Cakes — Page 31

Valentine’s Cake!

February 12, 2011 by Jenn

Sugar Lilies and Petunias

Royal Icing Flowers

Sugar Lilies and Petunias

This week in my cake decorating classes, we were to finish a cake! I had an order for a Montreal Canadiens birthday cake which was perfect for my Beginner class, and I wanted to make Paul something special for Valentine’s Day for my flower class. Both of the cakes turned out beautifully, and I’m really happy with what I have learned in my courses. Next week, I start a fondant and gum paste flower class, so I’m looking forward to that too!

Buckeye Valentine's Cake

Using the flowers and techniques that I learned in my course, I made a Buckeye (chocolate and peanut butter) Valentine’s Cake! The cake itself is delicious . . . we broke into it early 🙂 The bottom layer is a heavy chewy brownie like cake, middle layer is smooth peanut butter cream, and it’s topped off with a chocolate ganache! Yum!

Buckeye Cake

(adapted from amandeleine)

Cake

• 2 large eggs

• 1 1/4 cups granulated sugar

• 3/4 cup all-purpose flour

• 6 tablespoons unsalted butter, melted

• 3 oz. unsweetened chocolate, melted

• 1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract

• 1/8 teaspoon salt

Peanut Butter Layer

• 3/4 cup creamy peanut butter

• 1/4 cup unsalted butter, softened

• 1/4 teaspoon vanilla extract

• 3/4 cup powdered sugar

Ganache

• 1 cup heavy whipping cream

• 2 cups semi-sweet chocolate chips

• 1/3 cup peanut butter chips

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 350º F. Grease 9-inch-round cake pan. Line bottom of pan with parchment paper; grease.

2. Cake: Combine eggs and sugar in large bowl. Stir in flour, melted butter, melted chocolate, vanilla extract and salt until smooth. Pour into prepared pan.

3. Bake for 25 minutes or until a wooden pick inserted in the middle comes out clean. Cool on wire rack for 5 minutes. Run knife around edge of cake; cool for an additional 10 minutes. Invert cake onto serving platter. Remove pan and parchment; cool completely.

4. Peanut Butter Layer: Beat peanut butter, butter and vanilla extract in medium mixer bowl until combined. Gradually beat in powdered sugar. Spread mixture on cake. Refrigerate for 30 minutes.

5. Ganache: Heat cream in small saucepan to boiling; remove from heat. Add semi-sweet morsels; let stand 5 minutes. Stir; refrigerate for 30 minutes or until mixture is spreadable. Spread chocolate on top and sides of cake.

6. This step I did not do, as I was decorating my cake with my sugar flowers, but I’ve included it for you to enjoy! Melt peanut butter chips in resealable plastic bag on MEDIUM-HIGH (70%) power for 30 seconds. Knead bag to mix. If necessary, microwave at additional 10- to 15-second intervals until melted. Cut a small hole from corner of bag; squeeze to drizzle over cake. Store in refrigerator. Let stand for 30 minutes before serving.

What are YOU doing for Valentine’s Day?

Filed Under: Cakes, Randomness Tagged With: cake, chocolate, peanut butter, valentine's day

Angel Food Cookies and Acquired Adult Tastes!

February 9, 2011 by Jenn

One of my favourite cakes to make is Angel Food. And my favourite bit of the cake? The super crunchy brown pieces on the top, that just barely don’t overflow onto the floor of the oven . . . where the other dead cakes lay.

As a kid, I used to hate Angel Food. Whenever my mom would make this cake, I would feel gipped out of a real cake. I always craved the super fatty cake! Can you tell I have a weight problems?! Haha. No, seriously.

Now, I crave the taste of THIS cake! I’m not sure how my taste buds have changed to love angel food . . . I guess the same way they changed to love squash, eggplant, cooked cauliflower, and cilantro.

Angel Food Confetti, with whipping cream frosting! Mmmmm! The best part about Angel Food is that it is mostly fat free! Ummm, not so sugar free . . . or fat free with the whipping cream, but I guess it’s better than a regular cake!

Somehow, someone (perhaps moi?) needs to invent a sugar free, fat free cake (with icing!) that TASTES great. Hmmm, I smell a mission! I’ll call it “spring cleaning” . . . cleaning out the sugar and the fat! I’ll be sure to post if I can figure it out.

HELP! What did I just say? Do you have any good recipes for a “healthy” cake?

Bail me out if you can, but for now, back to the post . . . Angel Food Cookies. At first, I didn’t think it would be possible to turn a runny cake mix into a cookie, but it was! All you need to take is one box of your favourite angel food batter (funfetti, hello!), add 1/2 cup of diet rootboor, mix it up and scoop it out! Super simple!

Angel Food Cookies

(adapted from Home Cook’n)

Ingredients:

1 box of angel food mix

1/2 cup of diet rootbeer (or any flavour diet pop of your choosing . . . you can even use water)

1 tsp vanilla

Directions:

Preheat oven to 350 F. Mix all ingredients together well. Drop by muffin scoop on to lined cookie sheet. Bake for 6-8 minutes, or until cookies are JUST browned. *The original recipe said to make sure they didn’t turn brown, and stay white, but to me when I did this, those cookies seemed underbaked. I recommend that you let them brown just slightly. Store in an airtight container.

Too light . . .

Just right . . .

If you’re like me, you would top these babies with strawberry whipping cream! Mix together a 1:2 ratio of strawberry yogurt to whipping cream and you have a sweet topping for these cake cookies.

Next time I am going to let these cookies bake for a couple of minutes longer than I even did . . . get them nice and brown and crispy. I’m still craving the crunchy taste of the cake top that didn’t die 😉

Filed Under: Cakes, Cookies Tagged With: angel food cake, angel food cookies, cookies

Chocolate Castle Cake

February 5, 2011 by Jenn

Searching for the best chocolate cake recipe? Well, I have found it! Truth be told, I didn’t find it on my own, I relied on my favourite talented baking friend, Gretchen’s, advice. This recipe comes from the Hershey factory and is moist and very chocolaty!

I have been looking forward to Friday night since I got the order for this cake on Monday. A castle cake! How cool. To make it even cooler, it’s for a boy! I LOVE doing girly cakes and cupcakes of course, but it’s nice to have a change from pink, pink and more pink.

I started out searching Google Images (of course) and Flikr for ways to decorate this cake. (I was working from Wilton’s Castle Cake pan). I knew I wanted to go black and grey, but I wasn’t exactly sure how to get my icing black. Last night, at my cake decorating class, I overheard my instructor talking to someone else and I caught “Start with chocolate icing to get the black, black colour”. Ah ha! That was the missing piece.

I base iced (aka crumb coated! I’ve started speaking Wilton! Aghhhh!) the cake in chocolate buttercream, and realized that I didn’t need to do this step. Base icing a shape pan actually makes it harder to see where you are supposed to be piping. I recommend not base icing this particular pan.

I started out with a #12 round tip for the turrets in grey. Then, a # 18 star tip for the black part of the castle.

A great tip I learned this week from my Wilton Instructor was to line up your tip when you are doing a star piped cake. What this means is make sure the # sign is in the same direction at all times. This way, all of your stars will line up together perfectly!

This cake took about two hours to pipe. It wasn’t tough, just tedious. I was starting to grow crossed eyed, having stared at the stars for so long! My glasses were needed and I had to bring in more lights!

I used silver candy beads to decorate around the door and to represent the windows.

Using #12 round tip again, I added the birthday boy’s name for completion!

Recipe:

Chocolate Castle Cake

(adapted from hersheys.com)

The first thing you need to note is that the batter will be VERY thin once you add the water at the end. Don’t worry! Just go with it.

Ingredients:

2 cups sugar
1-3/4 cups all-purpose flour
3/4 cup HERSHEY’S Cocoa
1-1/2 teaspoons baking powder
1-1/2 teaspoons baking soda
1 teaspoon salt
2 eggs
1 cup milk
1/2 cup vegetable oil
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
1 cup boiling water

Directions:

Heat oven to 350°F. Grease and flour two 9-inch round baking pans.
Stir together sugar, flour, cocoa, baking powder, baking soda and salt in large bowl. Add eggs, milk, oil and vanilla; beat on medium speed of mixer 2 minutes. Stir in boiling water (batter will be thin). Pour batter into prepared pans.
Pour batter into prepared pan. Bake 35 to 40 minutes. Cool completely. You can start decorating once the cake is completely cooled.

Now it’s YOUR turn . . . Have you tried baking and decorating with shape pans? What kind of shape pans have you had success with?

Filed Under: Cakes Tagged With: birthday, boy birthday, castle cake, chocolate cake

My New Bakery!

January 30, 2011 by Jenn

Hear ye, hear ye! I’m pleased to be announcing the official opening of my unofficial bakery! Jenn’s Custom Cakery is ready for official orders, tasters and reviewers. First up . . . Valentine’s Day!

Looking to order Valentine’s Day Cupcakes? I am offering Valentine’s Day themed assortment of chocolate and vanilla mini and regular sized cupcakes with buttercream icing. $15 for 12 mini’s or 6 regular, $25 for 12 regular.

Please email me if you would like to place an order in the Cranbrook area: jenn@cookiescupcakesandcardio.co

If you would like to join my mailing list, please give me a shout, and I will be able to let you know about upcoming treats!

Filed Under: Cakes, Cupcakes, Other Baked Goodies, Randomness Tagged With: Jenn's Custom Cakery

How to Crumb Coat a Cake

January 29, 2011 by Jenn

Dirty Ice. Base Ice. Crumb coat.

All of these terms mean the same thing; putting a layer of icing on your cake before you get to the decorating part! This step helps you get that “professional” look to your cake . . . a smooth finished product. Also, if you are using fondant, this step can provide tasty layer to your cake . . . it tastes MUCH better than just placing fondant on top of your cake.

Crumb coating is little bit more involved than slapping some icing on the cake and spreading it around with a butter knife . . . though you technically can do that! But, it’s not called a crumb coat for nothing. You’re going to find your base layer riddled with crumbs! If you have used a boxed cake mix, you will find that your cake is likely to be quite crumbly . . . more so than homemade cake batter. In order to deal with this challenge, the first step is to put your cake into the freezer for a couple of hours (after it has completely cooled) and there will be less chance for crumbs to dirty up your icing.

Second, it’s on to the crumb coat! You will need a LARGE tip. Here, I have used Wilton Tip #789. It’s big people.

Start in the centre of your cake, and rotate your cake with a cake turntable, keeping your tip moving towards the outer edge of the cake.

Continue working towards the outside, spinning your turntable.

When you get to the edge of the cake, allow your tip to overlap the outside edge by about a 1/4″.

Repeat process for the sides of the cake. To finish, use a cake spatula to create a smooth finish. Decorate as desired!

Filed Under: Cakes

Wilton Cake Courses: Week Two, Class One

January 28, 2011 by Jenn

Last week in the basic Wilton decorating course, we were to bake (and torte) a cake. If you missed my post about that, here it is: Wilton Cake Courses: Week One, Class One. Last week consisted on covering the basics on how to bake a cake, torte it and how to base ice it. This week it was all about decorating!

We came to class with our cakes base iced (with the Wilton Buttercream *. . . you are required to use it for the course . . . even though it tastes like lard . . . it is better to decorate with), and our Wilton Instuctor went over the basic tips . . . round, star . . . and sizes. On our cake boards, we practiced control of the flow, shape and size.

*Wilton Buttercream

STIFF:

1 tsp Clear vanilla extract*

2 tbsp Water

1 c Shortening

1 tbsp Wilton Meringue Powder

1 lb Sifted powdered sugar (4 cups)

MEDIUM:

1 tbsp Additional water

THIN:

2 tbsp Additional water

It was nice to get a refresher. I say it like I knew what I was doing in the first place!. It was nice to get formal instruction on how to hold the bags and how to position your hand . . . by a professional, in real life, not just on YouTube.

$80 Fee Breakthrough . . . this cake decorating stuff is EASY when you take a course! It’s totally worth the money. No, I’m not sponsored by Wilton, despite the fact that I sound like it!

A slow steady hand is best for this type of cake decorating. The desire to hurry and fill in the space is great, but the slower I went, the better my stars turned out.

I still have lots to learn, and can’t wait to go back next week. Oh, wait, I have Course Two to do tomorrow night!

Filed Under: Cakes Tagged With: wilton buttercream icing, wilton cake class

Wilton Cake Courses- Week One, Class Two

January 27, 2011 by Jenn

In this Wilton Cake Course (Class Two), I am learning how to make flowers using Gum Paste and Fondant.

For next week’s class, we had to come with 30+ Royal Icing flower bases. Oh, was my hand sore!

Here is who was watching while I worked . . .

Wilton Royal Icing Recipe

4 cups of icing sugar

3 tablespoons of meringue powder

5-6 tablespoons of room temperature water

Beat all ingredients until icing forms peaks (7-10 minutes at low speed with a heavy-duty mixer, 10-12 minutes at high speed with a hand-held mixer).

NOTE: Keep all utensils completely grease-free for proper icing consistency.

* For stiffer icing, use 1 tablespoon less water.

For the class this week, we will be building the Wilton Rose onto these bases. Stay tuned 🙂

Filed Under: Cakes Tagged With: royal icing, wilton cake class

Wilton Cake Courses- Week One, Class One

January 26, 2011 by Jenn

I signed up three cake classes that are being offered by Cranbrook’s Parks and Recreation group.

The first course (Class One) is teaching basic decorating skills.

Our job this week was to come back to my Wednesday night class with a baked cake, iced with Wilton Icing, and extra cup of Icing to learn how to pipe flowers etc. I decided that since I know what a cake is (that was seriously one of the steps of the first class), I would teach myself how to do something . . . and I double “torted” the cake. Basically that just means that I cut my 10″ cake into three layers.

Step One: Lemon Raspberry Torte Cake

I used a cake leveller and this step was crazy simple! You just change the height of your leveller and you come out with a smooth, even cake layer!

I put a layer of Raspberry Icing on the bottom layer, as this is what I had left over from the Giant Cupcake from yesterday. I didn’t need to put a layer of icing around the outside as this raspberry icing is very thick….so thick I couldn’t spread it without the cake crumbling underneath it.

For the next layer, I used a lemon spread. As this lemon spread was thinner than the raspberry icing, so I was worried about it spilling out of the sides, so I used the thicker raspberry icing to edge the cake. Yup, it’s messy! That stuff was THICK!

Torted cake!

All it needs now is the base coat, and it’s ready for Wednesday’s class.

Filed Under: Cakes Tagged With: cake, lemon, raspberry, torte, wilton cake class