Amazing Birthday Cake for Gavin!

So it's been a while! Hi! I've taken about 3 months off from blogging, but I have been busy with cakes, so I will get this up to date as soon as I can. Apologies, I have no real excuse, I have just been busy with Christmas and New Year and then distracted playing with my Christmas Gifts!

Gavin's Birthday was at the beginning of December, I have always avoided doing a Spider-Man cake because it's a bit of a go-to for him to have Spider-Man things and I wanted to be able to do it justice, I wanted to avoid a plain old run of the mill Spider-Man cake - they are so simple, you can buy them from the supermarkets. No, I wanted something a little outside the box that would be fit for a true fan. I chose the face of many Spider-Mans. These were my inspiration;

Spider-Man himself- for obvious reasons - enough said

The Scarlet Spider - a clone of Peter Parker in the Comics who becomes a stand in for our friendly neighbourhood Spider-Man

Spider-Man 2099 - A version of  Spider-Man from the comics set in the future

Symbiote Spider-Man - Still our friendly neighbourhood Spider-Man but wearing an alien life-form suit, which later became Venom in the comics

4 faces of Spider-Man to make up 4 sides of a cake, I thought it was a fun idea, they all had different spiders, colours and eyes, which would make the cake fairly interesting.

I made it two tier so that I had enough space to make the different faces, spiders and backgrounds. The tiers were made from a large chocolate cake on the bottom and a smaller mint chocolate cake on the top.

I started off by covering the bottom layer with red roll our icing

Once it was covered and smoothed out, I marked a cross on the cake - going through the centre, to gage where each segment would go. I rolled out and covered one quarter of it with black icing for the Symbiote Spider side of the cake.

I wanted the top tier to be a plainer colour so that the face stood out, I also wanted to bring in the Spider-Man perch effect, so I made the top tier into a something that looks like the top of an old building. So I covered the top tier in grey icing. 

I cut out the shape of a face and painted it black to ensure that I got the blackest colour I could get

Using white royal icing, I made eyes for the face of the Symbiote Spider and used the photo of the Marvel figurine to craft the spider to stick on him too, then the Symbiote Spider side was complete. One down - three to go.

I decided to do the most complicated Spider to basically get him over and done with - the Spider-Man 2099. I cut the face out of red icing and painted over it with blue colouring to match his face mask. I also painted the bottom layer to match the colouring on his chest. I then created the spider from his chest out of red royal icing - as it's a flying spider, it was a little tricky, but I got it after a couple of tries - two down - two to go

You can also see from the below picture, that I've added the black building swirls to the edges too.

Spider-Man himself needed to be next - with the patterning to do on his face and on the bottom layer cake, I needed to make sure that this was right without messing it up - as I was using an icing pen and drawing this freehand straight onto the cake. I made his face shape and eyes and drew the web patterns on

Happy that I managed to get that right, I then took the freehand drawing to the bottom layer cake to complete the patterning. Once that was finished, I made the black spider from his chest and Spider-Man side was done - three down - one to go

Scarlet Spider's face was fairly simple, the only slightly tricky thing was his eyes were different to the rest of them, I shaped them by hand quite a few times before I was happy that they were right. I painted the bottom layer to match the colouring on his chest and made the black spider out of royal icing - four Spider-man sides done!

All that was left was to write Happy Birthday Gavin on the top of the cake and it was ready for the glorious tea party that followed. 

Gavin absolutely loved it and I think he liked that I went in a slightly different direction with the cake than just a normal Spider-Man face, this is a cake for a Spider-Man fan - and that's my Gavin.

Total Time Spent: 6 Hours (I think - we are talking 2 and a half months ago)

Useful Tips Gained: Do not be scared to draw directly on the cake

Items to Purchase: More edible pens!

Items Added to Amazon Wishlist: More edible pens!

Miscellaneous Items Wished For: None.

Credits - Thanks to Gavin, who provided very useful information on the background of various Spider-Man characters mentioned above.

Ship Shape 30th Cake

Amazingly, I'm posting this just the day after I finished making it for the event - somewhat unlike some of my previous write ups. I promise to get better.

So this cake had a lot of detail and we had our ups and downs, however the general consensus is that it's my best cake yet. This was for our friend's 30th Birthday.

The Project: Ship Shape 30th Cake
The Theme: Pirate Ship
Ingredients:
for the cake:
30oz Self Raising Flour
30oz Sugar
30oz Margarine
15 Eggs
Enough Cocoa to make it chocolatey (I did not measure it)
Lots of Chocolate Butter Icing
for the decoration:
2 and 1/2 packs of royal icing
Brown Colour Paste
Green Colour Paste
Blue Colour Paste
Black Colour Paste
Yellow Colour Paste

First things first - I baked 3 lots of rectangular chocolate cake

Once cooled, I shaped it into the ship shape, I cut the bottom layer slightly smaller than the top layer to create a curve at the front of the ship

Happy with the bottom two layers, I then cut the 3rd layer for the top of the ship, to create the extra steps

I added butter icing in between the layers and held it together with kebab sticks to keep the shape whilst the icing set enough for it to be a little more steady.

Mixing some of the offcuts with the butter icing to create a form of edible cement, I moulded the shape I wanted for the ship and smoothed out any rough edges, fill any gaps and created the curve for the front of the ship. I had to add more kebab sticks at this point as I was becoming paranoid about the back end of the ship.

Once it was set, I covered the ship in the first layer of icing and smoothed it out. Starting to look a bit like a ship now!

I bought a wood textured rolling pin for the planks of wood to cover the ship. I rolled out the icing, used the textured rolling pin on it and then cut out the strips I needed and started the very long process of covering the cake 

Many hours later and it's covered in wood planks!

I saved space at the back for windows for the captain's quarters too

I left it overnight as it was fairly late already and I still had so much to do, as party day was in the evening on Saturday, I had all of Saturday to add the details I wanted. The next morning I checked on the cake only to find out that the back end of the ship had fallen over - all that paranoia earlier on had come to pass. I was absolutely devastated, angry with myself for not doing enough to prevent it from happening, worried that I would not be able to fix it and concerned that I would not have enough time. A few annoyed words, some tears, hugs from Gavin, a poorly timed joke and a revelation later, I had a plan.

I had originally intended there to be a kraken creeping up the side of the ship, now I needed to make the kraken more prominent and the ship in much more of a sinking wreck. I chopped off the broken part of the rear of the ship and salvaged the top part. I moved the cake back on the board slightly and lifted the front end of the ship to tilt it.

I then covered the bottom of the ship in blue butter icing for waves and to stick down the recently moved ship and the additional part at the back

After covering the entire board to create the ocean effect, I then needed to start work on the kraken attacking it. I made one tentacle coming out of the water and breaking the back of the ship. I just used royal icing, moulded it into shape, cut out circles for the suckers on the inside and painted it green with the colouring paste. The effect of the green paint made it look wet and slimy - exactly what a kraken would be

Now that the main one was made, I then paced the others. three on one side, creeping up the side of the ship and holding the candles and one on the other side sticking out of the water. 

Using small plastic tubes and black icing, I created the cannons

I painted the windows black on the captains quarters to make it look like shiny glass. 

Next I needed to create the anchor, I made it out of the black icing and painted it silver and added some of the brown icing for the rope.

The end was in sight! just a few more details to add and it would be finished. The naming of the ship needed to be done, we went with Dread Hammer, which I wrote by hand using edible pens.

I then whipped up some white icing and placed it on the cake where the waves met the ship as foam.

I also used small amounts on the surrounding ocean and at the base of the tentacles. I then added floating debris to add to the havoc the kraken is causing.

 Finally, I pipped Happy 30th Shadey on the top of the deck and the cake was finished. Just 2 more extras to be placed on the cake.

I cross stitched the skull and cross bones onto black fabric and sewed it to the kebab sticks to form the sails 

Using fimo I made a Pirate Captain Shadey to be placed on the ship

 Finally - it was finished!

I was really pleased with this cake. I think I have to agree, it is one of my best cakes, the detail and extras really helped. Not keen to do another ship cake again though!

Total Time Spent: 17 Hours
Useful Tips Gained: Painting straight onto white icing gives an amazing effect
Items To Purchase: Cake Lifter - the amount of times I have needed to lift a cake and I do not own one of these!
Items Added to Amazon Wishlist - Cake Lifter - that is all
Miscellaneous Items Wished For - None

Bake Off with The Bake Off - Pastry!

Still playing catch up! This week is Pastry week! My challenge this week was to make something that I have never made before from the Pastry episode - Éclairs! The twist was that they had to be different than chocolate and cream and Gav had to like them!

Week 7 - Pastry Week!

White Chocolate and Raspberry Cheesecake Éclairs

Ingredients:
For the Choux Pastry:
65g Plain Flour
120ml Water
pinch of salt
50g Butter
2 Eggs (beaten)
For the Filling:
200g Cream Cheese
100g Icing Sugar
50g Raspberries
For the Icing:
150g White Chocolate (melted)

I decided to base these Eclairs on a cheesecake because Gav loves cheesecake and I wanted to mash the two things together to make a hybrid of awesome pastry cheesecake.

Firstly, I preheated the oven to 200C and lined a baking tray with foil. I would advise you to ensure that you have baking parchment in your cupboard before embarking on such a project, otherwise you may find yourself also using foil too, although to be fair, the foil worked fine, so use either! Anyway, I greased the foil and left it for later.

I put the water into a saucepan with the salt and butter and heated gently until the butter had melted. Bring the watery mixture tot he boil and add the flour, remove from the heat and beat until smooth. Putting the saucepan back on the heat to cook the dough slightly, so that it starts to come away from the sides - resembling PlayDough. Leave to cool.

Apologies this is a little wordier and less picture based than usual - it suddenly dawned on me half way through that I needed to be documenting this for The BaKerry! Talk about a dopey moment.

Once cooled, I added the beaten eggs to the mixture and whisked it in my mixer. The dough became very glossy looking. I then spooned it into my piping gun and piped them onto the baking tray

Hopefully yours will be less messy than mine

They were in the oven for around 15 minutes, at which point I reduced the temperature without opening the door and to 170C and left for another 10 minutes - A good tip from Mr H.

To avoid them going soggy with the steam trapped inside, I made small holes in the side of each Eclair, before returning them to the oven for another 5 minutes to make sure they were crisp. Leave to cool.

Meanwhile, playing with sugar...

Using the back of the a ladle, I created a basket. I filled some Raspberries with white chocolate too, just to pass some time

I filled some Raspberries with white chocolate too, just to pass some time and because the idea seemed delicious

Whilst the Éclairs cooled, I made the cheesecake filling. I creamed together the cream cheese and icing sugar and added the raspberries and squashed them in.

I piped the cheesecake filling into the Éclairs and spread the white chocolate on the top

Overall they tasted great, they were very messy to make though, as you can see from the picture! Needless to say, although I do not feel like rushing back into the kitchen to make another batch, I think I'll give them another whirl in the future :) 3 out of 5 points earned.

Bake Off with The Bake Off - European Cakes!

Well I'm terribly behind in writing up a few weeks worth of baking, so here I am, catching up again! This one was for the European cake week, my challenge for this week was to make a European cake, but the recipe had to include yeast and I had to have a go at spinning sugar because I had never done it before.

Week 6 - European Cakes!

Yeast Strudel with Walnuts

Ingredients:
For the Dough:
1 7g pack dried yeast
1/2 tsp Caster Sugar
1 tbsp Warm Water
310g Plain Flour
50g Caster Sugar
1 Pinch of Salt
1 Egg (beaten)
100ml Warm Water
40g Butter
For the Filling:
200g Ground Walnuts
100ml Milk
50g Caster Sugar
1/2tsp Vanilla Extract
1 tbsp Honey
1/2 tsp Ground Cinnamon

I started off by preparing the dough as it needed time to prove. I combined the yeast, 1/2 teaspoon of caster sugar and 1 tablespoon of warm water in a jug, left for a couple of minutes for it to activate and become foamy and yeast smelling. Whilst that was happening, I mixed together the flour, sugar and salt.

I made an indent in the flour and added the yeast mixture, along with the egg and gradually the water, mixing all the while. Before giving it one final blast in the mixer, I added the butter. 

I swapped out the mixing paddle for the dough blade and let it knead for 5 minutes. I then placed it in a bowl, covered with cling film and left to rise for around an hour for it to double in size.

Whilst it was proving, I cracked on with the filling. There were no ground walnuts at our local shop, hopefully you have more luck than I did, therefore, I had to finely chop them as best I could. I poured the milk into a pan and brought to the boil, I then threw in all of the other ingredients for the filling and stirred until it thickened, then left it to cool until the dough was ready.

When the dough had roughly doubled in size, I rolled it out into a rectangle measuring approximately 12 by 20 inches and spread the walnut mixture on top. I then rolled it up like a Swiss Roll and twisted it.

Happy that it was shaped and mildly concerned about parts of the mixture showing through, I left it to prove again for another hour. 

I baked it at 190°C for 10 minutes and then lowered the temperature to 175°C (without opening the oven) and baked for a further 30 minutes.Whilst it was baking. I made the spun sugar. I used about 100g sugar, I wasn't sure how much I would make an I wanted to play around with it.

I just tipped the sugar in the pan and heated on a low heat, gradually it started to melt around the sides and I used a spoon to gently prod it to help it along a bit. Suddenly it had all melted and I was ready to go. I had a couple of wooden spoons in the fridge as I had read that by refrigerating them helped if you wanted to make swirls. Over some baking parchment, I held the string of melting sugar gradually dripping off the spoon and when it became a little wiry looking, I held it over the wooden spoon and twisted it. I was pretty happy with the results.

I drizzled some icing on the top of the cooled yeast strudel and stuck some extra walnuts on top for added decoration and then lightly placed my spun sugar swirls. 

It tasted delicious. I was fairly happy with the results, although I would have liked a more even swirl on the inside, I was happy with the bake and the taste :) 4 out of 5 from the judges!