Another carrot cake

It's birthday season at the moment which means a constant layer of icing sugar dust in my kitchen. Yay?

For last week's birthday I tried another new-to-me carrot cake recipe as there's no point in having a shelf full of baking books if I always default to the same handful of recipes. This one is from Vintage Cakes, one of my favourite books to flick through as it's full of pictures of homely bakes on pretty vintage china. To be honest I'm surprised I haven't baked this recipe before.

I think I preferred this cake to the one I made for the Man's birthday. The texture felt less wet and I've come to the conclusion I prefer the flavour of a carrot cake made with dark muscovado sugar as opposed to light brown sugar. I think it brings out the spices more.

Sadly I only have one picture of this cake so you'll just have to believe me when I say it was a winner and looked very satisfying when cut.

Carrot layer cake

Recipe (once again, slightly adapted to suit what I had available) from Vintage Cakes by Jane Brocket. I also did my own thing with the icing.

Sponges:

250g self raising flour

2tsp baking powder 

In all honesty I can't remember how much spice I added, but probably 1tsp ground cinnamon and 1/2 tsp mixed spice

100g pecans, chopped 

250g dark soft brown sugar 

220ml sunflower oil

3 large eggs, lightly beaten

250g carrots, grated 

Icing:

300g icing sugar

Approx. 75g softened butter ( I used slightly salted)

Approx. 250g cream cheese (that's all I had at the time)

Zest of half an orange

Preheat the oven to 180C/ 160C fan/ gas 4. Grease and line 3 20cm/ 8" round cake tins with baking parchment.

Combine the dry ingredients into a bowl: flour, baking powder and spices. Stir in the chopped pecans.

In a large bowl mix together the sugar and oil. Add the eggs and whisk again until smooth.

Add the grated carrots and the dry mix (flour and nuts) to the wet mix (eggs, sugar, oil) and mix everything together until well combined.

Divide the mixture between the cake tins and bake in the oven for approx. 25 minutes, until well risen, firm to touch and a skewer inserted into the centre of the cake comes out clean. Leave the cakes to cool for a few minutes before removing from their tins and leaving to cool fully on a wire cooling rack.

For the icing mix together the butter, orange zest and icing sugar then add the cream cheese and mix until everything is smooth and fully combined. (Tip: if you have a stand mixer and find your icing goes lumpy try swapping the paddle attachment for the whisk attachment. I usually find the whisk helps to incorporate the stubborn butter lumps.)

Once the cakes are cool, spread the icing onto each sponge and stack into a layer cake. Optional: add chopped pecans on top for decoration.

hummingbird cake with orange cream cheese icing

I remember "semi-naked" cakes being all the rage online about 10 years ago and the term felt too "hipster" for my liking. I'm a contrary sod so needless to say I did not jump on the bandwagon. Until last month, purely because I didn't make enough icing and couldn't be arsed to make more. I wonder if this is how the style started?

I've posted this hummingbird cake before (originally here) numerous times as it's a firm favourite for family birthdays but for a change I tried an orange and honey cream cheese icing. It was absolutely delicious; the orange complemented the spiced banana and pineapple flavours really nicely. I definitely want to use it again so have written it down below for reference.

Orange and honey cream cheese icing:

2oz softened butter

4oz icing sugar

6oz full fat cream cheese

Grated zest of an orange

1tsp runny honey 

Beat together the butter and icing sugar for 5 minutes until light and fluffy. Add the cream cheese, orange zest and honey and mix until fully combined.

Enough for a standard sandwich cake but recommend doubling the quantities for filling and fully covering a triple layer cake.

lemon and blueberry layer cake

Man turned 40 a few weeks ago so a grand cake was required. Like myself he is a lemon cake fan and after running ideas past him we decided on a lemon and blueberry cake sandwiched with with lemon curd and a cream cheese icing. Also a trifle, because all celebratory occasions in life require trifle.

 

The cake is a slight variation on this one I made many years ago, back when I used to put effort into my photography, ha! I think it used to be the most popular post on this blog (also back when I used to check stats.) It's a cute, little cake and I'm surprised it has taken me so long to bake something similar again.

The main change I made is the size as I scaled it up to an 8" layer cake. I think I used a 5 or 6 egg Victoria sponge mix with the zest of two lemons. In hindsight I wish I had added more blueberries to the batter (or not made such a huge cake batter?) but I was concerned about them adding too much moisture to the cake. Looking back at my original recipe I think I had a better ratio.

For my lemon curd filling I used my reliable Delia Smith recipe (documented here), although for whatever reason it didn't seem as punchy as usual which was a bit disappointing.

For the icing I used my personal perfected ratio for cream cheese icing: 2oz butter, 4oz icing sugar, 6oz full fat cream cheese (doubled to cover this size of layer cake.) Beat the icing sugar and butter together for about 5 minutes until light and fluffy before adding the cream cheese, then mix until fully incorporated.

I probably added lemon zest as well, but I can't remember. It is a tasty icing with or without adding extra flavours to it.

We also hosted a sausage roll bake off for Man's birthday with our families. It was quite a spread with at least 8 different types of flavours/fillings. I've never seen so many sausage rolls on a (horrible yet practical) breakfast bar.

Although we didn't declare a winner I was pleased to see my sausage rolls were popular. Mine were filled with chorizo, sun dried tomatoes and pork sausage meat. If you haven't tried this combination I can recommend it!

lemon and blackcurrant cake

I've had the lemon and blackcurrant cake from the Clandestine Cake Club book bookmarked since it came out 10 years ago but have always been unable to make it as I couldn't get my hands on any blackcurrants. 

Not anymore! In addition to the "rhubarb empire" we inherited an established blackcurrant and gooseberry bush in our new garden so my lemon and blackcurrant cake dream finally became a reality! (More on the gooseberries another time.)

This cake did not disappoint, it was well worth the wait. Good job, as I had baked it for a family birthday. The sponge itself is almost pudding-like: slightly heavier and juicier in texture compared to a Victoria sponge due to the addition of blackcurrants and ground almonds and also a lemon drizzle soak. 

The blackcurrant coulis/quick jam was also outstanding. What a flavour and colour! I will admit to not quite having enough blackcurrants for it (guilty of eating too many blackcurrants through the week) so I subbed in some fruit from a bag of mixed frozen summer fruits, picking out the blueberries, blackberries and blackcurrants to keep the dark purple colour.

I can see myself making this cake every year which is a lovely thing to look forward to each summer. If you have blackcurrants or can get access to any then I highly recommend trying this recipe. I also recommend serving the cake with fresh berries and cream!

Lemon and blackcurrant(ish) cake 

Recipe mildly adapted from Clandestine Cake Club by Lynn Hill

Sponges:

250g Softened butter (I used Stork baking margarine)

250g Caster sugar

4 large eggs

250g Self raising flour

50g Ground almonds

Zest of 1 lemon

100g Blackcurrants 

Lemon soaking syrup:

Juice of 1 lemon

2 tsp caster sugar

Coulis/jam filling

500g Blackcurrants (I only had 350g of fresh blackcurrants left so topped up the amount with a bag of frozen berries)

Approx. 100g Caster sugar (sweeten to taste)

Preheat the oven to 190C/ 170C Fan/gas mark 5 and grease and line x3 8" (20cm) round cake tins with baking parchment.

Beat together the butter and sugar with an electric mixer for about 5 minutes until light and fluffy. Add the eggs one at a time, beating well after each addition. Add the flour along with the lemon zest and ground almonds and mix until fully combined. Gently fold in the blackcurrants. 

Divide the cake batter between the 3 tins and smooth the tops evenly. Bake for approx. 20 minutes or until pale golden, well risen and firm to touch.

While the cake is in the oven, make the lemon syrup. Heat the lemon juice and sugar in a small saucepan on the hob until the sugar has dissolved and the mix becomes syrup-y. Remove from the hob and leave to cool then drizzle over/brush onto the cakes a few minutes after they have come out the oven.

For the berry filling, put the blackcurrants and caster sugar in a saucepan over a low heat. Cook until the mixture turns into a thicker, jam-like consistency, roughly 5 minutes. Take off the hob and leave to cool.

Once both the sponges and filling are cool, assemble together by spreading the jam over two sponges then stack them on top of each other, then top with the remaining sponge. Finish with a dusting of icing sugar if you fancy extra flourish.

pastel sprinkle birthday carrot cake

What do you do when you've made a bit of a botched job at smoothing down the icing on the sides of your cake? Cover it in a sugary, pastel rainbow!

Pastel rainbows, however, don't cover up structural problems. I was a bit lazy with levelling my layers so the cake ended up somewhat freeform. Not to matter though, I was fairly confident I was onto a winner flavour wise as the batter tasted good.

The finished cake was very tasty indeed. Hurrah!

I have been wanting to try out the Hummingbird Bakery's carrot cake recipe for years and since my sister in law's only stipulation for her birthday cake this year was "cream cheese icing" I thought now was as good a time as any. 

I'm not sure if I love it quite as much as their Hummingbird layer cake, but that really is just personal preference. It's a very satisfying, well spiced carrot cake and I'd definitely bake it again. My only regret is not having a dusting of cinnamon on top, which is what I usually do with carrot cakes, but I feared it would clash with the sprinkles!

Triple layer carrot cake

Recipe from Hummingbird Bakery Cookbook

300g soft light brown sugar

3 large eggs

300ml sunflower oil

300g plain flour

1tsp baking powder
1tsp bicarbonate of soda

1tsp ground cinnamon

1/2 tsp ground ginger
1/2 tsp salt
1/4 tsp vanilla extract

300g carrots, peeled and grated

100g walnuts (I used pecans instead) chopped 

cream cheese icing:

600g icing sugar

100g butter, softened (I use slightly salted)

250g full fat cream cheese

I also added 1/2tsp vanilla bean paste for extra flavour

Preheat the oven to 170C/150C Fan/325F/Gas 3. Grease and line 3 round 20cm (8 inch) cake tins. Beat together the sugar, eggs and oil until well combined. In a separate bowl sift together the flour, baking powder, cinnamon and ginger and slowly add to the egg mixture until fully combined. Stir in the grated carrots and chopped nuts until evenly dispersed then divide the mixture between the cake tins. Bake for 20-25mins until well risen, firm to touch and a skewer inserted into the centre of the cake comes out clean. Leave to cool for a few minutes before turning out onto a wire cooling rack.

For the icing, combine the butter and icing sugar. I find this easier to start off by hand with a spoon as the mixer just makes massive dust clouds! Once combined, add the cream cheese icing in one go and mix together (by mixer) for 5 minutes until the mixture is light and very fluffy. Use to generously fill and cover the cooled cake. I had enough icing left over to pipe a simple star border around the top of the cake.

For the pastel border I patted the sprinkles into the cake in their colour rows, working from the bottom up. I used my right hand to press them on and held my left hand underneath, with the edge of my palm lightly touching the side of the cake to catch and press in any falling sprinkles. It was quite a messy procedure (and there's probably a better way of doing it!) so I recommend keeping a baking tray underneath where you're working.

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.

blueberry and lemon layer cake

This felt like a purely selfish bake. I had no reason to bake a triple layer cake, which I usually feel deserves an "occasion", I just really wanted one.

It was only 6 inches in diameter though. A satisfying size and height of cake without being massive.

I based this cake on a tasty cake I ate in Edinburgh earlier in the year and also one I bookmarked on Sweetapolita ages ago. I loved the look and flavour of a lemon layer sandwiched between blueberry studded layers. Although my layering isn't as distinct as Sweetapolita's I still think it makes an attractive cake.

I couldn't decide whether I wanted to use lemon curd or blueberry jam with my lemon butter icing between the layers. In the end I went with both: jam between the bottom and middle layer and curd between the middle and top. They both offer something different flavour wise so I think that was a good choice.

I also toyed with the idea of going for a smooth icing coverage to finish the cake. After a few attempts I came to the conclusion that I don't own a large enough palette knife, I don't have the patience (or skill?) required and ultimately I don't particularly care! I actually really like textured icing. It looks homely and inviting and takes me less time to do therefore I get to eat cake quicker. And that's the most important thing, right?

Flavour wise this cake is a real sharp, sweet and tart sensation for the taste buds. Mum even declared "this is one of the best cakes you've made in a while". I'll take that compliment! I must admit I prefer sweet and sour flavour combinations to sweet and salty, although I'm expecting people may throw their cooking utensils at me for admitting that. Don't get me wrong, salted caramel is good, but I find it hard to go past a sharp and sweet lemon bake.

Now if you excuse me I'm going to go and scream into a pillow. It has been one of those days...

Blueberry and lemon layer cake
I baked this a couple of weeks ago and stupidly didn't write anything down so my memory of this is a bit sketchy. I think this is what I used though!

200g caster sugar
200g stork margarine (or butter)
3 large eggs
200g self raising flour
zest of 2 lemons
1 tbsp lemon juice
1 tbsp milk (I think!)
2 small packets of blueberries (I think they were about 150g each)

icing and filling:
450g icing sugar
150g butter (I use slightly salted)
lemon juice to taste
lemon curd
blueberry jam

Preheat the oven to 180C/170 fan/Gas 4. Grease and line three 6 inch round cake tins. Beat together the sugar and margarine/butter for 5 minutes until pale, light and fluffy. Add the eggs one at a time and mix well between each addition. Sift in the flour and add the lemon zest and 1 tbsp of lemon juice and milk. Mix until everything is smooth and fully combined. Divide the mixture between the three tins. Coat a packet of the blueberries in a small amount of flour (to stop them sinking in the mix) and lightly press the blueberries into the surface of two of the cake mixes. I can't remember if I used the whole blueberry packet, but I basically just pressed in enough to roughly cover the surface. 

Bake in the middle of the oven for about 20 minutes until risen, golden, springy to touch and the edges of the cake have come away from the tin. I only have two tins so the plain lemon layer was baked separately afterwards. If I remember correctly, I think the blueberry sponges took longer to bake, possibly up to 30 minutes, probably due to the addition of the blueberries to the mixture. Once cooked, leave to cool in the tins for a few minutes before turning out onto a wire rack to finish cooling.

For the icing, beat together the icing sugar, butter and enough lemon juice to achieve a nice spreadable consistency. Use to sandwich between the cakes (along with the jam and/or curd!) and coat the top and outside of the cake. Decorate your cake with any remaining blueberries.
 

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!

Hummingbird birthday cake

It was my Dad's birthday last Wednesday so I thought I'd try the Hummingbird Bakery's Hummingbird cake from their first book. I think this wins the award for fastest disappearing cake as there was none left to snack on the following day!

I loved the flavour of this cake: warm and fruity. Banana, cinnamon, pecan and pineapple make brilliant cake making buddies. It's similar to a carrot cake in terms of texture and spice, but the bananas and pineapple make it extra juicy.

 

And everybody loves a bit of cream cheese icing, you just can't go wrong with it. I must say that Bee whipped up a very smooth batch. She did an excellent job with her first triple layer cake.

 

We decided to really go for it and put 54 candles on the cake (no need to guess Dad's age!) It was an impressive blaze. Thankfully we didn't need to call the fire brigade.

 

This was a really nice sized triple layer cake and easy to cut. Triple layered without being ginormous! With previous layered cakes I've found that they can be unstable to cut and difficult to eat if they're really deep and high. I worried that these sponges hadn't risen enough but on cutting and tasting they were absolutely fine. It's definitely a recipe I'd be happy to use again. I wonder if it would work as a bundt...

 

I'm feeling too lazy to type out the recipe, but you can find it here through Ros, The More Than Occasional Baker. She also has a nut chopper!

Apple pie cake and sticky toffee cupcakes

Last week was my brother's birthday (my eldest brother was the week before) so I got to make another celebration cake! After showing him various recipes he decided on Edd Kimber's apple pie cake.

The sponge layers were light and packed with cinnamon flavour, but not in any ways overpowering. Sandwiched between the layers were cinnamon cream cheese icing (seriously tasty), caramelised apples and a drizzle of sticky syrup made from the apple juices. I think this was my tallest cake yet. It was huge! Huge and delicious.

Mmmmmm, look at that drizzly syrup!

As I want to support Edd Kimber with his first book I won't type out the recipe, but I can highly recommend it. I'd quite like to try all of his layer cakes as they look so impressive.

I also baked some sticky toffee cupcakes last week. These were iced in a mad rush so apologies for the lack of pretty decoration. I've made them before, for bonfire night last year, but they were so good I didn't get a chance to photograph them! They were just as tasty as before: a sticky date sponge with a dulche de leche butter icing (yes, it really does taste as good as it sounds!)

They may even be my favourite cupcake flavour to date (ooh I love a pun), or at least tie with nutella cupcakes, although I think I'm sliding into dodgy territory here, a bit like when Kate raised the difficult question, "if you could only have one type of cake for the rest of your life which would you choose?" It's so hard to pick an absolute favourite!

On a separate topic, I acquired some duck eggs this week. Can anybody recommend any recipes they'd be extra tasty in? I've never baked with them before so I'm quite excited.

Sticky Toffee Cupcakes

Recipe from Hummingbird Bakery Cake Days, p.185

For the sponge:

180g (6 1/2oz) pitted and chopped dates

180ml (6 1/2fl oz) boiling water

80g (3oz) unsalted butter, softened

150g (5 1/2oz) soft light brown sugar

2 large eggs

180g (6 1/2oz) plain flour

1/2 tsp baking powder

1 tsp bicarbonate of soda

1/4 tsp salt

1 tsp vanilla essence (use extract, it's better!)

For the frosting

160g (5 1/2oz) unsalted butter, softened

500g (1lb 2oz) icing sugar

50ml (1 3/4fl oz) whole milk

100g (3 1/2oz) tinned caramel/dulce de leche

12-16 dates, pitted and chopped, or small pieces of soft toffee to decorate

Place the chopped dates in a bowl, pour over the boiling water and leave to soak for approx. 20 minutes. Meanwhile, preheat the oven to 190C/375F/Gas 5, and line a muffin tin with cases. Using a hand held electric whisk or a freestanding mixer with the paddle attachment, beat the butter and sugar together until soft and fluffy. Break the eggs in one at a time, scraping down the sides of the bowl and mixing well on a medium speed after adding each egg. Sift together the flour, baking powder, bicarbonate of soda and salt. Add these dry ingredients in 3 batches to the egg and butter mix, then adjust the speed to medium-high and continue mixing until the batter is smooth and even. Scrape around the sides and bottom of the bowl to pick up any ingredients that might not be mixed in, then beat again briefly to ensure everything is well encorporated. Next add the vanilla essence to the date mixture and mix this into the cake batter by hand, making sure the dates are evenly dispersed throughout the batter.

Fill each paper case up to two thirds full with the batter. Any remaining batter can be used to fill extra cases in a second muffin tin. Bake in the oven for 18-20 minutes or until risen and springy to the touch. Leave to cool slightly before removing from the tin and placing onto a wire rack to cool completely before frosting.

Using the electric whisk or freestanding mixer with the paddle attachment, mix together the butter and icing sugar on a low speed until sandy in texture and no large lumps of butter remain. Still mixing on a low speed gradually add the milk and mix in well, then increase the speed to medium-high and beat until light and fluffy. Finally add the tinned caramel, beating it in thoroughly to ensure the frosting is evenly mixed. Spoon generous amounts of the frosting onto each cupcakes, then gently smooth over with a palette knife making a swirl on top if you wish. Scatter over the chopped dates or toffee pieces if using. (I strongly advise halving the frosting quantity. I iced generously and still had loads left over!)

A Birthday trifle cake

Last week was my eldest brother's birthday. He is the family's chief trifle eater, known for eating left over Christmas trifle for his breakfast on Boxing Day. No birthday or Christmas is complete in his mind without a trifle, so when I saw the Caked Crusader's trifle cake at the beginning of this month I immediately knew this would be the perfect birthday cake for him.

I can't decide what was best about it, other than it is both a cake AND a trifle! Its wobbly appearance was pretty spectacular. I think all cakes should wobble from now on. My nephews definitely appreciated the cake's wobble-factor too.

The cake cut really well, had all the textures and flavours of a trifle, and looked beautiful. The colours and layers make it a really attractive celebration cake. Needless to say this cake disappeared very quickly. I can easily see this becoming a family favourite. Thank you so much Caked Crusader for a fantastic recipe!

Notes on the recipe:

I fully admit to not taking 2 days to make this cake. I started the evening before and finished the following day, so I cut a couple of corners in terms of refrigeration time. It worked fine, but it's probably better to follow the Caked Crusader's time scale!

My cake took longer than 30 minutes to cook, nearly double the time, so I put a layer of greaseproof paper over the top of the cake to stop it from burning and to allow the inside to cook for longer.

I added more powder and sugar to my custard as I like mine to resemble and taste like Ambrosia custard :)

For the jelly I used just enough boiling water to completely melt the block then made up the rest of the pint with reserved juice from the tinned strawberries/raspberries ( as I feel it makes for a tastier jelly).

As you may have noticed, I've decided to start putting my weblink on my photographs. Although I can see how fun, addictive and useful websites such as Pinterest can be, and I'm flattered that people enjoy my photography, but it does bother me when I find my photographs on there without any reference or link back to me. It would take far too long to go through all my previous photographs but I think this is something I'm going to do from now on, even though I find it difficult to include text which is visible but hopefully not detracting from the photograph. Does anyone else feel uneasy about the whole Pinterest/copyright issue?

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.

Mum's birthday cake

When I received Edd Kimber's new book for Christmas I immediately knew that the first thing I would bake from it would be one of the layer cakes as they all look fantastic. Since Mum requested raspberries and white chocolate as her birthday flavour combination I attempted the Raspberry Ripple cake.

Boy did this cake involve a lot of work. By nature I am not a complicated baker, I like fairly simple recipes and tend to shy away from scary things such as macarons or even meringues, so this was quite a challenge for me.

Mum and her candle-blowing grandsons.

Although everything appeared to have turned out the way it should have, I just wasn't very sure about the overall cake. Similar to Hummingbird Bakery cupcake mixtures, the sponges came out of the oven beautifully risen and fluffy looking, and then after 5 minutes sank flat. Although the sponges had a nice flavour they were quite rich and dense (I suppose there were 6 eggs!) so it didn't take much eating to become full!

The only big problem I encountered was the icing. I was surprised everything went according to plan, it didn't even curdle with me, BUT I realised that I had added salted instead of unsalted butter and the resulting flavour was like licking oily, salty, chocolate meringue (there's a lot of butter in the icing). I rescued it by adding raspberry jam and some icing sugar to sweeten it up and piled fresh raspberries on top which added a clean flavour to cut through the icing.

Although I am pleased I actually managed to create this cake, I still feel slightly miffed that it took loads of time, effort (and butter and eggs!) to make when I probably would have been just as happy with a quick victoria sponge and fresh fruit. I wasn't entirely sold on the italian meringue icing either as the butter gave it such an oily texture, although perhaps it would have worked out better if I had used the specified unsalted butter. It's something I'd quite like to try again. I also think this type of recipe would be a lot easier if I owned a stand mixer as my poor arms and hand held mixer found it hard to multi task with the cooked icing.

Despite all my gripes, it did look super impressive and everybody thought the cake and icing tasted much better the next day. And they couldn't have been lying as there was no cake left for me after work! You'd think a three layer cake would last longer wouldn't you!