Rose Cake

Ombre and roses...does it get more girly?

This cake was made with a vanilla cake recipe (to which I added varying amounts of pink Americolor gels) and a buttercream recipe that I'm pretty sure I got from Sweetapolita's website. (Sorry, I just can't seem to find the exact link right now.) I filled it with vanilla pudding and flavoured the buttercream lightly with LorAnn's Raspberry Flavor.

The roses were far, far simpler to make than I thought they'd be. A search on Pinterest yielded iambaker's tutorial, but for some reason the website was down. (I've heard she's looking for a new host.) Luckily, I found this tutorial on YouTube.

Some notes:

• the recipe makes 3-8" cakes pretty much perfectly
• adding burgundy deepens the pink
• adding peach makes it more 'rosy' looking
• make a double recipe of buttercream (i.e. with 2 cups butter, 8 cups icing sugar, 8 tbsp whipping cream, and 3 tsp vanilla)...even then, this cake has a 3"-square bald spot! (Just don't use quite as much on the sides when doing the first coat.)

For the last day of school

I baked a gazillion cookies and cupcakes. (Thanks, Lois, for helping me decorate the cupcakes!) The theme was summer, so there were watermelon and beachball cookies, and cupcakes decorated to look like the beach, or with a flag in them. The idea was to sell them to raise money for the music program. I thought to sell by donation, but I think that maybe scared people off. I'd like to try this again...baking is fun!

(Note to self: donut boxes from Village Bakery are cheap and great for transporting large numbers of undecorated cupcakes!)

CamoPlane

I bought this cookie cutter many many months ago and figured, with spring break giving me the extra time and all, now was the time to break it out! I iced outlined all the cookies with a light brown royal icing using the Wilton round tip #4. My biggest challenge right now is icing consistency, and I think I either should have used a smaller tip and/or a slightly thicker icing. Something to think about for next time. I mixed two more colours, kelly green with a touch of black to dirty it up, and grey (which came out looking a little pale-purply). I tried to make sure these ones were fairly runny. I used the plastic bottles to create random shapes. The icing was runny enough that the different colours smoothed over nicely. I'm hoping these cookies will be going to Chris, and since he doesn't have a huge sweet tooth (unlike myself), I figured he might take them to SAE (I can't remember what the letters stand for, but basically, he's designing an RC plane with a bunch of aerospace engineers for competition). I'm assuming they could use a little fuel. When I took the previous picture, I noticed little bumps on the otherwise smooth icing. At first I thought I hadn't mixed it up properly, but then I remembered reading about air bubbles...sure enough, when I poked them with a toothpick, they released and the icing smoothed over. The problem is, the bubbles continued to rise even when the icing had started to crust, creating bumps in the finish. I'm not sure if this is a sign of over-mixing, making the icing too thick, or...? I guess I'll have to experiment with this one. The finished product:

Pilze!

So I got into a bunch of cookie decorating blogs, and this is the result! (Sweetopia is one of them...I've got her bookmarked now.) I had a lot of fun, didn't have to buy (too many) new tools, and made a few discoveries along the way.

In case you're wondering why I chose poisonous mushrooms as a motif, they feature prominently in German kids' books' drawings, along with adorable hedgehogs and gnomes. Plus, I figured it was a simple way to start.

Notes to self:

• Wilton's Christmas Red makes a sickly pink colour. (Thank goodness for Picnik's photo editing capabilities!)
• I could have thinned the flow icing a wee bit more.
• If you shake a cookie hard enough, icing will fly off (instead of settling in nicely)

P.S. Annelore, this one's for you! :)

Have the Cake's October Challenge: Layer Cake

I'm late, but that's better than the last few challenges, which I missed altogether. Which is a pity, since they were all things I really wanted to bake!

I found the recipes here...check it out; it'll be worth your time!

Since the recipe for the layered cake, ganache, orange frosting, and marshmallow fondant are all on Bakingdom's blog, I didn't think it would be right to copy them here. I'll give you the links, though...her directions are all clear, with wonderful photography to boot!

Cake, filling, and orange buttercream

Marshmallow fondant

Chocolate ganache

I don't know if you can call this a 'version' of the original, since I did my best to imitate the whole thing! If mine tastes as good as the original looks, I'll be happy.

Added later: it tasted great! Notes: make more chocolate frosting for the layers, and add more liquid to the frostings.

Imagine...

I kinda went just a little overboard at Pier I the other day...



I was thinking that cauliflower soup (with crisp bacon bits sprinkled on top) would look stunning (and hopefully taste good too) in those red bowls, so when I snapped a photo, I thought it would be fun to play around with it in Picnik.com. This is the result! An entirely imaginary menu.

In case you're interested, I purchased 4 each of

• red bowls
• water glasses with a beaded detail
• flowered placemats
• white plates

I also got 5 serviettes with a rick-rack border (in red, white, blue, green, and yellow), bird salt and pepper shakers, a green square ramekin (for butter), a white serving tray, and a glear glass water carafe with a bird embossed on it.

Can't wait to use them all!

Have the Cake: Pavlova

It's my first HtC Challenge, and I'm excited! Although it's pretty hot outside, I've had the AC running full tilt for a day now, so I'm hopeful that it won't be too humid in my apartment.

My original plan was to do something fun (maybe even...creative??) with the shape of the Pavlova. My list of brilliant ideas went something like this:

Maybe a ballet tutu?
Or a ballet slipper? (both inspired by the original inspiration for the dessert)
What about a simple square? (inspired by my lack of inspiration)

and to fill it with a strawberry/rhubarb mixture. The first two ideas were nixed because a skirt or a shoe filled with a red gooey mixture screams 'murder scene' to me, and that didn't seem appropriate. And a square is, well, just plain boring. Besides, I only just finished washing and freezing the strawberries and rhubarb. It seems like such a pity to use them up right away.

So I was at a bit of a standstill...until I made Rose Levy Beranbaum's Blueberry Lemon Tart yesterday. The Lemon Curd is simplicity itself, and I have these wonderful eggs (from a real farm) that have fabulously yellow yolks...no need for dollops of food colouring!

The decision made, the die cast: the Pavlova (Pavlovas, actually) will be egg-shaped, with a lemon curd 'yolk' centre.

For all of you die-hard Pavlova-purists out there, I know a Pavlova should have fresh fruit on it. If it bothers you that much, copy the picture to your own computer and photoshop a strawberry or two onto it. I just wanted to have a little fun with it, you know?

One last challenge: now that school's out, I needed to find eaters for my dessert. Luckily, a former colleague agreed to 'take one for the team' (her words, not mine) and help out in that department. Thanks, Anny!

Therefore and heretofore, without further ado:

Mise en place for the Pavlova (recipe is found in the Have the Cake July Challenge)

Stiff. Very stiff.
Piping egg-shaped shapes

Mise en place for curd (recipe can be found in both Rose's Pie and Pastry Bible and in her new book, Heavenly Cakes)

Do you have any idea how hard it was not to slurp this stuff straight from the bowl?

The finished Pavlova egg

Recipe: Eggy Pavlova

For the Meringue (adapted from the Challenge recipe)
Ingredients

4 large egg whites
1 cup berry sugar
1 tsp white vinegar
1/2 tbsp cornstarch

Procedure

1) Preheat oven to 250 degrees Farenheit. Line cookie sheet with parchment paper. Trace egg shapes onto parchment paper (approximately 3"x2").

2) Beat egg whites until they hold soft peaks. Add sugar in small amounts, beating each addition until dissolved. Continue beating until egg whites hold very stiff peaks.

3) Sprinkle vinegar and cornstarch onto egg mixture and fold in.

4) Using spatula, fill decorating bag with mixture. Pipe shapes onto parchment paper. Build up the edges of the shape by piping overlaying 'rims' onto your shape. Finally, smooth the edges and tops a little with the back of a wet spoon. Space yours a little farther apart than I did...they will expand a titch in the oven.

5) Bake for 1 hour and 15 minutes. Turn oven off and let meringue cool completely in oven.

For the Lemon Curd (adapted from Rose Levy Beranbaum's Pie and Pastry Bible)

*Because meringue is quite sweet, I've reduced the sugar in this recipe, so be extra careful when heating the egg yolk mixture! I've also eliminated the lemon zest. Normally, I adore lemon zest, but egg yolks (or representations thereof) shouldn't have little strings in them.

Ingredients

4 large egg yolks
1/2 cup sugar
4 tbsp unsalted butter
1/4 cup + 2 tbsp lemon juice
pinch salt

Procedure

1) In heavy saucepan, whisk yolks, sugar, and butter until well blended. Whisk in lemon juice and salt.

2) Cook over medium-low heat until thickened. Do NOT allow it to come to a boil or you'll have scrambled lemony eggs on your hands

3) Optional: strain the mixture to remove any lumpy bits.

4) Cool before using.

To assemble
Spoon dollops of lemon curd into indentations of egg-shaped meringue bases. Garnish, if desired, with sliced strawberries, fresh whole blueberries, or sprigs of mint. Enjoy!

Notes for next time:
Allow the curd to cool completely before assembly.
Shape the meringue more precisely.
It really could use a fresh strawberry or two, if only for the pop of red. Oh, and the taste.