Marmalade Sandwich Cake

I'll admit it, I didn't have much time to make my daughter's 2nd birthday cake, but luckily I came up with this ingeniously simple idea! She loves Paddington Bear, and what does Paddington Bear love? ...Marmalade sandwiches. So here is my delicious giant marmalade "Cakewich" birthday cake, which is essentially an orange flavoured square Victoria sponge cake! With added buttercream of course.

Speckled Egg Easter Cake

How's this for an alternative Easter Cake. No fondant was used during the making of this cake! Have a break from the traditional Simnel cake and chocolate nests and try a "Speckled Egg Cake". It's just a simple 4-layer Victoria sponge cake with vanilla buttercream & apricot jam in between the layers. You can just use your favourite sponge cake recipe, I like to use Mary Berry's.

To a get a smooth finish on the buttercream, you'll want to make it quite thick in consistency but still spreadable. After spreading it evenly over the cake, use a hot palette knife (dipped in hot water then cleaned on a dry cloth) to smooth over the cake as best you can, scraping the excess icing off the palette knife as you go. Using a turntable really helps. Then after leaving the icing to form a crust for 30mins, gently smooth out any imperfections using a piece of parchment paper and your fingertips, or a fondant smoothing tool. To get the speckled effect, mix cocoa powder with a little hot water, then flick it at the cake with a pastry brush. Finally, decorate with mini eggs (or mini-mini eggs for an extra cute finish!).

Raspberry & White Chocolate Layer Cake

This is some serious cake! The sponge is beautifully moist, made with cream cheese and laced with raspberries. The white chocolate ganache-like icing is deliciously creamy and sweet with vanilla beans. I've topped this cake with fresh raspberries, white chocolate curls and dried raspberry flakes for what I think is a very sophisticated finish. White chocolate and raspberries, what an awesome combo.

Toffee Apple Cake!

Oh my goodness... I have been searching the internet for the perfect toffee apple cake and couldn't find what I wanted. So this is a combination of about 4 different recipes... and it's delicious!! I have never eaten a piece of cake so fast. Perfect for Autumn and Halloween, this cake will really impress. It's a combination between sticky toffee pudding and a toffee apple. Gooey in the middle, caramelized on the outside, with a sticky toffee drizzle. I really hope you enjoy it too, it's worth the effort.

Salted Caramel Chocolate Cake

This. Cake. Is. Epic... It took me a whole evening to make it due to the sheer size of it but my god it is worth it for someone special. This multi-layered chocolate cake is sandwiched together with layers of oozing salted caramel and chocolate caramel ganache, then topped with shards of crunchy Dime bars. Decadent, rich, creamy and ridiculously mouth wateringly moreish.

Lemon Curd Layer Cake

Now. If you're not going to make your own lemon curd, don't bother to make this cake. It is ALL about the lemon curd! I am one of these people who thinks, "I've not made that before, it must be difficult, so I'll just buy it"... but it is easy and it's worth it! Plus, the lemon curd takes exactly the same amount of time that the cakes takes to bake, so it stops you getting bored whilst your cake is baking. Nothing can compare to the fresh zestyness of homemade lemon curd.

Luxurious Carrot Cake

Oh how I love a nice moist carrot cake with cream cheese icing. My version of carrot cake is packed full of extra ingredients that give it a wonderful texture and a fantastic taste. Crushed pineapple and orange zest for fruityness, chopped roasted nuts for crunch, and sultanas for... well, just 'coz I like them.

Of course if you're fussy you could leave the extras out, but you will still need to add the carrots! There's no escaping the "hidden vegetables" in this cake!

You can decorate the top of your cake with a sprinkle of cinnamon, orange zest, walnut halves, chopped nuts, or just leave it plain.

Mini Victoria Sandwiches

Brilliant. Lakeland make a mini victoria sandwich tin with which you can create cute little versions of the English classic cake. It's quite a hefty tin with loose bottomed bases and straight sides. I might even make some mini cheesecakes in it. My mini victoria sandwiches are filled with buttercream and "Turkish Black Cherry and Madagascan Vanilla Soft Set Jam"... with that kind of elaborate description it was of course from M&S. Make your own jam though if you really want to impress.

Honey & Pear Showstopper

As some of you may have heard I have an audition for a certain baking competition next week. Here is my practice run at what I hope is a show stopping cake. The layers of caramalized pears and the honey flavoured cream cheese icing make this cake a sweet tooth's delight. The husband (my most hard-to-impress critic) nodded his head upon tasting this cake so I know it's nearly there. Once I have perfected the recipe I will gladly share it with you.

Maple and Pecan Cake

The maple syrup in this cake makes it so rich and moist (not to mention full of calories but we'll forget about that bit). It is an indulgent cake fit for a special occasion with it's maple flavoured icing and simple yet elegant decoration of pecans on top.