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I have moved my blog to http://wrathofcake.com

Thanks to everyone who has read my blog here.

Jen x

Debbie Brown baby pram cake

Here's a cake I made for my youngest niece Isabelle who was 2 years old. She really likes her dolls and babies. I got the idea from my Debbie Brown book 50 Easy Party Cakes. I partly followed the instructions in the book and made a couple of changes. I think it came out ok, There were a few creases around the edge of the pram but I think I will hopefully improve that with practice. 

Thanks for reading x

Scarlett O'Hara cupcakes

I spend a lot of wasted valuable time looking up cake recipes online and found an interesting one for mojito cocktail cupcakes. This got me thinking about other possibilities for cocktail inspired cupcakes and led me to search for cocktails containing one of my favourite drinks southern comfort. The one that spiked my interest was the Scarlett O'Hara which is lime, cranberry juice and southern comfort.

Source

There were many different possibilities for making these but I finally decided on a lime infused cupcake with cranberry filling and a southern comfort butter icing. This was a bit of an experiment and could have gone horribly wrong. Overall I think it worked really well. The cranberry sauce did sink to the bottom of the cupcake but I don't think it's a big problem, the flavour was still great. I wrote the method as I did it but you might want to leave the filling until after the cupcake is cooked. Once cool cut a small hole in the top, place a teaspoon of sauce into the cake and replace the top.

I am not a big fan of the large amount of butter icing that is traditionally put on cupcakes. I find it can get a little sickly. Therefore I tend to just add a thin layer. If you would rather be more generous with the icing then you might want to double the butter cream ingredients.

Cupcakes (Makes 6-8 cupcakes)
35g unsalted butter
105g plain flour

125g caster sugar
tsp baking powder
a pinch of salt
105ml whole milk
1 large egg
6-8 tsp cranberry sauce

zest and juice of 1 lime
2 tbsp southern comfort

Butter icing
60g butter softened
120g icing sugar
1 tbsp southern comfort

-Preheat the oven to 170  °C and place cupcake cases on a tray. Use an electric mixer to combine the butter, flour, baking powder and sugar to form a breadcrumb like consistency. 

-In a separate bowl mix together the egg milk and the juice and zest from 1/2 of the lime.

-Pour the wet ingredients into the dry gradually mixing well between each addition. 

-Fill the cupcake cases to half way, add a teaspoon of cranberry sauce to each. Top with the remain mix so they are 3/4 full. 

-Bake for 20-25 minutes.

-Once cool brush over the southern comfort and a little lime juice from the left over lime. 

-For the butter icing use an electric mixer to blend the butter until it begins to get pale and fluffy. Gradually add the icing sugar mixing well. Finally add in the southern comfort and mix until smooth. 

-Spread the butter icing over the cakes and top with the remaining lime zest.

Thanks for reading x

Football cake

This is a Brentford FC "Bees" cake I made for my mums birthday. The cake is a 7'' almond madeira cake.

Thanks for reading x

Chocolate Guinness cake

I made this chocolate guinness cake as it was my mum and dads anniversary this week. I adapted a recipe by Nigella Lawson which can be found here.

I decided to leave the cream cheese frosting and just sprinkle some icing sugar over the top. I put mine into 2 foil trays (13'' x 8'') instead of a cake tin as I didn't have the right sized round tin and I thought little squares would be nice. I reduced the cooking time to 25 minutes and the outside was starting to get quite well done, so I would check them after 20 minutes if I made these again. I think adding some chocolate chips would be nice in this cake, I might try that next time.

Ingredients (makes 30 squares)
250 ml guinness
250g unsalted butter
75g cocoa powder
400g caster sugar
140 ml sour cream
2 large eggs
1 tbs vanilla extract
275g plain flour
2 ½ tsp bicarbonate of soda
Icing sugar for topping.

Method
-Preheat the oven to 180 °C and cover the surface of 2 foil baking trays (13'' x 8'') with cooking spray or a little butter to avoid sticking.
- Place the Guinness in a saucepan with the butter and heat gently until the butter has completely melted. Whisk in the cocoa and sugar.
-Beat together the sour cream, eggs and vanilla extract before adding to the beer mixture. Mix in the flour and bicarbonate of soda before dividing equally between the two foil trays.
-Cook for 20-25 minutes or until a skewer placed into the middle of the tray bake comes out clean. Let it cool in the tray.
-Cut each cake into 15 pieces and sprinkle some icing sugar over them.

Thanks for reading x

Fondant bunny

Hello,

I thought I would outline how I made a little fondant bunny. I have only made fondant toppers a couple of times previous to this so I am still learning as I go along. 

From my limited experience I would say you need to start with a simple shape which you can then add detail to. Think about how the topper will need to sit on the cake. Having too much weight at the top of the character will make it difficult to balance.

You don't need special equipment to make this. If you do a lot of cake decorating fondant tools are handy. I use a cheap set of fondant tools I found on amazon but I think you could also do this very easily with a small knife.

Firstly I created the basic shapes I wanted for my bunny. Ears, head, body and feet. I gently rolled the head and body until it was smooth with no splits 

Once I had the head shape I wanted I started to add details. Once I happy with how the nose and mouth looked I used a little water on a brush to stick the pieces on and pressed down gently with a flat fondant tool (palette knife would also work). Once dry the pieces should be stuck securely.

The best tool I found to use is the one below. It's handy for pressing pieces together, shaping and making lines in fondant. 

I used a black edible ink pen for the eyes. 

I added some arms

I found it best to make these in advance as they will harden overnight and become more secure and easy to handle.

Thanks for reading x

Easter carrot cake

Carrot cake is a really nice treat. I added some sultanas to mine, you could try adding walnuts, pecans, raisins or just leave it plain. Traditionally carrot cake has a cream cheese icing but I covered mine with lemon icing made by mixing icing sugar and lemon juice.

Ingredients
Caster sugar 175g/6oz
Sunflower oil 200ml/7fl oz
3 large eggs
Self raising flour 175g/6oz
2 tsp cinnamon
1 tsp mixed spice
pinch of salt
zest of 1 lemon
juice of 1/2 lemon
350g grated carrot
50g sultanas (optional)

Method
-Preheat the oven to 180°C and line a 8 inch round cake tin with baking paper.
-Mix together the sugar and oil. Add the eggs one at a time mixing well after each addition.
-Sift together the flour, cinnamon, spice and salt. Fold into the mix along with the carrot, sultanas, lemon zest and juice.
-Pour into the tin, level the top with a spoon and cook for 1 hour, or until the top is browned and a skewer placing in the middle of the cake comes out clean. Let the cake cool in the tin for 10-15 minutes before turning out and letting cool completely on a rack or plate.

 For decoration I made a little fondant bunny and a chocolate bran flake nest filled with mini eggs.

Thanks for reading x