A CARROT CAKE 'CAKE'

A dear blogger friend Sarah Jane had sent me not one but four silicone WORD moulds all the way from the UK. As if that wasn't enough Sarah had included some sugar nibs and a rolling cookie cutter as well. What can I say? I was excited.... WOW and thank you Sarah Jane. I just can't wait to play with the sugar nibs and cookie cutter as well.

Sarah Jane designs moulds for SiliconeMoulds.com, a company that sells all kinds of silicon moulds. Not just for baking but also for chocolate making and soap moulding. If you visit her site you'll see moulds in a variety if shapes and sizes and some of them are really whimsical and fun. My kind of mould shapes. These moulds look fantastic! 

If you want to see some great recipes hop over to her lovely blog ~ siliconemoulds.blogspot.com :)) If you read my blog you might remember the Cherry Cupcake Financiers that I made a while back? Well... it was one of Sarah's fantastic recipes. 

I have never used or bought silicone moulds before. I was a little apprehensive at how the cake would hold up since the moulds were rather soft and rubbery while H kept asking me if I was sure it was for baking. Heh... Men.

What's good about about these moulds is that you could cut them up and seperate the letters, bake them seperately and make up your own word with them. So you're not stuck with just one word. Two birthdays coming up two new words to bake! Yay :)

I think you can bake pretty most any kind of cake in these word moulds but like all intricate moulds with defined edges and corners, silicone or not, a slightly dense cake would be best, just to ensure the edges come out nice and crispy sharp. And a good greasing with butter and flouring of the mould is a must-must. Just like their metal counterparts if these moulds are well greased and floured the cakes literally fall out of the moulds.

The letters are about 4 1/2 inches in length and about 1 1/2 inches in height each. Oh..and you can't get these moulds anywhere else except on SiliconeMoulds.com website. I believe these are the only word moulds being produced in baking world at the moment and it's pretty new.

I had used Smitten Kitchen's Carrot Cake recipe. It was absolutely delicious ~ moist, not too sweet and perfect.This is a cake that you would want to make. Always.

Here's the recipe ~ adapted from Smitten Kitchen

I halved the recipe and it was perfect for the word CAKE. I had also omitted the nutmeg, ginger and raisins.  


2 cups flour
2 tsp baking soda
1 tsp salt
2 tsp cinnamon
1/2 tsp nutmeg
1 tsp ginger
2 cups sugar
11/4 cup vegetable oil
4 large eggs
3 cups finely grated carrot
1 cup coarsely chopped walnuts
1/2 cup raisins


Whisk flour, baking soda, salt and spices in a bowl. Whisk sugar and oil until well mixed and add egg one at a time mixing well after each addition and once all eggs have been added whisk for another 3-5 minutes until the mixture is pale and light. Fold in flour with a spatula and then fold in carrots and walnuts and raisins if using.

I filled the moulds right up to the rim.


Bake at 170 C for 35-40 minutes if you're using a normal shaped tin or until a toothpick inserted in the centre comes out clean. I baked the word cake at 160 C for the first 10 minutes and at 170 C for the rest of the time. Test with a toothpick and if it comes out clean it's done. All in all I baked it for about 25 - 20 minutes.

Please visit Sarah-Jane's siliconemoulds if you would like detailed photographs and instructions on using these moulds.

Cream cheese frosting~

There is no exact measurement for this ... I used ~

About 250 gm cream cheese
About 1/4 cup heavy cream
About 80 gm gm icing sugar


Beat all together in a mixer and adjust according to taste and to the consistency that you prefer. Spread over cake.

Some tips on using word silicone moulds :
 
1. Grease the mould with your finger so that you can get right into the corners. Then sift some flour over the mould and  the best way to get the flour into all those corners would be to 'clap' the mould against itself over the kitchen sink. Tap out excess flour. It hardly takes any time at all. Quicker than I imagined it would be.


2. Scoop up the batter with a small plastic jug and pour the batter into the mould. You get less drip and smudges this way apart from it being quicker.


3. Lower the oven temperature by 10 degrees so that the cake will not mound too much. Through experience narrow or small moulds like loaf tins causes the cake to mound and crack at the top because of the small surface area. This can be avoided considerably in the word moulds by baking at a lower temperature at the beginning which avoids 'shocking' the batter into rising. 

4. Choose a slighlty denser and firmer cake to bake in the word moulds because the edges will be better defined when the cake is unmoulded.

5. Don't attempt to lift the mould off the tray while it is hot. Because the mould is flexible and the cakes still tender so you might break the cakes if you tried. Leave it on the tray until it cools half way through at the least. Wait until the cakes are COMPLETELY cold before turning out.

6. Unmould the cakes carefully pushing them out from the bottom of the mould. Turn the cakes with the mounded tops facing you.

5. Slice off the mounds with a bread knife just enough so you have a flat bottom so that the cakes sit evenly on the board. Turn the cakes over so that the bottoms become the top and the sliced tops become the bottom.


6. Wash the moulds in warm soapy water after use.

Tips on  decorating word cakes :

1. Use the smallest/narrowest spatula. 


2. Cover the cake with a thin film of butter cream first and place it in the freezer to firm up. Maybe 20-25 minutes or more. Don't worry if the cake shows through. Don't worry about frosting the crevices like the one in the letter A. Unless you're a little obsessed like me.


3. Coat with a second layer. Smoothen the sides with the small spatula or use a slightly larger one. Pipe squiggles over the top using a piping bag and a number 3 plain round nozzle. There is no need to decorate the sides unless you decide to sandwich two word cakes together in which case you will have tall sides.

4. Freeze the cakes again for a few minutes to an hour until the frosting firms up so the cakes can be  lifted with a spatula onto your plate or cake board and you can arrange the letter cakes any way you wish without messing up the frosting too much.


5. It would be pretty if the letters were arranged in a quirky and whimsical way.

6. Or you could frost each letter a different colour if you have all the time in the world. 


TIP : A quick way to decorate a word cake would be to dust some icing sugar over the top. It looks just as beautiful.Sarah-Jane did one here and it was beautiful.