Cake Queen 9C - Barbara Franzoni

Hi, I’m Barbara Franzoni and I’m not sure that I’m REALLY a ‘Cake Queen’, more of a cake princess really as I don’t do a lot of cakes and I don’t run a business – flattery is the currency for my cakes right now, but then I’m easily flattered.  So not being as practiced as most of the other cake queens, I was excited and incredibly honoured to be a part of this wonderful project, but at the same time it was quite intimidating to know that my piece would be shown side-by-side with the work of those cake makers who I have admired so much over the years.

The painting we chose to interpret for this project is busy and bright and colourful and very, very detailed – it’s by Simone Walsh and is one of those paintings that you could stare and stare at for hours, picking out all the little details and getting excited when you recognise something new.  I had no idea which section of the painting I would receive in the post for my piece, but when I the postman dropped section 9C through my letterbox and I saw the fish and the ferry, my heart sang – I LOVED my section, loved the funny, colourful fish and the bright blue of the sea.  

So, unlike any other cake I’ve ever done, this time I did all the icing before the cake was even made – if that makes any sense at all.  So I started with a modelling sugarpaste in Atlantic Blue and rolled it flat before cutting it to size – for this project the dimensions were scarily important as my piece must fit together with the work of all the other Cake Queens without leaving any gaps ….. no pressure then, eeek! 
So the decorating method…, well I traced (scratched) on the outline of the design and set to work painting in the sea with edible food colouring.  The wall, fish and boat were all pieces of sugarpaste that I coloured and hand moulded into shape and stuck on with an edible sugar glue.  I then piped some royal icing on which I painted over with edible gold paint to get the finish.  Sounds simple?  Yeah, it seemed a simple enough plan in my head before I started too, haha, but I’m happy to report that I had no major mishaps along the way.  The fish you see is what came out on my first try although the boat is my third attempt (first two ferry attempts went the way of the Titanic). 

The cake itself is made from Belgian chocolate biscuit with a dark chocolate ganache coating – it’s a no-bake-cake that is quite heavy and sturdy and long-lasting.  It’s pretty much like a brick in size and weight – which meant I had to carve up a square cake to get the right shape so loads of leftovers, much to my family’s delight.  Ganache is made by bringing cream to near boiling point (the ‘scald’) and then pouring over chocolate pieces and whisking until smooth – there is a very thin layer of ganache around the sides of this cake and on the top to hold the icing in place.

So that’s my piece – I met up with some of the other Cake Queens this morning to hand it over and it’s always lovely to meet with them as most of us know each other well and have forged strong friendships (after all, who else but another caker could understand the terror of driving over a speed-bumped road with a tiered wedding cake in the boot?).  I am very grateful to Cake Queen Niamh Gerraghty for sharing this project with us – it’s something I’m very glad to be a part of. So now I can relax (apart from my mammy and student duties) and watch as Niamh puts it into place. 

Culture Night (Friday 20th September) will be a big night for me, can’t wait to see all our pieces together and also to enjoy a night out with the wonderful cake queens who I love and admire.

Hope to see you there,

Barbara xxx