Pink Rainbow Cake

This was my little girls birthday cake. My “little” baby is now 6 years old and all I can think is that they were the fastest six years of my life. I guess I should purge all of the baby clothes that are in  boxes down in the basement. I want to, I just can’t. We only wanted one child and I’m perfectly okay with that , besides, it’s too late for that now, but seriously, these past six years have been so much fun. I am a stay at home mom and way proud of it.  Every day, at some point, is a fun play date. It could be headband making (which we just finished doing) or a dance party in the living room. Sometimes it’s a fashion show or rock painting. Not that it’s all pretty, there are plenty of times when we just butt heads; a little girl can be very opinionated and downright defiant. But I am only going to discuss the good times today. Like her birthday party. Like how we had 6 six-year-old girls over for a pajama/pizza/Barbie movie party (and survived). We decided to do the home party this year since it’s too darn expensive to rent out places to go and I feel like I can’t keep up with the expectations. Gosh, when I was a kid I think I had one birthday party. Every other year it was just my parents and sisters around the kitchen table singing Happy Birthday around a small, homemade cake after dinner. Nowadays, every kid has to have a party every year. Well, from now on, it’s at the house with just a few friends. So there (I’ll be interested to see if I keep my promise over the next few years). Bake On!

This delicious cake was made using fruit puree. I wasn’t so interested in just breaking out the food coloring (not that I’m against it), but I wanted the cake to have flavor, which food coloring does not have. Only the bottom two layers have a drop of pink color added to make them pop a little. All the fruit that has been so lovingly frozen in the freezer came in very handy for this. Three fruits were the base: strawberry, raspberry and cherries.  Each fruit puree was made separately and only took about 10 minutes. Take about 2 cups frozen of your berry choice and bring to a boil on the stove with a splash of water. Cook for about 2 minutes and then whirl in a mini processor or blender until smooth. Pass through a five sieve to get out any seeds or in the case of the cherries, skin. Place the fruit puree in separate containers and cool completely.  Since raspberry was my middle color I needed more fruit so I cooked up 3 cups. Read on… Now that there are three base colors it’s time to combine them to make some more shades of pink. Take 3 tablespoons of the strawberry and mix it with 3 tablespoons of raspberry in a separate bowl, then take three tablespoons of raspberry puree and mix it with 3 tablespoons of cherry puree (again, in a separate bowl).  You now have 5 shades of pink.

the top layer is plain white cake
strawberry: shade# 1
strawberry/raspberry: shade# 2
raspberry: shade #3
raspberry/cherry: shade#4
cherry: shade #5

Now on to the cake… You will need 5 bowls besides your mixing bowl  so you can add the fruit puree’s.This is made with a 6 inch cake pan. I have two so I can bake 2 layers at a time, but if you only have one that is fine. It will just take longer to get all the layers baked.

 White Cake Base

3 cups (12 oz /247.5 g) Cake Flour
1 2/3 cups (11 3/4oz/333 g) sugar; superfine sugar is best
1 Tablespoon baking powder
1 teaspoon baking soda
3/4 teaspoon salt
3/4 cup (6 oz/170 g) unsalted butter, softened
4 large eggs whites plus 1 whole large egg
1 cup (8 oz/227 g) full-fat sour cream
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
1 teaspoon almond extract

Preheat your oven to 350 F. Prepare a 6 inch cake pan (s) by lightly spraying with vegetable oil (such a PAM) and lining with a round piece of parchment paper.

Mix all of the dry ingredients on slow speed to blend. Add the soft butter and mix until evenly crumbly, like fine damp sand. It may form a paste,that’s okay.Add the egg whites one at a time, then the whole egg, beating well after each addition . Scrape down the sides and bottom of the bowl after each addition. In a small bowl, whisk the sour cream  with the vanilla and almond extracts. Add this mixture, 1/3 at a time, to the batter. Beat 1 to 2 minutes after each addition, until fluffy. Be sure to scrape down the sides and bottom of the bowl.

Measure out six ounces of plain batter into a prepared pan and smooth out the top. Bake for 18 minutes or until a toothpick inserted comes out clean. Measure out 6 ounces (3/4 cup)  five more times into your separate bowls. Add 6 tablespoons of each of your various fruit purees to each six oz bowl of white cake batter; you  now have  five various shades of pink batter. At this time if you feel you would like any of them darker in color add a touch of food color.

Okay, if you are lucky enough to own more than one six-inch cake pan, than you can bake two (or more) layers at a time. If not, wait until the first layer is done, let it cool for 5 minutes and then flip it out onto a cooling rack to cool completely. Turn the hot cake pan upside down and run under cold water for a few seconds to quickly cool down the pan. Wipe out the inside of the pan, regrease and paper.  Repeat until all six layers are done.

This cake was frosted with swiss meringue buttercream with 1/4 cup leftover mixed puree added to it. Each layer was topped with a thin layer of buttercream then  I piped a border “dam” around the outer edge to seal in the contents. Then I spread about 2 tablespoons low sugar raspberry jam (I used Presidents Choice Blue Line from Superstore) inside the dam . Top with another layer and repeat until all the layers are done.

Even though this cake is small, it is very tall, so I inserted a wooden skewer ,cut to size, right down the middle of the cake to keep the layers from shifting. You can also use a straw. Place in the fridge for one hour to set up.

Coat the cake with a crumb coat, place back in the fridge for 1-2 hours, then finish off with a final coat of buttercream.

For the ice cream cone top:

After baking my six layers, I still had a small amount of batter which I baked, cooled, and crumbled up. It was then mixed with a little bit of buttercream and made into a paste.  This is what everyone commonly knows as a cake pop, only this was a giant cake pop. I rolled the mixture into a ball (make sure your hands are impeccably clean!!) the size of a scoop of ice cream and inserted into a sugar cone. Be sure to flatten out the bottom so it can sit evenly on the cake. Place in the fridge to get cold.

Chocolate Ganache

6 oz dark chocolate
6 oz heavy whipping cream

Chop the chocolate and place in a bowl. Bring the cream to a boil on the stove top and pour over the chocolate. Let it sit for 3 minutes then whisk until it is creamy. Set aside at room temperature to set up while the cake is chilling in the fridge.

Later on….

Take the cake and ice cream cone cake pop out of the fridge. Pour about half of the ganache onto the top of the cake, and using a small offset spatula, spread it around the entire top letting it drip down the sides. Now take the cake pop cone and dip the “ice cream” part into the balance of the ganache, coating all sides. Set it down onto the top  of the cake; the ganache is still wet so it will meld into each other. Sprinkle with confetti sprinkles if desired. You can either keep it out of the fridge at this point if you are serving it the same day or else placed the entire cake back in the fridge for up to two days.

The white cake recipe is adapted from this amazing recipe. I adjusted it based upon adding the fruit puree. Use the original recipe if you just want to bake a great white cake.

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A Beautiful Wedding…

So, twenty-seven years ago these two lovely women meet and fall in love. They decided to commit to spending their lives together regardless of what society and the law dictates. A few years back they take a trip to Canada to get married while in Vancouver. It couldn’t get better, right? Well, it did. Last July , New York State finally legalized  same sex marriage. I say finally, since NY should have gotten on board a long time ago, considering it was the Stonewall Riots back in 1969 that sparked the gay rights movement. But, that is neither here nor there for this special occasion. These two have made a life together for the past 27 years. And they are happy. Considering how many failed marriages  we have all seen over the years, this is a true testament to commitment, regardless of their sex. A happy marriage is a happy marriage. So, they did it again. this time in their own hometown.

The happy couple

Anywooo… I was privileged enough to be asked to bake their wedding cake while I was in NY and my little one was their flower girl. As luck would have it, my husband was able to join us as well, making it a real family event for all. The cake was deep, dark chocolate cake  with raspberry filling and Italian meringue buttercream. They chose not to have the cake covered with fondant, which gives the cake a fabulous smooth exterior, but wanted to go for flavor instead. I am all for that. I love the look of fondant, but do not like the taste. I don’t think anyone really does.While I make my own fondant so it does taste way better than store-bought, it still is not something that people really want to eat (for my own wedding I covered the cakes with buttercream instead of fondant). It just take a lot longer to smooth it out.
On the second tier there is a design stencilled onto it using the same color buttercream for a subtle white on white effect. To use a stencil on buttercream you must make sure that your base coat is very cold before trying to stencil on it or else you will smudge the smoothness of your frosting, then make sure the buttercream you are using to stencil with is very soft.

Finally, the cake was decorated with moth orchids made out of gumpaste. Each one was hand painted so I started them about one month before the wedding so there would be plenty of time to finish. What I love about gumpaste flowers is that you never have to worry about poisonous plants and they last forever, so they can have a special keepsake. If you are interested in me doing a tutorial on gumpaste flowers, just let me know. Have a great day!

Let them eat cake

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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Happy Halloween 2011

No Recipes today, just wishing everyone a safe and happy Halloween. Here are a few pictures of some of the cookies I have been decorating for the season. The skull in the bottom right hand corner is actually a 3D white chocolate mold filled with gumdrops. I got the mold for $1.50 (!!!) at Michaels the other day; it is made by Wilton.

I also found these super easy to use transfer sheets for $1.49. It contained 8 transfers, so I thought that was a really good deal. These were purchased at Winner’s, which is the Canadian equivalent to TJ Maxx or Marshalls. The message here? always be on the lookout !!

What I really love about these is that ANYONE can do this- no previous experience necessary. What’s better than that? Baking from Scratch couldn’t be easier when you find fun decorating tools like this. Bake on!

Now off to prepare the little one for tonight…..

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Fantasy Flower Birthday Cake

This past weekend was our dear friend Donna’s birthday so we hosted a party for her at our house. Lots of good food; itailan heros on homemade ciabetta, garden picked rosemary foccocia stuffed with gorgonzola and ham, sausage and broccoli rabe, roasted pepper salad, etc… AND great company. Since she is such a unique individual I designed a cake to suit her personality. The bottom 2 layers are “dummy” cakes, meaning the cakes are really styrofoam. This is a decorators trick so you can still have the height but you don’t need 100 people to eat the cake.! For competition you are only allowed to use dummy bases, as well. They are covered/decorated  in fondant. The zebra tier  is a red velvet cake with a cream cheese buttercream frosting. The zebra stripes are fondant. The fantasy flowers are made out of gumpaste.

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Gumpaste Flowers

While I have not been busy posting, I have been busy trying new recipes and enjoying the beautiful summer weather here in Calgary. This past Friday began with the annual parade to start the 99th season of the Calgary Stampede, the world’s largest rodeo competition and fair. The city becomes quite crazy for 10 days, with hundreds of thousands of tourists coming in from all over the world, free pancake breakfasts everywhere, all day drinking parties, and nightly fireworks. This year the parade was just that more abuzz with the special guests, Prince William and his new bride Kate.

So we made sure to avoid anywhere they might be. …Much to the dismay of our little girl.

We found a spot right at the tail end of the parade route with a great view of everything

There are SO many horses currently in the city that it is mind boggling!  We had a fun time at the parade but
I was still busy at home getting gumpaste flowers prepared for Saturday since I was demonstrating at the Stampede
Grounds in the western showcase building on behalf of the Calgary Sugarcraft Guild. I was a little behind schedule (what else is new) in being prepared, since I only began Tuesday night to think about what I would do. I decided on making a few samples of some gumpaste flowers to display and then I brought some fondant covered cupcakes and decorated them with simple flowers and designs to make decorating more approachable to the beginner. In the end there was one decorated with hydrangea blossoms, another with small rosebuds, another with simple daisy cutouts, one with small purple blossoms, etc… I wish I had taken pictures of them but I did not bring my camera since I knew I would be too busy demonstrating. At the end of the day, I saw some weary people sitting down for a cup of coffee and donated my cupcakes for them to enjoy.

I made a small banana cake and covered it with fondant to display these tulips (the cupcakes were also banana).

These were the first tulips I had ever made and am quite impressed with myself! There are so many colors of flowers  that you can just let your imagination run wild.

Some daisies….

and magnolias…

I will admit that making gumpaste flowers is not for everyone. They are time-consuming , but they can last a lifetime. When making a wedding cake or other special cake I think that sugar flowers are best since most fresh flowers are poisonous or sprayed with pesticides. When using fresh flowers it is important to make sure that there is a protective barrier between the cake and the flowers. Or play it safe and make gumpaste flowers!

p.s. thanks to everyone for all of your support during the Canadian Postal lock out. Due to back to work legislation the lock out is now ended and the postal workers are again delivering the mail.

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Happy Easter – Sugar Cookies

It’s been a very busy here baking and decorating cookies. We have had 2 Easter parties this past week and we just got home from an Easter egg hunt/brunch this afternoon.

This is a wonderful method for making sugar cookies. Instead of flouring your work surface, you roll out the dough right after mixing between 2 sheets of parchment paper, then you chill it. When you cut out your cookies they are ready to go right into the oven and since you don’t use any extra flour you can reroll the scraps as many times as you like without it toughening the cookie dough.  

SUGAR COOKIES

3 C  all-purpose flour
3/4 tsp salt
1 C unsalted butter, softened
1 C granulated sugar
1 egg, large
1/2 tsp maple extract
seeds from 1 large vanilla bean (or 2 tsp pure vanilla extract)

Cream the butter and sugar together until very light and fluffy (about 3-5 minutes). Add the egg, extract and vanilla bean and mix well. Gradually add the flour until everything is thoroughly combined.

Divide the dough in half and pat into a disk shape. Roll the dough out between 2 sheets of parchment paper until it is 1/4 inch. Place the entire sheet onto a baking sheet and place in the refrigerator until chilled, about 30 minutes. Cut into desired shapes. Bake the cookies for about 10 minutes at 350 or until they turn ever so slighty golden.Reroll the scraps between the parchment sheets.

Recipe adapted from Cookie Craft

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Lemon Poppy Seed Cupcakes

Okay, something is just not right. I mean, it’s April 16th, and its SNOWING!! Wait…. I mean, snowing again! We just got 10 inches of snow 2 days ago and now it is coming down again. Am I supposed to find some sort of comfort in the fact that it’s not supposed to really accumulate? Wait again, my hubby is now telling me that we are going to get another 5 to 10 inches. I mean, really! We had the little bicycle and the scooter out last week when it was 15C, only to have to put them back into the shed. Aahh, springtime in the rockies…. So, to help move spring along a little I am making lemon  poppy-seed cupcakes today. Well, I also had a little inspiration for the theme. Today is my friend Daisy’s birthday. She was one of  my very best friend’s during my formative years. At the tender age of 13 we attended my first concert, Neil Young (the Rust Never Sleeps Tour) at Nassau Coliseum together. That surely was a night to remember on many levels.Many games of SPIT, handball, partying, summer singing class, music theory, the list goes on and on. So, here is to you to you, my dear old friend. Happy Birthday. I’m in shoo-shoo-shoo, shoo-shoo-shoo, Shoo-shoo, shoo-shoo, shoo-shoo Sugar Town

LEMON POPPY SEED CUPCAKES

7  Tablespoons (90 g) unsalted butter, room temp
3 oz  (90 g) cream cheese, room temp
zest of 1 lemon
2 eggs
2/3 C (150 g) granulated sugar
2 teaspoons lemon juice
2 Tablespoons sour cream
1 1/4 C (125 g) all-purpose flour
3/4 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp baking soda
pinch salt
1 Tablespoon poppy seeds

Pre-heat your oven to 350 F. Line a 12 cup  muffin tin with paper cases.

Cream the butter and cream cheese together for 2 minutes then add the sugar and zest; continue to beat until light and fluffy.Add the eggs, one at a time, and beat until well incorporated. Beat in the Lemon juice and sout cream.Sift the dry ingredients together then add to the bowl, mixing until just incorporated. Stir in the poppy seeds.

Divide among the paper cases and bake for 25 minutes or until a toothpick inserted into one comes out clean. Let cool completely before icing.

SEVEN MINUTE FROSTING

This fluffy marshmallow frosting is best eaten within a few hours after being made. Be generous when frosting and pile it high like a fluffy cloud.

1 1/2 C granulated frosting
1/3 cup water
2 egg whites
1 tsp light corn syrup
1/4 tsp salt
1 tsp vanilla

Blend the sugar, water, egg whites, corn syrup and salt in the top of a double boiler. Cook this mixture over boiling water, beating constantly with a hand-held beater on high-speed, for about 7 minutes, or until the frosting stands up in stiff peaks (It took me 9 minutes today). Remove from the heat and stir in the vanilla.

Immediately spread the frosting on the cooled cupcakes.

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Go Diego Go!

This was the cake that I made  this past weekend for my friend Amy. Her son was turning two and is a huge Diego fan.  The cake was a yellow cake filled with vanilla buttercream. The entire cake  was covered and decorated with homemade fondant.  For the image I drew a large picture of Diego and made templates for the face and hair from that. The sides are covered in leaves with royal icing “grass” piped around the bottom.

The cake recipe is from Sylvia Wienstock’s book Sensational Cakes, one of the prettiest cake books to look at.   The recipe is here 

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Happy Birthday, little one…

So, my precious little angel turned 5 years old yesterday. Where did the time go?. Seriously. You hear this all the time, but, it really does feel like yesterday that she was just a tiny baby. I guess time flies when you are having fun and this has been the best five years ever. For her birthday we had a little party at the movie theatre, seeing Gnomeo and Juliet (a very cute movie). After the movie the kids all had cupcakes in the party room. Since my little girl is obsessed with all things Rapunzel, I made this cupcake stand for the party.
I used styrofoam as the base (this is what is referred to as a “dummy” cake), since I knew that a bunch of 5 year olds can’t eat that much. This could easily be made entirely out of cake but you would need about 25 adults to eat it.  Whenever I see these  cake shows on TV I can’t help but think how ridiculous they are. I am not denying that they are great ideas  but  the people who watch these shows don’t realize that these creations serve about 300-400 people, so that now everyone thinks that they need a super huge cake at their party of 50 people! Yikes… At almost all weddings at least 1/2 of the tiers are styrofoam. I wish they would point this out these TV shows. Anyway, enough of my ranting. This tower is covered and decorated entirely with homemade fondant. I added a few teaspoons of gum tragacanth to strengthen it. I worked on it over the course of 4 days and it was a blast to make.

Little Miss Scarlet

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Follow the Yellow Brick Road…

I was asked by a friend of mine to create some cupcakes for her daughter’s 7th birthday. She was taking the kiddies to see “The Wizard Of Oz”  with the Calgary Philharmonic Orchestra  playing the soundtrack. Since the birthday girl was already going to be wearing ruby red shoes and half of them were boys (I didn’t want something too girly), I came up with this design. It is a red velvet cupcake with a shot of buttercream injected into the middle. It is covered with a thin layer of raspberry jam and then decorated with homemade fondant.

RED VELVET CUPCAKES 
Makes 12 cupcakes

filled with buttercream and covered with a thin layer of warmed jam

1  1/4 cups cake flour (not self- rising), sifted
1 tablespoons unsweetened Dutch-process cocoa powder (I use Fryes)
1/2 teaspoon salt 
3/4 cups sugar
3/4 cups vegetable oil
1 large eggs, room temperature
1 teaspoon red gel-paste food color
1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
1/2 cup buttermilk
3/4 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoons distilled white vinegar

Preheat your oven to 350F. Line a 12 cup muffin tin with paper liners.

Sift together the flour, cocoa powder and salt. Set Aside.

In  your mixing bowl, whisk together the sugar and oil. Beat in the egg and the vanilla.  Add the red coloring and mix together for 3 minutes.This ensures that the coloring is evenly distributed. Add the flour in 2 batches , alternating with the buttermilk (what this means: add half of the flour, mix until it is incorporated, then add the buttermilk, mix ing until it is incorporatd, then add the remaining flour). In a seperate little bowl, mix together the baking soda and the vinegar (this will foam) and add it the batter. Beat together for 10-15 seconds.

Divide the batter evenly among the lined cups. Fill each one 3/4 of the way up – no more, or else they will crown over the top. Bake for 15-18 minutes (mine were done in exactly 15 minutes), or until a toothpick inserted comes out clean. Cool on a rack for at least  15 minutes before removing the cupcakes.  Frost as desired. These will keep for at least 3 days in a covered bin and freeze very well for 2 months.

FONDANT
must be made at least 1 day in advance of using
75 ml water
1 tbsp + 1 tsp gelatin granules (one envelope, such as Knox)
6 ounces of light white corn syrup
1 1/2 tablespoon glycerin
2 Tablespoons vegetable shortening
2 pounds confectioners sugar (powdered sugar)
5 ounces of melted chocolate (I like to add the chocolate as it gives your fondant a delicious depth of flavour, but it is optional)do not use candy based couverture or baking wafers unless they are real chocolate. I use Callebaut or Ghirardelli.

Put the gelatine,water, glycerine,veg. shortening and corn syrup into a small saucepan and very gently warm it until the gelatine dissolves and it is clear. Never let it come to a boil.

In a very large bowl, pour the mixture over the confectioners sugar and mix well. It will still be very soft. Knead in the chocolate, if using. Place the mixture into a ziploc bag and let it set up overnight. The next day, if needed, you can knead in some extra confectioners sugar until it is the consistency you want. At this point you can color your fondant if you wish. Please use gel colorings for this.

 

 

 

 

cake recipe loosely adapted from: Red Velvet Cupcakes – Martha Stewart Recipes

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