Halloween!

There was no way Halloween could go by without a special cake being made! I made a Devils food cake (as I've posted before, it's such an easy recipe and very tasty). This time, I added icing models I had made.

There's not really a lot more to say about this cake - the cake has been mentioned plenty of times already in other posts. It was yummy, as usual, and the little models were great fun to make :).

Sugar primroses

I have just realised how long ago I last wrote a blog post. I have a backlog of baking to post about now! I may as well get started anyway!

At the cake icing class I've been going to we learned to make sugar primroses. These took a very long time - each flower head needs to be cut out using a primrose cutter, frilled using a cocktail stick (this is when you roll a cocktail stick along the edges of the petals to thin them and make them a bit frilly), bent into shape and attached to a wire. The flowers need to be left to dry (this doesn't take very long if they are made using flower paste). Once you have lots of flowers, each has to be wrapped with florist tape and then eventually all taped together. So they took a long time, but for a first attempt I was pretty pleased with the result.

I then made a Madeira cake so that I could ice it and use the flowers as decoration. Madeira cake is good for making decorative cakes as it is less crumbly than an ordinary sponge cake. It also has a good vanilla flavour which goes well with the jam and icing used to finish it. Unfortunately I can't remember exactly which recipe I used! I googled Madeira cake and after comparing several, just decided to use one of them! They all seemed very similar so I basically chose the one that had the right quantity for the size of tin which I had.

I sliced the cake in half horizontally and put jam in between the two halves, then covered the outside of the cake in jam as well. I coloured some fondant icing pale yellow and used this to cover the cake. The lines are made by a little wheel tool so they are dotted rather than just lines. I added some glitter to add something extra then added the flowers. This cake (as with a lot of the cakes I make) was taken to work. The flowers, however, I have saved!

Time for a steady hand...

I recently started a cake icing class and last week we had to bring royal icing so that we could learn to pipe with it. We made piping bags from greaseproof paper and then were given a choice of designs to pipe. I chose Hello Kitty, partly because she's cute but mostly because it looked like the easiest option. I'm not one to turn down a challenge, but having never tried piping before, and having a slightly shaky hand whenever it should really stay still, even the easiest option was going to be a challenge!

We put the designs on top of a tile or cake board then put a piece of microwavable plastic on top (microwavable meaning it is food safe and thicker than cling film, rather than that it was going to go in the microwave). After that it was time to pipe away. The first job is to pipe the outline and then let it dry. After that, the icing should be watered down slightly and then you 'flood' the different sections of the design, still using the piping bag.

It took a long time. However, the results were better than anticipated - my hand stayed just steady enough. It was difficult, but not so difficult or disastrous that I won't try it again. And somehow it even survived the rain on the way to the car. Now I just have to decide what to do with it...

Epic fail!

As I mentioned in my last post, I was going to bake some cakes to take to work once I got back from my course. Well, I did do this - I baked a carrot cake with cream cheese frosting, and a Devil's food cake. The carrot cake went to work and went down a storm. However, my other half (for whom I'd baked the Devil's food cake to take to work) decided he would actually rather keep the chocolate cake at home and eat it himself. Which he did. Although I did get a few pieces so I can't complain!

Anyway, the cakes turned out wonderfully. The epic fail? I forgot to take photos. So this doesn't really make a very interesting blog post - what good is a cake blog post without a picture of the cakes?! So I apologise. However, I have baked since, so watch this space!

Devil's food cake

There has been an extreme lack of blogging recently on my part, partly due to a huge lack of time (and a little laziness) but also due to the extreme lack of baking (also due to a huge lack of time and a little laziness). I'm not really sure why, but things have been really busy. I have been doing more sport which I guess has taken up a few extra evenings, so that might explain it. Anyhow, I'm back, and whilst there might not be too much baking going on in the next couple of weeks (for reasons I'll explain later) I have more baking plans now!

So a while back, I made a Devil's food cake. I had found the recipe previously and wanted to give it a go, and at some point I found I had a bit of spare time and felt that a cake would go down quite nicely. The recipe is one of Nigella's and can be found here. It is basically rich, chocolately goodness and is perfect for when chocolate cravings hit.

The cake is lovely and moist, possibly due to the amount of water added to the cake batter. The nice thing is that the ganache is quite bitter, not at all sweet, and so whilst the cake is rich, it is not one of those which leaves you feeling sick at the end (which is what often happens to me if I eat chocolate cake from a coffee shop chain). I only made 2/3 of the quantity of ganache in the recipe, mostly because I only had 200g chocolate, not 300g. However, I found that this was more than enough, and is possibly also another reason that this cake left me feeling satisfied, not ill.

A few weeks later I made another one of these cakes but decorated it more this time. It was a belated birthday celebration cake for my Mum and so I felt that an extra touch was necessary. These stars can be bought in supermarkets or cake supplies shops and against the dark chocolate they look really effective.

I'll definitely be baking another one of these soon, my other half has requested one to take to work!

Due to not having much time this week and to me leaving on Sunday for a course for work, I probably won't get any baking done until the weekend after next. However, after that I have plans!

Chocolate brownies - maybe even better than my (previous) favourites!

So again, this may not look like much... but this chocolate brownie recipe was amazing! It actually included an icing, but after letting the brownie cool I decided that the icing would probably spoil it. I think it was the right decision as well, as the brownie was delicious just as it was.

The sponge (can you call it 'sponge' if it's brownie?) was gooey and soft, but not too dense or overly rich. This brownie had just the right consistency - gooey and sticky, but a little cakey. The main difference recipe-wise between this and my previous favourite brownies is that this one did not have any chocolate in the batter (just cocoa powder and chocolate chips) and used only caster sugar, instead of a mix of granulated and muscovado sugars. This means that these brownies are less fudgy, but I liked them better as they were less dense and little more cakey (all the time retaining the stickiness and gooey-ness of brownies). The white and milk chocolate chips were the perfect extra.

In the picture above the brownie doesn't look much; as with the last cake I was taking it to work so didn't want to cut it until I got there. The taste more than makes up for it though!

Lemon drizzle cake

Unfortunately this cake is not much to look at, but that's essentially because it is a traybake rather than a cake in the traditional sense. In any case, the taste makes up for its boring look!

I decided to make a lemon drizzle cake as it's my friend Eley's birthday tomorrow, and cake at work on your birthday is a must. I also made some chocolate brownies (new recipe, post to follow!) as Laura who we also work with celebrates her birthday this weekend too, and I wanted to make sure there was enough to go around. I knew Eley likes lemon drizzle cake but as it turned out, this is also Laura's favourite cake so it was a good choice all round!

The recipe was one I'd found in Good Food magazine a while ago and kept as it looked a) simple and b) yummy. My judgement was right on both counts! The recipe is a simple cake, full of lemon zest for flavour (butter, sugar, SR flour, milk, baking powder, eggs and lemon zest) and to make it even tastier, a lemon juice/sugar syrup is poured over the cake whilst it's still warm. It makes the cake moist and gives it a slightly crunchy topping.

This is a definite keeper - yummy, light cake (and dare I say it, a nice change from chocolate!).