a very lemon-y birthday cake

Gather round lemon cake fans for I have a baked a seriously punchy, sharp and sweet cake. It's not for the faint-hearted.

My Dad is a big fan of lemon bakes so I decided to pack in as much lemon flavour as possible into his birthday cake this year. Taking inspiration from my Peggy Porschen baking book I soaked the sponges in a lemon syrup once they came out the oven which produced the juiciest sponge sandwich cake I've probably ever made. I then filled and iced it with lemon curd and a lemon cream cheese icing. The tang and creaminess of the cream cheese icing helped to balance some of the sharp flavour.

In typical fashion I was baking this very late at night and hadn't really considered that soaking the sponges in hot syrup would slow down the cooling time. Needless to say by the time they had cooled I had no desire to faff about with fancy decoration. Cake sprinkles came to the rescue!

In other news you've probably noticed I've been fiddling around with my blog layout. It took me the best part of Sunday evening to figure out how to make small changes. If anyone else would like to know the html coding for centralising tabs or removing the annoying border around your Blogger images then I highly recommend visiting the techie tips section of Carrie Loves.

I also tried moving the date header below my post titles. It took me ages to find, move and/or delete the relevant bits of coding and when I finally managed it I didn't like it. Typical! To be honest I'm still unsure whether I like my date and post titles in the centre, but I'm going to roll with it for a while. 

A very lemon-y lemon cake

sponges:
8oz/ 225g caster sugar
8oz/ 225g softened butter
 zest of 2 lemons
4 eggs (large)

8oz/ 225g self raising flour

lemon syrup:
juice of 2 lemons
100g caster sugar

filling and icing:
300g icing sugar
zest of 1 lemon
50g softened butter
125g cream cheese

lemon curd - good quality shop bought or this recipe

Preheat the oven to 180C/Gas 4 and grease and line two 8 inch round cake tins. Beat together the sugar, butter and lemon zest for 5 minutes until light and fluffy. Add the eggs one at a time, mixing well between each addition, and add a tablespoon of the flour mixture with the last egg to prevent the cake mix from curdling. Tip in the rest of the flour and mix until fully combined. Divide the mixture between the two cake tins and bake on the middle shelf of the oven for roughly 25-30 minutes until golden, risen and firm to touch.

For the syrup, bring the lemon juice and sugar to a boil in a saucepan and simmer for a minute until all the sugar has dissolved. Brush this hot syrup mixture over the sponges 10 minutes after they've come out the oven. Leave the sponges until they're barely warm before turning them out their tins to finish cooling.

Beat together the icing sugar, cream cheese and lemon zest for a couple of minutes until fluffy and smooth. Spread half of the icing onto one cake along with a generous layer of lemon curd and sandwich it togther with the other sponge. Ice the top with the remaining icing and decorate with sprinkles.

beards beards beards

Dress number four is complete and it is a bearded beauty. 

As soon as I saw this manly Michael Miller fabric I knew I had to have it. My love for beards is well known and joked about amongst friends. In fact, two of my friends made collages of my favourite bearded men for my birthday cards this year. With this dress I am now the ultimate pogonophile.*

*person who loves and/or studies beards

The dress pattern is Prima Pattern's July 2014 summer dress which I picked up for 25p in a charity shop a couple of months ago. The bodice looks quite similar to Christine Haynes' Emery dress which I had been tempted to buy after seeing many lovely versions on sewing blogs, but I actually prefer the more streamlined, A-line shape of the Prima skirt. Bargain!

Yeah I had a bit of a pattern matching fail at the back. You live and learn.

Changes included shortening the skirt by 3 inches, adding a skirt lining, finishing the sleeves with bias binding, swapping the invisible zip for a regular centred one and adding side seam pockets. God I love pockets.

Mmmm, bearded men are going to be drawn to me like moths to a flame.

The greeny-mushroom-taupe colour of this dress is a new addition to my wardrobe. In general I avoid pale, neutral tones like the plague as they tend to make me look like death warmed up but the greeny hue in this looks suprisingly flattering against my skin tone, or so I hope/tell myself. 

I initially really struggled with my bodice toile and spent ages faffing about with the size and position of darts and pinching out excess fabric. Then it occured to me that I should just cut the bodice a size smaller. Duh! So I did that and went ahead with this dress. On the whole I'm happy enough with the fit although it is still fairly roomy. Annoyingly the pattern didn't give any finished garment measurements, only body measurements, so I didn't know how much ease was included. On the upside, I have plenty of space for layering vests or tshirts underneath in winter.

Wooh my dress has sleeves!

A recurring fitting issue I've noticed on all my dresses so far is that my shoulder seams tend to slide back, resulting in gaping/excess fabric between the back neckline and shoulder blades and a waistline which tips down. I'm guessing it's to do with my straight back and shoulder position so will try some upper back adjustments and move the shoulder seams on my next dress. I sense this may have something to do with my sleeve fitting issues too. Although the sleeves on this dress are ok I feel their fit could still be improved.

 Being all nonchalant with my hands in my snazzy pockets

A full bust adjustment may be in order too, as I didn't do one this time, to see if it corrects my side seams which are tipping forwards slightly at the waist. Figuring out little fitting issues like these are puzzling but I'm determined to get a good fit as I really like the style of this dress, it's nice and casual, and I enjoy improving my sewing skills.

And to wrap this post up nicely, here's a little photo montage of some lovely bearded guys. I sure know how to have fun on a Friday evening.

So who's your favourite?

birthday blow away sponge and shiny new things

It was my birthday last Friday and my Mum baked a beautifully fluffy blow away sponge cake. However this was actually her second attempt. Her first cake went awry because she accidentally used self-raising flour instead of plain flour, resulting in sponges with flat edges and strangely domed centres. Always double check your ingredients folks!

Unfortunately I could only manage a tiny piece of cake due to the unwelcome stomach bug I woke up with that morning, but I can report it was as light as a cloud with a delicate, sweet vanilla flavour.

The chopped strawberries, jam and whipped cream filling kept the flavours fresh and light as well. As much as I love a buttery, heavily frosted birthday cake this was a lovely change. It could also be made completely dairy free by omitting the cream filling.

Although I didn't make the cake I'll include the recipe at the end of the post as I think it's worth sharing.

Birthday gifts this year included flowers, ferrero rocher, small pieces of jewellery and a stash of socks. You should see my sock drawer at the moment; it is positively overflowing with colourful, crazy prints. I love a good pair of socks.

Somewhat unexpectedly, I ended up with an overlocker for my birthday! On Monday morning I discovered through Char that Lidl had deals on Singer sewing machines and overlockers this week (retailing at about half their usual price) so I headed into town and grabbed an overlocker. My Mum also bought a new sewing machine for herself as she never got round to replacing her old one which broke years ago, so we're two very happy ladies.

Matchy matchy machines! This makes me very happy. I'm looking forward to producing clothes with professionally finished seams. On a side note, my Singer sewing machine is officially 10 years old this year. Whaaat?

And lastly, I'd like to introduce you all to the life size, cardboard cut-out Superman my brother bought for my birthday. Who knew owning a 2D Henry Cavill would be so much fun. He's proving to be quite a hit.

"Nice jugs, Jo."

"Ummmm why thank you, Henry."

He has also managed to scare the crap out of me on several occasions when I forget he's in the room. Such a stealthy guy.

Blow away sponge

4 eggs
4 oz caster sugar
1/4 tsp vanilla bean paste (or extract)
2oz plain flour
2 oz cornflour
1 level tsp baking powder
pinch of salt

Preheat the oven to 400F/200C/Gas 6 and grease/line two 8 inch round cake tins. Whisk the egg whites on a high speed until they form stiff peaks when the whisk is lifted from the bowl. (You can also do the bowl above your head trick to check!) Add the sugar, egg yolks and vanilla and give a quick mix. Sift together the flour, cornflour, baking powder and salt in a separate bowl, then carefully fold it into the egg mixture with a metal spoon until everything is incorporated. The mixture should look quite pale and glossy. 

Divide the mixture between the two tins and bake for approximately 15 minutes until risen, golden and firm to touch. Leave to cool in the tins for a few minutes before turning out to finish cooling on a wire rack. Sandwich together with chopped strawberries, jam and whipped cream. Serve with a dusting of icing sugar.

custard creams

The number of times I've said "I'm going to bake some custard creams" over the last couple of years then proceeded not to bake them is embarrassing. I used to bake them in my uni days, pre blogging, but have somehow never baked them since.

When I was told to bring nibbles along to a small party this week I knew the time had finally come to dust off my custard creams recipe.

However I think my concept of "nibbles" is somewhat skewed. These were not dainty, finger-food sized biscuits; they were more of the World's Strongest Man variety. What can I say, I like a chunky biscuit. They're an excellent size for enjoying with a cuppa but perhaps not the best for party nibbles. In hindsight they should have been half the size.

Not that anybody really complained as they still tasted good. Buttery, custard flavoured biscuits sandwiched together with a fragrant vanilla butter icing. What's not to like?

And why has it taken me over FOUR YEARS to bake them again?! Fool.

Sadly I didn't get to enjoy any of these biscuits. I took them to the party on Thursday but only ate a few things as I didn't feel that well, then the following day (my birthday) I was inflicted with a stomach bug. I hate my stomach for cheating me out of custard creams *and* birthday cake. What did I do to deserve such cruel treatment?

Ah well, I suppose it gives me an excuse to bake these again. I'm not going to wait four years though!

Custard Creams

Biscuit recipe from Mum's battered old cookbook "Good Housekeeping's Picture Cookery" although I followed  my own method

Biscuit dough:

8oz caster sugar (I used golden)

8oz softened butter

2 egg yolk

a few drops of vanilla extract (I used some vanilla bean paste)

8oz custard powder

8oz plain flour

a splash of milk  

Vanilla butter icing (my own):

I ended up with left over icing so you may want to adjust your amounts

250g icing sugar

100g softened butter

a few drops of vanilla bean paste

2 tbsp milk

Preheat the oven to 190C/Fan 170/Gas 5 and lightly flour a few baking sheets/trays. Mix together the caster sugar and softened butter. Once combined add the egg yolks and the vanilla extract/paste and mix again. Sift together the custard powder and plain flour before adding to the mixture. Add enough milk to bring the mixture together into a dough. Wrap the dough in clingfilm and chill in the fridge for 20-30 minutes (probably not compulsory, but the kitchen was warm and I didn't want the dough too soft). 

Once chilled, roll the dough out on a lightly floured surface (chop the dough in half before rolling as it gives you easier portions to work with). I didn't measure the thickness of my dough but it would have been at least 0.5cm/ 1/4 inch thick. Once you've rolled the dough out cut your biscuits in whatever shape you fancy and prick the surface a few times with a fork. 

Transfer to a tray, spacing them slightly, then leave to chill in the fridge again for around 20 minutes (probably an optional step again, but it'll help to stop the biscuits from spreading in the oven and losing their shape). Bake in the oven for approximately 15 minutes until lightly coloured. Keep an eye on their edges, you don't want them going brown! Transfer the biscuits to a wire rack to cool.

Mix your icing ingredients together for a few minutes until smooth and fluffy. Use to sandwich the cooled biscuits together. I think I had nearly 30 sandwich biscuits in total.