Showing posts with label gum paste. Show all posts
Showing posts with label gum paste. Show all posts

Monday, December 12, 2011

Specialty Cakes: Grand Finale

Today was the pastry student's practical exam: One four-tiered wedding cake with decoration, and one anniversary cake with a bouquet of gumpaste flowers. Here is the wedding cake that Chef made as an example:

So, fondant, with more fondant roses and ribbons between the layers, and royal icing piped all over. We were allowed to pick our own design for the top tier, ribbon shapes, and colors, but everything else had to be like what's in the picture. This one is mine:


I was actually in a minority of students who chose to make their cakes white! But that's not too surprising, given how coloring your fondant makes it easier to cover any dark spots on your cake that are left after crumb icing it. Here is a feast of colorful cakes made by my classmates below...



Note especially:
1. The green cake with white roses. This girl did an amazing job keeping her fondant smooth and decorating her ribbons between layers, and the realistically-dark leaves look lovely against the minty background.
2. The pink and green cake with orange roses. Nobody thought it would end up looking nice, but I think it was the best in the class - and just look at that piping on the top tier!
3. Blue roses. Now, don't get me wrong - I HATE blue roses. They're unnatural abominations that will never befoul any cake of mine... or so I would have said until I saw this cake. It's a rare baker that can make blue roses look good, and this one did it. Incredible.
4. The last cake. I just love the multicolored roses on this one, and the tiny heart design on the top tier is soooo adorable!

BUT WAIT, THERE'S MORE!

Remember those gumpaste flowers and anniversary cakes I mentioned waaaay up at the top? Only one tier, but much harder - because a) gumpaste is a bear to work with, and b) writing in royal icing. A few of us got it pretty well, though:



The first one is mine. Unlike the wedding cakes, which were put on display in the hall, these were packed up to send to a homeless shelter. We were allowed to keep our flowers, though - so I drew in some new ones, so whoever gets my cake has something prettier than a big blank space at the side.



So that's cakes. See you later, when I start my Plated Desserts class!

Thursday, May 26, 2011

Happy Birthday to Me!

As a sort of warm up for my son's third birthday in June I decided to make myself a birthday cake. Today is my birthday,  so I sort of cut it close.

Now, just for the record, I'm something of a novice cake maker. I'm by no means professional, as anyone could tell by my gawd-awful piping, but I had fun with gum paste and some leftover icing from the last cake I made.

My husband gave me a hand in the kitchen last night in baking the cakes as I've had a sore back due to pregnancy, and together, with my neighbour's Kitchenaid stand up mixer, we got the job done quickly, efficiently, and with little to no problems.

I decided that since I had mostly blue icing I'd make an underwater/ocean cake.  The decals are gum paste and the rest is just plain buttercream icing.

The actual cake is yellow with lemon. Yum! Two nine inch cakes stacked on top of each other with buttercream in the middle.

We'll taste it tonight but I think it'll be yummy enough.

And now... Pictures!