Phew! It's been a busy few weeks baking...

I may not have tried any new recipes for a few weeks, but that doesn't mean its been a quiet time in my kitchen!

Celebration

I was delighted to be asked to provide cakes for a special celebration by a friend. She gave me a broad outline of what she wanted and then gave me the go-ahead to be creative, a chance I relished! She asked for one main cake, for a boy, either vanilla or chocolate. Never one to be limited by one flavour or making life simple, I decided to produce a two-tier fondant icing covered cake. In the recent heat, this was quite a feat to stop things either melting or drying out!

As the bottom level needed to support a smaller cake on top, I decided to use a madeira sponge rather than my go-to Victoria. The crumb is slightly more compact, yet loses none of the lightness of a traditional sponge. The bottom layer was a vanilla cake, sliced into two with the aid of cocktail stick guides to make sure it stayed level, and then filled and covered with strawberry jam and vanilla buttercream. A white fondant then covered the cake with a light blue car motif going round the outside. The top layer was a chocolate madeira filled and covered with chocolate buttercream then covered with blue fondant and white stars. Letter cutters were a life saver in doing the wording for the top of the cake.

To go with the main cake, I made a selection of smaller cakes - raspberry, lemon and almond mini-bites, chocolate and vanilla cupcakes, oat and cranberry flapjacks drizzled in either dark or white chocolate and then some good old chocolate rice crispy cakes. All were consumed with gusto from the reports!

Charity Bake Sale

Following on from the success of the Pop Chorus Bake Sale in aid of Help Harry Help Others back in March, for our last rehearsal before the annual show, my baking buddy Amanda and I offered to do 'A slice of something nice' to add to the funds. 

We decided to keep things simple and went for individual slices rather than large cakes. We knew there would be over 150 people at the rehearsal so between us we made around 280 slices. 

My bakes were

Dark chocolate and salted caramel Milionaire's shortbread

Butterscotch and pecan slice and more of the oat and cranberry flapjacks

The cakes flew out of the baskets - some literally as we only had 15 minutes to serve everyone! Everything was sold and we raised £400-  not bad for 15 minutes selling!

Experimenting and trying new things

I've been trying out some new recipes or adapting ones that I already use so that people with special dietary requirements can still eat cake!

My friend Nic and I recently had a chocolate and avocado vegan, gluten free and refined sugar free cake in a coffee shop. It was a revelation! Rich, dense and chocolatey...and virtuous! I had to have a go at home. It's not quite there yet, but its getting there!

I have definitely had more success with a vegan version of my blueberry and lime loaf. I took one to a summer barbecue and was immediately asked to make another for one of the revellers! The standard recipe was used, but a dairy free spread was substituted for the butter and egg replacement powder used for eggs. The cake rose wonderfully and had a lovely moist texture - the only downside was that the rise dropped slightly when the syrup was poured over. The taste made up for it though!

and lemon slices

just as an indulgence...!

Phew!
Never quiet is it?! I'm now thinking about a peanut butter slice...chocolate and peanut biscuit base, creamy peanut butter layer and then topped with a thick layer of chocolate...! What do you think?!