate ganache and the blended praline.



I then added a layer of cake to the top and encased the whole thing in chocolate ganache. The whole cake was then swathed in a layer of marbled chocolate fondant. Colour and texture was added with modelling tools and chocolate brown, snow white and gold Barco dusts.

Finished off with a pair of red roses lightly brushed with gold lustre dust.

Cake 2 Strawberry Mousse Cup
This one was inspired by the Godiva Strawberry Trifle Cup. The base was a layer of Genoise Sponge moistened with Strawberry liquer. A delicious layer of French jelly (made with real strawberries of course) was topped with a very generous layer of strawberry mousse....I've even shared my recipe at the bottom of this post :-)
A sweeping of white chocolate ganache, some gold dusted chocolate panels and a trio of roses finished the cake. Sadly it was all eaten before I could snap a picture of the pretty layers.

Cake (well cake pops) 3 - the Lindt Chocolate Balls
Who doesn't love Lindt chocolate? A serious amount of Lindt went in to these divine little gold leafed treasures. With hearts of chocolate mud cake combined with Lindt Ganache and a splash of chocolate port, these little beauties where then dipped in dark lindt chocolate and the gold leaf was brushed on to the warm surface. Yummmmmm.

So together they made a very pretty and decadent dessert trio..........a perfect happy birthday.

And as promised, here is my recipe for the delicious strawberry mousse cake layer. Makes a wonderful dessert with the addition of some fresh berries and biscuit to garnish.

Strawberry Mousse
Puree 2 cups of fresh strawberries in the blender. Add 3/4 cup sugar and 1 tbsp fresh lemon juice.
In a small bowl glass bowl, sprinkle 1 sachet (1 tbsp) unflavoured gelatin over 1/3 cup cold water and leave to sit for a few minutes. Place the bowl over a pan of simmering water and stir until disolved. Remove from the heat as soon as the gelatin has disolved.
Stir the gelatin into the strawberry puree and allow to thicken for about 10 minutes. In a large bowl  whip 2 cups of cream until medium stiff peaks.
Gently fold half the cream into the strawberry then fold the strawberry cream into the remaining cream gently with a rubber spatula.
Chill for minimum 30 minutes then spoon in to glasses.
To use in a cake, chill overnight tightly covered with cling wrap.
Enjoy.

XOXO

Totally girly Pink 'High Tea' tower

I have to say so this is now one of my fave cakes ever. In fact I want someone to make me a teapot tower all for myself. The request was for a pretty cake for a 17 year old's high tea birthday party, so what better than a Pink spotty teapot ringed with ultra girly cupcakes in pretty shades of pinks, blues and whites.

thanks to my hubby for the photography :-)

So we started off with a ball cake of layered pink and vanilla butter cake with rosy pink bubble gum butter cream.....

3D sports ball pan, layers of pink and vanilla butter cake, bubble gum butter cream

While the butter cream was crusting over (important before adding fondant or it gets rather messy) I layered the base board 'doily' with white fondant. It was then imprinted with one of my scrap booking rubber background stamps (yep multi purpose items are awesome) then brushed with silver pearl lustre dust. I wish you could see the awesome shimmer on these cakes....

8inch cake board with white fondant, stamped impression and silver lustre dust

The teapot came next. I rolled and shaped the handle and spout and left them in a bed of cornflour overnight to harden and they were attached in the morning with a dab of melted white chocolate. The teapot itself is covered in bright pink fondant with baby pink spots and white hearts. The 'Lid' was made with a Karen Davies Vintage Brooch Mould from Cakes Around Town - the same mould set was used on the bow cupcakes. Pale pink lustre dust was then used sparingly to give the whole teapot a slight shimmer.

Rosy pink teapot with spots and hearts

It was then time to build the cupcakes that surround the stand (and thank you to my handy man hubby for making the custom sized stand for me xoxo).
All the cupcakes are delicious Vanilla with a thin bubblegum butter cream layer beneath a fondant top.

 First up were the fondant bows and brooches. The broaches were dusted with lustre dust to create a pretty pearled finish.

vanilla cupcake, fondant bow, fondant brooch

 Then a cute little heart and circle motif to match the teapot.

vanilla cupcake, organza ribbon, hearts and circles.

 The next set have an impressed fondant top created with the same stamp used for the doily base. Again a brushing of lustre dusts raises the print and a cute flower highlight mimicking the flower shapes in the imprint.

stamp impressed fondant, lustre dust, plunger cut flowers, yellow sugar pearls

 Last of all my favourite of the bunch - the chocolate pearl centred ruffle flower. This is just to pretty and girly and just about sums me up perfectly!

vanilla cupcake, ruffle flower with chocolate pearl centre, butterfly cake wrap

So the lower tiers of cup cakes come together in pretty and very girly celebration....

the delectable lower tiers

Put it all together and this is the stunning result.....enjoy a cuppa, or two.

the perfect High Tea tower.

 Next week......'Jeepers' the Moshi Monster tiger and a cake perfect for a little horse loving girl.

XOXO