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.

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.

Sandra's 50 lemon cupcakes

So my boss Sandra recently commissioned me to make
50 cupcakes for her 50th birthday!

She's a big fan of my vanilla sponge with lemon buttercream cupcakes.

Because I piped the icing I had to make more than usual and
managed to get through 1.5kg of icing sugar.

But I used half-fat creme fraiche, so that evened things out.

It being a big birthday, I thought edible gold

glitter and stars were in order... which fitted in
well with the general children's party atmosphere.

I think Sandra ate her way through one box of cakes,
while the rest of the office devoured the other...

...pretty quickly.

Best of all, Sandra gamely posed with a lovely pair of cupcakes.

Big thanks to Catrin Cullen for the photos.

Espresso coffee cake

Old phone pic no. 4

This was an Espresso coffee cake I made for my dad's birthday cake last year.

It's a marble vanilla/coffee liqueur marble cake
covered with espresso coffee icing and chocolate covered coffee beans.