Cake Decorating with Marina Sousa

This weekend I was lucky enough to be able to take a class with the incredible Marina Sousa. Marina is from California and is the owner of Just Cake in Capitola. She has been on tons of Food Network challenges, (winning many) and was a finalist on Last Cake Standing. (Personally, I thought she SHOULD HAVE WON! …and I thought that even BEFORE I met her.) James Roselle (also of Food Network fame) was there as well and he was teaching a different class on flower making (which I was not able to take). Wow, are his flowers gorgeous!

To be honest, my hands were so messy for most of the weekend, I didn’t bother taking pictures. But hopefully I will be able to replicate some of the techniques in the future… and WITH a camera. First, James and Marina gave a demonstration with Isomalt. Isomalt is a low calorie sugar-like substance that is used to make beautiful jewel-like crystals for cake decorating. To use it you heat the isomalt with some water over high heat, stirring constantly with a wooden or silicone spoon. As it heats up, you can continue to add more isomalt until you have the amount you will need. Continue heating and it will start to turn clear and bubble. Continue to heat it until it reaches temperature of 340F. (Use Caution- it is very HOT and you don’t want to burn yourself.)  You can then pour it into a pyrex measuring cup so you can work with it. Let the bubbles settle for a second and then you can pour it into molds. (Be sure to use molds that are suitable for isomalt) Should you wish to color the isomalt, you should do so after it comes to temperate, but before you pour it into the molds. Additionally, you should use a water-based color. When you pour it into a silicone bead string mold, if done correctly, the isomalt will drop down into the the mold. That is how you know you did it right- when it drops down. After it cools, you can cover it with disco dust for a Blinged-out effect.

After the isomalt demo, we made petals from a mixture of fondant and gum paste. We used a veiner from James Roselles’s line that he produces with NY Cake. I have to be honest, the Parrot Tulip Veiner was amazing! It wasn’t the list of supplies we needed, but I wish it was, because it was great and now I want one! All you needed to do was cut out a circle with a basic cookie cutter, put it in the veiner, sandwich it together, peel it out and leave it to dry (James gave us plastic egg carton-type things… they looked like something you would use for deviled eggs). We used a large flower cutter, to cut out the basic shape of a larger flower, and then veined the petals. Then I left it overnight to dry in a bowl, so it would have a curved shaped. When it was dry I then interspersed different color petals, to form a larger fuller flower. To finish the flower, I took a cooled isomalt jewel, dunked it in disco dust and stuck it in the center, affixing it with royal icing to act as edible glue.

Flower close-up

For the bottom layer I incorporated an embossed pattern. I covered the cake in fondant. Then, while it was still fresh, I took a textured rolling pin (rolling pin with a pattern on it) and rolled it around the side of the cake. I had to be sure to match up the seams on the pattern when rolling. To offset the pattern, I dry dusted pearl dust on the cake using an old unused blush brush.  (Thanks James for showing me how to do this and making it look good.)

For the middle layer, instead of covering the section with fondant, I cut a large ribbon or rectangle and wrapped the fondant around. I then used a ruler to imprint lines and painted the sections, alternating colors, using pink and grey (moondust) color. I then wrapped darker pink petals (again, from the fabulous veiner) around the base of the layer.

For the top layer, I needed a design that would allow me to carry the top cake separately. I just wanted to include something that carried the pinks and silver-grey colors throughout. I just rolled out some more pink fondant and cut large and small circles out of the fondant. In the small circles, I imprinted the centers with dragees (edible silver balls) and then affixed them to the centers with royal icing. I then took the larger circles and made a boarder around the base of the top layer with them. Inside, I affixed the smaller pink circles with large dragees in them. Then I took additional pink circles, with smaller dragees, and affixed them above the larger circles, in an alternating pattern.

To finish the cake, I took more pink fondant and molded them into smaller pearls. I them wrapped those around the base of the entire structure and affixed them with royal icing. After that all that was left to do was step back and take a picture… of yeah, and eat!

Thanks again to Marina and James for their knowledge and help this weekend. They really are masters of their craft and it is amazing to see their own creations.

Marina and Me

 

 

 

Fondant Cake with Cornelli Lace

Fondant cake w yellow free-form Cornelli Lace royal icing

Today was a day of extras. I had an extra cake and was looking for something easy but interesting to do with it. I also have extra royal icing lying around. (It keeps for ages, so store your extra in an airtight container) I had seen cakes decorated with this free-form pattern before. Apparently, it is called Cornelli Lace, which I didn’t realize, and it is not supposed to touch. (ops, didn’t realize that on a few strings) You may have seen it on wedding cakes, with a white-on-white pattern used to mimic the lace of the wedding gown. I just thought it would be a quick and easy way to be decorative. I simply took my already made yellow royal icing and number 3 tip (You can use a #1 tip for thinner, more delicate lines), put it into a piping bag and just made a free-form  pattern design. I debated leaving the top plain white fondant, but I was having so much fun with the free-form royal icing, I decided to pipe the top as well as the sides. Just a simple, easy way to use your extras for good decorative use!

Carrot Bread

Fresh out if the oven! Carrot Bread

I am not sure why I am on a quick bread kick… maybe because it is fall, maybe because I was looking for something interesting to do with veggies, or maybe it is because they are quick and easy to make. I love things that are not fussy. My latest creation is a carrot bread. Similar to a carrot cake, it gave me something to do with the carrots that were sitting in my fridge without much inspiration.

Again, a fairly easy recipe to pull together, minus the almost shredding of a finger in the carrot grating process. I chose a recipe that called for more rather than less carrots, just because I was trying to use up a bunch (though I probably only used three or four).

In a mixer combine:

2 eggs

1 Cups sugar

2/3 Cups oil

1 tsp vanilla

In a separate bowl sift together:

1 1/2 Cups flour

3/4 tsp baking soda

1/2 tsp salt

1 tsp cinnamon

3/4 tsp nutmeg*

1/4 tsp All Spice*

pinch of ground clove*

*The original recipe called for just nutmeg, but I like the mixture of allspice as well as the flavor of clove. You can mix and match to whatever your preference is. You can also omit the vanilla if you choose.

Combine flour mixture with oil/egg mixture

Then add in to your taste:

1 1/2 Cups grated/shredded carrots

1/2 Cups- 1 Cups walnuts (optional)

1/2-1 Cups raisins (optional)

1/2-1 C chocolate chips (just because I seem to add chocolate chips to everything… I mean, do they make everything better?! But again, these are optional as well.)

Pour into a loaf pan and Bake at 350F for 1 hour.

I just learned another baking tip this week- and again, it is optional. After you remove the bread from the oven, put a plate or something over the top and leave it there as it cools. It will help it retain the steam, keeping it moist and delicious.

Alternately, you can make muffins (about a 20-25 min baking time). And remember, these are healthy! They have carrots!!!

Cake with Red & White Flowers

Cake with Red & White Flowers

This is a cake I made recently.

True red, I mean really RED red, is hard to achieve when tinting icing, so to get the color I used AmeriColor Christmas Red. It really helped obtain a RED color, rather than a variation of pink.

It was also quite warm in my kitchen when I was trying to decorate the cake. You need stiff icing to create flowers, and warm kitchens do not help; they act to melt and wilt the flowers. One thing I did was put the frosting in the fridge for about 10 min or so to chill and harden it a bit before trying to make the roses. Once I made each individual rose, I put it on a cookie sheet and popped it into the freezer until I was ready to put them onto the cake. This helped keep their shape ensuring they did not melt in my overheated kitchen. (My favorite video that teaches you how to make a buttercream rose is from The Cake Eccentric.)

Just a few tips to help with the decorating.