Cake Pops

The tray with the mixture

They cakes overflowed the holes

   Everybody has been going crazy over cake pops and I decided that it’s my turn to have a go. So I brought myself a silicone tray and made a simple vanilla sponge mix. I filled the tray half full of mixture and put the lid on before cooking for 20 minutes at 180^oC. When I took the lid off the cake pops weren’t spherical and I think this is because I didn’t put enough mixture in the tray. They also didn’t come out of the very cleanly but I did forget to grease it with butter – I must get some of that quick release spray! If you are thinking of making cake pops then buy a stand or a piece of polystyrene first! An ice-cream tub with holes poked in doesn’t work!!! I then dipped the cakes in chocolate and attempted to roll them in sprinkles. This didn’t turn out great but I came up with other ideas on how to decorate them!

The decorated cake pops

 

Tea Infused Cupcakes

Infusing the milk

   I got some teacup-cupcake cases for my birthday and I’ve been meaning to use them. I followed a recipe from “Cupcake Heaven” and began by adding 3 teabags to 200ml of milk and simmering in a pan. Whilst the tea mixture cooled I creamed butter and sugar, added eggs flour and baking powder. When the tea/milk was cool I added it to the mixture. I then filled my teacups ¾ full and I had some spare so I made some ordinary cupcakes as well. I finished the cupcakes with a swirl of plain buttercream and a dusting of cocoa powder. Upon tasting, they did have a hint of tea – but maybe I should have used Earl Grey instead of Tesco everyday value!!!

Icing the Tea-cakes

Me with the finished cupcakes

Kirsty’s 21st Birthday Cake

covering the cake with chocolate icing

   It was my sister’s 21^st birthday earlier this month and I wanted to make her a special cake to celebrate. She loves chocolate cake so my assessor made a 6 inch and a 3 inch cake. I the n went to her house to decorate and carve a topsy turvey cake. First of all, the cake was cold when I cut a slant in the top of the cake. Then I created an inverted shape to make the cake look precarious when it’s actually stable. I did the same with the 3 inch cake. Next I covered the whole cake in a thin layer of pre-made chocolate buttercream. I rolled out modelling chocolate and with some assistance from Claire, covered the larger of the two cakes.

preparing the fondant flowers

I covered the smaller cake in yellow fondant and this was much harder because the cake was so small and the angles were very tricky. Next I used a generous amount of buttercream to stick the two cakes toether. To cover up the bottom of each cake I measured a thin ribbon of icing in the alternate colour. For the decoration, I cut 2 different size

putting the flowers on the cake

flowers out of yellow and chocolate icing and I made a centre from the opposite colour icing.  To put the flowers on the cake I used edible glue and put the flower on the opposite colour cake. Lastly I carved “21” out of icing and stuck it on the cake.

A close up of the cake

Kirsty with the cake :)

Piping Practice

   Today I mixed up some royal icing and practised some piping techniques. I used a size 4 nozzle and practised dots and then made a few music notes. Then I changed to a size 1 nozzle and practised writing. I wasn’t very good to begin with but I got the hang of it as I went along. Then I used a star nozzle to create a series of borders and patterns. Lastly I used a shell nozzle and gain made some borders, pretty shell patterns and attempted a basket weave!

Piping a pattern

My finished practice

Teeny tiny cupcakes

    I made some tiny chocolate cupcakes when I had some extra mixture one day. When they were cool I made some chocolate buttercream and used a star nozzle to create tiny swirls of icing. Finally the bitesize treats were finished by a sprinkle of vermicelli.

Mirco Cupcakes :)

Peanut Butter Muffins

This was a new recipe from a book. It was an ordinary muffin recipe but with less butter and a generous helping of peanut butter. After sifting in flour and baking powder and a dash of milk, I spooned large dollops into floral muffin cases and cooked for 35 minutes. When they came out of the oven they were golden brown and as a finishing touch I drizzled on glace icing once they were cool.

The Muffins with Glace icing