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.

Chocolate Brownie Meringue Cake for World Baking Day

Today is World Baking Day...last year it was 'Caking', this year it is Baking Brave. If you check out the World Baking Day website, you'll find 100 different recipe increasing in difficulty from 1 to 100. All you have to do is choose your level and then get baking!

My initial thought was to go straight to recipe 100 but then decided that it was probably actually better to pick something that I'd really enjoy baking and that other people would enjoy eating, so I plumped for level 91 which falls into the category of 'I bake, therefore I am!'. The recipe in question is a Chocolate Brownie Meringue Cake from World Baking Day Ambassador Miranda Gore-Brown who you may remember was a finalist on the Great British Bake Off. I chose this recipe as what's not to love about chocolate brownie, meringue, hazelnuts, raspberries and lashings of cream!

I'm not really a brownie aficionado but this was a really simple recipe to follow, it contains chocolate, icing sugar, margarine, eggs and flour. The brownie base was baked for 8 minutes before taking it out of the oven half cooked, at which point the hazelnut meringue was spread on top and it was then baked for a further 25 minutes.

Once the brownie and meringue was cooled the two halves were removed from their tins. In order to do this, a knife had to be run around the tin but this did give me a slightly scruffy finish. The final touch was to whip up some cream, icing sugar and raspberries to give the lovely pink layer in the middle.

I'm a bit of a baking perfectionist but I think for this one it is impossible to get a really smart finish, however the slightly dishevelled appearance is part of the charm of this cake I think! Cutting it neatly is also a bit of a challenge.

This is a lovely recipe which everyone will enjoy, it might be particular nice if you have friends with kids coming over for Sunday lunch for example. If you'd like to give it a whirl you can find Miranda's recipe here.

I'm entering this cake into this month's Calendar Cakes challenge as the theme this month is Baking Brave. So if you've baked anything for World Baking Day you can enter it here. We're also after any bakes that you have made in the month of May that are out of your comfort zone or particularly challenging and bear in mind that everyone's level of challenge is different, so whatever your own personal triumph, you're welcome to enter it into Calendar Cakes.

Calendar Cakes is hosted on alternate months here at Laura Loves Cakes and over at Dolly Bakes. You can find out the theme on the first of each month :-)

Calendar Cakes - May

Thanks for all your great entries in April for the Great Village Show. You can check them out over on the Calendar Cakes page at Dolly Bakes.

For this month's Calendar Cakes we have a special challenge for you. On Sunday 19th May it's World Baking Day when everyone is encouraged to bake up a storm. You can check out the website here.

Last year for WBD we were encouraged to go out 'caking' which involved taking a picture of your cake in an unusual location. You can see my caking effort below as I made a crown cake for the Jubilee.

The WBD challenge for this year is to 'Bake Brave'. There are 100 recipes on the WBD website which are levelled in difficulty from 1 to 100. You can choose your baking level, starting at 'I bake and cross my fingers', moving to 'I bake every now and then', next up is 'I bake at every opportunity' and finally the top level...I bake therefore I am! All you need to do is choose the level and recipe that best suits you. We are urged to step out of our comfort zone and bake something we've never baked before.

So for our Calendar Cakes Challenge this month you can choose to do one of two things...either bake something from the list of 100 recipes...in which case you will go straight to the top of the round up. Alternatively, we would love to receive any other cakes and bakes that you make this month in celebration of WBD, even if they're not on the list of 100. We'd also love to see any 'caking' pictures this month too!

WBD looks like a lot of fun, so I do hope you'll get involved. On Sunday 19th May you can also tweet your entries to @WorldBakingDay if you've made one of the recipes from their list of 100.

* Please note, you are welcome to add as many entries as you wish to the linky but if there are too many entries overall then only one entry per person may appear in the round up.

To enter this month, here are the guidelines...

Entry Guidelines:

• Post your entry on your blog and include the ‘Calendar Cakes’ logo
  
  
• Add 'Calendar Cakes' as a label on your post.
  
  
• Follow Dolly Bakes and Laura Loves Cakes blogs using the Google Join this Site button.
  
  
• Add links on your post to your hosts Dolly Bakes and Laura Loves Cakes.
  
  
• Link to your blog from here using the Linky tool below. It's dead easy...
  
  
• If you don’t have a blog you can still join in, just email us a picture and a bit of information about your bake. Email to calendarcakeschallenge@gmail.com
  
  
• If you're on Twitter, tweet us a link to your post @dollybakes and @lauralovesbakes - otherwise we won't see it! Use the handle #CalendarCakes.  

Calendar Cakes Challenge Rules:

1. You can enter as many times as you like. Bake to your little heart's content.
   
   
2. It can be your own recipe or one you found elsewhere (please just state where you found it).
   
   
3. You can use old posts as long as you update them with the 'Calendar Cakes' logo and link back (see above).
   
   
4. If you want to enter your bake into other challenges too then please feel free.
   
   
5. You must submit by the 28th May.