Posts tagged pastry pride

My dear Grandma was born on July 4th. This gives me the chance to make lots of patriotic cakes.

On a hot summer day, lemon cake with vanilla mousse filling and cool fresh berries on top is just the thing! My sister found the cute decorations at Michael’s.

Here’s a the naked cake (before the decorations):

  Aunt Jill asked me to make a birthday cake for a sweet relative who will be 99 this weekend. I think it needs to be over the top… After all, 99 is major achievement!

So the birthday girl’s favorite flower is the African Violet. Unfortunately I couldn’t find any decent-looking real ones, and no fake ones. I did find this lovely dark purple hydrangea, and since her eyesight isn’t so good anymore…. she’ll at least appreciate the pretty color. Then I thought a baby picture of her would be a nice finishing touch, and give the creation some personality. Can’t wait until it’s done!

Here she is- the 3-tiered lavender cake! The largest cake is lemon with Pastry Pride/vanilla filling, and the middle is raspberry and vanilla swirl cake with the same vanilla pastry filling. I used buttercream for the frosting underneath the fondant. The photo is edible with a buttercream “frame”. The birthday girl cried when she saw it. It thrilled me to see how a beautiful cake could make her feel so loved and appreciated. 

 …You get to finish the story. 

Bottom cake: Rainbow Sprinkle cake with (Pastry Pride) vanilla mousse filling. Top: Milk Chocolate cake with chocolate mousse filling.

This was my first attempt at fondant animals— not bad. It’s a bit like making clay animals. I really loved making the giraffe’s knobby little knees. As you can see in this next photo, the monkey is totally losing his bananas!

Princess cakes—especially the Disney kind are popular these days. Instead of a standard sheet-cake, I thought I’d try a tiered cake with a chocolate transfer sheet wrapped around one of the tiers. I found the perfect pattern at the Fancy Flours website. 

I should have photographed the process of getting the sheet ready to apply to the cake. It was a bit scary, and difficult to work with—definitely in the more advanced arena of decorating. I love the look of it though- and will probably try it again some time.

So, what exactly is Pastry Pride? It’s like whipped cream, but non-dairy. This means you can frost or fill a cake with it, and it can sit out for hours. It tastes smooth, creamy, and not too sweet. It can be purchased at cake decorating stores (it will be in a freezer), or at Smart & Final. I’ve had great success mixing in Nutella, raspberry freezer jam, or pudding to make a mousse-like filling. I just fold them into the whipped Pastry Pride. 

I do not recommend using Pastry Pride as a base frosting for fondant cakes. It is too fluffy and soft. However, as an outside frosting alone it is wonderful, and I have been able to get it as smooth as buttercream.