Crazy about knitting? Here's my Knitting Basket Cake!

Hello Everyone,
Im really excited to present to you my most recent cake which was this Knitting Basket Cake! Funnily enough I had been planning this cake for over a year! I first saw a knitting cake on google images when first starting cake decoating. The idea stuck and when my Grandmothers 80th came around there was no doubt to what cake I was going to do.

Heres the end product:

This cake used much different tools than any other cake ive previously done.
This is a list of the equiptment used:
Hand Mixer
Oven
Refrigerator
Microwave
Patchwork Embosser - Basket weave
Clay extruder
Tappit Cutters
8 x 11' oval cake tin
Parchment paper
Rolling pin
Mixer
Small, medium and large crank handle/ offset spatulas which are used for "ganaching" and "hot knifing" a cake
PME modeling tools
PME Tappit Letter Cutters
Cake Boards
Wilton Ribbon Cutter
Paint Brushes
Luster Dust
Wilton Coloring
Floral Wire
Leaf Veiner

Ingredients/Products used:
Chocolate, Milk
35% Milk Fat Cream
Icing Sugar
Caramel Mud Cake

This cake was rushed, believe it or not. As much as you may think it doesnt look rushed it most certaintly was. Timing for this cake was a bit of a nightmare due to personal events.
1 Days before the event - First thing is bake cakes in the morning as thats a time consuming event and other tasks can be done while baking like - Make ganache, make kitting balls and cover presentation board.
After the cake is cooked and cooled its covered with ganache (a perfect ganaching is not needed as the fondant covering will be embossed so the wont be noticable lumps). The cake is then immediately wrapped in fondant, (the fondant is rolled into two embossed rectangles then pressed up the side of the cake in halves and trimmed to have a seam).
Next the cake is placed onto the precovered board and given additiona featured like the beave on top of the basket, blanket, weaved handles and knitting balls.
Finally the cake is given the details on the board and 80 on the basket itself.

As you can read this cake was yes, done in a whole day! I was very pleased at how it turned out so was my grandmother, family and the staff at TGIF.

Again heres the link to my facebook page for all recent jobs and info! -
www.facebook.com/cakedreamsau

Ivory and Lilac Rose Cake Revisited

On the week of the 21st of May I created a cake for my Mums Birthday. This cake is very alike on I made for my Hospitality Last November. Its great to recreate old favorites to compare the progress of skills in such a short amount of time! The most obvious improvement is my roses, they are now professional, I'm really happy with the roses I'm now able to create. The other improvement is the sharp corners, which is really exciting because that has been my main focus for some time now, even some of the professionals like "Cake Boss" and the "Ace of Cakes" team cant or don't achieve sharp corners. However my idols like the "Planet Cake" team have corners that are phenomenal! I wish to one day cover cakes as flawlessly as them.

This cake was a very simple design that focused on my sharp corners and new found technique of roses. Also for a full view you can see it on my youtube channel: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r8okzjngFUY&feature=relmfu

Also, apologies for the watermark on my latest photos, these watermarks are necessary for me now as cake photos of mine and even some of my cake decorating friends have had photos stolen and reused on others' websites and pages claiming to be theirs. Hopefully this doesn't ruin the photo for you but its better to ensure no one can take them.

Tools and Equipment used:
Floral Wire
FMM Tapit Letter Cutters
Mini Rose Petal Cutters
My Sharp Corner Kit (Includes all the tools I mentioned last post to achieve sharp corners)
7" cake tin
7" Cake Board
11" Cake Board
PVC Pipe (believe it or not, PVC pipe works much better than a traditional Rolling pin!)
Wooden Dowels
Wilton Concentrated food coloring gel
Sewing pins or acupuncture needles
Fondant Smoothers

Ingredients Used:
White Chocolate Mud Cake
Lemon Butter
Milk Chocolate
Pure Cream 35% milk fat
Confectioners Sugar
CMC Powder (a hardening agent added to fondant to create flower paste/gum paste. 

Timeline:
For this cake the timeline was basic and quick.
2 Days before - 
Cook Cake (1.5 hours at 150 Bake)
Make Roses 1st and second stage, let harden
Cool Cake
Cut, Layer, Fill
Prep Tools and board for ganaching
Make ganche and pour some onto florists Celephane covered Board
Place cake face down onto ganache with board same inches wide as cake ontop, let set overnight.
Apply 3rd step to roses and let harden overnight.

Day Before-
Apply Ganache to sides
Scrape back with tools
Let set in fridge for a few hours
Color fondant
Roll out fondant using PVC pipe rolled over the wooden dowels to ensure even thickness (tricks of the trade!)
Peel off base board and flip cake over
Cover cake
Using sewing pins or acupuncture needles pop any air bubbles under the fondant
Cover Base Board
Place cake on base board and cover with cloth to ensure the icing doesn't fade

On the day (in the morning, as cake was due at 7pm) -
Apply Roses and design elements on the side of the cake and board
Cut and apply tap-it letters
Prep for transport
Deliver

Many elements of this cake could have gone wrong, for example:
Burnt Ganache
Stubborn air bubbles
Rips in application of fondant
Florists Cellophane ripping
Roses not set or accidentally dropping one
Rose being too heavy for floral wire and dropping off (my roses are set hanging upside down in a unused bird cage, if they fall off, the landing is not pretty and unretreivable.)
Fondant Rolled to thin - unsmooth covering
Fondant too thick - bye-bye sharp edges!
All of these risks are minimized by practice and trial of error! Practice is the best way of learning, the second best is to watch a proffessional which would either be via YouTube or Lifestyle food shows like Planet Cake or Cake Boss ext. Using different techniques comes with serious risks, things can go awefully wrong but at my stage of learning the trade taking those risks is the only way to improve skills on your own. Only mimimized by watching videos and reading how-tos or just simply experimenting on dummy cakes first!


I did have three problems, the Florists Cellophane ripped, Fondant was rolled a touch to thin and therefor wasnt as flawless as I would have liked and lastly the roses weren't setting firmly in enough time due to the lack of CMC powder added.
Luckily none of these problems got the better of me or the cake, resulting in a cake I was happy with!

Don't forget, if you want to see recent cakes before their blogged about, head to www.facebook.com/cakedreamsau

Hope you Enjoyed this cake and better yet look forward to my next blog which is my Knitting Basket Cake!

We Love You Beary Much Cake

Hello Everyone!
Im now hear to blog about my Mothers Day Cake which I thoroughly enjoyed making.
Drawing inspiration from many double-barrel cakes ive seen in the past and the ever-so-adorable Forever Friends Hallmark Bears.

For A full view of this cake you can see it on my youtube channel! Heres the link to the video:  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iKcSKyGqHIA&feature=relmfu

Equipment Used:
Small, medium and large crank handle/ offset spatulas which are used for "ganaching" and "hot knifing" a cake
PME modeling tools
PME Tappit Letter Cutters
Cake Boards
Florists Celephane (Why? See paragraph below)
Spirit Leveler (See paragraph below)
Square Angle Ruler (See paragraph below)
Refrigerator
Oven with BAKE setting
7" Proffesional Cake tin (sharp corners is a must!)
Wilton Ribbon Cutter
Paint Brushes
Luster Dust
Wilton Coloring
Floral Wire
Leaf Veiner
Wooden Dowls

Ingredients/Products used:
Chocolate, Milk
35% Milk Fat Cream
Icing Sugar
Caramel Mud Cake

Why Use Florist Cellophane, spirit leveler and square angle ruler?
Ganaching cakes with sharp angles is a science, but with these items achieving sharp corners is possible.
Florists Cellophane is taped to the base board in which the cake ( filled, and chilled and on its own board) is placed top down on a fair amount of ganache, checked that its level with the spirit level and placed in the fridge to set. This will be your top. Consistency on your remaining ganache is key to applying the side layer.
Pile on the ganache around the side of the cake, using the square ruler remove the excess ganache from the sides, the square angle ruler will scrape the top board giving a sharp edge, once refrigerated overnight the florists tape will easily separated from the ganached cake. Once the cake is covered in syrup its then ready to be covered in rolled icing.

The timing of the steps in order to finish on time is crucial.
I do every cake within a space of 3 days maximum, the timing is as follows:
3 Days before due date - Baked all cakes needed, cut or make all things that require setting time and make ganache and set in fridge overnight.
2 Days Before - Ganache cake, Cover Board, Cover Cake in RTR.
Day before its due - Add any details like flowers that have been made prior, names or messages, figures made prior or any cut outs that need to be attached to cake.

Things that could have or did go wrong?!
Ofcourse in every cake there are challenges, perhaps new skills that I've never tackled before. Most often a cake that im doing has at least one element that is new to me.  
Other key elements that could go wrong are:
- Florists cellophane ripping while ganaching, ruining your sharp corners
- Fondant rolled too thin (will be impossible to smooth)
- Fondant rolled too think (say bye bye to sharp edges and all your ganaching work)
- Fondant fading once applied
- Sugar figure bears breaking
- Roses breaking with no time to re make and set more
- Air bubbles! A cake decorators nightmare.
- Something breaking on transport

My overall veiw of the finished product was that I was very happy with the overall look and theme. I was very happy with my sugar roses and hallmark bears. The cake definitely tasted good! I was pleased i acheived the double barrel, which I had actually previously attempted but seriously failed. Goes to show that practicing and absorbing all other sorces of skills and information is key to getting the resalt your after.

To be honest there wasn't anything I didn't like about the cake. Nothing went wrong and everything was flawless. That says something because I always see flaws in my cakes!

Remember, if you want to see my cakes before their posted on here, head over to www.facebook.com/cakedreamsau

Hope you enjoyed this post!

Recent Cakes

Due to my absence on Friday the 2nd of March which was the Longest Homeless Lunch (im really disappointed I missed it, however I wasnt well enough to attend), I will blog about a few recent cakes I've done. I'm sure writing about something is better then nothing hey?

Anyway, recently I've done 4 cakes, three of them im much more proud of than the fourth only as I completed it in two hours.

The first cake was a 3D character from Cars/Cars 2 the animated movie. This character's name is Mater (also know as Tow Mater).
Heres my cake version of Mater;

Mater was for two young twins (Mitchel and Mathew) and their older brother (Bradley), it wasn't for a special event just as a visiting gift. The flavor of the cake was fairly basic so it was firm enough to sculpt. The cake was part Chocolate Mud and Half White Chocolate Mud, and was filled and covered in Milk chocolate Ganache. My favorite part from the creation of this cake was connecting with one of my cake idols! Her name is Verusca Walker, she was nice enough to give me some pointers and templates that she only gives her paying students. From then we have been talking ever since, shes been a huge booster in my motivation! She has also said I'm welcome to come and stay with her in Sydney any time, which was really lovely of her. Im hoping to travel to Sydney very soon, to take one of the cake decorating classes, so I should start saving! :)

My next cake was a Golden 50th Anniversary cake with 24 matching cupcakes for a very lovely couple. I struggled to use the color gold as its a hard color to match with different materials, I feel as though I pulled it off and my client sure thought so! This cake was Utility Sponge filled with a Raspberry Plum Jam with a covering of White chocolate Ganache to make a sturdy base for the RTR icing.
Here it is;

And heres the Cupcakes;

Here they all are lined up!

The next cake I did was Mia's Christening, It was by far the largest order I had retrieved it was to serve 80 guests as well as 30 kids. So my plan was to do a two tier cake which consisted of the giant cupcake (as requested) and a base that would serve 40 people. As the customer didn't want two tiers under the giant cupcake I insisted to to an undecorated cake that would be just a serving cake. I offered to not even charge her for the undecorated one as it was so important to me to have enough cake to cater! In the end I had 80 servings at the event as well as 30 cupcakes for the kids, as requested.

Im very proud of this cake, it was my first cake for a large function, I set the cake up on a cutting table and spoke with the kitchen staff as to how i wanted it cut and served. Im very disappointing by the lighting in the room as i couldn't get a professional photo of it set up on the table provided. I have taken a photo of it before the event which it isn't completed but it still looks great. I have also taken a photo at the event, but its terrible lighting.

The final cake was for my Grandpa's Birthday. I wish I had of had more time to complete it, I had 2 hours. I would have liked to put details on it, especially a message, but for two hours work I think its pretty good. He thought so, and so did the staff at the Pancake Parlor! It was Utility Sponge (again!) with Raspberry Plum Jam, the sweets on it are his favorites.

Here it is;

Thats all Ive done recently, but here are some recent others im proud of,

Anyway, I wanted to post about my cakes because I hadn't attended the day that everyone else was blogging about, I felt it was important to also personalize my blog to my life and my passion. After the past 4 cakes I've decided to stop doing cakes temporarily to be able to attend more often. Decorating cakes takes alot out of me, especially when I'm sick to start with. This decision has been tough but William Angliss means just as much to me as my cakes and its time to let myself shine at William Angliss.

Thats it for now! :)

Welcome!

Welcome everyone to my blog, this blog is a task set by William Angliss Institutie which I now attend!
While attending William Angliss I'll be keeping you up to date with all the events I do and whats happening in my life outside of William Angliss  (which is CAKE CAKE and more CAKE!).

I hope you enjoy following my blog! :)