A Success

I'm feeling really pleased with myself and more confident about making Laura and James' wedding cake. I had a go at Nigella's Chocolate Guinness cake replacing the guinness with Newcastle Brown Ale. The method isn't the usual way you would expect to make a cake but I went with it and it turned out really well.





The cake is really moist which I think will work well for the wedding cake because I will have to make it upto 2 days before the wedding. Again I've iced it with ready-to-roll icing and was much happier with the way it turned out. I left out the marzipan this time as I think it with be too much with the other flavours.



Although I am pleased with the icing I still need to practice as it's still a bit bumpy. After discussing this with my mum we came to the conclusion that I will have to double ice the cake or make sure the icing isn't rolled too thin.

I've just had a quick browse on the internet and I may have a go at this recipe as a comparison to Delia.

The Final Outcome

I came across some instrustions for icing a fruit cake in one of the books my mum and dad bought me. Six steps to perfectly iced cakes, how hard can it be?




For a first attempt i'm quite pleased with my efforts but I definately need to get some practice in to make sure the cakes look perfectly smooth. Its harder than it looks!



You can see fom the picture above that the icing is quite bumpy.I definately think I will have to use marzipan underneath the icing to help make sure that its smooth.



Although you're supposed to leave the cake 24hrs for the icing to dry, I couldn't help cutting into it and seeing what it was like.

It was pretty tasty and there was a definate taste of the Newcastle Brown Ale!

The First Attempt

So I have tried out Delia's recipe for Chocolate Stout cake and so far I am really pleased with the result. The cakes are currently cooling. I substituted her suggested stout with Newcastle Brown Ale as the original cake Julie and I made had it in and thats what the Bride and Groom liked. The icing is sickly but delicious and also has a touch of Newcastle Brown Ale in.

My next task is to attempt to ice the cake with royal icing and marzipan. At the minute my only concern is that the cake will be too sickly with marzipan as well as the butter icing in the middle and whether I should just leave it out completely.

I'm sure I'll have my trusty cake tasters to advise me!

A bit of a challenge

So I agreed to make another wedding cake only this time its the real deal!
Laura and James are getting married on September 11th and they want a three tier wedding cake with white icing and red sugar roses trailing down from top to bottom.

As I have very little experience of doing anything like this I am quite nervous but who doesn't like a challenge!?! I hope I haven't bitten off more than I can chew. I have been studying lots of youtube videos and Mum and Dad have bought me some very dated but helpful cake decorating books.

Last year my friend Julie and I had a bake sale at a local pub. One of the cakes we made was a chocolate ale cake and Laura and JAmes decided they liked it so much thats the cake they'd like for their wedding. A bit of a relief as their first idea was a Croquembouche!

So I haven't got the original recipe but I'm hoping this recipe from Delia will be just as good. I'm going to have a practice day on Sunday so i'll let you know how it goes!

Hello, Welcome to Katy Likes to Bake.

There's not much to look at at the moment but bare with me and i'll post some bits and pieces soon.

The Wedding Cake

My friends,Laura and Brian, got married in May and asked me to make their cupcake wedding cake. As it was the first time i'd attempted anything like this on my own I was pretty nervous but I think it turned out ok in the end!

The cupcakes were simple vanilla but with ingredients including yogurt and ground almonds meaning they stayed moist and fresh for the big day. The icing was white choclate butter icing. Super simple and super tasty!

Mum helped me with the top cake. Bismark fruit cake. A recipe passed down from my Grandma. Unlike a traditional fruit cake Bismark is full of brazil nuts, pineapple, coconut, cranberries in a light, moist sponge.