Ombre Wedding Cake Tutorial

I had the exhilarating task of making my SECOND wedding cake this year for my dear friends, Darcy and Elyse. The Bride sent me some inspirational photos of soft iced cakes and a colouring concept that I wasn't familiar with - ombre. While the faded colour of this cake may look challenging to achieve, it was actually really easy to pull off. Just make sure you do some bicep exercises leading up to the task because all that icing killed my arm!

Soft Iced Ombre Buttercream Wedding Cake - How to.

What you'll need.
2 x batches of butter cream icing (divided into 5 batches)
Bowls
Large flat blade cake spatular
Gel colouring in your chosen colour

Start by filling and stacking your cakes, then cover in a thin crumb coat. Use uncoloured butter cream for this. Pop in the fridge to set.

While your cakes are in the fridge, start colouring your icing. I used four colours for my cake, fading from an off-white on the top down to a bright pink on the bottom. The best way to achieve the faded colour range is to work from the top/lightest colour down. You can always make you're icing darker, but it's harder to fix/lighten the icing once coloured. Don't start colouring the next batch of icing until you've managed to get the colour before it right. Try not to make the shades of icing too far apart, as they will blend and mix into each other once you put them on the cake. Also, don't forget that you will need more icing for the darker/base colours as there is more surface area to cover!

I'm trying to achieve a soft and textured look, so I don't have to worry about evenly icing the cake. Start by applying a thick layer of icing in your darkest colour to the bottom half of your base cake, I used a small butter knife to do this. Repeat with the second colour. 

Once the cake is covered in both colours, start to even out the icing with your large flat blade spatular. You will notice that once you start to smooth and even out the icing, the two colours will blend together slightly which makes the colours look as though they're fading into each other.

To achieve the rustic, soft iced look, I take my large flat blade spatular and hold it at a slight angle so the tip of it cuts into my icing as I spin my cake turntable.

I'm really happy with how this cake turned out - and so were the Bride and Groom, which is the most important part! It can be a little bit fiddly, but the overall look is so romantic and rustic. Well worth the effort!

And because it was by far the most beautiful wedding I've ever had the pleasure of attending, there is a lil' video I put together (all shot on my iPhone, hence the crappy quality!) But you get the idea - this video DOES NOT do the wedding justice, it was absolutely stunning!

Congratulations, Darcy and Elyse!! xxx



Darcy & Elyse's Wedding from Kimberley Burrell on Vimeo.

My Best Friend's Wedding.. cake.

Once upon a time one of my nearest and dearest married an amazing woman. And they lived happily ever after. The end.

(but seriously, full wedding details and ombré wedding cake tutorial coming soon)

Murray's Bagels, New York.

It’s 12.07am AEST and I’m about to eat breakfast. I’m not an insomniac. I’m in New York. It’s ok to be jealous. 

Many hours of research has revealed that Murray’s Bagels on 6th Ave has perfected the NY bagel. I’m no expert on the subject. But I’m great at pretending. 

10.07am. Get in line with half of the West Village. Peruse the extensive menu. Practice your order over and over in your head.. ‘Cinnamon bagel with strawberry cream cheese, cinnamon bagel with strawberry cream cheese’. Repeat. Reach the front of the line. Forget your order. Say the first thing that pops into your head in a heavy Aussie accent. Repeat your order minus the accent. Collect your plain bagel with eggs and bacon. 

Regardless of the ordering mishap, I am chuffed with my spontaneous choice. The plain bagel is chewy with a dense bread flavour. Yet the insides are somewhat light and fluffy. See those little holes in the bagel? I’m pretty sure that’s the sign of a perfect bagel. Fluffy. Yeah, I’m an expert. And the bacon is oh so crisp. You don’t want chewy bacon on a chewy bagel. It’s all about the textures, and this bagel has all of them. 

A sweltering summer is currently edging closer to  NY, and the coffee here is CRAP, so drink it cold. It helps. 

Ignoring my better judgement, I brave the line again and order the cinnamon bagel. It’s like a giant, chewy hot cross bun slathered with cream cheese that is punctuated with chunks of real strawberry the size of your face. Perfection. 


Murray's Bagels
500 Avenue of the Americas, New York.
www.murraysbagels.com

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Vote for me! The 2012 Ultrabook Pedestrian.TV Blogster Awards

So check this out.. I'm currently in New York, sitting in the living room with a friend drinking wine and watching the Bachelorette (thank god for trashy American reality TV!) and I get an email from a friend in Sydney telling me that I've been listed as a finalist in the 2012 Ultrabook Pedestrian. TV Blogster Awards! THAT SHIT CRAY! 

I'd love if you could pop over to Pedestrian.TV and give my blog a vote. It's been a turbulent year for me, but to be recognised as a finalist in these awards is such an amazing feeling. I really can't express how much I love reading your comments and sharing my passion with you all. 

And in the meantime, i'll be tweeting all about my NY adventures with some local eats posts to come soon. But to tie you over until then, here is a pic of dinner that my friend, Lauren made last night. And a pretzel. The dinner was yummy, the pretzel was gross.

Thank you all!


KayB xx

Bye Sydney. Hello New York.

If you follow me on twitter you would have noticed my recent ramblings about various overseas travels I have planned. Well, the first of said trips is finally here! Tomorrow morning I fly out of Sydney, headed for New York City! I'm going to be hanging with my very cool friend, Lauren. That's us singing dino karaoke at Jurassic Lounge in Sydney some many months ago. There probably wont be dino karaoke this time. Who am I kidding, there might be. Don't be hating, we're totes cool.

So I need your help. Local and international friends - please send me your top New York eats!! I have started compiling my list on urban spoon with special thanks to my dear friend StarLoz, but I'd love YOUR suggestions as well. 

I'll do my best to update you on my eating adventures while I'm away. Otherwise you can expect a multitude of NY posts upon my return (I'll also be live tweeting and instagraming pretty much the whole trip! Check out my personalised hashtag, courtesy of Jonathan #suckitbitchesiminny THANKS JV! ). In the meantime I'll be livin' large in the big apple! See you all very, very soon.

KayBx

kaybscakes@yahoo.com

Chocolate cake for skinny people

My dear surrogate mother, Mumma Fish, recently had a birthday. She also recently lost like, a billion kilograms. Ok, not that much, obviously. She always looked fabulous, but now she looks crazy skinny fabulous. I wanted to make her a 'healthy' birthday cake but then I remembered that healthy is boring. So I made my super moist chocolate mud cake and put fruit on it, because fruit is healthy. And when you pair fruit with chocolate, it cancels out the calories. That's just science, really.

 Make yourself a super moist mud cake, then slice it in half. Make a big bowl of ganache. 2 parts dark chocolate, 1 part pure cream. We want this ganache to set hard.

 Fill the middle of the cake with ganache.

 Keep filling.. 

 Grab some luscious, plump, juicy, sexy berries. Wash and set aside to dry off.

 Ganache your cake. We're going for a rustic look, no need to be fancy.

Pipe a border to hold in all the fruit. If you don't have a piping bag, just use a thick plastic sandwich bag and snip off the corner.

  Pile on your luscious, plump, juicy, sexy berries.

 Add more berries for decoration. Dip them in melted chocolate. Or white chocolate. Whatever takes your fancy. You could dip them in sprinkles as well. Yeah, do that. I wish I had sprinkles. 

 Add more chocolate. Just because. 

 Serve on a vintage, sliver cake stand with matching candles (note: cake stand and candles are optional. You could just eat it with a spoon, standing along in your kitchen. That would work well too). 

Attempt to claim a large portion of the cake by licking a selected area. This is called 'dibs!' as demonstrated here by silly surrogate sister. She lost a small section of her tongue doing this. Kidding.

The St Kilda Galleon Cafe, Melbourne

Galleon Cafe in St Kilda is my all time favourite place to eat in Melbourne. I've been fortunate enough to travel all over Australia, both for pleasure and work. Because of all this travel, I have eaten a lot of breakfasts from all different places. I therefore believe I am in the perfect position to make the following statement. Hands down, Galleon Cafe serves the best eggs benedict in Australia. Seriously. Perfectly cooked eggs every time, creamy hollandaise sauce, all served on a lightly toasted bagel. Pure bliss. Do yourself a favour and get a sweet potato hash brown on the side as well. You wont be disappointed. Care to offer a rebuttal? I'd love to hear your thoughts on the matter..  where do you think the best eggs benedict are served?

Studying the menu closely. Just get the eggs benedict, damn it. Silly girl.

Honey served with your tea. Forget the sugar, get organic. Drink some bonsoy. Do it now.

Oh, behold the gloriousness. Just sit and look at it for a little while. Ponder life over the perfect eggs. (Eggs Benedict with homemade hollandaise sauce and leg ham, one egg $11 or two eggs $13. Sweet potato hash brown $3.50)

Pancakes are also a tasty option. But don't skip the eggs. Have the pancakes for dessert after your eggs.  (Pancakes with lemon butter and strawberries, $12.50)

Poached eggs, vegetarian style. Also good. (Sweet potato, basil and feta hash served with wilted spinach and one poached egg, $13. Side of Hollandaise sauce, $1.50)

Ok. You've waited long enough. Bust open your eggs and behold the gooey goodness. Savour. Enjoy. Return many, many times over.

The St Kilda Gallon Cafe

9 Carlisle Street  

St Kilda VIC 3182

(03) 9534 8934

http://galleoncafe.com.au/

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