Birthday cakes

It was my husband's birthday at the beginning of May and I wanted to create him a cake that was going to be a challenge for me.

Over the years I have made him different cakes, here are a couple.

My husband LOVES peanut butter, it has got to the stage where we can not really have it in the house very often as it does not last more than a couple of days. He does eat it straight from the jar! When I saw this amazing looking Double Chocolate-Peanut Butter Layer Cake with Caramel Popcorn cake from topwithcinnamon.com I knew I had to make something like it.

I changed the main cake recipe as I have a tried and tested chocolate cake recipe that I always use so I used that but used her recipe for the peanut butter filling and the chocolate glaze. If like me you are slightly addicted to Reese's Peanut Butter Cups then you will be pleased to know that the peanut butter filling tastes the same as the middle of these so I now know how to make my own!

As I said I wanted to make a cake that was going to be a challenge to me and I have never made a tiered cake before, having played it safe all these years with cupcakes and basic large cakes. I decided to be a bit different and have a square bottom tier and then a found top tier (mainly because of my collection of cake tins) 

It was much easier than I thought it would be and I was very pleased with how it turned out.

 

We spent bank holiday Monday with the family and we all brought some food for lunch, the deal was to bring something sweet and something savoury, which we all did. 

  

National Trust Challenge part 3 - The classic Victoria Sponge

The first cake I can remember making was a Victoria Sponge. I think it is most peoples first cake, mine was from my mum's recipe book that I think comes from the 1970's but it worked and tasted great. When I started Little Sprinkles I spent time looking at the different sponge recipes out there and tried several before deciding on the one from the Hummingbird Bakery  cookbook. I like it because it is really light and fluffy and it doesn't use a lot of butter. So when I saw a very different recipe in the National Trust Cookbook I thought I would give it a go. 

The first thing that struck me as odd was the fact I had to weigh my eggs, something I have never done before in any kind of baking. But I did it.

Then I had to use the same weight of butter, sugar and flour and make sure I was beating them for a long time, I say I, but what I mean is my kMix. 

Any good cake maker know that the longer you beat the sugar and the butter the lighter the cake, I do beat them for quite a long time but as this recipe told me to beat them for at least 5 minuets I decided to time it, this is something that I will keep doing as I think it does make a difference. 

The resulting batter was much thicker than the one I am used to and it took double the cooking time. It cake out looking very nice but seems really heavy weigh wise and when it was cooled it had a crispy outside. 

I know that the traditional filling for a Victoria sponge is jam but I LOVE fruit curds and the National Trust do such an amazing range of them, I have not dared try some of them especially the Raspberry curd as I know that if I did, I would not be able to go a day without eating it! I have been known to go to a National Trust property just to buy another pot of curd! If you can't get to a National Trust property, I have just found out that you can buy them online here this is very dangerous information to me. 

Unfortunately I was not able to get to my local National Trust property (Montacute House) so I had to make do with the lemon curd I could find in the supermarket. Added to that a nice layer of buttercream.

A simple dusting of icing sugar and it was finished. 

I must say that even though this was a nice recipe to make, I do not like the cake. It is too heavy and buttery for me. 

National Trust challenge part 2 - Scones

I must confess I do enjoy eating a cream tea whenever the opportunity presents itself but I do not often make scones. The last batch I remember baking was some cheese scones for my husband as a valentines present 2 or 3 years ago so I thought that they would be a good challenge for me. After deciding I was going to do a sweet recipe rather than a savoury one I decided on the Ulster Scones recipe (I would like to say that was a nod to St Patrick's day, but I did not realise that when I chose it) 

Again I was able to use the wholemeal flour from Anglesey Abbey but I decided to halve the recipe which meant I had to do some creative working as I have never attempted to halve an egg and I never will. It was a nice easy recipe to follow and I put my ever trusty kMix to good use.

I had a little helper who wanted to cut out the shapes for me, I decided to break away from tradition and use other cutters as well as my round one to cut out the scone. Mainly because I have such a large selection of cutter I have to make sure I use them at every possible event.

Here is my version of the recipe, the original one is from The National Trust Complete Traditional Recipe Book by Sarah Edington

140g wholemeal flour

110g strong white flour

1/4 teaspoon bicarbonate of soda 

35g caster sugar

30g glace cherries chopped

40g butter

140ml buttermilk

1 egg. 

Preheat the oven to 200 degrees, sift together the flours, bicarbonate of soda and sugar, mix in cherries. Rub in butter and add buttermilk and egg. Kneed until it comes together. Do not over work the dough (I did and  you can taste it in the finished scone) Roll out to about 2.5cm thick and cut out scones. Put on baking tray and bake for between 10 - 15 minutes until risen and golden brown.  

For more National Trust recipes click here

These scones were very tasty and to prove it, I made them yesterday morning and there are none left today!