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!

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!

Easter chocolate simnel cake

Easter Chocolate Simnel cake (serves at least 10)

Ingredients

• 225g (1 cup) unsalted butter softened
• 225g (1 cup) light muscovado sugar
• 4 eggs
• 225g (1 cup) plain white gluten free flour
• 125g (2/3 cup) glace cherries, chopped
• 350g (3 1/2 cups) luxury dried mixed fruit
• 75g (1 cup) slivered almonds
• 50g (1/2 cup) Hotel Chocolat organic cocoa powder
• 100g Hotel Chocolat dark chocolate drops

Cooking instructions

1. Preheat oven to 140 deg C (300 deg F)
2. Line and grease 20cm cake tin
3. Roll out 125g marzipan to 5mm thick and cut into a circle the same size as the cake tin, leave to one side
4. Beat butter and sugar with an electric mixer until the mixture turns a pale colour
5. Gradually beat in eggs
6. Stir in flour, glace cherries, dried fruit, almonds, cocoa powder and chocolate chips
7. Divide half the mixture into the cake tin
8. Place circle of marzipan on top
9. Spoon rest of cake mix on top
10. Bake for 1 hour 45 minutes
11. Place cake on a wire rack to cool

To decorate (one cake)

What you will need

• 500g white marzipan
• 500g white ready to roll icing
• Green vanilla buttercream
• Icing sugar
• 3 tsp apricot jam
• 6 white fondant bunnies
• 4 blue fondant butterflies
• 4 pink fondant butterflies
• 24 large fondant flowers
• 16 small fondant flowers

Equipment

• Cake stand or board
• Rolling pin
• Cake smoother (optional)
• Sieve
• Icing bag or bottle fitted with Grass icing tube no.233

Decorating instructions

1. Place cake on stand upside down so top is completely flat
2. Knead marzipan into a ball
3. Dust icing sugar onto a hard clean surface and roll out marzipan to 5mm thick
4. Melt the apricot jam
5. Brush cake with apricot jam
6. Lift up marzipan using rolling pin
7. Place on cake and smooth out so entire cake is covered in marzipan
8. Cut off any excess, leave to dry for 24 hours
9. Knead roll-on icing into a ball
10. Dust icing sugar onto a hard clean surface and roll out roll-on icing to 5mm thick
11. Lift up icing using rolling pin
12. Place on cake and smooth out so entire cake is covered in icing (I use a cake smoother to give it a polish and professional finish)
13. Cut off any excess icing from base of cake
14. Spoon green buttercream into a piping bag or bottle fitted with no.233 nozzle
15. Pipe buttercream grass in a circle on top of the cake
16. Push fondant bunnies into grass so they form a circle, push one small fondant flower between bunnies, alternating the colour of the flowers
17. Pipe buttercream grass in a circle on the outside edge of the top of the cake. Push one pink butterfly and three flowers into grass, repeat with blue butterfly and so on, until you have used all the butterflies
18. Pipe buttercream grass around base of cake
19. Push three large flowers and two small flowers into grass, repeat until there are no gaps

Have a sweet day!

Inspirational Pins - Pretty Tea & Cakes

• Baby Shower - Petit Fours
• Elodie and Rambaud
• Cake and Pie table
• Recipe Monday

Today in my series of posts "Inspirational Pins", I bring you a sweet faded colour palette of pretty tea and cakes inspired by my Tea Party inspirational board.

Have a sweet day!

Jungle themed gluten free birthday cake

Strawberry gluten free layer cake (makes one cake)

Ingredients
125g (slightly over 1/2 a cup) butter, softened
190g (2 cups gluten free all purpose flour) gluten free plain flour
1 1/2 tsp baking powder
1 tsp bicarbonate of soda (baking soda)
2 tablespoons honey
1/2 tsp vanilla extract
200g (1 cup) caster (superfine) sugar
152g (1 cup) fresh chopped strawberries
2 eggs
40ml semi-skimmed milk (half fat milk)
1 or 2 drops pink food colouring


Cooking instructions

1. Preheat oven to 160-180 deg C (325-350 deg F).
2. Lightly grease and line 23cm (9 inch) spring form cake tin with paper.
3. Beat butter, honey and sugar with an electric mixer until the mixture turns a pale colour.
4. Lightly beat eggs.
5. Stir in sieved flour, bicarbonate of soda, baking powder, eggs, strawberries, milk, vanilla extract and food colouring till mixed thoroughly.
6. Spoon into cake tin.
7. Bake for 40-45 minutes until cooked or a skewer comes out clean.
8. Place cake on a wire rack to cool.

Banana gluten free layer cake (makes one cake)

Ingredients
125g (slightly over 1/2 a cup) butter, softened
190g (2 cups) gluten free plain (all purpose) flour
1 1/2 tsp baking powder
1 tsp bicarbonate of soda (baking soda)
2 tablespoons honey
1/2 tsp vanilla extract
200g (1 cup) caster (superfine) sugar
1 freshly chopped large banana
2 eggs
40ml semi-skimmed milk (half fat milk)
1 or 2 drops pink food colouring


Cooking instructions

1. Preheat oven to 160-180 deg C (325-350 deg F).
2. Lightly grease and line 23 cm (9 inch) spring form cake tin with paper.
3. Beat butter, honey and sugar with an electric mixer until the mixture turns a pale colour.
4. Lightly beat eggs.
5. Stir in sieved flour, bicarbonate of soda, baking powder, eggs, banana, milk, vanilla extract and food colouring till mixed thoroughly.
6. Spoon into cake tin.
7. Bake for 40-45 minutes until cooked or a skewer comes out clean.
8. Place cake on a wire rack to cool.

Kiwi gluten free layer cake (makes one cake)

Ingredients
125g (slightly over 1/2 a cup) butter, softened
190g (2 cups) gluten free plain (all purpose) flour
1 1/2 tsp baking powder
1 tsp bicarbonate of soda (baking soda)
2 tablespoons honey
1/2 tsp vanilla extract
200g (1 cup) caster (superfine) sugar
2 freshly chopped kiwis
2 eggs
40ml semi-skimmed milk (half fat milk)
1 or 2 drops pink food colouring


Cooking instructions

1. Preheat oven to 160-180 deg C (325-350 deg F).
2. Lightly grease and line 23 cm (9 inch) spring form cake tin with paper.
3. Beat butter, honey and sugar with an electric mixer until the mixture turns a pale colour.
4. Lightly beat eggs.
5. Stir in sieved flour, bicarbonate of soda, baking powder, eggs, kiwi, milk, vanilla extract and food colouring till mixed thoroughly.
6. Spoon into cake tin.
7. Bake for 40-45 minutes until cooked or a skewer comes out clean.
8. Place cake on a wire rack to cool.

To decorate (one cake)

You will need
Chocolate butter frosting
Roll on white icing
Sugar paste
Smooth strawberry jam
Food colouring
Petal paste
Oak leaf cookie cutter
Palm tree cookie cutter
Jungle animal mould, medium
Monkey lollipop mould
Small flower blossom plunger cutter
Nigella Lawson Living Kitchen cookie cutters A-Z/0-9 shapes, blue

Instructions

1. Using a wire cake cutter trim off top of all three cakes.
2. Sandwich cakes together using chocolate butter cream.
3. Lightly cover cake in strawberry jam.
4. Lightly dust surface with icing sugar, knead icing till soft and pliable.
5. Roll out white icing using rolling pin to be a bit bigger than the size of your cake so that you can easily cover the sides.
6. Use a rolling pin to help support the weight of the icing as you lift it over your cake. Once in place begin smoothing and firming the icing from the centre of the cake, working out towards the edges and down the sides to give a smooth, even finish.
7. Trim off any excess icing with a sharp knife.
8. Add a couple of drops of green food colouring to white roll on icing and roll out as before.
9. Using the oak leaf cookie cutter, cut out 20 leaves.
10. Lightly dampen undersides of the cut leaves with water using a small paintbrush and place 10 of them around the top edge and 10 around the base.
11. For the flowers, palm trees and letters repeat steps 8 and 9, colouring icing as required, and cutting with the small flower blossom plunger cutter, the palm tree cookie cutter, and the Nigella Lawson Living Kitchen cookie cutters A-Z/0-9 shapes in blue.
12. To make the animals around the sides, I used petal paste which I coloured using food colouring. Simply push coloured petal paste into the jungle animal mould. Once set, push out and using an icing sugar/water solution paint onto the backs of the animals and stick into place on cake.
13. To make the monkey on top I did as step 12, pushing small amounts of different coloured petal paste into the leaf section, the face and the monkey, with one of the monkey lollipop moulds.

Have a sweet day!