Butterfly Cakes

The butterfly cake is a simple yet delicious variant on the fairy or cup cake. It is the same key recipe with a more interesting topping.

Once the cakes are made and they have cooled. You remove the top of the cake and cut it in half (these halves are the cakes "wings").

You fill the whole created by the top being removed with buttercream. Although I am not a big fan of buttercream, I have found a recipe that creates a very sweet and lump-less cream. I will post this soon. 

The "wings" are dipped in a melted chocolate of your choice (I chose white) and then dipped in hundreds and thousands or sprinkles. They are then stuck in to the buttercream, with luck creating the appearance of a butterfly. 

TODAY IS MY BIRTHDAY!!

I am 16 today!! YAY FOR ME!! 

Anyway as this is cake themed, here is a cake-y Google which I was greeted with this morning... 

I was probably a little bit too excited by this but yes Google wished me a happy birthday. Jealous? 

And here is my birthday cake which my mother loving created and was delicious. It was an sponge covered in elderflower cream and strawberries, it was summery and light. AND HUGE! 

And now it is time for summer. 

Mad Hatter Jam Tarts, Brownies and Polka Dot Cookies

Last weekend it was my birthday party so I did a bit of baking in preparation and these were the result.

First, jam tarts which are names "Mad Hatter Jam Tarts" mainly due to the strange way in which the pastry is made. Two eggs are boiled the egg whites are removed and the yolks smashed up and mixed with the normal pastry ingredients. The pastry is left to chill over night and then baked with jam in it. Once out of the oven a raspberry is placed in the middle of the tart as decoration.

I then made polka dot cookies which are basically cookies with Smarties on the top, which adds colour and makes them look more appealing. They are not particularly daring as a recipe but they are chewy and cookie-y, just what they are supposed to be. 

Finally, I made chocolate brownies. This recipe was supposed to have rum and orange juice in it but I decided to leave them out as I didn't want the taste of them. However it didn't impact them that heavily, it did make them a little fudgier which is no bad thing! 

So that was my contribution to my birthday party which was lovely as the whether was so warm and sunny. Great for a barbecue and outdoor film screening.

Perfect. 

Victoria Sponge

Now, everyone has made a Victoria sponge at one time or another, simply because it is so simple to do and you can create your own methods of making it. I have my own method but of course I have to try Annie Bells, after this I will write my own method up for you.

So, obviously her first step is to cream butter and sugar together. You then pour in all the eggs and mix it, which makes the mixture very lumpy and I was slightly worried by it.

Then you add the self-raising flour and baking powder which again I was sceptical about as I never put more than one raising agent in to a cake but it turned out alright in the end. The recipe says to add milk, which I don't put in unless the mixture is too dry.

Also it says to bake the cake for 50 minutes but my oven is very fierce so mine was cooked in only 25.

I then layered the cake up with strawberries and cream to make it extra summery.

I then place the second sponge on top of the cream and then dusted it with icing sugar over a strawberry leaf to make a pretty pattern - I am just so arty!

The cake although a different recipe to my own, it was still soft and light. It was very tasty but because of the stress of the recipe itself, as it is not mine, I don't think I will use it again. However it was good and a very summery and fresh cake especially with the cream and strawberries. 

Blueberry and Orange Muffins

Basically I made muffins.

They are simple and delicious and great for snacking or breakfast-ing.

These are made with the normal cake stuff but with oil not butter and added orange juice and zest. Once these are all combined you lightly stir in some on the blueberries. The mixture is put in to muffin cases and the remaining blueberries and sugar are sprinkled over the top.

They are then baked, obviously and then they are ready to eat.

 

Next Recipe: A simple Victoria Sponge

Summer Berry Genoise

Wimbledon has just finished! And thus a light, fruity, creamy summery cake is needed.

A genoise is different to a normal sponge as it has no raising agents. The only thing that aids this is beating egg whites into stiff peaks, thus filling them with air! The yolks are also included in this sponge, whisked with sugar. And mixed with the remaining sugar and plain flour. And finally melted butter. It is then baked.

The cake is brushed with a rose water and honey syrup, after being cut open -  very badly...  

              

Finally the cake is filled with a whipped cream and fresh strawberry and raspberry icing - like thing.

I then put a few berries on the top to provide a bit of decoration and it was ready to eat! 

                                                     

So that is a delicious and summery berry which is light pudding but still lovely. 

Now all that needs to be said is....

WELL DONE MURRAY!

Next Recipe: Blueberry and Orange Muffins

How to: Egg Separate

This is the first "how to" post but I am aiming to include a lot more in the future, of recipes, icings etc. But I thought that I would start with a simple method: egg separating.

Knowing how to separate eggs is a useful and versatile skill which I have to admit I was intially very scared of. My morher does it the egg shell to egg shell method which seems a lot harder and a lot more scary. This way was shown to me by my friend's mum and I find it a lot easier even if it involves more washing up.

All you need is two bowls a plate and an egg cup. Mine is a soldier called Egbert (witty I know), it has two pieces which is very useful. And obviously you need an egg.

STEP 1

Crack your egg carefully onto the plate without breaking the yolk.

STEP 2

Place your egg cup over the yolk. This is where the two parts of Egbert come in handy as they are different sizes so can be used on different sized yolks. 

STEP 3

Keeping your finger firmly on the top of the egg cup, lift the plate and slant it so the egg white slides off the plate and into one of the bowls. Move the egg cups position in order to make sure all the egg white goes in to the bowl.

STEP 4

You then tip the egg yolk in to the egg cup and into the other bowl. Repeat as many times as necessary for your recipe. 

I needed three for my next recipe: A Summer Berry Genoise

Passion fruit Cheesecake

This post marks the first cheesecake I have ever made and it was a quite an exciting cheesecake to start with. It had passion fruit on the top, PASSION FRUIT! Before this I hadn't even eaten a passion fruit before,  having done this now I can say that they are not particularly nice... oh well.

The cheesecake is not a baked one, it is put in the fridge instead. Because of this it had to have gelatin leaves put in it, which on a side note would be great for windows in a gingerbread house, they are doused in water which make them jelly-ish. Flubbery.

Anyway the gelatin is then mixed with cream cheese (as traditional) which is then poured on top of a shortcake base. My shortbread was a little too blended which meant it was very very very crunchy when fridged. Not a word. Cool.

Once this is taken out of the fridge, it is time for the passion fruit part. Passion fruits look like this, for those who don't know. 

You scoop the middle of the fruit out and then mix them with gelatin and water to create a passion fruit jelly mixture. This is then poured on top of the cheesecake (careful not to let it overflow, problems will occur). Then the whole thing is put back in to the fridge to set. 

After a few hours it is removed and it looks like this:

It is not perfect but I think it looks pretty damn good, if I say so myself! It was quite nice but to me it looked better than it tasted. I am quite proud of it to be honest. 

Next Recipe: Summer Berry Genoise

Flapjacks

Flapjacks are very easy and very quick. Popular at school bake sales around the country as busy mothers don't have time to make anything else. Therefore you are probably all familiar with them. If you are not, Google a more detailed recipe, sharpish!

So due to the mundane-ness of the flapjack, this shall be brief.

To make flapjacks you mix oats, melted butter, syrup and honey together- creating something like this...

mmmmmm oats 

Then you squidge them into a grease proofed tin with the back of a wooden spoon so the mixture is flat. This is then baked.

They are pretty dull to look at, so I tried to jazz them up a bit with a bit of melted chocolate drizzled on the top. Everything dull can be fixed with chocolate. 

This may be the worst photo I have ever taken in my life... 

So that was the humble flapjack- boring, simple and comforting.

Next Recipe: Passionfruit Cheesecake