WELCOME HOME OLIVIA.

My big sister has been in Guyana (South America) for the past 4 weeks arrived home today! While in Guyana she helped to develop Girl Guiding, and I'm very proud of her for travelling away and doing something for such a good cause!  So far, she's introduced me to some Guayanese music (not to my taste!) and some Guyanese rum (much more to my taste!)

As a surprise welcome home present, I decided to try my hand at fondant icing and make her a celebration cake.  In true Hardacre style, I went all out with a two tier, iced cake, complete with fondant figurines.

It may not be the prettiest cake ever, but with it being my first fondant iced cake I was pretty happy with the result!

The cake itself was a simple victoria sponge cake with jam in between the layers.

You will need (for 2x 8" cakes and 2x 6" cakes):

8 medium eggs

1lb (453.6g) flour

1lb (453.6g) caster sugar

1lb (453.6g) margerine or soft butter

Raspberry (or whatever you like) jam

Fondant icing

Method:

Mix all the ingredients in a (very!) large bowl.

Pour the mixture into the greased cake tins, I did one of each size, cooked it and then did the next two.

Bake in the oven for 15-20 minutes, or until golden and springy.

Leave each layer to cool.

Put one of the 8" cakes onto a cake tray and cover in jam.  Place the second 8" cake on top, and again, cover (lightly) in jam.

Repeat with the 6" cakes.

For the icing, roll out your desired colour of icing, on a table/surface dusted liberally with icing sugar, until it is quite thin.

Using the rolling pin, carefully lay it over the cake and smooth down.

Repeat this with the smaller cakes, then place them on top of the bigger cakes.

Now its totally up to you on how you decorate! I found a good website on how to make fondant figurines that takes you step by step: http://caketrails-nz.blogspot.co.uk/2011/09/simple-fondant-figure-tutorial.html

 Its actually a very easy cake to make as a celebration cake as you can personalise and decorate it however you like! 

Happy baking,

SIMPLE ICED CUPCAKES

Soo I'm a totally proud little sister this week, as yesterday my big sister Olivia graduated from university with an honours degree in Arabic! 

As a lovely little (well little in age, not in height!) sister, I decided to bake her something of her choice.  One of her favourite things in the world is glacé icing, and she asked me to bake her some simple vanilla cupcakes, covered in icing.

These simple cakes are just vanilla sponge mix covered with glacé icing, and literally couldn't be easier or quicker, making them perfect for a birthday party or an unexpected coffee guest!  I think with all the fancy cakes available now, it's easy to forget just how good a simple sponge cake is. 

Having been baking sponge cakes my whole life, I don't use a recipe anymore, for each egg I simply use 2oz (sorry, I work in oz! Thats roughly 56.7g) of everything else.

First of all, get your ingredients:

3 eggs

6oz (170g) flour (sifted)

6oz (170g) caster sugar

6oz (170g) butter or margerine 

Splash of milk

Icing sugar

Water

This makes roughly 18 fairy cakes. (If you want more cake, increase the quantities!)

Next:

Line a fairy cake tray with fairy cake cases (medium size ones).

To make the cake mix, (I use Mary Berry's all in one method) add the flour, sugar, butter, milk and eggs into a bowl and mix until smooth.

Spoon into the lined cake tin, filling to roughly 3/4 up the side of the case.

Put into the oven at 190C/fan 170C/gas 5, for roughly 20 minutes or until pale gold and springy to the touch.

 Put onto a wire rack to cool. 

To make the icing, simply mix the icing sugar with a little water until you have the desired amount and consistency.

Dollop onto the cakes and allow to run. 

 It's also compulsory to eat the leftover icing with a spoon, which is definitely my favourite bit!

Happy baking,