How to make Birthday (and other celebration) Cakes!

Paulie'sGirl

Hey,

Just an update. Based on Greenbee's idea and a chat with my brother, I've decided to be daring!!

So... The plan is now a 9 inch traditional fruit cake, apricot jam, HM marzipan, ivory regalice, and a 7 inch rich chocolate sponge from the Good Food recipe. (That recipe is for a 30cm cake. I might scale it down, or use the excess batter to make a cake for the freezer. I'll see). I'll fill the sponge with ganache and cover in vanilla buttercream as suggested.

I also bought the pearl lustre dust, and some pretty trims (string of pearls of the joints, ribbon etc) and I'll top with cream roses I think.

Thanks to everyone for their suggestions, I'll post back photos of the finished cake Or... more likely, I'll be back for help during the baking!!!

PGxx

greenbee

Paulie'sGirl wrote: »

Greenbee,

That sounds like an excellent idea, and still fairly simple. What size sponge would you recommend? Should I do one deep one cut in half (or thirds?) and filled? Or several cakes stacked together?

Many thanks!

P.S. Thanks aliadds - we are having a flower arrangement, I'll definately think about tying the two together

Paulie'sGirl wrote: »

Hey,

Just an update. Based on Greenbee's idea and a chat with my brother, I've decided to be daring!!

So... The plan is now a 9 inch traditional fruit cake, apricot jam, HM marzipan, ivory regalice, and a 7 inch rich chocolate sponge from the Good Food recipe. (That recipe is for a 30cm cake. I might scale it down, or use the excess batter to make a cake for the freezer. I'll see). I'll fill the sponge with ganache and cover in vanilla buttercream as suggested.

I also bought the pearl lustre dust, and some pretty trims (string of pearls of the joints, ribbon etc) and I'll top with cream roses I think.

Thanks to everyone for their suggestions, I'll post back photos of the finished cake Or... more likely, I'll be back for help during the baking!!!

PGxx

Glad you've worked it out!

A couple of things to note.

1. Fruit cake should be made the size you want the cake (so 9"). Turn it upside down, stick it in the centre of the board and use bits of marzipan to a. make sure it is level and b. fill any gaps before covering. A spirit level comes in handy... the bottom of the cake is flat, which is why it should be uppermost!
2. Although a fruitcake should be fairly solid, you should still use drums and dowels to stack. You'll need three hollow plastic dowels and a 7" drum
3. make at 8" chocolate cake, cut round the 7" drum to get the cake the right size
4. Invest in a cake leveller (they quite often have them in tkmaxx, but they're not expensive anyway) so that you can make sure that the layers in the chocolate cake and the top are flat and level (there is nothing worse than a wonky stacked cake!)
5. use plenty of ganache to fill the cake (I tend to bake a 3" deep cake and cut it into three layers, spreading jam & ganache between them), but only a thin layer of buttercream to cover (you're just trying to glue the icing to the cake). And do the sides before you do the top (you'll find out why if you forget!
6. Look for demo videos on youtube on how to cover a cake if you haven't done it before. Or find a local sugarcraft centre and see whether they do a basic cake decorating class.

Paulie'sGirl

Hi Greenbee,

I've messed up then, I've ordered a 7 inch tin and a 9 inch tin, I forgot about the excess to trim. I also ordered a 7inch single board and a 9 inch single board to go over a 10 inch iced drum. I bought 4 dowels, does it matter if its too many?

I bought 2kg of Regal Ice in "celebration/ivory". I also bought a piping set, I'll be spending a few evenings practicing to see if I can pipe Happy Anniversary etc on the top. I imagine that's more to do with practice than anything?

There will be lots of ganache!!! I'm planning to use this recipe, and just pour the excess into another tin for home use http://www.bbcgoodfood.com/recipes/4577/wedding-cake-rich-dark-chocolate-cake

You sound very experienced! Will it be ok if I pick your brains closer to the time?

Many thanks again,

PGxx

Paulie'sGirl

Hi all,

I need to pick your brains again

The requisite materials have arrived through the post, so I now need to think about making the fruit cake so that it can mature and be fed etc. (I remember my Nana doing this with wedding cakes when I was a little girl. I hope its not an old wives tale:o)

Anyway... I'm planning to use a Delia recipe for Rich Fruit Cake, and the quantities for the size of cake I need are as follows:

575g currants
225g sultanas
225g raisins
60g glace cherries
60g mixed peel
4 tablespoons brandy
½ teaspoon salt
½ teaspoon fresh nutmeg
¾ teaspoon mixed spice
60g whole almonds chopped
275g soft brown sugar
1 tablespoon treacle
275g unsalted butter
5 eggs
Grated zest of one large lemon
Grated zest of 1 large orange

My query is this, my family aren't overly keen on currants. A few would be ok, but I was wondering if, so long as the total weight of dried fruit was the same, can I fiddle the ratio? Include more raisins and cherries and fewer currants?

Secondly, the method requires that I:
"Tie a band of brown paper around the outside of the tin, and cover the top of the cake with a double square of greaseproof paper (with a hole in the middle approximately the size of a 50p)"

I don't have brown paper. Can anyone suggest another substitute? Also, I don't have kitchen string, can I use an elastic band or paperclips or something?

Many thanks for your kind help!!

PGxx

finc

You can substitute raisins or sultanas for currants if you want, just make sure the overall quantities remain the same. Don't use elastic bands, they'll melt! Brown paper and string is very cheap but I've used parchment before. You could try paper clips as long a they're just metal and not plastic coated.

One other point though is the drum you use as your base board should ideally be at least 2 inches wider than your cake so if the bottom cake is 9 inch I'd use an 11 inch drum. Also you'll be fine with a 7 inch tin, probably better then you don't need to worry about trimming accurately . 4 dowels will be fine. If you struggle with piping you can buy cutters for the letters. Just colour a little of the sugarpaste to match in with your colour scheme and cut out and stick on by brushing them with a very small amount of water.

Penelope_Penguin

Paulie'sGirl wrote: »

My query is this, my family aren't overly keen on currants. A few would be ok, but I was wondering if, so long as the total weight of dried fruit was the same, can I fiddle the ratio? Include more raisins and cherries and fewer currants?



I don't have brown paper. Can anyone suggest another substitute?

You can use any mix of dried fruit you choose, as long as you keep the total weight the same; dried apricot is nice

Do you have any wall lining paper, or other heavy paper to go round the tin. Unless it's really clean, I'd use a "cold shelf" above the cake (a baking sheet on a shelf immediately above the cake.

Good luck :T

Penny. x

Paulie'sGirl

Thank you Finc and PP for the quick reply and your good wishes

I seem to be making all manner of beginners' mistakes, I just hope the finally piece looks ok LOL

I measured 7inches, and it looked fine, now the boards have arrived it looks rather smaller! We shouldn't need too much cake after a big meal though!!

Penny, I'm a bit dense this evening, could you please explain a little more about the "cold shelf"? Should I take all of the shelves out of the oven save the one the tin is on? Do I still need the double layer of greaseproof with the hole in the middle?

This is harder than I imagined when I rashly decided to make this all myself

PGxx

Penelope_Penguin

Paulie'sGirl wrote: »

Penny, I'm a bit dense this evening, could you please explain a little more about the "cold shelf"? Should I take all of the shelves out of the oven save the one the tin is on? Do I still need the double layer of greaseproof with the hole in the middle?

I cook on a Rayburn, and ranges are notorious for being tricky to contro when you're baking The Rayburn comes with a solid aluminium shelf, which slides directly onto the rails.

The paper on top of the cake, is to prevent the cake from burning in the latter stages of cooking, so for the last hour or so, you put the shelf directly above the cake, instead of greaseproof paper. I'm assuming you don;t have such a thing, so you can improvise, by putting a baking sheet on the shelf direectly above the cake, to help prevent the top of the cake from becoming overcooked

Does that make sense

ETA - if you don;t have string, I've successfully attached a paper band around a cake with sellotape! Keep an eye that it doesn't fall apart, though.

Paulie'sGirl

Yes!

So there's still space for the liquids to evaporate and the top not to be soggy, but the top doesn't burn

I did wonder how it was going to stand nearly 5 hours in the oven and not be charred all over!!

Thanks again for your help!

PGxx

Penelope_Penguin

Paulie'sGirl wrote: »

So there's still space for the liquids to evaporate and the top not to be soggy, but the top doesn't burn

I did wonder how it was going to stand nearly 5 hours in the oven and not be charred all over!!

That's it :T