Spider cake (royal icing spiders)

I guess this cake came to existence because of Bjørn.

Bjørn (which means Bear in Danish) is a little skinny, timid and blond two and a half year boy, who seems to be living in a separate world from the rest of us. In this world he is always someone big and strong and slightly dangerous.

I met this little man in my daughter's nursery not so long ago, and I fell for him immediately, perhaps because he seems to like and understand my tall tails of crocodiles, octopuses and dragons that crawl up the toilet and fly out the window. One of the stories about a spider took on a life of its own, and for the past two weeks Bjørn and some of the other children in the nursery have been bringing me imaginary spiders of all flavours to eat, when ever I come to pick up Caroline.

I thought I'd return the favour and bring them spiders - not so imaginary, but very eatable:

The cake was a lovely gluten-free nuts and chocolate cake covered in royal icing and the little spiders were made from royal icing (run-out technic). I am afraid Bjørn was a little frighted by the spiders and he wouldn't eat them. I don't blame him

Butterfly birthday cake

March 20, 2013. A freezing cold wind is blowing through the streets of Copenhagen. Ice-storm coming perhaps. The sky is a grayish white blocking out the sun. The snowdrops, winter aconites and crocuses are mercifully covered in a thick layer of snow and spring is no where in sight. I don't mind. I like winter and I love snow. 

This feeling is not shared by my friend Bodil, who is longing for spring and summer, and today is her birthday, so I have made her a little butterfly birthday cake to cheer her up.

 

The butterflies are inspired by Peggy Porschen, and turned out so much better than when I first had a go at making them (see cake 1 & 2). It's nice to see progress.

The cake was a layered cake with a hazelnut creme and chocolate ganache. 

Easter letter cake (extension work)

In Denmark there is a tradition for sending out Easter letters. The letters, which are often cut out of paper in very intricate, symmetrical patterns, contain a little verse or poem, without stating who the letter is from, and the recipient then has to guess who the letter is from. The whole thing results in chocolate eggs changing hands (I don't remember the rules for determining how gets the chocolate).

I don't particularly favour the tradition of sending Easter letters, but the letters are often very pretty, and they remind me a bit of the bridge & extension work done by Eddie Spence. So I though why not try to make a Easter letter cake.

Now, this time I learned that if the Royal Icing does not have the right consistency - just throw it out and begin a new!! Somehow, I didn't manage to get the icing right, and instead of making a new batch, I tried to make do. I shouldn't have - the icing was VERY hard to control, it broke all the time and the lines very soggy, and it made the extension work look messy.

String work cake (Stork imprint)

One thing that completely blew me away, when I first read through Mr Eddie Spence's book on royal icing, was the so-called "Oriental String Work", which is ever so delicate, requires an enormous amount of precision and an unusual level of confidence, as it entails turning the cake up-side down during the piping process!

I really really really wanted to have a go at it.

Luckily for me, some very dear friends of mine invited us for dinner - and I was allowed to bring a cake........ It was the perfect opportunity to make my first attempt a creating an oriental string work decoration, as they are both remarkably kind and understanding people, and therefore would bear with me, if the decoration of the cake wasn't completely perfect. And they did!

As they had just had some very good news, I added a little stork in the center of the cake. As the poor creature looked rather amputated I opted for covering it is gold; hoping that it would look a little for majestic... I need to practice ;-)

The actual cake was lovely: A gluten free chocolate/nuts/orange cake with orange/ginger syrup.

Royal icing cake (Lemon moon / Citronmåne)

A very dear friend of mine always said "If at first you don't succeeded, try and try again", when ever she was a little less successful than she had hoped for - and then she went ahead again and did better.

I am afraid, that my first cake decorating attempt after meeting Mr Eddie Spence didn't turn out at all the way it was supposed to, and consequently, (if I am to follow my friend's example) I am afraid you will see MANY more cakes covered in and decorated with royal icing in the time to come!


The cake is a "Lemon Moon" (in danish "Citronmåne"). I have no idea why it's called that, as it is really just a kind of sponge cake with grated zest of two lemons. But a Lemon Moon cake always has a coating of royal icing on top, which is why I chose it for my first royal icing cake.