Home-made cakes thread 2

HannahIOW

Has anyone here ever made 'Madelines' before? Is it just as simple as vanilla sponge mix put into small moulds?

Golden_Anemone

I've made madeleines before HannahIOW. Can't remember what recipe I used but there are any number of them on internet. The secret seemed to be in greasing the moulds properly so they came out easily.

Golden_Anemone

It's probably too late this time but can any more experienced cake decorators tell me how to get rid of the icing sugar dusting on the dark sugar paste. It's never as obvious on white or pastels but it's really annoying on black or brown. I tried using vodka on a cloth to wipe it away but think I've made it worse. Thanks.

awesome2_2

moosetastic wrote: »

Thanks Awesome! I used Tesco Luxury Milk Chocolate from the baking section, it's 79p a block. I melted 2 blocks, as I didn't think 1 block would be enough. I didn't temper it either, it melted wonderfully using my tried old basin over a pan of water method, it kept liquid for ages as well for me to work with it. I used my palette knife and spread it over the sides, and then putting a little on each chocolate finger, stuck it on. Once I had done the outside, I put it in the fridge for 20 mins to harden, then poured the rest on the top of the cake and set the chocolates into it. Much easier than I thought it was going to be, the chocolate really covered well and it was really great to work with. The bonus was that it tasted exactly like Dairy Milk as well, I would definately use it again for my cakes!

Going to have a go of this for valentines day did you make chocolate sponge
Thanks

nat82

Golden_Anemone wrote: »

It's probably too late this time but can any more experienced cake decorators tell me how to get rid of the icing sugar dusting on the dark sugar paste. It's never as obvious on white or pastels but it's really annoying on black or brown. I tried using vodka on a cloth to wipe it away but think I've made it worse. Thanks.

Fantastic cake! It's absolutely brilliant, well done! How do you get the letters to come out the tappits so perfectly? Mine always look a mess

I had the same problem with my mickey mouse cake and like you, i used vodka to try and wipe it away but it didn't work so I'll be interested to see if anyone can solve the problem!

becs

I've never used icing sugar with dark sugarpaste. I use a non stick mat and plastic rolling pin and it doesn't stick.

nat82

becs wrote: »

I've never used icing sugar with dark sugarpaste. I use a non stick mat and plastic rolling pin and it doesn't stick.

I use a non stick mat and plastic rolling pin too but it still seems to stick. Tried corn flour too but still marks the dark sugar paste. Not sure what I'm doing wrong then

Golden_Anemone

nat82 wrote: »

Fantastic cake! It's absolutely brilliant, well done! How do you get the letters to come out the tappits so perfectly? Mine always look a mess

I had the same problem with my mickey mouse cake and like you, i used vodka to try and wipe it away but it didn't work so I'll be interested to see if anyone can solve the problem!

Thanks nat. I must have taken 10 or more goes to get some letters out in one piece. The H was particularly frustrating and one curly bit broke off the B just as I was positioning the letters on the board. I used paste I'd added gum traganth to the night before and rolled it really thin between 2 sheets of baking parchment. Found that even then I had to let it harden a little before I could get several of the letters made.

The sticky wet marks did dry out a fair bit in the several hours before the cake was served last night so looked a lot better than in the photo. And the boy was well pleased!

Golden_Anemone

One tip I read somewhere was to rub Trex on the worktop or mat you're rolling out on to stop it sticking. Has anyone tried that?

Dontknowanymore

I'm attempting choccie cupcakes today, going to test them out on my friend and her kids cos so far it's only been my kids who have eaten them and those 2 would eat dog poo if you sprinkled it with sugar :rotfl:
Is cocoa ok for buttercream icing? the last 2 times I have done butter icing it seems really dusty, maybe I put too much or didn't mix well enough....