Pirate Princess Cake

This is the cake I’ve baked for Sofia 2nd birthday. It’s a pirate princess, perfect for this summer days!

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The princess was modeled in portuguese sugar paste.

princess pirate cake 3 The hair was made with an extrusor.

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I applyed the fondant only in the side of the cake and folded it a bit to the top. Then made the contour with the pink flowers and hided the rest with the “sand” made from cookies.

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The tree is made with a wooden stick and the leaves were made in advance so they can dry enought to hold the shape. Even though, I had to make a couple of coconuts to apply under just to keep my leaves on place!

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Baking cakes in summer hilidays is great because there’s a lot of hand willing to help! My mother molded the anchor and I added it a metal eddible finnish. There’s lots of glitter on the cake as my girls love glitter! All the flowers and strars were cutted by my girls, my niece and my aunt! Even my husband helped by rolling the fondant so I could have time to shape the doll!

pirate princess cake 5 Usually I cober my cake base with fondant but not this time. Again I used cookies to make a kind of sand! All the blue balls and strars were also made by other hands than mines and Mafalda glued all the stars on the balls!

pirate princess cake 6 The cake was a great chocolate cake with a m&m treasure inside! It’s always exciting for the kids to see all this m&m’s falling from the inside!

DSCN3114_1 And it was a delicious chocolate cake with chocolate ganache filling! The best I’ve made so far!

 

Violetta Birthday Cake

This year the Disney character Violetta in on the top of Mafalda’s preferences so she wanted a Violetta birthday cake.

After last year trend with the Monster High dolls I’m ready to do anything! And a Violtetta birthday cake I made!

She wanted the cake to have the characters figures but it was out of question to mould then in sugar paste. So I ended up buying some prints in edible paper like wafle. Then I used icing sugar to make the medallions. The cake ended up with more icing sugar work because of the quavers and the treble clef.

Well, she was happy with her violetta cake, she made a uge successs in her school with a 2 layer cake and had a great birthday!

At home a simple cake was waiting for her but still in Violtetta theeme!

Story of a Life Birthday cake

September is like January but quite harder. September is the real beginning of the cycle: say goodbye to vacations “see ya next year”, back to school they go, reorganizing routines, organize school supplies and backpacks and clothes and shoes and everything they need. Start thinking about the cold to come and in the heat that still wants to be arround, articulate fresh mornings and late afternoons with the scorching heat of midday.

September is also the month to return to the blog … August is so boring … And write a blog in August is much the same as talking in a huge desenrted room.

And the truth is that with this new beginning I have a lot to share with you!

And I’m starting with a cake! There is no sweeter way to start, is there?!

It is not just any cake! It is a cake with 1.2 meters length divided into 3 “attachable” parts. This was the way I found to make a cake that could be transported to the party location! This cake tells the story of the life of the birthday boy with some milestones on significant dates, and of course, it was impossible to put there everything! Still has his birth, the birth of his siblings, his children and grandchildren, his marriage (and his kids) his trip to Africa to fight in the war and his return of the former Portuguese colonies, the deaths of his parents and other details that help tell this story. And to summarize 70 years of a full life is not easy!

This cake has three different cake dough: vanilla with chocolate filling, vanilla with strawberry filling and “dulce de lette” cakepop, all homemade and so delicious that there were almost none leftovers 🙂 It is a cake with a lot of detail work and has a lot of cake so it’s heavy which makes the selling price to be around €200 but it’s well worth it because it is not only a delicious cake but also it is an unique gift that no one will ever forget, not even my father in law who was so very touched by the cake and so surprised by the way I transposed his life on a cake! Not only for the cake, but also by the presence of the whole family, this is a birthday that none of us will forget, and thankfully, because at the end of the day that’s what matters.

Horse Birthday Cake

She asked me a cake and I baked a cake. She said it must have horses and horses I made. I’ve never made a horses before, not even had drawn horses. Horses are not part of my world! But it was a good challenge and I’ve overcome it and I’m happy with the result. It was the first cake I beked that left my house (and got to its destination in one piece! Yay!)

The 11th years old girl was also happy.

And equally important was to bake a delicious cake: vanilla cake with chocolate filling, my secret recipe and absolutely divine!

This cake has 6.5 Kg! And it would have been enough for about 60 people. I could have used a false layer (styrofoam) but I think the height of this false layers make ugly cakes. I like tall cakes! But I have to explore this alternative, after all, 6 kg of cake are 6 kg of cake… although it can be frozen and eaten when you feel like having a piece of a delicious cake!

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Minnie Birthday Cake

Friday was Teresa’s birthday. Having to birthdays in the same week in almost insane and I’m still officially with a “hangover” of both stress and all the stuff I had to do and organize. But she had a happy day and was happy and it is always good to have my home full of friends and family.

Last year I made one cake for the two girls but this year each one wanted a different theme. Teresa is on mickey and minnie mouse stage so I made her a red minnie mouse cake. And as my family was all gathered here, Mafalda was entitled to a second birthday cake with the Monster High theme!

Now I’ll be back to my normal routines but we will be partying until almost the end of January! Most of my family birthdays are in September, November and December!

Now I’ll just rest here a little longer and maybe eat one more slice of cake. will you make me company?

Monster High Birthday Cake

There is no party without cake and here is generally the cake that sets the party theme. As expected, Mafalda wanted a Monster High birthday cake. My biggest concern was not to let the cake too “gothic”, after all it’s just her 6th birthday and I black cake is not my style in this context. Nor am I an adept of coffin-shaped cakes or tombstones with the name of the children written… Call me what you want!

I also wanted it to have a doll included, so I could offer the cake as a birthday present. And so this is what Mafaldas 6th anniversary birthday cake looked like:

Do you want a slice of my coconut cake with mango curd?

Planning a perfect cake

October it’s almost over. October is, for me, the one month of the year that it’s almost nonexistent. It goes by so fast that I just can’t feel it. Even my vacations seem to last more than October .

Why? Because much of this month is spent organizing Novermber birthday parties! Two birthday parties four days apart, plus family and friends. Usually it is a marathon! Last year I baked four birthday cakes in less than 7 days, plus the rest of the party food! It was hard work!

This year, because I’m home with my baby I want to take things slowly and simultaneously want to enjoy all the joys of baking, something that I usually don’t have time to do. So I’m looking for new things to bake, cake batters different than those I normally bake but still compatible with our taste and the cake design they want.

My girls are already used to having a mother who does everything, including the best birthday cakes they have ever seen. It is even without modesty! Of course there are better cakes than mine but they haven’t seen them yet! Mine, for now, are still on the top of the list !

And so I have been thinking about cakes, building the concept of each one, to make what they asked and still be able to surprise them.

So, how to bake the (almost) perfect cake? Well, the first step to a (almost) perfect cake is… Draw it!

Does it seem strange? Drawing the cake lets you get a sense of the amount of cake you’ll need. I like cakes with 3 levels, but I don’t want to end up with an infinite amount of cake, so I chose to buy smaller cake pans, so I can stack the some number of levels, but with smaller cakes.

It also gives you an idea of the materials you’ll need to buy. If you have ever entered a cake design supplies store you know how it’s hard, almost impossible, to leave the store without beeing completely broke! There are so much cute and usefull things, and a millions of possibilities … Knowling exactly what you’ll nedd will help you keep your mind focused on the essentials letting aside the accessory.

Draw a cake also helps you understand the kind of cake batter you’ll have to use. Why? Light and fluffy cake batter, like sponge cake, is not suitable for stacking. The weight of the layers would be sufficient to squash the bottom layers, plus the weight of the sugar paste! Therefore this cake batter should only be used in single layer cakes.

The cakes with several levels should be made with a more compact batter, it does not have to be a brownie! Them you just have to choose the flavor. Now here is mostly a matter of personal taste.

I’m on this demand for new delicious cake recipes and by that I’m also saying that there have been a lot of cake arround here!

In this phase of recipe testing you should have a way to drain the excess of cakes… I’m no longer pregnant so I do not have the excuse to eat cakes that many cakes! So today the lucky winners of my testing cakes were the girls teachers!

The cakes were decorated by them, to their taste. I did the finishing touches, and you know what? Decorating cakes is a good activity to do with them: they are entertained, develop fine motor skills and cordenation, they shake the dust is their creativity and we get to spend quality time together!

And waht about you? What are your tricks for baking perfect cakes ?

Rapunzel Tower birthday cake

For the big birthday party was held the big cake. The rapunzel tower birthday cake was Mafada’s request, and she was so happy that paid every hour of work. Teresa also liked. For now it is easy, it will be difficult when each want something different 🙂 From 4 to 8 birthday cakes!

I have to thank to my aunt and my father who helped me making this cake real.