Carol Deacon - Fabulous Party Cakes and Cupcakes

If you have trouble obtaining cake equipment or materials including fondant (sugarpaste) one of the following companies may be able to help.

UK

Culpitt Ltd

Jubilee Industrial Estate
Ashington
Northumberland
NE63 8UQ
UK
Tel: +44 (0) 1670 814545
www.culpitt.com

Design a Cake

30 / 31 Phoenix Road,
Crowther Industrial Estate,
Washington,
Tyne & Wear,
NE38 0AD
UK
Sales: +44(0)191 417 1572
Enquiries +44(0) 1914179697
www.design-a-cake.co.uk

Renshawnapier Limited

Crown street
Liverpool
L8 7RF
Tel 0151 706 8200
www.renshawnapier.co.uk

Squires Kitchen

3 Waverley Lane
Farnham
Surrey
GU9 8BB
UK
Tel: +44 (0)1252 260 260
www.squires-shop.com

USA

Beryls Cake Decorating & Pastry Supplies

PO Box 1584
North Springfield, VA 22151
Tel: 1-800-488-2749
Fax: (703) 750-3779
www.beryls.com

Wilton

Wilton Industries
2240 W 75th St
Woodridge
IL 60517
Tel: 630-963-1818 or 800-794-5866
www.wilton.com

If you have any problems or get stuck contact me:

http://caroldeaconcakes.com

There is a vast amount of cake decorating equipment available these days. Here are some of the basics to get you started:

Cooling Rack Youll place your cakes on this once they have been baked and removed from the pan. This way the air is able to get all around the cake allowing for a faster cool down.

Cupcake Baking Tray These hollow molds hold the cupcake cases steady and stop the mixture from pushing the cases out of shape as the cupcakes bake.

Rolling Pins A large rolling pin is essential for rolling out the fondant for covering a cake. A small one is useful for rolling out small amounts, but you can also use a paintbrush if you dont have a small rolling pin.

Mixing Bowl

Sieve (or sifter) Used for sieving lumps out of flour and confectioners sugar

Spatula Extremely useful for clearing the last of the mixture out of the mixing bowl.

Wooden Spoon Use for beating cake mixture by hand.

Turntable Although not essential, this really does make decorating cakes easier. I have had mine for years.

Scales There are all sorts of scales available. The ones shown are electronic but any type of scale will do. Youll use them for measuring out cake ingredients and fondant.

Cutters There are thousands of cutter designs available. I have found that a simple leaf and flower cutter are the ones I mostly use but just buy them as you go along and only if you need them because they can be quite expensive.

Scissors Youll need a good sharp pair of scissors for cutting out greaseproof paper for lining baking tins, cutting ribbon and templates.

Tape Measure Its always handy to have one of these around to measure the circumference of boards and pans and measuring ribbon.

Baking Pan (Tin)

Cake Smoother Although not essential these will give your cakes a flat professional finish. Use them to iron out lumps and bumps on your cakes surface.

Measuring Cups If you cook using cup measurements you will need a set of these. There are many Internet sites that will convert cup measurements for different ingredients easily to grams or ounces if you need to adapt a recipe.

Fabric Pastry Piping Bag and Large Piping Nozzle (Tip) For piping buttercream onto cupcakes.

Carving Knife

Palette Knife It is much easier to use a flexible palette knife to spread buttercream around your cake than trying to do it using a normal kitchen knife.

Bone Tool A useful tool for making small hollows in fondant models.

Small, Sharp, Non-Serrated Knife Absolutely essential for cutting fondant sugarpaste cleanly.

Circle Cutters These may be a bit pricey, but I have found a set of these incredibly useful to have. It saves you hunting around the kitchen for something circular thats the right size.

Paintbrushes Fine and medium paint-brushes are essential. Try to buy soft ones as some nylon brushes can be a bit hard and mark the fondant sugarpaste as youre using them. Keep your cake decorating paintbrushes separate from the ones the kids use for painting!

Toothpicks (Cocktail Sticks) Cheap and very useful. Use them for adding food color to fondant and rolling over fondant to make frills. Please dont put them inside models to provide support, in case an unsuspecting recipient bites into the model. Use a strand of raw, uncooked spaghetti instead.

Pastry Brush Useful when you need to dab water on cake boards. You can also use them to brush confectioners sugar off models.

Piping Nozzle (Tip) As well as using these for piping decorations, I use them as mini circle cutters and for pressing scales or smiles into fondant characters.

Making a basic sponge cake is really very simple and can be quite rewarding. not only can you be confident that you are feeding your family and friends something that will taste great, but also your house will smell wonderfully warm, homey and inviting as it bakes. If you are baking a cake for a really important occasion and are using a new recipe for the first time, have a trial run first. If the cake turns out perfectly then great-freeze the cake and use it at the party. If youre not happy with the result then you have time to try again. The other thing worth mentioning is that if you already use a sponge cake recipe that youre familiar with and that works for you, feel free to use that. It may sound obvious, but you are not limited to just using my recipes under your icing.

Flour

I always use self-raising flour in my cakes, which is widely available. However, I know that flours vary depending on where you live so a similar type of product might be marketed in your area as self-rising or cake flour. Basically, its flour that already has a rising agent added to it. It is very easy to make your own if none of the above are available by using plain flour (all-purpose flour):

Mix 1 teaspoons baking powder into 1 cup (150 g) of plain (all purpose) flour. Double or triple these amounts depending upon how much flour you need for your recipe. (There is also a huge amount of information on the Internet about flours in different countries, which is worth looking at if you are at all unsure.)

Sugar

When it comes to sugar, I tend to use superfine (caster) sugar when baking. This is ordinary white sugar that has been ground longer than granulated sugar to produce finer granules, this is supposed to lead to a lighter cake when baked. I have used granulated sugar though in the past and the end result tasted just fine, so dont panic if youve only got granulated sugar in your cupboard. It is possible to make your own superfine sugar if you wish. Simply place some sugar into a food processor and give it a quick blast for about 30 seconds.