This Year's Big Cake Project - Final

The big cake, of course, wasn't a big cake at all. It was over 100 cupcakes, divided up by display to honour three different William Morris walllpaper patterns. You can read more about the plan here. The event was at University College on the University of Toronto campus. Laura and James's display was so striking. Someone said it looked like the William Morris cupcakes had been put into a Frank Lloyd Wright house. I sort of see that. It went well, and we're done for another year. Of course... plans are already afoot for next year's project. Thanks, J and L!

This Year's Big Cake Project, Part Three (if you Count my Blethering)

Day two of the cupcake project... This was baking and finessing of decorations.

I used most of the three jars of Soma cocoa powder. It's deep, dark and mysterious. And I was mesmerized as I sifted. Or maybe that was the shiny bowl. Or lack of sleep. Anyway, I was happy. Finding four opened bags of flour in my baking cupboard made me wonder what the hell I get up to sometimes. You see James's hand as he brought the cupcake toppers to life with painted detail.

The cupcakes were baked in one day (120 of them). Then ganached (Callebaut 51% for a change) and then frosted. I barely had room for them.

The final result will be posted tomorrow.

This Year's Big Cake Project - Update

Where are we with this year's Big Cake Project?

Well, first off, for those of you who don't know, it's always in honour of William Morris's birthday (1834 - 96). This link will show you previous year's efforts.

Secondly, this year's big cake project isn't a big cake at all. It's 99 little cakes... 99 triple chocolate cupcakes each featuring one of three elements pulled from three William Morris wallpaper patterns: Marigold, Acanthus and Willow (a blog favourite, and it was a cake all on its own in 2010.)

Each cupcake is made of devil's foodcake, topped with ganache and swirled with chocolate frosting. On top of that will be the little Morris-inspired sugar tile. Each will sit in a little box made of paper printed with a shrunk rendition of its wallpaper inspiration. My co-cake-creator Laura has been brilliant at sourcing and resizing and testing a box pattern. They take a long time to create but are very satifsying. Each box is lined on the bottom to give sturdiness and to soak up any cakey butteryness that soaks through the cupcake paper holders.

Below you see us working on boxes, Laura flooding the willow leaf outlines (more finessing and detail work will come later this week), the outlines of the marigolds and acanthus leaves, and finally trying to figure out how to display all these cupcakes. We're thinking of blocking them all together (as opposed to mingling them). It will be a more bold design.

Stay tuned!

 

It's That Time Again... Cake Time!

Yes, it's cake time, the annual creation...L, J and I met for an early dinner and came up with a plan.

Wondering what it's all about?

Check here for 2012,

... 2011...
... 2010 ...
... 2009...
... 2008...
...2007...
... and before that...

Click here for all the cake decorating fun and games that this blog has witnessed.

And stay tuned. In a few weeks we'll be starting work.

The Bzzz on the Cupcakes

This is why I was too busy to blog this week... cupcakes! I made them (mostly regular size, but some minis) for a party for a busy, beekeeping lady. This happened over three evenings after work. Chocolate cupcakes with chocolate frosting were topped with marzipan bees (with slivered almonds for wings and cocoa-coloured piping gel for stripes), and fondant flowers and leaves. They all went.

Big Cake Project 2012, Part Four

One more thing: the chocolate. We used the following: Callebaut 70%, Soma's cocoa powder (a sniff test comparing it to other generic cocoa powders is amazing - the Soma product is just so rich and layered), and Lindt for the tile work. Some generic couveture, unsweetened and more Callebaut white chocolate were used for the tiles.

All in all, 15 pounds of chocolate were used.

Big Cake Project 2012, Part Three

And now for the structure.

The tiles were made of chocolate, either melted dark chocolate or coloured white chocolate. The cake was a devil's food cake, very rich and chocolatey. In between the three layers, we smeared chocolate frosting.




Over the three sanwiched layers, we poured several layers of ganache. In all, four pounds of dark Callebaut chocolate and four cups of heavy cream were combined to make this protective ganache layer - my personal favourite part of the entire cake, I mean it's like truffle in spreadable form!




Pieces of parchment paper were laid on the fondant-covered cake board before the cake was built. This protected the cake board and you can see below how clean it was when we removed the paper.




Ganache was piped in shells around the base of the cake, and here you see how it dried.




We put the tiles in place and here was the finished cake. It was the heaviest cake we have ever made, rich and densely moist.




And here it is at its destination in the Croft Chapter House at the University of Toronto, where it was enjoyed by approximately 70 to 80 people.




And, just as a reminder, the original plan:



Thanks for reading along! We're already excited about next year's project! Thank you so much, Laura and James, for another fun and tasty collaboration. xoxo

Big Cake Project 2012, Part Two

We taped acetate over the colour printouts of the tiles. We then outlined the tiles using melted chocolate on top of the acetate. The finished chocolate tiles would be easily removed from the acetate.






These nifty little icing holders dispensed the melted chocolate with no mess. They're a cool alternative to icing bags, but I'd still use a classic icing bag for very fine work and maximum control.




The chocolate outlines...




Flooding (filling) the outlines with softer, melted white chocolate, tinted with the required colours.




We used powdered tints to shade the white chocolate.

Big Cake Project 2012, Part One

So this was the inspiration: Motawi tiles of Ann Arbour, Michigan. They are great proponents of the American Arts and Crafts style and quality.

This was the plan for the top of the cake.




We taped up a colour mockup, including side panels.




Fun with colours.




An actual Motawi tile of mine was our little mascot.

Chocolate

Chocolate cake, chocolate frosting, chocolate ganache, chocolate tiles... We're almost there. Watch this space.

Scents, Sunlight, Tastes, Colours

In other words, a stunning Saturday.








A couple of weeks ago I tasted the delicious broccoli, ginger and lemongrass soup at The Sandwich Box on Adelaide Street West. I attempted a recreation this morning, and it's different but it's good. I don't have quantites. I warmed onion, fresh ginger root and lemongrass in olive oil, added lots of broccoli and vegetable stock.






I had the first large mugful as I pondered cake plans.

Almost There

Last night I relaxed. Seriously. The tightly bunched fresias I'd picked up hurriedly during the week had opened, their blossoms far more numerous than I had anticipated, and with their opening that sweet, peppery scent that is one of my favourites. I cocooned beside them under my wooly blanket... what bliss.

This morning I lolled some more, in anticipation of my week off work. But... I still have some work to do today and tomorrow and then... off. I can't wait. I'm not going away, instead there will be lots of play, including planning for the Big Cake Project and making cupcakes for a sweet lady's baby shower.




And... there will be books that I have had no time to read of late. Lots of books.

So, Guess who I ran into at the Opera?

Yes, it's that time again! J and L were at the opera and what did we discuss? This year's Big Cake Project. Except... it's probably not a cake, per se.

Watch this space. Heh heh. If this post is making no sense, read here for 2011's Big Cake Project, here for 2010, here for 2008, here for 2007 and here for all cake decorating fun and games.

Sweet Gift

William Morris has inspired a few cakes out of me and my friends... and I've got photographs of them all, except the cake we made of his "Daisy" pattern.

Here's a mug with that pattern on it, a gift from last birthday, to match my flask and water bottle.

Some Cute

A certain lovely young couple is expecting their first baby! We had a send-off at work and one of our colleagues made these striking fruit skewers with teddy-shaped pineapple slices. I love this idea, it could be incorporated into any theme.




I made lemony cupcakes with onesies made from royal icing colour flow:

Best of luck, J and S!

My Big, Fat Cake Project

The inspiration for this year's big cake project was Red House, designed by Phillip Webb for my personal hero, William Morris. J and L and I worked for three days to make our Ginger Red House (heh heh). The original is pictured below (I borrowed this picture from the Victorian Web). The house is now in the care of the National Trust and is an icon of the Arts and Crafts movement.




J and L made an amazing prototype of Red House out of card, so that we would have the individual pieces to make out of gingerbread.




They even sourced the floor plans. We built the house on a piece of acetate, that sat on the plans. The acetate was the only piece of the whole cake that was not edible.




The walls took one whole day.




And here is the finished cake. It sits on a three-layer chocolate-cherry cake. In front of the house sits its well and the Morris family (just one baby at this stage) sitting on a Willow pattern inspired carpet. The grass is made of food-coloured shredded coconut.




This overhead shot shows all the pieces of the roof... which itself took one whole day. Very fussy!




A few more photos.






Making the little fondant figures were fun, as it was - for a change - a small, not-too-messy job. That's the end of my pinky finger to show some scale.




A view of the front entrance.




The side...




The cake was 5" tall and 17" x 17". I was worried about making it too soft to hold up the gingerbread house, and I made it a little dry by mistake.




The cake at the event.




The gingerbread was both tasty and strong. I used my favourite recipe, found here. We used 38 eggs for the entire thing.

Thank you J and L for being such great collaborators! We worked for three days and it was smooth sailing all the way through.

And thank you William Morris, for the constant inspiration!