cake tutorials Archives - The Cocoa Cakery

I am very excited to share with you my very own Swiss Meringue buttercream... but it's far from traditional.... I LOVE a good meringue based buttercream. Be it Italian or Swiss or any other method, they're all delicious. My favourite attributes are their silky texture, their less sweet flavour and simple fresh ingredients. However, the method is always a royal PAIN. Heat the sugar, double boil your eggwhites, cool that.... sheesh... When you have to make 8-10 batches of buttercream in a weekend, you need a quick buttercream that will come together in minutes. All the time. None of this fussing around stuff. I first saw a cheater recipe over at Artisan Cake Company. Loved it. Except one thing... I still tasted a bit of the grit of the icing sugar rather the completely smooth texture of typical SMB. Then one day I was playing around with a macaron recipe and failed at the meringue portion (must have had oil in the bowl somewhere) and almost pitched my eggwhites and sugar when I … [Read more...]

It was an A-ha moment like no other... I was thinking about succulents and how much I love them, but wanted teeny tiny ones... the cutters I normally use to make them seemed too large and so I casually opened my drawer organized jam packed with molds... Then.... I saw it. My rose mold. (Ok fine, I actually have two, and I'm not sure why - but they come in handy!) I gave one a try with a little piece of green fondant and SHABHAM! There she was, a perfect little mini succulent waiting to be dusted and edged! And who doesn't love a little tutorial??? So here we go! It's so easy you'll love creating these little guys to pop on cupcakes and cookies and cakes! You will need: A rose mold - I like this one because it has different shapes and sizes, not all the roses look identical. A chunk of fondant - the one in the picture is a little bright for me, but normally I use something slightly paler Dusting colours (Dark Green, Light Green and a grey/bluey colour, grey - … [Read more...]