21st Celebration Cakes and Cupcakes...

After my AMAZING Honeymoon this summer to Australia and New Zealand...

 It has been great to get back in the kitchen baking again... This weekend has been a very busy one! I had two family friend's 21st Birthdays... Between them I made a Two Tier Cake and 96 cupcakes! The birthday cake was great fun to make as I have never made a Two Tier Cake as big as this before so it was great to learn some new skills. I also enjoyed decorating the pink and lilac rose cupcakes. Here are some pictures of the finished results...

Pink Spots and Star 21st Birthday theme...

Pink and Lilac Themed 21st Birthday...

That's all for now... Looking forward to my next order and also getting back into the kitchen for some home baking.

Celebration Cakes for Family and Friends...

Hello! It's been a while since I last blogged. It's great to finally share with you what I have been up too in the kitchen! Since May I have been making cakes for different types of celebrations for friends and family. I've loved being in the kitchen and creating some lovely cakes. I have created cakes and cupcakes mainly for birthdays which has been great fun! 

Firstly for a family friends 90th Birthday - Cake and Rose cupcakes

Then to a little boys First Birthday - Jake and the Netherland Pirates themed!

My sister-in-laws had a joint birthday which was 90's themed so I designed a Mr Blobby Cake (21st Birthday) and a Tinkerbell Cake (19th Birthday)

I had great fun designing and making these cakes! I can't wait for some more orders to come...

Triple Chocolate Brownies

Hope you have all had a good week! Sorry it's a day late but had a very busy weekend! Here is this weeks bake - Triple Chocolate brownies

ingredients (Makes 1 medium cake)

• 190g softened unsalted butter 
• 190g best-quality dark chocolate
• 3 large eggs
• 1/2 tablespoon vanilla essence
• 250g caster sugar
• 115g plain flour
• 1/2 teaspoon of salt
• chocolate chips (milk & white chocolate)

method

• Preheat the oven to 180°c or 160°c fan. Lightly grease the tray tin with a little soft butter, holding it in a scrap of baking paper.
  
• Melt the butter and chocolate together in a large saucepan. In a mixing jug, beat together the eggs, sugar and vanilla. Then in a bowl mix together the flour and salt.
  
• When the chocolate mixture has melted, let it cool a bit before beating in the egg and sugar, and then the flour and chocolate chips. Beat to combine smoothly and then scrape out of the saucepan into the lined tray.
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
• Bake for 25 minutes. When it's ready, the top should be dried to a paler brown speckle, but the middle still dark, dense and gooey. Remove from oven and leave to cool in the tray. They will continue to cook as they cool.
  
• When cool turn out and cut into pieces and place on serving plate. 
  

Variations; You can put what you like in the brownies such as walnuts, dried cherries or hazelnuts.  I have gone with chocolate chips as my family and I are not really a fan on nuts.

Recipe adapted from 'How to be a Domestic Goddess' - Nigella Lawson

Sticky Lemon Drizzle Cake

Hope you have all had a lovely bank holiday weekend! I have been busy enjoying a weekend in Leicester and then a picnic today in the sunshine, so for the picnic I thought I would make a lemon drizzle cake so here is what I made.

ingredients (Makes 1 medium cake)

• 200g unsalted butter (Stork)
• 250g caster sugar
• 3 eggs
• 2 unwaxed lemons
• 250g self-raising flour
• 1/2 teaspoon baking powder 
• 100ml milk

method

• Preheat the oven to 180c or 160c fan. Lightly grease the cake tin with a little soft butter, holding it in a scrap of baking paper.

• Grease proof paper the tin on the bottom and around the sides, make sure it is as neat as possible.

• Weigh out the soft butter or stork and sugar and put in a large mixing bowl and then crack the eggs into the bowl. 

• Rinse and dry the lemons. One at a time hold the lemons over the mixing bowl and, using the lemon zester or the fine-hole side of the grater, grate off just the yellow rind (the zest). Take care to leave the white pith on the lemon as it tastes bitter. Save the lemons to squeeze for the topping. 

•  Then weigh out the flour and baking powder and put it into the mixing bowl, then add the milk. This is called the all-in-one method.

•  Set the mixing bowl on a damp tea towel or mat to stop the bowl from wobbling. Mix everything together with a wooden spoon. Scrape down the side of the bowl every minute or so to make sure all the ingredients are mixed together. Stop as soon as the mixture looks completely smooth, with no streaks of flour or egg. 

• Scrape the mixture into the lined cake tin and spread it out so the surface is flat. Scrape down any blobs of mixture that have splashed onto the lining paper on the sides of the tin. 

• Place in the heated oven and bake for 50-60 minutes until golden brown. To test if the cake is cooked push a cocktail stick in the middle to see if it comes out clean. If it does take the cake out and place it on a cooling rack. If not put the cake bake in the oven and keep checking until the cocktail stick comes out clean.

• While the cake is in the oven place 100g of caster sugar in a small mixing bowl. Then cut the saved lemons in half and squeeze out the juice using a lemon squeezer. Add the juice to the bowl of sugar and mix well for a minute so the sugar just starts to dissolve to a thick syrupy mixture.

• When the cake is cooked remove it from the oven and place on a cooling rack. Using a clean cocktail stick prick the cake all over, all the way through to the tin, so it looks very holey. Quickly pour all the sugary lemon syrup over the cake. The warm cake will absorb the syrup as it cools, so don't touch it till it is cold. 

• Once the cake has cooled, carefully unclip the tin side (or remove the cake from the tin). Peel off the lining paper. Set the cake onto a serving platter. Store in a airtight container at room temperature. Best eaten within 4 days. 

Recipe adapted from The Great British Bake Off - Learn to Bake by Linda Collister forward by Mary Berry

Carrot Cake Cupcakes

Hope you all have had a great week! After a busy week I managed and was glad to get back in the kitchen this morning and bake. I baked a new recipe that I have not baked before Carrot Cake Cupcakes. I love carrot cake so I thought it would be great fun making cupcake versions.

So here is how I made the yummy cupcakes. 

Ingredients (Makes 24)

•          275g Caster sugar
•          200ml Sunflower oil
•          4 medium free-range eggs
•          about 200g Grated carrot, a little more or less is fine
•          up to 150g Mixed dried fruit (optional)
•          225g Self-raising wholemeal flour  
•          2 tsp Baking powder
•          1 tsp Ground cinnamon
•          1 tsp Mixed spice
•          1 tsp Coco powder

For the cheese frosting

• 125g Salted butter, softened
• 125g Full-fat cream cheese
• 275g Icing sugar
• Edible decorations - such as iced carrots, I used white chocolate carrots

Method

• Preheat the oven to 180C/160C Fan assisted and line the pockets of a muffin tray with cupcake cases. 

• Beat the sugar, oil and eggs in a mixing bowl until smooth, I mixed mine in my food mixer. Then stir in the grated carrot and the mixed dried fruit.

• In a separate bowl mix together the flour, baking powder, spices and coco so it is evenly mixed, then tip this into the carrot mixture and mix well. 
  

• Fill the cupcake cases to about two-thirds full, then bake in the oven for about 20-25 minutes. Once cooked, place on cooling rack to cool.

• For the frosting, make sure the butter is soft, then mix together with the soft cream cheese in a bowl until smooth. 

• Stir in the icing sugar with a spoon until it begins to come together. Pipe or spoon blobs of frosting on each cold cupcake. Then decorate to suit.       

Recipe adapted from Dan Lepard BBC Food

Easter Baking

First of all welcome to my new blog! I hope you all had a wonderful Easter and enjoying lots of chocolate. I had a great weekend, spending time with the family and best of all baking.

Here are some of my bakes that I made for Easter.

First of all my cupcakes taken from the recipe Vanilla Cupcakes in The Great British Bake Off Book - Learn to Bake, By Linda Collister (Foreword by Mary Berry)  .

This year I decided to go with a bunny and chick theme. The pipe work I used two different types of nozzles. For the bunny cupcakes I used a 2D nozzle and for the grass effect I used a Wilton 233 small grass nozzle. You can normally find these at a local cake supply shop, Amazon or Hobbycraft. The rabbits and the flowers I made by hand using PME cutters.
These were great fun to make and I also thought it would be fun to use my teacup silicone cases I got for Christmas from a friend.

I also made Gingerbread bunnies and Cadbury Chocolate nests which my family love and are really easy to make.

The final piece of baking was my Chocolate Easter Cake which I adapted from Mary Berry's Victoria Sponge recipe from her book Simple Cakes. Which I decorated with butter icing, mini eggs and Easter chicks.

Finally I put them all together for them to enjoy!

 Hope you liked my first blog post! Please let me know what you think and look forward to posting again soon.

Next week: Carrot Cupcakes