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

Coffee and Walnut Cake

This is my mother's favorite cake. I am not a huge fan of this cake but I don't dislike it.

The cake has also made it on to "the disaster cake list" as it was a disaster.

When I stuck a knife in the cake to check that it was done after the allotted time it was still wet in the middle so I kept it cooking for longer which burnt the outside making it pretty solid.

It was basically raw in the middle which isn't particularly appealing. But it looked okay... 

And the coffee icing in the middle was delicious. I have decided I love marscapone.

However look what happened when you stick a knife in the top of it...

Yep it stays in by itself... great.

Next Recipe: Flapjacks

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!