National executive comittee meeting June 23rd

On the 22nd & 23rd June we are hosting the National Guild Committee.

They will be holding their meeting at Sierra Motel on Saturday 23rd from 8.30am until 5/6pm. We have

7 people to billet so if any of you are able to have someone stay, please let me know. They arrive on Friday afternoon and leave on Sunday morning. You are very welcome to sit in on their meeting.

We will be having a pot luck dinner together on Saturday night at 6.30pm at the same venue

Please come and join us and help make them feel welcome. They like to meet as many members as possible

Please bring sweet or savoury food to share.

(We will have plates, so does not necessarily need to be finger food i.e. can be salads, casseroles, desserts etc.

Baking sharing & recipes

At our committee meeting last night it was decided at our cup of tea time we'd have baking brought by a volunteer member each club night. Laura started us off with her wonder Feijoa loaf.  Each month from now on we'll have 2 lots of baking from 2 different volunteers.

Laura's recipe is below

Feijoa Loaf (I normally double this to give some to the kind owner of the feijoa tree)

Boil together for 5 minutes in a large pot, stirring regularly:

1 generous cup of feijoas - diced or smushed up

1 cup sugar

1 cup water

50 grams butter

Let cool (1/2 hour or more) then stir in:

2 cups flour

1 teaspoon baking powder

1 teaspoon baking soda

1 beaten egg

Pour into greased and lined baking/loaf/muffin tins. Bake at 175 deg fanbake and start testing with a skewer after 15 minutes. Takes 20 mins in my oven.

New 2012 programme

I hope to see you all at our first meeting for 2012. Tuesday 7th feb at 7pm. Don't forget fees are due at this meeting. $45 for the year. Our new programme for the first part of 2012 can be found under the Programme tab at the top of the page.

Photos from our December meeting

Our final meeting for the year was so much fun. We had surprise boxes, that included a 7'' square fruit cake, a tub of Satin Ice (each team had a different colour) and a variety of tools to make a finished cake.he challenge was not having all the creature comforts of your tool box at home. Our members were split in to teams of 5. The cakes were created in 1 hour and voted on by the members (they could not vote for their own cake). The winning team was team BLACK.

Kids fun decorating class in Whangarei

Recipe from Frances' visit & demo - Lemon Coconut Cake

Lemon Coconut Cake

Recipe from Toba Garrett’s book “The Well Decorated Cake” (Toba iss demonstrating at conference 2011)

This is a delicious cake which I use a lot (with but often without the coconut!) and keeps for three weeks wrapped in the fridge uniced, I’ve kept it in the fridge for a few days but it’s so easy to eat I don’t know how long it keeps.  Keep for two months in freezer.  Best with a butter cream icing rather than fresh cream. Try the Italian Meringue for a lemon meringue cake! Frances Dalton-Hayward

1 cup (250g) butter

2 cups white sugar

1/3 cup lemon curd (or lemon flavoured yoghurt)

2 tablespoon lemon juice

zest of 3 lemons

3 cups flour

3 tsp baking powder

½ tsp salt

1 cup coconut, optional, if not using no need to substitute with any dry ingredients

5 large eggs

2 tsp vanilla extract

1 cup milk

Preheat oven to 180ºC (350ºF). Grease and line pans, these can be 2 x 20cm (8 inch) or 1 x 25cm (10inch) or 1 x deep sponge roll tin.

Cream together butter, sugar, zest, lemon juice, and lemon curd for 5 minutes.  Stop and scrape bowl and cream for another minute.

Sift together the flour, baking powder and salt.  Mix in the coconut if using.

Whisk together the eggs, milk and vanilla.

Alternately add the dry and liquid  ingredients to the batter in three turns.  Mix batter until smooth.  Spoon batter in to prepared pans.

Bake 45 to 50 minutes for 20 cm pans and the same for the sponge roll pan but 60 – 70 minutes for the large 25 cm pan or until a tooth pick inserted into the centre comes out clean.

Recipe from Frances' visit & demo - Italian Meringue icing

Italian Meringue (Magnificent Pie Meringue)

recipe from Shirley Corriher’s book ‘Bakewise’

This very stable meringue is incredibly versatile – it makes magnificent billowy white peaks to brown if you wish.  It is a large recipe so halve it if you do not need a cake iced and a pie covered too!  This recipe shows: adding the sugar as a hot syrup cooks and swells the meringue immediately- no problems with weeping. Tested often by Frances Dalton-Hayward

1 tablespoon cornflour        1/3 cup cool water

Mix together in a small saucepan and whisk over a medium heat until thick and cloudy.  Set aside until needed later.

To cover one cake	To cover a pie & cake
3	6	large egg whites (No 7)
½ tsp	1 tsp	cream of tartar
¼ cup	¼ cup	Sugar

With whisks and bowls immaculately clean, beat the egg whites and cream of tartar until soft peaks form when the beater is lifted.  Add in ¼ cup sugar and continue to beat at medium speed while you prepare the syrup below.

¾ cup	1 ¾ cup	Sugar
1 ½ tsp	1 tbspn	Corn syrup or glucose
¼ cup	½ cup	Water
½ tsp	1 tsp	Pure vanilla essence
1/8 tsp	¼ tsp	salt

In a heavy unlined saucepan (do not use non stick coated pot), stir together the remaining sugar (¾ or 1¾ ), the corn syrup and water.  Bring to boil and rinse down the sides of the pan with water on a pastry bush.  Continue to boil until the syrup reaches 120ºC (hard ball stage) use a candy thermometer to check temp or drop small amount into cold water.

Continue beating whites until stiff peaks form.  Ideally, have the whites stiff when the syrup reaches 120ºC.  Drizzle the hot syrup carefully into the meringue while beating on a medium speed[1].  Try to avoid drizzling onto a beaters or side of bowl.  The meringue will swell dramatically to fill the whole bowl.  Beat until the meringue has cooled, about 10 to 13 mins.  Beat in vanilla and salt, then beat in about  2 - 3 tablespoons of the reserved cornflour paste, 1 tablespoon at a time.  The meringue is essentially cooked but is still snow white.  It is a perfect palette for a masterpiece.

Spread and cover over layers of Deep Dark Chocolate Cake and wait for the fantastic response.  Black and white looks good in the plate. Great on Lemon Coconut Cake too, sandwich cake with lemon curd then cover with meringue for lemon heaven!  Or spread meringue on pie and place in middle of preheated oven (190ºC) for about 10 mins to brown ridges.  Remove and touch up with blowtorch if needed.

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[1] Use fresh room temperature eggs for successful meringue. Beat at a medium speed for longer for a more stable foam and add sugar as soon as soft peaks form.  Using cornflour paste prevents shrinking when baked and prevents tearing when meringue is cut.

Recipes from Frances' visit Deep Dark Chocolate Cake

Here are the recipes from Frances' recent visit & demo to club

Deep Dark Chocolate Cake

recipe from Shirley O Corriher’s book ‘Bakewise’

This is a dark moist cake, looks good with Italian Meringue.  This cake can stick to the pan so line and spray well. Shirley notes: Dutch process cocoa and baking soda make the chocolate so alkaline that the cake is almost black (but any cocoa works well). Adding boiling water to cocoa enhances its flavours.  This cake is extremely over-leavened and would be sunken in the centre, but adding boiling water to the soda and cocoa causes the soda to react and give off a lot of carbon dioxide, which reduces the leavening and prevents sinking. I always bake this in a sheet and stack for a celebration cake.  The mix makes I layer of a 12” round. Frances Dalton-Hayward

Preheat oven to 180ºC (350ºF)

2 1/3 cups white sugar

¾ tsp salt

¾ cup Dutch process cocoa powder (or any brand you normally use)

1 tsp Baking soda

1 cup water, boiling

Stir these together in a heavy saucepan.  While stirring add 1 cup of boiling water gradually.  It will bubble at first then get dark and thicken, stir briskly then place on the heat and bring back to the boil. Then turn off the heat and leave to stand on the element for at least 10 minutes – while you prepare the rest of the cake batter.

Prepare cake pans lining and spraying: either a 12” round, a 33 x 23 x 5 cm sponge roll pan or similar, or two 23 x 5 cm round pans.

¾ oil (canola, rice bran, I use extra virgin olive oil)

2 tspn pure vanilla extract

1 ¾ cup high grade white flour - spooned & levelled

4 large egg yolks or 2 large whole eggs Shirley like moist cakes so replaces whites with yolks, F

plus 2 large eggs yes that does mean a total of at least 4 large eggs!

¼ cup buttermilk (make your own by adding ½ tsp white vinegar to ¼ cup milk)

By the time you have assemble these your cocoa mixture should still be warm, pour it into the mixing bowl of a stand mixer.  Add the oil and vanilla essence and beat on low speed for about 10 seconds.  On low speed, beat the flour into the batter and then, with a minimum of beating, beat in the egg yolks, whole eggs and buttermilk.  This is a thin batter.  Pour into prepared cake pan/s.  Place in oven rack just below the middle or place on stone[1] and bake until the centre feels springy to the touch,  about 25 mins for round layers or 35 mins for sheet cake – may take longer.  Cool in pan for at least 10 mins before cooling on rack.  This cake keeps well covered in butter cream and fondant without refrigeration but in cool dry cupboard.

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[1] Shirley says in her Bakewise book, “…a baking stone placed on a lower shelf and well preheated will give you fast, even heat from the bottom and let you keep your baked goods away from the hot top of the oven.  Place the stone on a shelf in the lower third of the oven about 10cm (4”) from the floor then preheat 30-45 mins.  Then place pan of batter directly on stone, which holds the heat and in spite of the oven temperature going up and down a little, the stone stays at the set temperature.”

I have a large slab of granite (try a pizza stone) on the lower rack for all cakes, breads, scones etc which is most successful.  Only biscuits or cupcakes are cooked on the middle rack but I do leave the stone in for all my baking, just don’t let cold water get on it while it’s hot and it does require pre-heating.  I give it one hour if I am baking my bread on it so it reaches 220ºC when I put in the loaf.

Demonstration of Lambeth method royal icing piping June 25th

Saturday 25th June 2011 -  Thea Poole from Cake Couture, Auckland is coming to demonstrate the Lambeth Method of Royal Icing. This is what was featured on the Royal Wedding cake. $5 to cover costs (click here for map of our club venue). We will have a shared tea so please bring a plate of finger food food to share. Tea at 6pm with demo to follow. Thea will have her ribbons for sale. All welcome! bring a friend.

Aoraki Demonstration day

Aoraki Cake Decorators Club - Warmly invite all interested cake decorators to our 5th Birthday Celebrations Demonstration Day. Saturday 25th June 2011

To be held in the Gleniti School Hall, 22 Heath Street, Gleniti, TIMARU

9.00am – 4.00pm

The day will commence at 9.00am with a cup of tea and a welcome.

First demonstration will start at 9.30 sharp.

$25 per person

Food for the day included

Demonstrators:

Julie Eade – Gladioli

Anne Symister – Peony

Rachael Harrison – Novelty

Aoraki Polytechnic – Chocolate work or Piping
Enquiries, please phone Michelle (03) 686 3221 or e-mail moores4@xtra.co.nz

Registration: please return with payment by Monday 13th June 2011



Name……………………………………………………………………..

Address…………………………………………………………………..

Phone No…………………………email…………………………………



Amount paid……………


Or payment may be deposited into the Aoraki Cake Decorators Club Bank Account:

Westpac – 03-0887-0456139-00

Please post registration details to: Michelle Moore, 42 Poplar Street,

President ACDC Gleniti, Timaru

Waitakere cake club's BIG DAY OUT

Waitakere City Cake Decorator’s Club  OUT   OF  AFRICA THEME   SATURDAY 18TH JUNE 2011 AUCKLAND BRIDGE CLUB  273 REMUERA ROAD REMUERA AUCKLAND   DEMONSTRATORS: Corrine Green: African Figures Ann Shields:  Modelling                                                                                                           African Animals Helen Corder: Protea Limelight  Michele Barnett:   African Iris Marilyn Teague: Gazania  (Gerbera) Sue White-Parsons:  African Sunset                              The day will commence at 9 am with a cup of tea and a welcome – First demonstration to start at 9.30am Cost $25 per person DOOR PRIZE, SALES TABLES & RAFFLES Morning and afternoon tea supplied.  Please bring own lunch. We look forward to seeing you and make sure to book this date in your diary now.

Gelatine work from our May meeting

During May we were treated to a visit from Carol Hogg and Ann Shields from Waitakere. We were amazed by just how much you can do with gelatine, including these bows, that no one could believe were edible.

We also saw a Poinsettia, balloons, blossoms and I'm not sure we've laughed so har din ages. We look forward to having Carol and Ann back againsoon.

Below follows the notes from Carol & Ann's visit.

CRYSTAL FANTASY FLOWERS  -  GELATIN & FLOWER PASTE

TAKEN FROM ALAN TETREAULT’S DVD

FROM http://www.globalsugarart.com/ and  http://www.cakeconnection.com/

MATERIALS:

GELATIN

AIRBRUSH COLOURS  OR LIQUID COLOURS

SANDING SUGARS

PEARL STAMEN

WHITE WIRE 26G & 24G

DUSTING POWDERS SUPER PEARL

WHITE FLORAL TAPE  OR SILVER

GUM GLUE

GELATIN SHEETS – FLOWERS & LEAVES - GLOBALSUGARART.

STUD DIAMONDS – (SMALL STICK ON ONES FROM SPOTLIGHT)

EQUIPMENT:

WIRE CUTTERS

SCISSORS  - PLAIN POINTED AND ZIG ZAG

CUTTERS  25% SMALLER THAN GELATIN SHEET FLOWER

CEL PINS

BRUSH FOR DUSTING POWDERS

 SOFT WIDE BRUSH FOR GELATIN

PALATE KNIFE

TWEEZERS

WATER BRUSH

BALL TOOL

BOARD, ROLLING PIN AND BALLING MAT

METHOD – GELATIN:   CAN BE REUSED SEAL AND REFRIGERATE

PUT 5 TABLESPOONS COLD WATER INTO GLASS BOWL ADD 2 TABLESPOONS GELATIN  MIX TOGETHER STRAIGHT AWAY UNTIL THICKENS.  SIT FOR 5 MINUTES.  THEN SIT IN BOWL OF  BOILING WATER FOR 10-15 MINS.

ALTERNATIVE METHOD:

MICROWAVE 10 SECS STIR UNTIL GELATIN MELTED WHEN WARM LEAVE 5-10 MINS TO COOL. 

CUT YOUR 24G WIRE 1 – 1 ½ “ LONGER THAN PETAL.  LAY ON SHEET TAKE WIRE TO END OF PETAL.                                                     

LEAVE THE GELATIN IN HOT WATER, TAKE OFF FOAM WITH A SPOON. COLOUR:    ADD 4-5 DROPS AIRBRUSH COLOURS OR LIQUID COLOUR

USING A BIG FLUFFY  WIDE BRUSH TO HOLD THE GELATIN, GELATIN NEEDS TO BE SLIGHTLY THICK SO TAKE OUT OF WATER IF IT SEEMS TOO RUNNY.  HOLD WIRE DOWN AND WITH ONE STROKE FROM BOTTOM UP COVER THE WIRE .  IF REQUIRED A SECOND LAYER STRAIGHT AWAY FROM BOTTOM UP. – DON’T GO DOWN.

LEAVE OVERNIGHT, OR 6-8 HOURS TO DRY THOROUGHLY. USE SMALL POINTED SCISSORS TO TRIM PETAL TO SIZE OF FLOWER.

CENTRE FOR LARGE STARGAZER LILY.  MAKE A PETAL WITH NO WIRE.    THEN PLACE A BALL OF PASTE ONTO A HOOKED 24G WIRE AND FLATTEN END. LEAVE TO DRY.

WITH  THE POINTED END OF YOUR MEDIUM CELSTICK CURL YOUR PETAL TO MAKE IT LOOK LIKE A CONE, WHILE STILL ON CELSTICK USING YOUR GUMGLUE, STICK BOTTOM AND HOLD. DUST CENTRE  WITH PEARL DUST AND ADD STUDS. THREAD INTO CONE AND TAPE.

LILY:  ADD STUDS TO 6 SMALL GELATIN  PETALS, DUST WITH PEARL DUST ON BACK.  AT THIS STAGE THIS CAN ALSO BE A FILLER FLOWER. CUT SIX PETALS IN FLOWER PASTE, (THICK AS ROSE LEAF) VEIN,BALL  EDGES WITH YOUR BALL TOOL .  PUNCH HOLES TO SUIT STUDS USING YOUR NOZZLES OF DIFFERENT SIZES. 

 MAKING SURE YOU HAVE SOME OF THE GELATIN SHOWING. DUST WITH PEARL AND ADD YOUR STUDS WITH YOUR TWEEZERS.  TURN OVER AND USING YOUR WATER PEN BRUSH BOTTOM OF PETAL. PLACE ON TOP OF YOUR GELATIN PETAL.   BEND PETALS TO MAKE THEM NATURAL AND ADD TO THE 6 SMALL PETALS.  TAPE ALL PETALS TOGETHER TO FORM LILY.

ALTERNATIVE CENTRE MAKE A CONE LIKE A LILY BUD AND TWIST USING FLOWER PASTE AND COVER WITH SUGAR CRYSTALS COLOUR TO SUIT FLOWER.

Simnel Cake

At our April meeting we were treated to Simnel cake by Elaine Goldthorpe. Following are Elaine's notes handed out on the evening.

The Simnel Cake

The Simnel Cake is traditionally eaten on Easter Day. The Simnel cake dates back many hundreds of years. It's mentioned in a verse from the 17th century:

I'll to thee a Simnell bring
'Gainst thou go'st a mothering,
So that, when she blesseth thee,
Half that blessing thou'lt give to me

From the days of the 17th century female servants would bake this rich spicy fruit Easter cake to take home to their mother's on Mothering Sunday  or Simnel Sunday, the fourth Sunday during the Lent period. The Christian fasting and repenting period of Lent ends on Easter Sunday and a Simnel cake helps to mark the end of the forty days of Lent, gives people a tasty treat and marks the celebration of Easter time.

The girls in service were allowed to bake this cake with expensive imported ingredients, spices, nuts and dried fruits, which would never appear on a “commoners” table. This was to make up for the fact that they would not be allowed home at Easter as the Lord and Lady would need their services for the Easter celebrations in the big house The word Simnel comes from the Latin word Simila which means fine wheaten flour. The cake was traditionally made from this fine wheaten flour, once again more expensive than the home stoneground flour used in general.

There is no single recipe for Simnel cake and each region of England had its own version which - of course - it considered to be the finest. The Lancashire recipe had a reputation for being especially rich.

Symbolism and decoration

Simnel cake is not only delicious but is a symbolic Easter cake and is decorated to signify aspects of Christianity. For example 11 marzipan balls or figures are places around the circular marzipan coated cake to mean the 11 disciples. Though there were 12 apostles of Jesus Christ, Judas Iscariot betrayed him and hung himself with remorse and is omitted from the Simnel cake. Some Simnel Easter cakes will have a larger figure or ball in the centre of the cake to signify Jesus or eggs, chickens  and a nest to represent new life

There is a Jewish festival at about this time of year called Pascha which is the Hebrew word for Passover. After the death of Jesus Christ Christians adopted this festival and called it Easter after the name of the Anglo-Saxon goddess of fertility and springtime which was Eostre.

Lambert Simnel
Another  myth as to the origins of the Simnel Cake is that Lambert Simnel who was a false claimant in 1487 to the Throne of England when King Henry VII ruled. Lambert Simnel was only 10 years old and the King knew he was being used by others as a pretender so pardoned him and employed him as a spit-turner in the Royal kitchens. The legend of the Simnel Cake has it that this is when Lambert Simnel devised the recipe for Simnel cake. This seems to be an urban myth and Simnel then went on to become a royal falconer and died in 1534.

Simnel Cake Recipe

You will need a dark rich fruit cake recipe for this cake. I vary mine but often use the Edmonds cook book one. The one below is probably what I used for these cakes.

1.  Soak overnight 360 gms of currants, raisins and sultanas mixed with 100 gms chopped glace cherries, 60gm candied peel and 100gms chopped dates or prunes  in juice and grated rind of 1 orange, and / or small glass of rum or brandy

2. . Flatten a circle of marzipan to a cm smaller than edge of the cake tin  (Do not use almond icing. It is made of almond-flavoured sugar mixtures, and will melt and disappear during cooking, spoiling the texture of your cake.)

3 In a large bowl, sift together 150g of plain flour with a pinch of salt and ½ teaspoon of nutmeg,  and 1 teasp each of cinnamon , mixed spice and cocoa

4.  Cream together.  125g of butter or margarine  and  125g of soft brown sugar and  2 teaspoons molasses. Until light and fluffy     

5.  Add  4 beaten eggs a little at a time with ½ teaspoon vanilla essence and  ½ teasp almond essence

6.   Put all together in large bowl and mix well.

7.   Spread  half into a lined tin, press marzipan circle on top, spread remaining mix on top. Bake in a slow oven 110’C for several hours until cooked  (Cleanish  skewer, stops talking to you, leaving     sides of pan.)
8.            Very important ....Allow to cool in tin

Decoration1. Place cake on heatproof base

2. Spread top with apricot jam.

3. Place round of marzipan on top, slightly larger than cake.

4. Pinch inwards to decorate edge of cake top. Criss cross with knife. Glaze with beaten egg.

5.  Make 12 balls of marzipan 

 0  0  0 0  0  0  0 0   0  0   0 

6. Toast top of cake under grill.

WATCH IT....It does nothing for ages and then browns and burns very quickly.

7. When it is a LIGHT golden brown add the eggs to the top, around the edge. Keeping one. Brown  under the grill again. If necessary, cover centre of cake with a circle of paper to prevent it from       burning.

8.  If wished, cut out centre with a cookie cutter, fill with icing and decorate with eggs and chickens.

9. And the last egg?   Is for you for being so clever!
Marzipan 1 cup sifted icing sugar, 1 cup ground almonds. Mix to a pliable paste with warm liquid glucose and a teaspoon of glycerine to a smooth pliable paste. I buy mine!!!