A Thread For All Uk Bakers!!
Decorating By hailinguk Updated 25 Aug 2017 , 10:29am by Magic Mouthfuls
Seriously? 89 posts since I last popped in!!!!
My head is going to explode after sitting in a Yr 11 parent's info meeting this evening, so forgive me if I forget anyone or anything!
Sorry to all those with tooth problems!!! I really like my dentist. Small world... I'd been going to see him for years - turns out his mother-in-law and my (now) mother-in-law have been best friends for over 60 years!!!!! So my dentist was at my wedding! LOL!
Someone asked about neon colours? For yellow, I use Sugarlfair 'Melon'. That's a really vivid yellow. The best green I've found is Sugarflair 'Party Green'. But for pink I like Wilton 'Rose' (not rose pink, just rose). But the one imported from the USA is better than the Wilton Pink you buy in the UK. I don't know why. I use a mix of Sugarflair 'Ice Blue' with a touch of 'Baby Blue' for ... well, blue!
Here's what they look like...
http://www.patacake-parties.com/Childrens%20Cakes/files/page11-1048-full.html
Wish me luck - off to the West End with my MIL looking at dresses (for me). I'm the world's worst at clothes shopping!!!
Oh, I just remembered something else.
After the summer fete thingy, I had quite a few cupcakes left over. So when I got home, I put them in 4 hole plastic pod type thingies and bunged them in the freezer. When my sons went to friends, I'd take a pack out for them to take with. Or I'd take some out if I had a friend over for a cuppa, etc....
... they froze and defrosted beautifully. Some had normal buttercream and some had IMBC.
HTH
Suzanne x
ASuzanne, thanks for the tips re neon colours. I'm not a big fan of parent's evening in high school. Its hot crowded, you have to make your way to a gazillion rooms, only to be told the exact same thing the other teacher said. It just seems so pointless when you know there's no problem whatsoever but I guess its good to confirm what you already know!
Quote:
Suzanne, thanks for the tips re neon colours. I'm not a big fan of parent's evening in high school. Its hot crowded, you have to make your way to a gazillion rooms, only to be told the exact same thing the other teacher said. It just seems so pointless when you know there's no problem whatsoever but I guess its good to confirm what you already know!
It wasn't a parents' evening in that respect... we all sat in the hall and three teachers gave a talk - with slides - about what to expect / how to help your child in yr 11 and also a very brief intro to 6th form - although there's more info re 6th form next month!
AI remember them well, it's odd now tho being a nanny, gotta kinda take a back seat and feel proud from afar.
My little guy Ioan had his first parents evening tonight, apparently he'said right up in front with his reading bless him, still a little chatty in class, but he'said getting there bless him, still only 5 after all.
AAwww thanks Kuuushi that's so sweet of you. Also love your pictures of your hols you look gorgeous an glad you had such a good time.
Petite cat and Jo thank you for the advice regarding the tappits, I think I need to get my hands on some tylo.
Jo you're boss will get her just desserts one day, as mel says karma is never far away, I'm a big believer in it.
Loving all the smutty cake talk really made me laugh. Lol.
This thread makes me laugh at all sorts of time I'm currently reading Harry Potter for the first time for my uni course and all the mention of muggles makes me just think of here and all talk of cake muggles. Haha.
Wish I could go to CI but its a bit far away for me, I may try to go to the Manchester one next year if I can.
Just remember I didn't post pics of my birthday cake its nothing special really but it's what I wanted and no fondant in sight. Lol.
[IMG]http://www.cakecentral.com/content/type/61/id/3297715/width/200/height/400[/IMG]
Not a great pic I know. Also here's some cupcakes I quickly made for my sister in law as she came earlier in the day before I cut my cake so I didn't want her feeling left out.
[IMG]http://www.cakecentral.com/content/type/61/id/3297716/width/200/height/400[/IMG]
Anyway just eating my healthy breakfast, last full day at work today, need to make cupcakes tonight as going to give them as Diwali gifts for my oh's family.
Hope everyone has a good day. X
AMorning all.
Loubee, you'please soon get the hang of tappits, bit annoying at first.
Sorry did I miss saying happy birthday to you? Sorry sweetie, hope you did by the look of that yummy cake, defo my type of cake that.
Athey are so annoying honestly I've nearly thrown them at the window so many times. Also honestly don't worry about saying happy birthday its fine, I had a lovely birthday thank you. I know its the not the done thing for a cake decorator to say but I honestly love the simpler cakes, like the chocolate ones or the giant cupcakes, they're still stressful but not as stressful as a three tier one covered in fondant and lots of handmade decorations.
Ahem.......???? Sorry Newstreet - I'm old - old people can say what they like.......can't they?? 
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Oh, I just remembered something else.
After the summer fete thingy, I had quite a few cupcakes left over. So when I got home, I put them in 4 hole plastic pod type thingies and bunged them in the freezer. When my sons went to friends, I'd take a pack out for them to take with. Or I'd take some out if I had a friend over for a cuppa, etc....
... they froze and defrosted beautifully. Some had normal buttercream and some had IMBC.
HTH
Suzanne x
Oh thanks Suzanne - it was me!! My daughter is coming home from uni next Friday (Halloween) and wants to do some cupcakes - I thought I would have a go at freezing some this weekend to be ahead of the game. I only have paper cases so they will have to do - it's only for us anyway. Good luck with the dress shopping - I'm sure it will be a gorgeous dress. Can't imagine having my dentist at any "do" of mine - he's crackers....nice but totally bonkers. He sings out loud all the time and when I was there on Tuesday, it was Queen he was singing along to! Lol.
Nice cakes Loubee - they look yummy.
My son has got his first parents evening (sort of) tonight. It's Black History week and there's a bit of a thing at his school tonight with parents, kids and music/arts. It will be his first encounter with some of the parents of the kids he is teaching....yesterday he had an awful day. He looked totally drained. If anybody watches Educating the East End.....his school is slightly worse than that. I think I would be doing a stretch in Holloway now if I was a teacher - no patience me. He does like it but the bit that gets to him is that he cannot understand why they don't want to learn. He also learned that he may be "lent" to another school in our area to cover maternity leave and if the global head agrees, then he has to do it....whether he wants to or not. He worries a lot about the kids he has who do want to learn. He now thinks that by him floating off every 2 weeks (it's a strange cover period) for half a day - will affect the kids who are doing their GCSEs. He's right of course but he's new at this and doesn't have any clout (or so he thinks). However, I pointed out to him that they are desperate....when people are desperate - there's always a deal somewhere. But, as I said....he's new at this.
Jo - how are things now? You know we are all right....she will get what's coming. I'm a firm believer and have seen this happen over the years and I have worked since 1972!
Kathy
Morning all,
Loubee lovely cake. Yum yum!! Simple can be as beautiful as the busy cakes- just depends on the design
Yikes Kathy, I wouldn't want to be in your son's shoes. I have a friend who is a teacher. She has two young children and is knackered most of the time. I don't think she has problems with the kids as such. I've never heard her complain about their behaviour. She just gets very little sleep (up at 6, bed at midnight because of the paperwork) and is ill a lot! We need to give teachers more credit!!
Off to make a cake topper... cheerio for now x
Hi UK bakers,
I have a question about chocolate cake. I usually make a chocolate sponge cake with equal weights of egg, flour, butter, sugar plus cocoa and a little melted chocolate. It's tasty but a little bit dry. I've also made a fudge/mud type cake which uses lots of chocolate melted with butter, coffee, sugar and sour cream and then the flour stirred in. This is moist but much more expensive due to the huge amount of chocolate and sugar.
So, does anyone have a different type of recipe or something I could add to my standard cake to make it less dry but not as expensive as fudge cake?
Thanks.
A
I have a question about chocolate cake. I usually make a chocolate sponge cake with equal weights of egg, flour, butter, sugar plus cocoa and a little melted chocolate. It's tasty but a little bit dry. I've also made a fudge/mud type cake which uses lots of chocolate melted with butter, coffee, sugar and sour cream and then the flour stirred in. This is moist but much more expensive due to the huge amount of chocolate and sugar.
So, does anyone have a different type of recipe or something I could add to my standard cake to make it less dry but not as expensive as fudge cake?
Thanks.
Hi Longlou...I always use the equal quantities of ingredients and don't have an overly dry choc cake. I weigh the eggs in their shells...so that might be 1 3/4 or 2 1/2 ozs per egg depending on size....and I substitute 1 ounce of the flour for 1 ounce of cocoa (I like Rowntree's best)..
....so if aiming for 9 ozs of everything there will be 8 ozs of flour and 1 oz of cocoa powder.
Hope this helps.
AHi louglou :-)
Try adding some creme fraiche or sour cream to your standard recipe, this helps with moistness without adding much cost. Also, if you swap out a bit of the flour for cornflour it will give a more tender sponge which can help if you have a slightly dry texture. Liquid glucose is also an old bakery trick to keep cakes moist, although I've not tried it myself.
Thanks for the replies Spireite and Lizzybug78.
I did wonder about sour cream but everything I've read says you need to swap some baking powder for bicarb if you add sour cream instead of milk and I'm not sure how much to swap.
Cornflour sounds interesting, I'll give that a try.
I've heard about adding glycerin but not liquid glucose.
AI've done it with one or more of baking powder, bicarbonate and self raising and not had problems - I'd just chuck some in and see :-D I use two or three tablespoons for a 4 egg mix.
I hadn't heard about glucose before either, but I was at a wedding fair a while ago and the chap next to me (doing balloons, weirdly) had been a baker for 30 odd years and used it as standard.
Hello everyone! It's been sooooo long since I've posted on here... oops! I've finished my sugarpaste PME course and am part way through the royal icing one.
These are the cakes I made on the sugarpaste course. The pram one is the "novelty" cake we made which was meant to include the technique of carving a cake... which in this case meant just cutting out a quarter of the cake (oh, and cutting circles for the wheels). Didn't matter for me because I'd already done some cake carving, and overall the course has been very useful for me.
I've also tried out icing biscuits for the first time 
Plus I made a kayaking cake for a neighbour's birthday. This is my second attempt at figure modelling - my first attempt was at the course, and the figures I made then were awful and so heavy their heads fell off even though they were skewered on!
Hope you are all doing well!
Someone's probably already noticed, but Aldi is doing a range of bakeware at the moment... in their Halloween section. I picked up a silicone cake pop mould for £1.99 (they're the usual round shape, the Halloween bit comes in their decorating suggestions) and they've got some other stuff although I didn't get time to see what. I don't even celebrate Halloween! Hoping to give the moulds a go this weekend though
AVictoria, love your cakes, is it a good course?
Lizzy, what does glucose do for your cakes then, oddly enough I have 2 tubes in the cup board, I remember buying it to attempt making Lorraine Pascals graffiti cake, still not done it though.
Evenin' all. I officially hate ASDA. Just got back from shopping and they literally had nothing. I can't believe how much out of date and rotten stuff they had for sale. I don't get it - why do these shops bother staying open late. Grr - rant over.
Victoria - I love that kayak cake. Your model looks fab. Wondered where you'd been!
Suzanne - did you get a frock?
Kathy
AVictoria your cakes are gorgeous..... Quick question when you waiting for icing to dry on biscuits, do the biscuits not go stale?
Another questin, I have never done it, but lady in work wants to freeze cake pops, can you do this, if so, how. Also do you do it before or after covering them in chocolate. If anyone knows the answer to this we would be very grateful :grin:
Thank you nanny, dayscakes and newstreet . Yes it is a good course and I found it really useful, the sugarpaste was probably more useful to me than it would have been to someone who's already set up business and worked things out though. I've really enjoyed it
Newstreet I used this recipe here for my biscuits http://www.sweetsugarbelle.com/2011/11/baking-the-perfect-sugar-cookie/ it gives more of a soft cookie-type biscuit. She says to leave them for a couple of days before icing to stop the moisture leaching out into the icing I think. The biscuits didn't go stale, it only took about a day for my icing to set I think? That said it's my first attempt so I don't know if I've used the right method for everything.
Don't know about the cake pops, sorry. I haven't made any before. I can't think of any reason why you wouldn't be able to freeze them before they've been coated with chocolate, but it's probably more useful if you can freeze them after they've been dipped? Hope someone else knows
Forgot to say I added some cinnamon to my biscuits which is why they look darker than the ones on the link. They actually got lighter while cooking
AHi all.
Long time no see Victoria! Cakes are looking gorgeous.
Gosh its gone all quiet again. I expected more chatter lol.
New Street I've never frozen iced cake pops but I imagine the only problem might be the expansion of the cakes when they come to room temp. Might cause cracking on the chocolate. Your friend could experiment with a batch and see.
I made a gumpaste elephant this am. My main issue is the gumpaste itself. After I put tylose in and knead I can never get a smooth ball. Having said that I never measure the tylose, just go by feel. I think I'll measure and stick to the 1tsp per 250g of fondant. Or is it 2tsp? Better get my numbers right!!
ARGH half term has begun. Maybe I can persuade Mia to make a few gumpaste models! Or maybe get her to decorate a cake with icing...
ANanny, I'm not sure but i think glucose extends the shelf life of a cake.
AAlso liquid glucose kerps cakes moist & soft, just like it keeps royal icing fom hardening. I've been googling it!
AWait a mo, just read somewhere else that its glycerine that's added to RI.. will do proper research when not half asleep! Night night folks x
AHi guys, really busy so not around a lot! I'm not even sure I can make it to CI this year I'm so rushed off my feet!!
Some have seen the Frozen cake but here they are and one I finished last night :) x
[IMG]http://www.cakecentral.com/content/type/61/id/3297963/width/200/height/400[/IMG] [IMG]http://www.cakecentral.com/content/type/61/id/3297964/width/200/height/400[/IMG]
ALovely cakes Kelsey -saw the Frozen one already but I really like like the painting one and the concept. I had a longer look at those stamens but I don't think you can get what you're looking for on eBay. What do you have in the pipeline for those flowers?
Kathy
AMorning all.
I love your both cakes kelsey, your little quirky painting, that's fab. And your painting cake is so good.
Morning everyone, nice to see I'm not the only one awake!
Lovely cakes Kelsey.
Off to make breakfast for the little one!
AKathy, I'm just gonna buy nail gems and cover the stamen in those. I CBA with the faffing haha! In December I have a two tier White cake with calla lillies in a cascade but they want glitzy haha!
Nanny thanks! I wanted to try paining so I did it on the Frozen cake like snow wisps? Lol the painting cake I like but not sure it looks old enough for an 11 year old. Any thoughts?
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