I is for Icing

Hello everyone!

This past weekend, I packed up all my cake decorating gear and headed (with husband and baby) to a friend's house for a cake decorating bonanza! It was great fun!

As per usual, I've made four small cakes this year: one to keep and three to give as presents. I've been scoffing the offcuts of the cakes and they are delicious! I think I did well with the brandy this year!

My method for icing cakes is quite easy, but it does take time. Firstly, cut the domed top off the cake, and turn it upside down on a piece of baking parchment, so that the bottom of the cake is facing upwards. The bottom is usually flatter so it gives a better finish on the marzipan and icing. I try to feed the cake at least once 'upside down', so that the alcohol isn't all concentrated on the bit of the cake that gets cut off.

Secondly, fill in all the pits, nooks and crannies all over the cake with blobs of marzipan. The smoother the surface before applying the marzipan layer, the better. If it's an extra special cake, roll a thin sausage of marzipan to smooth into the base of the cake, where the icing will meet the board.

Thirdly, roll out a strip of marzipan reasonably thick and wide enough to go up the sides of the cake. Then cut off the ends and stick it to the sides of the cake with sieved apricot jam. Then roll out a disc for the top of the cake, stick it on with jam, and smooth the join of the marzipan. It needs to be left to dry for 24 hours, ideally.

Next goes on the icing. I normally use ready-to-roll or fondant icing (although this year I tried royal icing for the first time, with mixed results!). Roll it out quite thick in a circle big enough to go over the top and sides of the cake, but not too big. Use gin (or another clear alcohol) to wet the marzipan and make it sticky, then gently place the icing over the marzipan, smoothing it out carefully over the top and sides of the cake. In theory doing this carefully should avoid air bubbles forming, but I usually lose patience and cover up any bubbles with decorations instead! Then trim off the excess around the bottom. I always use a ribbon around the base of the cake, so it looks neat. Again, it needs 24 hours to dry before being carefully placed on a cake board (avoiding touching the icing) and decorated.

Here are this year's efforts!

The ones with red ribbons aren't quite finished because they'll be garnished with rosemary sprigs and red fondant hearts, closer to the time of gifting. I'm pretty pleased with them!

Laura x

Bunting and buttercream - Sophie's second 1st birthday party

Hi everyone!

We had a lovely family gathering at the weekend for Sophie's second 1st birthday party. The birthday girl was very happy and good the whole time, though I think she was a little overwhelmed by all the attention. She certainly slept well that night!

Having two birthday parties was a necessity for us, as our home is not large enough for a lot of people, and I didn't want to miss out on celebrating with the friends that Sophie and I have made this year. The first birthday party involved babies crawling everywhere; the second was a bit more sophisticated! We had afternoon tea with champagne. The room was decorated with bunting and there was a lot of buttercream!

Sophie's first birthday afternoon tea party
Finger sandwiches
Birthday cake
Rose macarons
Scones, clotted cream and jam
Chocolate cupcakes
Fruit and crisps

The birthday cake was an iced lemon madeira sponge, and in keeping with the bunting theme I decorated with little sugar flags, and some simple sugar flowers. I made the cake in advance and froze it, iced it two days before and decorated it the evening before. It worked well! I was really pleased with how the cake turned out.

My macarons were flavoured with rose water and rose extract. I had to add way more than the recipe asked for to get the floral flavour. I'm still practising my macaron technique. I saw some on the Great British Bake Off the day after and felt how inferior mine were! They tasted good though.

I didn't take many photos at the party because I was busy encouraging everyone to eat (the British can be so reticent about going up to a buffet, even when they're hungry!) and enjoying the champagne. And admiring my little girl. She's grown up so fast.

Congratulations Sophie on turning one. Thank you for all that you are. We love you and we are so proud and thankful to be your parents.

Sophie's first 1st birthday party

This week, my baby girl turned one! How did the year go so quickly? I feel as if I blinked and missed it. It's been a truly wonderful year. We're so thankful for our sweet darling Sophie.

We celebrated on her birthday with a little tea, cake and Pimms' party with some of her baby friends and their mums and dads. It was chaotic! So many little people crawling around on our living room floor with toys everywhere! So much fun!

I made vanilla cupcakes in advance, froze them and then defrosted the day before and iced them with vanilla buttercream and pink sprinkles. The other party food was a simple all-in-one chocolate sponge cake with buttercream filling, baby snacks, fruit, and limoncello macarons, also prepared in advance and stored in the freezer. I'm still practising my macaron technique! And for drinks we had iced tea, fruit juice, and Pimms' with lemonade. I was happy I had done so much in advance, thanks to my lovely husband who looked after Sophie while I baked!

Here are some snaps from the day.

Happy birthday Sophie!

Proud mummy...

...and papa!

Pink!

Buttercream everywhere! Cupcakes, chocolate sponge
and macarons

Baby line-up

Enjoying the packaging more than the present

Oh my!
(NB. It's actually cream cheese on her face, though her papa
did let her eat a cupcake while I wasn't looking!)

Flourless chocolate cake

Good morning!

Our curry night on Wednesday was lots of fun. Twelve people filled our living room with noise, joy, and spices. For pudding, we had a flourless chocolate cake which I made that afternoon.

It may have looked like a sunken volcano crater, but it tasted dense, moist, and delicious.

Here's the recipe. Note, it's not health food!

Laura x

Flourless chocolate cake

Takes 1 hour 20 minutes (30 minutes prep, 50 minutes baking, plus cooling)

Serves 12

400g dark chocolate (I used Tesco Everyday Value)

100g soft light brown sugar

6 medium eggs at room temperature

1 tbsp Cointreau

1 tsp ground cinnamon

300ml extra thick double cream

Preheat the oven to 180 degrees. Grease and base line a 23cm (9 inch) cake tin.

Break the chocolate into a heatproof bowl and set over a pan of simmering water, making sure the bowl does not touch the water. Stir occasionally until melted.

Meanwhile, using an electric hand whisk, beat the eggs and sugar together for 10 minutes, until somewhat thickened.

Add the Cointreau and ground cinnamon to the chocolate and stir. Then pour the melted chocolate into the egg mixture, stirring all the time. (Be careful here, because if you pour too quickly and/or don't stir, the eggs will curdle.) Mix thoroughly.

Stir the cream a few times with a spoon to loosen it a little. Add the cream to the chocolate mixture and fold in thoroughly.

Pour the mixture into the prepared tin. Bake for 50-60 minutes until a skewer comes out clean. Cool in the tin (it will sink quite a lot), then remove from the tin when cold. (I didn't manage to release it from the base of the tin, since inverting it would have destroyed the top.)

Cut into slices and serve with fresh fruit and cream or yoghurt.

From craving to creation

I was craving panettone yesterday morning, so, encouraged by my lovely husband, I decided to make one. I used a cheat's recipe which I found online, since none of my baking books, not even my trusty Mary Berry Bible, include one. It turned out so yummy that I didn't even take a photo! It was really fun kneading the dough although I had to use a lot more flour than the recipe specified. Anyway, I'll certainly make it, and never buy it, again.

Banana loaf

As requested by Yvette and Isabelle!

Banana loaf

2 ripe bananas

100g soft butter

175g golden caster sugar

2 eggs

225g self-raising flour

1 teaspoon baking powder

2-3 tablespoons milk

Preheat the oven to 160 degrees.

Mash the bananas, then beat together with the other ingredients in a large bowl using an electric whisk, for about 2 minutes. Add a little extra milk if it looks a bit stiff. It should pour quite easily into the tin.

Pour into a buttered and lined loaf tin (900g), and bake for 1 hour until risen and golden brown. Cool in the tin for a few minutes before turning out onto a wire rack. It freezes well.

Variations: add a pinch of cinnamon, some chocolate chips, or some dried fruit (e.g. raisins) for a twist!

Lakeland sell wonderful loaf tin liners which are really useful!

April already

Where did March go?

We've done lots of fun things recently. We took Sophie on her first holiday, to the Lake District.

Sophie has also been having a little bit of food. Lots of mess has ensued!

We had a visit from Nana, Grandad and Aunty Rachel. I made my usual Easter nests, and some simnel muffins, fruity and delicious and much less rich than traditional simnel cake. It doubled as a birthday tea party for Dad / Grandad!

Sophie's getting bigger, stronger, and more fun by the day. Here's a recent photo. I couldn't do a blog post and not include one!

In other news...

In other news...

We went to watch 'The Merchant of Venice' at the Said Business School's rooftop amphitheatre yesterday evening. It was a real treat. The production was very good, had some very funny and some very poignant moments, and we enjoyed a hot chocolate and a brownie in the interval. Plus, the company (my lovely husband) was superb.

I've also been enjoying watching 'The Great British Bake Off' on iPlayer. It's inspired me to want to do some baking, having not really done any since becoming pregnant. Since the coming Bank Holiday weekend is set to be rainy, and since I don't really have the energy for more active pursuits, I hope to do some cake-making very soon!

Cranberry walnut loaf cake

Cranberries are winter food. For me, their flavour evokes crisp days, frosty cobwebs, and warm homes. This is a recipe for a lovely moist loaf cake which I have made for others on a couple of occasions now - each time it has been well received. It would freeze well so it can easily be made in advance as a gift. The recipe is adapted from one found on My Blessed Life.

Cranberry walnut loaf cake
Preheat the oven to 180 degrees. Butter a loaf tin.

225g plain flour
75g golden caster sugar
50g light brown soft sugar
Pinch of salt
1 tbsp baking powder

Mix these ingredients in a large bowl.

120ml whole milk
30g butter
2 medium eggs
Half a tsp vanilla extract
Finely grated zest of an orange

Melt the butter. Beat the eggs and mix with the milk, vanilla, and orange zest. Gradually incorporate the melted butter into this mixture, stirring all the time.

Mix the dry ingredients with the egg mixture and combine but do not overmix.

150g cranberries
100g chopped walnuts

Add the cranberries and walnuts to the mixture and fold in.

Bake for 55-60 minutes.

A brief history of the last few months

Here are a few things I've been up to recently:

My first macarons

Chocolate cake for Nick's birthday

I think he liked it!

Many flavours of jam

My first iced cake with sugar flowers

Christmas pudding making

The finished product

Delicious rhubarb and blueberry
crumble

My Christmas cake fruit

After baking....

and after icing. 

I'm quite pleased with all my efforts!

Christ is risen!

Easter 2011

The angel said to the women, "Do not be afraid, for I know that you are looking for Jesus, who was crucified. He is not here; he has risen, just as he said. Come and see the place where he lay." (Matthew 28:5-6)

Easter is one of my favourite times of the year. It is wonderful to have a yearly festival pondering on Christ's death and celebrating his resurrection.

Here are some of the things we did this Easter.

I made Easter nests and Nick and I scoffed the lot.

We painted our hallway. It's nearly finished, but not quite!

It's now a much lighter, brighter colour. You can see the difference between the darker blue on the left and the new colour.

We made sweet and sour chicken, deep fried. Yum.

Julien enjoyed hunting for Easter eggs in the garden. One of the eggs vanished mysteriously, with only the wrapper left behind. I wonder what kind of animal did it.

I made a Simnel cake following Mary Berry's recipe, complete with eleven marzipan balls representing the eleven disciples remaining after Judas' defection. Somehow I feel sorry for Judas because he is scorned yet his role was vital in God's rescue plan to save us through Jesus' death and resurrection. Anyway, we enjoyed the cake with some friends of ours, their children, and a cup of tea. Delightful.