Christmas Cupcakes

These are a plain hot chocolate cupcake that I knew stayed moist for a while with a chocolate ganache buttercream on top. Then I made little Christmas puddings out of sugar paste, yum yum!

I only wish that I had Christmas cases!

Strawberry Cupcakes

Sometimes all you want is a simple cupcake.

This is a vanilla cupcake,  I squeezed in the strawberry jam once they cooled down then I blobbed on some vanilla buttercream (I like to add a little milk to make it slightly softer).

Cake Pops

This was my first time making cake pops at home, due to slightly over baking my lemon cupcakes...I think they were a success! They were much easier than I expected although slightly more time consuming than normal cupcakes.

I loved that my boyfriend thought I was a genius for having come up with cake pops! 

Happy Halloween!

For the Trick-or-Treaters I packed up these Hummingbird hot-chocolate cupcakes with buttercream icing and a broken crunchy topping.
Having a child scream: "Oh My God! Best house EVER!" definitely made it worth while!

Lemon and Lime roulade

This lemon meringue roulade is a Mary Berry recipe, she has a really great book for Aga baking. Although we haven't devoured it yet (it's perfect for freezing) we trimmed off the edges to make it look better and they tasted yummy! It's a plain meringue baked with flaked almonds sprinkled on top then a lemon curd filling with lime zest.

Treacle Sponge

This was my first time making a Treacle Sponge, I had never even heard of them until my brother in law requested one! Super easy to whip up the cake batter itself but the steaming was tricky when they were individually wrapped like requested in the recipe so I put the lid on the pan and it worked fine. 

I made a simple vanilla custard to go with, it was wonderful. Apparently they only take a minute or two in the microwave, maybe next time!! 

I just picked a recipe randomly online but the Nigel Slater one is supposed to be great! 

Click here for his recipe.

Paul Hollywoods Egg Custard Tarts

Paul Hollywoods' Egg Custard Tarts, I wanted to do these since they proved so difficult on the TV show and I'll admit I had to redo the pastry because the recipe that Paul has asks for a whole egg which completely drenched my pastry dough. Once I realised that it went fine but I did a large one instead of mini cupcake sized ones to save time. 

The only thing I didn't particularly like with this recipe was that the only flavouring was nutmeg, in future I think I would add a little lemon zest to the pastry to spruce it up. 

Find the recipe here.

Lauren&James' Wedding Cake

This summer was my sisters' wedding so I before I left on holiday (about a month before the big day) I made all of the cakes and cupcakes (Carrot, Chocolate Guinness and Vanilla/Raspberry) and froze them, seeing as they are such moist cakes I didn't even have the slightest worry that it wouldn't work.
Only I returned from my holiday 2 days before her wedding to see that there had been a power cut and the freezer and turned off, cakes were all thawed.
It was definitely a challenge to get it done that next day and night but it was good fun with help from family and it made it!

Pumpkin Spice Whoopie Pies -For Men-

I usually have a vow to never use cake mixes but we were in TKMaxx and we found this Pumpkin Spice mix so considering pumpkin anything is so hard to come across in the UK we decided to grab it. Super easy (obviously) and really tasty but there is the looming feeling of guilt when you know you've cheated!

Millionaires shortbread

Everyone has that one page in their recipe that is sticky and falling apart from use. For me that page is this one, its so popular.
A layer of shortbread then caramel topped with chocolate, they are super rich but you have to slap yourself to stop from grabbing a second helping. At least I do...
I will admit that I messed up the ratios a little bit, I think it would have been better had I used a bigger tin and therefore had a thinner layer of caramel and shortbread.

Click here for the recipe x

Fathers Day

This Fathers Day was more special than usual because it was my partners first Father's Day as a father himself.
Every time I make a cake or tart my dad will ask whether it's a cheesecake since my mum makes the all time best cheesecake that my brother has had every birthday now for about 15 years...
So I thought I would treat him.
By the way, this cheesecake gets better as every day goes by, not that it will last very long!

Click here for the recipe. 

Rhubarb and Strawberry tart

We had some rhubarb that was about to go off and we weren't sure what to do with it so I popped it with some sugar on the stove to simmer down into a lumpy puree.

This was to spread onto the base of my shortcrust pastry.

Next there is a layer of vanilla custard, topped with fresh strawberries.

To stop the strawberries oxidising you should brush them with boiled jam to seal them but I had the juices from my boiled rhubarb which worked very well. 

This also finishes off the tart with an appetisingly shiny look.

Click here for the recipe.

Lemon Biscuits

This was a Biscuiteers recipe, really yummy and simple to make. You can swap the lemon zest for any other flavour. The dough is great because they seem to last for a long time without going stale, its also a dough that you can freeze and use at a later date.

Click here for the recipe.

Coconut Meringue Cake

HAPPY BIRTHDAY MUM!

This is a Hummingbird Bakery recipe, a coco-nutty sponge with a really fluffy meringue frosting.

I knew I wasn't going to have time to make it on her birthday so I made the sponge a week earlier, froze the layers wrapped in greaseproof and cling-film.

They defrosted really easily the night before then that morning I whipped up the frosting which is done on a water bath, its final consistency similar to that of a marshmallow!

Click here for the recipe.

Chewy choc chip cookies

My boyfriend lived in America for a while and has an idealised memory of chewy chocolate chip cookies. I've heard a lot about these Martha Stewart ones so fingers crossed!
For the moment my family have deemed them "the perfect cookie"!

Click here for the recipe.

Afternoon Tea

For my baby shower I had afternoon tea with a few friends at my mums house in Sussex.
I made a double batch of these with the aim of freezing one but they were gobbled up before I had the chance!
I recently went to the St Pancras Rennaissance hotel in London for afternoon tea but was put off by their modern twist on it. We were presented with a selection of sandwiches, cakes and...chocolate scones!
I think scones should be kept the way they were traditionally supposed to be; plain, topped with jam and cream. No? Except I like them with butter...

Click here for the recipe.

Strawberries & champagne

So I broke my 'once a week' promise because these don't really count, so simple.

Valrhona ‘Caramelia’ covered strawberries.
Valrhona is definitely the best baking chocolate to use, it’s a little pricey but delicious and you can buy it in these handy coin shaped pieces so that melting is speedy and choc chips are fast&easy.
I managed to snag mine on a discount website so I stocked up well!

Celebration Time

This was a cake to celebrate many things: My dads new job and Nala coming home after 5 months away and most importantly, the first day we've been able to have lunch outside!

I'm pretty sure this was a Hummingbird Bakery recipe but it was so long ago that I found it I honestly can't remember. 

I've iced it with cream cheese frosting, the roses on the sides are a style I saw on a fellow bloggers' site which I am addicted to. I've shared her link down below. Its a technique that's really quite speedy and you only need a star nozzle and piping bag to master it! 

Find the recipe and method here. 

http://iambaker.net/

Blueberry Crumble Muffins

This is a wonderful recipe that I got out of "Pierre Hermé, Pastries", the quantities are huge so make some space in your freezer.

The dough is a basic muffin dough but he has added crème fraiche to make them extra moist. It was a little sticky and tough to scoop so I added a few tablespoons of milk to loosen it up.

Apart being a mouth watering sponge this recipe asks for a crumble topping, so exactly like on an Apple Crumble you have a layer of crunchy biscuit on top.

I made these ones in an Aga so they took a little longer than the required 20 minutes to become golden brown.

If you ave any leftover crumble, add some vanilla essence then bake it on its own and use it as a biscuit to top ice cream.

Click here for the recipe!

I'm back!

After taking more than a year off, I'm back to blogging!

I've been keeping busy working at The Ritz in Paris and at The Cake Parlour in Wimbledon then having my gorgeous baby boy but I'm back and ready for baking.

I'll be posting one cake/desert a week and including the recipes.

Enjoy!