Last weekend we helped celebrate the birthday of a very close friend. I had a go at another fondant cake, and made my first gumpaste flowers. I was quite pleased with how they came out, but the smooth look of the fondant still needs some work.
Here are some pictures:
I decided to make a big cake for a New Years Day gathering that I was hosting. I got the idea from the Planet Cake book. A white chocolate mudcake, with dark chocolate ganache, decorated with homemade marshmallow fondant and store-bought fondant.
I wasn't entirely happy with the result - the icing was too lumpy bumpy. The day I was trying to decorate this, it was 35 deg C outside and quite humid - this made the ganache all melty and the fondant really hard to work with. Not good. I actually waited til early evening to begin as I thought that would be cooler - it was, but not by much. To make matters worse, we lost power during a big storm at about 10pm (and it didn't return until 3pm the following day!) - so I had to do some of the decorating by candle-light.
Ah well - the cake was enjoyed by all who saw/ate it - so I guess that's all that matters!
Last year I was the one designated to make the family Christmas cake (okay so I volunteered). I wanted this to be the most yummiest, moist, prettiest dark fruit cake ever! I messed around with the recipe a bit, and the result was fantastic. It was so moist you could smell the Cointreau from metres away!
I had planned to decorate it with homemade marshmallow fondant - but then I learnt what happens if you put marshmallows in the microwave and forget about them. Oops! So I was forced to use pre-made fondant which (luckily) I had in stock. This cake also has a layer of marzipan - because my Dad insisted. I hated marzipan as a kid - turns out I still hate it - so next year, sorry Dad, no marzipan. I'll buy you a block to have on the side!
I decided to make some cookies for Halloween this year - you know, in case anyone trick or treated. Of course, we never get trick or treaters because our street is an unlisted dirt track off another dirt road, and our driveway is so long that you can't even see the house from the gate. But that's beside the point. I wanted to make cookies.
The cookies are vanilla flavoured butter cookies, made with real vanilla (yum!). I then decorated them with fondant. I didn't really read the recipe properly, and it turned out to be quite a large amount - so I ended up with about 60 cookies! My work colleagues were forced to bear the brunt of this error.... not that they complained much!
I will definately be doing this again!!
Happy birthday to me!! I made this cake for my birthday in late September. I have this thing with hippos.... my brother really enjoyed it. There was a hippo on his cake eating cake. Tee hee.
The cake is again Nigella Lawson's "chocolate storecupboard cake" but I used raspberry jam instead of marmelade. It has chocolate buttercream, homemade marshmallow fondant and fondant hippos.
Party on little dude!
One of my colleagues recently had a baby boy - I made this cake in September 2009 as a gift for their family. I also made a batch of matching cupcakes for the people at work. I knew they'd be upset if they saw me bring in cake and then not let them eat it!!
The cake is Nigella Lawson's "chocolate storecupboard cake", with chocolate buttercream and home-made marshmallow fondant. 
The cupcakes are vanilla packet mix with fresh strawberries thrown in. Cream cheese frosting and fondant duckies. Quack!
This is my first ever attempt at covering a cake in fondant. I learned a lot doing it, but I didn't think it was too bad for a first effort! The cake is Nigella Lawson's "chocolate storecupboard cake".
My mother-in-law's birthday cake:
Mmm... it tasted pretty good too!
