Sunday 5 August 2012

If I knew you were coming, I'd have baked a cake.


I do love to bake. Mostly I love it when people eat my creations and are like 'HOLY CRAP SARAH THAT'S AMAZING'. It feels good, you know? So I had all these grand plans of baking I was going to do for my party. I ended up taking on far too much and it meant that I had a mad rush to get it all ready, which has made me vow to not bake for a while. Also, it'll take months to de-sugar the kitchen. So. Goddamn. Sticky.

Big Top Birthday Cake
I made the rainbow cake from Claire's lovely blog which was really easy (but I think using gel colours is the way forward) but chucked a bunch of coconut in. I made coconut cream cheese icing from here, and then made it in a giant cupcake mould (these are really dense so you have to make a double quantity, and cook for about an hour). I then cut out stripes of red and white fondant - rectangular at the bottom, elongated triangles at the top - and laid it on the icing, added a little flag (from my cake stands) and some sprinkles - done! It wasn't too difficult, thankfully.


Ice Cream Cupcakes
I didn't actually have one of these in the end, but people told me they were good. I went by Charlene's recipe, but instead of vanilla, I made them coconut with coconut cream cheese icing as above. The icing wasn't quite thick enough to peak but I think that the flavour of the icing is what made them good. Sadly they were scruffy - it's so hard to get the mixture into the cups without spilling it, and if you do spill it, it burns. BOO.


Lion Cupcakes
These were chocolate cupcakes (the recipe from the Hummingbird Bakery book) with salted caramel icing. I made the Hummingbird cream cheese icing and then dolloped in a huge chunk of the amazing salted caramel that Hayley made me as my birthday gift. They were awesome, if a touch deformed.


Ringmaster Cupcakes
These were simple chocolate again - the same batch as the Lion Cupcakes - with Baileys icing coloured red. The icing recipe is here. They were fricking awesome. My moustache and top hat icing work was less so.


Clown Cupcakes
These are my famous maraschino cupcakes. I could have made them more clowny, but it was like 6pm on Saturday by this point. So they are bald.


Peanut Butter Cupcakes
I accidentally made grey icing last year when I was making Sha's penguin cupcakes, and decided to turn this to my advantage and make elephant cupcakes. Except a key part of that was black food colouring, which I forgot to buy, so instead we just made peanut butter cupcakes. The cakes themselves had a peanut butter cream cheese filling, and the icing was a simple chocolate buttercream with a shedload of crunchy peanut butter chucked in. They couldn't have been more peanut buttery if they had just been cups of peanut butter.


Fifteens
I took this recipe from Claire's blog again and they were CRAZY easy and went down a storm. Everyone was like 'These things! What are these things? They are good!' That, my friends, is what you want to hear. Especially when they took about ten minutes to make.


Peanut Butter Bars
This is my ultimate favourite recipe in the world because it is incredibly easy and I don't even need a recipe any more. If you mess up the quantities it doesn't matter. I've put the recipe on here before, but I'll reproduce it here in about three lines because it is THAT EASY. Make them. Make them now.


Crush about 20 digestive biscuits into crumbs (I normally put them in a plastic bag and bash them with a rolling pin) and then bung them in a food processor with about 500g icing sugar (like a box), a jar of peanut butter (it says 250g but I quite often use a 340g jar) and a block of melted butter. If you haven't got a food processor a bowl and your hands would work, but it's messier. When it's all combined, put in a foil-lined baking tray and press down to create a firm cheesecake style base. Melt a bunch of chocolate and pour over the top. When cooled, plonk in fridge for a couple of hours. Chop up and eat. Nom nom nom.

I also bought a ton of popcorn, crisps, monkey nuts and other yummy things and my work friends bought some nuggets, sausages and pizzas because they're awesome. Aaaand I didn't eat anything all night and felt like death the next day. Always eat, kids. Always eat.
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17 comments

  1. After all the icing I ate while making things, I still don't want any cakes.

    If you're reading this: the icings were pretty bloody epic. Especially the clown face one. Mmm, ameretto.

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  2. OMG that peanut butter bar sounds amazing! Must try them!

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  3. They sound absolutely delicious! x

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  4. There is nothing I want more in the world right now than a peanut butter bar. These are amazing!! Well done =)
    xx

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  5. i have put on 3 stone just reading this

    www.justjoannablog.blogspot.co.uk

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  6. I'm definitely trying the peanut butter bars!!!

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  7. Wow everything looks incredible. I really want to try salted caramel icing! Sound yummy
    Daniella x

    http://daniella-r.blogspot.co.uk/

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  8. pastries are my favorite goodie treats ever!!! they're just so good and there's really no way i can resist them.

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    :)
    Carrie
    http://readmylifeascarrie.blogspot.com/

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  9. Looks ace! Happy Birthday! Fifteens and all other sorts of tray bake goodness are a big thing in Northern Ireland; top hats would've been perfect! Mini bun case with melted choc in bottom, marshmallow on top, then stick smartie on top of that with more melted choc.

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  10. Wow, this all looks so good, very impressive :) I love baking but it takes me so long to get geared up to do it usually takes me a full day from start to finish just to do 12 cupcakes, haha!

    allaboutthegirlblog.blogspot.com xx

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  11. This is all so cute, I love it! x

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  12. Now i'm even more sad that I couldn't come! However, I was eating fifteens in Northern Ireland so I feel like a small part of me WAS there :) x

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  13. God, I'm hungry now - damn you all! ; )

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  14. WOW these all look amazing, I am definitely going to try the peanut butter bar!

    Maria xxx

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  15. The peanut butter bars look amazing! Hayley did an amazing job on all the icing too.

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