Fondant Welcome Home Cake

I made this quick and easy cake on Saturday for my cousin G. in Baltimore and her cute new baby daughter. The cake itself is a chocolate chiffon cake with vanilla buttercream. The cake topper is a white chocolate baby pram with royal icing decorations.

Resources:
Chocolate Chiffon Cake recipe from here

Cakeworks for Mahanandi: Devils Food Chocolate Cake

I am really lucky and honored that my first order in my new Cake baking venture, CAKEWORKS, came from Indira of Mahanandi. I am much obliged to her for her thoughtfulness and support. Indira ordered this cake for an event in Philadelphia, the 29th of March.

Indira says via email,"Cake looks yummilious!:) Great job with the decoration. I like it."

This cake is an all butter devils food chocolate cake with chocolate ganache filling. The two buildings on top of the cake are the Liberty Place buildings in downtown, that I have modeled out of vanilla chiffon cake. The cake is covered with chocolate and white fondant. The roofs of the buildings are non edible and carved out of foam.























I hope to develop a professional career in baking over the years. I will be posting detailed recipes and instructions on my baking blog, Cakeworks.

Colettes Birthday Cakes

Reference recipes from Colette Peters
1. Rolled Fondant:
2 pounds confectioners sugar
1/4 cup cold water
1 tbsp unflavored gelatin
1/2 cup white corn syrup
11/2 tbsp glycerine
1tsp flavoring
liquid coloring if desired

Soak the gelatin in the water for five minutes. Melt gelatin over low flame until liquid is clear, add glycerin, corn syrup and flavorings. Add to sugar. Mix with fork until all liquid is incorporated. Knead gently with hands until all sugar is incorporated. Cover well with plastic wrap and keep overnight.

Mix with dye as required. Go slowly, lighter shades can be made darker but not viceversa. Ive used Candy dyes so far, because they are oil based and work very well with fondant. To be specific, Chefmaster and wilton candy dyes. Iam not sure how well water based dyes will work with fondant.

Cooks notes: Could try flavored gelatin next time. For flavor , oils seem to work best, tangerine, orange, lemon. Gives off a nice strong enticing aroma. Although the recipe calls for resting the dough overnight, I have mixed and used fondant immediately - worked just fine. Would love to know the advantages of letting the fondant rest overnight.

To cover a cake with fondant:
Required: A crumb coated cake, fresh buttercream or royal icing, dyed fondant. For a square cake, cover opposite vertical sides first . Then cover the other two sides. It is relatively easy to get straight edges if your cake is straight. However, the overlap is still seen. Usually other people seem to get around this by using decorations to hide the seam.

For any cracks, use white crisco or vegetable oil to smooth over.

2. Royal Icing
2 large egg whites
1/2 tsp cream of tartar
2 tsp water
1 pound confectioners sugar ( 3 3/4 cups)


Combine all ingredients until well mixed slowly. Beat until stiff peaks form. For Stiffer icing add more sugar, for looser icing add more water.

3. Modelling Chocolate
10 ounces Confectionary coating
3 ounces light corn syrup

Melt the coating in a bowl over simmering water. Add the corn syrup, combine and wrap in plastic wrap until cool. It will seem stiff, but will become smoother with the warmth of your hands.

See sample using chocolate chips here http://foodtravails.blogspot.com/2007/09/birthday-cake.html

4. Chocolate Ganache

12 ounces semi sweet choc chips ( 2 cups)
8 ounces hvy cream
2 tsp flavoring

Heat cream until just below boiling point. Add choc and cover five minutes. Stir. Cover Again. After five minutes, whisk until shiny

Cake Book Shelf

First Birthday cake

I made this cake for my daughters first birthday. My main inspiration has been Charm City cakes who have a charming (:)) show on Foodnetwork. I was nervous on a number of levels, this is the first time I was going something this big with cakes. This Cake was also a departure from my earlier Buttercream heavy style.

I narrowed down the process to the following steps:

1. Look at a lot of cake pictures and decide what kind of look and end product i wanted.(Princess cake, frilly cream detailed look, cool modern finish etc etc)
2. Decide on the number of people I wanted to serve
3. Then decide the shape of the cake, Do i want a single layer flat sheet cake or a tiered sculpted look etc
4. Model the cake in a 3d drawing software - Sketchup in this case to see if the proportions look good.
5. Decide on the non edible decorations: The balloons, Flying butterflies etc.
6. Make the gosh darn thing!


The final cake was a 6x6 square on top of a 10x10 square and served 40 people. The layers were Chocolate Chiffon cake with Vanilla Buttercream and Chocolate Ganache fillings that alternated. Boy was it delicious, even if i say so myself.

FROM CONCEPT
















TO REALITY

Wedding anniversary cake

Alphonso Mango Mousse Cake

Recipe
modified from Epicurious.com

This mousse cake is in three parts,
1. The cake base
2. The mango mousse
3. The miroir topping

For decoration i used chocolate butterflies piped on wax paper. Once dry i put the butterflies on top just before serving.

So here goes:
1. The cake base.

1/2 cup sifted cake flour ( Can substitute with all purpose)
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
2 large eggs
2 large egg yolks
1/2 cup sugar
2 tablespoons (1/4 stick) unsalted butter, melted

Position rack in center of oven and preheat to 400°F. Butter a jelly pan or tray or a lasagna foil pan - around 11 " by 9". Line bottom of cake pan with waxed paper. Butter paper and dust lightly with flour.
Sift flour and baking powder into medium bowl. Using electric mixer, beat eggs and yolks in large bowl until frothy. Gradually add 1/2 cup sugar and beat until pale yellow and slowly dissolving ribbon forms when beaters are lifted, about 4 minutes. Fold in flour mixture. Fold 1 heaping tablespoon batter into melted butter. Fold butter mixture back into batter. Pour batter into prepared pan. Bake until cake is just golden brown around edges and toothpick inserted into center comes out clean, about 10 minutes. Cool cake completely in pan on rack.

2. Mango Mousse
1/4 cup orange liqueur ( I used bourbon - if you are not comfortable with alcohol substitute with water)
1 package unflavored gelatin (Knox )
1 tin Alphonso mango slices ( from Indian store)
1/2 cup sugar
1 cup chilled whipping/heavy cream

Pour liqueur into small bowl; sprinkle gelatin over. Let gelatin soften 10 minutes. Puree mango slices in blender. Donot add any water. If the mango slices are in a juice, carefully remove all the juice into a bowl and reserve for miroir. Add sugar to mango puree in processor and blend well. Set bowl of gelatin on top of a saucepan of simmering water,such that the bottom of the bowl does not touch the water . Stir until gelatin dissolves. Add gelatin mixture to mango in processor and blend. Whip cream in large bowl to soft peaks. Fold in mango mixture.

At this point, you should assemble the mousse cake and referigerate it for atleast three to four hours. In the pan with the cake , pour the mousse mixture . Cover pan with plastic wrap.

After about three hours, make the miroir.

Mango Miroir:
11/2 cups mango juice
1 tsp lemon juice
1 tbsp kirsch ( a liquer - can substitute with water)
1 tbsp water
1 tbsp gelatin ( = 1 envelope Knox)

Add the gelatin to about 1/2 cup of the mango juice in a small saucepan , soften for ten minutes. Melt the gelatin by putting the pan on gentle heat. Donot boil. As soon as the gelatin melts, the solution will become clear. Add all the other ingredients and the rest of the mango juice.

Remove the mousse and cake from the fridge, top with miroir and return to referigerator for another hour.

If you want to trim the edges neatly, place the container in the freezer for about 10 to fifteen minutes. Use a sharp knife to trim the edges neatly.

Top with chocolate decorations - Serve!!

Another Black Forest Cake

Birthday cake

Chocolate cake with chocolate Mousse

Modelling chocolate recipe:
8 ounces semisweet chocolate chips
1/4 cup plus 1 tablespoon light corn syrup

directions
Melt the chocolate in a metal bowl set over a pan of hot but not boiling water. Stir the chocolate with a wooden spoon until smooth, then stir in the corn syrup; the chocolate will stiffen almost immediately. Stir until completely combined. Transfer the chocolate to a sturdy plastic bag and refrigerate until firm.
Work the Modeling Chocolate with your hands until pliable. Hand-shape the Modeling Chocolate into flowers, braids or ropes. Or pat it into a disk and roll it out to the desired thickness by hand or in a manual pasta machine and use it to make ribbons or for cutting out shapes.

Cooks notes: Recipe from Colette peters. Easy to shape with a rolling pin. Melts pretty fast.

Devils Food Layered Chocolate Cake

Ive been away from the blog a couple of months now,welcoming the pitter patter of little feet in my life! Every moment since has been a joy and needless to say really hectic. When every moment in life is a celebration, you need cake.

Heres a quick recipe that i baked up for my little ones 3 month birthday( I know, a little- okay a lot over the top).

The Devils Food Layer Cake

To make one 9 inch cake

10 tbsp butter
11/2 cups sugar
3 eggs yolks separated from whites, whites stiffly beaten
2/3 cup cocoa powder dissolved in 1/2 cup hot water
1/2 tsp baking soda
1 cup buttermilk
2 cups sifted cake flour
2 tsp baking powder
1 tsp vanilla extract

Recipe adapted from my favorite cake cook book, Cakes.

Cream together the butter and the sugar. Beat the egg yolks well and stir them into the creamed mixture. Dissolve the soda in the buttermilk. Sift together the flour and baking powder, then add the flour to the creamed mixture alternately with the dissolved cocoa and the buttermilk mixture. Add the vanilla extract. Fold in the egg whites. Divide the batter evenly between two buttered and floured layer cake pans. Bake in a preheated 350 F oven for 30 to 5 minutes or until the top of the cake is springy to the touch. When the cake is cool, proceed to frosting.

For the frosting you can do as I did , use simple butter cream for the moldings and rich butter cream on the cake.The recipes for the butter creams follow.

Simple Butter Cream(Chocolate)
to make about 2 cups butter cream
9 tbsp unsalted butter, softened
41/2 cups confectioners sugar
6 tbsp light cream
11/2 tsp vanilla extract

2 oz unsweetened chocolate morsels( I used ghirardelli)

Beat the butter until it is fluffly. Gradually beat the sugar into the butter, alternately with the cream, until the sugar is absorbed. Beat in the vanilla extract. To flavor with chocolate, melt the chocolate morsels in a double boiler, cool slightly and fold it into the prepared butter cream. The butter cream should be of spreading consistency. If it is too thin beat in a little more sugar, if it is too thick , beat in a little cream.

Rich Butter Cream ( Chocolate)
to make 2 cups butter cream

1 cup sugar
1/2 cup water
5 egg yolks beaten
1/2 lb butter, softened
1 tbsp vanilla extract

3oz chocolate
Stir the water and sugar together in a saucepan set over medium heat until the sugar dissolves and the liquid comes to a boil. Let this syrup boil without stirring until its temperature reaches 217 - 220 F on a candy thermometer. If you donot have a candy thermometer you can eyeball it by putting the hot syrup in a bowl of cold water and checking to see if small threads form. Remove syrup from the heat. Whisking vigorously, or using a electric beater, pour the hot syrup into the egg yolks and continue to beat until the mixture is cool, light and fluffly. Donot forget to beat vigorously or you will end up with scrambled eggs! Cream the butter until it is very soft, then beat the butter and the vanilla extract into the yolk mixture until the mixture is shiny and firm enough to spread.

some tips: I have found that it is best if you have two or three sets of beater blades, cooled in the freezer and waiting so you can work without having to wash, and more importantly without warming your beater blades. Always use a drop or two of lime juice with your egg whites.

Bon Appetit!

Pineapple cake

Pineapple Upside down with fresh home made whipped cream:

I made this last night in about under an hour, with the recipe from lindystoast. As baking goes, the upside down cake ranks with apple pie and all things americana. I found recipe variations with different fruits- pear and apples. I added some cinnamon to the recipe and reduced all proportions to 1/3rd. Its difficult cooking for two!!

Black Forest Cake

http://www.flickr.com/photos/seian/3867454/in/set-201582/
I made this black forest cake today from recipe posted at the link above. It took me about an hour and a half . I referigerated it for a couple of hours before cutting and smoothing the edges. Oh and two touches not in the recipe- I added a touch of lime juice while beating the eggs for extra stiffness and i used cake flour not all purpose. thanks for a wonderfully easy recipe!!