Victoria sponge for Sandra

Instead of the usual batch of birthday cupcakes,
I decided to make a Victoria sponge for Sandra.

I used a Mary Berry recipe and filled it with vanilla buttercream and
strawberry jam, before dousing it with icing sugar.

It weighed about a ton, and had to be carefully airlifted into a tin
using folded sheets of baking paper.

Sandra delicately hacked into it without taking it out of the tin.

Here's Ruth M-J tucking into a slice.

And here's Sandra taking a trademark small bite.

Portuguese custard tarts

I decided to make Portuguese custard tarts.

I couldn't find a recipe that didn't use ready made pastry,
so took the plunge and made my own rough puff.

You have to roll the pastry into a log and cut into spirals first.

I'd also never made real custard from scractch before,
so that was a new experience.

Here are the tart cases filled with the custard.

And here are the finised tarts!

I gave some to my friend Lindsey for her birthday.

She's a real "pastel de nata" aficionado,
so I was pleased when she said they tasted authentic!

Pizza night!

We ♥ pizza so decided to make some the other night.

Dough and all, of course!

Here they are before they went into the oven...

And here they are after!

This one had mozzarella, anchovies, pineapple,
roasted red pepper and caramelised red onion...

And this one had smoked ham, caramelised pear and gorgonzola.

Freshly-ground black pepper and a sprinkle of rocket, and they're good to go.

Very tasty, though I do say so myself...

Pistachio macarons with chocolate ganache

After those amazing macarons at Dan and Lucy's wedding and GBBO episode 4,
I decided to try to make my own...

These ones feature finely chopped pistachios and should really be green,
but I didn't have any green food colouring.

I sandwiched them together with chocolate ganache.

They didn't turn out perfectly, as they kind of look like mini burgers,
but weren't bad for a first effort and tasted good.

Chicken and mushroom pie

So if I'm going to enter next year's GBBO,
I'm going to need to drastically expand my baking repertoire...

Not sure I've ever made a savoury pie before,
so I decided on chicken and mushroom, with shortcrust pastry.

After making the pastry I baked the base blind, made the filling,
and added the top, making sure to cut a few slits for the air to escape.

Sorry, please excuse the horrible foil pie tin, I didn't have a real one the right size.
Don't worry, Lakeland will be receiving an order soon.

And here's a slice of the pie, served with corn on the cob and carrots.

Eccles cakes and Lancashire cheese

So Scott went to St John recently and had Eccles cakes and Lancashire cheese.

I'd forgotten how obsessed we were when we first tried them,
so decided to take the plunge and make my own.

You make a basic pastry with grated mararine, flour and salt...
chill it, then roll it out into circles.

The filling is made from currants, candied peel, orange zest,
sugar, cinnamon and nutmeg. It smells very Christmassy when you warm it up.

So you add a teaspoom of the filling to the pastry and seal in inside,
before turning over and cutting 3 slits in the top.

When you bake them in the oven, the filling oozes out and the currants get caramelised.

And more importantly, here they are with some crumbly
Kirkham's Lancashire Cheese.

So. Good.

Dan and Lucy Forever

So yesterday was Dan and Lucy Forever day.

♥

After an amazing wedding breakfast, they served cheese
and some of the tastiest macarons I've ever eaten.

Here's a selection: pistachio, lavender, lemon, and the piece de resistance...

Salted caramel with bronze dust.

Mmmmmmmm...

Eva and Nick, the Seven Year Hitch

So here are some lemon and vanilla cupcakes I made for
Eva and Nick's wedding yesterday.

I made lemon buttercream icing and lime green fondant hearts
to match the cream roses and green chrysanthemum wedding flowers.

Here's the beautiful happy couple after the ceremony!

Back at the reception, here are my cupcakes next to
the amazing wedding cake made by Eva's mum.

And here are Eva and Nick cutting the cake!

It's back...

Great British Bake Off, BBC2, 8pm.

Blueberry and polenta cupcakes

Here are some blueberry and polenta cupcakes from my Primrose Bakery cook book.

The corn and blueberry is unusual flavour combination, but works, just about!

I'd suggest serving them warm at breakfast time.

Bankford wedding spectacular

So I was incredibly proud when Libby & Jon asked me to make cakes for their wedding.

We got a big lemon and poppy seed cake from Peyton & Byrne, and added edible flowers.

I made piles of mini Victoria Sponges with fresh strawberries,
whipped cream and a dusting of icing sugar.

HUGE thanks to Serena, Catrin and Rachel for helping assemble them.

For more beautiful photos, check out Jade Lisa Photography.

Mini Victoria sponges for Tanya

I made some mini Victoria sponge cakes for Tanya's birthday this weekend.

I used my usual vanilla cupcake recipe, cutting the cakes in half
before filling with whipped cream and slices of strawberry.

As a finishing touch I made little T stencils and dusted the cakes with icing sugar.

And I packaged them up in one of the brilliant leopard print
cake boxes Emma got me for Christmas.

Here's Tanya eating one of her cakes!

Haribo cakes for Roberta

It was Roberta's birthday so I made some lemon buttercream mini cupcakes.

And here's the birthday girl with a cake!

Blackberry, blueberry and lime drizzle cake

Here is another mega-berry lime drizzle cake,
like the one posted a few weeks back...

I read somewhere that you should coat the berries in flour and
sprinkle a few over the top of the dough to keep them from sinking.

I love the way the blackberries explode when you cut into the cake...

And here's a slice.

Dave's leaving buffet

Unfortunately it's Dave's last day at work,
but that meant we all got to enjoy an awesome party buffet.

Trish made a truly amazing spread, which included a turkey snake roll,
raspberry Victoria sponge and courgette and tomato muffins.

Here's Dave doing his leaving speech...

And here he is modelling his "Global Meltdown" Fontis T-shirt.

Guinness & chocolate cake for breakfast

I walked to the tube today*, so was feeling pretty virtuous...
So virtuous that I was about to buy a breakfast croissant from the cafe.

But thank goodness I didn't, because Nigel had brought
in an ENORMOUS Guinness and chocolate cake.

His sister Hilary made it for him for his birthday,
and it tastes absolutely amazing.

We are calling it the breakfast of champions.

*It's a 15 minute bus ride usually, honest.