Although I do specialize in fondant cakes, there’s something about a buttercream covered dessert that feels soft and romantic.
When done well, a buttercream has a light and smooth texture to it. Creamy but not overly sweet, allowing the flavours of the cake below it to punch through and mix in your mouth in a perfect balance.
Whether texturized with a palette knife, patterned with a cake comb or scraped to reveal the cake underneath, the decorating opportunities are endless with this finish.
I recently tried the white cake drums from CakeBon and let me tell you, I’m impressed.
Until now I’ve mostly been using a different brand, commonly found at Michaels and other cake decorating stores. The first thing I noticed about the CakeBon drums, is how clean the lines were at the edges. Other brands have ruffled, gathered product on the edge but the CakeBon drums have extremely clean lines, with no bunching or gathers.
The second thing was how strong they are. After finishing a cake on the drum I could hold it with one hand without any concern of bending from the weight of my cake. With previous drums I wouldn’t dream of not holding both edges of my cake for stability.
Last but not least, both sides of the drum are equally beautiful. So you can use the lightly embossed side or the plain white for a gorgeous backdrop to your cake creations. Overall a very good quality product that I will definitely use again. 5/5 would recommend 🙂
Back in February (you remember February right? It was that time where you could go to malls and museums, and didn’t worry about how often you needed the bathroom …. yeah THAT February!) I was asked to do a Cake tutorial at the Illuminate women’s conference here in Victoria.
About 250 women would be attending and my session was titled ‘How to Hack a Supermarket Cake’. “PERFECT!” I said. After all, this was right in my wheelhouse. I love teaching, I love women and I love to laugh with friends. The bigger the crowd, the better. A perfect environment for an extroverted Cake-lover.
“And how much time do I have?” I asked with anticipation.
“Ten minutes.”
GULP.
I clearly looked surprised because immediately “Well, we can probably give you Fifteen” was extended and like a free offer of unlimited toilet paper I TOOK IT!
So, for those of you who have been asking, here is the full session.
Full Disclosure:
This is not suitable if you a) are attached to perfectionism; b) don’t like to laugh; c) can’t ‘listen quickly’ because it was done – VERY. FAST.
Needless to say, I didn’t know what an R8 was, but it was an Audi so I knew it would be NIIIIIICE.
My favourite cakes to design and create are the ones that have some importance to my client; something that tells their history, story, personality. And that means paying very special attention to the details that will replicate those items.
So. If I’m designing and making an R8, then it better end up LOOKING like an R8!
The process for a project like this is two-fold. First, print a template for the size of the cake. This was a 2-D cake so my printout was the outline being used for the aerial view, or top of the cake. Slab cakes are used to stack and decorate and then the cake is cut into the outline of the template.
Next, individual pieces of that same template are cut out to use as smaller templates for the individual pieces of the item, or in this case the car parts. The entire cake is covered in the base fondant colour and the smaller templates are then used to make the smaller, fine-detailed items like lights, exhaust etc.
When the entire piece is done I use a fine paint brush to touch up small holes, wayward fondant etc., using Edible Art paint by Sweetsticks.
When it was time for delivery, this luxe car was presented at The Cellar, an amazing restaurant at the Bear Mountain Westin. Upon walking it into the catering area, a staff member took one look at it and stated “Oh, John drives that EXACT car!”
