cake decorating tutorials

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‘Tutorial Tuesday': How to create your own afternoon tea stand!

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First of all you will need…

Three plates of ascending sizes (one large plate, one medium side or cake plate, and one tea saucer)
A pencil
Three tier cake fittings (You can find these for around £5-8 on Amazon for a pack of five)
Ceramic drill bits (Again, you can find these on Amazon for about £3-5… you’ll need around an 8mm bit)
A good hand-drill
A tape measure or ruler
Some thick books

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Step one: Make sure your hand-drill is fit with the appropriate drill bit. Measure the part of the cake stand fitting (it looks like a screw) which should slot into the finished holes to determine which drill bit will be the right size.

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Step two: Mark the middle of your plate with a pencil. To find the middle you could simply flip the plate over and feel for a small bump in the centre (usually where the stamp or logo is) then flip the plate back over and draw a dot. Alternatively you could measure the plate to determine where the centre is.

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Step three: Set some thick books down on a flat surface with a two inch gap between them for you to drill into. Place your plate on top of the books and make sure that the space you are drilling sits over the gap between the books. Now start drilling some holes into all the plates.

Note: It takes some time to drill through so some patience may be needed.

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Step four: When the holes are drilled you can start fixing the cake stand fittings into place. Now you should have a lovely homemade three tier cake stand to enjoy an elegant afternoon tea whenever you like!

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Welcome to ‘Tutorial Tuesday': Swiss Meringue Buttercream

As promised here is our first ‘Tutorial Tuesday’! This week we will show you how to make the smooth and luxurious Swiss Meringue Buttercream. When we first tried to create this buttercream we used a low fat spread suitable for baking…WRONG! As Chef Didier said in Last Holiday “you and I know the secret to life; it’s butter” and it’s true. For this recipe use ONLY chilled butter; no substitutes or room temprature butter.

Here is what you will need…

4 oz (1/2 cup) egg whites
8 oz (1 cup) granulated sugar (no other type of sugar)
12 oz (3 sticks) unsalted butter, cut into cubes
pinch of salt
any colourings and flavourings you wish to add

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Step one: Make sure your bowls, paddles, whisks and utensils are cleaned with lemon or lime juice to stop your egg whites from going flat.

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Second step: Seperate your egg whites and place them in a large bowl, then set them aside and prepare a sauce pan of boiling water on your stove, now whisk your egg whites in a bowl over the stove and gradually add in the sugar. Keep whisking until the sugar is fully dissolved (you can test this by rubbing the egg mixture between your fingers and if you feel no grains of sugar it is done) and until your mix is pale and fluffy.

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Note: This recipe does require stand alone electric mixer with a whisk and paddle attachment.

Step three: Make sure the whisk component is attached. Now add the egg mixture to your mixing bowl and set to the highest speed for 5 minutes. When this step is done your egg whites will be white, very sticky and have a sheen to them. Make sure the egg mixture is no longer warm (you can do this by feeling the temprature of the bowl, if it is cool to touch you are good to go)

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Step four: Switch to the paddle attachment and on medium speed add the chilled butter a cube at a time. At some point your buttercream mixture will look as though it has curdled but this is normal just keep mixing and it will become smooth.

Note: If you wish to add colourings and flavourings then do so at this point (though this can always be done later)

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Step five: Your Swiss Meringue Buttercream should be ready! It should feel and taste creamy, light and smooth.

 

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