Strawberry and white chocolate cake

Hey everyone, I was recently asked to make a 21st birthday cake for a friend and got given the words 'strawberry or vanilla'...so here's what I made! It's my vanilla sponge (3 layers) sandwiched with fresh cream, strawberries and seived strawberry jam.

The chocolate straws or 'cigarellos' were made using small squares of acetate. I spread a thin layer or melted white or dark chocolate over the acetate and folded it into a straw shape and secured with cellotape. These then went into the freezer until I was ready to use them at the last minute (they cannot be handled for very long!) They are quite thick and as you can see I didn't quite have enough to cover the entire cake with no gaps :( but they still look great!

I finished it off with white chocolate ganache (heated cream, then stirred in white chocolate and allowed it to set slightly in the fridge until it was the right consistencey to spread) and some fresh strawberries and chocoate stars.

Really proud of this one, and got great comments from the buyer too...wohooo! This one will set you back £20 and is huge aswell so really worth it! I am still practicing and obviously no professional which is why my cakes are cheap :)

xx

Perfecting my frosting skills!

Hi everyone, have been practicing my cupcakes recently and bought some lovely cases from Hobbycraft - some pink gingham ones and polka dot brown ones :) I was bored and making a sponge yesterday so decided to use the leftover mix to make some cupcakes. I bought a new piping bag with a bigger star nozzle which is perfect for icing! I made some pink vanilla frosting and some chocolate fudge (the chocolate ones also have hidden craters of nutella :D)...

Think I am getting better now and I'd love to try and make a huge batch of them with lots of colourful frosting for someones birthday or any other occasion so if anyone wants cupcakes.....!!

Here is a quick picture of the sponge I made too....the cupcakes and sponge were made using my foolproof sponge recipe posted below :)

The sponge was filled with seived strawberry jam (I hate seeds!) and fresh double cream..yum yum :)

p.s....Tomorrow I am making a 21st birthday cake for a friend and I'm trying out some new chocolate decorations which will hopefully look great!! Keep your eyes peeled :)

xxx

Chocolatey chocolate cakes!!

Haven't updated this in ages, but still been baking away! I recently made a massive chocolate cake for my Auntie's birthday. I'll put up the recipe up at some point but it was a bit of a mish mash of a few recipes. It had vegetable oil and sour cream instead of butter for a really moist texture. It was then topped with a chocolate fudge ganache. I then decorated it with white and milk chocolate shavings along the side, and some fancy chocolately swirls and chocolate truffles. Everyone loved it!! Great warmed slightly with double cream! nom nom....

I also made some chocolate cupcakes made using a general sponge recipe with some green and blacks cocoa powder. I then made a chocolate buttercream icing and finished with some malteasers!! These were made for a friend in work who covered one of my shifts :D I promised them to her! Hopefully she loved them, I had a try and they were scrummy...even though I'm not a huge fan of buttercream!

Et voila!! Enjoy :)x