Pat-a-cake, Pat-a-cake, Baker Man!

 See I know they have wedding season and that makes sense. Beautiful bright, warm and sunny days, albeit the fortnight a year we get in Britain, make for a happy Bride, wonderful photos and even better memories, but since when did there become a 'baby season'? Okay I know the birds and the bees and maths may not be my strong suit but I can work out a logical correlation, but so many people around me seem to be having babies. So in honour of these friends I took out some new piping nozzles for a spin and tried something a little different.

 I've never been massively into piped work nor have I ever attempted basket weave, namely because the majority of cakes using the technique seem to be outdated and unoriginal basket cakes with flower sprays on top. I fell in love with this technique! It was so easy to master as the beauty of it lies in its simplicity. Once you know the basic prinicple of how to create the weave you're cooking on gas and mistakes are easily rectified or failing that adds to the character, a winner!! I didn't pay such attention to the surrounding of cake (I told you I wasn't great at piping and here it shows!) but once again utilising my much loved blossom cutters and a fondant ribbon proving it doesn't always take great skill and tools to create an effective finish. Now go everyone and try basket weave and lets get rid of the bad name its created for itself!

Bruce Bogtrotter's Chocolate Indulgence

A scrumptious salted caramel chocolate checkerboard cake, now try saying that in one breath after a few drinks...or a chocolate overload! The fashion of salty sweetness is one of perfection in my eyes and the salted caramel of this cake works a beaut with the richness of the thick, glossy ganache. The salted caramel chocolate cake was first baked by my sister (another Bakes both in name and hobby) from the the Hummingbird Bakery's Cake Days recipe book as my birthday cake last year. Whilst both delicious and somehow around three times larger than the recipe ever intended, it was a painstakingly and unnecessarily complicated recipe including an extensive list of ingredients that didn't really make for the cake we hoped it would be. The original recipe if you fancy conquering it can be found here however for this cake we chose to take all the Hummingbird's best bits for a simplified but enhancedly delicious cake!

I baked this baby using half each of my basic tried and tested chocolate and vanilla recipes so we knew the cake was gunna be delish. Ok, so my first checkerboard cake wasn't a resounding success with the lines getting a little wobbly in places but rename it a zebra cake and I suppose its grand! The basic principal of a checkerboard cake is to take at least three cake tins of the same size, although I used four for a nice big Bruce Bogtrotter sized slice. You take equal quantities of chocolate and vanilla sponge mix into seperate piping bags and pipe in alternating ring from the outside in, simple? Now, it seems far more complicated than it is simple really is the word, as long as you begin with an outside ring of chocolate mix in two tins and vanilla as the outside ring in the other, layering them up alternately creates the impressive checkerboard effect. Top tips: it sounds obvious but make sure your piping bags are either cut to he same size or have the same size nozzles or you'll end up with unequal stripes (as on the bottom layer) also these need to be pretty surprisingly large to be effective anything up to 3/4 inch works well, and finally equal constant pressure really is key to stop wonky zebra lines like here! 

Then for the best bits; the salted caramel and chocolate ganache. I took these directly from the Hummingbird Bakery recipe as quite simply they're just too good to miss! The quantities given can make two cakes sparingly for those who like a more subtle flavour, or lash it on allowing the salted caramel to really soak into the slices of sponge. Sandwich each layer with a good dollop of of yummy ganache and smother it all round the sides. I love the deep, unforgiving richness of this cake and the caramel gives it a moistness that makes it more of a pudding than an afternoon treat. Decoration isn't even necessary, a few bright candles as styled in the original recipe makes a wonderful birthday treat. Go on, indulge!!

Coffee & Walnut Cake

Coffee has been a longstanding obsession of mine (and half the nation's I might add) but nuts are more of marmite thing. Coming across a new obsession with them be it hazelnut, pecan or almond I naturally came to the conclusion I had to try my two loves combined in a hopefully blissful union. Now I know we're not reinventing the wheel here but coffee and walnut cake is once again a love it or hate it; more so for me however, love to eat the cake, hate the ones in the shop. Thus began my quest for the perfect recipe. Never in my life has anything been so easy as finding 'the' recipe. Usually a laborious, and ever so slightly fattening, task of testing ensues but here, the first recipe I attempted reigned supreme. Nigella, queen of scrumptious presents creates not only the most moist, moreish cake but also the simplest done entirely in the blender! A job well and deliciously done, find the recipe here.

Macaroons

Being a lazy old sunday I was feeling inspired and so took up my apron and into the kitchen I went! Now having mastered the art of cake baking (if not too bold to say) and having made many a batch of biscuits I felt like making something a little different and after a little scouring found the perfect recipe for macaroons! I say perfect, having never made these little delights before my only guide for the 'perfect' recipe was having all the ingredients in the house and lo and behold the delicious magazine's recipe for multicoloured macaroons had exactly this. In all honesty in the heat of the moment I may have become a little over-ambitious rooting out all my colours and flavourings and deciding to double and then split the mixture between four bowls creating peppermint, strawberry, lemon and chocolate flavours with a simple whipped cream filling. The filling, I might add, was about as simple as got. Having only 150g of ground almonds in my cupboard I blitzed up some chopped almonds to create the create quantity. Under normal circumstances this would have worked however macaroons require a smooth glossy batter and no amount of whizzing and sifting could combat the bitty texture of the almonds. So, Tip No. 1 of macaroon making ground almonds really do work best. The next issue I faced was with my peppermint macaroons I believe this may have been down to my sheer excitement causing me to be a little heavy handed with the flavourings which caused my batter to split, this had  the effect of making it far too runny and spreading all over  my oven, oops! So into the bin that went! But it wasn't all too bad, my strawberry and creams using the same base batter worked out fairly well. Giving them a good old bash (not to be forgotten as I did with the first) meant the had a wonderful glossiness and the desired foot to sandwhich just enough cream to make them a real delight. Although they were a little more chewy than expected, and here I must admit that i couldn't wait long enough to allow them to cool and get that perfect bite, they went down a treat and of my batch of 10 only 2 are left! I plan to master the art of chocolate macroons (everyone's favourite) and can only pray they come out a little better than these. Regardless, for a first time macarooner this recipe was brilliantly simple and easy to follow I recommend it to anyone who's shyed away from these love French fancies!