My first professional cake

Well on the weekend I tried to make my first professional cake. And I have to say it turned out quite well.

Some friends of ours were having a joint birthday dinner, so I offered to bring cake. I asked her what flavours and colours they liked. Blue, Purple and Chocolate.

So with that in mind I thought I would do a two tier cake, one for her and one for him, with some wired stars on top. Because the cake was for a boy and a girl I didn’t want to make it too girly so I decided on a diamond checker style design. So I did up a sketch with a few ideas and started first thing Friday after work.

Little did I know that it was going to be the hottest and muggiest weekend yet this year! With the temp at 34 and the humidity at about 90% I had to have the air con cranked all day and even then it was hard to work the icing.

From my hours of Utube and internet scouring I decided Mud cake was the best option with ganache filling. Once the cakes were baked and ganache made it was time to slice, stack and cover. So by midnight I had the cakes in the fridge ready to be covered the next day and the three portions of fondant coloured.

Originally I was going to do a black border and black stars. However getting fondant a good black colour is nearly impossible. So the stars ended up a sort of dark grey purple colour but they still turned out ok.
Saturday I started early. I rolled out my first large piece of fondant to cover the bottom cake. Mind you at this point I remember I don’t own a large rolling pin… What to do? Well luckily it is so close to Christmas as I had a think roll of wrapping paper that did the job perfectly. I found it was very difficult to get the fondant thin enough without sticking my fingers through it while trying to pick it up. But with some perseverance I managed to get it onto the cake.

Now I moved onto my diamond pieces. I rolled out my coloured fondant and using a ruler and pizza cutter cut out a heap of squares. I wrapped these in cling wrap to avoid them from drying out.

After sticking these all onto the cake and assembling the top layer I had to then decide how to finish the cake. I thought I would pipe in chocolate ‘happy birthday’ but I discovered my piping skills are about as good as a 7 year olds handwriting. So I managed to wipe this off and cut out a T and a K for the initials of the couple. With using some vodka I managed tod wipe the brown smudges off. However the alcohol did make the cake sticky so a little icing sugar was needed to remove the shine.

Once the stars were stabbed into the top I was done, just in time to get ready for dinner. The squares do cover a few mistakes and the cakes weren’t completely set before icing, but overall I think things turned out ok. One thing I didn’t realise was that it now weighed about 10kg and I had to carry it into Sizzler. Let’s just say the line up was interesting. And quite a few kids were keeping an eye on me.

Best Books

If your interested in cakes like I am (well i'm a little obsessed with cakes) there is a good website that reviews cake decorating books.

www.cakedecoratingbook.net

It is an American site so some of the articles are about American magazines or publications. But if your looking for a specific type of 'how to' book it may help. I was happy to just have a read through and put a couple of the books on my wish list.

Most of the books they talk about you can purchase from your local book store or have them ordered in for you.

New Challenge

I have set myself a challenge. My partner's birthday is soon, so seeing as though he is a truck driver i'm going to try and build a B-Double Semi as his cake..

I have searched the internet for a few pictures and have come up with a couple that will help;


He loves caramel, so i think i will do a caramel mud cake for the centre and see how how I go with maybe a blue, silver and black colour scheme. Fingers crossed!

Playing around

Recently I decided to have a crack at making some fondant flowers. I have had a little practice at a cupcake class I attended, but i'm not perfect. But I managed to make few little daisy flowers and some pansies.

Mud Temptations

Last night I attempted a second recipe from my new favourite recipe book ‘Devine’. Due to Fathers Day I thought I would chose some thing with Caramel, as that is a favourite with Dad.

The Caramel Mud Cupcake recipe was a sure fire winner. The recipe has to be the easiest I’ve attempted. The recipe simply calls for melting of all ingredients together, allowing to cool then adding sifted flour and two eggs.

The ingredients once all combined make a very runny batter. I found pouring this into a jug made for easier pouring into the patty papers. Filling the papers to ¾ levels allowed the cakes to rise to the perfect height.

To ensure your cakes bake and rise evenly, make sure your papers are placed evenly in the tins and that you don’t splash the sides when filling.

The recipe calls for a 160 degree oven and a cooking time of 20-25min. These instructions are spot on. The cakes may look a little under done, but make sure you stick to the time frame, this is because if you cook them longer they become more like a fluffy texture with less of mud cake gooiness.

The end product is lovely and sweet and can be left plain with out any icing. However I chose to make a decadent caramel swirl to decorate. Enjoy!




You will need;
185g butter
150g white chocolate choppped coursely
220g dark brown sugar
80ml golden syrup
250ml milk
150g plain flour
150 self-raising flour
2 eggs

Preheat oven to 160 degrees and line our cupcake trays with liners
Combine butter, chocolate, sugar, golden syrup and milk in a medium saucepan and stir over a low heat, without boiling until smooth. Transfer mixture to a large bowl and cool for 15 min.
Whisk in sifted flours then eggs one at a time. Do not over mix the mixer once added.
Devide the mixture evenly between the cupckes cases and bake for about 25 min. or until centre springs back.
Cool cupcakes in trays for 5 min then transfer to wire wrack.

Hi all,

Well, before the last two busy weeks occurred I was able to check out Bittersweet at Wellington Point.

I stumbled across this small patisserie one morning while looking for somewhere to have breakfast.

Bittersweet has all your favorites handmade from scratch by pastry chef Noelene Rogers.

With the help of Gracious, I sampled a few treats like the lemon meringue tart, hazelnut mousse, white chocolate mud cake, sticky date and cumquat pudding. Mind you, not all at once though!

I found the little treats very sweet and decadent, and would suggest sharing is the best way to goso you can sample a few other delicacies.

While the shop is small it takes advantage of the space, with lovely displays and a variety of items to browse through, such as their own type of chutneys and a variety of fresh pasta and condiments.

If I were to own a shop, this is what I would want. A mixture of cakes, breads and specialty items has made this a little favourite of mine.

The only downside is they do not have a website. But I have added some photos so you can see for yourself.

There’s also a café two doors up – Refueled – that I think I need to check out before I leave!

Lil.

A move!

Well, Lil is leaving me here in the big smoke and traipsing back to the sleepy town of Bundaberg. Yep, she's going back to fresh air and beautiful beaches and relaxed paces... but she's leaving delicious coffee, gorgeous cupcakes and breakfasts by the Bay.

Ha.

So now you'll get the best from two places! Lil has committed to share all of her cupcake making adventures online (even if they fail), and I will try my best to remember to take photos of the things I eat before I destroy them with my cutlery.

Happy eating,

Gracious

What I want from a good cafe.

Cafes. They're almost a dime a dozen here in Brisbane, but as we all know, they're not all the same. Since I seem to go out for breakfast more than dinner these days (I'm an early bird and hey, who wants to poach their own eggs on a sleepy Sunday morning?) there are a few things a cafe needs to boast to get into my good books.

Good coffee .. and tea

Well, isn't it obvious? I love a good cup of coffee in the morning. I can't say I'm the crazy coffee type that roasts their own Guatemalan beans in a anti-clockwise direction, but I do love my coffee strong but smooth. I stress smooth. Winners in my book are Campos Coffee in Fortitude Valley, Atomica in West End and Salt in Rosalie.

But tea is important to me too. I love the routine of it, and there's nothing better than working through a pot of tea with a good friend on a lazy afternoon. But I abhor getting hot milk with my tea. That's my pet hate! I love drinking Irish Breakfast at Three Monkeys in West End.

Doing what you do well

Not all cafes have to be some amazing culinary experience that pushes the limits of breakfast cuisine. I'm quite happy to go somewhere that does something delicious and simple. A well poached egg, that has a firm white but a deliciously gooey yolk that drips out when you cut into it, bacon that's crispy on the edges but still a bit chewy, toast that is buttered, thoroughly toasted but won't cut the roof of my mouth open and most importantly for me a deliciously sweet roasted tomato all make my perfect breakfast. Nothing complicated, but if that's all it is I just want it done well.

Mind you - when I'm needing something a little more special I'll always find myself at Salt. Coffee in bowls, great service every time and an amazing breakfast in 20 minutes max? Ticks all the boxes for me!

Good service

Which brings me to my next point. Service. I am really liking all the new places that are popping up all over the place, particularly in Woolloongabba, but what I'm not particularly enjoying is the service that comes with some of them.

'Trendy' waitstaff seem to be the worst. I read somewhere that some people think you can mistake 'intellectual' for 'snooty', but there's a difference. Bottom line is I don't want to feel like I'm putting you out by turning up and looking for a table for two, and asking you a question about what's on the menu. And a smile doesn't go astray.

But that's my rant. Am I being too picky? Where do you like to go for breakfast and why?

Welcome to Delicious Trends, where we hope to explore and share our favourite delicious moments from restaurant reviews, new products and many other food adventures.

Coming soon - a review on a cute little cafe at Wellington Point and what we found on a visit to Kitchenware-Plus at Loganholme.

We hope our reviews and comments are helpful and interesting. Any feedback or comments are welcome and encouraged.

Lil & Gracious.