Adventures in Cake Decorating: My 1st with Fondant!

Happy July friends! 

Scary that one of the “summer” months is already down! 

My weekend has been a combination of crazy, busy, delicious, and relaxing!  That’s a lot of different things for one weekend.

Friday -  Saturday: Crazy/Busy!  And OK, delicious.

My goddaughter Riley had her 3rd birthday party on Saturday and I was flattered when her mom (my good friend) asked if I’d make the cake!  See, Riley is allergic to eggs and my friend remembered when I made those yummy eggless Guinness cupcakes for St. Patty’s day this year, so she asked if I could make an eggless birthday cake!

I was especially excited when she told me it was a Tangled themed party.  For those of us without kids/not around kids…Tangled is the new Disney version of Rapunzel.

(source)

This was my first chance to make a fun, colorful, themed cake!! 

I started Googling “Tangled birthday cakes” and found some great ideas!  One of my favorite ideas involved making a long yellow (“blonde”) braid out of fondant to wrap around the cake!  This seemed like a fairly easy, but cool looking effect!

I had never used fondant before (and was never really a fan of the taste), so I was excited/nervous to try it out.  I asked my pastry chef aunt what kind she recommended to buy.  She directed me to the “Duff” brand.  Yeah, the guy from Ace of Cakes!  He has a whole line of colored fondants and other cake decorating supplies at Michaels stores. 

I bought a container of the yellow, and a small container of hot pink that I figured I could use for other decorations on the cake. 

After scanning through some recipes on line I decided to use this recipe for the cake:  Chocolate Layer Cake from Eggless Cooking, except I used the equivalent of 2 flax eggs instead of the applesauce.

And a raspberry mousse filling using these two recipes as a guide: Raspberry Mousse 1 & Raspberry Mousse 2.  My version involved:

• 1 bag frozen raspberries
• 1 cup sugar
• 1 packet gelatin
• 1.5 cups heavy cream

I heated the raspberries and sugar until the raspberries were breaking down, then added the gelatin, stirred and brought to a boil, lowered heat and kept stirring until it was all dissolved (next time I might dissolve gelatin first in some hot water).  This mixture needs to cool.  Then whip cream to soft peaks, and fold berry mixture in. 

Friday night I baked the cakes.  I did 1.5 times the recipe and made a 10” round, 8” round, and 6 cupcakes which I was planning to use as the “tower” on my cake. 

I also made the mousse Friday night and chilled overnight. 

Luckily I couldn’t sleep well that night and decided just to wake up at 5:30am Saturday morning (instead of the 7:30am I had set my alarm to).

This was a good thing considering I was working on that cake up until we left the house at 11:15am!!

First order of business was to slice the cakes to layer them.  I was NERVOUS!  Eggless cakes don’t hold together as well, and these layers were going to be thin!

Carefully…

Success!!

I then SLOWLY transferred the top layer back into the pan now lined with plastic wrap.

This went well for both cakes…I thought I was good to go!

Filled with the raspberry mousse:

All that was left was to put the other layer on top…that’s when THIS happened:

Yes I had to puzzle piece my top layer on the mousse!!!  OMG I was freaking out, but just had to go with it and decided that would be on the bottom of the cake.   

Luckily the 8” cake went better, then both went back in the fridge to set.

Meanwhile I got to work on my fondant braids :)

I rolled out long pieces of fondant (p.s. this stuff IS good, tastes like candy corn/circus peanuts).

I started to braid, but seeing as those strips ended up being almost 4ft long, it was NOT easy.  So I opted to break them and make 2 shorter braids.

The cupcakes for the tower were not staying together, so I used 4 cake cones, “glued” together with frosting.

In the back is some rolled out pink fondant, I used cookie cutters to make flowers, and also rolled out more to wrap around this cake cone tower.

Note: I used simple butter cream for this: butter, confectioners sugar, vanilla, cream.  Simple yet delicious, it’s my FAVORITE kind of frosting. 

Kitchen was a MESS at this point!

I began assembling and frosting the cakes.  I first did a crumb coat, which is a very thin layer of frosting which you let harden before applying the rest of it.  This is to prevent crumbs from mixing with your frosting (it’s okay if they mix with the crumb coat).

The mousse layer, even though it had chilled a couple hours, was bulging out the sides a little and in turn mixing with my frosting!  Even with the crumb coat!  I was having ISSUES.

This is where the fondant saved the day.  Now I get why this stuff is so popular for cake decorating!  It makes it SO easy to make a smooth clean finish…and/or cover up a crappy icing job ;)

I made a “stripe” out of the remaining pink fondant and wrapped it around the bottom layer.  The fondant braid covered a lot too…it was awesome.

I used two long “lollipop” sticks as dowels to hold the tower into the cake, and the top of the tower was a sugar cone covered in icing.

Ok, so it looked like a pastel Christmas tree to me, but give me a break…I’m learning.

I really wanted a “window” for the hair to be coming out of, but I just did NOT have the time or patience at that moment.  

I still have a LONG way to go in the cake decorating department but I was pretty pleased with how it came out!

And regardless of how it came out, I thought it tasted awesome!  That was a really nice cake recipe…very moist and chocolaty!   I’d probably use less filling next time too…or make double the cakes so the cake layers would be thicker. 

Now I’m itching to try another, but next time I’ll give myself MUCH more time the day before. 

Have you gotten into cake decorating?  Played with fondant??  That Duff brand was awesome…very forgiving.  It’s pretty much like edible play dough…screw up and just roll it back up and start over. 

Guinness Chocolate Cupcakes – Egg Free!

Happy Spring folks!!

Sometimes I sit down at the lap top and just stare at the screen for a while…I hate that.

But that’s one great thing about having a blog!  It’s mine, and if I want to take a little break I can :)  Of course I miss it, but it’s not worth stressing over. 

Also, it’s pretty amazing how fast time flies…it does NOT feel like it’s been over a week since I last posted!  Craziness.

Now, where were we?

Let’s see, this past weekend was St. Patty’s day, and while I tried to avoid the craziness that ensues in Boston, I did spend it with friends and some delectable cupcakes! 

My friend hosted a housewarming/St Patty’s day party and I was in the mood to make some cupcakes.

I went with a popular combo: Guinness chocolate cupcakes with Baileys butter cream.  However, I opted to make an EGG-free version as my friend’s daughter is allergic!

I’ve made egg-free muffins before, but they are usually meant to be a “healthy” treat.  I still wanted these to taste like classic chocolate cupcakes!

Most egg-free recipes I saw didn’t call for an egg replacer, but I opted to add a flax-egg anyways.

Of course the real stars were:

You don’t taste the beer in the cake, but it does make for a super moist cupcake!

Egg-less Guinness Chocolate Cupcakes
adapted from Smitten Kitchen and Taste and Tell

• 1/2 cup (1 stick) butter
• 1 cup Guinness
• 1/3 cup cocoa powder
• 1 1/2 cup All Purpose Flour
• scant 1 cup sugar
• 1 tsp baking soda
• 1 tsp salt
• 1 flax-egg (1 T ground flax + 3 T water)
• 1/3 cup sour cream
• 1 T vinegar

Pre-heat oven to 350. 

Make flax egg and set aside.  Takes 15-30 min to “set”

In a sauce pan, melt butter over medium heat.  Add stout and bring to a simmer.  Add cocoa powder and whisk together until combined.  Remove from heat. 

In a large mixing bowl, whisk together flour, sugar, baking soda, and salt. 

Once butter/cocoa mixture has cooled a bit, stir in sour cream, flax egg, and vinegar.  Pour this mixture into the flour mixture.  Mix gently to combine batter. 

Line cupcake tin, or MINI cupcake tin! 

Fill each cup about 2/3 – 3/4 full.

Bake mini cupcakes for 9-12 minutes, regular cupcakes for 16-20 min.

Once cool, I used the Smitten Kitchen recipe for the butter cream using salted butter (of course) and only 2 T of Baileys + 1 T of half and half.  You could definitely still taste the Baileys but I don’t like my baked goods overly boozy tasting. 

Frost!

Not only does using a pastry bag + tip make them look prettier, but it is so much faster!

YUM!!! 

The cake and the frosting were such a delicious combination!!!  I LOVE butter cream :)

Didn’t miss the egg one bit!  These cupcakes still held together great. 

I think everyone loved them as much as I did :) 

I know cupcakes are like “so last year” but I still love making them…especially in mini sizes!

And somehow it’s already bed time ;)  I’m telling you…time is FLYING!

Malt Ball Cupcakes

My mom’s birthday was a couple weeks ago!  I was excited to FINALLY make this recipe idea I’ve had in my head for over a year now.  You see she loves malt balls, malted milk shakes…all things malted and chocolate.  So why not a cake version!

I scoured some recipes online, and got some ideas.  I like the frosting recipe and presentation idea from here.   I also had my eye here, and on the back of the Trader Joe’s cocoa powder box when deciding on a cake.  I wanted a relatively simple cake…i.e. I just wanted to use cocoa powder instead of melting down chocolate.

Malted Chocolate Cupcakes

• 2 c. All Purpose Flour
• 1 1/2 c. cocoa powder
• 2/3 c. malted milk powder
• 1 tsp Baking Soda
• 1 1/2 tsp Baking Powder
• 1 tsp salt
• 2 tsp espresso powder (optional)
• 1 3/4 c. granulated sugar
• 1 stick butter (room temp)
• 4 eggs
• 1/2 cup sour cream
• 1 tsp vanilla extract
• 2/3 cup milk

Preheat oven to 350

In a mixing bowl combine flour, cocoa powder, malted milk powder, baking soda, baking powder, salt, and espresso powder.  Whisk together and set aside.

     

In another mixing bowl cream butter and sugar with an electric mixer (paddle attachment or hand mixer) until all combined and fluffy.  Add eggs 1 at a time, mixing after each.  Add sour cream, vanilla, and milk and mix until all combined and smooth.

Add flour mixture a little at a time, mixing until all incorporated.

Fill paper-lined muffin tins 2/3 of the way.

Bake 20-22 min for regular cupcakes, or

Bake 10 min for mini-cupcakes.

I made minis and regular size

one of these things is not like the other:

Let these guys cool, while you clean up and get ready to make the most delicious and simple frosting ever.

I basically used the same recipe as the one I saw here, but not quite the same quantities.  This is the type of frosting I grew up with and was probably the first type I ever made: butter + confectioners sugar + vanilla + milk.  So easy, SO SO SO good!!  It’s not the shiny, fancy, super-pretty frosting, but I’d take it over any of those Italian, Swiss, you-name-it types of butter cream ANY day. 

Malted Vanilla Butter Cream

• 1 box (1 lb) confectioners sugar
• 1 stick butter, room temperature
• 1 tsp vanilla
• 6 tablespoons malted milk powder
• 3-6 T milk

Combine all ingredients in a bowl including 3T milk.  Beat with an electric mixer until combined.  It will seem overly powdery at first, and add milk 1T at a time until desired consistency is reached but beat it for a while before you keep adding milk…you don’t want it to be too thinned out or it wont hold any shape while decorating! 

 
You want it THICK like paste…delicious paste. 

This tasted exactly like the middle of a malt ball but in butter cream form.  Heaven. 

Now for the fun part.  Decorating bags and tips are really not that expensive and I think it just takes your cupcakes to a whole new level.  People are so much more impressed.

I knew I wanted a Whopper on top before I even started this, but I also loved the look of the half Whopped I saw on the site I referenced for the frosting.  So I did both:  whole for the big cupcakes, halves for the minis.

I also played around with two different decorating tips.  I will say my frosting was maybe a smidge too thick as it was kind of hard to pipe but nothing a little muscle couldn’t handle.

 

I loved how they came out, they look so cute.  I brought some to a party, some to mom, and the rest to work…big hit all around :)

Last weekend before Christmas…has everyone finished shopping!?  I only have a few small stocking stuffers left so I feel pretty good.  Also pumped about this short work week and then vacation!!  Well not going anywhere but my company is closing from Christmas to New Years.  I can’t wait to just get stuff DONE around here!

Dark Chocolate-Orange Cake

But first, apparently my habits are catching on…

Brian: “I learned this from you!” 

Of course, then I made him stay there while I got my camera take a picture of him taking a picture of his beer :)

Ok, back to the dark chocolate!

This weekend was my friend Jenny’s bridal shower!  I offered to make a dessert and was asked to take care of the “chocolate” dessert.  Mmmm no problems there ;)

Of course I racked my brain for a while trying to think of something that would really satisfy a chocolate craving, as well as be very visually appealing.  When I learned there was no cake planned so far, I took that as my sign!

I went with one of my favorite flavor combinations:

Chocolate + Orange

This cake became a compilations of a few different recipes and my own ideas.

The shower was on a Saturday, so to save some time I made the cake on Wednesday night and wrapped it tight in plastic until frosting time Friday night.

The Cake 

I referenced this recipe for Double Chocolate Layer Cake for the cake and the ganache.

It started with a lot of this:

and this:

The cake recipe has coffee in it which I love…you can’t taste the coffee at all but it just makes the chocolate so much more intense!

Instead a round cake, I made 2 9” square layers.  They baked for about 50-55 min…a little less than the original recipe states.
(before going into the oven)

The Filling

The hardest part for me was figuring out what type of filling I wanted.  I didn’t want to make my usual buttercream (it’s delicious, but not the best looking and doesn’t hold up as well).

Then I was thinking more of a mousse-like filling, but really didn’t want to make a mousse.  It was Friday night and I wanted something a little simpler.  My final decision was the Swiss Meringue Buttercream recipe from my Joy of Cooking cookbook.  Recipe can also be found here.

It’s very similar to an Italian Buttercream, but a little easier as it doesn’t involve a cooked sugar syrup. 

I made a half-batch as I just needed it for the filling, and added about:

• 1 T Grand Marnier
• 1 T orange zest

The first part involved whipping a meringue-like mixture over heat, then continuing the whipping on high in the stand mixer. 

It was like clouds of marshmallow!  Those are some stiff peaks!!

It was then whipped in with butter…mmmm. 

I then assembled the layers and got to work on the chocolate-orange ganache frosting!

The Ganache Frosting

I went back to the original recipe.

I used Trader Joe’s chocolate

I didn’t have light corn syrup, but used 1T of dark corn syrup and it turned out delicious.  I also added another splash of Grand Marnier and orange zest from about 1/2 of an orange. 

Ganache is very easy to make.  The only pain was waiting for it to thicken up to a consistency where I could spread it.  I put the bowl in the freezer for about 5 min or so to speed that up :)

Then I spread.  I loved how dark and shiny it was…I looks like velvet!  You could pour or spread this on anything!  Let it harden up even more and make some truffles!

                  

Finishing Touch

My final touch was making some candied orange zest for a garnish. 

First some shots of the cake the next morning in some natural light!

I used this zester to peel strips off of an orange.  The strips are then boiled, drained, and re-cooked in a sugar/water mixture until they get kind of clear.

Let them sit and cool for a bit, then coat in sugar!

Garnish     

I LOVE how it came out!  It was delicious too!!  Very rich, very intense-chocolate flavor, with a subtle orange background flavor. 

I need more reasons to make cakes :)