Rainbow Birthday Cake

I'm back! I haven't had the internet for the past few months hence my absence, but I have now moved into an amazing new place with a bigger and better kitchen so will be doing lots more baking/blogging.

American rainbow cake is a cake that I have wanted to make for so long, I love how fake and ridiculous the colours are. So I invested in some gel colours, these are so highly concentrated that you genuninely only need to use the tiniest amount. So although it seems that anything that brightly coloured must be so incredibly bad for you, it actually hasn't had that much added to it, thus justifying me spending £20 on food colouring...No?

I wanted to debut the colours on a special occasion, so what could be better than my joint birthday party weekend with one of my besties Miss Annie Leith.

I started by making a basic cake mix, and then divided it into 6 seperate bowls to colour it. I had to bake each layer individually which was a bit annoying, and it was quite hard to get the temperature and baking time right for such thin layers, bit of trial and error, I reckon I could get they layers more even next time!

I wanted to get a good contrast to the colours so decided on a cream cheese frosting, I love how white it is and it also always feels really luxurious, a good mix between cheesecake and cake!

When I stacked it up I suddenly realised just how tall it was going to be, I had to feed 11 people so wasn't concerned about the amount of cake but rather the height, it had to travel 100miles to the lake district in the back of my car!

I did a crumb coat of the frosting first with the intention of icing it properly when I got there, I really wanted to hide the colours so that everyone in the car would still be surprised when I cut it open and it seemed to work!

It got there in one piece! (infront of the mountain of booze we had for the weekend)

When decorating it I also wanted it to be quite simple on the outside, so I reigned myself in and stuck to a really basic smartie decoration, plus I got to eat the leftovers, always a bonus.

The big reveal! When Annie and I cut it open (wedding style, obviously) everyone was screaming at the rainbow interior so it was definitely a success!

A happy birthday girl.

And the carnage that was left! Oh, and it tasted good- a secondary concern.

Soph x

Devils Food Cake

This cake is the cake, my ultimate chocolate cake. I love all sorts of chocolate cakes, from the immensely sugary, to a bitter chocolate and almond cake, but this is my go-to cake, everyone seems to love it. Although its made with dark chocolate, its not bitter and manages to still be really fudgey and sweet, and the muscavado sugar gives it a real depth of flavour. The frosting never actually sets, its stays sticky and squidgy for as long as the cake lasts (which is not long as its yummy). The sponge itself if a great combination of light and fluffy and somehow moist and dense. Really, this recipe is worth a go!

I like to make the frosting first, you melt 175gs of butter, and then add 300gs of dark chocolate, about 30 grams of muscavado sugar and around 120mls of water. This makes it a really really liquidy mixture, to the point that you won't think it will ever be icing consistency, but what you need to do is whisk it every so often as it cools, this will gradually make it really glossy and thick, and then all of a sudden it will change into the perfect consistency to frost a cake with!

It is obviously quite a rich cake, so I decided to pair it with some redcurrants, I absolutely love them, they are so tart so add a bit of sharpness, and look like little jewels, perfect for this cake!

For the cake:

50g best-quality cocoa powder, sifted

100g dark muscovado sugar

250ml boiling water

125g soft unsalted butter, plus some for greasing

150g caster sugar

225g plain flour

1⁄2 teaspoon baking powder

1⁄2 teaspoon bicarbonate of soda

2 teaspoons vanilla extract

2 eggs

Combine the cocoa, muscavado sugar and boiling water in a bowl, mix well and leave to the side. Cream the butter and sugar (quelle suprise), add in the vanilla then alternate mixing in the dry ingredients and the two eggs (I sometimes use 3 eggs if they are a bit small, who ever said you have to be mega strict about measures when baking exaggerated, its more important that your technique and judgement are right). Then simply fold in the cocoa mixture and pour into two tins and bake for around 30mins at 180 degrees/gas 4.

 Soph x

Home grown blackberry vodka

Last year we had a whole load of blackberries growing in our garden and I didn't know what to do with them, so the birds got them. This year I decided I needed to make a plan for them! My parents used to make sloe gin every year when we were little and I never got to sample it (I didn't start that early...) so I decided to make my own version...blackberry vodka.

Note the size difference of home grown vs supermarket...GM at work?



Its really simple, I used a pretty cheap vodka, not value but not fancy and had to buy another punnet of blackberries as you need 500 grams which is quite a lot!

It was really really simple to do, you need to sterilise your jar first, to do this I just washed mine really thoroughly with soapy water and then poured in just boiled water and let it sit for a bit, then dry naturally. You could also put it in a low oven for 10mins, but I was too scared that it would shatter!
Once sterilised you simply pour in the vodka, 200 grams of sugar and the blackberries.

And its done! Well not quite. You need to rather patiently tip the jar from side to side until all the sugar has dissolved. And then do this again every day for 2-3 weeks, and then once a week after that, for about 6-8 weeks. Then strain the fruit out and it will keep for about a year (not that it would ever last that long in our house)

I'm very excited to try it! I was also thinking it would make a nice little christmas gift, maybe bottled into minitures and tied up with a bow? Thrifty.

Jaffa cakes

Jaffa cakes are a classic, and a favourite of mine. I fancied making something easy but a bit fun, and so decided on these. Cake or biscuit? Ask the tax man and its cake, ask me and its a biscuit, but now that I have made them...i'm leaning towards cake.

I love using this little whisky man, he doesn't shape up compared to my normal mixer, but for a quick whisk he gets the job done!

A "tray of horrible eggs" according to my sister....

Add a little chocolate blanket and they are done!

The finished product...

Vegan Chocolate Brownies

With one vegan sister, and one lactose intolerant friend, dairy/egg free cooking is something I definitely wanted to get to grips with. As I flew home to Belfast to celebrate Debbies birthday I decided to make her some nice dairy free treats.


It was a really simple recipe, substituting butter and milk for soya butter and milk, and using no eggs (oil instead) its actually turned out as something I will definitely be cooking again.

It was quite nice cooking at home as we have a much bigger kitchen than I have in manchester, plus a nicer oven, and a little visitor to keep me company....

The recipe and frosting is completely vegan, but I wanted to kitch it up a little as they were birthday brownies, unfortunately its so hard to get good vegan sweets so the final version were only dairy free, but I kept a few vegan...

I also added a few chunks of good quality dark chocolate, a bit of luxury which is needed when there is no butter.

And that was it! They actually turned out really well, not quite as fudgy or squidgy as I would normally like a brownie to be, but as a vegan alternative they are great, hope the birthday girl enjoyed them!

Quick post bbq treat

We had an impromptu bbq at our house this evening, such is the way of British weather that you need to make haste to enjoy a tiny bit of sun when you can.
 

I made a speedy coulis by stewing half of the strawberries with some sugar and a splash of water.

And I will not patronise by explaining what else I did, Eton Mess is so simple but unbelievably good.

 

 It was a good excuse to use my little dessert glasses that I bought on a day trip to Formby, love them.

Best enjoyed in the sun!

Sophie x

Tablet Fudge

When I was growing up we went to Scotland a lot, it's so close to Northern Ireland that it was a staple long weekend away, getting the ferry over and driving to different little towns etc. One of my favourite things was always Scottish tablet fudge. Luckily there was a little shop on Abbey Street in Bangor that also sold homemade tablet so my addiction could be supported at home too.

I was never allowed to try and make it myself when I was younger, I have a bit of a reputation for burning myself (most severe resulted in me ending up in A+E and with a big bear paw bandage for several weeks) so now that I am a proper grown up n'all I decided to give it a go.

Its quite a simple recipe, but a good un,

Simply one tin of condensed milk, 1kg of sugar and 100g of butter, and a bit of milk to "damp" the sugar as you bring it to the boil. Also a good splash of quality vanilla. (or you could use vanilla sugar)

1kg of sugar looks like a hell of a lot, and it is, but this recipe makes a hell of a lot of fudge, so I guess it works out ok?!

You basically bring all the ingredients to the boil, and simmer for around 20mins, you really need to constantly stir the mixture or the sugar will caramelise and the fudge will have little flecks of caramel/burnt sugar through it. This can be a bit of a pain to be honest, it is not a recipe to do if you are impatient.

 One of the easiest ways to check its done is to work a little bit of the mixture on a cool plate, if it starts to harden and crystalise its ready.

Alternatively you can use a sugar thermometer and get it to 118-120 degrees, which I like to do purely cause it makes me feel a bit like a mad scientist.

Once up to temperature you need to beat it really vigourously until the texture starts to feel grainy and a bit stiffer, hard to describe but you can really tell the difference. This is strenuous, which was a good excuse not to go to the gym tonight. Logic?

Once ready just pour it into a buttered tin and let it set, usually overnight. And then just cut it into pieces.

And thats it, pretty simple but does take a bit of work. It really makes loads though, we now have a tin full of it in the kitchen and I've posted some off to my Dad for fathers day this weekend.

Sophie x