BIRTHDAY CAKE FOR MY GRANDDAUGHTER

It is my granddaughter's birthday on the 11th and as usual it is granny's task to decorate a birthday cake.  Cake decorating has been one of hobbies for years - at one stage when my children were small I did cake decorating and later gave classes in cake decorating for extra income.  Now it is mostly birthday, wedding and christening cakes for my family.

It is her 5th birthday this year and the theme a baking party.  With her mom working full time we are fortunate to have a childrens birthday party franchise who does everything.  They have a variety of themes to chose from. Their website for ideas www.crazychameleon.co.za/.

At first it was going to be a little chef with some baking items on the cake, but then I was told that my granddaughter has decided to have "Ratatouille" as her theme for the baking party.  I asked my "laundrybasket" daughter to design a cake and below is her design.

Naturally she thinks that I am a super granny - well I started on the decorations and will show photos as I progress.

I then thought it a good idea to share some of my easy recipes for cake decorating items.

Easy pastillage recipe

Pastillage is used to make decorations such as houses, the cano on the photo below, wooden logs, etc .

Pastillage is a sugar-based dough used for decorating and creating decorations for pastry, showpiece work and decorative molded forms. The dough is much like clay or play-dough where you can knead it and roll it out. Pastillage is worked then allowed to dry, setting up to a hard, sugar-based decoration.

There are many recipes and mostly very involved recipes.  This pastillage recipe is easy to make and works wonderfully.

Royal icing prepared from 1 egg :

1 large egg white

1 teaspoon fresh lemon juice

1,5 cups Icing sugar / confectioners sugar

Beat the egg white lightly with a fork, add spoonfulls of sugar to the consistency of a smooth paste. Add the lemon juice.

To this add 1,5 teaspoon  of  either Gum Tragacanth (if available) 

or Petal powder (in South Africa Jem Petal Powder is available - a thickener for sugar paste consisting of Sodium carboxymethylcellulose)

I see another powder used is Tylose powder.

Add more Icing sugar / confectioners sugar until a mouldable consistency.

This pastillage must be kept in a plastic bag and an airtight container at all times.

The pastillage can be coloured as needed and rolled out eg for the walls of a house, moulded into any shape - there are many uses for this.

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Gum paste  

This is a soft moulding paste which is used to make flowers, clothing for dolls, etc.

I used it to mould the head and legs of the turtle and the tipi.

There are also very involved recipes - but this is a very quick and easy recipe and works very well.

250 grams ready made fondant icing

2 teaspoons gum tragacanth / Petal powder

2 teaspoons egg white

White vegetable fat / shortening

Mix the gum or petal powder and the egg white into the fondant until well mixed.  Rub your hands with vegetable fat or shortening.  Mix together until pliable.  Store in a plastic bag in an airtight container. 

This paste actually works better after leaving it to stand for a few days.

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Below are photos of other cakes that I have made this year:

A turtle cake for my youngest grandson's 2nd birthday.

An American Indian cake for my other grandson's 3rd birthday.