Working with marsipan for a change

Ok so it is rare for us to do what we affectionately call a 'domed cake'. Traditionally, decorated cakes were traditional fruit cake layered with marsipan and then finished with fondant. Last week we went traditional and made four beautiful cakes for four 80th birthdays - a client who knew how to entertain put on one impressive birthday event!

This cake is adorned with deep red roses and natural looking green leaves.
This cake was a cake to be shared and cut at the event. As it was two men and one lady it was important to find the balance between not too masculine or feminine.
This lovely cake uses a combination of handpainting and piping.

as does this ...

Marsipan tends to be something people either love or hate. Unfortunately, for those who love it, it is very hard to purchase good quality marsipan in Australia. Thankfully our pastry chef is German and as we all know marsipan is pretty much synonymise with German. Nick imports this from Germany and whilst very pricey it is definitely quality!

We had a bit of fun trying to pronounce ...

Here is the actual marsipan. It can be quite tacky and very different from the imitation marsipans that are made in Australia. Nick was a gem and gave me fabulous advice. I had once heard not to use cornflour to roll marsipan but that is apparently not true which was good as we mostly use cornflour for rolling. This marsipan can be quite sticky and would be terrible to use with icing sugar.

Whilst it's good to embrace difference I am delighted to be back with ganache!

Til next time,

Belinda

http://www.ediblecreations.com.au/

Air Brushing

Air brushing is a great skill that adds a new level to decorating cakes. Last week we added a great funky look to a skateboard cake using the airbrush - see facebook for photo) this week we are airbrushing roses for a couple of cakes.

Now I am not going to pretend that we are airbrushing experts. If you would like to learn this fabulous skill from the best we highly recommend Wayne from Advanced Airbrush who runs fabulous courses. Ali attended a course last year and found it brilliant and learnt so much.

Here is a quick snap shot of Ali who dropped in for a couple of hours today to give a couple of light coats to the roses.
One thing you can be sure of when airbrushing is that it gets airborne and everywhere. Definitely don't do with other cakes near by. Ali sprayed into a box but still that doesn't contain the colour and very thorough cleans are required after spraying.

Below is a photo showing the correct technique for holding the airbrush. Interestingly I can't hold an airbrush properly. It's a bit of a joke around Edible Creations. But I can't hold a pen correctly either. It's the end result that matters I say :)

Here is one of the roses after a couple of light coats. Tomorrow afternoon we will put a deeper red over.

Things we are learning when it comes to airbrushing.

* Always spray light layers and add more layers rather than being heavy handed with the spray.

* We actually found that for some colours you get a better result with cheap liquid food colouring as bought from the supermarket as opposed to the specifically made air brushing food colouring.

As I said do check out Advanced Airbrush for courses. Despite not being specific to cake Wayne is more than capable of catering to these needs in a general class.

Til next time,
Belinda

http://www.ediblecreations.com.au/

Colour Inspiration - Brown and Green

Today I went for a walk (something I have not been doing near enough lately) and despite the very wet weather it was just what I needed. Whilst walking I was pondering my business and in particular my blog. I was inspired to reevaluate the purpose of my blog and I think you will be seeing a lot more posts from now on.

One thing I want to do regularly is share colour schemes. Today my focus is on brown and green. I do adore this colour scheme. Green has been a fairly popular wedding colour over the past few years and I love when brides choose to team it with brown.

Can't you just imagine this beautiful detail on a cake .. lovely change from black and white which is being done very often at the moment.

I know I'm not showing you a single cake in any of these pictures but I think sometimes we become limited by what others do. I find the best cakes I make are the ones where I trust myself and my ideas and go with my instincts.

This photo below throws out some fun ideas that could be used when making a christening cake and would be just perfect for a little boy.Til next time,

Belinda

http://www.ediblecreations.com.au/