Orange flavoured sunset cake

There happened to be a couple of orange flavoured cream cheese tubs in my fridge with the best before date soon approaching, so surprisingly I decided to make a cake.

The base is the American style 'pound cake', with a simple cream cheese filling.


2 dl      double cream (whipped)
200 g   orange flavoured cream cheese
0,5 dl   powdered sugar

I made this cake in a 20cm cake tin, and put all of the filling between two tiers of the cake, even though it seemed too much. I think this amount of filling for this size cake might have been enough to also cover the cake, but as I wanted to try a new technique with fondant, I just covered the cake first with buttercream.



At the Cake and Bake Show in Manchester I admired the numerous textured rolling pins they had for sale, but they were quite expensive and I decided to invest my money elsewhere.

I had previously made a simple mold out of thin chopping board for the Lego Star Wars Millennium Falcon cake, and I used the same technique also this time.



These inexpensive chopping boards I found from Ikea, and my grandad's 1978 selfmade carving tools were perfect for the task. Sure it took a countless number of hours to carve, but what wouldn't I do to save some money... :D



The second technique used in this cake was mixing a petal (or luster) dust with vodka for airbrushing (seen once again in some American cake programs), and it worked amazingly well! I can now forget about the expensive airbrushing colours and start using the local liquor store more. ;)

By the way, alcohol in the vodka evaporates from the cake leaving only the colour behind, so it should be safe to use even for kids' cakes.

Angry Birds tiered birthday cake

I had an excellent opportunity to combine different decorating techniques, when I was asked to make (yet another :) ) Angry Birds themed cake for a slightly larger amount of people.

Because the wish was for a chocolaty caramel cake, I used the same combination of Twix-bars and caramel cake as in the swimming pigs cake.



This time I didn't want to cover the cake with fondant, so this cake was covered with caramel flavoured butter cream, coloured with my new airbrush colours. The grass between the two tiers was buttercream piped with a spaghetti piping tip.

Number six on top of the cake was poured into a number shaped lollipop mold with (first time ever successfully tempered!) melted chocolate. The name and the Angry Birds characters were sugar paste.

Angry Birds pig cake

My cousin's daughter, who in the autumn came to make sugar decorations with me, came over to make her own 11th birthday cake with me.

So this cake was a joint effort, and the finishing touches she made herself (I only helped with the more difficult parts, such as the snout and the crown).

Silicone Plastique® mold making putty

Mold in the making

When I planned my Lego Star Wars Millenium Falcon cake's execution, I searched online for ready-made Lego molds, and then possibilities to create my own molds. Already then I came across this miracle substance called Silicone Plastique®, but ordering it from the USA would have become very expensive.

And when I saw them selling this at the Cake and Bake Show in Manchester, I just had to buy it :)

Now after the exhibition I visited the website of the company I bought this from, and noticed that it's possible to order this from them in England and even with very reasonable shipping costs.

I did also give a tip about this to one Finnish baking supply company, in case they might be interested in adding this to their selection :)




Making a mold with this putty is easy (although I think I chose a slightly too complicated subject as my first go with this).

The mold making putty consists of two parts, which are then mixed together in equal quantities which then starts up a chemical reaction which "hardens" the mold. As the salesman at the exhibition said though, you can't really talk about hardening but more like curing, as the finished mold is actually flexible as the traditional silicone molds are.

When the two parts have been mixed together so that the colours have mixed completely (the parts are different colours), it's possible to work with for about ten minutes, after which the mold is left to cure for about an hour.

The mold can also be used with molten sugar or isomalt, as (according to the manufacturer) it can withstand temperatures up to 230°C.

Lego minifigure came out of the cured mold very easily

I tried the mold with sugar paste, and put it in the freezer for about 10 minutes before unmolding

The minifigure's hands didn't make it out of the mold, but then it didn't have time to harden either.
Other than that, the mold worked out great.

Rice Krispies Treats

In American cake programs they often use 'Rice Krispies Treats' when sculpting difficult shapes or covering support structures, and now that I needed something to bring a bit of dimension to a cake pig's snout (which I'll be making tomorrow with my cousin's daughter), I decided to give this recipe a go.

I took the recipe directly from Kellog's Rice Krispies' site and reduced the amounts to fit my test batch. (The amounts I used made a 11 x 16 x 2,5 cm sheet of Rice Krispies Treats)





Rice Krispies Treats:

1 tbsp    margarine
80 g       marshmallows
4 dl        rice cereal

Melt the margarine on a low heat

Add marshmallows...

...and stir...

...until the marshmallows are completely melted

Remove from heat and mix in the rice cereal until fully coated

Spread the mixture onto a sheet of baking paper, and use the paper to press firmly into shape. Let cool.

Greetings from Manchester!

My friends and family surprised me completely by organising me a trip (and spending money) to the Cake And Bake Show in Manchester this April.

The first day after receiving the present was a blur. Where are they sending me? And all by myself? The rest of the time though (all month and a half of it) was spent planning the actual trip.

Now the trip is behind me and I'm still whoozy because of the travel sickness pills (yes, I'm that sensitive), and now I can't wait to get trying the new tools bought at the exhibition.

Different cake designs

Wedding cake designs

A white chocolate wedding cake and sugar flowers

Happy birthday to me! :)