Shipping Container Cake

Here is the Corporate Event cake I previously mentioned. These pictures here are "uncut" or in-the-raw. The logo was definitely tricky. I have again learned a lot from this experience and would definitely try different things next time. The cake itself was pretty yummy. I used a Victoria Sponge Cake... quickly becoming a favorite of mine. The biggest challenge that came with this cake was managing my baby girl! She was really acting up this time. I think it's definitely time to try a sitter or daycare for future projects!

Shipping Containers... Yum!

So my next project is to put together a cake that looks like a bunch of shipping containers for a international shipping company (Owner is a friend of mine). It's their 4th Anniversary. It's also going to be a surprise for the owner, but I'm betting he doesn't read blogs. I plan on having about 8 containers which will be individual cakes themselves and having the company's logo stenciled onto the side of one. I'm also planning on setting up the cake base as a concrete lot as is the case with most shipping docks. I'll post photos in a couple of weeks when the project is complete.

Truly Mellow-Yellow Lemon Ice cream

One of my joys, besides baking, is making ice cream and inventing new flavors. I have experimented also with different combinations of fat, milk, sugar, etc., and have found that the gelato combo has the perfect balance for my taste. I used to leave out the egg yolks completely, but now see the richness and smoothness it adds without increasing the cream. Excessive fat leads to an unpleasant almost gritty texture (try Green and Black's ice cream, you'll see what I'm talking about. That brand may brag organic everything, but unfortunately their products are very mediocre, including their chocolates). Now the key to gelato really is the machines. I don't have a gelato maker, but the recipe itself is superior, so I still come out with a better ice cream. However, if you want to get italian perfection, you will have to buy a gelato machine as it allows for less air into the ice cream during the churning process, and you get less water/ice forming onto the ice cream as well as a denser smoother mixture. Now if you have made plenty of homemade ice creams, you'll know what I'm talking about.

I wanted to make lemon ice cream, because I always see lemon sorbet, but can never get an ice cream of the same. I LOVE lemon, but never see it's perfection in most products. Hence, I make my own lemonade, because other lemonades don't cut it. I wanted to make this ice cream taste close to lemon mousseline without all of the tartness, which I think would be unbalanced in an ice cream. The vanilla in this recipe works to cut through some of the zestiness of lemon and add some body. If you like for your lemon to stand out brighter, just omit the vanilla.

Truly Mellow-Yellow Lemon Ice Cream

2 cups milk 

1 cup cream

1 1/4 cup sugar

2 tsp. grated lemon zest

1 tsp. vanilla extract 

Juice from half a lemon

5 egg yolks

Pour milk, cream, sugar, and lemon zest into a saucepan. Heat on low until sugar is dissolved and zest is darker in color and fragant (about 10-15 minutes). Do not boil. Turn off heat and stir in vanilla.

Put egg yolks in a bowl and beat with a whisk to make smooth. Pour milk mixture through a sieve into a clean bowl or large measuring cup. While mixture is still warm, pour slowly in a steady stream into the egg yolks, stirring constantly with a whisk. When mixture has cooled down, add the lemon juice through a sieve. Stir until smooth and refrigerate for 24 hours. Make ice cream according to manufacturer's instructions for your ice cream maker.

Here are some other great flavors I have developed: Mexican chocolate, Indian masala chai, Maple, Pumpkin pie, Super Vanilla (the hands down best vanilla ice cream ever), Pear wine sorbet, Roasted Peach, Christmas Chocolate (a mixture of chocolate, amaretto, coffee and buttermilk).

Gilded Chrysanthemum Cake

Just wanted to share the latest cake I did for a friend's 30th Birthday. I chose the theme of spring and wanted to do a beautiful embroidered kind of look (without using brush embroidery). After going through many choices of flowers, I decided to go with the Chrysanthemum, particularly the variety referred to as "Football mums". And yes, mums are often depicted as fall flowers, but they are actually available year-round, and great weather-hardy flower. To be honest I had been thinking of doing a cake with mums ever since I saw "The Curse of the Golden Flower" (pretty much useless as a movie but visually stunning) and saw the beautiful gold chrysanthemum embroidery the queen was doing on all those veils. For flavors, I made a hazelnut frangelico cake, filled with light and sprightly flair of a lemon mousseline and butter cream.

St. Patty's Day Cake!

In honor of St. Patrick's, I'm reposting a cake I did 2 years ago for the occasion.

It was a toasted almond cake, soaked with Irish Bailey's and Jameson, and filled and frosted with coffee buttercream.

 

A Solid Homemade Fondant recipe.

I wanted to post this recipe for those who dabble in cake decorating and like to make their own fondant. When cake decorating was just a hobby, I also only used homemade fondant since, in general, it tastes much better than store-bought. I experimented with all kinds of recipes that were printed in books, online, etc. You name it, I probably tried it. I always had a problem with the consistency at the end though. I felt that I was hitting it closer when I got to marshmallow fondant, but the process wasn't an exact science and really unpleasantly messy. The consistency of the end-product wasn't a guarantee in the end either. Now that I am doing cake decorating at a more advanced level and actually making some money, I don't have the time or energy so I buy. You end up buying buckets and buckets of 15-20 lbs. of fondant. I prefer the Fondx brand. It tastes much better than other brands. Bakels Pettinice tastes like soap! And Fondx is WAY cheaper than Satin Ice. It's harder to find, but it's available at Pfeil and Holing  

The recipe I developed over the year I was "just dabbling" is very much in the way of making homemade marshmallow, but of course, with adjustments. The end-product is something very much more satisfying in taste and consistency with a very white color. It's not sticky like a lot of the other recipes and has a great texture to work with. The ingredients are similar to the standard recipe using gelatin and glycerin, but I think the method makes this a superior fondant. 

2 envelopes of UNFLAVORED gelatin

2 cups granulated sugar

2 egg whites, room temperature

1-1/4 cup water, separated into 3/4 cup and 1/2 cup

1 Tbsp. vanilla extract

2 Tbsp. glycerin

4 lbs. confectioners sugar, have more available if needed

Put your flat paddle attachment onto your stand mixer. Soften gelatin in a your mixer bowl with 1/2 cup of cold water. The best way to do this is place the water in the bowl first, and gradually sprinkle the gelatin over it, making sure every particle is wet. Place remaining water and sugar in a pan and heat until dissolved, brushing down the sides with water. Boil until the soft ball stage (syrup should be thickened, bubbling slower, and when you coat the back of a spoon, it should cool to a soft candy consistency). Turn your mixer on to a medium speed. Very carefully pour the syrup into the side of your mixer bowl and into the gelatin mixture. Once all the syrup is in (do not scrape the sides of the pan), turn your mixer on high. Mix until cooled. Your mixture should look white and meringue-like. Carefully making sure that your mixture is no longer hot, add egg whites one at a time and mix until well incorporated. Lower your mixer to medium. You can now add the vanilla extract. Despite it's dark color, your fondant will whiten considerably with the confectioners' sugar. Add the glycerin and mix until well-incorporated. Lower mixer speed to low. And add sifted confectioners' sugar gradually. When mixture becomes thick and hard to stir, scrape out onto a well powdered (powdered with confectioners') workspace. Knead mixture, continually adding confectioners' until the desired consistency is achieved. You can use immediately or wrap well in plastic and store in an airtight ziplock bag.

You can nix the egg whites, but I find that this fondant is much more solid with it. I haven't made this recipe in forever, so I can't quite remember if adding the egg whites in the beginning with the gelatin, or after the mixture cooled was the best method. Please let me know if you decide to try! I haven't tried adding meringue powder, but that could be another possibility.

Also replacing some of the sugar with glucose or light corn syrup is another possibility as with the standard fondant recipe.

Tips on covering with fondant:

 

-While you don't want to roll out your fondant too thick, thicker is better than thinner. The rule of thumb is 1/4 inch, but I'd say aim for 3/8 inch.

-You do want to work quickly with fondant, but don't work hastily. I've found out the hard way that this just works against you. You'll make mistakes you'll regret. Just be calm and work carefully. Repairs can always be made to a freshly covered cake.

-If you are working with a particularly large cake and need to concentrate on one area first, carefully cover the other areas so it doesn't dry out.

-Don't add too much cornstarch to your work area. It'll seriously dry out the fondant. 

Panda Bear Cake Update

This is much delayed, but this is how the Panda Cake came out. It was a learning experience... especially since I hadn't made a cake in almost a year since I became pregnant! I realized the way I had ended up structuring the legs could not possibly hold up the weight of the cake, hence the sitting position.  I had to really troubleshoot with this one in the last hours. I had not planned out the carving well. However, I rallied and managed to get this cake done in the wee hours and even get some sleep before pick-up time.