We're about to surprise a subscriber with a $1,000 cake and she has no idea
that we're coming to her house! Welcome to How To Cook That I'm Ann Reardon and
this is of course Dave Reardon ... my lovely husband 💪 You guys know him. Now one of the
things you've been asking for is could we do 'mail time' 💌 on camera so Dave has been
down to the PO box thank you for that. I'm gonna give you a heavy parcel
I don't know what that one is ... and let's see this one is from Judy ... okay
me first. Re: the hundred-year-old baking cakes my father took bread and
dripping to school for his lunch in the Depression era. wow thank you for that Judy.
That's very cool what's in yours? I have a terrific book by ... Kawaii Sweet World's cookbook.
Hope you're doing well, wanted to send you a copy of my new cookbook for you to enjoy 75 all
new recipes always been a fan of yours for so long hope you enjoy it keep up
the amazing content. Oh look if I can find where you buy the cookbook I might
put a link to that below so that is her new book. Good on ya. What is this one?
Another letter. Papier! This is from Kass and Kass also got a puppy... we
got a puppy as you know Molly 🐶 she got a puppy Missy at the same time and she got
home from school yesterday I came into my room and she was fast asleep on my
bed. She loves socks and tissues and cling wrap!
Molly loves socks and tissues if she can get into the recycle bin in particular...
oh my goodness what a huge huge mess! Don't you think it would be so much fun just
to rock up on the doorstep of one of our subscribers and just surprise them? We should do it!
How would you choose who? There is so many. Someone in Australia. Well that would make life easier.
Hey what is this?
Oh look at that! That says Ann's recipes and that says Dave's notes for my next book!
Papier, we love your channel just wanted to send you a little
personalized gift and we added something in for Dave too - Thank You! Kindest regards Sarah and the Papier team.
That's very nice. I know who this is from I'm
excited about this one this is from Mud Australia, I really really like Mud.
Do you want to explain what mud is? You know all the little bowls in my videos
little ones and lots of people ask where I got them from, they're from Mud. they're very
pretty. They're pretty and they're fine I really like ceramics and pottery and I
think because I like artistic crafty things I really appreciate things that are
well crafted these are a favourite. These are handmade? Yeah, they're with it's
called a ... yeah I can't remember. Lots of little bowls you will see they see the upcoming videos
very kind of them. Thank you Mud. So who are gonna go to? Do you reckon we
really can? We should, like a real a super-fan! Someone who comments
someone who obviously they've written, but they comment all the times. Maybe someone with a good
story. You know who could be good and I'm pretty sure she's in Australia ...
you know that the girl who sent a hand-painted card to James when he was
in hospital and she sent me a handmade birthday card
and she's one of the first to comment nearly every video? Yeah I reckon I can
look for her card because the birthday card she sent had a flower ... and she
wrote when James was sick right, when he was really sick? She did and she said that she's been in hospital a lot as well! Done, she's the one!
But where does she live. Emily she's in Queensland. That's part of Australia 🇦🇺it is, it's not
in the same State. But it's only a PO box, so we can't just rock up to a PO box and yell 'surprise'!
What if I was to write to the parents at the PO box because
probably it's their PO box. It probably is because kids don't have a PO boxes.
We just got an email here from Emily's mum ... your idea sounds great and I'm very
happy to help you make this a really special time for Emily. I'm trying to
decide what to do for Emily's cake we fly in a couple of days so I need to
bake today I need to get this sorted out I'm stressing out a bit. I've been
emailing her mum, I know she likes chocolates I've already decided on a
chocolate cake. I've also found this little box idea that you put some
plastic bag things in and you pull out surprises that are hidden inside the
cake. Usually traditionally they just have money in them so we might put some
cash in there so she can go buy some stuff but also Dave's secured some
tickets. So I want to put that inside, so I was thinking a cake about this size
would be good and then I can hide that inside. chocolate cake chocolate bars
around the outside and then I remembered on a plane you're not allowed to hold
things on your knee for takeoff and landing ... they have to be in the overhead
compartment or under the seat in front of you. So I pulled out my hand baggage
case to measure how tall those compartments are and it's way too big
there's no way this is gonna fit so I'm gonna have to go back to the cake
decorating shop get a different cake box smaller cake boards and shrink my whole
idea down so that it will fit in the overhead compartment. I'm also a little
bit worried because on planes when they come into land the whole plane actually
tilts like this and because I'm not holding the cake I can't balance that
out and tilt it the other way ... the actual cake is just going to tilt so I'm
a bit concerned that we're going to get there and
have a cake that's falling apart um I guess if that happens I don't know I guess it
depends how bad is whether I'll be able to repair it or not I'm just kind of
hoping and praying that the cake stays together. But first of all we do need to
actually make it. I'm making up a big bowl of milk chocolate ganache for
between the layers and then I'm gonna put that in the fridge to firm up while
I bake the cakes. I'm using my rich chocolate cake and the recipe for that
is of course on the How To Cook That website with a video showing how to make
it so I'm not going to do that here. It does have a lot of eggs in it and that
makes it a really moist cake, you can also swap the flour out for gluten-free
flour if you're a celiac or just not eating gluten. We're going to need four
trays of this cake because the cake we're making is quite big. The plastic
box that I had is a bit too big so I'm making my own just by cutting a firm box
down to size. Then we're going to need a plastic tube in the middle this is just
a cake support tube and I've cut it to the same width as the box and then I'm
just gonna spike a cake pop stick right the way through the middle so it sticks
out either side and looks like that. Next we just need a slit at the top now I
don't want that in the middle I want it right at the front or the back and it
needs to be just wide enough to pull these out of it. So once it's finished my
box looks like this it has a roller in the middle and a slit right over to one
side. Slide your money into your bags ... in Australia our notes are actually plastic
so you probably could wash these up really well and just use them but I just
don't like the thought of money touching food so I'm gonna put it all in bags. Now
we have to put all of those together so what you have to do is peel off the
adhesive from one and just join the next one on like that and once they're all
joined together you can roll them around the tube and roll it up and then secure
it inside the box using the cake pop stick. Then I'm going to wrap the whole
thing in sticky tape so it doesn't absorb the moisture from the cake or the
frosting. Now that the cakes are cooled you can cut them into
squares and you should be able to get two squares from each tray then add a
little bit of ganache onto a cake board that is slightly bigger than the size we
cut the squares of cake and this ganache is just to stop the cake from slipping.
then add your first layer of cake on top and then because this is not being eaten
today I'm going to add some simple syrup to keep it really moist. This is just
equal quantities of sugar and water heated together until the sugar is
dissolved. Stack up your first three layers and then add cake support rods
I'm using four rods one in each corner. Spread on a thin layer of ganache add a
cake board a little bit more ganache and then your next layer of cake and then
stack it up to the top. Use something straight to make sure you've stacked
them directly on top of each other not crooked like me and adjust that just to
make it right. Cover the top of the cake in buttercream making it as flat as you
can and do the same on all four sides. I am using buttercream on the side so use
ganache between the layers you can use ganache on the sides as well if you want
to it's up to you. Run something straight along the edge and then add more
buttercream wherever you have gaps and then just run it along again. The frosting
is nearly done and now I have remembered that I've got to put a box
inside the cake so if you're making this put the box in before you do the
frosting! 🤣 cut a hole in the top that is the depth of the box plus a little bit
and scoop out that cake and then add the box into place pushing it down firmly
and then you want to hide the evidence by covering that over with buttercream.
now for the outside I want to have Chevroned patterned KitKats. Now I
started cutting them on a 45 degree angle at each end but then it didn't
look that neat when I put them together so instead I decided that it's much
easier if I put them together like this in this sort of pattern and then I don't
have to cut any of the ones in the middle I only have to cut the ones at
the edge and to do that I'm putting them between two cake boards and trimming it
off in a straight line. Once you've cut them all add them to the sides of your
cake and once all the sides are done then use two boards to gently just push
them into the buttercream ... now I'm going to make sure they stay there and they're
not going to fall off while we're traveling and now to package it for the
plane ✈ This cake is really heavy so I'm hoping it's not over the hand-luggage
weight limit and hopefully the box will hold all the KitKats in place while
we're traveling because this cakes gonna be out of the fridge for the whole
journey. I know if she likes Harry Styles so I thought I might put a butterfly on
the top which is his tattoo just as a nod to that ... then I'm just cutting around
it so that the shape is perfect. 🦋 We need supports obviously so that we
can poke it into the top of the cake but also I've got this cross support that is
going to have the packet over the top. To make it strong get two little rectangles
of fondant and add them on top of the rods at the back, then flip the whole
thing over and using an edible food grade marker draw on the butterfly
tattoo pattern. Personally I have never had a tattoo I don't really want one but
I'm just imagining as I draw all these lines how much this would hurt it's so
detailed to get all of that inked in with needles just sounds very painful 🤕
then we want to roll a really thin snake of black and add that on for the
antennae. Then to pack my suitcase, load up the car
get the cake and we're off...
Okay are you ready everyone?
Hi are you Emily?
Your Mum knew all about :)
So this is Emily obviously ... so you wrote James a letter a while ago when he was
in hospital and you mentioned then that you yourself have had like 20
surgeries or anaesthetics before ... do you mind me asking why you had so
many surgeries? I have juvenile arthritis, I've had that since I was
three. Wow. So um I just go in every now and
then when things start to get really bad. And you said you had one when you were awake?
Yeah I've had a couple when I'm awake! That's very brave, that doesn't sound
like a lot of fun at all ... and you said in the comments a while ago that you wanted to
marry Harry Styles ... are you still a fan? Yes yes!
So did you recognize the top of the cake? Yes 💕 We'll take the butterfly off and then we'll cut it and have morning tea, sound good?
Keep pulling! See there's lots of surprises today.
We've got some money for you to spend on whatever you watch and then this one is
for the whole family to go to Movie World and then also down the bottom
we have tickets for the whole family to go to see Charlie and the Chocolate Factory the musical!
We thought since your Mum and your sister and everyone else has been keeping the secret
we thought we'd do something that you could all do together.
Matt come in, so this is actually a Golden Ticket for Charlie and the Chocolate Factory
so that's for opening night when it comes here so you guys can go and see
that. That's for you. Are you feeling overwhelmed again? Yeah!
This is going to be really hard to cut, I'm not gonna lie!
There's KitKats all over the outside. Oh look she's a pro!
Now you've been baking cakes as well I hear you made a sponge cake for your mum's birthday?
It's really good! Should we get some for your family as well?
Mmm-hmm! We should. They're all sitting watching on. Let's get them cake too.
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