Shabby Chic Hampton 7 piece Cake Set Review and a Giveaway

5 more sleeps to Christmas! I can't believe that it's the last weekend before Christmas, where has the time gone? Luckily there's always time for cake and tea in my house and it's a real welcome for this busy weekend. I've made a classic Victoria sponge as it's J's favourite cake and we do love a good Victoria Sponge. Fortunately I have a beautiful Shabby Chic Hampton 7 Piece Cake Set to help me serve the cake. It's a traditional design cutlery gift set from House of Fraser. It's beautifully packaged in a gift box and the set includes 1 cake slice and 6 cake forks. It's made of stainless steel and it's also dishwasher safe. I really like the presentation of this set and it would make a great engagement or wedding gift. It's also perfect for tea parties at home or just a treat for yourself :) 

If you like the look of this set then here's your chance to win one for yourself. House of Fraser have kindly sponsored 1 Shabby Chic Hampton 7 Piece Cake Set for one of my lucky readers.


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Entry is via the rafflecopter widget below.

You have to answer the question which is a mandatory option to unlock further entries to the giveway.
This giveaway is open to all readers over 18 with a postal address in the UK.
Closing date is 1st January 2015 at 12 midnight GMT.
The winner will be chosen at random via Rafflecopter and will be contacted by email. If no response is received within 48 hours, another winner will be selected at random.
I am running this competition on behalf of House of Fraser who will be sending out the prize directly. By entering you are giving me permission to pass your email address on to them so they can contact you for delivery of the prize.
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a Rafflecopter giveaway

Disclaimer: I was sent a Shabby Chic Hampton 7 Piece Cake set by House of Fraser for review purposes. A positive review was not required and all opinions expressed are my own. This is not a sponsored post. 

Summer Berry Cake

I baked this cake last week for a birthday at work. It was so good I made the same cake again at the weekend and it's all gone! It's a vanilla sponge cake filled with fresh berries topped with creme fraiche and more fresh berries. The birthday girl wanted something with fresh fruit so I loaded the cake with lots of it! I used fresh strawberries, blueberries, raspberries and blackberries.  The sponge was really light and moist and the vanilla flavour really lifts the fruits. Everyone enjoyed the creme fraiche topping which was flavoured with ground vanilla beans as it was lighter than cream and helped cut through the sweetness of the cake and fruit. 

As fresh berries are still in season, I'm entering this to Simple and in Season hosted this month by Elizabeth from Elizabeth's Kitchen Diary for Ren from RenBehan.com.

I'm also sending this to Celebration Cakes & Bakes hosted by Mummy Makes Cakes as this was made for a birthday celebration and it's perfect for any celebration. 

And to Bake of the Week run by Casa Costello which is guest hosted by Kirsty from Hijacked By Twins. 

And to Recipe of the Week hosted by Emily from A Mummy Too.

I think it will also fit in with with month's Tea Time Treats hosted by Karen from Lavender and Lovage and co hosted by Jane from Hedgecombers. The theme this month is Picnic Food and Picnic Treats. When I think of picnics, I think of summer and this cake definitely screams summer! 

 adding vanilla bean paste and vanilla extract 

 toss the berries in flour 

 press a few fresh berries on top

 ground vanilla beans in the creme fraiche

 fresh from the oven - you can clearly see the berries

 add a layer or sweetened vanilla creme fraiche

 top with fresh summer berries

 add a sprinkling of vanilla dusting sugar 

 I love how you can still see the berries inside the sponge 

I used my usual weigh your egg method for the sponge - use the same weight for your butter, sugar and flour

For the cake

4 large eggs = 266g in weight 

266g butter

266g caster sugar

266g self raising flour

1 teaspoon vanilla bean paste

2 teaspoons vanilla extract

60mls milk

366g fresh summer berries tossed in 2 tablespoons of flour

For the topping

300mls creme fraiche

ground vanilla beans

2 tablespoons icing sugar

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

selection of fresh berries

• Preheat the oven to 180C. 
• Cream the butter and sugar until pale and fluffy. 
• Add in the eggs, one at at time, mixing well between each addition. 
• Add in the vanilla bean paste and vanilla extract.
• Add in the flour and then the milk. 
• Toss the berries in 2 tablespoons of flour and stir them into the cake mixture by hand. Set aside a small handful of berries. 
• Pour the batter into a 23cm cake tin. Press the reserved berries into the cake before baking. 
• Bake for approximately 45 - 50 minutes or until it's golden brown and a skewer inserted into the centre comes out clean. It's a large cake so may even need an hour to cook!
• Allow the cake to cool completely before decorating. 
• Use a vanilla bean grinder to grind vanilla beans into the creme fraiche. 
• Add in 2 tablespoons of icing sugar and 1 teaspoon of vanilla extract.
• Spread the creme fraiche on top of the cake.
• Pile lots of fresh berries on top. 
• Sprinkle with vanilla dusting sugar or plain icing sugar. 

Mini Victoria Sponge

Today is J's birthday. I made a special birthday brunch which I will blog about soon. I asked him what his favourite cake is and he said Victoria Sponge. We are going away for the weekend to celebrate so I decided to make a mini Victoria sponge as it's only the 2 of us eating it. I used the tried and tested method of weighing the eggs in their shells and adding in the same weight in flour, butter and sugar. I also added in a some vanilla bean paste. As I was pressed for time, I sandwiched the sponge with clotted cream (his favourite) and fresh strawberries. It made for a very impressive mini cake as I managed to get 4 layers out of 2 cakes. The cake was absolutely delicious and J is very happy :) 

Happy Birthday J!! 

I'm sending this to the Biscuit Barrel Challenge hosted by Laura from I'd Much Rather Bake Than... The theme this month is favourites which is perfect as this is J's favourite cake and it's one of my all time favourites too as you just can't beat a good Victoria Sponge. It's a mini cake so it should fit in a large biscuit barrel!

I'm also sending it to Treat Petite hosted by Kat from the Baking Explorer and Stuart from Cakeyboi. The theme this month is Who will you bake for? in conjunction with World Baking Day on 18th May 2014. Well I've baked this specially for J's birthday so I hope it will count! It's a very large individual portion but it's definitely a mini cake.

Finally to Made with Love Mondays hosted by Javelin Warrior. The cake is made from scratch and with lots of love!

 My new mini springform tin 

 I used my food processor to make the cake batter 

 Looks good! 

 ready to bake 

 fresh from the oven

 place some clotted cream on one layer 

 add a layer of fresh strawberries 

 continue until you have a 4 layer cake! 

 I got some cute smiley face candles 

 we had to cut it 2 layers at a time as it's too tall! 

2 eggs - mine weighed 135g

135g butter

135g self raising flour

135g caster sugar

1 teaspoon vanilla bean paste

clotted cream

fresh strawberries

2 x mini springform tin - 12cm or 4.5inches in diameter 

• Preheat oven to 180C
• Place the eggs, butter, sugar, flour and vanilla bean paste in a food processor and mix until you get a smooth batter.
• Divide into 2 mini springform tins (or bake one at a time if you only have 1 tin like me) and bake for about 18-22 minutes until a skewer inserted into the centre comes out clean. 
• Allow to cool completely before decorating.
• Divide each cake into 2 even layers and add clotted cream and fresh strawberries between each layer. 

Chocolate Guinness Cake

This is a belated birthday post for a colleague of mine who celebrated a special birthday recently.  She invited me to a lovely BBQ and I made Nigella's Chocolate Guinness Cake to bring out the Irish in her :) I have made these previously in a cupcake form with the addition of baileys ganache and buttercream but this cake is on a whole other level. It's really moist and soft and absolutely delicious with the cream cheese frosting on top. A definite hit at the party I think! 

I also made a Victoria sponge cake for her actual birthday. It was made very late at night and some of my writing icing tubes had dried hence the rather wobbly writing. I don't think anyone took too much notice as the cake disappeared very quickly. 

HAPPY BIRTHDAY SIOBHAN!! 

For the cake

250ml guinness

250g butter

75 cocoa powder

400g caster sugar

142mls sour cream

2 eggs

1 tablespoon vanilla extract

275g plain flour

2.5 teaspoon bicarbonate of soda

For the topping

300g cream cheese

150g icing sugar

125mls double or whipping cream

Method

• Preheat oven to 180C.
• Butter and line a 23cm springform tin. 
• Pour Guinness into a large wide saucepan, add butter - in spoons or slices - and heat until the butter's melted, at which time you should whisk in the cocoa and sugar. 
• Beat the sour cream with the eggs and vanilla and the pour into the brown, buttery, beery pan and finally whisk in the flour and bicarbonate of soda. 
• Pour the cake batter into the prepared tin and bake for about 45 minutes to an hour.  
• Leave to cool completely in the tin on a cooling rack as it is quite a damp cake. 
• To make the topping, lightly whip the cream cheese until smooth.
• Sieve over the icing sugar and then beat them both together. 
• Add the cream and beat again until it makes a spreadable consistency. 
• Ice the top of the black cake so it resembles the frothy top of Guinness. 

Recipe for the sponge cake can be found here 

Victoria Sponge

As mentioned in my previous post, I also made a plain and simple victoria sponge for the Macmillan World's Biggest Coffee Morning . I decided that you can't go far wrong with a simple sponge and fortunately it was very well received. I used the recipe from Mary Berry and it turned out really well. Just mix everything together and voila.... it rose better than my previous attempt, I'll be using this recipe from now on :) 

ready to go in the oven 

adding jam 

dust with icing sugar

at the coffee morning 

For the cake 

225g butter

225g caster sugar

4 eggs

225g self-raising flour

2 teaspoons baking powder

For the filling and topping

about 4 tablespoons raspberry or strawberry jam

a little caster sugar

• Preheat the oven to 180C
• Grease and base line 2 x 20cm sandwich tins with greaseproof paper.
• Measure the ingredients into a large bowl and beat well until thoroughly blended. 
• Divide the mixture evenly between the tins and level out. 
• Bake in the pre-heated oven for about 25 minutes or until well risen and the tops of the cakes spring back when lightly pressed with a finger.
• Leave to cool in the tins for a few moments then turn out, peel off the paper and finish cooling on a wire rack.
• When completely cold, sandwich the cakes together with the jam. 
• Sprinkle with caster sugar to serve. 

Victoria Sponge Cake

I do like a good sponge cake and nothing beats a classic Victoria sponge cake especially in summer. I love the combination of strawberries and cream. The sponge was light and moist and the strawberries were delightfully sweet. This is a really simple recipe which works for me everytime. 

The Victoria sponge cake was named after Queen Victoria, who favoured a slice of the sponge cake with her afternoon tea.  It is often referred to simply as sponge cake.  A traditional Victoria sponge consists of jam sandwiched between two sponge cakes.  

The cake disappeared so quickly and I was told there wasn't enough to go round! Will just have to make more next time :) 

sponge cake straight from the oven

freshly whipped cream 

spreading jam on the cake

add cream and strawberries 

victoria sponge cake 

Cake 

175g butter, softened 

175g self raising flour

1 teaspoon baking powder

175g golden caster sugar

3 eggs

Filling

raspberry jam

600ml double cream, whipped

Fresh strawberries

Icing sugar for dusting

• Preheat the oven to 180C 
• Grease and line the bases of 2 round sandwich tins.
• Sift the flour and baking powder into a bowl and add the butter, sugar and eggs. 
• Beat well until smooth (I used my trusty KitchenAid) 
• Divide the mixture evenly between the prepared tins and smooth the surfaces. (I weigh my tins so the cakes are evenly sized)
• Bake in the preheated oven for 25-30 minutes or until well risen and golden brown. 
• Leave to cool in the tins for 5 minutes before transferring to a wire rack to cool completely. 
• Sandwich the cakes together with the jam, whipped cream and straberries. 
• Sprinkle with icing sugar on top and serve.