Sorry (again)

Sorry about the lull (still) I left it so long with that Easter cake, I thought it best to save it for next Easter, but don't worry, I have some old cakes I've still not posted here yet to get around to!

Apologies

Sorry I've not been updating. I know the blog is still new anyway, so it's probably not missed much, but I've had a family emergency recently which has taken up a lot of time, energy and thought that may have been geared towards this blog otherwise :(

I'm afraid my brother has been very ill and has been in hospital for over a fortnight now. He's had brain surgery twice in that time, and although he was meant to come home a few days ago, they've kept him in because he's been a little ill and they want to be sure.

I'm sure you don't need this level of detail in a cake blog, but I have done a few cakes recently, including a cute little Easter one I'd like to get some of it up here soon, but I'm mentally exhausted at the moment, as you may imagine. I'll try to get that up over the Easter weekend if I have time.

Sorry to all my loyal Kake readers. Normal service will be resumed shortly <3

Cake in progress

I'm currently in the process of making a cake for my mum's birthday, and I'm nervous because this is the first cake I'll do 100% start to finish! I've baked them and they're cooling ready to sandwich later, hopefully, then I'll have to ice it with no assistance! I may have to rope in my husband as a second pair of hands to flat-ice it.

I have several plans for how it will be decorated in case of disaster (some cover up more flaws than others!!) so I'm not disclosing any design ideas yet! Luckily it's a gift and my idea, so I'm not working to any brief bar my own, so if it all goes rubbish, I'll throw a load of edible glitter at it and pretend it was meant to be that way!

Watch this space, I promise to post pictures even if it's awful...

Random update and a recipe

I know, I know! I've really, REALLY neglected this blog, but I have a good excuse right now as my husband and I have just bought our first house, and most of my time has been taken up with house searching, viewing, packing and moving and now I'm sitting surrounded by boxes! I do have a pretty good wedding cake I did for some friends that has Sonic the Hedgehog and Amy on top. I am so, so proud of it, and my husband even videoed walking around it if I can work out how to post that here, so look out for that!

Well, just so this isn't an entirely pointless 'update' I'd like to share a 'recipe' of sorts, as I made it today, and I thought I'd share!

Well, what do you do if you decorate a lot of cakes and you have all sorts of cake trimmings? You know, all the off cuts from the cakes that get cut to shape. All the burnt edges, and odd shapes you can't quite sandwich up into some sort of cake to present to anyone, ever? What about the extra left over buttercream, or even slightly stale cake bits?! Well... I have the answer!

What I do is something my Mother In Law and me invented once (but is most likely invented by someone else at some point). We call them truffles as they are quite truffley.

Get all the leftover bits of sponge cake (I've not tried it with fruit cake, but it could possibly work, not sure about fruitcake and buttercream though!) and crumbs and buttercream and whatnot. Plop the lot into the bowl of a mixer (I have a Kenwood Chef I love, but you could possibly use a hand mixer) crumble up the biggest bits of cake so it's not too hard on the old thing, and then whizz the hell out of it in the machine. If the mixture looks a bit dry, add some butter, if it looks a bit wet, add some icing sugar and/or cocoa, in fact it's best to add some of all of those things unless you had a lot of left over buttercream. If you want to add extra indulgence, melt some chocolate, and pour it into the mixture. For grown-ups only, a splash of booze is really good.

Once this concoction is whizzed into a big cakey gloop that sort of holds some shape, take gobs of it out, roll it in your palms into a ball, then roll in either icing sugar, cocoa powder or both, and plop on a baking sheet/big flat plate or something with baking parchment on it and chill the lot.

Wahay! A use for left overs! RECYCLING FTW!

Try to remember that what you are eating that can be gone in seconds is essentially a ball of cake with added sugar and fat, so it's not a good idea to eat lots of them on a regular basis, but it's a fabulous way to use up bits that would be scrap otherwise and just get binned.

I just made some of this earlier today, and it was looking too runny, and my husband said "just pass me the bowl and a spoon.." so this is also an option if you are feeling a bit greedy!

Piggies to come soon!

Ooh, I have to make a whole field full of little pigs this week, so I'll be posting those up when I get some done, but I have just been knitting and made my hands and arms hurt, so I won't be starting them tonight. Watch this space though if you want to see some cute little piggies!