Giant jaffa cake wedding cake

On seeing my wedding cake efforts I was approached by another friend with regards his wedding cake...except we weren't talking traditional tiers and white icing..no no..I was set the challenge of creating a giant jaffa cake wedding cake...three tiers of zesty choclate orangey goodness.

I have previously made giant jaffa cakes and so knew the basic process - sponge, jelly, chocolate. hough this gives an authentic looking jaffa the scent and flavour are somewhat lacking so it was necessary to experiment.

As I have mentioned there are three basic elements to a jaffa cake and it was essential that each was perfect.

I began with developing the sponge. I began with my basic victoria sponge recipe (as borrowed from the WI - weigh eggs, then add equal weight of butter, sugar, flour. 2tsps baking powder 1tsp vanilla). This didn't quite give the right texture and also was too soft...jaffa hovers somewhere between cake and biscuit and I needed to replicate that. My eureka moment came with this recipe. Right texture and it added another citrus element to the jaffa helping create the right scent and flavour.

Now - the squidgy bit.Really had to play with orange products for this. I began with a basic orange jelly and initially added orange juice. Good but lacking sweetness and depth. I attempted orange squash and jelly - way too sweet and sickly..even for a jaffa!  My next addition was orange essence and it seems that a heady combination of orange juice, orange essence and orange jelly brings you to jaffa! Just a heads up..the oils in the orange essence do lead to some spotting in the chocolate.



The chocolate was simpler - Initially I toyed with the idea of chocolate flavour coating to really copy the original but flavour wise this just didn't work so I opted instead for a 74 percent dark chocolate which worked beautiful both in flavour and scent.

So..basic process mastered!

Next issue was how to present the cake. Not possible to directly stack them...pillars would look a bit naff so I opted for a staggered stand and acrylic cake boards with clusters of real yellow roses on each cake.

And here...if you're still with me...is the end result....

A tale of a wedding cake....

My biggest project this year, no in fact I underestimate the stress of the situation..my biggest project this year was a dear friend's wedding cake. Sure I did my own wedding cake but, had that gone awry I would have had noone to blame but myself. To be in charge of the centrepiece of someone else's dream day was an absolutely immense responsibility.

Needless to say there were several meetings to discuss flavours, dimensions, details and thankfully for me the design she wanted was crisp and 'simple'. I use the speech marks as simple is, as I found out far more complex.

The cake was to be three stacked tiers tall with a fruit base layer, chocolate centre layer and lemon top layer. Coated in pure white icing and wrapped in ribbons of teal and ivory.

First problem - I had never stacked that amount of cake before. I quickly came to realise that supports would be essential. I used Wilton invisible pillars which I inserted into each layer. These were a good choice as they were easy to saw and file. Though I'm sure you can imagine the looks I got in my local hardware store when I went in and said 'I need a hacksaw' 'What for?' 'I'm baking a cake...'.

My second problem was a rather large set back I encountered - I managed to drop my 13" fruit cake. I have never wept over cake before but I did sit among the wreckage and weep. However, and thankfully, this calamity happened in plenty of time..and it did mean my husband got a taste test.

Third problem was ensuring that the icing was absolutely pure white and free of impurities. This just meant very careful preparation of surfaces. Something I also found useful was the discovery that you can use vodka as a cleaning solvent on icing.

Crumbing, covering and stacking was otherwise uneventful. The next terrifying step was transportation. I don't think my husband has ever driven so slowly and carefully..even when I was in labour with our children. So we got there safely.

Then it was time to set up. Very carefully I moved all the tiers into the function room and started to restack on their rather gorgeous stand. No problems thus far. But could I get those bloody ribbons to stay in place. My faux professional cool, ably demonstrated by my bringing along my tool box (read:trolley), was destroyed by about thirty minutes of muttering at ribbons. But I got there in then end and, several months on she is still telling me how much she loved it.

*PHEW*

Cupcakes....

I was asked by a friend to prepare a selection of cupcakes as a birthday cake. Now as you may have gathered I am trying to make a break from cupcakes looking for 'the next big thing' in baking. However I have to confess there is much delight to be had in swirly technicolour icing and sprinkles so I set to on my task.
I stuck with a couple of old favourites - chocolate and lemon complete with swirly icing and was very pleased with the results, but as I've mentioned this is safe ground.
The third cake was my venture into the unknown - Carrot cake cupcakes. I decided to use my trusty carrot cake recipe and a lot of hoping that it would translate into mini form. I generally use this mix as a tray bake so I was concerned it would lose it's characteristic moistness through being placed in small cupcake portions. However (good old sneaky oil in cake mix...) this was not the case and they were just as moist as their tray bake brothers.

Icing these was simple - Cream cheese and the juice of an orange, as I would have done for a tray bake - but of course slightly stiffer in order to be able to pipe it.

The major downfall came with my enlightened idea of placing a wee mini royal icing carrot on the top of each...handmade of course by moi...first one - ah so cute. Second one - this is pleasant. Third one - Dear god...how many of these do I have to do...? One of those 'Seemed like a good idea before you started it' deals. Still, I was very pleased with the end results and it's definetly something I shall use again in the future!

Ravishing radishes

Just a little update on the shovels side of my blog...
Currently we're throwing just about every type of seed going at the ground in the hope that something will thrive and this ingenious technique is giving us a heady mix of success and heartache.
First the lows - Outdoor tomatoes...keeled over almost as soon as they looked at the ground.
Dwarf French beans...I gave these the benefit of the doubt and remained ever optimistic for a few weeks, ungrateful things went and died on me!!

Now for the highs - Firstly my darling daughter seems to have green fingers!! Her haphazard 'planting' has lead to pea plants which are stronger than those we put in as seedlings.
Secondly, despite a few loses, the cabbages, sprouts and broccoli are coming along beautifully.
And finally the piece de resistance....I am very very proud to announce.....we have actually had some produce from the allotment...the radishes came into ruby red victorious fruition!!!!!!
I have to confess to doing a little celebratory boogie I was so very excited! In fact so excited I made my darling children lovingly pluck them from the earth with me though Madam was less than impressed!
So here, of course, is the photographic evidence....

Another Whoopie adventure!

I've been so inspired by the cult of Whoopie that I've been carrying out my own experiments in an attempt to create 'the ultimate'. As the Whoopie is an American creation I thought I'd run with that theme and combine Whoopie with peanut butter.

To do this I took my regular Whoopie recipe, omitted the cocoa and replaced about 1/3rd of the butter with peanut butter. The result, though they look 'right' were just a little too dry. Whether this was down to cooking or lack of wet ingredients I'm not quite sure.
Also the glaze though it had the right consistency and 'look' lacked a slight tartness. I think, if I were to attempt these again I would replace my chocolate filling with a creme fraiche based one in order to add a zing and reduce the sweetness.

I've also considered changing the elements around - perhaps a chocolate Whoppie with peanut filling? Peanut with a chocolate glaze? Ahh...so many experiments still to be done!!

Pink and Sparkly....

A friend of mine recently gave me the above title as a brief for her daughter's first birthday cake. Uttering the words 'pink' and 'sparkly' to me is like holding the proverbial red rag to the bull. Three tiers and lots of glitter later I had created this....Three tiers of sponge layered with pink butter icing and piped with yet more butter icing complete with glitter and spray painted flowers.
Initially I was very happy with the results but then it began to lean to one side. I could have cried. I have drawn a few conclusions on the matter....Firstly - that a basic sponge recipe is too delicate to bear weight like this - I had added to this problem by dividing each tier into three. But my husband on seeing the cake said "Wow I love the lean" - he thought I'd been really clever and designed it that way....I knew there was a reason I married him.
Also I felt the flowers lacked a little vibrancy - This may seem as if I'm ripping myself to pieces but I am a perfectionist and also I need to learn from these errors in order to progress!

Anyway..after all the self-depreciation. My friend was ever so impressed and said that the cake was delicious which is of course the most important thing!!!

But of course you'll need filling with that....

To fill your Whoopies I suggest....

(Sufficient to fill the previously posted Whoopie recipe)

150g Philadelphia
150g Butter
10ml Vanilla icing
500g Icing sugar

Mix together either manually or using an electric mixer (remember to start off slowly to avoid icing sugar snow showers!!). Consistency should be creamy and thick enough to pipe.