Honey & Walnut Cake {recipe} *inspired by Heart of Thorns by Bree Barton

When I attended food blogger connect a couple years ago one of the speakers talked to us about why we blogged. We were all food bloggers of a sort so besides the obvious of our shared love for food we all had different reasons.

One of my reasons I had said at the time was because I felt like it gave me a place to say what I wanted to say. However, it's never been a place where I shared anything but my love for baking and cookbooks and books. I don't talk about my personal life very much. 

My blog life slowed down as my actual life sped up. 

Blogging and baking were my escape and my way to stay creative in the hum drum of daily life. Then life threw me a few curve balls and even though things have quietened down I have struggled getting back into my blogging/baking life. 

It feels like it was a part of me that I've grown out of or that was left behind. I have tried to get back into it on different occasions, but it hasn't seemed to work very well. On top of that so much has changed. It's not just about being a blogger, it's about being a social media guru. 

Even my baking seems to be resisting me. I have attempted another bundt cake after my last disastrous attempt and once again it didn't want to come out of the pan properly. 

I can take pictures show only the good parts. But that isn't life. I used to have proper tantrums and moods about baked goods that didn't turn out how I intended. Now I think "it tastes good and who am I trying to impress?"

Me and my little family were able to enjoy a slice of cake as an afternoon treat this past weekend and that is why I bake. The cake was soft and springy and had the perfect blend of spices that goes well with a cup of coffee. 

Blogging may be on the way out as YouTube and Instagram take over the internet, but I am going to keep my little corner of the internet up because who knows what the future holds. 

Honey & Walnut Cake

125g unsalted butter, softened
140g demerara sugar
2 large eggs, lightly beaten
1 tsp vanilla extract
90g honey (different varieties will give a different flavor)
45g walnuts, chopped
220g self rising flour, sifted
1 tsp ground nutmeg
1 tsp ground cinnamon
1/4 tsp all spice
125ml milk

If using a bundt pan make sure you grease and flour it properly, you can use a tray bake pan or I would use a regular 8 inch square pan just be aware that baking times will be different for different pans, if using a square tins line it with baking paper and lightly grease the baking paper before starting.

Heat the oven to 180C. Beat the butter and sugar together until light and creamy. Add the eggs a little at a time and beat until just combined in-between each addition. Mix in the vanilla and honey. Fold in the walnuts before folding in a third of the flour. (I weigh out my flour and then sift it directly into the mixing bowl.) Then mix in half of the milk. Then another half of whats left of the flour, then the rest of the milk and the last of the flour. Stir until just combined. Pour into your prepared tin and bake for 30-35 minutes.

Again this will vary depending on your baking pan and oven. So, after 30 minutes I would check it using the skewer test and if it's starting to brown to quickly I always place a piece of tin foil/aluminium foil over the top to stop it from browning too much.

Leave to cool in the tin for a minimum of 10 minutes before turning out to cool completely. If it's in a bundt it's pretty enough without frosting or icing, but if using a square tin I would dust icing sugar over it or use a simple icing of 500g icing sugar and a couple tablespoons of water/milk and honey.

Serve with caramel sauce, raspberry sauce, or ice cream!

It seems like there is only room for hobby at time and at the beginning of the year I set myself a reading challenge on goodreads and have already passed it and had to reset it. So, books have taken over my free time and sometimes they mention food, more specific cake! I keep note and if I get a baking bug and depending on what's in my cupboards I used that inspiration. This cake was inspired by mention of a honey cake with a caramel or raspberry sauce in Heart of Thorns by Bree Barton that was featured in July's Fairyloot box.

Heart of Thorns by Bree Barton synopsis - In the ancient river kingdom, where touch is a battlefield and bodies the instruments of war, Mia Rose has pledged her life to hunting Gwyrach: women who can manipulate flesh, bones, breath, and blood. The same women who killed her mother without a single scratch.But when Mia's father announces an alliance with the royal family, she is forced to trade in her knives and trousers for a sumptuous silk gown. Determined to forge her own path forward, Mia plots a daring escape, but could never predict the greatest betrayal of all: her own body. Mia possesses the very magic she has sworn to destroy.Now, as she untangles the secrets of her past, Mia must learn to trust her heart…even if it kills her.

Vanilla Pound Cake {an expat story}

My first visit to the UK I was staying in Oxford and to get to the bus station you had to walk through the market. I had never really experienced a market like that and now it's a common thing after having lived in the UK for so long. However, I stopped at this place in the market that was selling cherries soaked in blueberry juice and then dried or maybe it was the other way around I don't really remember because of what happened when I ordered.

I asked for about a pound. The guy was a bit confused and confirmed my request with an "are you sure" look. Having realised my blunder, but not knowing what to say or how to explain, I just stuck by what I said and was like yup! He then continued to weigh it out so it only cost one Great Britain Pound (GBP).

What I had really wanted was a pound in weight - lb. Which in hindsight is like 450g so I probably didn't actually want that much.

It's not very often I have slip up's like that now after 12 years; so, when I was making this pound cake for my friend I hadn't really thought about the different definitions of the word "pound." It can also mean a place where dogs go to die, the dog pound. Anyway in this instance it was the difference between weight and money! I had to explain that the cake had indeed cost me more then one pound to make and that in American a pound cake refers to a type of cake made with a pound of flour, butter, eggs, and sugar.

This pound cake isn't traditional in the use of a pound of each ingredient, but it still uses pretty much equal measures of all the ingredients. It is more like half a pound cake really. The equivalent here is what the British call a Madeira Cake. Basically the same thing.

Vanilla Pound Cake 

260g plain flour
225g sugar
1 tsp baking powder
225g butter
5 eggs
2 tsps vanilla extract

All the ingredients should be at room temperature before starting and grease or line a 2lb loaf tin (23x13) When your are ready heat the oven to 160C.
Mix the flour, sugar, baking powder, and butter together until combined. I used my hand mixer and so it might look a bit like crumbs, but should come together when pressed as seen in the picture below.
In another bowl beat the eggs and vanilla together. Add about 1/3 of the egg mixture slowly to the dry mixture, beating well in-between additions.
Scrape down the sides before giving it one last good mix and scrape into your prepared loaf tin. Bake for about 60 minutes, test it by using the skewer test. It shouldn't leave any crumbs or batter on the skewer or butter knife - which is what I use and it should be a nice golden color as seen in the pictures.

Serve with ice cream and fresh berries if you are feeling like an American or jam and custard if you feeling British. Either way it's a great cake that can be paired with pretty much anything! It's a blank canvas cake so to speak and it's super easy to make!

Caramel Biscuit Fudge aka Twix Fudge

The blogging world has changed. Years ago people followed and read blogs all the time, but not any more. First because the world wide web is saturated with blogs. Blogs of fashion and beauty, food and parenting, gaming and movies the topics are endless. Then we have the internet aka social media outlets feeding our need for instant gratification with short videos showing us how to make ... well anything and everything!

Of course I am in the foodie world so my social media channels are full of short videos making fun recipes and one of the things that keeps showing up is fudge. How to make fudge with only 4 ingredients or by just using this or that! So, I thought I would give a few of these recipes a try. See if these simple recipes are that simple and to see if they taste like the fudge that takes forever......

So, I started with this recipe from Sally's Candy Addiction by Sally McKinney and Sally's Baking Addiction blog - One of the blogs I follow like a groupie.

Caramel Biscuit Fudge

1 can of sweetened condensed milk (from 14 oz can)
2 tablespoons caramel sauce
546g white chocolate
1 teaspoon vanilla
⅛ teaspoon salt
140g Twix Bites

Line 8-by-8-inch pan with foil, leaving overhang on sides to remove fudge later.
In medium saucepan over medium heat, combine condensed milk, caramel and white chocolate. Stir constantly with a rubber spatula until the chocolate is melted and mixture is smooth. Remove from heat before stirring in vanilla and salt. Cool mixture 10 minutes.
Slowly and carefully fold in chopped Twix bars (to keep chocolate swirl intact). Pour and spread mixture into prepared pan. Cover pan with foil and refrigerate 4 hours or store at room temperature overnight.
Remove fudge from pan using foil as handles. Use sharp knife to cut fudge into 64 1-inch squares (if fudge has been refrigerated longer than 4 hours, let fudge sit at room temperature 20 minutes before cutting).

* for more delicious recipes like this check out Sally's blog (link above) and if you want to know more about her book Sally's Candy Addiction you can check out my review here! 

Peanut Butter and Banana Milkshake

So, my good friend loves milkshakes. We talked forever about making one of those popular monster milkshakes ... you know the ones with the cups covered in chocolate and sprinkles and has cookies or doughnuts sticking out the top? We were totally pumped for it and we were like yay let's definitely do it! 

However, in the end it looked like a lot of effort for a milkshake. We weren't in the mood for all the faff and to be honest all the sugar. So, we made just what we wanted a simple peanut butter and banana milkshake. 

For this milkshake I literally blended some peanut butter, a banana, vanilla ice cream, and a dash or so of milk. Topped it with whipped cream and some dry roasted peanuts. Dry roasted because that is what was in the cupboard! I couldn't tell you how much I used of each ingredient and let's face it for a milkshake do you need to know? 

I believe you can use as much of or as little of each that you want and once it's blended it will still taste great! 

Do you have to have a recipe to follow? Let me know in the comments below! 

Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle Cake (birthday)

My blog started out of my love for making birthday cakes for my loved ones. I still 10 years on still love making a birthday cake most of all!

Recently my girls have started watching Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles and words cannot express how happy that makes me. I have been a fan of the Turtles since I can remember! When we moved house, back when I was 6, my dad made my sisters and I a turtle lair out of one of our moving boxes and we played in it until it fell apart! Or until that time our basement flooded.... that flood ruined all our original Batman movie trading cards. Stupid flood. 

Anyway, my littlest one is now 6 years old and she asked for a chocolate turtle cake, I was happy to oblige! 

I have tried baking and tasted many chocolate cakes and most of them are dry and only mildly taste of chocolate. But I found one that works every time and it's super chocolatey!

Ninja Turtle Birthday Cake: 

chocolate cake

110g dark chocolate, broken up 

240ml boiling water, boil then measure

225g granulated sugar

195g plain flour

1/2 tsp salt 

3/4 tsp bicarbonate of soda

225g light brown sugar

120ml sunflower oil

110g sour cream

2 eggs

1 tsp vanilla extract 

Heat the oven to 180C; line and grease two 8 inch or 9 inch cake pans - if using 8 inch there will be a little batter left over perfect for cupcakes or mini cake. 

Put the broken up chocolate in a large bowl and pour the boiling water over it, leave to the side and mix the sugar, flour, salt, and bicarb of soda in a separate bowl. Leave that to the side for a moment and go back to the chocolate/water. Whisk them together until smooth, then add the brown sugar, oil, sour cream, eggs, and vanilla one at a time whisking until smooth after each addition. Add a third of the flour mixture to the chocolate mixture and whisk until smooth repeating two more times until all the dry mixture is incorporated into the wet mixture. Pour into the prepared pans about 3/4 full and bake for 30-35 minutes. Do not over fill the cake tins as they will not bake properly and over flow, I know this from personal experience. 

Leave to cool in the tins for at least 5 minutes and leave to cool completely before icing and decorating.

buttercream

250g icing sugar

80g unsalted butter, room temperature 

25ml milk

1/4 tsp vanilla extract

Beat the butter until soft and fluffy - add the icing sugar, milk, and vanilla. Beat until it's smooth and creamy. Add icing sugar if it's too soft and milk if it's too stiff. 

constructing the cake - once the cake is cooled spread the bottom layer with buttercream and place the other on top and cover that with butter cream as well. Leave a little bit of butter cream to use as a "glue" for the fondant mask/eyes/mouth. 

turtle decor

green fondant, enough to cover a 2 layer cake

white fondant, enough to make eyes/teeth

red/blue/orange/purple fondant, enough to make face mask

*I use store bought fondant. 

Dust your work surface with icing sugar to keep the fondant from sticking, roll it out as thin/thick as you like, but enough to cover the cake. I roll it out pretty thin as we aren't fondant lovers in this house. Gently wrap the fondant over the rolling pin to lift it up and lay across the cake. Gently smooth over the cake and press down around the edges. 

Then re-dust with icing sugar and roll out the color fondant for the mask. I free handed it, but if you want go online and print out a turtle mask and use it to trace. 

Again re-dust and roll out the white for the eyes and mouth. For the eyes I used circle cutters and the mouth I free handed. Like above go online and print a turtle mouth out if you want it to be exact. 

notes: recipe adapted from bake! by Nick Malgieri and hummingbird bakery cookbook by Tarek Malouf and the hummingbird bakers

Surprise Cake! {birthday cake}

I am a bad mom.

It’s not entirely true, but mom guilt is real people.

See I don’t do birthday parties. My girls don’t seem too bothered by this as we’ve never really done birthday parties, but I still feel guilty about it.

We still celebrate with family and a few friends! She did request a special cake and insisted on pizza for dinner! She also had lots of presents of clothes and design/coloring books.

No party, though. Maybe one year we'll throw her a big party and until then I will continue to feel slightly guilty about it. Only slightly though because the part of me that doesn’t feel guilty feels relief that I don’t have the stress and cost of a party.

This year, my now 8 year old, wanted a surprise cake - one that had sweeties in the middle.

How I made the cake: I used a tried and tested vanilla cake, from Rachel Allen’s Cake book. Which didn't rise as much as it usually does, but it tasted fine so I worked with it.

I used my circle pastry cutters to put a hole in the middle of the top layer of the cake. Set aside the circle of cut out cake. With a thin layer of buttercream, lay it on top of the bottom layer. Pour a bag of sweets in the hole. Cut the saved bit of circle cake in half and squish it back in the hole. Use a little bit of buttercream to stick it back to the sides if necessary. Then frost it with the remaining buttercream and cover it with sprinkles of your choice!

Red Velvet Ancient Egyptian Mummy Cake {Halloween}

Halloween is almost upon us! Tis the season of ghosts and goblins and candy! This was the inspiration for this month’s Clandestine Cake Club. Having recently taken over the organisation of the Reading group I was happy that a few old faces showed up! Just because I love Halloween doesn't mean everyone else does so I made the theme Halloween/Bonfire Night/Autumn.

I stuck with Halloween, because as I mentioned I love it. A red velvet cake seemed approiate. The only question was how to decorate it? After the debate vampire or ghost I went with a mummy. Not a mother mummy, but an ancient Egyptian dead one.

Also the reason I went with a mummy as it was going to be super easy. I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again I’m no cake decorator so keeping it easy is how I roll. Took out my piping bag and had a look through my nozzles took the one that looked most flat like and used it to pipe bandages across the cake in all different directions.

Please don’t ask me which nozzle I used because I couldn’t tell you! I can tell you that I used a tried and tested over and over again red velvet cupcake recipe. Straight from the original the hummingbird bakery cookbook. It’s one of those books that’s super reliable and would recommend to anyone.

This cake is great for any Halloween celebration! Or a monster movie marathon!

Red Velvet Ancient Egyptian Mummy Cake

60g unsalted butter, at room temperature
150g caster sugar
1 egg
10g cocoa powder
1/2 tsp red food coloring gel
½ tsp vanilla extract
120ml buttermilk
150g plain flour
½ tsp salt
½ tsp bicarbonate of soda
1½ tsp cider vinegar

Heat the oven to 170°C before buttering a 7 inch round cake pan and leaving to the side. Beat the butter and sugar together until light and fluffy. Add the egg and beat until it’s fully mixed in. Add the cocoa powder, gel color, and vanilla extract and give it another good mix. First add half of the buttermilk, mix until just combined then add half the flour mixing, again until just combined. Repeat adding the remaining buttermilk, then mix. Add the last of the flour and mix. Add the salt, bicarb, and vinegar and beat until well mixed. Scrap down the sides of the bowl into the prepared cake pan and place in the preheated oven for 35-40 minutes. Cake sound spring back when gently pressed and skewer test should come out clean. Leave to cool for a few minutes before removing from the tin and leaving to cool completely before icing.

vanilla “bandage” frosting
250g icing sugar
80g unsalted butter, room temperature
1-2 tablespoons milk
½ teaspoon vanilla extract
2 googly eyes

Beat the icing sugar and butter together first before adding 1 tablespoon of milk and the vanilla extract. If it’s too thick then add the other tablespoon of milk, if it’s too soft add more icing sugar until you get the consistency you need to be able to pipe it. Fill the piping bag that has a flat like nozzle with the frosting and pipe a triangle in the middle of the cake wherever you want. Then continue to pipe “bandages” everywhere but inside the triangle. Add too googly eyes by adding a dot of frosting to the backs of each and stick on the cake left bare. Or you could pipe your eyes on. Whatever suits your skill level!

We had some other great cakes: 



Toffee Apple Cake

Chocolate Orange Spider Cake

Spiced Apple Cake

Gingerbread Grave Cake

We met up at the amazing Alto Lounge in Caversham, just outside Reading town centre. It has a homey atmosphere that was perfect for out gathering and the staff were super friendly!

Alto Lounge: 32 Church Street, Caversham, Reading RG4 8AU, England

Vanilla Stout Chocolate Cupcakes

There is a thing at the moment about sourcing ingredients locally. It’s good to support local business and trade. Generally speaking I know that they, whoever these mythical people are, mostly mean veggies and fruit, but I am talking about beer – more specifically stout!

According to Instagram 18 weeks ago, sometime in January, I attended the Real Vintage and Good Food Market at The Hexagon in Reading. It was there that I purchased some delicious smoked garlic and a couple of bottle from the Binghams Brewery stall. They were on offer. If you haven’t guessed it, one of those bottles was there Vanilla Stout. It’s a dark stout that is infused with vanilla and dark malts and won them a couple of awards back in 2011.

In all honesty I was never going to drink it. I am no stout or beer or lager or ale drinker. It is in my opinion that you either like it or you don’t. If you tell me that it’s something I need to acquire a taste for then we won’t be friends. I don’t want to acquire a taste for it, no more then I want to acquire a taste for dirt! (I couldn’t think of any food that I really despise)

However, I will bake it in a chocolate cake every time! It gives the chocolate cake a deep rich malt flavor that is delicious! Would also be perfect for a gentlemen's tea party... they do have them! I wish I could go to a gentlemen's tea party I am positive I would be surrounded by posh accents and mustaches. 

Vanilla Stout Chocolate Cupcakes

250ml Bingham Brewery Vanilla Stout

250g unsalted butter

75g cocoa powder

400g golden caster sugar

2 large eggs

2 tsp vanilla extract

140ml sour cream

225g plain flour

2 ½ tsp bicarbonate of soda

Heat the oven to 160C fan (180C/350F/gas 4) and line two cupcake tins.

Melt the butter with the stout in a saucepan over a medium heat do not let it boil. Add the cocoa powder and sugar to the pan and whisk until it’s dissolved. Leave to the side.

Beat the eggs, vanilla, and sour cream together until well combined. Gradually pour the stout/cocoa/sugar mixture into the egg/vanilla/sour cream mixture. Easier done in a freestanding mixture, but if doing it by hand be sure to mix well between adding it in. Once combined add the flour and bicarbonate and beat until combined and smooth. I used an ice cream scoop, as it’s deep and easy to scoop this not thick batter to fill the cupcake cases about ¾ full.

Bake for 20 minutes or until the cake springs back when pressed. Leave to cool completely before topping with the vanilla frosting.

Vanilla Buttercream

300 unsalted butter, softened

½ vanilla extract

4 tablespoons milk

675g icing sugar, sifted

Beat the butter for several minutes until soft and smooth. Add the vanilla to the milk and set aside. Add half the icing sugar to the butter and beat until combined repeat with the rest of the icing sugar. Gradually add the milk/vanilla mixture until the frosting is smooth and delicious! Use a spatula to scrap down the sides to make sure you get it all mixed up. Top each cupcake with a heaped dessert tablespoon and smooth with a palate knife. Enjoy!

notes: All opinions are my own; I was not compensated for this post, for more information please see my contact/policy page above. The Real Vintage and Good Food Market will be on at the Hexagon on the Sunday June 21^st! For more information on Binghams Brewery check out the website! Recipe was adapted from Cupcake Jemma’s recipe for Guinness Cupcakes in Jamie Oliver’s Food Tube The Cake Book.

This post was entered into these blogging challenges: 

Tea Time Treats theme cupcakes/fairycakes/muffins hosted by Lavender and Lovage with The Hedgecombers 

We Should Cocoa theme cupcakes hosted by Kerry Cooks with Tin and Thyme

Silky’s Pop Cakes! Inspired by The Enchanted Wood by Enid Blyton

My favorite part about being a parent is sharing my love of books with my girls. Okay my favorite part is hearing two little voices tell me that they love me and then talk back to me all in the same sentence. That is my favorite part, but my second favorite part is sharing my love of books with them.

I am pretty lucky that they both enjoy a good story! Now that they are a bit older I made an executive decision to start reading them a chapter book before bed instead of children books. I don’t mind some of the children’s books like The Gruffalo, but some are tedious. When I say some I mean at least half of them. It’s great that they can read these books themselves now which means I don’t have too.

We started with The Enchanted Wood by Enid Blyton and we've been reading one or two chapters a night. We’re almost finished. I was just as excited as they were because I've never read it before either. So, far we've enjoyed the journey’s up the tree and meeting all sorts of crazy characters like Moonface, Silky, Mr. Whatshisname, and The Saucepan Man.

The tree not only has interesting characters living in the tree, but interesting treats. The one that intrigued us the most was Silky’s pop cakes that are small cakes that have a delicious honey filling.

So, one afternoon we made our own version of Pop Cakes, no way are they as good as Silky’s I’m sure, but they turned out pretty darn good!

We made honey cakes, filled them with a bit of honey and popping candy they were super tasty and made a perfect after school treat!

Pop Cakes!

110g unsalted butter

75g light brown sugar

2 tablespoons honey

2 eggs

150g self-rising flour

½ teaspoon ground cinnamon

½ teaspoon baking powder

1 teaspoon milk

12 tsp of vanilla flavored honey

12 tsp of popping candy (optional)

Heat the oven to 180C and line a muffin pan with fairy cake liners. Beat the butter before adding the sugar and honey beat until lighter in color. Add the eggs one at a time and mix until combined, beat slowly then fast it might look a little curdled but once you add the flour, which you should do now it will be fine. Add the flour, cinnamon, baking powder, and milk and mix until combined. Spoon one tablespoon into each fairy cake liner. Bake in the preheated oven for 18-20 minutes.

They should be a nice golden brown color. Once they have cooled gently take an apple corer and take out the middles, but save the cake part. Then whisk the honey and popping candy together before adding a tsp of the mixture into each hole in the cakes replace the cake that was taken out and press down.

Icing: Now I iced them with a little bit of icing sugar, milk, and honey. I didn't think to weigh it out I just eyeballed it as I didn't want a lot. It was probably about 100g of icing sugar 1-2 tsp of milk 1-2 tsp of the vanilla flavored honey. Then I took about a tablespoon and drizzled it on top of the cakes and sprinkled a pinch of popping candy on top of each one!

Have you read The Enchanted Wood? If you have, did you always wonder what Silky’s Pop Cakes with there gooey honey centers might taste like?

If you haven’t have you read anything else by Enid Blyton? What one of her novels/books was your favorite?

notes: This post is written in conjunction with my new project #storybookbakes, it is where I will be sharing recipes that were inspired by some of my favorite books!

The last book I was inspired by was Paddington and I made Huffkin’s!!

Should Have Been Peach Bellini Cake

I call it the “Should Have Been” Peach Bellini Cake because it didn't really taste like peaches or champagne (aka Prosecco.) 

I didn't want to deceive anyone in calling it a 'Peach Bellini Cake' when it's not really one. 

I started with a vanilla sponge and had a Prosecco sugar syrup soaked in. Then I layered it with peach curd and a whipped cream dyed a peach color for effect

It so would have been a peach bellini cake if 1.) it tasted like peaches and 2.) one got a bit tipsy from the alcohol.

Which I guess I failed on both accounts.

In the end it was just a vanilla cake with whipped cream frosting and in that I totally succeeded.

There is always tomorrow. Or the next day to make this cake again, there is just a few things I will need to do differently.

Here is how I made it and in italics are my notes on how I will change it next time.

Should Have Been Peach Bellini Cake:

330g plain flour

320g caster sugar

1 ½ tbsp baking powder

pinch of salt

175g unsalted butter, softened

3 medium eggs

190ml whole milk

1 tsp vanilla extract

Heat the oven to 180C and grease and line two 8in/23cm cake tins. Briskly whisk the dry ingredients together, before adding the butter and beating for a few minutes until it’s crumby. Throw the eggs in and beat until just incorporated. Last but not least add the milk and vanilla extract and beat on high for a couple of minutes until lighter in color and smooth.

Fill both prepared pans and bake for 25-30 minutes. Do the skewer test to make sure it’s cooked. Right away poke some holes in the top and using a pastry brush, brush the Bubbly Sugar Syrup (recipe below) over both cakes. Leave to cool in the tins for about 10 minutes before turning out to cool completely.

Bubbly Sugar Syrup

60ml water

60g caster sugar

1-2 tbsp bubbly

Melt the sugar in the water before adding the prosecco to taste. If I were to do this again I would double it. To make sure the cakes were really soaked.

to finish:

Peach Curd recipe needs to be adjusted to taste more peachy

300 ml whipping cream

1 tsp of sugar

peach food color paste

Whip the cream with the sugar and coloring until it’s fluffy and can hold its shape. Place the first cake on a serving plate and layer the peach curd on it. Then layer about half of the whipped cream before topping with the second layer of cake and putting the rest of the whipped cream on top! Decorate with sprinkles or anything else.

I should have added peaches into the cake or the whipped cream to make it peachier or I should have added bubbly to the whipped cream? There are a few ways I could adjust this to get the results I set out to get.

notes: I made this cake for my Clandestine Cake Club meeting. We had a great time as a very classy cocktail bar! 

Why American's Call Football, Soccer (USA Cake)

As usual it was a British word first. I do have a discussion about once a week about words I use as an American over the words used around me here in England.

Soccer is shorthand for association. As in Association Football, it was a way to distinguish it from rugby. Originally Britain had Rugby Football shortened to “ruggers” and Association Football was shortened to “soccer.”

It's not an American word at all, it was a British word... “And the Brits used it often—until, that is, it became too much of an Americanism for British English to bear." (Uri Friedman: a senior associate editor at The Atlantic)

I do find it interesting that what makes America different is not what America did, but what other countries did to make it different.

No matter if it’s called soccer or football I am staying up for tonight’s Ghana vs USA and eating a slice of this cake I made in support of the USA team!

It’s a basic vanilla cake with red and blue swirls. It has a vanilla buttercream underneath the fondant. I used blue and red food color paste with a little vodka with a stencil of the USA soccer shield! 

They have a tough first set, but I think they will put up a good fight!

Are you watching the World Cup? What team are you supporting?

me in the 2010 USA World Cup jersey

GO USA!

notes: Information and quote comes from Uri Friedman’s article here. Sprinklebakes book inspired the painting on fondant!