Froggy Cake

                                                                Froggy Cake

 

                         Okay, so not my highest skill cake, but I did make it when I was 11 and I just thought I'd post it as no one can deny that it's a simple and effective novelty idea (Similar to the smiley face cake) but would surely be improved with three more years baking practice and a stronger green. (Hence why the second froggy is sad. :( )

Smiley Face Cakes

                                                             Smiley Face Cakes

What better to cheer up an end-of-November Thursday/parents evening than the classic smiley face? Well it gets better-in cake form! Unfortunately I couldn't locate the photos of some smiley face cupcakes I once made (And used to bribe my piano teacher's forgiveness for not practicing week after week) but I do believe the three examples I could find show an awful lot of progress-honestly I don't know why my family ate the first one to make me feel better at the time because now I'm just ashamed.

My Dad's Birthday smiley face cake February 2009

My twin aunts' Birthday smiley face cake May 2011

 

         My Bribery cookie debt smiley face cake April/May 2012.









I have to say for anyone looking for a simple but fun birthday cake idea-this is the one! It's novelty and easy and any beginner can do it-apart from me at age 12 apparently...

Mocha Angel Food Cake

                                                                Mocha Angel Food Cake

 I made this mocha angel food cake as my first ever angel food cake! It's not quite chocolate, it's not quite coffee-but it's light and fluffy and whipped cream with about 50g icing sugar and couple of tablespoons coffee makes a lovely side!

This was my Mum's Birthday cake this year, she wouldn't let me broadcast her age...

A School Bakesale

                                                            School Bakesales: equipment list

I did this bakesale back when I was saving for my wonderful camera, so every penny I made was a camera fund milestone. My most expensive were the cupcakes at £1, everything else I proudly managed to sell for 50p! And all but one cupcake and one cookie sold-my aunt paid for the cookie and the girl who ordered the cow themed birthday cake (And mentioned various other times in this blog) I gave the cupcake for free as a thank you for being my best customer.

So to have a successful school bakesale I reccomend you make these things and you make them cheap and packed with sugar to ensure maximum addiction!

The first person to guess the weight of the cake got it right on the bullet. Talk about a kill joy.

Birthday Brownies

                                                                    Birthday Brownies

Some people like cake, my friends like oreo birthday brownies. I have to admit it's a pretty practical idea as the birthday girl/boy get's an enormous brownie slab with icing and enjoys smugly watching as the ordinary folk of the day consume regular sized (But equally delicious) brownie squares. So everyone shares the Birthday deliciousness, but a class system stays in place-and on a birthday, it surely should.

Most ask for "happy birthday", sometimes their name, sometimes I add the number. My most...interesting order was definitely the "expelliarmus" brownie; for a girl who'd never seen, read or displayed any interest in Harry Potter but greatly enjoyed my difficulty in researching how to spell the word, and struggling to fit it's 12 letters in writer icing onto an unreasonably restrictive brownie. Really, it was quite a clever trick to force me to make the brownie even bigger.

(Just so you know-brownies also make excellent bake sale pieces and I've even made an apology brownie before to compensate the boy I gave a rash with my notorious Nutella buttercream.)

                                                 You have to admit-I've improved.

Arsenal Shirt Cake

                                                             Arsenal Shirt Cake

So my number one customer (the cow themed birthday cake girl and consumer of smiley face cake-as well as most of my other produce) will be again eating one of my chocolate cakes as I made this this weekend for her brother turning 10 today!

I don't know a thing about Arsenal or the shirts they wear and so after hours of deliberating between what the 2011/2012 kit or 2012/2013 kit even means, I was pretty happy to see that the birthday boy liked it so much that he took the cake along to his party and refused to allow anyone a slice. Already glad that Luke liked his cake, I was very happy to hear that some of the comments from the party guests included, "WOAHHH THAT'S SICK MATE" and even "ARSENALLL OHHH YEAHHH" and it's always good to feel appreciated by very loud ten year old Arsenal fans.

I'm even beginning to come round to the combo of chocolate fudge cake and fondant.. (Gradually...)

Happy Birthday Luke!!!

Chocolate Marble Cheesecake (With Recipe!)

                                                               Chocolate Marble Cheesecake

I made this chocolate marble cheesecake for my twin aunts' Birthday last year and consumed it at 11am. It was one of the best breakfast's I've ever had.

Recipe:

• 150g regular (Or for peace of mind-light)philadelphia cream cheese
• 150g chocolate philadelphia cream cheese
• 250g mascarpone cheese
• 300ml double cream
• 300g white chocolate 
• 300g dark chocolate 
• 500g chocolate biscuits (I used a combo of oreos and bourbons)
• 5 tbsp melted butter

For decoration:

200g milk chocolate

200g white chocolate

1. Using a food processor or rolling pin and bowl, crush the biscuits and mix with the melted butter.
2. Add the biscuit mixture to a cake tin and pat till flat. TIP: Key is to use the right amount of butter to bind the biscuit together; too little, and it will be really crumbly; too much and it will become soft. Leave to set in the fridge for approximately 30 minutes.
3. Melt the two different types of chocolate in two seperate glass bowls over two seperate pans of water on a low heat (Or alternatively-microwave) stirring occassionally until melted. Remove both bowls from the heat and set aside to cool.
4. Mix the two different types of philadelphia in separate bowls with half of the mascarpone cheese in each bowl with a whisk; hand or electric. Add half the double cream to each and whisk. Finally, add melted milk chocolate to the chocolate philadelphia mixture and melted white chocolate to regular philadelphia mixture and whisk. Don't worry if the mixture looks slightly curdled.
5. Spoon the two mixtures into the tin with set base one tablespoon at a time in dollops. Using a fork, swirl the mixture enough to create a marble affect but not so that the two colours blend. Put this back in the fridge to set for at least two hours but as long as possible.
6. To make the marbled chocolate; melt each type of chocolate separately. Spread the white chocolate over the cheesecake. Pour the milk chocolate on top in a thin-lined grid (Don't worry if it's messy-it doesn't have to be perfect.). Using the handle end of a spoon/fork draw a grid on top of this-dragging the colours so that they blend slightly creating a marbled chocolate topping. Place the cheesecake back in the fridge and leave to set.

Rainbow Cake

                                                        Rainbow cake
I have previously blogged about the craze of red velvet cake sweeping the nation, but obsession with coloured cake does not stop here. Another increasingly popular, vibrant, and definitely colourful cake almost everywhere today is the rainbow cake.

The range of products doesn't seem quite as extensive, but I have to say I've seen some pretty impressive designs:

 
 




As much as I love the many layers and gorgeously vibrant sponge, I have to say the clear winner for me is this sweet cupcake design which creatively uses candy belts!

My own attempts are not nearly as impressive but I'm hoping equally as yummy. The first I made for my own birthday, the second to pay off a cookie debt induced after I obtained surprisingly high grades. I think it's safe to say my coolness does not match my baking ability.

In conclusion; it's a Thursday, I still have to go through Friday and I'm exhausted from Monday-Wednesday. So I'll have this slice please;

Pineapple Upside Down Cake

                                                              Pineapple Upside Down Cake

Not particularly novelty, creative or original-but it does use up any dangerously-close-to-sell-by-date pineapple rings, it's a quick and easy dessert (I made it in food technology in year 9 in less than an hour) and it's perfect for the day when you're too busy to blog a novelty, creative, and original cake. Enjoy!

Simple Vanilla Sponge Cupcakes

                                                     Simple Vanilla sponge Cupcakes

I made these cupcakes as a thank you to all the people I did my work experience with. It was last minute but I'll have you know there's nothing wrong with defrosting cupcakes and having an emergency batch of buttercream in the fridge!

This was also about the time I got the camera I'd saved up for using cake fund for months...