Tag Archives: baking

April 21, 2013

A good book and some baking

It finally felt like spring this weekend as we enjoyed pretty much uninterrupted sunshine. We made the most of it by spending lots of time in the garden, cleaning the toys and pots we want to take with us when we move.

Bizarrely this was the weekend that the toddler finally decided to wear his wellies. For the last couple of years he has refused to wear them. We’ve read Peppa books, talked about jumping in muddy puddles and pointedly walked around puddles in the park. Do you want to know what changed his mind?

It was pretty simple. I put his younger sister in an old pair of his wellies and let her play with the water hose in the garden. That instantly made him want his wellies on. Why didn’t I think of this before!?

Aside from enjoying being outside I found time to finish Honour by Elif Shafak which was the first book in the BritMums Book Club. I love to read but haven’t made much time for it since becoming a parent so I was delighted to receive a copy of the book. It’s set in Turkey and London and moves back and forth between the main characters in the 1970s. It’s not the kind of book I would usually choose to read but I found it easy to read and engrossing.

I also made time to make some yummy cheese biscuits using the new Anchor Mature and Anchor Extra Mature cheese. We opted for chunky biscuits which we stamped with our ‘home made’ stamp for an extra rustic feel. They were delicious and enjoyed by all. If you want to try the cheeses for yourself they will be available from larger Tesco stores from the 22nd April.

Recipe for butterfly cakes

The weather was unbelievable today – grey, overcast, snow and even a hail storm. Is it really the beginning of April? This morning we had to go out as the toddler had a hair appointment. Little Sis got her first hair cut too, one quick snip across her fringe and she can see again.

When we were home with the front door shut firmly behind us we started baking. We needed a sweet treat so turned to our favourite, classic butterfly (or fairy) cakes. They are simple to make but look and taste great!

Just in case you want to make some yourself I’ll share my recipe which makes 12 cakes.

Ingredients:

110g butter
110g caster sugar
110g self-raising flour
1/2 tsp baking powder
2 large eggs
1 tsp vanilla essence

Preheat the oven to 180° and line your cake tin with cases.

Place the butter, sugar, flour and baking powder in a bowl, add the eggs and vanilla essence and mix with an electric whisk for a couple of minutes. Add a generous spoonful of mixture to each case and bake for 15-18 minutes. Leave to cool before transferring to a wire rack to cool completely.

To make the butter cream:

110g butter
225g icing sugar
1/2 tsp vanilla essence
2 tsp milk

Slowly beat the butter and icing sugar and add in the vanilla essence and milk. Cut a small circle of cake from the top of each cake, fill with buttercream, cut the cake circles in half and place back on the top of each cake to look like wings. Sprinkle with icing sugar.

Because I wanted to make and eat my cakes quickly I was naughty and didn’t allow the butter to come up to room temperature. This meant my food processor really struggled and I made such a mess that even my toddler commented on the state of the kitchen! Cold butter doesn’t mix well with icing sugar. Or perhaps I just need a new food processor for my lovely new house!

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Filed under baking, moving, recipe

Tagged as baking, moving house, recipe

March 18, 2013

Rainbow layer cake

Today the toddler turned 3. We just gave him a couple of presents to open before nursery, unfortunately one of them was a Buzz Lightyear which went off before it was opened, rather giving the game away! He was totally spoilt with some Disney Cars for his collection, a train for his train set, and a wooden bike. His name was read out on cBeebies and he was only a little bemused by the home made Lightning McQueen pinata.

We made a special rainbow layer cake which was fun to make, if a little time consuming. Fortunately the weather was terrible over the weekend so we were able to stay in and bake six layers of cake in red, orange, yellow, green, light and dark blue. When it had cooled down we sliced it to size and assembled it with buttercream.