Pistachio, Praline and Vanilla Cake

I was asked to make a Pistachio, Praline and Vanilla Cake for a local coffee shop. They had had this cake in the past and it had proved popular so they wanted me to try it out.

I tried a few different recipes and adjusted them. In the end this is the recipe I came up with that has worked each time: 

Ingredients: 

125g Pistachios

250g Butter

250g Caster Sugar

5 Large Free Range Eggs

70g Plain Flour

285g Self Raising Flour

Preheat the oven at 140oC (this may vary from oven to oven so you may need to experiment). Line an 8" cake tin with greaseproof paper. 

Grind up the pistachio nuts in a food processor until they are small crumbs. Add in the sugar and whiz it up to combine everything. 

Place the butter and the sugar mixture into a mixer and mix until really light and fluffy. 

Add the eggs one egg at a time until fully combined. 

Sift in the flours and mix on a low speed until just combined, be careful not to over work the mixture as this results in a flat and fragile cake. 

Place the mixture in the tin and into the preheated oven. I initially check the cakes after 1 hour but they usually require closer to 2. My oven is very temperamental so this will vary depending on your oven. I cook on a low temperature, due to the oven, and for longer so use your usual cake settings if you are used to making cakes. 

Once a skewer comes out of the cake clean leave it to cool. 

For the vanilla butter icing I mix: 

250g Butter - I do find that the quality of the butter makes a difference and my preference is Anchor

500g Icing Sugar

Vanilla Essence

Mix together the butter and icing sugar until fully combined. Pour in the vanilla essence, depending on taste, but I usually start with 2 teaspoons. 

I then use this to spread between the layers of the cake and on the top. 

For the praline element I firstly caramelise some sugar in a saucepan. After experimenting I've found that a larger surface area at a high heat is the best way to achieve a caramel rather than crystals. Once this is ready I then add in chopped pistachios and leave it to cool. 

Once solid I crush it up in a pestle and mortar and sprinkle it on the top of the cake. 

Praline Sprinkling

I sell these cakes individually so if you'd like to order one then please just drop me an email. I usually have availability for these cakes.

Finished Cake

Gingerbread Pound Cake

I was asked to come up with a gingerbread pound cake for the local coffee shop so after some research I came up with this recipe: 

Ingredients: 

285g Stork

285g Caster Sugar

285g Self Raising Flour

70g Plain Flour

4 tbsp Black Treacle

4 tsp Ground Ginger

5 Eggs

Preheat the oven to 180oC and grease a round bundt tin. 

Cream together the stork and caster sugar until light and fluffy. Add in the black treacle. Slowly add the eggs, one at a time, until all is well combined and light. 

Sieve in the flour and ginger then mix together slowly being careful not to over work it. 

Pour into the bundt tin and cook until the cake is spongy and a skewer comes out clean. Mine took around 1hour30mins. Leave to cool. 

I decorated it with a simple water icing which was made by mixing icing sugar and water together. This was then poured over the top of the cake. 

Gingerbread Pound Cake

Please let me know how you get on if you try this recipe. I love to hear stories and see photos. 

If you'd like to order a cake for wholesale or individual orders please get in touch for details.

Cherry Blossom Cake

I was asked to make some unusual cakes for a local coffee shop and one idea I found was a cherry blossom cake. I wasn't happy with the original recipe so I adapted it until I came up with something I was happy with, and here is the result. 

Ingredients: 

285g Self Raising Flour

70g Plain Flour

285g Stork

285g Caster Sugar

5 Large Eggs

1 tsp Orange blossom water

Grated rind of 1 Orange

100g Cherries, stoned and chopped up

Preheat your oven to 180oC and line an 8" round cake tin. 

Cream together the stork and sugar until very light and fluffy. Add in the blossom water and orange rind. Gradually beat in the eggs one at a time. 

Add in the flour and mix together slowly until combined. Be careful not to over beat at this point and only use the slowest speed on the mixer. Stir in the chopped cherries. 

Pour into the cake tin and bake until the cake is springy to touch and a skewer comes out clean. Mine takes around 1hour30mins but check it before this point. 

Leave the cake to cool completely then decorate. 

I filled this cake with a vanilla buttericing and cherries stirred in: 

250g Softened Butter

500g Icing Sugar

100g Chopped cherries

Beat together the butter and icing sugar until soft and then stir in the cherries. 

Ready to go to the coffee shop

If you try this cake please let me know how you get on. I'm very interested in photos and stories. 

To order this cake direct from me for wholesale or one off purchases please just get in touch.

Frozen Dome Cake

I was asked to make a frozen cake for a little girl's birthday. I was sent a picture they had seen and used this as my inspiration. 

I have seen online that there is a trend for having glass bowl on the top of the cake, especially on frozen cakes. I purchased the characters online and sold these on at price therefore not making a profit and not breaching copyright. 

Characters in a bowl

The cake was a vanilla sponge filled with vanilla butter icing and raspberry jam. I covered the cake in blue sugar paste and then topped this with a smaller piece of white sugar paste. 

She wanted a little bit of sparkle on the cake so I sprayed it with lustre to give it a slight shimmer to it. I also sprayed the piece that I put on top of the bowl. 

The snowflakes were made using the Claire Bowman Crystal lace mat and lustre white cake lace. These are so effective and look great. They can easily be stuck on with water. 

Cake Lace

I stacked the cake together and the final step was to pipe the message onto the board. 

I've been told the birthday girl was really happy when she saw that cake, which is lovely. I hope she had a fantastic party and it's always nice to receive positive feedback. What do you think of this one? 

Finished Cake

Black and White Wedding Cake

I was asked a few times about black and white cakes over the autumn so I decided to create a cake suiting this style to give the brides some idea. I used a square cake dummy stacked at a slight twist so it creates a different effect. 

I purchased some black cake lace and made it by the instructions. I then stuck these on each tier. 

Cake lace

I used some feathers in the top of the cake and finally I made a blossom flower and stuck this on the edge of the cake. 

Blossom Flower

I personally wouldn't choose this cake but I know that some people would like it and it would suit some themes. It was fun to make and I like the idea of the feathers on the cake and it's easy to get these in different colours. I hope this inspires some people and makes them think a little outside the box. 

Finished cake

Vintage Lace Cake

I recently purchased some cake lace mats and cake lace to try out on some cakes and to practice for an order. I also needed to create a display cake for the lovely Annabelle Jane Cake school. So I decided to combine these 2 things and create a 3 tiered cake with lace. 

I used the Claire Bowman lace and mixed it up to the instructions, filled the mats and dried it in the oven. I found the cake really easy to use and it cake out beautifully, it's a simple way of creating really intricate detailing. 

Lace

I covered the dummies in blue icing, piled the cakes up and placed them on the board. Using water I stuck the lace around each layer of the cake. I carefully joined the lace together to form a a smooth join and the pattern matches up on the edges. 

To decorate the cake I made some 5 petal flowers, in white, and stuck these on the cake. I would have liked the flowers to have more shape to them but I'm having a bit of a trouble getting my flowers to dry at the moment, the dining room is too cold, so I just used them as is. I used some royal icing to stick them on and to fill the centres. 

Finished cake

Overall I'd say this isn't one of my most detailed cakes or most intricate, however, I think the effect is simple and elegant. It gives a good example of the lace and I'm pleased with how it turned out. This cake will be going up to Maidstone on Tuesday for their window display. I'm really pleased to have been given this opportunity to display at the Annabelle Jane Cake School, I've done all my courses at this shop and have learnt so much from their expertise. I'm honoured to be able to display these skills there. 

How to make a Homemade Light Box

In an attempt to improve my cake photos me and my husband embarked on making a light box today. A light box is suppose to illuminate the object with a soft light and reduce shadows and dark/bright spots. It also has the added advantage that it gives a nice backdrop to the cake so the image is just focused on that. 

So how did we go about it? We started this because we had a large cardboard box that we thought we'd be able to customise, however, when we placed my cakes in it we realised that it wouldn't be large enough for all of the cakes. We set off to hobbycraft to search for some supplies. First step, look for a box. We walked around the shop and found nothing until we eventually found a solution in a strange place:

http://www.hobbycraft.co.uk/hobbycraft-my-colour-in-shop-playhouse/578508-1000

This is a play shop. It is nice and big and already has holes in the front and one side, something we needed. We made the shop up to the instructions except not putting the shelf on:

"Shop is all made up"

From this point the customisation started. We (I say we it was all Gary!) cut a hole in the side and taped tissue paper over the gap. We filled the other side in the same way (it already had a hole.). Gary strengthened the structure with some addition cardboard along the bottom of the sides and front. He also cut down the front so it was a little lower. 

Tracing paper on the sides. 

After this is was basically done. I used some coloured paper along the back and lay a piece along the bottom as a base. This gave the cake a plain back drop and a white surface to sit on. 

To provide the light we purchase 2 simple desk lights, one for each side, and pointed them in to the box. We are debating getting a bit more colour in by cutting out the top and placing some tissue paper over that too. 

Pre and Post Light box

Here is an example of the difference. The cake on the left is with the light box and on the right without. You can see that the lighting is much more even and the colours of the flowers are therefore much more visible. It is also a much cleaner picture as the focus is the cake and not drawn away by the table or wall as they are on the right. For different cakes I can use different coloured back drops and eventually I can personalise these further. 

This picture shows the lightbox in place. You can see the lights on each side pointing in and you can also see that the effect of the window is minimised by using the box. 

The stage is set

I hope this is helpful to you and I'd encourage you to use one as I feel it's made quite a difference to my photo. 

Half and Half Wedding Cake

For my first order as an official business I was asked to make a 4 tiered wedding cake in a half and half style. This is that one side of the cake is white and the other is chocolate. The common explanation of this is that the white side is for the bride and the chocolate side is for the groom so they are often called bride and groom cakes. However, my couple described the white side as the dress and the pleating come down from the dress .

Maybe the pleat is from the dress

I was asked to make 4 different flavours of cakes, the bottom layer was a 12" rich chocolate cake filled with chocolate ganache and crumb coated in ganache. The next layer was a 10" lemon cake which was filled and coated in lemon butter icing. The 8" layer was a vanilla madiera cake covered and filled with vanilla butter icing. Finally the 6" top layer was carrot cake covered and filled in vanilla icing.

I had to get the timing of the baking correct so the cakes tasted at their best at the wedding on Saturday, so I had to bake most of the cakes on Wednesday with the exception of the vanilla which I made on Tuesday. This put quite a lot of timing pressure on me because for wedding cakes I like to double ice to get a much better finish on the cake. This means that the cake needs to cook, cool then be covered in the first layer of sugar paste. Ideally this is left overnight and then coated in another layer of sugar paste. Again ideally this is left to dry and then the cake is decorated with the piped detail. However, as you can probably guess, there wasn't enough nights to do this so I tried to spread things out as much as possible by doing things early in the morning and as late as possible to make the days longer.

Each of the cakes, for the top layer of sugar paste, was covered half in white sugar paste and half in chocolate paste, to create the half and half look. The chocolate paste is more difficult to work with so I only did 1 layer of this rather than both, it's also more expensive and the cake would have a structural problem if the bottom layer wasn't one piece.

I hand piped, using royal icing, detailing on the white side of the cake, this is the first time I've done this and I haven't yet done the diploma on this but by the end of October I expect to much better at this particular skill.

On the chocolate side I carefully covered it in chocolate ganache and left a little drip over the sides. The problem with the ganache is that it never dried solid so it got everywhere, it was very difficult working with the dark chocolate on the pure white icing.

I then dowelled up the cakes, again the first time I've done this but it was very straightforward and the cake seemed to hold very well and stuck the bottom 2 layers together and the top 2. Finally I edged the cake with some white beading and created a pleat down the joins.

Top and bottom prepared

On the top layer of the cake I attached the bride and groom topper and carefully made the pleat come right out from the dress on the bride.

I dipped some strawberries in ganache and left these to set and then the car was loaded up.

Car packed and ready to go

I had to get the cake 2 hours across country, which was rather nerve racking and made us think about future car choices!! But it made it in one piece, I then put the cake together and stuck the strawberries on.

Fully assembled cake

Overall I was fairly pleased with the cake, as always there are many things that I'd like to improve on but for a first attempt I thought it came out really well. There are things I've learnt and things I'd change but all I can hope is that it was perfect for the bride and groom.

Chocolate Side

White Side

Bows and Swags

For my 3rd display cake I wanted to introduce some colour so I decided to go for a yellow/orange cake. I used 2 dummies, 8" and 10", and covered them in coloured sugar paste. 

To trim the cake I first decided to try with a shell pattern along the bottom of the cake, but I didn't like it so off that cake and I replaced with with some ribbon. I actually used 2 ribbons on this cake, a cream underneath and then a white ribbon on top. 

To decorate the cake I decided to make some swags out of modelling paste. I marked up the cake to ensure they would be even, marking the bottom with 8 swags and the top with just 6. I wanted the top layer to not be lined up with the bottom so I shifted the pattern around slightly on that one. Once the lines were marked I stuck the swags on top and left them to dry. 

Swags with a button

To cover up the joining of the swags I made some buttons using a mould. I then sprayed this silver and stuck them on top of the joins. 

For the top of the cake I decided to make a large bow. I used my ribbon cutter to make strips of icing with a stitching line down the edges. I then stuck and shaped on the top of the cake. 

Bow with a button

This cake is relatively easy to make but I think the design is very effective and not something I'd normally do. What do you think? 

Finished Cake

Finished Cake

Finished Cake

Bride and Groom Cake

This is another of my display cakes for the wedding fairs which is pink with a modelled bride and groom. I wanted to create cakes with different styles to showcase different ideas and to tempt the couples. 

To create this cake I covered 2 dummies with sugar paste, a 8" and 10", and then stuck them together with royal icing. I used 2 iced drums for these cakes, the first with a solid pink colour and then I marbled the larger board. The boards were trimmed with cream ribbon but I wanted something different for the cake. I used a little pearl mould to create a beaded trim around the cake, these were then stuck on with edible glue. 

I piped the bottom layer of the cake with a random swirl design. This is the first time I've done this so it isn't perfect but I have a diploma booked in to improve this very skill. 

Piping on the bottom tier and beading around the joins

The next challenge was to create the bride and groom. I learnt how to make a seated ballerina on the Sugar Paste dipoma, however, this was taking it to another level. I started off with sticking on the back of the dress as I was wanted it appear like she had a long train. On top of this I formed legs and then I placed the top layer of the dress on top of this. Finally I stuck on her body and head. I then made the groom in a similar way. It was easier because I only needed legs at the bottom not layers of dress. The black needed some cmc added to it so that it held its shape but white is good modelling paste already. Make sure you use modelling paste to create these at it'll hold it's shape once moulded and will dry solid. I left the figures to dry overnight and make sure they were really solid. 

Models driving overnight

The next day I added hair to the figures using a craft gum and stuck this on. I tried to shape the hair so it looked realistic and I even gave the bride a hair cut!! 

Finished cake

I'm quite pleased with how this cake turned out and especially pleased with the expression on the faces.

The happy couple

I think this cake is really sweet and hopefully it'll spark someone's imagination.

Close up of the groom

Close up of the bride.

Coffee and Walnut Cake

For his birthday this year my brother asked for a coffee and walnut cake. I had a busy week last week with cakes so this was the most simple of them all. The aim was just to make a nice simple cake that tasted good. 

To make the coffee cake I used a standard sponge cake recipe and added in some coffee and chopped almonds. I then baked it and left to cool. 

I filled the cake in coffee butter icing and also coated the whole cake. I decided, since I had plenty of grated chocolate left, to put chocolate around the rim on the cake. I then used walnuts to decorate the top of the cake. 

Finished Coffee and Walnut Cake

I have no idea what this cake tasted like, as I don't like coffee or walnuts, but he said it was very good. I was pleased with the finished effect of the cake and thought it had a good appearance. 

Bucky Ship

For my nephew's birthday cake I was asked to make Bucky from Jake and the Neverland. I had never heard of this ship but pictures were easily available from the internet so I copied the ship from these. 

Using my standard rich chocolate cake recipe I made 2 large rectangle cakes. With the first cake I cut out the shape of the ship. With the second I cut it into smaller sections, 2 were used to raise up the back of the ship and 1 for the shaping on the front of the cake. It was all stuck together with chocolate butter icing. 

The whole cake was covered in butter icing. I then covered the outside edge in darker brown sugar paste with the top covered in lighter brown icing. The cake was edged in yellow icing. I used smaller sausages to place rings around the whole of this yellow trim, they were placed at a carefully measured distances. 

To create the mast I covered a wooden skewer in brown icing and left to dry. I used spaghetti to support the across strips covered in icing. I tied these on with thread. I printed the blue and white strips on some paper and then stuck these onto the strips with tape. 

To create the slide I shaped some icing over a rolling pin, left it to harden and the stuck it on the cake. The railings were created by placing icing on cocktail sticks. I then stick a railing on top of these. The final details on the cake were created with sugar paste. 

To create the sea I coloured some butter icing with blue but didn't stir it in completely to create a slightly marbled effect. I then spread this over the board and shaped away from the cake to create the sense of waves. 

Finished cake

Side View

To complete the cake some character candles were added. 

Character candles

Pirate Candles

This cake was a real challenge to transport, if I was to make it again I wouldn't put the mast in until the cake was finished and would have finished off the bird's nest better. Overall I was quite pleased with how the cake turned out but as usual I think it could have been much better. I hope that the birthday boy, and his parents, liked the cake. 

Range Cooker

To start off the New Year I was asked to make a cake in the shape of my new range cooker. I haven't physically got it in the kitchen yet so this was done from photographs. 

I was asked to make a chocolate cake so I used my rich chocolate cake recipe and halved it. I made a square cake and then cut it in two and placed them on top of each other to make a rectangle. 

Two rectangles

I then covered this in orange butter icing and some navy blue sugar paste. I made the navy blue sugar paste by combining blue and black paste. Using a smoother I made sure the edges were sharp. 

Covered and ready for detailing. 

Then using sugar paste I cut out some rectangles for the front making the oven door detailing. I used black to create the glass front effect and silver to make the handles. These are just sausage shapes stuck on the front. 

I created a rim on the top of the cake with navy blue and then one down the centre of the cake. I also created a strip along the front which I put all the knobs on. I made these out of small balls which I then shaped with a knife to create little handles. 

Using black I create the timer screen and the gas hob centres. I also used a series of sausages to create the shaping on the top. 

Top

Front

Overall the result was better than I expected 1 day ago. I would have liked to create a much cleaner finish and also a taller cake so it is more in proportion. It's a bit short and fat. I'm very happy with the detailing on the top though. 

If I was to make this cake again I would do the oven doors differently so I got a cleaner finish, maybe make it as one piece so I could make it flat. 

If you are in need of a cake for any occasion please get in touch. I'm currently doing it for just the cost of ingredients (January 2014) while I build up my portfolio. We can discuss the design you'd like and work from that. 

Macmillan Cake Sale Cake

Gary's work have an annual cake sale to raise money for their charity of the year. This year it is Macmillan so I decided to make a cake for them to sell at the sale. 

I made a rectangle cake, recipe found here, and cut the cake in half. I cut out a few squares from the bottom layer to create some legs and then placed the cakes on top of each other. I used chocolate butter icing to stick it together and cover the cake. The cake was then covered in white sugar paste. 

I wanted to create a table cloth so I made a thin square out of sugar paste and painted around the rim with gold paint. This was placed over the cake just sticking on the top and allowing the sides to hang down naturally. 

Table covered in a cloth

Using blue paste I cut out some circles for plates, to create the inner detailing I used a ball tool and flattened the centre. 

Plates

I then created various different cakes to go on the plates, starting with some chocolate brownies. 

Chocolate brownies

Followed by a selection of other goodies. 

Jam sandwiches and chocolate cake

Scones and mince pies

The whole selection of cakes

To finish off the cake I made a banner for the front with Macmillan on it. 

Finished cake

Finished cake

I was pleased with the effect of the cake and thought it looked good. People at Gary's work were impressed but they didn't want to cut into it because it looked too good, apparently, so I'm not sure how much money it actually raised. The cake did get eaten in the end so hopefully they enjoyed it. 

If you'd like a cake for any event please get in contact, I can make cakes to your budget and specifications.