Hello there, can anyone please help. I am making a chocolate ganache covered cake for my future daughter-in-laws birthday next week and want to hand paint a specific picture on it and was herefore going cover the cake with fondant to do this, but I am now thinking about covering with white chocolate paste - but have never used this before. I am not sure if I can buy the chocolate paste ready made like fondant or if I have to mix myself - can anyone please advise, also can the cake be put in the fridge with this covering? many thanks in advance

Thanks Davwattie , I don't mind too much if the chocolate paste is more expensive, its just that I know I cannot put a fondant covered cake in the fridge, and the fact that it will have ganache in it, I was a bit worried about it not being in a cool enough place, I will be baking the cake on Thursday, filling and possible torting (not decided about that yet) or covering with chocolate paste on Friday then I need it to sort harden before hand painting with dust colour mixed with cocoa butter. I am wanting to paint the 'les mis' girl on the cake. any further help or ideas much appreciatd.

Thanks Bashini, maybe I will give the chocolate paste a miss and go with ganache and the fondant, I suppose it should keep ok as long as I keep it in a cool place.

mmmmm.... you can minimize the condensation on the fondant by putting the cake in a covered box in the fridge (when you take it out, leave it in the box as it begins to warm. I know a lot of people seem to have issues, but I never have unless it was really (REALLY) hot outside.

Will do, thanks miss_sweetstory.

Bashini, thats good to know as I only have a small fridge with large freezer! Thank you all for you help, I must say I am looking forward to making the ganache (and eating some ) I havn't made that for such a long time.

You are welcome. Good Luck and looking forward to seeing a photo!

i'd have a heart attack if my mother in law made something nice for me!!! good to know there are some lovely ones out there xx

wow thanks will post pic when I've made it, and wizzywig thank you soooo much.

just wanted to pick everyones brains please. I am looking to start selling the little individual/mini cakes and just wanted to ask a couple questions.

How much do you charge for each mini cake?

Are there any make of pans that you recommend as there are a few different ones.

Do you display them on a cupcake stand or put in individual little boxes??

thanks

Hi mrsspider, these mini cakes are so much harder to make. Especialy decorating them. And I would recommend Alan Silverwood multi tins to bake them. I know they are expencive but they are really good.

I would personaly charge between £10 - £15 (depending on the decoration), but worth checking the going rate in your area. And I would use individual clear plastic boxes to display them.

HTH.

I'm in East London! (Essex really, but we won't talk about that!)
I'm just about ready to go into business now. I've been baking for almost a year, I feel confident in charging people for my work now and am ready to take it to the next level. My only problem is that I'm a council tenant so I cannot run my business from my home. Luckily mummy said I can use her kitchen! Hopefully she'll clean up after me when I use it too! Ha ha!

Thanks Davwattie, I usually put the cake on a board the same size and then cover the board as well to give more height, then place on another board for decoration, will it be ok to cover the first board with the ganache before putting the covering fondant on?

hi, can i ask, where did you all learn how to cover a cake, sugarpaste techniques, etc? did people take courses or learn through trial and error?

Youtube!! I'm still learning, the only one I can work with at the minute is regalice. I'm currently in discussions with Jennifer Dontz about ordering her DVD so I can make her fondant. I've heard good reviews.

Hi wizziwig, I'm a bit of an old bird! (ha! ha!) and really only got hooked in hobby cake baking and decorating over the past couple of years, I've always enjoyed baking but have learnt more about the decorating skills etc. from books, youtube, tv etc. I have only taken one course at college for basic royal icing skills (but the tutor was absolutely definitely 'winging it' and was sacked at the end of teaching our course (which was his first and last!). one of the best books I have bought was from amazon called 'The Essential Guide to Cake Decorating' and this has been really helpful, but also CC is amazingly helpful.

On another note talking of learning.. can any of you UK bakers help me out here please. I've been asked about doing these 2 tier mini cakes (its the top one - white with red piped dots) http://www.topweddingcakes.co.cc/2010/11/best-mini-wedding-cakes-pics.html.

Can anyone help me out here on pricing for vanilla sponge. they are going to have a sugar flower on each one and piped dots as in picture but I don't know where to start on cost I've never done 2 tier minis. There are going to be 50! They are each going to be in their own individual box too. Appreciate if anyone has a guide price for me.

Also if anyone has done any of these any tips appreciated. I know what a right royal pain icing just single tier mini cakes are!!! thanks all

That link doesn't work, can you post another one?

Blimey they're lovely. What sizes are the tiers?

If it were me, I would literally cost it for ingredients/boxes etc, and then add on your mark up for time. Mini cakes are a pain in the a***, particularly that many!

Good luck x

They're really pretty, but they'll be a PITA! I would say £8-£10 each at the least!

I googled "mini cake prices" and most the sites came up with £5 minimum but that was single tier and without the flowers.

Oh wow, those mini cakes are gorgeous!
I started making cakes, just to see if I could! I thoroughly enjoyed mny first few and soon people were asking me to create all kinds of things. I did a mini course before xmas where I made the blue & white xmas cake in my photos and I'm doing a mini course again now covering swags and frills amd we're also making a shoe and just trying out different techniques. The classes are small and quite personal so she tailors the lessons to cover what we'd like to learn.

I would definitely charge between £15-£20. As others mentioned, they are very time consuming to decorate. And don't forget these are two tiers. So you need more time than the normal single tiered ones. Also the clear boxes don't come cheap either!

good Luck!

Hey guy! There was a thread on the cake decorating forum about cake with prices based in America
I've started a new one for cake prices for those in the uk, I get confused about what to charge as Americans go by slice x

http://cakecentral.com/cake-decorating-ftopict-712966.html