29th January 2011 - Kisses and butterflies.

Something simple today because I don't have alot of time on my hands.  I looked in old faithful Be-Ro for easy and quick bakes and found Coffee Kisses and Cupcakes.

The Coffee kisses only took about 20 minutes from start to finish and tasted great.  So great in fact I was told, or should I say demanded to make some more in the future.  I will too and of different flavours like strawberry and cream, Mocha, chocolate and vanilla or such like.

 



Soft Coffee biscuit and Coffee buttercream.... mmmmmmm



 After the Coffee Kisses were done I placed my Victoria sponge mix into paper cupcake cases and popped them in the oven.  After a cuppa and a coffee kiss I took them out and let them cool.  Once cooled ,I spooned some red vanilla buttercream on top along with some decorative coloured sugar crystals.  I thought they still looked a little boring so I spent five minutes cutting out some butterflies from fondant and adding a little colour.  Not great looking but good enough to eat =].

Sparkles and Butterflies.





22nd January 2011 - Checkmate!!!

Today I wanted to bake, coat and decorate a cake.  I had a chessboard theme in mind... not a full chessboard but just one corner in which the Queen and Rook had the King in checkmate.  The base cake was a Victoria Sponge Cake filled and covered in a tasty Lemon Buttercream. I used the flat or bottom of the cake for the top instead of the domed side like normal to give the cake a easier more level platform to work on. 

Once the Lemon Buttercream filling was finished I covered both the top and sides with it too.  This allows for a crumb coating so little bumps don't appear when I cover the cake in Icing.  The Icing went on better than on the Cow Cake which didn't have a crumb coat and shows if you look down my Blog.  This cake had almost no imperfections in the Icing covering which I am pleased about... a more professional look about it.

I then built up the part-chessboard of nine squares using both Sugarpaste and Marzipan.  Each square is two inches by two inches and once I placed and stuck those down I put in the black dividers and border.  After a nice cuppa and something to eat I made to Queen.   She was quite tricky and took several versions before I finally used the one you can see on the cake. 

Next came the Rook or Castle as is sometimes called.  I had to make it blue as this was the main colour of the Queen and the board tiles.  I think looking back I should of spent more time on this but hay-ho job done.  Finally came the King but before that another cuppa and a bit of a think about how to do this.  I decided to go with a tombstone with the King's Crown hanging off the edge.... simple but I liked it.



Checkmate!!!



Death to the King

15th January 2011 - Ginger, Spice and the Cake tastes nice

Me and my wife Lel jointly made some Crusty topped Gingerbread today.  Black treacle really smells awful on its own doesn't it. Anyway the amounts of ingredients vary very differently from recipe to recipe so its more of, choose one and see if the out come is to your liking.  Some of the recipes use half the amounts of some ingredients but more of others which I don't really get but that's life.

The usual cake tests do not apply with Gingerbread neither.  After about 45mins of the 1hr 30mins baking time required, the cake was firm to the touch and crumb/wetness free.  Lel let me do the tests quickly to show me this knowing the outcome.  We pushed it back in the oven to let it bake for the rest of the time needed. 

The end result was a great tasting Gingerbread with a nice crunchy top mmmmmmm yum and perfect.  Lel then got me to make a Lemon Buttercream for the middle of the cake.  Wow I love the taste of Buttercream and it is so easy to make.  The cake is all gone even as I write this.... We so love cake =].

Rough looking but tastes great

8th January 2011 - Me and T-Berry do Weekend cakes.

Christmas is over and 2011 has arrived.  To kick it off me and T-berry make some Chocolate Brownies and Chocolate Angel cakes for the weekend tea.  I thoroughly enjoyed today baking with my young son, especially knowing how tasty his cakes are.

T-Berry mixed all his ingredients together in a slow stirring motion where I tend to use an electric whisk.  This could be the secret to his cakes tasting so good.  I will have to try it that way the next time I make something.

With Valentines coming up soon I will have to do some research into cakes for the season and come up with a design for my wife Lel.  It needs to say I Love You but with something personal in the design...  I will see what I come up with in the next few weeks.







T-Berry does fantastic Brownies =]

Choc Angels - Nice with a Cuppa