Two new cakes

Here are two cakes done in the last few weeks.

A chocolate bridal shower cake in fondant with black and bronze accents.



A carrot cake with cream cheese icing and gum paste frogs!

Andy and Tanya's Wedding Cake

One of The Sweet Kitchen's biggest supporters got married this past weekend and it was an honour to make their wedding cake.
The bottom tier was a vanilla bean extravaganza of both cake and buttercream. The middle tier was an espresso bean genoise with orange buttercream, while the top tier was an ode to chocolate with dark chocolate cake and chocolate ganache filling. A sweet beginning to a long, sweet life together. Congratulations Andy and Tanya!!!!!



I'm expanding this post to include a few recipes, by request for Suzanne!

Vanilla cake
From Tish Boyle's "The Cake Book" I think the only change I made was to increase the vanilla and add ground vanilla, remove the yolks but increase the eggs.

3 1/4 C (11.5 oz/325g) sifted cake flour
1 T baking powder
3/4 t salt
1 C (2 sticks/8 oz/227g) unsalted butter, room temperature
1 1/2 C (10.6 oz/300g) sugar
1/4 t ground vanilla
4 large eggs, room temp.
1 T vanilla
1 1/3 C (320 ml) whole milk, room temp.

Preheat oven to 350 F and spray the bottom and sides of 2 9 inch round cake pans. You can then either dust the pans with flour, or place a circle of parchment in the bottom of the pan.

Sift the cake flour, baking powder and salt into a medium bowl and set aside.

In the bowl of an electric mixer, using the paddle attachment, beat the butter until creamy. Add the sugar and ground vanilla and mix until light and fluffy. Add the eggs one at a time, beating well after each addition and scraping down the bowl as necessary. Beat in the vanilla extract. Alternate the flour mixture and milk, beginning with the 1/3 flour, then 1/2 the milk, 1/3 flour, rest of the milk, rest of the flour,mixing just until the flour is incorporated. Scrape the batter into the two pans and smooth the tops. I like to spread the batter a little higher around the sides and keep it a little lower in the middle, so it bakes almost flat. Bake for 20 - 30 minutes - the top should spring back when you touch it gently and the cake should be pulling away from the sides of the pan when done. Cool cake for about 15 minutes, then tip out onto cooling racks to cool completely.



Italian Meringue Buttercream

1 1/4 C (8.75 oz/250g) sugar
1/2 C water
6 large egg whites at room temperature
3/4 t cream of tartar
2 1/2 C unsalted butter, room temp. cut into 2 inch squares

Make sure the pot for the sugar syrup and the mixing bowl and whip attachment are very clean and grease free. You can swirl salt water in them just to make sure they are grease free. In a medium saucepan, combine the sugar and water. Drag your very clean finger through the sugar and water to make sure the sugar is completely wet. Check the sides of the pan to make sure there are no sugar crystals clinging to the sides, if there are you can use a pastry brush dipped in water to wash them back into the sugar/water mixture. Place on oven burner, set to medium high and cook the sugar until it reaches 238 F on a candy thermometer. If you don't have a thermometer, you are looking for the mixture to be one massive pot of clear bubbles that pop at the surface. There will be a mixture of large and small bubbles and the steam coming off the mixture in the pot will be greatly reduced. If the sugar begins to take on colour, you've gone too far and you must start again. As the sugar just begins to boil, start mixing your egg whites on your stand mixer. As the whites get a little foamy, add your cream of tartar, and begin increasing the speed of your mixer. You want the whites to be at the soft peak stage by the time the sugar is ready. When the sugar reaches 238 F, take it off the heat, turn the mixer off and add about 1/4 C of the hot sugar over the whites. Beat at high speed until blended (10 seconds) and keep repeating this process until all the syrup is used. Scrape down the mixture and whip at medium/high speed until mixture is completely cooled. Beat the butter in at medium speed by adding one square at a time. The eggs will thin out, but as you add the butter, it will thicken by the time all the butter is added. There is a brief period just around adding the end of the butter that the mixture will look curdled - don't panic - increase the speed a bit and it all comes together very quickly. Stop the mixer, scrape the sides down and give it another mix to incorporate everything. If you are adding flavourings like vanilla, you can add them now. Buttercream will get spongy if it sits in the bowl for too long, so just mix it up again before you use it.

New

It is starting to get busy in The Sweet Kitchen with weddings and the Farmer's Market and all. Here are a few new items from the last two weeks.

Mother's Day Cupcakes in vanilla with vanilla bean buttercream and chocolate with chocolate ganache buttercream.





A wedding cake with gerbera daisies that was a lot of fun to make! It was chocolate cake, with chocolate ganache filling with chocolate buttercream and vanilla fondant.




I will have pictures soon of this week's wedding cake...it's a big one!

Teddy bear cake

Here's a fun cake done yesterday for a family gathering. The 2 cake flavours were vanilla and banana, iced in vanilla Swiss meringue buttercream and covered in Satin Ice fondant.