Showing posts with label cake. Show all posts
Showing posts with label cake. Show all posts

18 March 2015

Giant Vanilla Ice Cream Cupcake Recipe




Get a load of that in your cake hole. If it will fit, that is.

This giant cupcake was fun to bake and a joy to eat. My son requested this cake for his 7th birthday. Once we had the concept it was simply a case of  working out how to make it happen. Here is some guidance, followed by the recipe and detailed construction instructions.

To start with you will need a giant cupcake baking tin. Mine was just £5 from good old Aldi.



Once cooled, it's a good idea to cut the base in half so you can fit more jam and butter cream inside.



Re-assemble, sandwiching each layer with strawberry jam and vanilla butter cream.



Then stick ice cream wafers on the sides with (more) butter cream, to resemble a giant cone.



Swirl generously with vanilla butter cream, so you get a Mr. Whippy effect. Add sauce and sprinkles. More is more...



Then, of course, you need to add some flakes...



Look at all that awesome CAKE.



Can you manage a whole slice? Of course I did...




Giant Vanilla Ice Cream Cupcake

Vanilla Sponge Cake

Ingredients

375g Butter, at room temperature
375g Caster sugar
2 tsp Vanilla Extract
6 large Eggs
375g Self-Raising Flour
2 tbsp Milk, if required

Method

Spray your tin thoroughly with cake release spray (or grease it, old style). Cut a circle of grease proof paper or baking parchment and place it at the bottom of the base part of the tin.

Heat oven to 140 fan or gas mark 3.

In a large mixing bowl, cream the butter and the sugar. I use a handheld electric whisk, although you could use a wooden spoon and plenty of elbow grease.

Add the vanilla extract and then whisk in the eggs, one at a time.

Fold in the flour, one heaped tablespoon at a time. Use a metal spoon for this. You are aiming to keep as much air in the mixture as possible. This is a big cake and you want the sponge to be light and fluffy.

If the mixture feels a bit heavy, carefully stir in some milk at this point.

Pour the batter into the two sides of the tin, leaving at least a couple of centimetres at the top to allow room for the cakes to rise.

Bake in the centre of the pre-heated oven for 75 minutes, until a metal skewer or cake tester comes out clean.

Leave to cool in the tins for a good ten minutes before turning out onto a cooling rack. Remove the circle of paper.


Vanilla Butter Cream

Ingredients

500g Butter, at room temperature
1kg Icing Sugar
1 tsp Vanilla Extract
2 tbsp Milk


Method

Carefully place all the ingredients into the bowl of your mixer (I use a Kenwood Prospero, with the K-beater). You could do this by hand, but you'll have stronger arm muscles than I do.

Top Tip: Before you even think about switching your mixer on, cover it with a damp tea towel. The icing sugar will try to escape and nobody wants a kitchen covered with icing sugar...

Mix for five minutes. Open the mixer and scrape the edges of the bowl with a spatula. Mix again for another minute.


Assembling your Giant Vanilla Ice Cream Cupcake

Once the cakes are cool, slice the base in half horizontally. I use a cake wire, but you can easily use a knife here. Top Tip: place cocktail sticks above and below where you are going to cut, so you can align the two pieces easily.

Starting with the bottom layer, spread generously with strawberry jam. Then dollop butter cream on top, spreading it almost to the edges. Repeat with the next layer.

Use butter cream to stick ice cream wafers around the outside of your cake.

Put the remaining butter cream into a piping bag. Top Tip: stand your bag in a pint glass, with the sides folded down over the glass to make it easier to fill. I use Lakeland disposable bags and a Wilton No.1 nozzle.

Now the tricky part, the icing. Start at the top of the wafers and slowly and steadily pipe butter cream in one massive swirl. Go round and round, with no gaps, until you get to the top. You should have plenty of butter cream left, so be generous.

Now decorate with strawberry sauce (I use Tate & Lyle) and large sprinkles (Aldi).

Finally stick a few Flakes in and your cake is finished.

And, ta-daa, here is your giant vanilla ice cream cupcake in all its glory. It's a showstopper and one that is guaranteed to get some ooh's and ah's of appreciation.





Ooh, ah, etc.





Linking up with Casa Costello, click on the badge to find out more...


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4 March 2014

Easy Apple Cake



There are many ways you can support Team Honk. You could take part in the blogger relay, make a donation, be a social supporter, run a mile, or even, er... bake.

Yes, there is a Team Honk Great Blogger Bake Off.

Mummy Mishaps

There is a Sport Relief/Sporty/Team Honk Relay/ Red Nose theme, that I'm going to take an enormous liberty with. I knew there was going to be a bake off, so had already photographed this easy apple cake and drafted the recipe before I heard about the theme. But I will make it fit. In the Team Honk blogger Relay, I handed the baton to an elephant. Elephants eat fruit. Apples are fruit. I made an apple cake. See. I shoehorned it in. Just about.

This apple cake is simple to bake and has a fruity, spicy, apple-y taste and is extremely moist, and moreish.


Ingredients

125g Butter or Margarine
125g Caster Sugar
2 Eggs
125g Plain Flour
2 tbsp Milk
1tsp Baking Powder
1tsp Cinnamon
60g Sultanas
3 Apples, peeled, cored and chopped into small cubes


Method

Preheat your oven to 180 (fan).
Spray a 23cm loose bottom cake tin with Cake Release Spray.
With an electric mixer, mix the butter, sugar, eggs, flour, milk, baking powder and cinnamon for a couple of minutes.
Stir in the sultanas and apple.
Pour mixture into cake tin and bake for 25 minutes.



Serve on it's own for a teatime treat or with custard as an easy family pudding.




Other easy recipes you may like:






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1 October 2013

CAKEZILLA




A few weeks ago I made the cake to beat all cakes for the boys' birthday party - even if I do say so myself. 

We called it Cakezilla and you can see why.




It was huge, and I'm really rather pleased with it. I think it was my most liked ever Facebook update and Instagram photograph.

It was two regular vanilla sponges sandwiched together with chocolate butter cream. I'd also covered it in chocolate butter cream, placed chocolate finger biscuits all around the sides, and put giant chocolate buttons and assorted sprinkes on the top. 

If I hadn't made it up as I went along I would have made the cake chocolate, but it was yumminess on a plate anyway.




I had some butter cream, giant chocolate buttons and sprinkles left over, so I also decorated these 12-for-60p fairy cakes from Morrisons to serve at the party. They went down very well too. 



Recipe for Cakezilla Vanilla Sponge
  1. Weigh 4 eggs in their shells. Use this weight for the plain flour, butter or marg, and caster sugar.
  2. Add baking powder and vanilla essence.
  3. Make an all-in-one batter. I use an electric hand whisk.
  4. Add a drop of milk if the batter is too thick.
  5. Cook in a 9" spring cake tin, sprayed with cake release spray, for 30-40 minutes at 180. The cake is done when a knife or skewer poked in the centre comes out clean.
Repeat steps 1-5 for the second cake (if the first simply isn't high enough).


Recipe for Cakezilla Chocolate Butter Cream
  1. Put 250g of salted butter, 50g of cocoa powder and 450g of icing sugar in the bowl of your mixer.
  2. Cover your mixer with a tea-towel to stop the icing sugar from escaping.
  3. Mix slowly at first, then at full speed for 5 minutes.
  4. Scrape the sides of the bowl to incorporate all of the ingredients.
  5. Add some milk if your icing is too thick. Mix for a final 2 minutes.
  6. Clean up the icing sugar that still managed to escape from your mixer.


Do let me know if you make anything similar. I can guarantee you will have a queue of children - and grown-ups - waiting for a slice of your Cakezilla.





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