Despite being unwell over Christmas I eventually managed to make cake pops. They were a lot trickier than I expected and I think a lot of practise will be needed to get them perfect but overall I was pleased with the result. I went for fresh cranberry and vanilla flavour cake coated in white chocolate candy melts. The decorations were all white and blue which looked really wintery and festive.
I used a very dark blue glitter dust, white pearl balls, aqua sugar crystals and blue glitter flakes. This contrasted well with the cranberry red colour middle but it did prove a little problematic coating the red sponge mix with white candy melts as it required a few coats to stop the red showing through. I wrapped each one individually in cellophane and finished with a blue ribbon. I have taken photos for a tutorial so watch this space for more details but for now I leave you with the critics Malcolm, James and Eloise who all gave them a thumbs up!
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I've been off work illl for a few weeks hence my lack of blog posts.Unfortunately this has resulted in a freeze on my baking. All my Christmas plans out the window!
But now things are looking up I am hoping to make some Christmas cake pops this weekend and have been searching the net for inspiration. Here are a selection of my favourites: Keeping in the festive spirit I just saw these adorable gingerbread houses which perch on the side of a mug. How adorable!
The tutorial looks quite fiddle, probably not the easiest intriduction to gingerbread for a novice like me but they are very impressive and the perfect complement to Christmas lattes! Next year perhaps... I just saw this idea on The Great British Bake Off finalist Holly Bell's blog www.recipesfromanormalmum.com and had to share.
How simple but effective. Any flavour cupcakes you fancy (cinammon spiced or orange zest would be nice) in red and green paper cases topped with a swirl of buttercream (brandy buttercream anyone?) and decorated with a chocolate coin! Loving it. I thought I would share this snap of my workstation during cake decorating.
I use this large green non stick board to roll out my icing. It is an expensive tool but invaluable. You can get smaller sizes but for rolling out large pieces this is the best size. I have my cake up on a turntable so I can continually move it around to see it from all angles. This means there is less chance of dropping the cake! I mixed up a variety of green sugar paste to decorate this cake and I keep the different colours wrapped in plastic so they don't dry out as I am working. I roll the icing out using a little trex vegetable fat. This makes it easier to roll without loosing the vibrancy of he colour which happens when using icing sugar. I used star shaped cutters on this cake and stuck them onto the cake using edible glue. And finally hiding in the box at the back is the cake topper I made earlier! I keep them boxed up so that I don't damage them whilst making the rest of the cake. I should point out I am only sharing this picture as i was having a tidy moment and thought I should capture it on camera! Usually my kitchen it a sea of madness with a pristine cake in the middle! As promised a picture of Frank meeting the real Frank Connolly on his 66th birthday! Luckily Frank was able to be saved from the top of the cake and now has a new home with his doppelgänger.
Happy 66th Frank! I thought I would share some pics of my latest cake which was for a friend's dad's 66th birthday. The brief was to model her dad, Frank, seated in his recliner chair wearing a suit and gold slippers. Being Irish the colour scheme had to be green! The topper was the biggest challenge as I don't often make character cakes. I mixed fondant with flowerpaste to get a nice, pliable texture to the paste. I built the chair first then added Frank's throws over the back and side of the chair. I then made Franks body seated in the chair and dressed him in a green suit and white shirt. For the head and hands I tinted some white colour paste to give it a flesh tone and placed some wire glasses on his nose and the TV remote in his hand. Royal icing gave Frank a moustache and hair. The slippers were sprayed with edible gold spray paste but attaching them was tricky as the kept falling off so I had to stick some wire into Frank's legs and pin the slippers on! For the main cake I stacked up vanilla sponge with buttercream and jam then covered in white fondant. Green fondant stars decorated the cake with the colours fading as they moved up the cake towards Frank. The iced board featured 'Happy 66th Birthday' written on stars and a green ribbon finished the design. Watch this space for pictures of Frank with Frank!
Last night I made 2 little icing slippers for my latest cake topper. I need to spray them gold so I left them on my dining room table to harden up over night. I came down this morning with my daughter and as I was making her breakfast I noticed her chewing on something... I now have to make another slipper!
My goddaughter/niece Emily turned 5 last week and I bought her a cupcake making kit.
Today Em tried out her first bake with help from her glamourous assistant/mum George. The recipe was chocolate cupcakes - an excellent choice. I am sure you will agree these action shots show a master baker in training and I love the pink mouse apron! Good job Em! X x Friday I was trapped indoors as the carpet fitters were in so I had to make do with the ingredients I had in the cupboard.
Luckily I had 3 bananas which were seriously ripe and needed eating. This is the perfect time to make banana cake as the bananas need to be really ripe, almost black. I mashed them and added to self raising flour, sugar, butter, milk, an egg and cocoa powder. I popped them into cupcake cases and baked 170 degrees for about 30minutes. The cakes rose really well and had a lovely chewy, moist consistency. Eloise seemed to enjoy eating the mixture more than eating the cakes! |
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November 2013
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