Princess Cake

Hey!
So a friend of mine asked me to help her make her daughters birthday cake. She had specifically asked it to be in the shape of Belle from Beauty and the Beast.
So we discussed design and flavour etc and came up with something we felt would work on a cake. She baked the sponges(She has a bigger kitchen than me). She brought them over and we started to ice it. We had only crumb-coated it when she was called home, I ended up actually decorating it myself (which to be honest is the fun part anyway, am I right?!).

So I have no recipe's for you this time as I made none of the sponges. Only the buttercream. But here is the result! (excuse the many pictures, I can't help but be happy with the reslut :-))

Baby Blessing

So I just put up a post where I wrote about a friends babyshower that I baked for. Well just to illustrate how behind I am, I am now posting that same baby's blessing cake... and that was a while ago :-)...

I have been desperately looking for a recipe for a chocolate sponge that is moist and tasty at the same time as being stable enough to carve and stack. I watch shows like Ace of Cakes and Cake Boss and you just know that those sponges are perfect.
...well I think I have found one that works. It's not perfect, but it works. It was right under my nose the whole time in my swedish standard "Sju Sorters Kakor" book. It's for a cake called Snoddas or Karleks-mums. The sponge is only part of the cake as it's supposed to have a special kind of icing. I will give you the recipe for both but for the cake I made, I used a meringue icing instead which made it super light and not to sickly.

So here it is!

Snoddas
Temperature 175C
Makes One 30x40cm pan

150g Butter
2 eggs
300 ml Sugar (for those of you who aren't familiar with deceliters.. 1dl=100ml)
2 tsp Vanilla extract or vanilla sugar as is used in the original recipe from sweden
1 Tbsp sifted cocoa (more can be added if a darker chocolate cake is desired)
4 1/2 dl (or 450ml) of Plain Flour
2 tsp baking powder
1 1/2 dl milk

Melt the butter and put aside to cool slightly.
Cream the eggs and sugar till slightly fluffy.
Add 1/3 the dry ingredients (previously combined) and the 1/3 of the milk and butter(previously combined) then continue like that till it's all been added.
Pour the batter into a prepared tin.
Bake for 15-20 min in the bottom part of the oven.

Icing for Snoddas
75g butter
1-2 Tbsp of water
1Tbsp of sifted cocoa (I usually have more in as I want it a slightly stronged chocolate taste)
2 tsp of vanilly sugar or essence
3 1/2 dl icing sugar

Melt the butter add all the other ingredients while stirring. If it starts to clump, then add a little more water but make sure to continue stirring. boil till desired consistence, but remember that it does ticken and harden when cold.


Meringue Frosting(One-step)

3 eggwhites
2 1/2 dl sugar
3 Tbsp cold water
1/4 tsp cream of tartar (for extra stiffness)
Vanilla essence to taste

Add all the ingredients into a bowl (metal one). while over a boiling water bath you use en electric mixer on low speed for approximately 5 min. Then increse the speed to high for another 5-7 min.  Mix for another 4-5 min after you remove it from the heat so as to not form clumps. Then go ahead and ICE!

The Bear was a joy to make. You can find plenty of videos for how to make bears online. It's just to take your pick. The flowers I used little cutters layering them with different shades of blue. A mistake I made with this cake and one that I definately learnt from was that I used some left-over meringue icing to color blue, and pipe with it. One attribute of the meringue frosting is that it doesn't harden or crust, but that also means that it bleeds quite easily. But that is a letton learnt. with Meringue frosting I will probably only use one color from now on!

Have a good one!
x

Bake-on-Track (Excuse the Pun)

Hi!
So I am back on track when it comes to baking, YAY :-)! FINALLY!
My husband and I have been VERY busy setting up our own Business and even though I have still been baking, the time has not quite stretched enough for me to sit down and share with you what I have done.

So I will be doing a little recap, as it's been a couple weeks since I did most of these cakes.

I made these cupcakes and sugarcookies in the shape of little babies, ducks and flowers(all covered with the appropriate coloured royal icing) for a friends babyshower. Unfortunately I was silly enough not to photograph the cookies, but they were very cute, I promise :-)! I'm still working on getting the knack of piping a perfect spiral for the cupcakes, I will get there eventually!