Hummingbird Cake

On Saturday night, I baked a Hummingbird cake.  I've been meaning to bake it since I tried it in a wonderful tea room in York called Georgina's Café.  Theirs was in tray bake style and rather rustic in appearance.  That was the charm for me.  I choose it due to it's appearance, looking like the ugly duckling amongst all the other layered cakes and because I'd seen it in my Magnolia Bakery cookbook.  I've been itching to bake something that I'd consider to be proper 'home baking'.
 

I was so excited to make this and in true OCD (obsessive cake disorder) style, had to frost it immediately after it cooled.  I wouldn't have been able to sleep knowing there was an unfrosted, gorgeous cake in my kitchen! Maybe I need help?! But that's how much I'm passionate about cake and the finished item.   I had to see it in all it's glory before I crept to bed at 1am. 

 

I used this recipe from BBC Food

It's similar to carrot cake due to the nuts and cinnamon and using oil instead of butter.  However, this has more depth and scope than carrot cake.  The bananas and pineapple transforms it into something really special and is utterly delicious.  I didn't use mango as stated in the recipe, however used more pineapple and cinnamon to compensate.  I love cinnamon and recipes could always use a bit more for my palette! I sprinkled toasted desiccated coconut on top, which ignited all the flavours.  The cake is finished with a smooth cream cheese (full fat Philadelphia) frosting.

Verdict: Hummingbird cake is now my favourite cake. It has everything for me - fruit, nuts, spice and a rich centre and topping.  The texture of it is perfect, dense and yet still so moist.

Easter Cupcakes

Luckily for me, I've been off work this week so I've had time to relax and do things I love that I may not have time to do normally.  This isn't at all cake related (and I like to gush about things I love in general) but I have watched four cycles of America's Next Top Model and loved it.  It always raises my spirits and I like the process of witnessing the models improve and blossom. It's interesting to watch if you have a love of fashion photography as you see how to move/place your body and play with the light to achieve the best results.  I do have the biggest girl crush on Tyra Banks though, she's inspirational and absolutely stunning and I think it's important to have positive role models.

Anyway, back to cake... ! I've had time to really sit down and play with the cake toys I've accumulated and found it very therapeutic.  I have OCD (obsessive cupcake disorder!) so I typically buy a lot of cake tools, some of which will take a lot of practise to master, but I like to aim high! My confidence has grown since starting the cake decorating and sugar craft course, so I dip my toe in the water that bit more as it grows. America's Next Top Model and Bruce Springsteen's new album Wrecking Ball have been my soundtrack this week whilst baking and creating my Easter cupcakes.  I think it's made me more creative!  I ended up making three different designs.

Design 1:

The rabbit family

I think these are incredibly sweet and capture the essence of how I characterise Easter - spring time, flowers, Easter bunnies, family.

I embossed the letters with the typewriter effect set from Pretty Witty Cakes.

Design 2:

 Chocolate nests

 The humble Shredded Wheat nest! - a staple to all Easter baking.  

Nestled on top of a french swirl achieved by the Wilton 8B nozzle

 Design 3:

Easter egg hunt

 I adore the idea of an Easter egg hunt out in the country and the eternal child in me would love to take part in one - I tried to embody this by creating a garden, with a mystical toadstool, daisies and the beautifully domineering petunias.

Cake decorating and sugar craft course

Anyone else find that the weeks are just absolutely flying by now? Only feels like yesterday since Valentines Day. It’s been my boyfriend’s birthday since then, I’ve seen Harry Potter’s Hogwarts Express at the Railway Museum in York, had hummingbird cake (which was a taste sensation and I can’t believe I haven’t had it before now!) been to a casino for the first time and the nights and mornings are getting a lot lighter.  Which means getting to the gym in a morning and burning off my cupcakes is easier!

That's me posing with the Hogwart's Express

Joe's birthday lemon cupcakes

I thought I'd give you an update on what I've been doing in my cake decorating and sugar craft class. I’ve completed four classes thus far and I’m really enjoying it! The first week we made this basic tortoise which was very cute (the body was already provided ready to be iced) and covered in sugar paste. I've never covered a cake with sugar paste before and found it rather hard as you have to tease the icing down, rather than pull it down and then smooth it out, whereas I can be quite heavy handed. We also made his feet, head and the hat which was easy enough for me luckily! The main skill acquired from that week was how to make frills in flower paste, which you can see as the other layer to his shell. I was impressed with how simple it was – unfortunately I’m not sure I can explain how we did it, but it involved a cocktail stick, both index fingers with a small rubbing motion on the cocktail stick – sorry, that's really vague isn't it? It’s a very DIY and self sufficient technique as Bridget (my teacher) would often prefer to use little things around the home to create effects, rather than buying the specific cake tool. I'm sure you can buy a tool exclusively for frilling from PME though.  

Here is the finished tortoise

 

In week two and three we focussed on piping with royal icing, making small roses out of royal icing and piping leaves. I wasn’t sold on this type of icing at first as it seemed old fashioned, not to mention really hard to pipe tiny rose petals on the tip of a cocktail stick out of it! I felt very disheartened to see my big ‘rose’ blobs on the top of a tiny stick, but I'm sure I would get better with practise, especially since I'm a big believer in having the correct tools, e.g. a flower nail! 

So, the royal icing was piped onto a stencil to make the sides of the cradle, then flower paste to make the bottom. Once dried in an open, damp free environment we stuck the bottom to the sides with, you guessed it, more royal icing! We then placed a blob of sugar paste to sit in the cradle and made a little duvet and blanket to cover the cradle. Finally, we piped leaves (with a proper leaf nozzle) and attached the rose blobs on.  We made this cradle over two weeks and is great for a traditional christening cake, after many more attempts to perfect of course...!

Here is the finished cradle   

In week four we made this lovely Mother's Day inspired small cake. Like the tortoise, the ball cake was already provided. Bridget said she uses a Wilton tin and you just buttercream two 'half balls' together. We covered it in basic sugar paste and smoothed it out. I used two layers as the first layer looked too bumpy and brain like on the cake - not a great look! We then cut out flowers, the white set made out of flower paste and the pink flowers out of mexican paste (I had no idea what mexican paste was and Bridget clarified that it's a mixture of sugar paste and flower paste). We made the centre of the flowers with tiny blobs of sugar paste and flattened them out with a small sieve. You achieve a small criss cross effect on the blobs, which I think gave them a child like, funky and surreal quality. Then we simply let the flowers dry and stuck them to the cake with royal icing along with the bow. 

 Here is the finished cake

 Flower making next week and I'm already nervous!

Valentines Goodies

Last weekend was manic as I had my Valentines Day stall on the 13^th.  I spent the best part of two days baking cupcakes and cutting out pretty sugarpaste shapes. It was definitely the right time to test the array of cutters I'd bought over the last few months. The amount of cupcake goodies available is immense. Everything I've bought recently has been online – Pretty Witty Cakes and Purple Cupcakes. Brilliant products, service and delivery.  Got the odd goody from TK Maxx though as you can imagine! (that place is a treasure trove)  The best product from TK are the PME dove cutters. They're so beautiful and elegant.  However, my favourite buy of all has to be the silicone button mould.  Extremely easy to use and you can just pop the buttons out and they're perfectly formed.  

This is the end product - the buttons are made out of white chocolate and so tempting to nibble on!

So here is a sample picture of the cupcakes made for the Valentines stall.

Starting at the top left – Chocolate Orange, The Malt Teaser, Vanilla and Strawberry, Almond, Lemon, Chocolate and Vanilla and finally Raspberry Fluff and White Chocolate in the middle.

I love the contrast of the white dove against the purple buttercream. 

And then the stall set up

As you can see, I don't have many lemon cupcakes remaining in this picture! I wish I'd made more as they were the fastest seller. It's beneficial to hold these stalls regularly as you start to recognise what sells and what to do next time.

It was a fabulous event again and I'm very proud of myself.  Especially considering that this was the first time I've ever used sugarpaste too.  I will continue to use sugarpaste decorations in this way because of the lovely comments from my customers.  It definitely adds the wow factor.

P.S.  I'm starting a cake decorating and sugarcraft course on Monday! I'm really looking forward to learning more and spending time with fellow cake lovers.  

A Weekend of Firsts

This weekend, I met macarons and giant cupcakes for the first time.  Both of which I've wanted to make for a while! Macarons because they look gorgeous and chic and giant cupcakes because they simply look fun and enticing.

After watching Lorrine Pascale’s macaron segment recently, I attempted them myself.  Takes a lot of faffing around separating egg whites from the yolks (which I have to admit, I find therapeutic once I get into it) and a careful bake, so I was really impressed with the outcome! Crispy on the outside and chewy on the inside - Yummy.  I’ve never tried macarons before, but I’m sure that this is how they’re meant to turn out, from various bits of homework I’ve done.  The crispy layer is achieved by letting the mixture stand on the baking tray for 30 minutes before you bake them.  I have to say that I’ve never tasted anything like it.  They’re definitely for people with serious sweet teeth and who can appreciate Parisian chic treats.   I can’t wait to bake these again!

Giant cupcakes have the wow factor and look so pretty.  I learned today that you’ve got to be so careful when baking them as the base and top allows for different cooking times.  This is why I bought the silicone mould as they are separate pieces, unlike the metal moulds.  It took about 1 hour and 30 minutes to bake and required a bit of trimming to get it level enough to sit on top of each other.  Me and Joe ate the off cuts – yum!  I really enjoyed icing it as I wanted to use specific icing techniques, but could be quite random with it.  I’d definitely make them again to experiment with different cake recipes.

Bakeware Haul

 Take a look at my shopping spree!

TK Maxx could be my favourite place.  It’s amazing for bakeware, PME fondant cutters and sold at really reasonable prices.  I’m impressed every time I go there.  Joe was impressed too, as he bought a particularly sleek knife set to replace our old cheap set.  Now, I know we can’t get excited about knives, but I promise that these are really cool! – They’re ‘pointless’ and stand in a transparent block.

I bought the pastry cutters, flower cutters and pastry brush from Atkinsons in Sheffield.  A great, local store that seems to have every staple you’d need.

The fluted flan tin is to quench my need to make a Tarte Au Citron, Mary Berry style.  I’ve been studying the Great British Bake Off book and Mary Berry’s Baking Bible of late and I’m really excited to try the classic, yet difficult to master recipes!

Next things on my ‘to buy’ list is a 1 lb and 2 lb loaf tin.  Chocolate and banana loaf here I come!

My Christmas Present

I just want to take this time to gush over my Kenwood KMix I bought from John Lewis...




How gorgeous and sleek is that? It’s very aesthetically pleasing.

I bought this as an early Christmas present to myself at the start of December, after debating the KMix and Kitchen Aid. Two very similar products but with about £200 difference! I would say that Kitchen Aid are like Apple in the sense that they can charge a premium purely for the image.

I’m most pleased with my purchase and it’s definitely made my baking life a lot easier! It’s a pleasure being able to set the mixer going, potter around, then go back to it and it’ll be mixed! An excellent product and would recommend to everyone out there.  Well worth the £230 price tag.