21st Cupcake Fit For a King!

Hey everyone!

How are we all doing? 

I understand that I have been a bit quiet recently and yes I do need to post more and I also know that some of the post that will be new today, are actually in fact old - as far as Facebook, Instagram and Twitter go. But if you head on over to Sprinkle, Sparkle and Magic Life there is an update on why I've been so quiet recently. 

But for now, lets take a look at this GIANT cupcake! I do love making them, they're just so fun and wonderful to create!!

I apologise for the photo's I understand that they aren't very good, but believe it or not, this is from my phone and the phone has a better camera than my actual camera...if that just made any sense? 

The above photo is a little 'plaque' that was made, small dint's we're placed around the side to make it have a different effect and look, I was going for a gold coin look. It then was sprayed with silver Shimmer spray and then I carefully painted on the lettering and number :) With vodka and gel colours. 

Close up of that smooth, velvety buttercream! 

The cake was Victoria sponge with raspberry jam and vanilla buttercream in the centre, vanilla buttercream was also swirled on top too! 

Crispy M&M's we're added inside the cake as a surprise and then topped around the cake to give off the effect of sprinkles! The base of the cake was solid blue candy melts with added white chocolate. With the cake placed inside it!

The lettering that you can see on the above photo and the one all the way at the top was a lovely mint green coloured sugarpaste and was made using Windsor's Clikstix's. Which took me some time to get used to at first, but I have sussed out the magic trick now! 

I also made a mini Desperado's beer bottle as asked by the customer. Had carved, then sprayed with gold and silver shimmer spray. and hand painted label! I am so proud and happy on how it turned out. I haven't got a clearer picture I am afraid but will try and find one! 

All in all, what can I say? I just LOVE making the giant cupcakes, they are so fun to create and you can go all out on them! Even though they are still the range in some aspects, they never seem to bore me or fail to make me amazed! 

Speak to you all soon, more blog posts to come!!

Vintage Victoria Sponge Cake

Hi everyone! 

How are we all today? I'm sorry I haven't been posting as of late, I've been super busy with things!

Head on over to  - The Life Of Sprinkle, Sparkle & Magic - Where you will find out why I have been so quiet and what has been happening with the world that I live in. 

In other news, see that big and beautiful cake above? I'm going to give you the recipe on how to create it, perfect for a lovely and warm summers day or as a comfort cake! The recipe has been adapted in some ways from the recipe by Cupcake Jemma, go and take a look at her page and youtube channel! - Cupcake Jemma's Youtube Channel 

Right! Let's get started!...

You will need: 

3 Eggs

Self Raising flour

Softened Butter

Caster Sugar

1 tsp Vanilla Extract 

1 tsp Baking Powder

1-2 tbsp Milk

--------------------

300ml Double cream

3 tsp Caster Sugar

Punnet of Fresh Strawberries and Blueberries 

Icing Sugar 

(Can opt out of the fresh fruit and change it to whatever you wish!) 

1. Set the oven to Gas Mark 3 / 170°C / 140°C (Fan)  

2. First off we need to weigh our eggs - I recently learnt this from Cupcake Jemma and have done it ever since, it's such a good thing to do and don't know why I've never heard of it before! 

3. So weigh the eggs and whatever they come too, weigh the same for the butter, caster sugar and the self raising flour. This will give you the prefect fluffy and soft cake! 

4. Once you have all your ingredients, place the butter into a bowl and whisk on a medium speed - If you don't have an electric whisk, no need to worry! You can always use the old good natural whisk! - Just be careful with those arms ;) Once the butter has been incorporated and changed colour - it should go a paler colour compared to when you first put it into the bowl, and should be nice, smooth and fluffy. 

5. Sieve in the sugar and whisk again on a medium speed until everything is incorporated. 

Next, get a spare bowl or cup and add all the eggs into it, give them a good whisk! Once you have done this, add in the eggs in three stages, like you would do if you we're cracking them into the bowl. Add in a bit of egg each time, whisking on a low - medium speed in between until it has all been mixed in. 

6. Once all the eggs have been mixed in, get the Self-Raising flour and add it into a fine sieve, or any sieve! Add in the Baking Powder too, gently shake the flour into the mix until it's all into the bowl - You may do this in stages to stop flour spilling over the edge of the bowl! I like to use a spatula or a spoon to gently fold in the flour first, instead of going straight to the whisk as I don't want it to fly everywhere! Once you have got some of the flour folded in and it looks like none will come out over the bowl, get whisking on a medium - high speed until it's all mixed in! 

5. Add in the milk and the vanilla extract and give it another good mix - If you think there needs to be more milk or flour just add it in - everyone has their own preferences! I know that the mix is the right consistency, by getting a big dollop onto the spoon and holding it above the bowl, it should take a few seconds for it to drop back into the bowl, if it falls off quicker than this or won't budge at all, it's the wrong consistency and you will need to add a bit more milk if it's too thick or a bit more flour if it's too thin. 

6. Grab two 8" cake tins and grease them with some butter using some greaseproof paper, then add a little bit of flour into the pan and move it around, getting onto all the sides and in the groves. Once this is done, evenly dispatch the cake batter into both tins, then grabbing a spoon or a pallet knife evenly smooth the tops of the cakes; this will cause them to be nice and flat when they come out of the oven. 

Place in the middle of the oven for 20 minutes. Check to see if the cake is done by placing a knife into the centre, if it comes out clean and the top of the cake springs back once pressed gently, it is ready. Only take the cake out to test after 20 mins, DO NOT take out any sooner. 

7. Whilst the cake is cooling, place the 300ml of double cream into a bowl, add 3 tsp of sugar and give it a good whisk on a medium - high speed.  

You will soon see the consistency of the cream start to change, keep going until you have soft speaks. Once you get to this stage, place some clingfilm over the top and place into the fridge to keep cool until the cake has fully cooled. 

8. Cut the tops off the strawberries and then cut them all in half, give the strawberries and blueberries a good wash and then leave them to dry a little. 

9. Finally, face one of the sponges down onto a plate or board, add some of the cream onto the cake and then place some strawberries on top. Creating a circle of strawberries with the pointed end sticking in the centre, imagine an open flower. Place the other layer of sponge on top and press lightly, then add some more of the cream on top, then some strawberries and blueberries (you may place blueberries in the middle of the cake too! completely up to you!) Then add a dusting of icing sugar to the cake! 

All there is left to do, is cut yourself a big slice of cake and dig in! 

Hope you enjoyed this recipe! Once again, ideas where taken from Cupcake Jemma, I just adapted it a little bit, go check her out!

 Tune in next time!

Much Love, 

Mother's Day Cake

Ahh! Hey everyone! 

How are we all doing this evening, morning, afternoon, wherever you are in this big wide world! 

I for one am feeling great, this blog is finally starting to pick itself up (by itself, I mean me...of course...or am I?) 

Anyway, all pages are getting updated, and most of them are all up to date, though sadly apart from this one. BUT! We've nearly got you all covered, seeing as we have a few final posts to go then everything will be all in sync!

We currently have some Banoffee cupcakes in the oven, but we will post them at a later date...hopefully tonight or tomorrow. It has only just occrred to me that I should of probably been putting the dates on these posts to when they actually took place, but I haven't. Sorry guys, may do it at some point! 

So the above photo is the second, yes I did just say second, Mother's Day cake. The first was a dummy and it was made for my college course, but this! Oh no, this beauty was a fruit cake and decorated too! 

It's pretty much the same as the one I made for college, except it has pink roses instead of really pale pink roses, it's mint green instead of pale baby blue and it has some different flowers around the outside and different embossing on the cake board.

So basically, the design is the same, the colours are a tad different, only a tad though! 

I loved making this cake and my Mum and Auntie enjoyed it too, sadly my Nan didn't but she was with us in spirit I'm sure! 

I made the lovely roses, but I know they need working on..I'm sorting that out don't worry, still learning in some ways but aren't we all! I was aiming this page to be a website but it's kind of turned into a blog (which it is I suppose, I know!) But I do prefer it as a blog, so hey ho!

I embossed little flowers around the top of the cake, made thin little pink daisies to go around the outside of the cake too! I then piped 'Happy Mother's Day' in graduated line work on top in white then pink. To top it all off, I pipped a snail trail around the base of the cake in pink and embossed the cake board.  

Ta-Da! All piping was done with Royal Icing :) 

Speak soon and much love, 

Sprinkle, Sparkle & Magic 

Paris Themed Birthday Cake

Evening everyone! 

How are we all doing? 

I've just finished going through all the posts, seeing as half of them had photo's missing! Can you believe it, no? Me neither!

Anyway, I don't have many more updates to give you all, well, I do but I will do them all in a batch post. You will all soon see!  For now I will grant you the access to view some of the last cakes that I have recently done, there are three but will all be posted in separate posts (They need their glory! Haha) 

And here we have it! The two tiered, Paris themed birthday cake. I really did enjoy making this cake so much and for once I wasn't really stressful, Hoozah! It was great and so fun!

Now to the specifics: The bottom layer was a Funfetti cake with vanilla buttercream and raspberry jam sandwiched together, the top tier is chocolate cake sandwiched together with chocolate buttercream. 

The bottom layer was then covered in white sugar paste and the top in mint green. Emerald stripes of sugarpaste we're placed around the bottom tier, whilst emerald polka dots we're placed around the top tier. 

Using modelling paste, I created one large pink rose to sit on top, and four little white roses to be placed on top of the bottom tier. I made silhouettes out of black sugarpaste and placed them inbetween the emerald stripes. Making the black stand out more on the white background. 

Last but not least, there's an Eiffel Tower stuck on top, constructed out of Rice cripsies and covered with many layers of white chocolate and then green. We then placed black and white ribbon around the base of each cake to make it look even more pretty, and pinned them in with a pearl coloured bobby bin (Don't worry, it was brand new, not used for anything else and sterilized first) 

I really enjoyed making this cake, especially the silhouettes, I just love them!  I really liked how it looked and everything. It was a surprise for the customer as her partner had bought her tickets to go away to Paris for the weekend and surprised her with her birthday cake! How wicked is that! Very happy to be a part of it. 

Much love, 

Sprinkle, Sparkle & Magic

Going beyond the traditional Battenberg...

This was my first attempt at making Battenberg and I loved it! I've always been a big fan of this sweet cake since I was a little girl, when my Granddad and Nanan used to buy me it as a treat instead of sweets sometimes and I loved it. Or for an afternoon snack with juice when we would all sit together and watch You've Been Framed or Strictly. 

So I decided it was time to make my own and it worked! Probably not the best square shape, but it's homemade and not batch produced by Kipling so what do you expect? ;) 

I made three batches, one for my family, one for Nan and Granddad and one for Sam and his dad. I also decided to rock things up a bit and made a Green and Yellow one, straying away from the traditional pink!

- Em xx 

Small single baking updates

The above picture is a quick Cherry and Coconut loaf cake that I made for my granddad, I make him a cake nearly every fortnight, or I'm trying to when I can :) One of his favourites, as well as fruit loaf cake.

Here is my first ever loaf of bread that I made, it's safe to say that I have come a long way since then (Last year) in baking bread, thanks to the great The Pink Whisk where I found the most perfect recipe for a white loaf, which I also use to make brown as well. Sam's in love with this bread, so thank you ever so much for sharing your recipe! :D You're a life saver Ruth and I am ever so grateful and happy I found your recipe! xx 

For the white loaf recipe, please click here ---> White Loaf Recipe

Some double chocolate chip cookies that we're made a while back :) 

A MASSIVE slab of chocolate cake!

- Em xx 

Cycling Cake

Dad's birthday cake last year!

He's gotten really into his Cycling over the year and I've very very proud of him for what he has achieved so far with it. This was before he went on his cycling trip, where he cycled around Holland on his own only taking his bike and his tent and money. 

Very well done to my dad! HOOZAH!

He liked the cake and he enjoyed his holiday even more, but he was tired when he got back :) 

Looking back now, this is another cake that I want to re-do as I have learnt quite a bit over this year since going to college and feel I could of decorated and designed the bike a bit more. 

The cake was Vanilla Victoria sponge with raspberry jam inside :) 

- Em xx 

HUGE Carrot Cake

So here's a GIANT carrot cake that I made last year :) 

First attempt at one and smashed it, was very proud of it and would use the recipe again and again, it was great! 

Not much to really say about it, was very rich and full of flavour and spices, filled and topped with cream cheese frosting and tiny little fondant carrots on top :P

- Em xx

Adventure Time - Jake the Dog Birthday Cake

Hey everyone!

So so so sorry I haven't been posting in what seems like forever, I have been busy with work experience, college (Which I will tell you about soon!) and Volunteering at the Library recently. But I will inform you all that I have been doing LOADS of baking of cakes, cookies and puddings! Even bread :) So I will post all of these things up as soon as possible. 

The above picture is the birthday cake that I made for my brother last year for his 17th Birthday. If you can guess who it is, well done! :D If you don't know who it is, it's Jake the dog from a TV show called Adventure Time :) 

So this is Jake the Dog, which is the character who the cake is based upon. 

I really loved making this cake and Jake, I know that the modelling isn't the greatest but it was my first attempt at it and I was well chuffed, and still am looking back in it. Probably not so much now though haha But I really did enjoy making him. 

The cake was lemon, and it was decorated using fondant icing including Jake, which looking back again he probably should of been made out of sugar paste, but oh well! The stars we're made with fondant too and cut out using a star cutter :) 

I love Adventure Time so much :D 

- Em xx 

KitKat and M&M's Chocolate cake

Hi all, 

You may feel like I start to spam you in a moment, and well...That's because I am! And I plan too! This is because, as I have stated in my last post, that once I make a cake or I bake anything I end up posting it on Facebook. Quite frequently actually because I have a lovely little page there, which you can all access if you wish to have a nosey at it. 

But back to the subject, yeah...I post everything on Facebook so I'm trying to update this wonderful blog, spruce it up a bit, fill it with posts and make it look more homey. A bit more homey like my book review page. ( Which is you're ever interested in having a look then please go to: Tinks Books and Reviews

Anyway! Back to what I was saying. The above cake was just a little something I made with the things we had in the house at the time. I did see this design on facebook in honesty over just a page that I had liked and really wanted to make it!

It's a normal homemade chocolate cake with homemade chocolate frosting in the middle and around the cake. I then snapped some kit-kat's up and placed them around the cake, and then covered the top in plain chocolate M&M's. Very chocolaty I must say! 

I enjoyed making this cake and I loved the colour of what the M&M's made the cake look like as it make it look more cheerful and fun! Though it was a little messy to eat as all the M&M's kept falling off! Haha, but it was fun non the less!

I must say, thank you for people looking at my page recently! I've seen a big jump in the sights over the page and I am over the moon! Thank you ever so much! :D Please feel free to comment on any of the cakes, about what you like about them and what you don't like about them and if I can improve on anything. I would like to hear your comments about them, good and bad! 

Much love, 
Emma xxx 

Snooker Table Cake

Afternoon all! 

Sorry I haven't been in touch recently, I've been posting on my Facebook page, which I must add that I do use more. But I am determined to update this more frequently, just like I do with Facebook. If anyone is interested in taking a look by the way or would like to give me a like, then please search on Facebook for Sprinkle, Sparkle and Magic and you should find me. Thanks! 

Anyway! The above cake is one that I did a while ago to be honest but I never got round to updating the blog. As you can see it's a Snooker Table cake, woo! :D 

I mad this for my Granddad who has a fascination with snooker at the moment. I am very proud to say that he enjoyed it and loved it also :) Was really fun creating this cake and I loved doing all the detail on it as well, all the way down to the little chalk cube and the snooker balls. 

The cake was a simple homemade Victoria Sponge cake with strawberry jam and buttercream and a plain cake, no Vanilla. Everything else is made out of fondant icing which I coloured myself with food colouring. 

The snooker balls we're made out of fondant icing then rolled and stuck onto the cake with writing icing. 

I really enjoyed making this cake and glad that my Granddad was pleased with it also :) 

Thanks, Emma xx 

55th Wedding Anniversary Cake

Hi everyone, long time no see, or speak should I say? 

I have quite a few cakes to put on here, which should of been on here sooner, but I have recently got a new job, in hopes to save for my cake business and driving lessons haha, but all is going well. So I am a tad busy, but don't let that put you of ever ordering a cake if you need one, I will still be able to make it for you! 

The Cake

Now, this cake was very special to make, and I loved every minute of baking and decorating it, I love making all of them. But this was very special. 

It was made for my Nanan and Granddad's 55th Wedding anniversary, and I loved every minute of making it. 

I know the pattern of the flowers around the cake don't flow well as the packet I bought ended up to have a dud white one, but I'll get it right next time. My Nan has Alzheimer's which is very upsetting and sad though the cake cheered my granddad up who  was very touched by it, which was lovely in a way. 

My nan doesn't eat much anymore, but she does like to eat homemade Victoria sponge cakes, which is good so I make them for her so she has something to eat (Though granddad does like to have his share!) 

The cake is 12" and double layered with smooth strawberry jam in the middle and homemade butter cream icing in the middle. There's fondant icing on the top and the "55th" is also fondant, which was if I'm honest, the numbers we're printed out and I placed them onto some fondant and cut round the paper with a sharp knife. I'm quite proud on how they turned out. 

I then sprayed them with edible silver shimmer spray to give it a shiny touch. The cake board has icing rolled out on top and there is a emerald green ribbon around the base of the cake and a pale blue ribbon around the cake board to give it a nice colourful band and to add a bit of colour to the cake. 

The writing is done using writing icing and I admit it isn't that great, but they we're happy with it.  

Hope you like it, any questions or feedback on it if you can give me any would be great! :) 

- Emma x

Apply Mac Cake

Hi there guys,

Sorry it's been a while, I meant to update sooner but totally forgot. You see I've recently got a job which is everyday apart from the weekend, so I will have to find more time to post, but I'm still doing the cakes and decorating. It's just a bit silent at the moment in my world of cakes, but hope everyone is good.

I made this cake on the 22/03/13 and decorated it the next day in time for my dad's birthday. He loves all things apple mac, and I thought it would be a great idea and a surprise! And lo and behold he loved it! He's now told everyone at work, which now means I have to make one for next Monday haha.

I know the apple logo is actually silver or white but I thought it would be a good idea and a change to make it green. On the picture it does look sparkly and that is because I sprayed it with a silver edible spray and quite liked the outcome of it. 

It's a homemade chocolate cake with homemade chocolate fondant in the middle and around the top as well so the fondant icing would stick. I got Sainsbury's brand fondant icing. As I feel it's better and I can also work with it better as it's not too tough and I can roll it out easier. I then dyed the icing with Silver Spoon colour creator green. This is an amazing product and so glad that I had found it. 

(Granted the cake does look messy, but I'd only just cut it!) 

The colours are bright and there's loads to use. It lasts for ages! I would definitely recommend them. I did the outline by printing off an apple mac logo off the Internet and lightly placed it over the cake, then cut out the shape carefully with a sharp knife. Then did the same on the top. The cake was made out of a 12" base, but only because of the size of the cake needed to be bigger than a normal round 6" tin.

Added the fondant, sprayed with silver and hey presto! 

Hope you liked looking at it haha, it sure tasted nice! 

- Emma