Shark Attack Cake

This week was my brothers birthday, and when I asked him a while ago what cake he would like, his answer was a shark attack one. He loves sharks so I guess this was a natural thought...he always wanted it to feature him being eaten by the shark...in particular with lots of blood! Odd I know, and I wish I could say this was the wish of a crazy small child, but alas it was not....he is in-fact now 37!

 

The cake is victoria sponge, I had to bake the shark head in a Pyrex measuring jug to get a good shape!

I piped with a big swirly nozzle, blue butter cream icing to get waves and ran a bit of dark blue through it for a bit of colour effect. He also wanted there to be blood (why not), so I made up some normal runny icing, made it bright red and dripped it around the icing limbs. I decided to really show it was him being eaten by the shark by giving him the same haircut and a work boot as it's all he wears! Really happy though I think it came out really well! I even added some read icing to the teeth so may them look a little blood-thirsty.

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Fizzy Lemon And Cola Tart

Earlier in my blog I mentioned this tart, and I have seen people searching for the recipe on here I thought I should FINALLY put it up. It's a Gizzi Erskine recipe (who I love!) and she showcased it in Company magazine. As soon as I saw it I knew it was something special so I ripped it out and it lives in my recipe book, safe and sound.

This picture shown is one I did before I invested in a mini kitchen blow-torch, so it does actually look a bit more creme brulee when you torch the sugar. Foolishly however I didn't take a picture when it looked all golden and beautiful! You'll be happy to know my pastry cutting is much cleaner also, but hey - I'm human!

Ingredients:
225g plain flour, sifted
pinch of salt
150g butter
1 free range egg yolk
3 tbsp cola
1/2 tsp cola essence (only if you can find it, just helps with the extra flavour - got mine on eBay!)
5 unwaxed lemons, juiced, with the zest of 3 of them
6 free range eggs, 2 whole, 4 yolks
200g caster sugar
200ml double cream
icing sugar, for decorating
1 packets cola flavour popping candy

1.In a food processor, mix the flour, salt and butter until it resembles bread crumbs - I don't have one so I just used my finger tips.
2. Add the egg yolk and cola to form a ball of dough. Wrap in clingfilm and chill for 30 minutes.
3. Crack the eggs in a bowl and whisk in the sugar until combined. Whisk in the cream, lemon juice and zest, then set aside.
4. Place a 23cm loose-bottomed flan tin (I just used a porceline one with no loose bottom) on a baking sheet.
5. On a surface dusted with icing sugar, roll out pastry. Life onto the rolling pin then drape over tin, leaving the excess hanging off (I just off the excess, was just easier and looked neater sooner). PRess the pastry into the sides of the tin and put in the fridge to chill for 20 minutes. Preheat the oven to 200 degrees.
6. Remove tin and line with grease proof paper and baking beans, then bake for 15 minutes. Remove paper and beans and bake for 5-10 minutes until golden. Lower oven to 140 degree.
7. Pour the filling into the pie and bake for 35-40 minutes or until almost set.
8. Leave to cool, then sprinkle with icing sugar. Blow-torch the top until golden and leave ot set for 10 minutes. Sprinkle with popping candy and serve.
9. Nom! Pin It Now!

Baked Snickers Cheesecake

I can't lie to you, this is the most amazing thing you will ever eat - or make. You will literally never want to eat anything else in your life, so just prepare yourself for that because it is going to be life changing! It will take a few hours altogether but fully worth it!

Serves 8

Ingredients:

Base:
150g peanut cookies
150g chocolate digestive biscuits
75g ulsalted butter, melted

Filling:
500g cream cheese
1 tbsp vanilla extract/vanilla sugar
4 large eggs, seperated
100g caster sugar
200g double cream

240g / 4 Snickers bars, I use more though....

Preheat the oven to 170 degree (150deg fan) , gas mark 3.
To make the base, put all of the biscuits in a freezer bag and bash the fudge out of it with a rolling pin until they're like crumbs. Mix in the melted butter and press down into a suitable dish, springloaded if you have one. Bake for 15 minutes so it hardens slightly and leave to fully cool.

For the topping, beat together the cream cheese, vanilla, egg yolks and sugar. Add the cream and beat again. Now mix in the chopped up Snickers bars so that they are evenly distributed.

In a seperate bowl whisk the egg whites until they form soft peaks then gently fold them into the cheese mixture and be very careful not to knock out all of the air!

Now pour the mixure over the cooled base, smooth over and bake for 1 hour and 45 minutes, and don't be tempted to open the oven door or you may regret it!

It should look beautiful and golden, then turn off the oven and open the door. Leave it to rest like this, in the oven for another hour.

Now you have to wait for it to cool completely, then pop it in the fridge until firm, slice and eat. Nom!


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This Week In Cakes

This week has seriously been cake week, I've done four! Luckily three of them were cupcakes so it wasn't too bad.

My first cake was for a 1st birthday and had the characters from Waybuloo on it. This was a challenge as I hadn't done anything from this TV show before so I had to do a lot of Googling. All I can say is thank God for Sugarflair colouring pastes, A year ago I hadn't used any before and they are incredible! Thanks to them I managed to get colours bright enough for a kids cake.

I also had a Mother's Day cupcake to make, a clean and simple white and pink Victoria sponge cake one, sometimes keeping it simple can make it look brilliant.

I had a surprise leaving cupcake to make for a colleague who loves pink, so I created this beauty which I think looked very girly and definitely pink! Loved it, love hearts always add that extra girly touch!

Finally it was my mum's birthday this week and I wasn't able to make a cake for the day of her birthday as I had some orders taking over, so I made her one for the day of Mother's day so she can have a dual one. I made it as a cupcake as the shape was perfect, I made it look like a bunch of Daffodils as they are her favourite flower. I couldn't get hold of any Sugarpaste in time so I made the flowers out of fondant, which wasn't too bad but I then had to let them dry for a long time but luckily it worked! It's Victoria sponge with lemon butter icing, nom!

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