Popcorn Cake

Popcorn Cake

My husband is running a film festival at his school later this year.  He asked if I could make cakes that could be used instead of trophies, and that looked like a box of popcorn.  I got to use some new square cutters that I bought yesterday - they made covering this little cake a whole lot quicker.  It only stands about 7cm high and yes, I just used actual popcorn on top. I could say that it was to add to the realism, but really I'm just being lazy!

There's something therapeutic about making cakes.  Unless things start going wrong.  Last night I made some little mudcakes for a present. I was really tired, but needed to have them sorted for today, and so kept going until they were done.  Only problem was that the icing kept tearing and I kept on cutting the icing the wrong size, so then it wouldn't fit.  Nothing therapeutic about having to re-do something that should be easy in the first place.  But making the popcorn cake this morning was fun.  Just as well, seeing as though I'll be making at least 20 of them!

-N-

Present Cakes and Door Handles

Here is the present cake that I finished on the weekend.  I hope that Ann liked it!  

Present Cake

With all of this cake-making, I usually end up with some leftover cake - either when I cut the top off to make it flat or chop the side off to make another shape (like the hand-bag).  Now, my cake is tasty, but there is such a thing as too much mud-cake.  So I end up either giving it to friends or taking it into work for others to eat.  This week I gave some to my neighbour, who then gave us some olives that he had bottled (using a sea-water recipe).  Maybe I should start a barter system :)

Also, I started watching a new cake show today - Ace of Cakes.  I'm not convinced yet. I don't really buy the main guy who acts like he's super cool.  Maybe I'll change my mind after I watch a few more episodes.  I get that it would be frustrating when you don't have enough fondant from your suppliers, but do you really need to go on about it on tv?  Seems like a big act at the moment.  Fabulous Cakes is a much better show.

And just a little rant about a non-cake related thing... we have been having hassles with our front door handle over the past week.  'Hassle' meaning that I couldn't open the door without some brute force.  We got the door guy to come out last week. Of course, when he came, it didn't get stuck, and he said that it was some screw loose on the plate which he tightened.  The handle was still a problem over the weekend, and then today it happened - I got stuck outside for 5 minutes trying to open the door just after I had come home from the pools and was dripping wet.  When I finally got inside, I rang the door guy. He sounded all annoyed, and almost as though I was making it up.  After some 'but who do I call if I get stuck outside' debate on my part, he agreed to send someone out to look at it. When the guy came, I couldn't open the door.  What a surprise - there was a faulty bit inside the lock mechanism. See.... I'm not just some paranoid chick.  Not usually anyway.   Unless it's about how my cake is going to turn out.

-N-

Purple Cakes

Work has been getting to me lately, and so around this time last week I decided that I would like to make about two cakes per month - not heading for a career change, but frequent enough to practise and maybe make a little pocket money (to pay for more cake decorating classes!).

This week I had four cakes to make in ten days.

The icecream scoop cake was first on the list.  Since that documented disasterous process, I have also decided to only try out one new technique per cake if possible.

Mum's birthday cake was my first to make for the weekend.  I had planned to make her a handbag cake but changed my mind - she loves flowers and craft, and so I tried out a quilting pattern and some new flowers, both of which were surprisingly easy to do.  My initial plan was for the top and sides of the cake to be purple, but a mishap with the quilting tool meant that I re-did the top in pink.  I think that it turned out better this way.

Mum's Flower Cake

I finished the purple handbag mudcake this morning, for a friend's birthday.  It was the first time that I have tried this shape of cake - I had a few hassles trying to get the strap right, but the rest of the cake turned out ok.  I think that it would look nice in black.

Purple Handbag Mudcake

 

Next on the list is Ann's 60th Birthday Cake for Sunday, and then I have one cake to make for November at this stage.  I wonder how my plans will go for two cakes per month?

-N-

This week's lesson - a cake made using a ring tin is not structurally sound.  

I decided to make a cake for friends who have become co-owners in an ice-cream shop.  My idea was to make a cake that looked like a bowl of ice-cream, with scoops of ice-cream on top.  I made a marble cake for the bowl (in the dreaded ring tin), and then three different flavoured cakes for the ice-cream - lemon, coffee and rum & raisin.  Coffee and rum & raisin were our favourite flavours at Milk Mo's opening on Friday night, so they seemed like a good idea.

All the cakes cooked well and didn't stick to the tin or anything.  So far so good.

Attempt number 1 - failed

The general idea was to shape the marble cake so that it looked like a bowl.  I managed this with a little help from my hubby.  Once it was nicely shaped, I covered it in chocolate buttercream.  At this stage the cake started to flatten a little. (Not structurally sound, remember?).  I thought that I could rescue it once I put the fondant icing on - surely it would help hold the shape.  I was wrong.  My 'bowl' ended up looking more like a squashed white apple pie- not a pretty sight.

So, I made another cake at 9.30pm last night.  I didn't quite learn my lesson the first time, and used the ring tin again.  The other problem was that I ran out of milk (and so went to the local petrol station at 9.45pm), and only just managed to find enough flour in the cupboard.  I gave up on the marble cake idea, and just went with a chocolate cake.

I had to wait for the cake to cool before I could cover it with fondant, and so made the buttercream icing for the ice-cream scoops.  While I was doing that, I used the last of my icing sugar (and so didn't have enough to make more buttercream to ice the main cake).

I live across the road from an IGA and so could have bought more icing sugar this morning, but as I woke up bright and early (at 6am) it wasn't open.  So I improvised and just skipped the buttercream and covered it with fondant.  So far so good - it starting squishing a little, but it wasn't too flat this time (I gave up on the bowl idea and just went with the round cake).

Attempt number 2 finished

Anyway, it all turned out ok, after a few more mishaps like running out of green fondant (thus the multi-coloured icing on the board).  I also wanted to have the Milk Mo's logo on the side of the cake, but after a number of attempts, I gave up!

So.. after an eventful evening and morning, I finished the cake at 9am to take to the guys at media engine at 10am.  At least it tasted good!  I vow to never use a ring tin for these types of cakes again.

Squashed white apple pie, anyone?

-N-