Chocolate Sweet Shop Cake

A really quick post today as I'm currently on holidays and will be travelling for the next few weeks. I made this for a colleague's son's birthday. Looking back, I've made his birthday cake for the past 3 years (Bin Weevils, Trash Pack, Football Pinata Cake) and they've always been a huge success.  He told his mum that he didn't want a shop bought cake, only a Ros cake! Well how could I disappoint? He initially asked for a playstation 4 cake but my cake decorating skills do not extend that far and I was really pressed for time. Instead I made this chocolate cake and decorated it with Kit Kat fingers, Maltesers, Jelly beans, Smarties and Skittles. He was absolutely delighted with the cake and wrote me a really sweet thank you note which you can see below. 

The cake and buttercream is the same as the Chocolate Easter Cake I made earlier this year and the decorations are as simple as they look here. A short blog holiday for now, see you back in mid-May!

Toffee Crisp Cookies

These cookies are really simple to make yet extremely addictive and delicious. They are really crispy and crunchy and I love the melted toffee crisp inside. I made 2 batches of these as they were just so delicious and we couldn't stop eating them straight from the oven. J and I both took a batch to work and they disappeared in no time!

I'm sending these to Treat Petite hosted by Stuart from Cakeyboi and Kat from The Baking Explorer. The theme this month is favourite sweets, chocolates and biscuits which was the inspiration for this bake. I love toffee crisp bars and used to eat a lot of it when I was younger. I decided to bake it into a cookie and was really pleased with the result.

I'm also sending it to AlphaBakes hosted by Caroline from Caroline Makes and myself on alternate months. The letter this month is 'T' for Toffee Crisp.

 chopped up toffee crisp bars  

 adding them to the cookie batter 

 light, crispy, toffee cookies 

170g butter
80g white sugar
80g brown sugar
1/2 tablespoon vanilla extract
1 egg
250g flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
8 bars of Toffee Crisp, chopped

• Preheat oven to 180C. 
• Line baking sheets with parchment paper.
• Beat the butter, sugars, egg and vanilla extract together until light and fluffy.
• Stir in flour and baking powder.
• Finally add the chopped Toffee Crisp bars. 
• I used an ice cream scoop to place cookie dough evenly spaced on a baking sheet. Alternatively drop heaped tablespoonfuls of dough on to the baking sheet.
• Bake for 11-13 minutes or until light brown (centre will still be soft).
• Allow to cool on the sheet for a few minutes before transferring to a wire rack to cool completely. 

AlphaBakes 'C' Roundup

Hi all, hope everyone had a good Easter. Sorry for the late roundup but it's just been a little crazy lately. Plus Easter was really early this year and we extended the deadline to accout for Easter. Thank you to everyone who entered this month, a great selection of entries with lots of variety of C's including a savoury entry. Do click on the links to visit the entries. If you haven't already seen what letter we are using in April then do head on over to Caroline's blog to find out. I will be back hosting AlphaBakes in May which will be the last letter of round two. See you all then :) 

1. Chocolate Cupcakes by Jacqueline, Caroline's mum.

2. Butterscotch Cow Cookies by Caroline from Caroline Makes

3. Clementine and Almond cake (gluten free) by Clare, Caroline's sister

4. Chocolate flower shape bundt cake by Jacqueline

5. Coconut sponge with jam in the middle by Jacqueline

6. Chocolate hot cross buns (gluten free) by Kate from The Gluten Free Alchemist 

7. Lemon and Mascarpone Mother's Day Cake with Painted Flowers by Caroline from Caroline Makes

8. Creme Egg & Malteser Chocolate Tiffin Bundt Cake by Karen from Lavender and Lovage

9. Banana, sultana, walnut and cinnamon hot cross buns by Dom from Belleau Kitchen

10. Apple and Cinnamon Caramel Cake by Corina from Searching for Spice

11. Chocolate Coconut Cannellini Cake by Choclette from Tin and Thyme

12. Easter Creme Egg Mousse Cake - gluten free by Kate from The Gluten Free Alchemist 

13. Lemon, Coconut and Cherry Loaf Cake (Dairy Free) by Suelle from Mainly Baking

14. Peanut Magic Bars (gluten free) by Kate from The Gluten Free Alchemist 

15. Chocolate Meringue Easter Nests by Kat from The Baking Explorer

16. Chocolate Easter Cake by Ros from The More Than Occasional Baker

17. Creme Egg Double Chocolate Muffins by Sarah from Plate To Pen 

18. Raw Cacao Easter Cupcakes by Elizabeth from Elizabeth;s Kitchen Diary 

19. Chocolate Easter Cupcakes by Caroline from Caroline Makes

20. Easter Caramel Meringue Nests by Laura from How to Cook Good Food

21. Broken Easter Egg Brownies by Dom from Belleau Kitchen 

22. Homemade Hand-Decorated Easter Eggs by Caroline from Caroline Makes

23. Easy One Tray Roast Chicken by Charlotte from Charlotte's Lively Kitchen 

24. Floating Anti-Gravity Mini Egg White Chocolate and Lemon Cake by Caroline from Caroline Makes

25. Apple and Calvados Terrine by Jean from Baking in Franglais

26. Vegan Friendly Giant Jaffa Cake by Shaheen from Allotment2Kitchen 

27. Marzipan, Cherry & Orange Blossom Sweet Soda Bread by Charlotte from Charlotte's Lively Kitchen 

That's the end of the C round up. Till next time....