2019-06-01_Food_Heaven

BRUSHSTROKES

AND BLOOMS CAKE

SERVES 40-50

FOR THE CAKE

• vanilla sponge cake: 25cm (10in) in
  diameter, consisting of five layers,
  filled with vanilla buttercream and
  strawberry jam, and covered
  with vanilla buttercream
  TO DECORATE


• 2.5kg (5lb 8oz) vanilla buttercream
  to fill and cover the cake


• 600g (1lb 5oz) Wilton Candy Melts:
  you can use as many colours as you like,
  I used white, yellow, pink, light green, navy
  and purple


• edible flowers of your choice
  (I used roses)
  EQUIPMENT


• 25cm (10in) diameter cake tins


• baking parchment or trays


• bain-marie or microwave-proof bowl


• piping bags


• scissors


• large palette knife


• cocktail sticks

TECHNIQUES

MAKING CANDY MELT

BRUSHSTROKES, PIPING

BUTTERCREAM, USING

EDIBLE FLOWERS

+++

3

2

1

SKILL

LEVEL

SKILL

LEVEL

Juliet Sear shows you how to create sculptural pastel shards of

chocolate candy, which support the pretty roses as they nestle within.

1 To make your cake, fill and layer it,

crumb coat and cover it in buttercream (you

will need a total of 5kg (11lb) of batter for this

cake). Make sure you reserve some of

the buttercream to attach the

‘brushstroke’ decorations.

TOP

TIP

I baked five layers for this cake,

making it really tall so the

brushstroke shards could be

nice and large.

2 To make the brushstrokes, heat the Candy

Melts carefully in the microwave or over a

bain-marie until fully melted, mix up your

shades and place the coloured chocolate into

piping bags.

3 Use a spoon or a piping bag with a fairly

large hole snipped at the tip to dollop

mounds of melted chocolate, approximately

a generous teaspoon to a tablespoon in

quantity, onto baking parchment or trays (A).

Vary the sizes to give you different lengths

and widths. Then use a large palette knife

to swipe gently by holding on the top of the

chocolate (B), then sweeping downwards in

as long a length as you can, until the

chocolate becomes thin at the end and a

stroke is formed (C).

TOP

TIP

I make my own shades of candy

melts by mixing the brighter colours

with white ones to soften the hues.

4 Leave the brushstrokes to set for

10-15 minutes until they are completely

hard, before tr ying to move them (D).

5 Use the brushstrokes to decorate

your cake using the remaining buttercream

for sticking them onto the top and sides. Pipe

a little buttercream onto the cake surface (E),

then gently press the brushstroke on (F-G).

A

F

B

G

E

CD

H

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