Sticky Condensed Milk and Vanilla Seed Icing

In my opinion condensed milk is just about the best thing that comes out of a can. If you need some to disappear I'm the person you should go to... So when Marisa from The Creative Pot tweeted about condensed milk cupcakes the cogs started rolling and I came up with this icing. Let me tell you, if you don't like sweet things you should stay away from this icing, it's sticky and sweet with the creamy taste of condensed milk and the light taste of vanilla to break the hold that the sugar has on you. The icing sets to a beautiful silky matt covering with the vanilla seeds dotted throughout the surface.


I built my own light box last night so that I could take proper photos. It was actually quite easy to make, I found the instructions here, I used tissue paper for the diffusing material instead of fabric. Just need to get myself a stronger light than my bedlamp!


Condensed Milk and Vanilla Seed Icing
Enough for approximately 10 cupcakes

• 250g Icing Sugar
  
• 70g Butter
  
• 100ml Condensed Milk
  
• Seeds of one Vanilla Pod
  

1. Mix together the butter and condensed milk.
   
2. Beat in the icing sugar.
   
3. Add the seeds and mix well.
   

I heated the icing a little bit before piping it on the cupcakes. It spreads quite a bit so there is no making impressive icing towers with this one.

Wedding Cake Decorating Trials

My friend and I have a thing, a cake baking and decorating thing. We studied engineering together and we both love baking. Every once in a while (usually around birthdays) we give in to our urges and bake themed cakes. We started with decorating cakes with buttercream icing with props and sweets and things on top then moved on to experimenting with fondant cake covering and fondant decorations.


Recently one of our friends that got engaged asked us to make their wedding cake! First thoughts were "Yay, they asked us, wow!", second thoughts were "Oh crap, can we realy make a cake worthy of being called a wedding cake?". A trail run for wedding cake designs was in order. The color scheme for the wedding is white, blue and silver, we tried out a few things but the cake and cupcakes pictured won in the end. We also tried our hand at wrapping a cake with chocolate. The cake came out pretty well, just have to spread the chocolate a bit thinner next time! (the canned fruit was a last minute substitute as we realized we didn't have any fresh fruits...)

So without further ado, gaze upon the cake decorating efforts of Grethe and Jessica!











The photos were taken while everyone was standing around looking at me and waiting for the cakes to be cut, not ideal conditions but oh well!