Basically Pastry: Christmas cakes

It was a hot summer Christmas here in Melbourne but I tried to make it cooler with white christmas snowmen cakes.

I spent one whole morning making the snowmen and the rest of the little decorations. These little figurines will sit on top of fondant wrapped chocolate mud cakes, some on little cupcakes and also fruit cakes.

My first snowman was a little short and it took a while to make. By the forth and fifth snowman, it was much easier and also they looked cuter too. All my snowmen had blue eyes and a big smile. Some had green scarves, some blue scarves and some red ear muffs. I made little trees and presents too.

I baked a few small chocolate mud cakes for friends. Each cake had chocolate ganache filling and covered with ganache before being wrapped with fondant. Each cake was a little different but all had the same theme of snowman sitting with presents.

It was so difficult to find the right boxes for the cakes. The cake is only 4" wide but the height was about 5" with the snowman sitting on it. We went hunting for the right box one whole afternoon and couldn't find one that was right. In the end, we decided to just have them in food containers. Not very pretty presentation but no other choice.

I got to see the inside of one cake and I am pretty happy with the layering. Seems quite even and the ganache wasn't too thick. The cake was quite moist too. I hope they enjoyed the cake.

The inside of the cake

My cousin's son who turned 3 in December told his mom that he wanted a purple donkey cake. He has pretty good imagination and was very sure of what he wanted. I thought I will give it a go at making a purple donkey for him. It wasn't perfect but I think it looks pretty much like a purple donkey. It was hard to make the figurine when the weather outside is 35˚C. The donkey keeps getting fatter and flatter. I think the birthday boy liked it so that is good enough for me.

The last batch was for Christmas fruit cakes. There was a request to make a layer of marzipan and then fondant. So that was exactly what I did. Instead of using raw eggs in the marzipan, I used meringue powder and also added some brandy into the marzipan. The cake disappeared quite quickly on Christmas day.

It was great fun making the cakes. If only the weather was a little cooler, I think it will be easier to make the fondant.