Cake help please!!

[MrsBun]

Right I need some help desperately. I have never decorated a cake before and not sure where to start but want to make one for my daughters 2nd birthday at the end of this month. These are my ideas:

I have a 10 inch round tin and a 6 inch (roughly) heart shaped one. I have this idea in mind first time I have ever done a link and praying it works....please work?! but obviously mine would have a heart shape instead of a second round one on top.

From research people seem to suggest that ganache is nicer than butter cream or whatever it's called. So I was thinking of making the cakes with a chocolate madeira recipe (don't have one yet) in layers (3 for each cake perhaps (will this be a good height)) with possibly jam in between and the ganache over the outside. I have found a recipe for fondant icing made with veg shortening, icing sugar, melted marshmallows and a bit of water (made in a kichenaid (check).

Things I am not so clear on are - is it far easier if the discs are frozen? Does maderia cake tend to dome when baking? Do I just turn it out upside down or cook it at a lower temp or both? Is a heart shape going to be hard to cover with fondant? I want to cut out hearts and stars with cutters (I have these) but how do I stick them on?

Problems - I live in the tropics and have read that a fondant iced cake doesnt work well in a fridge. I could leave the aircon on 24/7 I guess. There is no cake supply shop here but I can get foil covered board (about 2mm thick. Shall I just cover that in fondant too? I have seen writing icing pens. Are they effective - easily neat?? Do I really need support dowels? Can the top cake sit on a board on top of the base cake?

So I think my plan is: A pale pink covered cake board, A white round cake with pink stars on, and the same pale pink heart covered either in white polka dots or white hearts. If I can find a white icing pen then I will write her name and age on the base. I can't get paste colouring. If I am only needing pale pink will I be ok with liquid food colouring?

Please help me. Am I talking rubbish? Am I totally bonkers?

Shamless bump.

Ok, I have now found paste colouring so that's a start.

oh please someone help - please??

Mrs Bun, I'm not a great cake maker so can't offer much help, but your link didn't work very well - it went onto redirect. So I've redone it for you in the hope that someone more helpful will come along

Mrs Bun's link

Is it the pink christening one you want to adapt?

yes similar idea. just thoght it was easier to link than to write etc. hopefully someone can help? thanks for linking better though! sorry- one handed typing - feeding newborn.

Hi mrs Bun,

I think your plans sound lovely - although possibly ambitious for a first time cake decoration? (I'm no expert but have done a few things in the past which were always harder than I initially expected).

To stick icing to icing I think it's most common to use melted apricot jam.

Can you get hold of a cake decoration book?

In my experience icing pens don't work well on fondant - they are much more effective on very hard royal icing.

I am also a bit confused as you go from talking about a ganash and then to fondant icing - I wouldn't advise using both. I'm sure fondant icing would be best for what you describe - although have you got anyway you could buy some - making your own sounds very brave to me!

Good luck

HTH

Hi MrsBun, I'm afraid I'm not a cake expert either so can't offer you specific advice, but thought I would give your thread a bump.

FWIW, I have to say that your plan is really complicated and very ambitious, especially if you are a novice cake maker and your dd is only 2. I can totally understand where you're coming from, cos I've wanted to make really special cakes for my dc's in the past, especially when they were really little and wouldn't care what the cake looked like anyway

You may not want to hear this but you could always make a lovely victoria sponge by sandwiching two 10" cakes together with jam/butter cream, then cover the whole thing with pink ready-to-roll icing (if you can get it where you are), and decorate with sweeties, or sit a little dolly on the top. It will still taste delicious and your dd will still love it - but a lot less stress for you.

Sorry to rain on your parade, and your idea does sound lovely, if jolly tricky.

OK, thank you for your replies! I can't buy fondant icing here but have seen a tutorial on you tube and it looked relatively simple to make. If I do a victoria sponge and cover it, what is the difference to what I have suggested? Is madeira cake harder to bake? I am thinking that maybe I make the round base layer and ice that first and if I find it manageable continue with the heart one.

The ganache plus fondant idea was off a cake baking website - it said that you can get much neater edges with it?

In fact I have watched quite a few tutorials on you tube so is probably as effective if not more than reading a book (live on small island with completely rubbish book supply)

I've never made a madeira cake so I don't know the difference between that and an ordinary sponge. I have a feeling that madeira may be a bit drier - but I may be completely wrong.

My suggestion was to simplify the shape by making an ordinary two layer sponge cake with icing of some sort in the middle, and then the whole thing covered with one colour of icing - rather than different layers in different shapes which would be much harder to ice.

If you do go for my safer option, the icing should drape easily over the cake, and you wouldn't need to worry about neat edges. I don't know about homemade fondant icing, but with ready-made icing you can smoooth it very easily with your hands so that it looks neat - certainly over a round cake anyway.

Again I don't know the difference between ganache and butter cream (no butter maybe) but you could put a layer of either under the fondant icing quite easily - just spread the first layer over with a palate knife, and then drape the fondant over the top (if fondant rolls out easily that is).

Sorry - that sounds rather confusing - hope it answers your questions.

I feel like I am getting more confused the more I think about it. I assumed that I iced the cakes individually and then sat one on top of the other?

Well, you would need to do that if they were two different shapes, but not if they were two of the same shape.

You cannot just sit one cake on top of another - they will collapse with the weight. You need to put dowels in - four in each cake.

You need to put a call out for COV, Olihan, Stealthsquiggle, Slubber, there are a few others that do fab cakes too.

There is a cake thread going, hang on and and I will find it for you..

here, you will get some fantastic advice

Bellavita, we are talking about a sponge cake here, not heavy fruit. Why can one layer of sponge not be sandwiched on top of another with some icing/jam in between, eg in a victoria sponge?

She is talking about doing a madeira cake which is heavier than a victoria sponge. With all the ganache or fondant they will be heavy.

She asked for advice and I gave it. I am not an experienced cake baker, but I am not a novice either.

Thank you Bella, I will have a look at that link. Don't think I will be able to get proper dowel here so will have to raid the hardware shop and get them to cut wooden ones for me.

I appreciate any advice - I realise my OP was possibly a tad confusing mirroring how I am feeling about this project!

you are mad

she is 2

you could bake a muffin and stick a candle in it and she would still be wowed.

in the nicest possible way, get real

The main difference between madeira and sponge other than density is that sponge is actually edible!!

For sticking fondant to fondant I would use - water!!

For a 2nd birthday I wouldn't do 2 tiers unless you are throwing a huge party. Nor would I attempt a 2 tier cake as my first cake.

Like someone said, cover a sponge (I just did a starwars cake and the man I made it for hates butter creams so was filled with ganache and 'crumb-coated' (ie thinly coated to stop the crumbs getting on the sugarpaste) also with ganache)cut a few circles/stars/hearts out of fondant, dab of water on the back, stick to cake! Pink ribbons around the base or middle tied in a nice bow.

I personally wouldnt use pens on fondant! I can't pipe for toffee, it's cutters all the way where writing is concerned for me!

if you want to colour a cake with sugar oaste quickly.use cake colouring mixed with a small amount of gin and then dab on cake with a real sponge. it looks beautiful. I do alot of cakes like that and it looks really delicate....

dont know if you can see it on my profile picture of the christening caake with run outs. I used the sponge with pale pink and just dabbed it on . it only takes minutes to dry and it looks more delicate than solid colouring and alot less messy.

I really want to do this. I don't care that she is 2. I know it's for her birthday but It's also for my brain if that makes sense. We have lots of friends and family coming and I wanted to have a challenge and like baking so I thought I would teach myself how to decorate. Is that so bad?

Right, so Madeira doesnt taste that great? So should I do 3 thin all in one sponges and sandwich them together with ganache. I have seen a method where this process is done in a deep tin lined with cling film and the layers stacked and filled within. It is then wrapped up and chilled. Or can I freeze it? Then once frozen/chilled doing a second layer of ganaache and chilling and then the fondant. Is this the best way to get smooth sides?

Thank you alypaly for your tip.