Champagne & Gold Leaf Celebration Cake

I recently attended a wedding of two very good friends of ours. Their DIY craft inspired celebration was beautiful. Instead of having one wedding cake, they asked willing guests to each make one, leading to a trestle table FULL of beautiful sweet treats. Deciding what to bake for the occasion was tricky…. I thought champagne and glitz are standard elements of a wedding so I made a champagne and gold leaf celebration cake.

To make the sponges you will need:

•  200g unsalted butter
•  200g caster sugar
•  200g plain flour
•  4 eggs
•  2 tbsp baking powder
•  A few drops of vanilla extract

To make the buttercream you will need:

•  350g unsalted butter
•  700g icing sugar
•  Champagne, or a good quality sparkling wine (6-10 teaspoons)

To decorate:

• Sheets of edible gold leaf 

1. Preheat your oven to 180 degrees. Begin by making your sponges. Cream the butter and sugar together in a bowl. Then add half the eggs and flour and mix. Add the vanilla, baking powder and remaining eggs and flour and combine well. Divide into two sandwich tins and bake for 30 minutes (insert a skewer into the mixture and if it comes out clean it will be ready to remove from the oven).

2. Whilst the cakes are cooling, make the buttercream, Beat the butter until it is light and fluffy. Add the icing sugar and beat until the mixture is combined. Add teaspoons of champagne, one at a time, until you have your desired strength of taste. Then, sandwich the sponges together with buttercream and spread a thin layer around the top and sides as a crumb coat. Place in the fridge to chill.

3. Add a second layer of buttercream and smooth it with a palette knife. Learning how to make cakes super smooth is definitely on my to do list. If anyone has any tips then please let me know!

4. I wanted to keep the decoration really simple for this cake, so I scored the word ‘love’ onto the top using a skewer.

5. The final glitzy touch to the cake is a sprinkling of gold leaf. This can be really fiddly to apply so use a cocktail stick to pick it up and place it into the centre of the heart. When you peel the gold leaf off the sheet, it will shrivel up, so only take it out when you’re ready to place it on the cake.

Many congratulations to the happy couple, and may your lives together be filled with lovely cake!

 ~ Laura xx ~

Mint Choc Chip Dinosaur Cake

I decided to make my Dad this birthday cake a while back and wanted to decorate it with dinosaurs as a cheeky nod to his age (but it would also work equally well for dino-mad kids). The sponge recipe is from Lorraine Pascale’s Fast, Fresh and Easy Food book, and it’s topped with mint choc chip buttercream and prehistoric mint rubble.

To make this cake you will need:

For the sponge:

• 150g soft butter
• 250g caster sugar
• 150g self-raising flour
• 125g sour cream
• 4 medium eggs
• 50g cocoa powder
• 1 tsp baking powder
• couple drops of vanilla extract

For the buttercream:

• 175g butter
• 350g icing sugar
• 6 drops spearmint flavouring
• Green food colouring (enough to colour it mint coloured)
• 1 packet plain chocolate chips
• 2 tbsp milk

For the decoration:

• Mint creams
• Mint leaves
• Dark chocolate to coat leaves
• Plastic dinosaurs!

1. Begin by preheating your oven to 180 degrees. This recipe is really great as it’s an all in one mix. Put all the sponge ingredients into a mixer and mix until well combined. Next, divide the mixture between 2 sandwich tins and bake for 25-30 minutes or until golden brown. Transfer to a wire cooling rack.

2. Whilst the cakes are cooling, make the buttercream. Beat the butter in a mixer until light and fluffy. Add the sifted icing sugar, milk and spearmint flavouring and mix until well combined. Add enough green food colouring to turn the whole mixture a mint colour (do this by adding it in a drop at a time). Fold in the chocolate chips. Once the cakes are cooled add a layer of buttercream and sandwich them together. Then using a palette knife, cover the top and sides with the remaining buttercream.

  

3. To make the mint leaves, melt the dark chocolate. Using a teaspoon coat the leaves with a thin layer of the chocolate and put them in the fridge to set. Once they are firm, gently peel the mint leaf away from the chocolate. You will be left with the imprint of the leaves on the chocolate.

 

4. To decorate, roughly chop the mint creams and arrange in the centre of the cake. Then place the leaves between the mint creams to form a Jurassic Park-style landscape. Add your dinosaurs… and present to the dinosaur in your life!

 ~ Laura xx ~

Rocky Road Cupcakes

Being pregnant I find myself having sweet cravings a lot of the time. I also find I’m pretty indecisive in choosing what I actually want as a treat. When I couldn’t decide between a rocky road or a cupcake the other day, I thought why choose when you can have both! These chocolate chip cupcakes are topped with vanilla buttercream and a deconstructed rocky road on top. They really do satisfy any sweet craving you have, pregnant or not!

To make 12 cupcakes you will need:

For the cupcakes:

• 175g caster sugar 
• 175g self-raising flour 
• 175g unsalted butter
• 3 eggs
• 2tbsp cocoa powder
• 1tsp baking powder
• 150g milk chocolate chips

For the topping:

Vanilla buttercream:

• 175g butter, softened
• 350g icing sugar
• 2tbsp milk
• 8 drops vanilla extract

Rocky road topping:

• 75g digestive biscuits, crushed
• 50g glace cherries, chopped
• 50g walnuts, chopped
• 75g milk chocolate chips
• 25g marshmallows, chopped
• 50g melted chocolate to drizzle

1. Preheat the oven to 180 degrees and line your cupcake tray.

2. Mix the butter, eggs, flour, sugar, cocoa powder and baking powder in a mixer until smooth and fold in the chocolate chips. Spoon into the cupcake cases (3/4s full) and bake for 15-20 minutes or until golden brown. Remove from oven and transfer to a wire cooling tray.

3. To make the buttercream, beat the butter in a mixer until light and fluffy. Add the sifted icing sugar, vanilla extract and milk and mix until completely combined. Spoon the buttercream on top of the cakes and smooth using a knife.

4. Prepare the rocky road topping by chopping the cherries, marshmallows and nuts. Crush the digestive biscuits in a sandwich bag, using a rolling-pin. Place all the ingredients into a bowl and stir until mixed up. Melt the chocolate.

5. Add the rocky road topping on top of the buttercream and drizzle melted chocolate on top. Get stuck in!

 

~ Laura xx ~

A Confetti Birthday Cake

 

Laura had a birthday last week so I decided to bake her a cake – and if there’s one thing Laura loves most… well, that would be tea.  But cake is definitely up there! I’ve seen a lot of funfetti cakes out there recently so I decided to make one with the help of Mary Berry. This recipe is adapted from her confetti party cake recipe, but those are tray bakes so I used 2 x 20cm round tins and upped the quantity by a third.

Ingredients
190g butter at room temperature
190g castor sugar
3 eggs
225g self raising flour
1.5 tbsp milk
1.5tbsp vanilla extract
7 tbsp 100s & 1000s/coloured sweets

for the icing:
340g icing sugar
150g butter
1.5tbsp milk
pink food colouring

To decorate:
star shaped cookie cutter
fondant letters
100s & 1000s

preheat the oven to 180c (350f).  Grease and line the tins with baking parchment.

Put all the ingredients for the cake, except the sweets, into a mixing bowl and beat with an electric mixer until very smooth and even in colour. Add the sweets and mix them in with a spoon.

scrape the mixture evenly between the two tins and bake for 20-25 minutes until the tops are golden brown. Set on a wire rack to cool.

 

To make the icing, sift the icing sugar into a bowl, add the butter, milk and beat until smooth and pale (don’t make the mistake I did and get icing sugar mixed up with CORN FLOUR. I mean…. what a moron. I actually mixed a few tablespoons of corn flour in by mistake!). Add a tiny drop of colouring and mix well. Spread on the cake.

 

place the cookie cutter lightly on top of the centre of the cake and sprinkle a layer of 100s & 1000s on top. Finish with coloured letter sweets.

Happy birthday lau lau.

Tia x

Rock ‘n’ Roll Peanut Butter & Vanilla Cupcakes

It was my husband’s birthday last week so I decided to combine two of his favourite things, peanut butter and vinyl records, to make these cupcakes. The cakes have a gooey peanut butter filling and are topped with vanilla buttercream.

To make 12 cupcakes, you will need:

• 250g plain flour
• 2 tsp baking powder
• 60g unsalted butter
• 250g soft light brown sugar
• 120g peanut butter
• 1 tsp vanilla extract
• 100ml milk

For the filling:

• 12 tsp peanut butter

For the buttercream:

• 175g softened butter
• 350g icing sugar
• 2 tbsp milk
• 7 drops vanilla extract

For the vinyl record toppers:

• Ready to roll icing in black, red, yellow, blue and green

Begin by preheating the oven to 180 degrees. Sift the flour and baking powder together and line the cupcake tray with cupcake cases.

Beat the butter, sugar and peanut butter together until mixed. Next, beat in the eggs and vanilla extract.

Fold in the flour and milk to the mixture and mix until combined. Spoon the mixture into the cupcake cases until they are half full. Smooth the top over with the back of the spoon so they are even. Bake for 25 minutes or until the cakes are golden brown.

Once the cupcakes are cooled scoop out a small section in the middle of the cake and put a teaspoon of peanut butter into the hole.

To make the buttercream topping, beat the butter until it is fluffy. Sift in the icing sugar, milk and vanilla extract and beat until smooth and completely combined.

 

Dollop a spoonful of icing on top of the cake and, using a spatula, smooth the buttercream downwards towards the cupcake case. Smooth the top round in a circular motion and neaten off any uneven edges.

 

To make the mini vinyl record toppers roll out your black ready to roll icing to 6mm thick. Using a circular cutter cut out the vinyl. Roll your other colours out to 4mm thick and using a smaller cutter cut out the circles. To attach the coloured circles to the black use a small amount of icing sugar mixed with water. Add grooves to your record using a skewer, then poke a whole in the centre.

The cakes were a hit with the birthday boy!

 

~ Laura xx ~

For more peanut butter recipes click on the photos below:

Vanilla Fudge & Banana Cake

It was Tia’s birthday recently and I wanted to make her an extra special cake. When she mentioned she liked the toffee and banana half birthday cake I made last year, I thought I’d make a new version with a slight twist. Instead of toffee… I used fudge! Lots and lots and lots of fudge – all topped with banana buttercream.

For the sponge:

• Ingredients for a sponge cake
• 150g fudge chunks

For the banana buttercream:

• 1 ripe banana, mashed
• 100g of unsalted butter
• 375g of icing sugar
• 1 tsp vanilla extract
• 1/2 tsp of lemon juice

For the topping:

• Banana chips
• A sprinkling of fudge pieces

Follow your recipe to make a sponge cake. Once the mixture is made stir in the fudge chunks. Keep some aside for the decoration.

Whilst the sponge cooks make the banana buttercream. Begin by mashing the banana and mix it with the butter, lemon juice and vanilla extract. In small batches mix in the icing sugar until everything is combined.

Once the cakes have cooled, sandwich them together with the banana buttercream. Spread the remaining buttercream around the whole of the cake and garnish with banana chips and fudge pieces.

Whilst this cake is simple to make, the combination of flavours works really well… and with that much fresh fruit on the cake you can even pretend you’re getting one of your five a day!

~ Laura xx ~

Red Velvet Cake Pops

Cake pops have always been a bit of an enigma to me. I always thought you needed a special mould to make these cake delights, which had put me off trying them. But after having spare sponge left over from this cake recently, I bit the bullet and decided to give them a whirl.

You will need:

• Sponge cake with red food colouring in

For the buttercream:

• 175g unsalted butter
• 350g icing sugar
• 2 tbsp milk
• 3 tbsp vanilla extract

For the decoration:

• 200g of milk chocolate
• 100s and 1000s sprinkles

Optional:

• Floristry foam (or similar) to keep the pops upright

Make the sponge and the buttercream. Allow the sponge to completely cool, then break into chunks. Mix the sponge and buttercream together.

Using your hands roll the mixture into balls. Don’t make the balls too big as they will be too heavy and will fall off the stick (learn from my mistakes!). Pop them in the fridge to harden for 30 minutes.

Whilst the balls are in the fridge, melt the chocolate. Once melted dip the end of the stick in the chocolate and push the cake onto the stick. Dip the cake into the chocolate and roll them in the 100s and 1000s.

Whilst the chocolate set, I put the pops in floristry foam to keep them upright.

For a first attempt these pops went down surprisingly well with my husband, who barely bothered to take them out of their foam stand before eating them So, cake pops – not the enigma I thought they were!

~ Laura xx ~

Christmas Pudding Pinata Cake

Just before Halloween, we posted a recipe for a surprise pinata cake in the shape of a pumpkin. It got a lot of lovely comments. So for Christmas, we’ve decided to adapt that idea, and offer a festive version, which will look great as a centre-piece for your Christmas table.

For this cake you will need:

• Ingredients to make a basic sponge cake

For the decoration:

• Chocolate buttercream
• White ready-to-roll icing
• A small sprig of holly

For the filling:

• Chocolate coins

Begin by making the sponge as per your recipe. I went for a basic vanilla sponge. You’re trying to achieve a cake in the shape of a ball, so to make the sponges curved, bake them in a hemisphere cake pan. While the sponges cool, make the dark chocolate buttercream.

Cut the bottom off one of the sponges to give the cake a flat base. Then put a small amount of buttercream onto a board and place the cake on top. The buttercream ‘sticks’ the cake to the board, so it’s ready to assemble.

Once the sponges have completely cooled, scoop out the middle sections, being careful not to reach the bottom of the sponge.

Next, cram as many chocolate coins as you can into the hole, then repeat this with the other half of the cake. I took the wrapping off all of them bar one to keep the tradition of having a silver coin in your Christmas pudding.

Spread a layer of buttercream around the edge of the cake and place the other sweet-filled sponge on top.

Spread the rest of the buttercream around the entire cake. Once the cake is covered with buttercream, place it in the fridge for 15 minutes to set. This makes it easier to spread a second layer and get a smoother finish.

For the final decoration, roll out the white icing thinly (about 5mm thick) and cut a fluffy cloud shape (you want it to look like a snowy peak once it’s on top of the cake).

Place the icing on top of the cake and smooth down.

Finally place of sprig of holly on top to finish.

~Laura xx ~

Halloween Pumpkin Piñata Party Cake

Halloween is fast approaching and our kitchen is already covered in pumpkins. This year a group of us mums are having a party, so it’s an excuse to dress up my Little Button and bake something appropriately orange.

After a few minutes hunched over my cauldron I devised this fiendish Halloween concoction. The piñata element is the hidden surprise within. Read on if you dare…

For this cake you will need:

• Ingredients to make a basic sponge cake

For the decoration:

• Buttercream (or should that be butterscream)
• Orange food colouring
• Black ready-to-roll icing

For the filling:

• Any small sweets. I used Maltesers, Smarties and Fruit Pastels
• Creepy Halloween chocolate (e.g. candy spiders, eyeballs etc)

Begin by making the sponge as per your recipe. I went for a basic vanilla sponge. You’re trying to achieve a cake in the shape of a ball, so to make the sponges curved bake them in a hemisphere cake pan. While the sponges cool, make the vanilla buttercream and add the orange food colouring (I used about seven drops).

Cut the bottom off one of the sponges to give the cake a flat base. Then put a small amount of buttercream onto a board and place the cake on top. The buttercream ‘sticks’ the cake to the board, so it’s ready to assemble.

Once the sponges have completely cooled, scoop out the middle sections, being careful not to reach the bottom of the sponge.

Next, cram as many sweets as you can into the hole, then repeat this with the other half of the cake.

Spread a layer of buttercream around the edge of the cake and place the other sweet-filled sponge on top.

Spread the rest of the buttercream around the entire cake. Once the cake is covered with buttercream, place it in the fridge for 15 minutes to set. This makes it easier to spread a second layer and get a smoother finish.

To make the pumpkin face, roll out the black ready-to-roll icing to a couple of millimeters thick and cut out two triangles for the eyes. Cut a smaller triangle for the nose and a zigzag piece for the mouth. Finally, to make the stem of the pumpkin, roll a large sausage shape, flatten down one end, and cut small triangles out of the flattened part.

Now the Halloween cake is sorted, I’ve just got to sort out Little Button’s costume. Watch this space…

~ Laura xx ~

DIY Wedding Cake Tutorial

My brother and his Fiancee, Nora, got married last week and to help them save some pennies I offered to make their wedding cake. Nerve-wracking as this was (What am I thinking?! What if it goes WRONG!), making the cake was a lot easier than I thought it would be. If you’re interested in making a wedding cake yourself, read on…

Equipment you will need:
3 cake tins sized 10cm, 18cm and 25cm in diameter
2 Cake boards the size of the biggest two cakes
A Spirit level
Baking parchment
3 cake dowels

Bake: I made two basic sponges and one fruit cake for the base cake. I got my recipes from a wedding cake book, but you can find them easily online too.

Prepare: Ensure the cakes are flat with the spirit level (this bit’s important – my cakes were a teensy bit on the wonky side..!). Cover each sponge cake with butter icing and the fruit cake with a layer of marzipan (the marzipan is best done at least a few days before).

 

Ice: Cut a piece of baking parchment in a circle 10cm bigger than your cake and dust with icing sugar. Roll out fondant icing to fit the parchment – you’ll need around 2kg in total. Lift the parchment and place carefully on the cake. Peel off the paper and smooth down onto the cake (NB this is the bit I found hardest! I would recommend a bit of youtubing to see the professionals doing it before attempting). Cut off the excess.

Stack: Dowels are required in the bottom cake to take the weight of the other two. Push three into the bottom cake. Mark with a pen, pull out and cut to the height of the cake. Put them back in and rest the middle cake (on its board) on top. The smallest cake does not require a board.

Decorate: I chose to decorate my cake with miniature sugar paste flowers that I bought from hobbycraft and finish with the bunting I made previously (click here to see tutorial). Now sit down and have a cup of tea and admire your handy work!

 

Tia xx

P.s. If you’re Brighton based and like to bake, why not enter Brighton’s very own Bake Off competition? Find details here.