Sarah and I signed up for a 5 week cupcake decorating course at our local college. It was a bargain price of only £10 for the 5 weeks so we couldn’t really say no! After attending my first half day cupcake decorating workshop last summer I was keen to learn some more techniques.

I was surprised that we were mainly going to be using sugarpaste to make decorations for our cupcakes. For some reason I had never really considered this, and always thought cupcakes should be decorated with buttercream swirls! For the first class we learnt how to make cute little faces – baby faces and pirate faces. It was good fun but I definitely need some practice using the sugarpaste – I found it very difficult to get it smooth and even. It didn’t help that I had to cut off the top of my cupcakes to make them even with the cases – this made the surface very uneven and bumpy. However, my hands aren’t too covered in food dye today haha… so that bit was a success!

Here are my end products haha… not perfect, but all right! I also made a quick little flowery decoration with some scraps of sugarpaste that I had left.

Next week we are learning how to make animal faces. I won’t be there however, as I am heading to Lanzarote with my mum for a wee break. I will be expecting Sarah to be able to teach me though when I come back!

Do any of you use sugarpaste to decorate cupcakes or are you buttercream fans like me?! x

I got cookie cutters for Christmas last year that make a lovely stacked Christmas tree. Today I got round to trying them out. I had a lovely morning baking & listening to the Michael Buble Christmas album (which is v good!) and the Little Mix single (yes, I’m sad & bought one haha)!

This was the first time I had tried to do proper icing on biscuits – where you need to pipe round the edge first with a thick royal icing and then “flood” the centre with runnier icing. The result wasn’t too bad, although you may notice that my icing leaked in a few places!

I am entering my Christmas tree made out of biscuits into English Mum’s Big Christmas Bakeoff! The closing date is tomorrow (18th) at midnight, so if you are quick you may still be able to enter!

Last Tuesday saw the second Clandestine Cake Club meeting in Warrington. We met in Jasper’s Cafe in Stockton Heath to share our cakes. The theme was “Frolicking Fireworks & Copious Celebration” – ahem, what?! I decided to make a chocolate marshmallow cake cos everyone toasts marshmallows for Bonfire Night, yea?! I have a recipe book with a chocolate marshmallow cupcake recipe so I thought I could easily alter that to make a cake.

Hmmm…. didn’t quite work like that! My first attempt was a disaster. I had put marshmallows in between 2 layers of cake mixture as per the cupcake recipe but after 10 minutes the oven was belching out smoke. The marshmallows had all bubbled up and were spilling over the side of the cake tin, and of course burning on my nice new oven. The top of the cake was also black as it had burnt so much. Hmmm…. I thought it was my fault for trying to adjust the recipe.

Next day = another recipe. This time it was a recipe off the internet. I didn’t read the recipe right through to begin with so I didn’t notice that the method was slightly wrong and didn’t give the correct quantities of butter to use. Bah. Of course I realised half way through and just carried on, hoping it would be OK. Ahem – no. Another burnt disaster.

Ok, I was upset by this time but I reckoned it was my own stupidity that had been the problem. So I got proper quantities and instructions for the 2nd recipe and tried it again. I followed that recipe TO THE LETTER. And guess what – it burnt again.

Now I was really upset. This was the morning of the cake club and there was no way I was going to go with no cake, but I was too stressed out to try it all again.

Gary came up with the bright idea that our oven might be faulty. I didn’t think so as we just got this new oven a few months ago. Anyway, we scooted out to the shops in search of an oven thermometer. And yep, it turned out the oven was/is indeed faulty. Turning the oven to 180 degrees (what my cakes had to be cooked at) resulted in an actual temperature of over 250 degrees…. No wonder my poor cakes were burning.

So, now I knew the oven was at fault and I felt so much better! I decided to give up on the fancy recipes and just make a chocolate cake I know works (this is it HERE), and make a marshmallow and chocolate ganache thingy to fill and cover it with. I had the oven dial turned to 50 degrees – this gave me the cooking temperature that I actually needed, although I did have to keep adjusting it while it was cooking.

My cake came out fine as that recipe always does. I made my marshmallow ganache by melting marshmallows and double cream and then whisking in some chocolate. Mmmmm it was delicious. I had several spoonfulls! I whipped some more double cream and plonked this on the top of the cake and then covered it in marshmallows and a sprinkle of cocoa powder. DONE!

So – the actual cake club itself was good fun as always. I didn’t have much of a cakey appetite this time so I only managed a few cakes, but I made sure to take plenty home with me

We had 9 yummy cakes: my chocolate & marshmallow cake, chocolate surprise cake (with popping candy!), toffee apple cake, hummingbird cake, chocolate & caramel cake, pink champagne cake, devil’s food cake, maple & pecan cake, pineapple & banana cake.

I forgot to take a proper pic of my cake, but here it is in the foreground of this slightly blurry pic:

Sarah enjoying some cake:

Emma AKA Miss Tigers:

Me & Zoe:

Favourite cakes of the night: Chocolate Surprise Cake with popping candy & Chocolate & Caramel Cake..

Check out the Clandestine Cake Club website and see if there is an event on where you live!

I have always wanted to try making an apple cake, and I love apple crumble – so what could be better than an apple crumble cake? I made this last night using the recipe from the Hummingbird Bakery Cake Days book. They call it an apple streusel cake but it’s the same thing, yeah?!

Ingredients:

For The Sponge:

60g unsalted butter

140g plain flour

100g caster sugar

1 large egg

1/2 tsp vanilla extract

80ml milk

3 apples (I used 2 large Pink Lady apples)

For The Topping:

70g plain flour

1/2 tsp cinnamon

40g unsalted butter

70g soft light brown sugar

Method:

Preheat the oven to 170 degrees C. Grease a 8 inch tin.

Make the topping first. Rub the butter into the flour and cinnamon until it resembles breadcrumbs. Stir in the sugar and set aside.

For the sponge, cream together the butter & sugar until light & fluffy. Add the egg and vanilla and mix thoroughly.

Sift the flour, baking powder and a sprinkle of salt together, then add half of this mixture to the creamed butter & sugar, followed by half the milk. Mix well, then repeat with the rest of the flour and milk. Pour the batter into the cake tin.

Peel, core & slice the apples into quarters and each quarter into 3 or 4 slices. Arrange the slices in concentric circles on top of the cake batter, then sprinkle with the streusel topping, making sure it forms an even layer.

Bake in the oven for 35-45 minutes until it is golden brown and a skewer inserted into the cake comes out clean.

Yum.com! We had it when it was still warm drowned in double cream and ice cream (I can eat whatever I want at the weekends haha!). My only complaint was that the apples were still a tiny bit crunchy – but I probably didn’t cut them thinly enough!

I am submitting this recipe to The Pink Whisk Challenge for October. The brief this month was simply to bake something with apples! If you want to join in you have until the 28th October to enter. There is a fab prize up for grabs as well..

PS – I was taking some photos today in daylight of the cake & couldn’t resist having a little nibble slice! It was yummy cold as well

Don’t know what the Bake It! Club is?! Read all about it HERE!

This month’s challenge was not for everyone to try the same recipe (as happened previously). Amy gave us the theme of “Back to School” and we had to either think of our own recipe or we could use hers which was jam roly poly.

Having never had a school dinner in my life, I wasn’t sure what to make. I love crumbles, and I’m pretty sure they may have been served in the school canteen?! Along with some congealed custard of course!

We went blackberry picking on one of our dog walks and just about gathered enough blackberries to make into an apple & blackberry crumble:

Excuse the really bad photos, I must work out the best setting to use my camera on when the dark nights come around!

I love a good thick crumble topping! We had a tiny bit of ice-cream each to go with this (all that was left) but we really needed a lot more, or cream, or custard…..

PS – Note, this was made 2 weeks ago, before I started by healthy eating…. it is making me rather hungry typing this haha! x

The lovely Kim told me about the Clandestine Club meeting in Warrington. Unfortunately she couldn’t go, but I was feeling brave and decided to go anyway! A friend from the dog display team came as well, so at least I knew somebody lol!

If you have never heard of the Clandestine Cake Club check out their website. These “clandestine” events are springing up all over the country, so if you love cake there is bound to be one happening near you!

The theme for our cake club was “Fabulicious Five” and cakes had to incorporate fruit or veg! I decided pretty early on to make a courgette & lemon cake. I just had to find the best recipe. After trying a few I went back to the first one I tried. Here is a pic of my cake & the recipe that I used:

• 200g (7 oz) grated courgette
• 150g (5 oz) caster sugar
• 1 egg
• 125ml (4 fl oz) vegetable oil
• 200g (7 oz) plain flour
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1/2 teaspoon bicarbonate of soda
• 1/4 teaspoon baking powder
• 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
• 2 teaspoons lemon zest

• Preheat oven to 160 C / Gas mark 3. Grease a loaf tin.

• In a bowl, beat together the courgette, sugar, egg and oil. In a separate bowl, sift together the flour, salt, bicarbonate of soda and baking powder; stir in the cinnamon and lemon zest. Stir the flour mixture into the courgette mixture just until blended. Pour the batter into the prepared tin.

• Bake 45 minutes in the preheated oven until a knife inserted in the centre comes out clean. Remove from heat and cool about 10 minutes before turning out onto a wire rack to cool completely.

** This is for a loaf tin cake. I doubled the recipe and made 2 round cakes which were sandwiched with cream cheese frosting with 2 tsps lemon zest added!

The event was held in a cosy little cafe (Heaths 26) in Stockton Heath, Warrington. There were about 10 cakes there and I did try to taste them all but got quite full very quickly! Luckily we were able to take loads home with us.

Here are some pics of the cakes:

Beetroot and Chocolate Cake

Pineapple and Coconut Cake

Date and Apple Cake

Chocolate Orange Cake & Orange and Cranberry Cake

Carrot Cake with Orange Frosting & then my cake & then Courgette and Walnut Cake

Berry Layer Cake & Plum Cake beside it

Some of the attendees

It was a great evening out & I can’t wait for the next meeting!

Answer: These 2!

I just thought this picture was so cute (even if it is a bit blurry!). They were dying to get a bit so I gave them a teensy bit of icing each!

Hope everyone is having a good weekend. Gary got away safely this morning & he is now in the Isle of Man getting ready for the big event tomorrow eek! Thank you to everyone who sponsored him!

I have been cleaning the house, baking, reading some blogs etc… and I have a nice night planned of X Factor & a film ! Yay!

PS – Do you see the muck the pups brought in from the garden on my nice clean floor?! Grrrr… no way it can be kept clean for long haha…

I have been feeling really bleugh the last couple of days – the cloud of depression seems to be back hovering over me. I guess it doesn’t help that I cut down my anti-depressants against my doctor’s advice tut tut… I am now back on the highest dose imaginable & waiting patiently for them to kick back in….

Anyway, I did want to crawl under the duvet this afternoon and do nothing, but instead I’m going to bake. Yay. Look out for my creation next week when I will share it with you!

I hate picture-less posts so I will leave you with a pic of 2 of my 3 favourite boys (the other one being Jinx the cat):

Gary & Chester pup on location in  Co.Durham:

I hope you all have a fab weekend, have you anything exciting planned?!

It was Gary’s birthday last week and he couldn’t decide what cake he wanted me to make for him. He has had variations of a chocolate cake for the last few years – (see last year’s chocolate disaster cake!) so I decided to make a cheesecake this year just to be different.

Here is the recipe I used:

Mint Aero Cheesecake:

BASE:

14 digestive biscuits (crushed)

2.5 oz melted butter

TOPPING:

200g mint aero crumbled

200g philadelphia cheese

250ml double cream

4 oz icing sugar

METHOD:

Mix the crushed biscuits into the melted butter. I doubled these amounts for the base as I was using a rather large cake tin!

Sieve the icing sugar, and mix with the philadelphia cheese.

Whip the double cream and add to the cheese mixture – mix well.

Add 3/4 of the aero chunks to the mixture – mix well.

Spoon the mix on top of the biscuit base and smooth out the top.

Use the remaining aero chunks to decorate on the top.

Chill in the fridge for as long as possible before serving! (at least 2 hours!)

It was rather yummy, and such an easy recipe to make! I enjoyed it a lot more the next day as it had firmed up properly in the fridge and I wasn’t so full after Gary’s big birthday meal the night before!