Swiss Meringue Buttercream

Finding a great icing recipe isn't easy. There are so many out there; lots are too greasy, lots are way too sweet, and some are too sweet, too greasy and too runny all at once. This recipe is incredibly easy to modify, and gives you a sweet and silky icing that is easy to pipe. The only caveat is don't try to use it on a hot day.

Swiss Meringue Buttercream

4 egg whites (from 59g eggs)
285g sugar
425g butter

Method

Add the sugar to the egg whites. Place over a saucepan of simmering water and stir with a whisk until the sugar has dissolved. Using a stand mixer and whisk attachment, beat the eggs until thick and glossy. Change the whisk attachment to a paddle attachment, reduce the speed to medium and continue mixing until the bowl is room temperature to touch. Meanwhile, cube the butter. When the meringue mix has cooled, slowly add the butter, one or two cubes at a time. Continue until all of the butter has been incorporated into the meringue. If the mixture appears to curdle, stop adding butter and continue whipping until the mixture smooths again. Once it's smooth, start adding butter.

Castle cake, take one

Castle cakes can be as simple or as difficult as you like. This one was pretty straight forward, mostly because I used meringue butter cream and lollies instead of fondant and piped decorations. I'm pretty sure I'll try variations on this, hence the take one.

The cake was made from four quantities of a standard butter cake, baked in a 25 cm pan, 12.5 cm pan and lamington tray. The turrets were cut from the lamington tray using a medium sized scone cutter, topped with waffle cones. The whole thing was cemented together using chocolate ganache and lots of cake dowels.

Here's a shot in progress:

And here's the finished product:

So there you have it, about the easiest castle cake going. From all reports, the birthday girl enjoyed it. I certainly had fun putting it together.

Quick and easy for grown-ups

I was recently asked to make a cake for a grown up's birthday. Normally I make cakes for people much younger, or for special events like baby showers, Christmas and so forth. So I was a bit stumped. It wasn't an event birthday, like a twenty-first or fortieth. The guy in question isn't passionate about any hobbies. Nobody was forthcoming with any sort of theme, other than orange and poppy seed.

In the end, I decided on chocolate curls. Decorations don't come much simpler, and I think they add a nice touch to an otherwise plain cake. You can jazz them up with contrasting chocolate colours, but for an orange and poppy seed cake, I figured subtle was the way to go.

Here's how it turned out.

Getting started

I've always liked baking, but have only recently decided to get into decorating. Well, proper decorating that is. Rather than learning from books - which really wasn't working out all that well - I signed up for a four week course at a local cake shop. Here's what I've learned so far.


Week one
Really, there's nothing like a cake decorating class to bring your self esteem crashing back to earth. No photo this week!


Week two

Week two was all about figure piping. The clowns are made from a product called Thick and Rich, which is possibly the least buttery butter cream icing I've ever tasted. It's so far from being a dairy product that once it's whipped, it doesn't need any refrigeration, and can quite happily sit on a cake for days at a time. If you ever stumble upon a cake decorated with this stuff, my recommendation is to scrape it off before eating the cake. Still, at least I learned how to make clowns, a skill which I'm sure won't go to waste provided I've got time to whip up some royal icing.

My shell borders have improved already. These ones look like badly realised surf to me.

Week three
Week three was time to make character cakes. The rest of the class decorated cartoon characters and puppets. One student did Darth Vader. I took the easy way out.

Still, the boys were impressed enough that Deux wants this for his fifth birthday. Obviously I got something right... as if the finger smear in the corner wasn't enough of a give away.

Week four
Week four was the final lesson for the first course. This cake turned into a birthday cake for Maman. Everyone deserves a princess cake once in a while.

I've signed up for another course, this time with more of a focus on fashionable cakes. While I probably won't get a lot of use for my adventures in "butter" cream icing, I still think it was good to get some foundation skills under my belt. Here's hoping the next course turns out some cakes that I'm not ashamed of!