Deco deco decoration

It is a phrase from the anime Yumeiro Pâtissière, which I mentioned in the last post. Quite frankly the way it’s used in the anime has nothing to do with what I’m talking about, but this post is all about decorating cakes so I found it appropriate. Sometimes I feel a lot of the smaller cakes are not so much about taste anymore but just about being pretty. So I had a look into how I can makes cakes pretty. Since I was still in Belfast when I made this cake and I couldn’t do much in the kitchen, this cake is really just a plain cake with prettiness. I took a plain round sponge cake which I cut into square pieces and I matched two pieces per cake to decorate. This is what I ended up with:



I’m going to name them Whipped cream present, Chocolate blueberry, Strawberry cream, and Chocolate cake. Can you guess which is which? Also, don’t you think I’m original with names?



Whipped Cream Present
This cute lil’ cake was made by stacking two cake squares on each other with a layer of raspberry jam in between (the only jam I had). Then I covered the cake in whipped cream – I hand whipped that cream, something I wouldn’t advice you do. The green and pink flower decoration is made from fruit rolls I found in the supermarket and I played with the day before. I have to say I like the tiny roses the best of the whole cake. At last, the plating is done with a line of whipped cream and some more fruit roll roses.



Chocolate Blueberry Cake
I squashed a few blueberries in a pan and heated it up with a little bit of water and sugar to make a jamlike substance. I stacked two cakes on top of each other again and added the blueberry jam in between. I covered the whole cake in ganache (chocolate + cream). For the plating I took the rest of the blueberry jam and made a huge swirl on the plate. I used a fork to make the spider web effect by dragging it over the plate lightly. Make sure to sift the jam when you do this, as lumps will get in the way of the piping and spoil the overall effect. I tried blueberries on top and whipped cream next to the cake for the finishing touch. I have to say I don’t like the whipped cream there so much, but I do feel it needs something to the side of the cake.



Chocolate Cake
I made this cake by adding a bit of melted chocolate to the cream and stirring and then letting it cool a bit. After a while of cooling I whipped the cream like normal whipping cream. The effect you get is a chocolate whipping cream. If I had cacao powder and sugar I would’ve used that; it’s far more fool-proof. I cut the two cakes in half and spread the chocolate whipping cream in between. Because the cake was oddly shaped I ended up putting the cake on the side which also prevented the ‘splat-effect’ (which is explained with the next cake). I covered the whole cake in more chocolate cream and plated it by putting some chocolate whipped cream swirls on the plate and a hersheys kiss. I wish we could buy those kisses here, because I’d be so addicted. Later I also added a bit of chocolate sprinkles, because I felt the composition was too plain.
I remember the chocolate whipped cream tasting like some kind of nuts and not chocolate at all. I did buy the cheapest kind of chocolate, so I blame it all on the quality, but I’ll have to try this out again.





Strawberry Cream Cake
One square piece of cake, strawberries covered in whipped cream and another square piece of cake with raspberry jam on top: that’s how this cake goes. I realized I used too much cream between the cake layers, so that when you cut it, you’d get a ‘splat-effect’ or all the cream dripping out from the sides and the entire cake gaining in width what was reduced in height. I have no other words for it. For the plating I sliced a few cuts in a strawberry with the green crown still on and spread it like a hand fan. I filled the tops of a few other strawberries with cream and put these to one side. The rest of the plate was filled with whipped cream dots and blueberries. Personally I think the blueberries are very out of place since there are no blueberries in the cake (only raspberries in the jam which we’ll pretend is strawberry jam). But I do think it adds some color and fills up space. However I’m still going to need to find a better way to plate this kind of cake.



And there you go! A few ideas for how to go about decorating and plating cakes. I hope I’ve inspired you. If you want to see more ways to make your cake look nice on a plate you should look up ‘plating cake’ or ‘plating food’ up in google pictures. You’ll come across a lot of wrong and right and beautiful ways to show off what you’ve baked.
Enjoy!

Mille crêpe

I´ve been watching a few too many animes in my time in Belfast. And I discovered one about 'patisserie' which made me drool so badly and made me want to bake like mad for which there just not many options in a student’s house so you end up simply exploding. But there is something you can make, which looks and tastes delicious, counts as a cake and is also mentioned in the very first episode of Yumeiro Pâtissière: Mille Crêpe.
The recipe for the crêpes I got from a random website somewhere on the internet which looked about right but of which I forgot the actual link ages ago. It mentions makng a few hours beforehand so you can leave it in the fridge to allow the bubbles in the batter to disappear. I skipped this part as our fridge wasn’t big enough and I couldn’t wait anyway.
The vanilla pastry cream is the best thing you will ever taste. If you remember not to heat it up to quickly but gradually let the egg ‘set’ in the mixture you’ll have something lovely that tastes a bit like custard or ‘créme patissière’.



Crêpes
Ingredients:
2 eggs
0,75 cup milk
0,5 cup water
1 cup fluor
3 tablespoons butter
2 tablespoons sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla

1. Combine all ingredients. Mix the egg a bit before combining and whisk gently and in circular movements to make sure as less bubbles as possible are in the batter.
2. Refrigerate for a bit if you wish and want any other bubbles to leave the batter. Otherwise just dump a bit on a heated pan, make sure the batter is evenly divided and flip over when the top appears dry. This does take some practice and a lot of speed mind you.

Vanilla pastry cream
Ingredients:
1,5 cup milk
0,5 cup sugar
0,25 cup flour
2 egg yolks (yellow part)
1 egg
2 tablespoons butter
1,5 teaspoon vanilla essence

1. Whisk all the eggs and sugar until you have a smooth mixture. Add the flour in several additions and mix until smooth again.
2. Heat the milk, but don’t boil it, in a small pan while stirring.
3. Add 0,25 cup of the milk to the egg-mixture (or pour about a sixth in) and whisk. This is to heat up the eggs slightly so they won’t instantly turn into white and yellow strings when you add all the milk.
4. Pour everything into the pan with milk and keep stirring the mixture on a medium heat.
5. Wait until the mixture has thickened and then take it off the heat and add the butter and the vanilla.
6. Leave it to cool and refrigerate to keep longer.

The pastry cream will last for quite a while, I’d say 1-2 weeks or even more. The crêpes however don’t last as long. After a week or so you will find mold on the pancakes and there is no way you can or should eat them any more even after cutting the parts with mold off. Also, at step 5 of the vanilla pastry cream: putting the heating higher or stirring and heating the mixture for longer will not turn the mixture any thicker, but will instead affect the taste. The mixture will thicken once it cools down as well, so if you notice the mixture is really not getting as thick as you like then letting it cool down might be a good idea. I noticed this the second time I made it. The second time I also used a real vanilla instead of vanilla essence, it tasted just as delicious and was probably a lot healthier. So for anyone who can afford it I would advise that as well.



Mille crêpe
Ingredients:
Crêpes
Vanilla pastry cream

1. Obviously start with the ugliest and biggest crêpe you’ve made and put this on a plate or whatever you want your cake to be on.
2. Spread some vanilla pastry cream out over the crêpe. Don’t make this a thick layer or the taste of the cream will be too overwhelming and when you cut it all the cream will ‘splat’ out of the cake.
3. Take the second crêpe and add more cream and another and again until you’ve worked through all your crêpes and hopefully not all of the vanilla pastry cream yet.
4. If you like you can spread chocolate or jam over the top and let it ‘drip down’ in an elegant way. I’ve also seen mille crêpes with cream all around the cake to cover up the edges of the crêpes and make it a perfect cylinder.
5. I do advice strawberry jam. It’s REALLY good.
6. Enjoy!

I haven’t found any foolproof way of cutting edges or making sure all crêpes are of equal size, but if you have any ideas do tell me! Also, cut this cake into small pieces. Remember you are eating a massive cake full of quite filling vanilla pastry cream and a load of thin pancakes. You won’t want much more than a small piece at a time.
I can’t believe I’ve made it through writing this post because I have a serious urge to make mille crêpe now. Not because I want to make a million pancakes so badly, but because I need to eat this again. It’s brilliant!