Lei Time

Pineapple Cupcakes2 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
2 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup unsalted butter, room temperature
1 1/2 cups sugar
3 eggs, room temperature
1 teaspoon vanilla
1/2 cup milk, room temperature
20 oz. can of crushed pineapple, drained and pureed*

• Preheat oven to 350 degrees and line cupcake tray with 24 paper liners.
• Whisk together the flour, baking powder, baking soda and salt in a medium bowl and set aside.
• Cream the butter and sugar together in a mixer for several minutes. Add the eggs one at a time scraping down the sides of the bowl with each addition. Add the vanilla and mix until combined.
• Add the flour mixture to the sugar mixture in three additions with the milk in two additions (flour, milk, flour, milk, flour) Mix until combined with each addition
• Add the pineapple and mix until combined.
• Fill cups about 2/3 full and bake for about 15 minutes.

* I pureed the pineapple in a food processor. I’m not a big fan of fruit chunks. Flavor yes. Chunks. Not so much.

Mango Frosting

1-2 Mangoes
1 cup butter, room temperature
1 lb box of confectioners’ sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla

• Cut mangoes. Instructions here.
• Place mango pieces in food processor and puree enough so you have about 1/3 cup.
• Beat butter and vanilla until creamy.
• Add confectioner’s sugar in several additions. beating until well combined with each addition.
• Add 1/2 cup of mango puree and beat until completely combined.
• Spread frosting on cooled cupcakes.

So that’s the cupcakes. But what about the fun stuff. Who’s ready to play?

Okay, fondant first.

You’ll need some to make these lovely little leis.

You’ll need:

Fondant
Icing colors
Toothpicks
Powdered sugar
Wooden skewers
String or twine

Oh… and a Flower Plunger.

Break off a small amount of fondant. Dip your toothpick into the icing color of your choice and wipe it on your fondant. Begin kneading it to incorporate the color… but not all the way. Sprinkle a little powdered sugar on your work surface and rolling pin.

Then roll out the fondant evenly and pretty thin. By not kneading the color completely into the fondant, you’ll get these marbled looking streaks.

Then use the flower plunger. Cut the shapes along the color variations to make flowers that appear to vary in shade.

Repeat with a few other colors if you like.

White works, too.

The flower plunger cuts the shape and also creates an indention in the center of the flower when you press down.

Then you can use wooden skewers to pierce through the center easily. Slide flowers on the skewers and let dry. Make these the day before so the fondant has time to dry out a little. I let them rest on a baking sheet overnight. Just make sure they aren’t pressed together tightly on the skewer or they will dry attached to each other and be difficult to separate without breaking the little flowers.

When they are dry, slide about 50 flowers (depending on the thickness) on a string about 12 inches long and tie a knot.

That’s it.

You’ll also need:

Wooden cookie sticks
X-acto Knife
Scissors

Cut the cookie sticks down in size. Mine were about 12 inches long so I cut them down to pieces about 4 inches.

Print out the tags on heavyweight paper and cut them out individually. Then use an x-acto blade to cut two slits along the diagonal on each side of the tag.

Slip the sticks through the paper and then insert the sticks straight down into the center of the cupcake.

Sweet Tarts

Berries. Black and blue.                                                  

Mini Sweet Tarts

2 cups flour
1/3 cup sugar3/4 cup cold butter, cubed2 egg yolks
1/4 cup sour cream
3 tablespoons ice cold water
………………..
2/3 cup sugar
1/4 cup flour
1 tablespoon lemon juice
………………..
6 cups blueberries, blackberries or raspberries (or combination)
1 egg
Raw sugar

• 
  
• Combine 2 cups flour and 1/3 cup sugar in a food processor. Add butter and pulse until until it comes together in small pieces. You can also use a pastry cutter to cut the butter into the flour.
• In a small bowl stir, egg yolks, sour cream and water together. Stir into flour mixture.
• Knead the dough until a ball forms. Cover with plastic wrap and pat into a disc. Chill for about an hour or place in the freezer until dough is easy to work with.
• Preheat oven to 400 degrees.
• Divide dough into 10 equal portions
• Roll out each dough section on a lightly floured surface. Use a circle (4.5 inch) or heart (5 inch) cutter to cut out shapes and transfer to parchment lined baking sheets.
• In a small bowl, stir 2/3 cup sugar and 1/4 cup flour. Sprinkle a little bit in the center of each shape, reserving the rest.
• In a larger bowl, combine fruit, lemon juice and remaining, sugar and flour mixture. Toss gently until coated.
• Spoon fruit onto the center of each tart shape and fold edges over fruit overlapping the dough as you fold.
• Brush dough with egg and sprinkle raw sugar on edges.
• Bake for about 20 minutes or until edges are brown and fruit is tender.

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Red Velvet Cake Balls

Red Velvet Cake Balls 

I first tasted these two years ago at a Christmas party and immediately had to have the recipe. It’s based on a mix, but I imagine you can follow the same directions substituting from scratch cake and frosting (I’ll try that one day). You can also try it with other cake combinations.

Red Velvet Cake Balls

1 box red velvet cake mix (cook as directed on box for 13 X 9 cake)
1 can cream cheese frosting (16 oz.)
1 package chocolate bark (regular or white chocolate)
wax paper
2. Mix thoroughly with 1 can cream cheese frosting. (It may be easier to use fingers to mix together, but be warned it will get messy.)
3. Roll mixture into quarter size balls and lay on cookie sheet. (Should make 45-50. You can get even more if you use a mini ice cream scooper, but I like to hand roll them.)
4. Chill for several hours. (You can speed this up by putting in the freezer.)
5. Melt chocolate in microwave per directions on package.
6. Roll balls in chocolate and lay on wax paper until firm. (Use a spoon to dip and roll in chocolate and then tap off extra.)

1. After cake is cooked and cooled completely, crumble into large bowl.

I also only melt a few pieces of chocolate bark at a time because it starts to cool and thicken. It’s easier to work with when it’s hot.

Want to see how good they look in white chocolate

THE CAFE CAKE

opening hours

Monday 8.30am - 6pm

Tuesday - Friday 8.30am - 8pm

Saturday 9am - 5.30pm 

   

café info

"If Jade Jagger was a cafe, this is precisely the kind of cafe she would be." Emily Hourican Image Magazine

Our leafy courtyard is an oasis of calm in a busy area of the city, it stretches from Camden Street to Pleasants Place. It is the perfect place to relax with a savoury tart and a glass of wine selected from The Cake Café’s carefully chosen wine list.

Monday 8.30am - 6pm (Baking or cookery evening after 6pm)

Tuesday - Friday 8.30am - 8pm

Saturday 9am - 6pm

Why not drop by on your way home from work for a glass of Prosecco in the courtyard or for a sneaky cupcake or two?

Call us during the week with your Saturday cake orders and we will have that sugar dusted sponge or the cute little cup cakes boxed up and ready for you to take away.

 

 

HELLO KITTY CAKE POPS

How to Make a Cake – Hello Kitty Cake Pops 

      Today, I am so excited as i will tell you these recipes about my favorite cartoon character loved by millions around the world: Hello Kitty

I would like to tell that it is moderately easy so lets start

 

Ingredients

1. Mini Red m&ms
2. White candy melts
3. Jumbo Heart Sprinkles
4. Rainbow Chip Sprinkles
5. Black Edible Ink Pen
6. Paper Lollipop Sticks
7. Styrofoam Block
8. White Chocolate Chips

 

Method

Step 1

Well, we will start by shaping cute Hello Kitty heads into a semi-flat oval shape then we follow by inserting tip of lollipop stick into some of the melted candy after into the bottom of the Hello Kitty head.

Step 2

Now, we need two white chocolate chips to dip the bottoms in the melted candy so as to place/glue them on the top of Hello Kitty head.

Step 3

Now, we will stand them up in a styrofoam block to dry and dip the entire Hello Kitty head in a bowl of the white melted candy, when you are sure that the ears are firmly attached to the head,. Make sure the bowl is deep enough so you can get it in one dunk. Then remove and gently tap off any extra coating. This will help smooth it out, too.

Step 4

Apply the hearts and m&ms to make a bow and the yellow rainbow chips to make a nose when the Hello Kitty heads are dry,. You can use a toothpick and a little bit of the melted candy to act as the glue.

Step 5

Using a black edible ink pen, draw the eyes and whiskers on.

RED VELVET CAKE

 How to Make a Red Velvet Cake

Even though the origin of the red velvet cake is quite controversial, it is a known fact that the red velvet cake has been favourite of masses for decades. It’s mild chocolate layers that have bright red color with iced cream cheese frosting is eye-cathcy.

 The chocolaty flavor inherits from the cocoa powder, while the red color is obtained by the red food coloring ingridient. Bu these are just small delicate and delicious parts which you are about to discover. 

Ingredients

 

2 ¼ cups sifted cake flour (equivalent of 2 ½ unsifted flour)
1 cup buttermilk
1 teaspoon baking powder
2 tablespoons cocoa powder
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon salt
2 tablespoon red (food) coloring
1 teaspoon distilled white vinegar
1 tablespoon vanilla extract
1 ½cups sugar
½ cup unsalted butter, room temperature
2 large eggs
2 8-ounce packages cream cheese (at room temp)
½ cup unsalted butter (at room temp)
2 ½ cups powdered sugar

  

Method

Step 1

Step 1 for the Cake: Put the flour, sugar, cocoa powder, salt and baking soda in a large bowl and sift them together until you are sure that they are blended.

Step 2

Step 2 for the Cake: In a different bowl, beat the mixture of egg, buttermilk, red food colouring, vanilla and distelled white vinegar (you may prefer to add some oil into the mixture).

Step 3

Step 3 for the Cake: After the ingridients in both bowls are blended, take the mixture that you obtain in the Step 1 and pour it over the liquid mixture that you get in the Step 2. With the help of a mixer, you can have a better-mixture (instead of adding eggs in Step 2, you may also put the eggs into the mixture during Step 3 while mixing dry and liquid ingredients by letting the mixture to absorb it).

Step 4

Step 4 for the Cake: Grease and slightly cover the interior side of the cake mould with flour (this will prevent probable adhesion). Distribute the batter among cake pans (if you are using more than one) and put them into a pre-heated oven at 170C. Keep the cake pans inside for 27-28 minutes.

Step 5

Step 5 for the Cake: To have a general idea about whether it is ready or not, you might try sticking a toothpick to cake. When the cake becomes ready, the toothpick that was sticked, will come out eventually . Otherwise, you should keep the pans inside the oven a little bit longer.

Step 6

Step 6 for the Cake: Take the pans out of the oven. You might use a knife around the edges of the pan to separate the cake and the mould. After the division, let the cake to cool.

Step 7

Step 1 for the Cream Cheese Frosting: Put cream cheese, butter and sugar in a large bowl and blend them with the help of a mixer on the low-speed. Continue this beating process for 5 minutes by increasing the speed up to high-level.

Step 8

Step 2 for the Cream Cheese Frosting: After 5 minutes, keep the mixer turned-on but in the lowest-speed and pour the vanilla over the mixture. After you add the whole vanilla, increase the speed again to the highest-level and go on mixing until the mixture becomes light and smooth.

Step 9

Step 3 for the Cream Cheese Frosting: It is important to keep the frost in a refigrator before using it.

Step 10

Step 1 for the Red Velvet Cake: Put 1 cake layer on the plate, then by using a spatula cover the surface of the 1st layer with frosting. According to your preference, you might add some fruits like blueberries, raspberries, etc. to each level (Figure 2).

Step 11

Step 2 for the Red Velvet Cake: Put one more layer on the 1st layer. Then you should spread the frosting over the top and sides of the cake. For decorative purposes, you might also use some of the frosting (Figure 3). 

 

ARE YOU HUNGARY

Moldes de silicón antiadherentes para decoración

I AM HUNGARY NOW, WHY OH WHY DID I WATCH THIS?

Fleur de Lisa Cakes on Fabulous Cakes

If I were the bride I'd say "Anyone starts a cake fight and your head will be on this rod!" That's a fabulous cake, almost a shame to eat it! Mmmm, beautiful work of art, congratulations!