Chocolate Rainbow Drip Cake

Every year I view my Birthday as a chance to bake an over the top cake. They're never perfect, but I enjoy baking them and they're great learning experiences! This year I used my favourite chocolate cake recipe by Whisk Kid, and stacked the 4 layers with standard vanilla buttercream. I then iced the cake using six different shades of buttercream to produce a rainbow effect! So pleased with how this worked out. I made a Cadbury Dairy Milk ganache and spooned it on top to create the drip cake (I used 50/50 chocolate and cream, but I think it could have done with a bit longer to cool so they drips look less "watery").

I decorated the cake with smarties, twirls and flakes. I bought candy melts in red, blue and yellow and melted them together to create the rainbow chocolate shards (and the flower!) I was a bit disappointed with how the colours muddied somewhat when making orange, green and purple, but couldn't justify the cost of buying every colour individually! I also made the rainbow meringues to decorate the cake! To save mixing six different colours of meringue, I painted lines of food colouring gel down the inside of the piping bag before adding the white meringue. I'm quite pleased with how they turned out :) Oh, and it was yummy!!

Bunny Rabbit Birthday Cake - Smudge

It was my Birthday last month! For me, this means a chance to bake something way too over the top to justify at any other time :) This year, I decided on a 3D rabbit... The cake is chocolate, and made using Whisk Kid's amazing recipe. The head was baked in a bowl, the body is three round layers (carved), and the feet and tail are cupcakes. Standard chocolate buttercream and fondant icing... The arms and ears were shaped using "cake truffle", that is a mix of cake crumbs and ganache, as if making cake pops (it tastes AMAZING). The tail is covered in mini marshmallows, and I attached the fondant in pieces so it looks like a stitched teddy. I used my sewing tracing wheel to get the effect! And I merged some coloured fondants to add interest to the paws and ears, using plunger cutters. The whiskers are spaghetti (!), and like Uncle Bulgaria I included a mini cake for candle celebrations, complete with a carrot - well, he is a bunny! And because every rabbit must have a name, he's called Smudge. Lessons learned? Use a fondant smoother - the body looks lumpy; sterilise cake dowels before use so they don't introduce bacteria - d'oh! But, he was very sturdy structurally, and the fondant was easier to work with when I didn't roll it too thin!! The adventures in baking continue...

Insight

Toffee.

Curiously Cinnamon Cupcake based on this recipe, and Curiously Cinnamon Buttercream very loosely based on this recipe.

Gift from my husband.

Mixing It Up.

I don't think I've ever really talked about my baking here... But I love to bake! I love to lose myself in my kitchen, turn my music up loud and just create - and try not to care if it all goes wrong! (Although, my husband is very good at stepping in when the roofs on gingerbread houses collapse, or I max out our scales half way through adding sugar to flour...) I'm even hoping to get a stand mixer soon, which will make it easier!

As I mentioned on Facebook, it was my Birthday this weekend, and this was my Birthday cake :) The whole thing was made with this chocolate cake recipe, filled and covered in "normal" buttercream, and topped with fondant (marbled with Christmas Red and Navy gels), white chocolate buttons, and buttercream roses :)

I assembled it the night before, having never made a tiered cake before, and it stayed standing - woop!!

You can see a few other bits of my baking here, and my rather popular Minecraft cake here.

I'll resume shop postings soon, but I have a few really stressful weeks ahead of me, so sorry if I'm a bit quiet. Cheer me up though, and have a look at my shop :)