The Beatles & West Ham?

Mad about "The Beatles" and support  "West Ham"! If so this cake fits the bill.

"The Beatles" logo was copied from the internet, printed to required size and cut out. The templates were then used on rolled out flower paste to cut all the required components before being left to dry.
The Electric guitar was from a cutter but this could have been done in the same way.
The scarf is blue and burgundy oblongs/rectangles the same height as the cake, cut from sugar paste/fondant. These are then attached close together, making sure there are no gaps and made to meet in the middle, front of the cake. Small cuts are made on the join to give a fringe effect.

What will it Bee!

Novelty baby shower cake, covered in yellow sugar paste / fondant, decorated with sugar daisies and bumble bees with the caption "What will it Bee?"

Ruffles, Pearls and Lace, three tier Wedding cake

Pretty in pink, this three tier cake has been decorated with rose effect ruffles, pearl beads with drops and embossed lace. Roses finish off the top tier which has a lustre shine.

What quantities of ingredients do I need for my cake tin?

How much mixture do I need for this tin, what recipe and quantities should I use?

These questions are regularly asked and it is very difficult to give a straight answer as there are so many variants, size, shape and height of tin for example, hopefully this chart will help?

As a general rule, measurement of ingredients for round tins are the same for petal, heart, hexagonal and octagonal. 

Square tins however need more mixture, so for a 6" square use the 7" measurements, 7" square tin the 8" and so on.

Madeira Cake Ingredients for different sized round cake tins all 3" deep

Here's what to use;	6" (1200ml)	7" (1800ml)	8" (2100ml)	9" (3000ml)	10" (4000ml)	12" (4500ml)
Butter, softened	150g	226g	276g	376g	500g	560g
Caster Sugar	200g	300g	366g	500g	660g	750g
Vanilla Essence	1 tsp	1½ tsp	2 tsp	2½ tsp	3 tsp	3½ tsp
Medium Eggs (53g)	3  (159g)	5  (265g)	6  (318g)	8  (424g)	10  (530g)	11  (583g)
Plain Flour, sieved	225g	338g	412g	566g	745g	845g
Baking Powder	1½ tsp	2½ tsp	3 tsp	4 tsp	5 tsp	6 tsp
Milk	3 tbsp	4 tbsp	5 tbsp	7 tbsp	9 tbsp	11 tbsp
Approx Baking Times	35-40 min	45-50 min	60-65 min	70-80 min	90-100 min	110-120 min

Approximate baking times are based on;

Pre heated oven 170°C/150°C fan/gas 3


Here's how to make it;

Line your tin with greaseproof paper and sieve the flour and baking powder ready for later.

Beat together the butter and sugar until light and creamy before adding the eggs gradually, continue beating until it is all incorporated. This is best done in a mixer or with a hand blender.
Now you can add the vanilla essence, flour and baking powder.
The milk is added at the end, add enough to make the batter loose, so it will fall off a spoon.

Tip the batter into the cake tin and make sure that the top is smooth before baking.

Test that your cake is ready with a cake tester or skewer, insert in to the middle of your cake, if it comes out clean it is ready.
Baking times are only a rough guide as all ovens are different, so always keep an eye on your cake so as not to over or under bake it.

Leave the cake to cool for a while before removing it from the tin, peel off the paper and leave on a wire rack until completely cool.

It will keep for a few days in an air tight container or alternatively, wrap it in plastic and freeze, for up to a couple of weeks, celebration cakes are much more easily decorated from frozen.

I hope you find this information useful and it helps you achieve the perfect cake!

Spooky Halloween Cake!

This three tier novelty cake is the perfect table centre piece for a Halloween party. Made from 10" and 8" round cakes and a 6" sphere for the pumpkin.

The base cake is covered in purple sugar paste and allowed to dry over night in order to ease the addition of the decoration. This is done with a black edible pen by copying haunted house pictures found on internet, first with an outline and then colouring in to achieve dark silhouettes.
The moon is a large circle of bright yellow sugar paste, attached with edible glue and painted round with orange food colour to give a more subtle but spooky appearance.
Grave stones, which are just crosses are added between the houses and a tree branches break up the moon along with a few bats in flight.
Grey food colour is painted in the sky for haunting clouds and finally twinkly lights add the finishing touch to the houses with bright yellow food colour painted on with a very fine brush.

The mummy tier is covered in white before adding strips of pale grey sugar paste cut randomly then attached with edible glue. Two eyes are made from bright green balls of paste with smaller black, red then yellow balls added to make scary eyes, these are stuck on with the glue and more strips are added around them to give the effect of them peeping through the bandages. A dusting of dark grey food colouring to finish makes it look old and dirty.

In order to cover a sphere you will need your orange sugar paste to be quite thick, this gives you more time for moulding and makes it less likely to crack. Place the paste over the cake and wrap around with your hands smoothing as you go, the base need not be covered as it will sit on top of the mummy. When covered mark on some grooves going from top to bottom with the back of a knife and
add a green stalk and with some leaves to the top.
The features are cut from black sugar paste, the eyes are triangles, the smiley mouth a zigzag line turned up at the ends, attached with glue.

After the cakes have been stacked, roll out a strip of red sugar paste about an inch wide with one straight edge, this sits against the cake and one wavy edge. Attach to the cake drum, you'll need to use one that is 14" round in order to take the decoration, then add some tear drop shaped balls of paste to look like blood dripping from the cake down the board.

That's about as frightening as I can do, what a wimp! It's not too terrifying for little tots either!
Hopefully it's given you some ideas for your own SPOOKY Halloween cake.

Watch out for that bumpy road!

This cake decoration is achieved with a simple car cutter and added detail to make this fun, bright & colourful birthday cake, perfect for your little back seat drivers!

This 10" round sponge cake and 13"cake drum have been covered with a bright ice blue sugar paste/fondant.

Any One For Tennis!

This tennis court cake is great for Wimbledon fans. Grass effect green sugar paste/fondant, crisp white lines, net with posts, racquets, new balls, and not to forget the score, which is a great way to add a persons age and a sneaky little message!

The grass effect can be achieved with a veining mat or with a kitchen scourer, a new one of course!
Cover the cake with green sugar paste/fondant and immediately press on the mat or the scourer for the grass, this needs to be done before the paste begins to form a skin and starts setting.

For the white lines, roll out flower paste very thin, cut into even width strips and attach to the cake with edible glue to form the lines of a tennis court.

The net is also made from thinly rolled flower paste, cut into even strips, long horizontal strips the width of your cake and shorter vertical strips 2" long. Space the 2" strips evenly along some non stick paper and apply edible glue, then place the long strips evenly spaced across, attaching a extra wider band along the top of your net and a thicker band down the centre, like a real net and it also adds some extra support. Leave this to dry thoroughly.

Lolly sticks are supporting the wooden posts, they are pushed down into the cake and brown flower paste is rolled into a sausage shape then placed over the stick to cover it. Using a craft knife cut down the inside of the posts to make a slit which will hold the net in place with the help of some edible glue.

Racquets are made with sugar paste rolled into really thin sausages, shape into an oval about the size of a ten pence piece, then add a "V" shaped sausage for the neck and a black handle. The strings are piped royal icing as are the little bouncy lines around the cake.

Tennis balls are also sugar paste in yellow with piped white markings to give a better effect. For the top of the cake the balls are completely round and for the sides they are cut in half with the flat part attached to the cake.

Any Score can be added, in this case it was a 50th birthday cake for a lady from her husband, hence "50 - Love". How Sweet!

Piñata Cake With Surprises Inside!

This Piñata cake is packed with surprises, brightly decorated with multi coloured sponge layers to match and filled with yummy sweets. Kids love them!

I made this one for my 29 year old big kid and she and her friends loved it! Filled with their favourite sweets it's a great surprise, in my daughters case it was Dolly Mixtures, Skittles and M&Ms, but you can use any. It's more effective if they are out of the packet so that they tumble out of the cake as the first slice is cut!

For this cake I used a basic sponge recipe as gel colours needed to be added to the mixture which would require a good bit of mixing, if you use something like a genoese recipe you will end up beating all the air out.

Ingredients

225g (8oz) Self Raising Flour
225g (8oz) Butter, at room temperature
225g (8oz) Caster Sugar
4 Eggs
1 tsp Baking Powder
1 tsp Vanilla Essence

Method

Mix all the ingredients together in one bowl, divide into 2 and colour each one differently.

I used Pink, Yellow, Green, Blue, Orange and Purple. You can fill two 8" lined and greased sandwich pans out of each batch so you will need to make 3 batches in total for 6 brightly coloured layers.

Make sure you use bake stable food colour to achieve a bright baked finish, in a gel or paste so it will not alter the consistency of the cake mixture.
Bake in a preheated oven at 180°c/ Gas mark 4 for approximately 15-25 minutes.

When cooled cut out the centre of 5 of the cakes and stack using butter cream, fill with you chosen sweets and add the last layer. Thinly coat the outside with butter cream.

Using your food colours from the sponge make 6 different coloured batches of butter cream and with a frill tube pipe from the bottom of the cake to the top and then into the centre, alternating colours as you go.
We got about 30 portions from this cake and they were generous! So you could get more!

If you would prefer to watch how this Piñata cake is made and decorated there will be a video following shortly.

Hope you enjoy making this cake, it's well worth the effort for the surprised and happy faces!
Let me know how you get on and what you filled yours with?

Sprinkles aren't just for sprinkling!

Fab & Fun Rainbow Sprinkles Cake!
This eye catching cake is oh so simple, all you need is sugar paste, sprinkles and edible glue.

After covering your cake with sugar paste, apply a thin layer of edible glue all over the surface and press the rainbow sprinkles on flat with your hands removing any excess. Placing it on a white covered cake drum emphasises the chaotic pattern of the sprinkles, as does having a plain white cake to set off the numbers. These are cut out of flower paste and left to dry before applying the glue and sprinkles in the same way.
It's advisable to keep patterns separated to avoid clashing of colour and design, complementing your creation.

Cake Drum, Board or Card, that is the Question!

What do you use and when? This is one of the most frequently asked questions in our showroom.

Cake drum is the thickest at 13 mm, covered in foil and comes in many shapes, including hexagonal, heart and oblong, sizes from 6" to 20" and colours such as silver, gold, black, pink, blue and purple.
These are perfect for heavy fruit cakes or as a base for a wedding or special celebration cake.
As a guide you would normally have a cake drum two inches larger than the cake, 8" cake, 10" drum, however if you are icing the drum, as you probably would with a Wedding cake it's advisable to opt for three or even four inches bigger, 10" base cake, 13"/14" cake drum this an important consideration as most cake stands at the venue or to hire are at least 14" and will help to enhance the overall appearance.

Cake boards are 3 mm thick and made from very strong board in order to take the weight of heavy cakes including those to be stacked as in the case of multi tiered Wedding cakes. Being more cost effective they are frequently used in the making of novelty and celebration cakes. Also available in different shapes, sizes and designs, they are a great way to set off your creation.

Cake cards at 2 mm thick are ideal for multi tiered stacked cakes where the boards need to be hidden from view, using the same size board as your cake they are for gateaux, sponges, and light weight cakes. Available with hygienic silver foil covering in round and square, sizes from 3" to 12".

Polycoated cards are the thinnest at 1.5 mm and have a non stick coating so will not allow the moisture from your cake to leach through. Available in 6" to 12" round and 6" to 10" square they are ideal for gateaux and light sponges. Also used for tiered cakes like the cards but not as heavy duty, so small light weight cakes only.

Gold and Silver foil is also available if you would like to reuse tired or damaged boards to reduce waste and keep your costs to a minimum.

I hope you found this information useful and that it has help you make an informed decision with regards to which one and when!

Baby Shower Cakes

Baby Shower Cakes are becoming increasingly popular, the term shower assumed to mean to shower the mother to be with gifts, such as , nappies, bottles, clothes, blankets and toys.
Traditionally for the first child and women only, they are hosted by a friend rather than a family member as it is considered rude to request gifts for our own families, however they are increasingly arranged by the baby's grandmother.
I remember when I had my first child twenty eight years ago, it was considered unlucky to celebrate or to have anything baby orientated in the house before it's safe arrival. The cot, pram and all the other paraphernalia were kept out of sight, usually at the baby's grand parents and would miraculously appear on the new families return from hospital with your new bundle of joy!
Now everything is prepared and celebrated up to a month before baby's arrival with some mothers choosing "it's a girl" or "It's a boy"  when the gender is known in advance, to adorn their cakes.

How times have changed!
 

If your organising a Baby Shower, and the gender is a surprise, why not try this easy cake below, it's covered in neutral yellow sugar paste with pastel pink , blue and green polka dots with some baby building blocks and edible ribbon, also made from thinly rolled sugar paste?

Mix And Match Side Design Cake

A set of side design cutters have been used to create this dramatic cake, with metallic gold modelling paste and Midnight black "Roll n Cover" sugar paste, set off by a black cake drum.

Gold modelling paste is a great product, after cutting into small pieces it's best warmed in the hand before working a piece at a time to make it pliable. It's then ready to roll out nice and thin on a surface greased with a small amount of petal base, this makes it easy to release and prevents it from drying out. Lightly grease the cutters before cutting out your shapes, this 8" round, 5" deep cake needed 20 pieces. After covering your cake with Midnight black sugar paste you can attach your decoration with edible sugar glue, making sure you line them up straight and put one directly above the other. Ruffle flowers are made from three different sized circle cutters after preparing the gold paste the same way, you fold the circles into ruffles and glue together before drying in some formers to hold there shape. They can be added to the cake when they are dry.

12 Steps To The Perfect Cake Covering

1. Find what works for you

You're unique, what you like others might not, from your taste in music, clothes, food to cars, holidays and much more. The same applies to sugarpaste, each brand is slightly different. It’s important you find a brand you like and can work with.

2. Temperature, temperature, temperature

Sugarpaste is basically glucose and icing sugar, therefore for better or worse it’s consistency is dictated by temperature. Sugarpaste that’s too hot will be sticky, leave marks and not hold its shape well. On the other hand sugarpaste that is too cold will be hard, difficult to work with and can crumble and tear. So it’s important you learn to manage the temperature of your sugarpaste.

Large quantities of sugarpaste are best stored out of direct sunlight and in a cool, dry place. Then the day before you want to use it store it at room temperature.

3. Failing to prepare, is preparing to fail!

If covering a cake is all about obtaining and maintaining the correct working temperature you need to make sure your paste isn’t going to sit there getting too hot or cold while you get your things ready. So make sure you have everything you need at your disposal and you have enough room to work in.

4. Measure twice, cut once

When you think you’re ready to cover your cake, stop. Look at your cake more closely. Are there any special points you need to take into account? Things like sharp corners or odd bumps in novelty cakes can ruin the finish if you go in all guns blazing. Plan what you're going to do, where you need to be careful and after you’ve read the rest of this guide how your going to do it.

5. What you knead to know

Kneading your sugarpaste is all about getting heat into it. Use the heel of your hands to compress and push the sugarpaste away from you, then fold it back over itself, turn the sugarpaste and repeat. After a few kneads, fold the sugarpaste in on itself to create a flat top. If the top is stress and crack free, its ready to roll.

6. Rolling out the sugarpaste

Rolling out sugarpaste is an art in itself. To start, dust the working area with a light covering of icing sugar. If your rolling out coloured icing you need to use as little as possible, especially with black, red and dark blue. Using a non-stick rolling pin and gently roll the sugarpaste. After a few rolls turn the sugarpaste round 90°, DO NOT turn it over. Continue to roll and turn the paste, check it can move freely from the table, if not, use some more icing sugar. Roll the paste to approximately 1cm/½inch thick. You should now be left with a rough circle of sugarpaste without any cracks or imperfections.

7. Avoiding air bubbles

Even the best decorators will get air bubbles in the paste from time to time. If you do, use a sharp knife or pin to burst the air bubble. Then use your finger to push out all the air from one end of the bubble to the other.

8. The big secret

I’ve been drumming into you that covering a cake is all about the temperature of the sugarpaste. Well I’m not about to stop now, although you got plenty of heat in the paste when you kneaded it most of this will now of dissipated and you’ll be left with constantly hardening paste. So the main secret for covering a cake is as follows. Using the palm of your hand, rub the surface of the sugarpaste. It should start to become shiny, do this until the whole surface is polished.

9. Covering the cake

You need to work quickly here to keep the heat in your sugarpaste. Fold the sugarpaste over your rolling pin and place on the cake polished side up (as you had it on the table). If the top of your cake is flat, use the rolling pin and gently roll the paste onto the top of the cake. This will remove any air bubbles.

10. Gently does it

Carefully hold the sugarpaste off of the edges of the cake. Then using your hand, in a cupped shape, gently push the paste against the cake in a controlled way, making sure you exclude any air. Once you’ve got it placed correctly cut off most of the excess (leave approximately 1cm.)

11. Repairing cracks

A sharp corner, drying paste, too much pressure. Cracks can appear in your sugarpaste for many different reasons. Even using all of the above techniques it still can happen from time to time. However there are ways of covering them up or even repairing them completely. Cracks are due to the paste being stretched too far. Most cracks can be repaired by simply rubbing around and moulding the sugarpaste together.

12. Smoother operator

You now need to smooth and polish the surface of the sugarpaste to perfection. Use a ‘smoother’ to achieve this finish, this will stop you leaving marks and finger prints in/on the paste. Once you’ve smoothed the cake, cut off the remaining excess paste, then using the straight edge of the smoother neaten up the cut.