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, 

Vanilla Spice Sugar Cookie Recipe

Morning everyone! 

How are we all today? 

We all remember the last post what was on here don't we? Surely no one has forgotten? ;) 

Well, as promised I said I would do the recipe for these Vanilla Spice sugar cookies, some people have asked for the recipe on Instagram so I thought I would post it on here and then link it back through! 

Vanilla Spice Sugar Cookie: What you will need

4oz / 113g of Butter 

4oz / 113g Sugar 

6oz / 170g Plain Flour

2 tsp's of Vanilla 

3 tsp's of Ginger 

1 Easter Egg shaped cookie cutter (I used Wilton's) 

Directions:

1. Start by turning your oven on to 180c (fan)/200c/ Gas Mark 6.

2. In a mixing bowl, place the butter and the sugar together and beat until fluffy, you will know the butter has been beaten enough once it changes colour to what it was originally before. It will go a pale yellow colour. 

3. Next add in the Ginger and Vanilla and give it another good mix, until everything is incorporated. Add more ginger or Vanilla if desired. 

4. Once everything is mixed, slowly but gradually add in the flour (preferably sifting, if you don't have a sieve don't worry) As your adding the flour in, start to mix the content together, it should eventually be tough to stir.

5. Once all ingredients have been incorporated, place the dough onto a floured surface, sprinkle some flour onto the cookie dough and onto the rolling pin. Start to roll out the dough. Don't forget to keep turning the dough and adding flour underneath, otherwise it will stick to the surface and you will have to start again. 

6. Roll out to required thickness for cookies. Once rolled out, using your egg shaped cookie cutter, cut as many eggs as you can out of the sheet, don't worry if you can't get a lot out, you can always re-roll the dough and make some more for the next batch. 

Repeat this section until you have no more cookie dough. 

7. Place the cookies onto either a greased tray (I used butter and then sprinkle some flour on, but you can use Grease proof paper too!) Make sure when placing the cookies then they have a gap between them all, about two fingers width apart.

8. Place the cookies in the oven on the middle shelf and  bake for 5 minutes or until lightly golden brown around the edges. Once baked, take out of the oven and leave to cool for 10 minutes on a wire rack. 

To Decorate:

For the decoration you can use anything you wish, melted chocolate, icing sugar, sprinkles or royal icing. On the above cookies, we have Royal Icing. 

A quick and easy way for Royal Icing: 

1 x 500g Bag of Tate and Lyle Royal Icing 

1 x Small cup of cold water

Gel food colouring

Spatula

Various Bowls

Spoons

Cling film and / or damp clean cloths

Always remember to cover all icing with a lightly damp cloth, don't use the icing if it has crusted over

1. Add all the Royal Icing sugar into a deep bowl, and add a couple of tablespoons of water into the mix. Using an electric hand whisk, start mixing the icing sugar on the slowest speed setting. BE CAREFUL OF SUGAR DUST FLYING EVERYWHERE. 

2. Slowly start to add a couple more tablespoons into the mix until it starts to become incorporated. Once everything is mixed together, you should be left with a stoggy icing, add a teaspoon of cold water into the mix and beat at a high speed for 5-7 minutes. The texture and thickness will start to change.

There are three types of icing that you will need: 

1. Stiff Peak -  Dab your spatula on to the icing, once it comes of there should be a peak of icing, if the peak stays up, is sturdy and does not fall, you have achieved Stiff Peak.

2. Soft Peak - Do the same as what you did with Stiff Peak, but if the icing peak bends or falls, this is smooth enough to be Soft Peak. 

3. Run out - Run out icing, or is used for filling in or "flooding" a large, flat surface area such as a cookie. To achieve this, you should start with Stiff Peak, gradually adding water to then achieve Soft Peak, there is a method called the "7 Taps" this is when you lift the spatula out of the icing, make a pattern on the surface and then tap the bowl 7 times. After the seventh, all the  lines or pattern should disappear. Once you get to this stage you know it is ready. Always keep checking the consistency with the spatula

3. Once you reach Stiff peak, spoon desired amount into bowls and mix with chosen colour (Preferably gel colours, water based ones will cause the consistency of the icing to change) Mix the colours that you need. If your doing the design above, you will need: 

White - Stiff Peak 

Yellow - Soft Peak

4. With your White Stiff peak icing, place a number 2 nozzle in the piping back and snip off the end. Add in the White stiff peak icing, gently and carefully pipe a pattern of a cracked egg shell around the base of the egg cookie. Just like on the picture below. 

5. Leave for a few minutes until the edges are dry, once dried get your white run out icing, flood the inside of the "shell" and leave to dry for t10 minutes. 

6. Repeat 4 & with correct colours for the rest of the design, or create your own! 

Hope you enjoyed this recipe and the design!

Much love as always, 

Three Tiered Victoria Monster Cake

Evening everyone!

How are we all doing? 

Bit of an old cake I'm afraid, by old I just mean that I forgot to post it!

The cake is just like the Chocolate Monster Cake which you can see here! But it's Victoria Sponge..Go on, click the link, you know you want too ;)

But it's Victoria Sponge!

Don't look! There's a baby picture of me in the background! *Covers screen with hand* Anyway, I'll crack on with it shall I? 

The above cake, was again three tiers, with vanilla buttercream and strawberry jam sandwiching the sponges together. Crumb coated then covered in smooth Vanilla buttercream. 

Green, white and lilac meringue kisses we're made and placed on top and around the base of the cake (I thought this added more 'WOW' factor to it, don't you think?"

Milk, dark and white chocolate shards, covered in pretty pearlescent sugar balls and then sprayed with silver shimmer spray. I have christened this chocolate bark, Galaxy Bark!

The cake then had the chosen sweets (By my granddad for my granddad) Which we're the classic, Bassett All-sorts! 

I LOVE making these Katherine Sabbath inspired cakes! They're just so fun to make and you can never go over the top or do too little, they always look elegant and crazy which is just amazing and so fun! They're so creative! Give it a go yourself and go mad!

We also made some cupcakes for the special occasion! Fluffy Vanilla sponge, smooth Vanilla buttercream, complete with Silver and Gold shimmer '80' toppers!

I enjoy making these cakes so much and I enjoy working with buttercream even more, it makes such a great finish and they just look beautiful!

If YOU wish to make this cake, stay tuned and the recipe will be up soon! 

Much love as always, 

Royal Iced Easter Themed Sugar Cookies

Howdy everyone! 

I'm in a bit of a poorly state this week, which sucks! I've spend all week having smoothies and what good has it done me? Nothing I tell you, as I have still caught a cold! 

Anyway, take a look at these beautiful and cute little Easter Egg cookies that we're made a while back! I know I should of posted these up for Easter but then I feel I would of been cheating as I never even made them around Easter! Although I did make them as a belated one! 

I was practising my Royal Icing skills for my college course, which I finish next month! I can't believe it, I don't know where I'll be without it, but I will hopefully be going on to Level 2 so it isn't all bad! :) I will do a post to 'celebrate' the end of the college year with everything I have made.  

I used the Wilton Easter Egg cutter for both sets of cookies, the recipe was a new one that I tried and made which I have now Christened Vanilla Spice. I will post the recipe for the cookies onto another post so you can give them a go yourself! :D 

I'm really happy with the way they both turned out and feel that I am getting better at Royal Iced cookies, plus my college teacher started following me on my Instagram account, so I felt I had to really really try haha, not that that I don't anyway as I always give it 100%! 

I just love the little chicks in their little egg shells, all the colours on the Easter Egg ones too! Especially seeing as they're all pastel colours! 

Hope you will enjoy making the cookies too! 

Post more later!

Much love as always, and baking wishes, 

Three Tiered Chocolate Monster Cake (Katherine Sabbath Inspired)

Hey everyone!

Would you just look at that Monster?! 

I had such a blast making this cake! It is inspired by the wonderful and talented Katherine Sabbath and her own cakes, which are just out of this wold! Take a look below!

ALL CORYRIGHT FOR THE ABOVE PICTURE IS KATHERINE SABBATH, I DO NOT OWN THIS PICTURE OR THE CAKE DESIGN.

Isn't it just beautiful? Look at all those colours, though this is a cheesecake not a cake, but its still brilliantly impressive! I cannot find her online through a website to link to or on Facebook, but she is on Instagram so go search for @Katherine_Sabbath and give her a follow!

So this was my cake, and the first of taking on the inspiration for doing a Kat inspired cake! I loved designing and making this cake, it was such fun and was completed in 48 hours which I was very surprised with if I'm honest!

The cake itself is a three tiered sponge cake, with two layers of chocolate and one layer of coffee cake which is in the middle of the two chocolates. The sponge was then all sandwiched together using coffee buttercream and then crumb coated in the same buttercream. 

The cake was then covered in Coffee buttercream, and chocolate bark shards we're placed on top as well as white and blue meringue kisses, chunks of golden crunchie bar was also sprinkled over the top of the cake. A full on chocolate and coffee overload! 

Here's a close up of the Chocolate Bark before it went onto the cake! White, milk and dark chocolate with crushed crunchie pieces and crushed meringue kisses sprinkled on top! Such a golden effect! It reminded me a bit of gold nuggets hehe 

Side view of the cake, with the meringue kisses, chocolate crunchy and the chocolate shards! 

And there we have it! That's the big monster of a chocolate cake haha

Think this photo is my favourite out of all of them. Big thanks to my younger brother for taking some fab pics of the cake! 

Much love and baking wishes! 

Detailed Meringue Kisses How To!

Hey everyone! 

Did you see the post on the Meringue Kisses that we made? Fancy having a go at them yourself? To impress people or loved ones? But don't know where to start? Then look no further! All recipe rights and copy rights are from the Meringue Girls, two wonderful and creative ladies! Go check out their site! The Meringue Girls - Meringue Kisses

Wording in this recipe is my wording, but the actual recipe is from the lovely girls. Please go to their website and pay them a visit, they're wonderful! 

The Recipe - Taken from Meringue Girls site

 ALL RECIPE COPYRIGHT TOWARDS THE MERINGUE GIRLS

Ingredients: 

5 Medium sized eggs

300g Golden Caster Sugar 

Flavouring if desired, I used 2 teaspoons of Vanilla 

Directions:

1. Line a large FLAT baking tray with grease proof paper, possibly making it a little bit bigger so you are able to pick the paper up once out of the oven if you wish.

2. Pre-heat the oven to 200c / Gas Mark 5  - Place 300g Caster sugar into the baking try and place into the oven.  Leave for 5 minutes (Also put a timer on your phone, I find it helps me!)

3. Whilst the sugar is in the oven, crack the egg whites into your bowl - Make sure that your bowl is free from any grease, grease will cause the meringue not to form properly resulting in a dull and floppy mixture and the egg wont be able to reach stiff peak.

4. Whisk the egg whites up until they form little bubbles, keep going until the whites have doubled in volume and are forming stiff peaks. You can do this by using the whisker or a fork, place into the whites and pull out, if the mix stands stable and does not flop, you have reached Stiff Peak, if it droops, keep going! You need those peaks! 

5. Once you have stiff peaks, your sugar will be ready to come out of the oven. TURN THE OVEN DOWN TO 100c / Gas Mark 1 - BE CAREFUL, SUGAR IS VERY DANGEROUS WHEN HOT AND CAN BURN!..Plus it's very painful! 

You will know the sugar is ready the the edges starting to caramelise, now, you can either get a large spoon and spoon the mixture into the eggs spoonful at a time, but I find it difficult as I have a hand held mixer and I'm only good with my right hand - see where I'm going with this? So! I grab the edges of the grease proof paper, lift it out of the tin and poor the sugar into a deep microwavable bowl, I find it easier. 

6. So to elaborate on that more, whisking on a slow speed, either spoon the sugar into the egg whites spoon at a time, mixing all the time with the whisk to get the meringue texture. Or you can pour the sugar into the egg whites bit at a time and mix it the same.

7. Once all the sugar has gone into the eggs, add the vanilla and keep whisking it all in starting on slow to begin with then speeding it up keep whisking for 5-7 minutes on a high speed until the meringue mix forms and you start to get stiff peaks again. Get some meringue mix between your fingers and feel it, if it still feels gritty, it needs more of a mix. This is just the sugar that has not been incorporated into the mix. 

You will know the meringue mix is read when it forms beautiful smooth and glossy peaks! Gently give the mix a stir, don't beat it otherwise you will knock out all the air and you need that air!

You are now ready to get piping! 

1. Line a baking tray with some fitted grease proof paper

2. Grabbing a piping bag, preferably a disposable one, turn the bag inside out and with a chosen colour, paint 5 big, bold colourful lines on the inside of the bag starting from the tip and ending somewhere in the middle of the bag (you don't want to have dye at the top and get it on your hands when turning it inside out) Turn the bag back inside out so the dye is on the inside now. 

3.With a large spoon, gently place some of the meringue into the piping bag, in my experience from learning a whole bag will give you a tray full of 24 meringue kisses with a little spare - I have made a print out diagram but I just need to host it first!

4. Get the air out of the top of the bag, place your hand on top of where the mix ends, grip it tight and let the air come out at the top, once done lightly grip it and place on a work surface and gently beat the air out of the bag making sure none of the mixture comes out the other end - This will give you nice and smooth flowing meringue mix with no air bubbles ruining those perfect kisses! 

5. I find it's best to hold the piping bag upright, tip at the top since when you cut it off it wont suddenly start to pour out from the gravity. Once done, tightly spin the piping bag till it closes off the Meringue from falling out, when your ready snip the top off of the piping bag, your looking to cut off about an inch and a half. 

6. Hold the top of the bag with your strong hand (See how I'm holding the orange Piping bag?) and the other hand resting on the bottom near the tip so you have a grip on where to guide it. In a spare bowl, gently sqeeze some of the meringue out until the white has gone and you start to see streaks of colour. Once this happens you can start to pipe onto the baking tray! :D 

7. So the grease proof paper stays still as you pip (as meringue can get quite sticky!) pipe little dots into each corner of the tray then stick down the paper. Once ready, hold the piping bag as mentioned and then hold it at a straight so you are piping downwards. Hold it about two inches from the baking tray, do not hold it near the tray base itself, this was my mistake when learning and created really flat kisses, not the lovely bulbs. I think of when I pipe royal icing at college as it helps me. Your wanting to create a bulb, say like the shape of a bulb you would plant in your garden. 

8. So piping it a little off the baking try, gently squeeze the piping bag, don't lower the bag into the meringue 'blob' or start to bring it up as it pipes. When it starts to bulge upwards slightly, bring it up and stop piping suddenly, this will stop the flow of the meringue and give the meringues a nice flick. Once piped all the meringues, you should have 24. if not if you have less or a bit more it's perfectly fine! The recipe makes about 50 but depending on what size you do them you could make up to 100! To be honest when I first started I didn't believe they would all fit onto the tray so I did 6 rows of 3 meringues ;) Keep practicing! 

9. When all the meringues are on the tray and you cannot fit anymore on, place them into the oven on the middle shelf. Now it depends with all ovens I know, I made some at Mr. B's and kept them in the oven for 30 mins and they we're perfect. Did the same at mine with the same temp and time but they slightly went a caramel colour, which was fine! I thought they looked a bit 'Vintage' hehe still tasted lovely though!

So if I We're you, I would place them in the oven for 20 mins and put a timer on, you are looking to be able to pick them up from the tray easily, if they still stick to the tray they aren't done. 

10. After 20 mins, if they are still sticking place them in for another 10 mins. If they are fine then it's all good! Roughly place them in for 20-30 mins :) The center should be still soft and chewy when you take a bite! 

Hope this helps anyone wishing to make Meringue Kisses! As mentioned every inch of the recipe and recipe instructions are from The Meringue Girls so please give them credit, the detailed description on piping and how to's are from us here at Sprinkle, Sparkle and Magic. Hope this has helped anyone! Any questions you can email, tweet, facebook message, instagram message or even message or comment us on here! Happy to help!

P.s: DON'T BE AFRAID! It's practice, take a deep breath and if you don't do it right the first time, don't give up! You will get there! I know, I've been there myself and still getting the hang of it!  ;) 

Much love and Meringue Kisses!

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!