The flavour test

Ello ello
I feel like I've been neglecting my blog but busy is even an understatement. Update Maras cakes is now almost up and running just need to sort out the technical stuff and the business is good to go yay me !!  

Anyway enough about me down to business

I decided that it's time to do some flavour and decorating testing I came back home for a couple days so I thought this would be the perfect time. I recently bought The Cake Bible by Rose Levi Beranbaum and I have been reading it like a textbook book for my exams lol .

Vanilla Cake with Raspberry Buttercream and Raspberry chocolate Ganache

First up on the list of flavours to test was a Vanilla cake with Raspberry Buttercream and Chocolate Raspberry ganache drip on the top. This cake had so much elements at one point I thought what is the meaning of life, why is there so much stuff and what have I signed myself up to lool.

The raspberry sauce well puree in the end turned out to be very potent as raspberry is a very strong tart flavour. I added the raspberry puree into the chocolate ganache aswell which made it raspberry chocolate yummyness lol
The pinkness of the icing just topped it off . This cake was maybe the least problematic of them all lool

Chocolate Devils Food Cake with Strawberry and Vanilla Buttercream

Second up on the list was chocolate devils food cake with strawberry and vanilla buttercream.. well even thinking about this cake makes me sweat again lol. This cake made me realise why people test recipes and made me love food flavouring even more .
Long story short I tried to add strawberry puree into buttercream and ended up with well let's say strawberry buttercream sauce even the fridge couldn't help it.
The cake came together in the end lool didn't have the neopolitan colour cake look that I was going for but that's the point of this 1 lesson learnt.
My plan was to have a sugarpaste peony ontop of the cake however after 3 attempts that plan wasn't working lol.

The whole sugarpaste situation wasnt working. I tried to cover the cake in sugarpaste first time for everything and it was so difficult it cracked I couldn't figure out how to smooth it so I just stuck flowers to act as a disguise. Improvisation at its finest lol thank god it was only a tester.

And finally *drum rollllll* 

Vanilla and Almond Rainbow Swirl Cake with Watercolour Buttercream and Mini marshmallows

A vanilla and almond rainbow swirl cake with watercolour buttercream and mini marshmallows on top. Honestly I just wanted to make 3 cakes and this was a last minute idea. I already knew the three ideas I had regarding the cake decorating but I cant decorate a cake tin so last minute I just threw something together. This cake was the easiest of them all, Just the usual Vanilla cake and separate the mixture into 3 colour them and then spoon them in and swirl with a toothpick.

The icing wasn't too hard either i coated the cake with normal buttercream  i waited for that to cool in the fridge then coloured buttercream 3 colours spread it on smoothed and it was good to go . I didn't fully smooth it because it was only a tester. Overall this one was an easy one.

Lessons learnt 

well well this tester session taught me many things about baking and after all this time I have been baking  and winging it I now realise why people test cakes lool .

• Never ever in a millionnnn trillion billion years will I ever try to use fruit sauce or puree to solely flavour a buttercream unless i want a buttercream sauce thing which tastes awesome but doesn't do much to hold a cake. Unless i'm trying to recreate the leaning tower of piza lol.
  
• Dont cool buttercream on a cake if im trying to cover it with fondant . Yeh it wasn't a good idea which is one of the reasons i think it came out so badly lol
  
• Patience is the key to everything, and improvisation when all else fails lol. I naturally am a very impatient person so when things weren't working I got so annoyed these cakes really tested all my patience and skills, but it also taught me so much and that its ok not to get things right on the first try and they wont be perfect annoying as I am also a perfectionist but such is life lol everyday you learn something new with baking.
  
• Sugarpaste flowers are evil... for now lool until I get the hang of it then they can be lovely again lol 

well that's it folks until next time ta ta *waves*

Just a Girl who Loves to Bake xx