Wednesday 27 March 2013

A Tiffany Box cupcake

I was recently approached by a friend who had a slightly unusual request: she wanted me to make a replica of a Tiffany box at cupcake-size. She even offered to pay me!! This was the first time I have ever actually charged for a cupcake apart from charity events to fundraise!
 

 This was the final result. It's about 8cm (3 inches) square.


















Having never actually seen a Tiffany box, because I live in Australia and we don't have Tiffany here, she was wise enough to send me a web pic of what she wanted. This was really useful although the resolution was poor and I couldn't really see how the middle of the bow worked. It was also (I'm guessing) a full-size cake, and it is much harder to do miniature designs. I told her straight out that I wouldn't be able to do the printed text, but this wasn't a problem for her, so I decided to give it a try!

I started by cutting a 7cm square piece from a larger ganached square cake, then I ganached the cut sides and hot-knifed it to be square around all the edges.

Then it was time to roll out some tinted blue fondant and cover the cake... and I discovered my first mistake. Because I had not covered many square cakes before, I didn't realise that the perfectly hot-knifed, SHARP edges and corners of the cake might tear the icing - see here it's starting to go in the right front corner?

I pulled the icing off and discarded it, then went back to my cake. This time, rather than squaring the corners off with a spatula, I gently rubbed all the edges and corners with my finger. The small amount of heat transferred began to soften the ganache, and I was able to create slightly rounded edges, which were able to be covered much more successfully.

Next came the bow. I rolled white fondant and cut it into centimetre-thick strips with a ruler and a sharp knife.

I stuck the 'ribbon' to the cake, then used the same thickness and size of fondant to make the bow for the cupcake.

Here are the bows. I did two cakes, thinking that I would be able to give my friend the best of the two and keep the other.

I'm really glad I did, because in making the second cake, I tore holes through the icing in one side. After working on this and trying to fix it for ages. I decided it would be better off hidden under a bow, and kept for myself - This result just wasn't acceptable.

This was my workspace halfway through proceedings. Your can see my referral image on the iPad on the right, and the cake with ribbons on but bows still not attached, on the left.





I finished off the bow, wrapping it with the middle band of white fondant and finishing with a cashou. I wasn't unhappy with the result - one was definitely better than the other, so I was quite happy to sell the good one and keep the 'poor cousin' as a model.











End result: a box within a box - a fun project and it's always great when you can make other people happy too!
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Saturday 2 March 2013

NEW WORKSHOP - Portrait Cupcakes


Portraits with Dr Cupcake!

New Workshop for Winter 2013

In this special three-hour workshop, you’ll learn all the techniques necessary to decorate fondant-iced cupcake portraits of real or imaginary people! 
 
Step by step instructions and advice will guide the beginner. Intermediate cupcakers will learn new skills and techniques.
At the end, you get to take your decorated cupcakes home and share them with your family or scoff them yourself… 

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
All cupcakes provided! If you can roll out play dough and cut simple shapes, you can do this.
Three of the pictured designs will be taught.

 
Cost:              $60 per person, $45 under 18 / concession

When:           Saturday, 15 June 2013, 11am – 2pm
Where:          Meeting Room, Salamanca Arts Centre, Salamanca Place, Hobart
Contact:       wootton.astrid@gmail.com or 0409 190 890 to reserve a place.

Tuesday 26 February 2013

How not to make a Frankenstein Easter Bunny

With my Easter cupcake class overly full (okay, if anyone is desperate I can take ONE more person - but that's it!!!!) I had to get around to designing my own special Easter Bunny to sit atop one of the cupcakes that I'm planning to teach.

 This was my final bunny. He's fat and happy, he has a few little Easter eggs to give out to passing children, and at the moment, he's nestled on a green cupcake top in the middle of a crop of baby rocket leaves. I thought this would be likely to make him a happy bunny.


















This was the bunny model that I started off with. I have to tell you that I have no idea where this bunny came from. He's been sitting on top of my computer terminal at work for about a year and my best guess is that I found him by chance somewhere and installed him in his work position because of his goofy teeth and ridiculous ears. I love the lil guy.















So I set about trying to copy him in fondant. Here are my tools - the bunny, a box of premixed fondant, cornflour in a shaker, and some brown gel colouring.




What can I say except that modelling the bunny was somewhat harder than I thought it would be? I ended up with Frankenstein Bunny. His ears were kooky, his teeth were massive and crooked, his stature was small and his eyes were just plain crazy. A friend suggested to me that perhaps this was the Easter Bunny having delivered his eggs and tucked into the leftover Christmas brandy.

Time to try again. This time I thought strategically. Bunny needed to be simpler. Two balls of brown fondant, onew for his head and one for his tummy; Two ears made regular with cutters; a better, 'bunnier' nose; and less mad eyes. I started by using a tiny elliptical cutter for the ears. The cutter is about 12mm long.

I then used the same cutter with some pink fondant, but cut each elliptical piece of pink vertically so it was only half the width of the brown piece. I flattened out the brown piece by hand, stuck the pink piece in the middle of it with a touch of water, and inserted a 1cm length of florist's wire at the base so that I would be able to attach the earts to the bunny's head. I left these to dry sitting at the edge of a piece of foam so they would curve inwards slightly at the top.
 
It was time to make two circles of brown for the body and head. I stuck these together, then added a couple of timy brown balls for his feet and sliced them with a knife to look like paws; then I stuck on two pick circles for his muzzle, and two small white dots for his eyes. I put a few needle marks in his pink muzzle before it got too hard - these were in preparation for the whiskers.

The little darling was looking a bit porky, but I pressed on. I made two little arms and stuck them around his body with water. I gave him black pupils, floral wire whiskers and attached his ears before giving him a little tufty tail (not seen here) made of white fondant.
Sorted! A fat, happy, Easter bunny on a green base, all ready for Easter! (Now to teach my class members these skillss - but psst.... I've made it a bit easier for them... I plan to supply ready-made ears and teeth for those who can't master them ....
Happy (early) Easter from Dr Cupcake!
 
 
 
 

Wednesday 13 February 2013

Easter Cupcake and Cakepop Workshop


EASTER with DR CUPCAKE!
Easter Cupcakes and Cakepops Workshop

Hatching Chick Cupcake
Dr Cupcake would like to welcome you to participate in a special hands-on workshop for Easter this year!


In this special three-hour workshop, you’ll learn all the techniques necessary to decorate the four sweet treats pictured – Hatching Chick Cupcake, Chickie Cakepop, Eggs in a Nest Cupcake and Easter Bunny Cupcake.








Easter bunny cupcake hiding in rocket shoots
Suitable for beginners, still applicable for those with some experience. Techniques you’ll learn include working with rolled fondant, making solid fondant figures, forming and dipping cakepops in liquid icing, and simple decorating techniques. At the end, you get to take your sweet masterpieces home and gift them as Easter pressies, or eat them straightaway!
 
This workshop occurs the weekend before Easter, but due to the longlasting nature of the particular recipes and decorations used, these treats will be easily kept until the following week, to give as Easter gifts or provide a lovely centrepiece.
Follow-up help and advice is always available on this blog.
Chick Pops
All cupcakes, cakepops, materials and equipment provided. You may wish to bring an apron. You will be taking home the three cupcakes and three cakepops that you have decorated, so please bring a plastic container.


 
 
Eggs in a nest cupcake
This workshop is suitable for adults and for children 12 and above.
The workshop needs between 10 and 12 participants to make it viable. Waiting lists are available for participants that are not in the first twelve to apply and these people will receive first preference in any future workshops.
 

Cost: $60 per person (adult), $45 per person (under 18 / unwaged, seniors).
Bookings essential. Pay on the day.




When: Saturday 23 March, 11am– 2pm ( a short break will be included to get a coffee or snack)
Where: Meeting Room, Salamanca Arts Centre (1st floor), Salamanca Place, Hobart
What to bring: Yourself and an apron if you're worried about your clothes. A plastic container to bear your spoils awat with you.
How do I book? As soon as possible - please note that spaces are limited.
 
Please contact

 or text 0409 190 890 to reserve a place. You will receive a return text or email confirming your place in the course.
Brought to you by Dr Cupcake.
 


Friday 1 February 2013

Cupcaking our way to Bushfire Recovery

This summer there were terrible bushfires in Tasmania, the lovely island I call home, and many people were left without homes, stock, fencing or other basic needs that many of us take for granted. Fortunately Tasmanians (and Australians in general) are a generous bunch, and fundraising began immediately to try to help out those in need.
As I pondered the fires, the following image came into my head:
 Yes, I thought of piggywig cupcakes.

I thought specifically of how piggywig cupcakes might be able to raise a bit of money for bushfire recovery.

And I came up with a charity cupcake workshop!











And so I found myself in the office meeting room (kindly donated for the purpose by the boss) this Saturday, with a fantastic group of people who wanted to contribute some funds to the bushfire recovery whilst learning how to decorate cupcakes.
 

In addition to piggywigs, I thought it would be fun to make some elephants....

....And some tigers.
The workshop went very well, largely because everyone was united in a common goal. We spent two very detailed hours doing our cupcaking - this is Alice doing some very careful work on tiger whiskers.
I suddenly realised to my horror that the scheduled time was up, and we were only halfway through the tiger! It seemed cruel to leave the little fella unfinished, so we worked on for another 20 minutes or so to get him finished.
 
And then there was much rejoicing.

This is me taking a photo of Peta, who is taking a photo of her piggywig.














This is Gail displaying her three finished cupcakes - they looked fantastic!
















And this is the lovely Charys, one of the youngest participants, who did incredibly well with her cupcakes, and was the fastest worker out of all of us.















Thanks to everybody who participated - together with Piggywig, Elephant and Tiger, we raised $460 for bushfire relief!

Keep cupcaking!

Dr Cupcake

















Thursday 22 November 2012

The Great Rainbow Cake Experiment

In order to prepare for a birthday in the family, coming up in a month's time, I needed to conduct a SECRET EXPERIMENT with rainbow cake.

 
Secret, because the really special thing about a rainbow cake is that it is the most secretive cake ever.

It looks like a totally normal cake....











 until you cut into it...














... to reveal the full glory of its inner rainbow!

 (And also because it's better to have a surprise birthday cake than a known one.)

And experiment, because I have never attempted a rainbow cake before, and it seemed like an awfully difficult thing to do. And, in fact, it was. I can tell you honestly that this was the most difficult cake I've ever made.


That's not because of the actual cake recipe - I used a pound cake recipe, which is possibly the easiest type of cake to make: a pound of butter, a pound of sugar, a pound of flour, and a few eggs. It's the type of cake my grandmother used to make, and it tastes just like her cake used to taste. It's what my dad calls 'a plain cake - my favorite', and what Nigella ('The Goddess') describes as 'one of those cakes you can never see the point of, until you've bitten into it'.

It makes for a good dense crumb, which you can see in this pic, and I thought it would take the colour layering better than a sloppier mixture.




So, to start at the beginning, you cream the butter and sugar...
















...Then add the flour. The recipe I used - which I'll post at some stage- also has about two teaspoons of baking powder and a pinch of salt, and calls for enough lemon juice to be squeezed in at the end to make a stiff dough.

This picture shows the flour being stirred in and, as you can see, it's a very, very stiff dough, and very hard to stir.

This was the end of the easy bit.








 Well, I guess this was easy too, but a lot of people (in the past this included me) neglect this VITAL step: grease your cake tin, then line it fully with baking paper, then grease the baking paper and flour it.

Yes it seems like such an effort, but after you've destroyed several perfectly good cakes by accidentally sticking them permanently to the tin, you'll see the light, and spend as much time on your greasing and lining and flouring process as you do on your actual cake mixture.






So the first step for a rainbow cake is to divide your cake mixture evenly into seven quantities and put them in separate bowls.

Evenly dividing cake mixture into seven parts is more difficult than it sounds. I did it by weighing the entire mixture, dividing the weight by seven and then weighing out that quantity into separate bowls - somehow I managed to mess this up and ended up with one bit that was less than all the others. I then had to mess around plopping teaspoons of mixture from bowl to bowl until I got it approximately right.






Next you need to mix up the colours - I used gel colours (see here for details), and stuck with the ol' Roy G. Biv mnemonic - red, orange, yellow, green, blue, indigo and violet.

I already had all the gel colours I needed because I have been buying and using them for cake decorating for ages, but if you were going from scratch, it would cost you about $AUD25 to purchase enough colours - you need red, yellow, green, blue and violet and you can make up the rest by combining those.




I ended up with seven bowls of colourful mixture. I had been careful to use only white bowls so that I could see the colour properly when mixing it up.

Of these, the failure was the indigo - I tried for a paler version of violet just by adding less violet colouring to the mixture than I had to the violet mix. But it was sort of grey, and in retrospect I could have got away with just six colours and left the indigo out completely - I doubt anyone would have noticed.











 No, this blog is not sponsored, but if you are a GLAD senior exec, you should sling me a few bucks because I'm going to give your product a giant promo.

These Glad sandwich bags are the best invention since sliced bread ... haw haw.

The reason I say this is because you can use them as disposable piping bags by the simple expedient of cutting a tiny bit off one corner. I was planning to do this with the cake - to pipe each layer out - but actually in the end I dolloped it out with a spatula and smoothed it down. In retrospect I should have gone for the piping method with my trusty Glad bags, because dolloping was stressful.



This shows the orange layer being spread over the red. I wanted the red to be on the top of the cake, so I put it on the bottom of the tin so that I could reverse the cake after cooking to get a flat top surface.

The mixture was so thick that it was a real effort to pull it around with the spatula to create an even layer. Also, even though there was a lot of mixture in total, it had to be spread in very thin layers - about half a centimetre. This was tricky because it was easy to get 'holes' in the layer.

It was especially tricky around the edges because the greased, floured baking paper was SO nonstick that the mixture just wouldn't hold to it at all, and kept coming back up with the spatula!

This is the green layer being spread over the yellow. I had to keep saying to myself 'Roy G. Biv, Roy G. Biv' to remember what order the colours should go in. Mad.














This was the indigo dolloped on top of the blue layer before being spread out.

As the layers built up I developed a bit of a dolloping technique, but I was beset with worry the whole time that my pressure downwards with the spatula whilst spreading the colour layer would distort all the colour layers underneath. This turned out not to be the case - the mixture was firm enough to stay put in its layers pretty well.







As this was a large cake it took ages to cook - over an hour and a half on medium heat. When I took it out (sorry no pics) the outside edges had browned as per normal - see here under the icing?

And remember - I had no idea what it looked like inside yet. It just looked like a pound cake, with strange indistinct colours underneath the brown outer.






At this point I was getting a little frustrated. Not only had the mixture taken AGES to spread into the little layers (about an hour I reckon), the cake had then taken FOREVER to bake. And the amount of washing up was MASSIVE.

I determined to get my own back on the damn thing.

"Listen here, difficult cake," I snapped (out loud - I really did), "You are not getting ANY MORE of my valuable time. I WAS going to give you fondant icing. Or at least all-over swirled butter icing. But I'm DONE with you. You're getting glace icing or NOTHING."


It took me one minute to mix up some plain glace icing (icing sugar and lemon juice) and pour it over the cake. I made enough that it flowed down all the edges and completely covered the surface. Then I sat down to wait until I could cut it without the icing going everywhere.

Although you couldn't call it the smoothest rainbow ever seen, I was absolutely delighted with the result. The layers had held together well, and each was distinct from the others.

During baking as the cake rose, so too did the layers. When I upturned the domed top of the cooked cake to get the bottom as my flat surface, Gravity 'pushed' the centre of the cake upwards from the bottom, giving the 'rainbow curve' effect from the centre.

If I had wanted to have a series of flat layers I could have sliced the domed top of the cake off entirely. At the time, I thought this might take all the violet layer off with it, but the violet, as it was the top layer during the baking process, had risen more than all the others, and was the thickest - so I could have sliced off the dome without losing that colour.

By far the best way to display it was to cut it into very thin slices - pound cake can take a very thin slice because it's so dense - and spread it out on a white plate.

By chance, the glace icing was perfect for it. In taste terms, it was a good topping, because the cake is buttery and moist, and the icing is watery and tangy - each sets off the other. In colour terms it highlighted the red layer beautifully.








Thus ends Dr Cupcake's rainbow cake experiment.
Happy eating of rainbows to everyone, with love from Dr Cupcake!