Mother Moffatt's Birthday Cake

My mum is visiting from England to look after me while I recover from surgery. With her living in England it also means that I don't often get to spend her birthday with her. Although it was the same this year, having her visit meant I got the opportunity to make her a birthday cake. That's where it starts to get interesting as she doesn't eat dairy. When you look at most cake recipes they all include milk and butter unfortunately for my mum. That's where my hunt for the famous Suma vegan chocolate came in handy. As she had previously had the cake, she was quite happy with the choice. It then came to the fun topic of dairy free icing. I normally use ganache, cream and chocolate, a delicious combination. But both are a no-no. The French would have a heart attack if they realised no dairy was being used. I then had an idea to make a buttercream but use a butter substitute instead, Nutlex. It actually worked out really well and with some smoothing and hot knifing came up a treat. She loved the cake and has been devouring it ever since it was made. Have to admit so have both my sister and I!!

Chocolate Mud Cupcake Testing!

In the search for the perfect chocolate mud cake recipe for the wedding cake, I have been trying out different cake recipes with different ganache recipes. An all round tasty experience! Gloria along with my family have tasted 3 different chocolate mudcake recipes to date. When I have been making these cupcakes I have been leaving a few un-ganached so that Gloria and Sam can taste them. But sending a little tub of ganache so they can add it if wanted. 

12 March 2011 Attempt One!

Planet Cake Chocolate Mud cake recipe. I really liked this recipe. Easy to make and when it cooked it didn't bake into a strange shape, which is often does. I took this batch of cupcakes to work. Everyone really liked how light the cupcakes were, even though people said they looked dense and moist. Gloria didn't like the coffee in the recipe which is sometimes controversial. These cupcakes had a white chocolate ganache which I found to be still light and didn't make the cupcakes to rich. Almost a success minus the coffee...progress!!

23 March 2011 Attempt Two!

After I mentioned to my partner Billy about my cake making he immediately began bragging about his wonderful chocolate mud cake recipe. So I asked him to send me the recipe so I could give it a go. And as usual with all his cooking and recipes it turned out really well. Although it is a little bit denser than the PC batch, I found the flavour to be great. Gloria didn't seem to notice that it had coffee in it and liked this recipe as well. I made some milk chocolate ganache to go with the cupcakes except I managed to stuff it up somehow and it went all lumpy...fail. Although according to Gloria it still tasted good. Another lesson learnt..Don't overheat the chocolate, it ends in disaster!!

After a almost a month of recovering from surgery, I am back to cupcake fun!

24 April 2011 Attempt Three!

I had a light bulb moment one day at work just under a month ago. While working with Sam he had mentioned that he was trying to be vegan. My mum also works in a company in England, called Suma, that specialise in vegan, vegetarian, organic and fairtrade food and other products. During a visit a few years ago I had a great experience of tasting a vegan chocolate cake. And before everyone goes eww it must have no taste. I think everyone would be quite surprised. So after tracking down this vegan cake recipe through the Suma facebook website, I took the idea to Gloria. She thought it was worth a shot, and is always willing to try more cake! This cake recipe was a extremely easy to make and bake, and suprisingly didn't bake into a funny shape..bliss for covering! Topped with a chocolate ganache and fondant, I was really happy with how these turned out! Now to find out the verdict from the taste testers...uh oh 

Gloria and Sam are having a Steampunk wedding so Gloria has been coming up with ideas for how she wants her cake. She managed to source some little moulds that can be used for either chocolate or fondant. So I started having some fun with them and made some chocolate and fondant. I put them atop the vegan cupcakes and Gloria loved them! Victory for cupcakes. 

Starting out

Well it has taken a while for me to finally get here. I have been umming and arring as to whether to actually do anything to do with Cakes and baking. But as I have just committed to doing a friends wedding cake it's finally crunch time!

For years I have been making cupcakes mainly for my family and friends. Then not to long ago I discovered the world of cake decorating. Let's just say it is a tad intimidating! Fondant this, ganache that. I am pretty sure that until about 3 months ago I had never heard of fondant. Then I discovered Planet cake and their amazing creations. Oh how I dream to be that good one day.

Poor Gloria (who's wedding cake I have agreed to make) is being subjected to heavy questioning. Similar to do you like white chocolate or milk ganache? here try it. Seeing as how we work together it does make work life a little more interesting than the mundane work we do!

As for sourcing supplies it is proving very difficult. Not only do I have to work out what brand of fondant, chocolate etc to use but I also have to find somewhere on the internet that stocks it seeing as how Canberra really does seem to be limited in its cake decorating supplies. Maybe a new business idea there! As I trail through countless cake supply websites and try and work out costs, it is dangerous as I have found sooo many things that I 'need'. Look out bank account!

For now I will just have to subject my friends and family to many cake testings (which I am sure they hate..not) until I find the best cake recipes, ganaches, fondants and chocolates. When you describe it like that, who could ever hate cakes!