Happy Aussie Day!

Aussie cake

I haven't actually baked an Australia Day cake, but as today's the day I thought I'd share this pic of a cake I made a while ago for my brother, Harry, and his lovely girlfriend Bec, who live in Melbourne. I made this for them a couple of years ago when they were last in the UK. 

Happy Australia Day!

ode to Rabbie Burns

Burns Night haggies, neeps & tatties cake

Every year my old housemate Doug, a proud Aberdonian, hosts a Burns supper.

He cooks up a traditional haggis with neeps and tatties, toasts the haggis (very generously doused in lashings of whiskey sauce, aka neat whiskey), and lubricates his guests with plenty of whiskey too - all in celebration of the life and poetry of hisational Bard, Rabbie Burns.



The least I could do was bring along a suitably themed dessert for afters.



So here's my chocolate coffee cake topped with a plate of haggis, neeps and tatties served on a flag of St Andrew tablecloth, which was  served with a side of deep fried Mars Bar and ice cream - yum!

'tis the season to make cakes

Christmas time involves a lot of cake, obviously.

This year, for the first time, Christmas was spent at our place. Chris took charge of the cooking whilst I looked after the baking.

We had a full house, with 10 adults, plus Jack - so it was a cosy fit around the dining table, but we all had a merry old time, and ate rather a lot of cake as well as all the other trimmings.

Here are some pics of my Christmas cupcakes and cake pops. My father-in-law, Michael, also made a traditional Christmas cake which he'd spent several weeks previously dousing in rather a lot of whiskey and delivered to me a few days before to decorate - with bobble-hatted penguins and a (clearly vegetarian!) Polar bear...

Christmas cake



Christmas pud and Santa cake pops



Christmas pud cake pops




Jack helps out in the kitchen





Happy Hallowe'en!

Hallowe'en cupcakes

Hallowe'en - a great excuse to cook up some treats... and to dress your baby as a pumpkin.

Jules, one of my NCT pals, hosted a little Hallowe'en get together for our group so I made some spooky cupcakes, decorated with green, white and orange piped butter icing topped with sugarpaste witches hats, bones and gravestones, spiders, black cats, ghosts and pumpkins. Not quite as cute as the baby pumpkins below, although they did go down a  treat (boom!).

Smashing Pumpkins: Violet, Jack, Otis & Millie-Joy

what's in a name...?

Jack's Naming Day cakes

We decided to have a naming ceremony for Jack - really just an excuse to get a few close friends and family together for a bit of a knees-up, and of course as excuse to make cake... lots of it! 

This was my first attempt at a tiered cake. The bottom layer was a vanilla sponge with home made blackberry jam filling, middle layer was chocolate with a hazelnut and chocolate filling, and the top layer was lemon with a lemon curd filling. 

I also made mini favour cakes for guests to take home - with mini baby bottles, feet and vests on them - 150 of them! My kitchen and living room were turned into a production line with Chris and my parents helping to gather the mini cupcakes into threes and bag and tie them for 50 guests!

Unfortunately the guest of honour, Jack, didn't get to eat any of his own cake as he's only allowed boob juice at the moment, but everyone else seemed to enjoy them. I'll make it up to Jack when he's old enough to appreciate it!

all that jazz

Michael  plays his cake...

saxophone cake

My father-in-law, Michael, is a saxophonist and avid Jazz fan, so I decided to attempt a slightly more complex shape than my usual, and go for a sax cake. 

I used a rectangular tin and then sculpted a (sort-of) saxophone shape from that. I covered it with white fondant icing, painted it yellow with food colouring, and then sprayed over the top with gold edible icing. 

It turned out a little bit squatter than I'd have liked, but it was a hit with Michael! 

Marimekko-stylee cake & cake pops

My half-Finnish sister in law, Elisa, is a huge fan of the Finnish design house, Marimekko, so I thought I'd make her a Marimekko-inspired cake, ripping off their classic red flower print.

The cake was an almond and vanilla sponge with a vanilla cream and homemade blackberry and rhubarb jam filling. As there was a bit of leftover cake mix I also made a few matching cake pops, coated in white chocolate candy melts with sugarpaste Marimekko-esque flowers.

Elisa loved it, but judging by the pic Albie was even more impressed!