How to make your own Theme cake

I must admit that I have complete admiration for Photographers.  Their uncanny ability to take a snapshot of life and display it in the most memorable and beautiful of ways is something I envy.  Living in a country so full of beauty and history with my 2 little girls means that my camera is never too far out of reach... but when it comes to cooking and baking in the kitchen, remembering to snap a photo every step of the way is something that does not come naturally to me.

Below are my steps to creating "The Tower of Colour" cake that I made for my daughter's 7th birthday, this weekend.  The pictures I took were taken with my iPhone4...  but due to my short deadline, and the fact that I chose yesterday to try out a new fondant brand that was very difficult to work with, I sadly forgot to take a picture for every step mentioned below.  I'll try to add external photos to complement this posting.

I'll do my best at providing detailed steps so you can create this, or a similar cake, at home.

Design time: 2 days (my daughter and I were not seeing eye-to-eye on this one for a while, LOL)
Batter Prep time: 10 mins

Baking time:  45 mins

Cooling time:  Overnight

Decorating time:  3hours 15mins

1.  Decide on the design of the cake - I always draw out my cakes on graph paper, to scale and in colour.  This helps my clients (in this case, my daughter), better imagine the final result.

2. Once the design has been decided, you need to pick the recipe.  A basic tiered cake can be prepared with almost any type of cake.  If you have chosen a cake with a deep mould (a cone shape or ball), it is best to pick a cake recipe that is heavier (like pound cake or fruit cake) as a typical spongy cake will break apart easily and not keep the shape very well.

3.  Start baking! (in this case, a 4-tiered cake).  

Personal tip: Whatever temperature your recipe calls for, when using a convection oven, I like to reduce it by 5ºC.  Convection works with the hot air circulating around the oven for more even baking, therefore, it bakes faster... By reducing the temperature by 5ºC, I've noticed that the cake's spongyness and flavour are best and that the cake is less likely to over-brown.  Depending on the recipe, it also provides me with cakes that do not arch on the surface, so much, meaning that less fiddling (leveling) is required.

4.  Pour the batter into a greased and floured cake mould (I like to use cooking sprays because personally, I just don't like dealing with removing butter from my fingers).  You can also use a brush to grease the mould with a light corn oil (instead of butter).

Personal tip #1:  I like to place parchment paper at the bottom of the mould.  This makes it SUPER easy to remove the cake from your mould and guarantees the perfect surface of the cake.

5. Let the cake cool in pan 5 mins before turning it over to cool completely on a wire rack.  (If you don't have one already - this is a "tool" I strongly recommend!)

6. While the cake is cooling (approx 2-3 hours), prepare a batch of  buttercream

7. Once your cake is completely cooled, level the cake and slice the layers using a cake leveler. 

(For the Pink section of the cake, I sliced multiple layers)

 Personal tip #3:  Place a dollop of buttercream in the center of the cardboard or plastic cake base before placing the cake on it, so as to act as a "glue" and prevent the cake from slipping around too much while decorating

 8. Take your first layer (the bottom one).  Using a piping back, pipe a ring of buttercream around the edge of the cake - this prevents your filling from seeping out.  Fill the center with your chosen filling.

 9.  Cover the filled 1st layer with the 2nd layer of the cake and repeat for all cake tiers until all the tiers are complete.

 10. Cover the cake with a very thin layer of buttercream using an angled rubber spatula.  This is called a "Crumb coat"

Picture borrowed from www.lemontart.ca

 Personal Note:  Because the Pink tier is so tall and has so many layers, I placed a dowel rod in the center of it to prevent the layers from slipping out of place while I applied the Buttercream (and later, the fondant).

11. Leave the crumb coat to dry (approx 20-30mins) while preparing the other tiers in the same way (steps 7 - 10). 

Note: If you are going to cover your cake with Buttercream, it is important to give it a crumb coat to prevent crumbs from "infecting" the buttercream decorations.  If you are going to cover your cake with Fondant, usually, instead of letting the crumb coat dry, I use its moistness to stick the fondant on right away.  This requires that the fondant be ready to apply to the cake before my coat of Buttercream. 

Personal Note: When applying Fondant, I use the crumb coat as the primer instead of applying the regular coat of buttercream in order to reduce the sweetness of the cake, reduce the instance of "cream bubbles" being formed under the fondant, and reduce the calorie intake in each slice.

12.  Tint the Fondant with Gel food colouring and roll it out on a flat, clean surface.  Remember that the fondant will get darker as it dries.

Personal tip #5:  If your kitchen and hands are hot, apply a little bit of grease (such as Crisco - vegetable shortnening) to your hands and table so as to prevent the Fondant from sticking to the surface.  If your kitchen and hands are cold, use icing sugar, instead.  The humidity level of the room is also and important factor to note when deciding between Crisco or icing sugar.



12. This is the tricky part.  Using your rolling pin, gently roll up your fondant around it to easily transport it over your cake without finger marks, rips or other imperfections.  For best results, your fondant should be at least 1/8 of an inch thick.



Picture borrowed from http://caranoscucina.blogspot.com



Picture borrowed from www.squidoo.com

 

13.  Carefully use your hand to "massage" the fondant over your cake, starting from the top, over the edge, and finally down to the base. Gently use your the fingers from one hand to lift and place the sides without any folds while massaging down the side with your other hand.  Cut the excess skin with a knife.

Click to see Buddy (The Cake boss) apply fondant to a cake

14.  Smooth out the fondant using a Fondant Smoother.

Picture borrowed from www.bakingproject.com

15. Once you've applied the fondant to each tier, you must stack them up.  To do so, place dowel rods in the center of the bottom tier before placing a tier on top.  Dowel rods prevent the top tiers from sinking into the bottom tiers due to their weight (Fondant cakes are very heavy). Make sure that the rods have been cut to the exact height of each tier.

Picture borrowed from http://www.bakedecoratecelebrate.com/

 16. For the "Tower of Colour", I used a flower press to cut out the flowers and apply them to the cake.  Remember to moisten the fondant surface where the flowers will be applied with a brush dipped in Vanilla essence (best) or water (works too, but takes longer to dry). 

PME Sugarcraft Flower Press

Et Voilà!  Your cake is done. 

Send me pictures of your Theme cake creations using my steps and let me know if I've left anything out... If you have any questions or comments, just post them below.



Chocolate Mascarpone Mousse

I have a great Italian food reference book;  Culinaria Italia.  It has a Tiramisú recipe that is 'to die for', but cannot be eaten by my kids because of the heavy coffee flavour (and caffeine content).  So, below, is the same recipe which I have slightly altered to make it kid-friendly - this has become one of our family favourites since I first made it... and the kids fight over who gets to lick the bowl, the spoons, the mixing tongs... LOL 

Prep time:  15 mins + 1 hour in refrigerator
Servings:  4 servings

200grs of heavy cream
500grs of Mascarpone
4 egg yolks
5 tblsp of sugar
tea cookies
Mozart Cream of Chocolate

1. Crush the cookies and divide evenly into 4 cups.

2. Add a light swirl of Cream of Chocolate

3. Whip the cream with 1 tbls of sugar until stiff
4. Mix the egg yolks with the rest of the sugar
5. Whip the yolks with the mascarpone
6. Fold in the Whipped Cream
7. Add 1 tbls of Cream of Chocolate
8. Spoon equal amounts of the cream into the cookie-based cups OR for added effect, fill a piping bag with a large flower nozzel and pipe the cream into the cups in a circular fashion. 

9. Spinkle the top with some cocoa powder or sprinkles (the kids can do this part) and refrigerate for at least 1 hour. 

For the original  "adult" recipe use:
 - Ladyfingers soaked in instant coffee and amaretto (instead of plain crushed tea cookies). 
 - Do not add the Cream of Chocolate to the cream mixture 
 - Cover the top of the dessert with Cocoa Powder

Christmas Log - a Portuguese family recipe

I am from a large Portuguese family who immigrated to Canada.  I only have one younger sister, but my 9 uncles and 9 aunts ensured our house was full of cousins at Christmas time (27 of us, before marriage).

Christmas, as with any family reunion, was all about eating - it wasn't something ever mentioned or spoken about, directly, but each family had a culinary responsibility for the Christmas eve dinner - and everyone clearly appreciated the traditional recipes each family member specialized in... and when everything got layed out on the table, it would be a culinary feast that lasted at least 6 hours. 

One of the Christmas desserts that always made its appearance on the table was my aunt's Christmas log.  A very light and fluffy white log filled with chocolate, sprinkles, and sugar.  In theory, this is a very simple recipe - but baking is a game of chemistry where every single element must be exact.  This is the key to succeeding this delicious family recipe of mine. 

Prep time:  10 mins
Baking time: 10-12 mins
Preheat oven to 180ºC

Ingredients:
6 eggs (separated)
10 tblsps of granulated sugar
6 tbls of plain white flour
1 tsp of Baking powder
Rind of 1 orange (or any other citrus fruit)

1/2 egg shell of water

First, beat the egg whites until stiff and set aside.

Then, mix the egg yolks and sugar until the mixture is fluffy and has whitened considerably.

Add the flour baking powder Orange rind and water to the egg yolk mixture

Fold in the egg whites - the batter should be fluffy and inflated

Pour into a baking sheet that has been previously greased with butter and floured. 

Use a spatula to carefully spread out the batter over the sheet.  Insert in preheated oven for 10-12 minutes or until a toothpick inserted throughout the cake comes out clean.

Here comes the tricky part...
Let the cake cool in the baking sheet for no more than 5 minutes.  Then, cover the cake with granulated sugar.  Put a clean kitchen towel over the cake and baking sheet and turn over so that the cake rests on the kitchen towel (the granulated sugar prevents it from sticking to the kitchen towel).

Quickly, spread a thin layer of chocolate spread (homemade or Nutella) or any other spread you prefer (jam, dulce de leche, etc).  Then, take one end of the cake and using the kitchen towel, roll it up, as you would a sushi roll. The kitchen towel helps to prevent burning your fingers, but it also helps to evenly apply pressure as you roll up the cake (do not roll up the kitchen towel, LOL)

Lay it out on a plate and decorate with chocolate, icing sugar, christmas figurines etc.

Let me know if these instructions make sense or if you need any additional information on any steps.

Easy-to-make Spiked Eggnog for two

As with every year, the start of the Christmas season, in our house, was inaugurated with some Eggnog. 

Here is my recipe for a quick and easy-to-make Eggnog (makes 2 glasses)

2 eggs - seperated  

3 tblsp sugar

1 tsp vanilla

200ml of 35%cream

150ml of milk
100ml of Bourbon (can be replaced with dark rhum or mxed half and half)

Nutmeg

a little extra whipped cream to decorate

in Bowl #1, mix egg yolks, sugar, vanilla, milk and bourbon

in Bowl # 2, whip egg whites until stiff

in Bowl #3 (large bowl), whip cream until stiff

Then, fold contents of Bowl #2 into Bowl #1.  Do not overmix
Then, fold the contents of Bowl #1 into Bowl #3.  Do not overmix - the mixture should be thick and creamy.

Divide into tall glasses, top off with Whipped Cream and sprinkle with nutmeg. 

Enjoy!