Meringue Kisses!

Afternoon everyone! 

Got another post for you today, yes I hear what you're saying! "Two in the past couple of days? Is she okay?" I'm pretty well thank you, I just feel the need to tell you all what has been happening in the world of SSM (I sometimes think I should of chosen a better name, more suitable sounding when I shorten it down, but I don't know what I could change it too! All ideas welcome!) 

As you can see with these pictures, they are colourful, cute and very tasty and moreish - In the words of Mr. B. The recipe is from the wonderful Meringue Girls who are a couple of brilliant women who go by the names of Alex Hoffler and Stacey O'Gorman, who have opened their beautiful business in London! 

I've been wanting their cookbook for a while but I'm still waiting haha, it might end up being wrapped up for my 21st or even under the tree later this year. In the meantime, I will persist with this one wonderful recipe and colour and change taste by my own accord. 

The recipe is simple, much more simple than I thought it would be though I did have to shuffle through a few sites to see what other people we're putting the oven temp too, as it doesn't mention it on the recipe page on their site. 

It has taken me quite a few attempts with the Kisses to get them just right, the colour, the taste and the size. The first time wasn't a success and I remember my dad saying that I had done something wrong (A past food chess and patisserie chef too - It's where I have got my foodie life from I have decided) 

But since then, whilst I was practising, I made the recipe smaller so there was no wastage. But now I am slowly mastering it and I can go back to the normal recipe which is ace! I just love making meringue! Whether it be the kisses or a pavlova, there's just something about it that's so soothing. Think on the same par as bread! 

If you wish to make some lovely little meringue kisses yourself, then I will be doing a follow up post with the recipe from The Meringue Girls  and a detailed description my myself on how to get those lovely meringue kisses and how to keep practising! 

More posts to come soon so keep your eyes open! 

Much love as always, keep baking! 

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 

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