Happy Birthday Mum!

            Over the past week I have been making the Decorations for my Mums Birthday Cake including Roses, Flowers and of course Nemo.
            Yesterday I banned my Mum from the kitchen while I made her cake, I made a Chocolate Sponge with a Chocolate Buttercream and Raspberry Coulis Filling, Yummy!!! I then Crumb Coated it in Vanilla Buttercream and I must admit it was my second time Crumb-Coating and it was Awesome!! I rolled out the 500g of Red Fondant I had and I must admit I had been looking at charts to see how much Fondant I would need to cover the cake and it said for a 7 Inch Cake you would need 600g and I only had 500g but when I rolled it out and put it on the cake I had LOADS left over so obviously for this Cake you didn't need 600g!
           After the Fondant was on the Cake I went to town on it, my Artistic Skills came through, I piped with Royal Icing the Nottingham Forest Badge with Forest written under it and then added the Fondant Nemo (Which my Mum loved more than the Forest Badge!!) and a Orange Rose to the side with 2 leaves. Around the edge I stuck some Fondant Flowers and leaves with some more Royal Icing and the Cake was starting to come together. The area inbetween the Flowers looked bare so using some chocolate Moons, Stars and Heart I stuck them on with a small dot of Royal Icing and it just looked Ah-mazing! I finished off with a Shell Border along the bottom edge (the cake was sliding a little) and some edible glitter painted along the top added a sense of Femininism to it so.

Sorry it's sideways, I don't know how to rotate!

From the Side.

Voila!

Fondant Flowers.

My Mum found the Fondant Flowers I made yesterday for her cake, well I showed her as I was proud. I rolled the Fondant out thinly and used 2 Blossom Cutters one smaller than the other so it made a 3D effect and glued them together with a little bit of water, I veined the larger blossom by using a toothpick and brushed some edible glitter onto the smaller blossom, I then placed a small Sugar coated Chocolate bean in the middle for the Pistil (centre) and then carefully placed each Flower in a Egg Box Cup to form and dry in a Flower shape.

B-e-a-utiful!

The leaves were just made from the leftover Yellow Fondant with Blue Paste food colouring added, then rolled out and using a Plunger Cutter cut the Leaf out and then the end was wrapped around the end of a toothpick to made the shape.

And today I made these:

Free Style Orange Rose!

I made 3 Orange Roses, these will go on my Mums cake too hopefully (If I've got enough room) This was the first time I had made Roses Free Hand (No Cutters) I am very proud of myself for them and they are Gorgeous!

My Busy Day.

Well today I made Banana Bran Cupcakes and  Red Velvet Cakes with a Brushed Embroidery Decor (Lets just say theres a lot to be desired in that skill.)

Red Velvet Cupcakes

The Royal Icing wasn't Thick enough nor
did I really know what I was doing.

75g Butter

150g Sugar

1 Egg

10g Cocoa Powder

20ml Red Food Colouring (Preferably Dr Oetker or some Paste)

1/2 tsp Vanilla Essense
120ml Buttermilk (120ml Milk with 2 tsp Lemon Juice)
150g Plain Flour
1/2 tsp Salt
1/2 tsp Bicarbonate of Soda
1 1/2 tsp White Wine Vinegar

Preheat the oven to 170C
Beat Butter and Sugar until Pale and Fluffy
In a separate small bowl mix the Cocoa,Red Food Colouring and Vanilla together to make a paste.
Add the paste to the Butter and Sugar then add the Egg,
Add half of the Buttermilk and Flour, mix thoroughly then add the rest.

My Favourite One.

Add the Salt, Bicarb of Soda and White Wine Vinegar.

Beat for a few minutes and then put the mixture into cupcake cases, should fill 2/3 full.

Bake for 20-25 minutes, this gave me a batch of 24.

Banana Bran Cupcakes

2 Cups of Bran Cereal

1 1/4 Cup of Plain Flour

1/2 Cup of Sugar

1/2 tsp Salt
1 tbsp Baking Powder
1 1/4 Cups Milk
1 Egg
4 Bananas

Preheat oven to 204C
Stir together Dry ingredients apart from the Bran.
Combine Milk and Bran in a separate bowl and leave for 5-10 minutes until the Bran is softer,
Mash the Bananas in a bowl and add them and the egg to the Milk and Bran.
Add the Banana and Bran mixture to the dry ingredients and mix until incorporated.
I found that the bottoms of the mixture stuck to the paper cases so spray your cupcake cases with some 1 Cal spray and it stops them from sticking.
Fill the cases 2/3 full and bake for 20 minutes.



Yummy!



Garden Cupcakes.

One of the few Cupcakes I made!

Today I made some Garden Cupcakes by making a Chocolate Cupcake, then using the Wilton 233 from

http://www.luvcupcakes.co.uk/ to make the Grass with Green Buttercream on top then my sister and I decorated them. :D

The Garden Cupcakes, Look Yummy!

Bits and Bobs

Well yesterday I ordered £15 pounds worth of Decorating stuff for my Mums Birthday Cake to be made very soon, I shall add pictures and tell you more after the 29th as my Mum could have a gander here on my blog and I'd rather not ruin the surprise! Anyway today I took to The Challenge a tin of the Apple Crumble Cupcakes and I must say...I think they enjoyed them! I took about 20 and only 1 came home with me so overall a good Cupcake but in my quest of Dessert Cupcakes if you come across any desserts that you think I should have a go of making into a Cupcake, comment or send me and email on taste_the_rainbow_eat_crayons_2k8@hotmail.com .

Thank You :D

Eventful Day?

Well today I made some Citrus and Honey Cookies to later decorate with Royal Icing, I thought the cookies would spread but they didn't so they were rather small. I made Royal Icing and that was too runny so just did some small decs and left then to dry. Don't get me wrong the Cookies are good and the Royal Icing will hopefully harden but overall not a very fun nor productive day, especially since it hasn't stopped raining all day :L

Apple Crumble Cupcakes, Pure Genius!!!

Before they went into the Oven.

A while ago I saw some photos of popular desserts made into Cupcakes and I got a brainwave to have a go at Apple Crumble Cupcakes and I kind of made my own twist on this idea.

I decided to do a Custard Cake Batter, Cinnamon Spiced Stewed Apples and Crumble Topping (I cheated for this I used shop bought Crumble Topping :P)

I did a layer of Custard Sponge, then a layer of Apples, another layer of Custard Sponge and all topped off with a generous handful of Crumble Topping.

After being in the Oven, I would of put in longer
for the Crumble Topping to Darken.

If anyone would like the recipe I would be happy to share, such a tasty treat and the end result brings back a childhood memory of Apple Crumble for Dessert :D

Recipe
Crumble Topping:
Shop Bought Crumble Topping
or
35g Oats
35g Flour
25g Caster or Demerara Sugar
35g Butter or Margerine

Mix with tips of fingers until consistency like BreadCrumbs, a few lumps won't hurt anybody :)

Stewed Spiced Apple Filling

600g Cooking Apple, Peeled, Cored and cut either into halved slices or chunks

125g Caster Sugar

Dash of Cinnamon and Nutmeg

2tbsp Water

Put Apples slices/chunks into a pan and add sugar, spices and water, cook over a medium heat and let it simmer until apples are soft but have not broken down.

Custard Cupcakes (Sorry that it's in cups)

1/2 Cup of Custard Powder (Instant is fine)

1 1/2 Cups of Self-Raising Flour

1 Cup of Caster Sugar

130g Butter

3 Eggs

1/4 Cup of milk (more can be added if mixture is too thick)

1 tsp Vanilla Extract

Preheat Oven 180c, Gas Mark 4

Beat Butter and Sugar until a pale paste,

In a jug beat the eggs and vanilla together with a fork,

Add half of the egg mixture in with the ButterSugar and mix, add 1/2 of flour,

Add the rest of the egg mixture, the custard powder and the rest of the flour.

Put a teaspoon of the Cupcake Batter into the cupcake cases,

Add a layer of apple chunks/slice and some of the syrup too.

Add another teaspoon of the Cupcake Batter into the cases and generously top with the Crumble Mix.

Place in the oven for 20 minutes until Golden Brown,

remove from pan and put on a wire rack until cool.

Finished Product,
Crumble Topping
Custard Sponge
Stewed Apples
Custard Sponge.

Enjoy

Welcome

Welcome to my Blog,
I've been wanting to create a blog for a while but I've never got round to it as I don't usually take photos of what I bake as they're not usually very pretty...just Delicious. :P
I hope to do regular posts which I hope to put in recipes of Baked Goods from that month and any pictures that come along with them.