Cinnamon buns and other things

Long time no blog ...... Been busy with all sorts but mainly running around after a two year old. 

So lots has happened since I last blogged.  We have had days out a plenty, sunny weather, lots of hayfever, our first camping trip of the year, lots of DIY, Ebay, general house maintenance, tennis and more hayfever. 

But today we did a bit of baking.  These caught my eye the other day when we went to Ikea, they have recipe cards and had the recipe for the cinnamon buns they sell in the cafe which I love.  So I thought I would give them a try.

Don't look very appealing before cooking do they

Wow they actually look like the picture, that never happens with my baking.

I will definitely be making these again very easy and yummy.  Might add raisins before I roll the swirls or chocolate chips.  So fueled by several cinnamon buns I managed to re-do some pots - out with the pansies and in with the geraniums.

Anyway must get back to the tennis, come on Murray

Two

On Sunday my beautiful baby girl turned two!!  She is a little girl now full of smiles and fun, has strong ideas of her own and is most happy in her wellies outside (just like her mummy really).

For her birthday I set to on Saturday and made her a birthday cake.  What to make, well it had to be child friendly so sponge cake and I went for 6-6-6 recipe plus a couple of teaspoons of baking powder and vanilla essence.  Decoration had to be Peppa pig as she loves it.   I used ready to roll fondant icing and after about three attempts I managed to get the icing on.  It is tricky to ice such a large cake but the key is to have a lot of icing then you don't have to roll it too thinly.  The thinner the icing the more likely it is to crack when you pick it up (this happened several times).


I covered the cake in butter cream icing first (you can use boiled apricot jam if you prefer but butter cream will disguise bumps in your cake more) then laid the icing on, smoothed it down and trimmed the excess.  Then for the decoration, using some pictures from the internet for inspiration I just rolled, cut and sticked the shapes on.

It is Peppa jumping in muddy puddles, holding the number 2 and there are pink hearts all around the bottom of the cake.  It's not up to the standards of Little L's christening cake from last year but this was much more rushed.  It tasted really good along with the 3 dozen fairy cakes I made (sorry forgot to photo them, but they had peppa pig toppers on!)

Happy Mother's Day

Saturday here was rainy and cold all day so I decided to bake a cake for my mum.  My helper was very enthusiastic to start with and poottled off into the living room with several bowls and a whisk to do some baking in her own little kitchen.  During this short window of having a happily entertained child I shot around at 100mph trying to get the cake in the oven before little L decided she actually needed to help her mummy.

 

She did pop in to check on the progress in the oven

 

Cake iced and ready to be taken to my Mum's. 

 

I doubt I'll get breakfast in bed for Mothers day but a nice cup of tea and some extra cuddles from my little girl will be lovely oh and the two Mothers Day cards that I sorry no Little L made me at playgroups this week.

Bye for now

I can cook!

Sorry I’ve watched too much Cbeebies.  But anyway I can, it turns out, decorate a cake.  A few weeks ago we had a very special occasion in our house as we got little L baptised.  We went to the classes at church (yes I was a bit surprised) and then two months later we got our date in June. We wanted it to be a small celebration (not the trend nowadays it seems) with just the people that do and will play a big part in little L’s life there.  And as we have moved to a slightly bigger house we decided we would have the party at our house.

So I got my thinking cap on and planned to make various homemade decorations, invites, bunting, and lots of delicious food.  After having been to other christenings/naming days etc and seeing various cakes that had been bought I started to think maybe I could give it a go myself.  Add to that I had been watching “Ace of Cakes” on Really (fab programme Freeview 25).  Then finally add to that the price of these cakes, £100 upwards for a sponge cake, omg not even fruit cake,  my mind was made up I'd do it myself.

Now I’m not the greatest of bakers.  I mainly love eating cakes and looking at cakes in cook books.  But with planning and some help I had my iced fruitcake ready to decorate.  I got some butterfly cutters and flower plunger cutters from Ebay (much cheaper than in real shops, OK they did come from Hong Kong so took a few weeks to arrive but hey I ordered them months before). 

So I used ready to roll fondant icing and dyed it, using food colouring and a little/lot of icing sugar to stop the fondant becoming too wet.  You can do this in advance and keep it in the fridge wrapped in cling film.  I made probably over a hundred flowers, shaped them and then dried them in the airing cupboard (fondant icing doesn’t set that well so you need to roll it thinly and place decorations to dry in a warm place for a couple of days).  I also made butterflies which I dried on a V shaped piece of cardboard covered in greaseproof paper.  I made bunting with the letters of little L’s name on as these tied in with the invites.

So then to the assembly, the fun part, well a bit stressful really as if I bodged I had no backup cake or plan.  I used icing sugar and water mix as an edible glue and just started with the bunting, then glued all the flowers and butterflies on.  I stuck white and pink pearls (edible) in the centre of the flowers.  I also dusted edible shimmer dust on some of the flowers and butterflies. 

It looked brilliant, I think, and meant a lot more as I had made it myself for my beautiful girl! 

Bye for now