Birthday Cake cont

As I mentioned in my previous post, I was in charge of making DH's birthday cake.

The cake ready to go in the oven

The cake was really easy to make, and smelt divine! Once I had it out of the oven and cooled, it was time to fill and ganache it. I made my ganache the night before (all 1.2kgs of it!) I used the "how To" instructions that are provided in the book. I have covered other cakes with buttercream, but doing a cake in Ganache was a first.

I split the cake in half and brushed each layer with syrup. I then filled the middle with ganache. A messy business, but worth it

Then I rough covered the cake as best I could. Then, as the book suggested, I trimmed it to get the sharp edges

Rough covered cake

I let the cake sit and harden over night. Then I got a hot knife to sharpen the edges. I found the process quite easy. However I think that it will take a couple of tries to perfect this technique.

The ganached cake with sharp edges

Again I let this cake set for a while. Once the ganache had hardened off, I covered the cake with my fondant. I had colored the fondant the night before. In the book that I was using, there was an idea for a 40th birthday cake. I took this idea and used the base of it for my cake. An exploding intestine cake!

The cake covered in flash fondant, a fondant surgical drape, and with the "inside" exposed ready for intestines

I wasn't particularly worried if the circle exposed bit was messy as I was going to fill this with my intestines!

To make the intestines glossy, I used piping gel. This is also what I used to make the blood effect.

The finished cake

Overall I was really pleased with this cake. DH was too! There were a couple of people at his workplace that were a bit hesitant to eat the cake as it was so realistic looking.

Birthday Cake!

It's my husband's birthday this coming Wednesday. At his work, when it is your birthday, you do the morning tea shout.

This year DH has asked me to make him a cake :)

I recently purchased the Planet Cake books. From the first book, Planet Cake, I am going to use the Dark Choc Mud Cake recipe and the Ganache recipe to create the cake.

My husband works in the Medical Sales industry so I am going to do a cake that is related to that field.

When I make a cake, I plan it out first. Draw my idea on a piece of paper, then figure out how many days I need to create it. I am going to take just over 2 days to make this cake. Last night I made the Ganache (1.2 kgs!!!) as the ganache needs to sit overnight. Today I am making the cake then I will trim it and Ganache it tonight. The cake takes 1hr and 40 min to cook, so I already have it in the oven. It needs to cool completely in the tin, so thats why the Ganaching will be this evening once the kids are in bed. Tomorrow I will cover the cake in Fondant, and decorate. Some of the decorating elements I will need to put on just before DH leaves for work. But more of that later.

The book and all the Chocolate for the Ganache

The cake ingredients ready to go

Wilton Cake Decorating Course 1

A while back, I went on my first Cake Decorating Course. Millys here in Auckland is where I went. I was quite nervous about going as I wondered if people had more experience than me, or perhaps they were all beginners too. I really shouldn't have worried. There were people from a mix of backgrounds with a mix of experience levels.

Kirsten, our teacher, was wonderful. Although you were in a class setting of about 10, you could still put your hand up and ask for help.

I learnt a lot of technique in the class. How to hold the piping bag, buttercream covering a cake, piping roses! I thoroughly enjoyed myself.

Some of the cupcakes that I decorated

My completed cake

Week Two Children's Novelty Cupcakes

OK. Week Two. Children's Novelty Cupcakes. Yay, we are going to get stuck into doing some decorating. First of all we have to bring to class 15 cupcakes. So Sacha and I meet up on the Sunday before class at her house to bake the required cupcakes. I arrive with all of my ingredients at 2 pm and we begin to whip up cupcakes.

 It was a very warm day but everything went well. Perfect cupcakes!

In order to keep the cupcakes fresh, into the freezer they went. As we both work, On Thursday morning  pack up my car with all of our stuff. Stuff = cupcakes, tools, and prepared buttercream icing for decorating. And take it all into work with me. 

After work I meet Sacha off the train and off to class we go. We had so much fun with Helen demonstrating to us how we could decorate our cupcakes with just buttercream and a few lollies.

Sacha's Cupcakes

Debbie's Cupcakes

Ladybird & Clown

Pig and Bee on hive

Week One CW Cakes Cupcakes and Cookies Course

A couple of months ago Sacha and I decided that we would embark on a cupcake decorating class. Just to learn a few tricks in decorating. We enrolled in a class at CW Cakes and on Thursday, 17th October we rocked up for our first class.

For the first week we didn't need to bring anything except a notepad and pen and a container to carry some goodies home. For this first lesson we received a sheet with basic cupcake and cookies recipes. Helen demonstrated how to make both the cupcakes and the cookies and at the end of the evening we got to take some samples home. They were so yummy.

Cupcakes and Cookies

I have started this blog to document and display our journey through the wonderful world of cupcake and cake decorating. My youngest daughter, Sacha, has the dream of opening a cupcake shop so she is letting her sister Briony and myself come along for the ride. This has nurtured an interest and has resulted in us all participating in decorating classes. So you are all welcome to come along for the ride with us and witness our triumphs and failures.
As well as myself, Briony and Sacha will be adding posts and showing off some of the wonderful yummy creations.