Caked out

Lots of cakes, though have been very slack in posting...

So here you go... all in one fell swoop... :)

So what do we have here... Lots of birthday cakes mainly... all with similar makeup, though all different flavours... Firstly Kal's cake... filled with raspberry and amaretto cream... a nutty roulade surround and topped with fresh berries and funky homemade chocolate decorations...

And this one. A special commision for S... A banoffee-chocolate-rum gateau... :) This one was a bit different, instead of just sponge layering through the cake, I changed the texture of this one a bit. It has a crunchy caramelised biscuit base dotted with pecans... then a filling of luscious rum cream, fresh bananas and caramel... the second layer was a plain chocolate cream peppered with fresh raspberries. Topped with raspberry cream filled profiteroles encased by crunchy caramel and the cake itself finished with an elegant chocolate surround.

So what else do we have... let's see....Well this one. I was a bit undecided about this one. The filling was a lychee and strawberry filling. The fruity lychee mousse was very refreshing, though I am just not too keen the texture of the lychee mousse... maybe the puree needs to be finer next time? Though it did make for a very spring flavoured treat!

So last, but by no means least... this retro looking number. Topped with butterscotch cream fill profiteroles and fresh strawberries, hides a butterscotch pear surprise ! There were a number of steps to this seemingly simple cake... and it gave me trouble! One of the layers of sponge was supposedly a hazelnut dacquoise, though whilst I was busy getting on with my vanilla poached pears, I may have forgotten that they were in the oven. I think I need another timer ! :P

Luckily, the rest of it behaved itself. So, sandwiched in between the vanilla sponge was a creamy butterscotch mousse, then the troublesome dacquoise, followed by the poached pear purée mousse, with some of the poached pears roughly chopped into the mix. Finished with smashed up praline of toasted pistachios, pecans and hazelnuts... Pure indulgence...

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....