Swiss Roll

Having started my GCSE's this year, I've been loving my cooking lessons. Our third practical of the year was swiss roll which I had never made before.

Of course, being me, I couldn't go down the standard jam route, I had to put cream in too. I got my cake out of the oven and rolled it without any problems (apart from dropping and breaking the electric whisk I was using for the cream-Sorry Miss!), I put greaseproof paper in the middle so I could unroll it and add the cream once it had cooled and wouldn't melt it. Then it went in the fridge to cool down.

I added my cream and jam, re-rolled it and it was all done. Once I got it home, it was gone the next day so that has to be a good sign right?

 

Strawberry Cheesecake Cupcakes

First and foremost, sorry for the lack of posts recently, apparently technology doesn't like me.

But here I am now, last weekend we had someone come to stay with us so it gave me an excuse to try out another recipe from my new Humming Bird Bakery book. After looking through the book, I decided on Strawberry Cheesecake Cupcakes and making the most of the short-lived heatwave, I walked to the shops and got my ingredients.

They have a layer of strawberries, then a vanilla sponge, topped with cream cheese icing and finished with crushed digestive biscuit and chopped strawberries.

They went down really well and we all agreed that they really did taste like strawberry cheesecakes! I'll definitely be making them again...

Mocha Cake

It's taken me a little while to get round to posting this one but I think it was worth the wait. I've wanted 'The Hummingbird Bakery Cookbook' for ages and I finally got it for my Birthday a couple of weeks ago. Once I had in in my hands, the tough decision of what to make first came so after going through looking at each recipe about a million times, I settled on the coffee cake with chocolate icing, a mocha cake.

It went down really well and was finished in a few days. I can safely it was the best chocolate icing I've ever tasted too.

National Cupcake Week!

This week is National Cupcake Week, now in it's 3rd year, it celebarates all things cupcake! Take a look through my old posts to get some inspiration for your baking, there's chocolate get well cupcakes, red velvet cupcakes, Easter cupcakes and vanilla cupcakes with creamcheese frosting.

I kicked off my celebarations for the week by finally getting around to buying the Hummingbird Bakery's cookbook and I'm planning some cakes to make later in the week so keep your eyes peeled, I'll soon be posting about them.

What are you waiting for? Get baking!

Beach Cake

My sister was clearing out her photos the other day and she found some pictures of a cake that I'd been looking for for ages and thought I'd lost!

I made it using two cakes, one for the sea and one for the beach, one chocolate and one Madeira.

This was probably the second properly iced cake I made, a good few years ago now. I was a beach theme for my grandma and it has to be one of my favourites although, looking back at it now my icing could have been a bit better!

More Cupcakes!

It was one of my friends' birthday's a couple of weeks ago and she wanted some cupcakes for her party so, naturally I was who she called for some help. I went round to her house and helped her make some cupcakes, and sad as it it I was pretty excited because she has a better oven than me!

Here's the results and I can safely say, they tasted great!

Chocolate Cake

You might have seen my tweet earlier in the week about chocolate cake (Follow me here), I made a chocolate fudge cake complete with mini Mocha cakes on top for my grandma's 83rd Birthday.

Get Well Cupcakes

My grandma-or Nonna as she's from my Italian family- went into hospital last week so when I went to see her, some get well cupcakes were in order! I made vanilla cupcakes with chocolate frosting and cut out icing letters and plasters, topping them off with a little edible glitter.I was pleased with the results, here's some pictures...

Welcome To England Cake!

Last week, my sister's boyfriend came from Morocco to stay with us. As it was the first time he'd been to England, I made him a welcome cake. I only had 2 days and the contents of our cupboards to come up with and make it. Here's what I made...

Welcome Home Cake

One of my sister's close friends has been travelling for 7months and came home recently so I made a welcome home cake for her. I cut the UK out of icing and painted it with green food colouring as I didn't have green icing. I really like the effect the dye makes though.

Cool Britannia: Royal Wedding Cake Pops

Unless you've been living in a cave for the last few months, I'm sure you know that yesterday was the Royal Wedding.

I heard about Cake Pops, the latest food trend a few weeks ago and I've been waiting for an excuse to make them, so it seemed like the perfect event. I made cake pops with a Royal Wedding theme.

 The pops are made out of cakes coated in chocolate and decorated with icing. They were a little fiddly to make but I think it was worth it and everyone seemed to enjoy them while watching Kate and Will's big day.

Easter Cupcakes

Yesterday was Easter Sunday so on Saturday I got busy in the kitchen. I decided to make some Easter cupcakes to take to the family I would be visiting. I did a selection of designs, here's what I came up with...

This style was inspired by a nest

This one was modelled on the traditional Easter bunny

Easter Cake

I went to visit family during the week so I made a cake to take to them. I decided to do and Easter theme so I made a nest.

Cakes

I love it when there's a special occasion in our house because it means I get to make a cake for it! Here are some that I've made so far...

This was my Birthday cake from a few years ago

I made this for my parents' 25th Wedding Anniversary 

I made this for a friend who moved away to start a surf hotel

This cake was the first I ever made, it was for a friend who was having a go-karting Party a few years ago

This cake was for my sister who is a keen surfer

This was for a competition at school (which I won!) on a World Cup themed charity day