My First Commission

A little while ago, I had exciting news - one of my colleagues from work came up to me and asked if I would make a cake for her friend's 50th birthday.  My very first commission!  I was chuffed, as you can imagine.  I had about 6 weeks before the cake was needed, but I began planning what I would do almost immediately, consulting my colleague as I went along.  In the end, we decided that I would make a four-layer sponge cake, with each layer being a different shade of pink.  This seemed an easy enough task for me.  My main worry, however, was that I would have to attempt to properly decorate for the first time, which meant getting to grips with fondant icing.  I was not looking forward to this.  The only other time I'd used fondant icing was when L and I made the tokamak cake.  Whilst that cake looked fine, it wasn't exactly refined.  So I therefore decided to do several trial runs of this cake, not only to test out the sponge, but to get a handle on the icing.

Ingredients: Sponge - 

• 350g butter, at room temperature
• 350g caster sugar
• 6 eggs
• 350g self-raising flour
• 2 tsp chocolate extract
• Pinch of salt

Buttercream (three times required for the filling and the covering) - 

• 140g/5oz butter, softened
• 280g/10oz icing sugar
• 1-2 tbsp milk
• few drops vanilla extract

First I set up the two 9-inch sandwich cake tins I had, greasing them with cake release spray. The oven was then preheated to 180°C/350°F/Gas Mark 4.

Then I beat together the butter and sugar, before adding the eggs one at a time.  After this, the chocolate extract was mixed in, and then the flour and salt were sifted together, and gently folded into the cake mixture.  Then the cake mix was divided into four bowls, and the painstaking process of adding the colour to get the correct shades of pink.  I used a bog-standard red liquid food-colouring from the supermarket.  It looked a little different to how I thought it would, but I waited to see how it would look after the bake before I made any snap judgements.

Not looking too pink to me...

Each batch of two cake mixes was baked for twenty minutes before being turned out first onto a tea-towel, and then onto a cooling wire.  Once all four were cooled, the delicate-ish process of putting the cake together could begin.  I made the buttercream by mixing together the butter, icing sugar, vanilla and milk.  Each layer of cake had a layer of buttercream spread on top before the next layer was put on.

Ready for construction.

The resulting tower of cake was then covered in a layer of buttercream.

Not-so-leaning tower of cake.

I made use of a handy little item that I'd picked up from a recent spree at Lakeland (the place of dreams).  I'd bought a side-scraper, which would help smooth out the buttercream before the fondant icing was put on.  I must say, the cake looked pretty good once the side-scraper had been used.

Looking good, and ready for icing.

The cake was then put into the fridge to chill for fifteen minutes, to help the buttercream set before icing.  Then it was the moment I had been dreading - I had to grapple with the icing.  Luckily for lazy old me, supermarkets offer this rather wonderful innovation in icing - ready-rolled fondant icing.  I LOVE this product - it's great for icing novices like me, and saved me worrying about how I was going roll out enough fondant without ruining it/breaking it/crying over it.  Just one word of caution, be quite gentle with it - the icing can tear fairly easily if you're a little bit too rough with it, resulting in some panicked swearing, followed by some desperate patching up of the icing, and a quick decision as to how said patching was going to be disguised.

Just about covered.

First I smoothed out the icing using another new purchase, and then I got to work on the exterior decoration.  For this I decided to use my new sunflower cutters, and some ready-to-roll pink icing to match the interior of the cake.

Rolling out the icing for the flowers.

As you can see, this required the use of a lot of icing sugar, as the fondant has a tendency to stick to the surface it's rolled out on if there isn't enough icing sugar.

Lovely pink sunflowers.

I also discovered that I was cutting the sunflowers out a little bit too thick, but this was the whole point of having trial runs, I suppose.  I certainly applied necessary changes for the next attempt.  I decided to try to dye pink the icing sugar used to stick the flowers onto the cake.  This brought up some more reservations, as the icing looked more orangey than pink, which did not bode well for the sponges I'd made earlier.  Still, I forged ahead.

Gluing the flowers on, one by one.

I cut out two different sizes of sunflowers, and glued them to the side of the cake, reasonably covering up the various cracks and folds in the icing.

A completed cake band of pink sunflowers.

I then used some red edible rainbow dust, mixed with water, to paint a metallic line around the top of the cake.

Edible metallic red/pink paint.

The top of the cake was then decorated with red and pink sugar roses (I have yet to develop the skills to make these for myself, so it was simply easier to buy some rather than risk ruining the cake by making rubbish ones).

Finished!

Once the cake was completed, it was then time for the moment of truth, and I tentatively cut into the cake.

Ah, not pink.

Well, to say I was not happy was an understatement.  Whilst there was obvious definition between the layer colours, they were most definitely NOT pink.  That'll teach me to buy cheap food colouring.

Yep, definitely not pink.

Whilst the cake didn't look as it should, it did taste very nice.  Yet again the victoria sponge recipe from the Rosie's Pantry Baking book proved to be a yummy success, and went some way to making up for the lack of pink.

A full-on look at just how not-pink this cake was.

So I then decided to try a different food colouring for the second trial run.  I used a mixture of red food colouring gel and pink food colouring gel.

Looking better already

Already, it was looking better than the first try.  I also decided to make a few changes to the decoration of the cake.  I still used the ready-rolled icing, the pink sunflowers, and the sugar roses, but this time I cut much thinner sunflowers, and placed the sugar roses right in the centre of the top of cake.  I also did not colour the icing sugar used to glue the sunflowers on this time.  By leaving the icing white, it blended in much better with the fondant covering the cake.

Slightly different design; looking better, I think.

I also painted the entire side of the cake with the metallic edible paint, including the pink sunflowers.  This did look rather nice once the paint had dried.

Side-on view of the new design.

Once again there was a moment of worry as I cut into the cake for the first time...

Huzzah!  Pink!

Ta-dah!  This time it worked absolutely perfectly.  I was so incredibly pleased with it.  I had also taken the cake into work this time so my colleague could judge for herself if she thought the cake and the design was right for her friend's 50th.

Definitely pink!

Luckily for me, she absolutely loved it.  We were both so pleased with the pink sponge layers, and how they looked with the white and pink icing on the outside of the cake.  All my work colleagues were also very pleased that day, as everyone got to try a slice of the cake, including the doctors (made myself popular with the bosses that day!).  What was just as pleasing as the reaction to the decoration, though, was how everyone said that the cake tasted lovely as well which was a big relief to me.  I must admit, I was incredibly pleased with the finished result; I do think it was one of my best bakes yet.

Yup, lovely and pink. Yay!

So, here is the finished final cake, ready to go to the 50th birthday party.  I should mention that, in addition to the decorations you see below, there was also a red, glittery '50' candle, that was going to be put on the cake in time for the party.  I also made a few alterations to the design, but I think it looks just as nice as the second trial run, if a little different.

One complete birthday cake.

Alas, I have no photos yet of how the cake looked once it was cut into, but my colleague has promised to send me some photos once she has them.  She told me that everyone loved the cake, especially the birthday girl, which made day.  I got paid to make this cake, but I can honestly say that I would have done it for free - just making the cake, and experimenting with the icing was enough to keep me happy.  I'll be honest though, I wasn't about to turn down any payment.

Yet another new design, but an improvement on the old ones I hope.

So this was my first commissioned cake, and I like to think that it was a success.  Yes, the first trial run had issues with the sponge colouring, and I was a little uneasy with the decorating at times (novice decorator issues!), but it worked well enough in the end, and most importantly the birthday girl liked it.  Therefore I am very happy with how it turned out.

Beckie.

Mississippi Mud Pie

My latest endeavour was a recipe that I have had my eye for a while. This called for an ingredient that I have never used before: chocolate extract. I had never come across it before in my baking so far, so I was intrigued at a recipe that included it. I found the recipe in the Rosie's Pantry Baking book and it seemed like an easy enough task to make this pie.


First task was getting all the ingredients together:

Pastry -

• 225g/8oz plain flour, plus extra for dusting
• 2 tbsp coca powder
• 150g/51/2oz unsalted butter
• 2 tbsp caster sugar
• 1-2 tbsp cold water

Filling -

• 175g/6oz unsalted butter
• 350g/12oz brown sugar
• 4 eggs, lightly beaten
• 4 tbsp cocoa powder
• 150g/51/2oz plain chocolate
• 300ml/10 fl oz single cream
• 1 tsp chocolate extract

To decorate -

• 450ml/15 fl oz double cream, whipped
• Chocolate flakes and curls

Lots of lovely ingredients.

First I made up the pastry. I started by sifting together the flour and the cocoa powder.

Flour and cocoa powder.

Then I rubbed in the butter until the mixture looked like fine breadcrumbs.

Butter.

Then the sugar was stirred in, followed by the cold water.

Pastry nearly there.

This was all mixed together to create a soft dough, which was wrapped in clingfilm and left to chill in the fridge for at least 15 minutes.

Mmmm, chocolate pastry.

The dough was then rolled out on a flour- and cocoa powder-covered board, before being pressed into a 23cm/9 inch tart tin.

Pre-blind-bake.

The pastry was first blind-baked (lined with baking paper and filled with baking beans) at 190°C  for 15 minutes with the baking beans, and then for 10 minutes uncovered. Once the pastry case was out of the oven, the oven temperature was reduced to 160°C.

Baked pastry.

As the pastry was cooling, I made a start on the filling. This was made by beating the brown sugar and the butter together.

Sugar and butter.

Then the eggs and the cocoa powder were gradually beaten into the mixture.

Adding the eggs and cocoa powder.

Whilst the eggs and cocoa powder were being beaten in, I was melting the plain chocolate, which was also then added in to the filling mixture.

Adding the melted chocolate.

After the melted chocolate was added, the single cream and the chocolate extract were beaten in, and this was then poured into the pastry case.

Ready for the oven.

The pie was then baked in the oven for 45 minutes at 160°C, until the filling was just set.

Nicely baked.

One thing I will mention is that the recipe I used made double the amount of filling that was necessary. Unwilling to waste/throw out such a lovely filling, I poured half the mixture into the large pastry case, and saved the other half. Whilst the first pie was baking, I quickly made another batch of pastry, which I used to line a ceramic pie dish and two tartlet cases. The remaining filling was then divided up between the three pastry cases.

Mississippi Mud Tartlets.

Once the filling had cooled down completely, the whipped cream was added on top of the pie.

Adding the whipped cream.

The whipped cream was then decorated with plain chocolate flakes and curls. The decoration was the same for both of the large pies, but the small pies had only a small tablespoon's worth of whipped cream on top, and no extra chocolate.

Garnished with chocolate.

Pie for Miss Sarah and family.

I took the first pie into work, where it went down a storm with everyone. One of my colleagues even claimed that it was her favourite of my baking projects yet! I was very pleased indeed with the feedback.

The second pie was taken to Miss Sarah's house, and was much appreciated by Miss Sarah and her parents.

Ready to eat!

Messy but good.

Nice cross-section slice.

The pie was absolutely lovely. It was nowhere near as sweet as I thought it would be; I think the use of brown sugar rather than caster sugar meant that the sweetness was limited somewhat. The whipped cream was also unsweetend, which meant that there wasn't a total overload of sugar. The pastry was also not too sugary or sweet.

I can definitely recommend this recipe. It was relatively easy to make, and the results were excellent, and very much appreciated by my colleagues and friends.

Beckie.

Stripy Cake

Apologies for the long delay between posts. I have been dealing with various PhD things that have rather taken up my time recently. I did, however, have a chance to try out another cake that I have been wanting to try for a while. This involved another baking session with Miss Sarah (a most excellent baking companion, I might add), and was a fairly ambitious project in some respects, for we had decided to make a stripy cake.  For this cake, we chose the relatively straight-forward method of baking four separate cake layers of different colours. This was not so much difficult as time-consuming and a little complicated.

Miss Sarah and I decided that a simple vanilla sponge cake would be the best cake style to use for this project. We made the mix to the equivalent of two sponge cakes.

Ingredients:
Sponge - 

• 350g butter, at room temperature
• 350g caster sugar
• 6 eggs
• 350g self-raising flour
• 1/2 tsp vanilla extract
• Pinch of salt

 Buttercream (double required for the filling and the covering) - 

• 140g/5oz butter, softened
• 280g/10oz icing sugar
• 1-2 tbsp milk
• few drops vanilla extract

First we set up four 9-inch springform cake tins, greasing them with cake release spray, and then lining the bases with baking paper. The oven was then preheated to 180°C/350°F/Gas Mark 4.


Next the butter and sugar were beaten together with a hand-held electric mixer.

Ah, that heavenly mix of butter and sugar.

Then each egg was added one at a time, and beaten in to the mixture.

Adding the eggs one at a time.

Once all the eggs were beaten in, the vanilla was mixed in, and then the flour and salt were sifted together, and gently folded into the cake mixture.

Miss Sarah folding in the flour oh-so-carefully.

This mixture was then divided between four bowls, and each had a different food colouring (green, red, yellow, and blue) added to it.  Each bowlful was then poured into a cake tin, and these were then baked in the oven for twenty minutes each until they were fully baked.

Soooooo pretty!

Each layer was set aside to be cooled (the blue layer a source of some amusement, as we were both convinced that the swirls from the food colouring presented the image of a dinosaur skull).

First layers ready.

T-Rex skull maybe?

Once cooled, the layers were ready to be put together. For this, a simple vanilla buttercream was made by mixing together the butter and icing sugar, and then mixing in the milk and vanilla.

Mmmmm, buttercream.

Each layer of the cake was topped with some of the buttercream, before the next layer was carefully placed on top.

On goes the first round of buttercream.

Carefully placed blue layer.

Red and green layers.

Messy but fun.

The completed cake tower was quite a sight, although the outside of each layer masked the true colours inside rather well, making the cake appear to have layers of various shades of brown.

Not looking too pretty at the moment, but a whole load of buttercream will deal with that.

Then it was time to cover the cake, which required another batch of the buttercream. Once the cake was completely covered, dots of food colouring were added to the top.

Colourful dots.

The food colouring was then blended together to make a vague approximation of decoration.

'Interesting' decoration...

The first cut was the most nerve-wracking, for until we cut into it we could not be entirely sure that the various layers had worked well.

It worked! Phew!

I am pleased to report that we had a success on our hands. The different layers and colours were very clearly defined, and worked very well together.

Beautiful!

Nice layers.

Stripy cake and a cup of tea - lovely!

When I tried out the recipe again, I made some small alterations. Two of the layers (the blue and green) were the vanilla sponge, but the other two (the red and yellow) were honey-flavoured sponges. I also decorated the top of the cake with small chocolate dots instead of food colouring. It did make for a very pretty cake.

Improving on the original design with chocolate dots.

Very cute, I think.

The only quibble I had with this version was that the layers were not uniform in size, but that is merely a cosmetic issue. The cake tasted beautiful, with the honey and vanilla flavours combining well. It was certainly popular with my work colleagues.

Proving popular at work.

The stripy cake was definitely a success, and a recipe that I shall be experimenting with a great deal in the future. The aim is to at some stage make a full rainbow cake, all seven layers of it.

Beckie.