Can You Cover Cake With Gumpaste I Humid Weather

When we speak near extreme weather condition conditions, we refer to extreme cold, heat, and heat & humidity.

Fortunately, once fillings and frostings are made and used in a cake, the cold will not impact them. It will keep everything in place, providing cakes are not allowed to freeze if they are transported to a venue.

The extreme heat and rut plus humidity volition try to be your worst enemy, but there are recipes you can utilize that will reduce the risk of your cake being spoiled.

Spending hours decorating a beautiful cake can be devastating if extreme weather condition weather condition destroy all your difficult work, so I pass on some recipes and tips that may assist y'all.

For the majority of my cake-making and decorating career, I lived in England, where it seldom gets very hot or too cold, and I never noticed if information technology was boiling or not. However, since moving to central Europe several years agone, where it tin can drop to -15C/5F in the wintertime and rise to over 40C/104F in the summertime, and the humidity can fluctuate, I am now experiencing some of the bug that are everyday bug for many people.

Since living here, I have used fillings and frosting in the summer to withstand heat and humidity. Yet, I accept institute that venues seem well prepared for most weather weather, then I tin honestly say that I have non been able to test them properly.

That was until…

Last twelvemonth I fabricated a two-tiered cake as a gift for a friend for a birthday celebration in Baronial that I likewise attended. When Baronial came around, we were in the heart of an farthermost heatwave, so I knew I had to choose fillings and icing that would be less likely to melt.

Because information technology was left upwards to me to choose how to present the cakes, I used a cake stand that displayed them individually rather than stacking them.

I chose to present it that way because the weight of a heavy cake resting on another cake, filled with buttercream or something similar, can be a recipe for disaster in hot weather condition.

I also used three dowels in each cake, so there would be no hazard of the layers slipping. It may have been overkill, especially as the cakes were not going to exist stacked, simply equally I was going to exist at the party, I wanted to be every bit sure as I could that I couldn't present a kleptomaniacal cake.

By the time I ready off to the venue, I had become paranoid, as I had visions of it melting on the way, so I packed each tier separately, with plenty of ice packs in the bottom of each box. I even took a fan with me in case the venue wasn't appropriately air-conditioned.

Upon arrival, before I unloaded the cake, I was taken to where it was to be displayed.

To my horror, the party was to be held in a garden. The cake was to be put on a table outside, in direct sunlight. Admittedly, it was v pm, but it was still thirty C, and there was also some humidity.

Secretly I was panicking. Should I make a fuss in front of all the people waiting for me to put upwardly the cake and need an air-conditioned place to put it, or should I pretend everything was OK?

I may have been wrong, merely I decided to go ahead and put it where they wanted information technology, so I carried on as if everything was just as information technology should be, set the cake upwardly, walked away, joined in the political party, and it was a cracking political party.

I tried not to look at the cake during the evening and kept my fingers crossed that I had chosen the right fillings, etc., that wouldn't melt and that my creation wouldn't ruin the party.

I held my jiff and cutting the cake…

3 hours after, I was asked to cut the cakes. I could feel myself panicking over again, but it didn't wait like they had moved. What would I practice if the inside of the cake was a large melted mess?

The guests gathered around to watch me cut the cakes, and you cannot imagine the relief when I cut into them, and they were merely perfect.

The bottom tier was a 28cm /11", iii-layered vanilla sponge filled with homemade lemon curd and ermine lemon buttercream, crumb coated in ermine buttercream, and covered in lemon-flavored rolled fondant.

The tiptop tier was a 20cm/8" dark chocolate, iii-layered cake filled with night chocolate whipped ganache, nibble coated with unwhipped night chocolate ganache, and covered with rolled fondant.

I had never used Ermine buttercream before, and to tell you lot the truth, when a friend suggested I use it, I wasn't great on making information technology. Some people call it flour buttercream or cooked milk buttercream, and I couldn't see how that would be dainty in a cake, but I was bodacious by the friend who gave me the recipe that it tastes good and is stable in heat and humidity.

I did a test batch the week before I needed information technology for the cake, and I was amazed at the effect. It was the creamiest, smoothest buttercream I had ever tasted. I accept been using it ever since, even throughout the winter, because it is good, everyone likes it, and it did live up to its reputation of being stable in heat and humidity.

I used lactose-free butter and lactose-costless milk in my ermine buttercream because I am intolerant to lactose, and and then were several political party guests, and it worked perfectly.

Ermine Buttercream

Ingredients

Metric	Purple
30g	i½ oz	Cornflour/cornstarch
30g	ane½ oz	All-purpose Flour
300g	10½ oz	Granulated Sugar
355 ml	ane.five cups/12 fl oz	Milk
¼ tsp		Salt
½ tsp		Vanilla or lemon extract (or to your gustation)
340g		Butter – soft but non melted

Method

You will need a medium-sized saucepan and a larger bowl than the pan.
Put some cold h2o in the bowl and prepare it to one side. This is used to begin the cooling process once the mixture is cooked.
Combine the cornflour/cornstarch, flour, milk, and salt in a basin. Stir until they are all mixed smoothly.
Cascade the mixture through a fine sieve into the pan, and then add the sugar.
Cook the mixture over medium estrus, continually stirring until it thickens and comes to a boil, so plough the rut correct down, and nevertheless stirring, simmer for two minutes.
Take the pan off the heat and place information technology in the bowl of common cold water, making certain non to become any of the common cold water into the mixture in the pan, and keep gently stirring for ii minutes.
Remove the pan from the water bowl and wipe the bottom dry out.
Empty the pan'south contents into a stand mixer bowl or the bowl you volition employ with a paw mixer.
Place a slice of cling film/plastic wrap directly onto the mixture in the bowl, ensuring no space for air to get to it.
Leave until the mixture has dropped to room temperature.
Once the mixture has reached room temperature, add together the vanilla or lemon extract and slowly whisk until combined.
Add together the soft butter a spoonful at a time, slowly whisking between additions until it has all been added.
Turn the mixer up to medium speed and whisk for five mins until the buttercream is light and fluffy.
Embrace and exit to stand at room temperature for nigh one hr to thicken.

For chocolate-flavored ermine buttercream , add together three tablespoons of unsweetened cocoa pulverization to the milk mixture at the start of the process and exit out the vanilla or lemon extract.

Chocolate Ganache is and so expert…

If y'all are a chocoholic, like I am, and dark chocolate is your favorite, then at that place's nothing better than a dark chocolate cake filled with dark chocolate whipped ganache and covered with dark, unwhipped chocolate ganache.

My experience of ganache staying stable in the heat may have been considering I covered it with rolling fondant. However, chocolate ganache made with loftier-quality dark chocolate (75%-80% cocoa) should be stable upwardly to 85F/30C, then my block may have been just within the melting point.

If you are going to make a chocolate ganache for decorating a cake in a hot/humid state of affairs, so using white chocolate is not a good idea. White chocolate is a by-production of the chocolate-making process and is made using cocoa butter, milk, saccharide, and some flavoring, so it is more than like processed.

Milk chocolate can have as little as ten% cocoa and is mixed with milk and other ingredients, so that doesn't stand up up very well in the heat either.

Whipped or non whipped…

Whipped ganache can fill a cake, cover a cake, and exist used for pipage. Ganache that is non whipped is used every bit a frosting to coat a cake, as a filling between layers, and for crumb blanket a block,

The proportions of chocolate and foam used for ganache are based on weight, and for my cake that got left in the sun, I used a two-one ratio, which means I had double the weight of chocolate to cream, e.grand., 227g/8 oz chocolate to 114g/ iv oz foam.

Under normal circumstances (not so much heat/humidity), I would utilize a 1:ane ratio – equal parts chocolate and cream – which makes a softer ganache.

Chocolate Ganache

Ingredients

heavy/double cream (or 30% fat lactose-gratis cream)

75% practiced quality plain chocolate

The quantities in the table below volition be enough for filling for a iii-layer block and a crumb glaze or a filling for a two-layer cake and an all-over frosting coat

	Round Block		Square Block
Size	Dark Chocolate	Heavy/Double Foam	Dark Chocolate	Heavy/Double Cream
vi"/15cm	350g/12 oz	175ml/6 fl oz	450g/16 oz	225ml/eight fl oz
7"/18cm	450g/sixteen oz	225ml/eight fl oz	575g/20 oz	288ml/10 fl oz
8"/20cm	575g/twenty oz	288ml/ten fl oz	700g/24 oz	350ml/12 fl oz
9"/22.5cm	650g/23 oz	325ml/11 fl oz	825g/28 oz	412ml/xiv fl oz
x"/26cm	775g/27 oz	388ml/13.5 fl oz	975g/34 oz	488ml/17 fl oz
11"/28cm	900g/31 oz	450ml/15.5 fl oz	1130g/forty oz	565ml/20 fl oz
12"/30cm	1025g/36 oz	512ml/18 fl oz	1325g/46 oz	676ml/23 fl oz

Annotation: Utilize a larger pan than your gas or electric ring so you don't scorch the foam.

Method

Break the chocolate into small pieces and identify in a basin
Put the foam into a pan and, on medium heat, brings it to just below boiling betoken.
Pour the cream over the chocolate and leave for a few minutes until the chocolate has melted.
Stir the mixture
It may look as if it won't combine properly at first but continue stirring, and it will blend together.
Sense of taste the mixture and if it'southward not sweet enough, add together some icing/confectioners sugar, a teaspoon at a time, and make certain it has melted. Very lilliputian sugar will sweeten the mixture, so don't add together also much, or you lot volition ruin the ganache's consistency.
Leave to cool

To spread the ganache over a cake, it needs to be slightly warm to pour but thick plenty to stay on the block.

If you lot whip the ganache, let it absurd until thick, then vanquish until lite and fluffy for nearly 2-3 mins, merely be careful non to overbeat.

Another buttercream…

This buttercream likewise holds upwards quite well in boiling/hot weather condition conditions.

Swiss/Mousseline Buttercream

All ingredients need to be at room temperature.

Use a carbohydrate thermometer to measure the temperature of the saccharide syrup.

Ingredients

Metric	Regal
454g	16oz	Butter – soft only not melted
5 large		Egg whites
200g	7oz	Granulated sugar
½ tsp		Cream of Tartar
¼ cup		Water
½ tsp		Vanilla excerpt

Method

Whisk the butter until smoothen and creamy
Place 150g/4½oz sugar and ¼ loving cup water in a bucket that is wider than the burner
Heat the mixture while stirring until the sugar has melted (brushing the crystals of saccharide downward the inside of the pan with a brush dipped in cold water).
Once melted, stop stirring & remove from rut, and set aside.
Put some common cold water in a bowl bigger than the bottom of the saucepan and set bated.
Place the egg whites and the cream of tartar in the bowl of a stand mixer and, using a whisk attachment, whisk until soft elevation phase.
Stir in the remaining sugar, and then whisk until it reaches the stiff elevation stage.
Return the pan with the syrup to the rut and boil until it reaches 120C/248F on the sugar thermometer, the softball toffee phase.
Plunge the lesser of the pan into the bowl of cold water to stop the cooking process.
Make certain y'all don't get whatever h2o into the toffee.
Leave in the water for i minute.
With the mixer running on high speed, slowly cascade the toffee, in a thin stream, onto the egg whites. Be careful non to allow the stream of toffee affect the mixer blade, or you will take lumps of toffee in your buttercream.
Once all the toffee has been incorporated into the egg whites, lower the mixer's speed to medium and beat until the bowl feels absurd.
Beat out in the butter, ane spoonful at a time (information technology may seem thinner at first merely will thicken by the time information technology is all added)

This buttercream volition go on for upwardly to 5 days, covered in the fridge, or it tin can exist frozen.

Earlier using, bring to room temperature and re-beat.

The fob is to test information technology…

There is no guarantee that these fillings and frosting will stand up to your particular climate, and I tin only emphasize that you must effort them out before you lot either brand a cake for a special occasion or make a cake to sell.

Don't endeavour them out on a dummy cake because the block itself volition contribute to toppings or fillings' stability.

Testing your production takes a bit of effort, simply information technology will save a lot of disappointment.

Gum paste flowers and rolling fondant…

In my blog postal service about making Gum Paste Sugar Flowers in farthermost weather conditions, you volition find lots of tips and data that I am sure yous will notice helpful.

In my blog post nigh using Rolling Fondant in extreme atmospheric condition conditions, you will discover many useful tips and information.

If you have whatever questions about frostings and fillings in extreme weather conditions, please ask them in the comments box below, and I will practice my best to answer them.

If y'all accept any tried and tested recipes y'all know will stand up to extreme weather weather, please share them in the comments box as I am always ready to learn.

Source: https://www.sugarflowersworkshop.com/extreme-weather-cake-decorating-fillings-frostings/

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