Mrs Iles

Wedding cakes made easy!

2012-01-15T11:48:00.000-08:00

At our church we like weddings. We like them a lot! So when I heard that a couple that had just started coming were planning on getting married I got all excited and offered to make the cake.
Huge mistake... It led to dreams about cake and many hours on pinterest to research different methods and recipes.
The day finally came to start making the cake, there was 80 guests attending the wedding so I knew it wouldn't be the hugest cake ever but the bride only wanted 2 tiers which made it a tad awkward.
I made a yellow cake batter like this. Not sure how much I made in total because I ended up making 3 different lots.
I made 3 layers for each tier, you'll see in the photos later.
I then froze the layers which were wrapped individually in cling film or shrink wrap depending where you're from. I then sat down and had a rest, it's not often you make 6 cakes in one day...
When I was ready to fill and ice the cakes I prepared the cake board for the top tier like so:

It's a quite watery mix of icing. I wasn't too bothered about getting it all the way to the edges, it was just to stick the cake to the board. I used a thin cake board for this - 3mm I think.
And for the bottom tier I used a board that was 4" bigger than the cake and brushed it with water and laid rolled royal icing onto it. I also stuck ribbon round the edge to complete the look.
Then I started layering the cake. The top tier had a caramel filling which I made by boiling a can of condensed milk for 2 hours. I used 2 cans for an 8" 3 layer cake.

I then frosted the entire thing to make it smooth and so the icing would stick easier. I used the following recipe -
2 1/2 cups granulated sugar
10 large egg whites
2 pounds (8 sticks) unsalted butter, cut into tablespoons, softened
2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract
1 pound best-quality white chocolate, melted and cooled

Put sugar and egg whites in the heatproof bowl of an electric mixer, and set over a pan of simmering water. Whisk constantly until sugar is dissolved and mixture registers 140 degrees on an instant-read thermometer.

Transfer bowl to an electric mixer fitted with the whisk attachment; beat on medium-high speed until fluffy and cooled, about 10 minutes. Continue beating until stiff peaks form.

Reduce speed to medium-low; add butter by the tablespoon, beating well after each addition. Beat in vanilla and white chocolate. (Any leftover frosting can be refrigerated in an airtight container up to 3 days or frozen up to 1 month.)

I made it the day before because it takes a long time - about an hour!

I then rolled out my icing. I used 1.5kg for this tier. I measured the sides and the top of the cake before I started rolling and knew I had to get roughly a 50cm square. I watched a lot of videos on how to ice a cake. Check youtube and you'll find a million and one of them!

I then started work on the bottom tier. I used the same watery icing mix to stick the cake to the board then I wrapped the edges of the iced board in cling film so it wouldn't get wrecked when I spilt frosting on strawberry filling on it. I think you can see what I mean in this photo -

Then I did exactly the same. Built up the layers (this one was strawberry and buttercream) and frosted it.

Then iced it. I used 2kgs of icing for this one. Even though it was the bottom tier I only needed to roll the icing out 10cms bigger.

Then I stuck a jumbo straw in it (bought from Asda), marked it off at the icing line and cut 9 the same size. I pushed them into the cake -

These will act as supports for the top tier, I know lopsided cakes are trendy now but I don't think it's the look the bride was going for.

Then I very carefully placed the top tier on the bottom and squared it up. I smoothed the whole thing over with a fondant smoother and decorated it with ribbon to match the wedding colours.

I added the cake topper and voila!

The bride and groom were over the moon. And so was I! After many hours of hard work it was done!

The day was perfect and the cake was devoured!

Molly's birthday cake. 7 layers for 7 years!

2011-11-21T14:25:00.000-08:00

I made the cake mix (we all have our favourite recipe, any white cake will do) and split it into 7 bowls, there's only 6 shown here because the 7th wasn't matching... And I put some Sugarflair pink food colouring in. You only need the smallest amount of this colouring, in fact the lightest shade of pink was made by just stirring the spoon from one of the darker ones in it.

Then I leveled the cooled cakes off and carefully wrapped them in cling film with a piece of greaseproof paper in between each and froze the whole thing.

It was all too much for me to handle in one day so I decided to frost it the day after and I've always found it easier to frost frozen cake. I made the buttercream frosting with salted butter, vanilla extract and a dash of milk. I don't know the exact measurements but the consistency was like thick mayonnaise.

I made a lot! I figured I had 7 layers to fill and the crumb coat so more is more in this case. I slapped the darkest layer on the board... And started to frost.

I was really pleased with how smooth I got the whole thing!

I thought of a great idea! I covered my table with greaseproof paper and dusted it with icing sugar and rolled my icing out on that. I had 1kg of icing which I knew deep down wasn't really enough to cover a cake as tall as this one but being a fool I went ahead and rolled it out anyway.

And this is what happened :(... The icing was far too thin and just stretched and ripped all over.

I had the idea of covering all the rips with flowers, I made some big ones and stuck them one and realized that then to make the little ones to cover the gaps and continue the pattern all the way around would take me well into the night. So I gave in and went and bought more icing. 1.5kg this time.

I brushed the cake with boiled jam, by boiled I mean put in the microwave for 30 seconds.

And finally, managed to cover the cake with a smooth layer of icing. I cannot tell you how relieved I was at this point!

I used some of the flowers that I made earlier to put on the top and I made a thin icing ribbon to go around the base.

Here's the birthday girl cutting the cake...

And inside turned out just as I imagined. Phew! It was a great success with all the kids and I still have loads left :D

Her party was horrendously hard work, about 40 kids came all full of energy and eager to run about and explore every cupboard of the church where we held it. Molly got a whole heap (mountain) of presents and I got a lot of pats on the back from other parents who treated me like a brave solider home from the war.

2011-11-14T13:11:00.000-08:00

I made a cake for lovely Cam's friend today. His birthday is tomorrow and no one's ever made him a cake before! I thought this was super sad and needed remedying. I made the cake and rather foolishly didn't take any photos of it being made :/ I'm a div. He said to make what ever flavour goes best in a cake but there was too many yummy options so I did a 3 layer cake with chocolate at the bottom, cinnamon in the middle and a vanilla layer on the top. I filled and crumb coated it with vanilla frosting and iced it afterwards. I also had a very shaky first attempt at writing with icing. It doesn't look too bad -

We'll be taking it to him in the morning.
Also our brand spanking new tv arrived today! James (my brother) bought it for us for Christmas, just in time too cause our old one was a bit unreliable.
So in all the excitement and cake making I completely forgot that we had invited the missionary Sisters of our church around for dinner. I had to dash out to the shop and rustle up a quick pasta dish and some garlic bread. Thank goodness Cam remembered in time!
Lovely Cam is trying to get to grips with the new tv and I'm going to go wrap Molly's birthday presents.

Tooth fairy :)

2011-11-13T12:29:00.000-08:00

Molly's tooth came out (I pulled it out) at tea time yesterday. So we embarked on a mission to make sure the Tooth Fairy would have a comfortable visit to our house. Molly very rightly said that Santa got fed when he was at work so we should feed the Tooth Fairy too.
This is what we made-

Chocolate spread and a jam sandwich, mini carrot sticks and the lid off a miniature mouthwash as a glass. Molly also wrote a note-

To Mr/Mrs Tooth Fairy,
I hope you like my tooth. Even though I do not think it is sparkling. Please leave a note.
From Molly
p.s. I love you

The tooth fairy left her a shiny (literally, it had glitter on it!) five pound note and a teeny letter in return!

Molly was delighted! She took it to church (we go to The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints) and very proudly showed it off to anyone who would look at it.

2011-11-12T06:41:00.000-08:00

We went to go feed the ducks at the river today, we haven't done it for months and the second we started I remembered why!

This photo doesn't look that bad. But honestly birds were swooping so close to me and I was terrified. Then Cam (lovely husband) decided to go buy more bread so we could do it all again!
Molly (silly daughter) decided today that she would like to wear sandals, even though it had rained last night and it's November. It resulted in this...

The socks came off and ended up in my pocket, we'd JUST thrown the bread bag away. And off we went to the park :)
Lovely Cam bought me a surprise icecream. Can you guess the flavour? It took me a while-

Christmas Pudding! And it was great, I feel quite festive now :) And Silly Molly added to her death warmed up look by getting a bubblegum icecream and turning her lips blue.

First Post!

2011-11-11T04:12:00.000-08:00

Hopefully this will be the start of some thing great... I've started this blog so I can participate in the great cookie swap -see here

I'm not great at making cookies, they generally turn out too wet and descend into blobs in the oven, cakes are my forte.
I feel sorry for the people that will be receiving mine, photos will follow of the blob making process.