A Valentine for Eileen and Eddy...

This cake represents my one and only foray into cold porcelain cake decorations. The dove, flowers, pearls and quilted ribbon are made from cold corcelain, a clay-like substance similar to gumpaste developed in South America and spread to the British Empire where it has become hugely popular among cake and sugar artists. Although it has a similar look to sugar work, is is synthetic and will last forever. It is worked like sugarpaste with slight differences; one has to keep separate tools for the cold porcelain and when placed on the cake should have a separator between the cake and the decoration. It can also be painted with oil paints. I have used only a slight touch of magenta coloring at the rose centers and overdusted the decorations with a pearl dust.

The pearl heart and the small dish on top of the cake are made of gumpaste. The dish and the separator heart-shaped disk have been painted with silver lustre dust. The heart-shaped cake is dense almond with an egg yolk rum buttercream, a lemon curd filling and a layer of almond dacquoise under the filling. It is covered in marzipan paste and finished with a citrus flavored rolled fondant. Because I chose a black foamcore base, I opted not to cover it with fondant. Instead, piped royal icing "doodles" decorated with silver dragees highlight each corner. At the back of the cake royal icing leaves finish off the cold corcelain rose. Large silver dragees stud the fondant which has been given a sheen with pearl dust.

Happy St. Valentine's Day to Eileen and Eddy and Lovers Everywhere! And a Happy Anniversary to Theresa and John!

Maria

A Look Back...to Easter

The "cake" pictured above is actually a display sugar piece only. I know that it seems out of sync with this time of year but it was one of only two projects on which I worked this past year and I was not able to post the pictures during the appropriate season. It was created for the 2008 Easter Vigil/RCIA at my church. Because I was working on this project while still undergoing medical procedures, I decided to skip the baking of cakes and concentrated my strength on the decorative aspects. I even borrowed the lamb from a previous cake. Most of my energy, such as it was, was channeled into the sugarpaste flowers which included narcissus, freesia, forsythia branches and variegated ivy. The "water" spilling from the overturned urn was created with piping gel and represents the Sacrament of Baptism. The Lamb represents the Sacrament of the Eucharist while the Dove represents the Sacrament of Confirmation. The Gothic style Cross and draped cloth represent the Resurrection. The cake dummies (styrofoam forms) and the foamcore base are covered in rolled fondant and edged in purple and yellow ribbon.

Maria

More Mardi Gras Madness

As promised, the star of the day, the King Cake, makes its appearance surrounded by the acoutrements of the day (executed in sugar, of course). The Diva (Antonia) wanted y'all to know that SHE made the purple and gold sugar beads and strung them. She now claims she's ready for the Oklahoma Sugar Show.

The cake is fairly traditional; mine has a cream cheese filling with chopped pecans, orange and lemon zest and a touch of cinnamon (Vietnamese is my favorite). For those of you who've never had the pleasure of the King Cake experience, it is not unlike a yeast coffee ring, with or without a filling (fruit, marzipan, cream cheese, etc.). I play with the ingredients for each year's King Cake and this year's was particularly tasty (Remember, the first cake was consumed on Sunday). The harlequin diamonds of purple, green and gold on top of the cake are a thinned royal icing liberally sprinkled with colored sanding sugars. Usually, I don't make such a fuss about decorating the top of the cake; a drizzle of confectioners sugar glaze followed by a sprinkling of sanding sugars in the traditional colors in wide bands is the extent of my decorating. However, this cake had to be a bit more photogenic so out came the piping bag and royal icing. The Sugar Mask was described in yesterday's post.

The true pleasure of the King Cake is not in its taste or even its appearance. It is quite ordinary in the first and gaudy in the second. It's pleasure is in the celebration of tradition, and a religious one at that, not the Bacchanalian one we've come to associate with the celebration of Mardi Gras (Fat Tuesday) in New Orleans. The name is derived from the Three Kings (Wise Men, Magi) whose journey in search of the infant Jesus is celebrated on January 6th, the traditional day of the Epiphany of Our Lord. It marks the end of the Christmas season and the beginning of the Carnival season culminating in the frenzied celebrations of Mardi Gras, the day before Ash Wednesday and the fasting and abstinence of Lent.

Although the King Cake dates back to 12th Century France (the Galette de Roi of France is a more elegant pastry affair with an almond pastry cream filling traditionally served on 12th Night-the evening before Epiphany), its incarnation in Louisiana is steeped in the rich culture and tradition of that region. The official colors of Mardi Gras which decorate the cake were first chosen in 1837 and symbolize justice (purple), faith (green) and power (gold). A small figure of a baby, representing the Baby Jesus, is usually inserted into the cake; the one whose piece of cake contains the baby has to throw the next party or make the next King Cake. This goes on all through the Carnival season with King Cakes being consumed daily. This of course does not apply to me; whether or not I get the baby, I still have to make the next King Cake. Usually I provide some kind of prize for the lucky finder of the baby.


Maria

For Theresa and John...

...Happy Valentine's Day and Happy Anniversary to my dearest friends! And Happy Valentine's Day to Lovers everywhere...

(A double-decker heart-shaped Brownie cake filled and coated with bittersweet chocolate ganache. The fondant covered, heart-shaped cake and foamcore board, were decorated with scallop crimping, sugar lace pieces, embossed sugar bows and sugar pearls. The Heart is adorned with gumpaste flowers: Roses, Cornflowers and Chinese Jasmine. The lace, bows and pearls were formed with molds and embossers coated with antique silk luster dust then, with the cakeboard and cake top, over-dusted with pearl dust. The heart-shaped cakeboard was trimmed in two ivory lace ribbons.)

Maria

Happy New Year!

The very best wishes from Diva Delights to all for a prosperous and healthy 2007!

We kicked off the old year with our rowdy friends, a sumptuous dessert table, the traditional champagne toast and a Bûche de Nöel. It's a French Yule log made from a sponge cake rolled around chocolate buttercream. My version was an almond sponge with the entire log wrapped in marzipan. The ends were cut off and placed strategically to give the illusion of cut tree limb stumps. The entire log was covered with chocolate buttercream with meringue mushrooms and marzipan holly leaves and berries decorating the finished log. A marzipan banner reading "Happy New Year 2007" in gold was draped across the top. A dusting of confectioners sugar gave the look of freshly fallen snow.

Maria

Sweet Harvest

This, my latest project, is the bounty of the season executed entirely in sugar. The harvest board includes a cornucopia filled to the brim with fruits and vegetables which are interspersed with grape leaves. A ten inch cake, covered in chocolate fondant, is included in the harvest tableau.

All fruits and vegetables were first sculpted in styrofoam, covered in a gumpaste/fondant blend, then handpainted with food-grade powders. I also sprayed each piece with a food-grade lacquer to give it the slight sheen seen in the real-life model. The cornucopia was made by weaving long strips of sugar paste as one would a reed or willow basket; the grape leaves are gumpaste.

This piece was made for a corporate party and the top of the cake has the appropriate company name and message executed in gold; a sugar rope wreaths the cake bottom. The cake is my signature "Diva" cake. The bottom tier is a rich chocolate cake topped with a layer of bittersweet chocolate buttercream. Another layer of chocolate cake follows. The center filling is a chocolate ganache embedded with fresh raspberries. Next comes a butter cake tier, then a raspberry buttercream followed by another butter cake tier. The raspberry buttercream is made with a puree of fresh raspberries, a bit of sugar and a light dose of raspberry liqueur. It is wonderfully tart and offsets the sweetness and richness of this cake perfectly.

The entire cake is then encased in a "spackle" consisting of left over cake crumbs, ganache and chocolate buttercream. This paste is not only tasty but fills in any spaces in the cake and provides a perfect undercoat for the rolled fondant. And unlike a buttercream undercoat it dries firmly to the touch. I owe this "spackle" technique to Toba Garrett as described in her book "The Well Decorated Cake". Every time I "spackle" one of my cakes, I give thanks to the brilliant and talented Miss Garrett! Fondant requires a near perfect surface to which to adhere or else the final effect will be lumpy and bumpy and less than perfect. The traditional British fondant covered cake is a rather heavy fruit cake covered in marzipan then finished off with a final covering of rolled fondant. This is not a popular option in America. So the "spackle" coat is a perfect substitute for marzipan. I do occasionally use an undercoat of marzipan especially if the cake is a dense almond one.

As mentioned earlier, the cake covering is a chocolate fondant (one of my prizes from the Oklahoma Sugar Show). And it tastes just like a Tootsie Roll!

Maria