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80th Birthday Cake

It is my Nandad’s* 80th birthday next month, but due to holidays and organising everyone, we got together and went to visit him to celebrate early.

*When we were children, we had Grandma and Grandad, so our child logic meant that it was Nanna and Nandad.

There was not set ask for this one, except for “can you make the cake”? I fancied giving a black and gold cake a try.

I know that it can be difficult to get buttercream to be black if you’re not using cocoa powder / chocolate it in. I wanted a vanilla flavour, so figured I’d give Cake Cream a try. It is a Swiss Meringue Buttercream that is pre-made so you just add butter and water. I’d never used it before, and have learnt things for next time around.

The cake itself was my standard vanilla cake recipe that I filled with vanilla buttercream and a strawberry and tonka bean jam.

When I had baked the cake layers, I let them cool and then trimmed them. This leaves a load of cake offcuts that I decided to turn into cake truffles. I made some chocolate heart shells and filled them with the cake (mixed with buttercream) to perhaps use for decoration once they cake was completed. I made these in advance and kept them in the freezer until required.

When it was time to make the cake, I decided to use my ganaching kit to try keep the edges sharp. I seem to have more success when building these layer by layer, so this is what I did this time around – added a layer of cake / buttercream / jam and piping the coating around the edges before moving onto the next layer.

I let the cake set in the fridge overnight before removing the wrap.

I had to patch a couple of bits which was my own fault as I didn’t realise I should warm the Swiss Meringue Buttercream a little to loosen it before piping it in! It wasn’t too many though.

Another lesson for next time – I need to wear gloves as this black cake definitely stained my hands.

To decorate the cake, I used some cake stamp letters to spell out Eighty, and for the rest of the cake it was a combination of gold dust and gold leaf.

We presented the cake to Nandad after a lunch out with the family! I was then responsible for cutting the cake into portions for eating / freezing for later.

For anyone wondering how badly the cake dyes your mouth;

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Birthday Blondies

Another 40th birthday, and this time I opted to make some blondies with a loving message on the top.

I made the letters for the top and kept them in the freezer until ready. They were literally just made by melting white chocolate and using a silicon letter mold.

The blondie recipe is from Jane’s Patisserie, but I mixed the chocolate chunks instead of just white chocolate. Mine have milk, dark and blonde chocolate chunks as well as some Biscoff biscuits.

You can see the mix-ins in this picture:

I topped the blondies with a ganache made from Blonde chocolate and double cream (3:1 ratio). I made around 420g of ganache so weighed out into 70g portions and coloured them with oil-based colours.

I piped rough stripes diagonally across the blondies whilst still in the pan and allowed to set slightly before adding the lettering.

I liked how the lines ended up – very trippy!

I finished the blondies with edible glittery.

The recipient took this picture of the sliced blondie this morning – and it looks great if I do say so myself!

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Birthday Brownies

I’m at the age where all my friends are turning 40, and I decided to make another brownie slab to celebrate.

I used the recipe from George’s Bakery “Rebel Bakes” again for triple chocolate brownies.

The message on top was inspired by a birthday card I saw on Thortful. The letters were made using white chocolate candy melts (some coloured red) and sprinkles from Get Baked which are the best rainbow sprinkles you can buy in the UK.

The topping was made by melting more candy melts and Biscoff spread, and swirling it around the pan.

Once the topping had set, I removed the slab from the pan and wrapped it in baking paper ready for gifting.

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Birthday Bunny Cake

The youngest niece asked for a bunny cake for her birthday…

She is always quite indecisive when it comes to what she wants, though my husband had a conversation with her on video the other week that went something like:

“What cake do you want?”

“A Bunny Cake”

“What Colour?”

“Orange”

“What Flavour”

“Erm, Chocolate”

So I at least had the guidelines of what to aim for with this one (though the end product was more of a browny-orange than actual orange).

I started by baking 5 layers of chocolate cake, and making a chocolate buttercream:

After that wa stacked, I wrapped it in cling film until I needed it and put it in the freezer. In the mean time, I made fondant cut-outs for the bunny’s face / ears:

I had decided to pipe the fur on (vanilla buttercream) using a nozzle that frustrated me loads as it keps pushing through the piping bags due to its shape. Thankfully I got through it though after 6 piping bags.

The top of the cake had a “crown” of various colours (again, asked for by the birthday girl” and I put the cake in the fridge overnight until her party. The ears had to wait until the party itself as they were too tall for any of my fridge shelves, and I couldn’t be bothered to re-jig the shelving.

I usually write “Happy Birthday” using fondant on the cake board, but I’ve been using a silicon mold with chocolate recently for brownie slabs. I did the same for this cake, though they nearly didn’t fit on the board due to them being bigger than my fondant cutters.

I added sprinkes first (Easter-themed ones) then melted chocolate and allowed them to set

The party was yesterday, and the cake was cut – and it was decadent!! Very rich chocolate cake and buttercream. The funny thing is, although I LOVE cake, I don’t really like chocolate cake that much and so I didn’t bother having any myself:

We cut the slices to half height because people were VERY full of sugar and food already!

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Loaf Cakes

It was my turn to do one of the volunteer bakes for the Community Cafe that our group bakes for, and this time around I decided to make a white chocolate and raspberry loaf cake.

I used a “standard” pound cake recipe where I weighed my eggs (in the shell) and then used equal parts butter, flour and sugar. For this one, it was 205g of each ingredient.

, I added to this 150g of chopped white chocolate, 100g homegrown raspberries, and baked as usual (around 160C until the cake was done)

As well as the raspberry and white chocolate cake, I did another vanilla loaf cake that I baked with strawberry jam mixed into the batter. This didn’t quite work out as I’d planned, as the jam sank to the bottom of the cake. You can just about see some traces of the jam in the cake when it was sliced

Thankfully it was still baked so I topped it with jam and sugar to finish it instead.

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Message Slab Brownies

My brother gave up drinking last year and it was coming up to his 1 year sobriety anniversary. I decided to celebrate the only way I know how – with cake!

I got given a copy of George’s Bakery “Rebel Bakes” for my birthday so I figured I’d use the recipe for Triple Chocolate Brownies for this bake…

After baking the batter and allowing it to set, I topped the brownies with a jar of chocolate spread I picked up in Aldi. In the jar it was separate milk and white chocolate, but by the time it was melted and poured onto the cake it ended up far more mixed.

I made the letters myself with some white chocolate candy melts, a silicon mold, and sprinkles. I also added some additional sprinkles and choco nibs for decoration.

This next picture gives you an idea of the thickness of the brownies and the spread on top:

And my brother was kind enough to send me a picture of a slice he cut last night – it is THICK!!

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Attempting Macarons

Practice, practice, practice.

I have tried making macarons in the past with varying results, but I wanted to try again as it is something that I have far from mastered. Practice is the only way to get better, so I gave it a go.

I decided to make some lemon macarons, following this recipe from Chelsweets. In my first attempt, all was going well until I added my sugar and food colouring. The eggs suddenly went too liquidy to use so I gave up and started again.

The second attempt went better. This time I added the sugar a spoonful at a time, and omitted the food colouring to be on the safe side.

I piped three trays of macarons in various sizes, choosing not to use a template as it was all practice. I baked the first tray at 155c (Chelsweets recipe says to bake at 315f which is 157c) but they browned too much and didn’t have the chewy texture at all – I assume they were over-baked. I still filled them though as I didn’t want to waste more ingredients.

The second tray I attempted were larger shells, and this time I baked at 140c. The shells still browned, but this time around kept the chewy texture you’d associate with macarons. I think I should have piped these thicker though.

My third tray were mini ones again, this time I baked at 130c and took them out before they were too brown. These were the best of the 3 – crisp shell and chewy insides. I’d say this bodes well for future attempts.

No doubt I’ll try again in the coming months, but for now these are going in the freezer until I find people to give them to. Next time I’ll try colouring the mixture again.

UPDATE!!

I’m pleased to report that the “overbaked” shells are actually pretty decent now they’ve been filled and in the freezer a few days. They have softened up so you can’t actually tell they were crisp to start off.

I’ve boxed up some of the better ones with a cake puck and cake heart to give to people this weekend.

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50th Birthday Cake

I got asked to make a 50th Birthday cake that was maybe lemon flavour as it’s for a spring / summery birthday. Aside from that, it was creative licensing all around. I had an idea in mind that I roughly doodled using instagram stickers and the end result was this:

Bottom tier (coloured yellow):
– Lemon sponge cake
– Lemon curd
– Lemon buttercream
– White chocolate mock ganache coating

Top tier (left white):
– Vanilla sponge cake
– Strawberry jam
– Vanilla buttercream
– White chocolate mock ganache coating

The Process

This was the original “doodle” against what I actually made – pretty much as I imagined it!

I made the cake tiers in advance, cling wrapped them and kept them in the freezer for nearly 2 weeks. When it was time to make the cake, I took them out of the freezer 24 hours before & moved them to the fridge to defrost.

To ensure that they lasted as long as possible after being picked up, I stacked the cakes using a variety of strong straws to act as cake dowels to keep the cake sturdy.

The finishing touches were store-bought decorations:
– Yellow, white, gold & cream decorative balls
– Fake sunflowers
– “Happy Birthday” cake topper
– “50” number for front of cake

As with all my cakes, once it was decorated, I gave it a quick photoshoot in my photo box so that it really stands out againg the black background:

I did laugh at my creativity for making the cake box taller. The cake itself would have fit OK, but once the toppers were added the box was not tall enough. In came the kebab sticks & clingfilm…

Added Extras:

To go with the main cake, there was also 2 boxes of vegan cupcakes so that I had catered for as many people as I could. These were made with chia seeds instead of egg, vegan “butter” instead of butter, and oatmilk in place of dairy milk. I did 6 each:

  • Lemon Cupcakes with homemade lemon curd & vegan lemon “buttercream”.
  • Vanilla Cupcakes with strawberry jam & vegan vanilla “buttercream”.

I used this recipe for the lemon curd if you wanted to make your own.

The finishing touch:

I decided for this cake to also provide some “cake care cards” to advise how best to transport and store the cakes, along with cutting instructions and information on ingredients for anyone who needed to know.

I like the idea of these cards & will likely do them again in future for other cake events.

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Happy Birthday to Me

I don’t usually make myself a birthdy cake, but I had an idea for a cake and decided to use my birthday as an excuse to make it:

It started by making 4 x 4″ layers of “brown butter” sponges:

They were then filled with a biscoff buttercream and caramel:

I stacked them using a kebab stick to hold them central (and then added more when chilling):

After allowing to chill / set up a bit, I coated in a ganache made from White chocolate, White chocolate hazelnut spread, and cinnamon:

the cake was then coated with crumbled Biscoff biscuits, drizzled with melted Biscoff spread, and topped with more buttercream and crumbled cookies.

Because the cake was so soft, it had started to lean when I had stacked it and to counter this I ended up coating it in extra thick ganache – this shows on the cut through picture above!

I cut the cake into as many portions as I could and have been giving it out to friends and family the last couple of days.

I tried to be sensible and have limited myself to one BIG slice, but honestly that’s the most I think I can manage 🤤

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Free Cakes for Kids

I’ve posted before about baking for “Free Cakes for Kids” and this is the most recent one I made.

The request was simply for “Baby pink cake with cute bows” so this was what I came up with.