My Chocolate Fantasy

Just as you get different styles of venues and dresses, there are also different styles of Wedding cakes. Choosing the wrong wedding cake for your wedding style or theme is actually a very common wedding mistake. Brides sometimes see a cake in a magazine and then insist on having that specific one even though is doesn’t suite their style, theme or personality.

Different types of Wedding Cakes to consider:

The Classic Cake:

This will be a classic round or square cake with multiple tiers with cream or white fondant icing. Nothing daring or over the edge, just beautiful and timeless. Tiers can be stacked, freestanding or on pillars. Although fruitcake is being faced out, it is sometimes still being used especially if the bride and groom want to keep a part of the cake for their first anniversary.  In this case they will make one layer the fruitcake and the rest of the cake can be marble, caramel, white chocolate or carrot cake.

Simple iced with decorative flowers on top with ribbons bordering the base of each layer.

Black and White themed cakes are very much in style at the moment.

The Themed cake:

This cake is best described as the colorful, no fear, no rules imaginative cake.

This cake will be a reflection of your individuality and daring personality. If you like to stand out and probably want your cake to be remembered by your guests, then this is the way to go.

Find inspiration in your theme or your venue. If you are having a beach wedding, you might have a sandcastle cake or a cake with a scuba dive couple as the topper.

Multiple shapes such as squares combined with round and pyramid tiers are very trendy at the moment

Use your Honeymoon location as inspiration – If you are going skiing, try a snow-white cake in the shape of a snowy mountain. For a Parisian honeymoon, a sophisticated black and white cake with an Eiffel tower topper will be well suited.

The Cupcake:

Individual, beautifully decorated cupcakes stacked high are still very popular amongst brides. It is perfect for a buffet reception or a garden wedding. Because cupcakes have their own cases, they can be enjoyed while standing and is therefore perfect for a relaxed informal wedding reception. The sizes can also differ from muffin size (if this is perhaps your only desert) to mini cupcakes.

Heart shaped cupcakes with red and pink icing for a romantic theme.

Gluten or dairy-free cakes for guests with dietary requirements are also very important, as more and more people are being diagnosed with food allergies

The Chocolate cake

Imagine a delicious chocolate ganache exterior, decorated with chocolate swirls, shards and shavings, with a decadent fudge or caramel interior. Chocolate cakes are very fashionable, versatile and popular right now, but are recommended in very cool months or for air-conditioned venues.

Dark Chocolate mouse cake with fresh fruit, dipped in chocolate or dusted with coco or icing.

Color contrasted – butter cake or milk chocolate cake interior with dark chocolate outside and visa versa.

The Contemporary cake

This is a cake with a modern twist on the classic / traditional cake. It is ideal for a wedding in a distinctly modern setting, or for an artistic couple. With a ‘less is more’ mantra, these classic square cakes should be an innovative and contemporary work of edible art. For an elegant yet modern look, square shaped cake layers can be stacked slightly off centre in shades of ivory or white.

Add a fake ‘display’ layer to give the cake some height.

A Single layer cake, simple decorated with a highlight on top.

Match the exact color of your theme or highlight to the cake color

Adding a little ‘bling’ to your cake – such as Pearls or Swarovski crystals, will give it that wow factor.

Create unusual shaped stands using Perspex, metal or glass to give it a contemporary feel

The Croquembouche

The croquembouch is a hot trend. It isn’t just very tasty, but can be beautifully decorated with flowers and caramel sugar strings.

The Wedding cake gives you the perfect opportunity to add to your color scheme or theme, and that is why you should really put some thought into it and discuss your theme with your Cake maker.

Make the process of choosing your wedding cake fun and personal. Whether you are having a fun and funky theme or a romantic traditional celebration, it is very important to fit the style of the cake into your wedding.

This is one of the details in your wedding that allows you to step out of the box and have a cake that your guests will remember for a long time

You have your favourite cake; perhaps you have several. Have you ever wondered where yours fares on the top ten list of homemade cakes? Read on and find out.

1. Mile High Chocolate Cake.

For chocolate lovers this is the ultimate cake recipe. It consists of four dark chocolate layers with milk chocolate filling. It is rich and decadent and easy to make.

2. Fresh Coconut Layer Cake

Vanilla cake layers brushed with a syrup made from coconut water and sugar make for a moist and delicious cake. The frosting includes fresh toasted coconut for the most intense flavor.

3. Rum-Scented Marble Cake

Everyone likes a little rum, and finding some in your cake is always a nice surprise. This bundt cake has a choclate center flavored with rum, guaranteed to please.

4. Persian Love Cake

This is a cake to be remembered. Combining a lemon-cardamom chiffon cake with saffron and rose scented whipped cream, it also has pistachios and candied rose petals for a stand-out middle eastern effect.

5. Semisweet Chocolate Layer Cake with Vanilla Cream Filling

This moist dark chocolate cake has a delicious fluffy cream filling, reminiscent of Oreos or Hydrox cookies. Complete with a chocolate ganache, it is chocolate cake at its creamiest.

6. Mixed Berry Chiffon Cake with Almond Cream Frosting

Sometimes berries make for the finest dessert, especially when they’re in season. Excellent for a summer outing, this cake is filled with almond custard and raspberry preserves and crowned with a multitude of fresh berries.

7. Twelve Layer Mocha Cake

If you like a little coffee with your cake, here is a great recipe. With espresso soaked spongecake, hazelnut meringue, chocolate souffle’ along with coffee and mocha buttercreams, it may not be the easiest cake to make but it is well worth the effort.

8. Chocolate-Peanut Butter Cake with Cream Cheese and Butterfinger Frosting

The combination of chocolate and peanut butter is a favorite with many people. This cake uses golden brown sugar for an extra burst of flavor. And the vanilla cream cheese frosting is to die for.

9. White Chocolate Layer Cake with Apricot Filling and White Chocolate Buttercream Frosting

You cannot have a top ten cake list without a white chocolate one making a showing, and this one is a real winner. Using apricots when they’re in season adds to the flavor. Walnuts pressed into the frosting make an ultimate finish.

10. Cherry-Cornmeal Upside-Down Cake

A variation on the familiar Pineapple Upside-Down Cake, this creation utilizes a more rustic flair. It is cooked in a skillet then turned out onto a serving platter, exposing caramelized sugar and fruit. A little balsamic vinegar on the side turns up the taste to a new level.

These are only ten of many favourite cakes from around the world. You can find a multitude of cooking websites that will list other cake recipes and cake baking products. However, the ones listed here can be completely satisfying in your hunt for the best homemade cakes to be found.

Cake decorating Halloween themes can be a blast. The cake actually has become an essential part of our celebrations today. May that be a birthday, wedding, anniversary, homecoming party or a house warming ceremony, with the festive food you will find a decorated cake on the dining table. So when it is Halloween time you will find a cake to match the festivities.

The tradition of Halloween dates back thousands of years to Celtic rituals. People believed that on once a year the human world and the other dark world of the spirits and ghosts overlap. It is possible for the spirits to return to earth. The date was fixed as October 31.

In the olden days the Celts celebrated their new year on November 1. Which was a official day marked as the end of summer and beginning of cold and dark winter in Ireland.

Over the years two Roman traditions were combined with the traditional Celtic celebration. The first tradition was commemorating the dead and the second was to honor the Roman Goddess of fruit and trees called Pomona.

The modern day celebration of Halloween is the mixture of the ancient beliefs and now it is celebrated to have fun.

The surrounding imagery for Halloween is a mixture of old customs and traditions and of course American filmmakers and graphic artists. They have come up with amazing characters. The common theme is dark and mysterious. It also involves skeletons, ghosts, mythical monsters. Bats, Owls and crows along with haunted houses and pumpkin men, black cats are very common things that are associated with Halloween.

All of these things are to be found on a cake decorating for Halloween. The house is decorated to resemble to the haunted house or for Dracula’s castle and the cake is decorated with spiders, black cats or bats.

You can get cake toppings with figures associated with Halloween. The figures could be that of Grim Reaper, or Halloween witch. You can have fun with these cake toppers. Cake decorating Halloween can be a family fun activity. If your children can join to decorate the cake the entire family can have lots of fun.

You get many more things to decorate your Halloween cake in the market. Few of them are Halloween Skeleton and hands that you can stick on the cake. You get some spooky looking rings that can be placed on the cake to add to the spirit of the season.

3D Halloween Luminaries Picks can add another dimension to your cake. The predominant color of the season is orange and black. If you have black icing on the cake and it is a chocolate cake and if you stick orange illuminated sticks on the cake it will really blend in with the atmosphere of Halloween.

Cake decorating Halloween can be a fun filled activity for the entire family and it can be a very enriching experience for all the members of the family.

Halloween cake decorating is fun for all ages. Halloween is all about haunted houses, carved pumpkins, and edible eyeballs. The spirit to honor the dead and trying to make sense of life after death has found its way into the Halloween spirit.

The American film makers have helped the haunted spirit and spooky figures of the Halloween a lot. Bats, black cats, ghosts, spiders, crows, witches and ghouls, everything that is spooky can be an ides that find its way into the Halloween cake decorating.

Vampires, aliens, zombies, mummies, werewolves, demons and mystical monsters these are some of the popular Halloween characters. But the symbolism in the modern times is inspired by the classic American films. They deal with fictitious characters such as Frankenstein’s monster, Dracula, the Mummy and the Wolf man.

When you are baking a cake for Halloween party you can be very creative. You can make the haunted house. If you are throwing a kiddy party then you can bake a chocolate cake. Cover the cake with black icing. You can pipe in white icing to make a spider web. If you can manage a big spider on the top, try or you can go in for artificial spider to complete the picture. The kids will live it.

Halloween cake decorating is fun if you are making a cake for elder children. You can be as graphic as you want. You can use different molds to bake the cake and make them look like human body parts. Use red, orange and black colors to decorate your cake. You can use readymade Halloween figures that are available in the market. Green monsters, spooky looking aliens can also make your Halloween cake decorating all the more spooky.

There are many superstitions in connection with Halloween. Bats and black cats are a major part of superstitions. One of the superstitions is if a bat comes in the house on the Halloween day that means that it is a sign. It is a sign of spirits and ghosts are near your house or they are already in your house and they let the bat come into the house.

If you spot a spider on Halloween it means a dead loved one is watching you.

All these superstitions will help you to Halloween cake decorating. You can cut a flat cake into a bat shape. Use black icing use red color for the eyes and paint white teeth. Put those on the cake.

Halloween cake decorating can be fun to do. There are lots of things particular to Halloween such as the carved pumpkin, lanterns and the popular ghost stories. You can pick up any idea. Bake the cake, at times two or three different cakes using different molds. And you can create the entire spirit of Halloween on the cake. Make use of readymade Halloween figures that you get in the market or just be creative and make some figures yourself. It does not matter they do not look perfect. All the aliens that we see in the cinema or read about in the books are never good looking. The messier the look the better, so just go for it.

Easy cake decorating tips are not too hard to find. When it comes to cake decoration, many find it a very difficult task indeed. To bake a cake is easier than to decorate it. If you are trying to bake a cake for your kid’s birthday or you want to show off your new home to your friends and you have invited them for tea and you want to impress them further by your culinary expertise what better thing to do than serve delightfully decorated cake with tea?

When it comes to the cake decorating part the problem starts. If you are not very good with drawing then your problem is becomes all the more difficult. So what do you do in this situation? Well, here are few tricks of the trade.

It is easy to decorate a cake which has a flat surface. So make sure that the cake you bake, has a flat surface. In order to do that what you could do is after putting in the batter for the cake in the pan you should rap the pan on the counter for a few times. This will ensure that the air bubbles trapped in the batter are removed.

This will help to have a flat topped cake. But this is not enough. You have to make sure that the cake pan gets even heat. You could help your cake by rapping a wet and thick piece of a towel around it and join the ends together by a pin. As the oven starts heating the moist heat from the wet towel will help your cake to rise and bake the cake evenly. Once you achieve the flat top cake decorating it becomes all the more easy.

Now you can get icing kits in the market. You get different tips for the icing. So all you have to do is to follow the instructions on the pack of ready made icing pack and decorate your cake.

If you can make this into a family activity, your children will help you decorate the cake. This will help them feel great about themselves and even if the decoration is not perfect it will not matter!

Another attractive thing is the color combination of the cake. If you make a chocolate cake, decorate it with white color icing. Arrange some multicolored candies in any which way you want. Make arrows or just sprinkle them and you will be the greatest mummy in the world.

If you want to decorate cup cakes just a drop of mixed fruit jam will do the trick. Or you can place a slice of any fruit on the top. Here again if you pay attention to the color combination then you will have a winner on your hand.

You can go in the shop and look for some edible flowers and different things that are available in the market. Once you have that you can recreate many different designs by using those things. There are some books available in the market which tells you how to make those things step by step. Just follow the instructions and you can come up with some very fine looking cake decorations all by yourself.

Decorating a cake can be a blast. In fact, decorating a cake is an art. It is all about making the finished product look good and very interesting. If the cake is meant for the kids then it also should be inviting enough for the kids to make them taste it.

If the decorating of the cake is done properly half of the job of a successful event is done. Cake is universally liked thing to eat. It can be eaten as dessert or as an accompaniment with the afternoon tea of coffee or just as something to munch on. So decorating a cake is all the more important.

When you are thinking of decorating a cake first thing to think about is the end consumer of the product. If the cake is for the tiny tots then first thing to remember is the shape and theme of the party. The children are fond of their favorite cartoon character or they want their super hero of the time. If the cake is made of a known hero or a cartoon character then decorating the cake becomes that much easy. Correct color combination is required and bingo the character comes to life.

If it is a wedding cake then decorating a cake becomes a lot more intricate matter. The cake decorator can either match the decoration with the décor of the venue or with the dress of the bride, or the flowers she is going to carry. This is where the art part of the decorating the cake comes in. Not only the color combination comes into play but the flowers also play an important part in the decoration. It is once in a life time situation so everything should be just right. Each flower has to be perfect.

There is tremendous scope for imagination when it comes to decorating a cake. Icing sugar, candies, colored sugar particles, butter cream icing, marzipan, and flowers made from marzipan, these are some of the things used for decorating a cake. White or dark melted chocolate combined with heavy cream makes a velvety smooth icing. It is called Ganache. It gives a smooth backdrop to decorate the cake more attractively.

Decorating a cake holds immense attraction for the artists. Many artists from different medium have turned and tried their hand into decorating a cake. Some of the known decorators are Ron Ben of New York. He was a trained dancer. Colette Peters was a painter. Judy Uson of Philippines has a fine arts degree. Bonnie Gordon a Canadian was a student of art history.

Decorating a cake gives immense satisfaction to the creator. It is considered as a form of art. The only difference is the art creation of decorating a cake lasts only momentarily. As soon as the cake is cut the pictured is shattered but the delight on the face of the customer is award enough for the artists to try and find new ways and ideas for cake decorating.

When there is an occasion, one of the foods that one should not go without is the cake. Everybody loves cake. However, each of us has his own preference on what cake do we want. Most love chocolate cakes, others prefer fruit cakes like strawberry, and even others chose to be vegetarian like a carrot cake. If you love cakes, you should also want to learn how to bake it. Baking cake can be frightening at the first, however, when you thought about eating your most favorite and learning how to bake it, it can be an exciting and thrilling activity. If you are still afraid yet and want to learn baking, you can still bake cake at cooking games. Prepare your spatula, cooking oven and creams!Cooking games can be very exciting once you put your heart into it. Aside from baking your favorite cake, you can also learn how to cook burger, garnish salad, and make lasagna and other recipes. Now let us decide on what cake would you like to bake. Let us try the classy and sophisticated strawberry cake. Savor the creamy and fruity cake and feel the delight with every bite!The key to a delicious cake is the softness of the cake and the sweetness of the frosting. Before we start with the cake, let us make the whipped strawberry butter. Place one cup butter and 1/3 cup of strawberry jam in a bowl. Add some salt and one teaspoon orange zest. Whip all the ingredients until it is light and fluffy. Set aside.Prepare two cups of white sugar, 1 (3 ounce) package strawberry flavored gelatin, 1 cup butter, softened, 4 eggs (room temperature), 2 3/4 cups sifted cake flour, 2 1/2 teaspoons baking powder, 1 cup whole milk, room temperature, 1 tablespoon vanilla extract and 1/2 cup strawberry puree made from frozen sweetened strawberries.For the directions, you should preheat the oven into 350 degree Fahrenheit. While waiting, grease and flour the round cake pans. After it, mix together in a large bowl the butter, sugar and dry strawberry gelatin until light and fluffy. Then beat the eggs and mix well. Pour the flour and baking powder and stir into the batter with the milk. Mix in vanilla and strawberry puree and place in the baking pan. It is then the time that you bake it at the preheated oven.In the real kitchen, you have to prepare the cake for 10 minutes, bake the cake for 30 minutes and give cooling time. At cooking games, you can bake the cake in just a few seconds and you will have the cake that you want. Add some frosting to the cake after you cook it. You can decorate it with other confectionaries or put some fresh strawberries on top of it. Be healthy and find excitement while baking your cake online.

Cake decorating ideas are plentiful on the web. In fact, after you have baked your cake, the next step is to decorate the cake to look more attractive. Cake decorating ideas are the most difficult part of the whole thing. This is more so if you are not an artist. Some people are naturally gifted, so for them decorating a cake is very easy. But for those who have no idea how things are done, cake decorating becomes a huge task. Baking a cake becomes very easy than to decorate it.

Cake decorating can be fun if some of the basic things are taken into consideration. For example if you are baking a cake for your child’s birth day then you can zero on the cake decorating ideas that are related to kids.

If the cake is baked for a tea party then the cake decorating idea should correspond to the ‘tea’ theme.

Likewise if it is a wedding cake then lots of thought process goes in to the final design on the wedding cake as it is the most significant occasion in one’s life. Everyone wants something very special for the wedding cake.

The cake should be decorated according to the occasion. If you are throwing a Valentine day party the decoration on the cake should reflect the spirit of valentine, so red roses are a must for the cake decoration.

If you want to bake a cake for your loved one then a heart shaped cake decorated with some edible flowers in yellow and red colors look great on a white back ground.

The type of icing you choose to decorate your cake can also make it look different. The trick is to get a perfect icing. If you are confident about making the icing at home then go head otherwise you get ready made icings in the market. Make use of them as it becomes that much easier to put icing on the cake.

Cake decoration idea depends on the shape of the cake as well. If a cake is baked in a shape of a shell then all you have to do is to match the colors while decorating it. It could be a white chocolate cake with some filling like butter cream and the Fondant icing will cover it. Then you can paint the lines with coco powder.

If you want to bake a cake that looks like a favorite cartoon character then you have to look for the correct mould in which you will bake the cake and then use edible or food colors to make the character look real.

You can use candies of different colors and arrange them to form a flower. It looks fabulous. You can also take into consideration the theme of the party. Cake decorating ideas can flow once you know the theme of the party. If the party is to celebrate summer then you can decorate the cake with sunflowers.

You can use some external things to make the cake look yummy. Some beads, confetti etc can take cake decorating on the other level. In other words let your imagination run wild, visualize a scene and you can transfer it on the cake.

After a nice dinner party with your family or your friends, a slice of chocolate coated chocolate cake for dessert can sure hit the spot. Cake is often the dessert of choice for meals. Cakes are also an important part of some ceremonial occasions, such as in weddings where the groom and the bride hold hands and cut the cake, or on anniversaries where couples celebrate their silver wedding anniversaries, or more particularly on birthdays where the celebrant makes a wish before blowing the candle.

Cake making is no longer a complicated procedure; while at one time considerable labor went into cake making, baking equipment and directions have been simplified that even the most amateur cook may bake a cake.

But the best kind of cakes are usually found on bakeries and bakeshops, and when it comes to bakeshop in the Philippines, the Red Ribbon Bakeshop and its premier Red Ribbon Cake are the most popular in the country.

Red Ribbon Bakeshop is a popular fast-food chain and bakery in the Philippines and the United States, offering a wide range of Red Ribbon Cake and pastries. The chain first served us with their scrumptious Red Ribbon Cake in 1979 in Quezon City along Timog Avenue and started franchising in 1999.

But before franchising, the Red Ribbon Bakeshop first served its Red Ribbon Cake in its US branch in West Covina, California in 1984.

Now, there are more than 80 branches of Red Ribbon Bakeshop serving their unique Red Ribbon Cake all over the Philippines, and there are also 15 Red Ribbon Bakeshop branches across California and are planning on expanding it more.

Now they say that the only way to get some cakes, you must first buy it yourself, just like any other buyable goods. Well there is a way for you to buy this Red Ribbon Cake without the need to go to a Red Ribbon Bakeshop, and that is what Express Regalo can provide.

So that’s about it about the Red Ribbon Bakeshop and its unique set of Red Ribbon Cake ready to satisfy your cake needs. If you want some added information about Express Regalo, then visit www.expressregalo.com.

 

Wedding cakes can be an expensive line item in your wedding budget, costing hundreds or even thousands of pounds. A cheap option is obviously to make the cake yourself from scratch, if you have the skills, the time or the inclination. However, you might consider looking to the high street to find a decent cake at a decent price.
Firstly – look at the traditional supermarkets. All of the supermarkets – Morrisons, Asda, Tesco etc. do a range of what they call “special occasion” cakes ranging from a very reasonable £10-20. Now that all of these supermarkets have a ‘finest’ collection, they also tend to do well iced, tasty rich fruit cakes. These are usually available in different sizes too, so you can layer them if you want to create a more traditional tiered cake.
Generally, the supermarket cakes are well presented but come only in plain white, which means that you will need to decorate them yourself. Luckily, this is easy to do! By browsing eBay or Hobbycraft, you can find tier holders and a selection of glitters, cake gems and foliage at very reasonable prices. For a white cake, rather than going overboard, you could always opt for some very simple green foliage (that is safe to put on a cake!) and a wedding topper – a sugar figurine of a bride and groom or something else that you like.
Waitrose supply some high quality cakes that are already iced and decorated. The same goes for Debenhams and John Lewis. These cost a bit more than the standard supermarket cakes, because they look slightly more special and professional, but they cost much less than a completely bespoke cake.
You might also consider a trip to Marks and Spencer, as they have a good selection of cakes – they offer a special service where they will make cakes to order for you. A whole selection of cake bases can be found ranging from sponge cakes to fruit cakes and even chocolate cakes. You can specify the size and the design on the cake and you can leave it white and plain to decorate yourself, or ask them to add some sugar flowers and other decoration. The price is around £150 or so for a 3 tier cake, which compares very well to the prices that wedding cake designers will charge you. Like the other supermarkets, they also have a pre-packed range that you can buy and stack yourself.
At the very top-end of the high street, Selfridges and Harvey Nichols both have exquisite food halls and – not surprisingly – an excellent selection of pre-packed cakes. Selfridges also has a made-to-order service, which can work out very well.
Finally, if you are on a tight budget, don’t dismiss the idea of using good quality cupcakes or chocolate pots arranged in a tiered display that you could serve as dessert or leave on display for guests to help themselves later on in proceedings. You could even bin the idea of “cake” altogether and opt for Krispy Kreme doughnuts (arranged in tiers of course) or for a more continental croquembouche!