Lol - a grey cake????  Euuw.  Don't worry Gray - we are not dissing your cakes - never, ever would that happen!  I have made madeira and fed it with a kirsch syrup before and loaded it with ground almonds - probably not a true madeira any more but tasted nice!

An MEng is a Master of Mechanical Engineering!  Five years at uni and you get one of these - lol.  My son will be graduating with a degree in music this summer.  When I tell people I have two kids at uni and one is doing music - for some reason they always assume it's the girl!  Bought some cute mortar board moulds btw - planning a little party at home and these will look great on cupcakes!

A[IMG]http://cakecentral.com/content/type/61/id/3220750/width/200/height/400[/IMG]

No shades of grey I'm afraid, just the blue and grey of a Cheshire Cat. It's the colour of the sponge for my assessment cakes. Yes the 4cm3 cakes have to have two colour layers to. Stupid isn't it :/

A

ooh you shouls totally threaten him with it! "quiet Husband or I'll get the..............BALL TOOL!" mwa ha aha haaaaaaaaa

AGh

This needs a like button lol

A...my wife does a lot of quilting and crocheting... she threatens me with 'pinking shears' I have no idea what they are but they sound scary!!!!! (I refuse too google it - I don't want to spoil her game lol)

APetitecat, can we call you Jean then? I see why you changed your name, good thinking. Yep, lovely to have kids to practice on and they never critisise, they think I'm "the best cake maker in the whole, wide, world, EVER".

Haven't you all got clever kids! My son is studying for a degree in sleeping, eating and playstation games and my daughter finally learnt the toilet is for weeing on when she was 13! Oops! I said toilet, ssh, don't tell Gray!

AHa ha ha, all my new friends are all so funny!!!

AHaha, you are funny Kathy! Thankyou Jean. She has Downs Syndrome.

Nannycook/Bashini the wedding cake is a three tier separated by vases filled with petals. Roses, orchids, stephanotis and some foliage on each tier. Well that is the plan anyway!  However I jammed my thumb in a drawer on Friday evening and it is turning a nice shade of black. Not a great thing to do when you have loads of flowers to wire! Made finishing the cakes due out at the weekend a bit of a challenge. Anyway 12 inch chocolate/ 10 inch chocolate and caramel and 8 inch fruit. So hoping and praying the dowels all hold up under the weight.

I was the person who asked the question that Gray so very kindly answered about stability and using small drums inserted into the vases. The drums I am using are 5 inch diameter and the vases are slightly smaller so my technical assistant (DH) is modifying the drums to fit.

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Look at it sitting there all innocent and yummy looking. It's a bit more golden than I like but the last one was raw so hopefully this one will at least be baked. Everytime I make one I get butterflies before cutting into it thinking 'will this be the one that works' pmsl I sound like a right nutter now hehe

Siany - it does look good.  Can I ask if you listen to your cake?  No - I haven't lost my marbles but cakes do stop 'singing' when they are cooked and I always listen to mine.  Also - saw somebody mentioning on another thread that they put an icing nail in whilst it is baking to conduct the heat to the centre.  I have no idea if that works - sounds a bit iffy to me ....  Another thing when I hadn't a clue how to bake, my then lecturer told me to put a sponge cake in the oven at gas mark 1 or 2 for around 2-3 hours!  That was because my oven was a second hand one and stuff was not cooking properly.  Do you know....it worked.  I still do that now.

Kathy

Aoooh looks yummy! I can actually smell it just from your picture! Fingers crossed it worked out ok :-)

I have a white mud cake sitting at home waiting to be decorated tonight! I made cuppies with the extra batter - YUM! ...Although the normal mudcake was absolute pants! gonna try another recipe tonight if I can dig out more chocolate lol.

ps - sounding like a nutter offically makes you one of us now! hee hee

A

I do the flower nail thing if a cake's gonna take over an hour and a half else the edges get too dark and dry in my opinion, it works great! shaves a good 20-30 mins off a deep cake!

AI don't tend to listen, I stab them haha.

I had this one in at 140 for 2 hours. Shouldn't really cut it till tomorrow but I'm out all day at whipsnade zoo and it will be Wednesday before I cut it. Not sure I can wait that long to check lol

AMmm Siany it does look yummy! Deceptive little devils aren't they!

Gray my new favourite cake is mudcake, I wish I knew how to add a link. I'll have a look, see if I can, it's yummy and idiot proof!

A[URL]http://lindyscakes[/URL] Hmm, don't know if that worked! If it didn't it's the chocolate mudcake from lindyscakes, add some coffe and vanilla- delish!

A

Ooh thanks Maisie! You're a star! I'll try that tonight! I think I had a combination of not great recipe, overbaked and not left to mature... I tried it a few hours after baking and it was dry and flavourless... Looking forward to trying this one now :-)

AMost welcome Gray. We tasted that one still warm out of the oven and it was lush. It was better the next day though. I added a tablespoon of strong coffee and about 2 tsp vanilla. I also read somewhere (not sure where, maybe cc) that a clean skewer means a mudcake is slightly overbaked. Apparently a skewer with a few bitty crumbs means it's done. I waited til the skewer was clean but I'm going to try the bitty skewer on my next one, see if it makes a difference.

AAh that makes sense... You want it to be underdone on purpose- My skewer was totally clean D'oh!

Hi everyone!!! I didn't have internet connection from morning. 

Gray & Catsmum, I was really nervous about this wedding cake, until I read Gray's post. Now I am a bit confident. My vases are around 4". I am just thinking to buy 6" ones. What do you think? 

Catsmum, I also going to put a rose in each vase and I'm sure your cake is going to be beautiful!! 

I also use a flower nail, from 7" upwards and you need to be careful with them as they would rust if you use salted butter. I found out that using anchor butter does this. Now I use Lurpack which is slightly salted and no problem at all.

I absolutely hate madeira. Even its baked, I always get the uncooked flour taste. 

AYuck, yes bashini, that's how it tastes to me too! Horrible on the roof of my mouth and tongue!

Had a little taste.  It well baked and actually not bad tasting.  I would be happy to sell this to someone.  Which is a first as I have never made a one I would happy to let anyone eat let alone sell :)

ALadies, need help to price a football shirt cake, and what tin would you use took it in?