Home-made cakes thread 2

nat82

Hi :wave:

I've been lurking about this thread for a wee while now and all your cakes are stunning!

I'm just starting out with this whole cake making thing and have just bought a giant cupcake mould and have a couple of questions:

Do I just use an ordinary sponge/cupcake mix or is there a special recipe I should follow?

Also, if I use one of my cupcake or sponge cake recipes, what quantities should i use? The cupcake recipes I use are for 12 cupcakes so thought about maybe doubling this??? Or, use quantities suitable for perhaps a 2-layer 8" round cake???

HELP!!!

Thanks!

Kelly-Lou

Hi,

Which Giant mould have you got? I have the wilton one and use the following : 350g Caster Sugar, 350g Butter, 3 tsp Vanilla Extract, 6 Eggs, 350g S.R Flour, 175g P Flour. I put 2/3 in the bottom and 1/3 in the top and bake for approx 1.5hrs @ 150 degrees c. You can make this chocolate by swapping 75g of P Flour for Cocoa Powder. I hope this helps and don't forget to show us a photo of your finished cake.

Emms

Ive got one of the silicon cupcake moulds. Havent tried it yet but going to give it a bash this week. I have visions of it being a disaster. Ive heard so many people say they cant get the cake out after!

I made this today for my friends that got married last week. I spent a small fortune getting to the wedding and didnt have any spare cash to get them a pressie just now so I made them a cake instead.



Emma

Kelly-Lou

I use Cake Release by Wilton it is fab for getting your cakes easily out of tins. If not then grease and flour it well.

Lovely cake by the way

nat82

Thanks kelly-lou! It's the Wilton one I've got so that's perfect! I'll be trying that out next week.

I can vouch for cake release too, it's fantastic. Well worth getting some.

zippybungle

I've never used 'Cake Release' and imo there is no need for it. Just grease your mould/tin with marg/butter and dust generously with flour. I've been baking cakes for years and never once had a problem with cakes sticking to the tin. I've got a silicone giant cupcake mould too and used it a few times with no problems.

Zippy x

Giggles_Fairy

Hey everyone. I was wondering if anyone could offer me some advice. I use buttercream to ice my cupcakes and have some of the gel colours to colour it. However the colours always seem abit 'washed out'. I have seen some peoples pictures with very vibrant colours (eg. red, blue) and wondered what colours you are using for those or if there is a special way of getting the colours that vibrant?

I currently use stork marg and icing sugar for the buttercream incase that makes a difference in any way.

I have tried adding more of the colouring but that doesnt seem to make much of a different really. I have been told that with the colour gels you only require a small amount (dip in a cocktail stick) and i have tried putting ALOT more than that in. I was worried about putting too much in incase it made it seperate in anyway.

Also this weekend I made the cookie monster cupcakes. However I found when I was piping the tops (I did it with buttercream as I dont like coconut) the mixture seems to seperate abit in the piping bag, so it looks like it had white streaks in it. I use disposable piping bags. Has anyone had this happen before and know how I might prevent it?

Luckily it still looked okay for the Cookie Monster but I am worried incase it happens with other styles too!

AnnieH

Stork and margarine have a much higher water conent than butter, and with the warmth of your hand on the piping bag, I suspect that is what is causing your buttercream to separate. Use butter, and only fill your piping bags a bit at a time, and keep adding more when you need to. It takes longer, but the buttercream stays at the proper temperature and consistency if you're not handling it too much.

As with colours, you can get Sugarflair red, green, black *extra* for when you want a proper vibrant shade. It's more concentrated so it takes less to achieve a stronger colour.

lisa26_2

Giggles_Fairy wrote: »

Hey everyone. I was wondering if anyone could offer me some advice. I use buttercream to ice my cupcakes and have some of the gel colours to colour it. However the colours always seem abit 'washed out'. I have seen some peoples pictures with very vibrant colours (eg. red, blue) and wondered what colours you are using for those or if there is a special way of getting the colours that vibrant?

I currently use stork marg and icing sugar for the buttercream incase that makes a difference in any way.

I have tried adding more of the colouring but that doesnt seem to make much of a different really. I have been told that with the colour gels you only require a small amount (dip in a cocktail stick) and i have tried putting ALOT more than that in. I was worried about putting too much in incase it made it seperate in anyway.

Also this weekend I made the cookie monster cupcakes. However I found when I was piping the tops (I did it with buttercream as I dont like coconut) the mixture seems to seperate abit in the piping bag, so it looks like it had white streaks in it. I use disposable piping bags. Has anyone had this happen before and know how I might prevent it?

Luckily it still looked okay for the Cookie Monster but I am worried incase it happens with other styles too!

I was quite surprised how much of the gel colour i needed to add to get vibrant colours but it doesn't seperate or anything so go for it! I've only used the 'sugarflair' colours so I can't comment on any of the other makes. You might find you get a better colour if you add some 'superwhite' powder first to neutralise the yellowy colour of the buttercream a bit.

danielag

Does anyone have a cake recipe that i could use for my bundt tin pumpkin cake, I'm planning to use to cakes to make the pumpkin shape then ice with fondant hop that makes sense.
thanks