Midnight Mayhem themed cake

Another 21st birthday appears and I was approached to make a birthday cake themed Midnight Mayhem. The theme of the party was blacks, dark blues, silver and white, a reason to party hard into the the night. With those cues, and some things that the birthday boy and girl wanted , I created a Midnight Mayhem themed cake.

I wanted to use my new topsy turvy cake tin, and this was my first ever tiered cake.

Notes:

• A topsy turvy cake is hard to make look topsy turvy. If you don't get certain heights, or angles, it just looks like a crooked cake.
• A tiered cake is time consuming, and I only used one cake recipe and had a topsy turvy cake tin. In most topsy turvy cakes, each tier has a different flavoured cake, and several different sized cakes are made to obtain the topsy turvy look.
• Cutting dowels to size and placing them through an entire cake is quite hard when you are going through layers of fondant, ganache and cake.
• Rolling small balls of fondant is extremely tedious, probably won't ever do that for a cake trimming again. (Even with a friends help, it was tedious and time consuming)
• I bought cake boards to sit underneath the cakes when covering with ganache and fondant, but removed the two smaller cake boards when assembling the cake.
• The smaller cake board was used to measure the circle for the clock.
• Edible paint is fun and easy to use. (Wear glovers, or else fingers become sparkly with gold or silver)
• I used various sized cutters for my decorations (cats, bats, stars, moon). Most purchased from Glass House cakes: http://www.glasshousecakes.com.au/
• The Thunder Cake recipe was made 4 times!!!
• 900ml thickened cream, 600g milk chocolate (2 and a half blocks), 250g dark chocolate (1 block) for ganache. Of this remains approximately 2 cups.
• To get a midnight blue colour: 
• 2x 750g blue fondant
• 100g black fondant
• 100g red fondant100g black
• (All Bakels Brand). Those are rough estimations, I kind of winged it to get the desired colour.

The Decorations:

  The fondant balls kind of looked like mochi

The Cakes:

The Assembly:

I did a rough calculation and this entire cake took roughly 21 hours, this was spread over three days and includes fondant colour prep, decorations, baking, cleaning time and assembling the cake. It was definitely a learning experience, and I now know how to make it better for next time. The birthday boy and girl were extremely happy with how the cake turned out and said 'it turned out a lot better than expected'. Thanks guys! xx

Good food, good times!

Ladurée @ Westfield Sydney, Level 3

I heard about Ladurée opening in May, where it was supposed to be opened in July. Now, after months and months of waiting, the day finally came, the day that Ladurée opened. I was there on opening day (11/09/2012) at 10am, to only find out it would open at 12, and then 1, and then 2.30! My friend and I went back at 2, and they had already started selling, and the queue to buy macarons was extremely long. With that, we decided to queue in the in store cafe line (where we only had to wait 30 minutes) and able to dine in to enjoy macarons and buy some takeaway.

I have yet been able to go to France where the original store is, but I will one day. This is the closest I could get to experiencing the real thing. The macarons are a bit on the pricier end of the spectrum, but considering they are shipped from Europe, it is reasonable and worth it.

The flavours

The Store:
I guess Ladurée Sydney isn't quite a store, but just to make things easier it shall be described as one. The Ladurée store is surrounded with products they sell, ranging from bags, perfume, teas, jams, chocolates, gift boxes and of course the infamous macarons. At the top of all the display windows there are lovely tiered macaron boxes tied with ribbon or macaron towers. The gold trimmings around product labels and all the signage are very French chic. 

The cafe:

The cafe is located behind the store and has a lovely outdoor garden feel as it is surrounded with small hedges. The layout is basic with tables of 2 or 4, low back chairs and simple black tables providing an elegance of a high tea. Further displaying large  boxes of macarons and scented candles.

Tea & Macarons:
Tea and macarons are a few of my favourite things. The teas are named after famous French Monarchs, each with their own individual scent and taste. They allow you to smell each tea, and pick your favourite for a pot. Tea costs $7.50 per pot. I love how Ladurée place a little napkin on the tea pot handle, so simple, yet so elegant.

Marie Antoinette (background Roi Soleil)

I went to Ladurée with a uni friend, so we decided to get every single flavour available and halve it. Overall the texture of Ladurée macarons are exquisite and perfect. They are light, with the perfect chew, and an exceptional balance between macaron shell and filling. They are somewhat indescribable, but I can now sort of understand the hype and fame of Ladurée macarons (until I experience the original in Paris).

Plate 1 (clockwise from white):
Vanilla, Lemon, Chocolate, Almond and Coffee. 
We thought we would start with the basics. My favourite of these was the coffee. It has the taste of a perfectly brewed coffee. My friends favourite was coffee, and also lemon (one of her favourite desserts are lemon tart), it has an intense lemon taste, so if you like a little zest in your life, then lemon is perfect for you.

Plate 2 (clockwise from purple):
Blackcurrant, Strawberry Poppy, Raspberry, Salted caramel, Liquorice, Pistachio and Chestnut (middle). 
These flavours are a bit more on the exotic range of the spectrum. I enjoyed all of these flavours. The strawberry poppy was delectable, it wasn't too sweet like other strawberry macarons are and I think that is because of the poppy component. The subtle poppy flavour balanced the macaron, a definite favourite. This delighted both our taste buds.

My other favourite was the salted caramel. I have tried many salted caramel macarons and never been completely satisfied (part from La belle miette). However, at Ladurée there was the perfect middle point of salt and caramel, the best salted caramel I have tried in Sydney...to date.

Plate 3 (clockwise from green):

Almond marshmallow, Lemon Lime marshmallow, Strawberry marshmallow, Violet marshmallow.

As a part of the 150th anniversary, Ladurée created 4 new flavours to celebrate the homage of the world famous macarons. All of the macarons contained a marshmallow centre that wasn't too gooey or sticky. The lemon lime was a very unique flavour, where it tasted very similar to gatorade, quite intense. My favourite of all these was  the strawberry marshmallow (I also bought this flavour for 2 of my other friends and they loved it too). Just thinking about it is making me salivate, the strawberry flavour with a slight crunch due to the sugar on top, just wonderful. 

Upon second visit, I tried Orange blossom and Ghana Chocolate (bottom two) where there was a subtle hit in the orange blossom, and the ghana chocolate has a darker chocolate taste compared to the normal chocolate. I prefer the ghana chocolate over the normal chocolate.

Table of goodies

16 macarons, done and dusted

Complimentary chocolate (even the chocolates are labelled Ladurée)

Bags of macarons

Good food, good times!