May Bank Holiday

Weekend of naked wedding cakes!

We don't get these requested as much as traditional wedding cakes but when they do...they're BIG BOYS.

Our favourite from the weekend was a wedding we did in Wetherby, a 4 tiered number all different flavours heavily fruited and icing sugared.

If you're interested in a wedding cake like this or any other design, contact us at orders@loverouge.com

Till next time cake fans!

Best cake cases in the world...

Here at Love Rouge, we get through approximately 2,500 cupcakes a week, that's a ton of cases. We offer 15 flavours most days, this can depend if someone forgets to make a particular flavour or we run out of ingredients...this happens more than I would like BUT IT'S JUST SO HARD TO REMEMBER STUFF!!!!

When we first started i'm not ashamed to say but our cupcakes were tiny, if any of you out there know me I like to make my cakes big and bold, the new brownie chocolate cake is currently reaching the dizzy heights on 6 going on 7 inches much to B's dismay.

The cases we used we small and showed up grease like no-bodys business, for a while we experimented with colours...hey it was 2011 and everyone was doing it.

Then I found my soulmate of the cake case world. Some search for years and never find their one true case, I was lucky, i'm not sure how we found each other but all I know is Love Rouge cupcakes were never the same again. I saw them sitting there in their shiny plastic box all 100 of them crisp and new and it was noted that they were flaunting their "grease proof" claim for all to see...the little floozies. They are by no means the cheapest, but sometimes you've got to pay a little extra for the good things in life.

The new Love Rouge cakes were born, they were big, they were bold and as the packet thrust in my face...they were greaseproof!!!!

Behold Lakelands muffin cases...

http://www.lakeland.co.uk/5547/100-Greaseproof-Paper-Muffin-Cases

If I could work out how to insert a picture I would but this link will tell you all you need to know. Ignore the other cases all brightly coloured and foil coated, these badgers are the ones.

So go forth, bake and be merry, but if you just can't be bothered we will always have cake...unless it's like 9am on the dot...i'm always a little late.

Happy Graduation!

It's coming to that time of the year again, when things start coming to a close. The sun is out, everyone has finished their exams and the one too many cocktails are being drank. This can only mean one thing, that graduation is just around the corner. We've decided to put together a little graduation package for you all to make planning the big day that little bit easier. If you are looking for somewhere to take your parents and your Gran after the formalities, then look no further my friends. We are putting on a special afternoon tea, complete with finger sandwiches, our signature cakes and a glass of fizz. It's £20 per person and only available to pre book. You can give us a call on 0113 345 8441 to book your space, if you just let us know that you want the special graduation afternoon tea, we'll pop you in the diary.
We are also cooking up some delicious sweet treats for the special day as well. We can make bespoke celebration cakes to mark the occasion. So give us a call to discuss your ideas, tiny fondant mortar boards for everyone!!

Eton Mess big dog cake

This week we have brought a newcomer to the Love Rouge Cake family, behold the Eton Mess big dog cake. 4 layers of raspberry and strawberry sponge smothered in our signature icing with and added bit of jazz (homemade raspberry sauce) between the layers...because just icing wasn't enough. Below we'll take you through each process of how to make this cake, however maybe don't go for the 4 layers if its just you eating it...wait...who am I to judge, eat the whole cake you crazy cat.

Ingredients you're going to need for the sponge (this makes easily a 9" cake)

• 360g caster sugar
• 360g butter
• 360g plain flour
• 3 tsp baking powder
• 250ml milk
• 50g raspberries
• 50g strawberries
•  6 eggs

Method

1. Preheat your oven to 160 degrees and prepare your tins, we like to use Lakelands cake release and occasionally a disc cut out of greaseproof paper.

2. In a mixer or with a bowl and a hand mixer, cream together the butter and sugar at a medium speed. Scrape down the sides as you go to ensure you have incorporated all the sugar and the butter. Continue to beat the butter and the sugars until they become very light and fluffy, it should probably take about 5 minutes. 

4. Beat the eggs in 1 at a time and ensure each egg is thoroughly mixed in before adding the next, the mixture should continue to look light and fluffy. If you think its starting to curdle a bit just toss in a spoonful of the flour and mix well.

5. Once all the eggs have been added and mixed add the flour and mix until the batter is smooth, add in your strawberries and raspberries.

6. Distribute the cake batter between your tins as evenly as possible and then pop in the over for about an hour, do not open the door before the timer has gone off and if you have one of those ovens where you can shake the door a bit and the cake still wobbles then DO NOT OPEN!!! Sorry for the capitals but many a good cake has been lost of door opening eagerness.

7. Once your cakes have baked leave them to cool, we leave our cakes overnight once they have been baked, we do this as when it comes to cutting them into slices they are a lot more sturdy.

If you've managed to leave the cake alone overnight, then well done!! yay!!!

So the icing... We like to use cream cheese icing for our cupcakes and our big cakes, however beware of the cream cheese icing, it is a temperamental soul. Cream cheese icing does not work if you want to travel anywhere especially if it is hot, cake layers start to melt and they then slip off, it's happened to us while transporting a wedding cake...I don't want to talk about it.

Cream cheese icing

Ingredients

• 400g cream cheese
• 200g butter (room temp)
• icing sugar (theres no real point in putting a quantity, cream cheese will take you for all you are worth when it comes to icing sugar, just ensure you've bought a lot if you want to go down this road)

The method to this is pretty simple, mix the cream cheese and butter together until well combined and then add icing sugar until it has become a thick enough consistency to spread over a cake. If the icing appears to be glossy then you're going to need to add some more icing sugar. Cream cheese icing has a way of tricking you into thinking its ready and it isn't...don't be a sucker.

Raspberry sauce

Ingredients

• 12oz raspberries
• 2 heaped tablespoons of cornflour
• 1/2 cup caster sugar
• 1/4 cup of water

Method

1. Put your raspberries in a sieve and crush them with a spoon or a spatula until all the juice has been extracted and you're left with seeds and some mush.

2. Add everything into a pan and whisk over a medium heat until everything is combined, let the mixture heat up until it is bubbling and continue to whisk. It should start to thicken up and then at this point remove it from the heat and leave it to cool down, it should continue to thicken as it cools.

Meringue

Ingredients

• 4 large eggs
• 115g caster sugar
• 115g icing sugar

Method

1. Preheat your own to 100c and line 2 sheets with parchment paper.

2. Split your eggs into egg whites and add the egg whites to a clean bowl and whisk until they resemble a fluffy cloud and have stiff peaks.

3. Turn up the speed of the mixer and add the caster sugar 1 spoonful at the time.

4. Sieve 1/3 of the icing sugar over the mixture and fold in, repeat until you have used all of the icing sugar.

5. spread the mixture over the parchment paper or if you can be bothered pipe it on.

6. Bake for 1 1/2 hours, when baked leave to cool completely.

You now have all you need to assemble the cake, this is really up to you, raspberry between the layers or just drizzled all over the top. It is a time consuming cake to make, so if you haven't got the time or the patience or any clue how to bake, just come down to the bakery and we'll cut you a slice and get you a brew, we probably won't feed you...you're going to have to do that yourself. Soz. 

If you can be bothered to do non of the above, then just lie on the floor like this guy...

Bank Holiday Opening Times

Oh hey!

Just thought we'd do a little posty about our opening hours this bak holiday weekend. We are open as normal, in both stores. Okay that's it, bye.

Only joking! Not about the opening times though. Everything is remaining the same so do make sure you pop in and say hello to us! We've had a very busy week this week so thanks to everyone who came and ate cake. Did you see the big dog salted caramel cake that hit Headingley yesterday? We sold out in about 4 hours, I reckon that's got to be a Love Rouge record. If there's another flavour big dog cake you want to see in store, let us know. Leave us a comment on this post and we'll see what we can do.

This month's Cinema Sunday tickets have also gone up online this morning. This month we are showing Dirty Dancing. It's going to be mega! Grab some gals and guys and join us for cocktails and Swayze swooning. You can only buy your tickets online HERE , so make sure you get 'em quickly as they sell out fast. See you there!

Have a wonderful bank holiday!

xx

All that glitters

                

 All that glitters...

We were given the challenge to create a 3 tier wedding cake that was covered in edible gold sequins and deliver it to London. Sounds simple you may think, but those that know the cake decorating world will understand the painstaking time consuming process of creating such a cake. We thought we would share this process with you and if you have a spare day and a half then you might even want to give it a go.

Although the process is long the results are very affective so its definitely worth doing.

Heres our finished product.

And here is how to create those amazing sequins.

Here is what you will need:

1.) Squires Kitchen Metallic Lustre Dust 

Gold 

2.) Squires Kitchen Leaf Gelatine

5.) 5 acetate sheets

3.) Scissors

4.) Heat proof bowl

 5.) Jug of cold water
6.) Edible glue
7.) Two fine paint brushes

Step 1.) Mix 3 tbsp of water with 2tsp of lustre dust in a heat proof bowl
Step 2.) Cut 4 gelatine leaves into strips to fit the bowl then add them to the lustre dust mixture
Step 3.) Place the bowl on top of a saucepan of boiling water. Ensuring the bowl does not touch the water.
Step 4.)Gently stir until the gelatine has dissolved into the gold water.

Step 5.) While the mixture is hot carefully pour the gold onto acetate sheets and spread the mixture evenly.

Step 6.) Once you have used all the mixture leave over night until the mixture has set.

Step 7.) Once the mixture has completely set the gold sheets should just peel off the acetate easily.

Step 8.) Using a singular hole punch start punching out your sequins into a bowl.

Step 9.) You can now start applying the sequins to your cake. These sequins are really only to be used on sugarpaste covered cakes. To apply the sequins use a small amount of edible glue on a fine paint brush and lift the sequin from the bowl and using a another clean paint brush gently place the sequin onto the cake.

Step 10.) Repeat step 9 at least 100+ times!

And eventually you will create something like this!

Once you have done this it really is easy to master.

Behind the scenes

 

Behind the Scenes

We thought it was about time that we opened our doors to the goings on in our bakery. You will see where and how your delicious cakes are made with videos and pictures of our team in action! Unfortunately our team are a bit shy today but here is taster of what life is like in our bakery with lots more to come. Welcome to Love Rouge BAKERY.

We will hopefully get some videos on here showing you techniques on icing and how to make your favourite Love Rouge Bakery treats. Enjoy!