Welcome to the Cake Decorators Q&A

Hello,

I am looking to make the Cottage cake on the weekend for a charity event, but I am a little stuck and need a bit if help. Basically, the drum board size is not listed, as well as the fact I need to buy cardboard etc, so if I was going shipping for the ingredients/tools straight from looking at these lists rather than watching the tutorials first which I am doing, I would come away with some stuff missing from my shopping basket, and that to me is a big problem.

I will contact Paul about this, but can other people give me any hints/tips of things they did when they made this cake. For example, was there anything you found you needed extra could have done with? Any help would be much appreciated.

Thanks! Liz

Hi Liz

Probably a bit late in answering. If you don’t have an answer from the site already, I think from Paul’s measurements of the cake the drum he is using is 14″. He improvised by cutting a 10″ round card to pop the roof on as he didn’t have an actual 10 x 6. Other items are already listed in the tutorial, except you will need a 14″ box (if using) to transport the cake and probably some lid extenders to accommodate the roof. Extenders are available in the site shop, possibly a little too late to be ordering them online now however you can raise the sides by cutting strips of card and cello taping to the walls of the box to give an extra few inches. You’ll also need ribbon which I believe is already listed. Sorry can’t help more, I haven’t made the cottage and am just giving you information from my observation of the tutorial. Hope all goes well at the weekend.

Thank you so much for your response. I had been shopping before I got the message, and I bought a 14″ by 16″ drum board which is fine, I’ll just have 2 more inches on the garden 🙂 It’s been a little tough haha, one of the cakes I made turned out raw in the middle and sunk a lot, so had to scrap that and make a new one this morning :/ I actually used Lindy Smith’s chocolate cake recipe – I think it’s me, but whenever I use buttermilk in a chocolate cake, without fail really it turns out raw/a little underdone…very puzzling. So I had a tizz this last night and this morning, but I’m hoping against all hopes that’s the last of my freak outs! I will let you know how it turns out.
Again, thanks again for all your help. It seems all us members can always rely on you to help us, and that is utterly fantastic!
Liz X

Hi Liz

You could have tried this recipe http://www.cakeflix.com/blog/how-to-make-chocolate-mud-cake it’s best made a few days ahead as it gets better for keeping. Look forward to hear all about it. Relax! x