Time for Tea

Now, I dislike tea, but I do love cake. So what better way to make tea taste good than to bake it in a cake?!

I have collected a vast amount of freebie flavoured teabags; not because I particularly like their flavour, but because they were free...So instead of wasting them I decided to give them a better life and show them to the cake.

I had me some vanillla tea, ordinary tea, green tea, peppermint tea and some kind of weird herby tea.

Made up some vanilla cakey mix and literally emptied a tea bag into the mix...

Also divided my mixture up into cups for all me different tea bags which the parents wern't too pleased about seeing as there were no cups left for an actual cup of tea...But sacrifices must be made in the name of cake.

Dear readers. I wish I could tell you they tasted amazing. But alas I can not tell ye a lie. They did not.

I have since realised my emptying of the tea bag into the mix was not my finest hour. Whilst the cakes did taste of the tea bags, they also had a not very pleasant grittiness to them as the tea leaves had not melted and merged with the cake as I had envisaged; not a marriage made in cakey heaven.

However! Do not think I have not consulted Cake Scientists on this matter. I have since realised that perhaps brewing the tea first with a little water to make it very strong, and simply adding the brewed tea to the mix would make the cake taste like tea but not feel like you're eating sand! Hurrah!

The worst thing about this whole exercise was seeing my father, the King of Cake Consumption, decline eating my Tea Cakes (see what I did there, 'Tea Cakes'...literally :D) And I never want to see the look of sheer disappointment upon my father's face again when faced with a cake he would not like to eat.

So dad, if you're reading this, I apologise, and I will never do such a horrendous thing to you ever again.

Mmm tea leaves...

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.