Thursday 7 October 2010

Say it with Cake - Happy Birthday (to me !) GUIDE



Happy Birthday to me
Happy Birthday to me

So ridiculous to make yourself a birthday cake !!

Basically, it was just a good excuse to have a practise run for making Oliver a cake later in the month for when he turns two.

I've NEVER used fondant to cover a cake before - so there was always going to have to be a first time.....


I designed our first Say it With Cake WORD mould (CAKE) a couple of years ago - and it has proven to be very popular with our customers. You can see a guide about it here. A few months ago, I introduced some other word moulds - HAPPY, BIRTH and DAYS.

You can either put the words together to get a HAPPY BIRTHDAY, CAKE DAYS, HAPPY DAYS - or mix and match as I have done to make SARAH. You can easily cut the silicone word cakes up into individual letters for easier use when mix and matching.

I always knew that everyone would want "other" letters to make words and names that these four WORDS moulds cannot complete. The logistics behind producing these has been awkward and very costly.... However, it's been in the pipeline for some months now and you'll be able to get your hands on them soon !

Individual letters and numbers are going to all be available. It will work out a bit more expensive per letter than buying the combined letter sets HAPPY, BIRTH, DAYS and CAKE. Where possible, I'd suggest you might want to start with a core word, chop it up and buy the additional letters required singly. 



The individual letters and number moulds are starting to come out of production. They will not be available for sale until late November and at the moment estimated price will be around £1.50 per letter / number.


Ideal for making personalised cakes. Little effort required, as they look SUPER just dusted with icing sugar and filled with jam and cream. I'm hoping to get my hands on the first ones off production in time to make an "Oliver's 2nd Birthday" cake at the end of this month.... or something along those lines


Do be warned - you'll need to make a cake board from plywood or similar and cover it for more than 4 letters, or opt for acrylic as I've done. I've had a selection of acrylic cake boards made for my own use from Trent Plastics - who will cut to size as required. They were not expensive (this one was just £3.50). To do CONGRATULATIONS which is a really long cake, you would be best to use a 1500mm x 200mm board which in acrylic is just £10.62. Pretty good value if you ask me !


To make the above cake, I cheated a bit. I got some premix from the local commercial bakery to try - it's what they use as a genoise sponge base to make all their celebration cakes. Basically, you just weigh out the premix and add oil and water. Mix with a wooden spoon for a minute or two and it's ready.

It actually tastes great and drastically cuts down the work. I'm thinking about stocking it after Christmas to sell in pre-bagged amounts. It would be ideal for using with big cakes such as the giant muffin and the castle for making birthday cakes - as making massive batches of home made cake mix can be terribly time consuming.

I made up just enough for 6 letters - which gave me one letter to use as a practise piece.


Here is a baked letter B in the mould. Always grease (I like to use butter) and flour the mould before use for easy release.


After the cake has suitably cooled, I used a serrated bread knife and carefully sliced the domed top off to level the underside of the cake, as the bottom should become the top.


I made a template strip from a piece of card the same depth as the mould. After rolling out the fondant, I placed this on top and cut out a big long strip to use for the edges of the cake. I brushed the cake with warm jam and then applied the edges. Letter S was the hardest. I had to use a skewer and a teaspoon handle to coax the fondant into the inside curves of the S.


I then drew round the outside of the silicone letter mould and made a cardboard template of the actual letter. This could then be placed onto fondant to cut out the shape.


After cutting out the letter, I placed it on top of the cake with sides already attached. Using fingertips and some cold water in a bowl - I smoothed over the icing until the joints fused and all but disappeared.


After that, it was time for a little extra decoration with some stamped fondant shapes and edible glitter. My fondant looks a little orange peel like - but I'm sure I'll improve with practise !

 I put the cake in our spare room last night to hide it. Oliver hasn't seen it yet - but he'll love helping to blow out candles later once he gets up. As all the toddlers at nursery have been having birthdays over the last few weeks - he sings Happy Birthday at least several times a day since he's learnt the words and tune :-)

Sarah-Jane Nash (another year older !) - silicone bakeware mould specialist cook shop - http://www.siliconemoulds.com/

27 comments:

  1. Happy Birthday to you and all the best! The Cake Word molds are real cute ;D

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  2. This is fantastic!!! I dared nt try fondant when I made teh word cakes because I thought it might be fiddly. BUT YOU did it!! amazing Sarah. And such a pretty cake too. HAPPY BIRTHDAY dear Sarah! :):):)

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  3. happy birthday whit a wonderful cake!

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  4. happy b'day again Sarah, oh you have done a beautiful cake for urself :)

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  5. happy birthday to you!!! those molds are really a lot of fun, what a nice way to say happy birthday to someone!

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  6. Clever, clever! It's a great cake for your birthday! Happy belated birthday!

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  7. thank you all for the kind wishes.

    I've been very spoilt and have a house full of flowers and a spangly red kitchenaid mixer ! :shock:

    I really had fun doing this - although not as tidy as I would like. Hopefully I'll improve with fondant with some practise. Can anyone tell me how to get it totally smooth ?

    I want to make a big long one for Oliver's birthday at the end of the month...

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  8. Your birthday cake is darling! What a great idea.

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  9. Happy belated birthday - firstly I am JEALOUS you got a Kitchenaid and should be sulking but I'm chuffed for you. Secondly how FAB are those letter moulds. I want to spell out (can you guess) cupcakes! They are so cute. And your fondant is great!

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  10. thank you.

    It was my first go with fondant and it worked a lot better than I thought it would.

    The Kitchenaid is sat in the cupboard and getting twitchy as it's not yet been used. Poor thing should be on display - but I need to decide what to chuck out first !

    I can't believe it's almost a week now and I still haven't used it. Saying that, I've had a lot on the last week and I'm tired. However, I've got a few things I'd like to make very shortly so the mixer will be coming out very very soon.

    Glad you like my letter moulds. You'll all see a lot more of them I'm sure. :big grin:

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  11. Happy Belated Birthday Sarah!
    And your cake looked great!

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  12. Just recently recieved my "CAKE" Mould, Cant wait to try it out and Bake my "cake".. Really great moulds...I will be back to buy some other shapes too... I cant wait for the individual letter moulds to come out...
    Im so glad i found your shop on ebay... The best mould i have seen... Thanks...

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  13. Anon - thank you :-) The letter moulds all arrived in on Monday, but we are still unpacking as there were thousands upon thousands of moulds. Should not be too long !

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  14. i will follow you. i would say, say it with sarah jane cakes. i too have a kitchen aid. had it 4 2mths now. keep looking at it, saying tomorrows the day i,m gonna use it. have,nt got there yet.

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  15. i have a daughter-in-law to be, called sarah. it would be her birthday/engagement party soon. would like to make something special 4 her. also go u have any cake tins in the shape of a football stadium.need one for october time.

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  16. Love your cake moulds will be buying them soon as my grandson in 2 in July and I want to make him a no 2 cake

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  17. June - We have a large football stadium cake mould now. It's in our online webshop at www.siliconemoulds.com . Small single portion version (6 cells in the mould) is also available

    Nobles - the letters and numbers are great fun. A 2 on it's own is not much cake though - about the same as 2 cupcakes. These are designed for several to be used together to make names and ages / words etc

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  18. I made 'Freya is 14' for my daughter's birthday. I used 5 eggs for the mixture but had some left over to make little cakes with too! All the girls at the party were VERY impressed.

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  19. I done 'Ellodie' she absolutely loved it as did her cousins and Aunties, Uncles well all the family lol

    Really appreciated you sending out the cake recipes as it was my first time doing it.

    Thank You and keep up the good work :D

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  20. Hi, you mention the board for 'congratulations' was 1500 x 200mm - can you let me know wht thickness you opted for? Also what sort of length piece did you use for your 'Oliver 2' cake? Thankyou!

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  21. I'm pretty sure you would need a board about 600mm wide. I've got 3 board widths I use which cover most appliactions. 500, 750mm and 1000mm As they are clear, I can put two together if requried.

    Mine are 6mm acrylic. You could use a piece of covered hardboard or some stiff cardboard covered in foil as an alternative

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  22. I have just ordered the whole alphabet from you as my daughter said she wanted her name on her cake this year and I found you! What's really weird is that I have the same name as you, also with a son called Oliver and my birthday is at the start of October and his is nearer the end of October! Think I was really meant to find your site! Well done on the fab products!

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  23. I found your site after my daughter wanted her name on her cake this year. I've ordered the whole set from you as I think they will come in handy for more cakes. What's really strange is that I'm also called Sarah, with a son called Oliver and my birthday is at the start of October and his nearer the end of October! Well done on a fab product!

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  24. Hello Sarah

    I'm sorry - I only just spotted this message !

    How funny ! I'd love to see your Sarah and Oliver cakes :-)

    Happy Baking x

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  25. im sorry, where can i buy this letters to make my own cakes? thanks for the help

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  26. If you go to our website www.siliconemoulds.co.uk and search for letter you will be able to buy from there.

    Thanks!

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  27. Please visit www.siliconemoulds.com and search for letter...you will be able to buy from there.

    Thanks

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