Flower pot

Another friend of mine celebrated. She was (47).  The idea was to make the same amount of flowers as her birthday was.

I made flowers first. Some were poked on cocktail stick so they could stand nicely.

400g of butter, 400g of self-rising flour, 400g of caster sugar 6 spoons of orange juice, orange zest

Separate mix into four parts and use small round baking tin. Bake on gas mark 4 for 15-20 minutes until golden.

Prepare lemon buttercream – 150g of butter, 350 g of icing sugar , 4 table spoon of milk and lemon zest.

Fill sponges with raspberry jam and buttercream and then cover the cake whole with buttercream. Allow chilling in fridge whilst coloring icing. I used while and blue icing. I made sausages from both roll them and cover the sides of pot. Make another sausage for top edge of pot.

 

Five crushed bourbon biscuits will do for “the dirt”. Arrange flowers on the top. 

                        

              

Handbag

This was my friend’s 25^th birthday cake. She went to Paris to celebrate so it seemed appropriate.

2 sponges (200g of self-rising flour, 200g of caster sugar, 200g of butter, 3 egg, and 15mls of mandarin juice) color pink and purple

Chocolate buttercream ( 75g of butter , 175g of icing sugar ,  3 spoons of milk and a spoon of coco powder)

Sponges are filled with jam, butter cream and mandarin segments. Cut the bottom of the cake, then all cake is covered with buttercream and chilled in fridge.  Blue icing covers the cake. Front and sides of bag is textured using modeling tool. Put pearly sweets at the cross of lines. Use white icing to make edges of bag, handles, bottom of the bag, CC logo and zip.

Make a label saying 25 of white and blue icing. Attach it to bag’s handle using ribbon.

 

 

The Big one

This was a cake to accommodate 100 people – the cake was for one year old and the occasion was child dedication. I am not religious person but ceremony was kind of introduction of morals and values to this kid. It was actually nice as an idea.

So the cake was to be simple and pure in a way.  Outside at least!

The flavors I chose were of the fruit of forest and orange which is my favorite combination.  Colors- pink.

Having in mind that this cake was to not to take an attention from the ceremony and also it was to be held in other town  - transport might  be an issue so I made five smaller cakes and put them together as one Big one.

I chose a simple flower – five petals and center was made of pop cakes imitating pollen.

I used 10 sponges (200g of self-rising flour, 200g of caster sugar, 200g of butter, 3 egg, and 15mls of water) for five petals – each petal was filled with raspberry jam, orange buttercream (5x75g of butter, 5x175g of icing sugar, 5x3 table spoons of milk and orange peel ) and forest fruits. Some cakes were cut/shaped so cakes sit nicely next to each other.  Each individual cake – petal was covered with orange flavored -buttercream and pink icing. Each petal was circled with pink ribbon.

Decoration was simple   - butterflies – different sizes – 5 per cake. Chocolate buttons on top.

Also name was cut out from icing.

Pop cakes (sponge cut of the cake mixed with icing and left over forest fruit) were covered with (yellow colored) white chocolate. I spiked up the chocolate so it looks more like pollen. Also jelly sweets were put on to fill the space.

                                 

Three color banana mini cupcakes

As seemingly obvious these were quick mini cupcakes. I had some older bananas which needed using as they started to brown and kids did not find them attractive enough to eat. I have tiny silicone forms for cupcakes so here we go…

100 g of self-rising flour

100 g of caster sugar

100 g of butter

1 egg

1 table spoon of water

1 small mashed banana

1/2 tea spoon of coco powder and 3 drops of pink coloring.

175 g of icing sugar

50 g of butter

½ mashed banana

Pink coloring

Small sweets

(If you want to use up more bananas multiply all ingredients by number of bananas used. Also if you use bigger size cupcakes.)

Mix ingredients together and make it into smooth paste. Separate butter into three. One stays white, one color pink and last mix with coco powder.

Use tea spoon to fill cupcake with all three butters. Fill forms into ¾ as these will rise. Bake in pre-heated oven on gas mark 4 for 10 – 12 minutes. Check the cakes are baked by poking then with cocktail stick. Allow chilling. Remove silicone forms. All three colors should be visible.

Prepare icing for cupcakes. Twirl some on the top of the cupcakes and finish it with sweets.

Savory or sweet puff pastry

 I fancied puff pastry but wanted to do it by myself. It was easier than I thought. I prepared larger amount of pastry, divided it, roll it and place on film. Roll as it is on the foil and freeze it.

Makes: 700 grams

·         250g flour

·         ½ tsp salt

·         250g butter

·         150g water

Preparation method

Prep: 10 mins | Cook: 10 mins | Extra time: 40 mins, cooling

Sift the flour and salt into a bowl.  Chop the butter up into small pieces, then add them to the bowl and rub them in with your fingers.

Make a well in the bowl and pour in  100ml of the cold water, mixing with your hands until you have a firm dough. Add extra water if needed. Cover with cling film and leave to rest for 20 minutes in the fridge.

Turn out onto a lightly floured board, knead gently and form into a smooth rectangle. Roll the dough in one direction only, until 3 times the width, about 20 x 50cm. Keep edges straight and even. Don't overwork it; you should have a marbled effect and be able to see bits of butter.

Fold the top third down to the center, then the bottom third up and over that. Give the dough a quarter turn (to the left or right) and roll out again to three times the length. Fold as before, cover with cling film and chill for at least 20 minutes before rolling to use. The process can be repeated several times -  that will create layers in pastry.

Divide pastry into three pieces. Roll out tree rectangles place them on the cling film. Roll in the pasty and freeze what you won’t use.

Filling

I chose cheese (any will do), cheese  and ham as a savory option and jam and instant hot chocolate for sweet option.

Cut the pastry into squares 5x5 cm. Place filling in the middle and fold gently. I tried triangle shape and rectangle shape. For chocolate – use melted butter as well.

Place on the baking paper spaced an inch apart. Beat an egg and wipe top of the pastry with it – it will give your pastry light shine. Bake in the middle of the oven on gas mark 5 for 10 minutes.

Christmas cupcakes

I saw something similar on my friend Monika page and thought of trying it up.  I managed 14 medium size cupcakes. My daughter requested chocolate chip cupcakes so I have obliged as usual.

3 medium eggs

200 g of butter

200 g of self-rising flour

150 g of caster sugar

50 g of chocolate chips

1 tea spoon of baking soda

3 table spoons of water

Chocolate spread 14 table spoons

Fill cupcakes with one table spoon of chocolate spread each then fill ¾ of paper cup with mix. Bake for 15 minutes on gas mark 4. Check the cakes are fully cooked by poking cocktail stick. Allow cooling. Cakes should be relatively flat – cut them flat if they rise too much.

 

I separated some cakes on the side and made ghost cupcakes and other cakes were decorated in Christmas spirit.

Ghost ones:

Melt chocolate and cover top of baked cupcakes up to the edge. Then make little ghosts from icing – firstly cut rectangles, then cut the head shape and eyes and mouths. Make them look  differently  - it is fun.

Christmas ones:

Roll out white icing. Cut out flower shape of it and cover whole top of baked cupcake. Color some icing and make little parcels. Put them on the top of white icing. Lastly – prepare buttercream using butter 75 g and 175 g of icing sugar. Use spoonful of milk for fluffier butter cream  Add table spoon of vanilla essence for flavor. (If making cakes for adults add rum of whiskey). Finish buttercream by coloring it.

Pipe up little Christmas tree and use sweets to decorate it.

Use glitters or shimmering spray to finish both cakes.