To Top It All Off

Frosting is the star element of the cake. Its the part that is seen first so it HAS to look good, because as they say, you eat with yours eyes!

The way to get a good looking cake is the master the art of frostings. Once you've got it, you're good to go and experiment with colours and flavours all you want! The recipe I've found is simple and easy, best of all, nothing bad happens when I add additional ingredients such as flavourings or food colouring :) The only bad thing I have found is that when it says it is enough to top 12 cupcakes, it really isn't. I usually double to recipe in order to cover at least 15 cupcakes (I always land up making weird numbers). Other than that its pretty darn good. 

For a simple vanilla butter cream frosting it goes a bit like this:

250g icing sugar, sifted

80g unsalted butter, at room temperature

25ml whole milk 

a couple of drops of vanilla extract

1. All you need to do is firstly blend the icing sugar and butter together. Then gradually add the milk and vanilla extract. 
2. Keep beating until light and fluffy then you're done!

Personally, I find piping butter cream, or any icing for that matter, the best way forward. Once you've got the knack of handling an icing bag and getting the patterns you want you cake make a cake look truly scrumptious! 

There are so many kits these days that you can buy with all the different nossles so that you can get the perfect shape, along with instructions on how to use them the get the right design! Perfect! 

When I pipe any cake, I use disposable plastic piping bags with my own nossles. It's so much easier as there's less hassle of not having to wash the bag out at the end ;) I'm all about quick and easy. 

Go on give this recipe a go and leave me a comment on any tips and tricks to icing cakes 

X

And a Splash of Chocolate

Now you know the basic cupcake recipe I use for any vanilla cake, it's time to mix things up a bit with the other different types of cake. Starting with everyone's favourite: chocolate. 

So the recipe is very similar to the standard vanilla cake recipe I've posted about before but except with a few tweaks and of course the addition of chocolate. 

3 large eggs
6oz self-raising flour
6oz caster sugar
6oz margarine
1 1/2tsp baking powder
1 1/2oz cocoa powder
4tbsp boiling water

The only difference in this recipe is that you use the water and cocoa powder to make a paste and add that into the mix all-in-one.

Chocolate cakes look lovely with a white frosting/butter cream because of the stark contrast, and then topping it off with some shavings of milk chocolate looks so inviting as you can see in the photos. But of course if you really want to go all out with the chocolate, I also LOVE a glossy chocolate ganache. Recipes for which will come at a later date, so keep your eyes peeled.

Enjoy!

X

Easy But Effective

Looking through recipe books I've found that the method to making a simple plain/vanilla cake tends to be rather time consuming and long winded. A cake is something I want to be able to make quickly and easily without the fuss of combining certain ingredients first, then the next. Blah, blah, blah. 

No, I want a recipe that is simple. Success! I've found just the one! :D Thanks to the amazing baker, Mary Berry the all-in-one recipe is simple with the quantities and is adaptable, so any flavours or additional ingredients can be incorporated. 

This recipe makes a large sandwich cake or, how I usually use it, around seventeen cupcakes (I know what an awkward number). It's so simple because all the quantities are easy to remember!

8oz self raising flour

8oz margarine 

8oz caster sugar

4 eggs

2 tsp baking powder 
Splash of vanilla essence/extract

And that's it, just bung it all in a mix and within a few minutes you've got a lovely light cake mix. 

You should bake it at around 180 degreesC for around 20-25 mintues. When the cake is golden brown and springs back when pressed lightly you know it cooked. 

All the vanilla cupcakes and Victoria sponge cakes I make are all made using this recipe. It's a fool proof method! So if you're a new baker or simply looking for a different way to bake cakes, I would definitely recommend you give this one a try! 

X

My One True Baking Love

My greatest love in the world of baked goods has to be the good old cupcake.

They are simply delicious and allow you to be as creative as you want. The combinations of flavours and colours are endless so there is always an excuse to bake them. Trying out new combinations and ideas is great fun - and even more so for my friends and family who get to eat them ;) 

I love it when birthdays and celebrations come around as I get the chance to bake something special for them which they can enjoy with everyone. That's the joy about cupcake, the individual cakes means that everyone cake have their own cake - so no fuss of having to cut pieces! But don't get me wrong I love big cakes as well :) 

This is kind of just a little warning that a lot of my blog post will most likely be about cupcakes! I just love them! And decorating them is so much fun as each one turns out slightly different.  

Take this for example - seventy cupcakes all hand decorated individually! Yes this was very time consuming but A LOT of fun :D especially as it was a groups effort. What could be more fun for a novice baker? Friends. Cakes. And decorating. Brilliant! 

So if you like cupcakes, who doesn't, you might just enjoy my blog and the posts to come :) 

X

Starting Simple

I'll start off with a simple Victoria Sponge. 

This simple yet delicious sponge is easy to make and a great starter for an amateur baker, like myself :) 

The great thing about a simple cake like this one, is that you can easily adapt and change it to your preferred taste. 

With this cake, I used a simple all-in-one victoria sandwich cake recipe, so there was no messing around for creaming the butter first, blah blah blah... I find these quick, easy and simple recipes are so much better because they taste as good as the long winded ones but are so much for efficient to make :) 

Then once the cake is done, its all down to your choice. We decided to ad both whipped cream and strawberry jam. So they both went in the middle as the sandwich then the extra cream went on the top with the lovely fresh strawberry decoration. 

Of course, you could in fact use any other type of jam to create different flavours, for example raspberries or even citrus fruits. With citrus fruits I would recommend adding some of the juice into the cake mix and maybe even the cream, just to enhance the flavour even more. 

x

Decisions. Decisions...

Starting a blog is pretty simple, but the main difficulty is choosing a topic to blog about. So it's that time for me, deciding what to blog about.

This is where you find out a little bit about me.

I LOVE baking, its definitely a passion I wish to pursue in the future. So I thought I might share with the all the other bloggers out there my limited knowledge about baking and all my creations. 

So this is the space where I will be posting photos, and maybe the recipes, of all the baking goods I create :) I hope this is something that will be interesting to people, so if it is, drop me a comment and let me know.

x

Hello Blogging World!

Hello people of the blogging world!

If you're reading this you've found your way onto this new girl's first blog post. Thanks and it's nice to meet you! Oh, and I apologise for how awful this blog must be, but cut me some slack, I'm new :) 

Many of my friends have blogs and have raved about how good they are, I've also seen and read a lot of blogs, so I've thought why not give it a try! 

So here goes...

I'm so excited to start blogging, and I'm well aware I could just be talking (or typing) to no one at this stage. If there is anyone reading this please bare with me, this is a whole new thing for me. 

My blogging adventure begins here! :D

x