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.

Vanilla Cupcakes with Strawberry Icing and Chocolate Cupcakes

Happy Valentine's Day!

Happy Valentines Day to all my readers :) hope you all get lots of lovely treats and yummy chocs from your special someone.

I am not planning on doing much for Valentines Day this year. Last year as it was our first Valentines Day together we went all out on the presents...but this year we have just paid for our first holiday abroad together so are putting all of our money towards that instead..plus its our official 1 year anniversary next month so we have chosen to celebrate that instead.

We were going to go out for a romantic meal on saturday night to celebrate Valentines but in the end decided we were too poor to! We ended up making curry and naan breads at home and washing it all down with red wine. It was definitely the right decision to stay in...the food was luuurvely!

For a good few weeks I have been planning on making Valentines cupcakes. I couldn't make up my mind which sort to do so in the end I made two batches. The first was vanilla cupcakes topped with candy floss pink butter cream which was strawberry flavoured and then fondant red and pink hearts to decorate. The second batch was chocolate cupcakes with chocolate butter cream and a glittery pink sugar rose to decorate.

I was unsure how the strawberry flavoured butter cream would turn out..having never used flavourings before and only being able to get my hands on supermarket brand flavouring at the last minute, I was pleasantly surprised. The strawberry butter cream combined with the vanilla sponge made a nice change to just plain vanilla butter cream.

I felt a bit let down with my chocolate cupcakes...I have made the recipe before from the Primrose Bakery book and loved it but this time it just didnt turn out the same way as before and for some reason it seemed to spread side ways rather than rise and my cupcakes looked a bit of an odd shape.

Nevermind though... I think with the decorations they do look very cute!

Chocolate Orange Cake

I hope everyone had a really lovely Christmas! Karl and I packed our bags and headed down South to spend Christmas with my parents. I had promised my Mum I would make a cake to have as dessert on Christmas Eve. Originally I was going to make a big chocolate cake and ice it properly and make some models for the top...but after the problems I had last time I really didn't need the hassle right before travelling!

In the end I decided to make a Chocolate Orange Cake. This is one of my favourite recipes to make and I'm sure I made it last year for my Mum as well but I jazzed it up a bit this year.

The recipe is out of an old asda magazine that my friend passed onto me. I don't normally like chocolate and orange but for some reason love this cake. The cake is nice and chocolatey and although you can taste the orange its not over powering. The texture of the cake looks like its going to be very heavy but is actually very moist and light. Its also wheat free!

Chocolate and Orange Cake

100g butter

150g plain chocolate

150g ground almonds

finely grated zest of 2 oranges
2tbsp freshly squeezed orange juice

6 large eggs, seperated

100g caster sugar

3tbsp cocoa powder

Preheat the oven to 160C/140C fan/Gas 3. Greased a 23cm round deep cake tin with butter and line the base.

Break the chocolate into squares and put in a bowl with the butter. Stand the bowl over a pan of simmering water and leave until the chocolate and butter have melted. Remove from the pan and set aside for 5 minutes to cool slightly.

Stir in the ground almonds, orange zest and juice and the egg yolks.

Whisk the egg whites until stiff. Add 1tbsp caster sugar and whisk until stiff again. Repeat with the rest of the sugar, whisking after each addition.

Add a quarter of the whisked egg whites to the chocolate mixture and fold in. Then fold in the rest.

Turn into a prepared cake tin and bake for 35-40 mins. Leave to cool in the tin for 15 minutes then turn out on a wire rack to finish cooking. Serve dusted with cocoa powder.

I decorated mine with a little bit of chocolate orange butter cream round the edge of the cake and piped onto the top and then made some sparkly holly leaves out of sugar paste.

It you have a go at making this cake, please be careful when removing the cake from the tin...its so soft and very easy to break!

Sorry for the poor quality of pics...I took them with my new ipod and can't quite get to grips with the touch screen!

Chocolate and Berry Puddings

Sadly, a few months ago my lovely Gran passed away. She did leave me some money, however. Although I did want to save some of the money, I decided I wanted to buy something special that I could keep and use and remember my Gran by. After much thought and deliberation I decided on buying some products from the Le Creuset range of cookware. My Gran had always been into cooking and baking and I knew she would approve of this purchase and I knew it would be something that I would enjoy using over and over again in my kitchen.

I have always adored Le Creuset and on many an occasion have stopped to gaze over it in my local Debenhams. There were so many different pots and pans to choose from in so many beautiful colours. In the end I went for a cast iron casserole dish, a large pie dish and 4 ramekins in the gorgeous volcanic orange colour.

I found this recipe in the Waitrose magazine a few months ago and thought at the time that this would be the first recipe I'd make to go in my new little ramekins. This recipe was so simple to make and hardly took me anytime at all. The pudding rose perfectly and I loved the combination of the chocolate pudding with the raspberries at the bottom. My Gran would have loved these little puddings too...she always was a chocaholic!!

Chocolate and Berry Puddings

45g butter plus extra for greasing

120g frozen summer fruits (I used all raspberries)

150g plain chocolate, broken into small pieces

75g caster sugar

2 eggs, seperated

1/2 tsp vanilla essence

2 tbsp icing sugar, optional

Preheat oven to 200c

Butter the sides of 4 x 175ml ramekins, divide the berries between them.

Melt the chocolate with the butter in a bowl over a pan of water.

Whisk the sugar and egg yolks with an electric whisk until light and creamy, then stir in the vanilla.

In another bowl whisk the egg whites into soft peaks.

Fold the chocolate mixture into the whisked egg yolks, then fold in the egg whites with a large metal spoon.

Spoon the mixture into the ramekins and bake on a baking sheet for 12-14 minutes until risen but still slightly wobbly. Dust with icing sugar.

(I spread the recipe over the 3 ramekins as mine were of a slightly larger size than the recipe called for. Having now made this recipe I think it would probably work just as well with 4 of my ramekins!)

I really wanted to get a picture of the inside of the puddings and as I ate 2 out of the 3 puddings there was every opportunity to do this. But for some reason I'd tuck into the pudding and completely forget about taking a picture until it was too late and I was on the last spoonful..sorry!

Mars Bar Cupcakes

Last minute this weekend I decided I would bake some cupcakes. I've been wanting to try making Mars Bar Cupcakes for ages. I don't particularly like Mars Bars but I thought in cupcake form I would like them much better...and I did....these cupcakes are seriously yum!

I didn't actually have a recipe for these cupcakes. They are made up of a basic chocolate cupcake recipe with a chunk of Mars Bar baked into the centre. I then topped them with chocolate butter cream, caramel sauce, another chunk of Mars Bar and chocolate curls.

I so wanted home made caramel/toffee sauce on the top of these cupcakes and I set about making it using the recipe from the Primrose Bakery Cupcake. Toffee sauce just wasn't to be this weekend though. I made the recipe 4 times in total and used nearly a whole packet of sugar and every time it turned out wrong! Either I accidently boiled it too long and it turned back to sugar, or it was too runny or it was all grainy like sand..eugh...I don't know what was going wrong but it was a total disappointment and Karl was sent out on a mission at half 4 on Sunday to Tesco to find a decent toffee sauce! He succeeded and the cakes got coated in Tesco Finest Toffee Sauce. A bit of a cheat but tastes very good anyway!

White Chocolate and Raspberry Cupcakes

As promised I have finally used a recipe out of a book other than the Hummingbird Bakery book...hooray! This recipe is courtesy of the Primrose Bakery Book...another favourite of mine!

It was Karl's Mum's birthday this weekend and we were heading round for Sunday Roast. I couldn't resist taking some lovely cupcakes with me. After much deliberation I went for the White Chocolate and Raspberry Cupcakes from the above book. Karl had no idea what sort of cupcakes his Mum would like so as a change to plain old vanilla and chocolate I thought I'd try white chocolate instead mixed with the summery flavour of raspberry...yum!

I decided to make these cakes on the morning that we were going round...probably not a good idea. My thoughts were that if I made them on the morning then they would be all lovely and fresh for Karl's Mum. Possibly not the best idea when I hadn't made the recipe before.

Up I got at half 7 on Sunday morning...yes yes I know...utter madness! But it was all in the name of yummy cupcakes! The actual cupcake recipe was easy to make and all went to plan. However, the icing/butter cream was a different story! By the time I had made the cupcakes and let them cool time was getting on a bit and I still had to make the icing, ice the cupcakes and get changed out of my baking clothes, into something half decent and do my hair and make up...argghh!

The icing/butter cream was made from vanilla butter cream with double cream and melted white chocolate mixed in. Now in the picture in the book it made it look like the icing was of quite a stiff consistency so I had it in my head I was going to pipe the icing onto the cakes as I normally do and they'd look all pretty. However after adding all the chocolate and cream to the butter cream there was no way this stuff was gonna pipe (I did try...but it kinda just went straight through the piping bag leaving a mess on my work top..argghh!) So at half 10 on saturday morning I start panicking...wondering what on earth to do. In the end I put the icing in the fridge to see if that would help...unfortunately in the short amount of time I had left it didn't. I ended up having to just spread the icing on the tops of the cake and put fresh raspberries on top.

I was very disappointed and when Karl came wandering sleepily through to the kitchen having just woken up he was met with an upset and stressed out girlfriend. On the positive side though he did get cupcakes for breakfast so I guess that made up for it! He kept telling me they were good and tasted lovely and his mum would love them etc etc but I had just got this picture in my head of what they would look like and well they didn't look a thing like it.

After much persuasion I did end up taking them round to Karl's Mum's. Earlier on in the week we had taken a trip to Sainsburys who have just improved their home baking range. I managed to buy some very cute cupcake boxes so I popped 4 of the cupcakes in one of these pretty boxes and took them round. She seemed impressed and I got a text from her today saying she had had one and she had loved it. Maybe they weren't so bad after all!

I think maybe the icing would have hardened up eventually in the fridge so it could have been piped onto the cake, as by the time we got back from Karl's mum's the icing was rock solid on the cakes we had kept for ourselves...on the downside the cakes had also suffered a bit from being kept in the fridge. They definitely need removing from the fridge 10-15 mins before eating.

All in all a bit disappointing for me...although everyone else seemed to like them. Maybe if I had had a little more time to perfect them I would have been happier...the actual cupcake sponge was lovely with raspberry jam mixed into the sponge mix and also popped into the cupcake after baking too, although for me I'd have to work on improving the icing. At least they look cute in the little box though...

P.S I am in a major rush to get to yoga so haven't got time to type the recipe out. I'm sure alot of you keen bakers have the Primrose Bakery book anyway. For those that don't..I can always send it you xx

Banana and Chocolate Cupcakes

I realised last week that I hadn't baked a batch of cupcakes in some time and I was missing it. It also turns out that Karl's work mates were also missing my sweet cupcake shaped treats... apparently requests had been put in.

I really tried so hard to use a recipe from a book other than the Hummingbird Bakery one..but as I started to flick through my recipes books I ended up deciding on this recipe to get me back into the swing of cupcake baking. I promise promise promise I will have a change next baking session and use a recipe from elsewhere!

These cupcakes were seriously scrummy...the mixture had cinnamon and ginger added to it which you could really taste and really made a change to plain old banana cupcakes. And anything with chocolate butter cream is a winner in my book!

Recipe:

120g plain flour

140g caster sugar

1 tablespoon baking powder (i think it may have meant 1 tea spoon...i added a teaspoon and a half!)

1 teaspoon ground cinnamon

1 teaspoon ground ginger
pinch of salt

80g unsalted butter

120ml whole milk

2 eggs

120g peeled banana

40g dark chocolate, made into shavings

Preheat the oven to 170C

Put the flour, sugar, baking powder, cinnamon, ginger, salt and butter in a bowl and beat with an electric whisk on a slow speed until you get a sandy consistancy and everything is combined.

Slowly pour the milk into the flour mixture, beating well until all ingredients are well mixed. Add the eggs and beat well.

Stir in the mashed banana until evenly dispersed

Spoon the mixture into paper cases until 2/3's full and bake in th preheated oven for about 20 minutes or until light golden and the sponge bounces back when touched. Leave to cool.

When the cupcakes are cook decorate with chocolate frosting and chocolate shavings.

Chocolate Chip Cookies

I wanted a lazy Sunday this weekend and what better recipe to make to nibble on whilst chilling out watching a film than chocolate chip cookies. I mean...who doesn't love home made cookies? There is nothing quite like the aroma of freshly baked cookies wafting through your home for bringing back all those childhood memories.

I remember as a child my mum would always, without fail use the recipe from her Be-ro flour cook book but for a change and because I absolutely love this book (if you hadn't noticed!) I decided to try the Hummingbird Bakery recipe.

I have baked some cookies from this book before (before I started blogging my baking adventures) and they were just how a cookie should be...crisp on the outside and chewy and soft on the inside. Well, this recipe did not disappoint either...again it produced the perfect cookie consistancy and lots of them! The recipe said it made around 24....I ended up with a lot more than this!

To make....

225g unsalted butter
350g soft light brown sugar
2 eggs
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
400g plain flour
1/2 teaspoon salt
2 1/2 teaspoon bicarbonate of soda
225g dark chocolate

baking trays lined with grease proof paper

Preheat the overn to 170C
Cream the butter and sugar until light and fluffy
Add the eggs one at a time mixing well and scaraping any unmixed ingredients from the side of the bowl.
Mix in the vanilla extract
Add the flour, salt and bicarbonate of soda and mix until a smooth dough is formed. Stir in the chopped chocolate until evenly dispersed.
Arranged 6 equal amounts of cookie dough on each prepared baking tray (I must have small baking trays cos I found I could only make 3 cookies at a time)
Bake in the preheated over for about 10 mins or until golden brown around the edges and quite flat.
Leave the cookies to cool slightly before turning out onto a wire cooling rack to cool completely.

Chocolate Brownies

I wanted something simple to make this friday evening and so I settled on chocolate brownies from the Hummingbird bakery cookbook. I've never made brownies before but they are always a popular choice for me for dessert when I eat out... and so the time had come for me to attempt to make some of my own.

The recipe was relatively simple:

200g dark choc

175g unsalted butter

325g caster sugar

130g plain flour

3 eggs

a 33 x 23 x 5 cm baking tray lined with greaseproof paper

Preheat oven to 170C.

Put chocolate and butter in a heat proof bowl over a saucepan of simmering water. Leave until melted and smooth.

Remove from heat. Add the sugar and stir well until well incorporated.

Add the flour and stir until well incorporated (I had a taste at this stage and well, I could have eaten the whole bowl of mixture even before it went in the oven!!)

Finally stir in the eggs and mix until thick and smooth.

Pour the mixture into the prepared baking tray and bake in the preheated over for about 30-35 minutes or until flaky on the top but still soft in the centre. Be careful not to over cook otherwise the edges become hard and crunchy.

Leave to cool and dust with icing sugar.

I also added pecans to my recipe as I do like a few nuts dotted throughout. The texture of the brownies was perfect - really moist in the centre..just how a brownie should be! I have tried one this morning and I think they are actually better now they have cooled down!

I was going to pretty them up as the book suggests and dust with icing sugar...but they smelt so good when they came out the oven and I had just bought a tub of lovely Kelly's cornish clotted cream ice cream (yum) sooooo I just couldnt resist serving my brownies hot with lashings of ice cream.

What a lovely treat for a friday night...