Homemade Cakes thread

awesome2_2

Ok made a fathers day cake with my ds today thought I woiuld use my new clicstix after all I had watched a video on yourtube and they looked easy enough. Arrrgh :mad:they drove me potty. First of all when I moved the clicstix around the board so it cut through properly it woudnt move and the icing screwed up inside. So I put more icing on the board and tried again this time they stuck inside, so I thought the icing was to soft so out it in the fridge to harden. Not to be defeatest I had another go :eek: it as murder trying to get them out I virually ended up banging them it release the letter even though I had coated the clicstix lightly with icing sugar. Then when they did come out they had indents and ridges from the outline of the letters on the clikstixs. So what I htought would take me ten mins as on the you tiube video ended up taking one hour.
Hope he likes the cale after all this trouble or he may find himself wearing it :rotfl:

abis21

Hello fellow bakers :wave:

I used to have a little cake business from home, but gave it in cos it was getting in the way of weekends and family time.

I'm making my own wedding cake and cupcakes tho for 5 weeks time. Want to make it really special obviously with me used to doing it for a business.

Just got the fruit cake for cutting in the oven and boooyyyyy does it smell good. :T I decided to do 2, so that I will be able to taste one and not worry on the wedding day that I had done something wrong, and also cos I knew my OH would want to eat it when he smelt it :rotfl:

For the cupcakes, I'm thinking of doing 6 different flavours, as I have 6 different cupcake wrappers mainly.

I have a couple of days off before the wedding and a couple of helpers to help with all the washing up

Flavour wise, I'm thinking chocolate - done loads of times before, and lemon - same, am very practiced.

Carrot cake with cream cheese frosting - this is a new one but I have done a practice run and they tasted fab

Raspberry & white chocolate - as above

Vanilla - wanting to add jam to the middle of this, so that its not just 'plain' if you get me. Need to practice this one, and see if I can add the jam before cooking and see if it comes out ok.

Banana cupcakes with caramel frosting. This is the one I want to try out next. Can anyone help with recipes etc? Have done some googling and seem to get some mixed review from different places. Have you ladies got any top tips?

Sorry for rambling - am just quite excited by it all

cherydee

Well did a practise run of cakes, so I can practise my icing with my new nozzles. Used the 1m one, still unsure if I'm doing it right but definately better this time round than with the wilkinson icing set. I started from the centre working my way around, somehow I think the mix is too stiff as it took some pushing to get it out the nozzle or maybe I'm a weakling. Can you tell me if I am using the right amounts for the buttercream, I used the bero book.
50g (2oz) unsalted butter, 100g (4oz) icing sugar (is it important to sieve it ?) That quantity only did about 4 or 5 cakes...so unsure if being heavy handed with the icing on top.
For some reason I am hopeless at working from the outside edge to the centre........my husbands way of putting it is...I'm cack-handed !!


I should mention I added cocoa powder to these quantities ...to make chocolate buttercream...so could that be a reason the mix was very stiff ?

AnnieH

cherydee wrote: »

Well did a practise run of cakes, so I can practise my icing with my new nozzles. Used the 1m one, still unsure if I'm doing it right but definately better this time round than with the wilkinson icing set. I started from the centre working my way around, somehow I think the mix is too stiff as it took some pushing to get it out the nozzle or maybe I'm a weakling. Can you tell me if I am using the right amounts for the buttercream, I used the bero book.
50g (2oz) unsalted butter, 100g (4oz) icing sugar (is it important to sieve it ?) That quantity only did about 4 or 5 cakes...so unsure if being heavy handed with the icing on top.
For some reason I am hopeless at working from the outside edge to the centre........my husbands way of putting it is...I'm cack-handed !!


I should mention I added cocoa powder to these quantities ...to make chocolate buttercream...so could that be a reason the mix was very stiff ?

You just need a bit of milk in your buttercream, to loosen it up a bit. To ice 12 cupcakes you'd need about 500g of buttercream.

cherydee

Thanks Annie....not wishing to sound thick, 500g of buttercream - what is that in quantities ?

AnnieH

I'd use 400g of icing sugar and 200g butter, just for ease of counting. If you have any left over, you can always keep it in the fridge for up to a week

zippybungle

Here is the cake I made for my sons 6th Birthday party



Zippy x

yumyums

abis21 wrote: »

Hello fellow bakers :wave:

I used to have a little cake business from home, but gave it in cos it was getting in the way of weekends and family time.

I'm making my own wedding cake and cupcakes tho for 5 weeks time. Want to make it really special obviously with me used to doing it for a business.

Just got the fruit cake for cutting in the oven and boooyyyyy does it smell good. :T I decided to do 2, so that I will be able to taste one and not worry on the wedding day that I had done something wrong, and also cos I knew my OH would want to eat it when he smelt it :rotfl:

For the cupcakes, I'm thinking of doing 6 different flavours, as I have 6 different cupcake wrappers mainly.

I have a couple of days off before the wedding and a couple of helpers to help with all the washing up

Flavour wise, I'm thinking chocolate - done loads of times before, and lemon - same, am very practiced.

Carrot cake with cream cheese frosting - this is a new one but I have done a practice run and they tasted fab

Raspberry & white chocolate - as above

Vanilla - wanting to add jam to the middle of this, so that its not just 'plain' if you get me. Need to practice this one, and see if I can add the jam before cooking and see if it comes out ok.

Banana cupcakes with caramel frosting. This is the one I want to try out next. Can anyone help with recipes etc? Have done some googling and seem to get some mixed review from different places. Have you ladies got any top tips?

Sorry for rambling - am just quite excited by it all

Just wanted to say good luck! Your cakes all sound amazing.
I made my own wedding cake last year and it did get me a bit stressed in the end but it turned out well. It's hard work and especially at a time when most other brides are having pampering treats & getting their nails done! At least you've got helpers for the washing up. That's the worst bit of baking by far - the mess.

Can't help with a recipe for the banana cupcakes but this banana cake recipe is lovely:
http://www.bbcgoodfood.com/recipes/6067/banana-cake-with-pecan-crumble-crunch
I'm sure it could be easily adapted to cupcakes (obv. without the pecan crunch topping). For buttercream I've seen people add ready made caramel to a regular buttercream recipe (or make your own).

Please let us know how you get on and definitely post photos.

Best of luck with the wedding.

hamish222

zippybungle wrote: »

Here is the cake I made for my sons 6th Birthday party



Zippy x

Cake looks fantastic well done.

cherydee

Has anybody every made strawberry cupcakes....just wondering how they would turn out as mashed strawberries would make the mix quite runny !