Monday, June 20, 2011

Ballerina Fondant Birthday Cake

It almost seems like a couple months back when I just celebrated my elder child's birthday. But it always appear too soon when the birthday arrives again and another celebration awaits. And since making a fondant cake for my child seems inevitable, I wanted it to be nice and something she will remember for a long time. Her initial suggestion was a Cinderella cake...and I was thinking like "Oh....princess cake again?" Unwilling to settle with that, I browsed through the net and was delighted when a brilliant idea pop in my mind....why not ballerina?! My elder daughter has been a ballerina since she was five and has enjoyed it very much. And since she did very well in her recent RAD Grade 2 exam, I thought it'll be perfect to bake her a ballerina cake this year. :)
It ain't easy to make a fondant cake, be it big or small. The steps involved not only include studying the feasible cake recipes used, it also include the 'architectural" design of the fondant used on the cake. Especially if its a 2 tier and there's figurine involved. It's not my first attempt to make a 2 tier fondant cake, but I can't call myself good in it in anyway when it comes to making something so challenging. For this cake, I took a total of 3-days preparation, with design, moulding, baking and assembling. I broke up the steps so I can still handle my daily chores as per normal.

Sounds like some labor of love, but in fact it is, lol! I don't do fondant cakes that often but I enjoyed the whole process every single time I did it. I do wish I have the leisure to make it as often as I like. :) Anyway, back to the cake, I have adapted the same sponge cake recipe I used in my previous fondant cake. But this time I got a little adventurous and came up a new Strawberry sponge cake recipe. If you trust me enough, you'll know when I say, " Its a keeper!" In fact I made a 8" by 3" round strawberry sponge and a 6" by 3" round chocolate sponge to stack up the 2 tier. And yes, the cake is pretty tall...close to a 12" tall. :D

Recipe for Strawberry Sponge Cake (8" by 3" round)
Set A
270g whole egg
50g egg yolk
155g caster sugar
24g Glucose or Light Corn Syrup
1/4 tsp salt

Set B
130g fresh / frozen strawberries, cut small
36g vegetable oil
24ml fresh milk
20g Nesquik Strawberry Powder (Can be found in Cold Storage or Market Place)

Set C
148g Cake flour

Method:
  • Beat sugar, whole egg and egg yolk till foamy using the mixer in a large bowl. Then add in the glucose / light corn syrup and salt and continue to beat the mixture till triple in volume and ribbon stage. That will be about 10 minutes. Note that the initial 6 to 7 minutes should be at high speed and then reduce the speed to low for 2 - 3 minutes. This step will prevent having large bubble and thus causing the cake to be coarse and not so tasty. And beating the eggs enough to reach stabilize ribbon stage is important as well in order for the cake to rise and have fluffy texture.
  • Preheat the oven to 175C.
  • In the blender, add strawberry chunks, oil, milk and strawberry powder and blend till well combined and smooth.
  • Take about 1/5 of the egg batter and mix well into the strawberry puree batter. Then add this mixture to the rest of the egg batter and stir gently till the batter is uniformly combined.
  • Sift the cake and add about 1/3 of it to the egg batter. Using the lowest speed, beat the batter till no flour is visible. Repeat with the rest of the 2/3 flour, in 2 portions and mix well till everything incorporated.
  • Pour the batter into a 8" by 3" round removal base round cake pan (un-greased and no parchment needed) and bake in the oven for 35 to 40 minutes till all golden brown and tester comes out clean.
  • Once removed from the oven, invert it on a cooling tray. Once completely cooled,then remove from pan.
The sponge cake turned out moist (yes moist!), soft, spongy and delicious. I was quite please with the outcome this time. This recipe is a keeper for sure, will try it out with passion fruit or lemon flavor next time...yum! For the Chocolate flavor, please kindly refer to Kitchen Corner's blog post.

Here is a shot of the cut up chocolate sponge cake. I have made 3 layers with non dairy whipped cream and fresh bananas.
Obviously my version can only be for short lived occasion as the sponge and cream cannot hold up as long as butter cake and butter cream version. But I am satisfied with it as I like a lighter cake to enjoy after dinner rather then having to down a slice of rich and thick butter cake with overly sweet butter cream icing. ;P
But to have a sponge cake as the foundation, its really not easy to hold it up nicely, so it all came with a price; the base tier kind of got squished a little because of the weight from the topper and top tier. See the "gathers" at the side? Good thing its not too obvious and it still held up all the way till the time the birthday song was sang and candles blown. :)

Some how I was super relived when the birthday celebration is all over...like a huge stone been lifted from my shoulders. My daughter loved the cake very much and it all ended well. :) It will be another 4 months before I have to come up with another one of these fondant cake.....so until then, it's simple breads and cakes folks! Anyway, hope you all had fun viewing my creation and will inspire you to play with fondant next time. ;)

Have a good week all!

24 comments:

ann low said...

Happy Birthday to your daughter. Your Ballerina Fondant Birthday cake looks so perfect with the sweet pink color.
Hope one day I know how to make this too :)

hanushi said...

This is really lovely!!! Happy Bday to your girl, she is really lucky! :)

The Sweetylicious said...

HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO YOUR DAUGHTER! (: the cake look really LOVELY! great job! i hope i can do it like yours. AMAZING! (: and the cake look so yummy!
can i ask which non-dairy cream you using?

Unknown said...

What a nice ballerina cake you made! I knew how difficult it is to make a fondant cake, cos I recently attempted one too (A barbie doll cake). And, thanks for sharing that sponge cake can be used too! I love the texture of sponge, but concern of the weight of the fondant. I was browsing through your previous fondant cakes and it's really amazing... within 2 years from your first fondant cake to this Ballerina cake, your cakes are getting more pro! Are'nt you glad that you decided to blog about the first fondant cake? Great job!

Sonia ~ Nasi Lemak Lover said...

Happy Birthday to your daughter. This birthday cake is awesome, i will never make like this, well done friend.

MnYfoodtalk said...

Your cake looks beautiful! I have never try fondant cake, does it tasted very sweet?

WendyinKK said...

Insert straws on the bottom tier to support the top tier. Leave the baking paper intact to prevent the straws from poking through the upper cake. May be it might work.
I used straws to support my carousel cake, but the upper cake was on cake board.

ReeseKitchen said...

Happy Birthday Amelia!! A very BEAUTIFUL cake, beautiful colours too...SWEET!! You are good, Bee Bee...a good baker, a good friend, a good wife and not to mention...a super good mom...hehe!
Btw, my birthday coming leh....haha! Send me one...;p

Honey Bee Sweets said...

Thanks Ann. :) I am so sure you can make this since you are so good with your baking.

Thanks hanusi! I am lucky to have a great daughter like her. :)Baking her a cake is just a little gift I can do for her.

Thanks Jasmine.;) I use the brand Pour n' Whip which is in a dark blue paper quart box. I usually buy it in the cold storage near my house.

ICook4Fun said...

Happy Belated Birthday to your daughter. So much be so happy to see this beautiful cake you created for her. I just love the ballerina sitting on top of the cake.

Honey Bee Sweets said...

Thanks Fong! I guess I can only say practice makes it better? I have several good friends that are in this baking line so I usually get tips from them. So we all learn together as we go. Yes I am glad I started making fondant cakes, it's fun, challenging and got that "wow" factor, lol! Best of luck to your fondant making journey too. ;)

Thanks Sonia. Oh never say never my friend! I won't be surprise if you do attempt it in the near future, heehee. :D

Honey Bee Sweets said...

Hi Mnyfoodtalk! Thanks for coming by my blog and dropping me a comment. ;) Oh yes, fondant is sweet but it is an necessary "accessory" to dress up a simple cake into something wonderful. It's what makes a simple cake into a wonderful wedding /birthday/anniversary cake. :)

Wendy, you know, the moment I place the top tier on then I knew I should have place some sort of support. :P I had some satay sticks with me and I didn't use it...dumb! Anyway, learn as I go lah! Thanks for the tip!

Reese, you say until I want to fly into the sky already! Lol! Your birthday in Sept lah...I still have...let me count...3 more celebration cakes to bake before your birthday leh. As i told you before, if you come Singapore, I promise I will bake a birthday cake for you, heehee. :D

lena said...

oh bee, you're always so creative and full of ideas!! few more birthday cakes to come, eh? i'll be watching out to see your brilliant creations!

Passionate About Baking said...

It's so gorgeous! :) Think Reese and you can really go into cake making business already! :)

Pete said...

Wow, that is sure one nice cake!

Happy birthday to your daughter

Unknown said...

What a beautiful cake! Happy birthday to your princess ^_^

Zoe said...

This cake is so sweet! Your daughter must be thrilled seeing this beautiful birthday cake! She is very lucky!

Angie's Recipes said...

Happy belated Birthday to your daughter!
The cake looks stunning!

Shirley @ Kokken69 said...

Labour of love indeed! This is a masterpiece! The ribbons are so pretty and the ballerina figurine is so exquisite! This has to be a difficult birthday cake to top next year!

Edith said...

THe work of a mother's love for her child. Beautiful!

DG said...

Happy belated to your girl! The cake so so gorgeous! I love everything in it, the cake & the decoration too. Great job!

Blessed Homemaker said...

I was about to ask you how the sponge cake supports the heavy fondant until I read your whole posting.

Anonymous said...

Hi! If I want to make a plain sponge cake instead of a strawberry flavoured one, should I replace the strawberries with milk or water or should I just omit completely? Thanks!

Michelle

Honey Bee Sweets said...

Hi Michelle, I think you can replace the 20g of strawberry powder with 20g of milk powder, should work. Happy baking!