Eazee Princess Cake

Eazee Princes Tarta, aka Princess Cake

Ingredients:

• 1/2 recipe cake
• Fluffy frosting, I prefer buttercream
• Whipped cream
• Rolled fondant
• Candy flower to decorate top (optional)

Tools:

• One 6 inch pan
• Knife
• Metal Spatula, the kind you use for cakes
• Rolling Pin
• Ribbon and Scissors (Optional)

Steps:

1. Bake a 1/2 of a cake according to instructions in 6 inch pan
    As in, the batter should be enough to fill one pan as opposed to two
2. Allow cake to cool
3. Prepare frosting, fondant, and whipped cream
4. Once cake has cooled, cut cake into thirds
5. On each layer of cake, lay on frosting with a thickness between 1/4 and 1/2 inch
6. Frost the top of the cake
7. You may or may not frost the sides.  If you choose to frost the sides, make sure the layer is quite thin.
8. Roll fondant to 1/4 inch thick
9. On the top of the cake, create a rounded mountain of whipped cream
10. Smooth the mountain using back side of metal spatula
11. Drape Rolled Fondant over forearm
12. Starting at top of cake, carefully lay fondant over cake
    You only get one chance for this, the whipped cream will ruin your fondant if you try again, so do this step very carefully
13. As best as you can, smooth sides of fondant onto cake
14. For a cleaner look, wrap base of cake with decorative ribbon
15. Place candy flower on top of cake 
16. Enjoy

This is probably the most complicated recipe I'll ever post on this site.  I made a princestarta for my mom for mother's day. As usual, I sort of just took the basic principles and did them my way. This cake is the most decadent desert I've ever tasted.

I'm not the hugest fan of the traditional white chocolate fondant, but it would be easy enough to make it. Traditionaly, the fondant is dyed green.  But why? Use any kind of cake you want, traditionally it's sponge, but plain cake is what I've loved. I can see no reason for not using chocolate or red velvet, but probably not carrot. I made my own homemade whipped cream, which I assumed would be thicker, again, I see no reason for not trying premade whipped cream, it might even be thicker.  It's important to use a softer, fluffier frosting, as a thicker frosting will clash with the whipped cream.  In the photo, I doused the cake with a raspberry simple syrup, which I intend to post in the near future, I highly recommend adding just a pop of fruit to this cake, but it truly is delicious on its own.

I really hope you enjoy this simplified cake recipe, Happy Baking!

Eazey Plain Cake

Eazey Plain Cake:

Ingredients:

• 1 c. butter, (2sticks) softened
• 1.5 c. Sugar
• 4 eggs
• 3/4 c Milk
• 2 tsp Vanilla extract
• 2 c. flour
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 1 tbsp baking powder
• Butter and flour for cake pan

Tools:

• A mixer, OR a spoon and some serious elbow grease
• Mixing Bowl
• Two 8" Round Pans or One 9x13
• Oven
• Measuring Cups
• Measuring spoons
• Spatula

Steps:

1. Preheat oven to 350
2. Grease and flour cake pan(s)
3. Cream butter, sugar, milk and eggs in bowl
4. Slowly add vanilla, salt, baking powder and combine thoroughly 
5. Sift flour into batter
6. Mix thoroughly 
7. Distribute batter evenly in pans
8. Bake in oven for 25-30 minutes or until cake is springy
9. Let cool 30 minutes
10. Remove from pan
11. Decorate as desired, or enjoy as is

I've never understood why you have to divide the yolks for a cake, white cake uses whites, yellow cake uses 8 FREAKING EGG YOLKS!!! What am I supposed to do with 8 egg whites?  So I've adapted my own cake, without troubling myself with egg separation.  And it's delicious.

Cake recipes always say to mix the liquids and dry ingredients in separate bowls.  I never understood why.  It's just important to make sure everything is blended.

Dark Chocolate Rolled Fondant

DARK CHOCOLATE ROLLED FONDANT

Ingredients:

9 oz. Dark Chocolate

1 Tbsp. butter

1 lb Rolled Fondant

7tbsp light corn syrup

Water

Cocoa Powder for Dusting

Tools:

Pot

Heatproof bowl

Spoon

Plastic Wrap

Steps:

1. Set heatproof bowl over pan of water with 9 oz dark chocolate
2. Bring water to boil, stirring chocolate
3. --Be sure not to allow any water into chocolate, or the chocolate will become ruined
4. Once chocolate has melted, add butter
5. Remove bowl from pot
6. Stir in Corn Syrup
7. Cover in plastic wrap 4 hours or overnight DO NOT REFRIGERATE!!!!
8. Knead chocolate mixture to soften
9. Knead into rolled fondant until soft and pliable
10. Either wrap in plastic and refrigerate, or continue to step 11.
11. Dust flat surface with cocoa powder (to avoid white marks on chocolate fondant)
12. Roll Fondant 
13. Lay over frosted cake
14. Eat your Cake already

I wanted to make a Swedish Princestarta, which requires white chocolate fondant.  Martha Stewart's website seemed to have the only useable rolled white chocolate fondant recipe, which I obviously altered to include NO cocoa butter. In my mind, if I have to go somewhere special to buy the ingredient, it probably won't happen.  Martha Stewart's recipes seem to be a bit complicated for my taste anyhow.  I often tone them down. 

Anyway, I prefer dark chocolate to white chocolate, so when I bought white chocolate to make the fondant, I wondered how dark chocolate as a fondant would be, and IT WAS FREAKING DELICIOUS. This makes a cake look so rich, and quite frankly it tastes that way too.

Obviously, the only difference between this and my white chocolate fondant was the kind of chocolate I melted.

DO NOT refrigerate this until you've combined the chocolate and the rolled fondant, or it's stuck in the bowl for eternity.

Eazee Rolled Fondant Recipe

ROLLED FONDANT:

Ingredients:

1 packet Gelatin

1/4 cup water

7 tbsp light corn syrup

2 POUNDS confectioner's sugar (note POUNDS, not cups)

Corn starch, powdered sugar, or flour for dusting

Tools:

Measuring cup

Tablespoon

Pan

Non Metal Bowl

Sifter

2 wooden spoons or spatula and spoon

Plastic wrap or baggie

Heavy rolling pin

Steps:

1. In pan or pot, soak, DO NOT HEAT, gelatin in water for about 5 minutes.
   --you want the gelatin to just plump a bit
2. Turn the oven on low, and heat the gelatin in water, just enough to dissolve, DO NOT BOIL
3. Add corn syrup to hot gelatin while still in pan
4. Set aside to cool 
5. In large non metal bowl, sift 2 pounds of confectioner's sugar into bowl
6. Create dip in center of sugar
7. Pour gelatin mixture into powdered sugar, scrape as much as you can
   --at this point, I recommended soaking your pan or pot in hot water immediately, otherwise, you'll be forever cleaning up the sticky mess
8. Combine ingredients USING THE SPATULA OR SPOON
   --if you use your hands, you will be stuck to the glue like substance forever
   --use the spoon or spatula until you can't use it anymore
   --do not scrape the spoon with your fingers, use the other spoon or the spatula
   --I'm serious, this stuff turns into glue if you don't fully saturate the gelatin with powdered sugar
9. Once the gelatin is completely mixed into the sugar, knead with spatula until you can't bear it anymore
10. Make sure the fondant is not sticky at all before touching this with your hands
11. Knead dough with hands until pliable
    --if mixture is sticky, add corn starch or powdered sugar 
12. Wrap fondant in plastic or put into plastic bag and refrigerate for at least 8 hours or overnight.
13. When ready to use, take fondant out of refrigerator at least 15 minutes before desired use.
14. Again, knead fondant until pliable
15. Sprinkle corn starch, flour, or powdered sugar on flat surface
16. Roll fondant until 1/4 inch thick
17. Lay over frosted cake
18. Enjoy your cake!

I hate how so many recipes have these incredibly long narrated introductions, I usually end up reading them afterwards anyway, so HERE's my intro.

I love the look of fondant and the ease of decorating with it, but I was sick of paying through the nose for it. I took inspiration from the food network's recipe, but I was not about to buy GLUCOSE or GLYCERIN.  My motto is, if I have to make a special trip just for the ingredient, I'm not using it. So I tried using corn syrup alone, and it came out just fine. 

 The recipe also says not to refrigerate, but, I have no idea why. 

 I've also used a much simpler buttercream fondant recipe that is delicious, but it seems to crack far too easily.

You can also add flavoring, I tried 1 tsp of vanilla extract twice and I prefer to put it in just before step 3 (corn syrup).

If you want color, knead a few drops of food coloring into fondant just before use until blended.  I recommend gloves.

My biggest word of caution lies in the stickiness of this process.  I warn you, DO NOT touch the fondant until almost all of the 2 lbs of sugar are saturated by the gelatin.  You will end up with a glue like sticky mess.