Chocolate Cake!

It's been another baking weekend in the Evans household. This time a chocolate cake. I think you'll spot the Cressida Bell influence again. I'm really loving her cake decorating ideas.

 

It was a good friends 50th birthday. He is trying to forget his age so of course I HAD to include it on the cake design. I'm a meanie! The cake itself was a plain sponge. For the icing I used a really rich Mary Berry recipe consisting of chocolate and butter. Sounds hideous, pours on like a dream, tastes divine. I left it to set for about 30 minutes before going mad with the decorations.

 



I uses a combo of chocolates including:
Marks and Spencers Giant Chocolate Buttons
Hotel Chocolat White Buttons
Hotel Chocolat Dizzy Pralines
Gotel Chocolat White Truffles
Galaxy Counters
Maltesers
M&Ms (Browns only)
Pearlised Sugar Balls
I also used white icing to pipe a few details.

 

The Giant Chocolate Buttons made a great plaque for piping the appropriate age on it. Tim also went to town with them on the sides of the cake and it covered up any wonky bits!

 

 

The cake went down a treat at the party. Happy Birthday PK!



PS. Loved the Bouncy Castle!

First Birthday Cake

I've bought a new cake decoration book recently called Cressida Bell's Cake Design. I'd really recommend it if you are looking for something a bit different. She is actually a textiles designer and I think it's that background which makes her cake designs really original. She uses edible decoration to achieve her designs, so although the designs can be time-consuming, they are easily achievable for any amateur (me!). It was Emma's first birthday this week so Vicky asked that I bake her a 'spotty themed' birthday cake. Yippee, the perfect chance to try a Cressida Bell inspired cake. I went a bit mad...

The cake itself was a plain sponge. I baked two and sandwiched them together with strawberry jam and buttercream. To create a crumb barrier between the icing and the cake I then covered the whole cake in strawberry jam and a layer of marzipan. This also creates a smooth base for the roll-out  icing - I used white. 

Using various sizes of circular cookie cutters, I then lightly pressed them into the surface of the icing to give a template for laying on the decorations. To stick the smaller decorations to the cake I used a clean paintbrush and edible glue. For the larger decorations I used icing sugar and water to create a thick paste. Sticking icing to icing simply requires a little water.

Now onto the decorations, what did I use? I had coloured roll out icing in pink, blue, yellow, green and orange. I rolled it out thinly with a rolling pin and sprinkled cornflower to prevent sticking. The cookie cutters again came in handy to cut out the circles I required. I also rolled out icing 'sausages' by hand to add a ring of an alternate colour around the outside of some of the circles.

I used chocolate m&ms to add additional decoration and colour. The bonus was, as the red and brown m&ms didn't match my colour scheme, the lovely Tim and I enjoyed a bit of a scoff.

I also used some cake decorating sprinkles and sugar balls. The large flower in the picture above is formed by four sugared almonds, a yellow m&m and blue sugar 'glass' (bought at Waitrose).



I also used large white chocolate circles covered in multi-coloured hundreds and thousands, bought at the local sweet shop. Really there was no plan, I just bought anything that took my fancy.

 

Finally, here is the birthday girl enjoying her cake (she wasn't actually that keen!). She even blew out her birthday candle - a child genius for sure.

 

 

Happy Birthday Emma, love Auntie Sally

xxx