My newest techniques.

Hello there fellow bakers!

Today's post is all about a cake I made for a lovely friend of mine. I haven't been baking a whole lot lately, as uni is becoming quite hectic! However, I can always find a bit of time to make a birthday cake!

Meringues are becoming quite popular, and I have seen many different ways to make them. I have been inspired lately by Meringue Girls, two ladies who make amazzzzzing meringues. The technique is quite simple, but they look completely fabulous! To put it simply, you whip up a meringue mixture. You then paint stripes on the inside of a piping bag with food colouring of your choice, spoon the mixture in, and pipe till your heart is content! I had a go at these little beauties, and was semi-happy with how they turned out. With practice, I am sure these could look stunning!

I also tried out a new technique of icing...ombré icing! I have seen this being done quite a bit, and wanted to give it a go myself. Once again, I was happy with my first attempt, but I am sure there is room for improvement. 

Here is a little guide of how to achieve the ombré look: 

You will need: 

© A cake (crumb coated)

© 3 batches of frosting in various shades of one colour

© A palette knife (I don't have one of these yet so I used a normal knife)

© A cake turntable 

1. Make sure your cake is already crumb coated well. This will help for a smooth effect, as well as ensuring that the frosting sticks on well. 
2. Place the cake on a turntable. These can be purchased from most kitchen stores. I bought mine from our cheap shop! If you don't have one, just use a plate. 

     

    3.  Starting at the bottom and using the darkest shade of frosting, work your way around the cake.   

    4.  Using the medium shade of frosting, ice around the middle section of the cake.

    5.  And using the lightest shade, ice the top third as well as the top surface of the cake
        (This is sounding wordy, but refer to my picture below to make sense of my instructions!)

6. Now for the fun bit! Using your palette knife (or normal knife like me), gently work your way around the cake, smearing as you go. Turn the cake slowly, and watch as the frosting blends in with the next colour. Keep going until you achieve the desired effect. 

And voilà! You have now created an ombré cake! 

I covered the top of my cake in the little meringues, which I thought looked pretty cute! 

The cake itself was a vanilla sponge with layers of white chocolate ganache, 100's and 1000's, cream cheese frosting and crushed up Kit Kat. It is fair to say we all entered a sugar coma after eating one piece each!

So there we go! A short post about some new techniques I have played with lately!

Until next time, happy baking.

xx