Welcome to How To Cook That I am Ann Reardon
and I have a really exciting surprise for you today.
Not only am going to show you how to make this castle cake.
But I am also going to show you my new app.
That's right I made you an app just for you `
What you do is print out your flag and stick it somewhere on top of your castle.
Open up the surprise cakes app, press here, line up the rectangle with the flag and check
this out you have 3D fireworks over the top of you castle.
Wow that's so cool.
Once it is locked on you can move back and around as long as the flag is still in view
somewhere on the screen the fireworks show will continue.
You can even take photos with the birthday girl in the background.
You guys were asking for cakes that were simple to make but still impressive, so with this
app you can stick the flag onto just a cupcake and still surprise your friends.
Or how about a chocolate sydney harbour bridge.
I will be adding more animations to the app over time, so go to the app store or google
play store and get the Surprise cakes app while its still at the special launch price.
And I'll show you some more footage at the end
Now onto making the castle itself.
You will need to bake double batch of the rich chocolate cake recipe in four trays.
And two quantities of buttercream.
Spread the buttercream between the layers and stack your cakes.
Then you want the trim each side to make the edges nice and straight.
The cake and frosting recipes and tin sizes and all of those details are written up on
the website howtocookthat.net, there is a link in the description just below the video.
Next trim off the corners so we have room for our corner towers to sit.
Then cover the whole thing in a smooth layer of frosting.
If you place your cake board onto a plate you'll find it makes it easier to turn the
cake as you are coating it because you can get your fingers underneath to help turn it
around.
Once you've covered it place the whole thing in the fridge for an hour or so to firm up.
Measure the height of the side of the cake, we want the base of the cones on top of our
towers to sit about 2 cm above the height of the cake.
Put your mini ice cream cone onto the chocolate bar and line it up with where you measured
for the base of the cone to be.
Then add a second chocolate bar and trim it to make it the right height.
We want four towers this height so cut your other bars to match.
Now warm a saucepan on the stove top and quickly press one end of the chocolate bar onto the
base of the hot pan to melt a little bit of the chocolate.
Then push it onto the other bar to join it together.
You can use whatever chocolate bars you like for this as long as they are firm enough to
hold their shape when they are cut.
Obviously if you choose lumpy bars the towers will look lumpy instead of smooth.
But that can be a nice customization Then we also want turrets to go on top of the cake
so trim the remaining chocolate bars to the height you want them, I am making two short
ones, two medium ones and one taller one to go in the middle.
Roll out your fondant fairly thinly, if it is sticking to the rolling pin put some spray
oil onto the rolling pin and rub it on and roll it again.
Trim the fondant to match the height of your chocolate bar.
Then wrap it up just like you are making a sausage roll.
Before it rolls all the way around trim the excess fondant off and then roll it up and
gently push down to seal the ends together.
Now find something in your kitchen that has a good skinny rectangle shape and use it to
make an indent for the windows.
Ice-cream cones are perfect for the conical spires on top of the turrets.
But if you leave them plain or just put frosting on them they go stale or soggy.
To keep them crispy and yummy, fill up the cones up with compound chocolate and then
immediately tip it out, this leaves a nice layer all over the inside.
Then dip the end into the chocolate and leave it to set on a piece of baking paper, we need
9 of these.
Compound chocolate is any chocolate or melts that have vegetable oil in them so it sets
firmly at room temperature without needing to be tempered.
Once they are set cover the outside of the cone in chocolate and leave them again to
set.
Once they are dry take some edible purple luster dust and a dry paint brush and dust
it all over the cones to make them shine.
Now roll out some dark coloured fondant and trim it to the size of your windows, you will
need 17 of these little rectangles.
Then dust those with the same purple luster that you used on the cones.
Brush a tiny bit of water into the window cavity and add the dark fondant and gently
push it into place.
To make the flag take one of the cones and using a serrated knife cut the very end of
it off it and using the tip of the knife make sure there is a hole through the chocolate
and check your lolli pop stick fits.
Print out your flag, cut it out, fold it in half then open it up and add some glue then
glue it onto the stick.
You can colour your flag in and add whatever word you like in the middle, just make sure
your colouring is not too dark or it will make it hard for the app to recognize, so
it is probably best just to use pencils.
Place the flag into the top.
To make your castle door roll out some brown fondant, use your ruler to cut straight sides
then about 3/4 of the way up mark each side.
Find the middle at the top and mark that then using your pizza cutter curve around to join
the two marks that you just made.
Then push down in the centre to make it two doors.
Then use your ruler and a knife to gently indent straight lines your not trying to cut
it through just make an indent to make it look like planks of wood.
Now take you knife and gently draw a shape for a knot in the wood and then run a long
slightly curved line around the knot and up to the end, then make more lines just following
the shape of the first one you did and you have a wood grain pattern on your door.
Now take something small and round and make indents to look like nail holes the at the
top and bottom of each plank of wood.
To make the handles of our door we are going to roll out some black fondant, use a drinking
straw to cut out two circles.
Then roll a thin snake, wrap it around the end of the straw and slide it off, you'll
need two of those.
Then brush them with silver luster.
Place the circles onto the door just at the right handle height, put a tiny dab of water
onto each and then add the handles on top and leave that aside to firm up.
To make flowers for your cake you can use a flower plunger cutter like this one.
All you do is press the cutter into the fondant and then push on the plunger to get it out
of the cutter, this is nice and quick if you have a lot of flowers to make it is worth
while investing in.
Then you can just roll a tiny ball of a contrasting colour and place it in the middle of each
one.
If you don't have a cutter or you only want a few flowers you can cut 5 circles using
a drinking straw, place them together in a flower shape and then add the other colour
to the middle.
That look just as good it just takes a bit longer
Now for a few leaves cut out a leaf shape from the green fondant place an indent down
the middle and a few little indents along one side.
Measure the top of your cake and roll out some pink fondant to be slightly bigger than
the cake.
Put it on top and smooth the edges over the corners.
Now measure the front of the castle.
You want the fondant to over lap into the middle of the corner sections and you also
want it to be slightly taller at the top.
Cut the fondant to the right size and then using a small square cutter cut pieces out
of the top, I'm using a ruler to me straight going along so it's not going up and down.
And you can make your own cutters, see the twitter dessert video for instructions on
how to do that.
Slide something flexible but firm under your baking paper and use it to help you place
the fondant onto the side of your cake smoothly.
Then carefully remove your baking paper and wrap the fondant around on the corners of
the cake.
It does not matter if they do not join because our towers are going to cover that up anyway.
To support the top of the walls while they are setting and keep them nice and straight
wrap some baking paper around some cardboard and support it in place using some toothpicks.
Once you've added all of your walls put a small amount of water onto the corners and
add your corner towers.
Gently put the door into place and make two more indents for windows on the front and
side and the back walls then add the darker fondant just like we did on the towers to
make the windows stand out.
Add some of your cake off cuts around the tower and spread some frosting onto the board
and over that cake that you've just added.
Then you can roll out some green fondant and place it over the top, tucking it around the
cake bits that you added on.
Now take some grey fondant and add a pathway coming out from the front door.
If you want it to look like stones just roll some balls of fondant and squash them onto
the path.
Then trim off the excess path wrapping it around under the board.
Add a few more fondant rocks around the grass and on the edge of the path, then add your
flowers and leaves to make it look pretty.
Remove your toothpicks and cardboard supports from the top of the cake.
Add the cones to the top of each tower and the turrets.
Then add the turrets onto the top pushing them down slightly into the top of the cake.
And your cake is ready.
Open up the surprise cakes app and let the magic begin.
Thanks for sharing the video and clicking like, you can put all your cake and 3D app
requests in the comments section and subscribe to see al the latest how to cook that cakes,
desserts and chcoolate creations.
I'll see you on Friday.