Showing posts with label buttercream. Show all posts
Showing posts with label buttercream. Show all posts
Monday, 24 May 2010
Poorly party cakes
My little boy has had chicken pox this week, so we've been housebound and entertaining each other with lots of painting, crafts and of course baking. On Friday some friends were due to come over with their 1 year old in the hopes of infecting him, so I decided we'd make some cakes for the 'poorly party'. My boy decided he wanted vanilla cakes, and I had some orange buttercream in the freezer that I got out for the occasion. We covered each cake with a little layer of the buttercream and then coloured some blue and some green for decoration. We used spotty cake cases, and our plan was to decorate the cakes in spots too however artistic license and 3 year old enthusiasm took over when we were actually icing them - piping bags are FUN!
Saturday, 1 May 2010
Maypole Cake
It's Beltane! As a (neo-)pagan, I like to celebrate the sabbats with food. We usually have a special meal, with incorporates themes for the season, but I also like to make a cake. As Beltane approached and I pondered what to make for the season, a thought kept popping into my head - a maypole cake. I mentally planned it and started scouring YouTube for howto videos to help me with the techniques I'd need to learn.
I started off yesterday by making my first ever bactch of Swiss meringue buttercream, which came together really well (although I used a butter substitute so the flavour wasn't great). I used this recipe, and made half the quantity.
This morning I started the day by baking Delia's Squidgy Chocolate Log, not least because its a flour and dairy free recipe and so friendly to my dietry foibles! Once it was cooled, I filled it with about 1/3 of the buttercream mixture and, with a prayer to the Gods of the kitchen, I rolled it. Success!
I split the remaining buttercream into two large portions and one tiny which I coloured red, white and green with paste colours. Then I went to work with the techniques I'd picked up on YouTube! I used a 'basket weave' technique to represent the ribbons coming down the cake. Piped a mess of green around the top for a garland and then, with more prayers to the Gods of the hearth, I tried my hand at buttercream roses. I have to thank SeriousCakes for their YouTube Video 'Buttercream Roses, 3 methods' which was an immense help!
Nothing went horrendously wrong, and I was really pleased and proud of the cake once it was done.
If you're interested in Maypole cakes, then HomeBaked blogged their take on the idea yesterday!
I started off yesterday by making my first ever bactch of Swiss meringue buttercream, which came together really well (although I used a butter substitute so the flavour wasn't great). I used this recipe, and made half the quantity.
This morning I started the day by baking Delia's Squidgy Chocolate Log, not least because its a flour and dairy free recipe and so friendly to my dietry foibles! Once it was cooled, I filled it with about 1/3 of the buttercream mixture and, with a prayer to the Gods of the kitchen, I rolled it. Success!
I split the remaining buttercream into two large portions and one tiny which I coloured red, white and green with paste colours. Then I went to work with the techniques I'd picked up on YouTube! I used a 'basket weave' technique to represent the ribbons coming down the cake. Piped a mess of green around the top for a garland and then, with more prayers to the Gods of the hearth, I tried my hand at buttercream roses. I have to thank SeriousCakes for their YouTube Video 'Buttercream Roses, 3 methods' which was an immense help!
Nothing went horrendously wrong, and I was really pleased and proud of the cake once it was done.
If you're interested in Maypole cakes, then HomeBaked blogged their take on the idea yesterday!
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