Homemade Cakes thread

awesome2_2

Hi Ladies

Could anyone point me in the direction of tutorials or books on how to make fondant figures? I want to have a go at making one for my dd birthday to sit on top of her cake. I have trawled youtube but can only find them on faces, hair or animals so I am getting quite frustrated now. :mad:

Thanks

cherydee

LV_Sue wrote: »

I just made some Mars bar cupcakes, but all the Mars bar sank to the bottom and stuck to the paper case:(

Where did I go wrong? Should I have used muffin cases instead of cake cases and put a bit more mixture in before I added the slice of Mars bar?

They tasted very nice, but we had to chew the melted Mars bar off the paper

I did n't use muffin cases and mine came out no problem...I put a good dollop of the mixture in first..... they were a great hit at the Christening. I've found out something anyway.....I'm absolutely rubbish at piping buttercream on cupcakes. I bought a cheapy icing set at Wilkinsons and I'm blaming my tools...now at the bottom of the bin. Don't know whether to invest in a good icing set...but probably still be rubbish at it. It looks that easy to do but I made a right pigs ear out of it. So a lot of the toppings were changed to either melted chocolate or white icing.

Mumto2

cherydee wrote: »

I did n't use muffin cases and mine came out no problem...I put a good dollop of the mixture in first..... they were a great hit at the Christening. I've found out something anyway.....I'm absolutely rubbish at piping buttercream on cupcakes. I bought a cheapy icing set at Wilkinsons and I'm blaming my tools...now at the bottom of the bin. Don't know whether to invest in a good icing set...but probably still be rubbish at it. It looks that easy to do but I made a right pigs ear out of it. So a lot of the toppings were changed to either melted chocolate or white icing.

I had that same set Cherrydee - I too blamed the tools
Ended up just smearing the icing over with a knife, then added sprinkles & looked far better.
Like you, not sure whether I'm cut out for icing

cherydee

Somehow I thought in my head I would be really good at it but in reality I was **** ! Maybe the buttercream was n't the right consistency or it might just be me ! So if anybody has got any top tips I'm all ears..... as have a product launch night at my daughters shop mid June and my grandsons 4th birthday party beginning of July that I need to make cakes for both !

LV_Sue

Thanks awesome2 and cherydee. I did put a good dollop of mixture in before I added the Mars bar, but it obviously wasn't enough
I did wonder whether to use the muffin recipe I have (instead of my usual cupcake recipe) as the chocolate chunks never seem to sink when I make them.
I'll try just using the muffin cases first and see how they turn out. As my DH always says "it'll be lovely with custard!" :rotfl:

GEMSAV

HI LADIES
Im totally new to cake making and decorating but totally inspired by you all so im looking for help with the best madeira cake and cupcake recipes to start me off on my first trials tom many thanks and any tip etc im all ears !! gemma x:)

flea72

cherydee wrote: »

I've found out something anyway.....I'm absolutely rubbish at piping buttercream on cupcakes. I bought a cheapy icing set at Wilkinsons and I'm blaming my tools....

honestly its all down to practise. get a sheet of greaseproof paper or acetate and draw some circles on it the size of a cupcake. then just spend an hour (or two) piping swirls. pipe on, scrape off and go again. saves wasting cakes and icing.

with most piping, its knowing how long you can sustain the pressure, before you need to adjust your hands or turn the cake - that way you can plan your 'gaps' so you dont get deviations in flow

for a beginner, i would most likely go with a plunger icing set, but that increases production time, as you can only fill the tube with enough icing for 1-2 cakes at a time

did the set you buy come with stiff plastic icing bags? if so, just dump these and use the nozzles in a disposable icing bag. if you want a cheap cake decorating set, then i would recommend the Ikea one, it comes with metal nozzles, decent sized soft icing bags, a levelling wire and some decorative scrappers

F

flea72

awesome2 wrote: »

Hi Ladies

Could anyone point me in the direction of tutorials or books on how to make fondant figures? I want to have a go at making one for my dd birthday to sit on top of her cake. I have trawled youtube but can only find them on faces, hair or animals so I am getting quite frustrated now. :mad:

Thanks

so what figure are you trying to make, if it doesnt have a face or hair? (as these are the bits you need to get right if doing a person)

ive just dont a quick youtube search for modelling fondant figure and it brings up loads - admittedly most are brides and grooms, etc. but they give you a base you can work from

you just have to vary your words, so sugarpaste, gumpaste, fondant, figure, person, woman, girl, etc. - watch a few, and then mix and match the techniques to suit what you want to achieve

F

Keeping_Motivated

Hi where can I buy the disposable icing bags please? And also what size nozzle would you recommend I use for piping the swirls on cupcakes? I used the largest star in the Tala icing set but it still seemed to come out quite thin compared to the lovely ones I've seen on here.

Thanks
KM

money_saving_diva

LV_Sue wrote: »

I just made some Mars bar cupcakes, but all the Mars bar sank to the bottom and stuck to the paper case:(

Where did I go wrong? Should I have used muffin cases instead of cake cases and put a bit more mixture in before I added the slice of Mars bar?

They tasted very nice, but we had to chew the melted Mars bar off the paper

Did you put too much mars bar in? I made them using fairy cake cases and put a dollop of mixture in, then a bit of mars (about 5mm slice) then some more mixture. I found some had too much mars in and bubbled to the top or stuck to the bottom. The ones that worked best had less mars in. I think I will cut the slices in half next time. Still taste lush!

cherydee wrote: »

I did n't use muffin cases and mine came out no problem...I put a good dollop of the mixture in first..... they were a great hit at the Christening. I've found out something anyway.....I'm absolutely rubbish at piping buttercream on cupcakes. I bought a cheapy icing set at Wilkinsons and I'm blaming my tools...now at the bottom of the bin. Don't know whether to invest in a good icing set...but probably still be rubbish at it. It looks that easy to do but I made a right pigs ear out of it. So a lot of the toppings were changed to either melted chocolate or white icing.

I had a cheap set from asda and I have now started to make my own piping bags from greaseproof paper. Much better!! Try that!

Keeping_Motivated wrote: »

Hi where can I buy the disposable icing bags please? And also what size nozzle would you recommend I use for piping the swirls on cupcakes? I used the largest star in the Tala icing set but it still seemed to come out quite thin compared to the lovely ones I've seen on here.

Thanks
KM

I have just got the Wilton 1m nossle that has been mentioned loads on this thread. I used it for the first time yesterday and it's fab! So easy for a beginner to make fab looking cupcakes!

Now ... I need help! I have perfected a buttercream frosting recipe for cupcakes but I need help with what buttercream recipe to use for my daughters birthday cake to cover it before I ice it? What do you all use? Thanks