Home Cake help needed!

[Pandora II]

Okay, I have to produce a first birthday cake by Sunday morning...

Since D is crazy about ducks, you''ve guessed it, I''d like a ''duck'' cake!

I''ve nixed the idea of a duck shaped cake, so the plan is a normal cake with a marzipan duck on the top. I can do the marzipan modelling etc fine, the problem is the cake... I made my own 4 tier wedding cake, but that was a year''s work and in fruitcake with royal icing... this time I''d like a sponge cake type thing and my past experience has been rather dire with flat pancake like things.

So, anyone have any foolproof cake making tips? Also what do you ice them with? The cake will be travelling to a picnic.

Help!

 

[E B]

Is Daisy ONE already? Where have our babies gone?

I don''t have any advice, but I''ll be watching this thread. I''m going to be making Henry''s first birthday cake and was just thinking about starting a thread for ideas. Healthy vs. ''regular'' (or ''deliciously sugary'') cake? What to ice it with? I''m a bit jealous of your marzipan skills- I''d love to be able to make something cute out of marzipan for the top of his cake! I wouldn''t even know where to buy marzipan. Or do you make it?

 

[CasaBlanca]

Quack Quack Quack! What fun! I am providing a few I found on a google search. There may be some idea that helps direct your thoughts into a ducky focus!

For a picnic transportable, I would encourage the use of rubber ducks. You can make the base of the cake simple or as elaborate as you want and simply place an adorable keepable rubber duck on it! The bathtub cake you will find below is so adorable! But the video one, is truly a winner. I would spend a little more time on the icing application that the video did. And the eyes aren't as great as you may be able to get them pre made at a cake supply store. You have to find out what scale they have though.



Adorably easy

This would be an easy way to accomplish the ducktheme use a rubber ducky!

Some of these are a tad elaborate...but there are a lot of great themes to give you some ideas.

Another cute idea uses rubber duckshere

Look at these CUPPIES!!! LOVE LOVE LOVE THEM!

Got another idea, back later with it if I can find it! Quack Quack! AFLAC!

 

[Bella_mezzo]

We used this for our wedding cake (plus I made it several other times) it is awesome and hard to mess up Since you are in in the UK I might have the conversions somewhere if you don''t have them...

Vanilla Buttermilk Cake
Sky High: Irresistible Triple-Layer Cakes

This might be one of the best yellow cakes to come out of my kitchen, and I will certainly be coming back to it to try it in cupcake format soon. My notes are the same as for the chocolate cake above: you cannot scrape the bowl down enough. Otherwise, the cake is really quite simple, a relief when you’ve got, oh, 6 layers of it to bake.

Makes one three-layer 9-inch round cake [Equivalent in batter to an 8-inch square; we scaled it up for a 10-inch square/middle tier of the wedding cake]

3 3/4 cups cake flour
2 1/2 cups sugar
1 tablespoon plus 2 3/4 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
2 1/2 sticks (10 ounces) unsalted butter, at room temperature
1 1/4 cups plus 1/3 cup buttermilk
5 whole eggs
2 egg yolks
2 1/2 teaspoons vanilla extract

1. Preheat the oven to 325°F. Butter three 9-inch round cake pans. Line the bottom of each pan with a round of parchment or waxed paper and butter the paper.

2. Combine the cake flour, sugar, baking powder, and salt in a large mixer bowl. With the mixer on low speed, blend for 30 seconds. Add the butter and 1 1/4 cup of the buttermilk. Mix on low speed briefly to blend; then raise the speed to medium and beat until light and fluffy, 2 to 3 minutes.

3. In a smaller bowl, whisk together the whole eggs, egg yolks, vanilla, and the remaining 1/3 cup buttermilk until well blended. Pour one-third of the egg mixture into the cake batter at a time, folding it in completely after each addition. There will be 9 cups of batter; our 3 cups batter into each pan.

4. Bake for 26 to 28 minutes, or until a cake tester or wooden toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean.

5. Turn the layers out onto wire racks by placing a rack on top of a pan, inverting it, and lifting off the pan. Peel off the paper liners and let cool completely. When the layers have cooled, place a cardboard cake board on top of a layer, invert again, and lift off the rack. To make the layers easier to handle, wrap them on their boards completely in plastic, so they don’t dry out, and refrigerate them.

I used vanilla Swiss meringue Buttercream for icing, and filled the layers with raspberry jam and lemon curd, amazing!!!

 

[CasaBlanca]

I tried to tie a dirt cake in with a duck theme. Had no success. I thought a picnic setting with clay pots would really be a cute summery theme. Again, ducks and dirt don't seem to coincide well.

But here are some photos of a party and kids with "dirt" on their faces. It is simply ground up oreo cookies. But what leaves behind on tiny little faces, really looks like dirt. Suppose I need to get out and get better entertainment huh?

I made mothers day cakes, just a simple baked cake recipe in a claw pot and then used oreo crumbs on top. Baked flower cookies on a stick shoved the cookie's on a stick into the "dirt" and it was a big hit.

A duck cookie really makes no sense in dirt, but I said I would return with this idea so I wanted to do so. Bombed, but perhaps next year your theme may be...flowers, or even better, dirt! Ha Ha! Kids eating dirt is really exciting, don't judge until you get to witness it!

Dirt Cakes in Clay Pots

best of luck! Have fun!

 

[CasaBlanca]

Bella, my red velvet recipe is similar to your yellow cake. Buttermilk must be the secret. Mine has vinegar in it-you add it to activate soda. Spooky good! So I can attest to the incredible taste. That recipe sure looks like a winner to me! Consider it copied! Thanks!

 

[Pandora II]

Date: 5/10/2010 8:03:38 PM
Author: E B
Is Daisy ONE already? Where have our babies gone?

I don''t have any advice, but I''ll be watching this thread. I''m going to be making Henry''s first birthday cake and was just thinking about starting a thread for ideas. Healthy vs. ''regular'' (or ''deliciously sugary'') cake? What to ice it with? I''m a bit jealous of your marzipan skills- I''d love to be able to make something cute out of marzipan for the top of his cake! I wouldn''t even know where to buy marzipan. Or do you make it?

I know! My baby''s growing up soooo fast!

I make my own marzipan - it''s really easy and tastes so much better than the bought stuff. I''ll try and translate my recipe into US measurements for you.

 

[Pandora II]

Casablanca - wow, food for thought there (sorry

)... will be searching through all of those!

Bella, thanks for the recipe. Where do you find recipes for icing? Here we don''t have interesting icing at all.

 

[Bella_mezzo]

I am a baking dork.

Here''s the Buttercream I made, the meringue keeps it from being too buttery (though it is still very rich!)

There is a great cupcake thread here on PS that has tons of recipes (and debates over whether swiss buttercream is better than french is better than german...

I loved this recipe (you can also roll out a thin layer of marzipan like fondant to cover the coake--a PITA but YUMMY and pretty

Swiss Buttercream

The recipe comes from wedding cake genius and my unpaid assistant, Torrie.

For a wedding cake (or most of one, depending on the size)
2 cups of egg whites (approx. 12 large)
3 cups sugar
5 cups butter, softened (2 1/2 pounds, 10 sticks)
1 tablespoon vanilla extract

For a 9-inch cake (plus filling, or some to spare)
1 cup sugar
4 large egg whites
26 tablespoons butter, softened (3 sticks plus 2 tablespoons)
1 teaspoon vanilla extract

For the tiniest amount, if you’re just practicing (or enough to cover and fill the 4-inch cake pictured)
1/4 cup sugar
1 large egg white
6 tablespoons butter, softened
1/4 teaspoon vanilla

Whisk egg whites and sugar together in a big metal bowl over a pot of simmering water. Whisk occasionally until you can’t feel the sugar granules when you rub the mixture between your fingers.

Transfer mixture into the mixer and whip until it turns white and about doubles in size. (Here’s a tip: when you transfer to the mixer, make sure you wipe the condensation off the bottom of the bowl so that no water gets into the egg whites. This can keep them from whipping up properly.)

Add the vanilla.

Finally, add the butter a stick at a time and whip, whip, whip.

Deb note: Do not have a panic attack when this takes a while to come together (though I did every time). One super-large batch took 15 minutes, but it did and will come together. Patience, young Jedis.

 

[FrekeChild]

These are some helpful hints I typed up for a friend that was making Italian Meringue Buttercream (which I much prefer over all other types--stiffer, more stable and easier to make/manage):

NOTE: difference between Italian and Swiss is that you have to cook down a sugar syrup that is whipped into the already mostly whipped up egg whites for the Italian (hot sugar cooks the whites), and with the Swiss you dissolve the sugar into the egg whites over heat, which heats up the whites enough to make them safe for eating)

"One trick is to put the water in the pan first, and then put the sugar in the middle of the pan, letting the water dissolve it. Also (Italian buttercream blasphemy incoming!) I add a tiny bit (not more than a tablespoon) of corn syrup to the sugar and water. Since it's a different type of sugar--fructose instead of sucrose I think--the sugar crystals have a harder time forming. It's just a fail safe so you don't have to watch it as hard.

Couple things of note: you can add cold butter to hot meringue. They say not to because it deflates the icing, but butter deflates it anyway, so there isn't really a worry there. However there is a point where cold butter decreases the temp of the icing so much that throwing in cold butter makes the mixer suffer, so I usually keep half of the butter at room temp and half cold, and throw in the room temp butter after the cold. If you want to wait until the meringue cools down, use all room temp butter.

I think those are the basics. Let me know if you need help."

Don't worry if the meringue flattens before you add the butter--as soon as the butter is added, it's going to deflate the meringue anyway. Also, Italian and Swiss meringue are one of those substances, that as long as the temperature is stable, you can leave it on the mixer with the whip on, pretty much forever. Also, this isn't supposed to be a thick, rich, super sweet icing--its supposed to be light and fluffy, with just a background of sweetness. Its also possible to freeze/refrigerate it and revive it back to it's fluffy state, but that can be a scary endeavor, especially for someone who hasn't done it before.

Oh, and it should be served at room temperature, not cold.

 

[Mara]

re ''real'' buttercream. i haven''t made Italian but i have made Swiss and i have only had it NOT turn out once, it curdled and never rebounded. i am not the biggest fan of SMBC because it just tastes to me like BUTTER! but other people really seem to like it.

for a kiddie cake i wouldn''t even do SMBC...i''d just do the confectioners sugar, milk (or sometimes i use cream), butter ''quickie'' buttercream recipe because it''s less work, you can get it really stiff if you want it that way, and kids will like the exceptional taste of SUGAR in it hehe.

one other idea pandora is to get a duck cookie cutter and cut out marzipan (or fondant) ducks to put along the sides of the cake as well. you could even pipe some swirls of ''water'' along the bottom of the sides and then put the cutout ducks like they are ''floating'' on the water.

i am horrible with modeling anything (though i did make some flat farm animals for a birthday cake) so i tend to do more with the cutters because you can find them almost in any shape for something like a dollar!

 

[E B]

Date: 5/10/2010 9:42:26 PM
Author: Pandora II

I make my own marzipan - it''s really easy and tastes so much better than the bought stuff. I''ll try and translate my recipe into US measurements for you.

That''s so sweet of you, but you don''t have to- I found a place to order it online. I may try to create a three layer cake (why? Because I''m crazy) and it''d be one less thing to attempt. Thank you, though!