I'm having a Peggy Porschen Moment (I wish!)

I've always wanted to attend one of Peggy Porschen's sugar flower classes, but for me, for various reasons, this wasn't practical, so, when I saw Peggy's latest book, Cakes in Bloom, I was beyond excited and pre-ordered it as soon as I could. And, as you may have noticed, things have been somewhat quiet around here since it arrived on or about 22 May 2014. The Cakes in Bloom book is full of the most stunning floral cakes complete with instructions on how to make them.

One of the best things about Peggy's books is that she includes full details, including the brands, of the cutters, veiners and colours that she used, so that you can get as close to her look as possible.

Naturally, I decided to start with a simple small cake featuring just a few sugar flowers, and then, I saw the cake on page 58 of Cakes in Bloom called "Vintage Blooms". I had always wanted to make a cake like this, with the full on sugar flower effect and decided that I was up for the challenge, even though, I have never made any wired sugar flowers before.

A little bit of practice in a few spare hours, over many weeks, maybe, months and here is one cake finished. Peggy's style leaves space between the flowers to give a light and airy look so that the light can shine through the flowers and I tried to do this with my sugar flower arrangement too.

Peggy provides really clear instructions in her book, but, reading a book is never going to instantly provide me with the years of experience or the eye for subtle balance of colour that Peggy has. Peggy's flowers form a beautiful dome shape on her cake and although I haven't achieved the same shape on my cake, I am happy with the result, considering these are the first wired sugar flowers I have made and used to decorated a cake.  Although, I know that when I look back at this cake is a year or two, I will probably cringe and want to make it all over again - a little bit better.

A special thank you to my lovely and talented husband Gareth, for helping me take the cake pictures above.

To see more about the stages of making this cake, keep reading!

This cake required the following sugar flowers

One wired full blown rose (not shown here)

Three rose buds in different stages of opening cut, made, dusted and steamed

10 rose leaves cut, veined, wired, dusted and steamed

20 hydrangeas cut, veined, wired, dusted and steamed

40 tiny white stephanotis, cut shaped and dusted with white for extra brightness

When I first started making sugar flowers I though that it would be the making of the flowers that would be the difficult part. Whilst making sugar flowers, can be tricky even these ones here that are relatively simple, it turns out that that is not the hard part. The hard part is in fact arranging the sugar flowers on a cake.

Faced with a cake and a good few handfuls of roses, hydrangeas and stephanotis is rather daunting. Where to start? I followed Peggy's instructions and start by arranging my flowers and leaves into sub-assemblies.

Groups of three hydrangeas

Groups of three leaves

Groups of three stephanotis.

I took my sub-assemblies and started at the middle of the cake working my way outwards to arrange the flowers and I think that I just about got away with it. If I was making the cake again, I might try arranging all the flowers into one bouquet, before adding it to the cake, which is the way Peggy did hers and see how that works out.

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Naked Glamorous Chocolate Brownies

You know how I like to glam up my chocolate brownies, so they don't feel left out among all the uber gorgeous cupcakes, well, I was inspired by the trend for naked cakes, that seem to be so popular lately, to make a naked glamorous chocolate brownie. And here they are.

 I think these are the most glamorous of the glamorous brownies yet. I used the hand moulded fondant roses, that I have only just learnt to make and wrote about in this post.

I use these little star shaped flowers a lot as filler flowers or little extra decorations. There is a little mini tutorial on how to make them here. The leaves are just made with a standard rose leaf plunger cutter.

What do you think? Glamorous enough for you? Gooey and chocolatey enough for you?

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Sugar Roses

Is there anything that you are so afraid of doing, that you daren't even start, just in case, you are no good at it, and, if you were no good at it, that could be the end of everything that you are trying to achieve. Well, for me that is the sugar rose. The rose has always been my favourite flower and I see so many beautiful sugar roses, that I want to be able to emulate, but, I can't even begin to try for fear of failing.

I don't know whether you saw her, but a little while back Peggy Porschen was on Paul Hollywood's Pies and Puds (a TV programme) and Peggy gave Paul a quick demonstration of how to make hand moulded fondant roses. Whilst they were chatting, Peggy mentioned, that when looking for new staff, one of the things she does, is get them to make these roses. The prospective staff make ten and Peggy looks to see if there is an improvement between the first and the last.

This little snippet was just the motivation I needed to have a go. I felt, I didn't need to make ten perfect roses, I just need rose number ten to be an improvement on rose number one. The next time I had a spare hour, I resolved to make 10 hand moulded roses, As it happened I ran out of time after the first six. I say six, I made quite a lot more than 6, but, most were scrunched up and started again. The first six I made, that survived, are these peachy coloured ones that you can see above and below. I have to say that I felt a little disheartened, they weren't really looking the way I wanted them too and I couldn't see much improvement. In fact the first one that I made was probably the best.

Rather than throwing a strop and chucking the lot out of the window, I decided to do a little research and do you know what? I discovered, that if you look closely and critically at the hand moulded fondant roses that others have made, they are not always that perfect, but somehow when combined with other decorations on a cake, they manage to look beautiful.

Some roses, do manage to always be beautiful and perfect and I started a new Pinterest board for different types of perfect sugar roses for when I need reference or inspiration.

These red roses are my second attempt at the hand moulded roses that I tried a couple of weeks after the peachy ones, I decided to make them smaller in size and just make a bud style of rose, that is, a centre and three petals. This lovely red colour is Beau sugar paste's "Vintage Rose", this is quite a soft paste, so I added a little CMC powder to help firm the paste up a bit.

I'm happier with these, I'm going to try them on some cakes and see how they look.

I think every cake decorator has their own style of hand moulded rose, it becomes a very personal thing and it is possible to recognise some cake makers from their distinctive roses.

Once you start to get the hang of it, the making of these little roses starts to become quite addictive. I had another go with these ivory ones.  I thought I would try them with a darker centre for a little variety.

When I have made another few hundred, I may have some roses to be truly proud of, hopefully, these are good enough for now.

just using a different brand of sugar paste /  fondant gives these roses a different look. These ivory coloured ones are made with Squires Kitchen sugar paste. This already has a little gum tragacanth in it, so I didn't add anything else. This sugar paste was softer than that for the red roses that I made above, so they have a softer frillier look to them.

Making the Roses

The only equipment you need for these is your hands and an A4 plastic wallet (the sort you normally use for filing things in ring binders). Start by cutting down the side and bottom of the plastic wallet, so that it is just joined down one of the longer sides.

Next, make three little balls of sugar paste and a sausage shape

Place them inside your plastic wallet and squash them flat. Then use your thumb along one edge to make it thinner

Roll up the flattened sausage shape to make the centre of the rose bud

Next, add the petals, overlapping them.

Some things I particularly noticed from my research:

- The spiral in the centre is the keystone to a good looking rose

- Keep the petals in close to the centre

- Don't let the petals rise too far above the centre

Roll the base of the rose between your fingers to achieve the bud shape and remove the excess sugar paste.

Use your fingers to gently tease back the tops of the petals and then place them on a foam mat to harden until ready to use

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Triple Rose Lemon Polenta Cookies

We have a little tradition at work, where we bring cakes in on our Birthday to share with the other members of our team. Persoanlly, I have always thought that this is a bit backwards and that people should be buying cake for me on my Birthday, but, you know how it is, you go with the flow.


One of my colleagues in another team, brought in some very delicious home baked cakes, I managed to sneakily blag one via one of my friends who is in her team. These cakes were lemon, polenta and blueberry. Well, you know what, these were some of the most delicious cakes I have ever tasted, so obviously I immediately confessed to having snuck one of her cakes and very politely asked for the recipe and this was produced the following day.

I have baked the recipe for the lemon, polenta and blueberry cake twice now, I to develop and perfect a variation on the frosting for these, to make it both delicious and pipe - able before I can share those with you ...

I was however, inspired by the lemon, polenta and blueberry cakes to make some lemon polenta cookies. I used a variation of my simple sugar cookie recipe with lemon flavouring added and about a third of the flour replaced by polenta. The polenta gives the cookies a beautiful colour as well as a lovely crunch. Depending on what is in you cupboard or fridge, you can either use lemon zest for flavouring or a teaspoon or so from a bottle of lemon flavouring


Recipe

200g / 8oz butter or block margarine

200g / 8oz caster / superfine sugar

zest of 1 lemon or 1 teaspoon of lemon flavouring

1 egg

125g / 5oz quick cook polenta (corn meal)

275g / 11oz plain flour

Mix the polenta / corn meal into the flour then make and bake as per these sugar cookies

Decoration

Equipment

Rose cupcake topper mould (I used one from Karen Davies)

Modelling paste

Petal Shaped Cookie cutter

Petal dust. (I used Primrose, Lemon Ice and Spring Green all by Sugarflair)

Couple of clean paintbrushes

Edible glue or piping gel

This is the lovely mould that I used from Karen Davies. This mould is intended to be a cupcake topper, Karen shows you how to use it herself here. 

You can either mould a the full circle in the mould and then cut out the shape with a petal shaped cutter, or just mould the roses in the centre and cut out a flat petal shape from rolled fondant. I used the latter method.

What a difference a little modelling paste makes

You can use ordinary fondant for making these moulds, modelling fondant gives a much crisper and more detailed finish. Modelling paste is fondant or sugar paste that has had "stuff" added to it to make it stretchier and less sticky. You can also get sugar flower paste, this has about twice as much of the "stuff" added to it which is why you can made modelling paste by mixing ordinary fondant and sugar flower paste. For a very finely detailed mould, you can also use sugar flower paste for moulding, be aware that sugar flower paste can dry rather hard and may not be that nice to eat.

If you can't get hold of modelling or sugar flower paste, you can get better results by freezing the fondant in the mould.


This mould has been made with ordinary fondant or sugar paste

This mould has been made with modelling paste. (I used one by Squires Kitchen)

What a difference a little petal dust and lustre makes

I started by painting the leaves in Spring Green, then the centre of the roses with the Primrose colour and finally brushed all over the roses with the Lemon Ice

Finally, assemble the cookies using edible glue or pipping gel to stick the different elements together.

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Dark Chocolate Rose Cake

It is carers week in England this week and in support of this we had a charity bake sale at work. The charities supported were an alzheimer's charity and a carers charity. I know that I should know the names of the charities, but, it has been a bit of a busy week and I forgot to make a note of them. You're here to see the cake anyway, so hopefully you'll forgive me as I did help raise some money with this cake. I am going to tell you about this chocolate and banana cake that I made today and I'll tell you about the Earl Grey Tea cupcakes that I also took to the bake sale another day

Underneath this chocolate frosting, is a four layer cake. Two layers chocolate and two layers banana. Both these sponges are based on a traditional english victoria sponge recipe. I wish I had a picture of the inside to show you, but I didn't think it right to cut a slice before taking it to the bake sale, so you'll have to make do with more chocolate roses

The recipe for a traditional English victoria sponge has been passed down from mothers to their daughters through many generations and once, you know it you will never need a written recipe to make it again.

For the cakes you need equal quantities of:

Butter or margarine
Caster / Superfine Sugar
Cake or self raising flour
6 Eggs (You will need 3 eggs for each pair of cakes)

And

3 bananas
50 grams / 2ozs cocoa powder

You will also need two 8" cake pans, lined with baking paper or sprayed with your favourite non-stick baking spray

Make the banana cake first
Start by weighing three eggs, in their shells. You will probably find that all three weigh between 150 and 200 grams / around 8 ozs

Next weigh out the same weight (as the eggs) of the butter or margarine and sugar. Cream these together in your mixer, with a hand mixer or a wooden spoon if you are feeling strong. You want to cream these together for a good five minutes or so until they look quite pale in colour.

Crack the eggs into a bowl or jug and whisk gently with a fork to break them up a little, then slowly add these to the butter and sugar and beat them in.

Weigh out the same amount of flour and carefully fold this into the mixture. One you have added the flour only mix until it is just incorporated, over mixing can make the cake turn out a bit tough.

If when you are mixing in the eggs, the mixture looks like it is separating, add a couple of spoons of flour with the eggs.

To make this into banana cake, add one banana for each egg, mash the up with a fork first and then just stir them in. Over ripe bananas are best.

Divide the mixture between the two pans and then bake at 180 C / 350 F for about 25 minutes. Check it after 20 minutes and it may need up to 30 minutes. The cake is cooked when it feels springy to the touch.

Next the chocolate cake
Many modern recipes use quite large amounts of chocolate and as a result of this can be quite expensive to make. This is a very traditional and simple to make version that just uses cocoa powder for the chocolate flavour.

Repeat everything as for the banana cake except before weighing out the flour, weigh out 50 grams / 2 ozs of cocoa powder then make this up to the weight of the eggs with the flour. Oh, and don't add the bananas. Bake it just the same too.

Now the piece de resistance -

The Chocolate Fudge Icing

This is what you need:
250ml / 1 cup whipping cream65g / 3 tblsp golden syrup350g / 12 oz  high-quality dark/semi-sweet chocolate1 tsp vanilla extract75g / 5 tblsps unsalted butter, cold,cut into cubes

Start by chopping up the dark chocolate and put it into a large bowl.

Next bring the cream and the golden syrup to the boil in a small saucepan. When boiling remove from heat and (being careful because it is hot) poor into the bowl over the chocolate.

Now leave it there for one whole minute or even a little longer. Use a timer.

The chocolate will now be starting to melt

Using a balloon whisk, starting in the centre of the bowl, make very small circular movements to gradually incorporate the chocolate into the cream. Be patient, it will look like nothing is happening for quite some time, then you will start to see glossy chocolate ganache forming. Now, you can start to make your movements bigger and stir slowly till all incorporated. (Patience really is the key here, not a job for a day you are in a rush)

Finally stir in the cubes of chocolate and the vanilla extract.

At this stage you will have a runny chocolate mixture. If you want a smooth look, just pour this over the cake. (Put the cake on a cooling rack with a tray underneath). If you want to pipe the icing, leave it to firm up. In the UK an hour or two at room temperature is usually about right, if you live in a warmer climate, you may want to put it in the fridge for a while. Keep checking it. You want it firm enough to hold its shape without being too firm to pipe. 

Now to layer them up
When the baked cakes are cool layer them up with either a little of the chocolate fudge icing or I decided to use some Dulche De Leche (caramel) from a jar.I piped the roses onto the cake using a Wilton 1M nozzle, a arge star shaped nozzle.When piping the roses, I imagine I am piping each one onto a cupcake. Start with the one in the centre and just work your way out. Slap some more icing on to the sides and smooth. You would not believe how chocolatey this cake smells! Job done.

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Golden Rosemantic Brownies

These are the second brownies I have made in my quest for a more glamorous brownie. I wanted to make something small and dinky for my friends who just like a little taste of something delicious and chocolatey without ruining their figures.

If you want to have a go at these, you will need:

1. Chocolate Brownies baked in an appropriately sized sheet pan for your recipe. I used this recipe from the Hummingbird Bakery Cookbook
2. Chocolate Sugar Paste
3. An embossing sheet with a rose pattern, I used one from the Floral Texture set by Autumn Carpenter
4. Rose Mould (The one shown here is by First Impressions)
5. Heart cutter (This one is part of the "From the Heart" set by Wilton

Metallic Gold Edible Paint (This one is by Rainbow Dust)p-lo0k~"? []'|

You will need to start by cutting out the heart shaped brownies with your cutter. This is best done the day after baking, as the brownies can be quite crumbly when just baked.

From then on, you make these the same way as my heart cookies click here for the instructions, except that you will need to paint the sugar paste, or the rose with the edible gold paint. The gold paint dries quickly, so you need to paint it on quickly and don't go back over any areas because this usually pulls off the paint.

Enjoy!

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