Old School Education Cake

The busiest time of the year for cake orders brought me a very exciting challenge as far as my decorating skills are concerned. For a retired teacher, I was asked to make a cake resembling an old school desk with typical old school equipment. I researched a bit into old school desks to make sure that I was getting the brief right and found that the desk would look even more authentic if I made it so that it was on a slant, which I had been asked to try and do anyway. I also found that an ink pot and fountain pen would look very "old school" and would run excellently with the theme. I would also include an exercise book to extenuate the school theme.
To make the actual cake I used a recipe that I have always and will always use as a base recipe as you may have noticed after reading other blog posts of mine. Ironically, the recipe itself is very old school as it is all measured in oz. I knew I had to make quite a large cake so I upped the quantity of cake batter by simply measuring 12oz rather than 4/6oz. I baked the cake in two identical rectangle cake tins as I was to sandwich the two halves together as the whole cake. I sandwiched them together using buttercream which I made using 100g butter and 300g icing sugar along with 2tbsp of cocoa powder. I spread half of the buttercream on top of one half of the cake before sandwiching the other half on top. Now, since this was to be an old school desk I used a bread knife to cut away at the cake so that it slanted slightly downwards towards the front of the desk. I then used the other half of the buttercream to cover the whole cake. Next, I coloured fondant icing dark brown and rolled it out carefully so that it was big enough to cover the cake. I placed the fondant on top of the cake and used my hands to manipulate it carefully, smoothing the top and smoothing it down the edges of the cake. I then used a smoothing tool to smooth down the icing as much as possible. The biggest challenge I faced was trying to get an authentic wood effect. I tried to make a woodgrain effect by rolling together a lighter and darker long strip of fondant with a method of folding and rolling, however I discovered that this only really worked authentically when making individual planks of wood, not when covering a whole cake...plan B. I went out on a limb and tried something of which I had no idea what the result would be, but it was all I had left time, idea and ability wise. So, after I had covered the cake in the dark brown fondant I got a bowl and put a lump of dark brown food dye paste into it along with a bit of water so that I had a runny paint consistency. I then got a brush and simply brushed the whole cake horizontally with the brown paint which gave a varnished wood effect. This was what I was looking for. I decorated the cake with an ink pot, an exercise book and a fountain pen, that I had previously made out of fondant icing,in running with the theme of old school education. This cake is a cake I will always remember.

Being a cake decorating enthusiast, I jumped at the opportunity to make my boyfriend a birthday cake that had a part of him within it...not literally...I don't think people would have been quite as impressed if I'd added a tsp of his very own blood to flavour the cake. No. I wanted to capture part of his life in the cake. As a black belt in karate, and a very good one I might add, it was only natural for me to recreate this in the form of a cake.
I will post one time about how I make sugar paste figures but I won't go into detail now. I will simply tell you that all you need to make anything of the sort is fondant icing, icing sugar and food colouring.
Where the ingredients for the outside and decoration of the cake were few, what lay within brought a tad more ingredients to the table. I often find, and I'm sure that many others will agree, that fondant icing is just too sweet and sickly and I find myself peeling off most of it when enjoying a slice of cake. therefore the idea came to me to do a lemon cake. This would provide balance and acidity to the cake and make the icing a bit more bearable for those who aren't fans of the sugary topping. Using the Victoria sponge recipe that I have blogged about before, I merely added the juice and zest of some lemons for the quiet, innocent bake to come alive and vibrant with exotic flavour. If like me, you would like something that can provide acidity against the sweetness, I would urge you to opt for the lemon cake over anything else.

Recipe for the lemon cake:
6oz butter
6oz caster sugar
6oz self raising flour
3 eggs
1tsp baking powder
Zest of 2 lemons
5tbsp lemon juice

Recipe for the lemon drizzle:
Juice of 1 1/2 lemons
85g caster sugar

Recipe for the lemon buttercream:
50g butter
150g icing sugar
2tbsp lemon juice

Method:
Using the easy all in one method, measure out your ingredients and put them all in a large mixing bowl. Using an electric mix, beat the ingredients together to form a creamy, acidic batter. Make sure you beat lots of air into it, but don't overbeat it otherwise your cakes will rise in the oven...and then sink in the middle.
Grease and line two cake tins and divide the mixture equally between them. Bake in a 180 degree oven for 15-20 mins or until the cakes start to come away from the edge of the tins and feel springy to the touch. 
Leave them to cool for a short while whilst you make the lemon drizzle. To do this simple put the lemon and sugar in a bowl until the sugar dissolves and you're left with an acidic syrupy drizzle. Using a tsp, drizzle the mixture all over the top of the two cakes whilst they're still warm.
Once they have cooled, turn them out of their tins and begin to make the buttercream.
Fetch yourself a large bowl and beat the butter in the bowl for a few seconds to loosen it up before adding the icing sugar. Beat the two together until pale and fluffy. This buttercream working with the balancing of sweet and acid, has a small icing sugar ratio to butter because I don't want too much sweetness. Add the lemon juice and give it one last beat before spreading generously onto one of the cakes and sandwiching the other on top.
Eat the cake just like this or decorate away. Either way, I can guarantee a great explosion of sweet and acidic in your mouth. Enjoy!

Victoria Sponge Cake

Classic and original has, I think, only one true representative in the world of cakes. Victoria Sponge Cake. It is possibly the most popular named cake in England and is made by beginners, enthusiasts and professionals all over the country. Whether you're a Brit yourself, or you settle further afield, this recipe can lead to you 100% success every time if you just follow the simple method and ingredients. Get baking, and as your beautiful sandwiches rise gloriously under the glaring heat of the oven, sit back and dream of the spongey layers sandwiched together with jewelled raspberry or strawberry jam along with a generous spread of seriously sweet and buttery butter icing. What could go all that wrong? 

Recipe: (cakes)

6oz butter

6oz caster sugar 

6oz self raising flour 

3 eggs

1tsp baking powder (heaped) 

Recipe: (filling)

2oz butter

5tbsp icing sugar 

3tbsp strawberry/raspberry jam 

Method:

All in one, of course. Simply put all of your ingredients in a large mixing bowl before using an electric whisk to combine them all into a thick, smooth cake batter. If you feel that your batter is slightly too thick then feel free to add a tbsp of milk to loosen it up a bit.

Divide your mixture evenly into two equally sized cake tins and bake for 20mins or until they start to come away from the sides. Your cakes should feel springy to the touch. 

Once the cakes are cooled, mix together 2oz of butter and 5tbsp of icing sugar before lathering onto one of the sandwiches. 

Spread the ruby jam over the other sandwich and stick the two together forming a brilliant marriage of two elegant yet simple layers of spongey, airy cake. Dust with icing sugar and serve for afternoon tea, dessert, or just a cheeky snack for midday when all else seems lost.

Afternoon Tea

Before playing host to this majestic sounding event with my Mam, I couldn't help myself imagining the occasion being very elegant and swell. I envisioned china plates piled high with golden, airy scones and silver mouthfuls of sweet, rich goodness. I saw the foods as precious gems and the tea and coffee as liquid gold. Everything was fit for the queen in my pre-hosting head. I was ready to throw a ball. As me and my mam formed a list of foods and bakes we would serve, ideas danced across my forehead and with every pulse of excited blood that flowed through my body, a pulse of royalty would be sent with it.
Now after a full morning of being in my element, or in other words, in the kitchen, it was finally time for guests to be arriving at the house for tea, cakes and all manner of bakes. As the afternoon grew, I realised that my imagination of physicality wasn't quite as I had hoped and dreamed; the tea and coffee were as brown and steaming as ever, the scones were a pale brown and all the little treats were decorated in their own expected appearance. However, I was not completely wrong. The appearance of the bakes were, admittedly, not gold and silver and outstanding in their richness, but their tastes were. You would pick up what you thought to be a scone, and swallow a mouthful of gold. You would take a sip of the deeply brown stained liquid, and only the finest liquid gold slid down your throat, warming your insides like a light from within you. So I was not disappointed, if anything I was thrilled to have served up only some of the finest ingredients to my beautiful family and friends. Chocolate cake, Victoria sponge cake, millionaire shortbread, chocolate buns...need I say more?

The simplicity of a scone

As I sat in blue boredom, wondering what I could possibly do to get myself through a few hours of nothingness, I was hit with the completely and utterly obvious idea of whipping up a glorious batch of something...but what? What could I make that would be easy, quick and enjoyable? Cakes...possibly. But no. I always make cakes. Pastry...possibly. But no. That's too much trouble and effort to go through. What could I make that is different to what I usually do? I needed to drag myself away from the standard, decorative, typically impressive bakes. I needed something rustic, something English. I needed scones!
Beautiful, risen buns of treasure encased in a shell of gold. Light and airy on the inside, gold and crunchy on the outside. Possible to be made, baked and ready for serving within a matter of only 40 minutes, if that.
Scones originate well back into British history and made it through times of scarce ingredients and equipment. It is this that proves their quick and easy nature of which delivers beautifully rich results. Scones are rich from poor, gold from wood, wine from water. The ingredients of this particular scone that I have made are easily found in the cupboards and fridges of most kitchens, but if not, they are widely available all over the world in supermarkets and shops. Not only are ingredients easy to find, but the simplicity of a scone also comes from its amazingly quick and easy recipe. Take a look at the recipe I used and try it out for yourself:
Ingredients
225g self-raising flour
1tsp baking powder
pinch of salt
25g caster sugar
50g unsalted butter
140ml milk
1 egg beaten (for glazing)

Method
The first step on your way to serving up buns in batches of gold is to turn on the oven to 220 degrees.
Then, in a large mixing bowl, sift in the flour, baking powder and salt and combine. Then add the sugar and butter and quickly rub into the flour mixture using your finger tips and thumb. Once all of the butter is rubbed into the flour it should look like an extremely fine bread crumb consistency.
Using your hands, make a dip (a well) in the middle of the "bread crumb" mixture and slowly add the milk while incorporating the flour into the well to form a soft dough.
Leave the dough to rest for 5 minutes before rolling out quite thick (depending on your desired size) and cut into circles using a cutter of your size choice. When sending the cutter through the dough, send it straight through at once, don't twist or shuffle the cutter, the cut should be clean.
Bake in the oven for 9 minutes or until golden brown on top and sounding hollow when tapped.
Leave to cool slightly and dust with icing sugar for a snowy, fairy-like effect upon the rich treats. Serve warm or cold with whatever you may desire. Me? I keep it English with jam and cream, there's no better way.

Starbucks Inspired: Mocha Cookie Crumble Cake

As far as baking is concerned, it can often be risky relying on sheer imagination, creativity and motivation...there can be something missing...something from deep within. Inspiration. The success of a baked product is fuelled by inspiration. Without that hint of something special your cakes won't rise to the occasion, they'll fall flat and go stale. So go out and be inspired, look around you, look at the world and everything within it. Explore!
My spark for this cake from a very simple occurrence. A coffee shop, a cup and an icy lava flow of cream and coffee. It could only be one thing. Starbucks Frappuccino; Mocha Cookie Crumble. The bitter, smoky coffee, the milky, creamy chocolate and the crumbly, crunchy cookie were all it took for my mind clogs to turn and make my creative juices flow. I was to make a Mocha Cookie Crumble Cake! It would have a chocolate coffee sponge cake filled and topped with a coffee hinted, sweet cream with cookie crumbles running all the way through it.
Now, after receiving a cook book for my birthday, full of Mary Berry's (my one and only true role model) beautiful cakes and bakes, I came across a recipe for a Cappuccino Cake. This would be the main recipe for my cake of which I would adapt and work around to turn it into my own creation. I feel a hint of guilt for feeling the need to change one of Mary Berry's recipes, but at the same time I feel that if you're going to experiment, do it using a recipe base by someone who you can truly trust to give you outstanding results. If this was to be a success, I wanted it to be down to Mary. Who could you trust more?
This cake is one of the easiest show stoppers you could come across. A simple recipe and simple, easy to find ingredients hide behind it's show stopping name. She appears to be a rich, sophisticated creature, when in fact she's always been good at drama. She's perfect for an afternoon tea event, a celebration party, a sophisticated dessert, a midday snack...her versatility goes on and on. You could look at her and almost see her say 'Try me'. She's up for anything. See what she's made of using this recipe and method:
Recipe (for the cake)
50g cocoa powder
2tbsp granulated instant coffee
6tbsp boiling water
3 eggs
60ml milk
100g unsalted butter
275g caster sugar
175g self-raising flour
6 Oreo cookies (with the cream removed from the inside but kept)
1tsp baking powder


Recipe (for the cream)
300ml double cream
1tsp granulated instant coffee
2tsp hot water
4tbsp icing sugar
Dusting of cocoa powder
4 Oreo cookies (with the cream removed from the inside but kept)

Method:
Preheat the oven to 180 degrees. Grease and line two 20cm round cake tins using butter and non stick baking paper.
Begin making the cake mixture by dissolving the cocoa powder and coffee in the boiling water to make a paste consistency. Simply add all of the other ingredients other than the flour and Oreos. Using an electric mixer combine the ingredients to make a very wet batter. Don't panic!
In another bowl add the flour and crushed Oreos with the cream filling removed. Make sure the Oreos are crushed so that there are still some large bits among the smaller bits and fine sand-like bits. Using a wooden spoon stir these until every bit of Oreo is covered in flour. This helps them stay suspended in the mixture and prevents them from falling to the bottom of the cake when baking.
Add the flour and Oreos to the mixture and fold in. It may be easier for you to add the flour in thirds so that you can fold it in much more easily. Once all of the flour is fully combined and the Oreo pieces are evenly distributed spoon the mixture into the prepared cake tins and bake for 20-25minutes or until fully cooked and coming away from the side of the tins.
Leave the cakes to cool out of their tins on a cooing rack while you make the cream filling and topping. Simply whip the double cream using and electric mixer until it just holds it's shape before quickly whipping in the coffee dissolved in the hot water. Then fold in the icing sugar until fully combined.
Once the cakes are cooled, spoon one third of the cream mixture onto the cake that is to be your bottom half of the sandwich-like structure and spread almost to the edges using a pallet knife. You should have kept the cream filling of the Oreos that you used earlier and the Oreos that will be used to decorate the top of the cake. Use these to create a layer on top of the cream before placing the second cake on top. Spoon the remainder of the cream on top of the cake and use the pallet knife to spread out evenly. Lightly dust with icing sugar and then pile some larger pieces of cookie crumble in the middle before dropping the occasional large piece around further towards the edge and sprinkling some of the fine Oreo dustings over the cream (idea given by Ciaran Day). And with that, you are finished. One Mocha Cookie Crumble Cake ready to be enjoyed by anyone, anywhere, at anytime. Eat up!

Elmo Cake

During the summer term of last year I was asked by a close family friend to create a birthday cake for her turning-two year old son. After changing his mind of what cake he wanted from a monster cake to a space cake to an animal cake, he finally decided that he wanted an Elmo cake. You're probably thinking what on earth caused a 2 year old boy to want an Elmo birthday cake, am I right? Well, near to where I live there are two stores, one in the Metro Centre and one in Eldon Square, called Johnny's Cupcakes. They are small stores situated all over the country that make and sell wonderful cupcake creations as well as giant cupcakes too. Now, my family friend's little boy was passing one of these stores when a giant cupcake in the form if Elmo's head caught his attention and so his Mam said that he could have that for his birthday cake. Obviously looking for the cheaper option, I was asked to make the exact same cake...well...as well as I could.
Luckily, for my previous birthday I had been given a giant cupcake mould from my best friend as a present and saw the situation as a great opportunity to use the mould. To make the giant cupcake itself I simply whipped up a normal cake mixture but doubled the ingredients as the moulds were much bigger than normal cake tins. However, the cake itself was the least of my worries, it was decoration that really got butterflies fluttering in my stomach and brain cells dancing frantically at the prospect of creating such a masterpiece with such little practice of experience. I can remember having a lot of trouble with the actual baking of the cake mixture because the moulds were so big meaning there was a lot of mixture, making baking time much longer than I expected it to be. Finally I managed to bake the cake the whole way through and cool it ready to decorate. Before I could do anything else though, I had to cut out Elmo's mouth, however murderous that might sound. I used a knife to cut away at the cake to make a hole in the shape of his mouth, in which I went on to line with black sugar paste to exaggerate the dark hole.
I have no idea how much buttercream I must have made that afternoon but I remember it being rather a lot. To create the 'fur' if you like I piped hundreds of buttercream stars, using a large star shaped nozzle, all over the top of the cake, then for the bottom half I simply used a pallet knife to spread the buttercream around the base. It was then time to make and stick on the eyes of Elmo. To do this I simply rolled two balls of white sugar paste and stuck two small black circles on the front of them to act as the pupils. I then stuck two cocktail sticks in the cake where I was to put the eyes, before then sliding on the eyes onto the end of the sticks. The sticks and the buttercream did a tremendous job of holding the eyes in place and disallowed any disasters of eyes loss or damage.
At this the Elmo cake was practically finished and I was ready to reveal my masterpiece. I somehow did all of this on a Friday night after school in the space of about 4 hours. After a hard school week and welcoming bed upstairs I was extremely relieved to finished after the tears, stress and complications. But I did it, and I won. As much as I love baking and the kitchen, it doesn't half put up a fight when it wants to. Victorious.
Happy belated birthday Joe, though I'm sure I wished it at the time!

Posh Puffy Pastry

It's flaky, it's light and it goes with anything. What else could it be? Puff pastry, the queen of all pastries. It is one of the most versatile pastries and can be baked in so many different ways with so many different flavours...every time coming out on top! No matter how you present it or accompany it, in the end you will be left with a sensational treat, whether it be a lunch time snack, afternoon-tea bite or the main man of an exceptional main meal. It will be enjoyed no matter what by everyone who sets taste buds on it.
After considering all of the different flavour combinations and ways of presenting puff pastry, I finally decided on what I wanted to bake today. I was eager to prove to myself that I could produce sophisticated, elegant yet widely appreciated bakes, and I thought making some little puff pastry treats would do this. I decided to make two different products today. I made Raspberry Cream Slices as well as mini White Chocolate and Summer Berry Tartlets. Due to lack of time and practise I opted for using ready-made puff pastry (Jus-Rol), however if you would prefer to make your own you can do using your own recipe, or the one I have included further on in this post.
Firstly, I made the Raspberry Cream Slices. To do this I simply rolled out my ready made pastry until it was about 2" thick. Then I cut the pastry into rectangles, 7.5cmX11.5cm. You can make them whatever size you fancy, big or small. I personally think this size is perfect for being served as a dessert. I baked in batches of four, simply because my tray wasn't big enough to fit anymore on, however you can try and fit as many as you want on your tray and in your oven to save you the time. I checked them after 10 minutes, as the guidelines I used stated that's how long I should bake them for, however I found that leaving them in for a couple more minutes did the trick nicely. I cooled them once baked, meanwhile making my chantille cream. Now, chantille cream sounds extremely posh and sophisticated, however a 3 year old could make this with their eyes closed. Take double cream, whip it, add vanilla essence...that's it. Within a matter of seconds your double cream has turned into chantille cream, simply by adding a drop or two of vanilla essence. It's that easy. I promise! Usually, whenever I make something that isn't already sweetened I add a few tablespoons of icing sugar to the cream just to add that slight excitement for the taste buds as your tongue closes on the airy mixture in your mouth. I had previously bought some raspberry jam with the seeds in to use, you can use any jam you like...in fact any filling you like, and if you chose jam it can be seedless. I beat the jam for a couple of seconds to loosen it up ready to spread on the pastry slices. I cut each pastry slice in half horizontally and spread one half with cream and one half with jam before sandwiching them together. I did this to every one of them, leaving me with 10 Raspberry Cream Slices. I dusted them with icing sugar and served them piled up on a plate.
I personally think, that after trying my Raspberry Cream Slices, I should have used strawberry jam as I think that would have worked better with the chantille cream. I would also have used seedless jam because I found that the seeds made the product overall seem less sophisticated and more rustic, which was not really the idea I was going for. The only other aspect of this bake that I would change...well...it isn't really a change; more like something I would add to it to improve its absolute total deliciousness. I would add some royal icing on top each one to add to the sweetness of it and to add a smooth texture against the flaky pastry, bitty jam and airy cream, as well as using pink royal icing to create a feathered effect on top which would simply enhance the appearance of it. This would make these fancy little treats even more fit for tea with the queen.
For the White Chocolate and Summer Berry Tartlets, again, I rolled out the puff pastry and using a circular cutter (diameter 4cm) I cut out circles and again baked them for about 12 minutes. When these baked, because they were small and circular they formed small spheres, with could be cut in half to form hemispheres (half of a sphere). I did this, and due to the puff pastry layers, they were hollow inside allowing me to fill them with anything I liked. While the bases of my tartlets cooled I gathered the left over chantille cream and cracked on making a white chocolate ganache. To make the ganache, I heated double cream until almost boiling while I broke up white chocolate into a bowl. I was cautious not to make to cream boil as if this happens, the desired glossy, shine will be lost from the finished ganache. Once the cream has reached the stage just before boiling, I poured it over the chocolate in the bowl and allowed the heat of the cream to melt the chocolate. After a minute, I encouraged the chocolate to melt and combine with the cream by folding and stirring gently with a wooden spoon. I made sure there were no lumps of chocolate left before putting the ganache in the fridge to thicken up slightly. While the ganache was thickening, I spooned the cream into a piping bag fit with a large star shaped nozzle and in each hemisphere I piped a gem of cream. I then retrieved my ganache and using a teaspoon (you could use a piping bag) I added one spoon of the creamy, glossy, glue-like mixture on top of each tartlet. To finished I simply added a raspberry and blueberry to each one and dusted lightly with icing sugar. And there I had it, two easy, simple yet sophisticated pastry treats.
Both of these sweet pastries are perfect for afternoon tea, fund raising events, desserts or even as a small snack to nibble on among all the mayhem of your day. They're light, tasty full of satisfaction for all ages. Although they appear sophisticated and more suited to adults rather than children, I find that they would be perfect as an extra special treat for children. I've found from my own experience that as long as it's sweet, children will eat it and the addition of summer berries is a great way to get them to eat fruit. Almost any sweet, baked product can have a fruit addition added to it as a way of encouraging children to eat healthily in amongst the tasty goodness that they're more than willing to eat.
Here are the recipes for the two bakes as well as an easy puff pastry recipe if you would prefer to make your own but don't have your own recipe. The Raspberry Cream Slice recipe includes ingredients that I would have used if  I had applied the changes and additions that I think would have enhanced the product's overall quality.
Raspberry (strawberry) Cream Slices:
1 block Jus-Rol Puff Pastry
150ml double cream
1tsp vanilla extract
2tbsp icing sugar
5tbsp strawberry jam (seedless)
5tbsp icing sugar
Warm water (enough to dissolve the sugar to create a royal icing, if you add too much it will be too runny)
Pink food colouring

White Chocolate and Summer Berry Tartlets:
1 block Jus-Rol Puff Pastry
Left over chantille cream from the Raspberry Cream Slices
100ml double cream
100g white chocolate
Raspberries
Blueberries

Puff Pastry:
225g plain flour
1/2tsp salt
250g cold, unsalted butter
150ml ice cold water

What to do to make puff pastry:
Firstly, sift the flour into a bowl and cube your butter using a knife.
Stir the butter into the flour using a round bladed knife until every cube is covered in flour.
Pour in the water and quickly use the knife to bring everything together to form a rough dough.
Gather the dough with your hands and turn out onto your floured work bench. Wrap the dough in cling film and chill in the fridge for 15minutes.
Take your dough out of the fridge and begin rolling. Roll it out in one direction until 1cm thick, and three times as long as it is wide.
Fold the bottom third of the pastry up, and the top third down so that it over laps the bottom third that has just been folded up. You should now have three layers of pastry.
Press the sides of the pastry down so that it is all compressed again.
Repeat the process four times.
Chill the pastry for two hours before using.

Brooklyn Blackout Cake

What did I do on my first real day of study leave? Study? Of course not; not when baking is an option. I was looking for something easy that doesn't require much skill that I could bake to be my first 'share' on my blog, and came across this Brooklyn Blackout Cake in the Hummingbird Bakery cookbook that I was given a year or two ago for Christmas. I haven't made very good use of this book since I got it, I've never felt like I could trust it, but I decided that today was the day to take a risk and just try it out.
So, using the recipe from the Hummingbird Bakery cookbook, I set out gathering the ingredients I would require. I was pleased with the ingredients list, as the picture of the desired finished product looks sophisticated and elegant leading me into thinking that I would be needing to use a lot of posh, expensive ingredients. I was wrong. I needed only the basic cake ingredients and they were all easily found among the shelves of food in my cupboards and fridge. I did not need to buy any 70% cocoa solids chocolate or any vanilla pods or any of that fancy business, the rich, elegant flavours simply came from cocoa powder and vanilla extract.
The recipe was easy and simple, it consisted of the start of an average cake mixture, creaming the butter and sugar together. I found that at this early stage of the production, the recipe stated either too much sugar or too little butter as it was incredibly difficult to cream the two ingredients together. The mixture formed more of a coarse sand than the creamy mixture I desired. Because of this I added the vanilla extract at that point to provide a small amount of liquid to try and encourage the two components to come together, as well as about 10g more of the butter. These small adaptions helped the butter and sugar combine better and I could move on with the recipe. This was one of very few things that I found misleading and difficult within the recipe. I then proceeded on with ease to finish making the cake batter, achieving a shiny, silky and smooth batter that I divided into three cake tins that would create the three layers of the cake. The recipe said I should bake the cakes for 25-30 minutes, but I found that my cakes were ready to come out after 23 minutes. This depends on your oven though, so don't assume yours will take the same amount of time, keep checking your cakes from about 20minutes into the bake and make your decision of when to take them out (don't exceed 30minutes). I allowed my cakes to cool, meanwhile making the chocolate custard that would fill and cover my masterpiece. When I make sophisticated, dark and rich chocolate cakes, such as this one seems, I always make a ganache to create that silky, smooth contrast to the soft, crumbly cake. This is always a nice treat and adds great depth to a chocolate cake, however the ingredients, although few, are expensive and the heaviness of the ingredients means that it is extremely hard to eat a full slice. For these reasons, I was extremely happy to find that the covering for this cake was a chocolate custard. The ingredients were cheap and easily found in my cupboards. I was slightly apprehensive about making a custard for the first time, but I was over the moon with my first attempt. The custard allowed a subtle chocolate flavour and a sweet contrast to the bitterness of the cocoa powder, as well as making the whole cake much lighter and easier to eat. One step within the making of the custard of went slightly off the tracks for me when whisking the cornflour with the water as I added too much water at once creating a very thin texture, rather than a thick, glue-like texture. However I had no spare cornflour to start again so I had to make do with what I had. I think it was this slight mistake that caused me trouble later when trying to thicken the custard. I boiled it on a medium heat, constantly whisking it, which allowed it to thicken up slightly before I transferred it to the fridge to firm up even more. I found myself waiting a long time for the custard to set more, and in the end gave into my impatience and started assembling the cake probably slightly too soon. I had no trouble assembling and decorating the cake with such a runny custard, but I know that I would have been more safe just waiting that extra half an hour until I could really use it with ease and control. Unfortunately, I found that I had far too much custard than I needed, and so I would recommend that you quarter the recipe for the custard as it was far too much and put a lot of money down the drain. Following the recipe, I decorated my cake with a very well thought out idea of slicing a thin layer off one cake and food processing it until it formed fine crumbs, before sprinkling all over the top and side of the cake. This added interest and difference to the appearance of the cake, along with adding a greater contrast of texture. I finally had a finished product; Brooklyn Blackout Cake. A mysterious character, deceiving as being rich and devilish, but once discovered in more depth, found to be a light, subtle masterpiece.
Don't be deceived or tripped up by her appearance, she's nothing like you expect at first glance. She has a much kinder soul than she makes out. Do not judge a book by its cover, and do not judge a cake by its appearance.
I recommend that any chocoholic looking for something a little lighter or someone looking for a cheap and easy celebration cake to appeal to all to try out this recipe.
For the cake you will need:
100g unsalted butter
260g caster sugar
2 eggs
1/4 tsp vanilla extract
45g cocoa powder
3/4 tsp baking powder
3/4 tsp bicarbonate of soda
a pinch of salt
160ml milk

For the custard you will need: (without quartering like I suggested)
500g caster sugar
1 tbsp golden syrup
125g cocoa powder
200g cornflour
85g unsalted butter
1/2 tsp vanilla extract

Custard recipe quartered:
125g caster sugar
1/4 tbsp golden syrup
30g cocoa powder
50g conflour
20g unsalted butter
1/8 tsp vanilla extract

What to do:
Preheat your oven to 170degrees (325 degrees Fahrenheit) Gas mark 3.
Whisk the butter and sugar together in a bowl using an electric mixer, free standing or handheld. Cream until light and fluffy. If needs be, add the vanilla extract at this point to add a small amount of liquid in order of encouraging the two ingredients to come together nicely.
Add one egg at a time, combining with the butter and sugar thoroughly before adding the next to prevent any small risk of curdling.
Beat in the cocoa powder, baking powder, bicarbonate of soda and salt into the wet ingredients until thoroughly combined.
Add half of the flour and all of the milk and whisk until it is well combined, then add the remaining half of the flour and whisk.
Spoon the mixture into prepared cake tins and bake for 20-30 minutes, checking occasionally after 20 minutes.
To make the custard, put the caster sugar, golden syrup, cocoa powder and 600ml of water in a deep pan and boil over a medium heat until all of the sugar and cocoa powder has dissolved.
Meanwhile, gradually whisk 120ml-200ml of water into the cornflour until a thick, glue-like consistency is created.
Turn down the heat of the mixture in the pan and add the cornflour mixture. Whisk in to combine.
Once combined, bring the mixture to boil again, whisking constantly until thickened.
When thickened, put into the fridge to thicken even more.
To assemble the cake, firstly slice off a thin layer of one cake, or any uneven bits that need to be levelled out and put these bit aside (make sure your cakes are completely cooled).
Place one cake on a plate and top with one quarter of the custard. Place your next cake on top of that and again top with a quarter of the custard. Finally place your last layer of cake on and pour the remainder of your custard over the top, allowing it to spill down the edges. Using a pallet knife gently encourage the custard down the sides of the cake and ease it into all of the gaps, ensuring complete coverage of the cake.
Place your cake in the fridge to set the custard even more, only for a few minutes though.
Put the cut offs from the cake into a food processor and process until fine crumbs are made.
Take your cake out of the fridge and sprinkle the crumbs over the top and press them to the sides of the cake, achieving an aesthetically interesting appearance and contrasting texture to your masterpiece.
Enjoy!

During the summer term of last year, the school offered me a chance to have a weeks work experience at a place of my choice, as long as the place agreed and the school thought it was acceptable and safe. I chose to go to a small yet successful shop in Rowlands Gill called Cake Crafts. Cake Crafts is a small cake shop and business run by husband and wife. They sell everything under the moon that might ever be required within cake decorating, as well as taking celebration cake orders such as weddings, birthdays and christenings. I, myself, had been a regular customer since they became situated there a few years ago and to this day continue to rely on them for my every day cake decorating needs. It was the fact that I knew the owners, along with my passion for and desire to  learn more about cake decorating and sugar work that lead  to me to instantly chose Cake Crafts as the place that I would carry out my weeks work experience.
Whilst on work experience, I was given an insight into not only the practical side of cake decorating,  but also the business side of things and how things run in the shop. I spent some days in the shop, helping out with small yet helpful tasks of packaging orders, cleaning and tidying shelves, arranging ribbons and inserting data onto the computer. These small tasks, although appear insignificant, helped me a lot when it came to learning the ropes of keeping a business running smoothly and effectively.
I spent the rest of my time helping with practical activities. I helped create the insides of different flowers that were to be used on a wedding cake, as well as doing the occasional little things her and there that in the end would contribute to a masterpiece. However, the main task I found myself faced with on this week full of sweet experience is presented in the image included on this post. Myself and Karen, the lady behind the whole business, sat down and spent most of the week creating the top of a cake. We made a Hiker And His Dog scene including little details such as sandwiches and a flask. This task was meant for nothing more than to teach to me some skills and learn step by step how to create amazing scenes and creations using sugar paste. My finished scene is what the image included shows; although definite room to improve, this was my first attempt at anything so skilfully challenging and by the end of the week was very happy with what I had produced.
I walked away from the cake shop on that last Friday full of knowledge and understanding of how business works and most importantly, I was full of new skills, techniques and ideas to be used in my own kitchen. I was inspired to start working on a project straight away and I have carried my new understandings with me to this day and applied them to every small order that I, myself have been lucky enough to attempt. I wouldn't, ever, have been able to produce the cake topper that I did on work experience and I would never have been able to tackle any other cake related challenge since. My passion for sugar work was simply enhanced even more.

So, the time that I sit my Food Technology exam is looming, and fittingly, the main part of the exam is to design and annotate a biscuit product for a specialised diet. In the exam we may be given the special diet that the biscuit product should be suited for, otherwise the question will generalise 'special diets'. If the question is asked without specific mentioning of one particular dietary need, I have decided to base my design on diabetes.
Considering that the main requirement of a diabetic diet is to reduce the amount of sugar intake, I am flicking ideas through my head of savoury biscuits such as parmesan biscuits or herby biscuits. I thought this would be a good idea when it comes to reducing sugar intake because it would offer diabetic people the opportunity to enjoy a biscuit based, baked product without having to worry about their blood sugar levels.
If the exam does specify a diet, I will have to take whatever savoury biscuit I decide on in the end and adapt it to suit the diet. For example, if nut allergy is specified I will make sure that my product is 100% nut free. Or if coeliac disease is particularly mentioned, I could change the flour so that I used a wheat and gluten free flour and that any standard components that I use are also wheat and gluten free.
If anyone has any ideas of a savoury biscuit that I could design in my exam please feel free to comment, or if anyone has any opinions on my own initial ideas I am happy to read about them. I'll let you know how the exam goes in a few weeks once it's over.

Get to know me...

Hello,
my name is Carys, I'm currently in the middle of my GCSE exams and working hard through the next few weeks until I finally see the back of my last exam. During the next month I will try and post as many posts as I can in between revision and other work, although I wont be very committed. However as soon as I have finished my last exam and my real study leave starts, this blog will be my main priority and I will be able to post whenever I want.
My posts will always be about my discoveries, experiments, achievements and even kitchen disasters concerning my baking. I will post pictures and evaluations of products that I make and I will share recipes and tips that I myself have tried and tested.
My inspiration for this blog comes from my love for baking, handed down to me from my Mam and other family members who have passed down old family recipes and secrets in the kitchen. My Mam, being the worlds best cook herself, encouraged me from a young age to get into the kitchen and help her with whatever I could do, and since then I have constricted my main interests to baking itself. I still often help with making dinners and helping out whenever I can in the kitchen, but I am often found whisking away in my own little world at every spare opportunity. My favourite place to be is in the kitchen, with the gentle rumble of the oven heating up and the smells that emit from the pots and pans scattered over the benches. Where I love my own company in the kitchen, I'm always thrilled to be joined by my close cousin Molly, 11 years old, who is always eager to help me with anything I am doing and is more than happy to learn some new techniques, although I have to say, with the way she's improving in the kitchen, I find myself asking her for the tips! When we are both free from work and revision, 'baking days' are usually how our weekends are spent; just the two of us and the kitchen, that's all we ever need.
Molly and I tend to plan each other's next birthday cake the day after the previous birthday, so we're always on top of our game and well planed when it comes to birthday cake surprises. I'll be sure to post some photo's of past birthday cakes that we've made for each other as well as some that I've made for other family members and friends.
So family and friends have always played a big part in my ever-growing hobby of baking, but school have also managed to contribute greatly to my enthusiasm. For my Food Technology GCSE, my class was landed with a very fitting and coincidental task brief. We could have been given any task in the world to do with the food industry, but fortunately the exam board gave us a task with the title 'Design a baked product to be sold in a supermarket bakery'. It was a coincidence that we got this task because it was just what I was hoping for. So over the past two years I have been designing, baking, developing and evaluating many different baked products ranging from bread and pastries to cakes and muffins. The chance to create so many different products and be able to evaluate them and change them simply boosted my interest in baking and inspired me to try out many different flavour and texture combinations, as well as helping me maintain my desire for all of my products to look appealing. I didn't only enjoy the practical side of the 2 year task, I also thoroughly enjoyed the theory side of it, hence my enthusiasm to start this blog before my exams have even finished.
So, I will try to continue to post as much as I can over the next few weeks, but I can guarantee that I will be updating you with many different baking achievements and disasters, as well as sharing old baking experiences and uploading pictures for you to see for yourself how good/bad I am at what I love, straight after my last exam. See you on the flip side. Wish me luck!