Piñata cake

Last summer I saw a piñata cake on A Subtle Revelry blog and loved the idea so much that I posted a link to it on Pippa's Cakes and Bakes facebook page. The idea of a sponge cake filled with sweet treats was just too tempting. Soon after I was asked to make a cake for a friend's 30th birthday and it seemed like as good a time as any to experiment. The link to her being pregnant (and the cake being filled) did not even cross my mind until someone mentioned it at the party!

The blogpost on A Subtle Revelry gives great step-by-step instructions with photos. Unfortunately I wasn't so organised myself so have a look there if you're interested! Instead I'll just explain briefly what I did with the help of my friend Susannah ...

Using sphere cake pans, I made 2 vanilla sponge cakes and then scooped out the centre of each to make plenty of space for the tasty filling. We made a wall (or barricade if you will) of buttercream icing to ensure the sweets were contained and that they wouldn't get in the way of the second cake being put on top. For the filling, you can put anything inside - whether edible goodies or even small toys - just use your imagination. We just went with a simple assortment of sweets and chocolates.

Once the filling is in and the second cake has been put on top as a "lid", you are ready to decorate the outside of the piñata. We used a vanilla buttercream and decorated with fondant numbers and stars.

The whole process was so much easier than I had first thought, and it was such a great surprise for the birthday girl - cutting into what looked like a simple cake, taking the first piece out and it's full of edible treats! What could be better?!

Spiced apple cake

In a previous post, “There are few hours in life more agreeable than the ceremony known as afternoon tea”, I said I would publish the spiced apple cake recipe as it was such a hit with both friends and colleagues.

So here goes ...

Ingredients:

For the topping:

• 3 apples (I used Granny Smith apples)
• 2 teaspoons mixed spice (or if you're in Belgium, the speculoos spice is a great alternative)

For the cake:

• 225g butter, softened
• 225g caster sugar
• 225g self-raising flour
• ½ teaspoon bicarbonate of soda
• 4 eggs
• 60ml whole milk
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 2 teaspoons mixed spice / speculoos spice

Instructions:

Preheat the oven to 170C. Grease a 10 inch (26cm) cake tin and line it with greaseproof paper.

For the topping:

Peel the apples and cut them into wedges. Put the apples and 2 teaspoons spice (whether mixed spice or speculoos) in a saucepan over a low heat for a few minutes to soften a little. 

Place the apple wedges in the base of the cake tin in whatever design you like. If you want a thicker layer of apple, you can do 2 layers of apple on top of each other.

For the cake:

Beat the butter and sugar together until pale and fluffy. In a separate bowl, sift together the flour and bicarbonate of soda. Add a tablespoon of the flour mix to the butter mix along with one egg. Mix until combined. Repeat the process until all the flour and eggs have been used. Stir in the milk, vanilla and mixed spice. Mix until combined.

Pour the mixture into the greased cake tin on top of the apples and gently smooth with a spatula. Bake for 40-50 minutes or until a skewer inserted into the centre comes out clean.

Once out of the oven, leave in the tin for 5-10 minutes, then remove from tin and transfer it to a wire rack to cool completely.


I drizzled some caramel on top of mine which was delicious, but it's also tasty 'au naturel' or with some vanilla or cinnamon sugar sprinkled on top. It is a great seasonal cake with the apples and mixed spice flavours ... autumn in a mouthful.

If you have any leftovers, you can always heat it up and have it as a warm dessert with some vanilla ice cream!

Anfield football stadium

A teammate from my football team, Amanda, recently turned 40 and as a keen Liverpool football club fan (read: obsessed), it was only natural to make her a Liverpool FC themed cake. My friend and teammate, Tish, is also a keen baker so when there is a birthday in the team we take the opportunity to join forces. Last year we made Amanda a Liverpool football shirt with her name and number on. For her 40th we needed to go bigger and better. So of course, the obvious decision was to make Liverpool's Anfield stadium.

Liverpool beating Leeds United 4-0 ...

We made 3 rectangle chocolate cakes and placed them on top of each other with vanilla buttercream and a thin layer of caramel between each cake. The whole cake was then put in the fridge until it was hard enough to carve into the stadium shape. We started carving in from the top, leaving the bottom layer of cake as the base for the football pitch. After that, the decorating itself was actually quite straightforward - different colour fondant for the pitch, seating, and 'brick' pillars, with piping for the pitch lines and roof detail, and of course the Liverpool FC logo on the front to finish it off.

Anfield stadium (Liverpool Football Club)

“There are few hours in life more agreeable than the ceremony known as afternoon tea”

Spiced apple cake with caramel drizzled on top

I completely agree with the title of this post - a great quote from 'The Portrait of a Lady' by Henry James. So when a friend recently suggested a catch up over tea and cake (she knows that if she suggests cake, I will offer to provide the said cake!), we invited a few friends to join us and it soon turned into 13 people for afternoon tea!

Alongside the multiple pots of English tea, I also made a lemon cake with lemon buttercream, a spiced apple cake drizzled with caramel, a homemade alternative to jammy dodgers, and flapjacks.

Cake leftovers were taken to work the next day and my colleagues are still demanding the recipe for the spiced apple cake, so I will publish that in a later blog post.

The jammy dodgers were sables (French butter biscuits) with good quality raspberry jam inside and a little vanilla sugar sprinkled on top. I used this BBC FOOD recipe. They were delicious !

Jammy Dodgers

My Mum is a great baker (and in fact a great chef in general). Growing up we were spoilt with freshly baked goods, and flapjacks are one of her specialities. A few years ago she passed me the recipe and I have had so much success with them - whether for afternoon teas or taking along to football matches as post-match sustenance. They are super easy to make so maybe I will share the recipe at some point ...

 

I ran out of time so the lemon cake was very simply decorated - lemon buttercream with citrus sugar sprinkled on top. Despite the presentation, it was still tasty.

Lemon cake with lemon buttercream

Commissioner Potočnik celebrates 10 years of HEAL

(c) HEAL/De Ribaucourt Photography

The Health and Environment Alliance (HEAL) recently celebrated their 10 year anniversary and I was lucky enough to be asked to make cakes for this occasion. The EU Commissioner for Environment, Janez Potočnik, was on hand to cut the main cake which was decorated with the HEAL logo.

Janez Potočnik, EU Commissioner for Environment
(c) HEAL/De Ribaucourt Photography

The logo cake was chocolate sponge with a chocolate buttercream filling and decorated with fondant and royal icing. The second cake was an organic spiced apple cake.

Organic spiced apple cake

 

Commissioner Potočnik with HEAL President, Dr. Peter van den Hazel, and HEAL Executive Director, Génon K. Jensen
(c) HEAL/De Ribaucourt Photography

A pun-ful cake conversation

When I was first thinking of starting a cake blog and potentially a side-business, I was discussing potential names with my close friends. To get the creative juices flowing, I offered a free batch of cupcakes to whoever came up with my favourite name. I love a good pun so when "For Goodness Cake!" was suggested, that was it - competition over. The winner got to choose what flavour cupcakes she received which led to a conversation between myself and the winner's housemate. As you can see, the baking puns escalated somewhat ...

She has said carrot but she has time to change her mind ... and as her batter half I'm sure you can have some influence.

Love the cake puns! I'm glad she rose to the cake challenge!

She did indeed rise to the occasion - I could even call her my muse ... well if the choux fits. Thanks for your offer of help, there's so much stuff on the business side that I knead to know about. I have some good ideas etc but you know what they say about the best made flans ... ok, ok, enough of the cake puns. I'm sorry, I'll stop. Doughnut forsake me! Ha, sorry - what can I say, I'm a gluten for punishment ...

Ahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahaha! Stop! You’re taking the biscuit! 

Ok, ok, I'll stop. It's the yeast I can do.

Scone-sidering the cir-cream-stances, I’ll let you off.

Oooh I do I d'eclair that was a good one. There really are hundreds and thousands of cake puns! This is getting a trifle out of hand now though with us egging each other on - we should probably stop the waffle. I'm having muffin more to do with this. 
I've tried raisin the standard, but the currant puns are getting pretty stale. I piped up too early with all my ideas and you've stollen some good ones - maybe we'll have to sponge off someone else now...

Did we miss any cake puns? Can you whisk up any new ones? If so, you butter write them in the comments below!

Brussels Childbirth Trust 'Small Talk' magazine feature

The other day a colleague of mine asked if I made cakes. Well yes, I do actually. Why do you ask? She had seen my name in a magazine. The Brussels Childbirth Trust (BCT) publish a magazine, 'Small Talk', every two months and the September/October edition has a feature on celebration cakes; in particular children's birthday cakes. 

A few months ago I made cakes for the 1st birthday of a friend's daughter. I did a lemon buttercream jungle themed cake (with Sophie the Giraffe) for the adults and then a sugar- and dairy-free banana cake for the babies. My friend was so pleased with the cakes that she had recommended me for the BCT cake feature.

Big thanks to Nic for the lovely recommendation!

BCT Small Talk Sept/Oct magazine cover

The 2-page spread with my recommendation, photo and photo credit

Recommendation (Thanks Nic!)

Sophie the Giraffe and friends

Sugar- and dairy-free banana cake with fresh berries

Christian Louboutin shoe

Until now, this has been the most challenging and time-consuming of my cakes. The shoebox was cake and the shoe was made from gum paste. Gum paste is a similar texture to fondant but it dries very hard so it is great for making figurines, flowers, cake toppers, and shoes.

The shoe took about 3 days (well, evenings after work at least) to make because each element - outer sole, stiletto heel, inner sole, the sides, etc - had to dry and harden before the next part could be stuck on. I was basing the design on the birthday girl's classic black Louboutin stiletto (which she was conveniently wearing on the night!) but I couldn't find a template for a fully closed shoe - only open toe or strappy. This made it more tricky and there was some definite trial and error involved in creating my own template.

I am a firm believer in detail so I of course included the infamous Louboutin red sole and the little 'Louboutin' sign along with pretend stitching on the inner sole.

Considering it was my first attempt, I was happy with how it turned out.

For the basic process of making a gumpaste shoe, have a look at this. The end result is incredible - way better than mine! I'll have to get practising ...

Super Mario

This cake was made last year to celebrate the 30th birthday of a big kid who loves Super Mario. To date it is one of my favourite cakes that I've made. It was also a great excuse to play Super Mario again after all these years ... just to remember what the set up looked like of course (coins, boxes, green rolling hills and all).

Chocolate Caramel (Mars Bar) Cake

When my brother was at boarding school (years and years ago) they all had a choice of birthday cake that the cook would make for them. He would always choose the Mars Bar cake - chocolate cake with chocolate sprinkles around the outside and a layer of caramel on top etc. I still remember him telling us about it at the time. The boys clearly thought it was brilliant and a highlight when either themselves or their classmates had a birthday and they could all enjoy this culinary delight.

This week I had yet another birthday celebration with my friends and the birthday girl loves caramel so this seemed like a good time to experiment with my own interpretation of a Mars bar cake. It was a chocolate sponge cake with caramel filling, covered in chocolate buttercream, with slices of Mars bar around the bottom and crushed Mars bar on top with caramel drizzled over. When I was decorating the cake, I was in my own little world and it was only when I finished that I had a sudden realisation that it might in fact be inedibly sweet. Luckily (with small pieces) it was delicious and sweet but without being too sickly - phew!

A selection of my cakes and bakes so far ...

Chilli-chocolate cake suitcase with a vanilla cake (with mango and passionfruit filling) globe
(Indian themed flavours)

'Baby-friendly' banana cake decorated with fresh berries for a 1st birthday party (no sugar and no dairy) together with the cake for the adults! 

'Baby-friendly' banana cake decorated with fresh berries for a 1st birthday party 

(no sugar and no dairy)

 

'Sophie the Giraffe' and friends 

 

 Fondant polar bears

Movie themed 

Christmas gingerbread house (before I finished decorating the front of the house)!

 Rudolph the Reindeer cake pops

Super Mario ! 

Halloween cupcakes

4 layer caramel chocolate cake - (layers: vanilla, caramel, choco-caramel, chocolate) with caramel buttercream between each cake layer. Topped off with white chocolate piping and mini champagne bottle candles.

  Cake replica of a unique guitar

Personalised Liverpool football shirt

 A simple cake to celebrate Easter

Gumpaste Christian Louboutin shoe

Christian Louboutin cake shoebox and gumpaste shoe



 For a keen runner

 Baby shower

Because sometimes we all need a rainbow and sparkling unicorn in our lives!

Chinese farewell cake 

 Housewarming cupcakes

Halloween pumpkin cake