"May the best day of your past Be the worst day of your future." My Dad always wished me this Irish Blessing and I want it to matter today and every other day in my life.
Showing posts with label My cake experience. Show all posts
Showing posts with label My cake experience. Show all posts
Tuesday, 5 April 2022
How I fill and stack a cake.
by Yvette van Niekerk
I have had such a fiasco with filling and stacking cakes. I thought I would share some of my own experiences with you today. My cakes have bulged out between layers and are straight up oozing off the sides. An expensive lesson especially when I am baking for my clients.
What was my problem? I realised this after a lot of tears and frustration. That many times I didn’t put enough icing on and the cake was cumber covered. I also came to the realisation that I didn’t build a wall on my cake when placing a filling inside of the cake.
I soon realised the essential part of building your cake. Starts with the basics, your icing needs to be thick enough so that your foundation is sturdy. I have baked cakes and on delivery, my cakes started pulling to the left and going lopsided.
Now I have been baking for over a decade and it has been an experience. There are two kinds of fillings and a trick to stacking a cake. One: is the stable filling which is straightforward buttercream icing. Two are other less stable fillings. Such as soft consistency chocolate ganache, salted caramel, jam, lemon cured etc.
I am going to show a stable filling today and next time we will explore the filling of ganache or chocolate.
Starting point.
Going straight to my board, I place a dash of buttercream on the surface. I place my first layer of cake on the board. This swipe of buttercream acts as “glue” to keep my bottom layer in place. This cake board method; I find makes life a lot easier. To place my cake on my turntable and then straight into the box for transportation.
Filling and stacking my cake with buttercream icing.
I find filling and stacking my cake with buttercream icing, it’s very straightforward. I know that consistency is very important. I will share my vanilla buttercream icing recipe with you. In South Africa; we have different kinds of margarine and butter.
I find that you should stick to the margarine or butter made for baking. To thicken the buttercream I add more powdered sugar. I find the thicker the icing consistency the better the cake.
I take some of my icing mixtures and place them in a piping bag, then I pip the icing on the base of my cake. I then place the icing on top and start covering the first layer. Here you can decide the thickness of the icing for the cake. I like it about 1 cm for the filling. I then place my next layer on the cake and do the same.
I have learned; through experience that I need to ensure my first layer of icing is as level as possible. Otherwise, my cake isn’t as even as I want it to be.
Stacking cake layers
As mentioned above; it's important to place a dash of icing on the bottom of the cake board. To secure the first layer of your cake. I then proceed to place my cake on my board. I don’t cake anything off my cakes, as you can see they are straight and no bulging on the top of the cake. I place my icing over the top and then the next layer and carry it onto the next layer.
I find that it is important to first crumb protect my cake. and I place my cake in the fridge for 20 minutes. I then start with the base cover. Plain white buttercream icing and then I pipe my colours for the finale stage.
I use a scraper to level my cake out and then I start with decoration. On this cake, I printed Masha and Bear on rice paper placing it on a biscuit for a nice touch. I then sprinkled some sprinkles on the cake.
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