Confetti Birthday Cake

One thing about being a baker is whenever a birthday or special occasion arrises, all eyes fall on you. Not that I don't love showering my loved ones in sweet treats, there's nothing more satisfying that watching someone you love enjoying something you've created. Ocassionally, it becomes a bit of a chore, a busmans holiday if you will. Then you remember you bloody love making cakes, and making people happy is awesome, so you whip up a ridic cute and ridic easy confetti cake. Take a bow, you're the confection queen (or king) once more.

Confetti cakes are so easy to make, it's simply a vanilla cake with a tonne of rainbow sprinkles baked into the batter to give a glorious, speckled surprise.  Sadly, the majority of British rainbow sprinkles are a bit rubbish, we can't use all the fun colours found in American sprinkles you see.  If you can, get your mitts on some super bright confetti sprinkles. TKMaxx is a great place to find imported ones.  Unfortunately, I couldn't get my little hands on any pots of fun so my cake is a little subtle. The brighter the sprinkle, the brighter the final result.

If you're feeling super lazy, or super chill, you can always utilise a box mix and stir in a few handfuls of sprinkles.  I promise I won't tell.

Confetti Cake

Ingredients

• 350g caster sugar
• 350g unsalted butter at room temperature
• 6 large, free range eggs
• 350g self raising flour
• 1tsp baking powder
• 1tsp vanilla extract
• 4tbsp whole milk
• 150g rainbow sprinkles


• For the frosting :
• 250g unsalted butter at room temperature
• 450g icing sugar
• 1tsp vanilla extract
• 4tbsp whole milk
• rainbow sprinkles to decorate

Cooking Directions

1. Preheat the oven to 170C and line 3 9" cake tins with baking paper. Place the butter and sugar in the bowl of an electric mixer and mix on a medium speed for 5 minutes until the butter is light and creamy. Sift the flour and baking powder together and set aside. Turn the mixer down to a low speed and crack the eggs in one at a time. Once the eggs are fully Incorporated add half of the flour and mix to combine, add the milk and vanilla extract followed by the remaining flour and mix again. Stir through the confetti sprinkles.
2. Pour the batter into the prepared baking tins and bake for 35 minutes until golden brown and the cake springs back when you touch it. Allow to cool in the pans for 20 minutes before removing them and placing on a baking rack to finish cooling.
3. To make the frosting first mix the butter in the bowl of an electric mixer until pale and soft. Add the icing sugar, vanilla and 2tbsp of the milk. Turn the mixer on low and gradually increase the speed. Whip for 5 minutes, if the frosting looks too stiff add the rest of your milk. You may find you need a little more, just go steady until you reach a nice spreadable consistency.
4. Spread the frosting on top of your first cake, top with the next cake and repeat. Pop your top layer on and spread the remaining frosting on top and bring the excess down the sides of the cake. Once you've covered the cake in a layer of frosting, grab a bench scraper and hold it against the cake, pressing firmly drag the scraper around the cake to remove the excess frosting and reveal the cake layers for a semi frosted look. Pile a little more frosting on top of the cake and make a nice little swirl. Sprinkle with a few more confetti sprinkles and enjoy.

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Giant Cupcake for Birthday Season!

I have a love hate relationship with this time of year.  First of all, it's spring! The lambs are leaping and the sun is shining, well supposed to be shining, and it's the month I grow by one whole year.  The thing is, it's also the month that the majority of my friends and family do the same thing. My purse quivers and I'm stuck eating beans on toast for a month.  But, all of that is worth it when you get to give your nearest and dearest something that makes their face light up.  And that's exactly what this cupcake did.

Tate and Lyle were something of a saving grace this year.  The lovely Jo contacted me asking if I'd like to try some of their fair trade sugars out as part of their We Love to Bake initiative. Well, anything that makes the next few weeks easier on my purse strings is fine by me. So I accepted and a wonderful hamper of sugars were soon winging their way to me.  Thanks Tate & Lyle!

Using their array of ethical sugars I set about making a giant cupcake for my soon to be sister-in-law's birthday.  This is only the third giant I've baked so I was slightly worried about my amateurish icing and slightly wonky sponge, so I decided to try my hand at a fondant bow to distract from my shaky hands work.    Considering it's my first real attempt at sculpting I'm quite happy with the result, and it's made me hungry for bigger and better things.  I think I'll get my little self booked onto a sugar crafting course this summer.  The day I can hand craft a delicate sugar rose is the day I'll jump for joy!

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Upcakes

No, that wasn't a typo, today I have been making Upcakes. OK, I suppose I better explain myself, these cakes are based upon the charming and highly emotional film Up! Oh how I loved that film, I laughed, I cried and then I cried some more. So when I spotted these cakes on Bakerella's blog I just had to give them a try.


The only difficult thing about these cupcakes for me was finding a shop that stocked doughnut holes. Unfortunately the only holes I could find were jam filled so they were a little larger than the ones Bakerella used and I guess they were quite a bit heavier too. Rather than using noodles I had to use cocktail sticks to hold up the 'balloons' and even then the mound slid slowly down the sticks till they eventually met the top of the cake. Oh well, I'm sure they'll still taste just as delicious.

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So neglectful!

I feel dreadful for neglecting you, dear blog of mine but I've been awful busy with horrid uni work and not so horrid birthday fun!

Yep, I'm now the hideous age of 26, closer to 30 than 20? That's me! To detract from my impending maturity, I decided to celebrate this years milestone by throwing a pop stars themed birthday party. It was a roaring success with visits from Katy Perry, Axel Rose, George Michael, Lady Gaga and not to mention Hannah Montana (yep, that was me). The house was packed out with famous lookalikes, what my neighbors must have thought is beyond me, and much alcohol was consumed. A whole bottle of pink gin saw me unable to get out of bed the following day, not my finest moment!

Here are a few of the treats I whipped up for the occasion, it's a good job I took photos when I did because they barely made it past the first few arrivals!



Chocolate cupcakes with strawberry butter cream topped with chocolate covered strawberries. (I got the idea for these from flickr)



Chocolate cupcakes with vanilla butter cream with Oreo crumbs topped with an Oreo cookie.



And last of all, my birthday cake. A giant cupcake iced with vanilla butter cream. We got too drunk to cut this and it's currently a museum piece in my kitchen....

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The cake that almost killed me!

My latest project was, at first, seemingly simple. The pictures, the directions, all straight forward and perfectly documented. Once I began the process I saw I may have bitten off more than I could chew. Luckily it all worked out and the finished cake turned out fabulous, but the time and effort involved was massive! I would now like to introduce my 14 layer cake.

It may not look too impressive from the outside, in fact it kinda resembles Bruce Bogtrotter's cake from Matilda. However once you cut it open and reveal all those little layers, the wow factor takes over and you're filled with an overwhelming sense of pride.


As much as it was a hard graft, I really enjoyed baking this masterpiece. The process wasn't actually too difficult, just time consuming and a little hectic. If you were to attempt this, I recommend you follow Bakerella's advice and use 14 disposable baking pans, rather than just buying 4 and washing your trusty springforms between each layer, like I did. I'm covered in little burns and my kitchen hasn't quite recovered, but boy was it worth it.


Thank you Bakerella, for such wonderful inspiration and detailing it in such an easy to follow manner :)

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Remember remember the fifth of November

Gunpowder, treason and plot!

I'm very aware than bonfire night is far from over and most people are too worried about Christmas to even think of the fifth of November. Not me, I finished all of my Christmas shopping a month ago, with the exception of my dads which I bought today. An MP3 player I'm planning on filling with pretty songs, to further his musical education...awwwwh! And, since most of my uni work is now behind me (hurrah) I can finally catch up on some well deserved blogging.

Bonfire Night in Newcastle usually involves a group of people huddled round a spindly rocket desperately trying to light the fuse despite the biting wind and icy rain. And this year was no different. I guess you could go to a professional display, but I believe Bonfire Night without a glass of mulled wine is a sin and I wasn't about to trail all the way to the local park, soaking wet, for the pleasure of a few fancy explosions in the sky! No way, no how. So, being a natural hostess, don't scoff, I decided to buy a pack of sparklers and hold a wee gathering. Upon sending invitations, by text of course, to my nearest and dearest it was brought to my attention that my 'party' was to fall on the birthday of a dear friend. I'm horrible with dates, the only birthdays I can actually remember is my own and my mothers. So of course, this called for a birthday cake.



Stick a few sparklers in the top and I think it tops even the biggest of bonfires. I mean, how many bonfires have a red velvet cake center? None, that's how many! The cake was a roaring success, cream cheese frosting with mint match makers surrounding a beautifully soft cake. Sadly, I enjoyed a little too much of the high life and had to retire to bed before the cake was cut. This seems to be happening more and more in my old age, eeep. But from the mountain of text messages on my phone the following morning, it was a hit.

Recipe taken from Anne Bell's Gorgeous Cakes:

For the cake:
120g unsalted butter
300g golden caster sugar
2 large eggs (free range, think of the chickens)
300g plain flour
230g buttermilk (for love nor money I could not find buttermilk in my local supermarket, so I went with extra special, Channel Island full cream milk. I seemed to work fine)
1 tsp sea salt
1 tsp good quality vanilla extract
20g cocoa powder, sifted
1/2 tsp red food colouring
1tbsp white wine vinegar
1tbsp bicarbonate of soda

For the frosting:
180g unsalted butter
150g icing sugar, sifted
450g full-fat cream or curd cheese
1tsp good quality vanilla extract
2 x 150g boxes of matchmakers (I used mint)
Cocoa for dusting

Recipe:

Preheat the oven to 170C fan/190C normal. Butter two, three is you have them, 20cm sandwich or deep cake tins with a removable base and line with baking paper. Cream the butter and sugar in a food processor till really light and fluffy, Add the eggs one at a time, scraping down the sides of the bowl with each addition. Now add the flour in three goes, alternating with the buttermilk, beginning and ending with the flour. Add the salt, vanilla extract and cocoa powder. Add the food colouring with the tip of a knife until the mixture is a dramatic dusky red.

Mix the vinegar and bicarb together (it should fizz, fun!), and add to the batter. Divide the mixture between the three tins or, if using two put a third into each tin and bake the final cake while the other two are cooling. Bake the cakes for 20-25 minutes until they are shrinking away from the sides and firm when pressed in the centre. Leave to cool for ten minutes then turn out onto a wire rack, remove the paper and cool the right way up.

To make the frosting, cream the butter and icing sugar together in a food processor (I did this by hand) then blend with the cream cheese and vanilla extract. Transfer to a bowl.

Sack the three sponges on top of each other. With a bread knife carve the stack into a cone, starting about an inch from the centre, to make the shape of a tall bonfire (it says in the book that trimmings can be saved for a trifle, but I just ate them as a pre party snack). Separate out the layers and spread 2-3 tbsp of frosting over the base layer using a palette knife, top with the middle layer and smooth over 1 1/2 tbsp and top with the final layer. Coat the sides of the cone in the remaining frosting then stack the matchmakers upwards around the outside, braking them in half towards the end to fill in the gaps. Dust the whole cake in cocoa powder and place on a cake stand. Cover with clingfilm and chill for one hour. If chilling any longer than this remove the cake 30 minutes before you intend to serve it.

The cake keeps well for several days.

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