Richard Goh’s Cake Deco Class 6: How to Make a Barbie Doll Cake?

14th April 2013

I guess this must be the most popular lesson among all the 8 lessons. Weeks prior to the lesson, some of us had started to discuss what doll to buy, where to buy, what colour to use for the Barbie Doll dress…etc. Personally I have also done some research from the Internet and think about the design of my Barbie doll dress before the class.

What you need?

• One basic round 8” or 9” sponge cake (height 1.5” to 2”)
• One basic round 6” or 7” sponge cake (height 1.5” to 2”)
• Turntable
• Long serrated knife
• Flat spatula
• Piping bag
• Piping tips
• Whipping cream
• Food colour
• Barbie doll (of course it can be any doll)
• Two cake boxes

What I learn from this class?

• Carve and trim cake into the shape of Barbie doll dress and secure the Barbie doll (without legs) on the cake.

How to make a Barbie Doll Cake?

1) Slice and stack the cakes (bigger cake at bottom). Sandwich each layer with whipping cream as usual. Avoid chunky fillings and place your fillings near the centre only because you are going to trim away the side. I used sliced strawberries and mangoes which is ok. Just don’t cut into cubes.

2) Make a small round marking on top (this is where you insert the Barbie doll). You can use a small bowl or a round cookie cutter. Use a serrated knife, hold it 45 degree, use the round marking as a guide to cut and carve the cake into dome shape. Take note that the tip of the knife must touch the base (cake board). 

3) This is how the cake looks like. If you are not satisfied with the shape (eg. the cake is slant), use the excess cake to patch back and trim again.

4) Once you are satisfied with the shape. Cut a small hole based on the round marking and insert the Barbie doll (pull out the legs first) and patch the hole using the excess cake crumbs to secure the Barbie doll. If you are using half body doll bought from baking supply shop, you can skip this step. (Tips: make sure you tie the hair of your Barbie doll before inserting the cake).

5) Remove the doll and crumb coat the cake now. To smoothen the frosting, cut a small piece of baking paper or plastic sheet (about 3cm x 30cm), hold it at both ends horizontally. Glide the paper from bottom to top of the cake. Scrape the cream on paper and repeat this step around the cake until the frosting is smooth.

6) If you going to cover the whole cake with piping you can do so now after the crumb-coat. Insert and secure the Barbie doll first before piping (refer to step 3). If you only intend to pipe some designs (i.e. not cover the whole cake with piping) then you need to apply another layer of whipping cream and make sure the frosting is smooth. Decorate the cake (design your own Barbie doll dress) as desired.

This is the doll I use for my cake. It costs me S$2.00 from Daiso. It is smaller and shorter than the usual Barbie doll.

And here is my Barbie Doll Cake. By the way, the cake didn’t survive till we reached home. It was hit by my little boy when we were on our way home and the doll almost dropped.

There are many ways of making a Barbie doll cake. The method we learnt in class is to pull out the legs of the doll before inserting the cake. I find the biggest problem with this method is the short waistline especially if you are using a small doll because in order to secure the doll you need to push it into the cake, so part of the waistline will be inserted into the cake. As a result, my Barbie doll looks like she is wearing a Hanbok (Korean traditional costume). If I were to try making another Barbie doll cake I am sure I would like to try inserting the doll without pulling out the legs.  

When doing piping it is always good to do some markings before you start. After crumb-coat, I marked the area where I wanted my ruffles to be. Then I used a big rose tip (Wilton # 104) to pipe one round at the bottom. Hold the tip vertically, narrow side facing up. Pipe ruffle by moving the tip in “up down up down” motion (like write “N”). After which, I changed to a smaller rose tip (Wilton # 101) to pipe ruffles at the centre front where I have marked.

Photo taken in class. The colour is closer to the actual colour.

Next, I changed to Wilton # 32 to pipe swirls all over to cover the rest of the gown, starting from bottom. For the top, I just piped lines to form a tube top by using Wilton # 02. Lastly, I piped ruffle using Wilton # 104 at the back of the waist and added some sugar pearls on the swirls and front of waist.

 
For the cake base, I used the same recipe as this Matcha Chiffon Cake.  I scaled down the recipe to 7 eggs, replaced partial flour with cocoa powder and made into one 8” round cake and two 6” round cakes. I must say that I am really happy with the result this time. The cakes did not shrink at all after cooling down and the texture was very good.
 

Cross-section of my cake - with sliced strawberries and mangoes.

Here are some of my classmates' masterpieces.

Mother’s Day 2013 ~ Hidden Heart Cupcake 隐藏的心杯子蛋糕

虽然母亲节已经过了，我还是想在这里祝我的妈咪朋友和读者们“母亲节快乐！”。

今年我收到最好的礼物就是小儿在没有爹地的引导下主动跟我说“Happy Mother’s Day!”，是第一次哦！听到的那瞬间真的很感动，感觉好窝心哦。

同样的今年我也为妈妈准备了母亲节蛋糕。之前有好几个构思但最终做的却是动手前即兴的想法。不知道大家在生活中是不是也遇过类似的情况？可能是偏向随性的性格使然，我想的和最终的成果往往是天南地北。这是好事还是坏事呢？往好的一方面想这表示我懂得变通，随和，但往坏的一面想我没有努力朝目标前进，没有坚持。。。有时我很不喜欢这样的自己。

回到蛋糕主题。蛋糕是母亲节前一晚做的。里头的心形蛋糕是之前上蛋糕装饰课剩下的巧克力戚风（把它收入冷冻库里了），主蛋糕体是香橙牛油蛋糕。

本来是要做“隐藏的心”，不知道是我的“心”太大颗，还是模型太小，又或者是戚风蛋糕体太轻，纵使烤前我是把整颗心隐藏起来的，但蛋糕烤好后那颗心还是浮现上来了。

在误打误撞下我觉得这样半浮现的心切面图也蛮美的，你认为呢？

切半前平平无奇的外表

Hidden Heart Cupcake (Orange Butter Cake with Chocolate Chiffon Heart)

Can I still call this hidden heart cupcake since the heart is not totally hidden? haha

I made this for my mum and mother-in-law for Mother’s Day. The “heart” is chocolate chiffon cake, leftover from my cake deco class and the cake base in orange butter cake. You can have any combination and any of your favourite recipes to make this hidden heart cupcake.

I adapted the recipe of this Lemon Butter Cupcake to make it into orange flavour by replacing lemon zest with about ½ tbsp of orange paste. You can also replace with orange zest. I think orange and chocolate is a good match, don’t you think so?

I made 10 cupcakes with hearts from this recipe (12 –hole standard muffin tray size) and one small cupcake without heart. I used one 6” round sheet cake (about 3/4" height) to cut out the hearts. You may make 1.25 or 1.5 times of the orange butter cake recipe and bake a small sheet cake for the “hearts” first (with added colouring) then using the same batter for the cake base.

To make hidden heart design, add little batter to the muffin cup/ tray, place the cut-out heart shape cake at the centre with standing position then cover the heart with batter. Bake as usual.

From my beloved little one. I strongly believe that it was 99% done by the teacher but when asked, my little one told me that it was done by him...confidently. Hehe

Happy Birthday to April Boy ~ Rose Mango Layer Cake 玫瑰芒果夹心蛋糕

过去的周末D过生日，和往年一样生日前都会先问他要什么生日蛋糕，答案也是一样，就是芒果蛋糕。四月份本来就是芒果的季节，用当季的食材最好不过。

敲定蛋糕主题后我开始在想究竟要做芒果慕斯蛋糕还是一般的芒果夹心蛋糕。虽然很想尝试制作芒果慕斯但想到要下了班等宝贝睡着后才能开工，最后还是选择了比较少工序的芒果夹心蛋糕。

星期四晚上把蛋糕体烤好，隔天冷却后收冰箱，晚上开始装饰，星期六切蛋糕。每次做装饰蛋糕如果没碰到周末我都得提早两天准备。

装饰部分我也考虑了很久，到底要把蛋糕装饰成什么样子。最后的决定是很久以前就想做的的玫瑰蛋糕。似乎不怎么适合男生，但是我想蛋糕内容已经应主角的要求了，装饰部分就照自己的心意好了。

蛋糕体我做了香橙戚风，用的是上课时和老师买的orange paste，因为味道已经很够，所以我也懒得用orange zest。我对这次的蛋糕体感到相当满意，蛋糕发得很高，冷却后也没有收缩。

外层的rose swirl我用的是mango yogurt cream，整体配合起来相当好吃。虽然cream很厚但是味道却很清新，连平时不爱吃蛋糕兼讨厌吃cream的D也把cream吃完。这个蛋糕冷冷时最好吃。

令我最不满意的是那个挤花。也不是第一次挤rose swirl，所以没有特别做功课。但是之前都是挤在cupcake上，结果发现挤在大蛋糕和挤在cupcake上是两回事。挤在cupcake大小有个依据，但是挤在大蛋糕就完全靠自己拿捏。我从底部开始挤一开始就挤得太大朵，结果上面那层只好挤小朵点。花朵间的空隙我是以打横的方式补上，我看到有些人是挤星星，就看个人的喜好。如果有机会再做我希望有了这次的经验能够做得比较好。

 

I made this cake for D’s birthday which falls on the last weekend - a light orange chiffon cake paired with layers of fresh mango and finished with a mango yogurt cream frosting in rose swirl.

Rose Mango Layer Cake

  
   Cake Base

   Mango Chiffon Cake in Round Tin

   Ingredients: (yield one 6” round cake)
   (A)
   2 egg yolks
   23g sugar
   (B)
   35g oil
   50g milk
   2 tsp orange paste (see note 1)
   ¼ tsp vanilla extract
   1/8 tsp salt
   (C)
   75g cake flour (plain flour is fine too)
   ½ tsp baking powder
   (D)
   2 egg whites
   45g sugar

   Method:

1. Whisk egg yolk and sugar in (A) till sugar dissolved. Add (B) and mix well.
2. Sift in (C) and mix till a smooth and uniform batter is formed. Set aside.
3. Whisk egg white till frothy, add 1/3 of sugar in (D). Continue to beat and add remaining sugar in 2 additions and best till stiff peak.
4. Add in 1/3 of meringue to egg yolk mixture, roughly mix in using a hand whisk (I just detached the beater from my mixer and user it as hand whisk). Then Add remaining meringue to the yolk mixture and fold in using a rubber spatula till just incorporated (do not over mix).
5. Pour batter into a 6” loose bottom round tin (do not grease or line the pan). Tap it on tabletop a few times to release air bubbles.
6. Bake in preheated oven at 150C for about 20 mins and 170C for about 13-15 mins. Tap the cake on tabletop once it is out from oven and then invert immediately to cool down. Only remove cake from pan after cooling down completely.

   Fillings and Crumb Coat
   2 ripe mangoes (I used Thai honey mongoes)
   200g whipping cream (I used non-dairy)

   Mango Yogurt Cream
   220g Frosty Whip
   120g mango yogurt
   120g cold water
   1 tsp rum
   Pinch of salt (this is to reduce the sweetness)

   To assemble and decorate

1. Slice the cake into 3 layers (before that you may keep the cake in fridge so that it is firmer and easier to cut).
2. Mash ½ mango with fork to become puree. Slice remaining mangoes. Set aside.
3. Beat whipping cream till stiff (about 80-90%, not too hard).
4. Place one layer of cake on cake board, brush with half of the mango puree (this act like a syrup). Apply a thin layer of cream on top. Place mango slices and cover by another layer of cream.
5. Place second layer of cake on top. Repeat step 4 and place the last piece of cake on top.
6. Crumb coat the whole cake (i.e cover the whole cake with a thin layer of whipping cream). Keep the cake in fridge.
7. Now you can start to prepare the mango yogurt cream. Just put everything in a bowl and beat till stiff. You shall have some leftover whipping cream, just mix it with the mango yogurt cream.
8. Fit piping bag with Wilton # 1M tip and fill in the mango yogurt cream, take the cake out from fridge and you can start to pipe rose swirl to cover the whole cake now (I started to pipe from the bottom). Refrigerate the cake before cutting.

  
   Note:

1. If you are not using orange paste simply add zest from one orange and replace milk with orange juice (partial or all).
2. I doubled the recipe and baked two 6” round cakes, keeping one for my cake deco class.
3. Use A size eggs (60g without shell).
4. The height of my cake after cooling down is the same height of the pan, about 6.5cm.
5. If you do not have loose-bottom tin, it is okay to use normal round tin. Just line the bottom with baking paper, do not grease or line the side.  

   (Recipe source: trial & error by Angel of  Cook.Bake.Love)

Happy birthday daddy!

Richard Goh’s Cake Deco Class 5: How to Make 3D House Cake?

7th April 2013

We are going to build and design our own (edible) house and garden this week. I would think that this is something you can do together with your kids for bonding session. It is really fun.

  

What you need?

• A square 8” or 9” butter cake (height 2”)
• A square 10” or 11” sponge cake (height 1”)
• Knife
• Flat spatula
• Whipping cream (or buttercream)
• Desiccated coconut + green food colour ( for the “grass”)
• Piping jelly + blue food colour( for the “pool”)
• Candies, cookies, marshmallows…..(for decoration)

  

What I learn from this class?

•  Cut and form a house shape from a square cake

  

How to make a 3D house cake with garden?

1) Level the butter cake. Cut into half (must be precious).

2) Spread cream on one piece of cake and stack another piece on top.

3) Divide cake into 3 equal portions, cut out 1/3 of it (must be precious).

4) Lift up the 1/3 portion of cake to standing position.  Cut diagonally into 2 triangles.

5) Place the 2 triangles together to form the “roof”.  Joint them with cream.

6) Place “roof” on top of the remaining 2/3 of cake. Joint them with cream. Now a house shape cake is formed.

7) Spread cream on the sponge cake. Then place the “house” on top of your preferred position.

8) Spread cream to cover the “house”. If you are going to cover with all the decorative stuff you just need a crumb coat. If you are exposing the cream then you have to cream it nicely but it is not easy to frost a 3D figure smoothly.

9) You may start to decorate your house now follow by garden. If you are going to cover the garden with “grass”, do it after completing the house decoration. Just mix desiccated coconut with green colouring. Sprinkle on top of the sponge cake and coat the sides. If you want to have a “pool” in your garden, just reserve an area for it (don’t sprinkle desiccated coconut on top) and add piping jelly on top.

So here is my creation, overly sugared house, haha.

The house and garden were built from these 2 cakes, top – Rum Butter Cake, bottom – Pandan Chiffon Cake.

For the Pandan Chiffon Cake I used the same recipe as this Matcha Chiffon Cake, omitted the matcha powder and added about ½ tsp of pandan paste.

The “tiles” and the “windows” were also made of the same cake. I piped excess batter on macaron mat and sieved some icing sugar on top before baking.

My original design, can you tell the difference?

I managed to take some photos of my classmates’ creations.  Aren’t they pretty? I am really glad that I am able to learn together with a group of talented and passionate home-bakers. Thumb up everyone!

Rum Butter Cake 兰姆酒牛油蛋糕

一般做牛油蛋糕我喜欢加香草精，之前也试过加兰姆酒但只加一点，这回敢敢加一大匙，味道果然不同。蛋糕的味道变得好有层次感，没试过的朋友可要试试。

Richard Goh’s Cake Deco Class 4: How to Make Cutout/Figure Cake? (Matcha Chiffon Cake with Blueberry Fillings)

31st March 2013

We have one week break last week. This week we are making cutout cake, in this class we concentrate on figure, A-Z or 1-9.

A cutout cake is a 2D cake formed in the shape of a particular character or image. The cake design is similar to, but simpler than, that of a 3D cake. Basically once you learn the principle you can turn just about any image into a cutout cake. They are all free hand cut, so you are not required to buy any special mould.

We were told to bring a square or rectangle cake this time. We also need to think of the figure we want to make and draw on paper. Richard will check our sketch in the class before we cut the cake.


What you need?

• A square or rectangle basic sponge cakes (Richard suggested not smaller than 9”)
• Turntable
• Knife
• Flat spatula
• Whipping cream
• Piping bag
• Food colour

What I learn from this class?

• Principle of cutout cake
• Frosting of cake in irregular shape
• Free hand cut of cake in irregular shape

How to make cutout/figure cake?

• Take a piece of paper, same size as your cake and sketch the figure (in my case I am making “4”). The “body” must be broad; the principle is to minimize cut and wastage. Do not cut out any hole at the centre, we can pipe different colour of cream to represent the “hole”.   

• Once you are satisfied with the sketch, cut out the shape.

• Level and slice the cake as usual. Then place the cutout paper on the cake. Cut the cake according to the shape. When cutting straight line just hold the knife as usual (horizontally) but when cutting curve, you need to hold the knife vertically and move the knife in “up down up down” motion to cut the cake.

• Once done, you can start to apply cream and add fillings to each layer. You can also do that before cutting out the shape.

• Crumb coat the whole cake as usual. Then apply another layer of cream (the actual frosting). For the actual frosting unlike round cake which we start to frost from the center, for cutout cake we start from corners. After which, smoothen the top with spatula in one direction. For the sides, technique applied to round cake doesn’t apply here. To get 90 degree angle hold the spatula horizontally and “cut” downwards (like cutting cake). This is not as easy as it sounds! At our level it is difficult to get smooth and nice sides due to the shapes and angles, so Richard suggested us to coat the sides with chocolate rice, almonds flakes etc.

• After frosting the whole cake you can start to decorate the cake.  

I only have one 8” and one 11” square tin. 8” is too small so I used the 11’ square tin to bake my cake. Since I was making number “4”, a rectangle cake should be more suitable. So I trimmed my cake into about 9” x 11”.

My cake decoration was very simple. I hided the ugly side frosting by piping little stars all over. I then piped shell around top and bottom borders. I also piped stars at the centre to represent the “hole” in the number “4”. (Note: Green - Wilton tip # 20, Pink - Wilton tip #32). When all the piping was done, I decorated with some ready-made icing flowers and marshmallows (in a way I also used them to cover flaws: P).


For the cake base, I made chiffon cake instead of sponge cake this time. It was matcha chiffon cake with blueberry fillings. First time trying this combination, believe me they are very matching.

I adapted the basic chiffon cake recipe from “Creative Making of Cake” by Chef Alex Goh. I replaced partial flour with matcha powder, replaced water with milk, cut down sugar and liquid in the recipe. The reason I cut down liquid was because I wanted a firmer cake. Nevertheless, the cake was still very soft and moist. Alex Goh’s recipe is always very forgiving. 

I am sharing my modified recipe.

Matcha Chiffon Cake

  
   Ingredients:
   (A)
   8 egg yolk
   90g sugar
   (B)
   100g milk
   140g vegetable oil
   1/4 tsp salt
   (C)
   138g plain flour/cake flour
   12g matcha powder
   2 tsp baking powder
   (D)
   8 egg white
   180g castor sugar
   ¼ tsp cream of tartar

   Method:

• Please refer to HERE.
• The above amount is for my 11”x11” square tin. The egg whites only need to be beaten till soft peak. I only lined the bottom of the pan and did not line or grease the sides.
• If baking in chiffon tin, beat the egg whites till stiff peak. The above amount is good for a 25cm (10”) chiffon tin or you can half the recipe for a 20cm (8”) chiffon tin.

   

I am submitting this post to Aspiring Bakers #30: it's Tea time! (April 2013) hosted by Food Playground.