My latest favourite ingredient to play around with is fondant icing. I've experimented with various techniques and surfaces to roll the icing out and think there's a good bit more I have to learn but I'm having a lot of fun trying out designs and constructions. Me being me I have a tendency to over-complicate things and don't really stop until I'm happy but whilst I do it I am having fun!
So here are a few of my designs so far...with room for improvement but a good starting point I think!!
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| Tennent's cake; Spiderman cake; Music cake |
So for the recipe for my basic cake:
150g butter; 150g caster sugar; 3 eggs; 175g self-raising flour; 1 tsp baking powder; 2 tbsp ground almonds; 1 tbsp semi-skimmed milk
Cream the butter and sugar together, beat in the eggs one at a time, alternating with spoonfuls of flour (so that the eggs don't curdle with the creamed butter). Add the remaining flour into the mixture with the baking powder, ground almonds and spoonful of milk.
Pour the mix into a greased cake tin and bake for 25 - 30 minutes (or until a skewer comes out clean)
Leave to cool completely before covering with either thick frosting (150-175g icing sugar; 1 tbsp cream cheese; 1 tbsp butter) or some apricot jam (this just creates a smooth layer for you to put your fondant icing on top of and gives it something, other than crumbs, to stick to).
Knead the fondant into a ball and, on a lightly icing-sugar-dusted surface, roll out to the required depth (I usually go for about the thickness of a pound coin). Fold over the back of a rolling pin and then unfold onto the cake. Smooth down the edges to cover the sides of the cake and smooth over the whole cake with your hands to flatten any bumps.
And now you can decorate as required!
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