A Song of Ice and Fire

My boyfriend is a massive fan of the TV show Game of Thrones so for his birthday I decided I would make him a cake with the sign of his favourite house. As he is also a fan of chocolate and chilli, I thought I would re-use my recipe for chilli chocolate cupcakes but on a much larger scale. This cake is three layers of cake with two layers of chilli buttercream, covered in ready to roll icing (I know it's cheating but I don't have the patience to make it myself).

Ingredients:

120g/ 4oz Unsalted butter

300g/ 10.5oz Caster sugar

3 Large eggs

115ml/ 4fl oz Milk

40ml/ 1.5fl oz Sunflower oil

1tsp Vanilla extract

160g/ 5.5oz Plain flour

70g/ 2.5oz cocoa powder

1.5tsp Baking powder

Method:

1. Preheat the oven to 170 degrees (Gas mark 3) and line three cake tins with baking parchment. If you don't have three, take a look at my lemon cake post as that has a little tip for how to make a three layer cake with only two tins (see step 4).

2. Cream together the butter and sugar until the mixture is light and fluffy, then add the eggs one at a time.

3. In a separate bowl or jug mix the milk, oil and vanilla. Pour half of the liquid into the butter and sugar and mix well before adding the other half. 

4. Sift the dry ingredients into the batter and mix until the batter is smooth. Divide evenly between the tins and bake in the oven for 30-35 minutes. 

For the chilli buttercream you will need:

• 1/4 teaspoon cayenne pepper
• 1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
• 250g icing sugar
• 110g cream cheese, softened
• 60g butter, softened
• 1/4 teaspoon vanilla extract

In a bowl, mix the cayenne pepper and the cinnamon with the icing sugar. Beat in the cream cheese and butter with an electric mixer on medium speed until the icing is smooth; mix in the vanilla. Spread the icing onto the cooled cupcakes in attractive swirls. For decoration, you could add small dried chillies draped across each cupcake.

5. When the cakes are cool, assemble the layers using the buttercream in between each sponge. Once the layers are done spread some buttercream around the outside as this will act as a glue for the ready to roll icing. As the name suggests, just roll it out until it is approximately 1cm thick. The trick is to roll it out either on top of clingfilm or a worktop sprinkled with icing sugar. Lift one edge of the icing and roll it around a rolling pin. This will allow you to drop it over your cake a lot easier and stop it from falling apart. 

For the decoration on top, you can do anything you like. I tend to buy my decorations as I'm nowhere near ready to make my own. Just pick the things you like and stick them on with royal icing (also sold but there are plenty of recipes online that are easy to follow).

To make the design I wanted, I printed an image I found online and cut it out to create a template. I then laid it over some rolled out icing and used a knife to cut round the template. It's really easy to stick ready to roll icing to itself, just brush a little water on the back and place it where you want it. Be careful though as once it's stuck it is really hard to peel it off again. Plus if you're using coloured icing, the water takes on the colour and can stain the icing underneath. Not good if you're using red on white like I did. The staining can come off if you careful use some damp kitchen roll to rub it off.

This was the finished cake.

My boyfriend loves Daenerys Targaryen so I went for the three-headed dragon and the House motto of Fire and Blood. I had to make sure it survived a day on my desk at work and then take it on four trains as I was travelling from my home in Birmingham to his parent's house in Luton.

The birthday boy was very happy with his surprise birthday cake.

Dov'è la Festa

There was no baking for me in September 2013 as I was lucky enough to be accepted for a funded archaeology placement in Tuscany. The weather was beautiful and the food was gorgeous. We had fresh seafood in a restaurant located on a hilltop in Porto Santo Stefano, sea bass barbecued with pesto rubbed in, so much pasta that we began to resemble a piece of farfalle and of course fantastic cakes. As we were there for 5 weeks, there's too much to write in one blog post so I've decided just to share some pictures with you all. Enjoy!

This is just some of the team I working with out in Tuscany. Most of us were recent graduates from UK universities. We learned a lot but had loads of fun too.

Of course we had to try wine while we were out there.

Enjoying gelato on a sunny day in Porto Santo Stefano.

One of the many barbecues we had at the agriturismo (farm house).

Even more gelato.

Our leaving party with the lovely members of staff from Etruria Nova Onlus.

Playing the 'Hydration Game' so named because we used water rather than alcohol.

Homemade nutella cheesecake.

If you like strong drinks, try an Aperol Spritz. Small drink but it definitely packs a punch.

Honestly the best pizza place in Rome. It's only one street away from Termini train station. We stopped in there for a quick bite of lunch and it was way more delicious than we were expecting.

Taking in the sights of Rome.

Red Hot Chilli Cupcakes

I wanted to try something a little different at my family barbecue July 2013 so I decided to try making chilli chocolate cupcakes. I'm really sensitive to chilli so I was a little concerned about how spicy they were going to turn out. I needn't have worried as they came out great with just hint of chilli to give you a tickle at the back of the throat. Perhaps not a good idea for children but definitely great for older teens and adults that like something different. It's a really simple recipe too.

Ingredients:

• 200g butter, melted
• 200g caster sugar
• 3 eggs, beaten
• 200g self-raising flour
• 100g unsweetened cocoa powder
• 1/2 teaspoon cayenne pepper
• milk as needed
• 1/4 teaspoon cayenne pepper
• 1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
• 250g icing sugar
• 110g cream cheese, softened
• 60g butter, softened
• 1/4 teaspoon vanilla extract

Method:

1. Preheat oven to 150 C / Gas 2. Line a muffin tin with paper cases. I used mini cases as I thought if they turned out spicy then at least they'd be small and not so hot.

2. Mix together butter and sugar in a large bowl. Stir in eggs, beating between each addition. Combine the flour, cocoa and cayenne pepper in a separate bowl, then sift into the butter mixture and fold to combine. Stir in a few drops of milk.

3. Pour into prepared tin and bake in preheated oven for 20 to 25 minutes. The cakes are ready when a skewer inserted in the middle comes out clean. Allow to cool on wire rack before icing.

4. In a bowl, 1/4 teaspoon of cayenne pepper and the cinnamon with the icing sugar. Beat in the cream cheese and butter with an electric mixer on medium speed until the icing is smooth; mix in the vanilla. Spread the icing onto the cooled cupcakes in attractive swirls. For decoration, you could add small dried chillies draped across each cupcake.

I forgot to take photos as I went along but here is the finished thing.

Enjoy!

When Life Give You Lemons...

...make a lemon cake with cream cheese frosting!

This is a favourite for my family and regularly makes an appearance at our summer barbecues. My mom especially loves it because she says it gets her behind the ears. The moistness of the cake and the creaminess of the frosting blends together perfectly. It's just yummy! I make mine in my electric mixer but it can easily be done without one.

Ingredients:

110g/ 4oz Unsalted butter

380g/ 13oz Caster sugar

320g/ 11oz Plain flour

4 tsp Baking powder

320ml/ 11 fl oz Buttermilk (any milk is fine)

Zest of 2 lemons

3 Large eggs

Raspberry Jam

900g/ 2lb Icing sugar

Zest of 1.5 lemons

150g/ 5.5oz Unsalted butter

375g/ 13oz Cream cheese

Method:

1. Preheat the oven to 170 degrees (Gas Mark 5) and line three 20cm/8 inch cake tins. If you only have to cake tins, don't worry. Keep reading and I'll reveal all.

2. In an electric mixer, or in a bowl if you don't have one, whisk the butter, sugar, flour and baking powder until it resembles sand. When using a hand whisk, use a slight mashing motion to create the same effect. It will take a little time but stick with it.

3. Using a large jug or a separate bowl whisk together the milk, lemon zest and eggs. Pour half the liquid into the crumby mixture and mix together until the batter is smooth. Add the remaining liquid and continue mixing.

4. If you have three cake tins, divide the batter evenly between them. For those of you that only have two tins, substitute the third tin for a bowl (apologies for all the separate bowls and extra washing up, I'll make it up to you I promise). Bake the sponge for 30 minutes, or until they are golden brown. When you remove them from the oven and place the cakes on a wire rack to cool. If you've got the final sponge mixture waiting in a bowl, quickly place a new piece of parchment paper in the bottom and pour in the mixture.

5. To make the icing, cream together the icing sugar, lemon zest and butter until well combined with no lumps. Add the cream cheese and best until smooth. 

6. When the sponge feels cool, start assembling the layers. Place the first sponge on a plate or cake card and spread over a layer of icing followed by a layer of jam. Repeat with the second sponge and place the third on top. Spread the remainder of the icing on the outside of the cake, keeping it as even as possible. As a bit of decoration, you could place a few raspberries on the top. The latest lemon cake I made, I used some soft golden balls around the edges to add a bit of glam.

Whatever reason you make it for, trust me it'll be big hit! Enjoy!

Mmmm...Donuts!

I first made these muffins for a family barbecue and they were a massive hit. They're also so much fun to make because you have to pop a spoonful of jam on a layer of mixture, then try and pour another layer of mixture on the jam and put the tray in the oven whilst hoping the jam doesn't sink to the bottom. Luckily I've never had any jam sink and hopefully never will.

These are a firm favourite of a friend of mine who in turn has friends who make jam. Whenever I make them, it always reminds me of all the flavors those friends make and how great they all taste (if you'd like to see their range just search for Strawberry Fields Foods).

Billy, if you're reading this, grab your jam and get baking matey!

You will need:

280g Plain white flour
1 tbsp Baking powder
1/8 tsp Salt
115g Caster sugar
2 Medium eggs
200ml Milk (as you can see in the photo below, I used soya milk and the muffins tasted no different to those made with cow's milk)
6 tbsp Sunflower oil
1tsp Vanilla essence
4 tbsp Jam (whichever flavor you prefer)

For the top:
115g Melted butter
150g Granulated sugar



1. Preheat the oven to 200 degrees (180 works for Fan, Gas 6) and place your muffin cases in a tray. Alternatively, you can just grease the tray if you don't want to use cases.

2. Sift together the flour, baking powder and salt into a bowl and stir in the caster sugar.

3. Separately beat the eggs adding in the milk, oil and vanilla essence. Make a well in the dry ingredients, then pour in the liquid. Gently stir together until the mixture is just about combined. Be careful not to over-mix as donuts are meant to be light and fluffy, more so than cupcakes/muffins.

4. Spoon a little of the mixture into the muffin cases, enough to fill half the space you would usually use for a regular muffin. 

5. Place a slightly heaped teaspoon of jam in the centre of each muffin.

6. Careful pour over more mixture. Enough to cover the jam but not too much that you run out of mixture before finishing the muffins, or to make the muffins rise too much when in the oven.

7. Bake in the oven for 20 minutes, until they look golden brown. You can place a skewer through the middle to check they're done but remember that there is jam in the middle which may stick the skewer.

8. While the muffins are cooling on a wire rack, prepare the topping. Melt the butter in a wide shallow bowl and pour the sugar into another of the same size. Check the butter is closer to room temperature and dip the top of the muffin into the butter. Roll the muffin in the sugar. The topping can be done while the muffins are still warm if that is how you prefer to eat them. I tend to let mine cool purely because I usually make them when I'm expecting visitors and prepare them in advance.

With the excitement of the barbecue, I forgot to take a photo of the finished thing. I'll upload one next time I bake them :-) 

Gotta Catch 'Em All!

A while ago I promised by best friend Caz that I would make her a cake for her birthday. As I usually do, I filed this away in my brain as something to think about closer to the time. Well, her birthday kind of crept up on me and it wasn't until the day before that I checked she still didn't have a cake. The problem wasn't the baking of it but more having the time to pick up the things I needed for decorations whilst revising for exams and going to university. Sometimes I am just far too unorganised.

The plan was to make a vanilla sandwich cake (two cakes with buttercream 'sandwiched' in the middle) with a Pokemon design. Various designs ran through my head the evening before her birthday but I settled on one I knew she'd love. A Charmander. 

How to do it though? It took a while but I eventually found a simple and printable outline that I was able to cut out and use as a template to create the design.

The next day, I realised I had a 3 hour window in which to bake and decorate a cake, as well as get myself ready. I decided to stick with a plain vanilla cake, that way there's more focus on the design of the cake as well as it being a no fail recipe. 

With the cake made and cooling down (admittedly it did have to spend some time in the fridge) I moved onto getting the decoration ready. A vanilla buttercream was deemed a good, and tasty, option as it would allow the decoration I bought to stick to the cake. "What was that decoration?" you ask....dried apricots. Stay with me on this one, it does work I promise.

After spreading a generous layer of thick buttercream (just the way I knew Caz likes it), I placed the cut out on top of the cake. I needed something that would make a dark outline on the cake that I could fill in with the apricots to make Charmander actually look like Charmander. Chocolate buttercream was the obvious choice but I decided to give it a bit of a twist. Rather than using cocoa powder, I poured melted milk chocolate into the icing giving it a much smoother chocolate taste. It also meant that the icing would be quite solid and there was less danger of it running all over the cake. 

Once the outline was in place I took the template off the cake and used it to cut some of the apricots into shape, a bit like making a jigsaw puzzle. I placed each apricot with care, finishing the design off with a little blue icing for the eyes and placing candles near the mouth and tail. The idea behind the candle placement was in the hope that once lit in a dark room, it would look like this little character looked like a fire breathing dragon. 

Everything was fine, until halfway to my friend's house the buttercream began to melt! Ditching the Boyfriend with the presents, I ran to party barely saying hello before hurtling into the kitchen and immediately popping  Charmander in the fridge. My poor friend had to look at her cake by standing with the fridge door only slightly ajar in an attempt to keep as much cold around the cake as possible. 

I'm pleased to say that Caz loved her cake, although it did take a while to finish it off. 

Feliz cumpleaños Carolina!!

Mum's the Word

So the plan was that I would make my Mom a birthday cake this year. There was just one problem. I wasn't going to be able to travel back home until the night before her birthday and there's no way I'd be able to surprise her on the day as she'd see me bake it. In the end I had to get a cake from the local supermarket and just about managed to hide it in the boot of the car. She probably knew all about it (Mom's always know everything) but she at least looked surprised when it was brought over to our table at the restaurant.

Since I hadn't made the birthday cake, I decided to make one of her favourites...Carrot Cake. There was still a bit of a challenge though as I can't eat anything with dairy products and my Mom can't have soya. Looking through our rather large collection of recipe books I found the answer, substitute the milk/butter with oil. It makes the cake a lot more moist and healthier (it serves 10 and works out at 299 calories per slice).

Now I always thought that I wouldn't like carrot cake because it had carrots in and as a child I decided that cake that had fruit or vegetables in, wasn't proper cake. However when I made this one, I figured I'd give it a shot and see what it tasted like. I absolutely love it! To the point where I will now order it when I'm out and about.

So here it is. The Great Carrot Cake :)

You will need:

3 Medium carrots (it ends up weighing around 250g)
3 Large eggs
100ml Sunflower oil, plus a little extra to grease the cake tin
100g Light brown sugar
200g Self-raising flour
100g Sulatanas
Finely grated zest of half a large orange, keep the other half to decorate the top of the cake later
1 tsp Ground cinnamon
Half tsp Ground nutmeg
1 and a half tsp Baking powder

1. Preheat the oven to 190 degrees (170 for Fan, Gas 5) and grease a 23cm round cake tin. I tend to use a loose-based tin as it makes releasing the cake much easier. I also like to put a circle of greaseproof paper in the bottom as well.

2. Peel and grate the carrots using a medium/fine grater. Really you can make the carrot as fine as like, just depends on the fussy eaters in your family.

3. Beat the eggs in a large bowl, then add the sunflower oil and sugar. Whisk until well combined. Stir in the carrot and add the rest of the ingredients. It really is a a recipe where you can throw all the things in and mix so don't worry about adding the remaining ingredients in a particular order.

4. All that's left it to pour the mixture into the tin and bake in the oven for 25-30 minutes. When the time is up, check the cake is cooked with a metal skewer or knife. I have a multi-pronged meat fork (the type used to carve roast meat) that I find works really well as it means I can check the cake all the way across in one go. The cake can be taken out at this point, as it is cooked, but I like to put it back into the oven for another 10-15 minutes. This drys the cake out a little more as the oil and fruit makes it really moist and can give the impression of not being completely cooked. It's more out of preference that I leave it in than anything else.

5. Once out of the oven leave the cake on a wire rack to cool. To decorate, simply sift icing sugar and scatter the grated orange over the top. Now go and make yourself a nice cup of tea, cut a slice of cake and enjoy your day.