50 owl cupcakes

Following are the photos of the 50 cupcakes that were made to accompany the bigger owl cake for the Obnoxious Owl party on the 27th Feb.
To all the readers that were not fortunate enough to attend said party, it was heaps of fun!!! So many cool people of varying talent and personality were there, enjoying the music, atmosphere and food. And it raised money for Haiti! Cant wait for the next one!!!
Anyway, the cakes were dark chocolate and white chocolate, and seemed to be enjoyed by most people ... until they all ran out. Will have to make more next time.

The big cake also got demolished later in the evening (by the Obnoxious Owl and myself!!) after having its eyes pulled off earlier in the night by some sadistic cake destroyer. It was yummy, but very sweet and chocolatey.

Little owl shaped blank canvasses, MMF covering a layer of vanilla swiss meringue buttercream

Finished box of owl cuppies

Dark chocolate cakes with dark chocolate SMBC, then covered in a thin layer of black fondant (Cake Art brand, not MMF).
These were then topped with white fondant letters

Unfortunately i do not have any final photos of the set up YET. I am waiting to get these of someone else, as it was too dark for me to take photos. But they are coming, i promise.

Owl cake

So i am making an owl cake and 50 owl cupcakes for a party coming up on Saturday. Not a particularly stressful event ..... EXCEPT FOR THE FACT THAT IT IS 42 FREAKIN DEGREES TODAY!!! Why o why does there have to be a heat wave just when i need to use buttercream, ganache and fondant? Now i have to battle with overly soft frosting and ganache, and fondant that keeps slipping and sagging off the cake.

Sigh.

Cake baked in a dolly varden tin, did not cook evenly due to my stupid oven (see previous post for my oven rant)

Ganached with white chocolate

Iced with MMF

Finished with feet and a bow

Now i just need it to hold up in the heat for a day, or should i risk putting it in the fridge which will make it sweat?
Argh, damn heat.

Now to make 50 cupcakes....

I hate my oven ....

Though technically not MY oven, as i am renting, the oven that i use to bake is complete shite!
The seals around it do not seal, causing temperature fluctuations, the temperature setting knob has fallen off so its just a guess as to what temperature you are setting it (forcing me to buy an oven thermometer), and it has a silly timer that does not ring or chime or make any sound when the time is up, just simply turns the whole oven off and stops cooking. So you have no idea that the mud cake that you are baking for 1 hour and 40 mins actually stopped cooking 20 maybe 30 mins ago, and is now wrecked.
Ggggrrrrrr, I hate you oven.


That is all.

Marshmallow Fondant is YUM!

I am very excited to have found a much more appetizing alternative to normal store bought fondant. Marshmallow fondant! And yes it tastes as good as it sounds!
Although it is very easy to buy a 500gm packet of Orchard white icing from the supermarket, and even easier to just open, knead and use ... the truth of it is that it tastes like crap! Chalky, gritty, chemical flavoured crap! And the more commercial brands like Bakels and Fondx which come in bigger packs are not much better.
So after trawling the internet for a 'good' tasting fondant, i decided to try and make some myself.
And the easiest looking recipe was the Marshmallow fondant or MMF.

Could not get any easier than this:

500gm white marshmallows (the only hard part is finding WHITE marshmallows)
2 tbspn water
1kg icing sugar
2 tspn clear vanilla

1. In a large glass or plastic bowl melt the marshmallows and the water in the microwave for 1 to 2 mins. Mix until no lumps remain. Zap in microwave for 30 sec bursts and mix again if lumps remain (beware mixture will be very hot!).2. Transfer marshmallow mix into electric mixer bowl (i have a kitchen aid), and add vanilla and icing sugar. Mix with dough hook until the mixture comes together like a bread dough.
3. Remove from bowl and knead by hand until it is the right consistency. Double or triple wrap in plastic wrap, and let it rest overnight before using. It will stiffen up a lot over night, so make sure you don't put too much icing sugar in.

And now you have fondant that is not only edible, but yummy!3 kilos of MMF (2 batches)

So, as i mentioned in the ingredients, the hardest part of it all was finding packets of white marshmallows. WHICH IS NOT POSSIBLE, apparently! For some unknown reason every store in Australia only stocks packets of marshmallows with pink ones mixed in. Very annoying! So after visiting multiple Coles, Woolies, Kmarts, Big W's ... all to no avail, i had to settle on buying the mixed packs and separating the whites from the pinks. 10 packets later... i had 1.25kgs of white ones and 1.25kgs of pink ones.

Now what to do with a million pink marshmallows?

I am told that it IS possible to get only white marshmallows in Aus, and they are called Pascall MegaMallows .... so if anyone comes across them in their local supermarket PLEASE let me know and i can go and clean them out of their whole supply!!!

Fondant characters

I seem to have a lot of patience. For fondant that is, not really anything else though.
I can sit for hours and make little figures and characters out of gumpaste and fondant.
My biggest challenge is coming up with the ideas of WHAT to make.
Suggestions are welcome!!!

Sheep

More sheep

Owls

There have been many more, unfortunately i just dont take photos of them all.

More cupcakes

Cupcakes I made for a 1st birthday for a boy.
The photos are terrible, but there are little buses, planes and trucks on a few random cakes.
Very cute.

Cupcakes

The main thing that i get asked to make for people is cupcakes.
Which is great. I love making cupcakes.

This particular time was a request for 50 cupcakes, any flavour, with purple and lime green as the theme colours. 40th Birthday party.

Baked chocolate and hazelnut cupcakes

Frosted with vanilla buttercream, and iced with lime green rolled icing

Piped purple vanilla buttercream on 25 ....

...And iced with lime green icing on the other 25.

Chocolate hazelnut and white chocolate and almond cakes, with vanilla frosting