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Published: 2008-12-25 01:40:34 +0000 UTC; Views: 7149; Favourites: 84; Downloads: 0
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December 25, 2008"TUFT: The Ultimate Fruitcake Tutorial"
(but that was too many letters for dA to handle
Fullview, it's better
(It's only 829 KB, so it won't kill your internet.)
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First off, a Merry Christmas and Happy New Year to you all.
Project Fruitcake in all its completed glory.
After around 30 hours total of slaving around in the kitchen during December, including 8 hours of baking, 10 hours of marzipanning and 12 hours of decorating, I'm finally done.
I'd say this project cost me about $80, including the tin and other tools/colours I bought especially for this project.
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This tutorial/step-by-step was going to be three parts, but then Photoshop got wiped from my computer (nobody told me!) so I lost the other part of this...
I downloaded the trial version and decided I'd just make one big whopper of a tutorial.
The cool purple background was made by using the gradient tool, and me mucking around because I didn't exactly know how to use it.
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Notes about construction:
Only 30 cakes are used in the final shot. (I actually had 31 in the end.) There are 16 on the bottom, 9 on the second layer, 4 on the third layer and one on top. There should be 20 red ones, but considering I only had 19, there is a green one hidden in the bottom tier.
To get the red icing to that colour takes a very long time. Red is one of the most annoying icing colours to work with. The green took not nearly as long, but it had a blueish sort of tone for ages. The colours I used were Wilton's "No Taste Red" and Chefmasters' "Forest Green", which the cake deco shopkeeper told me was close to a holly green colour.
(I was endeavouring to get pre-coloured fondant, but it's only avaliable in America and apparently didn't meet our safety standards...so it can't be imported
I used a total of 1kg of Orchard almond icing and about 1.5kg of Orchard ready-to-roll fondant. The cake itself weighs about 2.5kg and the whole finished product was nearly 4kg.
The cakes are on a round glass display plate, I was out of square cake boards that were large enough, plus I think it looks nicer on the round plate.
That's all I can think of right now, any other queries, please leave a comment
Related content
Comments: 26
claremanson [2011-11-25 13:15:24 +0000 UTC]
your tasty recipe has been included in my latest journal feature [link]
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Craftn00b [2010-11-12 19:09:07 +0000 UTC]
I'm going to make some for my dad. I just found out he likes fruitcake and he will probably enjoy this!!
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tanmei In reply to Craftn00b [2010-11-13 12:14:16 +0000 UTC]
Fruitcake is great and pretty yummy unless you don't like fruit
Did you want a copy of the recipe?
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Craftn00b In reply to tanmei [2010-11-13 17:44:13 +0000 UTC]
Yes please! That would be wonderful!
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tanmei In reply to Craftn00b [2010-11-14 04:04:09 +0000 UTC]
The basic method is the same...but I've got lists of ingredients for about 10 different sizes of cake from 15cm up to about 30cm. Would you be able to tell me what size cake tin you intend to make this in and whether it's square or round?
Just that this cake shown in the tutorial was 28cm square, and had over 1kg of ingredients in it...not sure if you want to make one this large
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Craftn00b In reply to tanmei [2010-11-14 06:15:23 +0000 UTC]
My cake pan is a square 9x9. I don't think I will need so much unless I want to make three our maybe even four times the idea quantity I need.
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IchigoOtaku [2010-09-27 01:01:17 +0000 UTC]
This is so cool! Maybe I'll make something similar for my family this year.
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tanmei In reply to IchigoOtaku [2010-11-13 12:14:19 +0000 UTC]
Do tell me if you end up making a fruitcake, I'd love to see it
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Dejonay [2010-08-08 12:13:14 +0000 UTC]
Slow oven? i want to try this out but how long and how hot do i cook it
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tanmei In reply to Dejonay [2010-08-08 13:51:09 +0000 UTC]
Slow oven, meaning the temperature of the oven is 150 degrees C/300 degrees F
The length of time you cook it for depends on what size cake you're making. This one is 28cm square/11 inches and took 5 hours to cook, but different size tins need different cooking times. I can note you with the recipe if you tell me what size cake tin you have.
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NexNetix [2010-07-23 22:47:55 +0000 UTC]
Amazing! 8-O
I have never heard about these sweets, there are nothing like this type in my country. Could you please write here complete recipe in Description? I mean how much of fruits, which kinds, how much of butter, sugar, etc. I would really like to try it. *little bit of masochism, I know
*
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tanmei In reply to NexNetix [2010-07-24 03:56:40 +0000 UTC]
Thank you!
I love to inspire people
Am I able to note you with the recipe?
I'm doubting you want to make a cake this big - this is for an 11 inch/28 cm square tin (which you'll probably have to buy).
I can send the recipe to you, though the recipe states different quantities of ingredients for different sized baking tins, if you have a smaller tin (it can be round if you like instead of square), tell me and I will send you the quantities for that size cake
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Snowflaky [2010-03-05 19:40:22 +0000 UTC]
what a work
and what a awesome result
just fantastic
this have to win a prize
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tanmei In reply to Snowflaky [2010-03-06 14:11:23 +0000 UTC]
Thank you!
...though it's been eaten now. Don't think I'll be getting a prize
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UpperClassK9 [2010-01-08 16:57:33 +0000 UTC]
I don't think the cakes stayed long on the plate. They looked too good.
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darksong94 [2008-12-31 04:07:24 +0000 UTC]
OMG YUM. the icing looks like it takes aaaaaaages, still, awesome result.
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tanmei In reply to darksong94 [2009-01-01 03:22:01 +0000 UTC]
Thanks
It is yummy, but it's taking us ages to finish
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ravenwing136 [2008-12-26 01:21:51 +0000 UTC]
wow........ nice cake pity about the icing, but what if you made it cream? i love cream...
Merry Late Christmas!!!!
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tanmei In reply to ravenwing136 [2008-12-26 03:56:13 +0000 UTC]
If I made it cream, it would go off really quickly, and it would get very messy stacking it up
I love creamy icing, but it's not right for fruitcakes
Thanks, and a belated Xmas to you too
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ravenwing136 In reply to tanmei [2008-12-28 07:26:25 +0000 UTC]
yeah but fantasy cream is alright lol!
now its happy new year... any plans? maybe someone will actually GO to a countdown party thing...
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tanmei In reply to ravenwing136 [2008-12-28 11:32:14 +0000 UTC]
No plans for New Year's Eve, doesn't really excite me much when they always show Sydney fireworks first
Usually we just watch telly, stay up till 12 midnight and let off some party poppers
Fantasy cream Now that's a new idea
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ravenwing136 In reply to tanmei [2008-12-29 05:02:05 +0000 UTC]
what's bad about that? the more the merrier
ugh its another party for me... and in that particular group there is NO ONE my age.
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falarae [2008-12-25 02:30:17 +0000 UTC]
Yum!!! That looks really great, very professional looking. They look like they come from Myer or an expensive specialist sweet shop I like that swirly font, too
Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!
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tanmei In reply to falarae [2008-12-25 09:50:01 +0000 UTC]
Thanks so much for your kind words
It was worth doing two layers of icing for the smooth finish.
We ate some for afternoon tea (we had my cousins come over) and we ended up pulling off all the icing as they were really sweet...to the point of getting sickly. But it's all for show anyway
The swirly font is Zapfino, which is only on Macs. I believe it's really overused in Digital Arts class...
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