Oh go on then! I'll make the wedding cake!!

My First Ever Wedding Cake!! 

  One of my closest friends lives next door to me, my friend Stephie.  When I drop off some cakes (can't keep them all, so I have a circuit of friends & neighbours who share my baking!!)  she says 'Oh the Cake Fairy is here!!'  You can tell where I get my blog name from, can't you?  A couple of months ago, we were having coffee and she asked me to do a wedding cake for her sister 'Oh No, couldn't possibly, far too important, what if I make a pigs ear of it?'.   Phew! Close Escape!! 
  She didn't give up though, a couple of weeks later, she asked again and I heard these words come out of mouth 'Oh, go on, I'll make it!!'

Nudey Wedding Cake!!

  Aaaggghhhh!!!   What had I done!    Panic stations!!  The next day when I had calmed down somewhat, I sat down and had a think about the design. All I had been told was 2 tier, traditional fruit cake, serve about 120 people, and white with blue accents.  Hmmmm.....   So, I got busy!!

Finished cake!!

  After baking a test cake, I soon had the two fruit cakes made and wrapped in greaseproof paper. Feeding the cakes with lovely brandy became a ritual ~ as I unwrapped the cakes and trickled the brandy on, the scent would fill the kitchen, delicious!  That went on for about 6 weeks, and then it was time to assemble the cake!!  This is the scarey bit!
  So, I covered them in marzipan, left them about a week to dry, then covered them with fondant. Blimey, covering a 10 inch cake, that is 4 inches tall, you have to roll the marzipan/fondant out to a circle about 20 inches in diameter!!  Thats about 4 kg of fondant, and a lot of rolling! 
  Whilst the fondant was still soft and fresh, I embossed a design of flowers, butterflies, ladybirds and bees on to the sides, and then painted the cakes all over with a pearlescent lustre dust ( got that everywhere in the kitchen, its so light, it floats about!).  Then the next day I popped dowels into the bottom tier, and stacked the cakes. I made about 40 sugar roses, and coloured them to match the ribbon, and stuck them around the step between the two cakes. Then all I had to do was pop on the mini bride & groom that Stephie had chosen for the top. So there we are, my first ever Wedding Cake!
   Oh, and Stephie told me the couple loved the cake, and all the children at the wedding were running off with the roses!! Result!!
  I really enjoyed making this cake, despite my reservations at the start.  I have learnt loads about cake decorating, and had tonnes of support and advice from people on the Cake Fairy page, couldn't have done it without them!! 

Sticky Toffee Pudding, something I have never made before, but will definitely be making again!!

Yum! Sticky Toffee Pudding.....

Simon Hopkinson's Sticky Toffee Pudding!!


Has any one been watching Simon Hopkinson's The Good Cook?  I can recommend it, I have tried a couple of his recipes from the first episode and both have worked amazingly well. When my lad was away on a school trip for the whole weekend (first time ever!!)  I thought I would make this Sticky Toffee Pudding and all I can say is WOW!!

This recipe is so easy to make and produces such a lovely light sponge,  and you really do have to make BOTH of the sauces, AND have it with double cream.......
  When I made it, I could find no mention of what size baking dish to use, so I used a tin roughly 7 in by 11 in. This made enough for 8 very generous portions, so next time I am going to use 2 x 6 in square pyrex dishes and freeze one of them, as I froze half of this last weekend and reheated it covered with foil for pud tonight (It seemed fitting with such dreadful weather, its not stopped raining heavily all weekend!!).

Here is a link to the recipe on the BBC site ~ http://www.bbc.co.uk/food/recipes/sticky_toffee_pudding_50947

Butterscotch sauce and double cream!!!

  Oh, and by the way, my lad really loved this!!

  (The other recipe was for a beurre blanc, and that was absolutely gorgeous, too!)

By special request - Banoffee Pie!!

Banoffee Pie!!

   My son, who is 12, made a special request the other day, for Banoffee Pie. Apparently the poor child has never had Banoffee Pie, and was feeling a bit pie deprived, poor thing!!
  I've never made this before, so had a bit of a think. For the base, it has to be a classic crunchy digestive base, and for the caramel I wanted it to be fairly soft and gooey, so maybe add some cream? Then of course, lots of piped whipped cream on top!
  So away I went, bashing biscuits into smithereens with a rolling pin, stirring caramel frantically, so it didn't stick to the pan, and piping stars of whipped cream everywhere!!

Yum!

Here's the recipe -

For the base,
250g digestives, crushed
100g butter, melted

For the caramel,
400g tin of condensed milk,
100g butter,
100g brown sugar,
2 tbsp golden syrup
100ml double cream




For the topping about 200 ml  double cream
chocolate powder, to dust on top


Oops, and 2/3 bananas!!

   Method -

  Do the usual thing with the melted butter and the digestive bikkies, and press into a loose bottom/springform tin about 20cm size.  Chill while you make the caramel. Put all the caramel ingredients (except the cream) in a sturdy saucepan, and use a medium heat until coming up to the boil. DO NOT attempt to do anything else for the next 5 minutes, as you need to stir the caramel constantly, and don't forget to get into the corners! Don't answer the doorbell, or make a phone call, just stir!!
  When it comes to a boil, reduce the heat slightly and allow to simmer, stirring for about 5 mins.  The mix will darken slightly and thicken too, when this happens remove from the heat and add the double cream. Keep stirring!!  Then take the base out of the freezer, and quickly slice 2or 3 bananas on top of the base, and cover with the caramel mix. Allow to cool completely, before topping with the whipped cream.

  This was really strongly banana-y at first, but the next day it was much nicer, the banana flavour had mellowed a lot.  Went down well in our house, and got the thumbs up from my lad!!  Job done!!

Cake Project Time - Mandy the Cake Fairy does a Peggy Porschen!!!

Posy Cake

  For my birthday recently, I was really lucky and was given lots of cake dec books for pressies!  One of them was the new Peggy Porschen book,   http://www.amazon.co.uk/Peggys-Favourite-Cakes-Cookies-Porschen/dp/1844009505/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1309296192&sr=8-1
  Its a fab book, lots of amazing cookies and cakes, and one of them especially caught my eye, so I thought I would have a go, and here we are - I made a tray of best ever brownies, and cut out rounds using a scone cutter. These were filled with apricot jam, and covered in white fondant.
  Then I coloured some fondant in 3 different shades of green, and rolled pieces into long strips, akin to the plasticine worms we all used to make a little kids!!  I stuck these strips onto the cake using liqud glucose, and trimmed the excess off at the top. I used some more white fondant to make a dome which I put on top of the cake.
 A few days ago I made about 3 dozen white glowers out of flower paste, and I stuck them on to the cake using thick royal icing.
  So there we are, Project Porschen's Posy done!!  And I loved every minute!!

Yum!! Almond & homemade damson jam slice, ever so nice!!

Almond & damson slice

 When I was squirrelling away the blackcurrant jam I made the other day, I found a jar of homemade damson jam.  Wahey!!  Treasure!  A recipe was calling me - almond and damson slice, which has a topping made with meringue & ground almonds, and is delicious!!  You can, if you are in a coconut mood, substitute a good dessicated coconut for the almonds, which is in my opinion, even nicer!! 

Here how I did it -

Preheat your oven at 170 fan. you need an 11x7 inch tray, lined with baking paper

Base ingredients
100g butter
200g SR flour
50g caster sugar
2 egg yolks

Topping ingredients
about 8 tbsp (most of a jar!) jam, I like blackcurrant with the coconut, and damson works well with the almond.
3 egg whites
100g caster sugar
200g dessicated coconut OR 200g ground almonds

- base first, rub butter into flour, add sugar, egg yolks and 2 tbsp cold water, and press into the tin
- spread lots of lovely jam all over the base, and dont be mean with it!!
- whisk egg whites to hard peaks, fold in the sugar and whichever nut you are using, and spread over the jam
- some flaked almonds on top of the almond version looks nice.
Bake for about 20 - 25 mins until golden makes about 21 squares. Enjoy!

Smells amazing!!

    And whilst I was waiting for this to bake, I made a quick batch of bread dough in the KitchenAid (Betty). I used sesame oil in the dough, and brushed some on top of each bun before they went into the oven.  Here it is, fresh from the oven, wish I could let you smell it too!!

Breakfast muffins - healthy? good for you? Taste lush? - darn yes!!!

  

 

These were originally the Feel Good Muffins from the BBC Good Food site that a friend shared onto my wall, but gradually I have adapted them to my own tastes. You can mix and match fruit, seeds, nuts or choc, whatever you like and feel very virtous!!  I make these to take to work, for breakie.

175g SR flour
100g porridge oats, but not the instant kind
100g sugar (soft brown for pref, but caster/muscavado is fine)
2tsp cinnamon
1/2 tsp baking powder
150ml milk
1 egg, mixed with the milk
4 tbsp (60ml) of oil, I like to use unrefined sunflower/safflower/rapseed oil, but ordinary sunflower will be fine
300g of mixed goodies ~ sunflower/pumpkin seeds, pecans/walnuts/hazelnuts, ready to eat apricots/prunes/cranberries/sultanas, and maybe some choc chips, plain choc works well. As long as the total weight doesn't exclude 300g.

Method is really simple, chuck it all in a big bowl, mix together and divide into 12 muffin cases, in a muffin tray, and bake at 180 fan for about 20 - 25 mins. I put a tray with a little water in the oven to help them rise before they firm up.

Let me know how you like yours!!   

Delicious challenge

 This look funs, readers of Delicious magazine are being challenged to create the same recipe and post pics of the result. Think I might give this a go. Watch this space!!


http://www.deliciousmagazine.co.uk/recipes/lemon-polenta-cake-with-mascarpone-and-lemon-curd

Lots & lots of blackcurrants!!!

Huge blackcurrants

  In my back garden I have 2 blackcurrant bushes, which  have decided to give me a bumper crop of blackcurrants this year. I do mean bumper, I picked 2.5 kg of berries this morning, and the biggest ones were ginormous!!

Lots & lots of jam!

I love homemade jam, particularly blackcurrant as because of its high pectin content, you can add much less sugar and it will still set. I use a ratio of fruit to sugar of 1:1, but reserve about 1/4 of the fruit until the very end of the process, so each jar has lovely whole berries mixed in.  I don't add any water, just allow the fruit and sugar to heat together, and all the natural juice dissolves the sugar. No added water means no need to boil it for ages to achieve a good set, just a good rolling boil for 5 minutes, add the reserved whole berries, allow to come back to the boil and then take off the heat and pot up. (Fruit such as strawberries have less pectin so for those I use sugar with added pectin, and a squeeze of lemon juice too)

Look who nearly got made into jam!!  Teeny tiny snail!!

  I also produced some homemade Ribena, by boiling up equal amounts of berries, water and sugar until the berries have broken down. Then it was sieved, and poured into bottles. This will be kept in the fridge for the short time it takes my menfolk to drink it all!! ~ it is lovely!!

Here is my first attempt at painting a cake with coloured white chocolate, its a lemon madeira cake filled with lemon curd and lemon buttercream. Oh, yes, its VERY lemony!!

Blimey! Just starting out with a proper blog - help!!

  Hello, this is Mandy the Cke Fairy, starting up a proper grown up on the internet baking blog page!!