cake and clothes: March 2010

hello everyone, yesterday was my cake buddy jenny's baby shower and i had the privilege of making her baby shower cake. We decided to go for a 2 tiered (9" round and 6" round) orange and poppyseed cake with dark chocolate ganache covered in a thin layer of fondant. The design was inspired by my favourite cake decorator- faye cahill (http://www.fayecahill.com.au/Childrens/childrens.htm). If you haven't seen her website yet, i definitely recommend it, she has the most amazing cakes and classes also. I want my wedding cake from faye. Anyways here is my attempt (which is no were near as good as what you can buy from faye cahill), but i was happy with it and i know jenny loved it- which is most important.

I've decided the thing i love most about cake decorating is people's reactions towards the cake. I love making them also but it's the people who i share the cake with, which make me enjoy it the most.

In total the cake took me 7 hours to decorate (not including baking time).

The lesson i learnt from this cake were the polka dots. I always thought polka dots were randomly dotted onto a cake, however even randomness needs planning. To get the polka dot effect i marked where the dots would go with my quilting ruler (which marks out 1 inch squares). It was really important to do this to get the polka dots looking nice and in the right place.

I have 2 more cakes coming up which i am very excited about- one for my cousin's girlfriend which is a tiffany box cake and the other for my friend annaleise's 30th birthday. There is just so much happening in the land of cake decorating!

Hello everyone it's been so long since i've posted, sorry if there is anyone out there who follows by blog- please be someone...

Anyways last night i decided i really wanted to try this recipe from the womens weekly called vanilla and current cookies with a frosting. I then realised they were my favourite biscuit in the world (well favourite packet biscuit which are arnotts venetians). The other reason i decided to make them was because they remind me of broken hill (especially of min who also has a love for venetians). So here is my recipe (actually stolen from the womens weekly and since it was so perfect- i didn't modify them). The only thing i would have done differently was to make then thinner so they are cruncher rather than a soft cookie (which is what happened to mine).

Christines (stolen from the womens weekly) venetians:

Ingredients:

Cookie:

125g butter softened

splash vanilla essence

165g castor sugar

1 egg

300g self raising flour

40g desiccated coconut

40g dried currents

Icing:

240g pure icing sugar

splash vanilla essence

1.5 teaspoons butter softened

splash of milk

Method:

Preheat oven to 180 degrees Celsius fan forced, line a cookie tray with gladbake.

Cream butter, sugar, egg and vanilla essence till light and fluffy in a mixer.

Add flour and mix with a wooden spoon till incorporated- it will look like a cookie dough.

Add coconut and currents and mix to combine.

Roll into small balls (about a tablespoon) and flatten onto tray (make then quite thin if you want them crispy and thicker if you want a chewy cookie).

Bake for about 12 minutes or until lightly brown.

Prepare icing:

Add the butter and vanilla to the icing and mix with a fork till it looks crumbly. Add milk until a very thick paste forms.

Using a double boiler technique (like melting chocolate), melt the icing till its spreadable.

Spread over cookies and let the icing set and the cookie cool.

Enjoy them with a cup of tea or coffee or on its own as i did!

Anyways i plan on posting a lot more since i am making a baby shower cake this weekend for my cake buddy jenny (pressure's on since she is an amazing cake decorator also). So stay tuned for me baby shower cake which i am very excited about.

I also thought i'd post pics from christmas of the gingerbread house i made and the christmas cupcakes which were a red velvet cupcake with white chocolate ganache covered in thin fondant. It was so much fun making the gingerbread house but for next time i will remember to make it shorter (since it almost toppled over- the first thing i said on christmas morning was 'is it still standing'). The recipe for the gingerbread was perfect for the house since it was a firm cookie from bourke st bakery's cookbook. Oh how i loved christmas...