Thursday 30 September 2010

Cake Pops




I finally made some 'cake pops' after admiring Bakerella's for so long!
They do take a little longer to make than a cake or cupcakes with a frosting, but believe me if you haven't tried them it sure is worth it!
My ones looked like homemade chocolates because I didn't put them onto lollypop sticks. I just rested them inside a little paper cake case.
I also put a couple into cello bags and tied them with pretty ribbon for little gifts for friends.
I made te cake mixture myself and the frosting as I didn't fancy using ready made mixes.


The recipe that I used was as follows:

Cake Ingredients;
110g margarine or butter
110g caster sugar
2 medium eggs
75g self raising flour, sieved
25g cocoa powder, sieved

Frosting:
75g Unsalted butter
175g icing sugar, sieved
3 tbsp cocoa powder
milk or  water

Instructions:
1. Pre - heat oven to 180c/ 350f/ gas mark 4...I have a fan assisted oven so I had it on 160c.
2. Mix together the butter and sugar until light and fluffy and paler in colour.
3. Gradually beat in the eggs, if it starts to curdle, add some of your flour.
4. Gently fold in the remaining flour and cocoa powder until combined.
5.Spoon your mixture into your baking cases ( I thought it easier to make little cupcakes than a large cake- quicker to cool down)! bake for 15 - 20 minutes. In my fan assisted they took about 13 minutes. Do not over bake your cakes if you don't want crusty bits in your cake pops!!
6. Remove from the oven and leave to cool down on a wire rack.

Frosting Instructions:

7. Make sure your butter is nice and soft, it makes it a lot easier to mix with the icing sugar.
8. Add the icing sugar and mix until well combined.
9. now add the cocoa powder and mix well until you have a smooth paste.
10. Add a little milk or water ( I add milk) until it is spreadable, not too runny and not too thick!

Ok here comes the fun bit:

11.Once the cakes are cool, crumble them into a large bowl and add your frosting to the crumbs, mixing until well combined.
12. Now using your hands roll into little balls, place these on greaseproof paper and then into the fridge.
13. I left my cakes in the fridge overnight, but I am sure a couple of hours will do if you cannot wait!
14. Melt chocolate of your choice ( I used dark- I find it the easiest to work with).
15. Once the chocolate is melted, stick a cocktail stick into a cake ball and dip into the melted chocolate. allow the excess to drip off.
16. Rest your dipped ball onto the greaseproof paper and continue to do the same with all of your rolled balls.
17. Once you have dipped all the balls place them into the fridge to set.
18. I wanted to decorate mine with a lighter chocolate, so I melted some white chocoalte as well as the dark and mixed them together to place over the top as shown above.

Good luck and if there is anything I have missed or you have a question just leave me a message.

Happy cake popping!! 



oh, this is what it looks like inside.....it just seems to melt in your mouth!


Sunday 26 September 2010

Home sweet home.....

Time for my holiday tales...
                                          Sitting in traffic on the A406 after Tom Tom took us on the busiest route homeward bound was not a nice welcome home, however after such a lovely week in Cornwall who could complain!
We were lucky enough to have only one day of rain, which lead us to the Eden Project... which is never a bad thing.
We have walked, slept well and definitely eaten well... me a little two well maybe... We had cream teas ( scones with clotted cream and jam) twice....



.........A slice of coffee and walnut cake and a big slice of sticky toffee and caramel cake ( oh my goodness was that good.... it was from a bakers in Newquay, which I only went into because it's name was the same as my ma's. I have never eaten cake like it...I have since found out that they do mail order. We stayed in a beautiful B and B in Bude, where we couldn't have been made to feel more welcome.

We visited Padstow, named Padstein by some and ate Rick Steins chips ( and Falafels ). They were tasty, but not as far as the seagulls were concerned... they turned their noses up at Rick's chips!

We visited beautiful places like Boscastle

More tea shops.... what is it that is so comforting about tea and cake?....



Oh and we have enough fudge to keep us going for a life time....

I can't eat mine until after the little one is born, but I have the satisfaction of knowing it's there waiting for me to get my teeth around it.

One little shop in Tintagel called ' Granny Wobbly's Fudge Pantry' was one of the cutest places I have seen in a while....





The fudge is made on the premises and the smell of chocolate fudge cooking on the hob was a pure torment for me!



However, with sugar my new enemy there are still other simple pleasures to be had like the watching the sun go down on the beach with no cares in the world ( or at least whilst your on holiday), makes you realise how sweet life can be sometimes.

Saturday 11 September 2010

Hooray for holidays!

Today We have been organising ourselves ready for going away tomorrow to Bude in Cornwall for a week. We can't wait, time away from work, walking in the fresh air, eating yummy treats and hopefully some sunshine!
So no posting until after the 20th for me. Hopefully I'll have lots to post about on our return! Probably that my sugar levels have hit the roof from all of the creamy fudge, vegetable filled hot pasties, scones with jam and clotted cream....... do I need to continue?

Anyway we went to the Epping forest festival last weekend to have a goosey gander and low and behold there was a cake stall...of course I had to sample the goods and I was well behaved and only had one fairy cake with a cuppa ( all for £1.50 - bargain I say).





It was a very cute looking stall with cakes topped with every flavoured frosting you could think of having, coffee, vanilla, strawberry, chocolate...you name it, it was available.



I went for the coffee frosting  with old school sweets ( I gave the sweets to Paul - my chosen one) and he had a vanilla frosting topped with a fresh strawberry.Darn the diabetes I could have sat there and stuffed myself silly with all those cakes!
I also noticed the cake wrappers, as I hadn't seen this style before.
You can get them from the Cakes, Cookies and Crafts shop if you feel so inclined!


Have a wonderful week .x

Wednesday 8 September 2010

Bakerella






Still making myself suffer looking at cakes on a daily basis, dreaming about a day when it will be o.k for me to eat it again whenever I want it (although by no means do I want to rush my pregnancy it's far to precious...more so than any cake)!

Well one site that I like to check out is Bakerella. She has a book coming out at the end of October called 'cake pops ' and it's teeny tiny bits of cake mixed with a frosting of your choice, rolled into balls and then covered in whatever you fancy, fondant, chocolate....Or any other yummy rolling agent!





These little gems are just a few of her cake pops.
I will definitely be trying these out at some point... I'll just add it to my long list of things to bake/make!!




How cute are these for kids.... and adults like me who haven't really grown up!
It seems pretty easy to do, as you basically make a cake of your choice and then once its cooled down, you crumble it into a bowl and add your frosting, mix well, roll into small balls, refridgerate and then dip into the chosen topping...fab!!



All of the  photos above are taken from Bakerella's website.

Monday 6 September 2010

Blue bear

It was my youngest nephew (in-laws) 1st birthday in February and I made these cupcakes for him .
 I hadn't got around to putting the pics on until now (how slack), due to being missing in action for the past 4 months. This was my first attempt at making a sugarpaste bear.
Meet Bert.








They didn't last very long with the kids, which is always lovely and rewarding to see them munching away.
I have now purchased some more regalice, so am wondering what to make next!!

Thursday 2 September 2010

The party Times

Whilst having a peek on Peggy Porschen's (the cake queen) website, I came across a link to a wonderful childrens party website, 'The Party Times' with recipes, party ideas and photo inspiration.

Below are just some of the recipes that you can find on the site...They do have regular food recipes too, not just CAKE and Sweets!!

I think it would be a great source of inspiration if your having a party any time soon. In fact it has made me want one.....I feel a baby shower coming on!!!

Happy peeking!

Pink candied popcorn
Gluten free cup
cake

Ice cream cone cupcakes

4 tiered gala cake

Hummingbird vanilla cupcake

Madeira cake

Orange brownies