Thursday, October 31, 2013

Happy Halloween 2013 LEGO Medusa Cake

I didn't want to wait too long to post this one.  But it was fun and challenging to make this cake.   After baking my grandson's birthday cakes for the past few times with this LEGO cake mold, I realized that to make the cake 3-D to stand up, the cake batter needs to be much firmer or dense cake in order to hold all the weight from Fondant draping over it.  Regardless, the cake is basically for the show.  You bake extra Chiffon cake to enjoy on the side or as a base of the figure cake.    I baked this cake for our office's Holiday party fund raiser last night.  I couldn't see it being sold to someone else, except for my grandson, so I end up donating the cash and kept the cake for my grandson.   Hope every one had a enjoyable time with your family tonight.   I think I can do the LEGO Frankenstein the next time.... :-)



I added extra half cup of flour to make the cake batter thicker to cause the cake to be dense to support buttercream frosting.
Cake Ingredients:    Creaming method
3 eggs  - separated and whipped with 1/4 C of sugar with egg yolks and 1/2 C with egg whites
1 Stick butter softened - whip up till pale with 1/4 C of sugar
1 cup sugar (- divided as above for eggs and butter)
1-1/2 C shifted flour
1 tsp baking powder with no aluminum (even though this cake only for the display)
 Rice Krispies treats - 1 batch- Add 1 C extra Rice Krispies to make firmer treat.  Shape into Medusa's backside body shape.

 Pre-make marshmallow fondant with green food color.
 1 batch Buttercream Frosting - follow the instruction on the back of powder sugar package.  Add few drops of green food color.

 Wrap the rolled out marshmallow fondant on bodice.
 Slice off the back side of the cake to make it flatter.  Frost the back and press the bodice together.
 Frost the cake and attach "octopus" sour gummy onto the head section.  Cut one section of red gummy with scissors to make eyes.  Use chocolatier tool sets or something sharp to poke eye sockets and insert cut eyes into them.

 Use Black and red Gel frosting with sparkles.   Have fun!



 "Be Ware!!! Do Not Look into the Eyes!!"

Thursday, October 03, 2013

My Grandson's LEGO Mr. Gold Birthday Cake

It's time again for the Happy B Day Cake.  This year's challenge from my Grandson is LEGO's MR. GOLD cake.  Series 10 of LEGO mini-figurine is to find the very rare Mr. Gold.  There are only 5000 of it around the world, and there are couple more thousands still to be found.
So, where is it?   Well, here it is - in the form of a cake.
 Pre-prepare Marshmallow Fondant a weeks ahead.
Have three long candy sticks ready.   Some tooth picks and a couple of short candy sticks.  2 medium length candy sticks.    These sticks are used to hold the cake up and arms and legs in place.

The cake is made from a basic cake formula of mine - 3 eggs, 1 butter, 1 C sugar, 1-1/2 C flour, 1 tsp non-aluminum baking powder.  Prep the LEGO Silicone Cake mold and Bake in 350'F.
 The cake puffed up perfectly for the 3-D shape; otherwise I would have baked another one to form the 'back' of the Mr. Gold. 

Make sure the cake mold is sprayed and floured for easier unmolding.   Bake rather brown to make sure the cake will 'stand'. 


 Prepare Butter Frosting.   Cover the cracked area.
Cover with rolled out marshmallow fondant after covering the cake with frosting,
 Use 'fondant smoother' to shape.   Tip:  cut a sheet of 'wax paper' and frost over it.  Parchment paper is bit expensive for this task, but the wax paper is perfect for this task.
 
 
 Place in Box and Spray with Edible Gold spray.  Becareful not to inhale the spray.

 Use Black Gel frosting to outline Mr. Gold.   Roll the fondant around a long stick to build his staff.  Roll the ball in Crystal cake sprinkles, unless you have a plastic crystal to put on the staff, but be very careful if you have small toddler who might put anything in their mouth. So, its safer if its made from Fondant and Crystal sprinkles.
 Patch up some of the smeared black gel frosting by covering up with fondant pieces.  Smooth out with some moist finger to blend it in.
 

Didn't find Mr. Gold in a box of newly opened Series 10 box at the Toy R' Us, but this Mr. Gold cake brought cheers and smiles to every one.
Don't know what challenge it will be next year, but I have yet to make a LEGO Rapunzel for my Grand-daughter.

Polly's Lazy Apple-Plum Pie

Why do I call it Lazy?  because I couldn't wait to go to sleep for an hour.  So I thought what would a busy person do?  Buy a pie.  But I have tons of Fuji Apple and end of summer plums.  So the next tactic is to precook the Pie Filling ahead; then bake them in pie shells.   It worked out great!   It tasted so good.


Ingredients for Pie Shell:
2-1/2 C AP Flour
3/4 tsp salt
1/2 C Vegetable Shortening
1/2 C Butter - (1 Stick Butter, sliced into 8 pieces)
6 TB ice cold water
Cut shortening into flour with your fingers.   Leaving big chunks about the size of nickle, here and there.
Add 5 Tablespoons of ice cold water.   Mix.  Add more water to gather all dry flour off the side of the bowl.
Knead into a ball in 'Folding' motion, sometimes give a bit of push down with the palms of your hand. Repeat for 1-1/2 minutes.  Divide the dough into 2.  One larger than the other for the deep pie dish.  Wrap up and refrigerate for min. 30 min to relax the dough.

Ingredients - Pie Filling:
Peel, Core and slice 2 lb Fuji Apples - 1/2 inch thick - Do not cut into small pieces.
Peel, Core and slice 1 lb Plum
Squeeze lime juice over the apple in a large bowl as you place them into a bowl
1/4 C KATAKURIKO - Japanese Potato Starch
3/4 C Regular Sugar
1/2 C TRUVIA
1 Stick Butter sliced into 8 pieces
Add 6 slices of butter into a saute pan, and add sugar on top.  Turn heat to Medium Low.  Let the butter to melt, but do not brown.
Add fruits on top.  Fold over to mix well.  Cook until apple is 90% tender over Medium heat.  Stir often.  Do not leave kitchen.
The mixture should be hot and bubblish.
Mix Potato starch in a small dish with 2 TB water.   Make a space in the center of the fruits mixture.  Add the slur.  Stir immediately.  It will thicken the fruits mixture rather quickly.  Cook for 45 sec to a minute.
Turn off and cool right away with fan.
 Make sure the pie filling is cool, but Warm is okay.   *The idea is that it is not so hot that it will "melt" the shortenings in the pie shell.  But warm enough that it will be bubbly while the pie shell is being browned.
 Preheat oven to 400'F.
Prepare Pie Shell.  Brush inside of the shell with beaten egg white to keep from 'soggy' shell.  Save the Egg Yolk in a separate bowl.
 Add the pie filling.  Transfer the Prepped Pie tops to the top and crimp the edge of the pie shells over or any way you like.  Mix egg yolk with some water.  Brush pie shell.
 Bake till the shell is nice and beautiful.

Enjoy!