AHi All - wow busy thread at the moment lol!

Just chipping in about white colour, I got a pot of Americolour white gel from The Craft Compan, which works really well when painting. I also use clear lemon or orange extract as they contain more alcohol than vodka etc so dry quicker :)

X

PS can I join the 'Envious of Natts Cake Room Club'?! Sooo wish I had one, although probably not as much as DH does lol ;)

AHaha of course you can Mel, welcome to the club! :-) Just thought I'd look in before I go to bed and tell everyone I've plagued for the last couple of days that my cake is finished and it's fantastic! I'm so proud of my daughter and she's so proud she's almost bursting. :-) I'll post a picture when I can (when my husband puts it on the computer for me!) I can't wait to show you all. :-) Thanks again for all your help. G'nite.

Oh Maisie I'm so glad!! I can't wait to see it!

Mel, you can join as long as the envy isn't lined with resentment LOL

 

AAww Maisie can't wait to see it!

Just wanted to add that I'm jealous of the cake room too!

AAw yay congrats Maisie, can't wait to see it :)

LOL no resentment at all Natt, hopefully I will get there one day...! ;)

X

AThankyou Natt. And no, no resentment here, just hero worship and idolisation (is that a word? Yep, think so.) In fact, as a founder member of the "envious of natts cake room club" I propose we plan a field trip, no, a pilgramage to Natt of Cake Room, maybe as part of the clubs first anniversary celebrations! Thanks Sugarluva, welcome to the club. :-)

AThankyou Mel. :-)

AHahaha, Maisie, you're so funny!!!

AThankyou nanny! What's not funny is this gluten free nightmare that's supposed to be a cake! I've just taken another one out of the oven, I used plain gf flour with baking powder and it looked really good for nearly an hour. Then it started imploding! It's not as bad as the last one but I don't know if it's useable, it's still cooling and looks like it's sinking as it's cooling!

AOh dear Maisie, how long did you bake it for? Maybe you took it out too early?

AMaisie, Icant stand that your having flipping problems with this cake, is it how you make it then and I mean that in the nicest way? How I made mine last week was the all in one method, it turned out lovely, I put everything in and beat it for 2 mins, then gas 3 for 50min, I made 2 sponges each with. 4 egg mix. Did you make 1 big cake and thats why it sunk? Also I made mine with self raising flour.

If it's sinking AFTER pulling it out of the oven it does sound like it's a bit underbaked.

AAw, thanks all. Yep, made it in my giant cupcake tin. The ones I made in sandwich tins were fine, not much rise but lovely taste and texture. She really wanted a giant cupcake though so I thought I'd have another go (after the last diasaster!) I used plain flour (natt's suggestion I think) and it looked really good for nearly an hour, lovely rise, was behaving like a normal sponge. Then it started to sink. I was practically sat on the floor watching it cook so as soon as it started sinking I tested it with a skewer. The top was done but the bottom needed just a little longer. I left it in another 10 mins and it was still sinking and the hole where I'd put the skewer was getting bigger, that's the best way I can describe it! Tried it again, skewer came out clean, took it out, left it in the pan to cool. I was convinced it was still sinking but my husband said I was imagining it. It's completely cool now and looks good actually. There's a hole about the size of a penny in the top of the bottom cupcake half but the top half is fine. I'm worried now I've read what you all said, I don't want to use an underbaked cake. How can I tell without cutting into it?

OH MY Maisie, the Giant Cupcake is my nemesis too!! I live in fear of the middle of a giant cupcake being underbaked! I usually end up layering the bottom half of the cake just in case. I can't think of another way of doing it, but I always decorate the 'case' part of the giant cupcake with fondant so it always works out just fine to layer it. If you weren't decorating it I wouldn't know what to suggest.

The other (scarier to some) option is to carve your own giant cupcake out of layers of cake that have baked normally in like 7" or 6" cake tins.

AI do them quite often natt, my lot love them- cos they're a greedy bunch and it's a big cake! I use fondant for the case but I don't usually layer it cos I find there's enough buttercream on it by the time I've covered the top with it. I will with this one tho, why didn't I think of that?! I am such a doofus! And I'm not a great decorator but I have to say I find the giant cupcakes easy. Maybe I think I make a better job of them than I actually do or maybe it's all the practice I've had cos I've made so many. I think it's the gluten free that's my nemesis! That and bread, duno what It is wirh bread, sometimes it's perfect, seriously yummy and other times I could build a nice wall with em! Thanks natt, you're a star! :-)

LOL! I hate baking them, the decoration is fine, but I never find the cupcakes easy to bake, give me a 14" chocolate fudge cake over a giant cupcake any day!

AOh my giddy aunt! I've never made one bigger than 9! See that would scare me, give me a giant cupcake any day. Just don't ask me to make it in the JML silicone mould, I couldn't get on with it, tried about 6 times and never got the cake out in one piece, never, not even once! Have you ever made/ tasted mud cake natt?

No, I haven't. I've never looked at recipe for it though so I don't really know what it is either, I've never really needed to look for anything else, I found a wonderful chocolate fudge recipe that everyone loves and I kind of just stopped there.

AI don't make much chocolate cake, most of my lot prefer sponge. My sister loves all things chocolate tho and wants one for her birthday (I feel another long story coming! I don't mean to waffle honestly!) I'm investigating mud cake because apparently you shouldn't cut it til day 3. This is perfect cos I need to make her two cakes, one for her surprise birthday lunch and one to take over to her on her birthday morning so she doesn't suspect anything (if I turned up without a cake she'd KNOW something was up!) So, because I need two cakes for one day (and I struggle with two in the same week!) i need to be organised ( i think that's the word, I'm not very familiar with it!) and bake at least one ahead of time. That's why I'm thinking about mud cake. The Australians use it a lot I think, great for carving they say. Most of the recipes I've found call for buttermilk and although I haven't looked, I've never seen it at the supermarkets.

Locally we can get buttermilk at selected Tesco's and the Large Sainsbury, but not all large Tesco stores stock it even. 
 

I'd be interested to know how it goes if you do try the mudcake!

AWow I'm always making chocolate cake LOL! Made a 10" square one today, and coated it in ganache for the first time (normally use b/c)! Tad messy, but it worked brilliantly!

I always use Maisie Fantasies Choc fudge cake recipe, it's a really dense firm cake which is fab to use & tastes amazing :)

AI'll have a look next time in Tesco then. My local one is quite new, it's the 2nd or 3rd biggest in the UK apparently so they should have it. Thanks again natt, off to bed now. G'nite. :-)

AMasie Fantasies- sounds like I should have a look Mel!

AI have done mud cakes few times. Dark & white chocolate. I've got Planet Cake's book which they have their recipe. The mud cake is quite dense and very chocolate.

AOoooo, have to make a 10 inch square choc to make for next Tuesday, would love to have that recipe, where would I find it Mel7?

A[IMG]http://cakecentral.com/content/type/61/id/3207774/width/200/height/400[/IMG]Well I never knew I could add a photo on my phone, thought I could only do it on the computer! This is the cake my daughter decorated for my husbands birthday yesterday. You all helped me so much, thought you'd like to see it.

AWow!! That is beautiful Maisie!!!! Well done to you and to your daughter!!!:D

AThats fabulous maisie!

AAw thankyou both. :-) I'm soooo proud of her! It wasn't all plain sailing tho. The cake sustained multiple stab wounds during decorating. One was life threating and needed a marzipan transplant, the rest were superficial and only required fondant grafts. I'm not a great surgeon so, as I explained gently and reassuringly to the cake, it needed lots of camouflage make up to hide the scars before it could be seen in public. Thankfully it's made of stern stuff ( it's fruitcake, I don't know how a sponge would've coped with such devastating news) and was proud to be displayed, scars an' all! :-)

A[IMG ALT="*"]http://cakecentral.com/content/type/61/id/3207796/width/350/height/700[/IMG] Thought id say Hi! Im a complete newbie and taking up baking as a hobbie and the chance to make birthday and Christmas cakes for family and friends. First up is my sons 2nd birthday cake, so i'm getting to grips with sugar paste. Shall be stalking this thread for tips and recipes. Kay x