Back to Baking

As you all might have guessed, I haven't been doing alot of baking recently! The last time I baked was September and then after that I got a bit poorly - just my silly immune playing up. I was gutted I missed out on christmas baking - I had so many ideas for different cupcakes and wanted to make mince pies etc etc...roll on next year!!

I had Friday booked off work so I thought this was the perfect opportunity to get back into baking. My friend Jenny has been going through a rough time and as I was going round on Friday night what better way to try and cheer someone up than with cake...perfect!

I went for something really simple to ease me back into baking - a vanilla layer cake. I know I've blogged about this before but as this was my first time back in the kitchen baking I thought I'd get it on my blog! I was paranoid the whole time the cake was in the oven hoping it would turn out ok and it did!! Hooray! Heres a pic to prove it:

Mother's Day Cake

I know its super early to be making a Mother's Day Cake but I don't live very close to my Mum so when she visited a few weekends ago I had to be super organised with a present and cake.

Back in September I made her a lemon layer cake out of the Primrose Bakery Cook book which she loved so this time I made the Vanilla Layer Cake for her.

She was very impressed with the recipe and said it was very moist and had a good flavour to it. It took her and my Dad a week to eat it and apparently even a week on it still tasted nice.

Sorry about the rubbish pics! I seem to be writing that alot recently on here..but I tend to always make my cakes the day that I need them so they are fresh but my time keeping is so crap that normally I only just finish the cake/s in time and am literally rushing out the door when I'm trying to take pictures.

Chocolate Box Cake

This is the final cake that I have had to make for class. It is a chocolate box cake - the teacher originally had it in mind for mothers day...however me and Karl tucked into it last night!

I had a few problems with my fondant icing this time. I really don't understand it all at...just when I think I'm getting it and the last cake went so well and then out of the blue I suddenly go back to zero skill level and can't even cover a cake!

The cake board was supposed to be covered in fondant but after many failed attempts at that I gave up and decided I quite liked silver. The lid is made from two 6 inch cake drums covered in pink fondant and decorated. The cake is a 6 inch madeira cake covered in pink fondant. To give it the dip in the centre for the chocolates I used a roll of fondant put around the cake before I iced it.

I decided to experiment with this cake and used a different recipe. I think I have said in previous posts I wasn't a huge fan of the recipe I've used in the past, so decided this time I would try another out of one of my cake decorating books. It was a huuuge improvement - it no longer had that eggy taste I didn't like and was much much softer. I will definitely be using this recipe in the future.

Spring Cake

Well spring has definitely sprung for me! Everywhere I go I'm seeing daffodils and crocus's...I love spring cos it means summer is only just around the corner. Ok ok...so its still rather cold out there but fingers crossed it will start warming up a little soon!

In celebration of spring, the next cake I had to make for class was a spring cake. The teacher showed us various models we could make - sheep and ducks etc but I decided to put a lovely little bunny on my cake. The sponge was madeira with vanilla butter cream and raspberry jam. I really do need to find myself a better cake recipe for this - although this cake was ok, it wasn't anything amazing. I used sugar paste squeezed through a garlic press to give the grass effect and made little flowers and carrots and attached them with edible glue.

This is definitely my best cake yet - the finish on the fondant was lovely and smooth and I am definitely improving at making models. The only thing I really do need to practice at is rolling my fondant out - we cut into this cake and it was about an inch thick! Karl and I love fondant so it wasn't such an issue but I'm not sure other people would be of the same opinion!

Practice makes perfect though!

Sugar Roses

Oooo it has been a long time since I last posted hasn't it?! I just don't know where this month has gone. It'll be Christmas before we know it!

A couple of months ago myself and my lovely friend Pauline signed up to a cake decorating class. It has been something that I've been wanting to learn for a while and as the class was only £25 (what a bargain!) we signed up straight away.

The first few weeks were spent learning how to make roses and how to put them together to display on a cake. I then got to ice a cake with fondant icing - something that I have never done before. Below are the piccies...i am so proud of my cake!!









We are now working on decorating a christmas themed cakes so Im sure i will be posting some more piccies in a few weeks :)

Lemon Layer Cake

My blogging has been terrible recently. I've logged on just now and my last post was the 11th September....aaages ago! There has been good reason for it however...it was my Mum's birthday, Karls birthday (more on that later!), I've been off work, I've been ill and I've been away for a few nights too...so all in all I've been quite a busy girly!

Back to my Mum's birthday though...I had been thinking for awhile about what I could bake my Mum for her birthday and in the end, knowing how much she loves Lemon Cupcakes, I thought I would attempt a Lemon Layer Cake for her.

I used the recipe in the Primrose Bakery book for the cake and butter cream, however I decided it needed something more so I made a batch of Lemon Curd from the Rachel Allen book Bake and put that along with the butter cream in the cake. I have never made Lemon Curd before but the fresh home made version was so much better than any of the stuff I've bought from the supermarket before!

The last few recipes I have attempted from the Primrose Bakery, although weren't huge disasters, didn't quite go to plan, so I was really nervous about making this cake for my mum. I had visions of her cutting into it and it being as solid as a brick or not cooked! Luckily, the recipe worked...the cake rose perfectly and was really moist. The butter cream was sweet and lemony and the lemon curd gave that little extra lemony flavour to the cake. This is a recipe I will most definitely be making again.

Lemon Layer Cake

Makes two 20cm cakes which can be sandwiched together

225g golden caster sugar

225g self raising flour

1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder

25g cornflour

225g unsalted butter at room temperature

4 large eggs

Grated zest and juice of 2 large lemons (otherwise use 3 lemons)

Preheat the over to 170C. Grease and baseline the two tins.

Cream the butter and sugar in a bowl until the mixture is pale and smooth.

Combine the dry ingredients in a seperate bowl.

Add the eggs to the creamed mixture one at a time mixing for a few minutes after each addition, alternating with the dry ingredients, and finally the grated lemon zest and lemon juice. Beat well after each addition but do not over beat.

Divide the mixture evenly between the two tins and bake in the oven for about 25 minutes until raised and golden brown. Remove from the oven and leave to cool for 10 minutes before turning out onto a wire rack.

Once cool, sandwich the layers together with lemon butter cream icing and lemon curd and ice the top with more lemon butter cream.

Lemon Butter Cream

110g unsalted butter

2 tablespoons freshly squeezed lemon juice

Grated zest of 1-2 unwaxed lemons

500g icing sugar

In a large mixing bowl beat the butter, lemon juice, lemon zest and half the icing sugar until smooth. Gradually add the remainder of the icing sugar and beat again until smooth and creamy.

Lemon Curd

75g butter

150g caster sugar

Finely grated zest and juice of 3 lemons

2 eggs

1 egg yolk

Place the butter, sugar, lemon zest and juice in a saucepan and heat very gently until the butter is melted.

Put the eggs and egg yolk in a bowl and beat thoroughly.

Pour the beaten eggs into the melted butter mixture and stir carefully over a low heat until the mixture has thickened and will coat the back of a spoon.

If the heat is too high the mixture will scramble. If this happens quickly push it through a sive.

Remove the pan from the heat and pour into a bowl.