I have just launched my new website – please take a look at HoneyOrb Bakery
My friend asked me to make her daughter (my goddaughter) a bespoke cake for her 1st birthday. Well, I was really pleased to be asked and put my thinking cap on and came up with a themed cupcake design. As much as my friend loved the idea, she said she wanted a full sized cake that she could actually cut. She also asked if I could possibly design a ‘winter scene incorporating a penguin’ (her daughter’s favourite toy) – no pressure then?!
This was my first proper bash at using rolled fondant icing and having come up with the design I wanted, I set about firstly baking three Victoria sponges before sandwiching them with a really fruity strawberry jam and a smooth and sweet vanilla buttercream. I also baked a little sponge in a mini pudding basin mould which I would use as the igloo.
I then needed to make a batch of chocolate ganache, I chose to use white chocolate which I then smothered over the sides and top of the cake, using a metal scraper to get a clean edge all around.
My next task was to use a little of the ganache to stick the cake to the cake board and I then covered the ganache in a layer of jam syrup so that the fondant icing would stick to the ganache. I rolled a very pale blue fondant icing to a thickness of 3mm and covered the ganache with it using smoothers and warm hands to mould the two layers together.
I then covered the cake board with white fondant icing and started getting scared about completing the rest of the design!
I ganached the mini cake and covered it in white fondant icing and made my little penguin using black, white and yellow fondant icing. I used jam syrup to attach the ice cap shape, igloo and penguin to the cake and voila! here it is!
HoneyOrb Bakery 