Cakeflair and all things nice...

Gravette's Baby Shower Cake!

2012-03-12T23:43:00.004-07:00

"Hey Juls, can you make a cake for a very, very special friend of mine? she'll call you" He asked....after a few phone calls, he sent me a bb "haa! Juls, is that price you billed her the best you can do?""Hi! but, she asked my opinion on design for a baby shower cake and i billed her accordingly!""Na wa o!?"...anyways, long story short, Gravette called and asked to go ahead with the order...After sensing their alarm at the bill for the cake, I figured the only way to quell the 'despair' is to really wow them!

It took just about an hour to craft a 3rd trimester pregnant beau in sexy, hot clads.

I sent Gravette a text "Hey, your cake is show-stopping!""Wow! really? cant wait to see it!"...I was still at Toastmasters’ when my phone kept buzzing, twas Gravette bugging me, wanting to see this 'phenomenal’ cake.I sent a pic to Jinmi and he screamed "that cake is borderline!" lol!

When Gravette saw it, her jaw dropped and all the ladies in the house (and guys too). They were too shell-shocked at the eccentric design to laugh... twas my turn to laugh my heart out...

Later on, got a text message from Gravette "Oh, dear Juliet, that cake was a hit! thanks for a fantastic job!"

Someone else said "eeew! Juls! i couldnt possibly cut through this cake, she's pregnant for pete's sakes! That's murder! There's a baby in there!" lol!!!!!

Another person said, I could have put a 'baby-cake' in there, so when you cut, you see a baby in there!"

At that point (after imagining how i'd have had to dunk it in liquid jello of some sort to create amniotic fluid around the 'baby'...now that's some serious borderline! a serious case of grotesque twisted humor!

I had great fun with the reactions and feedbacks I got from the cake.

Feel free to email me ideas that are really out of the box, so we can go on some serious over the top sugarcrafting!…

Nothing is really impossible, because impossible is nothing, really!

Obafemi Otudeko's 'Polo Player' Birthday Cake

2011-08-16T15:16:00.000-07:00

' I looooove sugarcrafting!' Sounds like broken record, I know! But sincerely, I think Im a sugarcrafter by default, meaning no matter how much more of other things I do, ( trust me I do so much more!) I'd probably be most 'in the zone' with designing and decorating on a sugar medium.

Many thanks to Olaniyi Awosope, a guy with style and class who commissioned me to execute the toughest job so far of sculpting a 'polo player on a horse 'as cake accent for Obafemi Otudeko, Executive Director of Honeywell Group.

Initially I thought this dude must be outta his mind! But I figured limits only exist in the mind, why not try at least and then bingo! after a couple of attempts (too ashamed to tell you how many!) I entered the zone once more and voila!...

One lesson I learnt from this: Nothing Ventured, Nothing Gained. Period!

Congrats! Nike Olowokande and Femi Ogunjimi

2011-07-21T06:29:00.001-07:00

Nike Olowokande is simply a girly girl, yet without the usual vanity agenda. Meeting her was for me, sheer delight! I couldn’t have asked for a better opportunity than that wonderful sunday evening when we met at my office over a couple of glasses of pink lemonade after trying severally to beat Lagos traffic each saturday we try to schedule a meeting for her cake tasting session.
Her taste is simply eclectic as reflected on her wedding and engagement cakes. Her wedding was simply breath-taking! The ambiance of the event was one of elegance and class. Thumbs up for Just Weddings (Molara Akande) and OAKEN Events for a grand display of skill and professionalism…
…Cakeflair was the icing on the cake of the whole event with the stunning master-piece centre piece of a couture wedding cake.

One word aptly describes the event – Superlative!
By the way, it was strictly by invitation. Talk about Class!

Happy Married Life Mr and Mrs Femi Ogunjimi…

DIFFERENCE BETWEEEN BAKING SODA & BAKING POWDER

2011-03-11T04:58:00.000-08:00

Both baking soda and baking powder are leavening agents, which means they are added to baked goods before cooking to produce carbon dioxide and cause them to 'rise'. Baking powder contains baking soda, but the two substances are used under different conditions.
Baking Soda
Baking soda is pure sodium bicarbonate. When baking soda is combined with moisture and an acidic ingredient (e.g., yogurt, chocolate, buttermilk, honey), the resulting chemical reaction produces bubbles of carbon dioxide that expand under oven temperatures, causing baked goods to rise. The reaction begins immediately upon mixing the ingredients, so you need to bake recipes which call for baking soda immediately, or else they will fall flat!
Baking Powder
Baking powder contains sodium bicarbonate, but it includes the acidifying agent already (cream of tartar), and also a drying agent (usually starch). Baking powder is available as single-acting baking powder and as double-acting baking powder. Single-acting powders are activated by moisture, so you must bake recipes which include this product immediately after mixing. Double-acting powders react in two phases and can stand for a while before baking. With double-acting powder, some gas is released at room temperature when the powder is added to dough, but the majority of the gas is released after the temperature of the dough increases in the oven.
How Are Recipes Determined?
Some recipes call for baking soda, while others call for baking powder. Which ingredient is used depends on the other ingredients in the recipe. The ultimate goal is to produce a tasty product with a pleasing texture. Baking soda is basic and will yield a bitter taste unless countered by the acidity of another ingredient, such as buttermilk. You'll find baking soda in cookie recipes. Baking powder contains both an acid and a base and has an overall neutral effect in terms of taste. Recipes that call for baking powder often call for other neutral-tasting ingredients, such as milk. Baking powder is a common ingredient in cakes and biscuits.
Substituting in Recipes
You can substitute baking powder in place of baking soda (you'll need more baking powder and it may affect the taste), but you can't use baking soda when a recipe calls for baking powder. Baking soda by itself lacks the acidity to make a cake rise. However, you can make your own baking powder if you have baking soda and cream of tartar. Simply mix two parts cream of tartar with one part baking soda.

Cakeflair at the Wow fair

2011-02-21T11:30:00.000-08:00

The wow fair was a fun filled two day event which took place on the mainland (Sheraton hotel and towers)and Island (Oriental hotel Lekki 1) respectively. Eku Edewor and Dolapo Oni of studio 53 graced the event. Yes you heard me studio 53 was at the event and not just studio 53 but 234next, GEM publications and host of others. It was totally star studded with the likes of Ibiyemi, Kaboom, Rooftop MCs, MoCheddah and Onas.
Cakeflair also graced the event, I mean what’s an event without Cakeflair. We came in with the yummiest sponge and chocolate cakes people have ever tasted. Everyone that had a taste of our heart of chocolate cake was hooked. Need I say it was a huge hit? Our strategy was to give them a taste and get them hooked and hooked they were. Eku Edewor came for a second serving of our chocolate cake Dolapo on the other hand was reluctant to have a taste but when she eventually did her eyes lit up. We had people drooling on our table. We let them taste and got them hooked. Yep! That was our strategy and it worked!

PASSION IN THE KITCHEN

2011-02-09T22:56:00.000-08:00

Im not suggesting that all you do to spend St. Valentine’s day is to eat cakes till you drop or pore your eyes on the belle/dude sitting opposite you– the lazy greedy approach for me would be lolling about with a plate of oven grilled free-range chicken, a glass of lemonade, the type I sat with at Tolu Adeyemi-Doro’s cozy apartment last saturday when she took us (Elkan, Reena & I along with Kunle’s kids – Akin & Kikun) out for swimming AND of course a solid pyrex dish of 100% chocolate cake! And I'm game!
However, I feel I have a fresh perspective to the celebration of love which gives it a whole new meaning that’s why I’m suggesting you try out spending the season of love with your loved ones around the kitchen table. Doesn’t that sound romantic? I can prove you right!

Romance doesn’t just sustain itself, you have to be creative about it and what better way to do this season with your significant other than to ‘spend time’ BONDING with your kids on a weekend around the kitchen baking STRAWBWERRY SHORTCAKE!
Yes! Strawberry Shortcake are a kid’s favourite, I even learnt from my son that there’s a Cartoon Network character called strawberry shortcake! (btw, I’m working on him not becoming a couch potato)…
… so don’t leave out the rest of the family this season of love, try it out with just a dollop of jam and whipped cream or deliciously with white chocolate and passion fruit mousse.

A brief intro, the strawberry shortcake is a favourite American Pudding which isn’t really a scone but a tender, buttery sponge with scone-like properties, split and crammed with strawberries.
Im no stickler for history and origins but I’m like Nigella Lawson a fan of the methodical-to-the-point-of-obsessive American food magazine ‘’Cook’s Illustrated’’ hence I don’t claim to have invented the recipe, but I'm giving you a very good one I have tried from Pam Anderson’s book ‘’The Perfect Recipe’’ (by the way Pam Anderson is the Executive Director of ‘’Cook’s Illustrated’’).

Happy Valentine’s Day in advance as you try out the Strawberry Shortcake;
Please do try it and let us know your thoughts, Lilian (my right-hand belle, lol!)would be mighty glad to take your enquiries and any interesting variations!

Ingredients:

FOR THE SHORTCAKES;
· 325g plain flour
· 1/2 teaspoon salt
· 1 tablespoon baking powder
· 5 tablespoons caster sugar
· 125g unsalted butter, frozen
· 1 large egg, beaten
· 125ml single cream
· 1 large egg white, lightly beaten
· 1 baking tray, greased or lined
· 6 1/2cm round cutter
FOR THE FILLING:
· Approximately 300g strawberries
· 1 tablespoon caster sugar
· Few drops balsamic vinegar (optional)
· 250ml double cream or creme fraiche

[ ALL THE ABOVE CAN BE FOUND IN THE CAKEFAIR PANTRY @ http://www.cakeflair.net/ click on the 'Pantry' page a place to shop for all items on our featured recipes, so you don’t have to worry trying to find ingredients in your locality.]

Method
1. Preheat the oven to 220ºC/gas mark 7.
2. Mix the flour, salt, baking powder and 3 tablespoons of the sugar in a bowl. Grate the butter into these dry ingredients and use your fingertips to finish crumbling the butter into the flour. Whisk the egg into the cream, and pour into the flour mixture a little at a time, using a fork to mix. You may not need all of the eggy cream to make the dough come together, so go cautiously.
3. Turn the dough out onto a lightly floured surface, and roll gently to a thickness of about 2cm. Dip the cutter in flour and cut out as many rounds as you can. Work the scraps back into a dough, re-roll and finish cutting out you should get 8 in all. Place the shortcakes about 21/2cm apart on the baking sheet, brush the tops with the egg white, and sprinkle them with the remaining 2 tablespoons of caster sugar. If it helps with the rest of your cooking, or life in general, you can cover and refrigerate them now for up to 2 hours.
4. Bake for 10-15 minutes, until golden-brown, and let them cool for a short while on a wire rack. Meanwhile, crush half the strawberries with the spoonful of sugar and the few drops of balsamic vinegar if using, and halve or quarter the remaining strawberries, depending on their size. Whip the double cream, if you're using.
5. The shortcakes should be eaten while still warm, so split each one across the middle and cover with a spoonful of the crushed strawberry mixture, a few halved or quartered strawberries, then dollop some whipped cream or creme fraiche on top, and set the top back on.
Serves: Makes 8
Enjoy!

Juliet Nnamdi-Uzoezie

p.s. if you are still intimidated by all the ingredients and methods, here's a link to a website i found where you can watch how it's made:

http://hubpages.com/hub/Lets-Make-a-Strawberry-Shortcake-Recipe

2011-02-03T11:21:00.000-08:00

LOVE RECIPE …
Welcome to the season of love! Guess you’re racking your brain trying to think of the perfect gift that will express how much you love that special person. The perfect cologne, perfect flower, perfect chocolate, perfect cake........ Wait a second did you say “the perfect cake”?. Well you can rest on that one because in this season of love, we will take you on a love voyage as we explore the sensual “red velvet” , the exotic “heart of chocolate”, the seductive “moist vanilla”, the exciting “madeira” and a mouth-watering endless varieties of cakes...
…For all you food buffs, we will satisfy your cravings with recipes of cakes on our love menu.
Do you really want to log on to love this season? Well, we’ve got the password you are searching passionately for!

Simple decadent val cake recipe;
( you can get everything on the recipe from park n shop OR any good supermarket in your neighbourhood)
Recipe:
Flour 200g
Sugar 200g
Butter 200g
Eggs 4
Method:
Mix all ingredients in on bowl all at the same time, don’t worry about the order! Add 2 spoons of milk for extra ‘mushiness’!(any regular spoon would do). Stir into a regular foil pack (the ones used for take aways)and bake in a preheated oven (175C). for about 20mins.
Love icing:
200g icing sugar
100g butter
7 pieces of fresh strawberries ( you can get a pack from park n shop)
Method:
Mix butter and icing sugar in a bowl and add halved strawberries. Scoop lovingly over freshly baked cake. Set on the table for the love of your life and I leave the rest to your imagination!
Deliciously yours,
Lilian Williams
p.s let’s know what happened afterwards!

Funke Adenaike & Dipo Ajenifuja

2010-12-07T06:13:00.000-08:00

Funke Adenaike is absolutely gorgeous! I really enjoy her polite sense of humor and descriptive used of the English language to express without any drama or alarmed recognition her perspective and nuances. Coupled with her very british accent, I must say she's refreshingly a couture bride, yet down-to-earth.

I'm truly privileged to be commissioned to do her Nigerian wedding cake, Thanks to Onomo Ukwa and the bride's elder sister Bose...Cant wait to see what her white wedding cake in England would look like, come d-day! lol!

Big congratulations to the new Mr & Mrs Dipo Ajenifuja!

Here are glimpses into her very fabulous wedding cake laced at the background (unfortunately, not captured by my camera) with a rich array of colour, humor, tradition and fun, all in one fell-swoop. Nostalgic memories linger...

She's saying 'I love you!'

2010-08-05T15:07:00.000-07:00

I dont know what Joyce Benson-Ayah was thinking when she asked me to do her hubby a jaw-dropping 'suggestive' birthday cake! In my vivid 'church' mind, I wanted to cringe, but then again, I realised if you cant publicly express romantic love to your hubby who would you want to do it to him? ( dont ask me!).

Wanted to humour her by this post, Joyce, here I come!

Tip of the week: You can make stacking rods from PVC pipes!

Keep on sugarcrafting

DECOUPAGE: With Love from argentina...

2010-05-18T10:01:00.000-07:00

Phew! Finally got round to posting a few sugarcraft thoughts.
I thought I was running away from a high pressure environment to a much slower paced life style when I resigned my software job with Systemtech, for sugarcrafting. How wrong I was! Cakeflair has held me hostage ever since! Following your passion doesn’t lessen the pressure of running a business, as a matter of fact, you sign up for a vicious pressure cooker environment the day you set out to start your own business. It takes structure, objectivity and design to eventually get it right in business and Im learning from the best- Jesus Christ! (Believe me, even after going to business school with all the 'strategies and all', I still had to go on my knees to understand the business of structure and purpose!)

Ok, just a lil’ sneak peak into my current state of things. On a lighter note, I learnt some techniques from a former seamstress-KPMG manager-turned sugarcrafter - aunty Siku of Cakes and Candy for dressing up sugarcrafted models in life-like clothing so your models look almost like the real thing! I ran away from sewing cuz of measurements and cutting fabrics into patterns here I am going back to face the battle I ran away from!
I PROMISE (for real, this time around!) to put up pictures in my next post (God knows when!) of my ‘well-dressed’ sugarcrafted models.
Adios!

Hint of the ‘week’(?): Don’t just stick your sugarflowers into your decorated cake, use flower holders. If you cant invest in flower holders at least wrap them in cling film before sticking into the cake. Reason: hygiene pls!
Picture above: DECOUPAGE technique I wrote about in my previous post…

Happy New Year (better late than never!)

2010-01-28T12:30:00.000-08:00

Yep, It's almost a year now since my last post. Reason? I wish i could give a cogent reason other than i've been busy! With cakes, home making, schooling, yes business school!

Anyways, Im back and hopefully should be able to keep up with my weekly sugarcraft updates.

Talking about sugarcraft, I recently learnt a new technique called 'decoupage' it's a brazillian/argentine technique of textile/fabric drapery that gives you real textile finishing to your fondant decorations.

Many thanks to Kenny of Kogsy Sugarcraft Centre for bringing this technique to us here in naija.

Was hoping to upload a pic of a cake I did recently of this new technique with this post, but I havent been able to offload all the pictures from my phone. Should be able to do that by my next post (hopefully)

Better late than never: Happy New Year!!!

Tip of the week: to get firm and easy to use modeling paste mix your fondant with a little CMC before using.

Happy Sugarcrafting!

Sponge Cake or what?

2009-05-22T12:13:00.000-07:00

Baking sponge cakes in pans deeper than 3inches is an absolute no no!, the cake would sink in and become very dense leaving a ‘mash’ of undercooked batter in the middle, for an evenly baked fluffy sponge cake use shallow pans of at least 2 inches deep and at most 3 inches deep. Don’t forget not to fill your pan beyond the ¾ full so it doesn’t spill over the pan as it rises.
To get that extra fluffiness with your sponge cake separate the yolks from the white add the yolk one at a time and then beat the white and fold in alternating with the flour. It should be alright.

(pic culled from academiabarilla.com)
Another point to note (from experience) I don’t trust self-raising flours I would rather you used plain soft flour and then measure in your baking powder according to your recipe, reason being that baking powder is delicate and when pre-combined with flour and allowed to sit for a while, its ‘raising’ properties is diminished.
I only use self raising flour when im doing small cakes like muffins for my kids or guests and not large cakes for weddings etc.
I also used half part butter with half part margarine for a more flavourful cake, again this only works for small cakes, but with large cakes, it can be a nightmare cutting through and layering!

If you like vanilla cake try hinting it a bit with some strawberry flavour and the result is awesome, if you don’t like anything strawberry (like my mentor) then just stick with your good old vanilla-flavoured cake!

So peeps, keep on baking, the more you bake, the better you’ll get at it.

check this website out, good place to start: http://www.academiabarilla.com/imgu/recipes-steps/sponge-cake-step5.jpg

All of the above are enough tips for the week! So adios till next week!
Pls don’t forget to recommend our website to your friends outside Nigeria who might be coming home to get married even if the wedding is in Ghana, never mind, we’ve done it before…( news from the real Estate grapevine, I hear Nigerians have literally taken over Ghana, now the cost of property there has gone up!)

Recipes: 3 variants of Buttercream Icing

2009-05-03T13:40:00.001-07:00

This week i have three variants of Icing recipes i'd like to share with you, It's Buttercream Icing, Peanutbutter icing and whipped cream icing. It's been a stressful week for me so i'll make today's post really concise, no extra gists!

Buttercream Icing

Ingredients:
1 ½ cups of Crisco (1 ½ sticks of Crisco)2 Tablespoons vanilla extract put in cup,then add milk to equal 1/2 cup total. 500g icing sugar
Directions:
Place Crisco in a mixer bowl. Add milk/vanilla mixture and a little icing sugar.
Mix on low speed gradually adding the rest of the icing sugar.
Mix on the highest setting for 7 minutes, stopping in the middle of mixing to scrape the bowl sides and bottom. Be sure to mix for the full 7 minutes.
Hint:
If using white Crisco, so the icing will be white, add ½ teaspoon butter flavoring or oil to the recipe before mixing. Also use clear vanilla extract.
If using butter flavored Crisco, there is no need to add the butter flavoring. You can also use regular vanilla essence. The icing will be a cream color

Peanut butter Icing

Ingredients:
½ cup peanut butter½ cup butter flavored Crisco1 cup sugar1 teaspoon vanilla1 cup milk2 tablespoons cornstarch
Directions:
Put the milk and cornstarch in a jar and shake well. Pour the mixture into a small saucepan and cook until it is thickened. Stir vigorously, and then pour it onto a plate to cool.
Whip the sugar, Crisco, peanut butter and vanilla with a mixer. Start out on low speed and then increase to high. Whip at least 15 minutes. Add cooled mixture and whip for a few minutes more until you do not feel the sugar when tasting. The texture should be smooth and creamy.

Whipped Cream Icing is definitely my favorite tasting icing recipe.

It is absolutely delicious! It is not as easy to decorate some cakes with because of its consistency, but it sure does taste good! Below you will find my easy to make recipe for this delicious icing. Ingredients: 1 stick Crisco1 cup sugar1 teaspoon vanilla (clear extract for white icing, regular extract for cream colored icing)1 cup milk2 tablespoons cornstarch.

Directions:
Put the milk and cornstarch in a jar and shake well. Pour the mixture into a small saucepan and cook until it is thickened. Stir vigorously, and then pour onto a plate to cool.
Whip the sugar, Crisco and vanilla with a mixer. Start out on low speed and then increase to high. Whip for at least 15 minutes. Add the cooled mixture and whip for a few minutes more until you do not feel the sugar when tasting. The consistency should be smooth and creamy

Tip of the week: you can replace crisco with lard or margarine, using margarine will definitely alter the colour icing from white if you dont mind!

See you around...

How Much Should A Wedding Cake Cost?

2009-04-26T10:10:00.000-07:00

This is a very tricky question! I would have loved the cheapest wedding cake to cost a million bucks! (just kidding!). On a serious note, the chiche 'different strokes for different folks' couldnt be more true when it comes to the issue of costing 'your' wedding cake.

These days, most wedding cakes are a work of art usually expressing a couple's personality and style hence the cost of such is highly subjective. As with every work of art, the more details, or intricate patterns and overall design, the more pricey the cake and this is usually the type of cakes sought after by 'couture brides'- cakes that make a statement or what i call a 'themed wedding cake'. A classic wedding cake would also do the trick and this type of wedding cake is usually not too expensive.

The latest vogue in low-budget wedding cake is the 'tier-ed cup-cake wedding cake; where you have a couple of cup cakes say about 20 or more arranged on a tier-ed cake stand, it's a creative way to save cost! (would try n post a pic of each type of wedding cake described above, so u cld appreciate why cost is subjective...)Another consideration is how close you are to the cake designer, are you close acquaintances, family relations or purely on a professional basis? all these factors play a vital role in the cost of a wedding cake.

However you choose to look at it, your general philosophy of life should come to bear in the bottom line - it's really your prerogative. Pls dont feel guilty if your cake costs an arm and a leg and dont feel bad either if it's cheaper than a loaf of bread, what matters ultimately is the '...happily ever after' factor which not even the most expensive wedding can buy! If in doubt, ask Princess Diana(MHSRIP) and prince Charles!...( with due respect!)ciao.

Tip of the week: cut your coat according to your cloth!...

see you next week (hopefully!)

Delicious Pies

2009-04-11T14:57:00.000-07:00

I've had a very busy couple of weeks and each time I come online to post any piece, I just fizzle out from exhaustion and I thought to myself, what's the point writing out of fatigue, it just wouldn’t be my best, so I decided to 'chill out' and get my rhythm back again, so here 'I am fired up and ready to go!'

Pictures they say, speak a thousand words, so I’ll post more than one this week to illustrate the diverse range of pies available.
According to wikipedia, ‘a pie is baked dish made of a pastry dough (flour, butter, salt, and water being the basic component) shell that covers or
completely contains a filling of various sweet or savoury ingredients.
Whether you use a frangipani or a meat pie cutter, the most important thing
to know about making pies is getting the dough right.
Ideally pies are made using one part flour, half part butter, and other components
include salt or sugar, baking powder and flavourings depending on what you
want.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pie
in Nigeria, the best known pies are meat pies, chicken pies, and fish pies. Although
in the commercial sense of the word, meat pies are usually potato pies because they
usually have a lot of potatoes mixed with very little minced beef!

I found a site where absolutely anything you wish to know about pastries and pies are explained, so I'l just go ahead and post it so you could get all the information you are looking for:

http://www.baking911.com/pastry/101_intro.htm

Tip of the week: Overmixing develops too much gluten which causes a tough pastry.

Baking with Chocolates (2)

2009-03-08T04:56:00.000-07:00

(pic by UKTV)
As if talking about chocolates isn’t enough, I’m actually having a chocolate cake hang over! Ate loads of chocolate cake during the week (this is one of my Achilles’ heels!), was pleasantly surprised at the quality of chocolate supplied us by ‘IMIT CHOCOLATES’, it was a really nice hybrid between semi-sweet and couverture chocolate, I had a really good time using it.

My sister ‘Kupy just mentioned it to me over the phone that she isn’t a fan of chocolates or anything made out of it and I laughed it off considering the fact that I had that same view years back when I hadn’t really explored ‘the chocolate terrain’ but now, I’m close to what you call a chocoholic, even my ice-cream must have at least a dash of it and my hubby knows (whenever he travels) no welcome present is complete without a box of hand-made chocolates!

Ok, before I go off tangent with my choc-chats, let me allow you explore the wonderful world of chocolate cakes through the following websites:
http://www.chocolate-source.co.uk/chocolate_recipes_cakes.htm
http://www.cacaoweb.net/chocolatecakes.html
http://www.ivillage.co.uk/food/whoscooking/recipes/snap/0,,182584_716423,00.html
http://uktv.co.uk/food/homepage/sid/5953

At my sister’s request, I’ll talk about pies next week, I still don’t know what exactly she wants to know about pies, but I’ll ask her over the phone so I can post a piece about it, maybe she might be the voice of many others seeking to improve their skill with pastries…

Tip of the week: ‘when a student is ready, the master will appear’.

Baking With Chocolates (1)

2009-03-01T06:49:00.000-08:00

One of the most valuable lessons I learnt in my adventure with baking is understanding the various types and constituents of chocolate.
You absolutely can’t be a good chocolate cake baker without understanding how chocolates are made and the types available. After I discovered the different types of chocolate and how best to use them, baking the best and most decadent of cakes became a breeze.

Here, I am going to give a concise post about what chocolate is made of and the best types to use for baking different types of chocolate cakes.
My knowledge of chocolates grew over time and as I experimented with the different components of cacao, I came full circle with its characteristics.
Chocolate is made from cocoa seeds; cocoa trees grow vastly in West Africa. Between Nigeria and Ghana I don’t know who grows them better!

The cocoa pods release seeds that are fermented to develop aroma and colour. They are then roasted (the way coffee beans are roasted) to intensify their rich chocolate flavour. The roasting helps it to release the inner seed which bears the chocolate essence. Find out more about how chocolate is made:
http://www.mce.k12tn.net/chocolate/made/made.htm

Basically, all you need to know is that chocolate types are identified by the amounts of solids, cocoa butter, sugar and milk solids each contain. Chocolate with higher percentages of cocoa butter have more intense and rich chocolate flavour. Lower-quality chocolates include other fats which raise its melting point and have a less distinct flavour.

To understand the best type of chocolate to use for your cake, you have to first decide on the texture, richness and flavour of your cake. This will enable you sort out the most appropriate type to use.

· The bitter or unsweetened chocolate is called the ‘baking chocolate’. This type is hardened cocoa solids and cocoa butter with no sugar. It is primarily used for baking.
· Bittersweet chocolate. In this type, lecithin is added to improve its smoothness, it is the darkest of all eating chocolates. Ideal for cooking and baking.
· Milk chocolate; this is the only type of chocolate that isn’t good for baking, best for eating as the delicate flavour is easily overtaken by the other ingredients, I hear it’s the favourite chocolate for most Americans! Those creamy tasty candy bars are made with milk chocolate and it contains at least 12% dry milk solids and 10% chocolate liquor with sugar and cocoa butter.
· Others include white chocolate which is not ‘true chocolate’ because it contains no chocolate solids, just cocoa butter. However, it’s great for making cheese cakes.
· Cocoa powder; this is what most people use in baking commercial chocolate cake in Naija. You get cocoa powder when you remove all the cocoa butter from the chocolate liquor, the dense mass is then ground into powder form. It’s really good for frosting.

Finally, my all-time fave and the best high-end gourmet chocolate is called ‘Couverture’ it’s a glossy form of chocolate used by pro pastry chefs and chocolatiers (chocolate connoisseurs). It must contain at least a minimum of 32% cocoa butter which allows it to flow more easily when tempered. This is the type of grade mostly used in professional pastry and cake supply shops (like Cakeflair!) as well as high-end groceries and online. Both dark and milk chocolate couvertures are readily available but pretty expensive. Chocolate mousse cake is my favourite after ‘Death-By-Chocolate’ cake, (pardon the name! one of the last things I’d like to do before I walk off this planet is savour this decadent choc cake!)

The best place to get couverture chocolate cheapest is Frankfurt, believe me! It’s amazing that cocoa trees grow at the backside of Africa, yet chocolate is cheaper in a cocoa importing country than in an exporting one!

I’ll wrap up this post on chocolates next week with some very useful websites you’ll find great recipes to try out.
It’s important you get grounded in the knowledge of your ingredients; this helps you interact with your their ‘behaviour’ and ultimately improve your baking skills…
…to be contd.

Tip of the week: to whiten royal icing (used in piping), add a few drops of white vinegar.

2009-02-22T02:42:00.000-08:00

Jams/Marmalades: My internet connection was really slow yesterday, so it has taken till today to publish this post! This week I want to veer off cakes for a while to introduce you to something new and for those of us in Nigeria, Ghana, and West Africa generally, it's a great departure from the norm.

Jams and Marmalades (picture culled from 'Jams and Jellies by Elise feb '06)
I’m yet to find anyone near me who makes jam from scratch and I want to use this medium to encourage us all to tinker our adventurous sides by trying something new.
I’m talking about Marmalades and Jams, specifically marmalades, If like me you are a DIY buff, you might start considering creating food items from scratch.

I started baking bread for my household only about a year ago, it came as a surprise to many people that I didn’t really know how to bake bread for such a long time, I mean, they think it's a given that I should be able to bake bread since I make cakes. Any way, after mastering the techniques and skills for bread, I thought to myself what better way to enjoy this home-made bread than with some home-made marmalades and jams! I tell you, once you start on that path of making/growing your own food and enjoying it, you are hooked! I essentially grow my own veggies, plantains and bananas (which I inherited as we moved into our house).

Tell you what, baking bread requires yeasts (quick-breads require baking powder) while cakes need baking powder, however, baking with yeast and baking with baking powder are two different turfs entirely! With bread you are trying to work the flour's gluten to the utmost elasticity while with cakes your are trying to temper the gluten content of the flour to the bearest minimum to achieve a fluffy texture, so you really need to understand the dynamics of achieving these two very opposite objectives...
...back to my latest discovery - how to make marmalade from scratch; I'm only going to mention it and point you to the two websites that best describe the procedure in a very simplified way in my opinion.

I never used to like marmalades because of the bitter taste; however, I discovered a type of orange marmalade that's worth a million dollars if you get it right, it's called 'seville orange marmalade'! It’s made from 'bitter orange' a small species of orange with very little gastronomic use however, very prized for its excellent marmalades. If you live in Lagos, Nigeria, you can readily find bitter oranges in ‘Mile 12' or 'Oyingbo' Markets. I'm already making enquiries where I can find it in Ghana as well as other parts of West Africa.
I read the seeds are huge on pectin and it was a farmer's wife’s accidental discovery!
View this two websites on how to make the very best of serville marmalade (by the way, jams are just a sweet variation of marmalades): http://www.davidlebovitz.com/archives/2007/02/seville_orange.html
http://www.elise.com/recipes/archives/004317seville_orange_marmalade.php

Going back to the basics of home-making is fun, I tell people; it’s the next sexy thing after acquiring an education! It absolutely doesn’t diminish your sassiness or intelligence to be a domestic goddess! It worries me when people say 'I never knew you could pound yam! or 'you mean you actually own a farm?!' Like pounding yam and going to farm (or anything rustic and simply down-to-earth for that matter!) is relegated to low-brows, zombie-good-for-nothing house wives!

Thanks Esinam (I love your middle name!) for following this blog, let me know how far you've gone with baking and share any challenges you've encountered in the process, that is how to take it to the next level!

Ok peeps, tip for the week:
Know what you want to achieve with sugarcraft and understand what it takes to make it come true.
Take Charge!

2009-02-14T14:20:00.000-08:00

Akupe, when i said cream your butter and sugar til it turns white, i didnt mean it literally, however, I must say your observation was quite insightful, it made me re-think how I should communicate valuable hints -I'll try and put myself in the mind of a notice baker so that I can effectively make him/her a master of the art (and hopefully the science!) of baking...thanks. Molly, cream your butter and sugar for about 20mins before adding the eggs one piece at a time and so on...

If your are using 100% butter and caster sugar (super fine sugar), you neednt cream at all, you just combine the butter and sugar mix for a few secs ( but make sure the butter is at room temperature before you try this), then add your eggs one at a time. Another important thing to note, if you are using self-raising flour, there isnt any need to add baking powder because it already contains raising agent. Dont let the name self-raising flour confuse you, like it did me when I first started baking.

Make self-raising flour
To convert plain flour into self-raising flour, add two teaspoons of baking powder to each cup of plain flour. I also read somewhere that adding one teaspoon of cream of tartar and half a teaspoon of bicarbonate of soda to one cup of plain flour gives the same result, though i havent tried the latter out.

Akupe, you also mentioned that your cake came out crusty and dried at the top, like I figured you used an electric oven with the heat radiating from the top, I must confess, I had the same problem when i once used an electric oven those early years of baking, I havent used one since, so I cant give accurate answers for now, but I'll do a little research on how the different types of oven function and post the links of the ones I find useful.

I currently use a locally fabricated oven with double-galvanised sheets, and i must say it's the best oven in the world! finding the right oven you are comfortable using is very important, it makes you want to bake everytime, hence improving your skills and confidence over time.

The Australian Women's weekly is a good place to get small tips on baking and cooking:
http://aww.ninemsn.com.au/article.aspx?id=26188
I've included a wikipedia link on flour as well:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flour

Akupe, I hope when you bake your next cake, it would be a great improvement from your previous. Good luck!
I hope to compile an FAQ on baking over time, please keep baking!

...oh, by the way, it's Valentine's Day today, we had loads of cakes to bake, decorate and send out. Does that mean we are all loving and caring for one another? well, I hope so!
So peeps, show some love today, tomorrow and always!...

2009-02-07T13:37:00.000-08:00

Before I start, i just want to wish Folukemi and her sweetheart Adegbite who just got married earlier today a fruitful married life. Their wedding cake represents a flourishing and fruitful marriage, as indicated in this picture.
Folukemi, may the lines continually fall for you in pleasant places, keep your head up girl!..

Baking A Cake
The basic idea for baking is cream your sugar and butter thoroughly till your mixtures changes from light yellow to almost white colour, then add your eggs one at a time to enable each piece incorporate well, I usually separate my egg whites from egg yolks, work in the yolks first, then alternately add the white and flour. So the formula for baking will be:

(butter+sugar)+eggs+(baking powder+flour) + others (i.e flavour, mixed fruit) = Cake

You can modify your recipes once you understand the characteristics of each ingredients for example, I add little quantity of baking powder where I used a lot of eggs because they both act as raising agents.
Another every important rule of thumb, never overmix your flour because flour contains gluten, a ‘tactile-loving’ substance in flour that gives it elasticity just fold in gently especially when you are making a sponge cake, so you can achieve as fluffy a cake as possible. Use shallow pans for sponge cakes and deep lined pans for fruit cakes. Fruit cakes are denser and take longer to bake through so it’s important to line your pans to prevent it from burning and crusting at the top too quickly. It also helps to trap in heat that allows for even baking. For the chemistry of baking see : http://nzic.org.nz/ChemProcesses/food/6D.pdf

There are some recipes where u don’t need to cream butter and sugar together, when I use caster sugar and 100% butter, I simply thaw the butter and add every other ingredients in at once, blitz in a food processor and my cake mix is ready.
Once you’ve mastered the basics and gained confidence, you can personalize your cakes by recreating/inventing your own recipe to suit your preference.
I see cakes in three lights sweet, savoury and sour, and im a bit ambivalent about my preference. When I want something sweet and decadent, I go for sponge or chocolate cake, savoury – fruit cake and sour, cheesecake.
Recreating a recipe you like is a bit of an art once you’ve mastered the science or more like the chemistry of baking, so please experiment as much as you can afterall the best inventions are discovered serendipitously!
I found this website invaluable even though I’ve modified most of the recipes to suit my taste, I tell you, I’ve tried well over half the entire recipes on this site over the years so it’s a great place to start. If you live in Lagos, just go over to Yaba market in Tejuosho for those white plastic measuring cups and you are good to go!
The chemistry of Baking
I never understood the trick behind using baking powder for about 2 years of baking, until I took my time to understand the chemistry behind raising agents and cake ingredients. Have you ever wondered about the difference between baking powder and baking soda? reading this link: http://chemistry.about.com/cs/foodchemistry/f/blbaking.htm
The more you understand the principle behind baking, the more creative you can be as you interact with your ingredients, so dont be afraid to experiment, im currently trying out honey in place of sugar to see how i can make lovely cakes for diabetics without any catastrophe!

Let me leave it here for today so i can let u try out some new things...

Happy Baking!

My tip for the week: if you want to be a great sugarcrafter, study fine art and you’ll be fine!

2009-02-06T12:57:00.000-08:00

Hi everyone!
I’m really excited about my new blog, I first attempted to blog about my cakes, but I got carried away by all the goings-on around me and ended up sharing my other non-apologetic thoughts on issues (see www.julietaigbe.blogspot.com) . I still comment on social issues there, but I’ve always had this great urge to do one on cake decorating and now here’s my dream come true!
With the advent of search engines came too much information to sift from, you could almost suffocate from ‘information overdrive’, and so my intention is to do a compilation of invaluable information you could use to advance your purpose.
I also found out that a lot of people are not well informed about choosing a cake or even knowing the type of cake they like! They are usually carried away by the price rather than by what they really like.
You don’t have to rob a bank to have a delightful cake bite, with the right information you can eat your cake and have it back!
If you are a cake decorating buff, a beginner, keen enthusiast, or just a cake lover-eater-admirer, a bride/groom getting married, looking for cake decorating skills, whatever, so long as it has to do with cakes, this is the right place to be.
This blog would be a pot puree of delectable desserts, cake tips, special offers and other goodies.
Rules:
I promise to keep it short and concise because I personally get put off by all those lengthy articles and stuffs on the net.
If I can’t help it, I’ll break it up into parts so that whoever is keen will go on to the next part.
I’ll also post links of others if I find their information useful, so I won’t take credit for information that isn’t originally mine. Remember, this blog is like a ‘resource centre’ of some sort.
To spice it up, I’ll also include other related items like jam recipes and good books to read, kitchen details, crockery, anything ‘homely’ that would jazz up your repertoire of knowledge on the home front, because I’m yet to find that cake buff who isn’t into food and décor!
Keep your mind open and let’s see what ‘Julietbakes’ can do for us all!

So welcome once more to your ultimate resource centre for cake making information and many more…

My journey into cake making
I baked my first cake sometime in 1993, it was such a thrill! I grew up without an oven in our kitchen, so I still wonder where I got the passion from! I think the first time I really got fascinated by the magic of an oven was when I was in primary school (pry 4) I used to go with my mum to a bakery near our home way back in Ilorin (Agbo-oba precisely) to place our bread order for our grocery store (more commonly called ‘shop’ in Nigeria). I was a shy little girl back then, but I found the courage to ask one of the men off loading delicious smelling bread how bread is made so deliciously and the kind-hearted man showed me a double pan of sausage-shaped white substance (dough I later discovered!). He then said, ”if you put this pan of ‘bugon’ inside this ‘hot house’ (he meant the mud oven), after a while that fine bread is what you get”.

He was gracious enough to give me a small piece of dough to go and ‘bake’ at home! I got home so excited I just lit our kerosene stove, cut the dough into bottle caps and placed them around the stove. It was such a joy watching the dough lift off the caps and I shared ‘my bread’ with the neighbourhood kids. That was the closest I got to baking until 1993 when I lived off campus with a couple of my Sagamu friends living somewhere in Onike, Yaba. Aunty Tayo Adesanya was baking a cake and that was the first time I saw the entire process from start to finish. The aroma while the cake was baking was truly exhilarating!

I immediately got the recipe from her and as soon as I got home, we still didn’t have an oven in our kitchen, but I remember Tayo telling me about using sand, so off I went to look for sharp sand, I flavoured the sand so it doesn’t smell sandy, and that was my first cake, the entire Cinema Road (where we lived) could perceive the aroma of my first home- made cake! I shared it out with everyone that same day…
... But my sojourn into the world of sugarcrafting didn’t really start until I started working as a café administrator after my postgrad in computer science. Couldn’t pick up a job quickly and got a job offer by Dr Nwilo to run a café he jointly owned with Prof Eruvbetini (I hope I got the spelling correctly!)

I was paid a miserable 5K a month! This was in 2001! For a graduate, it was an insult, but for an active mind like mine seeking adventure and exposure, it didn’t matter, after all, I would be around computers and the internet round the clock, so I took up the job amidst advice from well-meaning friends not to stoop for such a job. The truth is I really loved the job, cuz I used that opportunity to learn how to surf and improve my knowledge of the internet and its capabilities.

It was at the café that one of my numerous customers came in with the story of how he misplaced his wallet but he needed to check his mails and I didn’t object to giving him ‘surf time’ so long as he promised to come back and pay the next day, it was this same man who gave me his card, that if I ever needed a job anywhere, I should give him a buzz, I was too skeptical to take it, but I simply told him, I was looking for a job and that if he could help I’d be delighted, to cut the long story short, he just gave me a note to someone who called a friend at a software company and was told I had to pass a test and and interview if I must get the job, I did.

I did my first wedding cake in fondant icing for my very good friend Sola Okunola, the fondant icing on that cake was a disaster! I worked a little longer on my IT job and the job is now history! But before I resigned I did a 3-day-turn-5-day crash course in sugarcrafting with a well-known cake maker (any serious baker knows this guy!) yes, a guy – Tosan Jemide, Im not careful to rave over his works, he is an absolute genius when it comes to decorating cakes I was really inspired by his works, however, it didn’t diminish the fact that there’s a mafia system operating in the Nigerian cake industry, everybody wants to shield their skills from anyone wanting to learn the tricks of the trade.

This is not the forum to share bitter diatribes, but I’ve had my fair share of the ‘cake mafiosos’ and I must say it’s disheartening to see very good hands tighten their fists all in the name of self-preservation.
So long as the recipient is an avid enthusiast, we all have that moral abligation to share knowledge, busy or not, it’s the most noble thing to do.

I won’t name names, rather, I set out to share knowledge as best I can…
…today I run Cakeflair located in Anthony Village, I’ve trained a couple of people and for some others for free just to encourage them that life is loaded with opportunities.
To make this blog run effectively, I hope to post items every weekend, Saturday or Sunday and if you have any questions or’ comments don’t hesitate to share it with me, let’s make this as interactive as possible, ok?...

I look for to posting some basic cake recipes and show you some tricks in my next article,

Cheers,

Juliet