Mr Eddie Spence MBE

For my birthday I was given a cake decorating course at Peggy Porschen Acadamy (http://www.peggyporschenacademy.com/), where the renowned master of royal icing, Mr Eddie Spence MBE, was to teach royal icing techniques.

I have never really worked with royal icing before - and my few previous attempts at piping straight lines or butterflies have produced noting but shaky and sad looking results!

Also, Mr Eddie Spence makes the most spectacular, intricate and delicate neo-classical/Wedgewood-type designs - so not my style :-) Consequently, I really wasn't expecting much to be gained from the course - except the utter pleasure of spending a long weekend in London with Johan. I was wrong!

Mr Eddie Spence is a kind old man with a great sense of humour. But most importantly, he is a superb tutor - enthusiastic, positive, kind and very patient. And he makes piping artful creations fun (though it is hard and difficult), and he installs a feeling in his pupils that piping is the most important thing in the world.

I had the best day at Peggy Porschen Acadamy - and now, I shall go into the kitchen to pipe a sea full of fishes and sea horses!

P.S: this is Mr Eddie Spence MBE

Birthday cake for me

As always the case when I  organize a dinner party (or anything else for that matter), things generally turn out completely different than expected and this year for my birthday was no exception:

I was looking forward to serving up a gourmet dinner, consisting of a 10 course meal in the privacy of our own home. I had found a chef to cook the meal (so my mother and I would not have to do any cooking or serving). Regrettably, the chef turned out to be a very shifty character - totally unreliable - so at the very last minute I ended up making reservations at Grønbeck & Churchill (http://www.gronbech-churchill.dk), and I found my self baking a cake!

The cake was a regular layered cake with chocolate mousse and chocolate ganache. As there was very little time the decoration left a lot to be desired......

Circus tent cake (with sugar clown)

Our upstairs neighbor has a daughter. She's a tiny little thing, with a enormous temper and a distinctive preference for colours and circus.

This lively girl turned 2 years old this past weekend, and when her mother suggested to me, that she did not feel up to baking a cake for the birthday party, I readily offered my cake making services (voluntarily and free of charge).

She seemed ever so relieved and grateful, that I didn't tell her, that I offered to do the cake for purely selfish reasons: I so wanted to do a circus tent! Unfortunately, it didn't turn out at all the way I had imagined it - strange how that seems to be the case with cakes as with live!

The cake is four layers of Victoria sponge, orange syrup and raspberry butter creme. Very yummy!

The clown (which I was actually quite pleased with) is 100% sugar.

New Year's Eve cake

Imagine spending a whole year doing exactly what you want to do - every day. Imagine waking up every morning, thinking that this day is going to be close to perfection, because you get to be present in the moment of today without worrying one second about tomorrow. Rather a luxury? Or perhaps an improbability? Either way, I can honestly say, that that was what 2012 was like for me. Not a small thing, I guess. And the year ended in champagne and a delightful little homemade marzipan ring cake (kranskage).

A new year has just begun, and I imagine that for me 2013 will mean less freedom and less cake baking, but I have now doubt that the coming year holds all kinds of new possibilities and adventures for all of us. And that it will be great!

Christmas tree

Merry Christmas everyone.

The cake consists of "P's brown cake": which is 100g syrup, 100g sugar and 100g butter melted in a pot (remember to stir), when the sugar/syrup/butter has cooled down a bit, add 2 tablespoons cinnamon,   1 tablespoons clove and 1 tablespoons cardamon. Add 250g flour. Dissolve baking soda (natron) in buttermilk and add to the dough. Bake for 30 minutes at 180 degrees.

The cake was cut out in 6 circles (9cm, 8cm, 7cm, 6cm, 5cm and 4cm diameter) and the circles were "glued" together with butter cream made with 100g unsalted sugar, 1 1/2 dl icing sugar, orange zest, and vanilla.

Birthday cake

Our daughter, Caroline, turned 1 year yesterday, which obviously called for a cake.

Regrettably, the month of December is (as you are probably aware) a busy month with very little room for play in the calendar, so I  didn't have much time to do Caroline's cake, so it had to be a very simple decoration.

It was a layered cake with strawberry syrup, strawberry mousse and chocolate ganache. Very nice!

Suitcase and book cake

A father, grand father, husband, author and lover of Rome turned 70, and as he is the father of a very dear friend of mine, I had promised to do the cake...

The cake was Victoria sponge, lemon syrup, butter cream flavoured with cocoa, chocolade ganache and marzipan. Apparently, it went down very nicely :-)