ALoobee I went to asda today and they had no cream and no galaxy! I was going to nip to the co-op in my way gone but the traffic was at a standstill, worse than usual cos the Christmas lights are being switched on tonight. I'm debating whether to drag Leah out tonight to get it or wait til she goes to school in the morning.

Lovely cupcakes Siany, Rudolph is my fave. :-)

Haha! I've got one of those tiddy except he's 20 going on 2! When he was little I'd bribe him with a toy from pound land if he was good. I soon learned to go to pound land last otherwise as soon as he had his toy he'd show off til I gave up and went home!

Glad everything was ok at home Kathy. Sounds like you really love Berlin, I had some of the best years of my life in Germany, it's beautiful, the whole country, not just Berlin.

Sorry if I've missed anyone, I need to check my cake, no idea how long to leave it in but it's starting to smell done.

Barbara - I'll send you a pm in a few days when I've worked out something useful to send you - otherwise it'll be the ramblings of a mad woman!  There's a lot to see and we felt very safe - look, I live in London and my husband's a black taxi driver - so we were both loving the place.  We did come across "ladies of the night" one time but there wasn't a feeling of being threatened (I just never knew you could get boots that long!).  Anyway - they were less obvious than in Prague!

I give up with ASDA sometimes Maisie - am having a flirtation with Tesco click and collect at the moment!  I always find that all supermarkets seem to pull their socks up just before Christmas and you can get stuff that is actually nearly two weeks in date!

The burglar alarm was horrible - in 2008 we were burgled and they stole our car keys and came back for the car 2 days later.  I had disturbed them and initially thought they hadn't gotten anything.....  Anyway, today was the first time since then that it had gone off without our having messed it up by forgetting the code!  Just have no idea why it did that.   So relieved I can't tell you.

Kathy

AFab kathy, thank you so much. Been to Prague too know what you mean!

Kathy, maybe your alarm needs to be serviced?

AHiya folks sorry I've been quiet.... Had a really hard day...... I was meant to meet a mother of the bride with the cake today for her to drive 2 hrs South with it but it colapsed in my car just before I met her!! :( cry....

Totally my own fault, I missed putting a dab of icing between tiers and it slid off when I had to brake hard at a dodgy roundabout....

So today I rebaked a 9" and covered it, recovered a 7" double barrel... managed to get a ton of ganache ready to use In an hour using a sink full of ice lol.....

Finally feeling happy that it's finished but I've to drive down south myself tomorrow morning now and Mrs Gray is soooooooo not happy at me wasting the fuel! Like today hasn't been hard enough...

Plus my walking dead clashed on Monday :(

AOh no Gray! That's awful! Good save though, you pulled a ninja one didn't you :)

AAw Gray, poor you! At least you saved it tho. I was about to have a cake moan but I'd feel bad now so I won't!

Tesco is my favourite supermarket Kathy, I'm in asda and tesco every week and tesco usually has nicer stuff with longer dates.

AI keep thinking I've never had it go so bad, two tiers were trashed! But then luckily the wedding is tomorrow so I could take today off work and i had all the ingredients I needed amazingly! I think someone was looking after me..... You know what.... It looks better this time too lol!

AGreat can't you get walking dead on catch up, sorry you had a crap day hopefully tomorrow will be tons better and make up for today

A[IMG]http://www.cakecentral.com/content/type/61/id/3306746/width/200/height/400[/IMG]

Can anyone tell me what's gone wrong with my ganache it was fine when I did it left it for an hour and it's gone like this. I've filled my cake with it. But not sure I want to cover the outside with it looking like this. can it be save or should I just have a naked cake?

AHi Lou sorry it's gone funny on you... Could water have gotten in? Maybe a damp wooden spoon or something?

Try putting it in the mixer, you can add some slightly softened proper butter that might help bring it together?

A

As far as I know Gray I don't think water would have got into as there isn't any near it and I used the same spoon throughout. Can you put butter in ganache, I was thinking of maybe warming some cream and adding that but not sure if that would do anything.

AOh yes butter in ganache is fine, I do it a lot it's lovely :)

AThanks Gray, I'll give it a go now. I've got softened butter here ready. I've got ingredients to start again but I really don't fancy chopping another 600g of chocolate.

AGray you are a diamond, the butter has sorted it out. Thank you for coming to my rescue in my hour of need. Off to ganache cake then cut 35 angel faces out.

AAwwwww, Gray, can't even imagine how that felt! Do feel for you, you sorted now?

Glad your ganache is sorted Loubee.

Wassup Maisie?

AOne of my cakes split in three nanny. :-(

AOh dear looks like a bad cake day! *hugs*

AWhat you mean maisie? How many cakes are you making?

OMG!  HUNDREDS AND HUNDREDS of messages since I've been AWOL!

I just wanted to pop in and say 'hi'...  hope everyone is well. 

Will try and pop in more often - even if I don't have a chance to reply.

Made a chocolate biscuit cake for the first time ever yesterday (only, I bunged in a load of extra bits - Maltesers, mini marshmallows and glacé cherries, so it's probably more like a rocky road?) 

It's NOT cheap compared to a sponge (this 10" round has almost 1.5kg of Callebaut chocolate callets, 3 packets of shortbread biscuits, a large packet of rich tea biscuits, 2 packs of mini marshmallows, 2 large bags of Maltesers and a large tub of glacé cherries), but it's looking lovely! I'll be at the party this is for, so will finally get to try a bit.

Here it is with a coating of ganache.  It's not perfect and I've seen better - but for ME...  I'm so happy with it.  First time properly ganaching a cake (albeit this isn't a sponge cake).  Once my sugaraste order arrives tomorrow, I'll cover and decorate it.  It's not needed until next weekend, but I have so much to do that I checked with my friend who makes it often (she lives in Cork and she said choc biscuit cake is very popular over there...) and she said it should be absolutely fine at a cool room temp until then.

OK, catch you later. x x x

AYes Jean, bad cake day!

Sorry nanny, just one cake, but I bake two layers, should've said layer shouldn't i?! The one has cometely split and the other is starting to go at the arm parts of the shirt. It's my own fault, I couldn't figure out how to move them! That sounds daft so I'll explain! The cake tin is curved/shirt shaped on the bottom. It had a slight dome when it came out if the oven so I've essentially got a dome top and bottom. I turned it out of the tin and tried to flip it over, trying to figure out which side to level, hoping I wouldn't have to level both. Does that make sense? It was just too much handling I think. On a positive note I love the tin. I think I'd use it again so I'm going to ask them if it's a Wilton (I think it is) when I take it back so I can buy one. On another positive note my busy hospital taxi service fortnight is over now! Touch wood. :-) How's your cake coming along? I don't know how you do it with work as well, I'd be demented!

Hi Suzanne, cake looks good and sounds even better. I think you've got a lovely finish on your ganache.

Hi everyone!

Newbie here from London (although currently in Australia).

Looking forward to being part of this thread :)

Kathleen

AMorning all.

Welcome to our very busy thread ktm1980, you'll have to keep up with us and chat loads.

So maisie, what you gonna do now? Bake again or it is sorted now?

Don't worry I do struggle with age and working!

Mine is covered, I coloured it very paLe grey, then sprayed it, so will decorate tonight when home from work.

Suuuuzzzaannne, how you doing flower? Cake looks good.

AOoooo, sock, let me know how you get on with Nutella ganache, got to do that in a choc cake for my xmas wedding cake.

AHello everyone.

Welcome Kathleen!

It's official yesterday was bad cake day ! Mine came out like pancakes. Had to re bake late last night. Maisie I hope you got straight in the end. Loubee my ganache went like that, the way I got it back was putting it in my KA whisk on high and dribbling boiling water in it till it recovers. That was the only time i've done ganache and can't say I'm rushed to do it again !

Nanny I went to Berlin when my dad worked there when I was 12, I have a piece the treasured berlin wall in a tiny box - most probably just a bit if normal rumble lol.

Relznik that ganache looks great to me !

Can't remember who did the Xmas cupcakes but they are great !

I'm going to be really pushed today and in a hurry already to get things sorted for these cakes - cake ninja I am certainly not !

Thanks for all your lovely comments on my ring.

Catch you all later, so If I have missed anyone :-)

AIfor i'd thought maisie, I would have said to buy a cake card, big square one and cut it to shape, so much easier to handle and move, all mine go on a cake card.

AMorning all. :-)

Welcome to the thread Kathleen. :-)

Nanny I managed to get it cling filmed and in the fridge so should be more handleable this morning. The plan is to level the pieces and stick them to the board like a jigsaw. I'll see how I go with that, I might be able to save it rather than rebake.

AI'd have a cake card for it normally nanny but I was more worried than usual about getting it onto the board neatly so I decided to put it straight on the board, cover it and pipe grass around it to decorate the board.

Aw jo, nobody was having much luck yesterday were they. What are you making?

Hi Suzanne - that cake looks pretty darn perfect.  I have not heard of a biscuit cake before....is it like a fridge cake?  When we did our Macmillan bake day - somebody did a chocolate salami - I kid you not it looked like salami but was solid chocolate/rocky road type of thing.  When is your son's do?  Waiting anxiously to see the cake.

Maisie - what are you making?  I started reading on my phone and I wasn't sure where you had said that.  I couldn't work out what you had done for the cake to split and then to want to go back and buy the same tin!

Welcome Kathleen (what a lovely name by the way!!   I have always loved it myself.....)

Kathy (aka Kathleen!)