I'm Back!

I'm Back! Wow, I know, I know I've been very poor in keeping you up to date with my cakey goings on but I have an excuse, which if I do say so myself is a pretty good one... since the start of May I haven't had a kitchen! When I bought my house last year it was what you might call a bit of a 'doer upper', thank the lord it is nearly finished and the second to last room to be completed was my dream kitchen. I'm not just talking plonking in a new set of units, oh no, we went the whole hog and had an extension, my baking heaven is now 7.5 metres long and houses a range cooker with four ovens. FOUR OVENS. So obviously the only thing to do was to celebrate with 33 heart shaped christening cakes and some raspberry and chocolate cupcakes. Once I had worked out how to drive the beast (who needs instruction manuals right?!) there was no stopping me. Luckily the oven and I are now friends and my cakes are coming out fluffy and light and totally yummy.

So really there is no stopping The Cakery now, I have no other excuses, I will be baking, I will be blogging and I will eventually work out what each of the twelves knobs on the cooker do... watch this space! 

A very vintage affair

Today has been such a lovely and fun day down at the Bristol Harbourside Vintage Fair. The Cakery was there with a stall brimming with vintage inspired cakes including Lime Meringue Pie, Triple Chocolate, Apple Pie, Mocha, Lemonade, Vintage Victoria and French Toast cupcakes. Not to mention the most decadent quadruple chocolate gateaux (yes that's right I said quadruple!) and a rainbow triple layer vanilla cake surrounded by beautiful butter cream roses. I think my favourite part was talking to all the friendly customers and seeing their faces light up when they saw the array of cakes. Everyone was so complimentary and there is nothing more pleasing than people who think my cakes look and taste good. I have to say I always get the fear when someone takes their first bite, oh lordy what if they don't like it I think, but lucky for me (touch wood), this hasn't happened and I only get big smiles and lots of 'mmmmm' noises. Hurrah, everyone loves cake as much as me! So with weary feet and a face that hurts a little from all the smiling I will retire to the sofa and plan my next vintage fair menu. 

Oh and before signing off I would like to say a massive thank you to Mamma Lee for not only helping today but for also making these rather fetching Cakery aprons and matching bunting. Who matches there aprons to their bunting? The Cakery do that's who! 

Pastel Hearts

The last couple of weeks have been crazy busy, I haven't blogged about cakes because I've been too busy baking them! The bank holiday weekend was great, the sun was shining, the birds were singing and my days started at 7am with the smell of cakes waking Bob up. Not a bad wake up call if I do say so myself, the only thing that ever wakes me up is Biscuit jumping on me at 5.30am or my annoying phone alarm (oh and that person who rings me at 2am thinking I'm someone that is actually awake at that time. Reality check, I haven't seen 2am for a at least a year now. I.Am.That.Rock.N.Roll) 

So my favourite thing to have come out of the recent bank holiday are these cute heart cupcakes, perfect for a summer wedding or vintage tea party. I made both chocolate chip and vanilla sponge with contrasting buttercream (little tip: if you use condensed milk in your butter cream it tastes amazing) along with beautiful pastel fondant hearts. When you make a large batch of heart cakes like this they look great together and really stand out on a cake table. I would definitely have these at my wedding but with a larger souffle case decorated with vintage lace and pearls. Now enough with this chatting, I'm off to plan my menu for this coming Sunday's vintage fair at the Bristol Hotel. The Cakery will be there selling a variety of scrummy cakes, I just need to work out which ones...

Mighty Mint

I have a confession, I am slightly addicted to mint choc chip. Give me an After Eight and I'm a happy girl, a mint Cornetto gets devoured within seconds and my home made frozen mint choc chip whoopie pies send me over the edge. I can't get enough! The strange thing is mint chocolate also make me sneeze, I thought I'd hidden my weird affliction until I was on a filming shoot years ago and the cameraman noticed that every time I ate an after dinner mint I sneezed. Cue 10 more mints, a lot of sneezes, a slight sicky feeling and some very amused colleagues. I don't care, I will continue to eat and sneeze and sneeze and eat. These mint choc chip cupcakes are no exception, the dark chocolate minted sponge, dark choc chips and mint buttercream are so moreish I can easily eat three in a row (in between sneezes of course). Bring the Kleenex, I'm going back for more...

Summers coming so it's time for a Mr Whippy!

Finally today it felt like summer might be winning and the nine month winter might, just might, be coming to an end. One hopeful Bristol resident even thought that the balmy 12 degrees and the two days of no rain warranted turning their sprinkler on and watering the garden. I think that may be taking it a little too far but the sunshine and the happy faces made me want to eat ice cream. Not just any ice cream but a Mr Whippy. Alas there wasn't a van in sight so instead I had to settle for one of these lime meringue cupcakes instead. Not a bad second choice at all even if I do say so myself!

The best part of these little gems is my take on the the gooey Italian meringue. Every time I bake these I like to watch people eat them, this may sound a bit odd but it's true, there is nothing more funny than someone trying to eat one without getting it all around their chops, over their hands and in their eyebrows (that actually happened, I kid you not) The best story was when my best friend Duncan was too embarrassed to eat one in public so went and sat in the work toilet. Unfortunately for him someone walked in just as he was stepping out of the cubicle, this would have been ok but the whippy meringue all over his face looked slightly suspect.

The secret ingredient in the meringue (which I won't reveal, you'll just have to order some!) compliments the tangy lime centre of the vanilla cupcake. It also provides another hurdle while trying to eat them delicately. I believe everyone should just take a leaf out of my book, embrace the goo and go for a second one while you're still a bit sticky.

I Heart Cupcakes

I love weekends. If only weekends would last five days and work days only two. The 9 month winter seems to be coming to an end though which means, shock horror, I was able to walk Biscuit without wearing five layers, a ridiculous bobble hat and some fleece lined wellies (which Bob and I have matching pairs of, obviously) Biscuit is styling his own foot wear at the moment, a rather fetching and somewhat adorable camouflage bandage. The poor doof was having far too much fun with a Cockerpoo and managed to cut his paw. Cue a quick dash across town to the vets, one injection and £66 later Biscuit is hobbling around looking very street.

Anyway back to why I love weekends (apart from the obviously lack of work), take Saturday for instance, by 11am I had already baked and had cooling 36 french toast cupcakes. I had the craving to bake them so I did, not for anyone or anything in particular but just because I can. On the same day I also ordered a Stoves range cooker, one with no less than FOUR ovens. Oh lordy, imagine how much baking I can when this bad boy arrives?

So back to cupcakes (I keep getting distracted) this dark chocolate one, baked in a souffle cup, has a heart shaped raspberry buttercream filling. It's pretty, elegant and perfect for any occasion (Valentines days, wedding days, just because I love you days) The filling would work brilliantly in different flavours; mint, orange, vanilla, chocolate, the possibilities are endless. Just drop me an e mail and I can rustle you up a batch of these beauties.

A Fancy Fondant...

So today was a good work day. I actually got paid to sit in the sunshine outside a swanky Clifton Cafe, eat cake and chat to my very lovely friend Sara. The only catch was that at the same time we were being filmed for a top secret project (which will be revealed soon but not quite yet) The cakes were amazing, tangy marmalade sponge, rose bud slice (a bit flowery tasting for my liking but looked so pretty) and a little pistachio number. Before we started filming we had lunch at the Primrose Cafe (love, love, LOVE) and then discovered a little boutique cake shop which I didn't even know existed. Oh the competition, they had to be checked out but in true Sara style it wasn't just walk in and have a look around it was walk in and pretend I'm getting married and get the DL on every cake in there. Obviously Sara with her beautiful Irish twang won the owner round and before long we were getting the whole story. Luckily for me her prices were the same as mine and our buttercream equally as whippy. Phew, I could breathe again. We had to walk out with at least one cup cake each which means in grand total I have eaten five cakes today. Oh dear, that seems so much worse when I write it down. It's all in the name of market research though right?

Ok so to distract from the shame of the amount of cake I have eaten I would like to introduce my latest wedding cupcake. This little fellow is vanilla with a buttercream middle and beautiful fondant icing. I love working with fondant because you can shape it into anything you like. I used a silicone mould for the rose and then cut around some mint leaves from my mint plant for the foliage. I pushed down on the icing to make sure all the pretty veins showed through to give the cake more detail. I used pearls on lace for the case decoration to give it a vintage style and Bobs your Uncle there you have a cake I would be proud to have at my wedding. 

Wedding Daze

I haven't posted anything for a few days, not because I've been being lazy but quite the opposite, I have spent the entire weekend baking wedding cupcakes. Not just some of the weekend but the ENTIRE weekend. The thing is I've been having so much fun I feel I have neglected my everyday life, Bob, Biscuit, the cleaning (I'm not so bothered about that last one). Sometimes cake really does take over. It even intercepts my normals dreams of Ryan Gosling, winning the lottery and being able to fly. Saturday night I woke up at 3am with a master plan for icing using vintage colours,  by 6.45 I had got myself in such a tiz I just had to get up. Come 9am my dream was a reality and my pyjamas were covered in icing sugar. 

All because wedding season is coming up and I wanted a portfolio of beautiful cakes to show off at fairs. My favourite was this raspberry and coconut beauty, I wanted a larger cupcake so used souffle cups instead of normal cases and mixed thawed frozen raspberries and desiccated coconut into my normal vanilla batter. I kept back some of the raspberry juice for the butter cream which gave it this natural pink colour. I love vintage styling so wanted to use lace and pearls around the case to make this cake extra special, the result (if I do say so myself) was stunning. Who wouldn't want 100 of these delights displayed on their dessert table at a wedding? The great thing is that vintage is in so there are loads of amazing wedding accessories that can be tied into your wedding cake. My go to company and one I recommend all the time is Slater-Sparke, they do the most beautiful wedding stationary which match my cakes perfectly. You can find them at:

http://www.slatersparke.com/

Over the next few weeks I'll add more photos from my wedding collection but in the mean time I'll leave you wanting more...

I Heart Mamma Lee

This blog goes out to Mamma Lee, my cake mentor, baking Jedi and all round super amazing lady. It is 100% down to my mum and the ridiculously good birthday cakes I had growing up to why I love baking so much. From watching the master at work I learnt from any early age that room temperature butter is a must, that you don't have to cream your butter and sugar before adding the eggs and that sifting your flour from a height will get lots of lovely air into it. Of course I could have learnt this from Delia but why would I need to when the best baker in town was on speed dial?

I made these mini heart shaped victoria sponges for Mums birthday last year and she loved them. I started by making my normal vanilla sponge recipe, I always use half eggs to fat, old school I know but as I say, I learnt from the master (although now a days I have converted Mums ounces into my grams). So in went 4 eggs, 225g self raising flour, 225g castor sugar, 225g butter, a teaspoon of baking powder and a drop of vanilla extract. I whisked all the ingredients together using an electric hand whisk (this was before my Kitchen Aid or as I like to call it BKA) until all was well combined. I then greased and lined a 7 inch round tin and poured in the mixture. I always set my oven a little lower than it should be, my motto is 'slow and low' so I popped the batter in at 170ºC for around 45 minutes (or until a skewer came out clean) I then let the cake cool on a rack. Once cooled I cut the cake in half and using a cookie cutter cut out heart shapes into each layer of sponge. I sandwiched them together using freshly whipped cream with a hint of icing sugar and some lovely strawberry jam then topped them off with a sprinkling of sugar. I took them round to Mums on this lovely vintage plate I found in a charity shop and every one dove in straight away. Such a cute alternative to a round victoria sponge and a great centre piece for a tea party. So bring on the summer when I will make them again and invite all my girls around for a right British high tea in the garden.

Who needs the moon on a stick when you can have a cake on a stick?

Cake Pops. Everyone loves a cake pop and that most definitely includes me. I only discovered these balls of joy last year when I baked some cup cakes that I didn't very much like the look of. I Googled what to do with the sad looking sponge and out popped these beasts, my Bonfire Night party cake was saved. I'd planned elaborate cupcakes with handmade chocolate fireworks flying out the top of them (melted chocolate piped onto grease proof paper and covered in hundreds and thousands). The fire works turned out great but I got distracted while the cakes were in the oven and they, shock horror,  went dry. I am a stickler for a moist sponge so this would most definitely not do, especially as I had friends coming round and I would rather serve up limp celery sticks and a questionable dip than a dry cake.  

The sponge was vanilla choc chip so I crumbled up the cakes and mixed them with a little bit of butter cream, just enough to get them moist and sticky. I made sure the slightly crispy tops of the cake were shaved off first, balled them up and popped them in the fridge for 30 minutes. I then melted the white chocolate over a bain marie stirring continuously, you have to be careful with white chocolate because it has a higher sugar content that dark or milk so it can burn more easily. Once melted I took the chilled balls out of the fridge, dipped a lolly pop stick in the chocolate (which I randomly had a pack of already in my cupboard, why wouldn't I?) and stuck it in the cake pop. The chocolate then cools and glues the cake to the stick. There is nothing worse than forgetting to do this and have the cake fall to the floor within one bite. C'est Tragique! I poured the melted chocolate into a long thin jug to make it easier to dip, and dunked the balls in all the way up to the stick. I shook off some of the excess chocolate, sprinkled with hundreds and thousands and left to dry by pocking the stick in some flower oasis. When it came to display them I popped them in a vintage glass and left them on the food table and voila, it was like nothing had ever gone wrong...

Peace and Dove

Earlier on my neighbour came round to let me know that his house was burgled last night. Oh lordy, what had they taken? Nothing it seems however they had pulled down his net curtains (probably fallen over one of his many piles of books) and started the ascent upstairs only to find Vernon at the top asking very politely 'Can I help you?' Wow, maybe he could have offered them a cup of tea, some cake and a sit down while  they discussed where said burglar had taking the wrong path in life. It seems said burglar didn't need any help and fell over a mop on the way out making an awful bang (this bang was heard from my bedroom and I promptly asked Bob if he thought someone was trying to break in. He said no. Biscuit didn't even stir)

If I were to sit down with a burglar and offer cake I might go with these little gems, how can anyone stay bad while clutching a moist vanilla cupcake, topped with lilac frosting, icing doves and tiny pearls? They can't, it's a fact of life. I made these little dove cakes last year for a function and I was overwhelmed by how many people (who I had never met) had to congratulate me on how lovely they were. Shop bought you ask? Well no but I am flattered that you think so. Even now it always ceases to amaze me when people like my cakes, I've never trained professionally, I've never even been on a course, all these little creations come from growing up watching Mamma Lee making the most wonderful cakes and then a lot of trial and error. Isn't it great when you find something that you love so much is something that you're actually not bad at? Yes. Yes it is. 

Oh hello there lemonade cupcake, I hear you've been expecting me?

Well these little fellows went down pretty well in the office today let me tell you. The idea started off when I saw a pink lemonade cupcake on Pinterest (sometimes I'll start looking on Pinterest and the next thing I know it's two hours later and Biscuit's looking at me like 'Hello, remember me, i'm your dog, I need attention'). My thought process went... I like cake, I like lemons, I have that pack of Ikea straws that have gone unopened in the cupboard for the last 2 years, this could work. The only problem was the majority of the recipes I found were all American which would have been fine if my local Tesco stocked sweetened pink lemonade powder but on further inspection it would seem they did not. So let the free styling begin. To be honest this is when I do my best work, so fast forward to Sunday afternoon, Biscuit asleep on the sofa, Bob playing computer games so loudly I actually thought there was World War III happening in the living room and me in the kitchen with the door shut listening to Britney Spears' Circus album (It accidentally came on, on Spotify. Honest)  

I started with my basic vanilla sponge mix, I wanted to have a lovely surprise lemon curd filling and lemon sherbet icing so went against a lemon sponge as this would be too much. I nearly made the mistake of putting the curd in before baking but remembered last time I did that my cakes came out with what could only be described as a sink hole that could swallow up a small community in the centre. I held back and inserted the curd once they had cooled. While in the oven I whipped up some of my famous buttercream, I added lemon curd, lemon sherbet from a Dib Dab and even a hint of lemon flavouring to the mix. I don't really go on measurements, I use the taste test instead (by this I mean Bob, lover of all things made with butter and icing sugar). The result was buttercream which had a good tartness to it to counteract the sweetness. Once the cakes had cooled I iced them using a large star nozzle, decorated with coarse sugar (to imitate the bubbles) and popped in a straw. And there you have it people, one way to make your work colleagues happy.