K1,P1 (Knit 1, Purl 1)

My friend Daisy commissioned me to make her 40th birthday cake. She is a knitting fiend and crochets wonderful bags and shawls so it was an obvious choice to do a wool themed cake.

This is how I achieved the finished article:

For the base, I sandwiched together a Madeira cake with raspberry jam and vanilla butter cream. The cake was then covered in butter cream.

The cake was covered in white ready roll icing and smoothed over with a smoother.

I covered the cake board with a thin layer of butter cream and then put the rolled out pink ready icing on the top and sides. I trimmed off the excess icing and using butter cream, secured the ribbon trim in place. The cake was placed on top of the cake board.

For the wool cake, I used a ball tin to bake two hemispheres which were spread with butter cream and jam.












The two halves were sandwiched together to make a sphere for the ball of wool.

I coated the ball cake with butter cream ready for the icing.

I then covered the ball with rolled out pink icing. Using a craft gun with a circle pattern disc I squeezed out the icing into long worms and stuck them to the cake with sugar glue. I continued until the ball was covered.

Once the ball of wool was finished I placed it on top of the base cake and secured it with a wooden dowel. For extra effect I used real knitting needles in it.

I made a selection of flowers out of icing and again used butter cream to stick them around the edge of the base cake.

I made some vanilla cupcakes and decorated them with piped butter cream and miniature balls of wool which I hand made out of ready roll icing. The cup cakes were then placed around the cake.

The finished article!!

Halloween Cupcakes

These cupcakes are great for Halloween. You can choose any colour icing and decorations to make them as 'scary' as you want.

Recipe
Makes 12

Ingredients

100g butter, softened 

225g caster sugar
100ml milk
210g plain flour
2tsp baking powder
3 eggs
2tsp vanilla extract

Buttercream
125g butter, softened
250g icing sugar, sifted
1tbsp milk
Food colouring of your choice
Halloween decorations

1. Preheat the oven to 180c or Gas mark 4.
2. Cream together the butter and sugar.
3. Add all the rest of the ingredients and mix well until fluffy.
4. Spoon mixture into paper cases and bake for 18-20 minutes until risen and golden. Leave to cool before decorating.
5. Put butter, icing sugar and milk into a mixer and beat until well mixed. Add the food colouring of your choice and mix again until fluffy. Pipe or spread onto the cupcakes and then top with your Halloween decorations.

Jammy Buns

These buns were made by my 7 year old son with just a little help from me weighing out the ingredients. They can be made by hand but I cheat and use the food processor for the breadcrumb stage!

Recipe
Makes 8


Ingredients
175g plain flour
1 tsp baking powder
75g butter, chilled and diced
75g soft brown sugar
1/2 tsp vanilla essence
1 large egg
8 tsp jam

1. Preheat the oven to 220/Gas 7. Line a baking tray with baking parchment. Sift the flour and baking powder into a mixing bowl. Rub in the butter until the mixture resembles coarse breadcrumbs. Stir in the sugar.
2. Beat the vanilla essence and egg together and stir into the flour mixture to form a stiff dough. Spoon the dough onto the baking tray to make eight rough mounds.
3. Press your thumb into the middle of each mound to make a dip, then spoon a teaspoon of the jam into each.
4. Bake in the oven for 12-15 minutes. Leave to cool on a wire rack and serve.

These buns may be served warm but be careful not to eat them staight from the oven as the jam will burn.

Vampire Bat Chocolate Cake

As it's half term and Halloween is approaching, I thought this would be a good one for both kids and adults. It's quite easy to make and the kids enjoy decorating it.

 

Recipe
Serves 8

Ingredients
100g soft margarine

75g caster sugar
2 eggs, beaten
100g self-raising flour
4 tbsp drinking chocolate powder

Decoration
125ml double cream
4 tbsp strawberry jam
55g milk chocolate, melted

• Preheat oven to 170c or gas mark 3. Grease and line the base of 2 x 18cm cake tins with baking paper.
• Whisk together the margarine and sugar until light and fluffy. Whisk in the beaten eggs a little at a time. 
• Sift in the flour and drinking chocolate powder and fold in using a metal spoon.
• Divide between the cake tins, level and bake for 20-25 minutes, until risen. Turn out onto a cooling rack.
• For the wings, head and ears use a 6cm plain cutter to cut out 3 circles from the edge down the centre of one cake. Whip the cream. Put the strawberry jam in a bowl and stir until softened. Sandwich 2 of the circles with some jam and cream to make the head. Spread the rest of the jam over the sponge; add the rest of the cream. Place head and wings on the other sponge. Halve the final circle for the ears.
• Spread the melted chocolate over the wings, ears and head. Drag lines on the wings with a skewer. Use jam for the eyes and cream for the nose and mouth.

Coffee Cake

This is a lovely coffee cake which could also be decorated with walnuts or coffee beans.

Recipe

Makes 12-16 slices

Ingredients

2 tbsp instant coffee granules

450g unsalted butter, at room temperature

450g caster sugar

8 eggs

450g plain flour

2 tbsp baking powder

2 tsp cocoa powder, plus extra to decorate

Decoration

250g icing sugar, sifted

80g unsalted butter, at room temperature

25ml whole milk

a couple of drops of vanilla extract

60g dark chocolate shavings

• Grease a 25cm ring mould and dust with flour.
• Make the coffee essence. Put the instant coffee granules and 170ml water in a small saucepan and bring to the boil over a medium heat. Boil until reduced by half and leave to cool completely. Set aside a tablespoon of the essence to use in the frosting.
• Preheat the oven to 170c or gas mark 3.
• Put the butter, sugar and cold coffee essence in a freestanding electric mixer or a hand held electric whisk. Beat until all ingredients are well incorporated. Add the eggs one at a time, mixing well after each addition. Beat in the flour, baking powder and mix well until everything is combined and the mixture is light and fluffy.
• Pour the mixture into the prepared ring mould and smooth over with a palette knife. Bake in the preheated oven for 40 minutes or until the sponge feels firm to touch. Leave the cake to cool slightly in the mould before turning out onto a wire cooling rack to cool completely.
• Make the icing. Beat the icing sugar and butter together until well mixed. Combine the milk and vanilla extract in a separate bowl, then add to the butter mixture a little at a time. Stir in the reserved tbsp of coffee essence until well mixed.
• When the cake is cold, put on a serving plate, cover the top with the frosting and dust with a light sprinkling of cocoa powder. Decorate with the chocolate shavings.

Lemon and Poppy Seed Muffins

One of my lemon and poppy seed muffins that was made for an event on Facebook to show friends what you have baked. They have turned out to be a hit with the family and friends. The recipe I used was finished off with glace icing which works very well but for the above picture I used lemon buttercream icing. 

Recipe
Makes 12 muffins 


Ingredients
150g butter
3/4 cup sugar
1 egg, beaten
Rind & juice of 2 to 3 lemons
125g sour cream
1 1/2 cups plain flour
1 tsp bicarbonate of soda
1 tsp baking powder
3 tbsp poppy seeds

Glace Icing
Juice and rind of 1 lemon
Icing sugar

• Preheat oven to 160c or gas mark 3
• Line a 12 hole muffin tin with paper cases.
• Cream together butter and sugar until well mixed. Stir in the remaining ingredients until just combined. I found that I needed to use three lemons to give the right consistency.
• Spoon into the paper cases and bake for 15-20 minutes

• When cool, top with the icing made from the rind and juice of 1 lemon with sufficient icing sugar to make a smooth paste. Sprinkle on a few poppy seeds for decoration.

Lemon Buttercream
250g icing sugar, sifted

80g unsalted butter, at room temperature

2 tbsp grated lemon zest

25ml whole milk

• Beat together the icing sugar, butter and lemon zest by hand or in a food processor until well mixed.
• Slowly pour in the milk and then beat until well incorporated and is light and fluffy. The longer it is beaten, the fluffier it becomes, at least 5 minutes.