Fondant Cakes

Been wanting to attempt to make those nice fondant decorated cakes....I mean how hard can it be riiiiggghttt? So not right. First, fondant is not as easy to play around with as one would imagine.  Colouring it makes it too soft and sticky as well (tip : I let it dry out overnight). Then one has to be quite an artist as ugly figurines are really unattractive on a cake as I've learnt the hard way (tip : have discovered that youtube pretty much has everything covered).  AND the cake has to be firm (but not dry, God forbid!) or it wont hold the fondant properly and not too sweet as fondant is really sweet.  So many rules!!!

My first-ish attempt was this angry bird test cake (see above pic).  The cake together with the fondant and buttercream icing (used for crumb coating) was tooth achingly sweet - literally. Needless to say, very unpleasant to eat, although the angry birds and pigs turned out OK. For good measure, also did a buttercream icing cake (see below) - also so so very sweet (not in a good way too).

For Josiah's (my 8yr old son) birthday, I resolved to make my own cake - surely I have learnt from my past mishaps.  The entire cake with the figurines etc took almost 3 days (on and off) to make due to my inexperience.  The cake was a 2 layered cake of moist chocolate at the bottom tier (with chunks of Mars bars, macadamia and walnuts) and banana cake at the top tier, put together with rich chocolate icing.  Sugar content for the cakes - halved (a must!)  I laid the fondant and put all decorations on the day of the party to minimise the breaking down of the fondant sugar by the buttercream icing (or so i heard). See pics below.


The final version below with the absolutely adorable "kaboom" candles that sparkled when lit up (bought them from a party shop in Ikano Power Centre, basement floor). The KIDS LOVED THE CAKE with everyone vying for one of the birds or the pig. The party was held at the KL Bird park - so very apt......

And the taste test - the cake was moist, sweetness balanced off properly and the chocolate cake at the bottom - pretty darn good if I do say so myself (see pic of cutout .... sorry for the amatuer photography and even more amateur cake cutting).  As an added feather to my "boasting cap", founder and baker extraodinaire "Fat Boy Bakes" was at the party and gave the cake a thumbs up :)

On to the next challenge - a 2 tier wedding cake.  Any takers?

The mark of a good carrot cake

There is certainly nothing more annoying than cutting into a carrot cake and realising after the first bite that its going to be a really hard and dry chewing (and swallowing) experience.  This is especially so for carrot cakes with cream cheese frosting which needs to be refrigerated in our climate.  Moist and slightly crumbly......now that's perfection in every mouthful.