WILTON FONDANT AND GUMPASTE COURSE FINAL CAKE

FONDANT CAKE

CARROT CAKE

Another one of my daughter's delicious sweets. As I don't like the buttercream, I really liked this cream cheese frosting she made to use for her carrot cake.

CARROT CAKE

2 cups flour
1 cup sugar
1/2 cup packed brown sugar
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon baking powder
1 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon cinnamon
1 cup cooking oil
4 eggs
4 cups shredded carrots
1 cup raisins (optional)
1 cup chopped walnuts (optional)

Preheat the oven to 350 F degrees. Sift the flour into a bowl and mix with sugar, brown sugar, baking soda, baking powder, salt, and cinnamon. Add the oil and eggs to the flour mixture. Mix on low speed first until the flour is moistened and then turn the mixer to medium speed and mix until all the ingredients are just combined. With a spatula fold in the carrots, raisins and walnuts. Scrape the bottom of the bowl to make sure everything is evenly blended. Fill a 9x13 inch baking pan 1/2 full with the batter and bake 50-55 minutes until a toothpick inserted in the center of the cake comes out clean. Let the cake cool on a cooling rack before you frost it.

CREAM CHEESE FROSTING

Two 8-ounce packages of cream cheese- softened
1 stick butter- softened
2 cups of powdered sugar
Vanilla sugar
Zest of 1 orange

Add everything in a large bowl. Mix on medium until the forsting is smooth and fluffy.

Frost the cooled cake with cream cheese frosting. Save a little bit of the frosting if you like and color some orange and some green. Pipe carrot shapes on the cake.

TRIFLE

OK! I haven't made this yummy sweet. My daughter made it for our guests without getting any help from me. I'm proud of her!!! I must also say that it was delicious. It is a very light, perfect for summer sweet. Here is the recipe...

Other than the ingredients for the cake and the pastry cream, you will need:

1/2 cup apple juice

Around 2 pounds fresh ripe fruit such as blueberries, strawberries, peaches, kiwi, banana, mango etc...

POUND CAKE

2 sticks butter- softened to room temperature

1 cup sugar

1 teaspoon vanilla

3 eggs

1 1/2 cups flour

1/4 teaspoon salt

1 teaspoon baking powder

1 teaspoon of lemon zest (optional but recommended)

(This recipe makes 1 loaf of pound cake)

Preheat the oven to 360 degrees F. Cream the butter and sugar in a mixing bowl until fluffy. Add the eggs one at a time, beating around 30 seconds after each addition. Combine the sifted flour, salt, baking powder and vanilla sugar in a separate bowl and mix everything together. Add the flour mixture to the egg mixture gradually, scraping the sides as needed until everything mixed together well. Add the lemon zest if using and stir well. Pour the batter into a greased and floured loaf pan or a 9 inch cake pan. Bake around 1 hour until a toothpick inserted into the center of the cake comes out clean. Let it cool on a cooling rack.

PASTRY CREAM

6 cups milk

1/2 cup cornstarch

1 1/2 cups sugar

1/2 teaspoon salt

5 eggs

1 teaspoon vanilla sugar

Heat the milk in a saucepan on medium heat until it steams but does not bubble. In a separate bowl, whisk the cornstarch, sugar, salt, eggs together until smooth. Ladle a spoonful of hot milk into the egg mixture and whisk to temper the eggs. Then pour the tempered eggs into the pot of milk whisking continously until the mixture thickens and just starts to bubble. Remove from heat and whisk in the vanilla sugar.

Now you can start layering the cake.

In a trifle bowl (or a large glass bowl) layer the pastry cream, fruit, and cake (cut up into 1 inch cubes). After each cake layer, sprinkle with a few spoonfulls of juice on top of the cake. Finish layering with pastry cream and fruit on top. Cover the bowl with plastic wrap and chill overnight (at least 5 hours) for the best flavor before serving.