Handy Tips! and The Cheesecake Shop!

Handy Tips

Sometimes when you make a cake you may feel like you are doing something wrong or that something just is not working as well as you had hoped, or maybe you just want to know a few tips for when you are making a cake to get the best result possible. Below, I have put in a few tips that can help you when making your very own cake.

Handy tip #1:
If the recipe you are using involves cooking with butter, take the butter out of the fridge an hour or so before you use it to make it softer and easier to beat into the rest of the ingredients.

Handy tip #2:
Make the cake about 1 day before you cut and decorate the cake. This will allow the cake to cool down and be ready to eat or if you dont need to decorate the cake straight away, you can store the un-iced shapes once you have cut them; in small containers in the fridge for up to 2 days.

Handy tip #3:
Before you decorate the cake, put a thin layer of icing on a cake board and place the cake firmly ontop of the icing to keep the cake in place and prevent moving when you are icing your cake.

Handy tip #4:
Also before decorating the cake use a pastry brush to get rid of crumbs from the cake which may be sitting loose on the cake or on the board. Then during the decorating process use a damp cloth around the edges of the cake and on the cake board to clean up the icing.

Handy tip #5:
If you are making a multi level cake, put icing over the area that the peice on top will sit on to help keep the cake pieces together.


The Cheesecake Shop

If you are running out of time or simply just do not want to make a cake you can always go down to your local cake shop like Michels Patisserie. One of my favourite cake shops is the Cheese Cake Shop. They have many different types of cakes to suit any occasion.
At the Cheesecake Shop they have amazing cheesecake (of course!) and they also have amazing mud cakes, meringues and even personalised birthday cakes!
Their large variety of cakes come in different sizes and flavours to suit anyones fancy.

The Cheesecake Shop has many different stores spread around Australia.

Check out the website for the Cheesecake Shop near you and even have a look at the different sorts of cakes that they offer. So check it out at http://www.cheesecake.com.au/.

Choosing your Type

There are many different flavours of cake you can choose from when making a cake.

You could make a cheese cake, a butter cake, a mud cake and many, many more.

You can also make a cake look good on the inside by simply adding food colouring to the whole mix or even separating the cake mix into different bowls, putting a different colour in each and then putting them all together in a random or colour order in the pan. You could also just add a few chocolate chips or you can be creative and use whatever you think could work.

When choosing what type of cake you are going to make you should consider the ages of who will be eating the cake. We all know little kids can be fussy and might not be too keen on a cheesecake so going for a normal cake mix is the better way to go, or you could make an ice-cream cake, because after all, kids sure love their ice-cream!

Now I think you have the idea towards flavour and type of cakes there are. I would just like to mention something that catches my eye when decorating a cake. I absolutely love gum paste. Gum paste is a paste that you can shape into anything you can put your mind to and it is edible, and is a lot like icing. You just shape and let it dry so it is ready to be put on your cake! You can make your own gum paste and I have provided a recipe below, or you can look around at one of your local grocery stores for pre-made gum paste.

A nice gum paste recipe:

Ingredients:

·         4 cups Confectioners' Sugar, sifted (reserve 1 cup for later)

·         1 Tablespoon Gum Tragacanth (or Gum Tex)

·         1 Tablespoon Liquid Glucose

·         1 Packet Knox Gelatin

·         4 Tablespoons Warm Water (or 3 Tbs warm water + 1 Tbs lemon juice)

Steps (how to make gum paste):

1. Pour the water (or water and lemon juice) in a large bowl and add gelatin slowly. Stir until gelatin is dissolved in the water.
2. Stir in glucose slowly. You may need to microwave 20-30 seconds or heat on the stove with a double-boiler to get glucose to melt.
3. Add 3 cups of confectioners' sugar (also known as powdered suger) and gum tragacanth.
4. Mix well. I use a mixer with dough hook.
5. You'll end up with a soft, sticky dough. Store dough in a well-sealed plastic bag at room temperature overnight (if possible) for it to set.
6. Knead in the remaining 1 cup of powdered sugar and it will become soft and pliable - no longer sticky. Add more powdered sugar if it continues to feel sticky.

Gum Paste Tips:

Store your gum paste recipe mixture in a large ziplock bag while working with smaller pieces of it (or keep in bowl and cover gum paste surface with a wet towel.) This will help keep it from forming a crust. If you DO get a crust, don't worry, knead in a little confectioners' sugar.

Animal Gum Paste

Flower Gum Paste

Teddybear Gum Paste

Choosing a theme!

When choosing  a theme for your birthday cake you need to consider the age of who the cake if for and what their interests are because you don’t really want to be making a cake that’s shaped as a dinosaur for an older lady or making a barbie cake for a boy.

 Some good ideas for a young girl could be a character from one of her favourite television shows, a fairy cake, a princess or Barbie cake, a castle cake or anything girly at that.

If you want something more neutral you can always make a cake in the shape of the age that the child has turned or you could stick with the basic round or square cake and decorate it with a few sprinkles or make it covered in their favourite colour in icing or even both! If you are more into something a little more special but only have the time to do a circle or square shaped cake you can always get already make decorations and lollies to help make the cake look nice and appealing.

For a young boy some ideas you could choose can include pirates, dinosaurs, cars, something from one of their favourite television shows or maybe have it based on a sport that they like.

 As people get older the themes start to deteriorate so you can get away with making a basic shaped cake and making it look good. You can still stick with themes and just make them not so over the top or if the person the cake is for has a good sense of humour, go ahead and make it crazy!

steps to making a cake !

Birthday cakes are one of the main things that make a birthday party. Sure you can just go to the local cake shop and get a plain, boring, everyone gets it cake and stick some candles in it. But in my opinion I think that making one you have much more variety in what flavour you want it, what shape you want it or if you want it to match the theme of the party.

The first thing you need to think about when making a birthday cake of any sort of cake that is it how you want it to look. You can get a picture of something you like on the internet or out of a cook book or you can think something up from the top of your head and hope for the best.

The next thing you need is a recipe for the cake. There are many different flavours you can choose from. You can also find recipes online or from a cook book. Below there is a basic butter cake, it is simple to make and takes no time at all! And if you cant make a cake from scratch head down to your local grocery store and check out some of the packet mix cakes you can buy.

Decorating is the last thing you will do and you should always make sure you let the cake cool completely before you start icing that cake. So when the cake is cool, decorate away!

A good basic butter cake recipe:

Ingredients

• 2 eggs
• 125 g unsalted butter
• 1 cup sugar
• 1 cup self-raising flour
• 1/2 cup milk
• pinch salt
• 1/4 teaspoon vanilla essence

Directions

1. Beat all ingredients in a bowl for 4 minutes.Pour into a greased 18cm cake tin and bake for 30 minutes in a moderate oven 180-200, or until cooked when tested.
2. Add 1 tin or equivalent of fruit to mixture if wanting fruit.
3. This is a very runny mixture if adding fruit add a little more flour to balance the moisture.

WELCOME !

Hi, and welcome to my birthday cake blog. The blogs you will see here will be reviews on different birthday cakes and how to plan making then and more.  Keep updated as you might find something you need for the next time you are making a birthday cake, so enjoy !