Blueberry and Lemon Traybake

I love the combination of Blueberry and Lemon together and had a need to make some sort of cake with them and as luck would have it I came across this recipe from the very clever Holly Bell ( Great British Bake off finalist) I love her blog all the recipes are so simple and easy and she is super woman having just had her 3rd child and is still able to do lots of recipes - my idol! I am hoping that when I have had this baby  ( only 2 more weeks to go - Yay!) I too will still have the time to be making lots of cakes!!! 

I have started to 'nest' I have made fish pie, lasagne and this afternoon I'm making a vat of shepherds pie all to go in the freezer so that I can just heat something up without all the stress of what to make for dinner! I have a few apple crumbles squirreled away to...

Back to cake here is the recipe - she made this as a loaf cake however I decided to do it a s a traybake.

They were delicious and moist but my blueberries sank to the bottom - next time I will dust them in some flour before I put them in the mixture. Just reading her blog about this recipe and her blueberries sank too so makes me feel that I am in good company!!

They didn't hang around for long ... mmmmmmm

Floating Malteser chocolate cake.

I love unusual and excessive cakes and this is one that I saw on Pinterest and once I looked into it realised that it was an easy but impressive cake that I could do for a friends 40th Birthday.

The cake itself was a 3 tiered chocolate cake from my favourite and easiest cake by good old Nigella which you can get here . There were going to be about 20 people so needed a bit of a big cake. Then I smoothered the outside of the cake with chocolate icing and stuck chocolate fingers to it - try not to eat them as you do this!! It took exactly 2 boxes ( maybe a couple escaped for quality control purposes of course) and then the top of cake is smothered in more chocolate icing and I used 2 boxes of Maltesers for the decoration. To start you need to afix the floating Malteser bag ,to achieve thisyou need a bendy straw - the main part goes into the cake and the top short bendy bit holds the bag, dip the top straw part in melted chocolate and put in the corner of the empty packet and hold until dried - you could put this in the fridge to speed up the process. To achieve the floating stream of maltesers  - place the straw in the middle of the cake and with a bowl of melted chocolate dip in maltesers and stick them to the straw. This is time consuming and messy - you have to wait until each one has dried otherwise they start to slide down the straw. I did this on a really hot day as well which was a little difficult. Then leave to dry and set.
The effect is amazing! it was well received and extremely chcolatey - all 20 of us had some with plenty left over.

A mini Minion

So much for my comeback ! I dont feel sick anymore which is lovely but have moved house which isn't easy when you are 6 months pregnant and looking after a very boisterous nearly 2 year old toddler who bless her wants to help unpack, I've lost count of how many things I've misplaced! So we have moved to a house from a second floor flat and I can't tell you how fantastic it is not to have to walk up 2 flights of stairs carrying Molly and whatever bag I had let alone being pregnant. Just open the car door and in we go! We've only moved about 8 miles away but its a new village and I am always wanting to make new friends and was very excited to see on the local noticeboard a baking club with a meeting the following week! So I had to go. The people were really friendly all like minded bakers who loved to bake , there were 3 other women who were new that week too which made me feel more at ease. Its a monthly meeting with people taking turns to showcase what they are good at but its not obligatory which is good as I wouldn't have a clue what to do! This  month was a cake decorating session to make a Minion, I know what one is but I haven't seen the films. I haven't really done a lot of work with sugar paste so was very keen to have a go - this is my finished Minion.

We were all given a 'body' and 'head' - these were vanilla sponge cakes that the one of the fellow bakers had made - we covered them with apricot jam as a glue for the yellow paste and then cut out the belt , eyes, trousers etc in the blue and black sugar paste. We did it all in stages so it took a while to do and some bits were a bit fiddly but it was great fun and they all looked very individual when we had finished! It was a fab night and I am so pleased that I made the effort to brave it and go.These are the finished Minions!

 Next month it is bread making which is something I haven't done since school!