hummingbird layer cake

Posting two days in a row, what is this madness?!

It was my sister-in-law's birthday on Monday and I baked a triple layer hummingbird cake for the occasion.

I've been meaning to try out some new icing techniques this year so I decided to have a shot at this scalloped effect I've been spying on the cakey interwebz. After crumb coating the cake you pipe on a vertical row of dots and then drag your palette knife through each dot. Repeat this, slightly overlapping each vertical row, until you go full circle and have this funky pattern!   

For a first attempt which was done as quick as possible (I was pushed for time) I was quite impressed with the result. It's definitely a pattern I'll be using again on other cakes.

Did you know that you can ripen bananas quickly by putting them in the oven at a low heat for half an hour? I didn't! My bananas were still far too firm and yellow to bake with on the day so I did a quick online search and bingo - see here! Amazing! This has seriously opened up banana baking opportunities for me. No more waiting around if I have a craving for banana bread.

Back to the hummingbird cake, it was a success! Admittedly I've baked this cake before so I knew it would go down well with the family. It's fruity and juicy with a warm, cinnamon spice and a bit of crunch from the pecans. And who doesn't love a bit of cream cheese icing?! Some may argue it's the best part of a cake. As you can see we more or less demolished this cake in one sitting!

lemon and white chocolate cake

There's little I love more in life than lemon flavours and white chocolate. And custard creams. And Henry Cavill. I'm already veering off track, sorry.

When I saw Kate's Easter white chocolate and lemon curd cake I instantly knew I had to make a similar cake as soon as possible. I couldn't understand why I had never combined two of my favourite flavours in a cake.

And what a light and fluffy, zingy yet sweet cake it produced! The only minor disappointment was the icing and I think it was due to the choice of white chocolate. I used Lindt Lindor which I'm positive I've used before and had excellent results with, but when I melted this particular block it seemed really runny and almost water-y, making a very soft icing which never firmed up. It just didn't behave the way I expected it to. Perhaps I picked up a different type of Lindt chocolate without really noticing?

Flavour wise it was very sweet which was to be expected (it was white chocolate after all!) and contrasted well with the zingy lemon curd and sponge, but I felt the white chocolate flavour itself didn't come through particularly strong.

Ooh look at that layer of lemon curd peeking through in the filling! I thought I was pretty generous with it at the time but I could have easily put in more. The tang of the curd against the sweet icing was so good!

Despite my (only very slight) disappointment with the icing this was a popular cake and I think it tasted even better on the second day. I can't comment how well it would taste on a third day as it didn't last that long. If you do have cakes lying around your house that long you must have serious willpower!

white chocolate and lemon cake

225g caster sugar

225g Stork margarine (or butter)

4 eggs

225g plain flour

1 heaped tsp baking powder

zest of 1 lemon

2 tbsp milk

1 tbsp lemon juice

filling and icing:

1 jar lemon curd (I used Tesco's finest which was lovely but obviously home made is even better)

100g white chocolate, melted

175g butter, softened (I used slightly salted)

175g icing sugar

Preheat the oven to Gas 5/190C and grease and line two 20cm round tins. Beat together the butter and sugar for roughly 5 minutes until light and fluffy. Add the eggs individually, mixing well after each addition. Sift together the flour and baking powder in a separate bowl then add to the cake mixture. Add the lemon zest, 1 tbsp of juice and two 2tbsp of milk and mix until everything is fully combined. Divide the mixture between the two cake tins and bake on the middle shelf of the oven for about 25 minutes until risen, golden and springy to touch. Leave to cool in the tins for a few minutes before turning out to finish cooling on a wire rack.

For the icing, put the white chocolate into a bowl and melt in short bursts in the microwave (or melt it in a bowl sitting above a small pan of simmering water, whichever method you prefer). Leave to cool and then add to the icing sugar and butter. Mix everything together for a few minutes until smooth and fluffy.

Fill the cake with a few dollops of the icing and a good spread of lemon curd. Use the remaining icing to coat the top and sides.

how to bake and blog about your Easter cupcakes

For Easter this year I made some vanilla cupcakes decorated with chocolate mini eggs. Nothing groundbreaking, but very satisfying and tasty. 

As vanilla cupcakes are probably the most blogged creation on the planet and I was baking these during the day in good light instead of the evening, I thought I'd write up a different style of blog post: a fun and silly What Do You Make Of My Cake "how to" special!

First, find all your ingredients and artfully arrange them around some daffodils/narcissus/lilies. It's Spring after all!

Take an action shot of yourself pouring, whipping or mixing. You're not a real food blogger unless you do that. Brownie points (mmmm brownies...) if you're handling a DSLR camera one handed.

Photograph your cupcakes before they go into the oven. Show everybody how luscious your cake batter looks. Don't show them your finger dipped in the batter. Nobody needs to see you greedily scraping the bowl like a child.

Whilst your cupcakes are in the oven, take a seat and have a cuppa. And a custard cream.

And marvel at your ability to accidently colour coordinate with your pinny. As the cool kids would say, Like. A. Boss.

Take your cupcakes out the oven and let them cool on a wire rack. Admire your awesome choice of cupcake cases.

Mix together your icing of choice (making sure you create a sufficient mess in the kitchen with the icing sugar) and pipe on some bad ass swirls with a Wilton 1M tip. Only the best cake bloggers use 1M tips ;)

Decorate your beautiful cupcakes with edible butterfies, pink sprinkles and mini eggs. Mini eggs are compulsory as it's Easter and you cannot blog an Easter bake without them.

Take an artsy photograph from a jaunty angle. Ooh yeah!

And for your Easter cupcake blog post you must also include at least one photograph with a little fluffy chick, kitsch bunny ornament or an adorable chicken basket. I've opted for the chicken basket. Awwww!

And finally, eat a cupcake! You've worked hard baking them, so you deserve it. Don't forget to take a cross section photograph though. You want to show off that fluffy texture.

And that's it! 

On a more serious note, this was the first time I have ever used vanilla bean paste (ooh I'm turning fancy!) and I really liked it. I wasn't sure how much I should add to the mixture, as it seemed pretty potent, so feel free to add more if you really want a punchy vanilla flavour as mine was quite subtle. I really like that you can see flecks of vanilla bean running through the batter and icing.

I've also come to the conclusion that I prefer the flavour of slightly salted butter in my icing. I know the majority of recipes say to use unsalted, but personally I find it a bit bland. What do you use in your icing? Am I an unhealthy rebel?

Vanilla cupcakes

I used the classic sponge method of weighing out my butter, sugar and flour to the same weight as my eggs.

5oz/ 140g golden caster sugar

5oz/ 140g margarine/butter (I used Stork)

2 large eggs

1/2 tsp vanilla bean paste

1 tbsp milk

5oz/ 140g self-raising flour

icing (Hummingbird Bakery's vanilla frosting):

250g icing sugar

80g softened butter

25ml milk

1/4 - 1/2 tsp vanilla bean paste

Preheat the oven to Gas 4 and line a 12 hole cupcake tray with cases. Beat together the margarine and sugar for roughly 5 minutes until light and fluffy in texture. Add the eggs one at a time, adding a tablespoon of the flour if the mixture starts to curdle. Tip in the rest of the flour along with the milk and vanilla and mix until everything is just combined. Divide the mixture between the cupcake cases, filling them until they're roughly 2/3 full. Bake on the middle shelf of the oven for 20-25 minutes until well risen, golden and springy to touch. Leave them in their trays for a few minutes before turning them out onto a wire rack to finish cooling. 

To make the icing, tip all the icing ingredients into a bowl and mix together for a good 5 minutes until light, fluffy and smooth. Once the cupcakes are cool you can either pipe your icing on using a bag and nozzle or spread on with a palette knife.

Since I'm having fun with my Easter post today I thought I'd send it over to this month's Easter themed Calendar Cakes Challenge hosted by Dollybakes. Feel free to join in with the fun!

the big reveal: my bedroom make over!

Ta-dah! I've finally photographed my newly decorated bedroom. Useful tip: take photographs as soon as you move back in to your room, otherwise you'll clutter it up with your daily rubbish and it will never be as tidy as it was for a photoshoot!

This renovation took way longer than expected. Between waiting for wallpaper and carpet to arrive (the carpet took aaaages), carefully sanding down and painting furniture, and clumsy me tripping over a tub of wood paint and spilling it down the bottom of the staircase (woops! there may still be a stain...) it took about a month and a half to complete. It was well and truly worth it though. Just look at it!!

I absolutely love my new wallpaper. It has a funky yet fresh 1970s/Scandinavian feel to it and it mixes really well with all my patterned, floral bedding. I almost wish I had done a before set of photographs of my room. I hadn't realised just how oppressive the old blue carpet and walls were! The new, lighter walls and carpet make the room feel so much lighter and more open.

The dinosaur light very much approves of the new turquoise wallpaper too.

I've also been spring cleaning my shelves and decided to dedicate the smaller top shelf to all my favourite nick nacks, admittedly mostly cats and dinosaurs. The cheery, green dinosaur is called Neil.

For the side walls I went with a soft, neutral, grey/mushroom colour which matches the leaves in the wallpaper. I originally planned to paint the desk/jewellery station but ran out of energy after painting the wardrobe, sewing cupboard and chair. Now that it's the only piece of pine furniture in my room I'm actually not too bothered about it. In fact it looks quite nice!

Lots of jewellery at the jewellery station! I use one of my cakestands to display rings, bracelets and brooches. It reminds me to wear them more often.

And this is the other side of my room! The sewing/crafting/writing area. Want to see inside my sewing cupboard?

Already full! Haha. It feels so good having all my sewing stuff organised in one cupboard rather than scattered all over the room in various boxes and baskets.

And my pride and joy, the yellow formica table which I found in a second hand furniture shop a few months ago for about £20. I knew it HAD to come home with me. That shade of yellow next to the turquoise wallpaper makes me smile. I also love how it picks up the yellow of the buttercups in my Granny's wildflowers painting.

And that's it! Well done if you made it to the end. I know all my bright colour and pattern combinations won't float everybody's boat, but it makes me very happy. Hope you enjoyed the tour!

what do you make of my rubbish cooker?

Want to see a tired, old cooker? Well look no further my friends. Behold! An ancient cooker in all its grimey glory.

Just realised you can see my huge, pink, cosy slippers (complete with massive pom poms) in the grill door. Hahaha!

We're in the process of removing the old oil boiler next to the cooker and installing a new one in a different place which means we finally have space to install a decent sized cooker. This cooker is over 10 years old, possibly even pushing 15, and was the only cooker Mum could get which was small enough to fit the space. I commend her for the amount of cooking she has done and number of people she has cooked for on this small cooker.

"How's the cake coming along?" I hear you ask.

I don't know, I can't see into the oven. It must be wonderful having a light in the oven and being able to watch your cakes rise. Sometimes I hold a torch towards the door but it doesn't really work.

Look at all that filth. Ingrained filth. Nope, it won't wash off. This is also the only burner which heats properly. Don't even attempt to boil something on one of the back burners. You will be there all day.

Ahhh, nameless knobs. Guess which knob works the oven...

Ahh the one which falls off! I like to think of it as a feature. A detachable knob, if you will.

If the flat edge is diagonal, pointing up at the left, then I know I'm roughly at gas mark 4. I usually take the knob off to check this as in the past the knob hasn't always turned it to the right temperature. There have been times when I thought I was at gas mark 6 but was actually only at 2 or 3.

Oh the glamour behind my little cake blog.

The new cooker (arriving soon!) will have TWO OVENS. Imagine that, I'll be able to bake a cake in one oven and a tray of biscuits in the other. Or cook a roast chicken, I suppose I have to eat savoury occasionally.

Do you have a disgusting or useless oven? Do tell!