I Heart Cake!

This month I was asked to join in a fun baking challenge, I have vowed to do more of these so I was extremely happy to receive a pretty cake mould* in the post to use for the challenge.

So, the challenge! To use the I Heart Cake Baking Mould to make any cake of our choice and the winner of the best one wins £100 of kitchen goodies! Everyone loves kitchen goodies, so it's always worth a go. Now I'm not saying my entry is my greatest work, but I made a Victoria Sandwich, which I've never done before....right stops your gasps, I know! They've also ended up being covered in fondant so I've never had a chance to do it the classic way.

The thing about this mould I loved was that the cake slices come out as hearts, which is a really sweet idea, pardon the pun. But for occasions like Valentine's, anniversaries and even weddings, I think this would be a really cute idea.

So as I said I chose to make a Victoria Sandwich, I used a classic recipe from the dairy cookbook which I got from my mum after using hers so much it's nearly fallen apart, true story. I got my design inspiration from Jo at The Secluded Tea Party, I love how she fills her cakes with buttercream and wanted to do something along the same lines.

Now mine got nowhere near as high as hers, I guess I should have made it thicker but then I can be such a pain to pipe. I halved the cake and filled one side with swirls of vanilla buttercream and the other I covered with strawberry jam with the idea that it would drip down the swirls, which, if I'd had enough height - could have happened.

I covered (drenched) the top with sifted icing sugar, which is slightly heavier in one side as you can see...but I didn't want to overdo the decoration and keep it classic looking. Here you can see I've cut a very cute heart slice, it's really affective and I can't say I didn't love the whole gimmick of the heart slice, who wouldn't?

The mould itself was really strong, baked extremely well, I always worry about silicone which I know it ridiculous but it didn't stick, gave an even bake and just popped straight out right at the end. Couldn't ask for more out of a mould really, it will definitely take residence in my baking room and be used again. It's a pretty looking mould anyway so could be used for other designs, and more than cake such as jelly or maybe even flapjacks or something with a rice crispy base, would do you think?

The mould itself can be bought from Find Me A Gift for £14.99. Here's a bit of technical info from the site:

• Clever cake mould which produces 6 generous sized heart shaped portions!
• Made of food safe non stick silicone
• Measures approx 25 cm x 25 cm x 6 cm
• Use for cakes, jellies and other desserts
• Oven safe to 220c (do not warm mould empty)
• Freezer safe to -40c
• Microwave and Dishwasher safe
• Does not come with cake mix - sorry! ( I love this one)

I would definitely recommend it, and has changed my mind about baking with silicone, I use it for my giant cupcakes or for chocolates etc but this is the first one for cake, I may well be converted. Pin It Now!

Zebra Robot Cake....yep - that's what I said

So as some of you know, I always make a cake for my guys at work, we LOVE birthdays so we always make a big deal out of them because work can be hard, everyone needs a nice birthday. It reminds me of The Office (US) when Jim decides to roll all of the office birthdays into one and everyone revolts...because everyone loves their birthday!

This particular cake was for Laura, and Laura has two main loves - robots...and zebras. So of course this is what her cake had to feature. I've seen a few zebra print cakes online and thought they looked brilliant and not too difficult which was a bonus.

I covered the cake in white fondant as a base for the print and I used black fondant for the stripes. To get the look I rolled out the black fondant fairly thinly and cut it up with a pizza slice to get irregular stripes to look more realistic. Layering these on I again used irregular spacing and shapes so it didn't look too manufactured. This process was really easy and effective - has anyone else tried zebra print before? I was worried it would look a little plain but it actually turned out quite funky.

Now for the robots, I picked up a really great robot silicone mould from Sew White - one of my favourite online baking shops. Much easier than attempting to mould them and the detail is brilliant. I melted white chocolate into the mould and left it to cool which didn't take long. Then I painted the chocolate robots with edible silver paint I bought for Christmas baking, these gave them a great metallic look which made them look super cute!

I really wasn't sure how else to decorate the cake, it started to get a very mechanical and quirky feel so I decided on decorating the rest of the cake with liquorice all sorts which went really well with the theme. I really love the robot cake and can't wait to use the mould for more little goodies, robot cake pops perhaps?? Pin It Now!

Baking Buys - Sew White

Now this may seem like a sponsored post, but I assure you that it's not, I just love the products! A little while ago a work friend told me about their website and I instantly fell in love. I could spend so much money on this site I actually had to restrain myself. What I really love is that they're on Twitter, which enabled me to contact them to ask about stock.

All of the products are so reasonably priced I don't have to hunt on eBay to find a good deal. They sell bakeware, homeware, kitchenware, aprons, stationary, crafts and sewing items, candles, bags and lots more. The silicone moulds section is probably my favourite to browse through and I'm gutted there's a few things I forgot to add to my basket, will have to go on the next order :D. I've been after some new cameo moulds for a while and asked if they would be getting some in, lucky for me they had actually inquired about it so it was just to wait for the stock to come and go online. I've been holding back on ordering anything until they came in, I also couldn't help adding some other items to my basket :D

 

I was only expecting the normal classic cameo but was so surprised to see all kinds pop up, flowers, bows, presents and even cupid! I do have the classic cameo at home so thought I'd try something different, I bought; the bow, the lovebirds, cupid and the rose. I can't wait to get these tried and tested onto a post, I think I'll use the rose and the bow the most as they feature the most on my cakes. Along with these I also bought the small chocolate button mould and also the large chocolate tag mould.

 I think buttons always look so cute and along with going on treats they also make great gifts on their own. Here I've made a cute little treat bag, it could have done being a bit fuller, this was one full tray of buttons so I think using two would look really nice, brilliant for wedding favours don't you think?

 I also made some tags, they come with messages like; homemade for you, eat me, with love, happy birthday etc and also some blank ones so you can add your own message. I think these are such a nice touch when you give a baked gift, you'll see some featured on giant cupcakes in the future!

 

 

Some of my other 'to order' products are; the double sided macaroon mat, crown cookie cutter (perfect for the Jubilee) and the vintage style picnic cutlery. Pin It Now!