My Little Pony - Cake Topper

Gum paste cake topper

Here is the link for the tutorial I worked off. http://cakesdecor.com/ChokoLate/blog/444

This pony could do with a bit of fixing up. Time to practice, I plan on making these in all different colours

Christening Cake Design

Sketch for a client
To give her a better idea of that the finished product will look like

Oriental Sticky Pork

I know this is not a confection, but my Mom asked me for the recipe and I thought I would share it with everyone  This recipe takes time, but it is well worth it. I think I got it off a TV show when we were living in the UK, but not too sure.

Ingredients
450g pork belly
4T dark soy sauce
1t grated fresh ginger
1t ground cinnamon
1t castor sugar
3T rice wine vinegar

Method
1. Cut pork into 2.5cm cubes. Place skin-side down in a non-stick pan. Sprinkle with soy sauce and 1T water.
2. Add ginger and cinnamon
3. Cover and turn on heat. As soon as it starts to boil, turn don the heat and cook gently for 45min.
4. Turn meat sprinkle with sugar and rice wine.
5. Cover and cook slowly for 45 min. Turn once or twice during this time

Serve with steamed veg and rice.

Enjoy!

26 January 2013

These are the 2 cakes I made for this weekend

Pooh Bear Cake

Gum paste Pooh Bear detail

40th Birthday cake

The Year of the Caramel Cake

We are 3 weeks into the new year and all my orders so far have been for caramel flavoured cake. The smell of caramel is quite heavenly, it is too good not to share.

So here is my version of a Caramel cake

Ingredients
Sponge cake
4 large eggs, separated
3/4 cup white sugar
5ml caramel essence
280ml cake flour
125ml hot water
125ml oil (not olive oil)
2t baking powder

Syrup
150ml water
150g castor sugar
5ml vanilla essence

Method
Sponge cake
1. Pre-heat oven to 180ºC.
1. Beat egg yolks and sugar until light and creamy
2. Add caramel essence and beat again. scrape down sides and bottom of the bowl
3. Mix the boiled water and oil together.
4. Add water, oil and flour to eggs and sugar, beat well
5. Fold in the baking powder very gently.
6. Beat egg whites until stiff and fold into the batter
7. Pour mix into 2 greased tins and place in the centre of oven
8. Bake for 25-30 min

Syrup
Place all the ingredients into a sauce pan and bring to a boil. Simmer until all the sugar has dissolved. Set aside to cool.

Allow the cakes to cool for 10 min then using a pastry brush, brush them with the syrup. remove sponges from the tins and allow to completely cool on wire racks.

Butter-Cream Frosting
Whip up a batch of my butter-cream frosting. Add 2 table spoons of tinned caramel to the mixture and beat well.
Sandwich together the two cakes with 1/3 of the butter cream. With the remaining 2/3 butter-cream cover the sides and top of the cake.

To decorate, pip rossetts of caramel onto the cake.

Alternatively, sandwich the two cakes with a layer of caramel.

Basic Butter-Cream Frosting

Ingredients

1/2 cup(113g) butter/baking margarine 

450g icing sugar

15ml milk

5ml vanilla essence

Method

1. Beat the butter until it is light and fluffy

2. Gradually add icing sugar and milk one at a time. 

3. Add vanilla and beat very well

This makes enough for a sandwich cake. I usually double it up and freeze what I don't use. It will keep for about 3 months in an air-tight container.

Learning New Things

I joined the South African Cake Decorators Guild at the beginning of the month and attended their first monthly meeting on Saturday.

There is something to be said about preconceived notions. I was expecting a bunch of disorganised grannies discussing their favourite butter-cream recipe. 

Oh how I was wrong. I found myself amongst a group of 12 women the youngest in her early 30's and the oldest (Lets call her Betty) looked to be about 95. Betty also happens to be the branch treasurer and is quite on top of things. 

The meeting itself was more like a precision military operation. These ladies are quite serious about Cake Decoration and all are at an international competition level. Talk about intimidating.

The demonstration part of the afternoon was fascinating and I took copious notes. We were taught the intricacies of a Casablanca/Stargazer Lily. We all have to take our own sugar paste lily to the next meeting *gulp*.

I gathered all my tools and equipment this morning and began fiddling with florist tape, wire, pliers and gum paste. 8 hours later and I am thinking I will need more than 4 weeks to get this right.

So I found a tutorial on Cake Central and I thought I would share it with you. 

http://cakecentral.com/a/how-to-make-a-gumpaste-stargazer-lily-asian-lily

I will try again and use this tutorial tomorrow.

Fondantly Yours 

JJ

Introductions

Introductions

It is a rainy Sunday afternoon and I have finally caved in to my husband's suggestion that I start blogging. (Do you know Blogger spell check does not recognise the words 'blogging' or 'blogger'?)

I say I have caved because I dislike talking (writing) about myself in general. I would far rather be reading about someone else than be in the spotlight.

But anyway, on to formal introductions. I live with my family and two muddy dogs in the northern suburbs of Johannesburg, South Africa, and there is no other place that I would rather be.

Up until now I have been a Jill-of-all-Trades. I have worked as a bar tender and restaurant manager, and been a dental nurse and law office filing clerk, and they have all paid the bills - some better than others. But my passion lies in art and making beautiful things. I have tried most forms of creative art and have recently discovered that my heart lies in cake decorating.

The world of cake decorating is fairly new to me. I have had some interesting (if not disastrous!) experiences in the kitchen so far, and I now intend sharing my kitchen mishaps and miracles with you.

Fondantly Yours

JJ

Cranberry and White Chocolate Chip Cookies

I am posting this recipe for a very special friend. She has been asking me for ages to send it to her so I thought I would post it here for everyone to see.
Enjoy!

Ingredients
1/2 cup butter, softened
1/2 cup soft brown sugar
1/2 cup white sugar
1 egg
1T brandy/vanilla essence
1 1/2 cups flour
1/2t bicarbonate soda
1 sm slab white chocolate finely chopped
1 cup chopped cranberries

Method
1. Preheat the oven to 175ºC/375ºF and grease cookie sheets
2. Cream butter, brown sugar and white sugar together until smooth.
3. Beat in the egg and brandy
4. Sieve flour and bicarb together and stir into butter mixture
5. Add chopped chocolate and cranberries to the cookie dough ( I put chocolate and cranberries into the     blender)
6. Drop spoon of the dough onto the baking sheets. Leave plenty of space between the cookies as they do spread
7. Bake for 8-10 minutes
8. Allow to cool for a minute before you move them to the cooling rack