Two Looks, One London

 A couple of weeks ago it was the most beautiful blogger babe's (I'm biased lol) 21st birthday!! My cousin and blogging partner, Saffron! *pops party popper* Since it was a big birthday, you know I had to go hard for my girrl, so I made her a big chocolate fudge cake, (a la Matilda lol).

The recipe is from the Cadbury's website, which is why it tells you to use Cadbury's cocoa and chocolate, but obviously you can use any brand. I wanted to link it, (give credit where credit is due, y'all), but my Mum saved it so long ago it's no longer there! I'm sure they won't mind me sharing it anyway lol.



FOR THE CAKE

· 125 g (4 oz) butter
· 225 g (8 oz) dark soft brown sugar
· 2 eggs
· 142 ml (¼ pint) soured cream
· 175 g (6 oz) plain flour
· 5 ml (1 tsp) baking powder
· 2.5 ml (½ tsp) bicarbonate of soda
· 50 g (2 oz) Cadbury Bournville cocoa 
· Two 20 cm (8-inch), shallow cake tins, greased and base-lined

FOR THE FILLING

· 40 ml (2 Tbs) Cadbury Bournville cocoa
· 125 g (4 oz) butter
· 150 g (5 oz) icing sugar, sieved
· Vanilla extract

FOR THE FROSTING

· 200 g bar of Cadbury Bournville chocolate
· 40 ml (2 Tbs) Cadbury Bournville cocoa
· 142 ml (¼ pint) double cream 


For the cake, cream together the butter and sugar until the mixture is light in colour and texture. Gradually beat in the eggs, then the soured cream (the mixture looks curdled at this stage). Sieve together the dry ingredients and fold them into the mixture. Divide the mixture equally between the tins. Bake at Gas Mark 5/190ºC:/375ºF for 30 – 35 minutes, until cooked. Turn out on to a wire tray to cool.

Make the filling by mixing the cocoa with 40 ml (2 Tbs) of boiling water to a smooth paste, and allow to cool. Beat together the butter, sieved icing sugar and vanilla extract, until light and fluffy. Beat in the cocoa and then sandwich the layers together with the filling.

For the frosting, melt the chocolate carefully. Make the cocoa into a paste with boiling water as before and mix with the chocolate. Slowly whisk the cream into the chocolate until smooth and thickened. Spread the frosting evenly over the cake with a palette knife.

Serve in slices, with whipped cream or ice-cream. If possible warm each slice in a microwave or oven, if you have made the cake in advance; it can also be served cold but is definitely more interesting hot, with the contrast of ice cream.


Just a few notes: I doubled the measurements for the cake batter to make a four layer cake (pretty straightforward), but I kept the measurements for the filling and frosting the same, because I don't like too much frosting. The 21 is made of white chocolate, using a chocolate lollipop mould my Mum got from Lakeland, which comes with the sticks. The dots you can see are gold pearls. If I could choose anyway to go, this would be it! Lol.

Happy Baking!

Good Afternoon, folks! Hope you're well! It was me Mams birthday a lil while ago and I decided to make her some cupcakes. It's always good to combine two loves (Mummy and baking). :) She had tried some lavender cupcakes at a craft fair and she was surprised at how much she liked them, so I tried to recreate them for her. And, because apparently cupcakes aren't enough of a challenge, I made mini lavender shortbread hearts to go on top. (Who do I think I am, Delia?) Lol. I have never tried flavouring something with lavender because I don't really like it, but it was nice to try something different. You just get a subtle hint of lavender, which is nice; using too much would make it taste like soap lol. So that's my top tip guys; don't be tempted to add more lavender, it is very strong. Also, make sure you buy culinary lavender so you know it's safe for human consumption.




From Cupcake Heaven by Susannah Blake (2008); London; Ryland, Peters & Small

Ingredients

• 115g caster sugar
• 1/4 teaspoon dried lavender flowers
• 115g unsalted butter, at room temperature
• 2 eggs
• 115g self-raising flour
• 2 tablespoons milk

1. Preheat the oven to 180C/350F/Gas Mark 4.
2. Put the caster sugar and dried lavender flowers into a food processor and pulse. Tip the lavender sugar into a bowl, add the butter and beat together until pale and fluffy.
3. Beat the eggs into the butter mixture, one at a time, then sift the flour and fold in. Stir in the milk.
4. Spoon the mixture into paper cases. Bake in the preheated oven for about 18 minutes until risen and golden and a skewer inserted in the centre comes out clean. Transfer to a wire rack to cool.
5. To decorate, in a bowl, gradually beat the icing sugar into the egg white (or milk), and then add a few drops of food colouring and stir to achieve a lavender coloured icing. Spoon the icing over the cakes, then top each one with a fresh spring of lavender (or mini shortbread hearts). Leave to set before serving.

I love pancakes. Like REALLY love pancakes. And I like making them nearly as much as I like eating them. So much so, that I couldn't wait until Pancake Day to make them, I HAD to make them today! Lol. Baking is my favourite pastime (besides shopping, of course); I find it really stress relieving. I love to give homemade edible gifts on peoples birthdays because 1. It means so much more to make something for someone, rather than just buying something, 2. I get to do one of my favourite things and 3. There's less chance of me getting grossly overweight because if I didn't give them away I would scoff the lot! Lool.

You can find the recipe HERE but it's an American recipe so I changed the cups to grams and put it below for us Brits. Lol. This is literally one of the best pancake recipes I've ever come across! Beating the eggs separately is what I think makes them really light and fluffy, but adding melted butter to the batter means they're really rich and scrummy! So get making guys, they're much better than store bought ones. :)














And below is the recipe! The only thing I would suggest is using a bit less salt, I use just a tiny pinch, and adding more sugar. I add two tablespoons to the dry ingredients, and two tablespoons when beating the egg whites.



1/8 teaspoon salt
1/2 tablespoon baking powder
2 egg yolks
180ml  milk, more or less
4 tablespoons butter, melted
2 egg whites
1 tablespoon sugar



2. In another bowl, mix the yolks, most of the milk, and the melted butter together until smooth.
3. Make a well in the middle of the dry ingredients and add the mixed wet ingredients all at once. Stir until just combined. (Over-mixing will make for a tough pancake.)
4. Beat the egg whites until light and fluffy and soft peaks appear as for meringue. Add the sugar toward the end of the beating. Fold the egg whites gently into the batter with a spatula. Add milk as necessary to get the right consistency.
5. Cook as you would other pancakes.


I wish I'd taken more photos, but it only occurred to me to post about this halfway through making them lol. But if you like this post, let me know and I'll do some more baking ones. And if you have any questions about the recipe, just leave them in a comment below and I'll get back to you as soon as I can.