Ladybird cake and cupcakes!

Last week was very interesting! Back from a brief holiday at our beautiful coffee estate, it was time to get back to the grind. Yes, I mean drilling teeth and baking :-) Our little cousin Aarya was turning one and I was making her birthday cake. She is one amazing baby. I can spend an entire page describing her but it wouldn't do justice. Too cute to handle. The theme for her birthday was "Ladybird". How cute!

Coming to the cake. It was easy in a way because her mum had told me exactly what she wanted. She had shown me pictures of the cake she liked. Then came the execution of the cake! Birthday parties for kids are all about the cake. It has to be good and more importantly, fun! Everything on the cake has to be edible when its a cake for kids! I'm really not a big fan of fondant cakes... the ones I've had so far at least. To be honest, I hate the taste of fondant. No doubt you can make cakes look AMAZING with it, but I usually prefer working with buttercream and ganache. But this cake had to be decorated with fondant. I usually make fondant from scratch but since a lot of black fondant had to be used, I bought some since I find it impossible to get the black color just right.

It was a three tier cake and I decided to go with red velvet moist cake with chocolate ganache and buttercream. The cupcakes were vanilla-strawberry cupcakes with buttercream frosting. All the other decorations were made using fondant. It was so much fun to make these cakes. I made the fondant decorations a week earlier and stored them in an airtight container. Everything else was made the day before the party. A cake of this sort takes about a day to a day and half to make. I took about a day and I had assistance from my good friend Jaya. I made the cakes a night in advance and let it rest overnight in the fridge (covered in cling wrap) to completely settle down. Keep the cake out for about two hours before frosting (that works best for me).

 Few tips while dealing with fondant:

• Keep cornflour, shortening and icing sugar around. If the fondant is too dry, use shortening. If it is too sticky, use cornflour.
• Keep the workspace clean and dry.
• Use gloves while handling the fondant.
• Make sure the climate is not too humid.
• While covering the cake, make sure the cake is not too cold.
• Do not forget to crumb coat the cake with ganache or buttercream.
• Use the appropriate tools (Fondant tools are available) 
• I use a silicon mat for rolling and kneading the fondant.
• Use a clean brush.
• Make sure the cake is leveled.
• While colouring fondant, use colour gel rather than liquid colouring.
• For gluing fondant, I used water. Buttercream can also be used.
• Always measure your cake and calculate the amount of fondant needed to be rolled out to cover the cake.
• To make fondant glossy, I used a vodka/corn syrup mixture and painted it onto the cake.

I'm sure I've forgotten a few other tips but these are the important ones.

INGREDIENTS

This is a recipe for a six inch red velvet round cake. For the tiers, you need to adjust the ingredients accordingly.

150g butter, softened, plus extra for greasing

150g caster sugar

2 eggs (room temperature)

1 tsp vanilla essence

pinch salt

125g plain flour

25g cocoa powder

1½ tsp baking powder

1 tbsp red food colouring (please use good quality colouring)

For the ganache

200g dark chocolate (chopped into small pieces)

1 cup sugar

1.5 cups cream

1 tsp vanilla essence

1 tbsp unsalted butter

Cupcake recipe

220g unsalted butter

2 eggs (at room temperature)

200g sugar

200g cake flour

1 tbsp vanilla essence

1/2 cup milk

1/2 cup strawberry syrup

1.5 tsp baking powder

Buttercream for cupcakes

1 cup softened unsalted butter

3.5 cups icing sugar

1 tsp vanilla essence

3 tbsp  cream

Colouring

Directions:

For the cake

Preheat the oven to 160 degree Celsius.

Line the tray and set aside. 

Whisk the butter and sugar together and then add in the eggs one at a time. Sift the dry ingredients and fold it into the egg mixture. Add the colouring and vanilla. 

Pour the mixture into the tray and let it bake for 35 mins.

To make the cake moist, I poured some strawberry syrup over it.

Similar instructions for the cupcakes as well.

Ganache

Heat the cream, sugar and vanilla in a saucepan and let it simmer. Pour the cream over it. Add the butter and stir (butter is added to provide a sheen).

Buttercream

Sieve the icing sugar to remove any lumps.

Whisk the butter for 45 secs or so at a medium speed and add the icing sugar one cup at a time followed by the cream. Add the necessary colour as required. Set aside for crumb coating and frosting.

The party was fabulous. Aarya was a star. She was playful and so happy! The cutest ladybird ever and she seemed to love her cake :-)

Chocolate syrup cake with fresh cream mango frosting.

It's been a while since I put anything up. There has been a lot going on in my life. Well firstly, we adopted a dog named Argo! He's amazing. Sadly, he has a weak heart and a displaced hip but his energy levels are through the roof (all day, everyday)! The poor thing is on a strict diet but he is FOREVER hungry! He eats ANYTHING! It's horrible for me to bake with him around. He does not leave my side! Not for one second. And manages to get every last crumb that I drop. He is a total brat but we are so in love with him already.

I had a major baking disaster yesterday. I was making a cupcake bouquet, finished it and the entire bouquet toppled over. It was horrible :-( Well, at least my dog was happy. He managed to run away with one of the cupcakes. Now coming to the good part of my week - my friend Jaya is finally done with her medical exams. She's officially a dermatologist now! Well almost... but still, the worst part is over. She's moving back to Delhi and so I had to make something special for her.

This cake is moist and fresh! It's a sure hit and so easy to make.

Recipe

Chocolate sponge cake - recipe mentioned earlier.

For the syrup
Half a cup strawberry coulis - recipe mentioned earlier.
Half a cup water

Frosting
1 cup double cream
Strained juice of two ripe mangoes
Icing sugar (quantity depends on the sweetness of the mango)

Directions

I used a nine inch round cake and sliced it to get two layers. Make holes in the cake using a fork or toothpick and then pour half the syrup over the lower layer.

For the frosting, whip the cream till you reach the "soft peak" stage. Then add the mango juice. Whisk it for another minute and let it chill in the fridge for ten mins.

Frost the lower tier of the cake. Then, place the top layer, make holes as mentioned above, pour the syrup over it and frost the entire cake with the cream. Chill for an hour before serving.