A Cake Fit for a Princess

Once upon a time a princess requested a cake...

So not usually one for a 'pretty' cake, I was worried when my 3 year old niece asked for a "massive princess cake, with glitter and Peppa Pig and cupcakes and things and sparkles" I talked her out of Peppa Pig. But the brief wasn't exactly within my usual repertoire of cupcakes, tarts and boozy mince pies, but I do love a challenge. 

I have never used fondant before to cover a cake, I usually go for a cream cheese or buttercream frosting piped or pallet knifed on, but I was under strict pre-school instructions as to the type of cake requires. Trust me, you don't mess with a 3 year-old on her birthday.

I stocked up my rather boring, cream and chocolate baking supplies with the most pink, glittery and princess-like baking products and set about creating a cake fit for a princes...

Glitter & Fondant..a new adventure!

First the cake. I decided (with my niece!) that a simple vanilla would be best. I usually follow the Hummingbird Bakery Vanilla Cupcake recipe, but this time I used Mary Berry's Vanilla Cupcakes from the Great British Bake Off book. I was pleased with the results, I well risen, light and moist cake with oodles of flavour. My tip here is to have lots of patience with the mixing and sieving and folding, taking your time here makes all the difference. I also used real vanilla rather than vanilla essence, so much better in the end!

Folding; Boring but worthwhile patience!

Next, a big batch of my favourite buttercream frosting (Icing sugar, milk, butter, vanilla pod) to coat the cake  ready for the fondant to be placed over the top. It's best to chill for about an hour at this stage to help create the perfect base for the fondant.

Crumb-coating. Now, chill!

 Time enough to make a mini heart cake for the top. It's essential in this princess business, apparently!

After I had chilled the cake, I rolled out the white fondant with the help of even MORE icing sugar and carefully folded it over the triple layer cake. I was scared of tear and bumps, but I was surprised at how simple it was to neaten up and smooth down. Just handle your fondant with TLC and it'll do as you want.

Next, I dyed some more sugar fondant with food colouring paste. It's important not to use liquid food colouring, as it make the fondant impossible to mould and manage and it gets a bit messy. It takes some kneading to get an even colour, but keep going! I used a heart and a butterfly cutter to produce and army of pink shapes. I also coloured more sugar fondant and crumb coated my heart cake and placed it on top. 

Tip: I didn't have any edible glue to play with, so I warmed up a little bit of apricot jam (home-made, of course) and used that to create a base for my glitter.

After the butterflies had been sufficiently dusted in pink glitter I fluttered them over the top of the cake. I used Silverspoon Designer Writing icing to write 'Laila' on the heart to add a personal touch for the said princess. I used the same icing to write the '3' on the coordinating mini cupcakes. 

The finished cake and mini cupcake went down a treat at her mini party. The princess was pleased and life in her Kingdom went on...and the magical cake and it's eaters lived happily ever after...

I know It's Not Halloween, But She Wanted A Ghost Cake

I'm quite an easy person to please really, a nice cookbook and I'm quite happy. Make it a horror themed cupcake book and I'm happier than a vampire given a free run in a blood bank. So when I was given A Zombie Ate My Cupcake! by Lily Vanilli for my birthday this year I was more than a little chuffed.

Alas, Halloween came and went, and my little vampire-self was not invited to the ball, so I had no excuse to make any of these wickedly fun creations. Until, that is, I started showing this book to anyone who had the time to look and my cousin requested a giant ghost cake for her 21st birthday party.

Now, the particular design in question, as all of the cakes in the book, is for cupcakes with a side note that once the smaller versions have been mastered, a full-size cake could be tackled. But who has time to practice? So I decided to jump straight in, one giant ghost cake coming up!

I started with just a basic sponge cake, and filled it with a chocolate fudge butter cream - because we need some chocolate in there somewhere.

Then on to the icing. This was a, fairly simple to make, meringue type icing - in that it was mainly egg whites and sugar. There was copious amounts of whisking involved, but seeing as I have recently been upgraded from a hand whisk to a new fangled electric one, this was no longer an obstacle that inevitably resulted in blistered fingers and a very achy arm. Within no time I could turn the bowl upside down and hold it over my head, without the fear of getting a face full of icing - although I can't say I would really have complained if that had happened as the icing tasted much like marshmallow fluff, yummy.

So, then on to the tricky bit, the build. This took more marshmallows than I had anticipated - the whole bag - and at one point I actually considered making a quick dash to the shops to get another bag, (well I did promise a 'giant' ghost cake). But seeing as I was covered in the usual smattering of flour, sugar and whatever else I had picked up from the bake, I decided against it.

But luckily there was enough icing to pad out any missing marshmallows. Once the rough shape was in place, it was onto the finer points of decoration. And here's where I realised there was a slight problem: I had no black icing, or food colouring, to do the eyes. What a school-boy error for a fledgling goth baker. Cue a mad rummage through the cupboards for inspiration. I decided to try currants - being the only black edible material I could find. But I wasn't happy with the results, so then decided to try chocolate, although not having any dark, had to use milk, which wasn't black enough - this was not going well!

I settled on chocolate eyes, with a currant pupil. The mouth was a different story, after trying out several currant/chocolate combos, I decided that just sculpting the icing would be the best compromise.

It could probably have been better, but for my first attempt I'm quite pleased - looks a little menacing which I like. Although he has the look of Slimer about him (you remember, from Ghostbusters), so next time think I might throw some green food colouring into the icing and see if I can really work on the likeness. For next Halloween maybe...

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Zombie-Ate-My-Cupcake/dp/1907030514