Yes the raspberry really works with the white choc - it's not too messy if you use a thick filling (I got the recipe off here). My friends had it as their wedding cake and it looked ok when they served it up. Sometimes I put frozen raspberries on the top of a white mud before I bake it - they stay on top and it looks great, good for a quick but impressive cake if you don't have time to decorate!

I only bake from scratch as I don't like the taste of packet mixes, and for mud cakes it's only melting and stirring, how can a mix make that any easier??

Enjoying reading this thread - thanks!

I was wondering about the shortening question, Bunsen, so it's good to hear that answer.

Just a quick question - when people talk about 'cake flour' in American recipes, are they talking about self-raising flour? And is 'all-pupose flour' just plain flour?

Enjoying reading this thread - thanks!

I was wondering about the shortening question, Bunsen, so it's good to hear that answer.

Just a quick question - when people talk about 'cake flour' in American recipes, are they talking about self-raising flour? And is 'all-pupose flour' just plain flour?

i think all purpose flour is just plain flour, then there is self-raising flour and then there is the cake flour but i don't know if it is different in america.

Mcaulir, I have just been researching the flour thing myself.
So here goes.
Cake flour is different from both self raising and plain all purpose flour. I have seen a line of different flours in Woolworths store but I am not sure if it is the same as the American flour.
You can make your own cake flour by mixing 1 and 3/4 cup all purpose flour and 1/4 cup cornflour. (This recipe I got off Recipezar.)
An even easier measure is to place 2 tablespoons of cornflour in a cup measure and fill the rest up with plain flour. If the recipe calls for 1/2 cup cake flour then place 1 tablespoon cornflour in a 1/2 cup measure and then fill with the plain flour. ( I hope I make sense).

As I understand it cake flour is a finer, lighter flour and all-purpose is a bit heavier like bread flour. I think our plain and sr flours are somewhere in between so you shouldn't have too much trouble substituting if you use an American recipe. Might be worth trying Cakelass' cake flour recipe if making a really light fluffy cake - I've noticed a few sponge recipes here have cornflour in them, presumably to lighten the flour.

Bunsen, seeing as you're a scratch baker, would you have a good vanilla cake recipe you could share?? I can't seem to find one I'm happy with, especially seeing as I triple all my recipes to fill a 10 x 14" pan, it seems to change the texture.

I would like to hear more about this viennacream icing recipe. Anyone have one they'd like to share?

Theresa

Evoir - (Bh waves hello again)

Do you use the Planet Cake Choc Mud Recipe?

I use their recipe and their recipe for Ganache.
Great for using and then freezing - because it whips back up a treat.

Bluehue

Did anyone else grow up with birthday cakes that came from the australian women's weekly cook books?

Cake Flour has a different protein percentage to plain or all purpose flour.

Flours are divided by protein content. The more protein in the flour the more strength it will have.

Cake Flour 6 to 8% protein. Soft and the light texture

Pastry flour 8 to 10% protein

Plain/ all purpose usally 10 to 12%

Bread flour is 12 to 14% protein. it is very strong and made from hard wheat. This is good for the strength that bread needs.

YES - many a b/day cake was made from the WW books.

I love and use often the big BLUE *Kitchen* book put out by WW some years back.
Part of the set - COOK = yellow and HOW TOO = Red
Never fail recip[es as far as i am concerned.

Bh.

We don't have cake flour in Venezuela, so I use plain flour just fine.
I'd like to ask about the mouse filling used by many Australians. What is it? a chocolate mouse?, can you fill a cake with mouse, cover with fondant and keep it outside the fridge? for how long?

i tell you what we need to introduce more to cake central is....Pavalova! even though it's not a cake it can still be decorated on top lol Yummy!

Bunsen: yeh when i grew up i always had a b'day cake out of the women's weekly childrens birthday book and when i make cakes these days i usually make the recipes out of the WW cake's and biscuit book

I finally managed to get round to re-compiling this information on Ganache, might help answer some of the questions that have been asked
http://www.cakesandmore.org/blog/2009/06/a-guide-to-ganache/

Yep on occassion the info is contradictory that's the nature of cake decorating with people figuring out things for themselves, if something doesn't work for you that's OK, keep testing things out until you find what does! In the meantime enjoy eating all those mistakes!

Hi all, a non-aussie here but a ganache lover - thank you for this great technique! My question is - what temperatures are white chocolate ganache/fondant covered cakes ok up to? I have an outside wedding here in August (hot here and want to cover it with something stable under the fondant - not buttercream which would melt and slide, etc. I would love to use white choc ganache and I'm sure the bride would be ok with it but it could be up to 95 degrees farenheit/35 celsius worst case (I sincerely hope), would this be ok or should I not go there! I think I'm going to do a test but just wanted to see what all of you high heat experts might say.

Thanks!

nicolevoorhout: thanks heaps for the ganache blog! It's nice to have all the info together

Toptier: sorry i can't help with your question but would like to know too

White chocolate ganache is the least stable ganache, in that it goes off quicker than dark chocolate ganache.

I truly believe that there is no tried and tested method except for the tests you've done yourself. So I would encourage you to do your own tests, rather than go on hope that it would work out on the day!

Now where would we Aussie sheilas be without the old Womens Weekly? LOL

Bluehue - hi hon (*waving back*)...still need to pm you I know, having a mental week here...I saw an enormous single lot of cake dec books for sale in Perth on Ebay last week, and was telpted to have my SIL pick them up for me (if I won)...but they ended up going for over $200 (!)

Re: cake flour...on another thread here ATM on CC they are discussing cake flour vs plain (AP) flour and apparently it comes down to removing 1 - 2 spoons of AP flour per cup to be equivalent to one cup of cake flour. I don't know - I just use plain flour!

BH - I haven't tried the Planet Cake recipe yet for mud cake, but am keen to...I have their book so its just a matter of time. I am a scratch baker too, but I was keen to seee why the cake deco shop sold so much of the packet mix...it was such a let down! So yeah, I'll stick to my own recipe - ot PCs if it ends up being nicer!

paolacaracas - hmmm...not sure what you mean there with mousse filling. The only moussey filling I do is for a flourless chocolate cake, but I do not use it under any fondant. Hope someone else chimes in with the info for you!

you know what i love? Chocolate cake with ice-cream and custard. It's a bit weird with hot and cold but it tastes great. Or just the choc cake with hot custard. I sometimes sandwhich the ice-cream between 2 pieces of choc cake and then drizzle custard on top

I usually don't like very rich chocolately cake *ducks from the throwing missiles* lol But i do have a recipe, although it uses a ring tin, that is of a low fat choc cake that isn't really chocolatey but it tastes really nice, that is what i have the custard on