More cakes…

35 Comments

1. Is it actually time for a honey cake yet?

   1. Nearly! The last two days of September are Rosh Hashanna. I’ll be posting my favourite recipe soon! You know how good it tastes!

2. […] More cakes… […]

3. […] there you have it. One mamoth long blog post! and one very happy Asher. Last year I made him a Fireman cake so I think next years will be even more diffucult! We’ll have to wait and […]

4. I cant believe that I have only just discovered your blog – I need to make a football shirt cake and your instructions look so easy I only hope that i follow it through properly will let you know

   1. Hello,

      Thanks for your comment and good luck with your cake. I’d love to see how it turns out. Pop a pic of it on the CakesBakesAndCookies Facebook page if you get a sec.

      Good luck

      EmmaMT

5. Hi Emma, love your cakes, was wondering if you would be able to post a tutorial on how you prepare your cake before covering in fondant, they look perfect! Mines always seem to look bumpy 🙁 Thank you x

   1. Hello,

      Funny you should say that. I’ve been thinking about doing a few ‘how to cover your cake’ posts. It seems to be what people want to see. Watch this space. I’ll be doing one in the next couple of weeks.

      Thanks for stopping by and leaving a comment. It’s always appreciated.

      EmmaMT

6. Hello Emma,

   I was wondering if you could post a tutorial on the spiderman cake please.

   Kind Regards

   Tracey 🙂 xx

7. Hi Emma

   I love your cakes, have you done any sort of training. I started doing cakes about a year ago but I am self taught and the finish on my cakes isn’t quite what it should be. I am attempting two football shirt cakes this weekend but I have struggled timing wise to get the logos printed so I am going to attempt to paint them on, any tips would be great.

   Thanks

   Annmarie

   1. Hi Annmarie,

      I haven’t had any training at all. I just play at cake decorating! I started ‘practicing’ by making cakes for my daughters friends for free about four years ago, just so I could get practice. It was a great learning curve and when I look back now I can see how much I have improved. The saying practice makes perfect is definitely true for me when it comes to anything to do with sugarpaste.

      I find that I have a style to my decorating – which I never really set out to achieve, I just kind of have a look I like to achieve and my friends and family seem to like it and that makes me really happy. The bit I like the best is when people say that my cakes look too good to slice and don’t know where to stick the knife. I can’t tell you how many times I have just stuck a knife in a cake to get them going – lol.

      Good luck with your cakes. Two in one weekend! That’s hard core! I love the idea of painting on the logos. I must give that a go some time.

      I’d love to see the finished cakes. If you fancy sharing them why not pop a photo of them on the CakesBakesAndCookies.com Facebook page? Here’s the link https://www.facebook.com/?ref=tn_tnmn

      Have fun with your cakes

      EmmaMT

8. I recently book your Boutique Baking because I am looking for inspiration to bake several cakes (5) for my son’s wedding. His girlfriend is American and is very keen on butter cream icing, making your book ideal inspiration for her and myself. She was very taken with the recipes and we have decided on making five from your book. My problem is I have to make the cakes (not the icing etc) prior to the wedding as it is being held in a country hall in the Lake District and I live in Norfolk – 8-9 hour drive away. Have you any suggestion on how I could achieve this? We (plus many american relatives) will be staying for 6 nights at the hall; so plenty of time the day before for decorating the cakes but not for baking them – limited time and facilities. Would appreciate any suggestion from yourself.

   Regards Deborah Rudgley

   1. Wow that sounds like an amazing cake. I see your problem. If you are making fruit cake it will last for weeks. A Madeira cake can be baked and covered in icing but should really be eaten by day 5 after baking. Are you able to bake the cakes then freeze them ahead of time? You could then pack them in a cool box with plenty of ice around them to keep them frozen until you arrive at your hotel when you can defrost them and ice at your leisure.

      If freezing cakes, always allow them to cool completely before wrapping in baking paper, then cling film. Ensure the cake is completely defrosted before you decorate it otherwise you may end up with a big soggy mess!

      I really hope that helps.

      Good luck

      EmmaMT

9. Thanks for getting back with advice on how to bake and freeze cakes ahead of when they are needed. Although having frozen cakes before I wasn’t sure your recipes were suitable especially those with alcohol (not the fruit one as American’s don’t like or get them),so confirmation from you makes me feel more confident to bake ahead of time – wish me good luck!
   Regards Debs

10. Hi Emma,

    I was searching for instructions on how to make a Heelo Kitty cake and saw your blog. Your instructions look simple and I’m going to attempt it for my little girl’s birthday in September. As this will be my first attempt in using sugar paste and decorating a cake, I hope you don’t mind answering a few questions I have…

    The Madeira cake recipe you’ve posted online – do I triple the ingredients for a 8″ square cake pan?

    How do I make buttercream?

    How much sugar paste do I need to cover the entire cake?

    Thanks very much for your help!

    Kind regards,
    Irene

    1. Hello Irene,

       Thanks for your questions. This Hello Kitty cake is a really great cake to start with as it is pretty simple shape, easy to cover with sugarpaste and looks great. Little girlies love it.

       My 8″ round Madeira cake recipe will fill a 7″ square tin so I would add half as much ingredients again (i.e. 1.5 x ingredients) for your cake tin.

       To make Buttercream:
       Take 250g butter at room temperature – President tastes best. Place it in a bowl and sieve 500g icing sugar over the top. Slowly mix until it is well blended. Add ½ tsp vanilla essence. If it’s too thick add a small amount of milk to loosen up the consistency. This is enough to cover and fill a 7/8″ cake.

       For a 7″ cake you will need 600g of white sugarpaste. Try and keep it quite thick as this will help when covering the cake. If it’s rolled out too thin the sugarpaste will tear and you’ll have to start again which is really frustrating!

       I hope that helps. Good luck and have fun.

       EmmaMT

11. Heh

12. Hello Emma,

    A little while back I asked about freezing cakes ahead for my son’s wedding. I would like know if I can do the icing (not decorations) before freezing, and if so would I wrap them in the same with baking paper then cling film? I would prefer to do the icing at home as there is so much going on as there are 16 of us staying together for five nights.
    I have done some research into bakeries that cater for wedding cakes etc and they seem to freeze ahead – my question is what stage?

    Warm Regards
    Debs x

13. Hello, I am doing for the first time a 12 x 16 inch cake, using your mums Madeira receipe please can you work out the quantity and should I slice in half to buttercream it? Thank you in advance, Christine from Baldock xx

    1. Hello,

       When working out a rectangular cake’s ingredients I always add up the length of the sides and divide them by two. So your cake would be 12+16/2= 14 so you would use a 14″ square cake tin recipe. Normally I would suggest using the ingredients for a size larger in round for a square tin (ie for a 7″ square use an 8″ round ingredients) but I don’t have the ingredients for a 15″ round cake. If you use the 14″ cake ingredients the cake will come out a tiny bit more shallow at around 2 ½ -3″ deep.

       I hope that helps

       EmmaMT

14. I’m confused 12+16/2= 12+8=20 therefore should be 20″ square cake or am I missing something, I have one a similar Size to do and would like clarification please.
    Thanks for your help.

    1. I’m confused now! To get the size of ingredients you need to convert it to it’s square cake size equivalent. So you add up the length and width and divide them by 2. This will give you the size of a square cake tin.

       So a cake tin that is 12 x 16 would be 12 + 16 = 28, 28/2= 14 so you would need ingredients for a 14″ square cake.

       I hope that helps

       EmmaMT

15. Thanks.
    I don’t suppose you have used hemisphere tins as I am struggling with the quantity of mixture to use

16. Hi Emma, whats the shelf life of the Madeira cake? I’m looking at using your recipe for a wedding cake and need an idea of how far ahead i can make the cake and still have it fresh in time for the wedding

    1. Hello,

       I usually bake on Wednesday, shape and do first layer of sugarpaste on Thursday and finish off decorating on Friday for a Saturday delivery. Once the cake is covered in sugarpaste it is basically sealed and will last around 5-7 days before cutting. Once it has been cut the edge will become stale quite quickly but it can be removed and you can still eat it.
       My family still eats my mum’s madeira cake a week after a party – she makes birthday cakes that are big enough to feed a small army!

       I hope that helps

       EmmaMT

17. Hi Emma, have you any receipes/designs for an iPhone cake.

18. Evening Emma
    Tatty Teddy cake…..have you ever made one and how would you go about it?
    Would you start off with a basic Teddy shape?

    Hope to hear from you soon

    Gaynor xx

    1. Hello,

       Sorry I haven’t made a Tatty teddy cake. I have made a teddy cake.

       I would use really thick sugarpaste to cover the cake and then use scissors to snip away at it to create ‘v’ shaped cuts all over the whole bear. That would give that shaggy fur effect.

       Hope that helps a little.

       Good luck and let me know how you get on.

       EmmaMT

19. Please could you tell me what make the alphabet cutters are and where you got them, that you used for the layered birthday cake and the two tier christening cake?

    1. Hello,

       I got them from Muji about 6 years ago. I don’t think they sell them any more as I can’t see them on their website. They bring out new designs all the time so it’s well worth checking them out regularly. In the mean time the closest alphabet cutters I have seen are these by Judge. Worth a look I think?

       cutters 26 Large Alphabet Cutters

       Hope that helps

       EmmaMT

20. Hi Emma
    I love the cascading flower wedding cake. I have to make one very similar to this in July for a friend of mine and I have to make the roses myself. can you tell me how you fixed the flowers to the cake please. I would be so grateful with any help doing this.

    Thanks

    Ian

    1. Hello,

       This was one of my first big wedding cakes for my lovely sister in law. Such good memories!

       Anyway, I use royal icing to adhere the flowers to the cake. I start at the bottom of the cake and then work my way up. That way the flowers sit on eachother and are supported. Any royal icing that squidged out I removed with a paint brush.

       I hope that helps

       EmmaMT

21. I’m making my son a arsenal t-shirt cake similar to the man united one in your pictures. Could you advise of what chocolate cake recipe I would use please.

22. Hi Emma,

    Thank you for the most beautiful ever recipe of Madeira cake. I’ve made them many times in size 8 and 9 inches round tin. I have an order of 10 inches square tin of your Madeira cake in camouflage design. I want to ask you if I can add gel colors on them since I will be needing like 3 colors ( green , brown , gold color ). Will the taste be the same even adding some food colors? Thanks for your reply.

    Grace of NZ

23. […] More cakes… […]

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.