Shirley's Party Advice Part 7 - how did they all get so big...

[stealthsquiggle]

Part 7 - link to previous one to follow!

Can I ask your opinion on something please!

As we're not doing a traditional wedding I'm not sure what to do about drinks. If we were doing the usual thing we'd get wine for the meal and champagne for toasts...

Anyway, so it's evening start with a buffet and a normal bar.

Unfortunately we can't afford to do a free bar. We could either not pay for any drinks at all or we could get enough champagne/prosecco for a glass each and have bottles in ice buckets for when people arrive or we can put a bit of money behind the bar - enough for a drink each.

Which one should we do?

I think the usual thing is to give everyone a glass of something bubbly as they arrive and then leave them to buy their own drinks from then on. Friends did this when they got married last year and it went down well. We all got to toast the new couple with that first drink and then got on with ordering our own at the bar

Bubbly stuff on arrival has more impact for the same budget than money behind the bar, IMHO.

Ok, Blathers - cake - what are you trying to do and what is the problem?

I have marzipanned 3 out of 9 Christmas cakes today, made bags for 2 out of 9, and have yet to decide how to decorate them....

I want to do a treasure chest cake. Am struggling to work out how though. It needs to feed 20-ish at the party. Is 3 rectangular cakes too much? 2 for the body of the chest and another for the lid. I'm thinking I'm going to need a hidden cake board under the lid cake so that I can prop it open to stuff treasure in. Was planning to use melted chocolate to cover the cake and drag a skewer through it to make woodgrain and then roll out icing for bands around the chest?

A bit like this

Yes to 3 cakes so that the chest is deeper than the lid, and I would do it as described in that link, except that I would carve the lid cake rather than adding a ton of icing to make it domed. You definitely need a thin cake board and some dowels to hold the lid up - just hide the dowels with strategically placed coins.

Yes, definitely planning to carve the lid rather than add icing. Dowels were also in the plan. I've got tonnes of sweeties to hide them with

Do you think the chocolate wood will work?

DD wants chocolate cake and I'll layer with chocolate frosting so chocolate covering would go.

I was planning on putting the lot on a gold cake board and crushing up some rich tea biscuits to make 'sand' to sprinkle around the chest.

Chocolate covering or just buttercream - I have never tried to cover a cake with pure chocolate TBH.

Rich tea biscuits make food sand - all the better because this is one cake that doesn't have to be transported.

food sand ?

good sand.

I'm sure I've done pure chocolate when I was younger. Been a long time though. Chocolate frosting could work though.

I notice that cake used brown sugar for the sand. Maybe I'll mix some in with my rich tea sand?

Rich tea sand worked better for me, as long as you have the food processor and the patience to grind them very fine. I guess a mixture could work too.

Whilst buttercream or similiar would work just fine. Im getting frustrated now...its been two years...two years we've been doing this and you still have the fear of fondant?

Theres me thinking brown sugarpaste, scribe or emboss woodgrain into it, wash with a dark brown colour to highlight the grain and then you can handle the cake and manipulate it into position etc not squishing your cream up. If im thinking it Stealth must have her head in her hands weeping..

But yes buddy, buttercream would work brill xx

LOL at DW. I hadn't actually thought that, although I wouldn't do it with buttercream myself because it's a PITA to handle. I am not in a strong position to lecture, though, as my icing - hating DS has decided he quite likes buttercream, so his scuba cake was mostly buttercream apart from the diver, sharks, octopus etc. (in other words the sea was buttercream!)

I am entirely lacking in inspiration for teachers' cakes. As it stands they are going to be a slight variation on ones I did a few years ago, hoping that there are not many (if any) of the same teachers involved. I will be away 4 days of the last week of term, so they have to be finished this week.

Yes, the fondant fear is still strong here. I just can't seem to work it and then I get to making the cake last minute to keep the cake fresh and the extra stress is just too much to handle!

Wash dark brown what into it exactly?

I may have to come down n practice with you! I made madeira friday the 22nd it was still absolutely fine, nice even on friday the 29th but i threw it anyway.

If you have brown sugarpaste, you can let some gel colour down with vodka/gin and wash the "paint" over the paste. If you scribe woodgrain gently into the icing then the paint collects in all your wood effect and brings out the detail. You need to remember that a cake under paste is being kept frin the air etc so its a great way of making a cake ahead because the cake is safe inside and the icing benefits from hardening time.

I think I may have a solution for the fear - for this cake, at least. I am assuming that it is big sheets of fondant which you find hard to handle? In which case - don't use them! Cover the cake in a thin layer of chocolate buttercream, and then put the wood on one plank at a time. That was how I did the pirate ship

OK, Ok, I'll give it a go!

I bought a roasting tin to make the cakes in today as it was just the right size. Need to visit the cake shop near me to buy supplies next.

So, shopping list:
Brown sugarpaste
Brown gel colour
Gold sugarpaste for the banding
Anything else?

Need a lovely, gooey chocolate cake recipe for the cake inside next.

I've bought a JatNP table cover today just in case I don't get round to the wrap because I'm farting about with sugarpaste too...

Oh and gold cake board - gold would be best right?
Mini, thin cake board for lid layer
Cake dowels

G&B's inmate's chocolate cake:

CAKE:

500g plain flour

500g caster sugar
1 tsp bicarbonate of soda
1 tbsp baking powder

1/2 tsp salt
150g cocoa powder
150ml buttermilk
150ml vegetable oil
4 large eggs
1 tsp vanilla extract
7floz water

Method:

Preheat the oven to 180 C/350 F gas mark 4. Butter and flour the
baking tins. (2x20cm /8" cake tins with deep sides ) or play around
with one 8" deep square or 9" deep round tin
Sift all the dry ingredients into a large mixing bowl.
Add the remaining ingredients and whisk using a mixer or with a
strong arm! for about 3 minutes.
Bake for 35-40 mins (longer for single 8" deep sq or 9" rd sized tins)

Is the board going to show at all? Does it matter what colour it is?

The board will hopefully be hidden. It'll have cake on top and I was only planning on opening the chest by a few centimeters to spill some treasure out so you shouldn't see anything of the underside

You might need gold paint or lustre dust if you want the bands to be shiny gold.