The frosting on the side is textured like a basket.
The nest is made of spun sugar, filled with Cadbury mini eggs.
9 years ago
Sunday, April 12, 2009
Amazing Easter Cake
Scott always has the assignment of bringing dessert to family parties. Today he chose to go all out with a carrot cake. See the results below. I don't even like carrot cake, but I decided to try it and it was seriously awesome!
The frosting on the side is textured like a basket.
The nest is made of spun sugar, filled with Cadbury mini eggs.
The frosting on the side is textured like a basket.
The nest is made of spun sugar, filled with Cadbury mini eggs.
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Cool Cake! Rycharn loves to decorate cakes he should show you his scrapbook of cakes. He has been too chicken to try the basket weave, he thinks it looks too hard. His hands get too tired these days so he doesn't do many cakes anymore. We both are totally impressed with your cake, Scott. Rycharn would like to know how you make spun sugar.
ReplyDeleteGood job!
Spun sugar is really easy for how impressive it can look.
ReplyDeletePut 1/2 c. water in a saucepan over med-high heat, add 1 c. sugar carefully in the middle of the pan (so that the sugar is totally surrounded by water--none touching the sides). Add 1/4 c. corn syrup if desired. (This will help prevent crystallization and will make the spun sugar slightly less brittle, which can make it easier to work with).
Put a lid on the pan and leave it alone until the sugar is completely dissolved, and then remove the lid, insert a candy thermometer, and boil over medium heat until the syrup reaches 320°F if you want clear sugar (or if you want to add coloring), or 330°F if you want it to caramelize (turn amber). (The lower temperature will not harden quite as quickly when you're spinning it, which can result in thicker threads, but if the amber color is undesirable you need to stop before the sugar starts to caramelize. 330° syrup will actually be easier to work with.)
When the syrup reaches the desired temp. (or even a few degrees before, as the temperature will be climbing rapidly at this point) remove it from the heat and allow it to cool until it starts to thicken slightly. You'll then want to return it to a very low heat to keep it from hardening while you're working with it.
To "spin" it, dip a fork or similar utensil (some chefs use a wire whisk that has had its end snipped off so that it's just a bunch of wires with a handle, and you can even buy specialty tools made just for this purpose) into the syrup. Lift it and left the initial "glop" of syrup run back into the pan, and then do whatever you want to do with the thin stream that continues to run from the utensil for the next several seconds--it will harden within a few seconds of leaving the fork and form very thin strands of candy which will remain pliable for a few seconds and then become brittle.
To make the nest, I started out with some loose bunches of threads that I made by drizzling the sugar back and forth over the handles of two wooden spoons resting over the sides of a springform pan. After each "batch" (when the fork had run dry) I collected the fibers and gently bent them into a semicircle. Three or four of these gave me the "base" of the nest (and gave me some "airiness" to build on), but at this point the fibers were not sticking together so I didn't have a single cohesive "nest".
I added to the base by drizzling the sugar directly onto it in both a circular pattern as well as in a random back-and-forth (to suggest the twigs that would be in a real nest). These additions glued the nest together and made it a single piece.
(If I had tried to start with drizzled circles originally I would not have been able to create the light airiness that I wanted, as the circular drizzles on the countertop would have just stacked up on each other and created a fairly solid mass--the spoon handle step was necessary to get the effect I wanted).
One last note... Any spun sugar decoration should be added to the dessert right before serving it, since it will begin to pick up moisture from the dessert and start to melt within a short time after being added. The little bit of cake that's left has a sticky gooey mess of sugar on top of it where the nest used to be. :)
Probably a much longer description than was needed, but maybe Rycharn (and others) will find it helpful! :)
(Oh, and the basketweave wasn't really difficult--just time consuming... but maybe there's not much difference between the two when it comes to cake decorating.)
Wow. Truly amazing
ReplyDeleteThat cake is seriously awesome! I don't know if I have the patience to pull something like that off!
ReplyDeleteAnd it tasted as good as it looks! Thanks Scott.
ReplyDeletewow - that cake looks amazing. Scott - you are truly talented. I made a cake for Ken for his birthday and was happy that I managed to do a basic frosting without tearing up the cake :) I certainly do NOT have patience for anything more than that, but I admire those of you who do.
ReplyDelete