I have for a long time wanted to try out some Petit Fours from Martha Stewart made with pound cake and Petit Four icing. So yesterday I went into the kitchen to bake a basic vanilla pound cake (I used another pound cake recipe than the one from MS). I wanted to try out the Petit Four icing from MS but since I did not have any light corn syrup in the house, I decided to try out a package of instant fondant icing mix to see how that is to work with. To get the small Petit Fours I used the trick cutting the pound cake into 1″ thick slices and with a round circle cutter you cut out the small cakes.

Then you place the small cakes on a wire rack with a baking tray underneath to collect any leftover icing. I had my mixed instant fondant icing heated and ready. Use a ladle to pour the icing over the small cakes in a circular movement. Here it is important that you quickly pour enough icing over the cakes because you want to seal the cakes completely with the icing. If the icing is too thick at this stage you will have problems with it harden before it have covered the small cakes all the way to the bottom.

I must say that the instant fondant icing mix was ok to work with but I still want to try out the Petit Four icing recipe on MS because it just looks soo smooth and pourable. When the Petit Fours are all done with the icing, you can cut them loose by using a small sharp knife and with slightly wet fingers transfer them to cupcake paper cases. Now your Petit Fours are ready to be decorated. I used some gum paste Hydrangea and some Primrose flowers for my Petit Fours.

Store your Petit Fours in a card board box that is not completely airthight or the icing can get sticky. The refrigerator will melt the icing.

Happy baking

Louise

Two years ago I made a 3D knitting basket cake. I got so many great comments on it and the cake was featured on a lot of knitting blogs Last year I then got a request on making a tutorial on it for Desserts Magazines. But now I want to share it here aswell. It is a really fun cake to make and if you know or have a family member who just loves to knit, this cake will be a hit.

You can make the basket in almost any shape but I like round, oval and square the best. Use a nice, firm and moist cake of your favourite choice and you will also need to bake 1 x 6″ round cake to make the balls of yarn.

This is what I use:
1 x cake in either shape: Round, oval and square.
1 x 6″ round cake
Cake board
Buttercream or chocolate ganache
Sugar syrup
Serrated knife
Small knife
Angle spatular
Rolling pin
Basket weave embosser from Patchwork Cutters or a basket weave textured rolling pin.
Sugar craft gun with medium round disc
2 small paint brushes
White fat (Crisco)
Silver edible liquid color
Clear alcohol
2 wooden BBQ sticks
Cornstarch
Brown food gel color
White rolled fondant icing
3 gel food colors of your choice for the ball of yarns
Cornstarch dusting bag
Block of styrofoam
Tylo glue

Knitting needles:
Start by rolling 2 small fondant balls and glue them to the end of the BBQ sticks. Set aside and let it dry. Paint both BBQ sticks with silver edible liquid color and place them in the block of styrofoam and set a side.

Ball of yarn, step 1:
Trim of the top of the 6″ round cake and place it in a bowl and break it down with a fork (a foodprocessor can be used instead) add 2 tbsp of buttercream or chocolate ganache to start with and mix the cake mixture until it can be rolled into balls. Make sure that they can fit into the basket cake. Place the cake balls on a plate and put them in the refrigerator to get firm.

Ball of yarn, step 2:
Color some of the fondant in the colors you like and take out the cake balls. Start with 1 cake ball at a time and brush it lightly with sugar syrup. Now roll out some fondant and cover the cake ball. You dont need to get it all smooth because you will add strings of fondant afterwards. Continue with the last 2 cake balls.

To make it more easy to push the fondant through the sugarcraft gun, knead in a little white fat and drops of water. load the sugarcraft gun with fondant and use the medium round disc. Push out long strings of fondant and lay them close together like shown on the photo.

Ball of yarn, step 3:
Brush glue on one of the ends and with a knife cut the strings like shown on the photo. Attache to the ball and repeat on the other end.

Continue pushing out strings of fondant. Brush with glue on the ball and place them across on the ball. Do this twice, only now placing them the oposite way. Set aside and continue with the last two.

Remember to save some of the excess fondant for later to make extra strings.

Basket cake, step 1:
Give the cake a light crumb coat with bc or chocolate ganache and set it aside. Color some fondant light brown, roll it out and cut a “lid” in the same size as the cake by using the cake tin. Trim off any excess fondant if needed. Knead the light brown fondant and roll it out long enough to go around the cake. Take the basket weave embosser, dust it well with cornstarch and emboss the fondant in the same height as the cake. Cut it with a knife and roll up the fondant.

Basket cake, step 2:
Roll the embossed fondant around the cake. Trim off any excess fondant and remove any left over cornstarch with a dry brush.

Basket cake, step 3:
Make a long robe out of the light brown fondant by rolling two long sausages and twist them. Cut the ends clean. Glue it on the top of the cake with tylo glue.

Basket cake, step 4:
Mix brown food gel color with drops of clear alcohol on a plate and paint the whole basket cake. Set aside to dry.

Assembling the cake:
To assemble the knitting basket cake, take the three “balls of yarn” and place them in the basket. Make more strings in the same colors as the “yarn” and place them randomly on top. Finish by placing the knitting needles in the basket (see top photo).

Happy Caking

Louise

These are all brand new cake tins that I received yesterday. I love cake tins, only they do take a lot of the space in my kitchen cupboards, but thats how it is when you are a cake maniac, right? The cake tins are all 3″ high wich I love because I also use them to assemble my cakes, this way the filling is not “running” away

In fact why not show you how I do it?
I use this technique only with mousse fillings because it is still soft enough afterwards when you are going to prepaire the cake for buttercream or chocolate ganache. So for those of you who make cakes with mousse fillings I hope that you can use it

Step 1:
I use either a large plastic bag (food safe) or plastic wrap as a linning in the cake tin. Then I place the first cake layer in the tin and put the filling in a disposable piping bag.

Step 2:
Then I pipe the filling onto the cake layer. You can smooth the filling with a small spatular before you add the next cake layer.

Step 3:
Repeat until you are done with the final cake layer. Wrap the excess plastic on top and chill the cake until it is firm. Here I like to place a cake board and something heavy on top to get the filling levelled. This helps alot if you are having problems with bulging cakes.

Step 4:
When the cake is all firm. Turn it onto a plate or cake board and carefully peel off the plastic. As you can see some of the filling is now squeezed out, wich is fine.

Step 5:
Now scrape off any excess filling of the cake and it is now ready for buttercream or chocolate ganache.

So there you have it I would really like to know how commen it is around the world to use mousse fillings in cakes. Here it is mostly used, since we are not that common with buttercream cakes. So please tell.

Happy caking

Louise

Are you tired of using lots of time cleaning up your cake tins after you are done baking? I know I am, so I like to line my cake tins when I bake my cakes because it prevents the cake to stick to the cake tin and makes the cleaning a lot easier. Here is a tutorial on how to line a cake tin.

This is what I use:
Baking paper or grease proff paper
Non-stick baking spray
Pencil
Scissors
A paper clip

Step 1:
Take your baking paper and place you cake tin on top of it. Now draw around the cake tin with your pencil.

Step 2:
Cut out the marked piece of paper and make sure that it fits the tin.
Note: This is for the bottom of the cake tin.

Step 3:
Cut a strip of baking paper long enough to go all the way around the cake tin. I like to cut my strip 1″ higher than the tin.

Step 4:
Fold down 1″ of the strip and make 1/2″ cuts into the paper. Make around 1″ between each cut.

Step 5:
Grease you cake tin with non-stick baking spray.
Note: butter and vegetable oil can also be used

Step 6:
Now you take the long strip of baking paper with the fold and cuts facing down at the bottom of the tin. Make sure it fits nicely all the way around the cake tin.

Step 7:
You can use a paper clip to hold the ends together. Now take the paper from step 2 and place it at the bottom of the cake tin.

Step 8:
The cake tin is now ready to be filled with cake batter.

Note: If you are baking a cake that raises a lot then it is important to line your cake tin with a collar so you wont end up with cake batter everywhere.

Happy Caking
Louise

I love sugar sprinkles, especially when you can “make” them in the excact color you want. So I wanted to share this great tip that I found on Martha Stewart.com Take any kind of white sprinkles (it works with white sugar too) and place it in a zipper bag. Ad very small amounts of food powder dusts (lustre dusts is very pretty to use) and close the bag. Shake the bag well to evenly blend in the food powder and your done. Always start out with a little food powder as it can very easy get too dark. So easy and simple to make the most fantastic shades of sugar sprinkles.

Use the sugar sprinkles on your cupcakes, cookies or ice cream to make an easy and colorful decoration.

Tip: you can put the sprinkles in a sweet little jar and tie a bow around and you will have the perfect little gift for a passionate home baker.

Happy Caking!

Louise

This glue is perfect for all kinds of sugarwork and it is very quick to make. Here you can see how to make Tylo glue:

This is what you will need:
1 tsp. of Tylo powder (CMC)
approx. 30 tsp. of boiled cooled water
1 plastic container with lid

Mix water and powder in the container. Close with the lid and shake well, it will look lumpy at first. Leave overnight so the Tylo will dissovle into a clear thick gel. It should be keept in the refrigerator and away from direct sunlight. Change your tylo glue every second week

Note: you can add more cooled boiled water if it gets to thick.

Happy Caking

Louise

I think when serving cupcakes or mini cakes they look so much better when served on a cake stand. In this tutorial I will show you how to make a cake stand that is very easy and quick to make. You can adapt it to the color or pattern on your cakes. I have used thick gift wrap paper to cover the cake boards. But you could ice your cake boards with rolled sugarpaste/fondant icing instead. Only remember to ice the cake board a few days in advanced so they can dry throughly.

Note: remember when you have assembled the cake stand with cakes on it, not to move it around too much.

This is what I have used:

Cake boards: 1×8″, 1×10″, 1×12″
Note: if you want two more tiers on the stand, you will need 1×14″ + 1×16″ cake boards. Polysthyrene cake dummies each 2″ high in the sizes: 2X6″ and 2×7″ (or if you can get 4″ high dummies, then you will only need 1 of each size)
Note: You will need 2×8″ 2×9″ polysthyrene cake dummies for two more tiers.

A 5 TIER CAKE STAND CAN HOLD ABOUT 51 REGULAR CUPCAKES.

Satin ribbon for the cake board and the polysthyrene cake dummies

Thick paper or sugarpaste/rolled fondant icing

Glue stick and craft glue

Metal pins

A pair of scissors

A pencil

Step 1:
Start by glue the dummies together. So they can dry completely.

Step 2:
Take your chosen ribbon, and attach it on the dummies with a metal pin.
Note: you can also glue the ribbon on the dummies if you like.

Step 3:
When the dummies are dry, start by wrapping the ribbon around them so it slightly overlap all the way to the top.
Note: the metal pin on the picture, was only put in so I could take the picture.

Step 4:
Attach the ribbon with a metal pin.

Step 5:
Lay the cake boards on the choosen paper. Take your pencil and draw a line around the board on the paper. Cut out with a pair of scissors.

Step 6:
Take the glue stick and add glue throughly all over the board.

Step 7:
Place the paper cirkel on the cake board and rub it lightly.

Step 8:
Now it is time to attache the ribbon to the side of the cake board. Add a metal pin to just keep the ribbon in place.

Step 9:
If you like you can rub a bit of glue on the side so the ribbon stays in place. End by taking the metal pin and attach it to the overlaps.

Step 10:
Now your cake stand is finished.
Note: I have not assembled my cake stand with glue, but you could do that for an extra safety. If you use iced cake boards you can use royal icing to fix it if you like.

On this cake stand I have used 7″, 10″, 13″ but I would recomend to use the cake board size’s above.

IMPORTANT!! If you are having problems finding the materials to make this cake stand. Then please take your time and read through the comment section as you will find links and answers on where to buy the materials.

See CakeJournal’s readers own cake stands in the cake stand gallery.

Happy Caking

Louise

In this tutorial I will show you how to make a corn starch dusting bag. This is what you need to create it:

1. A foam washcloth
2. A rubberband
3. Corn starch

1. Put a pile of corn starch on the washcloth.

2. Take the four corners and put them together. Then tighten them together with the rubberband.

3. Now you have a handy dusting bag which is useful when you roll out your sugar paste (fondant icing)

Happy Caking

Louise