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Buttercream is a favourite of many cake decorators and I never understand this until I became a pro cake designer. Forget the sickly sweet stuff masquerading as such in the high street shops and bakeries, no-one wants that much of a sugar-fix!
Proper buttercream has a soft mellow flavour, with a melting sweetness that perfectly balances with the cake. Unlike fresh cream it can be used the day before and sealed inside an iced celebration cake without any ill effect.
Almost each cake decorator will swear by their own recipe (as with their cakes), you have to decide which you prefer.
American buttercream is made with white fat, so no self-respecting cake designer will sell you that instead of real buttercreamed cake. Although those who do use it claim it tastes lovely, I’m a purist and I can’t stand the taste! I won’t be palmed off by cheap white fat and ‘butter flavourings’ and additives, used to ‘enhance’ the flavour.
Anyone who claims to prefer high street cakes, I’ve found, has just never had a ‘proper’ fresh home made cake! How can the former be superior with all those extra additives and flavour enhancers – they are there for a reason!!
I do get asked what is the difference between buttercream and what is ganache?
So today I will answer this question.
Chocolate buttercream is essentially buttercream flavoured with chocolate, be it melted and/or cocoa.
Ganache is a totally different product. It is chocolate and double cream, melted and mixed together.
Of the two the latter is the more expensive product and infinitely superior in taste. The sweetness and mouthfeel will depend on the quality of chocolate used.
We find that children will tend to prefer the buttercream. which is considerably higher in sugar and therefore much sweeter, and adults prefer ganache which has a rich smooth feeling, think of truffles and you will have a similar taste sensation.
Barker Bakes new online cake shop is up and running, still lots to do, cakes to add, but its operational.
I have been working on and off for the past few months on relaunching our online wedding cakes offering, and am pleased to announce this is in the final stages of revamping and will be relaunched over the weekend. Initially the range will be slightly larger than that currently available, we will be offering birthday cakes also, but we will expand this depending on demand, and we will offer a select number of cakes by post shortly.
I have uploaded a couple of new designs onto the website.
We have a policy of not covering customer made cakes here at Barker Bakes. This is due to a number of factors, not least of which, when we have done this in the past, we have been presented with some very sorry looking cakes and it is a crying shame to cover them and have them go out still inadequate, lopsided, uneven, pancake like, burnt and so on. There is only so much “padding” you can do with icing and if the base is not perfect to start with it won’t end up perfect either, as the icing will just highlight the original base.
The most common problem seems to be getting the depth correct for a 3 or 4 tier look. Most normal recipes for teatime cakes are not big enough to produce the correct depth of cakes required and this is frequently over-looked, sometimes allowance is not made for square cakes requiring more mixture and other issues.
One question I get asked a lot is how long does it take to make a wedding cake. This is a bit like how long is a piece of string. The best answer is one that I heard an artist give about how long it takes to do a painting. He said 20 years and 30 minutes. What he meant is that it has taken him 20 years to master the art and because of that investment in time and effort he can paint a “simple” painting, in what appears to be an effortless manner. To me that is much like cake making, only any cake will take considerably longer than half an hour!
So in real terms if you are making a cake you’ve made before with the same ingredients and in the same proportions and in the same cake tins, ovens etc, then it will be a bit ‘quicker’ but only because you won’t have to practice and you know how long it all takes to cook, how it will taste etc etc. Once the cakes are baked, (a minimum of one hour each and up to 5-6 for large fruit cakes), then they are cooled. When ready they are torted (if sponge), marzipanned if fruitcake, and then iced. After that they are decorated, possibly dowelled and stacked and then decorated, depending on the finish. If sugar flowers are required these are made in advance and will take anything from 2 hours to 20+ hours. If detailed piping is required then this will also add to the time.
So the end result is a finished wedding cake taking anything from15-50+ hours depending on the work required. Of course time can be saved by buying cakes and decorations in, these are mass produced and produced far quicker, however not something that we do at Barker Bakes, although it is satisfactory for some cake decorators and clients alike.
Sorry but our main site http://www.barkerbakes.co.uk has gone down again. I am researching an alternative host, this one seems very unreliable. Fine as a backup but not much good when really needed!
Increasingly we are asked about how to display alternative wedding ‘cakes, e.g. cheesecakes, ferror roches etc. Traditional cake stands were not designed for use with alternative products and this does cause some problems to brides when they come to source something suitable to display their ‘wedding cake’.
My advice is don’t book your ‘cake’ before sourcing suitable display options. Cake stands are expensive, and even more so if you end up having to have one custom made. If you booked your cake with a reputable company they should provide display options for you as part of the ‘wedding cake’ service and would be your best source to resolve this problem. If it is something you have seen in a magazine, contact them directly and find out how it was done.
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