Cupcakes!

It's been a while since I have baked, but it's been ages since I have made cupcakes... Mainly as now having a toddler and a new one on the way means that my time is more limited.  However, events conspired to inspire me to bake cupcakes this weekend and these are the result.  I made some cupcakes for friends and their family, I made some as a gift for our friends who are new parents, and some as a gift for a variety of people having a joint birthday party.  I enjoyed making them and the recipients seemed to enjoy being given them, so a good time had by all.

Crispy Wedding Cakes - I kid you not!

This post was inspired by the researcher that I co-habit an office with on a Friday.  In disbelief at the idea of giant chocolate crispy cakes as a wedding cake I had to Google it and was then inspired to try it out!

This was my first attempt - with crispy cakes made of marshmallows which I will NEVER be attempting again as melting marshmallows was just not fun, nor was mixing them with the Rice Crispies... in the end I gave up.  My husband created the pink mound by just pressing them into the bowl they were mixed in and I *tried* to pretty it up with some mini marshmallows (not - entirely - successful).  However, it does taste ok and he has promised to take it for the delight of his colleagues...

This was the second attempt - which I think is much better!  I stuck to the extreme basic 'melt the chocolate, mix the crispies in' recipe and then pressed the mixture into a greased and lined cake tin.  I left it to set overnight and then turned it out onto a plate (on a doily of course!) and tied a ribbon around the middle.  I was quite pleased with it and am looking forward to having another try, but making one with more than one tier!  Pics will follow!

Something cooking in the cupcake-fest household...

The HUGE gape between cakes is the result of cupcake-fest having a little baking of her own going on - in the form of bun no.2 in the oven and so things have been a little distracted recently with a woeful lack of cake making!

Manchester tart...

In between Christmas and now there hasn't been much baking in the cupcake-fest household - although I did make some functional goodies including a large tray of caramel shortbread (no picture though), a Madeira cake, and some plain flapjack.  However, I was inspired to make a Manchester tart the other week after seeing one on the Hairy Bikers/Bakers programme - the one on the programme included bananas which I thought was wrong, as the version I remembered from school was a pastry casing with jam on the bottom, then a good slab of custard, topped with coconut.  I made mine based on how I remembered it.  I confess now to *buying* the pastry case (although I think the aluminium tray gives it away) and the custard is made with powder, but there's a part of me that thinks that all of that contributes to what it is!

Birthday Bus!

What to make as a cake for a 2 year old - it was a choice between a bus or a character of In the Night Garden and I decided to go with the bus.
Here it is:

I know the windows could have been squarer, but having committed to the pipe round the outside and flood inside it method of icing the cake there wasn't much I could do to correct it - plus, the little one was thrilled with it wonky windows and all!

Sticky cinnamon buns!!

We like these.  They are very easy to make - another Nigella recipe and a family favourite, however, they usually only appear on high days and holidays as the quantities of sugar and butter involved are quite staggering...

Before

After!

They aren't burned (and I'm not being defensive!) the sugar is caramelised and this is how they are tastiest! Yum!

Christmas Cake

I was going to make an impressive Christmas Cake extravanganza - like the previous year's ice castle arrangements complete with lights and things, however, we got overtaken by the season and it just didn't happen!  I did, however, make the usual selection of cakes for gifting, although only remembered to take a photograph before we gave the last one away, so only have the one photograph...

Similarly, I made a huge pile of mini sweet mince - some iced, some topped with stars and some with no topping, and only remembered to take a picture of the last one!