Yes it’s seriously epic! Those of you with dial up might want to not continue because there are around 50 photos! Trust me though, it’s totally worth it because the end result is both pretty and delicious!
So here’s roughly what you need for epic cake:
-3 standard cake mix bags (I know cheating :P) If you are in Australia get the Home Brand butter cake because it is AWESOME and it’s only 60c per bag. -Eggs -Milk -Butter Milk -Fondant icing -Ingredients for royal icing (check this recipe it’s great) -Milo (or just plain old chocolate powder if you’re not in Aus) -Red and green food dye
Gather your ingredients.
Preheat your oven following the instructions on your packet mix.
Now it’s time to make the cake mix 😀 Depending on your cake mix the ingredients might be different but this is how I do it… Packet mix in the bowl!
This cake requires 3 different layers, 2 of plain butter cake and 1 of my version of red velvet cake. We’ll make the red velvet version first.
Add an egg! Eggs look so gross XD
Add in the butter milk, you should use however much milk the packet mix says to, mine said 3/4 of a cup. For the other layers you should use plain milk.
Mix it all together
And then beat it to death! It should be nice and fluffy ^_^
Once it’s fluffy add 3 table spoons of Milo and beat it in.
Now add some red food colouring, this is why it’s called red velvet cake and it makes for a really pretty effect when it’s finished.
Pour it out into your cake tin, I use a silicone one because it’s easy to get the cake out of.
Put it in the oven until it’s cooked all through 😀
Turn it out onto a rack to cool and make the other 2 layers.
The other two layers should not have milo, food colouring or butter milk in them. They should just be plain old butter cake following the directions.
If your cake breaks when you turn it out, just use some icing and glue it back together 🙂
Once your 3 layers have all cooled down it’s time to cut the tops off them. The reason you cut the top off is so you can get a nice flat cake and it doesn’t look like a gigantic lump on top ^_^ It’s much easier to ice a flat cake! So get a knife and poke it in the side towards the middle and start working your way around. Keep going until you’ve done the full circle. Use the knife to lift the top off (and eat it because by now you’ve spent forever staring at cakes bloody baking and you’re probably hungry).
Once you have 3 flat layers get some icing (I’m using Betty Crocker) and cover the top of the red layer/
Once it’s covered use the plate you had it on to flip it onto one of the plain layers.
Cover the top of the red one again and flip the last layer on to it. This is what you should end up with!
Cover the entire thing with icing ^_^
One for the cake, one for the cook!
Now get your fondant icing and roll it on the bench top. If it’s too hard pop it in the microwave for 10 seconds, if it’s too sticky dust it with icing sugar. Once you’ve rolled it out, drape it over the whole cake. It should end up something like this… You can see that I’ve repaired a crack by putting water on my finger and rubbing it. It’s going to be covered in icing so no one will ever notice!
Now it’s time to decorate! Make some royal icing in the colour of your choice, mine is pink! Put it into a piping bag and start decorating! Ok mine isn’t very even but this was my first time using a piping bag so it’s ok!
I tried to make it very decorative, there is a big heart on top, scalloping on the outside and lots of little bumpy bits. Whatever you do as long as you put effort in everyone will enjoy it!
Now put it in the fridge to cool and it’s time to learn how to make icing roses 😀 Grab some fondant icing and colour it pink with food dye. You do this by putting a tiny amount on and kneading it until it’s pink. Make sure to do this on a surface that you can clean easily, food dye will stick to EVERYTHING. Maybe wear gloves, look at my hands, they’re all red XD
So let’s start making a rose! Pinch off a little bit of icing and roll it in a ball.
With your finger squish one side of the ball…
Pick it up and roll the squished end in on itself like the photo below. You should make a bunch more squished balls, these are the petals.
Roll the second petal onto the first but on the opposite side like below:
Keep making petals and placing them around the part you’ve already made. You should over lap the next petal slightly with the one you’ve just done.
As you go you should use your finger to push the petals out a bit.
Once you think you have enough petals roll the bottom of the rose together with your fingers so it’s a bit rounded.
Make a bunch of them 😀 This is what you should end up with!
Now bring out your cake from the fridge. Mix up a bit of royal icing and colour it green.
I put a bunch of green icing in the middle of the heart and placed the flowers on top.
I make a lot of flowers in different sizes so….
…I can shape them into a heart too!
Yay! Finished 😀
NOM NOM NOM!
Delicious cake…
I think the flowers really make the cake… and they are delicious too ^_^
And the best bit… When you cut it open it looks even prettier!
How pretty is it? And the red velvet is delicious!
Now serve with thickened cream…
And enjoy!
So there you have it, it’s delicious! What do you guys think? What’s your favorite type of cake? Let me know if you make your own epic cake!
I hope you’re all ready for a no fuss mochi recipe!
Ok first off let me say that there are a bajillion photos ahead so if you’re on dial up this may not be the post for you… Now without further ado let me present….
Cooking with Violet and Susie!
Today on the Cooking with Violet and Susie show we will be preparing Mochi which will then be made into Strawberry Daifuku (also known as the yummiest thing on earth).
Here is what you will need: -1 microwave safe bowl -1/2 cup of white sugar -1 cup Mochiko (glutinous rice flour) plus extra for dusting (please note that one cup=250ml) -2/3 cup of water -1 punnet of strawberries (or your filling of choice) -1 chopping board -1 very sharp knife -1 spoon -Optional: anko to cover the strawberries in. Not used in this recipe but a delicious variation.Please make sure to buy GLUTINOUS rice flour, it is not the same thing as rice flour. Don’t even bother to try to substitute plain rice flour or you’ll end up with a disgusting floury mess. Also useful to have is a gullible friend who you can trick into doing most of the work. I call mine Susie. Another key ingredient is a boyfriend with a camera so you don’t get flour all over your nice camera. Silly photos optional. First get all of your ingredients together and wash the strawberries. Get your friend to take care of the boring task of cutting the tops off the strawberries. If you have small strawberries you should use one per Daifuku, if your strawberries are larger cut them in half. This recipe will make around 10-14 Daifuku. Measure out 1 cup of mochiko (glutinous rice flour) and dump it in the microwave safe bowl. Also add 1/2 a cup of sugar to the bowl. While you do something more fun (like getting 2/3rds of a cup of water) make your human slave… I mean good friend… mix the flour and sugar together very well. Now add a little bit of water and mix it around with a spoon. Don’t add all the water yet. It should look like this: I’m sure your arm will be tired from all that manual labour so get your friend to add the rest of the water and mix it up into a runny kind of paste. Kind of the consistancy of honey. /> If she doesn’t do it fast enough make sure to beat her into submission with whatever kitchen appliance is handy… When there are no lumps pop the mixture into the microwave for 2 minutes. Times will vary d
epending on your microwave, mine is 1200watts. You should also leave it to cool for a minute or so or else you might burn yourself. This is a good time for your boyfriend to think of more artistic or flattering ways to photograph you. Dancing is also a good way to pass the time.
When you finally get back to your dough you may be slightly confused because it looks so gross and weird. Don’t panic. Spread some mochiko on the cutting board. Now mix up the dough with your spoon into a giant sticky ball. I can’t think of any way to describe it other than big sticky mess. Be very careful because it will be hot, the mochi retains heat very well. Roll the dough out onto the cutting board. Use the spoon to roll it around until the whole thing is coated in flour. The flour will help it be cool enough to touch, don’t be fooled though the inside is still hot and will burn you. Cut a corner of the mochi (dough) off, it should be just enough to cover your strawberry. Pull it out so it’s kind of a flat triangle. Take a strawberry and stick it in the middle, the following few pictures show me covering it and making it into a ball. style=”margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 400px; height: 311px;” src=”http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_axNtgCrpfKM/Sm1qoeY0F5I/AAAAAAAABIQ/9pc1WMBsWUg/s400/DSC_0132_090723_232.jpg” alt=”” id=”BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5363059974852581266″ border=”0″ />Pinch the mochi closed and roll it in the flour so it’s not sticky. Taadaa strawberry daifuku! Make sure not to let Susie have any yet, she has to make her own! This section is titled “HOW NOT TO MAKE DAIFUKU”… or what James and Susie did. DON’T- Get the knife stuck in the mochi… DON’T- Get your fingers stuck to the mochi… OCCASSIONALLY- Laugh at your friend for getting her fingers stuck to the mochi… Especially as she desperately wipes her hands on the cutting board to try and get it off… DON’T- Try to colour the mochi with food dye after it’s been cooked in the microwave, this should only be done while it’s still a liquid! ESPECIALLY don’t just pour food dye over the top of it… this is asking for trouble.DO- enjoy having to clean up the food colouring you spilled everywhere. Totally worth it right? Now you should make many more! Use up the rest of the mochi! Taadaa! Again, take as much time to cam whore as possible, cooking is an achievement and d eserves to be recorded! Also make sure to send any beggers away empty handed. I mean you did all the work right? Why should they get any? See we’re still friends, promise! Not eat your delicious creation! Enjoy how warm the sugary outside is against the tart cold strawberry. Have a good Iron Chef style judging moment, you could even write a haiku if the mood takes you. Just try not to choke… I hope you enjoyed our tutorial! It was all very tongue in cheek in case my sarcasm didn’t quite translate over the internet… You should all make you own, I want to see your results! Hope you enjoyed the mochi recipe!
A while ago we were fortunate enough to stumble on a massive sale at Kmart… They had kitchen sets with like 100 pieces including pots and pans for $200… Awesome! Yay for having a matching kitchen set now 😀
So to celebrate James and I invited our lovely friend Susie over to have some fun and do some baking! She had just bought some adorable dinosaur cookie cutters so we decided to make yummy dinosaur cookies.
We mixed up all the ingrediants, how cute is Susie btw?
Half way through we got distracted because there was a little mouse outside digging in the garden!! So cute! The photo is blurry because I took it through the door, I didn’t want to go outside with it hahaha.
I imagine James is thinking “Make my cookies girls!” Hahahaha! Nice try James, no cookies for you!
Dinosaur cookies! Stamping was fun, unfortunately we picked a recipe which really wasn’t designed to make cookies.
Of course while we were having fun talking about Decoden and trying to learn Japanese, James decided to play with the cookie cutters… dinosaur threesome= Slightly adult. ^_^
While I was icing the cookies Susie played my “Japanese Coach” game on my DS. She decided right then that she was going to get one XD
Yummy cookies! The icing made them look kind of gross!
Tadaa! Smile! They were delicious… well maybe not delicious but they sure were chocolatey…
Just to prove a point seeing as you were all shocked at my terrible baking. James has been teasing me about the sea cake all week so have a look at his great cake!
Yes the top is a completely different size to the bottom.
Ha so there James! Your cake is no better than mine 😛
I do love cupcakes, I like epic cupcakes even more.
Last week on Ricoche (a gal forum) Brenli and I were discussing my lack of skills cooking. Specifically this photo: Now I am a terrible cook, just ask James he has to eat my terrible food and try to smile why he’s doing it! Anyway the story goes my cupcakes fail but Brenli had seem similar fail turned into cute little Octopus cakes. My cupcakes decided to become a sea!
I present epic cupcake sea madness!
So you have to get all the ingrediants before you begin, I’m lazy so I use cake mix! You’re wondering… I’ve been to Violet’s place and her kitchen is not that clean wtf?! Well i moved the mess to the other counter 😀Mix everything up until it turns up into gross but delicious sludge.Add the patty cake thingies into your dish and then colour your mixture blue and green!Pour the mix in but make sure that you leave some of the white cupcake patties sticking out because they are going to be the waves!Mix mix mix. Looks great huh? Kind of reminds me of Playdoh… delicious! Stick it in the oven for a while… who knows how long. My oven sucks, it’s like 3 times hotter than a regular oven and the knobs don’t work so well.
Tadaa! Looks yummy right? Now take some time while it cools down to pose and show your outfit! I freaking love this dress!
Once it’s all cool add some icing! Make sure you don’t do this when it’s still hot because otherwise it will melt everywhere. I made this mistake last time XD
Now add as many sprinkles as you want!
Ok so it doesn’t really look like the sea but you know what I do
n’t care! It was yummy!
Hurrah time to enjoy it!
Delicious XD
So you guys want to come over and eat my crappy epic? I swear I ate it and didn’t even throw it up!
No? You’d prefer epic cupcakes? Yeah fair enough.
My oh my does James love to cook! Sometimes I think he just says that because he knows how much I HATE cooking haha! Oh well as long as I don’t have to do it I don’t care XD
Well James’ favorite things to cook are sweet things and he’s always missing the food in America. Imagine his surprise and joy when he found a recipe for Smores in a magazine!
So he decided to test it out…
The cookies took so loooong to cook! And our oven temperature gauge is broken so he had to wait to make sure nothing got burnt.
Finally they’re done! And they look delicious! And they taste delicious! And they make great nose warmer too apparently.Aww but one boy can’t eat them all ;_; Don’t worry James I’ll help too :D:D:D
Illustrator. Strong tea, knitting, watercolours, and making a video game called Moonlight in Garland. Living with her adorable husband Jimmy, fluffy puppy Miss Lottie and Bergamot Bunny in Melbourne, Australia.
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