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Post by stephaniebines on Sept 12, 2007 19:43:18 GMT -2
Great cake, really smooth icing, I'm impressed!
Is it a sponge or fruit? How deep are the cakes, they look more than 3"?
My fruit cakes always come up smaller in depth than my sponge cakes even when covered in marzipan and sugarpaste so I'm always on the lookout for a rich fruit cake recipe which produces a deeper cake. Any ideas?
Stephanie x
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Post by victoria on Sept 13, 2007 11:18:53 GMT -2
the bottom is fruit and top is sponge...the tins i use are 3" deep, so with the marzipan and icing they are just a bit bigger - i generally put them on full thickness drums to just to add a bit extra height, but haven't on this occassion. When i make a sponge i always make additional mixture to what the recipe states for the tin size so when it rises, it rises above the tin so i can cut it off straight and get a nice finish at the right depth...the fruit cake recipe is Mich Turners from Specatular Cakes book - its apparently really tasty (i don't like fruit cake myself) and if I follow her guides for the quantity it always just fills the tin to the top. Its a bit of a pain zesting and squeezing the lemons and oranges for it, but hey ho...
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Post by victoria on Sept 13, 2007 11:20:54 GMT -2
i do tend to use thick icing too (probably 5mm)...i know some people don't like a lot of icing, but I find it easier to get a nice finish with a thick layer or 2 thinner ones and if they don't like too much they can always leave it...
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Post by stephaniebines on Sept 13, 2007 19:24:20 GMT -2
My cake tins are all 3" deep, now I don't want to be thick about this - but I will anyway - I have recipes for various cake tins but how can I just add additional mixture, do you have any method you follow to get the balance right?
I don't have that book, I might track it down and treat myself! I've got a receipe i always use for rich fruit cakes but it is not very deep and I'm not sure how much extra mixture I should add in order to get a nice deep cake. Does this book cover various cake tins and sizes?
I mostly double ice sponge cakes but as a rule I don't on fruit cakes. It's always a bit of a faf when I have a fruit and sponge tiers, the sponge is naturally deeper than the sponge ( I normally make them 3 layer for a wedding) and I'm always faffing about with it to try and get them as near as possbile.
I'll try using a drum, mostly I use drums on the bottom tier but cake card for the other tiers, especially if I've got to make the border decoration e.g. pearls or rope chains etc
.Stephanie x
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Post by victoria on Sept 14, 2007 10:10:22 GMT -2
to be honest for sponge (I use Carol Deacons madeira sponge recipe) i just make the amounts for the next size tin...so if i'm doing a 6" cake i make the amount given for 8"...then when its cooked, i cut the dome bit off and eat it! The spectacular cakes book is really nice and she gives amounts for each size and shape of tin, and she also gives amounts of sugarpaste and marzipan needed to cover each size and shape of cake...its a bit expensive, but worth it.
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Post by victoria on Sept 14, 2007 10:11:58 GMT -2
if you want to increase any of your cake recipes just make sure you increase each ingredient in proportion, so if you use 2 eggs, 4oz flour, 4oz butter and 4oz sugar for a standard sponge, just increase it by 1 egg, then 20z flour etc...as long as you keep the proportions right you can make any amount of mixture
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Post by victoria on Sept 15, 2007 9:24:35 GMT -2
Here's my latest cake - Bart Simpson...thought it would be easy but actually took me ages...icing isn't as nice and smooth as I generally get it, particularly on the board.
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Post by rach on Sept 15, 2007 14:44:03 GMT -2
looks great to me..how did you do it
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Post by victoria on Sept 15, 2007 19:25:24 GMT -2
the problem was icing the board around the cake - the cake was just too big and would easily have broken if i'd lifted it off to ice the whole board as i would normally do...the cake itself is just a rectangular slab cake and i got a picture off the internet and cut round it...the lady was pleased with it anyway, so that's all that matters i suppose. Sometimes i'm just not very methodical and get part way through and think it would have been easier doing it a different way, but I suppose that's just a learning curve - most of the other cakes i've made have been copied from books with step by step instructions, so doing one from scratch is a bit different.
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Post by victoria on Oct 5, 2007 10:29:40 GMT -2
Here's my latest cake, it's my brother's wedding cake.
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Post by victoria on Oct 5, 2007 10:31:16 GMT -2
Can't really see the detail of the flowers on the photo because they are so dark, but I made them all by hand (first time) and I'm very pleased with them
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Post by rach on Oct 5, 2007 12:25:17 GMT -2
looks beautiful..the dark colour on the roses makes it stand out and your icing looks beautifully smooth
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Post by britjap on Oct 5, 2007 17:31:07 GMT -2
They are really good roses - I thought they were real from the photo.
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Post by victoria on Oct 6, 2007 6:04:38 GMT -2
the icing wasn't as smooth as i'd have liked, i seem to have trouble with the ivory coloured stuff, it always seems softer than the white and not as easy to smooth.
anyway, within 10 minutes of the reception starting, one of the kids shoved one of the wired roses which were just laid loose on the botton right into the bottom tier of the cake! If I do those types of roses in future I will secure them down with a big blob of royal icing...why can't people keep their kids under control???
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Post by victoria on Oct 26, 2007 14:14:18 GMT -2
latest cakes...
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