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?

hot chocolate deluxe cake

When I first left university and started this blog I worked in a cafe/bar and one of my favourite drinks to make was the hot chocolate deluxe: a milky hot chocolate topped with a swirl of cream, marshmallows and a Cadbury flake. By this time of year I was making quite a lot of these daily. Cold weather hits and everybody craves hot chocolate.

To celebrate the arrival of hot chocolate weather I thought I'd recreate my favourite cafe drink as a layer cake: monster slabs of moist chocolate sponge sandwiched together with chocolate icing, marshmallows and topped with mini swirls of cream, even more marshmallows and a chocolate flake.

Although visually impressive I have to admit I was massively disappointed with my icing for this cake. It was entirely my own fault too as I stupidly didn't taste it before slapping it on the cake. (There's a reason why Masterchef contestants are always told off for not tasting their food.) Despite the fluffiness there was a slight grainy texture. I'm guessing I should have dissolved the cocoa powder properly in hot water/milk first before adding to the mixture as the graininess certainly wasn't from lack of mixing.

I think it should have tasted much more chocolatey as well, but at the time I was reserving the remaining chocolate to make a ganache topping. The plan was to use chocolate butter icing for filling and crumb coating, then make a ganache to coat the top and sides. By the time I stacked the sponges I realised crumb coating wasn't really an option as I didn't have enough icing left and it wasn't practical with my tiny palette knife. Ganache also seemed unnecessary by this point so I whipped some of the cream and piped it on as rosettes.

The cream rosettes worked brilliantly. Not only did they look cute they also offered a light contrast to the chocolate and sweet marshmallows. The cake itself was also lovely - light in texture, juicy and satisfyingly chocolatey in flavour - it has been my go-to, easy chocolate cake recipe for many years. If I recreated this hot chocolate themed cake, which is definitely worth doing as this cake is so close to being awesome, I'd use chocolate ganache instead of butter icing. I think it would have more of an indulgent hot chocolate quality.

The hot chocolate powder I used for this cake was kindly sent to me by Whittard along with a couple of other exciting prodcuts which I will blog about soon. I've actually had their parcel for a couple of weeks and it has been so tempting just to drink it all and not bake with it, haha! I hadn't tried their luxury hot chocolate before as I tend to favour their white hot chocolate but this is satisfyingly rich and indulgent, definitely a luxury. It's a real treat with a few marshmallows and the perfect way to spend an afternoon doing a bit of letter writing and crafting.

Hot chocolate deluxe cake
Recipe adapted from here, my favourite chocolate cake recipe. Use the recipe in the link if you'd prefer a normal sized sandwich cake! (7" round)

cake:
262g/ 9oz self raising flour
3 generous tbsp Whittard Luxury hot chocolate cocoa powder  (courtesy of Whittard)
1 1/2 tsp bicarbonate of soda
225g/ 7.5oz soft light brown sugar
3 generous tbsp golden syrup
3 large eggs, lightly beaten
225ml/ 7.5fl oz sunflower oil
225ml/ 7.5fl oz milk (I used semi skimmed)

icing - this is what I used but I would recommend using your own favourite chocolate butter icing or chocolate ganache recipe instead:
250g icing sugar
125g unsalted butter, softened
100g milk chocolate, melted and cooled (I used Green and Blacks)
1 tbsp Whittard hot chocolate cocoa powder
a splash of milk
150ml double cream, whipped until stiff
1 Cadbury flake
a bag of mini marshmallows and heart shaped marshmallows

Preheat the oven to 180C/Gas 4 and grease and line three 6 inch round tins. In a large bowl sift together the flour, cocoa powder and bicarbonate of soda. Stir in the sugar then make a well in the centre for the wet ingredients. Add the golden syrup, eggs, oil and milk then mix everything together for about a minute. 

Divide equally between the three tins and bake in the oven for approximately 30-35 minutes until well risen, firm to touch and a skewer inserted in the middle of the cake comes out clean. I put a layer of greaseproof paper on top after 25-30 minutes as the tops were starting to catch/burn but the insides still weren't fully cooked. It may be worth cooking them in a slightly cooler oven next time or perhaps not fill the tins so high! Leave to cool in the tins for about 5 minutes before turning out onto a wire rack. Once completely cool, level all the tops of the sponges for stacking. Mine rose quite high so I had a lot of leftover crumbs to nibble on! 

For the icing, mix together the icing sugar, butter, chocolate, and cocoa for about 5 minutes until light and fluffy. Use to sandwich together the layers along with a few handfuls of mini marshmallows. Whip the cream until it forms stiff peaks and pipe as rosettes on the top of the cake. Decorate with more marshmallows and a flake.

Disclaimer: I was sent products to bake with as Whittard recognise I'm a crazy cake lady with an uncontrollable hot chocolate and tea addiction. They're a brand I enjoy and have purchased from before. I was not paid for this post and all opinions expressed are my own.

Marshmallow jam surprise cake

I needed a quick cake to bake last week and preferably girly. You can't get much girlier than marshmallows, jam and pink sprinkles can you?

The cake was actually baked for group of men. Does anyone else take great delight out of making something ridiculously girly for manly men?

A teacup full of mini marshmallows is a wonderful sight.

I used to avoid eating marshmallows. I could eat a couple but wouldn't go out of my way to eat them as they made me feel a bit funny. Then my mum told me that when I was 3 I ate so many marshmallows after my Grandad's funeral that I was sick! Suddenly it all made sense. They don't bother me now.

This is pretty much a bog standard sponge cake with some strawberry jam yet somehow the mixture was quite stiff when I turned it into the tin to bake. It's possible that I accidently put in too much flour as I wasn't paying full attention (that'll teach me to do "easy baking" whilst watching Once Upon A Time) but I couldn't be bothered to tip it back out to alter. It still produced a tasty cake, even though the jam dollops sunk to the bottom. The marshmallows and icing were insanely sweet but I think that's part of the cake's charm.

Marshmallow jam surprise cake

Recipe from Cakes Galore by Valerie Barett

125g soft margarine (I used unsalted butter as I didn't have margarine

125g caster sugar

125g self-raising flour

2 eggs, beaten

2-3 tablespoons black cherry jam or any red jam of your choice

100g large marshmallows (I used mini marshmallows as that's what I had in the cupboard but large ones would probably look prettier on the cake.)

175g icing sugar

Preheat the oven to 180C/350F/Gas mark 4. Grease and base line a deep 18cm round cake tin. Put the margarine, sugar, flour and eggs into a bowl and beat together until smooth and mixed. Spread half the mixture into the base of the prepared tin. Dot with the jam. Spread the remaining cake mixture evenly over the top. Bake in the oven for about 40-45 minutes, or until well risen and golden brown.

While the cake is cooking, cut the marshmallows in half horizontally, using wetted scissors. Remove the cake from the oven and leave to cool in the tin for a few minutes, then turn out onto a wire rack. Cool the cake for about 15 minutes, then arrange the marshmallows, cut-side down, over the top of the warm cake (the cake needs to be warm enough for the cut sides of the marshmallows to melt slightly so that they stick to the cake.) Leave the cake until quite cold. Mix together the icing sugar and enough water in a bowl to marke a thick pouring consistency. Pour the icing over the cake and allow to run slightly down the sides. Serve in slices.

Chocolate and vanilla marble cake and some cupcakes

Last Friday was spent baking with my two best friends. (How on earth did a week pass so quickly?!)Our bake-athons don't happen very often anymore, due to us being boring adults living in different places, but they are still fun when they do happen.

Apologies for the photo quality. These were all taken with my phone.

This is a classic compromise cake. Chocolate or vanilla? Both! Pink or chocolate icing? Both! Marshmallows, chocolate stars or Barbie sprinkles for decoration? CHUCK IT ALL ON!

We also baked some marshmallow cupcakes from the first Hummingbird Bakery Cookbook. The melted marshmallow for the cupcake centre is the most unruly thing I've ever worked with. It was near impossible to put it inside the cupcake so we gave up after a four and put jam in the rest. Half the batch were finished with pink vanilla butter icing and marshmallows and the rest were covered with a layer of marzipan.

I love how it looks like a plain chocolate cake, but all is revealed when you cut into it.

There's always something exciting about a marble cake because you can never really predict how the marbled effect will turn out. Well, I find it exciting. Maybe I don't get out enough?(!)

We enjoyed a slice of cake each after dinner with a cuppa.

I enjoyed our marble cake so much that I made another one this week at home. Unfortunately it got devoured before my camera got anywhere near it.

Chocolate and vanilla marble cake

We used the one-weight method for our cake where the weight of the eggs are equal to the weight of the butter, sugar and self-raising flour . We used three eggs which weighed roughly 175g/6oz so that was our weight for everything else.

Preheat the oven to 180C/Gas 4 and grease and line two 7 inch tins. Creamed the butter and sugar until light and fluffy then gradually added the eggs and fold in the flour. Divide the mixture into two bowls, adding cocoa powder (to taste) to one half and a few drops of vanilla extract to the other half. Add a small amount of milk to the chocolate mixture to slacken it after adding the cocoa powder.  Haphazardly dollop the mixtures alternately into the two tins and bake them in the centre of the oven for roughly 20-25 minutes until springy to touch. Leave the cakes to cool in the tin for a few minutes before turning out onto a wire rack to finish cooling. Once cool, sandwich the sponges together with vanilla butter icing and ice the top layer with chocolate butter icing. Decorate with marshmallows, sprinkles or whatever you fancy!

January baking creations

Kathleen's birthday cake

I made a pink chequer board cake for my cousin Kathleen's birthday with fondant icing decorations and marshmallows.

I wasn't there to take photos of the cake's chequer board interior, however Kathleen's fiance Thomas has allowed me to show the photos he took. Thanks Thomas!

The birthday girl admiring her cake.

It may not be a perfect chequer board but it's pretty good for a first attempt!

Chocolate buns with marshmallow filling

I made these with my friend Sarah. We discovered that it is a bad idea to put marshmallows in the bun mixture before it's cooked (in other words we should have followed the recipe!) It was fixable though; we put melted marshmallows in the crater holes that were left in the cooked buns and then covered it up with chocolate buttercream icing.

White chocolate brownies/ Blondies

  These were yummmmmmmmy.