Halloween and Baby Shower

Oh gosh, it has been that long since I last posted something on this blog? Tut Tut Tut. It's a good thing that Gracie has been keeping up with all the baking and blogging.

Did everyone have a wonderful Halloween? Here is the Pumpkin that my Rascal chose and the scary face was carved by my brother in law. Hee Hee Hee! The heat from the candle inside has made the top shrink.

My friend, Delene, had her baby shower last Saturday and I promised her that I'll bring some cupcakes. So I ordered some cute baby boy decorations and pretty cupcake cases. I phoned Gracie asking for tips on what sponge and icing to use for the cupcakes. In the end I used a Chinese Chocolate sponge and the topping consisted of melted vanilla white chocolate and milk chocolate instead of the usual butter cream and icing.

I tried to make some Totoro puffs (I saw some on a Japanese Website), but they turned out looking more like weired teddies/bunnies. Hee Hee Hee.... I definitely need to work on my piping.....well at least they tasted great.

Birthdays Galore !

September... the month of birthdays - a LOT of them... or maybe just too long since I last posted... hmmm...

So what of the flurry of cakes... well... there were some indulgent fun cakes - snickerdoodles, with a crispy base, caramel mousse and chocolate cream, some fruity flamboyant celebrations of peach and strawberry layered mousse, another of mango and berries topped with a white chocolate bow, though my favourite was the elegant understated azuki and matcha mousse gateau... what's yours?

Simply Summerlicious !

We are published !

Check out UKHandmade to see the full article for this yummy summery recipe idea...! :)

As you can see, I had more than a little fun setting up the photo shoot !!!

Wemake Christmas Fair and Sponge Cake

Following from last year's success at the Christmas Wemake Fair we have signed up to this year's Christmas Fair at Chelsea Town Hall. So we have been both busy doing our R&D.

Photos taken from Wemake

For some reason I've been obsessed with making sponge cake (don't ask me why, but I'm not pregnant). So I've been steaming sponge cake and baking sponge cake. I bet I will be frying cake soon.........hee hee hee. I made a cake that was really......spongy, soft, moist.........and yummy today....have a look.

Update: For personnel reasons, we will not be selling any cakes and chocolates this year. We might be able to pop by and buy some goodies though.

Time for Chai... ?

It has been a while since my last cake blog... so what have I been baking of late...? Well... it was the lovely Mary's birthday a couple of weeks ago, and I had promised to make her a cake since.. well, a very long time. So what cake did I make her? Well, this is one that took some thought... something a little different, a bit grown up... and here it is, a chai latte gateau.

A layering of vanilla sponge, then a chai mousse, a hazelnut sponge layer, and a rich smooth coffee marscapone cream, topped off with another vanilla sponge. It was an exciting trip for the tastebuds to the exotic world of the various chai spices in the mousse. Though I fear the cardamons were a little too strong. Though a very fragrant adventure nonetheless! Happy Birthday babes ! :)

Fluffy fruity sweetness !

After a while of going awol, finally some new projects! Another festivity, this time for Father's day - He is where I got my sweet tooth from, and is always enthusiastic about any new bakes and treats I bring along for him to try. So I needed something a little different, something a bit special... and what better present than my dad's all time favourite sweets !!

I have always wanted to make marshmallows, though it always seemed a little bit more tricky and fiddly than I was prepared to commit to. Anyhow... a recent present changed all that, I am now the proud owner of a candy thermometer! So what better way to christen it than with this sweet fluffy treat!

Marshmallows are surprisingly straight forward to make, though they are fiddly... why? because they are sticky... take a bit of patience... and oh, and did I mention, sticky... ? ;) Though, they worked !!! I blended some fresh raspberries and strawberries in for that extra fruity mMMmm... And they turned out a treat... Dad loves them! Yay!

Also tried my hand at another flavour - Tangy lemon !

More Birthday Cakes

There seem to be a lot of birthdays at the moment and I have to wait till July for Gracie to bake me one.....hint hint hint. It was my husband birthday a while back and since he took a day off I decided to do the same. Instead of going to watch Star Trek (will have to go and watch it later) I decided to bake him a cake. Can you believe that I've known him for more than 10 years and I've never baked him a birthday cake?! Tut tut tut. A few of his friends asked what kind of cake I was planning on baking. Well, lets put it this way....I kind of made it up as I went along. Hee hee hee!

Here is the cake:

A three layer vanilla sponge fill and covered with cream and fruits. I was planning surrounding it with Belgium chocolate swirls all the way round, but guess who ran out....yep I ran out and so did the local supermarket. So I had to improvise with the chocolate square disk. I think it did the job.

Before I forget we raised £50 for Shelter's Cake Time. I must organise the event again next time.....it was fun.

Now I feel like baking a chocolate cake....

Gracie's Lacies...

More Celebration cakes - first a wedding anniversary cake... something romantic for spring. I came up with this cake so that it would appeal to both the sweet rich tooth of the Mr, as well as the less indulgently decadent preferences of the Mrs.

The sunny spring weather was also a firm consideration in my conceptualisation. So that I ended up with a lemon-white chocolate mousse gateau, with a romantic pink lacy surround. The idea - a smooth creamy white chocolate mousse, sat upon a crunchy almond shortbread base, then a layer of vanilla sponge, topped with a light refreshing lemon mousse to offset the richness of the chocolate and decorated with meringue blots and raspberry dots. I have to say, I was a little hesitant about the lemon mousse, as I have never made an egg white mousse base before, raw eggs just worry me... though it was really yummy, light air bubbles, and just enough tang from the lemon to cut through the sweetness. Even as a dessert in it's own right, I will definitely make that again! (make sure eggs are the freshest you can get!)
Passionate birthday cake: There was a bit of a story behind this one... the original concept involved coconut cream, and then pineapple and passionfruit mousse, in multiple alternate layers to create a bit of a dramatic affect when sliced. Though I messed up my pineapple passionfruit mousse. Although it was very tasty, the consistency was too runny. It didnt set... The first attempt at this cake failed miserably, and half of it ended up in the sink when I unmoulded it from it's cake ring. Very disappointing. In the end, I had to revise the brief (as ever, time constraints!), and came up with this one. Small, though nicely formed. Vanilla sponge layered between the passionfruit-pineapple cream (scrapped the mousse idea, as I wonder if gelatine is the answer to setting it?) Topped with the coconut cream and drizzled with passionfruit coulis.