Shortening?

Being a self confessed Pinterest addict, I am always frustrated by the lack of South African ingredients, instructions and resources. One of the most elusive ingredients for me has been Crisco vegetable shortening. Most of my favourite recipes include this strange and illusive substance. Butter has been my substitute in most instances, but I have always yearned to find out what this magical ingredient would do to my creations.

While shopping at one of the larger retailers, low and behold, I found a tiny 125g block of Holsum solid vegetable fat – Eureka! I have since used it in both my buttercream icing and marshmallow fondant. It is awesome and I’d say essential for the fondant. However, do not substitute it into pure buttercream icing. It tastes disgusting. It makes for fabulous piping and sets beautifully hard but I don’t think I could eat a cake made and filled with this icing, it really is quite terrible. I may use a little in my buttercream for the stability but I’ll be sure to disguise it with lots of butter and vanilla essence.

Homemade Fondant

I used this recipe to cover
this cake. Not for the flowers

Up until recently, I have always purchased my fondant at Bake-a-Ton in Pinetown. Their Premium Icing brand is tasty and easy to use. However, it does make the cake quite expensive. I promised myself that I would try to make my own fondant at some point. 

 

I had a cake order for one of my customers this past week and I used the opportunity to test this Marshmallow fondant recipe:

 

Ingredients

- 450g marshmallows (I had to sort the pink and white ones from two large packets. I got about 500g white ones)
- 3 tablespoons of water
- 1kg icing sugar
- Holsum vegetable shortening

First rub everything that is going to touch the fondant with a generous amount of shortening. This is a messy job and the shortening helps to keep the ingredients together. Don’t forget the spoons and all the bowls and the dough hook of the mixer.

Put 4 cups of icing sugar into the greased bowl of the mixer.

Melt the marshmallows in a big bowl with 3 tablespoons water. Microwave the marshmallows for 1 minute at a time stirring in between each minute. Once the marshmallows are completely melted (no lumps) you can add colouring at this point if you need a specific colour.

Add the marshmallows to the sugar and put the mixer on low.

Gently knead in most of the rest of the icing sugar.  Keep some aside for hand kneading later.

Test the fondant until it doesn’t stick to your fingers anymore. Add sugar until you reach this point.

Tip the fondant out onto a clean greased counter top or silicon mat. Hand knead the fondant using the rest of the icing sugar. Add water or microwave it for a few seconds if the fondant starts to crack or add sugar if it gets too sticky.

When you think the fondant is ready, test it by pulling it apart. It should stretch a little then break apart. If it is very stretchy, add more sugar.

Wrap it up in plastic wrap and refrigerate overnight to set.

This fondant isn’t suitable for modeling as it doesn’t harden particularly well but it is very well suited to covering cakes.

Baking Bread

Fresh bread, who can resist?  I am determined to add bread making to my baking repertoire. After all, it looks so simple, just a few ingredients, a bit of kneading and some time in the oven. Ja right! I think perhaps I chose the wrong recipe for my first few attempts. I am keen to be able to bake a nice big white sandwich loaf but it seems like this is probably one of the most difficult types of bread to make. The yeast needs to be just right and I don’t think that instant yeast will work for make a really nice light loaf.  The loaves I made tasted good but were very cake-y and dense and very small. After three failed attempts I gave in and tried easier recipe.

Now, beer bread is way easier to make, the kids made this loaf and it turned out beautifully.  We are going to make this whenever we have a braai. It also made mouthwatering toast.

Ingredients:
330ml bottle of beer
1/4 cup white sugar
3 cups flour
3 teaspoons baking powder
1 teaspoons salt
1/4 cup melted butter (to brush on top of loaf while baking)

Instructions

1. Preheat your oven to 180 degrees.
2. Grease a small loaf pan with cooking spray.
3. In a large bowl, mix together the sugar, flour, baking powder and salt.
4. Slowly pour the beer in and mix.  The dough will be quite sticky, but this is correct.
5. Transfer the dough to the loaf pan and leave it to rise for 30 minutes
6. Bake in the 180 degree oven for 45-50 minutes, brushing with melted butter halfway through the cooking time. Bake until the top is brown and crunchy and the center is soft.

The Birthday Cake Legacy

I blame my mother…. each year on my birthday my mother would create my birthday cake and every year the cake was better than the previous years. I would impatiently wait in my room for the big reveal and be led blindfolded to the kitchen to be wowed with my Mom’s latest handiwork.  This was in the years before we had Pinterest and the internet for inspiration!

When my first little princess’ birthday came around, I realized that it was essential that I continue the tradition. How hard could making a cake really be?  Lets just say that that first attempt at a simple heart shaped cake was a disaster and a disgrace to the legacy of my mother’s birthday cakes.

I decided at that point, that I would learn to make beautiful cakes if it killed me! Fast forward to today, I think I have achieved my goal of being able to create a decent birthday cake. I have even sold some of my creations for a small profit. 

Here are some pics of the evolution of my cakes: