Happy Blogoversary and Happy New Year

Happy New Year everyone and Happy 4th Birthday to my blog! I really can't believe that it's been 4 years since I started this blog. It has gone from strength to strength and I have all of you to thank. I've met so many fantastic bloggers through this blog - some on their blogs, some via twitter and some in person! A year ago I wrote that 2012 was a great year for my blog and I planned to take a slower pace in 2013 due to other commitments. I've certainly blogged less, a total of 113 posts compared to 166 in 2012 but it didn't feel like I baked any less! I managed to expand my repertoire a little and venture outside my comfort zone mainly in baking pastry and trying out a few unusual flavour combinations and ingredients. 

I'm not sure yet what direction my blog will take in 2014 but I do know that I definitely want to keep it going. I guess we'll all have to wait and see :) 

Right no more long soppy messages or reflections, on to the cake! This was actually a cake I made for a colleague who told her husband she wanted to be treated 'like a princess for a day" So it was decided (by my team!) that I would bake a big pink cake and I chose to make this giant vanilla raspberry cupcake cake. It has fresh raspberries in the batter and raspberry jam in the middle. It's decorated with white chocolate fingers, piped buttercream roses, wafer butterflies and coloured sugar pearls and some edible glitter. The finishing touch is the pink satin ribbon. Everyone was really impressed with the presentation of the cake and it tasted heavenly. Light and soft sponge with lovely tart raspberries. A perfect celebration for a birthday - for my colleague and for my dear blog. It also looks much better than my previous attempt so I'm doubly pleased with myself. 

 I love fresh raspberries! I know it's not seasonal but it's just so pretty and tasty too. 

 ready to go in the oven 

 looking good 

 Fill with raspberry jam 

 spread buttercream around the cake and arrange white chocolate fingers around the base 

 ready to be decorated 

 view from the top 

 can you see the edible glitter? 

This recipe makes 1 giant cupcake and 6 small cupcakes - be careful not to overfill the giant cupcake mould! 

For the cake
375g butter
375g sugar
6 eggs
375g self raising flour
1 teaspoon vanilla extract

1 teaspoon vanilla bean paste
150g fresh raspberries

For the icing
300g icing sugar
120g butter
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
2-4 tablespoons of milk
pink gel paste (optional)

For the filling and decoration

Raspberry jam

White chocolate fingers (about 1.5 boxes) 

Sprinkles

Edible glitter

Pink satin ribbon

• Preheat the oven to 180C.
• Cream butter and sugar until pale and fluffy.
• Add the eggs one at a time and mix well between each addition.
• Mix in the flour and vanilla extract.
• Finally stir in the fresh raspberries.
• Fill the cupcake mould until 2/3 full - do not overfill!
• Bake for approximately 40-45 minutes or until a skewer inserted into the centre comes out clean.
• Allow to cool completely.
• Sandwich the top and bottom with raspberry jam.
• Make the icing by beating all the ingredients together until smooth. 
• Decorate as shown above. 

Butterfly Cake

I made this a few weeks ago for a colleague's leaving do. We went out for dinner and drinks the night before so I had to make something quick and simple.  I knew I wanted to make a cake but wouldn't have time to make a fancy layer cake so I decided to jazz up a sponge cake with jam filling to look like a butterfly. 

I used to make these quite often pre-blog which is why I'm only sharing this with you now. Since starting my blog, I've tried many new recipes and tend to make something different each time so I can blog about it. This cake has brought back memories of my early baking days and I will try to share a few other tried and tested recipes with you on my blog in the coming months. 

 leftover blackcurrant jam from we should cocoa challenge last month 

 fill the cake with jam 

 spread buttercream frosting on top 

 

 add a little glitz and glamour 

 slice the cake in half and turn them around as shown to create the butterfly wings 

 add a giant twix bar in the middle 

For the sponge

250g butter

250g caster sugar

250g self raising flour

3 eggs

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

For the buttercream

100g butter

200g icing sugar

few drops of food colouring 

• Preheat the oven to 170C.
• Cream the butter and sugar until pale and fluffy.
• Add the eggs, one at a time, mixing well after each addition.
• Add in the vanilla extract and flour.
• Divide evenly between 2 round sandwich tins.
• Bake for approximately 15-18 minutes or until it's golden brown and a skewer inserted into the middle comes out clean.
• Allow to cool completely before assembling.
• Place 1 cake on a plate. Spread jam evenly over the top.
• Sandwich with second cake.
• To make the buttercream icing, mix all the ingredients until smooth.
• Spread the icing on top of the cake and add sprinkles.
• Slice the cake in half and turn both halves around as shown.
• Add a twix bar in the middle.