Bird Cage CakePosted by Julia on December 31st, 2011

I have made this cake several times already for presents and commissions. The pastel shades together with the brown accent and subject matter are very popular at the moment.

Product Review – Gingerbread House – Stadter cutter setPosted by Julia on December 16th, 2011

Christmas gets many people baking edible decorations and after several years of making my own mini gingerbread houses, this year I invested in a large gingerbread house cutter set, bought on the internet from Austria. I tried this set out for the first time this month and here I  share my tips on using this and similar cutters.

This particular set is made by Stadter and as I ordered it from Austria, the instructions are not in English, however you can follow the picture instructions.  The set comprises 7 cutters, which are plastic and advertised as dishwasher safe.  The set has the following cutters in:- roof, long side, gable side, chimney (one side only), 2 window cutters, Christmas tree.

The main point I would raise with this set is that the long side of the house is too long. If you cut the long side out as per the cutter shape, the roof will not fit on the house easily as both roof and long side of the house are the same length. The picture of the finished house on the box portreys an overhang of the roof  of the house at the gable ends.  To acheive an overhang of the roof you need to cut down the longer side peices by at least 1 inch  ( cut 1/2  inch both sides)  possibly more depending on how your mixture spreads during cooking, to enable the roof to overhang both sides. This does shorten the house a little but I think the end result is as it should be and easier to manage when assembling the house.

The other point I would make is that the chimney only has only realistically has one part of its structure provided as a cutter. The box pictures indicates you can use the square window cutter for the chimney sides however this, in my opinion is not the right size. I would recommend using the door shape cut- out as it is the right width for the sides of the chimney  – I recommend cutting two peices from the door each being about 1 inch high up from the base. These fit better to make the chimney.

On the whole this set is easy to use and saves having to make and use cardboard or hand made templates which can move during cutting.  For the base I rougly rolled out just under 200g mixture of gingerbread to form an irregular base shape about 30cm x 22cm so the house would sit on it.  The final house is about 25cm high including base. I used royal icing to fix  the pieces together and a mixture of small sweets for decoration e.g. Jelly Tots, Smarties, wine gum type sweets. I made additional mini gingerbread men for inside the house, decorated simply with dots of royal icing eyes and smily mouth.  Of course you could put in other chocolates or sweets inside instead.  I finished the house with a sprinkling of icing sugar which gives it that extra special christmassy feel. I gave several of these for gifts and wrapped them up in Cellophane with a christmas ribbon as a finishing touch.

Lastest CreationsPosted by Julia on October 27th, 2011

This Golden Wedding Anniversary Cake is one of my latest commissions.  I chose an oval shape for the cake to create a slighty more interesting design than round or the harshness of a square.

The flowers and leaves are all made from sugar and wired together to make a side arrangement ready for the inscription to be added to the other side of the cake. As with other sugar flower decorations that I make for my cakes, it can be lifted off and kept indefinately by the recipients as a reminder of their celebrations.  If you have sugar flowers, keep them free from damp and sources of moisture to preserve them, and out of the light to prevent fading.

This cake was an infused lemon sponge with light lemon buttercream filling. As you can see the main flower is a Gerbera, with roses, buds and gentle leaves to accent.

Golden Wedding Gerbera and Rose Spray