Present Cake

My friend wanted something special for her 50th. This was it...

I started by making three layers for fudgy chocolate cake and icing in fudge icing. 

It was big!!

Then I covered with white fondant and cut circles from pink and purple to decorate and balls of the same colours to put around the bottom. 

Finally I rolled purple and laid pink on top for the ribbons and made the big bow seperately. Next time I'll know to make the loops for the bow a few days before so they harden properly before assembling. 

I dusted all the coloured elements with lustre powder. I was quite pleased for a first attempt. 

Ladybird Cake

Another dome cake. This time a ladybird for Mischief's second birthday. 

Beaded Earrings

Made these for a friends birthday last month. I'd've liked to have kept them for myself. 

'99 Flake' Cupcakes

I've been playing with my piping nozzles again, I know, it's a problem...

This time I thought cake that looked like ice creams would be rather nice. I used a Wilton 1M and piped from the outside in using and upwards motion. I thought it was perfectly finished with a flake, sprinkles and raspberry sauce. The cupcakes were chocolate of course. The raspberry sauce seemed to soak down through the icing if left and made the sponges very moist. 

Bat Cake

I'm really into dome cakes at the moment. I think they look really effective whilst being incredibly simple to decorate. A colleague of Mischief's daddy was leaving work to do ecological surveying and she has a particular interest opin bats, so...this was the obvious choice.

I did a chocolate fudge cake recipe (chocolate was specifically requested) and coated in choc fudge icing before decorating.

I was pretty pleased with the out come though think it was slightly over baked as I thought it was a little dry. Good comments though so maybe I was being super critical.

I made the wings from black craft foam and just slotted them in.

Shortbread Pinwheels

This week we made shortbread pinwheels. We used the simplest shortbread recipe

6oz flour

4oz butter

2oz sugar

First we rubbed all the ingredients together to make fine breadcrumbs. Then I kneaded it all together to form a stiff dough, this took a while. Once the dough was ready I split into half and kneaded in cocoa powder to half to make chocolate shortbread. 

I rolled it out between two pieces of cling film to form a rectangle then rolled the plain dough out in the same way to the same size. Once done I laid them over each other and rolled tightly like a Swiss roll.

I cut into slices and laid on two baking sheets lined with parchment. Space well as they do spread.

I baked for about ten minutes to just golden and hey presto. They were a big hit with Mischief and her daddy.