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. 

XL Doughnut Birthday Cake

I'm hosting AlphaBakes this month and the letter is 'X' which is quite tricky. Fortunately, it arrived in Dec so we are accepting any Xmas related bakes this month - does not have to have 'Xmas' in the title to qualify. Suelle from Mainly Baking left a comment on my blog "If X can replace the sound ex- at the beginning of a word, then we can make Xtra special, Xceedingly good bakes. Not to mention Xciting!! ;)" That gave me the idea of this XL Doughnut Cake.

As there was a recent birthday at work, I decided it would make a good birthday cake and everyone was really impressed with the cake. It's really simple to bake as the mould does all the hard work ie making it look really impressive! I made my favourite vanilla sponge and filled it with raspberry jam, lots of whipped cream, pink glaze icing and sprinkles.

As mentioned, I'm entering this to AlphaBakes hosted by myself this month and co hosted by Caroline from Caroline Makes. The letter this month is X.

 I bought this from Discount UK for only £3.99 which is a real bargain as it has an insert so you can add fillings and a decorating scribbler.

 sugar, flour, cornflour, homemade vanilla extract, soured cream, vanilla bean paste, butter 

 ready to go in the oven 

 looks like a giant doughtnut! 

 jam and cream for the filling 

 I used the insert to create a recess in one of the cakes... 

 Filled with raspberry jam 

 and a generous layer of cream as I wanted it to be visible from the side 

 place other cake on top 

 a doughnut cake 

 pink glaze icing and sprinkles 

 love the icing dripping down the sides 

 yum! 

For the cake 

125g flour + 1 tablespoon cornflour (original recipe states 1/2 cup plus 2 tablespoons cake flour + 1/2cup plain flour )
1.5 teaspoon baking powder
1/4 teaspoon salt
113g butter
225g sugar
1.5 teaspoon vanilla extract
1/2 teaspoon vanilla bean paste
1/2 cup sour cream
2 eggs
1 eggs yolk

For the filling

300mls double cream

raspberry jam

For the icing

125g icing sugar

1-2 tablespoons warm water

red food colouring

sprinkles

• Preheat the oven to 180C. 
• Sift the flours, baking powder and salt into a medium bowl.
• In the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with a paddle attachment, beat together butter, sugar, vanilla extract and vanilla bean paste until light and fluffy, about 2 minutes.
• In a measuring jug, whisk together sour cream, eggs and egg yolk until smotth.
• Pour half of the wet ingredients into the butter-sugar mixture and beat until smooth.
• Reduce mixer speed to low and stir in half of the flour mixture.
• Repeat with the remaining dry and wet ingredients. 
• Turn off the mixer and fold batter by hand several times to make sure it is well mixed. 
• Divide the batter between the cake tins evenly. 
• Bake until golden brown and a toothpick inserted into the centre comes out clean, about 22-25 minutes. 
• Allow to cool in the pan for 5 minutes before removing to a wire rack to cool completely.
• Whip double cream for a few minutes until thickened and stiff. Do not overwhip or the cream will split.
• Fill cake with raspberry jam followed by a layer of cream.
• To make the icing, sift icing sugar in a bowl. Add water a little at a time until it's the right consistency. Add in a little food colouring if desired.
• Drizzle the icing over the top of the cake using a spoon and finish with sprinkles.

Smiley Face Jam Cookies

I got these super cute cookie cutters as a gift recently. I was really pleased as I'd been debating about buying them for myself. I've used them twice now and I'm sure I'll get a lot more use out of them! I used a simple sugar cookie recipe and sandwiched the cookies with jam. I thought of making a buttercream filling as well but ran out of time. 

The cookie cutters are really easy to use and make perfect smiley faces :) My tips are to chill the cooking dough before rolling and cutting then chilling them again before baking to prevent spreading of cookies when baking. I didn't chill the first round and the cookies expanded quite a bit and filled up the gaps of the face. It only needs 10-15 minutes in the fridge. 

 I had fun with the cookie cutters. I used an offset spatula to lift the cookies on to the baking tray. 

 ready to go in the oven 

 boxed and ready to go 

Sugar cookies

125g butter

125g caster sugar

1 egg

2-4 teaspoon vanilla extract

250g plain flour

• Preheat the oven to 175C.
• Line 2 baking sheets with parchment paper.
• Cream butter and sugar until pale and fluffy.
• Add in the egg and vanilla extract.
• Finally stir in flour and mix well. 
• Knead dough until smooth, wrap in cling film and chill for about 20-30 minutes. 
• Roll out dough on a floured surface and cut using cookie cutters. 
• Place on a baking tray and chill briefly for 10-15 minutes.
• Bake for 8-10 minutes or until golden brown.
• Allow to cool completely. 
• Sandwich the cookies with jam or a filling of your choice. 

Dog Birthday Cake

Hi everyone! I'm back in London safe and sound. I have been meaning to update my blog for days now but have not gotten round to it. Sorry! It's been quite hectic since my return - catching up with friends, dealing with admin and more importantly looking for a new place to stay. I found a lovely new place and will be moving in this weekend so will be offline until I can get myself set up. Normal blogging services will resume after a few weeks. 

This is a special cake that I made for my brother's birthday a few weeks ago. He loves dogs so the obvious choice was a dog cake. The family pet dog is a silky terrier but my cake decorating skills won't stretch that far so this is what I came up with. Glad he loved the cake! 

 family pet dog

I have to thank Daisy from Never Too Sweet who suggested I look at Not Quite Nigella's blog for inspiration. I  had actually bookmarked the recipe but forgot about it when I was deciding how to make a dog cake. If you used a bit of imagination you could say there is a resemblance between the dog and the cake :) 

I'm submitting this to AlphaBakes a monthly blogging challenge hosted on alternate months by Caroline from Caroline Makes and myself.  The letter this month is "D" for Dog cake. 

 easy swiss roll recipe from my aunt - thank you 

 perfect roll - phew! :)

 adding cupcakes for the head, tail and ears. 

 cover in frosting 

 use a grass tip to pipe "fur" over the dog 

For the face you will need 2 giant chocolate buttons, 3 M&M's and a piece of strawberry rollup cut to shape.   I made some additional decorations using a candy mould I found - bone, food bowl, dog house and  puppy. I also coloured dessicated coconut green to resemble grass. 

 cross section of the swiss roll 

For the swiss roll

4 large eggs, separated

60g self raising flour

55g caster sugar 

1/4 cup milk

1/4 cup sunflower oil 

1/4 teaspoon cream of tartar

• Preheat the oven to 180C. 
• Beat egg whites with cream of tartar until stiff.
• In a separate bowl, mix the egg yolks, sugar, milk, oil and flour until smooth. 
• Fold into the egg white mixture and spread onto a swiss roll tin. 
• Bake for 14 minutes.
• Spread jam or cream and roll into a swiss roll. 

For the peanut butter cupcakes
Makes 12 cupcakes

75g butter
130g smooth peanut butter
190g dark brown sugar
2 large eggs
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
120g plain flour, sifted
1 teaspoon baking powder
pinch of salt
60ml semi-skimmed milk

• Preheat the oven to 160C.
• Line a 12-hole muffin tray with cupcake cases. 
• Cream the butter, peanut butter and sugar until well blended. 
• Add the eggs, one at a time and then stir in the vanilla extract. 
• Combine the flour, salt and baking powder in a separate bowl.
• Add 1/3 of the flour to the creamed mixture and beat well.
• Pour 1/3 of the milk and beat again.
• Repeat until all the flour and milk have been added. 
• Spoon the mixture into the cupcake cases - I used a large ice cream scoop. 
• Bake for approximately 20 minutes or until a skewer inserted into the centre comes out clean. 

Plum Cupcakes

It's time for yet another Random Recipe challenge set by Dom from Belleau Kitchen. This month the theme is store cupboard finds where we are asked to reach into our cupboards and pull out the first thing you touch then pick a cookbook, turn to the index and find a recipe which has the item in your hand. So with trepidation I opened my overflowing cupboard and reached far into the back and came up with this.... 

 a bottle of homemade plum jam that my colleague gave me quite possibly hoping for a baked item from it. I've now left that job but I did use it in a cake as she probably intended! :) 

I knew that I wanted to make cake with it so I looked at my bookshelf and pulled out my trusted Hummingbird Bakery Cookbook. I turned to the index and what do you know on page 111 a recipe for plum cupcakes. Score! 

It's a fairly simple recipe with buttermilk and plum jam which creates a very moist cake. It has jam baked in the cake and sandwiched in the middle of the cake. It tasted very much of plums which incidentally is not my favourite fruit. I thought the cakes were a little too sweet and dense but they are definitely worth a try if you have some plum jam to spare. 

I'm also entering this to Tea Time Treats hosted by Kate from What Kate Baked and co hosted by Karen from Lavender and Lovage. The theme this month is jams, chutneys, curds and conserves. The plum jam is homemade (although not by me!) and I used the whole jar for the cake and icing so I hope this entry qualifies!

I'm also sending this to Made with love Mondays hosted by Javelin Warrior as the ingredients are homemade jam and fresh plums to decorate. No artificial flavours or colours here!

 plum jam, brown sugar, 4 egg yolks and buttermilk 

 fill the cake 1/3 full 

 add a teaspoon or so of jam 

 then top with another 1/3 of batter 

 fresh from the oven 

 decorate with slices of fresh plum

 you can see the jammy layer in between 

Recipe from hummingbird Bakery Cake Days

Makes 18 cupcakes

For the cupcakes 

120g butter

340g plain flour

1/2 teaspoon baking powder

1/2 teaspoon salt

4 large egg yolks

300g light brown sugar (I reduced the amount of sugar as it seemed too much)

180ml buttermilk

270g plum jam 

For the frosting

400g icing sugar (again I reduced the amount)

160g butter

50ml milk

50g plum jam (original states 70g but I didnt have enough)

Fresh plum slices to decorate

• Preheat the oven to 190C.
• Mix the butter, flour, baking powder and salt until it resembles coarse crumbs.
• In a large bowl, whisk the egg yolks, brown sugar, buttermilk and 120g of the plum jam until well combined. 
• Add half to the dry ingredients and mix well. 
• Add the remaining half and continue mixing.
• Fill each cupcake case 1/3 full of batter. 
• Place 1 teaspoon of plum jam followed by another 1/3 of batter. 
• Bake for approximately 20 minutes or until a skewer inserted into the centre comes out clean.
• Allow to cool completely on a wire rack.
• Make the frosting by whisking the icing sugar with butter.
• Pour the milk in slowly and continue whisking until light and fluffy. 
• Finally, stir in the plum jam.
• Spread the frosting on top of your cooled cupcakes and decorate with slices of fresh plum.