A Candy Striped Heart Cake

So what happens when your creativity is bursting and you don't really know what to do with it. You end up making a 2 tiered square candy striped fondant cake with royal icing trimming for no occasion in particular. The cake started out just as a 'timepass' on a Saturday afternoon but 2 days later had developed into quite a rewarding project.

Leveling The Cakes

Believe it or not, leveling and shaping the tiers was actually the most complex aspect of the whole cake. It seems simple enough - just bake a couple of square cakes and put them on top of each other. But cakes don't cooperate, invariably one side is taller than the other, the corners are rounded, the sides are marginally lower than the rest of the cake and ultimately we found that shaping each tier into a perfect right angled square was no mean feat.

Fondant, Fondant and more Fondant

Next the two tiers had to be covered with plain white fondant and then striped pieces were added. That was the most fun because suddenly the cake was starting to look nice. The colors were bright and vibrant and the whole candy striped theme taking shape. 

Royal Icing - Not as Easy as it Looks

Royal icing is supposed to be the easiest to make and use but perhaps our recipe was all wrong because it was extremely stiff and we burst a couple of piping bags while trying to apply the rosetted trim. A fresh batch was made using a different recipe and then it was easy peasy! The rosettes on the edge of each tier added the perfect finish as did the heart on the top. A final touch of fondant balls around the heart finished the job and Voila, the cake was ready.

Now we just needed someone to eat it!

The Amazing Clown Cake

Reshna's daughter Aalia was turning 3 and we resisted the temptation to make a pretty girly cake - with a fairy theme or a princess feel. We knew that in a couple of years she would probably want these themes herself, so now was the time to do something fun and recognizable that she and her little toddler friends would love.

A Happy Colourful Clown

We froze on the clown cake because it was just so colorful and vibrant. The clown himself looked so happy that we felt it would set the tone for the entire party. Reshna baked the cake, a massive chocolate masterpiece. It was quite tall and perfectly flat on the surface. Sunehra drew out the picture of the clown and once it was ready, it was time to carve. 

White Icing over a Chocolate Cake?

Sunehra was mortified when she heard Reshna had baked a chocolate cake. It is impossible to keep crumbs out of the icing!! Reshna valiantly insisted that it tasted so much better. So together we figured we would put two layers of white icing over the face. One for the crumbs and the next hopefully would be clean and unblemished. Our gamble paid off and fortunately our clown had a smooth and clear complexion.

Coloring up with Rosettes

The rest of the clown face was filled with rosettes. Reshna, precise and diligent as ever ensured that each rosette was perfectly crafted and aesthetically positioned over the cake. Sunehra took care of the fondant bow, nose and smile and pretty soon the cake was done.

The party was a stellar success and the happy clown, a fitting centerpiece!

A Noddy Cake for a Noddy Fan

When Prerna asked us to do a Noddy cake for her son’s Veer’s birthday party, we jumped at the chance. It didn’t matter that Reshna’s daughter’s birthday party was the week before or that Sunehra was in her 8th month of pregnancy. We couldn’t miss up the chance to make something we had never done before. 

What Can Go Wrong Will Go Wrong

To start, we made a chocolate cake and found that Sunehra’s oven was not heating evenly so one side had risen much higher than the other. After the cake was leveled it was so short that a second cake had to be baked which we placed on top of it to add some height. Delicious chocolate icing made from pure melted chocolate was spread over the base, middle and sides and now the cake was ready for the fondant top.

Curse that Fondant!

Fondant is painful in so many ways. First we have to get our fingers messy with liquid glucose. Then we have to knead and knead and knead and knead. Then we have to rolll it out and it never gets the way it should but after a good 1 hour on it, we finally had it perfect. We placed it on top of the cake and we were ready to start drawing.