The Very Hungry Caterpillar Birthday Cake

This post is dedicated to my friends N&B and their gorgeous little boy Josh. They are the most amazing parents and little Josh is such a happy, relaxed and easy-going bub. Mr Mi and I are soon to be parents and they are an inspiration! The very hungry little caterpillar (aka Josh) turned one recently and his mama wanted to make him a hungry caterpillar cake for his birthday party. After a few searches I saw this amazing cake, so we set on another fondant adventure to attempt this cake. I used my favourite basic vanilla cake recipe and Na's buttercream to make a four layered sponge cake. We covered the cake in ready rolled icing and Josh's mama hand cut the fruits and made the amazing caterpillar. We were pretty proud of our efforts and needless to say we were completely sugared out after a slice of the rainbow caterpillar cake. Happy first birthday Josh! Mi xoxo

Carrot Cake

Today is Father's Day! To celebrate this, my dad requested a carrot cake so a carrot cake is what I made...

Coffee and Walnut Layer Cake

It's no secret that I'm a tea lover. Having said this, I sure do love my coffee when it comes in dessert form! I came across this recipe for coffee and walnut layer cake while flipping through one of my favourite cookbooks; Kitchen by Nigella Lawson. In the book, Nigella reflects back to when she was a child. She made this coffee cake every year for her sister's birthday so I thought, if a child could make this, I can too! Basically, all the ingredients go into a food processor and are blitzed till a smooth batter forms. The batter is then divided into 2 sandwich tins so that you end up with 2 perfect layers for the layer cake! This was great for me because I'm hopeless at cutting a cake perfectly in half.  I then made the delicious coffee buttercream and decorated the cake with walnuts. If you would like this simple recipe, pick up a copy of Kitchen. I think it's Nigella's best book so far! Na xo

Nyan Cat Birthday Cake

Mr Mi had a second birthday celebration (lucky man!) and this time I decided to move on from the Android cake and set myself a new challenge. Mr Mi loves Nyan cat, I had no idea what it was until he showed me a few months ago. Who would have thought a cat stuffed inside a poptart with rainbows coming out of its bottom would be so popular? Although I have to admit that after watching it I couldn’t get the song out of my head for days! After seeing this amazing Nyan Cat Cake from Grace Cakes, I thought I would give it a go.

For the cake, I used a basic vanilla cupcake recipe with the addition of the zest of one orange. I divided the cake batter into four portions and coloured each portion red, yellow, green and blue using Wilton gel colours. Then, I gently placed each of these portions into a cake tin one at a time to create a layering effect. For the buttercream, I used Na’s recipe with the addition of the zest of one orange and 2 tablespoons of orange juice. Now, the Nyan cat took a good few hours to make…if you attempt this I suggest making it well in advance and storing in an airtight container. I traced an image from the Internet using baking paper and used this as a template to cut out the shapes from ready rolled icing. It was a fun experience, that was until I started to cut the pixels out for the poptart sprinkles…by then I was ready to have a break! It is a simple design, but don’t be fooled...cutting all those square edges out and assembling takes time! The cake turned out pretty well and was enjoyed by all. Love Mi xo

Android Birthday Cake

It was Mr Mi's birthday recently and after our successful Red Velvet Cat Cake, I wanted to have another attempt at making rolled icing cake decorations. His favourite colour is green and Android devices seems to be his latest obsession (well...has been for a while!) so it seemed fitting that I make him an Android birthday cake. For the cake, I used the same recipe for Pandan and Coconut Cupcakes, it's so lovely and moist! I sliced the cake in half and filled the middle followed by cake top with a variation of Na's butter cream, replacing vanilla essence with 1/2 tsp pandan and 1/2 teaspoon coconut essence. The Android or "Andy" as Mr Mi likes to call him was made out of rolled icing and coloured using Wilton Gel Colours bought from The Raspberry Butterfly. Andy was then outlined with chocolate writing fudge. The cake turned out pretty well and was enjoyed by all. Happy birthday Mr Mi! Mi xo

P.S. Did I mention that I made him an Android softie too? :)

Andy softie can't wait to try the Android birthday cake!

Red Velvet Cake

Our friend's birthday was coming up and we wanted to make her a super special cake. For the base, I made a red velvet cake with lovely cream cheese frosting. Mr Mi and I had some fun making the cat out of rolled icing. It turned out okay for our first attempt, don't you think? The cat was inspired by this amazing cake. To colour the cake and fondant I used Wilton gel colours (use sparingly). Happy birthday Katty! Mi xo

Cake Pops Recipe

My dear friend Miss T agreed to share some of her  baking secrets, here she talks about the new craze "cake pops". They look so yummy! Thanks Miss T. Mi xo

Cake pops made by Miss T.

Move aside cupcakes, the world has found another way to combine flour, eggs, butter and sugar in a new delicious way. Apparently everyone knows about these scrumptious treats except me. So I decided to leap onto the bandwagon and make a batch.

I'm definitely no mathematician but here is a rough formula:

Cake pops = (cake + frosting) + dip into chocolate + decorate.

Instagram Camera Cake

My sister loves cameras and all camera related items. I wanted to bake a cake for her birthday and a camera cake was an obvious choice! She loves digital cameras, vintage cameras and uses Instagram. I thought that a plain black digital camera cake might look a little boring so I made a cake that looks like the Instagram app! This cake was a bit of a challenge to make and I would call the end result "rustic". Let's just say that I have a new found respect for the folks on Ace Of Cakes.

The actual cake base is a vanilla sponge made using my favourite basic sponge recipe that I adapted from you guessed it, Nigella Lawson's How To Be A Domestic Goddess, but you can use any basic sponge recipe that you like for the base. Once the cake is baked and completely cooled it's time to decorate! Clear everyone out of the kitchen because things are about to get serious!

Beetroot Cake Part 2

You may recall the beautiful beet cake video that I posted earlier well....today was the day that I finally tried it out. The actual recipe can be found in written form at the Tiger In a Jar blog. Having now baked and eaten this cake, I can say that it's essentially a chocolate cake with some beetroot in it, which makes it quite lovely and moist.

Beetroot Cake

Before you say "Ew!", hear me out. I found this video while perusing through the ModCloth blog. It was made by a creative group called Tiger In a Jar. I think it's a really interesting an unique way to showcase a recipe. It has an old-timey feel and the I think the music is quite relaxing. To be honest, my first reaction was also "Ew!" but I love beetroot and I love cake so why shouldn't it work? Carrot cake is delicious and that's made from a root vegetable! I hope to try this recipe out soon so I'll keep you posted. In the meantime, enjoy the video! Na xo

Cute Collar Cake

I have an affinity for anything with a peter pan collar. You may call it an addiction. It's my thing! My lovely sister made this adorable cake for me in tribute to my love for collared dresses! It's so cute! The actual cake is a victoria sponge and it's covered in a vanilla buttercream. Clothing has never looked so delicious! Na xo