Thanksgiving Red Velvet cake - November 2014

Two layer red velvet cake, with cream cheese frosting, for a splendid Thanksgiving party. 

I do love cream cheese frosting with lots of cream cheese.  A Red Velvet cake with good cream cheese frosting is like a cheesecake in reverse.  Yum!  

A very happy Thanksgiving to all those who celebrate it... and a happy Saturday to everyone else!

Chocolate lover's birthday cake - September 2014

Otis' birthday this week. Otis loves cake. He especially loves chocolate cake.  

Inspired by my visit to Julie's House in Ghent last week (gorgeousness!), I wanted to have some fun combining fillings, flavours and textures. 

I baked 3 different kinds of chocolate cake, and made a 4 layer cake comprised of
(from bottom to top):

chocolate fudge cake, 

dark choc buttercream, 

dark choc and beetroot cake,

dark chocolate ganache, 

orange jelly (Jaffa cake style), 

red velvet cake, 

white choc buttercream, 

chocolate fudge cake, 

dark choc buttercream, 

dark chocolate ganache, 

salted caramel and hazelnut crumbs.  

I surrounded the layers with a sheet of vanilla sponge to help stabilise the cake on it's journey (plus a central dowel), and covered the sides in choc buttercream.  

To assemble, I lined an 8" tin with card, cling film and waxed paper 

I put vanilla sheet cake around the sides, spread chocolate buttercream on it and started stacking 6" layers inside.  

I used the waxed paper to stop the sheet cake from collapsing in during the stacking process.

The orange layer I made by reducing orange juice with orange zest and sugar and setting with vege geletine substitute (all my cakes are vege).

Once stacked, I chilled the cake before I took the supports away.

Each layer of cake, and the vanilla sheet cake, were doused in vanilla syrup during assembly.

I covered the whole thing with a crusting chocolate buttercream and topped with ganache.

Plan number one was to top with Italian meringue, which looked fine on paper, but actually I didn't like the look of it and overnight the meringue started to leak sugar syrup which dripped down the side 

I have since looked this up in "Bakewise" and maybe my syrup wasn't quite hot enough when I poured it into the egg whites.  Had it been on another surface it would not have been visible, but as the ganache under it was a impenetrable barrier so it came out sideways instead. 

Anyway, it looked wrong, so I changed my mind, made more salted hazelnut brittle and blitzed it for the top.

I also wasn't keen on the overall dimensions (I must have made the fillings thicker than I'd planned) so I chopped off the bottom layer of the originally 5 layer cake and made it 4 layers.

The topper I made from craft foam.

I took the cake with me to the restaurant where we all had a great meal and Otis managed to get 28 candles on top without setting fire to himself.  

Happy birthday gorgeous.  You are a very, very loved.

xxxx

Brighton Helter Skelter wedding cake March 2014

At long last the law has changed so same sex couples can marry in the UK, and Angel Food's contribution to the celebration is to make the wedding cake and cupcakes for one of the first happy couples, Andrew and Neil.  

The brief was Brighton Beach, to feed 70-90, and to include the family dog, Oscar.  

First I made a quick research trip to the pier to see the original.

Now, obviously, there are some structural implications to this, so I brain-stormed the possibilities and made a foam-core tower to help me visualise the dimensions.

The cake needed to be divided into 4 tiers, the bottom ones carved to look like one continuous cake.  This is to give it enough stability, as it is a tall structure.... made of cake... which needs to be transported.  I needed to dowel the tiers as per a traditional wedding cake, but I also put a narrow dowel through the whole structure to help during transport.

The slide of course was a different matter entirely!

I used foam core cake boards which allow me to cut then to the right size and easily cut a hole in the centre for the middle dowel.

The cake itself was alternate layers of vanilla and red velvet with white chocolate frosting.

I put the fondant on in stages.  Bottom skirt first, then a band around the tier with the vertical sides, then I iced the top dome seperately allowing me to stick it on the top later and hide the dowel.

I put a quilted effect on the skirt which replicates the iron panels and riveting on the real helter skelter, and allowed me to disguise the seam at the back.

The slide was a nightmare.  My original plan was to make it out of thin modelling chocolate and add it last minute but on delivery day I developed a heavy head cold so I opted to make a cardboard slide... Sorry to the purists out there.

It took ages to make the perfect helix, and it fitted beautifully, then I took it off to tweak something and when I put it back on I couldn't get it to line up again, so the platform by the top door is further to the left than planned but nevermind.

I had intended to make the staircase out of cake too, but as I was feeling unwell I made it out of foam core and lolly sticks instead.  

The mexican paste plaque was an reference to the signs on the pier but with Andrew, Neil and little Oscar as the heros

The original:

My version:

At the venue, the cake was joined by 24 Angel Food Bakery cupcakes, cooked in flat-bottomed ice cream cones and frosted to look like Mr Whippy style treats.

I do hope that the Grooms had a great time, and congratulations to all the happy couples around the country.

This cake was by Angel Food Bakery in Brighton's iconic South Lanes.  http://angelfoodbakery.co.uk