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. 

Lime Cupcakes

I was asked to create some sample cupcakes this weekend, one of the flavours was lime, so I set about thinking what the best way to put this in was. I decided to try a few different methods and leave it to the couple to decide which their favourite was. 

For all the cupcakes I made a lime basic cupcake:

300g Butter

300g Caster Sugar

300g Self raising flour

6 Eggs

I baked these at 180oC for around 30 minutes and then left to cool. 

Cooling cupcakes

While they were cooling I made a lemon and lime curd for the centre of the cakes. 

Zest and Juice of 2 limes

Zest and Juice of 3 lemons

250g Caster Sugar

125g Butter

4 Eggs

Combine the zest, juice, sugar and butter in a bowl over gently simmering water. Stir until the sugar and butter have melted. 

Lightly whisk the eggs and then add to the mixture. Continue stirring until the mixture has started to thicken and is coating the back of the spoon. Set aside and leave to cool, as it cools it'll thicken even further. 

Lemon and lime curd

I cut the tops of the cupcakes off, so they were level, and a small disc in the centre. I filled this with some of the curd. 

The topping is where the cakes differed. I decided to try two varieties of meringue and one with butter cream. 

Firstly I made a soft merringue. I combined 1 egg white with 50g Caster Sugar in a bowl over simmering water. I whisked this until the sugar had dissolved. Took it off the heat and whisked until the mixture was forming soft peaks. This was then piped onto the prepared cupcakes. 

Secondly I made a baked meringue topping. 1 egg white was combined with 50g Caster sugar and whisked until forming soft peaks. This was piped onto the cakes and then placed under a hot grill until the top was golden. 

Finally I made Italian meringue buttercream and stirred in some lime curd, from above. I piped this onto the cakes. 

Baked and soft meringue lime cupcakes

I used little coloured sugar paste shapes to distinguish between the cakes and have sent them off to Wales for the testing. The verdict from this kitchen is the baked meringue is the favourite but we shall see which they prefer.