February

The past month has been a super busy one that's gone by in the bit of blur. I found time to make these pretty crochet flowers and I'm working on a few more. I'm mulling over what to do with them - bunting, brooches? What do you think?

There's been a bit of scrapbooking with these cute little stickers and pretty floral papers.

I sorted through my fabric stash. Just look at the pretty colours and patterns! One thing I want to try this year is quilting. Hopefully I'll find some time to get started on that soon.

No blog is complete without pics of some recent treats! Clockwise from top left: my chocolate dipped meringues, salted caramel and chocolate icecream at the pub, a delicious pistachio biscuit at Aromi, pancake with caramelised apples and homemade salted caramel. YUM! I knocked up a banoffee pie with the leftover salted caramel too.

I hope your February has been as tasty as mine!

Pikmin Birthday Cake

A few weeks back it was the Mr's Birthday. It was a big one, thirty! We celebrated with a tasty homemade Sunday roast with family and a London adventure with friends. Of course, there was chocolate cake too. Being the nerds that we are, the cake theme was video game inspired, as recently one of our favourite games to play together is Pikmin 3.

I used BBCgoodfood's recipe for the ultimate chocolate cake and it turned out wonderfully. It's a heavenly rich, dense cake. I had to be quick to get a photo of the inside. It was like feeding time at the zoo.

Edible Masterpieces

Earlier this month I encouraged my colleagues to get their bake on for the Art Fund's Edible Masterpieces. Four of us took on the challenge, as the rest of HLFEoE no doubt went off in search of suitably loose/elasticated clothing to wear on the day.

Ana produced Alfred Wallace's The Blue Ship on ginger cake (above). It looked stunning and was bloomin' delicious.

Robyn recreated an East of England treasure, the Sutton Hoo mask, in pizza form. She also made a sheild (see last photo), and her masterpieces were all the more authentic as she had used Woodbridge Tide Mill flour.

Sophie created a beautiful Henri Matisse Blue Nude on a marzipan covered sponge cake. Great British Bake Off winner Frances Quinn was similarly inspired, baking a Blue-berry Nude cheesecake.

I decorated my salted caramel and pecan brownie with the policeman on a bicycle from Edward Bawden's Ives Farmhouse.

Everyone did a great job and I think we were all impressed with each and every one of our creations. We gained half a stone each and raised a tidy little sum to help support UK museums and galleries to buy and show great art. The office was buzzing but people refused to vote for a winner declaring them all masterpieces!

Marshmallow Cake

This is a simple cake to make and perfect for a celebration. I made two of these cakes last month, for a family and friend’s Birthday. It's a simple sponge cake filled with vanilla buttercream and mini marshmallows. Although it looks quite massive and perhaps filled with a little too much buttercream, the light sponge and the fact that the filling is mostly marshmallows results in a cake that isn’t at all heavy. A friend commented that it was like eating a cloud!

This cake is a definite hit with me and I’ve also used the marshmallow buttercream on cupcakes, finishing them off with a chunk of Cadbury Flake. If you’d like to do the same, the buttercream recipe below would be enough to decorate 12 cupcakes.

Marshmallow Cake

200g caster sugar

200g unsalted butter, softened

4 medium eggs

200g self raising flour

1 tsp baking powder

2 tbsp milk

1 tsp vanilla extract

Buttercream:

120g unsalted butter, softened

375g icing sugar

25ml milk

2-3 drops vanilla extract

100g pink and white mini marshmallows

1. Preheat oven to 190°C (170°C fan). Line two 20cm round tins with baking paper and set aside.

2. Cream the butter and sugar until pale and light. In a separate bowl combine the eggs, milk and vanilla extract, and in another bowl combine the flour and baking powder.

3. Beat half of the wet ingredients into the creamed mixture, then mix through half of the flour.

4. Add the other half of wet ingredients and mix until combined. Finally stir in the remaining flour until you have a smooth and light batter.

5. Divide between the two lined tins and bake on the middle shelf of the oven for 20-25 minutes. Once cool enough to handle, carefully transfer to a cooling rack.

6. For the vanilla buttercream, beat the butter with half of the icing sugar until smooth. Then add the remaining icing sugar, milk and vanilla and beat once more until smooth and creamy.

7. Set aside about 4 tablespoons of icing – you’ll need this to decorate the top of the cake. Stir the marshmallows into the rest of the icing until fully incorporated.

8. Pop your one of your cakes onto a cake board (I used a silver one from the supermarket and added a doily from a pack I bought from Lakeland) or plate and pile on the marshmallow icing. Use a palette knife or the back of a spoon to spread it evenly and then place the other cake on top.

9. Pop the icing you put aside earlier into a piping bag fitted with a large star nozzle, and carefully pipe stars onto the top of the cake.

10. Now for the finishing touches. Dust with icing sugar, sprinkle with pink decorating sugar, add candles... Et Voila! A springy, light, marshmallowy cake. Enjoy :-)

Glitzy Coffee Cupcakes

I’ve discovered edible glitter (how the heck did it take me so long?) and I want to sprinkle it on everything, but perhaps putting it on my chilli con carne was a step too far… Anyhoo, these sparkly beauties provide the perfect hit of coffee and glitz. So why not give them a whirl?

Glitzy Coffee Cupcakes (makes 24 - 28 mini cupcakes)

75g unsalted butter, softened

100g caster sugar

1 large egg

3 tbsp soured cream

2 tsp instant coffee, dissolved in a teeny tiny amount of boiling water and cooled

110g self raising flour 

For the icing:

100g unsalted butter, softened

2 tsp instant coffee, dissolved in a teeny tiny amount of boiling water and cooled

225g icing sugar

To decorate:

100g walnuts, chopped

50g dark chocolate, grated

Gold edible glitter

1. Preheat oven to 180°C (160°C fan).    
2. Mix the butter and sugar until creamy and light. Beat in the egg, followed by half of the flour.
3. Stir in the soured cream and coffee, then the remaining flour.
4. Distribute the mixture into mini cupcake cases, filling each two thirds full, and bake for 12-15 minutes in the middle of the oven.
5. To make the icing, mix half of the icing sugar with the butter until fully incorporated. Stir in the coffee, then add the remaining icing sugar and beat until smooth. If it is a little stiff, add a little splash of milk to loosen it slightly and it will become easier to work with.

6. Pipe or spread onto the cooled cupcakes (I prefer to pipe with a plain nozzle so that the icing is distributed evenly on top).
7. Put the walnuts and grated chocolate in separate bowls. Dip half of the cupcakes in each, making sure the icing is well coated with either chocolate or walnuts.
8. Now for the fairy dust moment – sprinkle with glitter and Ta Da! Glitzy Coffee Cupcakes!

Christmas Cake

Happy New Year :-) I hope you all had a lovely Christmas break.

I started writing this post before Christmas, but there was so much going on that I just couldn't get it finished. In the run up to December 25^th I was in a bit of a knitting/crochet/cake decorating/present finishing/packing frenzy! So I had to keep the designs for my Christmas cakes as simple (and quick) as I possibly could.

I was really pleased with how they looked. I went for pale blue with a snowflake for the big cake. It doesn't show up in the photo, but I used some pearlescent edible lustre dust on the snowflake for a shimmer effect. The cake was a gift for our office Secret Santa (turned out to be not so secret really!).

The two smaller 11cm cakes were decorated with simple blue fondant stars and a Christmas tree, finished with lovely ribbon. These were also gifts, but unfortunately in all the Christmas chaos I forgot to give one of them to the intended recipient, and discovered it, all boxed up, on my craft desk (which needless to say was abandoned throughout the festivities) a couple of days ago! Oops.

As for my own Christmas cake, well it’s sitting in the bottom of my wardrobe, all wrapped up since the last time I fed it with sherry in mid-December! I thought about making it into a Happy New Year cake, but my heart just isn't in it. Perhaps it will become a Valentine Fruitcake! I think I’ll mull it over.

Mini Mince Pie Cupcakes

Hooray! Christmas is coming! It's mince pie season and I've perfected my recipe for mince pie cupcakes just in time for the festivities. These are a light and fluffy alternative to the mince pie. I baked mini cakes and topped them with a wicked brandy buttercream icing and some fondant holly leaves and berries. I used homemade mincemeat - every year I make a batch of Delia's Mincemeat (omitting the yucky candied peel of course!). If you use shop bought mincemeat use a good quality one, as it will have both a better consistency and flavour.

Mini Mince Pie Cupcakes (makes 30)

115g unsalted butter, softened

115g caster sugar

2 large eggs

125g good quality mincemeat

100g self raising flour

15g cornflour

1/2 tsp baking powder

For the brandy buttercream icing:

125g butter

325g icing sugar

2-3 tbsp brandy

1. Put on some festive music and preheat oven to 180°C (fan 160°C) and line a mini muffin tin with mini cupcake cases.
2. Cream the butter and sugar until pale and fluffy. Beat in the eggs one at a time, then stir in the mincemeat.
3. In a separate bowl mix the flour, cornflour and baking powder. Then sift this into the wet mixture and gently stir through until combined.
4. Fill cupcake cases two thirds full and bake for 10-12 minutes on the middle shelf of the oven.

5. Now make the icing. Use an electric mixer to beat the butter and icing sugar until smooth, then add in the brandy and mix well.

6. Pipe or spread onto the cooled cupcakes and decorate with sprinkles or fondant shapes.
7. Put your feet up, turn up the Christmas tunes and enjoy a cupcake or two.

Making Christmas Cake

I've been baking Christmas cake for a fair few years now. This is the cake I made last year. At Christmas I love nothing more than a slab of fruitcake with a glass of sherry, and decorating the cake a few days before the festivities never fails to make me feel jolly. I love this recipe for Sherry and Almond cake on BBC Good Food. Naturally, I've made a few changes to the recipe to suit my preferences. It makes a deliciously moist and nutty cake.

Recently a few people have told me they thought Christmas cake was difficult to make - it's really not! It does require some preparation and a little drink every couple of weeks, but the effort is really worth it! To inspire you to make your own, I thought I'd share my tips for fruitcake success!

Feeling Fruity!
Many recipes call for mixed dried fruit. The problem I have with mixed fruit is that is contains yucky mixed peel, of which I am most definitely not a fan - I find it tough and bitter. To avoid it I buy separate packets of raisins, sultanas and currants. Other dried fruit works well, such as cranberries and cherries. I have to say I think the separately packaged fruit is of a better quality than the mixed, but that may just be me.

Be prepared!

Measure your dried fruit out at least a day before you are going to bake, and soak it overnight. The recipe below uses sherry (a deliciously thick and syrupy one - yum!), but you could use brandy, whiskey, rum, or if you'd prefer to skip on the alcohol, orange juice or even black tea. The important thing is that you give the fruit enough time to absorb the liquid and become plump and juicy. This will help to keep your cake moist and prevent it from drying out.

Go nuts!

I like to use nuts in fruitcakes. Whole nuts are a bit too chunky for my liking, so I pop them in my mini chopper and whiz them down to size, but still leaving a few bigger pieces for a bit of crunch. If you use a recipe that requires ground nuts, I recommend buying whole ones and processing them until you have a reasonably fine texture. This is another thing that can help to keep your cake lovely and moist. The reason for this is that ready ground nuts are dried out during the manufacturing process, and as a result contain less natural oil than whole nuts. 

Use protection!

Fruitcake is baked for a number of hours and although the heat is relatively low, there's always a risk that the outside of the cake could over bake. To help prevent this, line your tin with baking paper and wrap several layers of newspaper around the outside, using bakers twine or string to tie in place. I didn't have any handy so I used a spare shoelace instead!

Flip it 'n' feed it!

To keep your cake in tip top condition, give it a swig of its favourite drink. Use a skewer to make a series of holes about an inch and a half apart and about a third of the way through the thickness of the cake. Carefully pour a few drops of tipple into each hole. Do this every couple of weeks, and flip your cake over each time so that you alternate between feeding the bottom and top of the cake - you don't want one half of your cake to be completely sozzled!

I hope you find these tips helpful! Here's the recipe for my cake...

Sherry & Almond Christmas Cake

375g sultanas

375g raisins

150g currants

100g glace cherries

zest and juice of 2 large oranges

225ml sweet sherry (I use Sainsbury's Pedro Ximenez - about £7 a bottle, but seriously good stuff)

250g butter, softened

250g light muscovado sugar

½ tsp vanilla paste/1 tsp vanilla extract

150g plain flour

100g ground almonds

150g whole almonds, roughly chopped 

2 tsp mixed spice

½ tsp ginger

½ tsp cinnamon

4 large eggs, lightly beaten

1. In a large bowl mix the fruit with the zest juice and sherry. Cover with a tea towel and leave to soak overnight.

2. When you're ready to bake preheat the oven to 160°C (that's 140°C fan).

3. Line a deep, 23cm round tin and wrap several layers of newspaper around the outside.

4. Beat butter and sugar until light and creamy. Add the eggs, along with the flour, ground almonds and spices. Beat again until well combined.

5. Finally, add the chopped nuts, fruit and any juices. Stir through before transferring to the prepared tin.

6. Bake for one hour. Then turn down the oven to 150°C (130°C fan) and bake for a further 2 hours, or until a skewer in the centre comes out clean.

7. When the tin has cooled enough to handle, turn the cake out onto a cooling rack. Once completely cool, wrap in baking paper and then foil. Keep in a cool place and feed with sherry every couple of weeks.

Once we get a little closer to the festive season, I'll share some decorating ideas. In the meantime, I'd love to hear about any festive baking you've been doing or are planning. Have you made a Christmas cake? What did you put in it? Happy Baking!

Chocolate Owl Cupcakes

These chocolate owl cupcakes were so much fun to make... I had a hoot! Tee hee! I made them using gluten free flour and they went down a treat at my office. You could even add some chocolate chips to the cake batter to make them even more chocolately!

Chocolate Owl Cupcakes (makes 12)

150g butter, softened

150g caster sugar

3 eggs, lightly beaten

40g ground almonds

40g cocoa

125g self raising flour/gluten free self raising flour

4 tbsp yoghurt

1 tsp vanilla extract

Chocolate icing:

150g butter, softened

250g icing sugar

2 tbsp cocoa powder

2-3 tbsp milk

To decorate:

3 packets cadbury milk chocolate buttons, chop each button in half

2 packets giant chocolate buttons (for eyes)

2 packs white chocolate buttons (for eyes)

milk chocolate chips (for eyes)

3 cadbury fudge bars (for nose and ears), cut into triangular shapes

white chocolate stars

1. Preheat oven to 180°C (160°C fan).
2. Beat butter and sugar until light and creamy.
3. Mix in the eggs, vanilla and ground almonds. Then add the yoghurt and sift in the flour and cocoa. Stir through until you have a smooth chocolately batter.
4. Divide between 12 cupcake cases and bake for 20-25 minutes.

5. Meanwhile make the icing: combine butter and half the icing sugar until smooth, beat in the remaining icing sugar and cocoa, then finally add the milk to loosen the consistency slightly.
6. Once the cupcakes are cooled, spread the chocolate icing on top. Keep aside a teaspoon of icing for adding some of the chocolate decorations.
7. Layer the halved chocolate buttons on one half of the cupcake, leaving a small space in the centre for a piece of chocolate fudge for the nose. Place two smaller pieces of chocolate fudge on the top side for the ears.

8. Add two giant chocolate buttons for the eyes. Use a toothpick or the end of a spoon to dab a tiny splodge of icing onto the centre of the buttons, then gently press two white chocolate buttons into place. Add the milk chocolate chips on top of the white chocolate buttons with another small dot of chocolate icing. Pop a couple of white chocolate stars onto the side. Ta da!

Mini Pumpkin Pies

Autumn is well and truly here and that can only mean one thing... pumpkin and squash time! What could be better than some yummy pumpkin pies with maple syrup and a hint of gingery mixed spice? Why, mini ones of course! Mr Makes said they're like pumpkin and maple flavour custard tarts. So if you're a fan of the custard tart I think you're going to like these!

Mini Pumpkin Pies (makes 24)

Pastry:

180g plain flour, sifted

45g icing sugar

90g butter, diced

1 egg yolk

1-2 tbsp milk

Filling (note: this makes around 300ml, of which you'll only need half, so freeze the rest for another time!):

250g diced pumpkin

2 tbsp double cream

1 egg and 1 egg white

2 tbsp maple syrup

½ tsp ginger

pinch mixed spice

1. First of all steam the diced pumpkin (I don't have a steamer, so I put the pumpkin in a colander set over a pan of gently simmering water) for around 15 minutes until tender.
2. Pop into a blender or food processor with the double cream and wizz into a puree. Leave to cool a little while you make the pastry.

3. In a bowl mix the flour and icing sugar. Use your fingers to rub in the butter until it has a breadcrumb-like texture. In a separate bowl mix 1 tbsp milk with the egg yolk to combine, then add this to the flour mixture and use a knife to mix it through. If a dough doesn't form, add a further tbsp of milk. Use your hands to bring  the dough together into a ball. Wrap in cling film and rest in the fridge for 15 minutes.

4. Now mix the egg, egg white, maple syrup, ginger and mixed spice into the cooled pumpkin puree.
5. Preheat oven to 200°C (180°C fan).
6. Roll out the chilled pastry to 4mm thickness and cut out 24 rounds (I used a 5.5cm cutter) and line a 24 hole mini muffin tin. Use the remaining pastry to cut out stars (tip: use a tooth pick to ease the pastry out of the corners).

7. Spoon/pour the pumpkin mixture into your pastry cases and set a star on top of each.
8. Bake on the middle shelf of the oven for 15-20 minutes. Cool in the tin before removing and sprinkling with caster sugar.

Lovely Lemon Layer Cake

Last weekend was a busy one! I baked a whole load of my lovely lemony cupcakes along with a lovely lemon layer cake for my Mother-in-law's Birthday celebrations.

I whipped up some of Delia's lemon curd for the filling. It tastes much better than shop-bought and I have two jars left over to make yet more lemony delights over the next few weeks! I also made some small roses for decoration.

Everything survived the car journey and the Birthday girl loved her cakes. If you'd like to make a lovely lemon layer cake, here's my recipe:

Lovely Lemon Layer Cake

200g unsalted butter, softened

200g caster sugar

4 eggs

200g self raising flour

1 tsp baking powder

zest of 2 lemons

1 tsp lemon extract

1 tbsp ground almonds

For the filling:

lemon curd

Lemony icing:

100g unsalted butter, softened

350-400g icing sugar

1-2 tsp lemon extract

1-2 tbsp lemon juice

few drops yellow food colouring
sugar flowers

1. Grease and line two round 20cm sandwich tins, and preheat your oven to 190 degrees or 170 for fan ovens.
2. Use an electric mixer to beat together all the cake ingredients until smooth and creamy.
3. Divide the mixture between the two tins evenly and bake in the centre of the oven for 20-30 minutes.
4. To make the lemony icing beat the butter for a minute. Gradually add the icing sugar and continue to beat. Add the lemon extract, juice and a little yellow food colouring. Beat again until smooth and creamy.
5. Once the cakes have cooled slice each of them so you have four layers of cake. Spread lemon curd and/or lemony icing between each layer and slather the outside with icing.
6. Prettify with a few sugar flowers!

Mini Schokogugelhupf (Austrian Chocolate Cake)

A gugelhupf is an Austrian ring-shaped tea time cake. I've been wanting to bake a schokogugelhupf (all together now - shock-o-google-hoff!) ever since I saw the Hairy Bikers make one in a car park in Austria, high up on the Glossglockner High Alpine Road, during their mammoth Bakeation. When I popped into Lakeland and came across these silicone mini bund moulds I knew just what to make in them - mini schokogugelhupf of course! I adapted the Hairy Bikers' recipe for schokogugelhupf to make a smaller quantity as I only had 8 moulds.

Mini Schokogugelhupf (makes 8)

75g butter, plus extra for greasing

75g dark chocolate

25g ground almonds, plus extra for moulds

75g icing sugar

2 eggs, separated

65g self raising flour

¼ tsp baking powder

For the icing:

65g dark chocolate

20g butter

½ tbsp golden syrup

1. First of all grease the moulds with butter and coat with ground almonds. Then melt the chocolate and leave to cool for 15-20 minutes.
2. Preheat your oven to 190°C (170°C fan).
3. Cream the butter and icing sugar until light and smooth. Beat in the egg yolks and then the cooled chocolate, ground almonds, flour and baking powder.
4. In a separate bowl whisk the egg whites until they hold soft peaks. Then, using a metal spoon, carefully stir into the chocolate mixture.

5. Spoon into the prepared moulds and bake for 12-15 minutes.

6. For the icing melt the chocolate, butter and golden syrup and leave to cool for around 10 minutes until it has thickened slightly. Spoon on the cooled cakes.

Viennese Whirls

Viennese whirls are now offically my favourite biscuits. I think of them as a clever combination of shortbread and butterfly fairy cakes - rich buttery biscuits with a lovely light texture sandwiched together with raspberry jam and buttercream. Best of all, they're dead easy to make!

Viennese Whirls (makes 10)

125g unsalted butter, softened

25g icing sugar

25g cornflour

125g plain flour

couple drops vanilla extract

For the filling:

50g unsalted butter, softened

100g icing sugar

couple drops vanilla extract

5 tsp raspberry jam

1. Pre heat oven to 190° (fan 170°) and line a baking tray with greaseproof paper.
2. Put the butter, icing sugar, cornflour, plain flour and vanilla extract into a food processor and pulse until you have a smooth mixture.

  

3. Pop it into a piping bag with a star nozzle and pipe 20 whirls around 4-5cm in size.

4. Bake for 10-14 minutes until they start to turn a light golden colour.

5. To make the filling beat the butter, icing sugar and vanilla until smooth. Spread half a teaspoon or so of jam onto half of the biscuits and pipe or spread buttercream onto the other half. Gently press together and finish with a light dusting of icing sugar.