Calculating The Cost of a Cake

Cost Calculator (opens on same page)

I've written a spreadsheet with the common ingredients that I buy; it's saved on Google Docs, so if you click the Cost Calculator link above, you can use it too.

Basically you add the weight of your ingredient in grams ( or if it's something like eggs and muffin cases, just type the number needed) and it will work out a rough price for you.

Cupcakes I Want to Try

What with making boxes and coming up with ideas for cupcake variations I have decided to put together a cupcake box (hopefully 12, but I'm not sure how many will fit in my box)

My cupcake box will hold:

Chocolate Orange Cupcakes
Banana Cupcakes
Lemon Cupcakes
Orange Cupcakes
Caramelised Banana & Cinnamon Cupcakes
Toffee Crunch

I want to try:

Filling cakes
Crunchy Lemon Topping
Royal Icing Piping
Chocolate Ganache
3D Butterflies

Football Cake

I've decided to try any blog entries about making cakes in 'real time', which basically means I will take break every now and again while I am cooking and write a bit.  I think that I am more likely to write about the things that go wrong if I do that.

First is the Football cake which I am starting today, using the Wilton Soccer Ball cake tin.

(14:20) OK, I've started.  I increased my normal mixture to 400g as I would rather it was too big than too small (this could bite me in the arse).  Blended the butter and sugar, blended the egg and then bit by bit blended the egg into the butter mix.  Then slowly folded in the sifted flour. I prepared the tin by using Wilton's cake tin stuff, tipped in the mixture and shock and tapped the tin a lot to try and flatten the top and get rid of any air bubbles.  Have put it in the (non fan) oven, but I have no idea how long for; I'm guessing about half an hour.

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(15:00) Half hour into the cooking and the outside is cooked and the middle is not.  I've turned the cake tin and turned the oven up a little bit.

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(15:06) Just read this on the internet

How To Measure Pan Sizes:

Measure Dimensions: To determine the pan's dimensions always measure inside edge to inside edge of the pan so that you do not include the thickness of the pan in your measurement.

Measure Depth: To measure the depth, place your ruler straight up from the bottom of the pan (do not slant the ruler). If the pan edge is slanted, do not slant the ruler, measure straight up.

Pan Volume: To determine the pan's volume (how much batter it will hold), pour pre-measured water by the cupful until the pan is filled to the brim. Use a liquid measuring cup to pour water into the pan until it reaches the top.

If the new pan makes the batter shallower than in the original recipe, this will cause the heat to reach the center of the pan more quickly and you will have more evaporation. To solve this problem you need to shorten the baking time and raise the temperature of the oven slightly. To substitute a pan that is shallower than the pan in the recipe, reduce the baking time by 1/4.

If the new pan makes the batter deeper than in the original recipe, this will cause less evaporation and the batter will take longer to cook.  To solve this problem you need to lengthen the baking time and lower the temperature of the oven slightly. To substitute a pan that is deeper than the pan in the recipe, increase the baking time by 1/4.

I reckon that the bit I've highlighted might apply to my cake - I have turned the oven down a little bit.

This website, whatscookingamerica.net, tells you how to work out how much cake mix is needed.  It actually says on the Wilton website that my tin measures 8 3/4 in. diameter x 3 1/2 in. deep so I reckon I should have used 

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(15.20) Still not cooked in the middle; think I may have messed this one up.

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(15:26) Apparently the cake tin takes about 5 cups of batter.  Trying to find what this means.....

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(15:35) Google informs me that the Wilton tins generally take about 6 cups of batter.  (15:43) I still have no idea  how what recipe I should use to make 6 cups of batter.

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(15:50) I think the cake is cooked; I used the skewer method and made sure that the top/middle was springy to the touch.  It's out of the oven now and I've left it to cool for a while before I try taking it out of the tin.

You can see that the crust has over cooked.

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(16:25) The cake has cooled enough for me to take it out of the tin. It's a good size but overcooked at the edges.  Might see if I can trim the very bottom of the cake off.

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(18:00) I've watched some videos about icing a cake and I'm going to try a thin layer of icing (allowed to dry) to catch crumbs.  My concern is that once I've done that I wont be able to see the football design to ice.  I tried cutting out a template but it wasn't very good, so in the end I stuck (new) pins all over to mark the meeting points that I would later want to line with royal icing.

(18:45)  I cut the bottom of the cake (think I should have done before the cake cooled.  It hadn't cooked in the middle, so I have scooped out the insides and I'm going to fill the hole with butter cream so when it's cut there will be butter cream tips on the slices. I didn't break through the top of the cake while scooping, so the football patten is still intact.

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(19.26) Definitely undercooked in the middle.  I have scooped out as much as I dare and popped the cake back in the tin an in the oven for a while (and yes, I did take out the pins first)

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(19:54) The cake cannot be saved. RIP cake....and on to the next one.  I've made the mixture again but used 250g of butter rather than 400g before (no idea where I got 400g from!)

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I re- made the cake and it was still hard to get cooked in the middle.  I let it cool, iced over with buttercream and left it in the fridge to finish tomorrow.  Big Sigh!

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(21:47 - the next day) I got home about 17:30 today and have finally finished.

Cake Covering

There a few different types of icing that I can use.

Butter cream made by mixing butter and icing sugar with some flavouring and colouring.

Swiss meringue butter cream made with caster sugar melted in egg white with butter then beaten in.  It makes a very melt in the mouth version of the standard butter cream

Fondant icing hardens, but doesn’t go completed hard.  It is used to cover cakes and can also be used on cupcakes.  You can colour fondant or paint it with food colourings.

Royal icing goes really hard (think wedding cakes) and is for any features that need to be strong 3D shapes.

Cream cheese frosting is not one I fancy, but it’s made with cream cheese, icing sugar and lemon juice so this is a lower fat version.

Chocolate ganache is made by mixing cream and melted chocolate. 

Toffee topping made with butter, condensed milk, caster sugar and golden syrup.

Lemon crunch is made by sprinkling sugar over the cakes when they are fresh from the oven and then sprinkling on some lemon juice.

Ideas with Fondant & Royal Icing

Fondant can be used in several ways, coloured, painted, shaped. For example you could have the England flag painted on a white piece on fondant, or have a cross made out of red fondant and white fondant.

You can make simple flowers, animal faces, hearts, numbers etc, which can personalise the cupcakes to the receiver (birthday, Christmas etc)

Royal icing goes hard and isn’t that nice to eat (in my opinion it tastes like a hard chunk of sugar) but it’s ideal for making decorations that can be removed from the cake. 

For example:

Flowers (not the simple kind)

3D Butterflies

Simple shapes (hearts, dice, and numbers)

Chocolate, marzipan and sugar paste are also options for making shapes out of, but I’m not that brave yet.

Colours

You can have coloured butter icing and coloured fondant.

You can even have cupcakes with multiple coloured toppings

 

Or made up to look like animals

Flavours

These’s a few flavour generally available:

Vanilla made with extract or vanilla pods

Lemon made with flavouring or fresh fruit

Orange made with flavouring or fresh fruit

Chocolate made with cocoa powder

But you can just use your imagination really:

Chocolate Orange

Coffee

Apple and Cinnamon

Banana

Raspberry and White Chocolate

Coffee and Cream

Coconut

Chocolate and Lemon

Baileys

Toffee Crunch

With something like chocolate orange, there are several ways it could be made:

Chocolate cakes with orange flavoured topping

Orange flavour cakes with chocolate topping

Chocolate cakes with tiny bits of chocolate orange mixed in

Could be topped with:

Piece of chocolate orange

Chocolate curls

Chocolate buttons (40 pence for a bag from Tesco)

Grated Orange Rind

I could even attempt:

Chocolate Roses

Marzipan Oranges

The Right Icing Bag

I had used icing bags before in the past, but not with any great success, so I needed to up my game and learn a bit about icing.  I knew the basics; how to bake a cake, how to make butter icing and fondant goes on top.  I had no idea about anything else.

*Not my actual tin, but one just like it

I got myself an icing bag with plastic nozzles from the super market and vowed to practise.  However, I then got taling about it with a work friend and she mentioned icing pipes and offered to lend me hers to see if I got on with it better than bags.  I was immediately online looking at icing pipes and later searching where or where could I buy one that day, thus allowing me to go home and make more cake. One trip to Argos later and I had my tala icing pipe set.