Sugar Mice

This was my first attempt at making real sweets (other than fudge a few years which went spectacularly wrong) and they were really fun to do.

Unfortunately I have a new obsession with a weekly baking magazine (Something Sweet) that is full of recipes and exciting things, including; sugar mice moulds with string tails, a truffle box and mini cupcake cases. This is where the idea to make the mice came from. 

I was surprised at how little is needed to make sugar mice, apart from the mould and tails (which if you purchase the magazine, will come free with it), it only requires fondant icing (200g), pink food colouring (but only if you want to make pink mice), black icing and water. 

To get started chop up the fondant icing by cutting the block into slices, then into strips and finally into cubes. Try to make sure these are all a similar size so that they melt at the same time. Then place them in a pan with 1 and 1/2 tbsp of water. 

Once all the fondant has melted (at this point I separated it into two separate pans to add pink food colouring to one), bring it to a rolling boil and then turn it back down to allow it to simmer for a two minutes before taking it off the heat and pouring it straight into the moulds (you need to be quick to do this to make sure it doesn't start to set first). 

Immediately after pouring it into the moulds, twist each piece of string into the mouse. Allow them to set for about two hours, before lightly pushing the bottom of the mould to pop them out. These then need to rest over night (24 hours) to make sure they have dried out completely.

Once they have, you can draw on their eyes (and nose if you wish). I used a black icing pen for this but you could also use icing sugar and add a tiny bit of black food colouring to it. Then apply it with a very thin point, the only thing I could find (in a house of four girls) was a hair grip. 

A final top tip would be to fill the moulds right up to the top...as you can see on the far right one mouse lost his nose because of it.

And then they're ready to eat!

Funfetti (Sprinkle) Cake

I've seen several funfetti cake recipes on Pinterest recently, all of which look amazing, and so I thought I'd give it a go myself. It makes a simple sponge look much funner with lots of coloured sugar strands throughout the cake. 

As all the recipes on Pinterest were American and used cups as a measurement, I used a Victoria sponge cake recipe instead and added about 3/4 of the pot of sprinkles to the mixture.

The sprinkles are added in last after the cake mixture has been made.

Then once you have buttered the baking trays, split the mixture into two and bake for between 25-30 minutes.

 

Next is the butter icing, I used 5oz of butter with 10oz of icing sugar to make the one below. Make sure the cakes are completely cool before spreading on the butter icing as the butter will begin to melt otherwise.

 

Turnover one of the cakes, and spread a thick layer of butter icing on the top before placing the other cake on top (this is the middle of cake). 

Then you can begin on the outside of cake by spreading a thin layer of icing all over the cake. Otherwise known as a crumb coat, this thin layer will pick up all the crumbs from the cake before you add the final top layer of butter cream. Once you have done the crumb coat, pop the cake in the fridge for roughly 10-minutes before adding the second layer.

Then you can decorate it however you wish, but being a funfetti cake I choose to decorate it with even more sprinkles!

Hummingbird Bakery Apple Streusel Cake

Apple streusel cake is a three layer cake consisting of Victoria sponge, layered apples and a crumble topping. What's not to like?

The first step is to make the 'streusel' which is the crumble topping. Rub the sifted (70g) plain flour, (1 1/2 tsp) cinnamon (I prefer to use mixed spice instead) and (40g) cubed butter together to form breadcrumbs before adding in the (70g) light brown sugar. 

To make the sponge; cream the (60g) butter and (100g) caster sugar together until pale and fluffy, then add the egg and (1/2 tsp) vanilla essence, followed by the (140g) plain flour, (1 tsp) baking powder, (1/8 tsp) salt and (80ml) milk - this last part is added in two halves.

 Then you can move onto the apples by peeling, coring and slicing three granny smiths into quarters and then into 3/4 slices, depending on the size of the apples.

Then comes the fun bit, layer the cake by evenly spreading the cake mixture on the bottom, layering it with apple slices and then sprinkling on the crumble topping.

Place it in the oven at 170c for between 35-45 minutes, until golden brown and crunchy on the top. To check it is baked the whole way through, insert a skewer (or end of a teaspoon) and if it comes out 'clean' (no trace of raw cake mixture), it's done.

Then all that is left to do, is to get the cream out of the fridge and put kettle on.

Cake Pops

I've been wanting to make cake pops since the craze first stared but I've never been sure which method to use as there are three main ways; using a 'cake pop maker', combining pre-brought cake with butter cream icing or using a cake pop mould (like the one I used below).

Making the cake pops themselves is the easiest part, simply weigh out and combine; caster sugar (4oz), butter (4oz), (3) eggs, plain flour (4oz) and vanilla extract to form the cake mixture. The mixture then needs to be spooned into the individual moulds (up to the rim) but make sure it isn't the side with the little air hole as that is the top.

A top tip to make sure they don't stick to the mould once they are done is to (very) lightly coat the silicone tray beforehand with oil (using a spray oil is the easiest way to control the amount you use) and flour. They need to go into the pre-heated  (180oc) oven for approximately 20 minutes, however I found they needed a little longer than this but be careful not to take them out to early as it will cause them to drop in the middle. 

Once they have cooled for roughly 20-30 minutes, melt the chocolate you are going to use to coat the cake pops and individually dip the sticks into the melted chocolate before inserting them into the cake pops. You need to be careful not to push them too far as they might go through the other side. I'd recommend inserting them a third of the way into the cake pop. 

There are a range of different cake pop stands online but with a bit of wood and a drill my dad quickly rustled me one up and my mum (justpootling.blogspot.co.uk) being the keen crafter she is, set to work decorating the cake pop stand, which you can see above. I found the how-to for this cake pop stand from rosebakes, it provided a great step-by-step guide.

       

Once the cake pops have been left in the fridge for roughly an hour and a half, you can begin dipping them into the melted chocolate. The best way to do this is to melt the chocolate over a bain marie, allowing more control over the temperature of the chocolate (less likely to burn). It will also keep the chocolate hot whilst you coat each cake pop, as when microwaved it will begin to thicken as it cools at a much quicker rate (as you can see above).

I choose to melt milk chocolate and white chocolate for these but you can choose whatever chocolate you want to coat the cake pops. 

There are a thousand different ways to decorate cake pops (you only need to do a Google search to see the vast amount of cake pop designs), but it is completely up to you as to what you choose to decorate them with. As you can see I raided the cupboard and found every single tub of sprinkles possible. 

  

Mars Bar and Milky Way Cookies

Still got chocolate tins left lying around the house from Christmas? This is the perfect recipe to use them all up before starting the January diet (or not in my case). I used a BBC Food basic cookie recipe and swapped the chocolate chunks for various tin chocolates. If your household is anything like mine it will be the mars bars, bounties and milky ways.

Just like any other cookie recipe; cream the butter and sugar together, add an egg and drop of vanilla extract, then a pinch of salt and self raising flour, before finally adding in the chopped up chocolates (I just used all the chocolates I had left).

Then roll the dough into walnut sized balls, any bigger and it will be one big cookie, and be sure to leave enough room between them (I did three in a row).

As you can see they go delicious and crunchy but don't be fooled, they are still incredibly gooey inside but you've got to eat them warm!