My Cakes - A Brief History

I thought I would share a brief history of cakes that I have done before The BaKerry, then when I refer back to them during my conversational posts, you'll know what I'm talking about :)

I've dabbled in cake decorating for a few years, I've always been a keen baker, but watching my Mum create novelty cakes for family and friends throughout my childhood gave me the idea of wanting to try it as an adult. I love baking and although I get stressed out during some of my novelty cake making, I absolutely love the finished products and the reactions I get from the recipients. Here's the most recent ones I've done over the last couple of years:

League of Legends Cake

The League of Legends cake was created in August 2011 for Gavin's brother's birthday, the cake is the logo of the game. The surrounding shapes were fairly tricky to copy from the logo!

Xbox - 16 Achievement Unlocked

I made an Xbox cake for Gavin's youngest brother's birthday in November 2011 for his 16th birthday. You cannot see it from the picture but the ends of the cake had vents made out of icing, the dots were similar to the computer cake - very stressful!

WWE RAW Cake

Gavin is a big fan of WWE, so for his birthday in December 2011, I made a wrestling ring cake. The corners that you can see in the picture are actually big red candles and the ropes around the ring were strawberry laces. 

Game of Thrones Cake

This one was probably one of the hardest cakes that I have ever had to do. The banners from the important houses from the Song of Ice and Fire franchise. The banners included a direwolf for the house of Stark, a three headed dragon from the Targaryen house, a lion for the house of Lannister, a stag for the Baratheon house, a flower for the house of Tyrell, a fish jumping in a river for the house of  Tully, a Kraken for the house of Greyjoy and the stag in the heart on fire for Stannis Baratheon. This one was a fair few hours worth of work.

Top of London Themed Cake

Side of London Themed Cake

Other side and end of London Themed Cake

For Gavin's sister's birthday, I created a London Themed cake. The top of the cake based on the popular "keep calm" signs and the sides filled with famous London Landmarks, which included the London Bridge, The Gherkin, The London Eye, St Paul's Cathedral and Big Ben.

Star Trek Cake

I will probably always have a special place in my heart for Star Trek, having watched a great deal of the multiple series and the films with my Dad. This cake was for another Star Trek fan, with the logo on top and stars indented and painted along the side. 

TMNT Birthday Cake

For Gavin's birthday in 2012, I made him a Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles cake. Most of the cake was iced with butter icing,  except the sewer lid, the writing and the TMNT's heads, which were made out of royal icing. I didn't have the heart to put candles in the actual cake, so the 26 went to the side!

1965 Silver Sixpence Cake

I made this cake for Gavin's Mum. The top of the cake is taken from the 1965 Sixpence, one of the trickiest designs that I've created as it involved the plants to be weaved in and out of each other. The entire decoration was created entirely in white icing and covered in an edible silver paint. 

WWE Gingerbread Men

Although these are not cakes, they are decorated. I mentioned that Gavin was a big WWE fan, these are just a handful of the 24 gingerbread men that were baked and decorated to resemble every wrestler involved in Wrestlemania 29. Needless to say, this took a lot of planning to ensure that every gingerbread man had the right belts, clothing and accessories!

Battlestar Galactica Cake

Side of Battlestar Galactica Cake 

This cake was based on the TV series Battlestar Galactica. The top of the cake had the insignia for Battlestar Galactica, with the sides decorated with stars, Cylon Raiders and Colonial Vipers. The hardest part of this cake were actually the Cylon Raiders, getting the shape of the wings right took me absolutely ages.

Helmet Cake

This one was the last cake that I created before starting up The BaKerry. This one was for Gavin's Step Dad. It was based on his actual helmet, the shaping of the cake was one of the hardest parts. This is where I picked up the trick of using butter icing and cake crumbs to help mould the shape you need. The patterns and logos were all copied from the original helmet. 

If you like what you see on The BaKerry, and are in need of a cake for a special occasion, I do take commissions, just ask :)

A Monster for a 1 Year Old

The Project: Birthday Cake for a 1 Year Old
The Theme: Sulley from Monsters, Inc.
Ingredients:
For the Cake
20oz Sugar
20oz Margarine
18oz Self Raising Flour
2oz Cocoa
10 Eggs
For the Icing
Chocolate Butter Icing for the middle
1 pack of white roll out icing
Red Colouring Paste
Blue Colouring Paste
Black Colouring Paste
Extra cake crumbs

Firstly, let me introduce you to a the new members of my baking family, I got them for Christmas, they are going to be my assistants today.

Are they not beautiful? There is my brand new marble rolling pin, my Great British Bake Off set of scales and my Great British Bake Off gigantic mixing bowl!! 

Okay, on with the cake :)

Although I was excited about doing this cake, I was also a little nervous; Sulley is incredibly fluffy, meaning the icing would need to be Butter icing and it would have to be piped to get the right effect. Piping icing isn't something that I have a great deal of experience in. The majority of my cakes have been made with Royal Icing. Overall, I'm absolutely thrilled with the results. 

To make sure that the cake was completely cooled, I baked them in the morning. I made 4 circular cakes, but only used 3 and a bit plus some extra for the crumbs that I needed later. 

Once cooled, they were shaped. I left two of the circular cakes whole and cut into the other cakes to make the top of Sulley's head. Then they were iced and sandwiched together.

To round off the shape a little and give it a smoother finish, I mixed together some chocolate butter icing and some chocolate cake crumbs, it plugs the gaps and sets firm for you to be able to ice on top of. I added a little extra between the two separate pieces of cake to stick them together.

Next was the messy job of colouring the icing. I needed to colour lots of butter icing to be blue (keeping it stiff enough to be piped and keep it's shape), as well as a light blue for the iris of his eye, black for his pupils and mouth, a darker blue for his nose and a red for his tongue, whilst keeping enough white back for his horns, eyes and teeth. 

Then I started the icing of the cake. Firstly I covered him lightly in blue so that no gaps would show through. then I placed his eyes and mouth in place to that I new where to pipe the blue icing from. I started with the sides and worked my way around.

I found it gave a better effect by starting at the bottom of each line and layering it up to the top of the cake. It created the fur effect that I was after

Once the sides were complete, I worked my way around the face layering up the piped icing strands to look like fur and then piped around the eyes and mouth and put the nose into place. About half way around the face, my hand started to ache from holding the icing bag, although I persevered and got it done, this was the point when I decided that I totally prefer Mike Wasowski! 

I then added the tongue and teeth and glued them into place using edible glue.

Then he was just missing his horns. I shaped them by hand and pointed the ends.

Fitting in the writing was somewhat of a challenge. But I was really happy with how the cake turned out. 

Then I handed over to my kitchen Minion to clean up :)

Total Time Spent: 7.5 hours

Useful Tips Gained: Piping icing to look like fur

Kitchen Items to Purchase: A new piping bag

Items added to Amazon Wishlist: None, but I do still need a smoother

Miscellaneous Items Wished for: None

Happy New Year!

Happy New Year one and all! 

I hope that everyone had a fantastic Christmas and New Year. 

I thought I might share some baking thoughts I have for 2014 and my project plans coming up on The BaKerry.

One of my new year resolutions for 2014 is to grow my own herbs, it struck me that I use a lot of herbs in my cooking (and sometimes baking), why am I not growing my own? Well I'm a little useless with plants and keeping them alive, but this year, I am going to make a real effort to not let them die (the key to that is probably remembering to water them). I'll keep you updated as to how it goes. 

This month I have two themed birthday cakes to do, which is very exciting! There are other birthday cakes planned throughout the year too. 

Last year I made Chocolate Chip Hot Cross Buns for Good Friday, they were incredible, I plan to make them again this year and to share the recipe.

I had a couple of baking recipe books that I am very much looking forward to trying out. Both are Paul Hollywood books! I have his Bread book and his Pies and Puds book! In particular, 2014 will include Stilton and Bacon Rolls, Trencher Bread, Crumpets, Biscotti, Sourdough, Pain De Savoie, Savoury Brioche, White Chocolate and Raspberry Bread, Sausage Plait and Pecan Pie from Mr Hollywood's range. 

If you have any suggestions or recommendations for me to turn into a project for The Bakerry, or even just a request to see it made, drop a comment in the box below :)

Looking forward to a fantastic year of baking with you all!!