A Batman Cake for my 5 year old

This is from last year but didn't get around to posting the pictures.

A Minion Cake (from Despicable Me) for my big 6 year old!

Assemble the Minions!

I made this cake for my son's 6th birthday party, which was on the weekend.  It was a big challenge but he and his friends loved it.

I used this recipe for the cakes (yes, it was about 5 cakes) which a friend gave me.  I made two batches of the mix and had enough for a dozen cupcakes too

Cupcakes - from The Magnolia's Bakery version, makes 48 regular cupcakes;

250g butter unsalted
2 cups sugar
4 eggs
1 1/2 cups self raising flour
1 1/4 cups plain flour
1 cup milk
1 teaspoon vanilla extract

ICING
4 cups icing sugar
125g butter unsalted
1/4 cup milk
1 teaspoon vanilla extract

FOR CAKES: using an electric mixer, cream butter in a large bowl until smooth, add sugar gradually and beat until mixture is light. Add eggs one at a time, beating well after each addition. Sifts flours and combine. Add flours in four parts, alternating with milk and vanilla; beat well after each addition. Put mixture into 48 regular paper cupcake cases set in a muffin trays. Bake at 180 degrees C for about 20 minutes, or until golden.

FOR ICING: sift icing sugar. Place butter, milk, vanilla and half the sugar in a large mixing bowl. Beat until smooth. Add remaining sugar until icing is a good consistency. To make different colours, place icing into separate bowls and gradually add food colouring.

Note: have all ingredients at room temperature.

Tips

• Use top quality fondant - I would recommend Satin Ice over Pettinice as it tears less.  I used Pettinice for the yellow parts of the cake and it was a struggle to wrap it around the body without it stretching and tearing.
• To get a smooth finish with the fondant, take the time to ganache the cake, hot knife it to get it super smooth and then let it set before covering with fondant.
• I used half of the Wilton Ball tin to get the head shape.  The rest of the cake was made with 6 inch Wilton cake tins
• I iced the top of the cake separately to the body.  The goggle strap covered the join.  I am not sure I would do it this way again as rolling the icing around the body was quite tricky. Fortunately, I was able to cover mistakes by putting a high back on the overalls and by adding a buckle to the back of the goggles :)
• Make the goggle and the eye in advance so they have time to dry properly
• I put thin cake boards under the head top and between every two layers. I punched holes in the body cake cards so I could put wooden dowels through both the cakes and the boards.
• I used four cake dowels through all the layers except the rounded head part.

Lighting the candles

The cake along with a few cupcakes

The first slices being taken out

Cupcakes I've been making

I really enjoy making cakes cupcakes and have been to a few course at Milly's Kitchen in Parnell.

Here are a few pics of recent projects:

Ladybird cupcakes

It was "shared lunch" day at daycare and the theme was bugs and insects.  So I made these little cuties for the boy to take along.



Ladybird cupcakes

Very easy :)

Creme Brulee

I received a blow torch last Christmas but it's taken me nearly a whole year to use it to make creme brulee.  It was the yummiest thing ever and everyone in my little family enjoyed eating it.  Using a blow torch is so much fun too :).

I got the recipe from http://www.taste.com.au/ and adapted it slightly.  I think caster sugar worked much better than brown sugar (which was suggested).

Christmas cupcakes and cookies

I've been doing a bit of fancy baking lately but I keep forgetting to take pictures before I send the goodies off  or before they get eaten!  I finally remembered to take some pics of this lot as I was walking out the door.

These are mini jam-filled vanilla cupcakes decorated with red fondant icing bases and white fondant icing snowflakes.

The sugar cookie snowflakes are decorated with royal icing and white cachous. 

They were delicious!

Double Chocolate Biscotti - super yummy

This is a great biscotti recipe and my students love it.  It tastes a lot like a brownie and retains a bit of chewy-ness in the middle.   Biscotti fits in well with International Food units.  If you are short on time, you can get away with not cooling it in between the first and second cooking.  Just cut it up, spread it out on the tray and get it back in the oven.

Double-Chocolate Biscotti

Ingredients

1 ½ c plain flour 1 c sugar ½ c unsweetened cocoa ½ c chocolate chips ½t baking powder ½ t baking soda ½ t salt

1 t vanilla extract 2 large eggs 1 large egg white

1. Preheat oven to 180ºC.

2. Measure flour, sugar, cocoa, chocolate chips, baking powder, baking soda and salt in a medium bowl, stirring with a whisk.

3. Combine vanilla, eggs, and egg white in a large bowl, stirring with a whisk.

4. Add flour mixture to egg mixture; stir until well blended.

5. Divide dough in half.

6. Turn dough out onto an oven tray line with baking paper.

7. With floured hands, shape the dough halves into logs.

8. Bake at 180ºC for 22 minutes.

9. Remove rolls from baking sheet; cool 10 minutes on a wire rack.

10. Cut each roll diagonally into 18 (1.5 cm) slices. Carefully stand slices upright on baking sheet.

11. Bake biscotti an additional 15 minutes or until almost firm (biscotti will be slightly soft in centre but will harden as they cool).

12. Remove biscotti from baking sheet and cool completely on wire rack.