Chocolate layer birthday cake

It was my sister-in-law's birthday yesterday so I knew a special chocolate cake was in order. Instead of my usual chocolate recipe I tried a Primrose Bakery recipe (which can be found through Cupcake Crazy Gem and French For Cupcake) as I fancied trying a recipe which used real chocolate rather than cocoa powder.

Like Gem, I actually got three 20cm round cakes from the recipe instead of two, so it became a big chocolate layer cake! The rose swirls were piped on using a 1M Wilton nozzle, working the swirl from the inside outwards as I usually do with cupcakes. I had a bit of a problem piping my swirls on the side of the cake, so some of them are a bit botched, but I didn't feel it detracted from the overall effect.

The cake was quite heavy, but not in a bad sense, just super chocolatey, rich and moist. I used 74% cocoa Lidl chocolate, which I thought worked really well, and roughly based my main icing on the Hummingbird Bakery's chocolate buttercream. I made a raspberry buttercream (just ordinary buttercream with some sieved raspberries) to sandwich together the layers. It added a great contrasting colour as well as a slightly tart flavour to cut through the rich chocolate.

I don't think it is physically possible to eat a slice larger than this in one sitting. I felt myself sliding into a chocolate induced coma, but then again I had been heavily taste testing the chocolate and icing all day as well (please tell me that I'm not the only person who eats spoonfuls of icing!)

This cake recipe takes a bit of work (I think I used five different mixing bowls in total!) which I don't mind doing for a celebration cake or a treat as it is a beauty, but if I want quicker results or a lighter cake my usual chocolate cake is hard to beat. It's good to have options though.

I have a few more bakes to update from the last week or two so please bare with me whilst I organise myself! I'll hopefully post another bake later on in the week after you have some time to admire this cake. Mmmmm, I want another slice.

What's in my baking cupboard?

On fashion/lifestyle blogs you're bound to find a few "what's in my bag?" posts, so I thought as a baking blogger I should start a "what's in my baking cupboard?" trend.

So, what's in my baking cupboard?

My baking cupboard had a good spring clean last week. Everything is arranged so that it makes sense to me and I decanted some ingredients in to the many jars I've been collecting. Everything looks prettier in labelled jars :)

My most used ingredients (plain flour, self-raising flour and caster sugar) are stored in big ice-cream tubs. The next most used ingredients are in jars and the rest are separated in to other ice cream tubs. Also on the top shelf are my two most used baking bowls, scales, my trusty little food mixer and a stash of cling film and foil.

On the bottom shelf, the big tub on the far left stores mostly smaller tubs like spices, sprinkles, baking powder, glace cherries etc. My chocolate stash is behind it (I have to hide it or it will get eaten) as well as spare baking bowls. In the middle are food colouring, vanilla extract, almond essence bottles and my tub of cake cases. I think I'll need to put a temporary ban on buying cupcake cases as my tub is rather full at the moment.

In the pink tubs are biscuit cutters and stamps (flowers, teapots, dinosaurs, farm animals.... the usual) and some piping nozzles. Word of advice: don't leave your plastic tubs next to your gas hob because they will melt. (As you can tell I'm a classy lady who patched up the melty hole with masking tape.) The big tub at the back of the cupboard is mostly "miscellaneous" stuff such as baking beans, piping bags, candles and paint brushes for cake decorating.

I feel lucky to have a spacious double cupboard for most of my baking supplies (tins and trays are in another cupboard). It was really frustrating moving to halls for my first year at university as I went from this to squashing everything onto one little shelf. Naturally, I bought less savoury food so I could fit all my important baking stuff in.

Hope you enjoyed the tour and didn't bore you to tears. Please don't judge me on the amount of ice-cream tubs I own. They have been collected over years, I don't eat an unholy amount of ice-cream (although I could....)

What's in your baking cupboard? Feel free to do a similar post and link back to me.

Recent finds and lemon obsession

Oh dear it has been almost two weeks since my last post! My only excuse is that I'm settling into a new work routine. Don't worry, I've still been baking.

I know images of daffodils and cupcakes with mini eggs have been doing the rounds in the blogosphere recently, but surely a few more image won't hurt?

I've baked lemon cupcakes three times in the last two weeks, all with lemon curd centres, YUM! If you have been following my blog for a while you'll know that I love lemons in baking. I can't get enough of the zingy flavour and cheery colour.

I also felt it was time to do a little charity shop "haul post". First up is my Jasmine Woods Ware dinner plate. Yay, I've finally found a utility china dinner plate! What is on my plate I hear you ask...... lemon chicken! Mum has become slightly obsessed with making it. What can I say, my family loves lemon.

I also found four Grindley Petal Laburnum soup plates and few weeks ago. I can't remember their exact price, somewhere between 20p and 50p each, so pretty good. Although I like how practical and simple the Woods Ware design is, I do love the frilly edge on the Grindley design.

Last but not least I found two pyrex dishes for £1.50 which match mum's big casserole dish. Mum's dish used to belong to Granny but she gave it to us after ours exploded after an unfortunate toad in the hole incident....

Has anybody else been having success in the charity shops recently?