A Weekend of Baking...Yellow rose cake

This week it was my Nan's birthday, and to celebrate, I am holding my first Sunday lunch for the family tomorrow at The Nest! (Eeeek!) On the menu are four different kind of pies, Steak and Ale, Chicken and Sausage meat with caramelised red onion, chicken, smoked bacon and leek and a roasted vegetarian pie with humous (kindly made by my Mum) with mashed potatoes and vegetables, a perfect winter Sunday lunch.

As it is a birthday meal, it wouldn't be complete without a birthday cake, so this week I have been working on a square lemon drizzle cake which was requested by my Nan. She requested the flavour but didn't specify any decoration, so I was free to create! She has always loved yellow roses, so I decided to incorporate those into the cake design. I love making sugar paste roses, and any excuse to practice some modelling I can't wait!

I chose a pale buttercup yellow for the roses and a dark bottle green for the leaves, as naturally rose leaves are a glossy dark green. I made these using rose leaf cutters with veiners, and then made my roses using a plastic wallet to smooth out the petals and then hand moulding the rest.

As I have said before, my lemon drizzle cake recipe is very moist, and when it came to getting it out of the tin it did take a little bit of coaxing! Getting the crumb coat on was also a challenge, as when spreading the buttercream, crumbs were coming off as fast as it was going on. However patience is required at this stage as your buttercream will look uneven and lumpy if you don't get it right at this rage. An icing smoother will help, but a smooth base will give the best finish.

As you can see from the image above, there were a couple of bits in my cake that I wasn't able to smooth as parts of the cake had come away with the butter icing. It was a shame that I couldn't fix it, but with carefully placed decorations, no one will ever know!

Covering the cake was challenging, as I always find square cakes more difficult. To get a really clean and crisp square shape, you need to cut separate panels and then join them together at the edges and corners, however I prefer the slightly more rounded look, and once it is smooth, it looks good. 

Sometimes, the cake cards that you buy are bigger than your finished cake as they are measured against the size of the actual tin. Mine did show as you can see from the image above, however with my design, I was able to cover them up using my rose decorations which was very lucky! I was really pleased with the final design of the cake and how it turned out. I just hope it tastes as good as it looks and that my nan likes it. 

Best baking companies from the Cake and Bake Show

Over the last couple of visits to the Cake and Bake show, I have picked up lots of leaflets, business cards and flyers from some great companies. Some I have heard of, and others have been completely new discoveries, and it has been fantastic being able to see the companies at their stands, and also to sample some their fantastic bakes. I thought I'd share some of my favourite companies with you here, which shows you not only their great websites, but also some great branding. 

Baker & Maker - This is a fantastic shop. they also ways have a fantastic stand, filled with products that are just that little bit different. Their website is filled with things for the home, kitchen and special presents for the baker in your life, from customisable cookie stamps to bedsheets, you're bound to find something you'll love. 

A whole collection of different business cards, love the Eat 'n' Mess logo and the Pig in the Middle sausage rolls were every bit as good as they say!

Crumbs & Doilies - I love this company, and their website is beautiful, really showing off their creations and excellent branding at the same time.

Cake Lace - Every time I walked past this stand it was absolutely packed, so many people are amazed by this product! Make up the mixture and spread into one of the beautifully designed moulds, bake, and peel a way a beautifully intricate lace design to use on your cakes, no wonder it's so popular!

Jane Means - Everyone needs beautiful ribbons to finish of their creations, and Jane Means designs fit the bill perfectly. Gorgeous vintage colours and designs are perfect for many different types of cakes, and if you're tempted to branch out, she also does wrapping courses and has published her own book on how to wrap the perfect prezzie 

La di da Cupcake co. - Last year I bought a box of 6 cupcakes, and they did not disappoint. They do a fantastic range of flavours as you can see from the top image, and are truly scrumptious. 

Lallapolosa - Simply the best salted caramel and pecan brownie I have ever tasted!

Meringue Girls - Always an eye-catching display with their neon pink sign, their couture looking meringues stand to attention in colourful lines to attract everyone to try them

Nevie-Pie Cakes - The home of the hand painted cake, and a real talent for decoration, watercolour style never looked so delicious!

Nielsen Massey - Flavours you can trust. I am a convert and now don't use any other vanilla essence in my baking, a superior quality product. A pared down and relatively calm stall at the Cake and Bake show encouraged you to spend some time and immerse yourself in the delicious smells

Paul.A.Young - A pure chocolate talent. An award winning chocolatier that is really pushing the boundaries of chocolate flavours, watch out for his award winners!

Posh Pinnies - If you sound as much time in the kitchen as I do, a lovely apron is essential. Sometimes I spend all day in mine and don't even realise, however with one of these, you certainly wouldn't be ashamed to answer the door!

Rosalind Miller - Winner of the Best Wedding Cake Designer 2012, her designs are undeniably showstoppers. Now stocked at Harrods, you can see why her beautiful designs and branding attract so much attention

Sponge - And the prize for the cutest cake at the show goes to this company with their baby sponges! Individually packed and perfectly bite-sized for one, their flavours and patriotic packaging all yell 'Eat Me!'

Squires - The creme de la creme of sugarcraft expertise, their exhibitions and shop are packed full of everything that you need to whip up your own creations. 

A weekend of Baking...Double chocolate and ginger cookies

Another trial for Christmas prezzies has been on the go this weekend, with ginger once again as the key ingredient. I found this recipe on the Tesco website, and as I am always on the lookout for a perfect gooey cookie recipe, I thought I'd give this one a try. As well as ginger and chocolate, the recipe also called for chopped pecan nuts, which were a delicious addition both in texture and flavour to the finished cookie. 

The mixture started out as a fantastic fudge cookie dough, almost brownie-like in consistency, then once chilled for a couple of hours, it became much harder and easier to work with. I scooped out portions using an ice cream scoop, and tried to get equal sized cookies this way. However, the mixture was still very sticky and it was quite tricky to get the mixture out from the scoop! I decided to bake the cookies in batches as I was expecting them to spread quite far and become large and flat. I lined two baking sheets with greaseproof paper and put six cookies on each, flattening them slightly with the back of a fork.

However, in the oven the cookies didn't spread as much as I had anticipated, and they remained quite thick once baked, and when eaten were quite cake-like in texture. The finished article may not have looked quite right in consistency terms, but they were certainly delicious! During baking I attracted some hairy friends, who hopefully were lured by the wafting smells of cookies baking. 

I'm looking forward to trying this recipe again to see what will happen next time. I know I need to flatten the cookies much further, and hopefully this will result in a slightly crispier out edge, but still retain a wonderfully gooey and soft centre.

The Cake and Bake Show 2014

Last month, my friend and I went down to Earls Court in London to attend the Cake and Bake Show. I loved going to the last one and was really excited about attending for the second time. Although I thoroughly enjoyed myself and picked up some fantastic bits for both caking and baking, I was a little dissapointed with the cake displays. The year before they had a huge selection of entrants for a wedding cake display and a fashion themed competition, along with a fantastic bank of tables at the entrance where baking companies showed off what they could do, whereas this year the display tables were drastically reduced and the jungle themed competition only had a few entrants. 

However, have a look at my photos below which show some of my favourite bits from the show.

The Cake companies show off their skills, some with surprising and fantastically camp results!

The Jungle themed cake competition entries 

The Meringue Girls and their beautiful and colourful stall, where their meringues had been used to decorate a tiered cake

A colourful bespoke cookie display