Mother's Day Cupcake Bouquet

Say it with flowers...this cupcake bouquet is a really sweet alternative to the traditional bunch of flowers on Mother's Day. I've always wanted to try a bouquet, so I thought Mother's Day was the perfect excuse. If you fancy trying one, there are loads of tutorials available online. This one is made up of mini and regular sized cupcakes, and the larger cakes have piped buttercream roses. To pipe a rose is fairly simple, just use a 1M nozzle and then start piping a swirl from the inside out.

However...don't do what I did...having worked so carefully, I got a bit overjealous pushing the cupcakes onto the bouquet...and I actually managed to push the whole thing over, squishing most of my lovely roses...so they're now shabby chic roses! :-( I'm already planning my next bouquet complete with neater flowers!

Once you've made your cupcakes it's not too difficult to assembly...just a little fiddly. Making a cupcake bouquet requires a flowerpot and an oasis ball that fits snugly in the top. The oasis should then be covered with clingfilm and wrapped in tissue paper, just in case any of the ball is visible at the end. The cupcakes themselves are attached with cocktail sticks, 2 in the small cakes and 3 in the large ones.

For some finishing touches, butterflies and ladybirds can be added which look really cute! So overall it was easier than I thought to make a cupcake bouquet...just don't knock it over squashing all your carefully piped roses!!

High Heel Shoe Box Cake

What woman doesn't love shoes and what woman doesn't love cake? Therefore this must be the perfect combination a gorgeous high heel shoe sat atop a shoe box of cake. A great design for any budding fashionistas, in this case the recipient was a Sweet 16.

I made this cake on a one day course last weekend. I went to the Cake Parlour in Wimbledon which is a gorgeous cake shop run by Zoe Clark, who is a well known cake designer.

To make the shoe box the cake was cut and filled before being covered in a crumb coating. Just for a bit of variety I used a rhubarb jam instead of a raspberry jam which is more common place.  An initial layer of icing is used to cover the cake, and then to make the lid a contrasting colour was draped over the top and then cut to size.

The board was covered before placing the cake on top. Once covered in black, a ruler was used to indent a squared pattern. In the corner of each square a cross was marked to make it look quilted, and the finishing touch was a gold dragee in each corner.

It's worth making the shoe in advance to give it time to set. You can buy shoe sets online with cutters and a heel mould but this one was produced with a homemade sole template and the rest was trial and error. To make the shoe you would need a strong paste, such as flowerpaste. The finishing touches were the inlay of the shoe which was brushed with lustre dust and edged with a stitching tool to make it look realistic. There is also a little label inside the shoe that you can personalise, this was also finished with a stitching tool so it appeared sewn in.

This is a really cute cake with a touch of glamour! Next time I might make a pair of Louboutins...or maybe some Jimmy Choos!

Weekly Bake-Off: Hokey Pokey Coffee Cake

This Hokey Pokey Coffee Cake is my entry into the Weekly Bake-Off...an homage to the great Mary Berry herself. Each week a different Mary Berry recipe challenge is set, with all participants baking the same recipe and then submitting their results.

When I saw that the recipe was Coffee Cake, I wasn't sure that this recipe would live up to my fail-safe Delia recipe. However, I must say I've been proved wrong...Mary's cake was utterly delicious, everyone thought it tasted great and the hokey pokey certainly elevated it above your average coffee cake. It also had a fabulous rise, making for a very impressive cake! So it's definitely a recipe to keep and make again.

The only thing I would say is that maybe there could be a bit more advice on how to make praline for the uninitiated. The recipe doesn't mention the fact that whilst the sugar is dissolving you should only stir it once or twice and then once you get past this stage and it starts simmering you should never stir it as this will lead to a praline catastrophe. At this stage you should really only swirl the pan occasionally. It also doesn't mention that this process can take quite a while, probably around 20 minutes.

Interstingly, the recipe also refers to the walnut praline as Hokey Pokey which is well known in New Zealand. However, a friend who is from NZ always refers to honeycomb as Hokey Pokey, so I googled it and it is indeed honeycomb...but who am I to argue when the cake tastes this good!

Ingredients

225g butter
225g caster sugar
4 large eggs
225g self-raising flour
1 level tsp baking powder
1 1/2 tbsp instant coffee in 1tbsp hot water
75g chopped walnuts

Walnut Praline

2 tbsp water
50g caster sugar
50g walnut pieces

Butter Icing

75g butter
250g icing sugar
1 1/2 tsp instant coffee in 1 1/2 tbsp hot water

Heat the oven to 160c/140c fan/gas 3 and line two 8 inch sandwich tins. This cake is easy to make, just put all of the cake ingredients into a bowl and mix thoroughly before dividing between the two sandwich tins and level the surface. Bake for 30-35 minutes. Leave to cool in the tins for a minute or two before turning out on to a wire rack.

The cake was the easy bit now for the praline! Place the sugar and water into a pan and put over a low heat until all the sugar has dissolved, the solution should go clear. You should then continue until the praline turns a deep amber colour (watch very carefully during the whole process as it can burn). Once ready, take it off the heat and mix in the nuts. This should then be poured out onto non-stick baking parchment.

Once the hokey pokey is cooled it can be broken up. Large bits should be kept for the decoration on top, with the remainder being broken up and added to the icing which will be sandwiched between the two cakes.

To make the icing, the butter and sifted icing sugar should be placed in a bowl, along with the coffee and then mixed to give a light and fluffy coffee buttercream. Finally, take the two cakes and place the least attractive one upside down on the serving plate. Spread the icing with the hokey pokey in on this cake and then place the other cake on top. To finish icing the top cake and cover with the remaining butter icing. The finishing touch, lovely pieces of hokey pokey decorating the top.

* Adapted from 100 Cakes and Bakes by Mary Berry

Marmalade Loaf Cake

In case you don't already know, this week is the first ever National Marmalade Week (25th Feb- 3rd March), so what better excuse to make this gorgeous marmalade loaf cake. I am also entering this into the March AlphaBakes challenge hosted by Caroline Makes and The More Than Occasional Baker. The letter for this month is 'M', so this marmalade loaf is perfect!

"This delicious preserve was invented in Scotland, in the port of Dundee in the late 18th century when a local victualler, James Keiller discovered a cargo of oranges being sold cheaply. Thinking he could sell it for profit in his shop, he bought the whole cargo, only to discover the oranges were bitter and therefore unsellable.

In despair his wife took them home with the idea of making a jam. The resulting “jam” was hugely successful and was named Marmalade after Marmelos, a Portuguese word for a quince paste similar in texture to the orange spread. Marmalade is still produced today by the Keiller Company in Dundee" (About.com)

There was much Mmmmming from the taste testers upon receipt of their slice, and as one pointed out what's not to like about this cake! It was extremely easy to make, it's really marmaladey, very moist and extremely moreish...this is destined to be a firm favourite, especially when short on time. So in other words, it's highly recommended...delicious!

  

200g self-raising flour

1 tsp mixed spice

100g golden caster sugar

zest 1 orange

zest 1/2 lemon

100g mixed dried fruit

140g butter

5 tsp marmalade

125ml mil

1 tsp white wine vinegar

2 tbsp icing sugar

1 tbsp demerara sugar

Preheat your oven to 160c/140c fan/gas 3.

 

Prepare a loaf tin (2lb) with greaseproof paper. Then take the dry ingredients, flour, caster sugar, mixed spice, zest, dried fruit and a pinch of salt and mix well.

Put the butter and 2 tbsp of marmalade into a saucepan, melt together before adding in the milk. Add this mixture to the dry ingredients, mix well and then add the white wine vinegar and mix again. Pour the mixture into the tin and bake for 1 hour.

With about 10 minutes to go, you need to start on the marmalade glaze. This can be made using 2 tbsp of icing sugar and 2 of water and the final 3 tbsp of marmalade. Bring it to a simmer and let it bubble for a minute or two, it should become thick and syrupy. Finally, remove the cake from the oven and pour the glaze over the top and sprinkle with demerara. Leave to cool in the tin and then enjoy!

* Adapted from BBC GoodFood Magazine (March 2012)