Oh wow! How cool is that!? Chapter 39 of Claire's Crazy Bakes and Kitchen Hacks coincides perfectly with my 39th birthday, and, it's all about cake!
@aimeludick and I are just a few days apart, so it's become more common for us to merge things, and what a lovely way to bond as well as take care of things from a practical perspective, than to teach her how to bake. So for now, she's mastering the icing side of things, but I think I'll give her the reigns to the baking part next. I think she's more than ready and all of my recipes are flop-proof, tried and tested and spectacular - if I may say so myself, teehee!
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this pic was taken when we did the other upside-down vanilla/ chocolate combo cupcakes for Nick's birthday: see below.
Well, the proof is in the pudding, and the pudding was delicious. We combined my gorgeous chocolate cake recipe with a lovely and rich vanilla buttercream icing so that Aime could experiment with colors and my new piping apparatus (which is a serious upgrade from the messy piping bags - which I can gladly say I have put to rest at the back of the cupboard).
apparatus ready for children to lick clean! Arguably their favorite part of helping me bake!
I decided to bake a ring cake using a springform tin - because we didn't have patience for fighting with layers and still wanted a pretty big cake. I love spring form tins because there's no fighting to get the cake out. You just let it cool down, undo the buckle, and out it comes! Obviously, I use baking paper and spray and cook to prevent sticking, but the spring form time just makes everything just that much easier. You do have to be careful that the base is properly locked in place though if you want to avoid cake batter or the entire cake falling on the floor.
I then purposefully kept some batter behind and used it to try out these awesome silicone heart-shaped cupcake molds! Aren't they amazing? They require no liners and just pop out. It still freaks me out a bit, putting them in the oven. I'm convinced they'll melt, but honestly, they're fantastic and the cupcakes just pop right out.
So I did the baking, and Aime and her friend did the icing, and I must say that the flavor of the rich dark chocolate base and the vanilla icing actually worked really well together. Like a Cadbury's Top-deck cake!
For Nick's Birthday, ( @lex-zaiya's partner) we tried the reverse, with vanilla cupcakes and chocolate icing and that also turned out to be incredibly delicious! Who says you have to stick to the rules?
for my flop-proof, moist, and decadent chocolate recipe check this post out: Claire's Crazy Cakes, Bakes and Kitchen Hacks: Chapter 3 - Ultimate Chocolate Cake
For vanilla buttercream icing, check this post out: Claire's Crazy Cakes, Bakes and Kitchen Hacks: Chapter 21 - What to do when a Unicorn poops on your cupcakes π¦π¦π₯π₯/ Moist Vanilla Cupcakes with Purple Glitter Unicorn Frosting
Well, it's almost time for Chapter 40 of this series. I'll have to come up with something really special for this one! Thank you for everyone who has been following and supporting me on my cooking and baking journey <3
It is good to see that you have a lot of moulds to make different kind of cakes π° as well as those cupcakes π seems tasty too.
oh, it's an addictive (and expensive) habit! and almost everything I make tasted amazing. even the flops! Luckily for me, I have a mom in the UK who's obsessed with kitchen gadgets so when she immigrated I adopted all her baking stuff. I have enough to open a little bakery actually! I need @zakludick to build me a baking cupboard in the garage so I can sort out everything I have and unpack all the boxes. It's a lot of stuff! But to be honest, the costs of running a small home bakery are not worth it at all. Unless you're running a massive production line and paying wholesale prices, there's no way you can make a decent profit, unless you can find a way into boutique shops. No one wants to pay more than ZAR500.00 (about USD25.00) for a cake and to be honest, that is what it takes to make a basic one, not including labor and electricity. People don't value your time. They just think about whatever crappy mass-production cake they can buy at the supermarket and then try to compare it to home-baked, quality ingredient goodness, and that's just not fair. So I just bake for my family and for those I love. I'd rather give and not expect anything in return. It brings me joy to bring other people joy, and what better way to do that is there than with cake?
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