Anyone for a coffee....

 Frothy coffee...or is it?

No siree, it's a cappuccino cupcake......

Cake:

125g self-raising flour
125g soft unsalted butter
125g golden caster sugar (I only had regular and they came out ok)
2 large eggs
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 teaspoon baking powder
1 heaped tablespoon instant expresso

2-3 tablespoons milk

Icing:160g white chocolate
60g butter
120g sour cream
260g icing sugar, sieved

cocoa powder, to dust

1. Preheat oven to 200c

2. Put all the cake ingredients (except the milk) into a bowl and combine.

3. mix again adding the milk to form a batter.

4.spoon into the paper cases in the muffin tin and cook for about 20 minutes.

5.once the sponge is springing back leave in the tin for 5 minutes then cool on a wire rack.

6. for the icing, melt the butter and chocolate in the microwave or bain marie.

7. after it cools slightly, stir in the sour cream.

8. gradually beat in the icing sugar.

9. if the consistancy isn't right add either hot water to thin or more icing sugar to thicken.

10. once the topping is ready spoon over your cupcakes and dust over a little cocoa powder

volia

note to bakers...

my chocolate and butter curdled and I thought I was doomed so I angrily threw the mixture away, went back out to the shops to replace the ingredients (cursing Nigella along the way...well it is her recipe). I repeated the process adding a little sour cream at a time and the same thing happened, after lots more cursing and almost crying, I kept beating it and eventually it was ok.so beware and don't give up!

also I spooned the frosting  on a little at a time, until it looked like a little cup of coffee.

Can anyone help? I am trying to post comments on peoples blogs but the system will not let me! it links me back to signing in and then just will not let me do it! frustrated to say the least!!!! arggggggggggggggg....

Cake books...

Today has been another busy day and it seems the only chance I get to post is late in the evening, so please excuse the nonsense I write as I am half asleep. I sometimes find I come on here and just don't know what to write.But tonight I had a purpose so here goes.
I have been meaning to post about these lovely little books from marks and spencers, so I thought tonights the night...

I think they were about £4 each.Even if you don't make anything from them the pictures are really lovely to look at........

dribble, dribble

posh sarnies

I want those little T cup vases now! wouldn't mind eating the cake neither.

Enjoy the rest of your weekend.x

I made these cakes with a lot of love for two very special people...We have a wedding coming up in our family in less than two weeks, so I made some celebration cakes for my brother and his wife to be!!......
What's more exciting is that it is taking place in Sweden.
It will be Harrison's first trip on a plane and his first trip abroad. He is so curious now and into absolutely everything so I think he will be in his element.
He is so wonderful to be around at this stage. Everything has gone up a level and I cannot leave him in the room on his own because he finds the tiniest piece of dirt, the one wire that's loose and he's learn't to pull himself up on everything...the best climbing frame is daddy's t.v stand...eek!

Makes me feel like cake! 

Lemon sponge cake...

As requested by you lovely ladies, here is the Lemon cake recipe as shown on my previous post.It really is a very simple cake to make and yummy to eat.

(recipe by Lorraine Pascal)

Sponge ingredients:

220g butter, softened (don't tell anyone but I used stork)

220g caster sugar

4 eggs

seeds of half a vanilla pod

a couple of drops of vanilla extract

zest of 1/2 to 1 lemon

220g self raising flour

small pinch of baking powder

juice of 1/2 to 1 lemon (if required)

Filling:

5-6 tablespoons of lemon curd

300ml double cream

30g icing sugar

seeds of 1/2 a vanilla pod

a couple of drops of vanilla extract

1 tablespoon of limoncello, optional ( no siree, not for me at £15 a bottle).

1. Preheat oven to 180c /gas mark 4

2. Grease and line 2 x 20cm  cake tins.

3. Place softened butter and sugar in a bowl and beat well together

4. Add two eggs, vanilla seeds, vanilla extract, lemon zest and half of the flour and beat well

5. Then add the other two eggs and the rest of the flour and the baking powder beat well

6. If the mixture feels a little stiff add a little lemon juice

7. divide the mixture between the 2 tins, level off with the back of a spoon and place into the oven for 30 minutes or until they spring back when pressed

8. Leave the cake to cool in the tins

9. Once the sponges are completely cool, remove them from the tins

10. To make the cream, whip up the cream, vanilla pods, extract and icing sugar together, if using limoncello fold this in afterwards

11. Place one sponge on to your choosen serving dish,dollop the cream on top and then spread over the lemon curd. Place the other cake on top and sprinkle plenty of icing sugar on top

volia

The recipe does state putting the curd on first and then the cream, but when I did this for the first time I found that the curd slid of the cake and ran down the sides of the sponge, so now I cover the base with cream and make a little ledge around the sides so it holds the curd in. It's nice to just let a little trickle over the sides.

Also this is the cake dome. Its made from plastic ( purchased at Bhs recently....I believe it's now half price at £8)



Vintage tea party

I have a confession...I am addicted to vintage cups and saucers suddenly (oh and serving tongs, sugar tongs etc, etc...).
 Before I could happily admire them from a far, but since deciding that I am going to have the odd tea party with all the ladies I want vintage, vintage, vintage! I have been in every second hand shop that I can get to, ebay, asking friends and family to look out...it has to stop because we don't have the space!

Anyway, I had a tea party last saturday ...so here's what I have been purchasing...

This is what my little table looked like.....

My ma loaned me her beautiful table cloth, which is now tea stained :(

I also had a  table of cakes to gorge on.........

chocolate fugde cake

scones with clotted cream and strawberry jam

lemon sponge cake with lemon curd and fresh cream infused with vanilla pod seeds.....if anyone wants the recipe just let me know!

Along with the vintage china, cakes and tea I also decorated the tables with flowers cut from our garden. I placed them in little jam jars with ribbon tied around the necks.

It was a busy day, but well worth all the work.although I couldn't have done it all without my mama (you can always rely on your mum).
( Helene I only wished that you could have been here!)

Sponge..check, icing ....check, flower ...check.....job done!

So here are the cakes that I made yesterday for m.i.l...they came out ok after all. I am very happy with my icing...it's not one of my strong points so I went onto 'You tube' to see if anyone had videos of icing a cupcake and hay presto....so I've learned a new trick! They say your never too old!

The one thing I stress over when icing is having enough icing to cover all the cakes. I end up icing them  with not enough to cover them all or having loads left over because I have been too tight....and I really hate licking the remains of a frosting bowl!!! ...not!

Looks like I'll be in compitition with my little man............

Faircake.

Hello bloggers! I am finally back on board with my posts...but when I am not Harrison will be I am sure!!
I have found a wonderful company called 'faircake'. It is run by a very talented lady called Shikhita Singh. She runs cake classes in baking and decorating cakes...check out the link http://www.faircake.co.uk/
I've posted some pics for you to see. At the moment I am baking some cakes for my mother in laws birthday...I'll post them if they look ok later today....that's if time allows!

I wish mine would look like this!!
Sorry for the short post, I'm trying to get bits done whilst the little fella is in snoozy land.x

Harrison here...

HEllo, I'M hArrison.....

mUmMy's a little Busy at the moMent so I thought I'd dO a little post on heRe. wE haven't had internet acceSS for a while which drove mummy made mad and then we went Away foR a little break two to dOrset so i thought I would show you some pics.....

There wEre rainY days...buT it wouldn't be a cAravan holiDay without rain....

TheRe were sUnny days too...

We visiteD mOnkey world....

anD I took hOme mr aBbotts...I lOve him....

SooooooooooO many buckets.....

In the End is was just alL tOo much.........

You can't seE me........Look what I did to mUmmy's wool...

It was nice and soft to cUddle.....and sometimes the only thing to get me sleep in the car!

I don't want to go there again....I didn't like being in a tin box.

soon I'll bE going to sWeden so if anyoNe has anY tips about taking a littl'un like me away mUmmy would lOve to know.x