Present Birthday Cake

So those of you who know me know that it was my birthday about 3 weeks ago and I’ve finally got around to posting about the cake I made for my birthday! After seeing some cakes online that were decorated to look like presents I’ve been dying to make one so my birthday was obviously the perfect opportunity. My lovely friends gave me some Lakeland vouchers for my birthday and so I used some of them to buy this great square tin with moveable sides so you can make it any size square/rectangle you like, pretty good huh?

While I may have splashed out on a tin, I did not buy myself any icing as I had some odds and ends in my baking cupboard so I used them up. Unfortunately I didn’t have enough white to cover the whole cake so it’s very thin and patchy so ignore that in the pictures but the main thing I wanted to do was the bow on top. I watched a quick online tutorial and found out that it’s quite straightforward and you get a great result with a simple method. This is the bit that I’m most pleased with and as it was my first attempt, it can only get better!

The cake itself was just a plain Victoria Sponge mix using 6 eggs in total which made an 8in square cake. I also bought a cake leveller which I used to slice my block of cake in half to put jam in the middle and also to level off the top slightly so that it wasn’t so domed. The cake took a lot longer in the oven than anticipated so unfortunately the edges got a little dry so I’ll have to work to improve that next time but I was very pleased with my first present cake.

My work with regal ice and sugar paste is definitely improving through practice and I’m starting to love celebration cakes more and more. The next one you’ll see here will be a champagne cake which a lovely lady at work has asked me to make for her husband’s 50t birthday. Eek!

Vanilla Iced Biscuits

Well the weather my still be absolutely appalling but! I am keeping in the summer spirit with my baking, presentation wise anyway! At the beginning of the week I spent the day with my friend Lindsay who surprised me with a whole host of new baking equipment including these lovely cutters which of course I used at the first opportunity! In the first series of the Great British Bake off Miranda made some vanilla cookies which she decorated amazingly. Taking inspiration from her, I used the recipe she contributed to the book from the series and then decorated them!

The recipe calls for a vanilla pod which I hadn’t used before, usually going for the cheaper and easier option of vanilla extract. I splashed out a little on this recipe and decided to buy some and they do add a depth of flavour not achieved by its bottled substitute but it isn’t something I’ll be doing every time! If you ever do use them, keep the outside of the pod as you can put it in a jar of sugar to make vanilla flavoured sugar which is what I’m doing with mine.

This recipe requires patience as it takes some time to chill the mixture at various stages throughout the process. As for the decorating well, it took me around 2 hours to achieve these results. I piped round the edges of all the biscuits in the sections of colours I wanted and then diluted the icing a little more and ‘flooded’ the enclosed area with icing, like colouring them in really!

I made 24 biscuits but my cutters were quite large sizes so if you use smaller ones, you will obviously be able to make more! The recipe advises that the mixture makes around 30.

Here is the recipe I used:

200g unsalted butter, softened

200g caster sugar

1 vanilla pod

1 medium egg, beaten

400g plain flour

Put the butter and the sugar into a mixing bowl. Split the vanilla pod in half along its length and scrape out the seeds into the bowl. Beat with an electric whisk/mixer until very light and creamy. Gradually add the egg, beating well after each addition. Sift the flour into the bowl and work in using a very slow speed

Use your hands to bring the mixture together and make a soft dough. Divide the dough in half and form each portion into a thick disc. Wrap in clingfilm and chill until firm - around 30 minutes

Roll out the dough, a portion at a time, on a floured work surface to a thickness of 5mm. Cut out shapes using cutters. Gather up the trimmings and knead gently then re-roll and cut out more biscuits. Arrange the biscuits slightly apart on a lined baking tray to allow for spreading then chill for 15 minutes. Preheat the oven to 180°C

Bake the biscuits for 9-12 minutes, until just starting to turn golden brown around the edges and firm to touch. Remove from the oven and leave to firm up, then transfer the biscuits to a wire rack to cool completely. Then decorate as you wish!