Stripy 40th Birthday Cake

I've always wanted to have a go at the stripes thing. It looks really effective but I thought it looked a bit technical. I've finally had a go and actually it's quite straight forward.

The brief was a 40th birthday cake for a not very girly girl who likes chocolate, so I went for a chocolate cake covered in chocolate fondant. I've always loved the chocolate brown and light blue colour combination and thought it worked well as a girly but not girly girl colour theme.

Malt Chocolate Cheesecake

So I've been in a malty phase for a while, but I think I'm over it now. This cheesecake finished me off. Don't get me wrong - it was tasty but you could only eat a mouthful as it was so rich. 

The bottom layer is milk choc, ovaltine powder, double cream & cream cheese. The top layer is white choc, double cream an cream cheese. 

The base (which i much prefer to usual digestive biscuit base) was cow malt biscuits and butter.

and it of course was topped with malteasers...

It was  a Good Food recipe and can be found here http://www.bbcgoodfood.com/recipes/988642/malt-chocolate-cheesecake

Chocolate Banana Cake

Nothing special this week, just a 'need to use up the bananas' recipe. The cake sponge was average but the icing was super tasty. 

I didn't have much butter so I used a quick and easy cheat icing which uses milk instead.

2 cups icing sugar

2 tablespoons cocoa powder

2 teaspoons soft butter

2 tablespoons milk

and then I couldn't resist finishing it off with lots and lots of sprinkles. 

Hand Painted Rose Cake

My first try at hand painting roses on a cake. It was my sister in law's birthday last week and well, 

any excuse to make a cake...

I was in a bit if a rush, so I didn't have time to do it as neatly or in as much detail as I would've liked. 

 

It's the same technique as water colour painting - building up the layers. 

Next time I'd like to try some bigger flowers. Oh the possibilities.

...and it was chocolate cake inside yum!

Malted Milk Cupcakes

I love all things malt flavoured! I love malteasers and I love ovaltine and horlicks. Actually I think that covers all malt products? Either way I like it! and I like cake so I googled 'malt cupcakes' and bingo! Here's the recipe I found.

1/2 cup butter at room temperature 2 eggs 125 ml milk 2 tsp vanilla essence 180g  flour 150g sugar 200g malteasers halved 60g  malted milk powder 2 tbsp baking powder 1/4 tsp salt

Preheat oven to 180°C

In a large bowl, combine flour, sugar, baking powder, salt, malted milk powder and malteasters. In another bowl, combine butter, eggs, milk and vanilla.

Add liquid ingredients to dry ingredients and mix gently. Pour the batter among muffin cups.

Bake approximately 20-25 minutes or until a toothpick inserted in the center of a cupcake comes out clean. Cool on rack 10 minutes before removing from pan.

Fluffy Malted Milk Frosting

160g butter, room temperature
225g icing sugar
2 tbsp malted milk powder
1/2 tsp vanilla extract

With a electric mix, beat butter at medium speed about 2 minutes. Reduce speed and add the icing sugar 60g at a time. Beating well after each addition. Add malted milk powder and vanilla, beat well.

YUMMO!

The Gluten, Dairy and Egg free challenge!

I had my first 'special dietary requirements' cake challenge last week. I was asked to make a gluten, dairy AND egg free 80th birthday cake.

My heart sank (no offense Mark). But i rose to the challenge! I found a very helpful website (that isn't American!) that a cake decorator has put together, full of gluten and dairy free recipes. It also tells you what products are safe to use (which was ridiculously helpful especially for fondant icing).

Here's the link to this very helpful website:

http://www.icedgembakes.co.uk/

I used their victoria sponge recipe which uses sunflower oil as the egg and butter replacement. It came out really well and once iced with dairy free butter cream and jam, it tasted fine.

BUT I have no idea what it has been doing once inside the fondant icing and I'm anxiously waiting to hear how it it tasted. For all I know - it could have turned to mush....

So I did make an additional 12 normal cupcakes just incase it was inedible, so that those who didn't have an intolerance could enjoy some tasty cake.

Fingers crossed!

Jubilee Cupcakes

I had 3 orders of Jubilee cupcakes to do this week which has been fun. 

It's my usual victoria sponge recipe for the cake and then vanilla buttercream with edible glitter on top.

Happy Jubilee!