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.

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.

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!

12 sleeps till christmas!

11 days, 8 hours and 20 minutes until christmas day! These are the cakes that I made way back in September, feeding them brandy every so often. No-one in my family actually likes the christmas cake, it's now simply down to tradition of actually having one, that's the best part about christmas I think... having family traditions and a routine. It actually made me feel quite sorry for the French when I realised that their tradition is 'Buche de Noel' the chocolate log. Hmm. 

Layer Cake

I was recently shown a great blog http://iambaker.net that I just can't get enough of! One of my favourites was her layer cake, my version is definitely not as amazing as hers but it's only my first time. I am determined to get it right as when it's done properly it could suit any occasion. This one is a Hummingbird Red Velvet cake and Mary Berrys Victoria Sponge. Check out her blog and let me know what you think.

Religieuses and Eclairs

Originally 'Relgieuses' the french choux pastry were supposed to depict a nun on her knees praying, the bun would be her praying from behind, the icing being her habit, her head hidden between her knees... The story has been lost along the years, hence why bakers have added the 'head' of the nun, the upper bun. 

I filled these with Creme Patissiere, a french custard. Yummy! Let me know if you'd like the recipe!

White chocolate and raspberry tarts

With two whole bookshelves full of baking books and only a couple ever used, I decided to use the Ottolenghi menu, this London based restaurant had a wonderful recipe for white chocolate and raspberry tarts. Having just bough a bag of Valrhona Ivory chocolate I was able to get the best possible quality for these indulgent desserts. Just mix chocolate and cream and fill shortcrust pastry tarts with some jam! So easy.

Bundt Coffee Cake

I apologize, I've had to cut down on my amount of cake baking due to being very busy but also not having any room left in our freezer! This recipe is from the first Hummingbird bakery book and as usual I have nothing bad to say about their recipes which are seemingly faultless apart from the quantity that this one gave me! I ended up with one massive bundt cake and another to go with it. Next time I will definitely be halving the ingredients.

Although the cake is very nice on its own, it does need the yummy espresso frosting which was incredibly easy to make, just butter, icing sugar, milk and coffee all whisked up together. 

The White Collection

I've been much too eager to ice my christmas cakes so I decided to cut one of the cakes into four for little individual cakes and pass them off as early christmas presents! The icing and decorating is my absolute favourite part so I really enjoyed finishing these off.
I'd love to know which one you prefer out of the four, personally my favourite is the ruffled one.

Breakfast Blueberry Muffins

This months GoodFood magazine came with a calender, a different recipe for every month but I skipped ahead to the month of May! These Blueberry muffins are 'healthy' and include oats to fill you up for the day.

Happy Birthday Dad

This weekend was spent celebrating my dads birthday in Brighton with the family -and plus ones!-. Having made this cake the day before in France, we took it over in the car only to have it fall over after ten minutes. Thus it definitely did not say 'Happy Birthday' when he ate it and why I had to pour a last minute icing over the top once we arrived.

Go Nutty Bars

Due to having a health aware brother, I had to come up with something that wasn't too bad for us to nibble on. Unfortunately, I was too tempted by a great recipe that mom used to make for us as energy bars for school, needless to say he ignored the high sugar content and didn't need to be too persuaded to take them home!

Cinnamon snowflakes

Lots of baking prepared for this week due to a pending family visit so I needed to make things that would last until this weekend. Starting with cinnamon cookies, like sugar cookies but better and they can last up to 3 weeks in an airtight container. I made the rolling out much easier by doing it between  two silicon mats, the only tricky part of this was getting the biscuits hanging in the tree before our cat could attack them!

Comforting Banana Bread

After having my brother over for the weekend we didn't want him to go home empty handed so, using up the old bananas, I made a banana bread. We found the recipe in Grazia "Hannahs' banana bread" but before popping it in the oven I sprinkled over some chocolate and slices of banana.

Eccles Cakes

Last night on telly Jamie Oliver was touring Yorkshire/Lancashire and made his own version of Eccles Cakes. I couldn't find his recipe on line and everyone had different views on what they should contain so following my parents memories, I guessed. A few currants, spices, sugar and butter and they were ready. I used ready made puff pastry but I'm sure sweet pastry would've done the job. I rubbed brown sugar on top before cooking so they have a gorgeous golden glaze.

Gingerbread House

Ikea sell adorable packets of gingerbread houses with an instruction manual on how to assemble them so that's how I spent a miserable winter afternoon piping and decorating it. I've kept the manual so as to have a template for next time I want to make a biscuit house!

Irish Soda Bread

After watching Lorraine Pascal make an incredibly quick soda bread on her show Baking Made Easy, I took a go at it. It was very fast to make and was being eaten after half an hour after having read the recipe! However I don't think it lived up to my moms expectations after being brought up with her Grannys traditional soda bread. As it can be frozen for a month I'm sure we'll be doing this recipe many more times but squashing it down to a bit further to improve the cooking.