This Week In Cakes

So it was cake week again, without realising it I had taken on three cakes to do in a week with full decoration, crazy! But it's OK because I made it to the other side! The first was the cupcake and cake pop order I posted earlier in the week as you can here.

The second was for my brother's 25th birthday, I couldn't post about it at the time as I didn't want him to see it before we went to visit, but here it is. He loves comic books and all that stuff, Batman and Joker in particular, so it was a natural choice to do this one. I took me ages to find a picture of one from the right era, illustrator etc..it's important to boys. I printed the picture out about a million times and did it like a stencil and luckily managed to keep it down to two layers rather than it looking too 3D, it took me hours but I'm so happy with how it turned out, I tried to get it within the Joker playing card theme too. To finish it off I outlined every bit with and icing pen to give it the real cartoon look and it needed some definition from the base icing as it was the same colour. For the colours I used Sugarflair pastes: Mint Green, Liquorice, Christmas Red, Melon Yellow and Grape Violet.

The third was another one of my giant cupcakes, this one was for a lady turning thirty...who loved Eddie Stobart lorries! It definitely made a change from the super girly ones I do although I'm not sure I'll ever get tired of those! But it was good to be challenged. I had to be careful here as the lorries feature strong colours...but I still wanted it to look edible. I made the bottom 'case' part of it red, and made wheels to go around it so it then looked like the actual bottom of a lorry. The very bottom of them also have a red and white stripe patterns (candy cane like) so I piped some white icing around the seal to give it that look. For the top I piped green swirls like I usually took to give it a bit more of a feminine feel. For those of you who don't know, all of the Eddie Stobart lorries have their own names, so as she is a fan I of course had to make sure this one had a name - hers! I also made a little number plate saying L30, her name is Laura and she is thirty....I realised it still didn't look very lorry like so I added a windscreen and some wipers just to make it a bit more obvious so I hope it helped.

The hard part was that down the side the lorries all have 'EDDIE STOBART' down the side in a particular font in yellow with a red shadow, I didn't have cutters in this font so it just wouldn't look right, and to be hones there would not have been enough room for that long name. So, I thought I would do the number thirty, the other font cutters I had looked just fine in number form and I managed to do the yellow/red colouring which really tied it all together and is part of the whole trademark look. This was one of the hardest cupcakes I have had to do but I think it came out really well!
Sugarflair pastes used: Holly Green, Melon Yellow, Christmas Red, Liquorice. Pin It Now!

4th Birthday Snow White Giant Cupcake

So it's that time of year again, my niece's birthday and this time she turns four.  I've made her a birthday cake the last two years so this one could be no exception.

The first one I made was an In The Night Garden Cake, and while I loved it, I was very new to it and didn't even level the layers! So it was very lumpy and bumpy. This is what gave me the cake bug! The next year I made her a little princess castle cake, I hadn't researched it much but I think it turned out well.

This year she is still very much into the princess theme, Disney Princess to be precise, and Snow White in particular, I've lost count of all the times she made up watch that film! And while I'm not sure how making Snow White would actually look, so I thought maybe another giant cupcake would look good. I know I make a lot of these, but she loves cupcakes so I though it would be quite fitting. I decided to make it in the theme of Snow White's dress rather than what she actually looks like.

The base is covered with blue fondant icing, coloured with Baby Blue sugarflare paste, and the red stripes in Christmas Red. I made the buttons from Melon yellow, wet them and covered them in cake glitter, not shimmer - girls can never have too much glitter and she ate these the first!.

For the top part I rose iced it with melon yellow buttercream, and dusted it with yellow shimmer this time. I decided to put the 'posion apple' on the front, though for obvious reasons this was posion free! To make this I just carved an apple shape from the christmas red fondant, brushed it with corn syrup and drenched it in red cake glitter and left it to dry. I used the corn syrup rather than water so it would still look shiny. I then piped on a stalk and the number four.

Luckily she loved the cake, we ate it for breakfast and the rest went home with her. Unluckily I seem to find glitter EVERYWHERE and have a feeling it's going to be around for a while...at least it will make the kitchen look a bit more magical! Pin It Now!

Sexy Eggs Benedict

I know this isn't a cake...but it's bloody gorgeous so I had to include it. It's a recipe I'd wanted to try for a long time and while ago I decided to try it....it was stunning.

It doesn't take as long as you may think so do give it a try, you'll be so happy you do. This recipe serves two.

Ingredients:

• 2 Large farm eggs, free range if poss and from a real chicken farm if you can get them, they give a better yolk colour and quality.
• 4 rashers of streaky bacon, I just think they taste better.
• 2 English muffins ( I hadn't used these before, but loved them!)

For the quick hollandaise

• 2 Large egg yolks, beaten.
• 10ml lemon juice (2 tsp)
• 10ml white wine vinegar (2tsp)
• 115g butter (NEVER margaringe ok? It's just bad)
• 15ml chopped fresh tarragon (1 tbsp)
• salt and ground pepper

If you can poach the eggs, then excellent, do it now. I havn't triumphed over it yet so I fry them. Meanwhile grill the bacon until cripsy and gorgeous, you'll know when it's ready..it'll look a bit bubbly (odd I know, but trust me, it's good).
Toast the muffins, I find they toast easier than bread so keep an eye on them, no one likes a burnt muffin, luckily they usually come in packs of 4 so you have 2 extra just incase.

Now for the sauce, season the yolks, beat well in a medium bowl. You can do the next bit with a food processor, but I don't have one so I use a whisk (or a stick blender will do), put the lemon juice and white wine vinegar in a pan on a medium heat until it starts to boil. Starting whisking the eggs and immediately add the boiling liquid to the yolks. Met the butter until it starts to foam, again turn on the whisk and add the butter to the mix in an even stream. You can now add the tarragon, you may need to add some water to thin it out but I like it this thick.

Place eggs onto muffins, top with cripsy backon and add lashings of sauce. Feast, nom!! Pin It Now!