Apple & Cider Wigwam Cake

If you love camping but would like to try something different or alternatively if camping really isn't your thing and you prefer your home comforts then why not try 'Glamping'. Glamping is 'Glamorous Camping' and it's really taken off in the last few years!

Whether you want to stay in a tipi or cruise around Cornwall in a classic VW camper, glamping offers something for everyone. Kids will see it as a great adventure and for adults it's the ultimate in cool camping. If you're heading to a festival this year, you can also glamp it up with an array of festival accommodation on offer.

To celebrate the great British tradition of camping I made this Apple and Cider Wigwam Cake. It's so cute and perfect for summer. The cake is a lovely moist apple and sultana cake with some tasty cinnamon spice. The apples and cider are both British. The cider was incorporated into the buttercream between the cake layers inside and it was also used as a coating for the cake for the sugarpaste to adhere to. The cake even comes complete with a Matchmaker chocolate campfire and welly boots!



This is yet another bake from 'The Birthday Cake Book' by Fiona Cairns. It would appear I'm working my way through the book as I've already made Alice's Teapot, the Butterscotch Wisp Cake and the Lime and Vodka Russian Doll Cakes. 

Inside the tipi there are actually 3 x 15cm apple cakes stacked on top of each other and sandwiched with buttercream. These were then carved into a cone shape with a large serrated knife. A top tip to give the green sugarpaste on the board a grassy effect is to use a scourer. Once the paste is in place on the board use a scourer and press down on the soft paste and it gives it a great mottled effect which is reminiscent of grass! You can just about see the effect in the picture below.

So if all this talk of 'Glamping' has whet your appetite here are a few suggestions:

1. Vintage Vacations on the Isle of Wight - stay in a classic Airstream trailer/caravan
2. Jolly Days in the North Yorkshire Moors - Tented lodges with four-poster beds!
3. 4 Winds Lakeland Tipis - Hire a tipi in the Lake District
4. Yurt Village Holidays - Stay in a yurt in Dorset. I've stayed here and it was great fun! Why not try llama treking too! :-)
5. Devon Classic Camper Hire - Strap your surfboard to the roof and visit Devon in a VW camper
6. Free Spirit Spheres - For the more adventurous, sleep in the trees on Vancouver Island, Canada. I'm hoping to head here next year. If you go at the right time of year, you can even Kayak with Killer Whales!

As camping in the summertime is a British institution I am entering into this month's Calendar Cakes with the theme being 'British Summertime'. The challenge is alternately hosted by Rachel from Dolly Bakes, who is hosting this month, and myself. If you'd like to join us you can find more details here.

* Please note - I have not been asked to advertise any of the above 'Glamping' destinations they are simply places I have seen on the internet which I would like to visit. In addition, I cannot vouch for any of the companies or the quality of service they offer as I have only previously visited Yurt Village Holidays in Dorset.

Butterscotch Cake with Caramel Hazelnut Wisps

This cake is somewhat weird and wonderful and looks a little like something out of the Alien movies...however, it certainly has the wow factor and is just a little bit different. The addition of light muscovado to the sponge mixture gives it the butterscotch flavour and the mascarpone frosting is a nice alternative to buttercream...although it's probably not for everyone!

This is the second outing from The Birthday Cake Book by Fiona Cairns, following on from Alice's Teapot Cake last week. It was fun to make and tasted good...although I'd say for my taste the sponge was a little bit dry...or maybe it was just my baking!! :-)

I wanted to give this one a go as I was keen to try making caramel again, following the Weekly Bake-Off Hokey Pokey Coffee Cake...wow that's a mouthful to say. I think I was a bit too keen when making my caramel for the hokey pokey cake as I didn't wait for it to turn a really deep amber, so this time I didn't make the same mistake and the caramel wisps are a lovely deep colour.

So if you have a friend who likes butterscotch and something a bit wacky, this could be the cake for them!

Ingredients

175g unsalted butter

175g self-raising flour

1tsp baking powder

3 eggs

100g golden caster sugar

75g light muscovado sugar

1tsp vanilla extract

 

Frosting

500g mascarpone

1 tbsp black treacle

1 tbsp golden syrup

2 tbsp light muscovado

 

Caramel Whisps

30 blanched hazelnuts

Wooden skewers

110g caster sugar

 

Heat your oven to 180c/170c fan/gas 4 and prepare two 20cm sandwich tins by buttering the sides and lining the bottom. The cake is then easy to make, just sift the flour and baking powder together before adding the remaining ingredients. Mix well but don't over-mix and then divide between the sandwich tins and cook for 20-25 minutes before cooling on a wire rack.

 

To make the frosting you just literally just need to beat all the ingredients together. This frosting might not be for everyone, so you could also use toffee buttercream.

 

For the wisps, put the sugar and water into a heavy based saucepan and then put over a low heat, stir with a metal spoon until all the sugar crystals have dissolved and then turn up the heat so the sugar mixture is boiling, at this stage who should not stir it at all. Leave to boil until the caramel turns a deep amber colour. During this process just pop your hazelnuts onto a baking tray and put them in the oven for 5 minutes on 170c.

When cooled, insert a skewer into each hazelnut. When the caramel is ready you can then dip each one in and ensure it is liberally covered. Place the end of the skewer under a heavy board and a long whisp should form which will take about 5 minutes to harden. One tip though...make sure you place some newspaper on the floor!

* Adapted from The Birthday Cake Book by Fiona Cairns

Alice's Teapot Cake

This post is a double whammy...not only is it my entry for this month's Random Recipes hosted by Dom over at Belleau Kitchen, but the cake was also my contribution to the inaugral Wandsworth Clandestine Cake Club.

To choose a random recipe for the month of March, we were instructed to count along our bookshelf to cookbook number 17, then flick through with our eyes closed and whichever recipe you land on you should make. Well, it seems Random Recipes is here to challenge me, as after making a flaky pastry fruit slice in January, this month I randomly selected 'The Birthday Cake Book' by Fiona Cairns, who made the Royal wedding cake no less.

Having flicked to the page with Alice's Teapot Cake, I hummed and harred over whether to join in. Then a couple of days later I saw a new Clandestine Cake Club advertised in Wandsworth...and the theme...Mad as a March Hare, cakes inspired by Alice in Wonderland. Obviously, Alice's Teapot would be perfect for this. A very fortunate coincidence...and I promise there was no cheating involved in choosing my Random Recipe!

As the cake is round in shape, I used an Alan Silverwood spherical pudding mould. However, I did have to make the cakes twice...the first time they stuck to the mould, despite the instructions saying that a liberal covering of butter would result in them turning out perfectly...it didn't! It did however, taste lovely and light. The second time I didn't take any chances, I used Wilton Cake release and lined the tins a little.

The cake itself is a lemon madeira which was really tasty. There was lemon juice and zest in the sponge and then the cake was brushed with lemon sugar syrup, and finally there was also zest and juice in the buttercream...it was certainly zingy! To decorate the cake it was covered in sugarpaste which was decorated with blossoms and then finished off with piped royal icing. The spout and handle were made in advance out of Mexican modelling paste as they needed sufficient time to harden. The final product is a lovely little teapot, perfect for Alice!

So, now to the Clandestine Cake Club. If you haven't heard of it before then check out their website. Every month in locations around the UK, CCC groups meet up. There's always a theme for your baking and the idea is you take your offering along and sample all of the other delights on offer. Since, appearing on the One Show last month, more and more CCCs have sprung up, including a number in London.

The theme for the first Wandsworth meeting, as already mentioned was cakes inspired by Alice in Wonderland...and I have to say there was an amazing array...the Queen of Hearts, a drink me bottle, a clock face, the white rabbit, roses painted red, a catepillar and many more. You can check some of them out below.I thoroughly enjoyed my first cake club experience, everyone who attended was lovely and the cakes were divine as there was also an array of flavours. I'm looking forward to next month already!

* I've just found a new decorating challenge too, the theme is 'Anything Goes' so my teapot has been entered into the Decorating Challenge