back again

I've said it before and I've said it again, long time no post and I really should do more with this. I have spent the last year or so mainly dipping my toes into cake decorating with a mixed bag of results. The main result being my flat is permanently covered in a not so thin layer of icing sugar! I should really document my experiments or do a julie/julia style working through a recipe book to expand my repetoire. My latest tool in researching is using pinterest to create themed folders for cakes that inspire me/give decorating ideas. In fact I really should return to researching henna inspired wedding cakes, I need to develop a steady hand!

how time flies

since my last post I have made quite a few cakes for a number of occasions, photos should be appearing shortly.
Still not sorted a flapjack recipe but have found an acceptable (for now) basic shortbread one. The bigger adventure has been rich fruit cakes and using them for Christmas and Wedding cakes ~(not William and Kate's!)
It seems the decorating rather than recipe route is the one I have been taking. Who knows what the next few months will bring!

a rose by any other medium

so, blah blah blah long time no post. Not done any of the intended recipe improvements or discovered any new ones. Hvae recently taken a slightly different turn and focused on decoration. Some photos should appear in the slideshow. Not much else to say for now aside from intending to now work on different types of flowers/decorations.

ice-cream anyone?

Just a few of the cakes I made recently for a school coffee morning. Tried out a new idea I stole from someone elses photos. Used the 'fluffy frosting' icing again. Wanted to make different 'flavour' ice cream styles. Dyed strawberry ones pink and put in chopped up strawberry pieces. The mint choc chip ones had bits of matchmakers in but I overdid the peppermint essence and green dye so the mixture was too runny to pipe. Still not convinced by this icing though personally I think I prefer the taste to butter icing. Problem with butter icing is I never make it thick enough to pipe, maybe I should work on that!

when is a cake not a cake?

A few weeks back (yes have been lazy in posting) I had a 'creative cupcake' session with a friend. It was inspired by the Hello Cupcake books. These books are fascinating to just look at let alone trying to reproduce some of their ideas. Their imitation savoury meals are particularly interesting though I am not sure the appearance actually encourage you to eat them. Like a number of other books I have looked at, it works on the premise of taking everyday items (generally confectionary!) and using them to create unusual decorations. Of course this meant a lot of time was spent gathering together all potential decorations from the kitchen and also purchasing a few more. Below are just some of the decorations we used.
I also tried a new type of icing involving egg whites, melted sugar and some other bits that I can't remember. As the picture shows it is quite good at holding it's shape and is excellent for piping. It dries into a slightly meringue like exterior. Beware! I am still scraping bits of sugar off of appliances in the kitchen!

Can you guess what it is yet?!

(not sure any of these will be repeated and they would need a lot of practise to get things rights but it was a fun stress free afternoon)

the challenge

After a trip to Ikea and finding some very reasonably priced air tight jars I have got to thinking about Christmas gifts (early I know.) Previously I have made mince pies, gingerbread men and chocolate crispie stars etc and wrapped them in cellophane. The jars that I found would be lovely with some ribbon and a decoration added. So now I have to get to thinking about what to put in them aside from the usual (after all a baked gift is not just for Christmas!)
Now that I have begun to settle on a cookie recipe (though it goes stale very fast) I think the shortbread and flapjack worlds are the next that I wish to explore. On the larger scale I want to find a fantastic chocolate cake recipe, the 'celebration' cake as it were.
First stop shortbread and then playing with different flavours.

The Great British Bake-off

I am currently watching this programme on BBC2. I know the people put themselves forward for it but feel so sorry for them, how scary! It is true what was said, baking is often an act of love and to have it then turned down by someone and have your baking rejected is upsetting. One poor man ended the first round in tears. I would never take part in something like this!
On another note it is very interesting to hear about the history of baking and the different methods used. Made me wonder if I over beat my sponge recipe, might have to experiment soon. Also, I don't have a signature cake that is my own invention or adaptation. Methinks I shall be following the rest of this series.