Loving This Pretty Pink Cake!

I absolutely LOVE this simple yet stunning little cake. I am hoping the birthday girl will be as happy as I am with the result. Hiding beneath the icing is a rich chocolate cake layered with dark chocolate ganache. 

Spots!

Designing a cake for a teenager was a lot harder than I had anticipated! I was so worried about finding the right balance between not being too mature, or young and girly.  I think I got it right with these bold bright spots arranged in a geometric pattern. This is just a fun, bright and modern cake!

Thermomix Hot Cross Buns!

A few years ago I began the quest for the perfect homemade Hot Cross Buns. I finally found a recipe that produced amazing results posted on http://cookalmostanything.blogspot.com/2006/04/weekend-cookbook-challenge-4.html.

For Christmas I received a Thermomix- so I adapted the original recipe to work in the thermomix and produce easy effortless and delicious Hot cross Buns for Easter. Enjoy!

Thermomix Hot Cross Buns (Makes 9) 

60g Sugar

25g Butter (cold)

180g milk

350g Plain Flour

2 tsp yeast

1 small egg (50g)

1 tsp (heaped) mixed spice

1tsp (heaped) cinnamon

120g Sultanas

Place sugar in Thermomix bowl and mix for 3 sec on speed 9

Add butter and mix for 5 sec on speed 7

Add milk set temperature to 50°C and mix for 1 min on speed 3

Add flour, yeast, egg, mixed spice, cinnamon in order listed.

Kneed for 2 mins on interval speed

Add sultanas and mix on reverse for 10 seconds at speed 5

At this stage you will have a fairly stick dough

Place dough into oiled bowl and cover with plastic wrap. Let rest for 30 mins-1 hr in a warm place or until doubled in size.

Line a square tin (20cm) with baking paper

When doubled in size place dough onto a lightly floured bench top and lightly kneed to form a ball

Divide dough into 9 equal portions (you can use scales if you want) and roll into balls (I divide dough into 3 portions, then divide them into 3 again).

Place balls lined neatly in 3 rows of 3 into square tin

Cover with plastic wrap and let rise in a warm place for approx. 30 mins or until doubled in size

Preheat oven to 180°C fan forced

Once risen pipe crosses on top (optional)

Paste for crosses- 2 tblsp plain flour mixed with 1.5 tblsp water to form a sticky paste- you don’t want it too runny- so add extra flour if needed. Use piping bag to make crosses (I do it in 3 lines x 3 lines) or use a small plastic bag and snip end off.

Place buns in oven and cook for 20-30 mins or until golden brown and well risen

Once cooked make the glaze.

Glaze- combine 2 tblsp sugar and 2 tblsp water in a small pot. Bring to a gentle boil until sugar has dissolved and mixture slightly thickened.

Brush hot syrup generously over the top of buns.

Try and wait till they are cool enough to eat

TIP: If its really cold put your oven on the defrost function and let dough rise in there! Or even set it to 50°C- but if you do this cover with a tea towel and not plastic wrap.

Dinosaur Dig Site- Keep Out

The Dinosaur theme continued yesterday with this great Dinosaur fossil cake. It was nice to make a cake that didn't require precision- the messier the better! The 'dirt' was created with the help of a play-doh tool and some brown coloured fondant, which was then mixed with cake crumbs. My husband thought the cake was a little morbid however the birthday boy loved it. Cakes for my kids done and dusted for the year- time to exhale! 

Stomp Stomp!

Tomorrow my big boy turns 6! Dinosaurs are the theme this year! I made these vanilla and white chocolate cupcakes to share with his school friends. Pretty sure they will be  a hit with the boys- I don't imagine the girls will be impressed!

My Baby turned 2!

Last week my baby turned 2! We celebrated with this cute little 15 cm "ishy cake" as Joshua called it.

He is obsessed with the fish in his older brothers classrooms so the cake theme started with that idea. I then decided to create a little bit of a sea theme, hence the whale and the little sailing boat on top. This is the last year I get to make a 'little boys' cake for my kids- and yes I am a little sad at that! Im guessing in the future it will be Superhero's, skulls and scary creatures!

Spiderman Cake!

My 3 little boys will celebrate their birthdays over the next 3 weeks. Today it was Noahs turn, the BIG 4 yr old finally decided on a spiderman cake (after first telling me he wanted a transformer cake, then a dinosaur cake and then a how to train your dragon cake). After searching the web for ideas I came up with this cake- a mesh of a few different cool ideas- we shared it with his preschool friends this afternoon.

A Bright and Happy Little Cake to Start the Year!

This bright 15cm flour-less orange and almond cake was a great way to kick off my cake decorating year! Such a fun little cake and a nice gift to say 'Happy Birthday' to a friend!

Gift Boxes

I am really enjoying putting together gift boxes filled with little treats! A friend just had a baby boy last week so I gave her this gift box containing shortbread and pale blue and yellow 'flower' sugar cookies.

Almost Christmas!

Christmas is almost here! The kids are getting very excited as the presents went under the tree yesterday! Today the kids and I are going to bake some more christmas cookies and decorate them. These cute snowmen have been requested- they were a big hit when we gave them out to friends in my sons preschool class! Some fun treats for the holidays.

Gingerbread House

The poor children have been watching me do my christmas baking all week and kept asking if they could 'help'. Normally I enjoy letting the kids help me in the kitchen however (as I am a slight perfectionist) I really wanted the gifts I was making to be as perfect as possible- so I kept promising that we would make something together on the weekend. This morning I made the cookies for the Gingerbread House- quickly assembled it- and then let them get creative one by one. Here is the resulting debut of their decorating talents. My eldest who is 5 1/2 even managed to pipe the doors and windows (with a little help). Tomorrow they are allowed to eat it!

Reindeer Cookies

I made these beautiful little Reindeer cookies for my son to give to the children in his class at school as a Christmas gift. They were individually packaged in gift bags with a cute little sticker.

Christmas Gifts

I made these lovely gift boxes for my children's' teachers this year. I am always stuck for gift ideas for the teachers so decided homemade treats were the way to go. Each box contained 1 x Jar of Red Pepper Jelly, 3 x decorated angel cookies, 1 x bag of Tamari almonds and 1 x bag of shortbread cookies.

A Beautiful Butterfly!

This Beautiful Butterfly would make any little girl very happy! Another fun cake to design and make!

Aqua Ruffle Cake

I have just finished this Aqua Ruffle Cake and WOW! The birthday girl sent me a photo a few weeks ago and asked if I could make it- after a few little practice attempts at creating the ruffles I gave her the thumbs up. I am sure this one will be my first of many cakes of this style- it is just so pretty! Made with Orange and almonds and covered with white chocolate ganache. 

A lovely message from the Birthday Girl "Hi Lauren :). The cake was absolutely beautiful. It tasted just as good as it looked. My guests loved it too, they were even asking me who made it :). I only ended up taking a small piece home because so much was eaten :). Thank you again and I really appreciate it. It was beautiful and I wouldn't change a thing. " Anezina, Darwin, NT

My Cake Decorating Debut!

In 2009 I ventured into the world of cake decorating! It was my Husbands 30th Birthday and I really wanted a special cake that both looked great and tasted great. I had always been a very good baker of cakes and desserts, however I had never attempted a novelty cake. I decided that as 90% of the birthday guests were young males, who most probably wouldn't look twice at the cake,  this was the perfect opportunity to have a go! If it was a disaster it would still taste great and no one would really care except me! In order to get myself started  I bought a cake decorating book and started teaching myself the different techniques required to create an amazing birthday cake. This is a picture of the final product! I was thrilled with the result!

Sprinkle Fairy/Wizard Wands

I am hopeless when it comes to Children's Party food- I love making it and LOVE eating it! These are my absolute favourite! The colours of the sprinkles can be matched to any theme. A lovely cute treat on any party table.

40th Birthday Funky Flower CupCakes

These bright Funky Flower CupCakes were a hit at my friends 40th Birthday. A beautiful vanilla cupcake was topped with white chocolate ganache and covered with fondant. Any colour combination would look great!

Number Cookies

When I found larger number cutters I knew exactly what I wanted to do with them- Number cookies for my sons Birthday Parties! These sugar cookies were delicious and looked great as well. They would also make a great party favour for guests to take home.

Cup Cakes in Disguise

A while ago I saw a recipe for Cup Cake Ice Creams- I thought it sounded like a very fun idea but never thought they would work. I imagined a burnt cone and undercooked cake! These were my fist attempt - easy, cute and YUMMY! The toppings could be changed to match any birthday theme.