Wedding Cake
Thomas Walter and Malini Christine Ganesan celebrated their wedding in February this year at the delicious Sardinian restaurant Pilu at Freshwater in Sydney. I was lucky enough to be asked if I could make the cake…
The layers are (from top to bottom)
Fruit Cake 6″
Chocolate Buttermilk Cake 9″
Hazelnut Raspberry Cake 12″
All layers are covered in Chocolate Ganache and have a dark chocolate collar, fresh strawberries, blueberries and cherries.
The guests ate the bottom two layers at the wedding, and they finished both layers! That was after dessert…
Hazelnut Raspberry Cake
Made again for Thomas’ 40th birthday party in June. We enjoyed it with an espresso or two, made on a machine borrowed from their good friend Peter.
*Recipe from the Australian Women’s Weekly Website.
Fruitcake
The top layer of fruit cake travelled back to Ulm in Germany and was not touched until my visit in June. What a surprise they had waited. It was perfect for eating by then.
*Recipe from Belinda Jeffery’s luscious book ‘Mix and Bake’.
July 18th, 2008 23:33
We were fortunate enough to be the ‘guinea pigs’ for these cakes – my mother in law and I are still talking about it! Just incredible, so moist, so very delicious!
July 20th, 2008 10:37
Hey Phee, you guys are fun to cook for. You get as excited about food as I do! Thanks for all the tasting
June 29th, 2009 05:59
Hi, found your wedding cake online, and was wondering how you made the chocolate collars as my wife and I have been asked to create a cake for a friend’s wedding. Is there any tutorial online as far as you know. Beautiful cake by the way.
Cheers
Justin
June 29th, 2009 10:24
Hi Justin,
A chocolate collar is quite simple to make with the right equipment. I haven’t searched for a tutorial, I used a friend’s advice but here is how I did mine. You’ll need:
1. Good quality couverture chocolate. I used 70% cocoa solids (dark or bittersweet chocolate).
2. A collar mould- It is a long sheet of thick plastic that often has a pattern embossed into it, the one here had a wrinkled effect, but you can get flower patterns etc. You should be able to find these at any good cake decorating shop or your local catering supplier should be able to order them in if they don’t stock them.
3. You need to fully cool your cake, then brush on a crumb coating which is a very thin layer of icing which helps your finished layer of icing look smooth, I used ganache chocolate and either cream or butter. Then I did a full layer of icing and let that set.
4. Cut your mould to the right length so it goes all the way around the circumference of your round cake. The width of the mould is how high the collar will sit.
5. When ready to do the collar, gently melt the chocolate in short bursts in the microwave or in a bowl sitting over a saucepan with a little boiling water in the bottom on the stovetop. Let the melted chocolate cool a little off the heat so it is still liquid and spread evenly over the collar mould, flat on the kitchen bench is probably easiest. Then sit the collar up with chocolate facing in towards the icing and fit it gently around the cake starting at one end and gently wrapping it around the cake so it sits flush with the icing. The icing is there so the collar has something to stick to. Stick the end down with tape if needed and cool in the refrigerator until fully set. Do not remove before set or the chocolate won’t come off cleanly from the mould.
6. I would highly recommend transporting each layer separately in tupperware or cardboard cake boxes and then assembling at the venue. I would also look up dowling techniques if you have more than one layer to support your cakes. I used small cake boards the same size as each of the smaller layers and small pieces of dowling in the cake below to support the cake above. I would put the cake on the cake board before doing the chocolate collar, or even before icing just to be safe. The cake board at the bottom can be a few inches bigger than the largest cake layer to give you room for decoration and for support.
Just a note regrading timing: I would start at least a few days ahead, and some cakes such as the chocolate buttermilk cake can be frozen a few weeks ahead and then defrosted when you need to ice it. They still taste delicious without texture being affected. If doing fruit cake you will need to make it weeks in advance to give the flavour time to mellow.
All the best, hope this helps!
June 30th, 2010 16:15
Fruit Cakes are quite addictive and my mom always bake them every month.,*~
July 21st, 2010 05:57
Fruit Cakes are the specialty of my grandmother, she bakes lots of fruit cakes.:”"
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