Banana Milkshake Cake

The last week in March is always a busy week in the Harden's family for birthdays with my Dad celebrating his on the 30th and my brother on the 31st of March. Naturally, each occasion needs cake! For Dad's cake I took inspiration and recipe from the Primrose Bakery cookbook which I got for Christmas. One of Dad's favourite things to drink is a big glass of banana milkshake so with a little tweaking their strawberry milkshake recipe would be perfect choice for my Pops. The sponge recipe for this cake uses only egg whites rather than the whole egg and also has yoghurt in it which meant the the finished result was very light and moist. The remaining slices are now in the freezer for Dad to have at a time when he choses most likely warm with custard.

Christmas Cake

With 6 days until Christmas, believe it or not there is still time to make a traditional, rich and boozy Christmas cake.  Yes, you could have made them in September and had one less thing to do at this busy time but, it's no bother really! 3 days to soak your fruit, a day to bake it , a day to ice and decorate and you'll still have a day to spare!

I seem to have done a lot of Christmas Baking this year but none of it is for me! After already making 5 Christmas Genoa Cakes one of the final things I needed to make was a proper, brandy filled Christmas Cake packed with fruit and nuts. So, yet again I turned to Mary Berry for a recipe that would fit the brief.

Mary Berry's Christmas Genoa Cake

As I write this whilst watching BBC Children in Need, it is only 41 days until Christmas!

This is the first of a few festive recipes that will be available on my blog on the run up to the big day. I thought I would start the festive baking with a very special cake that actually, I have been baking all year round. I first made this cake last year and since then I have lost count how many times I have made it. Infact, I will be making another batch very soon as various family friends have requested one for Christmas.

This time last year  I made Christmas cakes for the very first time, they were all individual Christmas cakes that I gave away to family and friends. When long term family friends Christine and Barry received theirs (and gobbled them up before Christmas) Barry said that he was very much looking forward to a full sized cake for Christmas day - and I could not disappoint! Barry loved it and  would not stop talking about it, for reasons I'm not going into here it was great that he enjoyed it and ate every slice. So, since then, every other month or so I have made him another one. His poor wife Christine and the other Grannies (the affectionate pet name we have for my Mum, her friend Christine and her friend Janice) are absolutely sick of hearing Barry go on about how amazing the cake is. I however, love that one cake has brought a lot of enjoyment!

I cannot take credit for the recipe, this is a Mary Berry special. This cake is absolutely packed with fruit however unlike traditional Christmas cakes, it is a light sponge and there is no icing or marzipan in sight, the fruit and nuts is decoration enough. This version doesn't have alcohol in it and I haven't dared tinker with the recipe as I wouldn't want Barry to be disappointed, but you could, if you wanted soak the sultanas in brandy, sherry or another chosen tipple.

So, without further ado, put some festive music on and lets get baking!

Sticky Toffee Trick or Treat

Halloween is upon us and whilst it is not generally a 'holiday' that I get involved in I thought I would bake a little something that just gently nods in the direction of the spooky goings on that occur on the 31st.

Just recently I have had an influx of new baking books including Richard Burr's BIY (bake it yourself). In his book there is a delicious recipe for sticky toffee pudding, one of my favourites! I thought I would tinker with it a little and turn the delicious pudding into a tasty cupcake treats. I added a pumpkin shaped marshmallow as decoration. If this recipe takes your fancy as a last minute bake for any halloween shenanigans you are involved in this weekend then it can be adorned with any spooky decor you like, or not if you prefer.

Chocolate Orange Genoise Cupcakes

Summer has been and gone and Autumn is upon us - my favourite season! I love cosy nights in, autumn colours and knitwear. It has also got me thinking about the upcoming festivities and themed baking including halloween, bonfire night and of course - Christmas. Whilst it is a little bit ridiculous that the shops are full of Christmas chocolates already, I took full advantage of chocolate isle to create some indulgent chocolate orange cupcakes to make a wet weekend all the more enjoyable! These cakes are made using a genoise sponge rather than my go to sponge recipe that features in a lot of my cakes. They are topped with a chocolate orange ganache and finished with a segment of Terry's chocolate orange.

They are really simple to make - the decoration could be changed to suit any occasion - a sweet spider for a halloween party or a caramel shard for any bonfire parties you might be going to.

Eton Mess Cake

I am a firm believer that sometimes there is nothing better than a classic Victoria Sponge. However for my 26th birthday I wanted something extra special to tuck in to whilst celebrating with my family. I recently purchased the 2nd book from the Meringue Girls - Everything Sweet and their recipe for an Eton Mess cake was the perfect choice. All the deliciousness of a Victoria Sponge but with a few extras which made it the ideal cake for a celebration.

The cake is actually really simple to make although there are a few seperate components - some of which you can make ahead of time which helps to reduce any on the day baker stress. I would recommend making the meringue kisses in advance and you could also make the strawberry coulis up to two days before as well.

Cappuccino Cake

Hooray for annual leave! On Wednesday I broke up from work for a week and a half, time to relax, sleep in and see friends...expect in my case this is not going to happen! For the last nine years I have volunteered for a children's charity, so my week off will entail camping, lack of sleep and entertaining 65 children. It's become somewhat of a tradition that I bake various treats and goodies for the rest of the volunteers to enjoy before the kiddies arrive and this year is no different.

Last year my coffee and walnut cake went down really well so I thought I would do something similar. However in my plight to become a baker and one day feature on the Great British Bake Off, I'm currently trying to expand my repertoire and create some recipes of my own. So I thought this would be a great opportunity and it would also give me a recipe to enter into the Thornton's Chocolates competition to create a recipe that features some of their products.

Pirate Cupcakes

'Raaaacccchh' I heard my sister say one evening last week. I waited patiently to find out what she was going to ask me for. Turns out she'd had a great idea for an end of year gift for all of the children in her reception class. They have been learning all about pirates so Alice thought that a fitting end of year gift would be for each of them to have a themed cupcake, wrapped in cellophane with a little personal message on a tag. The only problem she has was that she cannot bake at all (that's not me being cruel - she would say the same about herself). Hence the 'Raaaaaaccccchhh'!

After a quick browse on Pinterest and a chat on twitter with some fellow bakers I had a rough idea in my head - now it was all in the baking. I've never really used fondant icing before apart from with with shop brought cutters so this was going to test my artistic skills as I'd have to model the fondant to get the look I was after. Whilst I can be creative - execution is not my strong suit so this was a real test. Thankfully they turned out ok - I just hoped that the kiddies like them! Since writing this they have been given them and they got a big thumbs up!

Right then - lets get baking!

Dairy Free Caterpillar Cake

Not that I need an excuse to bake, but my sister in law's birthday at the beginning of June was a perfect reason to book a days leave from work and have a relaxing day in the kitchen. The brief was a caterpillar cake, which if your family is anything like mine, is an absolute birthday favourite. However this little caterpillar was to be extra special and completely dairy free.

Before making this I had a look for a vegan swiss roll recipe, to no evail. Before failing at the first hurdle, I took to twitter during the weekly #bakershour hosted by She Who Bakes and asked for help. Fortunately, fellow baker Collin's Time to Bake obliged and went away to devise a dairy free recipe that was flexible enough for rolling but strong enough not to fall apart.

I was really grateful that my fellow bakers came to the rescue and spent time going through trial and error for the perfect recipe - this kind of experimenting is something I would like to spend more time doing in the future. But for now, I will share this with you and hopefully sometime soon will be sharing experimental recipes of my own.

The recipe that was created by Collin was adopted slightly for the purpose of creating a chocolate caterpillar cake.

Chocolate Cupcakes: Baked by Harry

A few weeks ago my sister had some very special guests to our house, her best friend, her husband and their very special little boy Harry who is now a whole 3 years old.

Harry loves animals so on the Sunday of their visit the plan was for a day trip to our local zoo, Twycross. One of the most important parts of a family day trip is the picnic, and the most important component in a picnic (in my opinion as a baker) is cake! So, the plan was for Harry to have an early morning baking lesson to make chocolate cakes to be the star feature of the picnic.

I am an early riser and on this occasion it was no different, I got up extra early to get everything ready for my little baker friend who joined me as soon as he woke up to begin baking.

For this recipe Harry and I used my go to sponge recipe and adapted it slightly to make them chocolatey.

Victoria Sandwich

Sometimes, on a lovely early summer's afternoon there is nothing better than a slice of homemade vanilla sandwich cake. So simple, yet in my view, far superior to a lot of other bakes - you know what you are going to get from a vanilla sandwich cake and they rarely disappoint! So when my partner in crime and I were invited to a friend's house this weekend to meet their latest family member, I had to look no further when deciding on something to take as a baked treat. For this bake I went all traditional and ditched my beloved kitchen aid and enjoyed some 'proper' baking without the aid of gadgets and gizmos to speed up the process. All you will need to this bake is a bowl, a wooden spoon, a cake tin and some good ol' elbow grease!

 

Dinosaur Celebration Cake

The 31st of March marks a very special occasion, my big brother is turning 30!

Not wanting this occasion to go uncelebrated his girlfriend organised a surprise meal for friends and family. As I am writing this, the surprise meal hasn't happened yet but I know he will be really happy to see some of the family that have travelled up to see him that we don't see very regularly.

I booked a day's annual leave to make a cake fitting for the occasion - the brief was 'dinosaur themed' and this is what I came up with....

I felt very guilty as my brother tried to rope me in to painting fence panels on my day off so I had to tell a little white lie and pretend I had a physiotherapy appointment for my dodgy knee - sorry Daniel! But I couldn't tell you what I was really doing on Friday as it would have given the game away!

My brother and his girlfriend are both vegans so I had to make a cake that would appeal to all. The bottom square layer of the cake is a classic vanilla sponge with swiss meringue buttercream, the upper round layers are a vegan vanilla sponge with vegan buttercream. The little 3D dinosaurs are also vegan friendly. I used dairy free fondant icing to create the leaves and added a little extra decoration with some mini eggs and then some special vegan treats which are the ones in gold wrapping.

It was a mammoth baking session as not only did I make this I also whipped up a batch of chocolate eclairs which I have been promising my cousin I would make him for ages!

I was really proud of the finished cake - it turned out to be a real show stopper!

Lemon Drizzle Slices

Just recently I've gone in to baking overdrive! I've made so many things but I am only just getting round to typing them up. A couple of weeks ago we had a development day at work and for lunch we did a bring a share. Naturally, when the list when up for us to write what we were going to bring I put CAKE right at the top.

A favourite in the office at work is lemon drizzle cake - not wanting to disappoint anyone that is exactly what I made, along with some chocolate and marshmallow brownies for a super indulgent lunch time treat.

Butterscotch Slices

After the success of my first recipe experiment earlier in the week (my brother proclaimed that my macarons were the best thing I've ever made!), I took to the kitchen again for a relaxing Sunday afternoon of baking. With a birthday at work this week it was the perfect excuse to try something new.

A few months ago I went to York for the weekend to have a few days with my best friend. After a lovely stroll around the cobbled streets we stopped for tea and cake - both of us choosing a butterscotch cake served warm with ice cream. It was delicious so I've had a go at creating my own recipe to remind me of that lovely day, with my favourite person, in my favourite place.

These little sponge slices use light brown sugar instead of caster sugar to give a slight toffee flavour and are topped with butterscotch flavoured swiss buttercream. I also added little pieces of fudge for decoration but you could omit this or add something different if you wanted.

For this recipe I used my tried and tested sponge recipe which I always measure in ounces rather than grams (this is how I was taught by my Mama) but converted to metric measures it is 55 grams of everything (2 ounces) per egg.