Lemon Cupcakes

These are basically just cupcakes but with lemon extract in them... so obviously they were pretty standard. Except they were lemony.

They then have a lemon butter cream icing on them, which I have realized that I dislike... not lemon butter cream in particular but just butter cream in general. This may be down to the fact that I don't like butter.

Next Recipe: Blondies (White Chocolate Brownies)

The Football Boot Cake

I know this isn't lemon cupcakes, but I wanted to share this as it is cake related.

Last week was my brother's birthday so I helped my mum to create these

I know right if we say so ourselves, they look pretty damn cool.

We copied the design from The Birthday Cake Book by Fiona Cairns. This book is full of loads of other awesome recipes and you can buy it here  -->
http://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/1844009858/?tag=hydra0b-21&hvadid=9551160789&ref=asc_df_1844009858

Happy Baking!

Lemon cupcakes will be next!

Vanilla Cupcakes

The very fashionable cupcakes which are ridiculously expensive to buy -£4 for a cupcake, come one! Anyway I decided to make them to Annie Bell's recipe as I have made them before but to a different recipe. 

So vanilla cupcakes are basically a normal sponge just instead of being in one large cake it is lots of little cakes. They are baked and then you ice them!

As I had some chocolate custard and crumbs left over from my mum's birthday cake I used them to ice some of them. But for most I made a vanilla buttercream icing tinted with pink food colouring and covered it in strawberry chocolate curls. So they were cupcakes.

If you want to save money, make your own as to be honest they taste pretty much the same... except posh cupcakes have better icing... but that might come with practise. 

Next Recipe: Lemon Cupcakes (sensing a theme?) 

History of the Brooklyn Blackout Cake

I felt a bit stupid leaving that recipe without telling where the cake got it's name I did a little google.

The first chocolate blackout cake was made by Ebinger Bakery founded in 1898 in Brooklyn. The blackout cake was, surprisingly enough, made during the war  and named after the blackouts which were staged by the Civilian Defense Corps.The cake made  Ebinger Bakery famous as they sold it in their shops across New York. 

It was so popular that many other bakerys started to bake knock-offs of it. Unfortunately, this meant that in 1972 the bakery closed to bankruptcy after lasting all the way through World War II. 

So there you have it the history of the Brooklyn Blackout Cake, enjoy! 

Brooklyn Blackout Cake

It was my mum's birthday, a while back. WOOP HAPPY BIRTHDAY!

So a cake had to be made. Now on the cover of the book there is this cake, The Brooklyn Blackout cake and it looks amazing, and my mother agreed. And that was how we decided.

Anyway it is a very chocolaty cake covered in a thick chocolate custard and chocolate cake crumbs. yum.

So you make two chocolate sponge cakes and then cut one of them in half... which is difficult if you can't cut in a straight line. Like me.

So once you have done this you make a thick custard. Be warned it doesn't look like custard. it looks COOL.

Cool thick custard not like that weird stuff from primary school...

Anyway you sandwich three of the sponges together using the custard-y icing. And then you grate, yes grate the last sponge to cover the cake with. yum.

You cover the whole three sponges stuck together with custard and then you sprinkle on the crumbs as a thick layer.

It looks like a fluffy hat, but it doesn't taste like one, thankfully.

It was very delicious and chocolaty and yummy so I will be making that again as it also looks quite impressive.  So that was my mum's birthday cake. YAY!

P.S. I have no idea why it is called Brooklyn Blackout cake... I probably should have done so research but I am guessing because it is very dark... but who knows. If you do leave a comment. 

Next Recipe: Vanilla Cupcakes

Scotch Pancakes

For breakfast I made scotch pancakes as they seemed simple to make and everyone loves pancakes! They are apparently the simplest thing to make in the book and they were the simplest thing so far.

You mix sugar, flour, salt, milk and melted butter together so it is a batter. Apparently the melted butter stops the pancakes from sticking to the pan which I was sceptical about but it did seem to work so that's an interesting tip.

Anyway they were yummy and I have already made them again, where I made double the mixture.

Next Recipe: Brooklyn Blackout Cake