Chicken Farm Bakers' Project # 15 : Will You Marry Me?..Yes, and they live happily ever after !

Ok, I do my best. This is what I said to the host of this month, well, wedding cake is not a normal easy cake, I must say >*<. Anyway as the host said that I have to tell her who am I baking this cake for?, I do know the answer instantly. Because most of the time I bake for my family, and yes, my parent are the most important for me. I really imagine that if I have a chance to bake a wedding cake for my parent wedding day, what kind of cake it would be? So, this time I have a real customer haha.

My mom and dad married for almost 45 year, it's a long time, and I know that they love each other so much. And because my dad love my mom so much, the flavor of the cake can't be other flavor than the coffee, my mom favorite.
And she is the one who choose the decarating style (^ ^, and I'm so glad that she involes in this project).
Anyway, I need to try something, my sister said that the cake from the planet cake is very delicious, she could eat the fondant (usually she doesn't eat it).
After reading the book (The Planet Cake by Paris Cutler ), I understand that the key is the ganache, while other cake decorators use the mazipan for lining the cake, Paris Cutler use the chocolate ganache. So her cake is more delicious. But the ganache has a weak point, it can't stand the hot weather, so you can see that my cake turn out to be wet and not smooth >*<, and has some crack spots. Anyway, it's much more delicious than the mazipan, and it's worth the effort. I make the fondant myself. Well, if you can buy it'll more elastic than the homemade one but this one is easy to make and it's smell so good. I tasted it and I think it's great, not that it's delicious (the main ingredient is sugar, so it tasted like sugar, haha), but you can really eat it without feeling wried, ^ ^.
This cake is very easy to decorate, the small rose is easy to make, just cut the fondant and roll it up, that's all.

-My Parent's Wedding Cake-

You will need about 2-3 days for making this cake, you may start by making the ganache and the fondant on the first day, the next day, bake the cake and cover it with the ganache, the last day cover the cakes with the fondant and decorate it.

ROLLED FONDANT

Yield: 2 lbs (908 g)-you will need one and half quantity for this cake

1 Tbsp (1 envelope) unflavored gelatin
¼ cup (60 ml) cold water
1 tsp lemon extract, almond extract, or orange extract
½ cup (6 oz or 168 g) light corn syrup
1 Tbsp glycerin (optional)
up to 2 lbs (908 g) confectioners’ sugar
½ tsp white vegetable shortening

1. Sprinkle the gelatin over cold water in a small bowl. Let it stand for two minutes to soften. Place it over a pan of simmering water until the gelatin dissolves, or use the microwave for 30 seconds on HIGH. Do not overheat. Add the flavoring.
2. Add corn syrup and glycerin and stir until mixture is smooth and clear. Gently reheat if necessary, or microwave for an additional 15 to 20 seconds on HIGH. Stir again.

3. Sift 1 ½ pounds (680 g) of the confectioners’ sugar into a large bowl. Make a well in the sugar and pour in the liquid mixture. Stir with a wooden spoon. The mixture will become sticky.
4. Sift some of the remaining ½ pound (225 g) of sugar onto a smooth work surface and add as much of the remaining sugar as the mixture will take. Knead the fondant, adding more confectioners’ sugar, if necessary, to form a smooth, pliable mass. The fondant should be firm but soft. Rub the vegetable shortening into your palms and knead it into the fondant. This relieves the stickiness of the fondant.
5. Wrap the fondant tightly in plastic wrap and place it in the refrigerator until ready to use. Rolled fondant works best if allowed to rest for 24 hours.

Storage: Double wrap the rolled fondant in plastic wrap and then store it in a zippered plastic bag. It will keep in the refrigerator for 30 days or in the freezer for up to 3 months.

Make the Ganache

Recipe from: the planet cake

470g white chocolate, finely chopped
160ml pure cream

1. To make white ganache, put the chocolate pieces in a large bowl.
2. Put the cream in a saucepan and bring to boiling point. Pour the cream over the chopped chocolate and mix with a hand whisk until the ganache is smooth. (Do not use an electric whisk, as you will create too many air bubbles in the ganache.)
3. Allow to cool completely and then leave to set overnight.

MERINGUE POWDER ROYAL ICING

Ingredients
7g meringue powder
20ml cold water
75g confectioners’ sugar, sifted
A few drop of lemon juice

Add meringue powder to cold water in a mixing bowl. Beat to a soft peak stage—about 3 minutes. Add the confectioners’ sugar, beat to combine. Add the lemon juice. Beat for an additional 3 to 5 minutes until the icing forms medium to stiff peaks. Cover with plastic wrap until ready to use.

Make the coffee flavored butter cake
Make 3 pieces ( 7inches, 6 inches and 5inches)

300g Unsalted butter
270g Sugar
300g Cake flour
1tsp Baking powder
6 Large eggs (beat lightly to combine)
150g Whipping cream
1½ tbsp Instant coffee powder
3tsp Hot water
1tsp Kahlua® or other brand coffee liqueur
½tsp Salt
1tsp Vanilla extract

Preheat the oven to 350°F or 180°C.
Butter and line the base of 3 baking pan, 7 inches, 6 inches and 5 inches.

Sift the flour, salt and baking powder together, set aside.
Mix the instant coffee powder with Kahlua and hot water, set aside.

Cream together the butter and sugar on the medium speed for 3 to 5 minutes. With the mixer still on the low speed. Stop the mixer and scrape the sides of the bowl. Add the vanilla extract, and coffee mixture then beat to combine.

Add the eggs a little at a time, fully incorporating after each addition. Add the flour and cream alternating by starting with the flour and end with the flour.


When the batter is homogenize, pour the batter into the prepared tins. Bake for 35-40minute for the smallest, 45-50 minutes for the medium and 55-60 minutes for the largest one (or until the cake spring bake when touch lightly).

Cool the cakes in the pan for 5 minutes, then turn out into the wire rack and let them cool completely.

To decorate the cake.

1 Cut the each cake into two layers, and spread the ganache on top of the first layer.

2 Place another layer on top, frost top and side of the cake, make it as smooth as possible.

(sorry I forgot to take the picture of how to make the cake smooth by running a hot spatula on the side of the cake).

Then cover the first and third cake with the pale pink fondant, and the middle with a pink fondant.

Decorate the middle with the royal icing.

Make the small rose by cutting the fondant into a small strip 1cmx4cm per 1 rose.
Roll the strip into a rose, and stick the rose on the cake.
Pipe the leaves on the rose.

Now the cake is done, ^ ^.

Chicken Farm Bakers' Project # 15 : Will You Marry Me?..
Yes, and they live happily ever after !

Golden Caramel Toffees: Great for giving and keeping

Toffee, toffee, this is a special request too, but who can say no to this kind of sweet. Caramel toffee is not hard to make if you have a sugar thermometer (but you have to be careful when making it, the hot sugar is extremely dangerous, keep the children and pets away and wear a glove). This is a soft and chewy toffee that reminds me of my love for sweet when I was a child. There is a toffee with a soft caramel filling, taste the same as this one and I love it. When I was a child I always sleep with a toffee in my mouth- “It’s bad for your teeth” – my mom always said that but I couldn’t stop doing it.

Anyway I stop doing that now (ok, I’m grow up and knowing that it’s better to chew it when you awake, haha), but I always love the taste of caramel toffee. Actually I start making it not long ago, before that I think it’s hard to make at home. There will be a lot of toffee when you make this recipe but you can take care of them easily by wrapping them up and send some to your friends, I think they will be glad to see what’s inside these colorful wrappers.

The recipe is from ..............The book that focuses on the small size sweet, most of them are not bigger than 2 inches. It’s good if you like to make all this little things, which always welcomed by anyone.

Note: I think it’s better to warp this sweet little thing in a wrapper even the book suggests cut it into pieces, it’s very sticky. So, I add how to warp it with a paper cup (which mean you don’t have to cut a lot of paper for it, ^ ^ , and they are cute in colorful papers )

Golden Caramel Toffees

Makes about 2 pounds 3 ounces (about 200 pieces small toffee)

1	vanilla bean
2 cups (1 pint)	heavy cream
1 cup	light corn syrup
2 cups (400 grams)	granulated sugar
2 ounces (½ stick)	unsalted butter, softened and cut into 4 pieces
½ teaspoon	salt
	24-karat gold leaf (for decoration)
	Plastic cut into 2 ½ inches square (for cover the toffee
	Paper cup

1. Line bottom and sides of a 9-inch square pan with parchment paper; set aside.

2. Split the vanilla bean in half with a small paring knife, and scrape out the seeds; discard the pod. Add the seeds to the cream in a 1½ -quart saucepan; scald the cream and keep the saucepan near the stove so that if the cream cools too much when needed, you can reheat it briefly.

3. In a deep, heavy-bottomed 4-quart saucepan over low heat, blend the corn syrup and the sugar, stirring occasionally until the mixture becomes more fluid and most of the sugar appears dissolved.

4. Stop stirring, raise heat to medium-high, and gently boil until a candy thermometer registers 305 degrees F (hard-crack stage), about 9 to 10 minutes.

5. Add the butter and salt to the sugar mixture, stirring constantly. Pour in the warm vanilla-flavored cream in a slow but steady stream without letting the boiling stop (be careful-mixture foams up and is steamy). Lower heat to medium and continue to boil gently until the thermometer registers about 248 degrees F, stirring occasionally to prevent scorching, about 14 to 15 minutes.

6. Let the candy stand about 3 minutes to allow bubbling to subside, then pour into the prepared pan without scraping the saucepan; allow to cool at least 5 hours.

7. Invert onto a clean cutting board and cut into ½ -inch-wide strips; then cut across the strips to form ½ -inch squares. To apply a patch of gold leaf to each square, use a small artist’s brush. With the brush, lift a tiny patch about the size of an oatmeal flake of gold leaf and deposit it on top of the caramels for decoration.

Note: Before place the caramel toffees on the paper cup place small pieces of the plastic over the cup because it’ll stick to the paper.

Or do it my way: cut the toffee into ½ inch pieces place the toffee on the plastic and place on the paper cup. Twist the top of the paper to hold the toffee.

Golden Caramel Toffees

Golden Caramel Toffees Ready to Go