I hope you all have a wonderful day! #ShareTheGift
Wednesday 24 December 2014
Wednesday 17 December 2014
2000 FB Fan Giveaway!!
• • • GIVEAWAY IS NOW CLOSED - WINNERS HAVE BEEN DRAWN • • •
Congratulations to the 4 lucky winners of our giveaway - please see who won below!
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I can't believe how quickly it happened, but we have now passed 2000 likes on FaceBook! So, as promised, here is our fabulous giveaway!
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First Prize
A Cake Frame starter kit.
• • • Winner - RubySB (blog email subscription entry) • • •
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Second Prize
A beautiful ceramic deep pie dish and ceramic baking beads.
• • • Winner - Helen Williams (fb entry) • • •
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Third Prize
Live, Love & Bake apron and wooden sign.
• • • Winner - Helen Butt (fb entry) • • •
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Fourth Prize
Kitchen, live, love, laugh, bake wooden sign.
• • • Winner - Tracey Lewis (fb entry) • • •
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Hosted by Elaine's Sweet Life.
This promotion is in no way sponsored, endorsed or administered by, or associated with Facebook. You understand that you are providing your information to the owner of the Facebook page and not to Facebook.
Good Luck!
Christmas Fruit Cake - Mormon style {Recipe & Tutorial}
I had really grand plans for my Christmas Cake this year, involving penguins... But, my arm is just not up to the task, so I had to simplify somewhat and finally came up with this design. I drew out my design, made a stencil out of paper and then used my brand new Dinkydoodle Airbrush to get the design on the cake. I was very pleased with the result, even if I did get a bit of bleeding in a few places - practise will make perfect though!
Now, I have a fussy lot to make fruit cakes for - no nuts (allergies), no peel (because its gross), not too many currants, lots of cherries, no marzipan, and most importantly NO ALCOHOL. So I have come up with my own recipe that caters for all these requests.
I usually bake this cake about a week before serving, so there is just enough time still to bake one for Christmas Day!
Christmas Fruit Cake Recipe
Ingredients
1.2 kg Raisins
400g Sultanas
400g Currants
400g Glace Cherries
300g Chopped Dates
2 cups Boiling Water
Zest of 2 Lemons
700g Plain Flour
600g Butter (room temperature)
600g Soft Dark Brown Sugar
11 Eggs
2.5 tsp Cinnamon
1.5 tsp Mixed Spice
Method
Cut all the glace cherries in half or quarters (nice to have some of each). Mix all the fruit together, in a very large bowl, and soak in the boiling water for a few hours, stirring occasionally.
Add the lemon zest.
Turn oven on to 150ºC. Grease and fully line the cake tin/s with baking paper.
Wrap tin/s with old tea towels or newspaper (optional).
Sieve the flour and spices together in a separate bowl (forgot to take a picture, sorry!)
In the bowl of your stand mixer, cream the butter and sugar together until light and creamy. Scrape the sides of the bowl down occasionally.
Add the eggs, one at a time, while beating at medium speed.
Turn speed down to low and add the flour mix gradually until it is almost all incorporated into the batter.
Remove the bowl from the mixer and mix the batter by hand, scraping down the sides until the mix is smooth.
Pour the batter into the prepared pan and bake for • 5 hours for 12” Cake
• 3 hours for 9” Cakes
Allow to cool completely in the tin, then remove, leaving baking paper on, and wrap well in tinfoil until ready to decorate. Cake can be moistened by poking holes in the top with a toothpick and poring a few tablespoons of apple or grape juice over the cake the day before you decorate it.
I baked a smaller loaf cake so that I could cut into it and show you what the inside looks like - this one hasn't had any juice added to it.
To decorate the cake, I brush it liberally with warm, runny smooth apricot jam, then cover it with fondant. You can, of course, add marzipan before the fondant, but my lot don't like it.
Click on the recipe below to download the PDF version.
Happy Baking!
Monday 15 December 2014
Pink Castle Cake
This is a cake a friend and I made together last week, she will hopefully also soon be my brand new business partner! The cake was for my next door neighbour's little girl's first birthday.
The bottom cake is an 11" vanilla sponge with vanilla icing and the top cake is a 7" chocolate sponge with chocolate icing. The turrets are all vanilla sponge and vanilla icing.
The purple spires are made by airbrushing waffle ice cream cones. For a bit of fun, we filled them with MnM's and capped them with an Oreo.
The vines are piped on with royal icing, with little fondant flowers and the 'road' is coloured sugar.
The colour in my photos is not that great as I had to take them late in the evening when it was dark, but with a little help from my son, a sheet of white plastic and multiple iPhone torches, I think we managed OK!
Monday 1 December 2014
Gourmet Cupcakes
We celebrated our Ward's 50th Anniversary this weekend with a party on Saturday, and a special service on Sunday. As I am the Ward 'cake lady' I was asked if I would make a cake for the party on Saturday. I, however, had a really bad week with my arm, and a cake was just not going to be a possibility, so I opted for a tower of Gourmet Cupcakes instead.
My son did all the hard work - I really wish I had taken more photos - but he is getting really good at baking with me :)
We decided to make 4 different flavour cupcakes, all using the same chocolate cake base.
First up is the After Eight Cupcake. Chocolate cake with an After Eight baked inside, Vanilla icing with blended after eights, and an After Eight on top.
The inside is not all that impressive on this one, and the After Eight bakes into the cake, but it gives it a lovely flavour.
Next comes the Caramel Chocolate Cupcake. This one has a chocolate cake stuffed with caramel, then topped with chocolate and caramel icing, a drizzle of caramel and a cherry.
This was a very rich cupcake.
This was my favourite - the Strawberry Chocolate Cupcake. Chocolate cake stuffed with homemade strawberry gel, topped with real strawberry puree and chocolate icing, and of course, a strawberry.
I am not a fan of strawberry flavouring at all, so I only used real strawberries (fresh and frozen) in this cupcake - and it was delicious!!
Finally, the Oreo Cupcake. Chocolate cake with an Oreo baked inside, vanilla and crushed Oreo icing and an Oreo on top.
You just can't beat a classic.
Well done Jon, you did an amazing job xx
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