Obsession

Meet Peppa Pig! I think this might be the one for me. Not perfect, but for a chocolate birthday cake, I think this is the one. The recipe is the "best" chocolate cake recipe which I tried before and didn't like, but tried it again in preparation for this and I thought... "Wow. Okay, this works." I made it in a victoria sandwich tin which at about 6.75 inches? (I don't know... it was in my cupboard!) and takes 45minutes. It tastes like a damp chocolate brownie, complete with the papery top. The only tiny dampener on this is that because it is a brownie essentially, it  doesn't slice so neatly. It does rather crumble a lot. Which is just as well we have that much milk chocolate ganache on it. Peppa is the second "commission" from my sister-in-law's friends. I say "commission" as in they pay me for my materials so I can afford to play with fondant for fun. With 4 large bars of Galaxy and about 100g of dark going into the ga...

Second attempt at using the pro fondant mat. I LOVE the   fondant mat . It is soooo irritation that it is so much more expensive in the UK than it is in the US. However, I have to say, worth every penny. I bought the super huge version (as why not) and I kind of regret it as you only need about a 14 inch circle for a cake of two layers. Still. You never know, I might make a huge wedding cake one day. This thing lets you apply fondant beautifully. I'm sure I might have learnt to do it normally but I don't do it enough. Oh. And I learnt. I'm actually willing to eat Tesco's own brand fondant! The above cake is the cocoa-buttermilk cake from Dorie  Greenspan's book. The third time I've baked it and I hate to say it. It is dry. I give up. Each time. I've rescued it before for applying four layers of ganache inside but I'm not willing to do it this time. I have a Peppa Pig cake for someone soon and I WILL get a good chocolate cake if it kill...

I gave it a go. After following the Great British Bake Off for weeks (and irritating the people at work by reminding them I had to get home to watch it!) I finally made one of the numbers. I've actually made a full list of the bakes and will work through them at some stage but for now, here's the Fraisier . I kept relatively true to the recipe - minus the marzipan because no one likes it. The key things you should know about this cake though is that the sponge becomes very lemony as you add the juice of a lemon to each layer effectively. The other aspect is that the creme patisserie... tastes like wallpaper paste. That is to say, it has a distinct lack of flavour despite me adding a touch of vanilla extract once I realised the pod hadn't made an impact and I just had a feeling it should be more... french? That is Mary Berry I guess. It felt... austere. I crave something silky and French. Like a deep custard tart. Like creme brulee the double cream edition. I was proud of...

It's incredibly frustrating not to remember the email address to this blog, and of course, the password. Hence the incredibly long hiatus. Welcome to 2012! Ho hum. The above is my nephew's SECOND birthday cake. It's the Ninky Nonk from In The Night Garden. Kind of sans a few details, namely because I discovered that     despite a good range of browns, golds and apricot - I somehow did not have any RED food colouring. Primary colour and I don't have it. The red in the above came from those multi-pack of coloured sugar pastes. Also the purple food colouring turned the icing grey-black so I couldn't use it and I ran out of icing sugar! Therefore for me there was a distinct kind of let down. Sigh. The harsh and critical eye of the cake maker. The sponge (just the green ones - the rest are propped up biscuits) was vanilla, filled with some calafate jam. I went to Argentina and we bought some jam - guaranteed to get you back to Patagonia... or so the legend has it....