The Peter Rabbit Birthday Cake

This past weekend Holly turned 4. She had a very busy long weekend; we spent a day shopping and eating ice cream, a day at the local May fair and lunch with Grandma and Grandpa; and an afternoon of cake and traditional party games with her friends from nursery.

Holly requested a Peter Rabbit birthday cake some time ago and even drew me a design of what she wanted it to look like.  Ever since visiting the Lake District last autumn, and seeing the Peter Rabbit museum with her Grandparents, Holly has loved Peter Rabbit and his friends. 

I made Holly this single-tier birthday cake from half-chocolate, half-vanilla sponge filled with buttercream and then iced with baby blue fondant icing.  The vegetables and fence and flowers are all made from fondant too.  Peter Rabbit himself is a ceramic ornament but the cake stands up to his weight well.

To match the cake (and to make sure the girls had something sweet to nibble on during the party) I made some matching cupcakes with the left-over icing.  I happened to have some very cook Beatrix Potter cupcake cases and cake toppers so I simply added a few fondant leaves and flowers to finish them off.

Holly absolutely loved her birthday cake.  Holly mainly likes to eat the icing; I mainly like to eat the cake so we have a good arrangement together!

Lara has now put in her birthday cake request.  She is having a trampoline party so guess what she wants her cake to be?!

Holly had an excellent weekend.  I don't think she's fully recovered from it yet but this is the start of a new year for her which will bring big changes when she starts school.  She's my monkey but she's growing up fast.

I'm Dreaming of a Black Christmas

This year I've made a little bit of a break from tradition when it comes to our Christmas cake. Not just that my cake is black, but also that I've strayed from Nigella's trusted chocolate Christmas cake and I've gambled on a traditional fruit cake.

This year's Mellow family Christmas cake is a square fruit cake topped with marzipan and then coated in black fondant icing. I've decorated with a stylised white piped Christmas tree (nicked from Pinterest) and gold sparkly buttons which were a chance buy in Tesco earlier this year. I finished the cake with a flourish of gold sparkly edible glitter spray.

We are now off to enjoy a slab of our cake.  So I'll take this opportunity to wish all of my loyal readers a Merry Christmas and a wonderful new year.

Mellow Mummy's Chocolate Cadburys Mini Egg Easter Cake

This afternoon I have been baking.  Cadbury's Mini Eggs are about my favourite thing on the entire planet and I was in the mood for cake so I created this Easter chocolate mini egg cake.

It was very simple to make.  I made a large batch of plan sponge mix:-

375g Caster Sugar

375g Soft Butter

375g Self-Raising Flour

3 tsp Vanilla extract

I heated the oven to about 160 degrees (most recipes say a bit higher than this for a large sponge, but I find that this temperature is most predictable for me).  I cooked the cake in two parts, one 20cm diameter and one 10cm diameter, both in spring-form tins.  The smaller cake took about 25 minutes and the larger cake took just over one hour at this low temperature.

After cooling, I sliced the cakes in half and trimmed them neatly.

I made a huuuuge batch of chocolate buttercream.

275g of Butter

600g of Icing Sugar

80g of Cocoa Powder

1 tsp Vanilla Extract

A Splash of Milk

I sandwiched the sliced cakes together with a layer of the buttercream and then, using a pallette knife, I very carefully coated both cakes with a thick layer of buttercream and placed them offset on top of one another.

I decorated the cake with about 600g of Cadbury Mini eggs in a repeating coloured pattern and then finished the cake off with some Dr. Oetker wafer daisies.

Lara and Holly both enjoyed a piece of cake for pudding but Lara thinks it was too chocolatey!  Is there such a thing?

Valentines Day Cake

This is what I spent my afternoon doing!

I have been wanting to use the sugarcraft skills I learned last year and at last I found an excuse - a Valentines Day Cake.  Weekends on which I have enough free hours to spend the entire afternoon baking don't come around very often so I pounced on the opportunity, even though it is a bit early for Valentines day.  Think of this more as an un - Valentines day cake.

While Lara and Holly both napped for the afternoon, I baked, iced, coated and shaped.  I sourced my dark belgian chocolate curls from ebay, along with some delicate pre-coloured sugar craft paste.  The heart cake mould is one I got free from Lara's Dora the Explorer cookery subscription - I used it to make a three-tiered sponge filled and coated with bright pink buttercream.

The time consuming part was hand-crafting 12 sugar roses.  Especially tricky because Holly, once she woke, wanted to help me.  She had her first attempt at sugar roses today too!

The only trouble with this Valentines day cake is that it is too pretty for Mr. B. to cut into.

The Mellow Christmas Cake 2014

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Yesterday Lara and I put our finishing touches to our Christmas Cake. Lara has been with me right from the start of this cake about 7 weeks ago!

Our cake is a Nigella classic - a chocolate fruit cake with coffee liqueur. We used a layer of natural marzipan and then a layer of ready-coloured red fondant icing. I had plans to cut a sleigh and reindeer to cover the top of the cake but after several attempts, I gave up on that idea. This meant that Lara could help me cut all of the pieces using cookie cutters and plastercine cutters! I atached the stars and trees using edible glue.

Dr. Oetker - The Great Chocolate Bake

Midnight Triple Chocolate Cupcakes

This weekend Lara and I made some extra special chocolate cupcakes for the Dr. Oetker Great Chocolate Bake competition.

I WILL fight my way into this chocolate

If you have looked at the baking aisle in your local supermarket recently then you may have noticed that all the Dr. Oetker baking products are sporting a pink flash advertising the Great Chocolate Bake. Using the codes on the packs you can get hold of free bakeware but the most exciting thing is their Great Chocolate Bake competition which offers a grand prize of a £3000 holiday in New York.  The competition is a photo competition which takes place on the Dr. Oetker facebook page ; it closes on the 17th of October so HURRY!!!  Although voting on the facebook pages is taken into consideration, the actual judging takes place by the promoter and an independent judge.

Dr. Oetker sent Lara some chocolate baking ingredients to help us come up with some inspiration for a stunning chocolate cupcake creation.  We melted 150g of fine cooks extra dark chocolate and blended it with a rich 5-egg sponge mix (150g self raising flour, 150g butter, 150g caster sugar and a teaspoon or one sachet of baking powder). To make them extra decadant, we stirred in 50g of dark chocolate chunks into the mixture before putting them into the muffin cases.

Our cupcakes baked for about 25 minutes in a 180 degree oven and then came the fun.  I made a thick buttercream icing with cocoa powder and swirled it on.  Lara decorated the cakes with Dr. Oetker large chocolate stars, white and dark Dr. Oetker chocolate chunks, edible glitter stars and squeezy chocolate pudding sauce. I call them our midnight cupcakes.

If you are looking for some inspiration for your own Great Chocolate Bake cupcake, I've created a pinterest board of chocolatey ideas.

Cooking with Kids :: Halloween Pumpkin Cupcakes Recipe

This morning we took the girls for a walk through the grounds of the National Trust property, Wimpole Hall. It was a really autumnal, early morning walk through wet grass (avoiding the cow pats) and among fallen leaves and apples. I loved it.

After we had driven home, I was feeling in an autumny mood so I got Lara and Holly to help me make some halloween cupcakes to practice a design I had been planning - I'm hoping we can make a big batch of these pumpkin cupcakes next month for Halloween trick or treaters.


HALLOWEEN PUMPKIN CUPCAKES (Makes 15)

INGREDIENTS
3 large eggs
175g melted butter
175g self-raising flour
175g caster sugar
1.5 teaspoons baking powder

150g icing sugar
50g butter at room temperature
45 raisins
Yellow and red food colouring (or orange, if you can find it)
Green sprinkles or coloured sugar

METHOD

• Preheat the oven to 180 degrees (less in a fan oven).
• Beat the eggs in a large mixing bowl.
• Add half of the flour, sugar and baking powder and mix REALLY well.
• Now add the other half of the flour, sugar and baking powder and stir again until well-combined.
• Pour in the melted butter and mix well.
• Pour the batter into 15 muffin cases (nice deep ones) until each of them is about half-full.
• Bake for 18-20 minutes and once well risen and golden, remove and leave to cool on a wire rack.
• Allow to cool COMPLETELY before decorating.
• For the icing, sieve the icing sugar into a bowl and add the butter. I use an electric mixer to beat it really well and if it needs a little help to combine, I add a tiny touch of milk. Stir in a couple of drops of both the red and yellow food colouring to make a pumpkin orange colour and mix well.
• Using a pallete knife, 'brush' the icing onto the top of each cake, turning as you go.
• Cut each of the rasins into a triangle shape (reserving the pieces that you cut off each side)
• Sprinkle a little green sugar at the top of each cake for a stalk (if I had angelica sticks I would have used them to make stalks)
• Arrange the triangular raisins for eyes and mouth. Use the left-over strips of raisin to make mouths.
• Enjoy

Duracell Power Me - Achieve Your Goals

As you may know, I've had this growing interest in cake decorating since becoming a mum. If you take a look at my most popular pinterest board below, you can see that I've set my sights quite high when it comes to decorating the girl's birthday cakes. This week Duracell are helping to power me to reach one of my life goals by sending me on a cake decorating course so that maybe I can reach these same dizzy heights of cake awesomeness!

We all have a list of goals. Some more adventurous than others. Duracell have found that, as a nation, only 4% of us claim to have achieved our list of life goals and that stresses such as money, time and motivation all contribute to us failing to reach our goals. Duracell are on a mission to try and power more people into aiming for, and meeting those goals.

Endurance athlete, James Cracknell is an ambassador for the Duracell campaign as you can see in the video below.

James is a two times Olympic gold medalist, rower, endurance athlete and adventurer - you can say hi to James and the Duracell community on the Duracell UK Facebook page where fans are encouraged to share their goals, get support from the Duracell community and for the chance to win a Power Boost from Duracell. so if you need a boost to push you to try and achieve one of your life goals, or something from your own 'bucket list' then James has the following tips.

1. Live in the present, stay positive and enjoy the journey not just the motivation.
2. Reward yourself in training, there's no point in living like a monk, you won't stay motivated to commit to the training.
3. Do a challenge or set yourself a goal with other people, it's easier to keep motivated if others are going through the same ups and downs.  Especially as you're never all going to be down at the same time!
4. Choosing a goal that requires you to learn a new skill makes it easier as you can see progression all the time.
5. Have a really strong rationale/reason for choosing that particular goal, that way you're more likely to stick to it.


Find out in a couple of weeks how I get on with my cake-creation challenge!

Cooking with Children :: James Martin Chocolate Cake

Lara's attention span currently maxes out at about 2 minutes for any one task, which is why I shudder when she asks "Mummy, I want to do some cooking". By the time I have lifted out all of the ingredients and equipment, got her to wash her hands, put on her apron and got into her Funpod, Lara has lost interest and says "No Mummy, I didn't want to cook THOSE biscuits/cakes/salad/pasta/vegetables" and bursts into tears. A ready-to-make cake mix isn't something I would ordinarily use for myself but for Lara, at this impatient stage in her life, it seems to solve a need - cutting out lots of the prep time and offering her a slightly increased level of independence

Lara was sent one of the latest cake mixes from the James Martin Bakery range to try out. The James Martin Chocolate Cake Mix is a lot more grown up than 'kids' cooking mixes and the ingredients reflect this. Yes, being a packet mix it does contain emulsifiers and raising agents that I wouldn't add if I were making it from scratch but it does at least contain cocoa (unlike some kids 'chocolate flavour' baking products I have seen) and in general, I was happy with the ingredients - they certainly led to a very tasty and good looking cake!

All Lara had to do to make the cake was to stir the cake mix with one egg (she can crack them herself now) and a small cup of Cola!! The secret ingredient.

Then I constructed the paper baking tray for her and she scraped it in. We cooked the cake on a low heat for 45 minutes until it was firm and well risen.

One the cake was cool, we made up the frosting by adding a small amount of butter and milk to another mix. We slathered it on and then threw chocolate curls at it. I must say, it looked like a very smart cake for a 2 year old to have made!

I can now see the attraction of a ready made cake mix - it certainly solved the attention span problem we are currently going through. Of its kind, I think this James Martin Bakery Chocolate Cake Mix was very good. It was a good texture, if a little lacking in flavour for the cake itself.  I'd be happy to buy these again to cater to the urgent cookery demands of a preschooler however, I'm still pretty certain that both Lara and I would prefer to eat a chocolate cake made by James Martin himself - he being an awesomely good pastry chef.

Life's Little Surprises

I will admit that sometimes, as a blogger, I squeal with excitement when I open the post on my return from work and find a well thought-out gift from a brand representative. I love surprises. Mind you, I love surprises from Mr. B more... mainly because they are so rare. Mr. B. is not one for surprise gifts (although he did manage to engineer a very cute cuddly owl from Lara as my mother's day present!).

A study by Mr. Kipling during March this year showed that I shouldn't be that surprised at the lack of unexpected treats - women over 55 are much more likely to receive a special treat than people in my age bracket.

Mr. Kipling sent me my own little treat in the post - a box of goodies which included some of their new Angel Slice and Lemon Slice cakes. Sadly, I can't show you a photo of said cake because it all disappeared in the blink of an eye - this has something to do with a ravenous Lara and the fact that the snap pack cakes come in individual servings so I was able to secrete slices of cake in my work laptop bag for a sneaky afternoon snack.

They also sent Lara a surprise - a pack of Mister Maker craft goodies which she ripped open and transformed into THIS - a surprise gift for the baby. How cute is that?  surprises all round.

Mr. Kipling have been touring the country with a cakemobile which still has a few more stops to make before the 5th of May. Look out for it and you too could be in with a chance of receiving a little surprise. Alternatively, pop over to the facebook page where there are also chances to win a special treat (such as a Merlin annual pass).

Cooking With Children : Raspberry & Rose Cupcake Recipe

Cooking with children isn't all about baking cupcakes... but I'll admit that cupcakes are a fun and simple recipe with which to start. For a toddler such as Lara, mixing the cake batter and then decorating the tops of the cupcakes is great fun and a brilliant way to introduce them to cooking.

The cupcake recipe that Lara and I cooked at the weekend was inspired by a recipe in a Dr. Oetker recipe collection. Dr. Oetker sent Lara a few different types of cake decoration to try out and this recipe seemed a little out of the ordinary so we gave it a try. I think these are the moistest, fluffiest, softest, cakiest cupcakes I've ever made - a great success.

Rasberry & Rose Cupcakes
makes 12 cupcakes

INGREDIENTS








For the cakes:
115g soft margarine
115g caster sugar
115g plain flour
2 medium eggs
1.5 teaspoons baking powder
65g (about 12 teaspoons) raspberry jam

For the decoration:
100g unsalted butter
1/4 to 3/4 teaspoon essence of rose water
Sugar decorations of your choice

METHOD

1. Preheat the oven to 190 degrees (170 in a fan oven, 375 F or Gas Mark 5). Prepare 12 baking cases (we used silicone cases sprayed with Dr. Oetker's ingenious Cake Release Spray.


2. In a great big mixing bowl, beat the margarine with the sugar until pale, creamy and light in texture. Little ones will probably need some help to get it to this stage but they can start it off


3. Lightly beat the eggs in a bowl and then gradually beat them into the margarine mixture


4. Sift in the flour and the baking powder and then, using a large spoon, fold the dry flour into the sloppy egg mixture. Don't worry about being too precise with your folding, toddlers and folding are not a great combination!


5. Spoon a teaspoon of the mixture into each of the cake cases. Then add a teaspoon of jam onto each. Finish off by splitting the rest of the cake mixture evenly between the cake cases. Bake in the center of the oven for about 16-18 minutes until they are a golden colour and are just firm on the top. When you take them out of the oven, put them straight onto a cooling rack and they will firm up as they cool.


6. Make sure the cakes are totally cool before you ice them. But the butter in a bowl and beat until soft (for some reason, Lara hated this bit!)Sift in the icing sugar to make a smooth creamy icing. Stir in a really tiny amount of rose water to give the icing a distinct floral taste (a little rose water goes a long way).


7. At this point you could put the icing into an icing bag and let your littlies loose on the cupcakes. I thought Lara was a little young to master an icing bag so I let her dollop the icing onto the cakes. Our icing was made with unrefined icing sugar so it looks kinda beige... a white icing sugar would probably be a more appropriate.


8. And now, for the fun part, decorate the cakes in any way you see fit using exciting decorations such as Dr. Oetker's polka dots and shimmer sugar. Beautiful

Lara loved the cakes and their lively toppings but wasn't too keen on the jam-surprise inside them. This is a simple yet unusual recipe to help you start cooking with children.