Happy Birthday Cake!

Taking cakes back to basics is always a good idea, not only are  they simpler to make but they never fail to please! So, here is a simple Victoria sponge cake perfect for any occasion.

Ingredients:

 

For the sponge cake:

 

100g Margarine,

100g Caster Sugar,

2 Medium eggs,

100g Self-raising flour,

 

To Decorate:

 

200g Unsalted butter,400g Icing sugar,

400g Icing sugar,

1 Teaspoon of cold water

 

 

Method:

Sponge:

1. To make the 2 layered sponge cake, you will first need to grease and line 2 7inch cake tins.
2. Pre-heat the oven at 180degreesC/Gas mark 4.
3. Cream the margarine and sugar until light and fluffy, and pale in colour,
4. Beat in the eggs one at a time, adding a little flour with each one until all the flour is combined,
5. Add in food colouring a tiny amount at a time until the desired colour is achieved,
6. Split the mixture between the 2 tins and bake for 20-25 mins, leave to cool once baked.

Butter-cream filling:

1. Cream the unsalted butter with the icing sugar, adding only a little at a time, until thoroughly combined.
2. Spread the butter-cream between the layers, (leave remaining butter-cream for final decorations).

 

Decoration:

1. Add the cold water to the icing sugar and combine with a metal dinner knife/palette knife, until a think but manageable consistency, you may need to add a little more water, only add 1/2 teaspoon at a time.
2. Add in food colouring gel until desired colour is achieved.
3. Spread coloured icing on top of the cake and leave to set in the fridge,
4. Once set, use the remaining buttercream to decorate, for writing, hold the icing bag vertically whilst piping to get the desired size and shape of text.
5. For the flower, use a flower nail and a triangle icing nib. create a cone of icing and add semi-circle shaped petals around until desired size is achieved. Leave to set in fridge before removing from the nail with kitchen scissors.

 

This can be as simple or as complicated as you wish, but makes the perfect classic cake that everyone will enjoy!

x K x

Sunflower Birthday Cake

The inspiration for this one came from a lovely friend of mine who was turning 21 at the time. She loves the Disney film Tangled and anything summery, so I came up with the idea of a sunflower cake (similar to the flower patterns in Tangled) with a little surprise of bright pink sponge cake once cut into.

Ingredients:



For the sponge cake:

100g Margarine,
100g Caster Sugar,
2 Medium eggs,
100g Self-raising flour,
Pink food colouring gel.

For the Chocolate buttercream:

200g Unsalted butter,
400g Icing sugar,
50g Cocoa-powder.

To Decorate:

500g Ready to roll white icing,
Green, Yellow food colouring gel,
Gold sugar candy balls.


Method:

Sponge:

1. To make the 2 layered sponge cake, you will first need to grease and line 2 7inch cake tins.
2. Pre-heat the oven at 180degreesC/Gas mark 4.
3. Cream the margarine and sugar until light and fluffy, and pale in colour,
4. Beat in the eggs one at a time, adding a little flour with each one until all the flour is combined,
5. Add in food colouring a tiny amount at a time until the desired colour is achieved,
6. Split the mixture between the 2 tins and bake for 20-25 mins, leave to cool once baked.

Butter-cream topping:

1. Cream the unsalted butter with the icing sugar and cocoa-powder, adding only a little at a time, until thoroughly combined.
2. Spread the butter-cream between each layer and cover the entire cake.

Decoration:

1. Take half of the ready to roll icing and add a small amount of Yellow food colouring gel. Knead this until the colouring is smooth and streak-free.
2. Roll this to approximately 2mm thick, using a (large) leaf template/cutter, cut 28 ‘leaf’ shapes, pinching the end of each to lightly bend/fold into a 3D petal. Place these in the fridge to set.
3. Arrange the petals in 2 layers around the cake, starting with the underneath layer.
4. Repeat this process with the remaining ready to roll white icing, instead colouring with Green.
5. Cut smaller leaf shapes as well as small flower shapes to create a ribbon of decoration around the side of the cake.
6. Finally add the sugar candy balls to add a little sparkle!

This makes a brilliant celebration cake and with the added surprise of the coloured sponge, becomes perfect for children!

(For those of you that want a little bit more detail on a cake, I finished the cake with a dusting of icing sugar as well as brushed whipped egg-white around the edge of each petal, then dipped in caster sugar before putting in the fridge to set, this gave a lovely frosted effect!)
Enjoy!

x K x

Red Nose Day Fun...

So yesterday was Red Nose Day (15 March) which on the night raised a massive £75million!! This cause is one that I absolutely love, mainly because it brings a huge sense of community!

A part of this years campaign was the Great Comic Relief Bake Off TV show which combined comedy personalities and one of my favorite topics, baking! One recipe in particular, I just had to try, was a red velvet 'showstopper' cake. I took the recipe and added my own decorations and design to it to make a true 'Red Nose Cake'....

I highly recommend this cake (even without all of the decorations!) It would make amazing cupcakes! For this size cake I doubled the recipe below and split it between 3 cake tines for each layer.

 

Red Velvet Ingredients:

• 200g/7oz self-raising flour,
• 50g/2oz cocoa powder,
• 200g/7oz unsalted butter, softened,
• 200g/7oz caster sugar,
• 3 free-range eggs, lightly beaten,
• 1 tsp red food colouring gel,
• 2 tsp vanilla extract,
• 175ml/6oz buttermilk,
• 1 tsp cider vinegar.

Buttercream Ingredients:

• 200g unsalted butter,
• 400g icing sugar,
• 1 tsp vanilla extract.
• 500g red fondant icing.
• 250g white fondant icing.
• Red and Black gel food colouring.

What you'll need:

• 2 7inch cake tins,
• 1 8inch cake tin.

 

Method:

1. Preheat the oven to 170/325F/Gas 3. Grease and line three 18cm/7in cake tins (or use cake liners).
2. In a bowl, sift together the flour and the cocoa powder. Set aside.
3. Cream the butter and sugar in a free-standing mixer until the mixture is very pale, light and fluffy.
4. Add one-third of the beaten egg, still beating, and then add one tablespoon of the flour mixture. Repeat with another third of the egg and a little more of the flour mixture. Add the remaining egg, then beat in the remaining flour mixture, with the food colouring and vanilla.
5. Finally stir in the buttermilk and couple of drops of the vinegar.
6. Spoon immediately into the prepared tins and bake in the oven for 20 minutes or until springy to the touch.
7. Remove the cakes from the oven and allow to cool in the tins for five minutes before turning out onto a wire rack to cool completely.
8. Meanwhile to make the buttercream, use an electric mixer to cream the butter until pale in colour, slowly add the icing sugar until well combined and the mixture is no longer stiff in consistency, finally add the vanilla extract for flavour.
9. Stack the now cooled cake layers, with the largest in the middle, using the buttercream to sandwich them. Once stacked leave for a few minutes for the buttercream to set slightly.
10. Carve the edges of the cake to create a rounded shape (use a bread knife to avoid breaking the sponge) and cover with 3/4 of the remaining buttercream mixture. The offcuts of this cake are strong enough to mould back onto the cake for the desired shape if required.
11. Roll out 260g of the red fondant to approx 1mm thick (using cornflour to stop it sticking to the surface used for rolling) and cover the entire cake. Make sure hands are clean and dry for perfectly smooth results.
12. Using greaseproof paper, make a template for the 'face' design, rolling out the remaining red fondant and cutting to the desired shape. I added the remaining 1/4 buttercream to mould the snout of this design then covered with the fondant. Use room temperature water to glue the fondant onto the cake. With the left overs, roll out 6 balls of fondant for the toes.
13. Roll out the white fondant cutting one large circle (for the plaque at the back), 2 smaller circles for the eyes, 3 triangles for the nose and ears. Again using water to glue these on.
14. Add a small amount of black food colouring (gloves may be required as this stuff gets everywhere!)  and cut out 3 thin rectangles that can be moulded into eyebrows and a mouth. Roll 2 small balls and squash them to create pupils for the eyes.
15. Finally use a small clean brush (I used a make-up brush for this) paint the writing on the plaque using the gel food colouring (avoid using water as the colours tend to run), and any other details you may want to add.

This cake is best when left out of the fridge and simply covered for protection to avoid it drying out. Admitedly, it took a while to make but if you're in need of a 'showstopper' this is for you! The design can be manipulated and changed however you want and is definitely worth it, the results are brilliant!

Enjoy!

x K x

Chocolate Gingerbread Eiffel Tower...

So, here’s my first recipe… I picked this one because it’s quite possibly my favourite recipe to date! This recipe takes a bit of multi-tasking and structural thinking if you’re feeling adventurous in what you want to make (it doesn’t have to be an Eiffel tower), but it’s definitely worth the effort as it not only looks good but tastes great too!

This recipe makes a large amount of dough, (one batch made the Eiffel tower, the gingerbread house and the people included in the picture), so feel free to half the levels of ingredients if smaller amounts are required.

 

Ingredients:

250g softened butter,

225g brown sugar,

675g plain flour,

250ml golden syrup,

50g cocoa powder,

2 eggs, separated,

1 tbsp ground ginger,

1tsp ground cinnamon,

Royal icing:

300g icing sugar,

2 egg whites, lightly whisked,

2 tsp’s lemon juice.

Method:

1. Cut out a template for the structure you want to make. I used the Eiffel tower but you could just as easily use any other solid landmark or just a simple gingerbread house. You might need to print out several copies; it’s absolutely up to you. For this template I simply Googled ‘Eiffel tower template’, found the simplest version of the iconic image, re-sized it to just over a4 and printed on simple printing paper, (the template will only be used to cut around so no special paper/card is required).
   I then split mine into 4 separate sections, the base, the middle platform, and the long ‘spine’ of the tower, and the top ‘point’ (as seen on the picture included). Added extras include a platform for each section to stand on (simple squares), and little triangles placed underneath the bottom section for added strength to the base. These extras don’t need to be included; I was just thinking particularly ‘structural’ that day!
2. Pre-heat oven to 180c/gas mark 4. Line 4 baking trays with grease proof paper.
3. Use an electric mixer to cream (beat) the butter, sugar and golden syrup together until pale and creamy in texture.
4. Add the egg yolks and beat until just combined,
5. Stir in the flour, cocoa powder, ginger and cinnamon until combined,
6. Use your hands to bring the dough together and turn out onto a lightly floured surface and knead until smooth. Place in the fridge to rest for 30 minutes.
7. After resting, roll out half of the dough (as it’s a fairly large amount) to roughly 5mm thick. Place sections of the template onto the dough and cut around using a small sharp knife. Place each section onto the lined baking trays (leaving gaps in-between) and bake for 15-20 minutes or until golden brown, (although it will be hot, if you lightly touch the gingerbread and your fingerprint does not bounce back slightly then leave in the oven for a couple more minutes). My main tip is to watch each baking tray rigorously as they can burn very quickly!
8. Repeat this process, (this is where the multi-tasking comes in), until each section of your template has been completed. It may require you to re-line the baking trays if used a lot.
9. Once cooked, leave to cool, firstly on the baking tray for a couple of minutes to harden, then on cooling racks ready for assembling later.

To make the royal icing:

1. Place the icing sugar in a bowl, add the lemon juice and half of the egg whites until it makes a stiff paste, (this bit may require a bit of muscle), adding more very small drops of egg white if necessary. This can be covered directly with cling-film/plastic wrap if made in advance.
2. Put the icing into a piping bag and add to the base sections of your structure, adding sections as you go. This may require you to hold certain sections together to set or use household items to prop up against (such as tins of food). Start from the bottom and work your way up, making sure each stage of icing has hardened slightly before moving on to avoid collapse!
   
   The royal icing may dry/harden fairly quickly, if this happens, give it a good stir and add a little more egg white if needed.
3. Leave the structure to dry, preferably overnight.
4. Decorate however desired, and enjoy!

I hope this recipe and method are easy to follow and you get brilliant results! I definitely recommend giving it a go!

x K x

Eeek! Very first blog post!

As you've probably already guessed, this is my first blog!

I will be posting a bit of everything here, focusing on my main hobby...baking!

Baking for me started at a very young age, those afternoons spent making butterfly cupcakes with my mum got me hooked! Now I find any excuse to make something, often invovling a bit of 'winging it' and waiting to see what I end up with, and usually having to ask mum for advise along the way!

I will also add any other crafty creations I come across!
Hopefully they will come in handy at some point,

Enjoy!

 

x K x