Fathers Day Cupcakes

All of my wonderful followers/readers will know,

(because I haven't stopped talking about it lately...sorry guys :) )

that I recently started a new venture. 

I now design and print edible icing images for cakes and cupcakes etc and I'm really loving it!

This is where the fathers day cupcakes come in...I had a few cupcakes left over from the batch I made a couple of days ago and so decided to top them with some icing prints.

If you'd like the recipe for the chocolate cupcakes,you can find it HERE.

Its a recipe I've used many times now as my go-to for chocolate cupcakes,its never let me down and can be adapted easily!

Happy fathers day to all the fantastic dads out there!

Especially my husband,hes the greatest!

For more info on my edible toppers venture visit SweetHarts Edible Cake Toppers

Cupcakes and Cake Angels {Review}

Its gotten to be a running joke between me and my hubby that I have a slight obsession with cake decorations. Of all kinds.

I can't resist a pot of sprinkles or 3 or 4 and literally have a drawer full of them!

So when I was recently asked to review some samples from a new range,how could I possibly refuse!

Cake Angels have everything you need to decorate cupcakes for any occasion.

From sprinkles to candles to marshmallows.

I was kindly sent the chocoholics delight sprinkles, pearl swirls and the happy birthday candles.

To properly show them off to you I made a batch of chocolate cupcakes.

These glittery candles are my favourite thing...don't they look fab!

I think the eye catching packaging is great,it really does make it stand out on the shelf.

Cake Angels products are very reasonably priced at £1 - £3 and the range can be found in leading supermarkets.

Although the Cake Angels website isn't launched just yet,you can sign up with your email to be notified of when its up and running.
Have you tried anything from the range yet? I'd love to see if you have :)

Fathers day goodies and a recipe coming soon!

Choc chip and pretzel cookies!

I have an addiction,and its very bad for my hips but I just love them!

Cadburys chocolate covered pretzels are A M A Z I N G and I've wanted to put them in or on something since i found them. I figured that bars or cookies would be best and eventually decided on the cookies.

Who doesn't like cookies?!

I found this recipe on the Cooking Channel and it was just what I was looking for.

I'm useless at using cups,why I don't know! So I converted the recipe into grams and got on with it.

Here's what I did.

Recipe adapted from the cooking channel.

Makes 24 cookies.

Plain flour 300g

Unsalted butter 165g

Light brown sugar 250g

Caster sugar 113g

1 Egg

Sunflower oil 2 tbsp

Vanilla extract 1 tsp

Baking powder 1/2 tsp

Salt 1/2 tsp

Cadbury Pretzels 1 packet or 110g (roughly broken up)

Chocolate chips 100g

Preheat the oven to 180 or gas mark 4.

Line a baking tray or 2 with greaseproof paper and set aside.

Add the baking powder and salt to the flour in a bowl and set this aside too.

In a large bowl,beat together the butter and sugars until it becomes pale and fluffy.

Add the egg,oil and vanilla and mix again until it combines.

Add the flour mix a bit at a time and start to mix it together,use your hand or stand mixer on a slow speed.

The mixture will be a little dry and you don't want it jumping out of the bowl at you!

Once all the flour is in,add the choc chips and pretzels and mix them in evenly.

I used a small ice cream scoop to put small mounds of cookie dough on the tray.

Leave plenty of space in between as they will spread as they bake.

Bake in the oven for 8-10 minutes.

The cookies are done when they just start to brown around the edges.

Be careful not to over bake them as i did a tray of mine..oops!

Let them sit on the tray for a few minutes to firm up,before moving them carefully to a cooling rack.

My kids loved them...so did i!

Here's a pic of those pretzels...so that you know what I'm raving on about...

MakeBake...Every bakers one stop shop!

{Sponsored Post}

Where I live,there aren't many stores that exclusively sell cake decorating equipment. Apart from the bits and bobs and of course ingredients that I get from my local supermarket,i have to buy most things online.

Whether you're a serious home baker like me or a now and then type of baker,we all need that 1 place we can go that we just know will have that tool we need. Or those cupcake cases. Or that mould!

Let me introduce to you MakeBake. 

I've spent literally hours in the last few days scouring the site,the goodies are endless!

Theres everything a baker could possibly need from cake tins to cupcake cases to moulds and stencils.

For some time I've been wanting to have a go at using moulds and stencils and so I'm happy to say they have an extensive range.

I particularly like the mould kit,perfect for making your own and the video on the website shows just how easy it is to do.

Prices are reasonable too,even with delivery which isn't always the case and us mums know every penny counts...right?!

The latest thing I've added to my 'to-do list'!

I've looked everywhere for these baking cups and hadn't been able to find them.

I only wish i'd found them before I made my strawberry milkshake cupcakes recently.

They would have been perfect!

I hope you'll pop over and take a look,let me know if you do!

I was compensated for writing this post but as always,all thoughts and opinions are my own :)

World Baking Day,Baking Brave and a Handbag Cake!

Sunday May 19th was World Baking Day and the idea is to 'Bake Brave' and make something that you haven't before. Something that will take just out of your comfort zone and push you a little.

There is a list of recipes ranging in skill from 1-100 (has anyone baked 100?!) to give you some inspiration and tips. It isn't too late if you'd like to take part,head over and take a look!

I didn't bake from the list...but...Sunday also happened to be my birthday (21 again,obvs) so i did 'Bake Brave' and I made something I haven't attempted before. While it may look quite simple,well it is really, I spent most of the time second guessing myself convinced something would go wrong and it would look more like a crumpled carrier bag than a pretty purse.

Apologies in advance for the following photos...at the time i blamed the lighting but i realised afterwards that my camera had a dusty lens! Slightly annoyed with myself.

Not half bad for a first attempt?

I found a wonderful tutorial at Jessicakes and while mine doesn't look half as professional,I think if i keep practising I'll get there!

I did take step by step photos and I'm happy to share them,but its by no means perfect...its just to show how i did it. I learn something new every time I make a cake and this was no exception...thanks to Jessica!

The first step is to bake a cake...maybe that's a little obvious but well...anyway I made a 2 layer 6 inch vanilla sponge cake and I filled it with a dark chocolate ganache.

Next I cut the cake,and made my first mistake...easily fixed but it still made me nervous. It was the first step!

I cut the cake on each end...1 was meant to be slightly smaller than the other but that didn't work.

See....

I put the smaller cut piece back and cut it right,then I breathed,just for a minute.

I stood the cake up and checked that it was straight from every angle. 

Then i filled that pesky join with ganache. No problem.

Now for the carving.

I cut down both sides of the cake at an angle making sure that both sides were as close to the same as i could get them. Jessica goes further with her carving,but as this was the first time i 'carved' a cake this was my limit.

When I was happy with both sides,i brushed away all those crumbs with a pastry brush and then gave the whole thing a coating of chocolate ganache.

I did give it another thin coat after this photo,and I smoothed it as much as i could with a hot palette knife.

Then i set it aside to firm up and I went to have a cuppa.

I made the bags handle by rolling out a black piece of fondant and wrapping it around a large circle cutter,I cut a piece out of it with a flat edge and then left it to firm up while i carried on with the cake.

I added some pink colour paste to my fondant,rolled it and then draped it over the cake.

I very gently pulled the fondant out at the corners,smoothing out all the sides as i went.

This bit went so much better than i expected because i knew the seams of the cake wouldn't be seen at the end,i wasn't too worried. I carefully snipped off the excess fondant on all the edges and then rolled around the bottom edges with a pizza cutter. (Which i keep aside only for cakes)

Next i cut a piece of fondant to the same width as the flat top of the cake,which was 3.5inches and 6inches long and i rounded off 1 of the shorter edges. I laid this over the cake and then ran around the edge with a fondant tool to make it look like stitching*.

Now using an extruder tool* with the circle disc attached  I made black ropes and with a little edible glue fixed them to the seams of the cake.
To finish off,I added a little bow and a flower to the front then i attached the handle with a dab of edible glue.
The handle didn't want to stay put at first but i got there in the end...ill do that differently next time.

I'm quite happy with how it worked out!

*Handy links below :)