yummeelicious

This week was my long suffering husband’s birthday. He puts up with the up-ended kitchen on a regular basis, and often he doesn’t even get the benefit of the products, since they are usually intended for elsewhere. Also, he’s a Paleo fanatic, so chooses not to indulge in tasty treats, preferring steak to cake (we are like chalk and cheese). After some toying with the idea of a Paleo-friendly cake, for which I had done some extensive research, the idea was shelved by himself. There is no such thing as a strictly Paleo chocolate cake as they are all sweetended with honey or agave nectar which are not permitted ingredients on the Paleo diet. If the cake was not going to be Paleo “sure might as well have a proper cake”.

Since it was going to be a big departure from his normal diet, the cake had to be pretty special. My husband is one of my biggest supporter when it comes to my baking, but at the same time he is my harshest critic (like all good husbands). I tend to play it safe, nothing too dramatic, and he tries to encourage me to do things a little left field and innovative, which I don’t generally have the confidence for. So this week I decided to push the boat out a bit (for me at least). As he had requested chocolate cake I didn’t really want to just do a standard sponge, so back to some internet research.

You know that moment when you have trawled through food blog after food blog and then suddenly the perfect cake just jumps out. Well that is exactly what happened. Salted Caramel Chocolate Fudge Cake! I know I am late to the ‘salted caramel’ party but I am officially a convert. I was shocked at just how simple it is to make too. I followed the recipe from Pickyin.com to the letter and it was one of the most reliable recipes I have ever followed. No guess work or filling in the blanks on my part.

The chocolate sponge was moist and sticky and just melted in the mouth, but my personal highlight was the buttercream. I like buttercream (who doesn’t?) but I am not crazy about it. I would prefer a sponge cake to be filled with fresh cream or lemon curd as I find buttercream too heavy and it takes many cakes. Salted caramel flavouring aside, Swiss meringue buttercream will now be my filling of choice. The extra effort is definitely worth it. The lightness given to the buttercream from the egg whites is just gorgeous and stopped even a cake like this being too heavy. At the same time it stood its ground against 3 layers of the stickiest, yummiest chocolate fudge cake I have ever had.

The cake took alot of time to make in one go but all of the parts can be done separately ahead of time and then some simple assembly and frosting is all that is required. Due to the size of the cake I imagined that some would end up going to waste, however after less than 24 hours after the first slice was cuts, this is what was left of the cake!

My eldest recently turned 4 (yes time does fly and yes I feel old). His current obsession is Superheros, specifically the Avengers. I’m not sure where he picked it up but he definitely has the Superhero bug, so that is what we themed his birthday party on.  The problem he had then was that he couldn’t decide on a favourite between Captain America and Iron-man. So, being a soon to be 4 year old, he had a very logical and practical solution – Make them all! Mad as we are, that is what we did (I drafted my mother into this one). We decided on Captain America for the main cake and made cupcakes of the other superheros (and Ben 10 for good measure).

The cake was a basic vanilla sponge (which I have only recently perfected), filled with raspberry jam and fresh vanilla cream. The top and sides of the cake were covered with the whipped cream also.

Captain America in fairness was by far the simplest design. His shield is literally red, white and blue circles with a star in the centre. The only tools needed were 3 different sized round items to use as cutters and a star cutter. We used a small circle cookie cutter, a breakfast bowl and the cake tin for the largest to ensure it fit on the top of the cake.

Start with the centre circle of the cake in blue. For the blue I coloured white fondant with “Wisteria” colour paste from Squire’s Kitchen, rolled it out and used the smallest circle cutter.

Next, roll out the white fondant and cut with the middle sized circle cutter. Now at this point we had intended to cut out the middle with the smallest cutter so as the blue panel sat into the white. However, the fondant wouldn’t behave and stretched so much when lifted that the cake would have fit in it twice nearly. We decided then to not cut out the centre and have the blue disc sit on top of the white one. As long as you don’t have the fondant rolled too thick, it works perfectly. Place the discs on the centre of the cake.

For the red circle, I coloured the white fondant with “Poppy Red” colour paste from Sugarflair Colours. This was cut out with the cake tin and the medium cutter. To do a full layer of red for both the blue and the white to sit on would have made it to high and not at all shield-like. The red again stretched however as it was the outside circle it was possible to wrap it around the white for the effect. The edges were smoothed off by hand (with wet fingers) and the joins in the fondant smoothed out with smoothing tools.

Roll out some more white and cut out the star shape and place on the blue centre disc, wetting the back slighly so as it sticks. You now have Captain America’s shield.

To complete the cake, decorate the sides with red and blue stars to continue the America star theme.

All that is required then in a big birthday candle, some fireworks and of course Captain America himself!

Check back soon for the other super hero cupcakes….

My (not so little) brother’s birthday was last weekend, and since he has been a avid supporter of my baking over the last couple of years, (he’ll try anything and has given me a number of baking books) it was only right that he finally got one that was just for him. When he is not appreciating my baking, he is playing football or hurling, and has been a member of Trinity Gaels Club since he was about 6. My memories of Graham growing up always have him wearing his Trinity Gaels kit and the blonde floppy hairdo from the 90′s. He’s grown up/gotten old since then! When it came to designing a cake that suited him best, it just had to be his club crest. As club crests go it is not that complicated. I decided to make the crest seperately and then attach to the cake.

First thing to do it find a decent picture of the crest to print out and trace it onto baking parchment. You will need fondant in white, black and red for this one.

Rolling out the white fondant I lay the traced out crest on top and traced around the outline with a blunt sugarcraft modelling tool. Lift the backing parchment and you will have the indent on the fondant ready to be cut out with the tip of a sharp knife. This step was repeated on the white fondant to cut out the hurleys.

For the football, I traced out the outline and also the lines on the ball itself. I cut out the outline of the ball and used a black icing pen to complete the detail. This was by far the trickiest part of the process.

Rolling out the black fondant, I traced out the background and cut as before. The red fondant was traced over for the stripes to ensure they were the correct length and width and cut out as before.

Once you have all the separate components cut out, all that is needed is to assemble the pieces.

Lay the large white background on a flat surface dusted with icing sugar (to ensure it doesn’t stick). Using edible glue paint the back of the black background piece and place as per the design pattern. Next glue on the football and the red stripes.

Lastly lie the hurleys across the red stripes and using the tip of your sharp knife, follow the line around them so as to cut through only the layer of red stripes. Lift the hurleys off and remove the pieces of the red fondant where the hurleys lay. These should lift easily once they are cut through fully. Once all the pieces are removed, paint the back of the hurleys with edible glue and place on the crest. They should now sit flush with the red stripes.

Roll out some more black fondant and using regular alphabet cutters, cut out the team name. Place these at the top of the crest using edible glue.

Once the glue has set, use a damp piece of kitchen paper to gently wipe the crest so as to remove any icing sugar or stray pieces of fondant. This is good to do especially when using black which doesn’t hide the white icing sugar well.

Once done, leave aside whilst you make your cake. Any round cake will do just ensure that its wide enough to fit the crest. I went with a vanilla cake with chocolate fudge icing for the centre.

Once cooled and assembled coat the cake in warm jam and cover with white fondant. Paint the top of the cake with glue and place your crest in the centre.

All you need then are some birthday candles and a good old-fashioned tea party!

My little man turned 3 recently and is going through his pirate phase. By this I mean he ends his sentences with ARRRR! when he is pretending to fight with you! He thinks it’s scary, I just think it’s cute

Anyway for his birthday we went with a pirate theme with birthday banners, eye patches and even a pirate ship water table present courtesy of his Nanny (thanks mam!). So of course, the cake had to be a pirate too.

The cake itself was a simple 9in round sponge with buttercream and jam filling. The cake was then covered in pale pink buttercream icing.

Decoration ingredients

• Ready to roll icing
• Red food paste
• Blue food paste

Colour some ready to roll icing red, and roll out until a little larger than half the cake top. Cut a straight edge with a knife. Drape the icing over the cake so that the cut edge covers one-third of the cake top in a diagonal line, draping downwards on the right side of the cake on the cake board and a few pleats to resemble a bandana.

Re-knead the excess red colouring and roll out all the trimmings. Cut out a mouth shape and 2 very thin strips for teh ends of the mouth and press in place on the cake.

Knead and roll out the white icing. Cut out small rounds using an upturned end of a piping tube and press these at intervals on the bandana, sticking them with some water. Roll a small white icing ball, then flatten, shape into an oval eye and press on to the pirates face. Add a small black round on top for the eyeball.

Colour and knead some blue icing. Cut out more spots for the bandana.

Knead and roll out the black icing. Cut out a semi-circle for an eyepatch. Shape the remaining black icing into a thin rope and press above the eyepatch, across the face.

The remainder of the black icing can be cut out in the shape of the a beard and placed on the side of the cake under the mouth.

The perfect pirate! Yummeelicious!!

For me, a wedding cake is the most important cake a person can be asked to bake. This is one of those days that the bride and groom (ok, mainly the bride) will look back upon with fondness and romantic thoughts and also remember the little niggles that just weren’t quite what she had in mind when she was planning like crazy for the months before hand.

Recently I had the pleasure and the pressure of making a wedding cake for a friend. In fairness to her, her brief was simple: enough fruit cake to feed approximately 100 guests. She wanted simple white fondant icing, decorated with ribbon. This sounded too easy! How could a wedding cake be so simple and straight forward?? Well the truth is that it cant be. No matter how easy it sounds, it is still someone’s wedding cake, a center piece at a wedding reception that all the guests will see. So no pressure!!!

Once the request for fruit cake was made, there was only one choice, my mammy’s recipe from her sacred book she has promised to leave me in her will!! This recipe has been tried and tested for Christmas cakes for as far back as I can remember so it was a recipe I trusted. The only proviso was, I had never made it! Only eaten it!

Anyway here is the recipe (based on the number of guests I went with 2 tiers, 8in and 10in)

8in                   10in

Currants                               10oz                  1lb

Sultanas                                7oz                    11oz

Raisins                                  4oz                    6oz

Glace Cherries                     2.5oz                 4oz

Almonds (chopped)            2.5oz                 4oz

Mixed cut peel                     2.5oz                  4oz

Grated lemon rind              1                           2

Brandy (optional)               2tbsp                 3tbsp

Plain flour                            7oz                     11oz

Mixed spice                         1tsp                     1.5tsp

Nutmeg                                0.5tsp                 0.75tsp

Ground almonds                2oz                      3oz

Margarine (melted)           6oz                       10oz

Soft brown sugar               6oz                       10oz

Black treacle                       1tbsp                     1.5tbsp

Eggs (large)                         4                             6

Despite the seemingly never ending list of ingredients, the process is fairly simple: Put all the ingredients into a large mixing bowl and mix for 2-4 minutes until all the ingredients are fully combined. It is easier to combine all the dry ingredients first before adding the wet so as to ensure that the ingredients are evenly distributed through-out the cake.

Place the mixture into a greaseproof lined baking tin which also has two layer of brown paper on the outside of the tin. I may write an entire post on how tricky this can be to the untrained person

Place the lined and covered baking tin on a newspaper in a cool oven at approx 130oC for 2.5 to 3 hours. The time taken is oven dependent as usual.

The cakes were made a number of weeks in advance and wrapped in 2 layers of parchment and then 2 layers of foil to ensure they matured but stayed fresh.

Marzipan

Now I am not a marzipan fan, to be honest I really don’t like the stuff but I have to admit that homemade marzipan is actually edible.

Again, it is one of those things you assume to be ridiculously difficult to make but in actual fact is simple:

Ingredients

8oz Ground almonds

4oz Icing sugar

4oz Caster sugar

1 teaspoon lemon juice

2 drops almond essence

1 egg (beaten)

1. Mix almonds, icing sugar and castor sugar

2. Add lemon juice, almond essence and enough beaten egg to mae a fairly dry paste.

3. Turn out and kneed until smooth.

All you need to do then is coat the cake with apricot jam and cover in the rolled out marzipan at the desired thickness. Simple!

Fondant
The request was for a simple white cake so there was no room for error with the icing. I considered homemade fondant but in the end I settled on pre-made ready to roll to ensure it was as white as possible. Again this was rolled out the desired thickness and placed on top of the marzipan layer covering the cake board also to give a seamless finish.

A colourful ribbon of the brides choosing was placed on the cake to complete the look.

Yummeelicious!!

I suppose the main reason I set up this blog was to chronicle my life through the cakes I bake. All the baking I do is for a reason, entertain my toddler, avoid doing the ironing or my favourite, to celebrate an occasion. This was a celebration cake since this weekend was the christening of my youngest son, Elliot.

This was a cake of many firsts for me; the first time I actually practiced a cake before the event, the first time I used fondant icing, the first time I used piped icing for writing. So basically the only thing I had actually done before was bake a sponge.

In preparing to make the cake I bought a book on cake decorating book and a cake cutter so as to split it evenly. Neither of these items arrived on time (I still don’t have them)!  So the cake was designed from different ideas after looking at hundreds of images after googling “Christening cakes”.

The sponge started off as a Nigella Lawson madeira recipe which I overcooked to the border of being burnt. The cake was crumbly and to be honest, I am a huge fan of Nigella but the cake didn’t blow me away. If I had baked it properly it would more than likely have been lovely but the other thing that didn’t work was the lemon. The cake just didn’t mesh with the buttercream and the icing. For the actual cake, I replaced the lemon with a teaspoon of vanilla extract and then filled with raspberry jam and buttercream. The cake was cut with my serrated knife since my cake cutter never arrived.

Ready rolled fondant icing was my prize cheat. Just cover the surface of the cake with some warmed jam (I used raspberry to compliment  the centre) and lay the icing over the cake and cut to size around the sides of the cake. Since it was a christening cake I escaped with the white icing to give the illusion that my bundle of joy is a little angel (mostly when he’s asleep).

The blocks are fondant icing coloured with blue food dye and shaped using a square cookie cutter. The writing is just royal icing piped on with a small writing nozzle (number 2). I did attempt to use an icing pen but it just didn’t look right as the blue pen was too dark. The little booties and ribbon were sourced from The Crafter’s Basket and finished the cake off lovely. I think I almost enjoyed buying the decorations for the cake and the cupcakes as much as the baking.

The cake was moist and light and a second slice was not a struggle. Judging by how fast it disappeared I assume people liked it. This was the first celebration cake I’ve made and decorated but I hope its the first of many….

Other delights on the day included chocolate brownies, vanilla cupcakes with white chocolate cream cheese frosting, chocolate and raspberry cupcakes with marshmallow frosting and lemon cupcakes with lemon frosting (coloured baby blue for the occasion).

Yummeelicious!!