The BEST Carrot Cake with Vanilla Bean Cream Cheese Frosting!

I am going to kick this off by confessing that I'm not really a fan of carrot cake! If you have followed my blog for a while now, you will know that it's just a bit too healthy for my tastebuds! and I would just always choose nutella or oreo or a triple layer chocolate fudge cake over carrot cake! In fact growing up, I used to ask my mom to make it from time to time but that was really only because I wanted the cream cheese frosting from on top! So when Baking Mad got in touch offering me this beautiful hamper of Nielsen-Massey goodies and asked me to pick a recipe I wanted to bake, I chose their carrot cake recipe but purely because it was followed by 'with vanilla bean cream cheese frosting' and oh man I couldn't pass that frosting up!! I am also already a huge fan of Nielsen-Massey's products - their vanilla extract is the only one I will use so it was super exciting to have all these products turn up on my doorstep! 

I am in LOVE with vanilla bean paste! Seriously! If I could only take 5 baking ingredients to a desert island this would be right up there as my number 2, because Nutella first - obvs! I discovered the amazingness of vanilla bean paste back in 2010 when I wanted to make these root beer float cupcakes.  I came across a frosting described as melted vanilla ice cream tasting...and thought that would be a perfect addition to turn my root beer cupcakes into a float! The secret ingredient to make that dreamy creamy melted vanilla ice cream flavour frosting was, you guessed it, vanilla bean paste! Back then I'm pretty sure you could only get it online or in select Waitrose stores so it definitely wasn't as readily available as it is now.  It was as sacred to me as liquid gold when I eventually got my hands on it! and I've never looked back! and trust me after tasting some of this vanilla bean cream cheese frosting, you will never want to make regular cream cheese frosting again!!

This was also the fanciest carrot cake I've ever come across before! Crushed pineapple? check, toasted pecans? check! pistachios? check! and it was also my first time baking with golden caster and golden icing sugar - which I was excited about! The whole cake just seemed so healthy and nutritious that as beautiful as the batter looked (which is why I had to snap the pic below - I'm not usually a fan of mixing bowl shots, but look at all that colour!) I had already made up my mind that I probably wasn't going to love the taste...and would be reaching for a brownie or two instead ;)

It was sometime before midnight that I finished the cake, after keeping my husband company on a dissertation writing session! I photographed it and was about to put it away and head to bed, but the smell and aroma coming from the cake was irresistible! and that vanilla bean cream cheese frosting was calling my name! I knew I'd never be able to sleep if I didn't try a taste of this cake! So I cut a slither, and oh my goodness it was one of the best cakes I've ever tasted! I was chastising myself for my earlier lack of faith in it's tastiness! So considering I wouldn't call myself a carrot cake fan, this cake definitely converted me! and how did I forget to tell you about brushing those warm baked cakes with an amazing lemon sugar syrup mixture?! Oh man! That was genius! and definitely helped the cake to be extra moist and extra fruity! so after my initial slither, I of course cut myself an enormous piece! and devoured it all the way to bed...my husband was shaking his head at me, but seriously this cake could not wait til morning!!

I also loved how vibrant the pistachios were on top of the frosting! It is such an inviting and enticing cake! and I've been passing the recipe along to everyone I've been speaking to this week because it is just too good! If you're looking to wow with your baking, then this one is definitely for you!!

Carrot Cake with Vanilla Bean Cream Cheese Frosting:

Serves 12

From Baking Mad

for the cake:
250g unsalted butter, softened
250g unrefined golden caster sugar, I used Billington's
4 eggs, lightly whisked
1 tsp Nielsen-Massey vanilla extract
250g self raising wholemeal flour
150g carrots, peeled and coarsely grated
75g tinned pineapple, roughly chopped
1 lemon (zest only)
1 tsp mixed spice
100g pistachio nuts, roughly chopped
50g pecan nuts, toasted and roughly chopped

for the sugar syrup:
50g unrefined light muscovado sugar
1 lemon (juice only)
1 tsp Nielsen-Massey vanilla extract

for the frosting:
75g unsalted butter, softened
450g unrefined golden icing sugar, I used Billington's
180g cream cheese
1 tsp Nielsen-Massey vanilla bean paste

50g pistachio nuts, roughly chopped

Preheat the oven to 180 degrees C.
Grease and line 2x20cm sandwich tins with parchment paper.

In a bowl with a mixer, cream the butter and sugar together for a few minutes, or until light and fluffy.  Gradually pour in the eggs and the vanilla extract, then add the flour and continue to mix for a minute.  Fold in the carrot, pineapple zest, mixed spice and nuts.

Divide the cake mixture equally between the two tins and flatten with a spatula.  Bake on the middle shelf and cook for 30-35 minutes, or until golden and a skewer comes away clean when inserted into the centre of the cakes.

Meanwhile, make the lemon and vanilla sugar syrup by heating the sugar and lemon juice together for a few minutes, or until the sugar has completely dissolved and then add the vanilla.  Turn both cakes out onto a wire rack and brush the tops of the warm cakes with the syrup.  Allow to cool while you make the frosting.

Cream the butter, cream cheese and vanilla bean paste together into the bowl of a mixer and beat until light and fluffy.  Add the icing sugar and continue to mix until you achieve a spreading consistency.

Sit one of the sponges on a plate or stand, and spread with half of the frosting.  Place the second sponge on top, and cover with the remaining frosting.  Decorated with chopped pistachios.

Eat and enjoy!

I received the Nielsen-Massey products complimentary from Baking Mad, but all views and opinions expressed are my own.

Mint Chocolate Aero Balls & Kit Kat Overload Layer Cake

Hooray for internet! Ours has finally been activated, and so you can expect some serious blogging to go down around here.  I have a lot of delicious bakes to catch you up on! This first one was from back at the end of August when we had our first visitor in Scotland my father in law paid us a visit! It also happened to co-incide with his birthday, lucky him! So we called him in the week and asked him what sort of cake he wanted me to bake...

His response was 'chocolate'!! Soooo boring! There was no way I was just going to make a plain chocolate cake, so I urged him to think of some other flavours or chocolate bars he likes and eventually he came up with 'mint'! Perfect! Chocolate & mint is one of my all time favour flavour combos for baking...it's right up there with lime & coconut and raspberry & white chocolate for me! The last comment my father in law added was 'don't make it too rich'! When my husband relayed this comment to me, I stared at him in horror! The only cakes I know how to make are rich ones! 

So thinking that I know best I ignored that last little comment, and went about planning a chocolate and mint cake.  As far as birthday cakes are concerned if I can't fit overload in the title of the cake, it's not worth baking! so I thought of every mint chocolate possible and in the end decided a kit kat and m&m cake would go down well since the last one I made was so well loved! So I stocked up on mint kit kat's, but then remembered we were in Scotland and not in Vancouver and so mint m&m's were nowhere to be found! Aero balls seemed to be a good alternative! and added a nice splash of colour to the cake! I also picked up some slabs of Mint Aero to melt into the frosting to give it a hint of mint, and I blitzed some of the chocolate into the mint frosting I sandwiched the cakes with...so really you can't get more mint in a cake if you try! 

I used my trusty Primrose Bakery chocolate layer cake recipe because it never lets me down, and is always moist and fudgy.  The silky chocolate frosting is always the perfect companion and the addition of mint was a subtle but tasty one.  The mint frosting in the middle of the cake was perfect for breaking up the chocolate-y ness and the aero balls on top not only added great texture but also great flavour! and who doesn't love having 2 kit kat fingers with their cake to dip into the frosting! 

Mint Chocolate Aero Balls & Kit Kat Overload Layer Cake:

Serves 12-14

From Cupcake Crazy Gem

Chocolate Layer Cake Recipe

From The Primrose Bakery

The book says it makes two 8-inch cakes, but I managed to make three 8-inch cakes with this recipe! I only used 2 and saved the 3rd cake for a rainy day!

230g good quality dark chocolate (70% cocoa solids - I used Lindt)

170g unsalted butter, at room temperature

350g light soft brown sugar

3 large eggs, free range or organic, separated

370g plain flour, sifted

1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder

1 1/2 teaspoons bicarbonate of soda

1/2 teaspoon salt

500ml semi skimmed milk, at room temperature

2 teaspoons good quality vanilla extract

Preheat oven to 180 degrees c.

Break the choc into pieces and melt in 30 second intervals in a glass bowl in the microwave.  Set bowl aside to cool.

Cream the butter and sugar in a large mixing bowl for 3-5 minutes until the mix is pale and smooth.

Put the egg yolks in a separate bowl and beat them for several minutes, slowly add the egg yolks to the creamed butter and sugar and beat well. 

Add the cooled chocolate to this mixture and beat well again.

Combine the flour, baking powder, bicarbonate of soda and salt in a separate bowl.  Combine the milk and vanilla extract in a jug.  Add one third of the flour to the creamed mixture and beat well.  Pour in one third of the milk and beat again.  Repeat these steps until all the flour and milk have been added.

In a clean bowl whisk the egg whites until soft peaks start to form.  Carefully fold the egg whites into the main batter using a metal spoon (Do not beat or you will take the air out of the mixture).  

Divide the mixture evenly between the tins and bake for about 30 minutes.

Insert a skewer in the centre of one of the cakes, it should come out clean if cooked.  Leave to cool.

Mint Choc Chip Frosting:

From Cupcake Crazy Gem

125g unsalted butter

2 cups icing sugar

1/4 tsp peppermint extract

1 tbsp double cream

Green food gel colouring

45g crushed Mint Aero chocolate

Beat the butter and sugar together in a freestanding electric mixer with the paddle attachment.

Add the peppermint extract and double cream and continue beating for 3-5 minutes until light and fluffy.

Using a toothpick dab 3-4 spots of green food gel colour through the frosting.  Beat for a further 2 minutes until the green colour has blended into the frosting and is consistent throughout (you can add more or less green colouring to suit your tastes, I went for a pale green colour).

Crush Mint Aero into tiny bite size pieces, I used a blender to crush mine or you could use a zip-loc bag and a rolling pin.  Stir it through the frosting with a wooden spoon.

Chocolate Mint Buttercream Frosting:

Adapted from The Primrose Bakery

75g good quality dark chocolate (70% cocoa solids - I used Lindt)

100g Mint Aero milk chocolate

225g unsalted butter, at room temp

250g icing sugar, sifted

1 teaspoon good quality vanilla extract

1 1/2 tbsp double cream

Melt the chocolate in 30 second intervals in a glass bowl in the microwave until smooth.  Leave to cool slightly.

In a large mixing bowl beat the butter, icing sugar, vanilla and double cream until smooth - this can take several minutes with an electric hand mixer.  

Add the melted chocolate and beat again until thick and creamy.  If it looks too runny to use simply keep beating to thicken.

To Assemble:

2 8" chocolate cakes

1 batch of mint choc chip frosting

1 batch of chocolate mint frosting 

1 1/2 bags mint Aero balls

20 two-finger mint Kit Kats

Place one of the 8" chocolate cakes on a plate.  Spread the mint choc chip frosting on top of the cake using a palette knife until the top is completely covered.  Sandwich the frosting by placing the other 8" chocolate cake on top.

Completely cover the outside of the cake in the chocolate mint frosting.  

Using a pastry brush, brush the back of each two-finger kit kat with a small amount of chocolate frosting and stick it to the side of the cake.

Chop some of the aero balls in half, and leave the rest whole and sprinkle over the top of the cake.

Eat and enjoy! 

Here is the birthday boy trying to enjoy the cake before I had even taken the picture! 

Triple Layer Coconut & Pineapple Birthday Cake

So I've been trying to blog this for 3 weeks now! It's been a crazy busy time.  My mom and sister came to visit and we packed out every day that they were here with tons of cupcaking and milkshaking fun, along with trips to the mountains, the forest, the ocean, across the border and everywhere in between! It was amazing! and we took over 1500 photos! haha.  It's going to take me a while to sift through them all! 

For now...back to talking about cake!

A few weeks ago, my friend threw a surprise birthday shindig for her husband.  We all offered to bring stuff along, I volunteered to bring dessert but upon finding out she didn't have a birthday cake for him I offered to make that instead! I was told the birthday boy liked pineapple...and so this triple layer coconut and pineapple birthday cake was born, because nothing goes better with pineapple than a lot of coconut! (who am I kidding...I think coconut goes best with everything, not just pineapple!)

My baking adventures started where all good things should...whipping up a batch of curd! Everytime I make it I remember it's awesomeness and wonder why I don't make different flavoured curds on a daily basis! They are the best!

I was lazy this time around and made it with pineapple juice, as opposed to fresh pineapple.  It was quite good but definitely not as good as when I made it with the good stuff.

Instead of having curd in between both layers of the coconut cake, I mixed it up and made some vanilla frosting that I then blended some of the pineapple curd into.  The result was a delicious fruity and creamy frosting that balanced out the texture of the curd layer nicely. 

The cake was finished off with generous amounts of coconut cream cheese frosting...

and a sprinkling of toasted coconut to top it off, along with some fresh cut pineapple slices. The day I made the cake my husband was taking his final exam...on a Saturday! Can you believe it! Anyway, he is usually in charge of cutting up the pineapple, so I actually watched a you tube video on how to do it, I realise that sounds kind of pathetic! and I actually found out it's easier than you think!

This cake was a bit of an all-dayer to make due to all the different components but it was definitely worth it! The cake was perfectly soft with the right amount of coconut flavour that was really complimented by the different pineapple filling, and the coconut cream cheese frosting that was so silky and delish really finished it off perfectly! 

Coconut & Pineapple Curd Layer Cake with Coconut Cream Cheese Frosting:

Serves 12-14

From Cupcake Crazy Gem

Coconut Cake:

3 cups plain flour

1 tsp baking powder

1/2 tsp bicarbonate of soda

1 cup caster sugar

1 cup unsalted butter, softened

1 cup cream of coconut

1/4 cup desiccated coconut

4 large eggs

1 cup coconut & pineapple yoghurt

Pineapple Curd:

From Eating Well

1/4 cup caster sugar

3/4 cup pineapple juice

2 large egg yolks

5 tsp cornstarch

Pineapple Curd Frosting:

1/4 cup pineapple curd

1/4 cup unsalted butter

1 1/2 cups icing sugar

1 tbsp half and half/double cream

Coconut Cream Cheese Frosting:

1/2 cup unsalted butter, softened

1/4 cup cream of coconut

90g cream cheese, softened

5 cups icing sugar

2 tbsp double cream/half and half

3 tbsp desiccated coconut

For the curd: Whisk the egg yolks, pineapple juice, sugar and cornstarch in a small saucepan.  Cook over medium-low heat, whisking constantly, until thick and beginning to bubble for around 3-5 minutes.  Let cool completely.  

For the cake: Preheat oven to 180 degrees C.  Grease 3 round 8 inch cake pans; set aside.

Combine the flour, baking powder and bicarbonate of soda in a medium bowl and set aside.  

Beat butter and sugar in a freestanding electric mixer on medium speed until well mixed.  Add the cream of coconut and desiccated coconut; continue beating, scraping bowl often, until smooth.  Add 1 egg at a time, beating well after each addition.  Reduce speed to low; add flour mixture alternately with coconut yoghurt.  Beat until well mixed.

Divide batter evenly between 3 prepared pans.  Bake for 35-40 minutes or until a toothpick inserted in the centre comes out clean and cake is a deep golden brown.  Cool in pans for 10 minutes.  Remove from pans and cool on wire racks.

For the pineapple curd frosting: Beat butter and sugar together in the bowl of a freestanding electric mixer.  Mix in the pineapple curd, and then stir in the half and half until you are happy with the consistency.   

For the coconut cream cheese frosting: beat butter, cream of coconut and cream cheese in the bowl of a freestanding electric mixer.  Beat at medium speed until creamy.  Reduce speed to low; add icing sugar, one cup at a time.  Add enough cream until it is at spreadable consistency, and mix in the desiccated coconut.

To assemble: Once cakes are cool, spread pineapple curd over the top of the first layer.  Put the next layer of cake on top and spread the pineapple frosting over it.  Add the final layer of cake on top.  Cover the whole thing liberally in a layer of coconut cream cheese frosting, for the crumb coat.  Put it in the fridge for 30 minutes to an hour.  Remove the cake and cover with the rest of the frosting.

Toast shredded coconut under the grill/broiler and once cool sprinkle it over the top of the cake.  Cut fresh pineapple slices into chunks and decorate with them around the edge of the cake.

Serve it to your fellow partygoers and birthday boy and await their delighted reaction! 

Chocolate Malt Malteser Layer Cake

I made this cake for Valentine's Day! I think it's taken me so long to blog about it because it was such a stressful evening of baking! The moral of the story I learnt was when your husband tells you all he wants for Valentine's is cookies...then go with it! Rather than spend $40 on ingredients for a cake (because Vancouver clearly hates baking bloggers) only to have a fight about it with your significant other who you are making the cake for in the first place! whilst trying to clean up your whole house because the next day our family was arriving from England to stay for a week! 

Yeah...cookies would have been way easier! 

Easier...but probably not nearly as tasty as this sour cream chocolate cake, slathered with the best malt frosting in the world! I have been looking for an excuse to make this amazing frosting ever since I made it last year to frost my Malteser bunny cupcakes.  It comes from the queen of layer cakes, Sweetapolita, and I'm pretty sure one of these days I'm going to have to make the 6 layer toasted marshmallow campfire cake that she originally paired this frosting with because being the s'mores lover I am, it looks right up my street! 

Obviously, on the previously mentioned night of baking a 6 layer cake was never going to happen! In fact even my planned 3 layer cake got cut back into a 2 layer cake! and I couldn't wait long enough for the cake to cool down so I slathered on the frosting whilst it was still slightly warm, because it was approaching midnight and we were ready for bed but of course needed to taste a piece before bed and before Valentine's was over! 

Also, in my haste I picked up sour cream at the supermarket rather than buttermilk and so the actual chocolate cake recipe I was planning to use had to be abandoned...and after some last minute browsing I came across this sour cream cake via Hummingbird High and it saved the day...

and was completely moist and delicious even when we were enjoying it 3 days later in Whistler! 

Chocolate Malt Malteser Layer Cake:
Makes 2 8" layers
Adapted from Hummingbird High

3/4 cup sour cream, at room temperature
1/2 cup plus 3 tbsp cocoa powder
2 large eggs
2 large egg yolks
1 1/2 tsp vanilla extract
2 1/4 cups cake flour
1 tsp baking powder
1 tsp bicarbonate of soda
3/4 tsp kosher salt
1 3/4 cups caster sugar
1 cup unsalted butter, at room temperature
1/2 cup water, boiling

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F/180 degrees C.  Grease 2 8"cake tins.

In a medium bowl, mix together the sour cream, cocoa powder, eggs, egg yolks and vanilla extract until smooth.

In the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with a paddle attachment, beat together cake flour, baking powder, bicarbonate of soda, salt and sugar on low speed until just blended.

Add the butter and half of the wet cocoa mixture to the dry flour mixture and beat until the dry ingredients are moist.  Increase the mixer to medium speed and beat until smooth for 2 minutes.  Gradually add the remaining cocoa mixture, in 2 batches, beating well after each addition.  Add 1/2 cup boiling water and beat until smooth.

Divide the batter equally between the cake tins and smooth the tops with a spatula.  Bake for 30-35 minutes or until a knife inserted in the middle comes out clean.  Let the cakes cool in the tins for 10 minutes and then turn them out onto a wire rack to cool completely.

Malted Belgian Chocolate Frosting:

Makes enough to frost the above with plenty leftover, and you're going to want the leftover - trust me!

From Sweetapolita

4 cups icing sugar

2 cups unsalted butter

1 tbsp vanilla extract

3/4 cup Ovaltine powder

8 oz/225g Belgian dark chocolate or other good quality 70% chocolate

1/2 cup double cream

In a bowl of a stand mixer fitted with a paddle attachment, combine half the icing sugar and butter and beat on low speed for one minute.  While that is mixing, melt the chocolate in a heatproof bowl over a pan of simmering water, and set aside to cool. Add the rest of the icing sugar and butter to the stand mixer and mix on medium speed until completely combined (I do it in two stages so as not to completely cover my kitchen in icing sugar).

Add vanilla and Ovaltine, and beat on low speed until well combined.

Add the melted, cooled chocolate and beat on medium speed until smooth (about 2 minutes). Add double cream and beat on high speed for one minute.

Once the cakes are cooled, sandwich them together with a very generous amount of the frosting.  Apply the same amount, if not more to the top of the cake.  I swished mine around with a palette knife but if you're not in a hurry you can pipe fancy swirls too!

Decorate with Maltesers/Whoppers...and if you're baking it for the one you love you can arrange them in a heart shape in the middle of the cake like I did!

Eat and enjoy!

The Smarties & Kit Kat Double Chocolate Birthday Cake!

Last week was Byron's birthday! I have been anticipating baking his cake for about the past 2 months now! and I had big plans...that didn't last for too long when he told me he wanted a Smarties cake....

again?? I hear you say! yes I know...again! I was disappointed too...apparently the smarties cakes of '09 and '10 were so great he didn't want to break with tradition! Could I even convince him to have m&m's so at least we could have incorporated a bit of flavour in there like mint or coconut? no...only Smarties would do! 

So Smarties it was...and a whole lot of Smarties too - I initially bought 7 tubes of smarties to pile on top of the cake but at the last minute dashed out to buy 7 more! What the birthday boy wants the birthday boy gets! although I guess 14 is an improvement on the 22 tubes I had to buy for his cake last year!

I finished it off with this lovely purple chiffon bow, purple is my FAVE colour and I think it's even starting to rub off on Byron a little since a few weeks ago he bought a purple polo shirt and he would have never have done that at one time! so I decided to strike while the iron is hot and press on with the purple theme! 

Cue matching purple fountain candle! These things are the best! and certainly make everything seem more impressive, I even managed to sneak some little cupcake candles in there too! 

and this time round I'm not going to leave you hanging, I've decided to not be lazy and post it without the recipe...I even had to delve into the attic to get out my recipe book to make sure I posted it perfectly so here's hoping it goes to some use! This is hands down the best chocolate cake I've ever eaten, it always turns out delicious and stays moist for up to a week after too! Perfectly chocolatey without being too rich, and even being paired with the chocolate frosting isn't an overkill! If you're looking for a go to chocolate celebration cake recipe - this one is a winner! 

The Smarties & Kit Kat Double Chocolate Birthday Cake:

Serves 12-14

Chocolate Layer Cake Recipe

From The Primrose Bakery

The book says it makes two 8-inch cakes, but I managed to make three 8-inch cakes with this recipe!

Ingredients:

230g good quality dark chocolate (70% cocoa solids - I used Lindt)

170g unsalted butter, at room temperature

350g light soft brown sugar

3 large eggs, free range or organic, separated

370g plain flour, sifted

1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder

1 1/2 teaspoons bicarbonate of soda

1/2 teaspoon salt

500ml semi skimmed milk, at room temperature

2 teaspoons good quality vanilla extract

Method:

Preheat oven to 180 degrees c.

Break the choc into pieces and melt in 30 second intervals in a glass bowl in the microwave.  Set bowl aside to cool.

Cream the butter and sugar in a large mixing bowl for 3-5 minutes until the mix is pale and smooth.

Put the egg yolks in a separate bowl and beat them for several minutes, slowly add the egg yolks to the creamed butter and sugar and beat well. 

 Add the cooled chocolate to this mixture and beat well again.

Combine the flour, baking powder, bicarbonate of soda and salt in a separate bowl.  Combine the milk and vanilla extract in a jug.  Add one third of the flour to the creamed mixture and beat well.  Pour in one third of the milk and beat again.  Repeat these steps until all the flour and milk have been added.

 In a clean bowl whisk the egg whites until soft peaks start to form.  Carefully fold the egg whites into the main batter using a metal spoon (Do not beat or you will take the air out of the mixture).  

Divide the mixture evenly between the tins and bake for about 30 minutes.

Insert a skewer in the centre of one of the cakes, it should come out clean if cooked.  Leave to cool.

To Decorate:

Chocolate buttercream frosting:

175g good quality dark chocolate (70% cocoa solids - I used Lindt)

225g unsalted butter, at room temp

1 tablespoon semi-skimmed milk, at room temp

1 teaspoon good quality vanilla extract

250g icing sugar, sifted

Melt the chocolate in 30 second intervals in a glass bowl in the microwave until smooth.  Leave to cool slightly.

In a large mixing bowl beat the butter, milk, vanilla and icing sugar until smooth - this can take several minutes with an electric hand mixer.  

Add the melted chocolate and beat again until thick and creamy.  If it looks too runny to use, simply keep beating to thicken.

To Assemble:

1 batch of Chocolate frosting 

14 tubes of Smarties

20 two-finger Kit Kats

FYI:

Don't do like I did and buy 4 multi packs of Kit Kats, the cake I took my insipiration from on google was clearly baked in way bigger pans than I used and so I had waaaay too many Kit Kats left over!

Do do like I did and check each Kit Kat once it is unwrapped for imperfections...only the prettiest looking made the cut for my cake, yes that did mean I ended up eating about 8 lots of rejects...all in the name of quality control of course! 

Sandwich the cakes together with a generous layer of chocolate frosting.  Then decorate all around the sides of the cake with the same frosting, you can be as messy as you like as the Kit Kats then go on top but they may not sit perfectly straight if your frosting isn't perfectly straight so I still smoothed down my sides!

 Brush a very thin amount of frosting onto the back of each Kit Kat and starting at the base of the cake stick them around the edge.

Once you have a completed edge, fill the middle of your cake with Smarties! 

 Sit back, marvel at your creation and then devour the yumminess!

Moms 60th..and my 1st attempt at a triple layer cake!

So I wanted to do something special..and was thinking about cupcakes as my mom loves them - infact I bought her as a present a place on a cupcake making course in macclesfield which I'll be attending with her and my sister Mara and we're sooo excited! it should be great! After much searching I only found 4 courses in the whole country which suprised me considering how big cupcakes are these days, 1 was in bath, 2 in london and then one I booked which was the closest to where my Mom lives in Shropshire and it also looked the best..it is run by a woman who used to be a buyer for the patisserie department at Harrods!!!

So even though my Mom's birthday presents and cards were kind of cupcake themed I decided it needed to be quite impressive to fit the event! so I opted for this triple layer chocolate cake that came from a new recipe book I had just ordered. It was meant to have chocolate icing between every layer but I decided that might be a bit too much so one of the layers I filled with raspberry buttercream which was pretty tasty and then I decorated it with fresh raspberries.

Mara and By helped with the final production of it and by my own mistake I didn't know you had to cut your cakes to make them level! hence why it kind of looks like the leaning tower of pisa! but it still tasted good and hopefully was enjoyed by all! At least I'll hopefully know now for next time what to do!

Byron's birthday fun..

So Byron turned 23 and I asked him what kind of cake he wanted...I was tempted to make cupcakes but thought it's more fun having lots of candles on a cake to blow out! So he opted for chocolate and coconut..i found a recipe for choc coconut cake and made it..realising only half way through that in fact it was just vanilla coconut cake and then it was going to be chocolate iced so that was a bit of a disappointment, i didnt want to just randomly add cocoa in to mess up the consistencies so i left it as it was...decorated with chocolate buttercream and then crushed up smarties and dessicated coconut on the top!