Sunday 30 October 2011

Butterfly cakes with chocolate icing

I’m not very good at decorating cakes.  Most of my cakes are practical looking, with maybe a little sugar sprinkled on top or chocolate icing left to melt and drip off the sides.  I am more interested in it tasting good than faffing about with icing bags etc.
But I do remember having a go at piping icing on a Christmas cake as a kid.   And so when I saw a set of icing nozzles in a shop recently I had to get them.  But what to try icing?

I decided to make some plain butterfly cakes with butter chocolate icing; this way I could try piping the icing without it mattering too much if I messed it up.  It would also make them a little easier to transport for lunch.  I used Mary Berry's cake and icing recipe which made good little cakes, although I would have liked them to have risen a little better, and I found the icing a little soft so some of it did not hold its shape.
The cases are silicon and can be used again and again.  Brilliant.

Thursday 27 October 2011

Baking from a young age



I love baking.  I enjoy cooking, but I love baking.  The simple process of mixing eggs, flour, sugar and butter together and ending up with some delicious cake is a miracle that I will never bore of creating.


It helps if you can lick the spoon too
It helps that I started early.  As long as I can remember I’ve been encouraged to cook.  With our kenwood food mixer (forever to be known as Ken) anything was possible and little arms wouldn’t get worn out mixing.  

The Love of Cooking helped me create tasty things to go in my lunch box and I’m continuing this tradition, although not for my lunch box but my boyfriend’s.







Helping to make my Aunties Wedding cake

Care Bear cake with pin the tale on Rainbow Bright's horse 'Star light'
And with inspiration including a Care Bear cake, (which I seem to remember had marbled insides for bear guts) a green crocodile and a spider cake with chocolate finger legs how could I not be a baker?

Spider cake
Here I will share with you the highs and lows as I attempt to keep my boyfriends lunch box full.