Caramel and Rainbow Flavours

Since I won't be attending the July Farmers Market I've decided to spend my break doing some testing.

Firstly a new caramel flavour.  I made a caramel mud cake that I mixed some buttercream into but I wasn't entirely sure the flavour was "caramelly" (!) enough.  I then put my thinking cap on - I could add some ready-made caramel but then I didn't want to have to eat the leftover caramel as I'm sure it can't be frozen.  I could make some caramel by boiling a small amount of condensed milk; but, again, I didn't want to have to eat the leftover condensed milk.  I searched a few recipes for ideas and came up with a caramel I could make on a small scale to add to the buttercream.  I am happy to say that it did the trick and I now have an all new flavour - Caramel Mud Cake with Caramel Buttercream - yum!!

Rainbow cake pops have been floating around my head now for some time.  I've seen a few variations on the internet so I had a couple of ideas on how I would like mine to look.  I decided to try out another flavour for these, white chocolate mud.  I mixed the batter and divided it up, put the colour in and then baked them in these fantastic mini cake tins I have.  It worked beautifully.  I then had to decide how to get six different "dough" mixes to resemble a rainbow.

I tried the "bullseye" style first - to anyone that has successfully achieved this effect, I congratulate you!  My first attempt had just three colours and I was already at the size of my usual cake pop - my three year old got to eat that one!  In the end I realised that to get the effect, and stick to my standard sizing, I would need to roll some dough out and then cut circles out of it - I made a total of two in the end.  I've decided that the "bullseye" style is not for me!!  It looks amazing, but it's just too time consuming for me!

Rainbow Cake Pop - Bullseye

My final two ideas were a "layered" look and a "blocked" look.  Happily, these were much less time consuming than the previous ones!  I love the look, especially when you are greeted by a white coating and have no idea what is underneath.  I gave a couple out to people and got a resounding "wow" from all.

Rainbow Cake Pop - Layered

Rainbow Cake Pop - Blocked

I am now moving on to some more character cake pops.  I hope to do some experiments with Yo Gabba Gabba; Cars; Star Wars and The Muppets.  Wish me luck!!

Farmers Market Update

I had my second appearance at the Orange Farmers Market on Saturday.  It was a bit chilly to start with; -2.3 degrees, Orange’s coldest low temperature for this winter; but the sun did come out and so did the people.

I took 143 cake pops with me this time and, once again, they sold out.  The pirates and princesses were popular – I also had sheep, chickens, pigs and ladybugs, along with some basic pops.  I am totally amazed at the support I am receiving.  Thank you to everyone that came down.  I also have to thank my friend for coming along and helping me out again.

Sheep

Ladybugs

Princesses - Updated

The Farmers Markets are fantastic and I urge anyone that hasn’t been to go and check it out.  You absolutely have to have a Trunkey Creek bacon & egg roll, don’t let the long line put you off – it’s worth the wait.  I have to send a special shout out to Alison at Fudge by Alison too, she has been a wealth of information to me – the rubber matting saved my feet from the freezing temperature J.  Oh, and of course, she sells fudge......mmmmmmmmm!!

My friend bought us a sample of the gorgeous macarons on sale at Chesney & Green.  I will be lining up for more of the salted caramel ones at the next markets, they were to die for!!

I will be missing the July market as we are heading off on holiday.  I will be back for the August and September ones though and I hope to have some special market flavours to try out, such as beetroot cake!

Basic Cake Pops

Purple Layer Cake with Cream Cheese Ruffles

This was a creation for my own birthday!  Yummo!  I would have liked the purple layers to be a bit more graduated and am thinking that next time I may just go for four thicker layers.  The cake was a vanilla custard mud cake, which worked amazingly.

I had not tried the ruffle technique before but I found some awesome tutorials on YouTube and it, seriously, is not that hard to do.  I only ended up using two packets of cream cheese for the cake but I think next time I would go with three and make the ruffles a bit smaller.

I am definitely having a go at a rainbow cake next!

Apples, Horses and Swirls

Here are some apples and horses that I did for an order (following the Farmers Markets).  It was my first time doing horses and I totally copied this idea from www.cakepopmyheart.com (thanks!!).

Horses & Apples

Horses with Cowboy Hats

Apples with Caterpillars

These pops were for another order.  I am really liking the basic swirl at the moment.  These were chocolate cake underneath and you can still *just* see the cake under the coating but I didn't want the coating to be too thick and overpower the yummy cake inside :)

Wedding Cake Pops

I have been, over the course of a couple of months, doing some testing on some wedding cake pops.  I have seen some good examples on various sites but, of course, had a particular image in my head that I wanted to try and recreate.

Here is the end result – trial number three – the brushed section is supposed to look like a ribbon around the bottom of the tier and I’m hoping to customise this to coordinate with bridesmaid dresses or decorative colour schemes. Personally I prefer the one on the right, topped with the ribbon-style rose.

Wedding Cake Pops

 This was test number one and two, just so you can see where I went wrong LOL.  My three year old kept telling me he liked the “snowmen” so I instantly knew some changes needed to be made!

Ned Kelly Cake

I had a request for a Ned Kelly Cake.  I headed to Google, as you do, and quickly realised that wasn’t going to be very helpful!  I was completely stumped.  I knew I didn’t want to do the whole helmet in 3D with fondant but I knew that the helmet would look pretty silly as a flat-style cake (yeah, a rectangle shape with another rectangle piece cut out of it!).  I finally came up with a Wanted poster.  I used a buttercream transfer for the portrait picture and then cut the letters out of candy clay.  The cake needed to be just a little bit wider, but I think it turned out ok in the end.

My First Orange Farmers Market!!

How exciting!  After a busy, busy week and a few long nights it was finally time for me to attend my first Orange Farmers’ Market.  The air was a bit cool but once I’d carried everything to my spot it wasn’t so bad.  My friend came & helped me out, thankfully, as it helped take my mind off my nerves.  She was a trooper & stayed the entire time. 

I am pleased to report that my cake pops were a hit.  We actually sold out (98 pops) by about 11am (the markets don’t finish until 1pm).  There seemed to be a lot of interest and I’m hoping that will translate into orders for birthday parties and functions. 

The Orange Farmers’ Markets really are an awesome venture.  There are so many great products available.  Check out the site at here.  I also have to say a special shout out to Alison at “Fudge by Alison” – she has given me so many tips that have made this experience so much easier for me......oh, and did I mention the fudge???

Buzzy Bees

Cows

Pregnant Lady Cake Pops

I made these for my friend who is expecting and won’t have her pregnant belly for much longer at all.  I tried one lot where the body & head were all one piece of cake but I wasn’t really happy with how they ended up looking.  I then tried to make the body & head separate & I think the result is much nicer.  I had to wrap these up and send them in the post to Cobar.  I am happy to say they arrived in perfect condition.

Pregnant Lady Cake Pops

Revistiting In-Edible Glitter

Referring to my previous post "Disco Balls & In-Edible Glitter" on 25 January 2012.

This article surfaced yesterday:

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2133336/Storm-cupcake-How-innocent-question-glitter-edible-The-Great-British-Bake-Off-sparked-national-fairy-cake-pandemonium.html

It would appear the debate is still very much alive!

I still stand by my decision to not use "non-toxic" glitter on my cake pops.  I also believe the food standards industry needs to step up and clearly mark anything that is going to be ingested - either it's a *food* or it isn't!

Basic Birthday Cake

The cake topper for this one was purchased by the client *not* made by me.  Originally we were going to put coloured spots all over the cake but because it was only a single layer we decided it would be too much.

Salted Caramel Cheesecake

On an unrelated note, can I just say that I don’t understand “Red Velvet”.  It seems the trend at the moment is to have either red velvet cakes or cupcakes & after attempting my third different recipe.....I....am....done!!  All three attempts were tasteless and the texture of the cake wasn’t even nice.  No more red velvet for me!

Something that is successful and very, very yummy is Donna Hay’s Salted Caramel Cheesecake.  I do hope to add the recipe to this post at some point.  It is so rich that it would easily serve a crowd.  I am a cheesecake lover from way back & I have to say this one is right up at the top of the list.

Easter Cake Pops

Here are some easter samplers, I think the easter eggs need a little more work!

Easter Cake Pops

I also made some brownies this week which were fantastic!  Double Chocolate & Raspberry Brownies which are featured on page 55 of the Women’s Weekly book “Little Squares & Slices”.  They were so yummy that you’ll notice there is no photo to be seen!  I also want to try these again but as Triple Chocolate Brownies......mmmmm!!!

My boy turned 7 and decided on Spiderman for his birthday cake.  There are some really cool layered Spiderman/Batman/Superman cakes but he only wanted Spiderman.  I had a busy week with two other cakes to make for the same day so I used the freezer.  I baked the cakes and wrapped them in cling film and froze them – it worked really well; I even coated one with buttercream first and I also shaped and coated the Spiderman one!

Spiderman Cupcakes

Cupcakes

These were for school and because I already had so much to do I decided to push the limits a little by freezing them fully decorated.  I had done some successful testing and it seemed to work fantastically.  Unfortunately between me freezing them and defrosting them NSW got hit by the worst weather it has seen in a very long time – my decorated cupcakes went soggy L  I tried a couple of different things to bring them back (a fan, icing sugar, tylose powder) but nothing really worked.  Next time I will freeze the undecorated cupcakes as it’s not worth the risk!

Spiderman / Web Cookies

Cookies

I checked with my cookie decorating guru about whether it is possible to freeze these decorated and she had previously done them individually wrapped with success.  Mine were for the party table so I wrapped them in single layers with cling film and put them into an airtight container.  I transferred them to the fridge first and then put them (unwrapped) onto a cooling rack to defrost completely before returning them to an airtight container.  Worked – hooray!!

Spiderman Cake Pops

Cake Pops

I was going to do these ahead and freeze them too but given the state of the weather I decided that wasn’t a good idea.  They were rushed (as you can tell) but the kids devoured them in a matter of seconds!

Spiderman Cake

Spiderman Cake
I used two 20x30cm white chocolate mud cakes with buttercream in the middle.  I cut the oval Spiderman shape for his head from this.  As I was so short on time (or I would be by the time party day rolled around) I froze the cake once it was cut and fully buttercreamed.  I just wrapped it in cling film & I had no problems defrosting it when the time came to cover it with fondant.  It was a pretty easy cake to decorate as I only needed to cover it and then pipe the web detail on top.  I had, what I thought was, a really good idea to write the “Happy Birthday” greeting on the cake board – because we weren’t going to be eating it I decided to use scrapbooking rub-on letters.  It sounded like a great idea and I thought it would save me the time of piping it on.  Note to self:  Rub-ons do NOT stick to fondant!!!!  It was a complete disaster which is why there is a little cardboard printout stuck on top instead!

Turf Cake

I created this turf cake for my Uncle who is a turf farmer.  I’m pleased with the way it turned out as it actually looks the way that I pictured it in my head.  It was a mud cake underneath all that fondant.  “Cobar” is his nickname, not his actual name, just in case you were wondering!

Turf Cake

La-La Bird Cake

La-La Bird Cake

I really like the way this one turned out.  It was for a friend’s little girl who was turning two.  We’d found inspiration from Elite Cake Designs and I was able to cut out the shapes early and leave them to dry.  This was also a white chocolate mud cake, baked in a 22cm round tin (well, two tins actually as the first attempt to bake the cake was a bit of a disaster!).  I really liked the fact that I didn’t have to spend time colouring the fondant for the cake, I could just use it straight out of the packet.  I was lucky that there wasn’t too much piping on it though, that red royal icing tasted horrible!!

Drill Cake

Drill Cake

I had a lot of fun making this one.  I wasn’t sure about the height to begin with, I thought a single layer would be too thin but a double layer would be too thick – in the end I went with the double layer.  This was a chocolate mud cake baked in two 20x30cm tins.  I managed to cut the drill out in three pieces and used the majority of the cake up, which means less leftovers that I feel obligated to eat!  The only problem with it was using all that black and grey buttercream, the kids didn’t seem to mind their black mouths though.  Oh and I forgot to take an actual photo of this one – I can’t believe I did it – the only photo I have is from my mobile phone which explains why it looks so bad!!

Community Markets - Attempt Number Two

We had success!!  Hooray!!  I only came home with two cake pops this time, sooooo much better than my first attempt.

I went armed with very specific signage this time to spell out the fact that they were CAKE pops!!

I made pigs and chickens and then did some Elmo too.  There was supposed to be Cookie Monster to go with him, but circumstances just didn’t allow for him to be done in time.  I am happy with the pigs and chickens but I think next time I will make the mouth and nose for Elmo rather than using pre-made things.

I finished Cookie Monster off on the Monday after the markets & used him for a test postage run out to Cobar to see how he would travel.  It was quite warm and he survived the trip perfectly.  Australia Post managed to get him there the very next day (even though it usually takes two days).  Reports from the recipient were very positive!  I now plan on doing a couple more tests before advertising for postal orders.

Pigs

Chickens

Elmo

Cookie Monster

Christening Cake

I had a call from a friend who wanted to know if I could do a christening cake for the weekend – giving me a total of three days to work with.  I declined as I did not think I could do a reasonable job in that timeframe.  Somehow, after another phone call, I ended up saying that I would give it a shot.  It was a pretty simple cake and, even though it was my first time baking this particular chocolate mud cake recipe in a tin that size, it worked out quite well.  I had trouble with the blocks for the top – why is it that the simplest things always end up being the hardest to actually achieve?  The cake topper and the ribbon were given to me by the customer.

This was my first time using ganache to coat the cake instead of buttercream – I still hoped the finished look would be a lot smoother than it ended up.  I’m hoping more practice will help with that!

Community Markets - First Attempt

I was in a world of cake pops in the days leading up to these.
I wasn’t sure how it would go and I guessed they would either sell out or not sell at all.

Well, I went armed with about 80 pops and came home with.....almost all of them L  I packaged the remainders up and gave them away to the Mum’s at school on the Monday.  To say I was disappointed is an understatement but after receiving some tips from a fellow baker/seller I, at the very least, had some ideas to apply to my next attempt.

Disco Pops & In-Edible Glitter

I received a phone call earlier this month from a previous client wondering if I could make some disco ball cake pops.  I knew I would have to do some research as I had recently been reading about glitter used in cake decorating.  Apparently most of the glitter from cake decorating shops is actually only for decorating purposes (things like window displays and decorating competitions, where the product is not actually consumed).  From what I can gather these glitters haven’t really had anything on the packaging to tell a person that it is not a food product.  Recently things have changed and these glitters that are labelled as “non-toxic” have also had explanations added to them on websites etc stating that they are meant for decoration. 

The debate is pretty fierce as people are very passionate about things they believe in.

The reason these glitters cannot be called “edible” is because they do not digest in the body.  They come out in the same form that they went in (ew, but that’s the truth).  There is even suggestion that the glitters are made from plastics.  While some people are happy to ingest these glitters in small amounts and have had no side effects, others believe the products need to labelled as in-edible or for decorative purposes only.  Some call for them to be removed from cake decorating supply shops completely.

So......I decided that I wouldn’t be happy serving up a cake pop coated in “non-toxic”, but not edible, glitter to my own children & so I would definitely not be happy serving it up to other children.  Then the search began for the best looking edible glitter-type product.  I ordered three things over the internet – Pearlised Sugar Crystals; Edible Glitter and Silver edible ‘paint’.

The three products I ordered

 I was not convinced about the edible glitter when I ordered it as I assumed it was the same product I had purchased some years ago.  It was.  It looks like fish flakes and not at all like glitter.  It even tasted horrid (I would say that it tastes like fish flakes but since I haven’t eaten fish flakes, I can’t be totally sure!).

Definately NOT the fish flakes!!

I was very impressed with the pearlised sugar crystals and the silver paint, however.  The paint is good for smaller things and, again, not entirely sure I would eat a cake pop fully coated with it (even though it IS edible).  The sugar crystals were the winner and I now can’t wait to buy more in a variety of colours!

Disco Balls

Disco Ball Options

I even got all inspired and created some disco-ish accessories!!

Boom Boxes

Music

Disco Theme