Things on Sticks

Or to be more precise, Cake on Sticks!

I do hate wastage, and so with a little help from Bakerella and her Cake Pops*, I made my own!

The Bee, The Ladybird and The Eye. All covered in Fondant, all with a stick up their backsides. Lovely. But for those rare days where you can't stomache an entire cupcake (If you suffer from these days I suggest you see a doctor) then a little taster cake bite will keep you going until you seek out your cupcake fix!

*Cake Pop: In my books, is a mix of waste Cakeage (I say 'waste', no excess cake is a waste, but I have been told excessive hoovering up of excess crumbs with one's face can lead to mild weight gain, and I'd hate to have to pay for lipo just because I ate one too many crumbs...) Anyway! yes, I make cake pops by combining stray cake crumbs and buttercream until you can pick up a teaspoon full and roll it into a ball.

THEN I place these little balls on a plate and stick 'em in the freezer to get nice and chilly before removing them, sticking a stick up their cake bums, and dipping them in fondant/chocolate/my mouth then allowing them to dry and decorating them in love! Or whatever I might need to make my desired cake pop...Enjoy!

Button Biscuits!

Frasier had finished, Will and Grace had finished, even One Tree Hill had finished! So I took to my trusty iPhone to seek inspiration for what to do with myself at 10am on a Friday morn.
No I did not attempt to educate myself or find the cure for, erm, obsessive cake thoughts. I did instead think about what I could bake in 2 hours before the elderly people arrived! (Grandparents)


So, turning to my trusty cakey blog www.cakespy.com I stumbled upon a simple fun idea for biscuits! No clever flavours, no crazy complicated designs, just some colouring, a circle and 4 holes = Button Biscuits!

Now, I didn't follow the instructions to the letter, because there's a lot of waiting around in refigerating your biccy dough...resting it, rolling it etc. etc. and quite frankly I was too impatient to just get my little biscuits done and eaten!

I will however advise against the speeding of the chilling dough process by putting your biscuit dough in the freezer, then microwaving it because it did actually freeze, as I can tell you from experience you will end up with a bowl of liquidised cookie dough which unfortunately a) doesn't taste nice (all sweet related failures must be tasted in case I chance upon some taste sensation) and b) was bum all use to roll out for biscuits! So yes, don't microwave your biscuit dough basically!


Oh and also, after you've cut them out, do refigerate them, much to my annoyance, because if you bake them straight away like moi, the butter is still quite...moisty, and so burns more easily in the oven. Refigerate it for 10-15 minutes however (note I said refigerate, don't freeze) and your dough will have dried out a little and thus will not burn! Amazing isn't it.


So enough of me! Here are my Button Biscuits! (Pre-baking you'll notice, because post-baked biscuits were a little erm, tanned shall we say :D)

(If you imagine real hard, you can pretend this is actually a picture of my biscuits fresh from the oven! As opposed to the reality of my freshly baked biscuits which wern't at all burnt round the edges...)

The Poop Cake.

Call me childish, infantile, or pure genius, but it had to be done. The Poop Cake; with edible fly.

I know this may disappoint some of you who thought I was an upstanding, well mannered member of society, and now I have come to reveal myself as the type who would make a Poop cake. But I have to be honest with myself, and above all you. I have made a Poop cake, and I am not ashamed. So look away in disgust, or embrace the cake with laughter and joy! After all, it is only really a chocolate cake with chocolate buttercream...and an edible fly.

Roses

'Nuff said! :D

Boo!

Ok I know it's a little early, but I had the idea and I had to make it. Sorry.

No it's not a mound of delicious buttercream shaped like a really scary ghost, it's ACTUALLY a little cupcake upturned on a normal cupcake...THEN covered in mounds of delicious buttercream with 3 little chocolate bits to create a really scary ghost.

Now just need to wait 9 months until it's actually Halloween...

Cake for Breakfast or Breakfast Cake?

Or both even?! That's right folks, the Fried Egg Cake has arrived! Now you can have your cake for breakfast but have it cunningly disguised as an egg so the world need never know...

Cakes in Fruit: Success or Epic Fail? You decide...

Now, depening on how you look at these babies, they're either very successful, or an epic failure. I'm on the fence.
These were an experiment: Can you bake cakes in fruit? Answer: Yes...and no. The no depends on how much of a presentation nutter you are.
The idea was to bake a nice little cake in the hollowed out fruit, pop the top back on, so when your curious father comes along to eat his daily apple, what does he find lurking in his apple a day? a CAKE! What better surprise could one hope for?!
So off I went, got me an apple, hollowed it out, made my magical cake mix, wrapped my fruit in foil! a) to prevent possible burning of fruity skin and b) I thought there might be a really clever, scientific logic behind doing it, and it made the whole thing look more experimenty...
So yes, fruit hollowed, mix in, fruit in oven, wait patiently, but nervously...
To my great surprise the cakes did actually start to cook and rise...and rise...and rise...right above their little tops. THUS preventing the genius behind the original design which was to pop the top back on for the grand cake-in-fruit reveal. But alas, it was not meant to be.

The good to be taken from this little experiment: As a cake in fruit, the apple skin went a little wrinkly, which doesn't exactly look appetising. The orange however did work rather well...except unless you're a little strange and love orange skin, you can't simply bite into and eat the entire thing; which you could do with the apple!
Cake in apple: I added cinammon for that classic apple n' cinnamon combo so that all tasted lovely. I could also pull the cake right out the apple which on the inside was a weird but nice mushy appley-cinnamony-cakey pudding with a nice warm, mushy apple skin SO, as a dessert with a lil' custard on the side could all taste rather lovely...

SO my friends, cake cooked in fruit? Technically: Brilliant. Aesthetically: Horrible. Taste: Rather nice.
Cake in fruit as a dessert: Stroke of Genius

(Possibilities: Cake in fruit could work better in a baking apple...Do feel free to try other fruits! I'm currently mulling over the idea of caked cooked in a raisin...shall report back soon...)

On the Run in the Costa del Sol...

Sun, Sea and Ice Cream Cakes!

'Ice Cream Cakes?!' I hear you cry! Yes...ice cream cakes. In a bid to fool those cunning cupcake army troops I have masqueraded my cakes in the form of ice creams! They now lurk inside cones hiding underneath a mound of Vanilla meringue icing topped off with a Flake/Sprinkles/Cherry for extra camouflage.

Approach with caution, and don't tell Mr.Whippy...

Still thinking...'But they're ice creams?!' Well my friends, let me tell ye a tale.

A simple but delicious cupcake mix is born but, as all cupcake cups are currently under surveillance, the mixture is instead placed inside a flat bottomed cone where it sits undetected by the Cupcake Army. These cones are then baked in...The Oven, a magical place where every cupcake mix aspires to end up where they can evolve into a beautiful little Cupcake.

Under the watchful eyes (Fan) of The Oven, the secret cone mix rises within its little coney house and awaits further instruction. Meanwhile, The Kitchen Aid (creator of all delicious cupcake mixes) beats up (in a loving way) the new and top secret meringue based icing which is then transferred to the glorious Piping Bag and piped upon the Cupcake Cone. Still looking a little naked, each undercover cupcake is then given a rather flash accessory being a flake, sprinkle or cherry to completely throw the Cupcake Army. Let's just hope they don't notice their lack of melting under extreme heat...

So there you have it! The Ice Cream...that's not actually an ice cream, Cake!

Rebellion

I have decided to run away from the Cupcake Army and live as a Cupcaker on the run, embracing all things sweet in life! I cannot live a pure and fulfilled life of Cupcake anymore, I must bake beyond the bun.

Starting with the humble Bread and Butter Pudding! With my personal favourite twist: Baileys!

Tasted. So. Good. (If I do say so myself)

But where's the recipe I hear you cry! Well calm down, it's here! As if I'd leave you stranded and drooling with no clue as to how to make this buttery bowl of goodness. I may be souless, but I'm not mean.

Serves about 6 (Or in my case, 1)

1/2 a loaf of pre-sliced brioche

55g/2oz or 1/4 pack of butter, softened

140g/5oz caster sugar

seeds from 1 vanilla pod

8 free-range eggs

500ml/18fl oz double cream

565ml/1 pint milk

4 shots of Baileys (8 if you're in a good mood...or had a bad day)

250g flaked almonds, toasted until golden

200g Saltanas

Tablespoon of Coca Powder

Icing sugar to dust

Method behind the Madness

Preheat the oven to 180°C/350°F/gas 4.

• Flatten each slice of bread down as flat as possible. Butter each piece thinly but thoroughly with the softened butter, then cut the slices of bread in half and put to one side.
• In a bowl whisk together the sugar, vanilla seeds and eggs till pale and fluffy, then add the cream, the milk and the Baileys and whisk until smooth. (Don't judge me here, but I would like to add that at this point, curiosity did take the better of me, and I found myself through no fault of my own drinking some of the mixture as it was. Yes I KNOW it has 8 raw eggs in, but my Cupcake lord in heaven did it make for a delicious drink. Luckily I had enough left to actually make the actual pudding...Also felt incredibly ill after drinking about a litre of raw egg and double cream, but it really was worth it)
• Lightly toast your almonds in a saucepan. DON'T BURN THEM!
• Take an appropriately sized baking dish/trough and rub the sides with a little butter. Dip each piece of bread in the egg mixture then begin to layer the bread, the sultanas, the almonds and a light dusting of cocoa powder in the baking dish. Repeat until everything has been used up, ending with a top layer of bread. Pour over the rest of your egg mixture, using your fingers to pat down the bread to make sure it soaks up all the lovely flavours.Generously dust the top of the pudding with icing sugar and bake in the oven for around 35 minutes or until the custard has set around the outside but is just slightly wobbly in the centre.
• It looks absolutely fantastic when it first comes out of the oven; A giant of a pudding, so make sure you have anyone else around stick their head in the oven to have a look at it in all its glory before it, inevitably, sinks.
• Allow it to cool and firm up slightly. Some people like to serve it with ice cream or double cream (And I applaud those people) but if you get it gooey enough in the middle then it is nice just on its own...even before its cooked.

Original inspiration taken from the lovely Jamie Oliver

Christmas Cakes!

Christmas Pudding!

...but it's actually Chocolate Cake! Covered in

a rich, delicious Chocolate ganache

with a lil' bit of holly to look all prettyful.

Christmas Cake

With little icing presents from Santa

The Snowman

Complete with fetching Hat, Scarf and nose

on a bed of icing and white Maltesers.

(NB: He didn't melt, he was devoured by

the Cupcake Army for not being a 'true' cupcake

what with his lack of cup...R.I.P Snowman)

Capture!

Fellow cupcakers, I have news. A member of the Cupcake Army has been captured. I have taken it hostage in a rather fetching box with a bow to lure it into a false sense of security.

Shall threaten with promises of consumption unless it speaks. Wish me luck.

The Army

They're watching me...

...and a few more

Um...there's something in my cake...

Chocolate cake, Toffee Bon Bons

and a small lurking thing...

Paradise Cake

Cupcakes on Holiday

Golf

Big edible Lindt chocolate balls on buttercream

turf. (Flags not edible...sorry)

More!

The Apple

Vanilla cake, mound of green fondant with

a chocolate stalk!...That's an Apple to you and me,

in Cakey speak.

Toadstool

Vanilla cake, lil' bit of red fondant and White choccy buttons!

(Its NOT a mushroom...honest)

The German

For my European friends out there!

German = Covered in coloured buttercream and a pretzel;

they're easy to spot.

The First Creations

They made me do it.

Cup Noodle

Vanilla Cake with Vanilla Buttercream

(With edible chopsticks!)

Snail

Vanilla Cake topped with Green

fondant icing, 1 Sour Swirl, 2 Toffee Bon Bons

and 2 Eyeballs = Snail!

Isle of Man

Lord Jelly Baby on top of his Buttercream

Mountain

The Cupcakes

Tis 15:31 on a chilly Monday 'noon as I write this, and I am now 99.9% certain that my soul has been consumed by The Cupcakes, and I fear they're coming for the other .1%. So I surrender. My soul for a cupcake. Those sweet, tempting little cakes that sit so innocently in their cases, but behind their little iced facades sits a cake full of cakey evil, reeling you in, making you bake more and more until your kitchen is full of an entire cake army and before you know it you're completely outnumbered being stared at by hundreds of angry cupcakes waiting to be decorated. What could I do?! They were going to suffocate me in cake unless I promised to devote myself entirely to thinking up ways to decorate their little naked bodies. So here is my blog, my daily struggle under the evil eyes of The Cupcakes who will not let me rest until I have exhausted every ounce of my creativity and sanity creating delicious, insane and sometimes a few little novel cupcakes. Enjoy!