Clothes for my Food: Two Tier Cake

Monday, November 1, 2010

2 Tier Fondant Decorated Cake =)

Finally, I have something to post again!! Ok ... I think from most of my previous post, you would know by now that I’m just too crazy in love with food decorating.... especially for bakery goods! Since the day I signed up for the ...

“Fabulous 2-Tier Fondant Cake Decorating Workshop” at Sugar Inc. ,

I’ve been anticipating for the day to come ever since. This time, I really had the chance of assembling a cake from scratch...

Let me guide you through the normal cake assembling process:

1^st

I call that gadget to cut the cake into perfect halves "THE SAW"

Look at the perfect half!! i would never be able to do it with just a knife =S

– cut the cake into 2 halves or 3 halves (if the cake is tall enough, cut it across the height of the cake)

2^nd

YumYum Vanilla Buttercream!

– spread buttercream on one halve (here is where you can put your surprise in your cake... such as fruits or ganache or nuts!! So that when you cut open the cake.. u see a layer of decadent fruits awaiting for you to take a bite! =D), then top with another layer of cake

3^rd

– Crumb coat the cake. Basically this is just spreading a thin layer of buttercream ALL over the cake to fill up for holes and unevenness of cake. With crumb coating done, you will get a close to perfect cake! Hehe =P

4^th

– Refrigerate the cake to allow the buttercream to set (for me... I feel that to allow the buttercream to slightly harden or become firmer... so that it is much easier to cover the cake with fondant later on =) )

5^th

– Rolling out of fondant (the size of the rolled out fondant has to be big enough to cover the whole cake)

6^th

– take out the cake and covering cake with fondant. Smooth the sides and top, cut the excess fondant and TA DA!!!! A cake covered with fondant!!! =D

7^th

– decorate with anything your heart desires... Just make sure... they go well with everything that is on the cake!

In the class, I learnt how to stack the two tiers together. Just like a building, cakes need support too... can imagine a 5 tier wedding cake without any support system??? Well... that calls for a disaster!!! From what I’ve learnt through baking shows and books, dowels are the basic support system for a cake. They are like straws that are either made of wood or plastic. The one that we used in the class were rather innovative... Considering our cakes weren’t too big, we actually used bubble tea straws!!then we topped it with royal icing and stack the second tier on top... the royal icing will harden thus acting like an edible glue!! Hehe... doweling was one of the technique I’ve been yearning to learn and I’m glad that the workshop covered it! =D

Miss Anna showing us how to add the "dowels" into the cake and marking them so that we can cut off the excess...

here is dowels! in the cake!

Next thing that excite me was the fact that I got to do stencilling!!! I am super glad that I have the chance to do stencilling!!! It is one of the easiest way of decorating a cake but requires you to be very neat! =)

As you can see on the second tier, I have stenciled the pattern. Now moving on the the bottom tier.. this is the only stencil the helper found that was small enough for my cake hehehe so yea... the cake was not that big =)

Alright... I think I have said enough... Let the pictures do the talking!! =D

My finished cake!!! so do you like it???!! =)

suddenly my cake look so dark... poor lighting

I learnt to make this ribbon from YouTube!! by a cake decorator named EDNA (she works for Wilton)!

Details of the ribbon... guess wat! we actually used a sewing tool for the details... the tool is the one that we used to draw lines on fabric... the one that looks like a pizza cutter with jaggared edges =P

My fellow workshop mates' creations!! plus mine

I love the colour of this cake... very unique and modern!

Cakes are afterall meant for eating... so no matter how pretty it is... cut it and enoy the burst of flavours that awaits you! =D

I hope you have enjoyed my blog post!!! Do drop me a comment yea!! will like to hear from you!!

Sunday, September 19, 2010

My First Order

A week ago, when my best friend asked me to make a cake for her to celebrate her friend’s birthday, I had mixed feelings. First, I was very excited about my very first order. Second, I was nervous and was afraid that I won’t be able to pull this off.

Planning......

So it all started when she asked me and I said yes.. And the planning begins. My vision for the mini cake was to make a two tier cake.

She requested for:

-chocolate cake that wasnt too sweet

-small cake fit for 3 people ( I was glad the order was small, couldn’t imagine how I could handle a bigger cake. =P)

-fudgy icing for the coating.

Searching for Recipes......

After looking at recipes I’ve tried, I finally decided for chocolaty shortcake with chocolate icing. I didn’t want to make buttercream... not skilled for it yet... so icing is the closest I can go.

Then, we went on to look for ideas to decorate this cake. I googled for chocolate decorated cakes and saw endless pictures of delectable chocolate cakes. Now, time to choose. We agreed on having long chocolate curls lining up the sides and to tie the ribbon around it. With roses on the top and a 22 made with white fondant.

The Cake suppose to look something like this.. with only two tier instead of 3. =)

Shopping......

Friday, 17 September 2010, 8.30pm. After a long day at school, I had to buy the ingredients for the cake. Tired. Sleepy. Stressed. Wished I could just fall and land on a bed. No matter how tired, I must be responsible for the promise I made. So, I made my may to Poon Huat. While gathering my ingredients, I couldn’t find chocolate curls. The only thing is saw was a box of chocolate sticks. I was thinking maybe THAT was it. So, I went to ask the shop assistant.

“Uncle, are these chocolate culrs?"

Uncle said, “Yea, Chocolate long long ..Chocolate stick chocolate stick”.

When I reached home, I was so disappointed to see that they are not the curls I wanted... super disappointed... lucky my friend said it was ok and she didn’t mind.

the chocolate sticks.... had to find a way of using this on the cake..

Baking......

Saturday, 18 September 2010, 9 am. Time to bake the cake!! Baking the cake was easy. It’s assembling the cake together that is the difficult process. I used a cutter to cut my cakes since the cake was supposed to be small. The round cutters are one of the important tools you need if you love making miniature cakes. It saves your money of buying many round cake moulds and definitely saves you time. (Be a smart consumer =P)

They had round ones, curly edges ones, and even heart shaped ones. They are definitely good investments. =P

I didn’t manage to take pictures while I was icing the cake since my assistant (my little sister cum photographer) wasn’t around. These are the only pictures I managed to snap. When Icing your cake,

its good to have a trunable ( helps you to turn the cake easily ) and to line cake plate with four strips of parchment paper to form a square outline. this helps to stop the icing from running onto the plate. A tip I learned from Nigella Lawson (my idol =D).

Struggling my way through, I finally came to the last part of the cake making, arranging the chocolate sticks.

Pardon my messy icing. Afterall, its going to be covered with the chocolate sticks. =P

Sadly, my chocolate sticks had fat bloom.

See the white specks????

What is fat bloom?

Well, fat bloom is common in chocolate that has not been stored properly and have been exposed to widely fluctuating temperatures. They are actually the cocoa butter (fat) that infiltrates to the surface. As they the chocolates undergo wide temperature changes, the cocoa butter rises to the surface, crystallizes and forms gray or white specks on the chocolate.

How to remove it?

By easily wiping it off! however, this is not the case for sugar bloom. well, sugar bloom is a whole another topic.. hahaha! shall not cover it here. =)

Finally......

After I’m done with the decorations, my cake was ready!! We decided to put the “22” and the roses on Sunday, since my box wasn’t tall enough. Hehe.

Special Thanks to:
Andrea - for believing and trusting me with me this cake... thank u Andrea!!
My Mum - for helping me clean up my mess and for giving me encouragement all the way
Aishah ( my little sister) - for just being there for me =)

without them, I don't think I will be able to complete this cake. Many many Thanks! <3

Oh well, enough stories!! Feast your eyes on my very first two tier cake. Share your comments about my cake and tell me how I can make my future cake better yea! I will very much appreciate your inputs!!! =D