Keen home baker Nancy Aly Mahdy, 33, came to Bahrain in 2012 and, finding herself bored with hours home alone as a housewife, her thoughts turned to using her fine arts degree.
She says: “At that time I considered either decorating bridal veils or cake design, and actually, cake design and sculpture was closer to my studies.”
She went on to found home business “yallaCake” and adds: “I realised that what makes my work special is not the sponge baking, but rather my strong study of sculpture, colour matching and drawing integrated with the edible materials like fondant or icing paste.
“It takes a day or two to learn how to bake a nice sponge, but it needs years of training to sculpt a full 3D character cake professionally. It’s not just about making things taste nice, sculpture is about weight and structure and even the skeleton sometimes.”
She says one of her most memorable cakes featured a bridal dress theme made for a friend – within two years, everyone who had eaten that cake had placed an order!
Another was a Spiderman cake, for 65-plus people. Her husband had to help with the baking and it took three people to carry and deliver it!
Although Nancy loves the process of designing and producing these stunning cakes, her own favourites are still carrot and naked cakes. Here she shares one of her favourite recipes.
CARROT CAKE
Ingredients
2.5 cups grated ground carrots
2.25 cups pastry flour
0.5 cup brown sugar
0.25 cup chopped walnuts
1 cup white sugar
1 cup vegetable oil
1.5tsp of baking powder
1tsp of baking soda
1tsp of vanilla
0.5tsp of ground cinnamon
4 fresh whole eggs stored at room temperature
1tsp salt
Method
Beat the sugar and vanilla together well. Add most of the rest of the ingredients and mix well. Add the chopped walnuts, mix it with a little flour and grated ground carrots and flip gently through the mixture.
Put the mixture in mould painted with oil and flour and cooking in the oven, preheated to 180°C for 40 minutes. Cool and decorate.
Filling Ingredients
1 cup butter stored at room temperature
2 cups sugar powder
200g Philadelphia cheese
Vanilla
Method
In a mixing bowl, beat the butter with sugar well, add the vanilla and cheese and whisk
quickly until thoroughly blended. Add a food- colouring gel if desired.
You can decorate with a whole range of materials such as fresh or dried natural flowers, macarons, white chocolate flakes, pistachios or walnuts.
