You guys!!! This Homemade No-Knead Bread Loaf is the easiest bread recipe you will be ever making!!
All you need to do is mix, proof, transfer to baking pan and bake – it is that simple! Proofing the dough in the Instant Pot is a great hack to efficiently and quickly get your bread from the oven to table!!
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These weight watchers 2 ingredients bagels recipe is the need of the hour!!
This no yeast 2 ingredients bread dough is so versatile that it can be used to make – pizzas, calzones, bagels, buns, pretzels and lot more in about 45 mins from start to finish!!
…This homemade White Bread recipe from scratch makes a light, fluffy, soft and incredibly tall bread loaf that is perfect for sandwiches, toast, or simply with butter and jam.
All you need is basic pantry ingredients and 5 simple steps to make this Sandwich Bread from scratch right in your own kitchen in just 2 hours.
…Say Hello to our latest Indian fusion cake – Gajar ka Halwa Cake.
This Indian Carrot pudding cake is incredibly moist with soft crumbs, layered with an Indian sweet inspired melt in your mouth cream and then topped with a classic Indian dessert – Gajar ka Halwa. Learn how to make a rustic egg-free Gajar ka Halwa cake in a step by step tutorial format in the post.
When I was pregnant with Shlok, my son, every single week I used to ask my mom to make Gajar ka Halwa aka Indian Carrot Pudding for me.
I had it so many times, especially when made in our trusty Instant Pot. Btw, she loved it too for the ease of making it.
So obviously being a baker the thought of making a Gajar ka Halwa Cake crossed my mind as I had already made a fusion cake in the past – Gulab Jamun Cake.
I tried to make it on several occasions like :
My husband’s birthday – was pregnant then so couldn’t
New Year’s Eve – my son was just born, a week old so couldn’t.
My Birthday – started prep, layered and frosted the cake in the morning suddenly got severe pains and had to rush to the hospital, admitted for 4 days and had to throw the cake out.
Finally made it for a special occasion.
Living in a country for so long that it accepts you as theirs. My husband is now a Kiwi.. so had to celebrate it with a cake.
Here is how to make Indian carrot cake from scratch:
Well, you can use any of your vanilla cake recipes as the base here.
Just replace the vanilla essence with rabdi essence.
Or follow my recipe for the eggless vanilla cake and just replace the vanilla essence with rabdi essence as we did for our Gulab Jamun Cake.
I always divide my cake batter in 3 – 6″ cake pans.
If you are planning to buy cake pans, always prefer aluminium and I would also suggest you to buy the one with push pan (if you want just 1 type to begin with), as that would serve the dual purpose that is for baking cakes as well as cheesecakes.
Shhh.. don’t let anyone know that this is the secret behind a moist cake.
A cake that stays fresh for 3 days you know it has been soaked with sugar syrup.
So I would suggest not skipping this step.
At the same time do not end up soaking it too much or else the cake would be wet and not moist to taste.
To make this simply mix equal quantity of sugar and hot water until the sugar is dissolved.
Cool completely and use this on the cake (step 2 from the image below).
There are 3 layers that make the filling of this Indian fusion cake – Whipped Cream (step 3 from the image below), Gajar Ka Halwa and Salted Pistachios (step 4 from the image below).
Usually, I make a separate batch of cream for filling and frosting.
That is because I use stabilized whipped cream for frosting whereas for the filling I prefer just good old cream and sugar.
However, for this case, I just made a simple whipped cream (cream + sugar + essence) for filling as well as frosting as we went for a Rustic look instead of a frosted cake.
I have a detailed recipe in pictorial as well as video format on how to make gajar halwa in Instant pot – Instant Pot Gajar Halwa
Do check that for detailed recipe, instructions and tips.
Or feel free to use your Mum’s recipe or even store-bought would work.
Finally, top everything off with salted pistachios and repeat the layers till you reach the top.
The salted pistachios add a nice crunch and texture and also helps in cutting down the sweetness.
Do a crumb coating and let it chill in the refrigerator.
Now, this is where I decided to stop and give a rustic look to our cake.
To be honest, I seriously had no time as we had to rush to the ceremony and I also had my now 2-month-old waiting for breastfeeding. 😀
(But I loved how this turned out to be 😉
You can, however, go ahead and do a final frosting as I did in most of my cake recipes and follow the cake decoration.
Once chilled, I decided to decorate the cake with some ganache, fresh flowers, macarons, whipped cream, dried rose petals, crushed pistachios, edible silver foil and chocolate spheres.
To make the ganache, simply add hot cream to chopped chocolates, combine until smooth.
Wait for it to cool and then pour it on the cake.
For making the Chocolate Sphere, you would need melted chocolate.
If you are new to baking or using an Instant Pot, I have an amazing post to walk you through how to melt chocolate the right way in a stove-top or in an Instant Pot.
Trust me, I love the latter – it is indeed one of the best Instant Pot hacks you could ever come across.
Pour the melted chocolate (image 1) in silicone moulds. The one that I am using is the smaller size one of around 2 inches.
I do have the bigger ones too which I use to make chocolate bowls for serving custard and fruit salad or sometimes even ice-cream.
But my all-time favourite way is to serve this yummy 2 ingredient chocolate mousse in chocolate cups – always a party hit.
Once filled just flip the moulds (image 2) to remove the excess chocolate.
Run a bench scraper on top to smoothen the edges (image 3) and allow it to set at room temperature.
Once set, take it out carefully (image 4). Some might break so definitely a better idea to make excess.
Add some gajar ka halwa (image 5) into it and apply some melted chocolate on the ring of semi-sphere (image 6).
Top it with another half sphere to make it a complete chocolate sphere which is now filled with gajar halwa.
I also made a marble effect. The video tutorial would be a better way to understand it.
Check it out in the recipe card or from our Youtube Channel.
Oh by the way talking about Youtube – do consider subscribing to our channel as I post new baking and dessert recipe videos every single week.
And Instant Pot Desserts and Bread are always a hit there 😀
Now that all the decorative elements are ready simply place it on the cake as you prefer.
Or you can choose your own way of decorating the cake – check out this Cake Decorating Ideas board on Pinterest I am sure you will be in cake heaven.
IF YOU LIKE THIS RECIPE OR HAPPEN TO TRY IT THEN SHARE YOUR EXPERIENCE BELOW IN THE COMMENTS BY GIVING IT A STAR RATING OR LET ME KNOW BY TAGGING ME, TWEETING ME OR INSTAGRAM ME. I WOULD LOVE TO CONNECT WITH YOU AND YOUR POSTS.
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Here is how to make Gajar Ka Halwa Cake from scratch
If you are a fan of Indian sweets or desserts then this Gajar Halwa Cake is a must try.
This Cake is
Feel free to check out more Indian flavoured cakes like Gulab Jamun Cake, Butterscotch Cake and Fresh Fruit Cake.
I will see you soon in my next one.
Until then
Hugs
Sushma
The only 5 simple steps you need to know to make the best Homemade Bagels recipe that is dense, soft and chewy on the inside and crusty on top, right at the comfort of your kitchen in just 1 hour.
This post has got you covered with all the tips, techniques, different variations in a step by step video tutorial format.
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Statutory Warning – This Instant Pot No Knead Bread flavoured with cheese and herbs is gonna make you so addicted that you would end up coming back to it again and again.
Grab a coffee and follow along this dutch oven bread proofed in Instant Pot is the only ultimate guide to bread making you will ever need.
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This Buttercream Flower Cake is an easy floral design cake perfect for any occasion – Wedding, Birthday or Anniversary. Making buttercream flowers is easier than you think.
In this tutorial learn how to make this beautiful Cut-Out Cake decorated with hand-piped buttercream roses that cover the detailed tips and tricks on piping tips, buttercream frosting consistency and the one way to get it right EVERY SINGLE TIME!!!
After going through the tutorial of this floral buttercream cake, I believe that you will become more confident with frosting the cake and trying the Watercolour Buttercream Technique, piping simple buttercream flowers and finally adding the magical touch to make your cake look straight out of the bakery or even better.
Even though I will be discussing a lot of factors in depth in this post, I would still recommend you to go through two of my earlier posts on the Buttercream Series which will help you even more namely:
Now before you even start to make the frosting for making the cake, I would highly recommend you guys to check out my tips for how to make the perfect Buttercream Frosting. In this post, you will find answers to all your questions namely:
The major take-aways from this particular post will include:
Since I have covered the majority of the things in the two mentioned posts, I will not repeat all those points once again or else this post would become too long and it might happen that I might miss writing the other things you need to know or you are so bored by the length of the post that you just GO BACK!!!
So WAIT.. please don’t leave just go through this and I promise that you will find what you came looking for. 😀
Things you will need:
With your frosting ready in the piping bag fitted with the petal nozzle start by squeezing just a bit of it directly on the flower nail. This would act as a glue for the parchment paper to stick on and won’t allow the paper to move while you are piping the buttercream flowers.
Start by piping a dollop of the prepared buttercream frosting in the centre of the nail to create a bud. This would just look like a blob at the centre.
Next, go a 360° round around the blob of frosting closing the inner blob to represent a bud.
The inner-circle should have exactly 3 petals. The technique of making the petal involves creating an arch from left to right overlapping the first arch.
The next circle should have 5 petals. The technique remains the same. And one more thing is that start by creating a smaller arch at the beginning and then increase the size as you finish the petal.
Let the flowers chill in the fridge until set.
Watch it in the video format would be even easier.
For the sake of decorating this Buttercream Flower Cake, I have just made roses of different sizes. The primary colours used in making the roses are pink, peach and yellow.However please note that the video has 3 additional flower-making procedure which would be super helpful too. 😀
As a beginner, it would totally stress you out when you just begin to make your first buttercream flower. Be patient here, with a little practise you will get there. And I promise by the end of making 5 flowers you will gain the speed you need.
But here are certain tips and pointers to keep in mind while making the roses. Not only roses this will work for other flowers too.
Once you pipe the flowers you need just place the parchment paper squares on to the cookie tray. Place the tray in the freezer for 10 mins.
And when they are frozen (becomes super easy to handle), simply place them in an airtight container. You can even stack them one above the other.. Nothing will happen till they are in the freezer.
Once they are out of the freezer, make sure to separate the flowers as they tend to thaw pretty quick and would then stick to each other.
However, if you are planning to use the buttercream flowers on the same day itself then simply chill them in the fridge until set no need to freeze in that case.
You can store the buttercream flowers in the freezer for up to a week. Nothing will happen if you store more than that but I haven’t tried storing beyond that point and so won’t recommend too.
Yes definitely.
That’s the whole point of me writing this section and also mentioning to make this easy Buttercream Flowers right at the start.
Make the buttercream flowers 2 to 3 days prior and store them in the freezer as mentioned above.
For this Buttercream Flower Cake tutorial, I have made use of my go-to simple Vanilla Cake Recipe.
I have used 1.5 times of the recipe and baked it in 3, 6-inch cake tins for the same time interval.
Once cooled trimmed the top off and applied my simple syrup so that the cake remains moist all the time.
Filled with my all-time favourite smooth and not so sweet Vanilla Buttercream Frosting and Tutti Frutti and also frosted the cake with the same frosting just dyed it peach.
To give the watercolour technique simply take the frosting of your choice and colour it as you like. I have used pink and yellow colour.
Using a spatula apply the colours at random places on top of your cake. Once you are happy with the colouring, take a spatula and smoothen it out in one or two go maximum so that the colours remain distinct.
If you would go on smoothening the frosting then the colours would blend with each other and would not remain distinct.
Chill it for 10 to 15 mins makes it so much easier to work with while you reach the decorating part.
Always make the frosting more than what you think would be needed.
Apart from the filling and frosting you also need frosting to make the flowers. So keeping that in mind make sure you always have excess in hand. I hate it when I am just about to finish the cake and realise that there are no more frosting left.
For this particular cake, I used nearly 600 gms of butter and 1500 gms of Icing sugar from start to finish.
Now that you have the required buttercream flowers ready and the cake is also chilled and ready and placed on the cake board of your choice, time to decorate the cake.
Using a sharp knife, (Insider’s Tip: I like to dip my knife in hot water before slicing any cake for clean cuts) cut the cake halfway keeping the end portion still intact. (Refer the video)
With the help of the spatula or a knife move the half slices to the edges of the cake board creating a centre gap.
Using the same frosting, frost the now exposed sides of the cake. This would also act as a medium or glue for our buttercream flowers to stick on.
Using a leaf tip and green coloured frosting make leaves on the centre end of the cake where the cake is still joint to each other.
Now look at your buttercream flower sizes and place them on the cake in the colour pattern you like or according to the space available.
Do not worry about the little gaps that you can see we will fill those up too.
So once you are happy with the placements of flowers, using tip 1M make hydrangea flowers on the gaps that are super evident.
Finally, add some leaves using the leaf tip to cover up any faults or still exposed cake parts.
To add the magical touch, place some butterflies on the cake, add edible gold glitter and sprinkles.
Voila, the most beautiful cake I have made until now. What do you all think?
Besides making the Cut-Out cake you could also have chosen to simply place the flowers on top of the cake to make a wreath design. Buttercream flower wreath cake is quite a popular cake design trend too.
While placing the roses on to the sides of the cake some of them might fall. Do not panic simply press the roses a little harder to the frosting and it will stick. If not add some frosting to the back of the rose and then place it.
I hope you guys found my detailed post on this Buttercream Flower Cake Tutorial helpful and you are now at least a tidbit confident about making a three-layer cake.
If so then definitely do share your thoughts with me on Facebook messenger or Instagram or Twitter. I would love to hear from you guys.
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I will see you soon with yet another recipe
Until then
Hugs
Sushma
I am sorry for making you addicted to bread baking at home, because once you make this soft and chewy Whole Wheat Pita Bread at home then there would be no looking back..
You would totally get addicted to its flavour and would keep coming back for more!!!
In this vegan pita bread post, I will cover details on:
Now I would try to keep this post short and cut it down because all the tips and tricks and the methods that I have discussed in my Pita Bread post applies to this as well so I will try not to repeat the same and try to share few additional information instead.
And hence if you have not already gone through my earlier post I would highly recommend you guys to look into it now or maybe after you read through this recipe. Here is the link to that post.
Pita Bread basically falls into the category of flatbreads from the Meditteranean Cuisine.
The pita bread dough has similar ingredients like other flatbreads such as pizza dough or a naan dough, the little techniques used to make this dough is what gives the Pita Bread that characteristic puff and that pockets is then used to fill hummus, veggie or meat filling, falafel and dipping sauce.
Stay tuned because the 6 steps and tricks mentioned in the post would definitely help you make a Pita Bread on your own.
If Pita bread itself is so amazing then why make it with whole wheat?
To be brutally honest with you, I have made this homemade pita bread just on the request you guys made on the video. I like to enjoy bread or cakes made of Plain Flour or Maida more than ones made using Whole Wheat.
However, I must respect your thoughts and opinion too right.. so if you ask for a whole wheat pita bread recipe I would definitely share it.
Moreover, whole wheat flour is easily digested by our body as compared to plain flour and also it is said that whole wheat flour has more iron and nutrients comparatively. Does that answer your question; is pita bread healthy or is whole wheat pita bread healthy?
Well, I for one do not believe that everything made using whole wheat is healthy. Let us not get into that debate as for now, but rather let us enjoy making pita bread at home.
Now that you know what is pita bread, time to look into the Whole Wheat Pita Bread ingredients – which includes the usual flour, yeast, salt, sugar and water.
I have already discussed each of them in detail in my previous post so skipping it now and moving on to the next step. In place of plain flour or maida mentioned in that post we are using whole wheat flour here.
So let us now have a look at:
Like any other yeast-leavened bread, to make a soft Whole Wheat Pita Bread you will have to follow the same steps of bread making – Kneading, First Proofing, Shaping, Second Proofing and Cooking.
So that brings us to our first step.
Did you know each and every bread has an optimum temperature after kneading? And to get that optimum temperature we need to have the liquid required to make the dough at a specific temperature.
Pheww…
And the temperature of water for this Whole Wheat Pita Bread dough has to be around 90-100 degree Fahrenheit.
The second thing to note is that if you are using Active Dry Yeast in place of Instant Yeast then you need to activate it first before adding to your mixture.
To make this dough, we will add all our dry ingredients – flour, salt and sugar in a bowl and give a mix. Dissolve your yeast in the water and add this to the dry flour.
Combine together until all the flour is hydrated.
Dust your worktop with some dry flour. Transfer the dough to your worktop and start kneading.
This is going to be a really sticky mess to begin with but keep on dusting and keep on kneading. After about 10 mins add olive oil and kneed again. It took me around 25 mins and almost 1/2 cup of more wheat flour to get a soft, smooth and tacky dough.
Once again I would refer you guys to check my previous post on Pita Bread as to how to knead the dough right way!!
Grease a bowl with oil. Transfer the dough into it and allow this to proof for 2 hours.
And this is where my new found love – Instant Pot comes in play. Instant Pot Bread is suddenly a rage now and I can totally see why.
So I allowed my bread to proof in Instant Pot for 1 hour. Yes, that is the advantage of using the magic pot it literally cuts down the proofing time by half. Super handy to make a no-knead bread.. no need to wait for 6 to 8 hours for it to proof.
Yea so if you have an Instant Pot then allow it proof in the pot for 1 hour in yogurt setting mode or else proof it for 2 hours.
Next time I am gonna test the batch for 30 mins of proofing in Instant Pot.. Will test it and update the results with you guys 😀
After the first proofing, gently deflate the dough, shape it into a log and divide it into 6 balls. Or you can also weigh them to be accurate. I weighed them this time and each ball was around 75 gms.
Take a ball, tuck the sides to the base and try to give them a round shape and place it on your worktop. Cover it with a tea towel and repeat the step with the remaining 5 balls and place it adjacent to the previous one.
Starting with the first dough that you shaped, flatten it out and using a rolling pin to roll it into a circle with around 6 inch diameter.
Don’t get me wrong again to understand the why and how’s just check that post..
Once you roll the dough out, place them on a baking tray lined with parchment paper or worktop dusted with flour. Cover with a tea towel so that it doesn’t dry out.
You need the parchment paper beneath because the dough on resting seems to get wet a bit and when you try to lift it up you might unknowingly cause it to tear and then the pitas won’t puff so it is important to place them on a parchment paper.
So once rolled out, allow the dough to rest a bit – second proofing for 30 mins so that the gluten gets time to relax.
In whichever medium you choose to cook your pitas be it in an oven or a skillet make sure that it is super HOT.
The hot conditions of the oven are needed to quickly create steam which would eventually create the pockets. If the oven temperature is too low, the steam won’t cause the puff, and you’ll end up with thick pita bread.
Preheat the oven to max temperature with the baking stone inside so that the stone is also hot when you place the pitas. Within a matter of 3 to 5 mins, you will observe the pitas puffing up.
The same logic applies to cook it in the skillet too.
Apart from that, the other thing you need to note is to flip the pitas before cooking.
So the rolled portion which was the top portion would hit the skillet or baking stone first and would now be the bottom portion.
Simply place them in a tea towel stacked one above the other. This would keep them warm and soft. The tea towels would retain the moisture and at the same time letting the pitas to breathe.
Follow these 6 simple steps and I assure you that almost all of your pitas would puff.
I am saying almost because sometimes the pitas just don’t puff
Yea even after following all the tips and steps sometime the pitas won’t puff. Don’t get disheartened.. It took me 2 attempts to perfect my pita making skills 😉
Even though it doesn’t puff the base would be still so soft that it makes an excellent base for pizzas. Or simply dip them in hummus and enjoy.
Or bake them again to make pita chips and enjoy with dip of your choice.
Now a heartfelt thank you to all of you who watched my Pita Bread Video and shared your thoughtful and meaningful comments on the same.
Even though I tried to reply to each of you, after a point it was just not possible, extremely sorry about that but definitely, I have read all your posts and few questions that were asked frequently in that video and that is what I would like to address in this one.
It is called Tawa. Basically, it is an iron skillet that I got from India. I am pretty sure you can easily find it in any of the Indian stores near you or you can also choose to order it from Amazon.
So on a scale of 1 to 9 on my gas stove, I heat it on 7. After about 5 to 8 mins when I place my hand a few inches above the skillet I could feel the heat on my palms and that is when I reduce it to 5. And then start cooking my pitas.
You will have to initially test 1 or 2 pitas to understand your gas flame.
I do not use oil while cooking the pitas.
And neither do I oil it separately.
What I mean is every time I wash the skillet, I put it back on the flame to dry it and once dried add in a tbsp or 2 of olive oil and using a paper towel simple spread it all over the skillet evenly and then heat it up until it smokes. Switch off the flame and store it once it is cool to touch.
Basically, that is how I store my iron vessels to avoid the formation of rust.
And that oil which is already present on the skillet is the only Oil I use apart from that I do not add any extra oil while cooking.
I will divide the section into three parts.
First, let us see how to store the pita bread dough?
Simply transfer the dough to an airtight container. Store it in the refrigerator for upto a week. Just pinch out 1 or 2 balls or depending upon how much ever you need for the day and proceed with the steps mentioned in the recipe.
How to store partially cooked pitas?
Well, I would not recommend this method, to begin with.. Because when you cook the pitas on one side and flip to the other side it automatically starts to puff immediately which means we would end up cooking it completely.
So I have not tried it successfully and hence would not recommend it.
How to store cooked pita bread?
You can store cooked pita bread in the freezer for up to 3 months.
Just place a parchment paper in between each pitas. Wrap it with an aluminium foil. Put it in a ziplock bag with correct labelling and then store it.
I personally use the following method to revive my day old Pita’s.
Simply cut the pitas lengthwise like you normally do.. Then using wet hands just dab dab dab the water onto the pitas on both the sides. Place it on a microwave-safe plate and microwave for 10-15 seconds.. and you will have a perfect soft pita as fresh as new ones 😀
Since I just made a small batch of pitas the other day I could not film this portion using pita bread as nothing was left out. So I am using a regular Indian flatbread – Lachha paratha as an example here in the above pictures. Sorry about that guys.
Due to the puffy pockets it gets while cooking or baking, it is usually used as a medium to stuff things in.. The common thing that you would find in all kind of stuffings is a salad.. Other than that you can use any filling like kebabs, falafel, eggs, the meat of your choice just anything you like..
Any sauce or condiments like a different flavour of hummus, tzatziki sauce, basically something to keep it moist.
You can also cut it into triangles add some spices, bake it until crispy to enjoy it like chips.
Yes, you can add any dried herbs or spices to flavour the dough. Just add in along with the dry ingredients itself be it while making regular Pita Bread or this Whole Wheat Pita Bread.
With all those things in mind, let us see how to make Whole Wheat Pita Bread
Whole Wheat Pita is considered to be a healthier version over its plain flour counter part.
To me in terms of taste and texture both the pitas were equal.. there was not much difference.. both were soft, chewy and flavourful.
Only thing is that I had to knead it for a longer time as compared to the plain flour ones.. but I would say that is a good exercise 😀
The homemade Whole Wheat Pita Bread paired with hummus, falafel, tzatziki sauce and balela salad was one flavourful combination.
Few other bread recipes that I think you might love:
If you thought that this post was informative then definitely let me know by tagging me, tweeting me or Instagram me. I would love to follow you and your posts.
Pin this to your Bread Board on Pinterest.
I will see you soon with yet another one.
Until then
Hugs
Sushma
Peppa Pig Birthday Cake – a cake that would help you win over that cute, innocent and naughty little kiddo.
A step by step guide on how to make a number cake without any number tins or pans, rather made using a round cake which is then filled and frosted with whipped cream and decorated with Peppa pig cake toppers.
Raise your hands if your kids spend their evening time watching Peppa Pig on Youtube!!!
It is my daughter’s current favourite show so when it was time for her birthday, I had already known what was coming – A Peppa Pig Birthday Cake.
So this year on Yoshana’s Birthday her cake has a little bit of everyone’s liking.
She wanted a Peppa Pig Cake – Check
Daddy wanted Pineapple Cake – Check
And mummy wanted to try a number cake – Check.
Haha.. yes a little bit of all our wishes are there in her cake.
Have used my evergreen Pineapple Cake recipe. A detailed recipe for all the components of pineapple cake has already been shared so you can check it out by clicking here.
For a better understanding of the assembly of this Number 3 Peppa Pig Birthday Cake, I have divided it into 6 steps which we will go through one by one in a detailed way.
Starting with the first step would be to actually bake the cake and layer it right.. 😀
To make this Peppa Pig Cake, I have baked 2 “7 inch” pineapple cake.
Divided it into 3 layers each. So in total now I have 6 layers of cake.
Placed the base layer on the cake board. Then filled it with whipped cream, pineapple compote, tutti-fruity and choco chips. Place the second layer on top and repeated the steps until I reached the very top.
Using the same whipped cream that I used for filling I have now crumb coated the cake as well. Allow it to chill for a minimum of 30 mins.
All these steps are explained in a more detailed manner in Moist Eggless Pineapple Cake blog post. You can also find the detailed recipe from there.
However, the cake flavours totally depend upon your personal liking. You can also go for plain vanilla cake, chocolate cake or chocolate caramel cake etc or as per your client’s needs.
I would advise to place the 2 cakes side-by-side and do each step simultaneously. This would save a ton of your time.
These days home baking, cake baking and cake decorating has gained so much popularity and grown so much that there are new trends and techniques coming up every other day. Be it the cake popsicles or alphabet cake some trends have taken the internet by storm.
One such trend that I have been observing for a really long time has to be covering the cake board to match the colours, theme or decoration of your cake.
It was not very popular when I was a child. Growing up I have never seen this but now you can see it everywhere.
So for our Peppa Pig Birthday Cake, the concept that I choose was that the family goes to a park to feed the ducks and also sit and relax, play and eat together.
This is one activity that the three of us often do in fact every other weekend I must say.
For which the cake has to be green in colour with grass piping and hence I decided the base that is the cake board to be in sky blue colour with sun and clouds around.
And hence I rolled out blue fondant (or mix some blue food colour to your white fondant and use) to the size of my cake board.
So after rolling some portion of it on my worktop I placed the fondant on my cake board and rolled it over to adjust to its size tucking just a bit underneath the board so that I could also cover the sides of the cake board.
Alternatively, you can also choose a ribbon to tie on the sides of the board. Set this to dry overnight.
It is actually hard to explain the way to cut your cake in plain words.
So I have shown a diagrammatic representation of the same on a paper which I am attaching here for your reference. Or you can also refer the video below for an even better understanding.
Once you have cut the round cake as shown in the pictures simply place them on your blue cake board to form a number 3 shape.
As mentioned I wanted the cake to resemble a park set-up. And hence to pipe on the cake I used a grass tip. Wilton Nozzle no 233 to be precise.
Using my favourite stabilized whipped cream frosting coloured in green and flavoured with pineapple, I simply piped the grasses all over the cake.
However, it was difficult to reach the nooks and corners or to say the inside portion of the cake that is the curved part. So to cover that portion I used a piping bag fitted with a small round tip or nozzle and then simply do random piping all over.. Yes, it would look more like noodles than a grass effect 😉 but still will look good in the end 😀
You do not have to do this. In place of the water effect, you can also make a small puddle and place your pigs there if you wish.
But in this case for making the Peppa Pig Birthday Cake as per our theme or concept, what I did was, melted some white chocolate, add a drop of blue food colouring along with few drops of oil. Combine it all together. Transfer to a parchment paper cone and just make a random drawing of a lake or pond. Just become a child again.. hehe..
Another detailed video that you must check out has to be how to melt chocolate the right way.
Now I do not consider myself an expert in making fondant designs yet so I have not included the steps or method for making all the cake toppers.
However, here are few Youtube links that I referred to make my cake toppers.
Not including any link for making the sun because it is so simple. Just cut out the round shape using a cookie cutter and thin strips for the rays.
And then place them on top of your cake. Place the sun and clouds on the cake board.
That’s it our Peppa Pig Birthday Cake is all done and dusted.
Here is the link to the Peppa Pig Birthday Cake video.
I won’t say this Peppa Pig Birthday Cake tutorial is a simple or easy recipe for that matter.
Yes, a bit time consuming and need some practice but totally worth the happiness on the face of your friends and family 🙂
This was a personal and special post for me.
Every year I look forward to this time to create something beautiful and special for my daughter believing it to stay as a fresh memory forever. On her first birthday, we did a Little Krishna Theme party. You can check all the details of the same from here.
Last year on her second birthday we were in India so I could not make anything special for her.
Hope I continue to create more beautiful memories for her through the medium of food.
And I also hope that you guys enjoyed the tutorial too. I know it is not a perfect cake but still a special one forever.
If you ever recreate this then do let me know by tagging me, tweeting me or instagram me. I would love to follow you and your posts..
Pin this Peppa Pig Birthday Cake tutorial to your cake decorating board
I will see you soon with yet another one
Until then
Hugs
Sushma.
Buttercream Flowers is one of the easiest and the prettiest way to decorate your cakes or cupcakes. In this post find the exact steps to make not 1 or 2 but 5 different buttercream flower cupcakes decoration in a step by step pictorial as well as video tutorial format.
For the ease of convenience, I have divided this flower making tutorial into two posts –
The most common type of Buttercream that works best for making a buttercream flower cake or buttercream flowers cupcakes has to be the American Buttercream Frosting. I have shared a detailed post on how to make the perfect buttercream aka Buttercream 101 in a separate post. Definitely check it out before we start making the flowers.
Being sturdy enough to hold on the piped flowers, American Buttercream is most preferred frosting.
The other frosting that you could use can be Swiss meringue or Italian Meringue Buttercream.
However, I would like to bring your attention to my latest addiction – Condensed Milk Buttercream Frosting which is also known as Russian Buttercream Frosting. Oh my God!! If you haven’t tried it yet you should right away.. just 2 ingredients and it tastes so yum, silky smooth and just delicious.
This according to me is the best buttercream for piping flowers on a cupcake.
And the flowers that you make out of this are so smooth, silky and has an amazing shine to it. Also, it is subtly sweetened keeping the balance, unlike American buttercream which is just uber sweet and also has a crusting finish.
Other softened buttercreams like French is just not suitable for piping flowers.
Apart from buttercream, I have seen flower cupcakes made out of non-dairy whipping cream too. I have not tried it yet and also let us focus on buttercream frosting for today’s recipe keeping the whipped cream for some other day.
If you were to use the buttercream for filling and frosting the cake you would prefer light and fluffy frosting that would melt in your mouth.
However, to make buttercream for flowers, you should have the cream to be little denser and stiff so that it holds the shape beautifully and does not fall off.
The denser consistency helps eliminate air bubbles and pipes thinner petals with really nice, crisp edges.
To achieve that a method similar to that of making Korean Buttercream Flowers is followed wherein the butter and meringue are cold and then whipped until smooth.
I am yet to try that method so for today we will stick to using room temperature butter and condensed milk to make this condensed milk buttercream frosting for cupcake decorations.
I will share the method of how to make buttercream roses step by step format using American Buttercream in my Part 2 series.
Coming to the consistency of our Condensed Milk Buttercream frosting it should be just smooth and silky, you absolutely don’t need to chill or refrigerate it.
Now that you have made a perfect Buttercream that is smooth and glossy and you also have saved it from licking straight away from the bowl 😉
So now let us use this buttercream icing for piping.
And you would definitely need some piping tips for the same right!! So I have divided it into 3 categories – Basic, Ninja and Pro.
Basic as in the tips that you must own for making basic and simple buttercream flowers like Tip No 103. This is the most commonly used tip for making roses especially. With this same tip, you can make so many flower designs.. I have shared two today but this is one of the basic versatile tips that you need.
The other basic tip to include in your collection is Tip 68 – Leaf Tip.
I agree that buttercream cupcake flowers on its own look beautiful but with a little accent of leaves here and there it looks even more realistic.
Tip 1M is one of my go-to tips for cake decoration. It is just perfect to pipe Buttercream Hydrangea.
Coming to the Ninja category would be Tip no 120 or Tip No.122 These are similar to the 103 tips just that it is curved and that one is straight.
So this is a perfect tip to make a closed bud for rose flowers or even peony.
Another tip that I would include in the Ninja Category would be Tip 349. This is a variation of leaf petal tip that looks so pretty when piped <3
Now, these are not must-haves in your collection but with these, you can try different flowers other than the rose like CHRYSANTHEMUM or Dahlia.
Again let me clarify I have not categorized these on the skill levels but actually on the must-have basic tips to some which you can buy at a later stage too.
Please Note:
All these tips number are from Wilton range of piping tips. However, I do not own Wilton piping nozzles whereas mine is a collection of 24 nozzles set from a nearby local store. That means even you do not need to buy branded nozzles, to begin with 🙂
To make realistic and beautiful looking simple Buttercream Flowers I like to go with lighter tones of rose pink, yellow or simply white.
The ones that you actually get in the bakery is actually too dramatic unless that is what you want to make like a really white cake and red rose – perfect for Valentine’s but otherwise I would prefer light or the ever trending pastel shades.
When it comes to colouring less is more. So always start with a drop of buttercream or simply dip a toothpick in the colour of your choice and transfer that to the buttercream and mix well.
The main reason to do this is that when it comes to colouring buttercream or any frosting for that matter, the colour darkens upon standing. So no matter what shade you begin with the next day the flowers would look a shade darker than what you actually started with.
I have always used Gel Food Colours to colour my buttercream and I would recommend the same to you. The advantage of using gel food colours is that Gels are usually water-based which makes them a bit softer and being softer consistency makes them easier to measure in specific amounts like for example you can squeeze out one drop at a time.
So finally, let’s get started with buttercream flowers tutorial
Tip No: 27
Buttercream Colour: Yellow and Brown
Start by applying a base coat of yellow colour onto the sides of your cupcakes.
Holding the piping bag at an angle say around 30 degrees to the cupcake, apply some pressure to release the buttercream, leave the pressure while dragging the piping bag towards you at the same time to a height that you are satisfied with to create a pointed end. Repeat the process to complete one circle of petals on all around the cupcake.
Holding the piping bag at an angle would give the petals a lifted look. You will be applying this little trick to all the other cupcake flowers too.
To create the second layer of petals, the starting point would be the centre of two petals. Refer the attached pic below for clear understanding. Again this would be the same trick for all the other flowers too.
Repeat the above step to create this inner circle of petals.
PRO TIP: Reserve some yellow colour buttercream to make the pollens inside. Isn’t that supposed to be brown?? Ya simply add brown colour to it rather than making a separate one from scratch. I found this trick also helps reduce wastage. 🙂
So for piping the pollens we would use a small star tip say Tip No 13 and simply pipe the centre of the cupcake.
And there you have it beautiful Sunflower Cupcake.
This is one of the easiest and my personal favourite way of decorating with buttercream. Looks so intricate and complicated right with the purple petals and simple while centre but you will be surprised to learn how easy it is to make one.
Tip No : 1M
Buttercream Colour: Purple and White or plain
To a piping bag fitted with your nozzle add in the purple buttercream. With the back of your spoon spread the buttercream onto the sides of your piping bag creating a hollow centre.
Fill in the hollow centre with plain or white coloured buttercream.
PRO TIP: In your mixing bowl squeeze out a bit of the buttercream until you actually start seeing two-toned colour coming out.
And then to make the flower pattern on the cupcake, simply apply pressure to release the buttercream. In this case, there is no need to drag them.
Just like magic, you would get that purple petals and white centred effect.
Feel free to combine any colour of your choice 😀
Not sure what these flowers are called since we are using petal tip I have named them so.
Tip No: 103
Buttercream Colour: Rose Pink
Pro Tip: When you reach the inner circle make sure to pipe in odd numbers by counting to exactly 5 or 7 petals.
To pipe this petal flower cupcake we need to follow an inverted “U” shape pattern. So starting from the left-hand side apply pressure to make an arch coming to right-hand side creating an inverted U shape. Continue the same pattern throughout the circle.
Make 3 circles in total.
In the inner circle make sure to count to 5 or 7 and then just pipe the bud using the same nozzle
I had also used this method to make a pattern on the entire cake once while I was making a Pineapple Cake for a friend. Attaching the picture of it for you guys..
Tip No : 81
Buttercream Colour: Purple
For making this particular flower you will have to start by applying pressure drag upwards but while releasing, release it in a curved motion so that it stands upright..
Repeat the entire circle until you reach right to the centre.
Please remember to change the angle with each inner circle so that by the time you reach the centre it is almost 90 degrees to the cupcake.
Tip No: 103
Buttercream Colour: Rose Pink
Start by piping a dollop in the centre to create a bud.
The first inner circle has to have 3 petals. The technique is like creating an arch from left to right overlapping the first arch.
Likewise, the next circle needs to have 5 petals. Create small petals in the beginning and as you reach the very end the petal size increases.
And that was the 5 different Buttercream Flowers that we were trying to learn today.
One of the best things to make with buttercream flower cupcakes is a bouquet. Start by covering the cake board with fondant. The pattern to arrange the cupcake flowers is 2-3-2. That is first place 2 cupcakes, then 3 cupcakes below them and then 2 cupcakes to create a circle of 6 cupcakes with 1 cupcake in the centre. Roll the green fondant to create stems. Cut out green fondant using leaf cutter to make leaves or simply pipe using a leaf tip. Gift to your mother this mother's day and make her feel special I hope you found this tutorial post helpful.
If you recreate any of these flowers or if you found these instructions informative then definitely let me know by tagging me, tweeting me or Instagram me. I would love to follow you and your posts.
Pin this to your cake decorating board
I will see you soon with yet another one
Until then
Hugs
Sushma.
