Photoshoot!

So my lovely cupcakers, this week I've had my lil' old cakes be part of a photoshoot for 'Eat your Heart Out', a strictly over 18s cakeage event in Shoreditch created by Miss Cakehead.

This was possibly my most grossest task yet as I was to make all things disgusting, vomit inducing and edible. So naturally I thought of maggoty cakes, mouldy cakes and eyeballs!

Here's some shots of 'the making of' which you can see the whole video of here (copy and paste into browser, blogger won't let me embed my motion pictures!) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=URVz196NqK0&feature=player_embedded

Pete Fowler eating my eyeball! Never thought I'd say that...

Miss Cakehead...

My eyeballs and mouldy cakes!

Sorry if that little lot put you off your dinner :D

Magical Chocolate Pudding Cake!

Now I am aware dear readers that I do bake a lot of cake. And 91.3% of this blog is about cake.

And this post shall be no exception! (Sorry if you read this blog in desperate hope that I will suddenly bake something savoury, I still have my sanity...) However, I havn't just baked a cake this time dear readers, I have baked a Chocolate Pudding Cake! A Cake so delicious, so warm, so saucy, and so chocolatey that there almost wasn't a 'tudaah!' picture to end on for I could have eaten it whilst it was still in the oven.

So, here you have the Chocolate Pudding cake that will make you embarassed to ever eat another chocolate pudding cake pretending to be delicious.

And 'why havn't you told me why it's magical yet?!' I hear you cry! Well, it is magical because it turns itself upside down...

First, combine your dry bits into a yin and yang like formation, makes all the difference in the cooking, gives the ingredients a sense of harmony with each other...

Then chuck in your wet bits making sure they take the shape of a weird blob thing with eyes...

Mixy mixy!

Then here comes the weird bit. Combine your sugars into attractive lumps (don't I make baking sound so mouth watering?)


Sprinkle it over your cakey mixture...



I say sprinkle, what I really mean is completely cover your cake mixture in the sugary mix...


Then here's the really alarming bit. Pour a bucket of water over the entire thing (bucket may be a slight exaggeration, please don't pour a bucket of water over your pudding...)

And the water will magically float above it all, essentially drowning your cake. Sounds brutal, but it had to be done for the sake of cake. And sometimes sacrifices have to be made.

Now, although by this point you will probably be panicking, thinking I've played a practical joke on you and you've gone and tipped a load of water on top of what could have been a nice chocolate cake...and have vowed never to read my blog again...trust me! And observe the magic...

That's right dear readers. Before your very eyes, your cake and water concoction will have turned itself upside down so you now have a delicious fudgey chocolate cake on top, and sticky chocolate sauce below!

As we all know I am no scientist, and maybe this pudding is beyond science, it works for the sake of all that is delicious and no other questions need be asked (like the question you immediatley think upon seeing the pudding, 'where the £$%&£* did the water go?!)'

Do not ponder dear readers, do not even try and uncover the wonders of this magical cake, dare I say 8th wonder of the world? It's secret is what makes it that little bit more delicious.

Just accept that you have a beautiful chocolate pudding in front of you. And enjoy.

Coca Cola...not just for drinking...

Twas' as I sipped upon my daily can of Coke dear readers that the idea struck me. I like coke, I really like cake, so what if I made a Coke Cake?

Knowing that surely this kind of genius could not only strike upon me, I searched upon Google to seek out fellow cakey enthusiasts to uncover a Coke Cake recipe, and sure enough my loyal friend Mr. Google did not fail me. Behold, The Coke Cake Recipe.

So after rummaging through my never-failed-me-yet ingredients cupboard, I began to bake the Coke Cake...

First of course, the can of coke (every good fridge should have one). Then your saucepan (which by the way makes me ponder on the thought, why is it called a saucepan? Very rarely do I cook myself a sauce, in a pan, in fact I'm far more likely to melt cocoa powder, butter and coca cola together in a pan than sauce, yet you don't see me buying a 'coke, cocoa and butter concoction pan', I'm aware that may not be the best working title for advertising purposes, but at least It's more accurate...) I'm rambling, I know, but I had to put that thought out there.

So where was I?

Ah, melting things, my favourite past time to the joy of my parents.

So yes, melt your cocoa, butter and coke in a *pan.

And when you add your coke to the cocoa you'll get a lovely unexplainable chemical reaction between the coke and cocoa whereby the coke will expload into cocoa covered bubbles!

Melty melty...

Next, throw all your melty stuff on top of your dry bits (your flour, sugar...) I actually used light brown muscovado sugar in this recipe because that's all I had, but I believe it did give the final result a more dense and rich flavour which I rather like...

Took every ounce of will power I had in my body right down to my toe nails not to eat the gooey chocolatey mix as it was, but I stayed strong for you readers, I had to see my Coke Cake through to the end.

Next up, Buttermilk! Or 30g of plain yoghurt with a dash of milk if you're all out of Buttermilk...

(I have been known to literally add melted butter to milk in a desperate attempt to make buttermilk, but no, of course you add yoghurt to BUTTERmilk to make buttermilk...)

Mixy mixy...

I was sceptical about this make shift Buttermilk, but it didn't seem to have any kind of detremental effects to the final product so I shall endorse it's usage...

And of course, this blog being heavily scientific an' all, I feel I owe it to you lovely people to do a bit of detective work in to this 'Buttermilk' and tell you why it exists and pops up in recipes I wish to make but never have the stuff...

So here you have an explanation from the ever reliable source that is Wikipedia:

'Originially, buttermilk was the liquid left behind after churning butter out of cream. It also refers to a range of fermented milk drinks (mmm lovely).

The tartness of buttermilk is due to the presence of acid in the milk. This is primarily due to lactic acid, a byproduct naturally produced by lactic acid bacteria from fermenting lactose (that's 'rotting' lactose to you and I)'

I know, I can hear you running to get your hands on some Buttermilk as I speak...who wouldn't want to add fermenting lactose to their cakes?!

So anyway, there you have it, don't say you never learn anything from my blog...

Back to the important stuff now, making Cake!

So by this point, with half a can of coke left, I felt there was not enough cokey goodness in my cake, so I chucked the rest in of course.

Bubbles!

Mixed it into a smiley face intentionally...

And baked it! I was rather relieved that it baked and rose, because other attempts at very liquidy cakes have left me with a squidgy, unrisen brick of cake, which although very tasty, is always a sad day that a Cake has not fulfilled its cakey duty.

Next I melted some more butter, cocoa and icing sugar together (excuse the attractive lumps of icing sugar...) and poured it over my cake so all the icing goodness seeped into my cake...

It was a delicious cake dear readers! More like hot chocolatey sponge pudding when it were still warm. There were sooo many little bubbles in the cake I'm guessing because of the bubble fest the coke caused.

Admittedly, the cake did not taste of coke as I had hoped, but I do think it lent a big hand in making the texture really light and spongey.

I stuck my cake in the fridge overnight as well and it was even nicer the next day, kinda like fridge cake so very solid but the icing had merged with the cake making it into a lovely chewy cokey chocolatey cake, which is never a bad thing.

Nom nom nom.

Whippy whippy!

Now dear readers, I know what you've been thinking since you first caught The Baking Bug, a disease well known among scientists and doctors alike that penetrates the brain to make you think you must bake all day every day, or you will die. Or, erm, at least crave having something to bake!

Ahem, anyway...

Back to reading your minds, you have all been thinking, 'What would happen if I incoporated whipped egg white, commonly referred to as 'meringue' into the humble cake mixture?' Well, ponder no more, for I have done such a thing!

Also, whilst killing 2 birds with 1 stone (not literally, apparently that's frowned upon...) I defrosted a load of egg whites that had settled in at the back of my freezer...

Threw them in the microwave to make them useable...

And tudaah! Defrosted egg white ready to be whipped in to shape! Notice the lovely little blobs of eggage and cooked egg white, lovely smell...

So, having my nicely warmed bag of egg whites ready, I brought out Mr. Kitchen Aid's younger brother, Mr. Hand Mixer. He wants to stand alone, he'd LOVE to have multiple attachments, but alas, he has but 2, and is useless if you try and use him sitting on his bum unless you want to turn your mixing bowl on its side...which I don't advise unless you enjoy eating your cake mix off the floor.

Next, use the only sugar left in the house that your brother relies on because he can't stand coffee without sugar and loves sugar; and so as the sister it is my sisterly duty to find new and innovative ways to annoy said brother and this time it was time to bake his most prized ingredient in a cake. Hiding it would be too easy readers, that would mean it was still retrievable. Baking it in a cake however ensures no possibility of him finding it, and the anger is soon outweighed by my presenting him with the cakes I used his sugar for! Everyone's a winner...

So once you've chucked a load of sugar in (or I should say, once you've gradually added your sugar between whisks...) It should slowly (but surely) turn glossy and thick and into the meringue mixture we all know and love!

And now time to turn Mr. Meringue into Lord Cake.

Add a load of Vanilla extract...

Add a load of melted butter...

Add a load of Self-Raising flour...

Mixy mixy...

And here you can see because of the extreme whippage courtesy of Mr. Whisk, the mixture has a ton of air bubbles in and is quite a frothy like mix

Now I shall confess readers, I thought by adding meringue mix I would unlock some magical secret to an amazing cake. One full of air and egg whitey goodness.

But alas dear readers, because Mr. Whisk got a little whipping happy, he whipped waaay too much air into my little cake and, whilst cake still prevailed, the texture was kind of weird and spongey and it didn't really taste of much.

Conclusion? I would have been better off making a meringue and a cake, the 2 were just never meant to live in marital tasty bliss...but at least I tried!

Extreme Cakeage

My SINCEREST apologies dear cupcakers! I know I'm very late this week (just started a job in a cake shop! :D) and I've been wearing the guilt of not feeding bloggers with more delicious pictures and stories of my baking exploits. But I hope now I can be relieved with this weeks abundance of cake filled pictures!

Last week my friends, I were involved in Cake Britain; an all edible art exhibition! The best art out there and accessable, and digestable, to all!

So here is my photo diary of 2 days of blood sweat and tears to get about 200 cakes ready:

Day 1 in The Big Cakey House:

Ellie begins the mammoth task of preparing the cake mixture. (After weeks of cycling to and from town accumulating a load of ingredients)

This is like my little factory consisting of my trusted friend Mr. Kitchen Aid, a cup to put me mixture ladel, another cup to put me odd bits of stuff covered in cake mixture (you would think I would only use 1 spoon to mess with the mixture but somehow I used 6 in about 2 hours...) Ahem, my 'dripping towel' to catch the drips from Mr. K Aid, because he dribbles a lot when he doesn't have his bowl with him. And last but not least my giant bucket of cake mixture!

Mmmm, dinner in itself...I could eat it all easily...

I'd just be really, really sick afterwards...but proud of myself.

The ingredients counter where everything is checked, weighed and introduced to it's fellow ingredient friends as they're about to get very personal and very hot with each other and introduced to the boss: Mr. Cake.

Some cakes trying to escape to get a cup of tea...Cakes get thirsty to ya know...
Where did you think the term 'Tea Cake' came from?! Obviously refers to those cakes who like a cuppa after all that thirsty work that is being baked in an oven for 20 minutes...anyone would need some refreshment

Butter, creamed to within an inch of it's life!



Big tasty tub of buttercream! Did ye ever see a more delicious sight in yer life?


My Jam Jar Cakes! Took me weeks of getting my family to eat lots of pasta sauces and jam but I finally got me jars!

And my beloved Cup Noodle of course...

The product of my labours: A Sea of Cake

My little snails! Some of them have dodgey eyes because they were born that way...I thought my cakes should represent a cross section of Cupcake Snail Society and not shun the ones who wern't born with perfect Sugar Silver ball eyes...I do not judge.

A Big Box of Cupcakes!

Me little monsters. You didn't really think it was just cake in your cupcakes did you?!

And of course the star of the show, Cake Plants! With a little leaf 'an all!

So that's it my fellow cupcakers! The most individually designed collection of cupcakes I think I've ever done, but it was totally worth it and a lot of fun to do!

Couldn't feel my feet at all though when I'd finished.