Yet another rugby cake

Youngest nephew also requested a rugby themed birthday cake this year. My nerves still felt frazzled after the gravity defying rugby ball cake I created for his brother in March so I went down an easier route: a rectangular Victoria sponge cake with a fondant man on top. Simple yet still effective.

Why is it when you go into town for fondant icing in a particular colour you cannot find any for love nor money? In the end I painted white fondant green (with edible food colouring) for the pitch however I think this actually played in my favour. It looks more like a wet, muddy pitch than if it was just a flat, green block of fondant. 

The crushed bourbon biscuits for the mud were the finishing touch. Up until that point I was concerned my fondant man looked like he had been run over by a bus rather than a player diving to score a try. Adding the goals (made from thick card) helped bring the cake to life too.

Once again, it was important the rugby ball was a Scottish ball. I'm glad I still had some writing icing pens in the baking cupboard for that fiddly job!

Birthday boy was delighted with his cake. I was amused that he gave the cake slice with the player's "butt" to his friend to eat. Charming!

Irn Bru birthday cake

I'm finally onto my 2020 bakes, woohoo! Now here's a showstopper, my middle nephew's 10th birthday cake based on his favourite drink, Irn Bru.

To those out with Scotland, Irn Bru is a sweet, fizzy drink with a difficult to describe flavour (you can read about it here on wikipedia.) I can't say I've ever been a fan, but people who love it seriously LOVE it.

To create this cake I started off with baking eight 6" round Victoria sponge cakes (an 8 egg mixture I think), although I only ended up using 7 sponges. I felt that was high enough to create the proportions of an Irn Bru can. I toyed with the idea of incorporating Irn Bru flavour into the cake as I had seen other bakers do this online, but came to the conclusion that it's really the visuals of the birthday cake that's important to my nephews, not necessarily exciting or unusual flavours.

Stacking this cake was rather intense. I think this is the most careful I've ever been with levelling cakes. Usually I'm pretty laid back (lazy) about this kind of thing but as this was going to be tall it had to be as level as possible. I took this photo mid construction as I thought it looked rather impressive.

Rolling out enough orange fondant to cover the sides was quite an event, but it actually went on surprisingly smooth and stress-free. The only scary moment I encountered was when I thought the orange colouring in the fondant had permanently stained my lovely oilcloth tablecloth, but after a lot of bleach and elbow grease I got it shifted. Phew!

To finish the cake I made some boiled sugar shards to stick on top to mimic juice fizzing and bursting out the can. Usually it takes me two or three attempts to make anything caramel/sugar shard related but this worked first time. Yay! I also used silver edible paint for the top layer of fondant which did the job at bringing the can to life. It looked more effective than a grey fondant.

The birthday boy was thoroughly delighted with the cake and it tasted good too. Victoria sponge never disappoints. I was particularly pleased with how cool the cake looked cut open. It was an impressive cross section!

Shaun the sheep cake

Out of all my bakes from last year this was hands down my favourite. Just look how flipping cute it turned out!

I made this cake for my youngest nephew's birthday last May and although it looks fancy it was surprisingly simple to put together (compared to previous years anyway!) 

The main cake is a stack of victoria sponges stuck together with jam, with a minimal amount of carving to create a body shape. Once carved it was covered in butter icing and large marshmallows were stuck on top. A smaller piece of cake was covered in black fondant and set on top for the head. The limbs and ears were also moulded from black fondant icing. All pretty simple.

The little accompanying characters were a bit more fiddly to mould but admittedly I didn't make them, they're my mum's handiwork. They definitely add to the overall fun look of the cake.

It turns out that it's difficult to buy a pack of white marshmallows as everything I came across was a mixture of pink and white. In the end I bought loads of packs and carefully picked out all the white marshmallows, leaving me with a hilariously large tub of pink marshmallows.

In addition to the cake I made a flock of cupcake sheep. They're possibly even cuter looking than the cake. Making these in addition to the cake meant buying mini marshmallows and, you guessed it, I ended up with a a tub full of pink mini marshmallows.

Now I am caretaker of ALL THE PINK MARSHMALLOWS. 11 months later I still have a plentiful stash in my kitchen. Hot chocolate, anyone?

Dad's 60th

My Dad turned 60 a few weeks ago and to mark the great occasion Mum and I created a cakey golf course in the shape of a 60. Perfect for golf-lovin' Dad.

No surprises for guessing the cake base, it's another Mary Berry plain sponge traybake. I baked two traybakes and used one for each number. Both were cut in half horizontally and sandwiched with my usual jam and butter icing before cutting to shape and covering with fondant.

The holes in the numbers were used to create a sand bunker and pond. I found it hilarious how excited people were about the "sand" in the bunker. Both adults and children were poking their fingers in it like it was magic dust, when in reality it was just mashed up Rich Tea biscuits. Haha.

As well as the sand bunker and pond we also made stripey fairway, a putting green, a cluster of trees and some rough. The trees were created by shaping fondant into cones and scoring them with a toothpick to give a leafy-ish texture. The rough was piped butter icing using a small star nozzle and I felt that extra bit of texture was the finishing touch for our golf course.

I'm really pleased with how this cake turned out. Who would have thought designing a golf course could be so much fun! My Dad was absolutely thrilled with it too and couldn't wait to share a photo of it on Facebook.

Lighting 60 candles was a mammoth task which required many helping hands. It was an impressive sight once the candles were all lit, although the amount of blue smoke in the kitchen after blowing out the candles was crazy! I'm amazed the fire alarm didn't go off.

And that concludes the family birthday baking for this year. Phew! I thought I wouldn't be able to face eating or baking any more cake after such a cake-filled month but I found myself wanting to bake again the following week, haha. You'd think I'd know myself by now, I never get fed up with cake!

30 and a load of cake

I turned thirty a few weeks ago. *Insert Edvard Munch's Scream painting face*

I think I hit the feeling-and-looking-physically-older phase a couple of years ago so I wasn't bothered about turning thirty. If anything, I feel much healthier and in better shape now than I was for the majority of my twenties. Also, the older I become the more socially acceptable it is for me to be myself i.e. an introverted granny-type who prefers staying home to knit than going out to party. Basically I'm growing into the old woman I've always been.

Last year there was a knitting theme to my presents, but this year it was homewares since my house is edging closer to becoming habitable. I'm guessing most women would be offended if they received a toaster, kettle and blender for their birthday rather than posh jewellery or a fancy holiday, but I was delighted. I love practical presents, especially if they're pretty. Also, they matched my cake which was a giant party ring.

My 1950s neapolitan kitchen dreams are slowly coming together.

As a side note, my Dad took practical presents to a completely new level. I am now the proud(?) owner of every conceivable cleaning fluid and a stack of washing up sponges. Nice.

My sister in law also turned thirty two days after me so we had a joint cake for our "fake birthday"/family dinner. Although we're good pals we are very different in our styles and tastes so Mum thought it would be fun to reflect that in our joint cake which was a big 3 and 0. For sis-in-law we made a super duper chocolate cake sandwiched with jam and chocolate butter icing and covered the top with loads of different chocolate treats. There were Toblerone chunks, Maltesers, Rolos, M&Ms and chopped up Mars Bar, Crunchie and Twix.

 SO. MUCH. CHOCOLATE.

The sides were decorated with segments of Terry's Chocolate Orange. I almost wish I had covered the sides as densely as the top, but at the same time leaving gaps made the cake easier to cut into slices.

For my Party Ring cake Mum baked 2 plain Victoria sponges, sliced them into 4 layers, sandwiched them together with jam and white chocolate butter icing and then covered the entire cake in pink fondant. I really loved the simplicity of the decoration, especially next to the chocolate cake which was so visually OTT.

I'm glad I didn't have all 30 candles on my cake as I barely had the lung capacity to blow out 15 in one go. That's partly because as soon as I started blowing out the candles my hair fell in front of my face and I thought I had set myself on fire. Always keeping things classy.

Naturally, I sampled both cakes. The chocolate one, as expected, was mega chocolatey but the sponge itself was very light so the overall cake didn't feel overwhelmingly heavy or rich. I used my favourite chocolate cake recipe for this cake, just in case you're curious and fancy trying it.

I don't know what it is about a plain sponge with jam, butter icing and fondant but it always hits the spot. It's hard to beat. Add in a bit of pink and some white chocolate then I'm even happier.

As I had an early fake birthday Mum thought I still needed a cake for my actual birthday. I certainly wasn't going to argue, so for cake number 2 Mum surprised me with a ballet slipper cake. Admittedly, it's the kind of cake usually made for little girls, but damn it I don't care. It's never too late to learn ballet and have your ballerina cake!

The week before my birthday I ordered my first leotard and ballet wrap skirt as a present to myself. Never did I think it was possible to feel so excited about exercise gear. My teacher is so chuffed that a few of us ladies are starting to wear leotards to class.

I love how the "ribbons" are arranged to create a 30; it's so subtle and clever. Also, check out the massive white chocolate Jazzies/Snowies around the cake! YUM.

As before, the cake was a plain sponge (Mary Berry's plain traybake recipe, I think) with jam and butter icing. Why change a good thing, right?

Next up is Dad's birthday cake. My family are all about birthdays in May and October! :D

birthday cakes and other bakes

Hello! How's it going? I'm currently feeling a bit run down. I had a sick bug last weekend and this weekend I have a massive coldsore. I look delightful. In an attempt to not run myself into the ground further, I'm going to chill today with some knitting and catch up with blogging.

May and June were quite intense months between work and organising/doing house renovations. Things are moving forward on the house front though. I'm finally at the turning point where deliveries are arriving and things are ready to be installed. I'm looking forward to partitions going back up and the house looking more like a home again rather than a sad, gutted shell.

Anyway, this isn't a house renovating post, we're here for cake pictures. Right? I have a lot of family birthdays crammed into a few weeks in April/May so there's always an intense period of baking. It's tiring but also kind of brilliant. Three of the birthdays fall within a week so there is loads of cake to power through!

Blow away sponge

A cake for my Aunty's 70th birthday. I haven't baked one of these before, or if I have it was so long ago that I've forgotten, but Mum used to make these a lot. It's a fatless sponge, similar to a swiss roll I guess, so very light and fluffy. I sandwiched the sponges with cream, jam and fresh strawberries. I would love to make this again as it's so fresh and summery.

Black Lego brick cake

This is what happens when you leave baking to the last minute so you have to make something simple and the only fondant icing colour you have in the cupboard is black. I kind of love the brick in its basic glory though and oddly black is probably the most appropriate colour for my eldest brother. The cake itself is a Mary Berry basic sponge traybake cut in half and stacked with jam and butter icing sandwiched in between. Mary's traybake never lets me down, it's so good!  The cute lemon meringue cupcakes were baked by my sister in law.

Minecraft cake

This is actually my second Minecraft themed cake (first was for eldest nephew here) but this time it was for my youngest nephew. The cake was another Mary traybake but cut into smaller blocks and iced individually before haphazardly stacking into a structure. Whilst I baked the sponges my Mum did a cracking job of making all the fiddly figures to set on and around the cake.

Incredible Hulk cake

As an Incredible Hulk fan, this was my favourite cake of the bunch, evidenced by the fact I took more than one photo! Unsurprisingly, this cake comprises of..... you guessed it.... yet more Mary Berry traybake sponges.

It turns out making a Hulk cake isn't as straight-forward as one would think. Have a browse through Google Images and you'll understand.... The vast majority look pretty ropey! I think because there are so many different styles of the Hulk he's not got a go-to, recogniseable face to draw, if that makes sense? There were a couple of more hopeful looking cakes though, one of which had the Hulk breaking through a wall. I thought that looked cool so I followed that idea but drew a different face. Initially Mum and I tried to sculpt a 3D face to match the 3D fists but it looked horrendous. It was so bad I almost wish I'd taken a photo. Luckily we had enough green icing to make his face again on a flat layer. I think what we ended up with was presentable and recogniseable. The fists are definitely my favourite part though!

Other bakes:

Apple and mixed berry crumble

My Mum has owned this pretty, flower shaped Denby dish for a few years yet has never used it due to the impractical shape. Whilst I partly agree about it not being the most functional dish, I've always thought it would be great for a pudding. Back in April, I finally put the dish to use and it was glorious.

The crumble was attractively colourful and tasty and I loved how the petals of the dish made perfect portion sizes. The dish might get another outing soon as last month I discovered a few sticks of rhubarb growing in my new garden! Rhubarb crumble is most definitely on the horizon. 

Chocolate chip and pink smartie cookies

A few months ago I baked these biscuits/cookies (whatever you choose to call them) to take to my brother's house for dessert and served them warm with a dollop of Hagendaaz Praline and Cream ice-cream. OH MY GOODNESS IT TASTED AMAZING. I highly recommend it. They're basically The Hummingbird Bakery's chocolate chip cookies from their first cookbook. The only difference was swapping some of the chocolate chips for pink smarties.

What have you been baking recently, anything nice and summery? I've been optimistically flicking through my recipe books but have yet to make anything. I think it's safe to move away from the Mary Berry traybake though!

french fancies

Man do I love a french fancy. They're pretty and pink, dainty and sweet. Perfect afternoon tea food. What's not to love?!

I remember watching an episode of the Great British Bake Off where they made french fancies for a technical challenge. Holy moly what a mess they got in! Crumbling sponges, gloopy, irregular icing - both tragic and hysterically funny for viewers. 

When I had left over sponge and fondant icing from middle nephew's bad ass t-rex cake I knew exactly what I was wanted to create. Fondant fancies are indeed a bit fiddly and mine are slightly wonky, but they tasted delicious and I had a lot of fun making them. That could partly be because I had Gilmore Girls on tv in the background. :D

I definitely want to make these again. The only change I'd make would be to omit the butter icing from the middle of the sponges and just use jam. I don't think it's necessary considering the outside is covered in a layer of butter icing before adding the melted fondant layer. It's pretty sweet as it is!

I also need to learn to let the fancies fully dry on the cooling rack before transferring onto plates. So much stickiness. They looked relatively presentable until I tried to move them for photos, oops!

I would write down a recipe but I have no real recollection of quantities as I made these back in March. However, I'll write down a general set of instructions if anyone else fancies making their own french fancies.

Bake a basic sponge mix (I use Mary Berry's sponge traybake recipe) in an oblong tin. Once your sponge is fully cool, preferably the following day when the sponge is a bit more stable, cut it in half horizontally and sandwich together with a layer of jam. 

Cut the sponge into cubes then fully cover each cube, except the bottom, with a thin layer of butter icing (you can add food colouring if you like.) Heat your spatula/spreading knife in a cup of hot water to help your icing spread and smooth down edges. 

While your butter icing is setting, melt your block of fondant icing in a large heatproof bowl. I did this by gradually pouring enough boiling water over it  and mixing until it softened and achieved a good pouring consistency. Add some food colouring but keep some white spare for decoration at the end. 

Pour the melted fondant over each cube. You can use a spatula/knife to encourage the icing to reach edges or corners. Finally, fill an icing pen with the remaining white melted fondant (or use a teaspoon) to pipe/drizzle zig zags across each cube. 

Leave to dry then serve. You can store these in a container if you like but bear in mind the fondant icing will become very sticky. This will not affect the taste though :)

bad ass t-rex and an octonaut gup

Thank you for all the kind comments on my previous post; you're a lovely bunch! I genuinely wasn't fishing for compliments. Sometimes you just need to vent and admit that life has been a bit sh*t and you've been struggling before you can continue posting fun things. So, thank you for lending an ear and being supportive.

Moving onto cakes... Children's birthdays offer interesting baking challenges and my nephews rarely disappoint. Middle nephew specified a dinosaur and cola bottle sweeties themed cake for his birthday this year. An unconventional combination I must admit, but who am I to deny a 7 year old his birthday cake wishes.

After some internet research Mum, my birthday-cake-making sidekick, and I decided on a cola bottle-consuming t-rex. If I remember correctly (I made this back in March) the body, legs and tail were cut from an oblong, sponge traybake. The head was built from half of a second traybake and sandwiched together with a lot of butter icing. This was then set on end and supported in the centre with cocktail sticks. 

For the scaley skin we lightly pressed the wrong end of a piping nozzle into the fondant icing while it was still soft. It ended up looking pretty effective!

My favourite feature of this cake is definitely the mouth. The big, pointy teeth with all the cola bottles poking out make me laugh.

For youngest nephew's birthday in May Mum and I made an Octonaut themed cake. It turned out pretty snazzy, even if I do say so myself. I was well impressed with my attempt at the fiddly dashboard.

Poor eldest nephew's cake went undocumented. That's the peril of having a birthday just after New Year; it tends to pass in a blur!

outer space star wars cake

It was middle nephew's birthday last week and he put in an order for a Star Wars theme cake involving a death star. Considering Mum and I still haven't seen any of the films (yeah, sorry, we prefer Star Trek, whatever) and struggled to make sense of eldest nephew's Star Wars themed birthday cake last year, we weren't entirely sure how to make something not too complicated yet recognisable. Thankfully, I think we did a pretty good job with this cake.

Sometimes you need to pick your battles in life and for us it was avoiding fondant modelling. Purchasing little figures to decorate the cake made things so much easier, plus it gave the birthday boy extra toys.

To make the shape of the planet and death star I baked a small victoria sponge mixture in a little Denby cup and a glass pyrex bowl. Neat, huh? For the planet it was just a matter of covering with jam and marbled/painted fondant icing but for the death star we cut out a little hollow before covering with fondant and spraying it silver. I was worried it looked like a futuristic inverted nipple but it came to life as a death star, or at least some sort of sci-fi object, once all the "construction" lines were scored into the surface.

I still have absolutely no idea what the death star is. Hopefully not a boob.

The main cake acting as outer space was a plain traybake covered in marbled fondant icing. I liked the swirly, intergalactic effect of the marbling and it looked even more space-y once we stuck on silver balls for stars. I was also delighted to discover that silver balls are much kinder on teeth than they used to be. Gone are the days of breaking a tooth on them.

To make the cake surroundings more exciting Mum stuck all our inspiration/reference pictures around the tray. I thought that was a pretty smart idea, no wastage here.

I think if I get asked to make a star wars cake for a third time I'll have to admit defeat and actually watch at least one of the films. There's only so long I'll get away with making vague space themed cakes!