How to Decorate a Car Cake {Tutorial}

A bright and cheerful cake for a toddler who loves cars!

I began with a few sketches of the cake that was wanted. One was simpler, with a plain white background, red, blue and green cars, and brightly coloured bunting. Another was more complicated with cars on two levels and a bridge. This one was the favourite, so it was time to turn it into reality.

This cake has three layers of soft yellow sponge, filled with yummy chocolate buttercream and covered in milk/plain chocolate ganache and white fondant.

This is what you will need to decorate this cake:

I mixed all the different colours of fondant myself (the blue pack under the other colours is white fondant). I find it much cheaper to buy white fondant in bulk, then colour it myself. The only exception is black. It will either buy black fondant, or airbrush it. The black fondant I used on this cake was left over from a previous cake.

Click on the image to download the template pdf. Template scale is for a 4" tall cake.

I covered the cake drum with white fondant a few days before decorating the cake, so that it could set nice and hard. Airbrush the outside edge of the fondant with black edible colour (don't worry about painting the area the cake covers). If you don't have an airbrush, you can cover the drum with black fondant.

Next, prepare the cake for airbrushing. (Again, if you don't have an airbrush, just cover the cake with blue fondant, then add white fondant clouds). Use the template above to cut out cloud shapes out of baking paper. Rub the back of the baking paper clouds with vegetable fat, getting it right up to all the edges of the templates, then carefully adhere them to the top of the cake. Be careful not to get any fat on the rest of the cake as it will stop the airbrush colour from being absorbed by the fondant.

Airbrush the whole cake with sky blue edible airbrush colour. Be careful around the edges of the clouds, make sure they are stuck down well at all times.

Paint with thin even layers, building the colour up until you get a nice solid colour.

Peel away the cloud templates to reveal the pure white clouds beneath. The fat left on the clouds will be absorbed by the fondant and leave a mat finish.

Once the colour has set, transfer the cake onto the painted cake board, sticking it on with a bit of ganache or buttercream.

Use templates to cut tress out of light green fondant, rolled out to about 2mm thick. You can just cut out the printed paper temples to use for the rest of the cake (I hadn't made the print out yet when I made the cake).

Gently rub the edges of cut-out pieces to give them a smooth even finish.

Stick the trees to the cake with a bit of water or edible glue. The tops of the trees should just meet the top of the cake.

Cut tree trunks from dark brown fondant, rolled out to 2mm thick.

Stick to the cake with water or edible glue, so that the trunks touch the cake board (if they are a little bit too long, just cut the bottom shorter).

Paint branch details on with a fine paint brush and dark brown gel food colour.

Roll dark green fondant out to 2mm thick, cut out bushes and apply to the cake - these form the border around the bottom of the cake.

Overlap the bushes to add dimension.

Next roll out the red fondant to 5mm thick.

Cut out the car, ignoring the wheels for now.

Use a circle cutter to cut out spaces for the wheels. Use the same cutter to cut wheels out of 5mm thick black fondant.

Attach the wheels to the cake. Use the screw top of a coupler make an impression on the wheels.

Paint the centre of the wheels with silver cluster dust mixed with rejuvenator fluid or flavoured essence.

Repeat to make multiple cars with red and yellow fondant. Attach them to the cake with edible glue or water. There will be a gap behind the cars in places because of the raised details behind them, this is fine and gives great dimension, just make sure the cars are securely attached to the cake.

Cut little strips of white fondant and attach them to the cake board to make the road markings.

Finally, add a coordinating ribbon to the drum. A name, age and/or message can also be added to the top of the cake.

Four Cheese Ravioli with Tomato Sauce - from Scratch {Recipe & Tutorial}

A delicious Italian dish of tender pasta and classic flavours. There is no pasta that can compare to fresh homemade pasta, with it's silky texture and delicate bite. In this dish it is complemented with a creamy and mild four cheese filling and a slow cooked Italian tomato sauce.

I have always enjoyed experimenting with flavours from around the world, and would like to share some of my favourites with you. One of my all time favourites has to be pasta though, in its many varieties. I must cook at least one pasta dish for my family every week.

This particular dish I ended up cooking for an actual Italian! It didn't occur to me until I was well along in the process, and then I started worrying. I have never had the opportunity to eat REAL Italian pasta, but have relied on research, experimentation and "the English restaurant experience" to develop my flavour. I was so incredibly happy when she told me that it tasted authentically Italian :)

Four Cheese Ravioli with Tomato Sauce   PRINT

Serves 6
Cooking time: 4 hours (plus pasta dough to be prepared day before)

Ingredients:

Pasta Dough:
400g Grade 00 Flour (All purpose flour can be used)
4 Eggs
1 tsp Olive Oil

Pasta Filling:
250g Ricotta Cheese
180g Mature Cheddar Cheese
120g Mozzarella Cheese
50g Grana Padano Cheese
1 Egg
Salt & Pepper

Tomato Sauce:
5 Cloves of Garlic
1 Large Onion
2 Carrots
2 Sticks of Celery
1 Red Pepper
1 TBSP Olive Oil
1/4 cup Balsamic / Red Wine Vinegar
800g Sieved Tomatoes
1 tsp Sugar
Salt & Pepper
Oregano

Fresh Basil

Method:

Start by making the pasta dough. This should be made the night before, or at least a few hours before needed. Put the flour into a blender, add 3 of the eggs (try and keep them away from the sides of the bowl) and oil. Blend until crumbs form.

Pick up some of the crumbs and press them together gently between your fingers to form a lump of dough. If the dough sticks together and does not crumble easily, you're there. If the lump can be crumbled apart, more egg needs to be added. Beat the remaining egg, then pour a little bit of it into the crumbs. Blend, then check the consistency again. Keep adding egg little by little until the consistency is right. If the crumbs start clumping together in the blender, too much egg has been added. A little bit of flour can be added to take it back to crumbs again.

Once you have the consistency right, tip the crumbs out onto the counter and knead it together into a ball. The dough will seem a bit tight and lumpy at this stage, but that is fine. Wrap the dough in cling film and leave for a few hours to rest. (If you put in in the fridge overnight, be sure to give it time to come back to room temperature before rolling out.)

The dough can also be made by hand. Just add all 4 eggs and the oil to the flour, mix together until it is all combined, then knead until it forms a stiff (but still slightly lumpy) dough.

The Tomato Sauce should be started at least 4 hours before serving. Chop the garlic, onion, carrots, celery and red pepper into a fine dice.

Pour the olive oil into a hot saucepan, then fry all the diced veg until golden in colour, stirring regularly. Pour in the vinegar, stir round and simmer for a minute. Pour in the sieved tomatoes and stir through. Add sugar, salt & pepper (to taste) and a generous sprinkling of oregano. Stir though and bring up to simmer. Reduce heat, cover and simmer, stirring occasionally, for 3-4 hours.

While the sauce is simmering, make the Ravioli.

For the filling, mix the cheeses, egg, salt & pepper (to taste) together and set aside.

The pasta dough has rested and should feel softer. Split the dough into 4 pieces. With your pasta roller on the widest setting, roll a piece of the dough through, then fold and roll through again. Keep doing this until the dough becomes smooth (about 10 times). Once it is smooth roll the dough out nice and thin - I took mine to setting 7 on my roller. Dust with a bit of flour to stop it from sticking to the counter (or other sheets of pasta) and cover with cling film to stop it drying out. Do the same for the other 3 pieces of dough.

Pasta can be rolled out by hand - a pasta roller is not required.

Now assemble the ravioli. My hubby bought me a lovely ravioli mould the other day, so I made mine using this. (I will also give instructions to make the ravioli without a mould.)

Lay a sheet of pasta over the mould. Press the pasta gently down into the recesses in the mould (be careful not to tear it.) Spoon a little bit of the cheese filling into each recess (about 1/2 tsp). DON'T overfill! Brush around all the edges and between recesses with water. Lay a second sheet of pasta on top, pressing it down gently with one hand as you lower it down, being sure to press out any air from the pockets (air pockets can cause the ravioli to burst when cooking).

Roll over the top with a little rolling pin, sealing the two layers of pasta together. Some moulds will actually cut through the pasta at the same time, separating the individual ravioli as you roll over it, but mine only seals. Tip the pasta out of the mould and cut the ravioli apart with a pastry cutter. Dust with flour and set aside until ready to cook.

Without a ravioli mould: Lay a sheet of pasta on the counter. Spoon little mounds of filling along the length of the pasta. Since you aren't using a mould, you can make them as big or small as you like. Just ensure there is enough pasta around each mound of filling to seal the ravioli closed. Brush water onto all of the exposed pasta, around the filling. Lay a second sheet of pasta over and smooth it down over the mounds of filling, stretching it slightly and pressing out all pockets of air (air pockets can cause the ravioli to burst when cooking). Press down on the pasta between the pockets of filling to seal the two layers of pasta together. Cut the individual ravioli apart with a pastry cutter.

The ravioli should immediately after cooking.

Bring a large pot of water to a rolling boil. Add enough salt to make the water taste salty (like sea water). Add ravioli one by one to the water (to prevent sticking). Cook in batches, if too many are cooked together, they will stick to one another. Boil for 6-8 minutes, stirring occasionally to make sure they cook on both sides (they float, so the top side doesn't cook as quickly as the bottom). Be very gentle when stirring so as not to break the ravioli. Ideally it would be best to boil the ravioli with only enough in the pot to cover the surface of the water in a single layer - in that case you would only need to turn them over half-way through the cooking time. Make sure the water is boiling constantly.

Remove ravioli from the water with a slotted spoon, allow water to drip off, place in serving dish and smother with the tomato sauce. Add a generous helping of fresh basil leaves.

Enjoy!

Romantic Swans Valentine Cake {Video Tutorial}

With Valentines Day next Saturday, I thought it would be fun to create a tutorial for a LOVE themed cake. I have had a number of requests to do some tutorials on working with modelling chocolate, so I chose to create a Swan Topper made of white modelling chocolate for the cake.

And since I was making the cake for my darling hubby, I went with a vanilla sponge cake with strawberries and cream filling (he doesn't like chocolate and is practically allergic to buttercream icing). And strawberries are meant to be an aphrodisiac...

I thought long and hard about my design before I finally decided I'd try making PINK ganache, leaving it exposed on the top of the cake, then creating a white lacy fondant collar around the cake, covered in hearts.

Somewhere along my thought process I suddenly decided that it was high time I produced a VIDEO tutorial of the whole process! So, here it is, my very first Video Tutorial: How to Make a Romantic Swans Valentine Cake

Here is the mat I designed for the tutorial. The size of the swans is suitable to top a 7" cake. I printed the image out on blue paper so that it would contrast with the white modelling chocolate, then laminated it so that I could work directly on it. If you prefer, you can cut the pieces out and use them as templates to cut the various wing pieces.

Click here or on the image above, to download a pdf of the Pattern Mat.

I made the Modelling Chocolate as shown in my tutorial, but used white candy melts instead of white chocolate to get a more pure white product. The black and red modelling chocolate I had left over from previous cakes.

To make the Pink Ganache, for a 7" cake:

Ingredients:

          •  600g White Chocolate (chopped)

          •  200g Cream (any cream that can be whipped)

          •  Pink food colouring

          •  White food colouring (helps neutralise the yellow colour from the chocolate)

Method:

Place chopped chocolate into a large microwave safe bowl.

Heat the cream in a pan until just before boiling. Add pink food colouring to the cream until it is about the colour you want your ganache to be. Pour it over the chocolate. 

Shake the bowl around a bit until the chocolate all settles beneath the surface of the hot cream. Leave it to sit for a few minutes.

Stir the chocolate into the cream. Keep stirring until it is nice and smooth.

If you still have a few lumps of chocolate that won't melt in, pop the whole bowl into the microwave for a few seconds at a time, stirring in between, until all the lumps are gone.

Now, if the colour is looking a bit orange, add some white food colouring and mix in well. This will bring the colour back to a pleasant pink.

Leave the ganache at room temperature to cool for a few hours, stirring it occasionally until it becomes thick enough to hold its shape, but easily spreadable.

I have previously posted a Tutorial for Milk/Plain Chocolate Ganache. The method is the same, but the ratios of Chocolate : Cream differ depending on the kind of chocolate you are using. I use the following ratios:

White Chocolate     3 : 1    Cream

Milk/Plain Chocolate    2 1/2 : 1    Cream

Dark Chocolate    2 : 1    Cream

I never make 100% Milk Chocolate Ganache because it's flavour just lacks depth.

The recipe I used for the Vanilla Sponge can be found in this post. I used HALF the recipe and split it between two 7" pans.

This is my Valentine enjoying his cake. I surprised him with it when he came home from work and he had a moment of panic, thinking he had forgotten about Valentines day! Too funny.

Happy Baking!