Showing posts with label Sugarpaste. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Sugarpaste. Show all posts

Saturday, 21 December 2013

❤️LOVE❤️

Hello everyone!

 

I'm back after a break from blogging! It's been fun and busy running after 2 precious children, renovating and trying to find time to live in the now. It's so easy to long for moments in the future, or miss moments from the past, but learning to REALLY live in the present is a challenge at times. But it's been something that I've been thinking about lately, to make the most of the moments that we have because soon they will be gone and there will be new moments to enjoy.

One of my favourite type of moments is romantic moments, so when I was asked to make a wedding cake for today, I happily agreed! Celebrating LOVE is one of my favourite things to do!

(Please excuse the photos...the dark Swedish winter is not the most ideal for photography😄)

 

So as we head into the new year, let's remind each other to live fully and to LOVE fully!

 

Love,

Heidi

 

Monday, 4 March 2013

The legendary Lightning McQueen

Lightning McQueen is one of the most popular Disney characters, at least in my household of boys. So I was happy when a friend of mine asked if I could make a Lightning cake for her 5 year old son. A delicious chocolate cake with chocolate buttercream. It came out pretty cute!

Happy baking!

Love,

Heidi

 

 

Wednesday, 4 April 2012

Spring is here!

Easter is one of My favourite times of year...especially here in Sweden because it symbolises the start of spring, which means that summer is on it's way...which is a big thing in Sweden! Seriously, when it is winter here people go into hibernation, which may sound strange if you come from a warm sunny South Africa, but if you've been in Sweden during winter you understand that it's not so fun to stand outside and chit-chat when it is -10 degrees C and the wind is blowing through your bones.

And it is SOOO nice to be able to go outside without it taking half an hour just to get all the jackets, shoes, scarves and gloves on...

But one of the things that I love most about Spring is seeing everything come to life again, the new leaves sprouting on the trees, flowers blooming. It kind of reminds you that there is always a new beginning. When things get tough, there is always a spring around the corner. And it also reminds you what Easter is really all about...new life and second chances!

Here is a springy chocolate cake with cherry blossoms on made for a sweet girl who turned 18.

 

Love,

Heidi

 

 

 

 

 

Sunday, 1 April 2012

Sweet 18

Here's a photo of a cake I made for a sweet young lady who recently turned 18. I was happy with how it turned out, and apparently it tasted good...and in the end, that's what is most important isn't it? Cakes are made to be eaten and not just looked at, right? The recipe is Ina Gartens double chocolate cake recipe, it is my new favourite, and it was filled with scrumptious caramel and cream.

 

 

Have a great week, everyone!

 

Love, Heidi

 

 

 

Monday, 5 March 2012

Leaving a legacy...

 My granny, Daphne, was a lady that left a legacy. She was an amazingly generous and loving woman and there are many times that I wished she hadn't died while I was so young because there was so much more that I could've learnt from her.

 

But isn't life like that sometimes...things don't always plan out as we wish them to. Which just reminds me how important it is to make the most of life and enjoy the people that I have been blessed with in my life.

 

One of the legacy's that my gran left for me was her passion for baking and blessing people with cakes. I don't know what it is, but there is something special about making cakes that are designed after people's personalities and likes. Maybe it's because it takes so much time so there's a lot of love poured into it. But whatever it is, it is always fun to see people's reactions when they see the cake that was made just for them.

When my gran died, I inherited all her cake decorating tools and equipment. This cake was made for a friend's wedding and the pillars between the tiers came from Granny Daphne. They have actually been packed in a box in South Africa for a while, but I finally got them here, so it's the first time I've used them. Turned out pretty good!

 

 

 Whenever I'm working with the tools I inherited I say a little thanks to the One above for blessing me with people in my life who have left a legacy, and not just a legacy of belongings, but a legacy of something so much deeper...a legacy of living your life to be a blessing for others!

 

Which makes me think...what legacy am I going to leave behind?

 

Have a great week, everyone!

 

Love,

Heidi

 

Sunday, 12 February 2012

30 wonderful years and the world's best family!

This Christmas was the first Christmas that I have spent at home in South Africa since I got married and it was such a special time with the family. It was also the first time that I have flown home in two years, which is definately the longest I've been away for...it was great to come home...and great to see many of my family and friends that I haven't seen for a long time!

 

While we were home, my older sister, Laura, turned 30, so we threw a big party for her. Seen as though she was born in the 80's we decided to have an 80's pool party theme...except when the day came around it was pouring. So the pool party turned into a not-so pool party but whenever my family puts together a party, it is always a blast!

 

To my precious Lauli! I love you and want you to know that I am proud of you, both as a person and a sister. I am grateful for all the years we have had together and look forward to the many more memories that are to be made! You are priceless!

 

Now to the food...we had a buffé of minis: small bacon and cheese rolls, quiche bites, mini sausages, fruit kebabs, cocktail sticks...



The cake was made with chocolate and vanilla cupcakes and the topper was also layered with chocolate and vanilla cake. The cake has a story...


Two of my wonderful sisters helped to bake the cake and cupcakes as my husband and I were celebrating our 5 year anniversary. When we came back home from celebrating, somehow someone had brought out a coaster that lit up in different colours when a glass was put on it. There was only one in the house but I knew that we had to have it for the cake tiers as it would really enhance the 80's feel. The thing is, no-one knew where to get them from, but instead of giving up my dad and little sister go on a search, calling around to find where we could get more. They even called the manufacturers to ask where they sell them, and they were told that these lights are no longer produced. Yet, someone, within a couple of hours my dad found a place that had a few left. That is one of the things I love the most about my fam, nothing is impossible and they go the extra mile! I love you guys!


 

 

 

 

Enjoy the beginning of a new week! Take the opportunity this Valentine's Day on Tuesday to show those that you love how much you appreciate them!

 

Love, Heidi

 

 

Monday, 21 November 2011

Firetruck fun!

So my little boy is not so little any more...over the week-end we celebrated his 3rd birthday party. It was so much fun. In the midst of the craziness of writing my thesis and extra jobs, somehow we managed to find the time to throw together a lovely party for Elias. 

He has really been into firetrucks lately, so he wanted to have a firetruck party. I got inspired to build a firetruck from boxes so that the kids could play with it at the party. So one night I came up from the basement with a bunch of boxes and put my dear man into work. This year, I must give him the credit with coming up with many ideas that made the party a success...like paper machĂšing the firetruck. It would not have looked nearly as nice without the paper machĂš. So after several nights work in the basement the firetuck was ready to go!

We sent out firetruck invites to a few of Elias' friends and prepared snacks for about 20 people. I also made cute little firetruck badges for the kids and organised fireman helmets. The kids got to eat and play around together and then it was time for the cake. 

Cheese and corn samoosas, hummus, blueberry pancakes...

The cake was vanilla sponge with chocolate ganache and cream filling. One of the layers also had daim balls (daim is a swedish chocolate with a crunchy caramel filling). I'm always trying to find ways to get around covering a cake with fondant as I think fondant is so sweet. So this time I coloured cream a light blue and covered the cake so that the background would look like the sky. It didn't look as nice as fondant but it definately tasted better. I then made trees and buildings from fondant covered with flames around the whole side of the cake. On top was fireman "Elias" with a hose. The cake made its grand entrance into the party on top of the firetruck with small firework candles on top. It was so much fun to see the expressions on the children's faces...priceless and definately worth a week of short nights. Unfortunately I forgot to take a good picture of the cake during daylight. Oh well...better something than nothing.

All in all it was a party with many fun memories! And I am so grateful to have the most precious son in the world and the most loving and helpful hubby in the world!

Stay tuned for some fun, home-made Chritmas present ideas and other goodies to get you into the Christmas spirit!

Love,
Heidi

Sunday, 26 June 2011

Birthday blues...

Birthdays are always fun! The older you get the more you should celebrate your birthdays...but many times it's not like that. Many people have terrible anxieties about getting older, which is understandable if you think that for every year that goes by you have 1 year less to live.

Put that way, it sounds really depressing! At times I look forward to growing old...having a life full of memories, both good and bad behind me to keep me content. Knowing that I've been down a road which no-one has gone, learning from the mistakes made and spreading love to those around me...

Yet, at other times, the thought of my now 2-year old son one day shooting up above me and becoming a man or my hair starting to turn grey is a daunting thought and looked forward to with a mixture of dread and anticipation. For me, the secret I think, is in how I live now...making the most of today. Today is all I have, and if I give everything to my life here and now, that's what's going to fill me up with those warm memories...

Even when life has moved many years on, being able to look back and say "I've lived the life I wanted to live. It wasn't always what I planned but somehow God has turned everything for the good", that's what I really look forward to!

I hope you are looking forward to the adventures of life and learning to live today to the full!





Happy 50th birthday, Marianne! You are loved and appreciated!

Tuesday, 14 June 2011

"Först med det senaste!"

Recently I made a cake for one of Jönköping's local newspapers,Jnytt. I don't often get to taste the finished product. I've often thought about trying to find some sneaky way to taste a piece of the cake without it being noticed...but I've realised that I will just have to be content with tasting the crumbs ;-). I didn't get to taste this one either, but rumour has it that it was really tasty. Whenever I hear that, I can breath out. It means that I din't mix up the sugar with the salt or do any other crazy blunder...

So, how did the cake taste? Well..it was a vanilla cake with blackberry mousse, white chocolate mousse and lemon curd. Yummy and fresh! I basically had free hands witht the decoration - as long as it had black and pink in it, the name of the newspaper and "Först med det senaste" on it.

This is how it came out.



I'm pretty happy about it, what do you think?

Love Heidi

Wednesday, 13 April 2011

Starwars forever

I have to be honest...I'm NOT a Starwars girl. I don't even think that I've watched anything to do with Starwars...definately not enough to know who any of the characters are. So when I was going to do a cake for a friend's 5 year old, and found out that he LOVES Starwars, I took on the challenge of delving into the world of Yoda and his gang.

I decided to tackle this cake in one night, I started at about 8 and ended at 3 in the morning, but I'm pretty happy with how it turned out! Take a look...




Monday, 21 March 2011

Hello Kitty!


Hello everyone!

Wow, what a busy 2 weeks it has been! Life has been a rollercoaster of fun and exciting events!

This week-end we had time to go to a sweet little girl's 4th birthday party! It was a Hello Kitty party, so for the first time ever, I made a Hello Kitty cake. It was really cute!


Lately I've been trying out some new tricks for my cakes. Nothing really beats the look of a cake covered in fondant, but at the same time it's really sweet and not always nice to eat too much of...especially here in Sweden. So instead of covering a whole cake in fondant, I have been covering it with delicious cream cheese frostings instead!!! Even though there is definately a time and a place for fondant covered cakes, I'm learning that sometimes it can be just as nice with a good frosting and some sweet fondant decorations.

For this Hello Kitty cake I made some of the decorations with marsipan and some with fondant. It was perfectly cute for a little girl!



For the base of the cake I wanted to try a new recipe, so I took one from Manuela's blog (Passion for baking). While I was there I found a great white chocolate and cream cheese frosting recipe which I gave a try, with a few little changes here and there...and OH MY WORD...it's my new favourite icing/frosting recipe!!!




Here they are:

Chocolate base: (Can also be found here)



200 g butter or margarine, romms temperature
3 dl sugar (300ml)
1 tsp vanilla essence/sugar
3 eggs
1,5 dl cocoa (150 ml)
5 dl flour (2 cups)
1/2 tsp baking powder
1 1/2 tsp bicarbonate
1 tsp salt
3 dl water

1. Preheat the oven to 175 degrees. Oil 1 large or 2 small cake tins.

2. Beat the butter and sugar until white and fluffy.

3. Add the eggs, one at a time, mixing well after each addition. Continue beating for several minutes after all the eggs have been added.

4. Mix all the dry ingredients in a bowl. Add to the creamed butter mixture together with all the water, mixing slowly at first and then a little faster as the flour gets incorporated. Beat for several minutes.

5. Pour the batter into the prepared cake tins. Bake in the oven for about 30-40 minutes, depending on the sizes of the tins used.

6. Remove from the oven and let the cakes cool completely. Cut the top of the cake of and divide them in half. Fill with different fillings, depending on which favour you want. I used my caramel cream and oreo cream fillings. Raspeberry mousse also works great with this chocoalte flavoured base.



White Chocolate Cream Cheese Frosting: (Check out Manuela's version)


250 g white chocolate
340 g natural cream cheese
85 g butter
1 1/2 tbsp creme fraiche
1 tsp vanilla essence
1/2 dl icing sugar
food colouring

1. Melt the chocolate carefully.

2. Mix the rest of the ingrediants in a blender very quickly. Add the chocolate and mix until combined.

3. Pour the icing into a bowl and put in the fridge for at least 1 hour.

4. Take out and mix with an electric beater until desired consistency.

Happy baking,
Love Heidi

Sunday, 23 January 2011

It's a girl!


Good morning everyone!

Hope that you are all having a wonderful week-end!

Before you get to excited about the heading (no, I'm not pregnant ;-) ), some friends of ours just had the cutest little baby girl! We are so happy for them and warmly welcome their little princess into our big world.

To celebrate I made some cute little butterfly cupcakes. The recipe for the cupcakes is a normal vanilla cupcake recipe like this one:

(Makes 12 cupcakes)

3 1/2 dl (1 1/2 cups) flour
2 tsp baking powder
1 pinch of salt
125 g butter (room temperature)
2 1/2 dl (1 cup) white sugar
2 tsp vanilla essence or vanilla sugar
2 eggs at room temperature
1 1/2 dl (3/4 cup) milk (room temperature)

1. Preheat the oven to 180 degrees C. Line a muffin tray with paper liners.
2. Mix together the flour, salt and baking powder.
3. In a separate bowl, beat the butter, sugar and vanilla on medium speed until creamy (about 3 minutes).
4. Add the eggs, one at a time, mixing well after each addition.
5. On low speed, beat in the flour (about 3 additions) alternating with the milk. Start with the flour and end with the flour and beat until just blended. BEWARE of over-beating at this stage...you will knock the air out of your cupcakes and they won't rise properly.
6. Pour the batter into the cupcake liners, about 3/4 full. Bake until golden and until a toothpick comes out clean when inserted. About 20 minutes.
7. Remove from the muffin tray and cool completely.

(From the book: Kids Parties by Lisa Atwood)





The frosting recipe is one that I have wanted to try for a long time...

One of my favourite blogs is written by a lady called Manuela over at Passion for baking. She always has such lovely posts and ideas. One of the frostings that she uses a lot is called "Angel feather icing". It tastes exactly as it looks...delicious and fluffy and sweet. It's basically like a meringue (or like the filling in those delicious chocolate covered Sweetie-pies).

Here's the recipe (or you can click here to see it on Manuela's site in Norwegian).

2 egg whites
170 g sugar
1 dl white corn syrup
2 tbsp water
1/4 tsp cream of tartar (I have a hard time getting a hold of this in Sweden, so I used the same amount of distilled vinegar(Ättiksprit)instead)
1 tsp vanilla
(A few drops of red food colouring...you can leave this out or colour it whichever way you want to)

1. Put all the ingredients, except the vanilla and colouring, in a glass bowl. Make sure that the bowl is free from any grease as this will prevent the egg whites from beating up properly.
2. Put the bowl over a pot with boiling water. While the water is boiling, beat with an electric mixer until the mixture becomes white and fluffy.
3. Take the bowl off the pot and continue mixing. The more you mix the stiffer the icing will get and the better it will hold it's shape.
4. When you reach your desired consistency, add the vanilla and colouring and you're ready to go!



I decorated these cupcakes with pastry bags and tips that I bought at Cervera. Then I sprinkled on some pink crystals with pink and purple hearts. Finally I made small little butterflies with fondant that I painted with pearl dust to give them a glimmer I bought the little butterfly cookie cutters at ÅhlĂ©ns.

Happy baking!

Love,
Heidi

Wednesday, 12 January 2011

Shaun the sheep cake



Last week-end we went to a very special little girl's party. Elsa turned 2 and loves Shaun the Sheep...so I made her a Shaun the Sheep cake.

We are very grateful for Elsa and her lovely family! We met them when we had just lived in Jönköping a few weeks and they have been wonderful friends to us since then.

This cake is made with a vanilla sponge recipe that you can find here.
Inside, the cake layers were alternated with cream, strawberry puré and white chocolate! It tasted good and quite fresh as well...except the frosting. I always think that the frosting is too sweet, but to get a cake looking really nice, it usually has to have quite a bit of frosting on it. But I suppose if it is too sweet, you don't need to eat it all ;-).



Hope you all have a wonderful day!

Love,
Heidi

Tuesday, 23 November 2010

Castle cakes and open doors


Outside the wind is blowing and the snow is falling. Perfect weather to be inside. And perfect weather to sit down and look through some older photos. In the spring (March) I made a birthday cake for a little boy who was turning 4. He loves knights and castles so I made a castle cake. There was a lot of preparation that went into the cake as all the walls had to be measured and made in advance, as did the towers and the flags. But it was a really fun cake to make. The cake itself was a chocolate cake with a oreo cream filling. Yummy!



Hope the rest of your day is filled with laughter and fun and remember:
"When one door closes, another opens; but we often look so long and so regretfully upon the closed door that we do not see the one that has opened for us."

- Alexander Graham Bell

Monday, 15 November 2010

Cars Party



Tomorrow is Elias's second birthday. I'm so grateful for my cute, precious son! He is such a blessing!
We had a great time at his party on Saturday, fun times shared with fun friends. We went car-crazy! The children had hotdogs, robot biscuits, chocolate car bars and fruit sticks to nibble on. For the adults we made simple sandwiches, chips and dips and cake pops. We ended off with a chocolate cake with oreo cream and caramel cream filling. Click here for the cake recipe. It was similar to the baby shower cake, but had oreo cream (crushed oreo biscuits and whipped cream) instead of chocolate mousse. I tried to get the wild, cactussy, Radiator Springs feel for the decor. The tires, cones and cactuses were made from fondant. It was yummy!






Stay tuned for a very different type of burger...coming soon!

Have a wonderfully fun day!

Thursday, 11 November 2010

Baby Showers are fun!


Baby showers are not a very common thing in Sweden...but tonight I was at a super sweet baby shower for a super sweet lady! It was a lovely chance to get together with other ladies, eat good food and play fun games. Life is so much more fun when you can share the special moments it brings with other people!

I made the cake for the baby shower...it was the first time I have attempted modelling a person...it came out pretty cute, if I can say so myself;-)


The cake was made up of layers of cake, chocolate cream, caramel cream and covered with a white chocolate icing. I love the look that a cake covered in fondant gives, but fondant is unfortunately very very sweet. So i'm trying to find ways to cover cakes with icings that aren't as sweet, yet still look good. The biggest challenge with icing is getting it perfectly smooth. But practise makes perfect! The little polka dots and the lady were all made from home-made fondant.

The cake recipe is SOOO easy...4 simple ingrediants:

4 eggs
1½ dl (just over ½ cup) sugar
1 dl(100 ml) flour
½dl(50 ml) cocoa

Beat the eggs and sugar together very well until light and fluffy. Sieve the flour and cocoa into the egg mixture and CAREFULLY fold it in until mixed. Bake at 200 degrees for 10-15 minutes and you're done ;-)
For tonight's cake i made 2 of these, cut each one in half and layered it with dark chocolate cream and caramel cream.

Dark chocolate cream:
200g dark chocolate, melted over a water bath
3½ dl (1½ cup) cream.

Whip the cream and mix in the cooled, melted chocolate...it's that simple.

And the caramel cream...it was AMAZING! I could eat it just like it is. But to get that recipe you'll have to come back some other day ;-)

I have another cake and party project coming up on the week-end...for my son. He's turning 2...and he loves cars...so guess what kind of party we're having...

Sleep tight and sweet dreams everyone!
Happy baking!

Sunday, 31 October 2010

Horse Cake


Here is another cake I made for a friend's sister. I was asked to make something to do with horses, so I modelled a horse from fondant and put it in a field of flowers. I think it was cute, and apparently it tasted really nice too...that's always good to hear!


I love the little flower and fence details. The flowers and horse were made in advance so that they had time to dry. The fence was, however, made just before I put it on the cake so that it would fit against the cake properly. Finally I piped some grass around the edge and on the cake to finish it off. The cake is made from chocolate sponge, filled with chocolate cookie cream and covered in white chocolate frosting. Lots and lots of chocolate...it always works!

Birthday cake



In May this year I made my first 2-tiered cake...I think it turned out well. I loved the colour scheme - shades of pink and chocolate brown. I made the cake for a friend's 25th birthday. I liked it! In retrospect I think that the top layer was a bit big for the bottom layer. But I'm very happy wih how the roses turned out. And the polka dots...and the whole cake actually!




The vanilla sponge was tasty, but it was a bit stodgy and heavy, so I wouldn't use the same recipe again. The cake was filled with lemon curd and white chocolate mousse...YUMMY. I'll post the recipe for those soon! The cake was decorated with fondant/sugarpaste, which is very easy to work with and looks very nice. The only negative aspect of sugarpaste is that it's so sweet...BUT it looks nice...and food needs to look good, so I can live with the sweetness ;-)!

The secret with good cakes is letting your creativity flow and make it your own. Happy baking!
 
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