Origami Tutorials

I always have to have enough to do, preferable too much to do, otherwise I get restless and bored. This blog was and is a way to keep me occupied and thinking. But now I have found a new additional platform in which to channel my energy. My always increasing interest and passion for origami has led me down a new path. Now I'm on YouTube!

My channel is called Idunn Origami and YES I KNOW there are endless origami and DIY channels on YouTube but I don't mind that. I like doing these videos. My goal is to do good and clear tutorial videos and the following three are my first try. They are not flawless but I'm pretty pleased with the outcome.

For future videos my intention is to improve the video quality which makes my next mission to get a better video camera so I can increase the frame rate. And I might need to work on my accent! hehe.
If you are interested in origami I hope you find these videos helpful. For those of you who watch the videos I would really appreciate if you left a comment below the video as to let me know what you think. That way I know what I do well and where there is room for improvement.
Enjoy!

Coloring books

Few years back I gave my nephew and nieces coloring books featuring them selves for Christmas. I gathered photos of them that I thought might look nice in outlines and then I traced the lines in Illustrator. This took WAY longer than I had imagined and was a challenging practice in patience. Luckily I was happy with the outcome!

 I wouldn't recommend doing this to anyone unless you have whole lot of time and patience. But if you want to give it a try the only thing you need to do is to import the image you want to use into illustrator and start tracing. If I remember correctly I only used the pen tool and had two layers, one for the original image and one for tracing. Every now and then I hid the layer with the original image to see if the lines I had traced looked good and then I just kept on going until I was satisfied with the complete image. For you who have no experience with Illustrator here is a nice video that teaches how to use the pen tool. And here is a video with more general instructions for Illustrator. Good luck to all you brave ones out there!

Until later... 

My birthday cake history

After I had my first daughter I found myself in a new world of children's birthday parties and having to adopt the role of a hostess for these kind of celebrations. At first this role was difficult and at times nerve wrecking but with every new birthday party it has become easier. I try to make every birthday party special and in some way different from the ones before. One way to do that is to make memorable birthday cakes.
My first cake was baked in a teddy bear tin with Betty Crocker chocolate cake mix. It did't turn out the way I had hoped. The cake was dry and partly burned. I had trouble getting it out of the tin so it broke (which I know now does not matter because you just glue it back together with the butter cream), so I got all upset and irritated. Needless to say most of the kids only just tasted the dry thing and one even complained of it having to much butter cream (I thought you could never have too much butter cream)! But it looked pretty cute.
After that fiasco I begun to make my own cakes from scratch and in stead of using formed tins I formed the cakes myself. I tried my hands on fondant but now I prefer to use only butter cream. Following is the cake history in chronological order. Keep in mind that these aren't the best of images because they were never intended to be published. :)

Betty Crocker dry and burnt teddy bear.

Barbapapa and Barbalib fondant cake.

Lotso (from Toy Story 3) fondant cake.

Little My (from the Moomins) fondant cake.

Princess with a butterfly in her hair (a special request from my daughter).

Butter cream chocolate cake with candy.

Butter cream chocolate cake with candy and home made chocolate sea animals.

Butter cream chocolate cake with candy, origami crane and sparkles.

As you can see I have discarded the fondant and begun to work only with butter cream. And abandoned the cartoon figures for geometrical shapes and patterns. The main reason is that it takes longer and its more difficult to prepare the fondant cakes but also because I just lovE loVE LOVE to make PATTERNS and it's incredibly easy with butter cream.
The recipe for this cake, that is the latest (and the best) version, can be found in my earlier blog post.

Chao for now!

The best birthday cake recipe

For the last four years I have been developing the perfect birthday cake. It has taken some time to reach this point and if I may say so myself it has come very close to perfection. The goal is of course to make a cake that both children and adults can enjoy despite their usual preferences (be it chocolate cakes, sponge cakes, no cakes, etc.). And now I share my recipe with you so you can enjoy making and serving this awesome cake.

Pyramid cake assembled and ready to
be covered with butter cream

Chocolate cake (Devil's cake)

150 g    granulated sugar
150 g    brown sugar
125 g    soft unsalted butter
2           eggs
260 g    flour
1 tsp     baking soda
1 tsp     baking powder
1/2 tsp  salt
40 g      cocoa powder (sifted)
2 dl       milk


Method

1. Preheat the oven to 180°
2. Line the bottoms of two 24 cm round sandwich tins with baking parchment and butter the sides
3. Beat well together in a freestanding mixer the sugar, brown sugar and butter
4. Add the eggs one at a time and beat well together.
5. Mix flour, baking soda, baking powder, salt and cocoa powder together in a bowl. Make sure to sift the cocoa powder.
6. Add the dry ingredients and the milk to the sugar and butter mixture. Best is to do this in three or four steps, adding a bit of dry ingredients and then a bit of milk and the dry ingredients again and so on until the batter becomes smooth and glossy. It can be good to stop the mixer now and then and loosen the batter from the sides of the bowl with a spatula to make sure every bit of ingredient blends well into the batter.
7. Divide the batter into the two tins and put in the oven for 19-22 minutes, or until a cake tester comes out clean. You can also listen to the cake, if you hear a whizzing or bubbly sound then the cake needs bit more time in the oven.
8. Take the tins out and let them stand for a few minutes before turning the cakes out to cool.

Note.

When I make a birthday cake like the triangular pyramid I usually make one and a half recipe because I cut a lot of the cake away when forming it. The cut off can, for example, be used to make cake pins or be assembled into a small leftover cake which can then be decorated with the leftover butter cream.

For the bigger recipe I either use more sandwich tins or one big oven tin (the one that comes with most ovens)

I always bake the cake two nights before the party and assemble it and decorate the day before. This way I buy me some time and I can enjoy decorating it in no rush. 

Simple syrup

250 ml   water
250 ml   granulated sugar


Method

1. Combine water and sugar in a saucepan. Bring the water to a boil and stir until all the sugar has dissolved. Allow the syrup to cool.

Note.

I drizzle the simple syrup over each layer of the cake so it becomes more succulent, otherwise the cake tends to become a bit dry.

Instead of the simple syrup you can also use the syrup from canned peaches or different types of berry juices.

Butter cream
225 gr   granulated sugar
80 ml.   water
6           lightly beaten egg yolks
1,5 tsp  vanilla essence
320 gr   soft unsalted butter
6 tsp     icing/confectionery sugar


Method

1. Combine water and sugar in a saucepan and bring to a boil. When boiling lower the heat to a medium and let it boil until all the sugar has dissolved. 
2. In the meanwhile lightly beat the egg yolks.
3. Stir a little bit of the hot sugar liquid into the beaten egg yolks. Then pour the egg yolks into the saucepan with the rest of the sugar liquid while stirring constantly. Let the mixture boil for about two minutes, or until it begins to thicken. Make sure to stir the whole time to prevent the egg yolks form getting lumpy.
4. Take the mixture of the heat and stir in the vanilla essence. Leave the mixture to cool to a room temperature.
5. Beat the soft butter in a freestanding mixer for five minutes, or until it has a lighter color and becomes soft and smooth.
6. Gradually stir in the egg yolk mixture at a medium speed.
7. Sift the icing/confectionery sugar and add to the mixture. Beat for about five more minutes.
8. The butter cream is ready and you can add the coloring you wish to use.

Note.

If the egg yolk mixture gets lumpy you can strain it before adding it to the butter. 

If you stir the egg yolk mixture too early (too hot) into the egg yolk mixture and the butter cream becomes almost soupy you can save it by keep on beating the mixture.
This butter cream recipe is the same as given on the Allt í köku website in Icelandic.
This butter cream is essentially what is called french butter cream. For another method (with images and all) on how to make this butter cream you can follow this link.

The final outcome

Assembly

Chocolate cake

Simple syrup

Apricot jam

Butter cream

Method

1. Cut the chocolate cake into its intended form.
2. Drizzle some of the simple syrup over the bottom layer.
3. Spread the bottom layer with apricot jam.
4. Spread butter cream on the bottom of the next layer and join the two layers. 
5. Repeat 2 - 4 for as many layers as you have on your cake.
6. When the cake has been assembled cover the cake with a thin layer of butter cream. It is good to use a flat steel spatula to get an even surface. 
7. Decorate the cake at will with the rest of the butter cream and candy.

Enjoy!