It seems like only a few months have gone by since Amélie was born. I guess it has been. Twenty four of them. To celebrate I made her a polka-dot cake with hundreds and thousands around the outside. As my nephews were staying with my parents, they came along for the birthday dinner and were quite impressed with the polka-dots hidden within the cake.
I've always wanted to do a cake with hundreds and thousands around the outside edge too, and now I can say that I can do that as well (tutorial here). I learned a neat trick about making an evenly risen cake as well, with a nice flat top, so there will be no chopping off of the big extra lump in the middle from now on.
The polka-dots were inspired by this polka-dot cake and one day, I would love to have a go at this lady-bug cake as well. My cake did not bake without incident however, there was a failure cake with large pustule-like protrusions instead of lovely polka-dots. Due to the birthday dinner being postponed due to a local bushfire, I had extra time to get it right, though you can see that it was not quite baked properly at the bottom in the middle. I do recommend if you are baking a polka-dot cake that you use the same recipe for the spots as the rest of the cake, and use the tip I linked to get that nice flat top and stop your spots from bursting from the top of the cake. (I am sorry I did not take photos of the pustule cake - we just ate it instead!)
Happy birthday, Amélie!
Looks fantastic Carmen, how did you make the purple balls, did you use a cake pop pan like the tute or just cut them yourself?
ReplyDeleteYes, Kirsty, I used a cake pop pan to make the spots, just like in the tutorial. It worked really well once I used the same recipe for both the cake and the spots.
ReplyDeleteThat is terrific Carmel! I couldn't wait to read how to do it and I know I'll have to get one of those pans! Thanks for sharing your polka dot cake - bet they loved it!!
ReplyDeleteOh yes, they LOVED it. My nephews had no idea the cake had spots inside so they were extra impressed. There are lots of amazing ways to decorate cake pops too, so I am sure the tin is well worth the investment. My mum actually got it for me for Christmas, it was a really good present :)
DeleteWow, that's fantastic! I've never seen that done before, and I'm very impressed.
ReplyDeleteHappy birthday to Amelie! I can't believe she is two already, either.
As soon as I saw it, I knew I had to try it. I can't believe she is two already either. It's amazing how quickly they change.
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