2012 bakes.

A month into 2012 and still no blog post. Shame on me!  In my final semester of my degree now (eek!) and have been polishing off some applications for postgraduate study as I don't feel quite ready to face the real world yet... I also blame the distraction of the birth of my first niece and she demands a lot of attention despite only being six weeks old. We had a little family get together and I made some simple chocolate crispie cakes and some vanilla frosted cupcakes decorated with pink and purple shimmer sugar.

 I also did some more baking in January for my sister-in-law's birthday. She requested a Mickey Mouse cake and this is what I conjured up!

 As you can tell, I didn't have any black food dye so improvised with chocolate frosting and a little squidge of jam for his tongue. I still think despite the colour difference you can tell who he is though!

I made Mickey out of two 8 inch victoria sponges, my usual recipe, and four little tins for his ears. I covered the 8 inch sponge in ready to roll fondant, before using the little tin as a template to cut out a little segment to put the ears in then frosting over the gap.

For decoration, I pulled up a reference photo and lightly traced the design with the handle of a spoon of all things, it was more of a guideline as to where to ice. The chocolate buttons were just for fun!

This month my friend is turning 22 and has requested a Delorean cake, you know, the car from "Back to the Future"?! I'm sure I'll need a long think about how to achieve this, let me know if you have any ideas in the comments!

Strawberries & Cream Victoria Sponge

 For my 21st, I receieved a lovely cake stand. With all the lovely weather we are having, I decided to christen it with this lovely summer's day cake.

I used Mary Berry's sponge recipe as it's always so moist! Whipped up some double cream with a little icing sugar and spread about generously along with some chopped strawberries. Lovely!

My 21st birthday cake!

Hello strangers! Sorry for going AWOL, after my final university exams (hurray!) I went on a little bit of a summer slack. That, and started going to the gym, so didn't do a lot of baking, but now I'm back with some photos of my birthday cake! 

I used my now go to sponge recipe with added vanilla extract by Mary Berry which I would highly reccomend, as the sponge is so moist! I made this cake on the Thursday to be served on Saturday night, and it held up really well.

The larger bottom layer was marble cake achieved by making two lots of the sponge recipe, and subsituting a little of the flour in the second batch to add in cocoa. The top layer was just a normal sponge, and both cakes were sandwiched with vanilla buttercream frosting and covered in fondant.

 

 

 

I bought the sheer rainbow ribbon off the internet, and the cake topper from an eBay seller called karenkakes, who sells toppers ready to go and also takes orders. So, if you are wanting a topper for a special occasion, definitely give her shop a look!

For my 21st I had a ceilidh with over 50 guests, so I was a little nervous that the cake would topple mid dance since I didn't put in any support structures. However, everything turned out fine and I received many positive comments on the cake. I especially enjoyed when people asked who made the cake and I could reply 'I did!' to their surprise.

 Now, time to start planning the cake for my 22nd...

Kit Kat & Smarties Cake!

I've seen this idea floating around on various websites, and thought it was particularly clever! I'm not sure if anyone watched 'Baking Made Easy' on BBC1 with Lorraine Pascal, where she decorated a cake with chocolate cigerellos. Although the final product was beautiful, the price of the cigerellos were a bit out of my reach (over £30!), so this idea is perhaps more of a version for those on a budget, but still looks pretty amazing.

Ingredients:

For the sponge:

225g unsalted butter

225g caster sugar

4 large eggs

225g self raising flour

2 tsp of baking powder

1 tsp of vanilla extract (optional)

Frosting:
125g unsalted butter

250g icing sugar

1-2tbsp of milk

1 tsp of vanilla extract

Decoration (for an 8 inch cake):
18 x 2 finger Kit Kats

5 tubes of Smarties (Or whatever you fancy topping it with!)

Method:

1. For this cake, you can use your favourite cake recipe. I chose to use Mary Berry's classic victoria sponge recipe, with a dash of vanilla extract. You can find the recipe and method  here!

 2. After the cake is cooked and completely cooled, you can start the frosting. Whisk together the butter and the icing sugar (for best results, use a hand mixer for this), adding it a splash of the milk and vanilla extract at a time. It is best to whisk for around five minutes for a light and airy frosting. (Also take this as an opportunity to make sure that the Kit Kat is slightly taller than the sponge when placed together, if it is not, you will have to trim the sponge down a little).

3. Place a small blob of frosting on top of your cake board, and then place the bottom sponge on top. This will act like a glue to keep the sponge in place.

4. Using a palette knife, place a large blob of frosting on top of your bottom sponge, and spread across evenly.

 5. Place the other sponge on top, and then proceed to frost the cake entirely. Don't worry if it looks messy, as it's going to be covered completely by sweeties!

6. Using the left over frosting, spread a little on the bottom of the Kit Kat, and press firmly on to the side of the cake. Again, this will act like glue holding the Kit Kat in place. Repeat until the whole cake is covered.

7. Scatter your smarties (or whatever you've chosen) across the top of the sponge. And you're done!

 

Until next time!

3D Dino Cake - Round Two!

The morning after the disastrous attempt before, I had another go. I used a different template on this occasion, which can be found here! The template provided is for 9 inch cake tins, but I only had one. Not trusting my sponge enough to rise enough to be cut in two and limited time, I decided to do one 9 inch and the other an 8 inch, just meaning I had to trim my template down a little.

For the sponge, I used Mary Berry's Victoria Sponge recipe which can be found here! The sponge was a lot easier to carve, and was also much sturdier than the Red Velvet. One downfall of the 3D cake template was at some points it is a little vague, especially when it comes down to the dinosaur's legs so I had to freestyle it a litte. Here he is after his crumb coat of icing.

 

It was a very sloppy crumb coat, as I had ran out of butter and was in a rush to get to the birthday boy's lunch! After a well-needed break away from the dinosaur (I would say we had a love-hate relationship!) I bought some more butter and cracked on after lunch.

The instructions suggested piping stars all over the dinosaur's body, but to be honest I was running out of patience and again, butter! So I decided just to pipe the stars down his spine and tail, and just do another coat of icing with a palette knife over the rest. I then decorated his spine with a mix of chocolate drops and milk and white chocolate buttons. (I always seem to make dinosaurs spotty!)

I also fashioned him some teeth out of a chopped up white button,  along with eyes out of chocolate drops. (Apologies for the shoddy icing job on his neck!)

Overall, I was really proud of what I was able to do. It might not have been what I imagined, but it was certainly dinosaur-looking! Unfortunately, 3D dino had to meet his end in quite a gruesome way...

Until next time!


Be sure to check other delicious treats at Sweets for a Saturday!

Baby Blue!

A brief interlude before the Sticky Toffee - My friends recently had their first baby, a healthy baby boy with a head full of hair! I'm off to visit them tomorrow, so decided to whip up a simple cake for the occasion. All my icing essentials are in my flat up in Dundee, so please forgive the sloppy decoration round the edge!

It's just a vanilla sponge cake with a vanilla buttercream icing from Hummingbird. I tinted it with some sugarflair navy blue food dye and iced the baby's name along with some questionable swirls!

I hope they like it!