Magic Cake

Magic cake. Magic. Cake. What doesn't appeal about this? They had me at the word magic, let alone cake. There are many recipes for this, most of them very similar and it has been across the internet for some time now. I've had it stored up in the back of mind for an occasion when I needed a little magic in my week.

The magic about this cake is that from a single batter, you get three distinct layers. The bottom of a firmer layer of custard, the middle a softer (and more wobbly) custard and the top is sponge. You could also call this cake Magic Custard Cake if you prefer but I kind of like the anonymity of leaving out the word custard until you're actually tucking into a slice. Of the many recipes that I could try for this, I decided to work with the one from Cinnamon and Toast and it's very straightforward.

There a few key stages to making this cake a success. The eggs need to be at room temperature. You will need to separate them and will whip the whites to soft peak before adding them. You will need to gently warm the milk so that the butter doesn't start to solidify again when you add it. Folding the soft peak egg whites into what is a liquid batter isn't the easiest but once mixed in, the batter is ready for the cake tin. It also takes 50 mins to an hour to bake in the oven and needs to be cooled completely before attempting to remove it from the tin (I mean, imagine trying to remove a cake with an unset custard middle from the tin and the oozy centre). But if you stick with the instructions below it really does work and you get the most delightful custard cake.

Being custard, it makes a lovely dessert (my boys absolutely adored it) but it would also be lovely for afternoon tea. It's a very light cake and has a fantastic taste of vanilla throughout the custard. A bit like the egg custards I used to eat as a child, minus the pastry.

I will definitely be making this again. I can see it becoming a firm favourite in our house, especially with our boys who are obsessed with custard anyway.

So go on - try it. Bring a little magic into your house :)

Magic Cake (recipe from Cinnamon and Toast) 

Ingredients

• 4 LARGE EGGS, SEPARATED AT ROOM TEMPERATURE
• 150G SUGAR
• 110G BUTTER AT ROOM TEMPERATURE
• 95G PLAIN FLOUR
• 470ML LUKEWARM MILK
• 1 TSP VANILLA EXTRACT
• ICING SUGAR FOR DUSTING 

Method

1. Preheat oven to 160 degrees (fan)
2. Lightly grease an 8 x 8 inch square cake pan and line with parchment paper (you can use other cake pans but as the batter is liquid, springform tins are not advisable!)
3. Warm milk in microwave and set aside
4. Beat together the egg yolks and sugar in a mixing bowl until creamy and pale yellow
5. Add butter and mix for approximately 2 minutes on high speed
6. Add the flour and mix until fully incorporated
7. Turn the speed down on the mixer to low and slowly add the milk and vanilla
8. In a separate bowl, mix the egg whites until soft peaks are formed
9. Gently fold in egg whites, ⅓ at a time. The batter is liquid and it's tricky to incorporate the egg whites but continue to stir them through until they're mixed in
10. Pour into the cake pan.
11. Bake for 50-60 minutes or until top is lightly golden and firm to the touch (when you remove it from the oven, it may sink a little, but that's okay)
12. Let cool completely before removing it from the cake tin
13. Dust with icing sugar before serving

Tanks and Rugby

Every cake I make challenges me in a new way. I sometimes needs to remind myself that I'm pretty new to celebration cakes (and making them for other people) and could maybe be a bit easier on myself. But the internet now is rich with amazing cakes and creations which inspire me, but make me want to create something equally magnificent.

This week I had the opportunity of making a Rugby World Cup Cake for a 7 year old where the brief included a replica rugby ball and having the logos of all the teams from the World Cup 2015 featured in the design. I found Cake Toppers who specialise in making edible cake toppers from your supplied images which worked very well for the logos. I produced an A3 sheet of logos and then cut down the images by hand to feature them on the cake and board. The rugby ball was made from rice crispy treats (rice crispies, butter and marshmallows mixed together and moulded into shape), then covered in fondant and decorated by hand with a mixture of cut-out letters, edible pens and coloured fondant. I was really happy with the result. The base board was the largest one that I could find which was 20 inches so it was a big board and a big cake!

The other cake I made was a Survival themed cake for a shared party of three boys. They wanted a tiered cake with a model tank on top and their names on dog tags. I'll come on to talk about the challenges with making camouflage fondant (!) but this had a hand-painted bottom tier and an airbrushed top tier - and I'm still completely in love with my Dinky Doodle airbrush and the finish that airbrushing gives a cake. The tank was made from rice crispy treats covered with fondant and then airbrushed. I found some cute letter stamps in Hobbycraft and I thought the font would work really well for this so it's always worth checking out other departments as you can find lots of little treasures, often with a lower price tag than anything connected with baking fetches these days.

So as well as every cake challenging me, it's always a first time for something. This week was first time I've made two celebration cakes in one week.

So what's it taught me?

Well, for one thing planning is key. The more you can get done earlier on in the week, the better for when you come to make the cake. I was extremely thankful that I made the rice crispy models (rugby ball and tank) ahead of time and finished the rugby ball before even starting on making the cakes themselves.

If you try something and it doesn't work, keep persevering until you get it right. Camouflage fondant seemed so straightforward in principle (and I even found a great pin on Pinterest for how to make it) but it didn't work (twice) and when I sat looking at the bottom tier at 10pm the night before pick-up, it was clear that it spectacularly DIDN'T work. Time to rip off the fondant, re-frost the cake, set it, re-cover it and then paint the camouflage design by hand. I was so happy that I made the call! The image below shows the first way I tried to make this (pre-rolling) and the second one was my hand-painted finish.

And finally, I see cake makers often working through the night and think to myself that I couldn't do that - I love my sleep too much. But the truth is that if you're going to take on multiple cakes that need delivering on the same day, sometimes you're going to have to work through the night to get them done. I actually found my groove dancing around the kitchen at 1am, 2am, 3am finishing details (although late night decorating is clearly not good when your manage to airbrush your kitchen green as well as your cakes and stain your children's feet green the next morning when they come down to breakfast!) 

I have a few weeks coming up where I need to produce two cakes so this has been a great induction into the process. It's taught me how much can be achieved and a little more about the process that goes into making multiple cakes. I know some cake artists can produce four or five cakes a week - you amaze me, people! 

Hope you've all had a wonderful weekend - whether enjoying your own birthday parties or just the sunshine :)

Dulce De Leche & Mascarpone Crêpe Cake

The sun is shining today and summer feels like it just might finally be on its way. As I write this, I know I'm tempting fate and that a downpour will arrive at any moment! This has been a busy week of cake prepping and admin so we definitely need a mid-week treat to tempt the taste buds, but something that embraces the summer sunshine today.

I've seen a number of crêpe cakes on the internet, but most of them are filled with nutella and syrup and since those two toppings are at the top of our favourite list for our weekly pancakes (I say weekly but our youngest would campaign for them every day of the week given the choice), they've never tempted me. Then I saw a lovely, fresh alternative on Call Me Cupcake which seemed perfect for a summery day and a need for something sweet - Dulce De Leche & Mascarpone Crêpe Cake.

The crêpe batter is sprinkled with orange zest (lemon, if you prefer) and adds a touch of freshness to the cake (and a subtle but beautiful aroma of orange when you're cooking them). You need to get into a rhythm producing the crêpes. Now I don't claim to be an expert pancake maker (I leave that to my hubby) but after the production line needed for this cake, I definitely got better! I made 20 crêpes from the batter using a six inch pan (although one of these sadly met an untimely demise with maple syrup and my mouth during cooking). It's important to separate the crêpes after cooking (either spread out or using greaseproof paper between the layers) otherwise they'll stick together whilst they're cooling. 

It doesn't take long for them to cool down - just the length of time it took to make the mascarpone filling (I chose this over the ricotta in the original recipe). To make sure I had enough filling for the alternate layers, I divided the pancakes in two and spread half of them with ricotta and half of them with dulce de leche. It works better to spread the fillings on them when they're separated as when they're stacked and you press down on them, the filling squeezes out. When they all had their toppings, I stacked them, topped them with fruit and then a light sprinkling of icing sugar. After it was made, the kitchen was quite warm and the dulce de leche started to ooze out, so I kept it refrigerated and that also made it easier to cut.

The resulting crêpe cake is delicious and light, although the ricotta is very creamy so it feels more indulgent, especially paired with the dulce de leche.

This cake is best eaten the day it's made so it's probably an afternoon tea or dinner treat. I know this sounds quite fiddly, but it's very straightforward to make and is a lovely alternative to a usual baked cake so it's definitely one to try. 

It does only make a six inch cake though, so make sure you don't invite too many friends around to enjoy it with you :)

Dulce De Leche & Mascarpone Crêpe Cake (recipe from Call Me Cupcake)

Crêpe Ingredients

• 4 LARGE EGGS
• 1½ CUPS MILK (350 ML)
• 2 CUPS PLAIN FLOUR (260G)
• 1/4 TSP SALT
• 1½ TBP SUGAR
• ZEST OF 1 ORANGE (FINELY GRATED)
• 1 CUP WATER (235 ML)
• 75G BUTTER

Filling Ingredients

• ½ TIN DULCE DE LECHE
• 170G MASCARPONE
• 1 TBSP ICING SUGAR
• ZEST OF ½ ORANGE (FINELY GRATED)
• EXTRA ICING SUGAR (FOR SPRINKLING ON TOP)
• MIXED FRUIT FOR TOP

Method

1. In a large bowl, whisk together eggs, milk, flour, salt, sugar and orange zest until the batter is lump free
2. Stir in the water and leave it to thicken at room temperature for 30 minutes
3. After 30 minutes, melt the butter and stir into the batter
4. Using a 6 inch frying pan, melt a little butter in the pan and cook the pancakes one by one trying to make them as thin as possible (I used around ½ ladle batter for each crêpe)
5. Lay each crêpe to cool on greaseproof paper making sure that you separate them with more greaseproof paper if you plan to stack them for cooling
6. Leave to cook completely
7. Combine the ricotta, tablespoon of icing sugar and orange zest
8. Spread half of the crêpes with the ricotta mix and the other half with dulce de leche
9. Then stack the pancakes on top of each other
10. Top with your choice of mixed fruit and dust with icing sugar just before you plan to eat them
11. And enjoy the fruits of your crêpe production line!

Lavender & Maple Coconut Macaroons

Back to the big smoke after our mini-break in the countryside and we swapped flowers, animals and rolling hills for Kensington in the sunshine as we headed to the Science Museum for Space exploration! Great fun, but thoroughly exhausting - and hubby and I were relieved to collapse on the sofa by late afternoon :) I needed a pick-me-up, moreish and yummy - and healthy would be an added bonus.

After searching for lavender throughout the local stores and garden centres over the last couple of weeks (having decided not to order it online as it would take too long and then had to wait even longer to find it naturally) I found some last week at my parents' house. Dried lavender from last year's lavender crop in their garden and I only needed three-quarters of a teaspoon. It's been safely sitting in my bag for when I had enough time to make the second recipe I wanted to try from Hemsley & Hemsley, their Lavender & Maple Coconut Macaroons. I LOVE all the ingredients of these little macaroons, even though most shop assistants I approached when searching for the lavender to use in cooking looked at me like I was nuts.

This recipe is gluten and dairy free and the only sugar comes from the maple syrup so this is a healthy alternative to cookies and cakes. The macaroon itself is made predominantly from shredded coconut so for me, is very reminscent of the macaroons I enjoyed when growing up, when macarons (the deliciously almondy French variety I love so much) were a thing of distant dreams. As with many of my other bakes, I used liquid egg whites but you can use the whites of 3 medium eggs instead if you prefer. There is just the merest hint of lavender in these macaroons and I think this could be upped, probably to at least 1 tsp next time I make them. They don't take long to make, so provided you have the ingredients in your store cupboard, you can whip them up in no time for a lunchbox or afternoon treat.

I love these little macarons. There's not much about coconut I don't like, but I really like the pairing with maple syrup and the hint of lavender for a slightly more unusual twist. This is the second recipe I've made from Hemsley & Hemsley (see the Pumpkin Puds recipe here) and am hard pushed to say which I prefer more, so I forsee I will be making these two recipes many times over - just while I make my mind up, of course!

Lavender & Maple Coconut Macaroons Makes 18 (from Hemsley & Hemsley)

Ingredients

• APPROX ¾ TSP LAVENDER FLOWERS
• 4 TBSP MAPLE SYRUP
• ½ TBSP VANILLA EXTRACT
• 150G UNSWEETENED DESSICATED COCONUT
• 180G LIQUID EGG WHITES (OR EGG WHITES OF 3 MEDIUM EGGS)
• 1/8 TSP SALT

Method

1. Preheat the oven to 170 degrees and line two baking trays with parchment paper
2. Finely chop the lavender and mix it with the maple syrup, vanilla extract and coconut in a large bowl
3. In a separate bowl, whisk the egg whites with the salt until stiff peaks form
4. Gently fold the egg whites in with the coconut mixture using a metal spoon
5. Using a tablespoon measure, scoop the mixture onto the baking parchment and then neaten the mounds with your hands
6. Bake for 12 to 15 minutes until the macaroons are lightly browned
7. Remove them from the baking tray and place on a wire rack to cook (I used a slice to remove them as they were a bit sticky underneath but they came away easily)
8. They are quite soft when they first come out of the oven, but firm up as they cool down!

Apple & Rhubarb Crumble Cake

So we've barely been back at school and it's the half term break already. This week, we've escaped to the countryside to spend our time running around country houses and communing with nature. And it's been lovely to be out of the big city, surrounded by beautiful gardens laden with flowers and baby animals everywhere we turn. Even as I'm sat writing this, I'm watching two wild rabbits chasing each other across the lawn outside. We're about six weeks aways from the optimum time to visit my parents when their vegetable and fruit garden is rich for the picking and the boys hide out in the fruit patches, their mouths stained with berry juice as they eat more than they bring back for us.

The one fruit that is ready for us on this visit is the rhubarb. We especially love rhubarb with crumble. But I love it with apple and vanilla sponge piled up with rhubarb and then a buttery crumble topping in one delicious cake, our Apple & Rhubarb Crumble Cake.

The most time consuming part of making this cake is the chopping of rhubarb and apple and I like to cut them into very small pieces. I always chop these first, then make the crumble topping and set them aside as I make the cake. To get two cups of rhubarb, I used four long sticks of rhubarb which seems a lot compared to the one apple, but the ratios work. The sponge is very light and is piled high with the rhubarb which condenses down to become lovely and soft during cooking. Our rhubarb was a little sharp but seemed to work underneath the sugary crumble topping.

This is a lovely cake for afternoon tea with friends or we had it as dessert after dinner (the boys with a healthy dollop of custard on top!) It's lovely warm from the oven but keeps well for a few days.

This is a great way to enjoy your rhubarb and a little different from the usual stewed rhubarb or rhubarb crumble. I do love a good crumble and for me, this is home baking at its best :)

Apple & Rhubarb Crumble Cake

Crumble Ingredients

• 100G SELF-RAISING FLOUR
• 75G SOFT BROWN SUGAR
• 1 TSP CINNAMON
• PINCH OF SALT
• 75G BUTTER

Cake Ingredients

• 100G BUTTER
• 100G SOFT BROWN SUGAR
• 2 EGGS
• 2 TSP VANILLA ESSENCE
• 175G SELF-RAISING FLOUR
• 2 TBSP MILK
• 1 GRANNY SMITH APPLE
• 2 CUPS CHOPPED RHUBARB (AROUND 4 STICKS)
• 50G FINELY CHOPPED WALNUTS

Method

1. Start by putting all the crumble ingredients in a bowl and rub the mixture with your fingertips until a fine crumble has formed and set this aside
2. Preheat the oven to 180 degrees (fan)
3. Grease and line a 8 inch cake tin
4. Chop the rhubarb into small pieces and set aside
5. Peel and chop the apple into small pieces and finely chop the walnuts and set these aside
6. Cream the butter and sugar
7. Beat in the eggs and vanilla
8. Sift in the flour
9. Fold in the apple and milk
10. Spoon the batter into the prepared cale tin
11. Sprinkle the rhubarb and walnuts over the top
12. Scatter the crumble over the top
13. Bake this for around 45 mins to an hour (the cake should be golden and the cake pulling away from the edges and I also test the cake centre with a skewer to ensure it's cooked)
14. Enjoy as it is - or as my boys love, with a big dollop of custard!

Oreo Macarons

The boys love oreo cookies. I buy them for them, but often end up eating almost an entire packet on my own whilst they're at school (shhh...just our little secret!) I haven't made macarons for a while and we do love them, so I was thinking of new flavours that I'd like to try and pairing oreos and macarons just seemed like a match made in heaven. We were heading for a family bank holiday weekend and I looking for some munchies with limited time in the kitchen. Although some people are nervous about how fiddly these are to make, the longest part is leaving them to rest - making them and cooking them is relatively quick as long as you're precise and have a method that works for you.

I followed my usual method for making the batter, however added crushed oreo cookies to the meringue batter (3 or 4 cookies blitzed in the food processor). This doesn't add a huge amount of flavour - just the speckled texture in the shell so add as much as you like to give you the shell that you like. Then I often leave them to rest for an hour and go off and do something else around the house. The key to them being ready for the oven, is that when you touch the top of a shell lightly with your finger, they have formed a skin so your finger comes away dry and not sticky or slightly wet with the batter.

The flavour of the oreo cookies really shines through in the buttercream. I made a regular buttercream, but in place of the usual vanilla I added around half a cup of blitzed oreo cookies. Again, you can add as much as you like to get the flavour that you enjoy - mine had the flavour but it wasn't that overwhelming and I really liked it. It's obligatory to keep taste testing the buttercream at every stage to get the right flavour - at least that's what I tell myself!

You'll notice in my cover photo that there are pink macarons too which are a completely different flavour that I was trying and this was for my gran. She loves rose and violet flavoured chocolates (apart from lavender, floral flavours in baking are kind of the work of the devil to me) so I decided to experiment with some rose buttercream macarons just for her. I haven't included this recipe but the only differences to the oreo recipe would be to omit the oreos and add a few drops of pink colour to the shell batter; and then omit the oreos from the buttercream but add a couple of drops of rose water (note: only a couple of drops as it's a strong flavour and you can always add more, but can't take away!)

When the boys arrived home from school and realised that we had oreos AND macarons in one tasty bite, they were delighted. And they LOVED them. My elder son, who a while back appointed themselves as my official taste taster, declared they were a hit - and that I need to make them again.

Mmmm...I feel another batch coming on!

Oreo Macarons Makes 12 (24 shells sandwiched together)

Ingredients

Oreo Macaron Batter

• 100G CASTER SUGAR
• 37ML WATER
• 80G EGG WHITES (I use Two Chicks Egg Whites that you can buy in the supermarket)
• 100G GROUND ALMONDS
• 100G ICING SUGAR
• 3-4 OREO COOKIES, BLITZED IN A FOOD PROCESSOR

Oreo Buttercream 

• 115G BUTTER
• 125G ICING SUGAR (SIFTED)
• 1 TBSP MILK
•  6 OREO COOKIES (feel free to add more or less as you like)

Method

1. Line two baking street with baking paper - if you're worried about the consistency of your macaron circles when you come to pipe them, you can draw little circles onto the paper as a guide. My macarons are around 5cm in diameter.
2. Put 40g of the egg whites into a mixer with the balloon whisk.
3. Put the caster sugar and water into a saucepan and heat without stirring to 95 degrees and then start the mixer on a low speed.
4. When the sugar syrup temperature reaches 105 degrees, increase the speed of the mixer and beat the egg whites to a stiff peak.
5. When the sugar mixture reaches 114 degrees, remove from the heat and pour the syrup in a slow, steady stream down the side of the bowl (not into the middle as you don't want to remove all the air) with the mixer still running.
6. Continue beating for 5 to 10 minutes until the outside of the bowl cools down.
7. Whilst beating the meringue in the mixer, prepare the almond paste.
8. Mix together the icing sugar and ground almonds until they're well mixed. You can sieve them if you want to give a smoother finish on your macarons.
9. Add the remaining egg whites (40g) and mix until you form a paste (this is the stage you'd add any food colouring although that's not needed in this recipe
10. Then once your paste is ready, add a third of the meringue and mix thoroughly - don't worry about knocking the air out at this stage as this is intended to loosen the paste a little before adding the rest of the meringue.
11. Add the remaining meringue, folding it in until it's mixed but be careful not to over-mix at this stage as you want to keep the air in it.
12. Fill a piping bag with a circle nozzle (number 1A works well for this) and pipe out small circles into the baking paper. Sometime you may find that your macarons have a little peak on top but this flattens out during the next stage.
13. I generally leave my macarons for at least an hour to form a thin crust on top - you should be able to lightly touch the macaron with your finger and it springs back without leaving a fingerprint.
14. When you're ready to bake them, pre-heat your oven to 150 degrees and bake them for around 14 minutes.
15. After you take them out of the oven, slide them off the baking tray onto a cool counter and then pop them off the baking paper and let them cool down.
16. Make your buttercream by beating the butter until it's light and fluffy.
17. Then add the icing sugar and mix until they're fully incorporated.
18. Add the milk and beat until it's smooth.
19. Then stir through the oreo cookies.
20. When you're ready to fill them, fill a small piping bag with the buttercream and a regular tip.
21. Pipe a small amount of buttercream into the middle of each macaron and then sandwich them together.
22. Your macarons are now ready to eat - some say they're better the next day - if they hang around that long! 

Pumpkin Pie Pudding

I've been reading a lot about Hemsley & Hemsley at the moment. It seems like they're everywhere! A friend was telling me about their cookbook a week or so ago and I've been debating whether to buy it. I have so many books already and don't want this to be another healthy eating fad where I make a couple of recipes and then the book gathers dust at the back of our cupboard. I mean, bone soup isn't really my kind of thing!

So I decided to make one or two things from their blog and see if their recipes are my kind of food and taste. I was having coffee with another friend last week and we were revelling in our love of pumpkin. I'm not a pumpkin-as-a-vegetable fan as I don't like very sweet vegetables, but pop it in a pie, pud or doughnut and I'm in pumpkin heaven! So when I saw Hemsley & Hemsley's recipe for Pumpkin Pie Pudding, I knew this was the first thing I wanted to try.

I didn't pick this because it was simple to make, but its very simplicity was a welcome relief in a crazy busy week. This is a one-bowl pudding where everything is mixed together in 5 mins and then popped in the oven and forgotten about for 35 mins. Super easy! The original recipe is available through the link which offers some substition options - for example, coconut oil in place of butter, coconut flour in place of almonds and a breakdown of their spice mix (I use a spice mix from Canada but Allspice as a shortcut would work too). And they roast their pumpkin and then puree it, but I like to use Libby's Pumpkin Puree in a tin.

I'm not sure why I was surprised that I loved this, given how much I like pumpkin desserts, but the texture was light and airy and almost souffle-like. The hint of spice gives it a delicious flavour that makes it very much like an all-American pumpkin pie filling. I also chose the ingredients that would make this gluten and dairy free so it's a perfect pud if you have someone that has these food allergies. Even better, the girls tell us that pumpkin flesh is loaded with vitamin A for an immune system boost too so you can feel extra virtuous eating it!

This is definitely a winner for me. And I think that means I might just be buying a new cookery book :)

Pumpkin Pie Pudding Makes 2 (from Hemsley & Hemsley)

Ingredients

• 120G PUMPKIN PUREE (I use a can of Libby's)
• 1 TBSP COCONUT OIL
• 1 TBSP COCONUT FLOUR
• 1 TBSP MAPLE SYRUP
• 1 TSP VANILLA EXTRACT
• 1 EGG
• 1 SMALL PINCH OF SALT
• ½ TSP BAKING POWDER
• 1 TSP SPICE MIX

Method

1. Preheat the oven to 180 degrees
2. Melt the coconut oil and allow it to cool (you don't want it cooking the egg when added to the rest of the ingredients)
3. Then place all the ingredients into a bowl and mix until thoroughly combined
4. Divide between 2 ramekins
5. Place on a tray in the oven and book for 35 - 40 mins
6. Enjoy straight from the oven!

Happy Minion Birthday Cake

I love minions! I mean, who doesn't love the little yellow bundles of fun and they're such a happy choice for a children's birthday cake. I had a request for a small (!) birthday cake this week and I promise, I promise, it did start out small! It was for a joint birthday with 3 other boys so they didn't need a huge cake and so I thought hmmm, a 7 inch cake would be perfect. Not too big, not too small. But then I had to make two times the 7 inch cake to get the height and when it was buttercreamed and covered in fondant, it was pretty large. Um, over 2½ kg fondant on this one. And that's a 12 inch board. Maybe not quite as small as I had originally planned!

I'm playing with the best way to cover cakes at the moment and have been experimenting with airbrushing them (starting off with my Darth Vader cake last week). The reason for this is that you're then only covering a light external layer with food colouring and not right the way through the fondant itself as these vibrant colours (like the black of Darth Vader and the yellow of the Minion) need a lot of additional colour to get the richness. Although after I'd knocked over my bottle of yellow airbrush paint for the second time, I was cursing my choice - although this was then tempered by the therapeutic airbrushing so all was well in the end.

The cake itself is vanilla cake with raspberry jam and butter cream and contains two 7 inch cakes stacked with a board half-way through. The base board was covered with fondant, then impressed with a woodgrain effect and handpainted with airbrush paint (I find the Culpitt brand works well for this), finished off with some washi tape.

I really love this cake. But then it's hard not to love a minion :)

Swedish Cinnamon Buns

I've never had much success making dough. So many people tell me it's really easy, but for some reason, mine never seems to work out that well. I love eating it, so I guess I'm just going to have to knuckle down and practice a lot to get good at creating it too! I found this pin on Pinterest from Cakelets and Doilies with these gorgeous Swedish Cinnamon Buns. Belle's blog is full of delicious bakes that look simply stunning. And I LOVE cinnamon buns! Win, win. I've put aside my fear of yeast to give these little buns of delight a go.

The recipe is very straightforward and instructions clear. I really like each little bun in its own wrapper, but this would also work if you popped them into a round baking tin and cooked them together as a pull-apart round. The biggest skill you need to learn is patience whilst the dough proves twice, but it's definitely worth the wait. I was a little concerned about the cardamom as I'm not a huge fan especially when you get a bite of one in a curry. However the cardamom enhances the flavour of the milk without being overwhelming so it's definitely worth keeping this in. Even though I had my trusty tape measure to hand, my buns were a little uneven in size but that's just more practice needed and doesn't affect the taste of them at all. They are definitely best served warm and for me,  are enhanced by the addition of maple syrup soaked through to keep them a little more moist.

These really are delicious and I'm delighted to say this is my most successful yeast bake EVER. Yay! Can't wait to try them out on the boys later :)

Swedish Cinnamon Buns Makes 12 (from Cakelets & Doilies)

Bun Ingredients

• 300ML WHOLE MILK (I used semi-skimmed milk as this was what I had to hand)
• ¼ TSP GROUND CARDAMOM
• 50G BUTTER, CHOPPED
• 425G PLAIN FLOUR
• 7G FAST ACTION YEAST
• 60G CASTER SUGAR
• ¼ TSP SALT
• 1 EGG, BEATEN LIGHTLY 

Filling Ingredients

• 75G BUTTER
• 50G DARK BROWN SUGAR
• 2 TSP CINNAMON
• ½ TSP SALT 

Topping Ingredients

• 1 EGG, BEATEN LIGHTLY
• SLIVERED ALMONDS

Method

1. First of all, to make the buns, put the milk and cardamom in the small saucepan and heat it until it's almost but not quite boiling
2. Remove from the heat and stir in the butter, then leave to infuse until it's just warm
3. Put all the dry ingredients into a mixer fitted with a dough hook and then add the milk and egg
4. Combine all the ingredients with the dough hook on a slow speed for around 10 mins (the dough should be pulling away from the sides of the bowl by now)
5. Lightly grease your hands and a bowl - shape the dough into a ball and place it in the bowl, then cover it with clingfilm
6. The dough should be left somewhere warm and draught-free and you want it to double in size which should take around 30 mins to an hour (mine took around 45 mins)
7. Press the dough with your fingertip and your finger should leave a slight indentation when it's ready
8. Now make the filling, by melting the butter and then setting the bowl aside
9. Combine the dark sugar, cinnamon and salt in a separate bowl
10. When the dough is ready, punch the middle of it to deflate the dough and then cover it again with clingfilm and leave it for 5 mins
11. Then roll the dough out on a lightly floured surface to make a rectangle roughly 60cm x 25cm
12. Brush the dough with butter and then evenly sprinkle the sugar mixture over the top
13. Roll the dough from the long end tightly like a swiss roll and you should end up with  very long sausage shape where the seam is underneath
14. Cut off the ends and discard
15. Cut the roll into 12 equal slices
16. Put 12 muffin wrapper into a cupcake | muffin  tin and then pop a slice into each one, side up so you can see the swirl of the cinnamon on the top
17. Cover the muffin tin loosely with clingfilm and proof for the second time, again until the dough has doubled in size which should take another 30 mins to an hour
18. Press the dough with your fingertip and your finger should leave a slight indentation when it's ready
19. Heat the oven to 180 degrees (fan)
20. Brush the top of each cinnamon bun with the beaten egg and then the slivered almonds
21. Bake for 25 mins or until golden brown
22. Enjoy with a drizzle of maple syrup :)

May The Force Be With You!

I always love making cakes for friends and this weekend had the pleasure of making the birthday cakes and cookies for a very special family friend. I asked him a while ago what he'd like and he told me that the theme had to be Star Wars. So I asked him who was his favourite character. He said all of them! We decided that cupcakes of different characters would be the way to go - cupcakes are so easy for a kid's birthday party as they're ready-made helpings and there's no waiting for the cake to be served -but it would also be good to have a cutting cake and that should be Darth Vadar. The challenge was set!

The cupcake toppers took a day to make and I made them two days out. I looked for photos of the Star Wars cast and then I created rough sketches of the characters I wanted to include and then turned those that needed it, into templates to cut around the fondant. The fondant was stiffened with some tylose powder which helps them keep their shape. The chosen cupcake flavour was vanilla with vanilla buttercream and this was made one day out and then topped immediately with the fondant topper.

Also made one day out, the Darth Vader cake was chocolate cake with chocolate buttercream covered in sugarpaste. The cake was made of one 8 inch cake and two 6 inch cakes which were carved up to create the cake shape. I used cake to create the pattern on the face and then accentuated it with some extra sugarpaste around the brow, eyes and nose; then covered the whole lot with a large layer of white sugarpaste.  I made a party cake a couple of years ago for my son which I covered with pre-coloured blue fondant - and then one of the class mums told me that it turned her child's poo green! That thought has stayed with me ever since :) So I decided that I would cover Darth Vader with white fondant and give my birthday present its maiden outing to use my Dinky Doodle Airbrush to spray the cake black. So it still has black food colouring but only on the very surface of the cake and not through the fondant. And I had a great time with my new airbrush! It was 11.30pm and it was difficult not to get trigger happy with the spraying. I left the cake to dry overnight and in the morning it had dried a much deeper and matte colour.

Finally, also one day out, I made some cookies for the party bags which were vanilla cookies (recipe here) with a layer of fondant over the top. The cutters are from Lakeland and are really effective. I always give C-3P0 a spray of gold lustre just to bring out the shine. Then they were presented in a party bag sealed with some pretty washi tape.

So after a brilliant climbing party tiring the boys out, we went to the pub for lunch and finished off with lots of birthday cake. And there was a LOT of it. So when the boys finished their cupcakes and wanted chocolate cake, there was plenty to go around. And plenty to take home afterwards. But I think that's one of the perks of being the birthday boy - taking the leftovers home and enjoying it for the next few days :)

Digby Dog 70th Birthday Cake

This week, I had the pleasure of making a 70th birthday cake. It's always lovely to be part of people's special celebrations and be invited to make a cake for them. The brief for this one was a 9 inch vanilla sponge with vanilla buttercream and raspberry jam to include Digby dog, water, flowers, "Mum" and "70". Hmmm...what a challenge!

I first set about making Digby and the flowers out of gumpaste to allow them time to dry. And I decided that the top of the cake would be removeable, allowing the birthday girl to keep her model of Digby. Here are some work in progress shots of Digby and one of the flowers, the David Austen rose.

I do love making sugar flowers. Although it can take a little while to wait for the different parts to dry, there's something very satisfying (for me) when the flower comes together. Digby was more of a challenge, that's for sure, but it's nice to feature something that means a lot to the person and bring it alive on a cake. I didn't take a photo, but he even has a little name tag with "Digby" stamped on it.

The cake itself wasn't the largest cake I've made and covered but it's still a lot of cake! Three layers of vanilla sponge (soaked with sugar syrup) filled with jam and vanilla buttercream, coated in buttercream and covered in fondant. Delicious! Sometimes the simplest flavours are the best :)

Here are a few more photos of the finished cake. Hope you like it!

Raspberry Friands

Hurray, it's Friday! We've had 7 days back at school and now have a bank holiday to look forward :) Cue sunshine (wishful thinking?) and the seaside. Double hurray! It's been a busy cake week but I wanted a little treat to welcome us into the long weekend.

I love raspberries. I love friands. And now I love raspberry friands. These gorgeous little cakes are dainty, yummy and with quite a dense texture, rather filling too. They are best served warm and straight from the oven but are still delicious several hours later. Um, I'm hoping there might actually be some left by the time the boys get home from school...

These are very simple to make and can be made with different types of fruit which will be a project for the future. I had some amazing friands from a small bakery in New Zealand at Christmas which were filled with delicious lemon curd. They were my absolute favourite. These raspberry ones are very simple where the almond taste really shines through and then the raspberry gives it a lift. All they need is gentle folding through of the ingredients (making the effort to sift the icing sugar and flour) and well greased friand tins (otherwise you may find that they break up when you try to remove them from the tins). 

These are perfect for a lunch in the sun or afternoon tea. Go on, give them a go and treat yourself this bank holiday :)

Raspberry Friands (makes 9 friands)

Ingredients 

• 200G LIQUID EGG WHITES (or 5 egg whites if you want to crack open your eggs)
• 150G MELTED BUTTER
• 90G GROUND ALMONDS
• 185G SIFTED ICING SUGAR
• 50G SIFTED PLAIN FLOUR
• 125G RASPBERRIES (you need 18 raspberries with 2 on each friand)

Method

1. Preheat the oven to 180 degrees (fan)
2. Grease a friand tin - you need to grease these well getting into all the nooks and crannies to make sure that your friands don't stick - you will need to grease 9 holes
3. Whip the egg whites for a few seconds just to mix them up
4. Then add the rest of the ingredients (except the raspberries) - the butter, ground almonds, icing sugar and flour
5. Mix on the lowest setting until just combined
6. Pour into the friand tin, filling each hole until it's 2/3 full
7. Then pop 2 raspberries on the top of each friand
8. Bake in the oven for 25 mins or until a skewer inserted in the middle comes out clean
9. Loosen the friands in their tin and then tip them out gently onto a cooling rack
10. Serve warm (ideally) and sprinkled with icing sugar
11. Try not to eat them all before your guests arrive!

Sesame & Green Tea Pudding Spheres

I thought I'd squeeze in a small end of the week blog post about these gorgeous little Sesame Pudding Spheres that I've been playing with this weekend.  I found them a while ago on Dine X Design which is a beautiful website focusing on gorgeous recipes and design features, all photographed beautifully. Dine X Design feature a couple of variations on these with Green Matcha Tea Puddings and Frozen Pudding Treats too.

So of the three variations, I decided to make the Sesame Pudding Spheres which I then sprinkled with Matcha Tea and additional sesame seeds. The original recipe calls for black sesame paste and I couldn't get this locally, so used the greenish tahini paste from the local supermarket. I think the spheres look more striking in black against the green of the Matcha tea so it would be worth searching out the black sesame paste, especially if you're planning to make this for a dinner party. I really love the flavour of these spheres, mainly because they remind me of a lovely Coconut Sago pud we enjoyed last New Year's Eve at Mekong Baby in Auckland! This was a Thai fusion restaurant and I think these pudding spheres would work best at the end of this kind of meal. The coconut flavour really shines through and from the fridge, they're very light and refreshing, with the additional sesame seeds adding a touch more texture. And better still, they're completely dairy and gluten free so perfect if you're looking for a Free From dessert!

I'm inspired to take these flavours and work on recreating the Coconut Sago pudding we enjoyed and also have a go at the Dine X Design frozen spheres too. Super simple to make, these are definitely a fun little bite-sized pudding :)

Dairy-Free Green Tea Matcha Pudding (from Dine X Design)

Ingredients

• 3 TBSP BLACK SESAME PASTE (I couldn't find this locally so used regular tahini paste)
• 5 TSP CRUSHED BLACK SESAME SEEDS
• ½ CUP CASTER SUGAR
• 4 TSP AGAR AGAR
• 2½ CUPS ALMOND MILK
• 1 CUP COCONUT MILK

Method

1. Put the sugar, sesame paste, seeds and almond milk in a medium saucepan and bring to the boil, stirring until all the contents dissolve
2. Once boiling, add the agar agar and stir again until it's dissolved
3. Add the coconut milk, stir and remove from heat
4. Let the mixture sit for 10-15 minutes until cool
5. Pour into a mould (the recipe recommends spherical ice cube trays but I used my metal cake ball pan and set them as half spheres, putting them together when they're fully set)
6. Serve with a dusting of matcha green tea powder and sesame seeds
7. They do tend to melt once out of the fridge so it's worth keeping them refrigerated until you plan to eat them!