Welcome to the Cake Decorators Q&A

If my chocolate cake, currently baking, turns out a bit dry is there any suitable simple syrup recipe I could put onto the layers the wouldn’t involve alcohol as there will be children eating the cake.

Many thanks.
xx

Hi bellscakes

Yes, just do a simple syrup made with 50/50 sugar and water boiled together for a minute. Add a vanilla pod and once boiled take it out and scrape out the beans into the syrup: or once cool add child friendly flavour to it. This can be used to moisten the layers. xx

Thanks very much once again. Any suggestions as to what flavour would be best for the simple syrup please? xx

How about the vanilla pod. Split the pod in half. scrape out the beans and boil it up with the syrup. That’s the easiest and tastes lovely. You could also do orange , mint. rose, raspberry, cherry, blackberry or anything else which goes really well with chocolate. Alternative idea, infuse the hot syrup with a flavoured fruit teabag. Don’t leave the teabag in for too long if you want a light flavour.

Thanks very much what lovely ideas. I really like the idea of either the vanilla or the raspberry flavour. If I used the raspberry would raspberry flavouring be suitable please? I purchased it from Shepcote of Driffield, Yorkshire and it smells really intense.

xx

Does it give any instructions? If not, add a few drops and taste for flavour, adjust as you feel necessary. I use Foodie Flavours and it says on their instructions the amount to use.

Thanks very much. No there are no instructions on the bottle. I think it’s most likely a flavouring for buttercream really. But yes If I use that flavour I will adjust as necessary. Having said all this on reflection adding another flavour other than vanilla may be overkill on top of the already sweet sugar paste.

On a totally different not, do you know how I can enlarge the font when typing questions or answers please? The font is really tiny and I prefer a larger font.

Many thanks.
xx

I just use my thumb and index finger and spread the screen which enlarges the text temporarily. There are lots of tutorials online on how to do change it in you settings. Google ‘how to change text size on computer’ .

If you don’t want to use a sweet flavouring, flavoured tea won’t add sweetness.