Tuesday, 5 September 2017
Amazing World of Gumball Chocolate Caramel Drip Cake
This was for my niece's birthday today. She loves Gumball (it took 4 hrs to make out of fondant!) and she asked for a chocolate drip cake. She was pretty darn happy with it. 😍 I used Annabel Langbein's Ultimate Chocolate Cake recipe; my go to recipe as it makes 2 cakes at a time and tastes deliciously moist. I made a chocolate ganache and caramel filling, ganache around the edges and caramel on top. I used the Barker's Dulche de Leche to drip down the top after chilling the cake for 20 mins. I had to warm the caramel first to soften it and not all that happy with the drip result, but it tasted yum.
Lemon Cake with White Chocolate Cream Cheese Icing
You can't beat a lemon cake. I have a couple of good recipes, with and without yoghurt. Thought I'd try doing a "naked" cake for a friend's recent birthday. Not sure why they call it naked, I'd say "semi naked"! Anyway, threw some flowers on the top and it was well received. I used lemon curd between the layers too.
Sunday, 2 July 2017
Toffee Apple Crunch Cake
Hubby doesn't enjoy fondant (who really does?), so I looked for a new yummy cake recipe to try. Found THIS RECIPE on Pinterest and gave it a go. It's always a bit hit and miss trying something off a blog but the cake itself was really delicious, along with the 'crunch' and toffee sauce.
The buttercream was a huge disappointment and really let the cake down. A block and a half of butter (NZ$12.50 worth!!) was WAY too buttery and you could no longer taste the delicious Swiss meringue part of the icing (7 standard egg whites)!! The cost worked out to be NZ$30 to make, quite a lot for a cake, but I'd leave out 3/4 of a block of butter next time, so that would save a bit.
I switched the corn syrup (terribly unhealthy and not easy to find in NZ) for treacle and it worked super well. If you wonder what granulated sugar is in the recipe, it's just standard table sugar, the type you put in your coffee. However I used castor sugar when it called for granulated sugar in the Swiss meringue buttercream. However the recipe calls for heating the egg whites and sugar, so normal sugar is probably just fine as it would dissolve anyway. You do need a candy thermometer for heating the egg whites. I do suspect this process is all just to ensure the eggs are safe to eat, which probably isn't too much of an issue in NZ.
Whole milk is just blue top milk. 3 cups of apples works out to be around 2 apples. I used 1 Granny Smith and 1 Braeburn apple. I used Airborne Bush Honey, it had a really nice flavour in the "crunch" but you can use anything. Make sure you heat it a little bit in the microwave to make it liquid though, or it makes it hard to stir in. Heavy Cream is just Thickened Cream (Anchor make it), it has gelatine in it and is available with the cream at the supermarket.
I did find the cooking took much longer than they stated, about 1 1/2 hrs or so and the whisking took FOREVER, about 10 times longer than they specified.
All in all, this is a lovely cake on it's own with only icing sugar dusted over it, or with the toffee and the "crunch". I'll make it again one day for a special occasion but leave out half the butter in the icing and it will lovely.
The buttercream was a huge disappointment and really let the cake down. A block and a half of butter (NZ$12.50 worth!!) was WAY too buttery and you could no longer taste the delicious Swiss meringue part of the icing (7 standard egg whites)!! The cost worked out to be NZ$30 to make, quite a lot for a cake, but I'd leave out 3/4 of a block of butter next time, so that would save a bit.
I switched the corn syrup (terribly unhealthy and not easy to find in NZ) for treacle and it worked super well. If you wonder what granulated sugar is in the recipe, it's just standard table sugar, the type you put in your coffee. However I used castor sugar when it called for granulated sugar in the Swiss meringue buttercream. However the recipe calls for heating the egg whites and sugar, so normal sugar is probably just fine as it would dissolve anyway. You do need a candy thermometer for heating the egg whites. I do suspect this process is all just to ensure the eggs are safe to eat, which probably isn't too much of an issue in NZ.
Whole milk is just blue top milk. 3 cups of apples works out to be around 2 apples. I used 1 Granny Smith and 1 Braeburn apple. I used Airborne Bush Honey, it had a really nice flavour in the "crunch" but you can use anything. Make sure you heat it a little bit in the microwave to make it liquid though, or it makes it hard to stir in. Heavy Cream is just Thickened Cream (Anchor make it), it has gelatine in it and is available with the cream at the supermarket.
I did find the cooking took much longer than they stated, about 1 1/2 hrs or so and the whisking took FOREVER, about 10 times longer than they specified.
All in all, this is a lovely cake on it's own with only icing sugar dusted over it, or with the toffee and the "crunch". I'll make it again one day for a special occasion but leave out half the butter in the icing and it will lovely.
Tuesday, 30 May 2017
Baby Scan / Ultrasound Scrapbook Page
It's always harder with the poor 2nd child, but given #1 got a scrapbook of her 1st year of her life, I thought #2 should probably get the same. Now she is 2, I've finally had a bit of time here and there to sort and print some photos and JOY of JOYS, I actually managed to knock out the first page of her album today! She may be 20 before it's finished, but it's a start! I bought a simple black paged, plain photo album and I'll do the same as with #1's album and leave most of the pages with some of the black showing through. I'm quite pleased with today's effort, it was quick and simple but effective and I love this photo.
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