A tower of chocolate and salted caramel.
Kasserina
I am a cake obsessive, based in West Sussex, UK.
I started off making cakes for family and friends before giving up a proper career in favour of playing with sugar full time. Having worked for two bakeries making their wedding and celebration cakes, I am now looking toward world domination with breaks for coffee and chat.
If you are interested in seeing future projects, enter your email address in the box on the right for updates.
To see my website go to: www.kasserina.com. You can email me on info@kasserina.com.
I also sell some sugarcraft items on Etsy. Please go to https://www.etsy.com/uk/shop/KasserinaHome?ref=hdr_shop_menu
Thanks for looking!
Sunday, August 07, 2016
Friday, August 05, 2016
Superhero wedding inspiration - August 2016
Another excellent wedding inspiration article from Charlotte at Hitched featuring mine and many other Superhero inspired Wedding cakes. Some great ideas here!
http://www.hitched.co.uk/wedding-planning/cakes/superhero-wedding-cakes_1155.htm
Labels:
batman,
blog,
cake,
hitched,
inspiration,
Spider-Man,
sugar flowers,
superhero,
wedding
Tuesday, August 02, 2016
Blush and white spray - August 2016
Another spray for an Etsy customer.
If you're looking for cake toppers, whether you're a professional baker who's short on time, an amatuer baker or a DIY bride, do get in touch via www.kasserina.com
Or go to my Etsy shop at
https://www.etsy.com/uk/shop/KasserinaHome?ref=hdr_shop_menu
Labels:
calla lily,
diy,
hydrangea,
ranuculus,
roses,
spray,
sugar flowers,
sugarcraft,
wedding
Alice in Wonderland topsy turvy wedding cake - July 2016
My first topsy-turvy cake.
There are so, so many things you could pick to put on and Alice cake! The bride especially is a big fan of the books, the original Tenniel illustrations, and the various disney films so we talked about what are her favourite things from each.
Here's the list, have look and see if you can spot everything:
playing cards
cheshire cat
hatter's hat
chess board
disney rose bushes
disney signs
mirror
bread and butterfly
Mome Raths (disney version, not small green lost pigs!)
Rocking horsefly
the garden of live flowers
toadstools
So, first thing was... the sketch.
So, first thing was... the sketch.
Now, the problem with a design like this is that there is so much you can't do
until you've baked, crumb coated and covered the sponge...and you can't bake too far in advance because you want the cake to be fresh!
I expected not to get much sleep for this one.
Now, the sponge...
The 4 tiers were (from top to bottom)
Strawberry and champagne
Orange and Elderflower
Rhubarb and Ginger
Lemon Drizzle
There were some things I could do in advance though, so I slow roasted some strawberries and rhubarb. The rest had to wait until closer to time.
It's easy to underestimate how much goes into a big tiered cake.
Just as a quick guide, an average home baked cake would use around 4-6 eggs.
This cake used 58.
It also used 24 bars of butter
34 lemons
18 oranges
28 sticks of rhubarb
and a mountain of sugar
Now, the topsy part.
First, I did lots of research. There are two basic methods:
1. make the top a big slope and rely on friction and maybe a central dowel to stop it sliding sideways and
2. cut the slope, but then hollow out the middle so it's level so the weight is spread in the usual way.
Because it was going to be a tall cake, that I was going to have to transport quite a long way, I chose the second.
Of course, what the research didn't initially tell me, and what I soon came to
realise was;
* all the demo cakes had a big difference between the size of the tiers (so when you cut out, there's a substantial rim that can support itself). My design was using the modern style of tall tiers with only an inch shelf on each side.
* There was a real danger, if I followed the instructions I'd seen, when I put the fondant covered tiers together that the icing would be damaged because once the fondant was on I would be trying to put a 10¼" diameter cylinder into a 9¾" hole (and with a rim only 1 inch wide in the first place, there wasn't much margin to fix this). I was certainly not going to be able to decorate the tiers before stacking.
As you can see below, I decided to make the rims a little narrower and reinforce them with skewers, then I covered the tiers in fondant.
I used Carma Massa Ticino. I like this sugarpaste for lots of reasons, but in this situation it's perfect. It's got such flexibility that I could roll it thinner than some (so less danger of it fouling the next tier) and it stretched well so I could get it nicely shaped around the carved cake without the danger of it tearing like the awful sugarpastes I was forced to use at my old bakery
Even though I'd cut the rims a little smaller, they still did foul slightly. Looking the photo below, you can see how the top of the pink tier has been pushed out slightly and the skewers have in turn shifted the lower layers sightly causing it to look a bit like it's slumped.
I decorated the tiers once it was all stacked.
I used a central dowel to ensure that there was no chance of the whole thing shifting sideways en route. I've tried sturdy cake stackers twice and wasn't impressed either time. I'll stick with my screw, washers and wooden dowel method.
I didn't put the top tier (the hat) on until we were at the venue
To make the hat tilt, to make sure it was well anchored, and to put the wired roses into I cut a poly styrene wedge and covered it completely in black fondant to seal in any bits.
A wedding cake is going to sit there a long time, and it was a hot day, so it's important that the top cake, which was going to be on a tilt, couldn't shift sideways. Inside the hat is 2 layers of strawberry cake, with a rice crispy treat base. This gave it the strength needed to stake it into the poly separator.
The brim of the hat was made of a mixture of modelling chocolate and fondant, so it had the strength and malleability of the chocolate, but it would take the same edible paint as the the top when I airbrushed it.
I put a lot of the pieces on at the venue, and placed the hat on top.
The final touch, and something I was quite pleased with, was the stand.
I saw a great vintage styled cake dome which had black stripes on it, but couldn't find a stand like that anywhere... so I painted one of my white stands with black acrylic paint. I really think it looks so much better than a simple white stand would.
The whole place looked amazing though. Heaven Farm is a magical place and all the styling and little touches were so well thought out.
Best of all though, look at the lovely message I got from the happy couple the next day...
Wishing you both all the luck and love in the world. I know you'll be very happy.
x Kass x
Sunday, July 31, 2016
Fishing cake for 60th birthday party - July 2016
Victoria Sponge birthday cake for a keen fisherman. He didn't want any fuss... but that was never going to happen so his family organised an amazing party at the brilliant Long Furlong Barn and, judging by the reports, it was fantastic!
Monday, July 04, 2016
Rananculus birthday cake - July 2016
Brandy soaked rich fruit cake, covered with marzipan and finished with fondant icing. Decorated with sugar rananculus, filler flowers and a message framed by trailing pink jasmine.
Pretty happy with the finished cake, and was very happy with getting a slice of the fruit cake too!
Hardly ever get a slice of my own fruit cake (I'm never at the parties) but I absolutely love it. It's packed with fruit and cherries and almonds and orange and booze...
Labels:
birthday cake,
cake,
filler flowers,
fruit cake,
jasmine,
pink,
ranunculus,
rich fruit cake,
sugar craft
Wednesday, June 29, 2016
Pixie chair - Spring 2016
So happy to announce that two of my cakes will be appearing as part of a feature shoot on Boho Weddings very soon.
Watch out for a link when it goes live, meanwhile I'm now allowed to start sharing photos of the cakes.
Take a look at my "Jasmine Rose" cake post too, which was also part of the styled shoot.
Fresh flowers and styling by the amazing Hannah Berry Flowers
These photos are of the same cake without the fresh flowers,
but with some sugar oak leaves.
Labels:
battercream,
fairy,
fairy cake,
fresh flowers,
mushroom,
outdoor wedding,
rustic,
toadstool,
wedding
Jasmine Rose - Spring 2016
So happy to announce that two of my cakes will be appearing as part of a feature shoot on Boho Weddings very soon.
Watch out for a link when it goes live, meanwhile I'm now allowed to start sharing photos of the cakes.
Take a look at my "Pixie" cake post too, which was also part of the styled shoot.
Tuesday, June 21, 2016
Damask skull cupcakes - June 2016
Labels:
alternative wedding,
cupcakes,
damask,
day of the dead,
gold,
golden,
goth,
gothic wedding,
halloween,
skull
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