i would usually do smbc, but i broke my kitchen aid yesterday - dont ask!!!

So I am desperately looking for a replacement but really dont want to use lard, shortening, fat or anything like that!! I may do good old fashioned bc.

Thanks

Fi

I blew my mixer up yesterday too I had to hand mix 3 cakes and all of the fillings. Not good on the old elbows and wrists.

Without a mixer I would go for a creamcheese frosting as it is much easier to cream.

Really!!! So its not just me!!!!!!!!!!!

Dont know how to tell my dh that this is the 2nd kitchen aid i have broken.

completely mortified!!!!

how an earth did u hand mix, you must have massive biceps!! haha!!!

Its a trip into twon for an electric hand held!!

I found some super human strength from somewhere I don't know where, but I certainly knew about it last night when my whole upper body was so sore and painful.

Hi guys, another one that's just found this thread...taking me ages to catch up on everything - I'm on page 39 lol! Anyway - anyone else here from Bristol, I haven't seen anyone yet and feeling a bit isolated now having seen other people seem to all congregate in York!!

Hi! princesssalamander I am in the north but I thought most people where in London and the south other than Misscakecrazy and myself

How long have you been baking and decorating cakes?

Welcome to the thread and enjoy catching up.

I've been baking for about 10 years (when I was in college and before I had kids) but only recently this year started getting into decorating them and "playing" with them. For some reason the concept of doing this had never entered my mind before. Now it doesn't leave lol

One bitten by the decorating bug it is hard to wlk away I have been doing them for 16 years as a hobby and did a spell of doing them for work but my health has stopped me doing that now but I am still at it as a hobby.

welcome to you too londonpeach

I ment cathscakes in my previous post not misscakecrazy sorry

Hi

Im in north london and new here to the cake world

just wondering what buttercream everyone uses

i use the indydebi ( spelling) one- i use trex instead of crisco ( you can buy that from tesco ) and birds dream topping instead of americas dream whip.


what do you all use? and what do u use to sub crisco is you use it?

welcome summer09. like I said in a PP I would never dream of using criscocreme it is awful. I use plain old buttercream with 100% butter and confectioners sugar or cremcheese frosting which can be made in number of ways either subing half of the butter for creamcheese or using all creamcheese, SMBC or IMBC pretty much the same but treating the egg whites differently. I also use ganache which is chocolate and cream.

Hi

Does anyone know where to buy doughnut holes or similar in the UK? I want to make the cupcakes with the microphone on in the new Hello Cupcake book but cant find the doughnut holes.

Or any similar ingredients to use would be appreciated.

Thanks

hi melons1976, I'm pretty sure Asda do them in the fresh bakery bit of the store. Failing that smaller bakery's like greggs usually do them

melons 1976 did you find them??

Can someone provide provide me with Indydebi's recipe? I can't seem to find it.

MissCakeCrazy,

Here is a link to the recipe:

http://cakecentral.com/recipes/6992/Indydebis-Crisco-Based-Buttercream-Icing

A lot of people are negative about shortening-based recipes, but they have some real advantages and are worth at least trying. The are very stable and don't require any refrigeration; and they hold up amazingly well in high heat. Some people do like the taste better, as they are sweeter than Italian, French, or Swiss buttercreams.

[quote="Melons1976"]

I managed to get some flat bottomed ones in Somerfield, made by Askeys. I know you don't need them anymore but just for future reference.
How good is the Hello Cupcake book by the way? Love it!

I need to get on with my life. I'm totally addicted to this whole website, I start reading a thread and need to read every little bit of it (I'm on page 10 so far of this one and I'm frantically writing down all the tips of what to buy and what to avoid, what to charge etc etc etc), I'm such a saddo! To add to my saddo-ness, I got totally excited today when my 8th fondant cake made it into the most saved gallery on the home page, woop woop!!! But I'm still a newbie need to rememdy that.
Loving reading all your advice folks, it's great to hear from your experiences. I only caught the decorating bug in April, now 'm running out of room to store all my cake stuff!

I have no cakes to make for at least 2 weeks now - ahhhh - I don't know how I'll cope with the withdrawl! Plus, to add insult to injury (ok, so I'm being a little dramatic) but my Planet Cake book just arrived in the post yesterday, I'm so itching to try one of the designs.

Oh well, better get the washing on, gotta make the most of this sunshine.

Ciao for now folks x

Hi, it's me again.

Sorry if this seems like a daft question or if it's been answered already but I just got a phone call from the guy that I made the tool box cake for http://cakecentral.com/modules.php?name=gallery&file=displayimage&pid=1665320 ...a month ago and he's asking me if it would still be ok to eat. He didn't want to cut into it. It was a madiera filled with buttercream and jam then crumb coated in buttercream and covered in fondant. I know it won' t be advisable to eat now but just for future reference
1. how long can you leave adecorated but uncut cake before it goes off?
2. does it matter what type of cake it is or how you finish it for the shelf life to be affected? I'm guessing this will made a difference.
3. any idea how long a ganached and fondanted cake could last?

woop woop - this post just made me a Junior Member! x

Thanks for that Rosiepan. The topsy turvy was the first one I tried and it actually wasn't too hard, just time consuming. There's a great Youtube video on how to do it if you want to try it.

I really want to try to do the car one again, by myself this time with all the lessons I learnt,i.e. letting the tyres dry out before putting them on the cake. In fact I'd like to do all of them again and try to improve with the benefit of hindsight.
Got to page 20 of this thread so far, I'm getting there! and the post its of all your handy tips are piling up too.
I noticed there's been a lot of chat about a good choc cake recipe and thought I'd throw my 10 cents in, I've been using the planet cake choc mudcake recipe and it's been great every time, very moist and perfect for carving, I haven't cooked it for the 1 hour 40 mins the recipe suggested, instead I usually give it 1 hour.
Also, for cupcake recipes, I've found the Primrose Bakery book excellent. I'm also itching to buy Xanthe Milton's book Eat Me, but the spending has to stop somewhere.

[quote="njoycakes"]

Hi - this is my finshed version, the silver small sprinkles were impossible to find so i used pink ones so they look like mini icecreams.

http://cakecentral.com/modules.php?name=gallery&file=displayimage&pid=1700431

SOOO excited...just had a phone call with my local EH officer who said starting up a cake making/decorating business from home is really easy to do and shouldn't be a problem as long as my kitchen is clean and I have certain things in place (somewhere to keep made cakes covered etc. Just waiting for the info to come through the post then I'll make an appointment to actually see her - after I've scrubbed my kitchen of course. When it's just being used as a family kitchen it doesn't matter so much, but if I'm known to EH I'd best do it properly!!

NJOYCAKES i wuld really love to know what that choc planet cake recipe is I did a search but culdnt find it

Also does anyone have any chocolate fudge buttercream recipes they would recomend? Im doing a cae and want it to be perfect s im going to do lts of diff choc cakes and buttercream to try out- so if anyone has any i coud try that would be greatly appreciated

Hello

I am a new member, in Lancashire. I've made cakes for ages but have recently enjoyed making a couple of decorated ones for friends and I am hopeful about doing some more. I want to do things properly to give me peace of mind if nothing else and I've been looking at registering with the local Environmental Health.

What is really concerning me about our kitchen is that (apart from the normal knocks and scrapes of a much used family kitchen) the floor is slate tiled. I keep reading that floors etc must be smooth finish for ease of cleaning I guess.

Has anyone any thoughts on this? I guess it will be down to the individual EHO but was wondering if anyone had heard it is a definite no-no.

Thanks in advance.