Strawberries and Cream Cupcakes

Sponge Mix

200g stork margarine 
200g caster sugar
200g self raising flour
1 tsp baking paper
1 tsp strawberry flavoring 
3 eggs
35ml milk 

Icing 

400g icing sugar
50g butter 
125g soft cheese (like philadelphia but super markets normally do an own brand that works just as well) 
1tsp strawberry flavoring 
pink food dye (optional) 
Mixed berry coolie (optional) 

to finish (also optional) 3 strawberries sliced 

How Too

I have a kenwood food mixer which makes my baking time much more fun but it is not nessacery for most of the recipes. 
Cream together the stork and sugar then add the strawberry flavoring, gradually sift in the flour and baking powder whist mixing in the eggs then add the milk. This mixture is good for 12-24 cupcakes depending on what size your after. split the mixture into cupcake cases and bake in a pre-heated oven at 150/ gasmark 2 for 15-20 minuets. 
I recommend that you cool the cakes on a wire rack, it is important to let them cool before you decorate. 

mixing the frosting - mix together the butter and sugar (dont forget to sift the icing sugar) when you have a dry crumby mixture add the cream cheese in one go and stir in, mix until smooth and creamy, add the flavoring, optional food dye can be added here and stirred in until even. if you are after a two tone effect take half the mixture away before mixing in the food dye. Add to piping bag and frost cupcakes. for those with out piping bags you can spoon the mixture on the cake or take a clear sandwich bag or food bag fill and cut a diagonal across one of the bottom corners about 1cm in. Top with a slice of strawberry and a splash of mixed berry coolie 

Giant Goth Cakes 

 Having fun with my giant cup cake mold  Friends and family have loved this cake and the possibility for creative design are endless. (Above-  pink frosted giant cupcake with edible daisy's. Vanilla sponge and white chocolate fondant panels) 

 Above- Vanilla sponge with blue fondant paneling, chocolate butter cream and fudge chunk decoration finished with blue sprinkles

Above - Chocolate sponge with red, white and blue fondant paneling, vanilla butter cream finished with red white and blue edible beads 

Afternoon Tea, Coffee and Amaretto Cake

Coffee and Amaretto Cake.

Ingredients

3 Eggs
Unsalted Butter 115g
Caster Sugar 50g
Packed Brown Sugar 220g
Plain Flour 290g
Coco Powder 65g
Baking Powder 1 and 1/2 tsp
Coffee (I mixed up a jug with instant coffee and boiling water) 180ml
Amaretto 180ml

Frosting
Unsalted Butter 100g
Icing Sugar 450g
Coco Powder 3 Table spoons
Coffee 3 Table Spoons
Amaretto 3 Table Spoons (or if your like me a hefty splash)

Method
Cream butter and sugars together, In a separate bowl mix together flour coco and baking powder Sift this dry mix and stir  the eggs in gradually to the butter and sugar. Then stir in the coffee and Amaretto this mixture is quite a wet one so don't be concerned that it doesn't look like a conventional cake mix, but do ensure the ingredients are well combined. I baked this mixture in 2 tins at gas mark 3 for 25-35 mins. Cake should bounce back and if you stick test the skewer should be clean.

While cake is cooling, you can mix the frosting, I have been a bit blender happy lately but the wooden spoon method  is fine. Cream together the butter and icing sugar and coco powder (don't be scared to just get your hands in there and really mush it up) then stir in the coffee and amaretto. You may need more than the 3 table spoons of each but before adding more liquid make sure ingredients are well combined, mixture should be smooth enough to spread but dry enough to stick to the back of a spoon. (I blended the frosting and then got the electric whisk out and kicked its ass)

Assembly
Stick the two cake halves together using frosting and then frost the top and sides (super easy)

I am not a coffee fan, but have had excellent feed back for this cake, having been told it is soft and moist and great for afternoon tea.

Chocolate chocolate cheese cake 

Ingredients 

175g digestive biscuits 

50g unsalted butter

100g dark chocolate

200g milk chocolate

200g mascarpone 

100g Philadelphia

200g greek yogurt 

100g caster sugar

Prepare the base

Crumble up the biscuits (I used a blender but a sandwich bag and a rolling pin works) melt the butter (30 seconds in the microwave on low is fine) mix these together and then press firmly in to your cheesecake tin/dish with a metal spoon. Stick it in the fridge to cool.

The gooey bit

Mix together the Greek yogurt and caster sugar add the mascarpone and Philadelphia stir well. Melt the milk chocolate. The best method for this is to break up the chocolate in a bowl and heat over a saucepan of water  don't get water in the chocolate don't let the bowl  touch the water in the sauce pan and try not to burn it, stir continuously then add to the yogurt cheese mix and mix in well.

 Take the base out the fridge and smooth the cheese topping over the biscuit.

  Now melt the dark chocolate once melted drizzle this over the top of the cheese mix swirling into a pattern of your choice then chill for a couple of hours and enjoy. 

CADBURY GANASH CUPCAKES

Ingredients

170g unsalted butter

170g soft brown sugar

110g self raising flour

85g chocolate powder (I used Cadbury's Bournville coco powder) 

3 eggs

hot water

Ganash

140g chocolate (I used Cadbury's Dairymilk and if you buy a big bar there is enough to make the frosting and pinch a bit to) 

150ml double cream

Method 

Cream together the butter and sugar, in a separate bowl measure out the flour and coco powder. Add the flour/coco mixture to the butter/sugar mixture slowly with the egg  a table spoon or two at a time stirring well  in between adding. This is a super easy sponge mixture to make it is very quick, add a little hot (not boiling) water to moisten depending how stick and wet you like your cake i would recommend  3 table spoons. You can add chocolate chips if you want that extra chocolate but it really doesn't need it. Also you can add orange juice instead of water or camp coffee or even peppermint for that something a little bit different. 

Put finished mixture into cupcake cases and tin then bake for 20-30 mins at 180 or gas mark 4

Stab with sharp pointy thing to make sure they are cooked all the way through and leave to cool (covering for cooling helps keep in the moisture) 

Whilst your waiting for your cupcakes to cool you can make the frosting break up the chocolate and melt in a bowl over a saucepan with just a little water in. (you don't want the water in the pan to touch the bowl) stir continuously and don't over heat (you want to melt not cook burnt chocolate is bad) once you have a smooth mixture you can take the chocolate off the heat and stir in the cream. DON'T PANIC the mixture will go a bit funny this is because you have added cold cream to hot chocolate just keep stirring the frosting will go creamy and smooth. This mixture is pretty much good to use but I like to put mine in the fridge for an hour or so to firm it back up a little (this makes it easier to use with a pipping bag or if your decorating a bigger cake it stays where you put it) For the cupcakes I used disposable pipping bags working from the center of the cake and spiraled outwards then finished with gold decorating sugar and edible silver balls. 

Special Note - Happy Birthday Sirlene. 

Cake 4 CADS

Cake for CADS is a motivational tool used to encourage staff members to complete tasks.
The Staff member that completed the most tasks won a cake made by me.
The first Cake for CADS winner requested a chocolate cake.... here's what I came up with.




Four layer chocolate Caramel cake.

It is a monster, at least 1000 cals per slice and should most defiantly be shared for special occasion

For Vanilla and Chocolate sponge

225g very soft butter , plus extra for greasing
225g golden caster sugar
175g self-raising flour
85g ground almonds
1 tsp baking powder
3 eggs
150ml pot natural yohgurt
1 tsp vanilla extract
5 tbsp cocoa powder

For Caramel and Caramel-choc sponge

225g very soft butter , plus extra for greasing
175g light muscovado sugar
50g dark muscovado sugar
175g self-raising flour
85g ground almonds
1 tsp baking powder
3 eggs
150ml pot natural yohgurt
1 tsp vanilla extract
1 tbsp coco powder

To Assemble

397g can caramel (stocked near the condensed milk in stores)
140g dark chocolate

140g milk chocolate

300ml double cream

Instructions 

Heat oven to 180C/160C fan/gas 4. Grease and line bases of 2 x 20cm sandwich tins with baking parchment.
1. For the Vanilla & chocolate sponges, mix all the ingredients, apart from the cocoa. Scrape half the mix into a second bowl and add the cocoa. Scrape into the tins and bake for 20-25 mins until a skewer poked in comes out clean.
2.Repeat step 1 for the Caramel & caramel-choc sponges, again leaving cocoa out of the first mixing, then splitting the mix in half and adding the cocoa into one batch. Cook as above.
3.While sponges are cooling, melt the dark and milk chocolate together in a bowl over a pan of barely simmering water. Remove from the heat, stir in the cream and cool or chill until spreadable.
4.When the sponges are cool, spread a third of the caramel over the Vanilla sponge and top with the Caramel sponge. Spread over another third of the caramel and top with the Caramel-choc sponge, then the final third of caramel and top with the Chocolate sponge (don't panic if you mix up the layers, the cake will still look great when you cut in). Spread the chocolate icing over the whole cake to serve. It will keep in a cool place in an airtight container for up to 3 days.
Special Mention (recipe taken from BBC GoodFood website)

To finish I also added shaved chocolate and a couple of edible silver balls to make it look extra pretty. This is a great cake and I hope to make it again soon, I was concerned that adding yoghurt to a sponge mix would be a disaster as I've never heard of this before but it creates an awesome texture and if you keep to the tin measurements bakes perfectly. 

 

Mom Birthday

Oreo and Blueberry Cheese Cake

Recipe
240 g OREO Original Cookies
40 g butter, melted
350 g Philadelphia Original
100 g caster sugar
2 tsp vanilla extract
250 ml Greek yogurt
1 sachet (11g) powdered gelatine
A few fresh Blue Berries
A few extra OREO cookies, broken into pieces



Place 160g of the Oreos in a food processor and process to a fine crumb.(or crush with a rolling pin inside a sandwich bag)  Add the butter and mix together. Press the mixture into the base of an 18cm spring form tin. (or oven proof flan dish) Roughly chop the remaining 80g cookies and set aside.
Put 3 tablespoons of water in a small basin and sprinkle on the gelatine. Stand the basin over a saucepan of hot water and heat gently until dissolved. (don't worry if it looks gross)
Beat together the Philly, sugar and vanilla until smooth. Then fold in the yogurt. Next stir in the gelatine.
Stir the set aside cookies through the filling then pour over the biscuit base. Refrigerate for 3 hours or until set.
Serve decorated with the fruit and biscuit pieces.

I added blueberries into the cream mix I highly recommend you DON'T do this.
This recipe has been slighly modified but pretty much comes straight from the Philadelphia website http://www.philadelphia.co.uk
They use Strawberries but as the cake was for my mummy and she has a strawberry allergy I made a fruit swap bet this would work well with banana also.

Happy 17th Birthday Emily

Vanilla Cup Cakes

Recipe

225g olive oil spread (Bertolli)

225g Self raising Flour

225g Caster sugar

4 eggs

1tsp Vanilla Extract

Cream together sugar and spread, add vanilla extract. Sift in flour and stir in eggs gradually until mixture is smooth and creamy. Bake in cake cases for 20-25 mins at 180C 

Easy Peesy recipe to follow, decorate as you please, I used a basic butter cream and fondant shapes.

Butter cream Recipe (olive oil spread alternative)

100g icing sugar 

100g olive oil spread

1tsp vanilla extract

Stir ingredients together until smooth and creamy (If you happen to over cream your mixture you can stick it in the fridge for half hour or so)

I used pre made fondant available in most super markets or at your local cake craft shop, and cookie cutters for the exact shapes. Also added edible silver balls for a little bit of sparkle. 

(side note) It is cool to use unsalted butter for this recipe, I however am very lazy and didn't want to walk to the shop so went with the what have I got in the fridge option. 

Christmas Men

 This Recipe is also covered in gingerbread men with a kick

but.... as it's Christmas I thought I'd go through it again with a few photos

As I made a lot of these this year for friends and family I doubled the original recipe
Recipe Ingredients 


200 g unsalted butter
200 g caster sugar
250 ml treacle
2 egg yolks
500 g sifted plain flour
1 tsp salt
1 tsp baking powder
1 tsp bicarbonate of soda
1 tsp cinnamon
2 tsps ground cloves
2 tsps ground ginger
1 tsp nutmeg

Destructions 


Make sure all your ingredients are at room temperature. Then cream the butter and sugar together

stir in the egg and treacle

combine the dry ingredients in a separate bowl

sift the dry ingredients into the butter mix

As the mixture gets thicker and forms a dough you may want to get your hands in there

your finished dough should be easy to mould in to a large ball, chill this in the fridge for at least an hour

when the dough has been chilled it is ready to cut, pre-heat the oven to 180 degrees C or gas mark 4.
line several trays with baking paper. Roll out the dough to about 1 cm thick and cut out you cookies with your favourite cutter.  (You may wish to break the dough into quarters to do this  as you may not have enough shelf space in your oven do bake all the cookies at the same time)

place on lined baking trays and place in oven for about 8 minuets. 

cookies will still be a little soft when they come out of the oven when cool enough to handle they can be moved to a wire rack to cool completely

once cooled I store my cookies in a tin for a day, ginger bread always tastes better the day after baking

now they are ready to decorate, be creative I used chocolate chips and white icing but most sweets can be made into gingerbread men buttons. Super markets are filled with various coloured ready to pipe icing.

As I give away a lot of my ginger bread men as gifts I like to wrap them up in shear fabric and tie the top with ribbon the make lovely  parcels for neighbours and unexpected Christmas guests.

White chocolate and coconut loaf

375 g Plain Flour
2 tsp baking powder
1 tsp bicarbonate of soda
1/2 tsp salt
220 g caster sugar
150 g unsalted butter
3 eggs
40 g coconut
100 g white chocolate

Cream butter and sugar together beat in eggs, in a separate bowl measure out flour and add baking powder, bicarbonate of soda and salt, sift this mixture into the butter, sugar and eggs then add coconut and white chocolate. Super easy to make i then poured this mixture in to a loaf baking tin lined with baking paper and baked for 1 hour at 175 degrees C.

There was a little mixture left over which i put in muffin cases and baked at 175 degrees C  for 20 minuets.
I thought it was a little dry and next time i make this i may add a little hot water to the mixture but once cooled  it carves like a fresh loaf and is lovely with a smidgen of jam.   

Ginger loaf

It's been a while since i posted any new recipes, due to the volume of birthday cakes ive been making ive been concentrating a lot on decoration and oh what fun we've had with all that fondant. Most of these cakes have been a basic vanilla sponge which you can find the recipe for in Spotty Sponge
How ever i finally invited my mum over for dinner in my new house this weekend and with the evenings getting darker and colder, i think it's quite nice to find those cakes that have a little extra flavour and go well with custard.
Enjoy Ginger Loaf hot or cold, with or with out custard, on your own or with friends and family.

Ginger Loaf 


100 g Caster sugar 
125 g unsalted butter
1 large egg
225 ml Treacle (this is about half a tin, sticking with my table spoon measurement here i went for 5 spoons but if you want a bit more of a kick feel free to put in a little more)
300 g plain flour
1 1/2 tsp bicarbonate of soda
1tsp ground cinnamon
1 tsp ground ginger
1/2 tsp ground cloves ( as with the treacle this is a rough measurement guide and you can alter cinnamon ginger and clovers to taste) 
1/2 tsp table salt
250 ml hot water  


Cream butter and sugar together, stir in egg, stir in treacle.
In a separate bowl measure out flour, add bicarbonate of soda, cinnamon, ginger, cloves and salt  Slowly in small amount sift the flour mixture in to the wet mix. (we do this slowly so the mixture can absorb the flour evenly, unless you have a high quality electric mixer it which case you can pretty much just wack it all straight in.)

Only the water to add, again we do this slowly to ensure even mixture, do not worry if the mix seems much to wet, the cake we are making is quite moist and sticky. You are now ready to transfer the mix to a loaf tin, in a standard size loaf tin the mix will come nearly to the rim. bake for an hour at 180 deg C / gas mark 4 

Goth girl kitchen, where all the magic happens.

My kitchen is the centre of the home, I am very lucky to have such a big open space to work in and my collection of baking paraphernalia grows larger every week.

Kitchen island courtesy of Ikea

  

Recipe booked stand much need please Santa. 

Halloween

For Birthdays in late October its fun to have a Halloween theme 

This is two basic vanilla sponges with butter cream and jam centre covered with bright green fondant with black fondant detail. The spider legs are made from mint chocolate matchmakers broken and the melted back together at an angle. 

Baby bump cake

Made for a Baby Shower, i had great fun with this cake. It was baked in a silicone bowl, if you havent baked in silicone before you need to set your oven i little bit lower and bake for a lot longer as the material isnt as conductive at conventional baking tins, and you don't want to end up with a runny centre and burnt crust. I baked the "bust" part of this cake in muffin tins and then layed all three cakes on a cake board before coating in frosting and fondant. For a cheeky twist i added a couple of sugar coated chocolates for belly button and nipples. There are plenty of you tube videos for making this cake so i wont go into too much detail but it really is worth the trouble.

Giant cup cake (1st attempt)

I had a silicone giant cup cake baking tin for my birthday, Above is a picture of my first attempt. I wasnt overly happy with the cake as a whole but haven't been deterred and will be having another go. The tips i have for you so far are 

• if like me you don't use boxed baking mixes the instructions on the giant cupcake mould box are useless. So you will  need a six egg cake mix to fill this mould.
• Use a very firm frosting for the top because there's a lot of it when it starts to fall you will get a landslide effect. 
• If you decide it might be fun to make a fake paper case out of chocolate fondant, Don't it's not.
• There is no room on this cake for novelty birthday candles, although some type of topper works very well like a cherry or sweets. 

layered fondant Birthday cake

This is a cake i made for a friend, that was to be revealed as a surprise at a birthday meal. (thank you Nando's staff for not dropping it, i know it was heavy) The cake it's self is 2 hexagon shaped vanilla sponges with vanilla butter cream centre and vanilla butter cream under the fondant. The fondant is attached in layers. Light green all over, followed by the dark green triangles, followed by the yellow strip at the bottom followed by the flowers. I didnt have an actual design in my head when i started this cake, it just kind of evolved by a need to play with my new flower cutting set. Remember when sticking fondant to fondant you only need a small amount of water.