Wedding Season

I've been a bit busy lately so I decided that after such a long wait it needed to be worth it. This is my first Wedding cake. Coated in rolled icing, piped with royal icing pearls and detail. Topped off with a W emblem. Hope you like it as much as I enjoyed decorating it.

St Patricks Guiness Cake

Happy St Patricks day!

All I knew in preparation for this cake was that I wanted to make it as Irish as possible. I scoured my books and a Guinness Cake was quite common with really good feedback so I had a go, using the Hummingbird Bakery recipe.

The sponge ended up being surprisingly light and moist, with a light cream cheese frosting it tasted delicious.

Highly recommended. 

Love Lemon Sponge

This is a 3 layer vanilla sponge. The first is lemon curd and the second is lemon buttercream. I think that two layers of lemon curd would have been a little sickly. Then I coated it in rolled icing and added a huge rolled icing ribbon that I had shaped and allowed time to set before piping onto it in red. 

English Rose

I wanted to do something really fiddly so I made a bunch of rolled icing roses and I finally got to use an old French lace ribbon that I bought quite a while back but I didn't have a cake simple and delicate enough to suit it.

White chocolate and Apricot Cookies

Midnight and in desperate need of cookies! Using up some leftover dried apricots and Valrhona white chocolate, I added these to the basic cookie recipe I posted last month. 

Fruit and Nut Cupcakes

The recipe for these came from Fairy Cakes Hamlyn and since they are filled with dried fruit a mix of nuts they resemble a light christmas cake so I coated them in a thin coat of rolled royal icing. 

Great way to used up all of the candied and dried fruit from christmas time!

Coffee and Pecan Cupcakes

I got the recipe for these cupcakes from Divine Cupcakes by Tamara Jane. I thought her recipe for caramel icing might be too rich paired with this sponge so I topped them off with a coffee buttercream icing instead. 

http://judyoz.com/ccp0-prodshow/divine-cupcakes-tamara-jane-new-cookbook.html

Cupcake Galore

I tried this cake a couple of years ago for a friends birthday and failed horribly because of the rolled royal icing so this morning I woke up thinking: Today I shall conquer the giant cupcake. And I did! Just as easy as a normal victoria sponge, it just looks much more festive. Perfect for a kids party.

Red Fruit Tart

This deliciously fruity tart was to use up some of the almond paste I had made for my previous post, Almond Windmills. I quickly whipped up some sweet pastry, replacing the caster sugar for icing sugar as per usual, blind baked it, then filled with almond paste and topped with a mix of red fruit then baked till I was so tempted and had to take it out! This made me very ready for summertime when I'll be able to use fresh fruit.

Lonely Valentines

I realise the title doesn't sound too appealing, who wants a lonely valentines day? But that's what they are, individual portions of scrumptious valentines cake.

Linked in with yesterdays recipe, today I used a Peggy Porschen victoria sponge recipe since the two companies are similar I wanted to see how much their cakes varied. I paired this sponge with a cinnamon buttercream and it was perfect. Maybe I just wasn't in the mood for chocolate yesterday but in any case, hats off to Peggy.

http://www.peggyporschen.com/

Darling Gardening

I swear by the Little Venice Cake Company decoration-wise, but only today did I first attempt one of Mich Turners' cake recipes, her Chocolate Truffle Cake. Since her cakes are for celebrations so therefore layered, they seem to be quite sturdy. Sturdy but tasty. I've added vanilla buttercream frosting as well, it is surrounded by rolled and royal icing to resemble a flower filled plant-pot. Daisies of course.

http://www.lvcc.co.uk/

Mom's Cherry Jam Tart

My mom is continuously making delicious jams and marmalades but so much so that we could never eat enough toast to use up all the kilos of it! 

This is her cherry jam in a sweetpastry base, a version of Mr Kipling jam tarts. 

Dark Cherry Tart

Gateau Basque aux cerises noires

This tart is a regional French desert that I saw being made at work this week but due to my clumsiness, the recipe didn't work out, therefore I plan to bring this one in as an apology... I'll let you know how it's received by the Chefs!

Carambar Tarts

In France we have a caramel chewy sweet that is a childhood favourite to all, especially my sister. This is a plain pastry case filled with a Carambar ganache (cook cream and Carambar to 104) and left to set. Voila! These were particularly successful with kids.

Daisys delicious cookies

I am very happy to say that I improved a cookie recipe so now we can have delicious peanut butter and chocolate cookies all the time! I sprinkled a few walnuts on top for decoration. Let me know if you want my awesome new recipe! 

Lemon Meringue Tart

Lemon Meringue Tart is my Moms' favourite dessert although I'm not very keen, I personally find the candied lemon zests on top the best part!
It's a sweet pastry base (made with icing sugar not caster sugar as it makes it so much more delicious), a lemon curd centre (eggs, sugar and lemon juice whisked on water bath till thickened) and a meringue topping (I cheated by doing a French meringue but an Italian meringue -if you have the time- would be best) all finished off with candied lemon zest (twice brought to the boil then candied in a simple syrup).

Next week: Tarte Tatin x

Pretty in Pink

It was our friends daughter's birthday, she was turning seven so wanted something a little bit more grown up but still girlie so I wanted to practice... What do you think?

The ribbon around the bottom is from a beautiful ribbon shop in the Jewish Quarter called "Entree des Fournisseurs"... But be warned, if you take photos you will be asked to leave the shop.

http://www.entreedesfournisseurs.fr/

Next week: Lemon Meringue Tart!

Zesty Madeleines

Nearly two weeks of no baking and I was getting antsy! This morning, still dressed in my pyjamas, I got to work. Everyone dunks into their tea/coffee...the English have digestives, the Italians have their biscotti and the French have tender madeleines.