My friend, Thao is turning 21! Woo hoo! In celebration of this glorious event, she had a dinner party at 'Kansai' a Japanese restaurant on Hunter Street, Sydney a few days ago. I saw this as a perfect opportunity to challenge myself and make a cake. Thao is a MASSIVE fan of 'Doctor Who' so I thought I would surprise her by making a Tardis Cake and Adipose Cupcakes to go with it. Mind you, I have no idea what any of these characters are but, I chose the cutest/ easiest characters I could find. I have to start somewhere right?
I decided to go with the same chocolate cupcake recipe I made earlier for Therese's Choco-Cat Cakes because I thought the 'TARDIS' blue frosting would be a better contrast on the chocolate sponge rather than a vanilla one. So, let's get started shall we? I'll copy the recipe from the other blog post to make it easier for you all to follow.
What you'll need:
- 170g of plain flour
- pinch of salt
- 1/4 tsp. baking soda
- 2 tsp. baking powder
- 2 eggs
- 2 eggs
- 3/4 cup of cocoa
- 50g unsalted butter (softened to room temperature)
- 1 cup of white sugar
- 1 cup of milk
- 3/4 tsp. Vanilla Essence
- 3/4 tsp. Vanilla Essence
(I doubled all components above to make one batch of cupcakes and the cake)
How To: FOR CAKE COMPONENT
1. Pre-heat oven to 160 degrees Celcius
Note: For Adipose Cupcakes, preheat to 180
2. Line rectangular cake tin (27cm x 19cm / 11 x 7 inch) with baking paper
Note: For Adipose Cupcakes, line cupcake tin with paper
3. Sift together flour, salt, baking soda, baking powder and cocoa in a medium mixing bowl
4. Beat together the softened butter, vanilla essence and white sugar using hand mixer in a large mixing bowl until well combined and fluffy (approx. 3 minutes)
5. Add eggs in one at a time until mixed
5. Add eggs in one at a time until mixed
6. Add 1/3 of the dry ingredients into the butter/sugar mixture and hand mix until well combined
7. Add 1/3 of the milk and mix until well incorporated. Remember to scrape the sides of the bowl
8. Repeat steps 5 & 6 until all ingredients are all combined
9. Spoon cupcake mixture evenly and 3/4 of the way up
10. Pop into the oven for 45 minutes checking with a skewer at the end to see if it's cooked
Note: For Adipose Cupcakes, pop into the oven for 18 minutes, checking with a skewer
11. Rest the cakes for 20 minutes with 10 minutes in the freezer to prepare for the frosting construction
Note: Let Adipose Cupcakes cool for 20 minutes before decorating (to ensure the butter cream frosting does not melt)
Peanut Butter Frosting:
What you'll need:
- 250g of unsalted butter (softened to room temperature)
- 200g of sifted icing sugar
- 3 tsp. Vanilla Essence
- 2 Tbs. of milk
- 2/3 cups of smooth peanut butter
- Red Food colouring
- Black Food Colouring
- Blue Food Colouring
How To:
1. Using a hand-mixer, beat the softened butter for 5 minutes.
(The butter should change from a yellow to off-white colour)
2. Add 1/2 of the sifted icing sugar, continuously mixing until well combined
3. Add milk & Vanilla and mix
4. Add remaining icing sugar and mix until well combined remembering to scrape the sides of the bowl. Mix for another 3 minutes
5. Mix in the peanut butter until well incorporated
The frosting should now be ready. It should stay on your spatula unless you force it down yourself.
Note: If the frosting is too sloppy, add more icing sugar. If your frosting is too dense, add a Tbs. of milk.
If you have leftover buttercream frosting, don't worry! You can pop it into the fridge for 3-5 days in an airtight container or up to 3 months in the freezer.
If you have leftover buttercream frosting, don't worry! You can pop it into the fridge for 3-5 days in an airtight container or up to 3 months in the freezer.
6. Divide frosting into 1/2 (light blue), and three 1/3 sections (dark blue, black & cream) from the remaining half
For light blue frosting: Mix in 2 drops of blue food colouring and one of red
For dark blue frosting: Mix 2 drops of blue food colouring, 1 of red and 1 of black
For black frosting: Mix 5 drops of black food colouring
Leave remaining frosting as is and set aside
TARDIS Construction:
I had to take the cake on the train so I couldn't construct it on a cake board. So instead, I bought a aluminium tray that comes with a lid for easy transportation and construction. I made slits in the corner so I wasn't restricted by the corners when frosting.
Firstly:
1. Cut 5cm from the top and 1cm from the bottom (I only did this because my cake would not fit in the tray I bought)
2. From the end pieces you just cut, chop vertically a 1/4 off and using the 2/4 left to form the layer before the TARDIS light bulb up the top
3. Secure the 3/4 chunk of cake using frosting as your glue (any colour will do)
4. From the 1/4 piece you cut, crumb the cake together to form a round edge cylinder shape for the light bulb
5. Secure that knob using frosting to the top
6. From your other unused pieces of cake, cut a thin rectangle piece (approx. 10cm x 1.5cm x 0.5cm) to act as an elevation for the 'Police Box' sign
7. Secure the piece with frosting about 1cm from the original top of the cake
8. Pop into the whole cake into the freezer for 5 minutes to allow things to set
9. Spread a thing layer of light blue frosting over the whole cake to set the crumbs in place and pop into the freezer for 5 minutes
10. Spread a generous light blue frosting layer (approx. 0.2cm thickness) all over the cake and pop into the freezer for 5-10 minutes
11. Using a knife, lightly outline where you want the frames to go so you have a rough guide of where to pipe (two columns of 4 frames going vertically underneath each other)
12. Using the the dark blue frosting, fill in the three right side frames from the bottom and two frames on the left from the bottom. Smooth it out with a knife to ensure there's no lumps. Set to freeze for 5-10 minutes
13. Pipe the uncoloured peanut butter frosting for the three remaining frames and the light bulb up top. Smoothing with a nice as you go. Set into the freezer for 5-10 minutes
14. Using the black frosting, colour the elevated 'Police Box' rectangle, outline the frames and draw a line in the middle of the cake from the 'Police Box' rectangle downwards to represent the TARDIS door. Pipe a small line on the right hand side half way down the cake to represent a door knob. Also pipe 2 vertical and 1 horizontal on the top two frames to act as a window and wiggly lines on the second frame on the left to represent words. Apply horizontal and vertical lines to the knob we made earlier at the top of the cake to make a lightbulb. Set in the freezer for 5-10minutes.
15. Using a very small piping bag hole, write the 'Police 'Public call' Box' in the elevated black rectangle area
16. Leave in the freezer to set for 5 minutes and consume!
Adipose Cupcake Construction:
What you'll need: For 6 Adipose Cupcakes
- 18 mini white marshmallows
- 12 marshmallows
- 1 Tbs. peanut butter frosting
- 1 tsp. black peanut frosting
- 3 Tbs. light blue peanut frosting
- 3 Tbs. dark blue peanut frosting
(You should have some left over from the cake)
How To:
 |
| Un-cut Marshmallow |
1. Cut 1mm off the end of the normal sized marshmellows
2. Add frosting to the severed end to add as glue when sticking a second normal sized marshmellow together. This forms the Adipose body
3. Cut a mini marshmallow in half to form the arms for the Adipose
4. Secure the arms with small amount of frosting about half way down the Adipose body
5. Glue with frosting two mini marshmallows to the Adipose body directly underneath the arms to form their legs
6. Pipe two dots for the eyes and an arrow pointing down ways for the Adipose mouth to form their face
7. Repeat steps 1-6 until you make enough Adipose required
8. Pinch a small amount of cake from the top left hand corner to act as a seat for the Adispose
9. Pipe in a circular motion using the light blue frosting until the frosting covers the edge of the Adipose's seat
10. Pop the Adipose into the dent and leave it to rest
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| Dent for the Adipose |
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| Frosting glue for the Adipose Body |
11. Repeat steps 8-10 alternating with the dark blue frosting until you have your required number of cupcakes
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| Adipose! |
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| Another TARDIS Angle |
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| Happy Birthday Thao! |
Phew! That was a long post. It may seem really overwhelming just reading but I assure you this is super easy once you understand the basis of what you need to do. It's not as perfect as some of the amazing TARDIS cakes out there but, I'm really happy with how the cake turned out. My next step is to invest in some cake decorating tools because I did find it difficult smoothing out frosting with a butter knife. The cake turned out as moist as the cupcakes and was thoroughly enjoyed by everyone at dinner.
From this new culinary adventure I've just embarked on, I hope I've inspired some of you Nibblers to get out of your comfort zone and make a simple cake/ cupcake into an awesome one! If you do, don't hesitate to comment below, instagram me or even shoot over an email. Hope you're all having a lovely week. And to Thao, the person I dedicate this post to, I hope you have an amazing 21st birthday. x
Nibble Away,
Jo.
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