Friday 11 March 2011

Burlesque and cake: a match made in heaven.


Oh how I enjoy mucking about in the kitchen. Even my kitchen, tiny, cramped and messy though it be. As an actor in between a contract and casual work I have a horror of that long stretch of time between daybreak and sunset and find a useful way to avoid alcoholism is to bake. It's cheap, time consuming and there are seemingly endless diversifications to be found online, on't telly and in't books. Not to mention the ability to turn up with homemade confection is a very useful way for a naturally antisocial member of our species to appear warm and fuzzy- particularly in the acting world where new colleagues tend to put the word 'unemotional' alongside 'sociopathic.' When the Daredevil Divas performed in November it was casually suggested I put this hobby to use and so produced a couple of items that I'd found in Nigella's book Kitchen: a chocolate orange loaf cake (one of the easiest recipes possible for the cake novice and tastes grown up enough to offer an important guest with tea), and a raspberry bakewell slice (little more time consuming but far easier than making shortcrust pastry and takes minutes to prepare if you've a food processor and mixer). As a wheat free option I slung in my famous rice crispie cakes in camp muffin cases and sprinkled with edible gold dust. As a finale my excellent friend and soon-to-be flatmate/landlady Harriet De Winton came up with pretty in pink cupcakes that updated my rather homely selection. All went well and were eaten with gusto so for the Gallery evening it was suggested I make a few more, the emphasis this time on the cupcakes.

I had a little more time to myself on this occasion so decided to really explore the cupcake as an artform. It's easy to turn one's nose up at the little cupcake, as anything in the thrall of fashion what's cute as a button one season is facile the next. The high street is still enjoying the consumer demand for these pretty, brightly coloured treats but fashion has moved on to the macaroon (fiddly at best, needs a large, accurate oven and an electric whisk), the whoopie pie (don't get me started on that bland thing) and now cupcakes in jars are all the rage. At least they were last month, god knows what the fashionistas are pretending to eat this week. But in terms of home baking I think the humble cupcake is the perfect starter item for a nervous baker, the sponge is so very simple that all the fun can go into decorating it afterwards, putting a personal stamp onto a universal formula which, let's face it, is why we make the effort in the first place. Personally I would far rather eat something with more depth to it, a wasabi cream macaroon or handmade baklava, something tiny with an intense burst of flavour to keep the tastebuds warm for hours afterwards. But we love to look at cupcakes, we love the way they look diminutive on a plate, the way the buttercream seems to pile itself on top, the endless opportunities for decoration and flavours, sugared petals, lime and coconut flavour, chocolate cream and edible glitter. They don't feel like a dietary transgression either, if the sponge is light enough you won't feel the impact of them until after at least two or three with tea.

All these thoughts encouraged me to make the most of my little commission. I had my budget and roughly 50 people to bake for and I wasn't about to be accused of being ordinary. So I dusted off my imagination and bought a great deal of icing.

I saw Black Swan on a weekend in Leeds and was, still am, struck by the beauty of the cinematography. Please don't drag me into a tedious debate on the subject of ballet and body image, whether or not directors are that horrid and the pressures of being a performer. Phooey. It looked marvellous. In any event it struck me as a good subject for cake decoration. The White swan was a favourite on the night, and probably aesthetically the most pleasing of the cakes. The sponge recipe came from the Good Food site, as did the others for that matter. The only tweak would be to whisk the eggs well, get a little air into them, to ensure a light, fluffy sponge. To add a little drama I spooned a layer of seedless raspberry jam into the centre of each cake. Just layer the batter in, one teaspoon of batter, half a teaspoon of jam, then top with a second teaspoon of batter.
. The swans themselves I moulded from wedding cake icing a couple of days in advance and left to set. I reckon in retrospect marzipan would have done equally well but I wanted a unity of flavour
.


Then of course came the black swans, and to make these you must be very brave on the subject of food colouring. Not for the faint hearted in terms of E numbers but I assure you the flavour of the icing is not affected at all. One thing it does do is make the icing rather runny but I loved the way it dripped evilly over the crisp, white cases.

The black swans had a different icing that dried very quickly so I used an origami-esque approach, cutting them out from flat rolled icing and folding them into shape. This required a couple of attempts, and flat the final model actually looked a bit like concorde but it had the desired effect.


Easy and popular were the chocolate cakes with pink buttercream icing- I added a heaped tablespoon of good quality cocoa powder (fair trade) to the dry ingredients to make a chocolate sponge, then piped the buttercream icing on the finished cakes. The nylon bag split on the last cupcake- sticking to proper catering equipment from now on. These were eaten first, gratifying but it certainly showed that the icing is what the people want!

After that rather serious effort I wanted the rest of my cakes to be more 'fun', and I also wanted them to adhere more to the burlesque setting. So I chose Bettie Bruiser and Poppy Von Tarte as my inspiration (frankly they've been my major inspiration in all things artistic for some time). Bettie Bruiser's Vanilla bites were my last bit of icing work, I love her skull and crossbones emblem. I made a cardboard stencil and cut out my little figures with my trusty icing knife (they exist, would you believe, though a craft knife would do).


Then to the cupcakes, a vanilla sponge with blue buttercream icing (spread rather than piped this time as the last lot rather tested my patience. The result was surprisingly sweet, next time I shall try to find a more metallic blue for a more hard-edged look.


Last came a proper bit of baking. I was a bit tired of cupcakes, pretty though they are, and with Poppy as my inspiration I needed a 'Tarte'. I used Nigella's raspberry recipe without the fresh raspberries, using two medium sized round foil cases rather than one large square. To finish I iced them and topped them with icing poppies (oh yeah I made them too. No biggie.). I loved the result, crumbly, buttery pastry, nutty, moist frangipani and smooth, light icing. There are many gaps in the English food canon, but we do on occasion come across some rather excellent cakes.


All credit to Liz and Michaela on yet another successful Diva night. Teensy drama at 6.30 when all the lights on North St went out and we weren't sure how the rest of the night would fare, especially as without power the bar was struggling to continue service. Luckily disaster was averted and power magically went back on. The rest of the evening was problem free: Lottie Psychottie had another supermarket meltdown (if you want to please a crowd of women, tear up a calorie chart to the soundtrack of Rage Against The Machine. It'll go down a treat). There was Lucy's pirate tale and Anita MacCallum's poem My husband's in the freezer. There was my rather tired performance of Brel's Jackie (not doing the backing track thing again, methinks) and Amsterdam acapella (better, in fact I'm rather tempted to stick with unaccompanied from now on, keep things low key. Unless someone frightfully talented wants to join in, that is, and I'm happy to hear from any penniless musicians on that subject, especially if you like Brel, Weil and Waits). There were Opin Yalegs and Kitty Cattrap and Poppy was the peerless compere.

A brilliant night in the company of performers, photographers, sugarwork professionals (couple of tips), a lady with a vintage china business who lent an elegant cake stand (Lucy if you're reading this can you give me her details so I can plug her), Liz and Michaela's costumier and many more. There was a communal feel to the night, and I hope our marvellous organisers could feel the warmth and gaiety of the gathering. I only hope our portraits make quick sales, the profits of which will go to a charity of the DDDs choice. Got home tired and happy and ready to face the rest of my week, which was good as I rather needed the energy.

I shall of course keep you posted on the Divas and hopefully will be able to put up a link to the portraits when they go on Liz's blog.

Share and enjoy.

1 comment:

  1. Fantastic cupcake post there Alice- still admiring the swan and skull handiwork- perhaps I should get myself an icing knife! The poppy tart looks lovely too- will look out for that recipe for more info. Your famous crispy cakes were much appreciated the other night- here's hoping for another visit from you soon! xxx

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