The Great Outdoors #betterwithcake!

It was a beautiful warm, sunny day (unusual for Easter Monday!) so we decided we would head out a bit further into the country to our local point to point.  What better way to enjoy the sunshine with a picnic which was made #betterwithcake!

Macy actually picked her Joules hoodie out herself which I though was very apt! 

However it may have been something to do with me telling her we were going to see the horses!!

My mum, Macy and I found ourselves a lovely spot on the bank overlooking the racecourse and sat down to enjoy our hog roast rolls.  What better way to finish than with some cake.  Mr Kipling had sent us a lovely selection and I thought Macy might enjoy the classic fondant fancies that I enjoyed as a child – lovely colourful bites of heaven.  However instead she chose a Viennese Whirl – she knows her own mind and she doesn’t have an overly sweet tooth.  So we all enjoyed a Viennese whirl in the sunshine, three generations enjoying classic Mr Kipling.  Lovely buttery crumbly biscuit with just the right amount of jam and buttercream and only 145 calories so I didn’t feel too guilty afterwards!  Mind you walking up and down the bank a couple of times soon burnt that off!

It was lovely to be outdoors in the sunshine and Macy loved her afternoon out as she was free to do what she wanted and play (floating grass boats in the dog's water bowl much to his disgust!)

I don’t give Macy a lot of sweet things and when I do I tend to make my own cakes so it is nice to know the Mr Kipling range has 100% natural flavours and no artificial colours.

Of course we can always find an excuse for some cake, a little snack after dinner whilst doing some colouring always goes down a treat!

This post is an entry for #betterwithcake Linky Challenge , sponsored by Mr Kipling. Learn more at Mr Kipling Cakes

Choccywoccydoohdah

Never heard of it?  Where have you been?!?!?  Choccywoccydoohdah has been one of my favourite programmes on Sky (Watch) ever since it started and I have gone on for years about how much I wanted to go to Brighton to visit.  My husband made my wish come true and not only a visit, a cake too!!!!!!

Window Display

So Choccy is a company that makes THE most amazing cakes, all decorated with special modelling chocolate, no fondant in sight.  Their most recent series has seen them making cakes for all sorts of celebs, they originally had a small shop in Brighton, then opened a cafe, then a shop in London and have just reopened a bigger shop in Brighton which encompasses both the cafe and shop.

We visited for some cake in the cafe, I chose the chocolate with white chocolate buttercream which was drizzled with melted chocolate.  I had a hot chocolate which was literally melted chocolate and hot milk - divine!  I was sooooo full it was untrue, Mark had a dipping platter which was gorgeous too but we could have easily shared either.  

The next day was my birthday and Mark said I had a VIP tour of Choccy booked so we had our breakfast and were straight there.  We were allowed in all of the roped off areas and sat in the famous Tiger chair.

We got into the room where Christine sits with her clients to discuss their requirements and the lady who showed us round told me to look at the cakes in the shed too.  As I opened the door, my eye was immediately drawn to this lovely cake right in front of me with Happy 30th Gina written across it. I couldn't believe my eyes, a Choccy cake all for me, my very own, MINE!!

Mark had chosen the chocolate cake (good job I had liked it the day before!) with chocolate praline filling which has turned out to be amazing!!  The cake is quite heavy as it has to hold all the chocolate mouldings, but it is still beautiful and moist and lovely in the microwave for half a minute.

Some of the other cakes on display.  If you need a cake for a special occasion, Choccy are the people to make one!!

Dairy Milk Pebbles

We were asked via Mumsnet to test these out and to decorate a cake with them.

Well I made a millionaires shortcake tart and had planned to decorate with a pumpkin face, however I ran out of yellow pebbles to fill in the gaps and this was the result lol!

I wasn't overly impressed with them as they were only yellow, purple and brown. As I generally make chocolate things the brown ones aren't really of any use as they don't show up!

In terms of how they tasted, well they are the same concept as Minstrels but Minstrels are much nicer! Quite a few were chipped as well so didn't look great.

Overall if I wanted something like this to eat I would much rather have Minstrels and if I wanted something for cake decorating I would buy Smarties. Not something I will be buying.

Coffee Cake

I made a lovely coffe cake, have been looking for a decent recipe for a while and this is one!  I love lots of buttercream and this has it.  I didn't use coffee essence, I used espresso which I made up with 1 tablespoon of coffee and 6 tablespoons of boiling water which I left to cool.  I also set the temperature to 170degrees as we have a fan oven and left it in for 20minutes.

Ingredients

·         250g butter or margarine

·         200g caster sugar

·         60g golden syrup

·         4 large eggs

·         250g self-raising flour

·         1 level tsp baking powder

·         3 tbs coffee essence

For the filling and decoration:

·         200g unsalted butter, at room temperature

·         400g icing sugar

·         2-3 tbs coffee essence

·         tsp cocoa powder, for dusting

·         2 x 20cm (8in)sandwich tins, buttered and base-lined

Method

1.    Set the oven to 190°C/375°F/Gas 5. Putthe butter, sugar, syrup and eggs in a large mixing bowl. Sift in the flour andbaking powder, and add the coffee essence. Whisk together for 1-2 mins untilthe mixture is smooth, light and fluffy.

2.    Divide the mixture between the two tinsand spread evenly. Bake in the centre of the oven for 25-30 mins, untilwell-risen and firm to the touch. Turn the cakes out on to a wire rack to cool.

3.    To make the filling: Beat the butter, icing sugar, coffee and 2 tbswater together until smooth, light and fluffy. Place one of the cakes on a flatserving plate and spread with half the buttercream. Place the second cake ontop and spread with the rest of the buttercream, swirling the top. Dust withcocoa powder. Slice to serve. Store in an airtight container. It will keep acouple of days.