When Autumn swings around we get ridiculously excited about Halloween! It’s the perfect holiday to kickstart party season! Seriously… what’s not to love? Spooky themed candy (our particular favourites are jelly spiders & eyeballs), anything with black cats on them, and absolutely everything pumpkin related! So when eBay (definitely give them a follow over on Instagram) contacted us about creating a Halloween cake tutorial perfect for their #fillyourcartwithcolour we couldn’t wait to start!
#fillyourcartwithcolour!
#fillyourcartwithcolour is a such a vibrant idea for a campaign and we love it! eBay is so convenient. Lots of retailers sell on the auction site now making it even easier to shop online. If we have a project coming up eBay is the first stop. From fondant and food colour via Cake Stuff to Lakeland’s own kitchen gadget range it helps take the stress out of shopping. The way people use eBay is completely different to a few years ago (enter Krystle searching for those beautiful Alexander McQueen bee embroidered slippers) to now (still searching for those mythical shoes as well as sourcing cake supplies and photography backdrops). The #fillyourcartiwthcolour campaign helps highlight how anyone’s passion can be fuelled by just a few clicks on eBay!
We started our collaboration with eBay by thinking about… colour! We wanted something obviously Halloween-esque, but also suitably quirky. At the time we began gathering ideas we’d also just planned a trip to a nearby pumpkin patch! Obviously we wanted to work some gorgeous rustic orange tones in. We then played with different oranges and pinks. It then made sense to add blacks, charcoal tones and different metallics. In the end our eyes kept gravitating towards a bright amber orange paired with a bubblegum pink (we LOVE our pink photography backdrop) with gold leaf accents, crisp white, soft pink and a glittery black!
One of our favourite eBay finds were these rose gold modern unicorn make-up brushes (and those cute pink modelling tools)! They are seriously perfect for cake. We often talk about using food safe brushes when working with cakes and treats. What that means is any non-animal containing brush (no hair or bristles) that has only ever been used on edible items. Brand new make-up brushes and nail art brushes are perfect. Nail art brushes are so tiny they are amazing when it comes to painting intricate details. Make-up brushes are super fluffy so they’re great for dusting and adding sparkle! Obviously another plus is that they look so glam. They’re perfect for photography or to feel a little magical when decorating a treat!
Want to find out how we made this super cute Halloween cake? Check out our Instagram post here! You can also find the tools and materials we used to create our black cat and pumpkin adorned cake via eBay!
When Royal Albert contacted us to say our cakes and treats were a perfect fit for their gorgeous range of tableware designed by Miranda Kerr obviously we were beyond flattered! The range manages to be luxurious yet fun and definitely on-trend (those pink peonies are a fashion favourite). Definitely something we aim to be with every sweet we create! With this in mind and to really make the most of those last few days of summer we’ve put together one super pretty cake you can re-create too! Cherries are available in late summer, but they always remind us both of Autumn too (hello fruity cherry conserves and cinnamon cherry strudels!). Adding in a good Madagascan vanilla along with a creamy white Belgian chocolate helps give this cake a wonderfully comforting feeling! To whip up this cake at home keep reading!
Love the stylish Royal Albert and Miranda Kerr ‘Gratitude’ cake stand and ‘Friendship’ tea plates we used to help show off our Royal Albert inspired cake? Follow the links to shop them! They’re so vibrant and beautiful. We’re huge fans of the large peonies, gold accents and pretty colour palette.
Cherry and white chocolate cake recipe!
Ingredients needed for the cake: (this recipe makes approx. 3 x 8″ circle cakes)
Pre-heat your oven to gas mark 3 / 140C (fan) / 160C (non-fan) / 325F. Butter and line your cake pans.
Step 02:
Cream together the butter and sugar in a good stand-up mixer. Don’t over mix as this adds air into your batter which can lead to a sunken mess.
Step 03:
Add in your flour and roughly mix this into the creamed butter and sugar. Again don’t over mix! Mixing too much once your flour has been added overstimulates the gluten which can make a rather dense and chewy textured cake. Not nice.
Step 04:
Now add in your eggs and Madagascan vanilla. Mix until incorporated. Then pour evenly between three 8″ cake pans! Bake each layer/pan for approximately 30 mins. Test your cake with a clean knife or cake tester. If it comes out clean your cake is ready! If not and batter sticks to the blade or tester bake for another 15 minutes checking again at the halfway mark!
If you want to bake all three layers at once place in your oven and bake for approximately 40-50 minutes. Remember to test your cakes. If they’re not ready bake for another 10-15 minutes and test each 5-7 minutes into your extra baking time!
Step 05:
When ready remove from the oven. Quickly and carefully turn out onto a clean surface to cool. We use chocolatier marble slabs to help our cakes cool down a little quicker.
Ingredients needed for the vanilla and white chocolate buttercream:
500g softened butter
250g sifted icing sugar (powdered or confectioner’s sugar in the US)
Cream the butter in a stand mixer. Scrape the butter back down to the bottom of the bowl using your spatula. Try not to mix the butter too much or this can lead to pesky air bubbles and an odd textured buttercream! It’s so tempting to just leave the mixer going while you prep other things, but don’t!
Step 02:
Add in your sifted icing sugar (also known as powdered sugar or confectioner’s sugar in the US) and mix until incorporated. Remember not to over mix though!
Step 03:
Now add in your Madagascan vanilla bean paste along with your 100g of melted white chocolate and a little pink food colour. Mix together.
Tip! When it comes to adding in colour do this a little at a time. It’s so much easier to add more colour if needed then remove any once mixed in!
Ingredients and materials needed to fill and decorate your cherry and white chocolate cake:
Macarons, candy, homemade marshmallows or meringue kisses to decorate
Cream puffs (if you’re feeling adventurous) - We have a Strawberry Milkshake cream puff recipe here. Just omit the strawberry essence from the whipped cream filling and add a tablespoon of blitzed cherry conserve into the double cream when whipping!
Your go-to ganache drip recipe - we added our signature gold sequin drip to our cherry and white chocolate cake. To simplify this cake you can leave the drip out!
Step 01:
When cool your layers are ready to work with! You never want to sandwich with warm cake as it will begin to melt your fillings. Sloppy, warm buttercream or ganache is not a good look. With a large serrated knife level each layer. You can definitely use a cake leveller for this tip if you like. We make so many cakes that we’ve developed a knack for levelling cakes by eye!
Step 02:
Now it’s time to fill and sandwich your layers! Add a ring of your pink vanilla and white chocolate buttercream leave a circle in the centre for your cherry conserve. When ready spoon in your fruity filling. Carefully add your layer on top and repeat this entire step for the next layer. Once all three cakes have been sandwiched you can add your pretty pink buttercream!
Step 03:
For an on-trend semi-naked look smooth or pipe your pink buttercream around the sides and top randomly. Scrape and remove any excess using a good icing scraper. Place in your fridge to chill.
Step 04:
Yay! Now for the fun part! If you’re braving a ganache drip then now it the time to add it! Drips work best on a nice chilled cake. The coldness of the cake helps the chocolate to set quicker giving you much more control over it. You don’t want every drip to pool at the bottom of your cake board or stand. We added a white chocolate drip to ours studded with edible sequins and painted gold. That’s an entire tutorial altogether though!
Step 05:
For cute pink dipped cherries add approx. 100g pink candy melts to a microwave safe bowl and melt down. We heated ours set at 2 minutes and checked every 30 seconds until done. Add in around half a tablespoon of your vegetable shortening until a smooth molten texture. Now dip in your cherries and leave to set on some parchment paper!
Step 06:
To decorate add in your pretty pink roses first. These are your focal decorative items and your largest so it helps to map out your design with these. Our roses have been washed, cut down, then inserted into posy picks before added to our cake.
Step 07:
Then you can add whatever other sweets and treats you have to your cake! We added pink candy melt dipped cherries, cherry cream puffs, and pretty macarons to ours!
Yay! It was Krystle’s 31st birthday 25 March and she got a cake! We seriously hardly ever get any form of cake to ourselves, which sounds crazy given what we do for a living right? For the past two years, however, we have been so busy that we’ve not had the time to create a birthday cake for Krystle’s big day. This year, however, we managed it. Isn’t it a beauty too? Read on to find out more about our cute little bee studded creation!
Navy and blush peony cake with gilded bees!
This cake didn’t take long to design. A few inspirations behind it included Ralph Lauren‘s classic navy, white and gold colour palette and Alex Monroe‘s stunning nature inspired jewellery. Both of which we happen to own a lot of (uh oh). Krystle has always had an obsession with bees so that was a definite starting point too. Plus, we’ve discussed on and off creating a design that was covered with golden painted bees and bugs disappearing underneath heavy florals. In the end all of the elements for the cake, cupcakes and cookies fell together.
The matching cupcakes were super cute! They’re all Madagascan vanilla cake filled with Sicilian lemon curd and lemon oil infused buttercream. Each one was flat iced with blush or navy blue fondant / sugar paste before the details were added on top! We crafted ‘mini’ pale pink peonies with fluffy stamens and golden pistol centres to attach onto the blue iced cupcakes. The blush covered ones featured lots of small gilded bees!
Note: For adding wire florals into cake Safety Seal is amazing. It coats and seals all inedible items with a food safe wax. Yay! No picks in sight!
The hand-crafted sugar florals on the cake include… pink open peonies, white gardenias, fondant blackberries, blueberries, eucalyptus sprigs, emerald green peony leaves and pale grey berries!
Last but not least, the flavour inside was… Peanut butter Twix! Yup. Our chocolate cake filled with salted caramel sauce, chopped Twix bar pieces and a marbled peanut butter and Belgian milk chocolate buttercream then smothered with a Belgian dark chocolate ganache before being iced.
