Calendar Cakes Round Up - May

The good bakers of the blogosphere have truly excelled themselves this month with a delectable array of goodies for you to drool over. The theme for Calendar Cakes in May was to bake outside of your comfort zone. This was in celebration of World Baking Day on Sunday 19th May when bakers were encouraged to Bake Brave! Check out the fabulous results in this month's round up:

Our first entry was from Laura at baking in pyjamas. I absolutely love this Funfetti Cake with Seven Minute Icing, the cake is so pretty and the icing is to die for. Laura followed recipes from the Magnolia Bakery cookbook and added in the funfetti to the cake recipe. If you haven't visited already check out Laura's blog for some lovely bakes!

The next cake was a very popular choice from the World Baking Day list of 100 bakes. This was at level 91, with 100 being the most difficult, and it was brilliantly executed over at the Cupcakery. This is a Chocolate Brownie, Meringue Cake with Raspberry Cream and the original recipe is by Miranda Gore-Brown who was a contestant on the Great British Bake Off.

Next we have a Strawberry Chocolate Cake from Adventures with Cake, who really went to town on this one. This is certainly Baking Brave as this cake is at level 99 out of 100 and if you check out the Adventures with Cake blog then you'll see that it was a labour of love with many processes, for example you can just see the stripped sponge on the outside. I'm sure you'll agree this a great bake!

A seasonal cake next with a Rhubarb and Custard Cake from Linzi at Lancashire Food. Linzi used rhubarb from her garden and a recipe from Morrisons. The cake also contains custard powder. Rhubarb and custard is one of my favourite combinations and this cake looks delicious!

Here's Chocolate Brownie, Meringue and Raspberry Cream Cake take 2. I also decided to make this for World Baking Day as it just looks so tempting. This is level 91 out of 100, I initially thought I'd go straight for 100 but this cake looked so much nicer and the taste testers certainly concurred! You can see the results here.

One blogger who's certainly been baking up a storm outside of her comfort zone this month is Caroline from Caroline Makes. This is entry number one which is a Rocky Horror Show inspired cake. It was lovingly made as a birthday cake for her sister and is a two tier chocolate cake made with a recipe from the Hummingbird Bakery...I'm sure Caroline's sister was thrilled with the result.

Next we have a twist on bake number 83 which is hideaway heart cupcakes, these are from Mummy Makes Cakes. The original plan was to make level 87, strawberries pies but a lack of strawberries made this rather difficult! :-) For this recipe a vanilla cake batter was used for the main cake and then a chocolate batter for the hearts. This was inventive baking from this blogger as she attempted a new way of creating the hearts in the middle by freezing the batter in heart shaped moulds instead of baking the hearts first and although it didn't quite work out as she wanted, as mentioned in her blog post, this is what World Baking Day was all about...trying out new things and being brave! :-)

And now on to Chocolate Brownie, Meringue Cake with Raspberry Cream take 3 from the Wayfaring Baker. Elle also had an initial thought to dive straight in at the level 100 bake but then settled on this beauty as if you've seen bake 100 you'll know quite how large it is...enough to feed at least 20 people!

Calendar Cakes co-host Rachel from Dolly Bakes created one of her signature Bundt cakes...this one being a Spiced Apple and Sultana Bundt Cake with Maple Glaze. This was made for a cake club meeting and uses giant sultanas...this is a mammoth bake which is certainly ambitious and is perfectly executed.

Elizabeth from Elizabeth's Kitchen always comes up with great recipe ideas and this Vegan Lemon Drizzle Cake with Coconut Cream and Blueberry Sauce is no exception. This is baking outside the comfort zone as Elizabeth likes to try different recipes and although she's not a vegan she thought she'd give this a go. It was previously made for a dinner party and went down a treat. Also check out her blog if you want to learn a new method for making coconut cream!

This next one is a new one on me...it's Renuka's Malva Pudding. It was made by Hélène from I Cook with Butter and came in at number 63 in the list of 100. Hélène like me was a little confused by the World Baking Day ranking system as the level of difficulty seems to jump about a bit and the recipes don't always seem to get progressively harder. Nonetheless this pudding looks really tasty and Hélène reports that the sauce tastes a little like salted caramel which must be a good thing! :-)

For her second entry Caroline from Caroline Makes challenged herself to make a Gateau Frasier which she accomplished with aplomb. This was certainly baking brave as this cake was previously made on the Great British Bake Off with varying degrees of success! The finished product looks lovely and Caroline rates it as one of the most technically difficult things she's made.

A beautiful cake next from Lottie at Lottie's World of Cakes and Bakes. It's a White Chocolate, Blueberry and Lemon Layer Cake and takes it's inspiration from the Peggy Porschen Boutique Baking book. Lottie describes the cake as follows 'This cake is a white chocolate and lemon sponge, filled with a blueberry and lemon curd (homemade!), coated in a whipped white chocolate and blueberry buttercream and decorated with fresh blueberries and a dusting of icing sugar'. I can only imagine this tastes as delicious as it looks. To create the beautiful bird pattern on the top Lottie used a stencil...it looks gorgeous!

The fabulous cakes just keep coming with this Choc Mango Mousse Cake from Nicole Bremner. If you check out the recipe for this cake it contains lots of interesting ingredients, such as silken tofu and agar flakes, which are certainly outside of my comfort zone! The resultant cake with it's striking orange colour and chocolate collar is a real treat for the eyes as well as the taste buds, although Nicole concluded that mango and chocolate was not her favourite flavour combination!

Kate from Cakes and Bakes by Kate chose to make a Treacle Tart for World Baking Day, this was certainly ambitious and was ranked at 71 on the list but looking at the processes involved I think it should have really been rated higher. Kate did a great job of this perennial favourite...treacle tart is always a winner. She made one large tart and several mini tarts and this was her first attempt at making pastry...well done Kate! :-)

This Mango and Chocolate Cake from Choclette at Chocolate Log Blog was certainly Baking Brave as she created this cake herself! The finished product turned out really well with a mango cake filled with chocolate which sounds delicious, and there are also cardamom and coconut flavours included. Choclette is also a World Baking Day ambassador and her recipe for Violet and Rose White Chocolate Fairy Cakes is in the line up of 100 recipes at number 16.

 

Lucy from supergolden bakes produced these amazingly pretty Very Vanilla Mini Cakes. These cakes are so dainty and would be perfect for afternoon tea. Interestingly they were actually baked in a tin can, I love this idea and may well have to give it a go soon! :-)

Last but not least we have this truly spectacular Rose, Lemon, Vanilla and Fruit Cake from the Carry On Cake Company. It's a real showstopper and would be a superb centrepiece to any celebration.

Thank you so much to all our entrants this month, all the bakes have been particularly impressive and I've really enjoyed reading about them and drooling over the pictures. Everyone certainly excelled themselves and well and truly Baked Brave!

To find out the theme for Calendar Cakes in June, hop on over to Dolly Bakes on the 1st June where you'll find all the information.