Cake Making & Baking Group

[Emmy1987]

Yeah I'm using the dr oetker ones, I didn't have enough of any of my other ones and had to make a mercy dash to Tesco!

I'll try adding sugar to the coffee before putting it in, thanks!

Attempt four...

And because I'm stupid I'm going to make my OH a fondant cake for his graduation...

 

[Laura2919]

Measure like 75ml of coffee per 8oz mixture, I like coffee so I know how much I like but like lemon people like different strengths, my mum loves lemon so likes a nice lemony taste whereas I like a hint of lemon. Its a hard balance to get right.

Im also no lover of cream cheese frosting but even I have to admit it works better with carrot cake than buttercream does.

 

[Emmy1987]

Yeah I tried it with my last batch and it wasn't too bad with cake!

Well apparently the more coffee I could cram the better. The sponge isn't overly strong but the buttercream is lol! My carrot cakes are going in when OH's cakes have cooked and I hope they're ok cause I've run out of flour!!

 

[Laura2919]

You can buy coffee essence for buttercream but I tend to just add a small bit of coffee. But the caramel coffee works really well with the buttercream.

 

[Emmy1987]

Would you believe it, got up this morning and the black lines on the little fondant carrots have bled so this morning will be spent making more mini carrots!

But on a better note I checked on the fondant balls and the mortarboard for my OH's cake this morning and they are still in one piece lol! Think I'm going to need to make one more slice of cake for the main bit of cake or it will be quite short and be more fondant than cake

 

[Laura2919]

Do you mean mixed together? God thats a nightmare.

 

[Blob]

Emmy you're having a nightmare

 

[KittyVentura]

Emmy I recommend using "Camp" coffee and chickory essence to flavour your buttercream only. Don't flavour the cake. You can buy a bottle of Camp for a few quid and a little goes a LOOOOONG way. My coffee & walnuts are one of my best sellers... and some of the customers who buy them have tried MANY versions and say mine are good so I take that as a guide. I don't eat buttercream so I never taste my cakes fully lol.

Here's today's batches. Did 5 boxes of the baby boy ones and now I am knackered. The collections today started this morning so I was baking 7pm-3am and then up at 7am and back on it whenever Fin allowed me. So so so so so tired now xx

 

[Piperette]

Kitty, they are beautiful. Particularly like the rubber duck one and the sunflower.

Hope you get some rest now.

 

[Jo]

Thought you girls might be interested in this I found
https://www.lindyscakes.co.uk/Blog/2011/08/08/making-edible-metallic-glitter-a-recipe/

 

[Laura2919]

Although all my glitter is EdAble art you can still use non toxic it just doesnt digest in your system. I dont but I know cake makers who do.

Lovely cakes Kitty x

 

[Reedy]

What do you girls use to 'paint' your toppers??
I'm buying a digger mould but dont know how to paint it once ive done it x

 

[Laura2919]

Edible paint Reedy. You can get it from Squires Kitchen, they do a whole set for £40 including paint brushes and 10 paints or you can buy them individually.

 

[KittyVentura]

You can use blossom tints - they are like an edible powder paint. Add a touch of water and paint. You can use them to colour buttercream too - but it's an expensive way to do it. I tend to just "dry paint" and shade mine with lustre dusts.

Thanks for teh recipe Jo. I use non toxic, non digestable... I kinda like the risk of a glittery poo hahahaha. xxxx

 

[CocoaOne]

Fab cakes girls, as always! There is some serious talent in this thread

Question about recipes please...

Who's got a good chocolate cake recipe? I tend to just take a couple of tablespoons of flour out and replace with cocoa powder, but I wondered if anyone did anything different?

Also - when do you make your cupcakes, and when do you put them in the box? The last ones I made on Fri night, left to cool and decorated Sat morning, put them in the cupcake box, and when I delivered them Sat night, the cases has leaked grease everywhere and the cardboard insert had soaked it all Looked gross. Partly a problem with the cases I think, I just can't find any that work! I got greasepaint ones from Hobbycraft but they just peeled away, and the ones I most recently used were from cakecraftworld - they just leached grease
The recipe I use for 12 cupcakes is just 3 eggs, 150g of stork, sugar and SR flour with a dash of vanilla, so I don't think it's the recipe.

Which cases do you girls use?

I've got a break of a few weeks before my next cake, which I'm glad of. Three celebration cakes and 50 cuppies in one weekend is far too much, especially as I work full time. I was so stressed !

 

[Laura2919]

I get mine from Ebay cocoa or Blue door Bakery on FB. They are so good, they are the same ones from both places

https://www.facebook.com/#!/bluedoorbakery

My recipe is 8oz flour, sugar, butter, 4 eggs and 5ml vanilla.

I put them in the box as soon as they are cooled but I no longer use the normal boxes I use the cardboard boxes, so much better. You can get them from cupcakeboxesuk.com

As for the chocolate cake I dont change my recipe at all. I make my chocolate powder into a paste using either milk or water. I love my chocolate cake really chocolatey so I add loads but you can just keep adding. HTH

 

[KittyVentura]

Question about recipes please...

Who's got a good chocolate cake recipe? I tend to just take a couple of tablespoons of flour out and replace with cocoa powder, but I wondered if anyone did anything different?

Also - when do you make your cupcakes, and when do you put them in the box?

Which cases do you girls use?

Recipe? I tend to use 75g-100g cocoa (This is in a 300g/6 egg recipe. I tend to go for about a 3rd of the flour) replacing 75g-100g of the flour. I use larger eggs for added moisture as the cocoa seems to dry it. Then a larger splash of vanilla and finally I add some milk and white chocolate chips (Silver spoon tend to work best). I also up my cooking tim at 170 from 18 mins to 20 mins. These give deliciously rich, moist "muddy" chocolate sponges.

I put them in the box once they are decorated, so tends to be a few hours after they were baked and cooled. As soon as they are cooled I transfer them to a big airtight tub - this seems to help the cases not peel - I dunno how it does though lol. Also keeps the sponges lovely and moist. I usually bake during Fin's morning nap and ice during the afternoon though so that's a good 3 hrs in between where they'd be out and drying up.

Cases tend to be Culpitt greaseproof. The cases stay on fine and I do a lot of "flat" icing - dragging the icing across with a palette knife which normally gets the cases peeling if the cases are prone to do that.

Now a question for you. What recipe do you use for big cakes? Assuming backed and then covered fully in fondant on the day of baking - how long do they keep for? xxx

 

[Shiv]

For big cakes I just use a victoria sponge recipe (Mary Berry)
8oz caster sugar, stork, SR Flour
4 eggs
tsp vanilla extract

Gives a really light, moist sponge that once covered keeps for at least 5 days, but if the cut cake is then put in an air tight container keeps for 10 days.

 

[Hannah's Mom]

Hi Ladies! Have been stalking in here for ages, I did some cupcakes for a family party last weekend and wanted to share, keep the tips coming lol

 

[CocoaOne]

Gorgeous roses Hannah's Mom!

I use a basic Victoria sponge recipe - 6 eggs/300g sugar/Marg/flour & vanilla for 2 8" tins. If I want a massively deep 8" cake, I use 8 eggs, 600g sugar/Marg/flour split between 2 tins.

I wouldn't bake/ice more than two days in advance, and I've got no idea how long they last as I never make them for myself (and if I did, I imagine it would be gone pretty quickly!) but I'd say at least 5-7 days, but obviously wouldn't taste as good as fresh.

Thanks for all the choc ideas- I think I'm just not putting enough in. I don't really like chocolate cake, so it's hard for me to tell!

Cases - I think the greasepaint ones I've got are culpitt. I'll double check that, they definitely peeled loads. Laura - I've ordered some from BDB, so I'll see how I get on with those.