Hello Kitty princess castle birthday cake

Today is my niece Molly's 3rd birthday. This year she asked me to make a Hello Kitty castle cake. Her wish was my command...






"Happy Birthday Molly"

I was inspired by this lovely Hello Kitty cake from Royal Bakery, who in turn was inspired by Yummy Cupcakes and Cakes cute Hello Kitty cake.

My gluten-free recipe and details coming soon...

Have a sweet day!

Nevie Pie Cakes

I finally got to meet the delightful Natasha of Nevie Pie Cakes at The Vintage Wedding Fair. I have admired her beautiful, whimsical cake and cookie designs for so long so it was lovely meeting her. How gorgeous are her cakes?

Have a sweet day!

Gluten-free lemon cake

Last week I showed you Molly's birthday cake which was a coloured lemon cake shaped into a house. I made four of the cakes, colouring each one differently to make the house. I kept the bits of cake I trimmed off and made cake pops with them (coming later this week!)

As promised here is the recipe:

Gluten free lemon flavoured cake (makes one square cake)

Ingredients
3 large eggs (200g eggs)
200g gluten-free self raising flour
200g unsalted butter
200g caster sugar
2 tbsp milk
1 1/2 tsp lemon flavouring
Food colouring

What you will need
Square cake tin
Non-stick baking paper
Cooling rack

Cooking instructions

1. Heat oven to 190C (fan 170C) or gas mark 5.
2. Butter square tin and line with non-stick baking paper.
3. In a food mixer, beat all of the ingredients, except the food colouring, until you have a smooth soft batter.
4. Gradually add food colouring and whisk until you get the desired colour (please note that colour intensifies with cooking).
5. Pour batter into cake tin and smooth the surface using a spatula.
6. Bake in oven for about 25-30 mins until top is golden and cake springs back when gently pressed.
7. Turn cake out onto cooling rack and leave to completely cool.

Butter cream frosting (500g)

Ingredients

• 100g butter, softened
• 80g sifted icing sugar
• 2 tsp vanilla essence

Cooking instructions

1. Whisk butter and vanilla essence until light and fluffy.
2. Gradually whisk in icing sugar.

Assembling the cake

What you will need
1 pink coloured 7in square lemon cake
1 red coloured 7in square lemon cake
1 green coloured 7in square lemon cake
1 turquoise coloured 7in square lemon cake
500g butter cream frosting
Apricot jam
2 packets of Pink Panther gluten free vanilla wafers
Roll on icing (fondant icing)
Pale blue M&M's
Fondant leaves and flowers

1. Place one cake on a cutting board and trim off top of cake using a cake wire cutter.
2. Turn upside down and trim off bottom of cake so that you remove any browned off parts.
3. Repeat with other three cakes.
4. Spread a thin layer of butter cream on top of red cake and place pink cake on top.
5. Spread a thin layer of butter cream on top of pink cake and place blue cake on top.
6. Spread a thin layer of butter cream on top of blue cake and place green cake on top.
7. Using a bread knife, trim off sides of cake so all browned off cake is removed.
8. Carefully cut green cake layer at a 45 degree angle so you have a triangle of green cake from either side. Turn the triangles of green cake upside down and place on top of cake so you have the roof.
9. Using a spatula cover cake in a thin layer of apricot jam.
10. Knead roll-on icing into a ball.
11. Dust icing sugar onto a hard clean surface and roll out two thirds of the roll-on icing to 3mm thick.
12. Lift up icing using rolling pin.
13. Placing centre of icing at tip of roof, smooth icing down roof and sides of house. Trim off any excess icing at bottom and from the front.
14. Repeat steps 11 and 12 with half the remainder of roll on icing and place on front of house. Smooth down and remove any excess icing from all sides.
15. Repeat step 14 for back of house.
16. Lightly push brick mat into icing to get brick effect.
17. Push pink decorative balls into joins of icing down sides of house.
18. Cut wafers in half and separate.
19. Spread apricot jam on the under side of wafer and stick to iced roof. Repeat until roof is covered. Use wafers for door and windows.
20. Pipe buttercream along top of roof and push M&M's into icing.
21. Secure leaves and flowers to house with small dollop of buttercream icing.

Enjoy!






Have a sweet day!

Happy Birthday Molly!

Today is my cute niece, Molly's, 2nd birthday. Happy Birthday Molly!



Yesterday she had a birthday party and this year I decided to make a cake shaped like a house. I chose a house to match my gift to her which was lots of pretty treasures for her playhouse, more of which I will show you later....



Cake details

Gluten-free lemon flavoured, coloured layer cake with buttercream covered in fondant icing (recipe coming soon)



The roof, door and windows were made of pink wafer biscuits with a liberal sprinkling of pink glitter. I stuck pale blue M&M's which I had recently got at M&M world onto the roof. I made pale green fondant leaves for the corners of the house and roof and to get the brick effect on the house I used a textured brick mat from Blue Ribbon. The chimney was two green polka dot candles. I covered the top of my cake board with Cath Kidston wrapping paper with a layer of sticky back plastic over the top and stuck pink polka dot ribbon around the sides.



Have a sweet day!

Buttercream grass

Vanilla buttercream frosting (to decorate 24 cupcake size cakes)

Ingredients

• 250g unsalted butter, softened
• 1 teaspoon natural vanilla extract
• 600g sieved icing sugar (confectioner's sugar)
• 1 1/2 tablespoons milk
• Green food coloring

What you will need

• Grass icing tube no.233
• Icing bag or bottle

Instructions

1. Whisk butter until smooth and creamy
2. Gradually whisk in icing sugar, 100g at a time, so the mixture is smooth
3. Whisk in the vanilla extract and 1 tbsp milk at high speed until fluffy and stands in peaks
4. Spoon into a piping bag or bottle fitted with a nozzle attached
5. On top of the cakes, starting at outside edge and working in circles, pipe buttercream by squeezing a small amount on to cake at a 90 degree angle
6. Pulling up and away when icing strand is long enough (about 2 cm) stop squeezing and pull tip away at various angles
7. Repeat until cake is covered
8. Push fondant flowers or bunny/butterflies lightly into iced grass

Have a sweet day!