Frozen Fever

I may have been away from this blog for a little while but I have still been baking on and off.

A few months ago, my daughter celebrated her birthday. For a good three or four months before her birthday, she was obsessed with the Disney film Moana. And we only picked up that film as part of a 2 for £12 offer on Disney DVDs in our local HMV. We had visited looking for Monster’s Inc. and had emerged from the store with characters Mike and Sully and Moana and Maui in our midst.

As with most kids, I thought that the Moana phase was simply just that: a phase. However, Christmas rolled around and Moana was still a firm favourite with my daughter to the point where she was singing songs from the film and pretending to be Moana (if you’re interested, I was cast as the role of Moana’s grandma; Moana’s mother; and even Hei Hei the chicken!). We entered the new year and Moana was still going strong and that’s when I set up a board on Pinterest for potential ideas for a Moana themed birthday cake.

 

I was SO excited to make this cake for her and knew that she would be uncontrollably excited for it. The sand of the beach was going to be made from crushed up biscuit; the sea was going to be ombre blue and turquoise colours piped like waves on the side of the cake; and I was even going to attempt a green swirl in the sponge for the Heart of Te Fiti. Her mind was going to be BLOWN.

And then came along two sisters in the form of Princesses Anna and Elsa.

And Moana was given the cold shoulder and had taken a back seat and it was literally back to the drawing board for me and ideas for the cake.

The Frozen phase was (and still is) going strong so I gave in and decided to make a Frozen cake for her birthday.

Now, if you have been a follower for sometime or have had a browse through previous posts, you would have stumbled across the Frozen cupcakes I baked for my niece many moons ago. Atop of the cupcakes were faces made from fondant of the loveable snowman, Olaf. I would have loved to have made the fondant figures to go on top of the cake and I think it would have been absolutely doable however, long gone are the days where I can sit at a table for hours just listening to music and playing with icing. I have two small children to look after now and time is precious and valuable and so, where possible, I have to perhaps cut corners or do things that are convenient to me. So I have no shame in announcing that when I decided to make a Frozen themed birthday cake for my daughter, that I bought a Frozen figure playset from the Disney Store and used them as cake toppers. Plus, they doubled up as an extra birthday present, huzzah!

Again, a board was set up on Pinterest and I set to researching ideas for the cake. In the end, I had decided to make a snow scene for the cake decoration. I borrowed some snowflake cutters from my Mom’s baking arsenal (and wondered why I don’t have any of my own?!) and cut out a variety of snowflakes in different shapes and sizes.

I first covered the cake in a light blue fondant and then draped white fondant over this, with a snow fall effect on the edges. To do this, I cut out a rough circle of white fondant and then went round the edges in waves with a pizza wheel (who knew a pizza wheel could be used for something other than pizza?). Once the cake had been covered in fondant, I then placed the snowflakes on top et voila, the cake was decorated. Once I was happy with the positioning of the snowflakes, I ‘glued’ them down using a little brush of water on the back of each snowflake. Once everything had settled on top of the cake, I then placed the figures on top.

Frozen Fever

It was a really easy cake to decorate and, as it was my first cake that I have decorated in a very long while, I don’t think it turned out too bad. It’s perhaps not my best but it certainly isn’t my worst!

My daughter loved it and had fun picking off the little snowballs from around the cake. If I’m honest, she was probably about 65% sugar for the week after her birthday as she tends to eat the icing or fondant or ganache off of a cake and then leaves the actual sponge. And enter Mommy to finish off the cake because, you know, we can’t waste food, especially cake! ;p

Happy baking!

Ps If you’re wondering, the answer is yes. I do have the Maui rap nailed!

Baking Break Up

Ok, so I guess that when I penned that last post, way back in 2016, I had told a big fat lie that I would share photos of recent baking experiences. To be honest, I can’t even remember what I was going to post up here! Probably a birthday cake? Maybe a tray of brownies? Who knows? *shrugs shoulders*
One thing I do know? I guess I had fallen out of love with baking for a little bit. There was no reason other than simply life got in the way. Family. Friends. Work. My priorities had shifted. And my enthusiasm for baking had waned a bit. Sadly, that meant baking had fallen to the bottom of my ever increasing to do list.
And so did writing.
This blog was a form of escapism for myself from that real world, from the hectic lifestyle I led and still do lead. However, I have found that recently when I have a few spare minutes to myself, I’m not actually doing anything for myself. I always seem to fill those few precious moments of peace by saying to myself, ‘I’ll just sort that load of laundry out,’ or ‘I’ll just give that bathroom a spruce,’ or ‘I’ll just go and sort the kids’ room out.’
So, I guess what I’m trying to say in a long convoluted way is that I am going to try to start writing again and to start documenting my baking experiments, along with my cooking adventures. I do like to be in the kitchen, especially on a Sunday afternoon, listening to BBC Radio 4, whilst cooking a roast dinner.
Pull up a chair and grab a drink and let’s see where the next few posts will take us.
Happy baking!

 

 

Another Who Challenge

Ok, so I guess I shot myself in the foot two years ago when I made a Tardis cake for my niece.

Yes, she loved it.

Yes, it was Doctor Who themed and yes it was perfect for her being a big Doctor Who fan.

So what’s my problem?

SHE HAS A BIRTHDAY EVERY YEAR!

Last year, I made her those DW themed chocolate cupcakes and when I was asked this year to make her another DW themed cake, I was kinda stumped.

I do not yet have a Dalek cake pan in my baking arsenal nor do I have a Cyberman shaped tin. I do have a series of Who themed cookie cutters, but this was no cookie occasion. Oh no. This had to be cake and it had to be an epic one at that.

Admittedly, I turned to my ol’ friend Google and searched for inspiration. The many hits returned a myriad of Tardi (plural for Tardis??), Daleks and space scapes, with cleverly designed cupcakes to boot. And then, in the midst of the photographs and fan drawings, I stumbled across a bow tie cake.

*light bulb*

I’m almost certain that her favourite doctor is Matt Smith’s eleventh doctor (personally, I think David Tennant’s tenth doctor is the best but that’s another discussion for later!) and seeing as though I have already made a fez cake for another family birthday, I thought it would be a challenge to make a bow tie out of cake and fondant.

And that’s just what I did.

I took inspiration from shirt and tie cakes floating around and fashioned the cake on similar attire Smith wears for his regeneration of The Doctor.

I dyed a large piece of fondant light pink to use for a shirt; and a smaller piece red to use for the bow tie and braces.

I adapted a red velvet recipe and baked two blue velvet cakes (blue for the Tardis. See what I did there? Blue for a blue box? Huh? Huh?!). The smell of chocolate in my kitchen was AMAZING and the colour of the sponge after I had levelled the cake off was a fantastic bright blue. I didn’t want to use a cream cheese frosting to sandwich the two cakes together and opted for marshmallow fluff and chocolate fudge icing instead. This seemed like a good idea, but in my warm kitchen, as I prepared dinner, the cake had other ideas; the filling started to melt! I tidied the edges up and moved the cake to a cooler room until I needed it. Crisis adverted. Phew.

*wipes brow*

A few hours had passed and my kitchen became cool enough to work in. I took out my shiny new turntable (thanks to my lovely friend for the birthday gift!) and set to work.
First, I rolled out the pink fondant and covered the cake with it. I then took some white fondant and fashioned a shirt collar and placed it atop of the cake. Next, I rolled out two thin strips of red fondant and cut them to size for the braces and finally, I made the bow tie.

I had originally made white chocolate buttons (with a snazzy chocolate button mould I had picked up from a cook shop) but when I handled them in my now cool kitchen, they began to melt. So I decided to not take a risk with chocolate and made some buttons from fondant. I assembled the shirt and bow tie on the cake before adding finishing touches with royal icing.

Birthdays and Bowties are Cool

The birthday girl had no idea that she was going to get yet another Doctor Who cake and I think it’s safe to say that she was utterly surprised and enjoyed it very much

🙂

Bow Ties are Cool

A Disney Themed Birthday

I have a friend who is very dear to me and whom I have known for a very long time. She absolutely adores Disney and it was only natural that she had Disney Princess themed cupcakes for her birthday, back in September.

This has been one of my favourite projects so far.

Why?

Lean in close, I want to confess something to you:

I LOVE DISNEY TOO!

I had been given a Disney compilation album as a gift last Christmas from The Hubs and played it full blast as I played with fondant to create items related to each Disney Princess.

I used my usual go to recipe for chocolate cupcakes. While the cakes cooled, I whipped up a batch of vanilla buttercream and then separated it between six bowls. I coloured each bowl of icing to correspond with the colour of the dress each Disney Princess wears: Turquoise for Jasmine; royal blue for Snow White; pink for Aurora; light blue for Cinderella; and yellow for Belle. Now, before you start shouting “What about Ariel? She’s a mermaid, with a turquoise tail and fins! Why is she cream?!” I shall tell you. I didn’t want her to clash with Jasmine, so left her cake a plain colour.
I then piped a swirl on top of each cake and then decorated with the toppers I had made.

Needless to say, the birthday girl enjoyed them 🙂

Disney Princess Cupcakes

Baking Projects: April – July Part #1

It’s been a while since my last post and I thought it was about high time that I shared some recent (and not so recent) creations with you.

March and April are months filled with many a birthday, which gives me many a baking and creating opportunity.

The last birthday to celebrate in April was that of my brother-in-law. He loves reading and is an avid fan of The Godfather.

“What did you bake for him?” I hear you cry!
Well, my dearest reader of this blog, I will tell you, nay, I will show you:

Cupcakes Inspired by The Godfather

Cupcakes Inspired by The Godfather

My lovely bro-in-law was presented with some scrumptious chocolate cupcakes, with swirled chocolate frosting and bookish themed cake toppers. I can’t quite remember how long it took to make the toppers, but I do know that I watched some sort of chick flick to keep me entertained (the title of which escapes me, but if I had to guess, it was probably Bridget Jones’ Diary or My Big Fat Greek Wedding). Initially, I was quite happy to leave the books made from fondant, plain. I then remembered that I had some gold paint and wouldn’t rest until I had *attempted* to re-create the book jackets of Mario Puzo’s novels in sugar form. This was lots of fun to do and required an awful lot of concentration and the obligatory tongue-stuck-out-to-help-me-concentrate -look. It works, honest.
I wasn’t home when he collected them but The Hubs said that he really liked them. I just hope he enjoyed munching them ^_^

May passed by without a birthday to be seen and then we said hello to June.
June = three birthdays.

My father-in-law and Hubs’ birthdays are literally the day after each other’s, so as you can imagine, it was a busy weekend for me. Unfortunately, by the time I had baked (that term is used loosely for this cake) the cake for my father-in-law, it was pretty much time to go and visit him. My problem: it had sunk after I had taken it out of the oven!
This NEVER happens to me! Distraught, I walked myself to the local supermarket to by a fresh Victoria cream cake. That’s the ONLY time I have given someone a cake for their birthday that I haven’t made. He was very appreciative of it, none the less.

Next day: The Hubs’ birthday.

He’s not too fond of fondant icing (fond used too much there!) or buttercream, so I opted to make him an Amaretto cake. Naturally, I used this excuse to buy a new bottle of Disaronno… The recipe I used called for almond essence, ground almonds and a few tablespoons of amaretto. I used a deep tin (the one I usually use for Christmas cakes) to bake the mixture in. I baked the cake in the oven for three hours, on a low heat and the smell that enveloped my kitchen and living room was a dream. As I had baked this fairly late at night, the smell lingered and was something nice for The Hubs to wake up to on his birthday. Although evenly baked and a lovely golden colour on top, the cake looked a little too plain, so, I made him a cake topper.
He is a fan of motorbikes and that’s just what I made for him.
I present to you a Kawasaki VN900 Custom:

Cake Topper: Kawasaki vn900 Custom

I coloured and used fondant, and as you can see, the bike is very much 2D rather than 3D.

I might just have to stock up on gum paste for future projects like this…

Stay tuned for Baking Projects: April – July Part #2