Birthday celebrations!

I've had a crazy past couple of weeks, but it's definitely not something to complain about! It's been a whirlwind of birthday fun and holidays/work with a lot of riding thrown in too!

My celebrations started on Sunday, the day before my birthday and my family took me to a very nice restaurant for lunch where I had a quinoa, roasted aubergine salad followed by a chocolate tart for dessert. The food was delicious and, although it was obvious to us that we were out celebrating, the staff obviously twigged too so when I got my dessert, I got a super cute surprise birthday message!

With my brother having our meal out

I spent my actual birthday out on a birthday ride and then had a lovely afternoon tea in the gorgeous sunshine. I drank lots of wine/champagne, ate (too much) good food, galloped across fields and opened some fantastic presents. One of which was this beautiful thing on which I am currently typing- a Macbook Air. It happened. I took the plunge (after so much deliberation that mum ended up just dragging me into the Apple Store) and I have to say I do not have a single regret. I've officially become an Apple whore, but it's awesome. I also got some lovely pieces of jewellery, and the most exciting thing- VENICE! I'm counting down the days until my biggest 21st birthday present in the form of a 4 day break with mum to this beautiful city.

Birthday lunch, 'scuse the ambulance- nobody was harmed!

I also celebrated with my gorgeous girls (minus one- we missed you!) over the weekend and we had the most wonderful weekend country retreat. We started off with afternoon tea and a BBQ on the Friday, and headed into Cambridge on the Saturday to go punting. We booked a private tour with Let's Go Punting (who were fantastic- full of banter and interesting facts and made for a great trip, find their website here). We took along a bottle of champagne and made some chocolate-covered strawberries in the morning to have a classy little picnic on board. This was followed by some shopping, and lunch at Harriet's tea rooms, which as always, lived up to expectations. Then we returned to mine to have a cocktail night with more champagne. It all made for a fabulous weekend. I had such a wonderful time.

Punting with champagne!

Giving it a shake!

As for the birthday cake, I decided to have cupcakes made in a cute vintage style which were so so yummy and absolutely perfect! There rates were very reasonable considering the quality of the cakes and they were perfectly decorated so if you're thinking of having some cakes made, seek her out! They were made by a lady in the Cambridgeshire area, and you can find her website here: http://www.thesweetkitchen.co.uk/

My lovely cupcakes, plus an extra 12 mini cupcakes too!

A day after my friends left, I was getting ready to jet off again to the South of France for my job as an Au Pair for two weeks! So I really haven't had that much room to breath but it's been a fab few weeks and now I have to whole of summer to make more memories before Venice, and then going back to university at the end of September!

Light Chocolate Cake

Thought I’d do the second cake as a separate post to enable easier searches. Making my brother’s cake may have contributed to the highest stress levels I have ever experienced when baking. I was so nervous about the outcome. He’s fussy; as in likes-chocolate-cake-but-only-one-type-of-chocolate-cake fussy. This one type of chocolate cake seemed utterly impossible to recreate. It’s from our local bakery but is the richest, most sickly chocolate fudge cake ever and after numerous searches on-line for something similar, I had to compile my own ideas into a new recipe. But do you know what his verdict was? HE PREFERRED IT! I don’t think I’ve ever heard words so golden! 

The sponge itself was perfectly chocolately, and definitely not in a sickly way which was perfect for everyone else who wanted a slice and didn't want to feel queasy. But no matter how hard I tried, I could not find the kind of fudgey, gooey icing I was searching for without the use of cream (which he was quite adament he didn't want- difficult customer). This turned out to be a good thing because it stopped the cake from being too sickly. So, if you're looking for cake that's moist and chocolately, but still light enough to eat a whole slice, here's the recipe: 
(find the original here, thanks Mary Berry! Here video tutorial is especially useful)

Ingredients-

2 oz (50g) cocoa
6 tablespoons boiling water
3 eggs
2 tablespoons milk
175g self raising flour
1 rounded teaspoon baking powder
100g baking spread, I used Stork
250g caster sugar
50g dark chocolate, melted
30g milk chocolate, melted

(For the icing and filling)
Batch of buttercream (enough to fill, and cover an 8" cake)
1 tbsp cocoa powder
30g milk chocolate, melted
30g dark chocolate, melted

Method-

1. Pre-heat the oven to 180°C/160 fan/Gas 4 and prepare two 20cm (8") cake tins.
2. Measure the cocoa and boiling water into a large bowl. Mix together until it reaches a smooth paste-like consistancy.
3. Add the remaining ingredients and beat again until combined. After melting your two chocolates, either over a pan of simmering water (without the bottom of the bowl touching the water!) or with intermittent bursts in the microwave, leave to cool slightly. When the chocolate has cooled, stir it through the mixture until combined.
4. Divide the cake mixture between the two tins. Put in the oven for about 30 minutes until well risen and you see it pulling away from the sides of the tin. Leave to cool.
5. After making your batch of buttercream, melt the dark and milk chocolate separately and leave both to cool slightly. Add cocoa powder to buttercream and stir through. Then add the two chocolates and beat until all combined. Spread over the first sponge, put together and then ice the top. Enjoy! 

Let them eat cake

Easter weekend was pretty inconveniently timed this year and was over my mum’s and my brother’s birthday so not only were we busy present-buying and celebrating but it meant that my desire to back an Easter cake this year was met by two family members who were also hungry for their own birthday cakes too. But instead of going overboard and doing three cakes over one weekend, I settled for two and my mum’s doubled up as the Easter cake too. So first up the Lemon Drizzle, minus the loaf tin, plus some buttercream. Find the original recipe here, and my altered recipe below…

Ingredients-

Zest of 1 lemon, plus half the lemon for juice

1 tsp vanilla extract

225g baking margarine (I used Stork)

225g caster sugar

4 free range eggs, beaten

225g self raising flour

1 tsp baking powder

1 tbsp milk

Bag of mini eggs, or other decoration of your fancy

(For the lemon buttercream, to sandwich)

Batch of plain vanilla buttercream- enough to fill one cake

Half of the lemon for juice (plus extra if you feel it necessary)

(For the lemon syrup, quantities for covering just one half- obviously double up if you want to do both)

2 tbsp demerara sugar

Juice of one lemon

Method-

1. Preheat the oven to 180°C/fan 160°C/Gas 4 and prepare two 20cm sandwich cake tins and line the bases with baking paper.   
2. Put the lemon zest, vanilla, baking margarine and sugar into a large bowl and beat until pale and fluffy.
3. Gradually add the beaten eggs with a little of the flour, mix and then repeat until all the egg is gone. Fold in the rest of the flour and the baking powder, make sure not to overbeat! Finally add the milk and then spoon equally into the two tins.
4. Bake for 25 minutes. This is approximate because I waited until it had risen and was coming away from the sides of the tin. I also turned up the oven an extra 10 degrees towards the end for a few minutes to produce the gorgeous golden-brown colour on top. 

5. While the cake is still warm, poke holes in the cake with cocktail sticks. Mix together the demerara sugar and lemon juice until the sugar looks as though it's beginning to disssolve. Pour over the cake (one or both, depending on what you fancy- I did both and it gave it a wonderful texture), aiming it around the holes so that it sinks in.

6. Leave to cool and remove them from the tins. When completely cool, peel off the baking paper from the bottom.

5. Make your batch of buttercream (sorry for not putting something more detailed here- I don't think I have ever measured quantities of buttercream, I just add and taste until it's tasty and I have the right amount!) and mix in the lemon juice. I went for quite a weak taste here because of the already lemony sponge and syrup. When the cakes are cool, spread the buttercream onto one of the cakes, placing the other one on top when you've finished. Use any leftover to blob on the top with a piping bag and top with your decorations of choice.

Coffee cake

Being one of my Dad's favourites, I have wanted to try a coffee cake for a long time and I found a perfect (and pretty straight-forward) recipe from the wonderful Mary Berry that drew me into the kitchen. 

I have to say it was successful, despite my doubts. Below is the recipe I followed, plus the link to the original page. I did alter the coffee-flavouring for the buttercream a bit, and I decided not to bother with the four separate layers but it tasted great anyway. The mixture did look seriously runny to me at first, but I decided to put my trust in Mary Berry, and of course it paid off. I was left with a beautifully moist, but suitably airy, perfectly coffee-flavoured coffee cake.

Original recipe here. (even includes a handy aga-cooking guide)

Ingredients-

225g (8oz) very soft butter, plus more for the tins
225g (8oz) caster sugar
225g (8oz) self-raising flour
1 tsp baking powder
4 large eggs

4 level tsp instant coffee, dissolved in 1 tbsp boiling water

(For the buttercream, if you are doing four layers)

175g (6oz) soft butter
350g (12oz) icing sugar
3 level tsp instant coffee, dissolved in 1 tbsp boiling water

Method-

1. Preheat oven to 180C (160C for fan) and prepare two 20cm (8in) sandwich tins.

2. Place all of the cake ingredients into a bowl, apart from the coffee, and mix until smooth in texture. Add the coffee and stir in until all blended (it will look a bit too runny, but that turned out to be fine!)

3. Divide the mixture between the two tins and bake for 25-30 mins (according to the original recipe but mine were in for about 35, when an inserted skewer came out clean and the sponge bounced back from the touch).

4. Leave the sponges to cool and make the buttercream. Combine butter and sugar until smooth and then stir in the coffee mixture.

5. Spread in between layers, and on the top if you wish. I dusted with icing sugar because I didn't make enough buttercream to cover the top as well, I'll be making more in future!

6. Eat it and enjoy! Nom, nom.

Happy Easter and Happy Birthday

Happy first birthday to Little Musings! So it was about this time last year that I started this blog and it’s been a wonderful little outlet for me (when I have the time to use said outlet) and it’s led me to look at some other really great blogging sites. I’m pretty sure one of the first posts I did was about my white chocolate Easter cake last year and so this post is going to seem like a little bit of a déjà vu, but with a little bit of a better twist. Yay to cake success!

I hope everyone has enjoyed their Easters, I certainly got far too many white chocolate orientated treats, as you can see! People know me far too well… (not that you see me complaining!) This long weekend business has completely fuzzled up my brain and I don’t know whether I’m coming or going, whether it’s Friday or Sunday! But it’s been fun! This year, I had another crack at the BBC Good Food’s white chocolate Easter cake but put my own twist on it. Since the white chocolate sponge was so hit and miss as to whether it went well or not (plus it was very heavy last year which resulted in a lot of sicky feeling), I decided to go for a plain sponge but mixed it up but stirring in crushed white chocolate. The sponge itself came out perfectly, in fact I think it’s my most lightest, fluffiest to date. And although there weren’t little bit of melted white chocolate as I had envisaged throughout, it had all sunk to the bottom in a nice, crunchy block. I covered with an amazing (seriously, like totally the best thing a white chocolate lover could ever discover) white chocolate buttercream which I found on this lovely site: http://www.4thsensecooking.com/2012/11/strawberry-cake-with-white-chocolate.html The consistency was perfect! Stiff peaks but also spreadable and then I topped with the classic Easter favourites, Mini Eggs. It was definitely one of my best ever cakes. Success!

White chocolate Easter cake- a success!

My second ‘baking’ attempts were cornflake cakes! Taking me back to my childhood, I cooked these treats up in no time. After putting more of the chocolate, butter, syrup mixture in that it originally said, I halved the mixture and stirred a melted mars bar through one which was one of my best brainwaves yet! I feel like I must have heard it somewhere before but it made them so gooey and chocolatey. A traditional favourite made all the more fattening… Sounds perfect to me!!

Somebody knows me too well...

My family deviated from the traditional Sunday Easter dinner this year, since the weekend before I had returned from university and we had the biggest roast dinner known to man… Seriously. I don’t think I’ve ever eaten so much… Anyway, so because we decided we probably couldn’t manage another huge one, we opted for a tapas themed buffet! I was actually really good, with different breads and dipping oils, olives, loads of chorizo because that’s my fave, stuffed peppers, cheeses, the lot. And some mini sausage rolls for my fussy brother, many of which I may have scoffed for myself too. I’m sure there’s no need for me to tell you that my keeping-the-weight-off-diet isn’t exactly going to plan, but I just lurrve food.