Tree Cakes

When my cousin asked me to design a creative and elaborate cake for her party following the theme of tree top climbing I wanted to step out of my comfort zone. We sat and googled and also doodled about how to turn the idea of 'Go Ape' into a cake. I then stumbled upon a blogger who made a tree with the help of a screwdriver and a structure made from wood. I thought to myself 'can I? and should I?'.

Yes. Yes. Yes...6 hours later.

Now at this point in the photography a few little hands had been picking at the ladder made from Mikado sticks.

♬ 'King' by Years & Years

A random bear looking monkey too fat to walk the strawberry laced bridge.

The treetop consisted of red velvet sponges and cream cheese...with a touch of green colouring.

The trunks were made from Rice Krispies and marshmallows. Then smothered with buttercream and given a tree look.

The base was designed by two little ladies who ran out of Mikado sticks on their pathway....

This is me and my sister decorating at 1am.

I transported the trunks then decorated on location - always the best way! The Rice Krispie mixture was very easily to handle and moulded beautifully to the structures.

Two thin cake boards held together with a wooden cake dowel drilled in each and superglued. Covered in foil to avoid any glue contact with ingredients.

Watch out for the next project.


M.x

Lego Cake

♬ 'LP1' FKA Twigs

My brothers 40th birthday cake. A mammoth project consisting of an almond and vanilla sponge sandwiched with apricot jam and covered in chocolate hazelnut buttercream.

I was bricking the whole project last week because all these so called Lego cakes online looked like so much work. 

Now you know if you want to make a lego cake just concentrate on the blocks and build your design out of actual lego first!

M.x

Buckaberry Cake

♬ 'The Singles' Basement Jaxx

Now, if you want a healthy sort of cake then this is the recipe for you. Look at the list of ingredients to see how little sugar there is. I'm telling you this cake is so incredibly tasty I wanted to put my face straight in it.

Ingredients:

400g buckwheat flour
1 tsp gluten free baking powder
Pinch of sea salt
120ml runny honey
120g unsalted butter
1 tbsp caster sugar
2 large lemons (zest and 100ml juice needed)
3 large eggs
1tbsp almond milk
1tsp almond essence

150g fresh raspberries
100g frozen cherries
100g blue poppy seeds

Topping:

200g light Philadelphia cream cheese
100g icing sugar
50g butter
1 small lemon
Blue poppy seeds
Chia seeds
Fresh blueberries
Fresh raspberries
Edible glitter

Method:

 ▶ Preheat oven 180° c
 Line a 22cm quick release cake tin with baking paper.
In a bowl add all the ingredients for the cake apart from raspberries, cherries and seeds.
Whisk well, stir in fruit and poppy seeds.
Pour in tin and bake on the middle shelf for 40 minutes.

Leave to cool then poke with a skewer and squeeze one lemon over the cake so it soaks up more juice.

For the topping whisk butter, cream cheese, icing sugar, lemon zest and 1 teaspoon of lemon juice. Refrigerate until your ready to serve, so it can stiffen up

Spread over cold cake, sprinkle poppy and chia seeds with fruit and edible glitter.

Ready for the taking!

xx

Zesty Rainbow Cake

 

Well an upside down rainbow, only because turquoise is my favourite colour.

 

Now playing...

 

Rainbow cake.

The blogger who came up with this idea originally made it for her best mate. A simple and creative idea which was a huge online success amongst all cake fans. The original recipe features vanilla essence in each coloured sponge which I think is a tad boring to be honest. I matched a few colours of the rainbow with some natural zests. Imagine tasting the rainbow as well as seeing it.

 

 

Zippy knows what I mean.

 

Recipe from BBC Good Food.

This recipe needs to be done three times for six sponges.

I did some of the messy work for you, split the cake mixture so each bowl contains 380g then add half a teaspoon of colour.

 

For each of these colours add these lovely flavours before putting in the oven:

 

Red sponge: half a teaspoon of strawberry essence

Yellow: lemon zest (only half)

Green: lime zest (only half)

Purple: sprinkle a bit of lavender sugar on mixture.

Orange: orange zest (whole one)

Turquoise: half a teaspoon of vanilla essence.

 

Once cakes are completely cold, store in an airtight container and assemble the next day.

 

 

Trim tops of each sponge with a sharp knife, so they sit flat on each other. Keep refrigerated once cream cheese frosting is spread all over and in between each sponge.

 

Either keep white or go crazy with multi coloured sprinkles.

 

ENJOY!

 

 

 

Choco Hazelnut Cake

 

INCREDIBLY INDULGENT.

 

 

♬

What was playing:

 

 

 

Another successful baking weekend. This cake is decadent, sexy and very rich. Only for true chocoholics and anyone with an extra sweet tooth.

 

INGREDIENTS for two 18inch sandwich tins.

120g unsalted soft butter

 300g soft brown sugar 

2 medium eggs at room temperature.

 40g cocoa powder 

300g plain flour 

260ml semi skimmed milk mixed with 2 tbsp white wine vinegar (buttermilk)

 Half a teaspoon of bicarbonate of soda 

3 tsp white wine vinegar 

 

To cover the sides:

 

125g unsalted soft butter 

250g icing sugar

 30g cocoa powder 

2 tsp vanilla essence

 2tbsp milk

 

Chocolate ganache for top of one cake and filling:

 

200g organic milk chocolate

250ml double cream

 

Chopped hazelnuts

White edible glitter

 

METHOD:

 

Boil cream and pour over chocolate chunks. Whisk until thick and refrigerate until cakes are ready to assemble. I made mine the night before and warmed it up in a microwave for 20 seconds before spreading it on cakes.

 

Preheat oven 180°c.

Beat butter and sugar until combined and fluffy, then add eggs.

Stir in cocoa, flour and buttermilk mixture.

Lastly add bicarbonate of soda ,vinegar and mix for a final time.

Pour mixture into two lined tins and bake for 30 minutes.

Once risen and a butter knife comes out clean from the middle, leave out to cool.

 

Once cakes are completely cold, decide which sponge is best for the top and bottom. Spread ganache as a filling and on top of cake.

Pipe buttercream in large roses ensuring they stick properly, press them gently.

Sprinkle chopped nuts on top sponge with ganache and sprinkle glitter on roses.

 

DONE!

 

Favourite song:

'Halo' by Florence and The Machine

 

 

4 Is The Magic Number

♬ 'channel ORANGE' by Frank Ocean

Finally in front of the Mac. I've been wanting to blog for such a long time, fortunately lots is happening and it's all go in the production and catering world! Plus a bike accident and a punch in the nose have hit me hard this week! 

For those who are not familiar with the ups, downs, rants and creative spurts on this blog I have to reiterate, especially on this post that I love putting my hand to something and flipping the script. As a part time job I am a nanny and have sole charge of a now four year old beauty, she has picked up my creative streak and is just as crazy as me! During the day if we find a massive piece of polystyrene on the streets I take it in and let the little one paint it, once a giant lollipop was made with a massive branch attached. No wonder she once decorated a bush with tennis rackets then started to paint the leaves! As much as I (like most people) have testing days with work, I enjoy it and continue to do my best.  Anyway for the little girl's birthday I surpassed myself and designed the above.

AMAZING

All the kids were in awe, and actually most of the parents were too! Smarties don't need to be flat down on a cake, on a soft frosting they stand upright perfectly. This cake has a triple sponge, two are meringue based, and the top is a normal vanilla sponge, filled with mascarpone and strawberry jam, the frosting was cream cheese, butter cream and a dash of pink colouring. I know these cakes might look all E-numbered up but this one is not that bad, after all 99% is home made and no one will object to that!

Here are a few tips when making and creating this sort of mammoth cake:

Patience - all three sponges have to be cold, I left them in the tin ran a knife round the edges and then put them in the fridge.

Presentation - decorate just before presenting and take your time, looking good is key when it comes to cake.

Persevere - when putting sponges together and sandwiching with chosen filling, the cake won't look that pretty. This doesn't mean it is a disaster, keep at it and take care when spreading frosting all over the cake. With a cream cheese covering it is best to keep in the fridge until you are ready to decorate. Use a butter knife or even better a cake palette knife.

My hands are battered and dry, I think finally a night in with a hot cup of milk and Frank Ocean is in need. Keep an eye on my twitter, I have had another genius food wave and it will be spread all over here very soon.

Favourite song:

ê 'Forrest Gump'

26 Golden Cupcakes

♬ 'Music' by Madonna

Who else was I going to have on while decorating these beautiful cupcakes!

The order was for a 50th wedding anniversary, and of course being that it is a golden one I had to go all out and get glitter crazy. Fourteen chocolate orange and  twelve vanilla are on display, four of each were decorated slightly differently. Remember when I made 300 cakes last year? Now looking at these cakes, I think less than that is achievable and each of these cupcakes had a lot of attention, they look great and I am well proud. 

Creating the rose effect requires a good piping nozzle, steady hand and simply turn the cupcake in glitter. For the edges of the rose (in first photo, top four) dab your finger in glitter and press gently around the sides. Simple yet effective.

WOWZA

Have a great weekend.

xx

Favourite Song:

ê 'Don't Tell Me'

Cherry Chocolate Cola Cake

                   
                      

♬ 'Number Ones' by Stevie Wonder

After laughing constantly for an hour last night whilst watching Eddie Murphy's 'Raw', I got Stevie on this morning and all of a sudden I wanted to bake, but what? I got it: cola cake with cherries and chocolate! I googled - found and saw it had been done! Classic. Of course someone had already tried this, well this time I was going to add my own spin. This was all thought about while still in bed, before I had even started my abdominal exercises! You can imagine how difficult it was to hold the plank for 1minute 30seconds when all I was thinking about was cherry cola. I collapsed after 1 minute.

I'm not a fan of fizzy drinks, when mixed with a cheeky vodka or rum it's lovely but other than that I'm a pure H20 girl at heart. Cola has a good and bad rep, I've heard it's so acidic it can clean toilets, aeroplane engines and yes make your teeth fall out if you are slightly obsessed with the taste. Once upon a time having Coca Cola at my parents house was a novelty, in fact it was always left over from the night we shared a bucket of KFC. It would sit next to the Ribena and I wasn't even tempted, maybe because when I took one gulp my throat would burn and an immediate ghastly burp would shake the kitchen windows.

A month ago I made a coke marinade for ribs. it was following an America recipe and the results were tantalising! I figured by heating coke it gets concentrated and thicker, and to get this in a cake why not heat it with butter to add thickness?! Also I am a fiend for cherries at the moment and as much as they and any other fruit are better eaten raw, I have added glacé cherries in the cake and topped with organic cherry jam to make myself feel a bit better.

One more thing before I delve into recipe mode, the cake was originally supposed to be two layers sandwiched with jam and topped with chocolate and cherries. Basically the second sponge stuck to the base and my lack of grammar was vocally expressed with the 'F' word a few times. Anyway I worked around the mistake, learnt my lesson on how not to grease a tin and ended up with one sponge. 

 ▶ Recipe for two sponges to make a double cake, or half the ingredients for the one above.

Ingredients:

250g wholemeal self raising flour

200g brown soft sugar

200ml Coca- Cola

125g unsalted butter

Half a teaspoon of bicarbonate of soda

1 tablespoon of Nutella

2 medium eggs

1 tsp vanilla extract

100g glaced cherries, chopped.

Popping candy

Topping:

Organic cherry jam

200g milk chocolate

Fresh cherries

Method:

: Melt the butter and coke on the hob. Take off the heat and add the bicarbonate of soda. Leave for about 15 minutes.

What this reaction does and why I have added it now and not to the dry mixture:

This chemical reaction forms bubbles of carbon dioxide, which will expand under high temperature. Therefore combined with self raising flour will make the cake have bigger air pockets and rise that bit more.

: Preheat oven to 180°c.

: Grease and line two 20cm sandwich tins.

: Combine flour and sugar in a bowl.

: Add the coke mixture and whisk until smooth, then introduce the eggs one at a time.

: Fold in the Nutella, essence and cherries.

: Pour in each tin and bake for 40 minutes.

: Take out, use a skewer and stab the sponges. Pour one lid of coke over each cake.

: Leave to cool, then turn out.

: Sandwich together with cherry jam.

: Melt milk chocolate over simmering hot water and slowly spread over the top of the cake.

: Top with cherries and popping candy.

For the one above:

Spread jam over cooled sponge, then melt chocolate and pour over the top. Finish off with cherry and popping candy.

DONE!

Who got this cake?

My favourite checkout lady in Tesco.

 I knew she deserved it as soon as she told me 'I flipping love cherries darl, I tell ya I ate 2kg the other day!'

Favourite Song:

ê 'Master Blaster (Jammin')

Diamond Jubilee Cake

You. Yes you are gawping at my crown cake. This golden sponge of a crown was a last minute crazy idea that took most of the night. I've seen a few crown cakes made from sugar paste, and they look great - but they don't make me want to grab it from someones head to eat it. That's right. I am wearing my crown cake, which looks a bit like a spiky golden smarties hat. 

♬ 'Born In The U.K' by Badly Drawn Boy

Every time I listen to the above album, I get a sense of proudness about being raised on British soil. Hence why it has been chosen to be played in the kitchen this weekend.

Totally proud of being born in the U.K, and I think the queen is particularly cool. I would like to meet her one day and present a piece of my cherry and almond cake. I bet she is going to have a crazy party this weekend, if anyone knows what's on the menu, leave a comment!

Seriously, this bank holiday is going to be a corker. The streets are going to burst with red, blue and white cakes, and I'm wearing everything to do with the union jack - even a cake.

A small clip of when the idea clambered in the creative cupcake brain:

Basically I made a traditional round sponge cake, refrigerated it then cut the outer circle and used scissors to create the crown effect.

And when the crown was done...

Favourite Song:

ê 'The Time Of Times' 

Have a lovely jub-ilee weekend viewers.xxx

Jenna's Choux Pastries

♬ 'Songs About Jane' by Maroon 5

That's right. It's all about Jenna, Jenna, Jenna.  A few years ago whilst living in a crooked flat above a tattoo parlour I was draining Stereophonics on a daily basis and Jenna was always pottering about to Maroon 5. Since it's her special day I had to get them on while making her birthday treat. Well one of them, the other design is top secret, naughty and not for this blog! 

 I've gone a tad vibrant and childlike with the decoration, well for me a cake has to look fun! Jen loves chocolate eclairs and when I see her later on I will whip up some cream and we will eat gluttonously.

Profiteroles are cute, eclairs are mouth watering, but who says choux pastry has to be piped round or oblong? As long there is enough space inside them to fill up, creating interesting letters, shapes etc could be the next wave of madness! One tip is the pastry doubles massively in size. At first I piped the letters too small, and learnt the burnt crunchy way: not cool. 

Recreate this magic for someone you know, the recipe for eclairs is here. 

▶ Something to note if you want the above effects, instead of using wholemeal flour I used plain flour, and I simply melted chocolate and dipped each letter in once cooled, then decorated.

DONE!

Favourite Songs:

ê 'This Love' 

ê   'She Will Be Loved' 

Mother's Day Cake

An exotic fruit cake that should be on a pedestal, embroidered with royal pink icing, gold and colourful chocolate beans.

♬ 'Spice' by The Spice Girls

This album reminds me of the times my mum would encourage me to stay in: but I never listened and hopped on my bike to discover new shops, to spend all my pocket money. Some things haven't changed! Now you could probably find this album tucked away in a charity shop, because The Saturdays and Little Mix are the new flavours in the teen world. The only song that will put the icing on the cake this mothering Sunday is 'Mama'. I secretly wanted to be Ginger Spice! The dress Geri Halliwell wore at the 1997 BRIT Awards, started my obsession with the union jack - that to this day hasn't expired. 

Mother is an avid fan of the following:

Almond Chocolate

Flower gardens

Shopping for sari's

A good cup of chai

Swarovski Crystal

Fresh and dried fish

Fudge

Babycham

Fruit

Brandy

Putting everything mum loves in a cake would be ideal, unfortunately fish and a pink sari won't digest! From all the above the outcome was fruit cake laced in brandy, glazed cherries, almond essence and the seeds from a cardamom. A glorious combination of flavours that work hand in hand, just like mother and daughter.

This is how it looked when I carved out the heart:

After nibbling on the bits that didn't make the cut, I have to say the cardamom seeds gave the cake a gorgeous kick. 

I have a feeling her heart will melt once seeing and eating this.

Enjoy your weekend.x

This time last year:

⤵ Lamb and Date Curry

Princess Cake

ALL HAIL THE PRINCESS CAKE!

My first attempt turned out pretty well, considering I gave myself a few hours to assemble the girl together. 

Her hair and accessories is something similar to my style, as my hair always looks like I'm going to the gym, I wear bold pretty dresses, combined with quirky jewellery!

Made for Barbie's Pink Party, not officially Barbie's birthday, but a great excuse for a massive play date, and get the kids hyped up after school. Also I told the girls it was Barbie's sister on the cake, I couldn't find a blonde doll!

The little girls loved the cake, because it was pink, had smarties all over it, and she was reaching out to them! 

Everything was pink themed:

Pink ham in sandwiches

Pink bunting

Pink fairy lights

Princess/pink dresses

Each child bought their Barbie.

Red (slightly pink) grapes

Pink icing and sprinkles to decorate fairy cakes, can't find a photo because they got eaten so quickly!

The filling was a rich brown sugary sponge cake, then covered in royal pink icing, edible gold, and pink smarties.

Since this party had a pink theme, I decided to donate a lovely portion of the costs to Cancer Research UK for breast cancer awareness.

I love it, and would do it all over again. Next time she will look even more stunning, with a well planned out dress and accessories.

My creative and inspirational hands are ready for the next project, and most definitely a cake decorating course.

xx