Magical pink ombre layer cake

Last week I made my first 6 layer cake :) ... i'd wanted to try one out for AGES but to be fair, couldn't be bothered! Seemed like a LOT of effort. But finding myself with a morning of nothing to do I figured i'd give it a shot & was surprised at how simple it was!

To make one you will need...

For the cake:

Have all ingredients at room temperature

9 medium eggs - lightly beaten

18oz self raising flour - sifted

18oz caster sugar

18oz butter

2 1/2 tsp vanilla extract

For the filling:

Raspberry Jam

250g butter

400g icing sugar

tsp of vanilla extract

To cover:

500g butter

800g icing sugar

1 1/2 tsp vanilla extract

Gel colouring

Preheat the oven to gas mark 4 / 350F / 180C

Grease & line 6 8inch cake tins (I only had 2 so did 2 at a time!)

Beat the butter & sugar together with an electric mixer on a medium speed 

until light & fluffy, about 5-10mins

Turn down the speed & add the eggs a little bit at a time, 

scraping the side of the bowl after each addition

Add the vanilla extract

Once it's all well combined turn off the mixer & 

fold the sifted flour in a bit at a time with a metal spoon

Now separate the mixture into 6 bowls & colour each layer a different hue/colour, 

best to use gel colours instead of liquid food colouring as it makes them more vibrant

Transfer the mixtures into the prepared cake tins & cook for 17-18 mins 

until a skewer inserted into the middle comes out clean

Leave to cool 

Trim the tops off the layers so they're nice & flat & even

Beat the butter with an electric mixer until soft & slowly add the icing sugar,

add the vanilla extract & beat until light & fluffy (about 5 mins) 

Layer your sponges with jam & butter cream within each layer

Lightly coat the whole cake with a layer of buttercream to lock in the crumbs & pop into the fridge whilst you prepare your coloured buttercream

As before mix your butter until soft & slowly incorporate the icing sugar & 

vanilla extract beat until light & fluffy

Split the buttercream into 3 bowls & mix in the different amounts

of colour so you end up with 3 hues of the same colour

Using a piping bag with an open star tip start piping swirls of your darkest colour working from the inside out, along the bottom of the cake, filling in any gaps with a little line of buttercream as you go along

Once you've finished the first layer change to a lighter shade of your colour & repeat the swirls, finally finish the top in your lightest shade until the whole cake is covered :) 

TA DAAA! Magical ombre cake! ... my swirls could do with a bit of practice but the colours just look so pretty no-one really cares if they're a bit dodgy! Practice shall i'm sure eventually make perfect :)

It's pretty massive by the time you've finished all the layering & buttercream so make sure you have a lovely bunch of people to help you eat it! 

Peanut Butter & Chocolate Cookies

I'm a total sucker for anything involving a combination of peanut butter & chocolate, so when I came across the recipe for peanut butter & chocolate cookies in my Hummingbird Bakery recipe book a few years back it was clearly going to be a winner. 

I think this is the first Hummingbird recipe I tried out & it's been used time & time again for all number of occasions, they're literally the best cookies i've ever tasted & everyone who's tried them has just fallen completely in love, they're soft & chewy, taste amazing and are amazingly simple! 

To make you will need :

225g unsalted butter at room temperature
200g caster sugar
200g soft light brown sugar
2 eggs
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
240g crunchy peanut butter
340g plain flour
2 1/2 teaspoons bicarbonate of soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
75g dark chocolate, chopped

Method :

Preheat the oven to 170C (325F) Gas 3.

Prepare two baking trays with baking parchment paper on.

Put the butter and sugars in a freestanding electric mixer with a paddle attachment and cream until light and fluffy.

Add the eggs one at a time, mixing well and scraping any unmixed ingredients from the side of the bowl with a rubber spatula after each addition. Turn the mixer down to a slow speed and beat in the vanilla extract and peanut butter.

Add the flour, bicarbonate of soda and salt and mix well until a smooth dough is formed. Stir in the chocolate until evenly dispensed.

Arrange 6 equal amounts of cookie dough on each prepared baking tray. Make sure that the cookies are spaced apart to allow for spreading while baking.

Bake in the preheated oven for about 10 minutes or until golden brown around the edges and quite flat. Leave the cookies to cool slightly on the trays before turning out onto a wire cooling rack to cool completely. The cookies should be soft and chewy.

They're very soft when they come out of the oven so the bit about leaving them to cool slightly on the baking tray is important as they firm up as they cool down.

I also always make half the batch with chocolate & half without as I find some people are fussy about the two mixed together (I'm still not sure why I'm friends with some of these people :p they're clearly insane but I do try to keep everyone happy!)

Enjoy! 

(I know you will!)

Breakfast Cups

Today was day one of my 3 week holiday, I could SO get used to not working. Before I jet off to Singapore and Thailand I am spending some quality time with the boyfriend, so today we spent the morning shopping, went for a run and then I finally got to make one of the brunch recipes i've had stashed away for when I finally had time to cook in the middle of the day!

We made, bacon and egg breakfast cups.

I originally found the recipe on one of my favourite foody blogs - www.spoonforkbacon.com which incidentally is the home to the majority of the brunch recipes i'm dying to make, including "Baked apple cinnamon french toast" which looks AMAZING.

But yes, the breakfast cups were the first I came across, although it appears to have disappeared off the blog now!

So these are basically bacon egg and toast in cute little cup form! 

To make 6 you'll need:

6 Slices of bread

6 Rashers of bacon

6 eggs

Salt & Pepper

Muffin Tin

Method:

Preheat the oven to gas mark 6 (400 degrees)

Grease 6 holes of your muffin tin

Flatten out your bread with a rolling pin and cut a circle out the middle using a cookie cutter, a glass or a knife... I went with knife, and press into the muffin tin to create a little bread cup.

Grill/fry your 6 rashers of bacon until almost crisp, place a rasher into each bread cup and crack an egg over each. 

Season with salt and pepper. 

Bake in the middle of the oven for 20-25 minutes until the whites are just about set, run a knife around the edge and pop out of the muffin tin using a spoon. 

There you have it... breakfast cups, such a cute way of serving bacon and egg, and super yummy! 

I love brunch. 

Mars Bar Rice Crispy Treats

With last weekend being Easter I thought I would relive my childhood and make the rice crispy treats I used to make every year with my Grandy. I'd totally forgotten quite how good they were, but beware...  they are definitely not for anyone watching their waistline!

You'll need:

8 mars bars
Butter (approx 100g)
300g chocolate (I used dark but it's up to you!)
Rice crispies (I used about 2/3 of a packet)
A roasting tin

Method:

Chop up the mars bars and melt in a bowl over boiling water with half the butter. It will curdle a bit at first but just keep stirring it until it goes nice and smooth and glossy, add more butter if you think it needs it.

Mix the melted mars bar mix with as many rice crispies as it will cover! ... Depends how chocolatey you want them as to how many you add.
Tip - mix in the warm bowl as it keeps the melted mixture soft and easier to stir, careful though it'll be hot!

Press the mixture into a greased roasting tin

Place 300g of chocolate in a bowl over a pan of boiling water with the remainder of the butter and once melted pour over the layer of rice crispy mix

As it was Easter I put mini eggs on the top of my crispy treats as decoration but you don't have to do this, or could subsitute mini eggs for malteasers or minstrels or something else chocolatey and bad for you!

Place the baking tray in the fridge for a few hours or until the chocolate has set then slice up and devour!