Waybuloo :-)

So I was asked to do a Waybuloo cake for my friends little girls 1st birthday! Ive never done anything like this before so I decided a simple vanilla cake and vanilla buttercream, four layers and plenty of stickiness!!!

I started off with using a cake pop stick as the support for the Waybuloo decoration and half a cake pop stick as the support for the arms. I coloured the icing using gel colours and set on to making Waybuloo.

I then sat and painstakingly made sugarpaste flowers, leaves and decorations for the final touches.

The finished result, how yummy does that look! I might have to make one for myself (and keep it to myself!)

Christmas pt 2 :-)

So, December 25th, the most exciting time of the year! The one day of the year that I am proudly tired through lack of sleep due to excitement the night before! I am a huge child when it comes to Christmas and I live throughout the year for the excitement of Christmas, from putting up the tree, to Christmas shopping and the big day and seeing the look on peoples faces when they open their gifts!!

I love it, nothing can put me off excitement and this year was no different! I awoke early on and woke up the entire household to open prezzies! Slippers and dressing gown, kettle on the go and excitedly rustling under the tree!!

I was a very lucky girl this year and Santa let me know I had behaved by gifting me with a beautiful Kitchenaid Mixer!!!

I was also gifted with a collection of cakey books, whoopie pie books, cupcake books and an adorable mini-cupcake maker. I spent Boxing Day making cake and using my new toys!!

Christmas :-)

Not updated for a loooooong time so decided I better start with Christmas and move on into the New Year.  Christmas being a busy period, being the one time of the year when people drop in unannounced and being the one time of the year where we let out the belt buckle!

I made a list of everything I wanted to make from the Christmas cake and decorations to pork pies, lemon curd and sweet tarts.

I'll start with the Christmas cake and decorations, a good boiled fruit cake is the starting point of an amazing Christmas cake and this year was no different, two round boiled fruit cakes made in October and lovingly soaked with Brandy until December........

The decorations were made using white fondant icing, I use a silicone flower cutter and mould and add silver balls and lustre dust. I used white polar lustre dust and a peach glitter.

I made fifteen flowers to go around the cake and for the top of the cake - I left these to set prior to using royal icing to attach them to the cake

Finished result!! Beautiful polar white Christmas cake, soaked with Brandy and contemporary finish :-)

Christmas Savouries :-)

After watching the Great British Bake Off and seeing Paul Hollywood's take on Pork Pies I decided I had to have a go! I altered the recipe slightly from using plain pork loin joint to using an Applewood Smoked Pork Loin which most definitely gave the pork pies a taste second to none.

This was the first time I had tried making hot water pastry and I was pleasantly surprised at how easy it is!

Not quite as pleasing to they eye as shop bought but the taste is definitely worth the hard work! I have made these a couple of times now and have recently opted for a silicone baking tin which has made getting the pies out a million times easier!!!

Sweet Treats :-)

 I decided to have a go at making lemon curd and for a twist made a jar of orange curd too! The lemon curd was a Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall recipe and although tart, is a beautiful accompaniment to a lovely bit of burnt toast!

The orange curd was used for the filling for an orange tart which was wonderfully smooth, gorgeous to look at and totally scrummy to eat :-)

Gingerbread House :-)

Typing this now I realise how busy I was over the festive period! The gingerbread house is a typical thought when I think of Christmas so I decided it was time to have a go! I designed a template, made up a huge batch of gingerbread and chained myself to the oven for the afternoon! I used the gingerbread recipe from the BBC good food website and was pleasantly surprised at how quick and easy it was, not to mention delicious. I used royal icing to bond the walls and roof together. I then used a thick layer of royal icing on the roof as snow and a thick layer for snow on the ground.

Yes, they are lights you can see within! I hid a string of l.e.d lights inside for a sweat treat with a twist

When The Kitchen is Empty and the Brain has Ideas :-)

An empty kitchen, always a sad sight. A lack of sweet goods in the kitchen, an even worse sight!! 

So I decided to fill the house with sweets. Fudge, French Macarons, Cake Pops and came up with a really scrummy buttercream recipe :-)

The fudge was aaaaaaaaaaaaaa-mazing!! Quick, easy, massive amount and soooooo tasty!! A definate winner and will definately be making that again!!

The french macarons were vanilla and filled with vanilla buttercream and although they didnt look overly wonderful, they tasted great!

The cakepops took ages!! I also couldnt bag them up until the next day, however, they looked great, tasted great and to top it off, i got to lick the bowl of the melted chocolate!!

I know I mentioned the buttercream, I cant give that one away just yet, I need to test it out on other people!!

Home :-)

Home Sweet Home! So I return from my jollies to Fuerteventura and came home to gifts from my parents! Its supposed to be me bringing gifts! But with gifts like these, no girl could complain!

And who could resist a couple of others?

Cake Pops :-)

After ordering the Bakerella book on how to make cake pops, it just had to be done!!  The way it is written makes making these adorable little treats so easy!! And what better way to show you the end result than to take piccies :-)

That has to be the most spectacular boquet ever!!

National Cupcake Week :-)

Yes, you read it right! National Cupcake Week is coming up. Its fromt he 12th - 18th September 2011 and to celebrate im going to make some beautiful cupcakes next weekend!

At this point, I would like to add that I will also be attmepting Cake Pops, Whoopie Pies and French Macarons :-)