I had another wonderful post day last week because the lovely people at Tala sent me one of their products to test out! A beautiful, vintage style icing syringe!
I was really excited to give this a go! Although I love cooking I don't often bake, but I would really like to learn a bit more, and if I can make the cakes look pretty all the better!
I was also sent 3 additional types of nozzle, so I have lots of experimenting to do!
First of all I needed to bake some yummy cakes, for which I used this cake recipe. They were delicious, but I always find that my cakes don't rise enough. I don't know if it is because I am not putting enough mixture in, or perhaps it is because I am using an Aga instead of a conventional oven, but either way, they were never going to look as pretty as the pictures of the cakes in the recipe I followed! Perhaps one of you will be able to tell me where I am going wrong?
Next came the challenge of the icing sugar. Tala have a very helpful guide on how to make your icing and use the syringe, so that was really handy! But, it is still a bit tricky getting the icing the consistency that you want it. In the end I think it might have had a bit too much icing sugar in it, next time I will try it with a little less.
I was excited to get my food colourings out again! I figured I would just have a bit of a play and see what happened. Lets just say I need a little bit of practice. Here is a picture of my best effort...
Ok, I went a little crazy with these ones. We will be consuming a lot of sugar in the coming days!
I think I will work on my cake baking technique, then once I've got that sorted I can give this another shot. I do really like the icing syringe though, I'm sure it is easier than using a piping bag would be, and it is much prettier!
One thing I will say about icing cakes.. it is super messy! I got myself in a right state. Next time I will be more prepared!
Laura xXx
Disclaimer -Tala sent me this item to test out free of charge, however all opinions stated above are my own.
You need to really whip the cake mixture up so that the air goes into them, might be it. Hope this helps :) x
ReplyDeleteThanks, I will definitely give that a go next time :)
DeleteI love the "Yay" cake :)
ReplyDeleteAre you closing the Aga door gently on your cakes? It's amazing the difference banging the oven door can make! xx
P.S. Not that I'm saying you seem like the kind of person to crash around your kitchen like Bakezilla.
Well I wasn't aware about the door thing, so I may well have been banging the door closed! Thanks, I will make sure I don't do that next time. :)
DeleteI have no cake rising advice for you, but I must say the tool looks pretty fun! Definitely prettier than a pastry bag. :)
ReplyDelete-Jenn V
Ooh these look pretty! Yes, as Laura says, you should whip as much as you can to get air into the cake. Have you also tried a touch of baking powder?
ReplyDeleteClaire x
I didn't add any baking powder, there wasn't any in the recipe I used, but I did wonder at the time if I should have done. Will give that a go next time. Thanks Claire! :)
DeleteSo pretty (and tasty looking)! Wish I could reach into my screen and grab one of them :-)
ReplyDeleteThanks :) I have since discovered they are a little dangerous due to their pointyness! haha
ReplyDeleteThese look delicious! I've used a piping bag before and I made such a mess so I'm sure this will be much easier.
ReplyDelete