Secret centre spooky spider (halloween) cakes

Just finished baking these spider Halloween cakes with my 3 year old. She is so pleased with them I'm not sure how she'll wait for her grandparents to come on Sunday to show them. The poor postman only just managed to get away without being dragged in to see Megan's cakes!

As well as the spider decoration on the top, these cakes also have a hidden jammy centre (and taste fantastic!)



You'll need...

For the cakes

• 12 Cupcake cases
• 2 large eggs
• 120g Self raising flour
• 140g Caster sugar
• 140g Marg or butter
• 30g cocoa powder
• Jam

For the decoration

• 12 Minstrels (or similar, like Maltesers)
• Fruit strings/laces (see footnote)
• (Around) 100g icing sugar
• 5 Blackberries

 
Make the cake mix...

1. Pre heat the oven to 160
2. Whack the caster sugar and butter into a large bowl and whisk until light and fluffy
3. Next sift half the flour into the bowl
4. Add an egg
5. Mix well
6. Add the remaining flour, cocoa powder and egg
7. Mix well

Make now hide the jam!

1. Put 2 teaspoons of the cake mix into each cupcake case
2. Then, into the centre of each case add a teaspoon of jam

1. Gently cover the jam with the remaining cake mix (but try not to overfill)

1. Bake for 25-30 minutes

Now for the decoration

1. Warm the blackberries over a pan of boiling water until they are soft and can be squashed into the icing sugar

1. Keep stirring in icing sugar until you have bright purple lumpy icing that is spreadable but not too runny (add a drop of water if necessary)

1. Ice each of the cakes and allow to set for a couple of minutes while you cut up the laces to make legs

1. Place a Minstrel into the centre of each cake, and then push the legs gently into the icing around the Minstrel (using artist licence about how many legs each spider may have)

Spider (hidden centre) Halloween cupcake recipe

(Little footnote on strings/laces.... I used real fruit strings(see image below) but these could be strawberry laces or liquorish

How to make a Peppa Pig Cake

Peppa Pig Birthday Cake

Peppa Pig - described by Jason Mansford as a 3rd parent to his little girls they love and watch it so much!

My little girl loves her too, so for her 3rd birthday she had a Peppa Pig cake.

Lots of people have admired the cake, so here are some outline instructions on how to make a Peppa Pig Cake

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You will need

• A Peppa shaped tin

Get the tin (link to ebay seller who also have a range of other great tins)

 

For the cake

• 6 medium eggs
• 350g caster sugar
• 350g marg/butter
• 300g self raising flour
• 50g cocoa powder
• (Optional) chocolate chips

For the icing/decoration

• 80g marg/butter
• 300g of icing sugar
• Splash of milk

• 500g of pink icing (Renshaw)
• 250g of red icing (Renshaw)
• Small amount of white icing
• Small amount of black icing

Pre-coloured icing can be bought in Tesco (or for more choice/pack sizes try Hobbycraft/online)

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Making the cake...

1. Pre heat oven to 160C
2. Grease the tin (perhaps consider using a cake release spray - available from Tesco)
3. Put the marg and caster sugar into a large bowl and mix well
4. Break eggs into a measuring jug and beat with a fork
5. Add about a third of the flour and a third of the eggs and mix in
6. Add the cocoa powder, some more flour and some more egg and mix in
7. Repeat 5 until all the egg, flour and cocoa powder is incorporated
8. Finally stir in the chocolate chips
9. Cook for 30 minutes, then check and if necessary cover with tin foil before returning to the oven for a further 10 minutes.
10. Wait 10 minutes after taking the cake out of the oven before turning out onto a large cake board or tray

Before baking

Baked cake

Naked Peppa Pig cake before decoration

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Decorating the cake...

Start by making buttercream with the icing sugar and marg and then roughly covering the cake. This will make the cake taste better and the icing stick.

Next roll out the pink icing to about 3mm thick, making sure that there is sufficient icing in each direction to cover just over half the cake, and the edges.

Don't worry about the neck edge being straight or smooth as this will be covered by the red icing anyway.

Then use a sharp knife to trim around the edges

Next roll out the red icing.

Use the cake tin to gently mark the shape of the body into the icing - again make sure that there is sufficient icing to cover all sides.

This mark will also allow you to neatly cut the neck edge with a knife before lifting it onto the cake

The hard part is now done!

All you need to do now is add the finishing touches.

• Mix a small amount of pink and white icing together and then make a disk shape for each ear and the nose
• From the red icing still rolled out on the worktop, cut a smile (I used the neck edge)
• Mix a small amount of red with either pink or white icing and make a disk for Peppa's rosy cheek
• Make two arms (see picture below)
• Finally add two eyes and two nostrils
• Then you're done - just use a damp paper towel to wipe any stray buttercream/icing sugar off the edge of the tray

Really cool ice cream cone cakes

Who knew ice cream cones can survive 20 minutes in the oven? Well they do, and look what that means you can do with them...

Really cool ice cream cone cakes - look like ice creams but are really cakes!

 

You will need

(Makes 12)

• 12 (flat bottomed) ice cream cones
• 60g cocoa powder
• 175g of butter
• 175g caster sugar
• 120g self raising flour
• Level a teaspoon of baking powder
• 2 large eggs

To decorate

• 80g of butter
• 200g icing sugar
• Splash of milk
• Hundreds and thousands
• Mini chocolate Flakes (or 4 large Flakes cut into 3)
• Icing bag and large star shaped nozzle (see below)

Getting started

• Pre heat oven to 160 degrees and put your cones onto a baking tray

• In a large bowl, add the sugar, flour, eggs, cocoa powder and baking powder.
• Mix well for around 5 minutes then spoon the mixture into the cones
• Each cone should be between half and 3/4 full to avoid them over rising or not reaching the top of the cone

• Bake in the oven for 20-25 minutes, until the cake has risen and is springy

Next to decorate

Make sure that your cakes are completely cool before decorating, or the buttercream will go grainy and may not hold its shape

• Making the buttercream is as simple as adding the butter, icing sugar and milk and beating until thick but smooth. If it doesn't hold a peak in the bowl, then it won't be thick enough to pipe out as "icecream". Add more icing sugar now.
• When piping, start from the outside of each cake and pipe in a spiral into the middle following the shape of the cake underneath. Try to keep the spiral tight so there are no gaps in the icing effect.
• Finally finish with a sprinkle of hundreds and thousands and a chocolate flake.

Iggle Piggle cake decoration

My little girl is approaching her first birthday and I've been looking at getting her a professional cake. I was surprised that the ones I liked started at £65!!

 
In The Night Garden and Iggle Piggle are amazingly popular with babies and toddlers. Birthday cakes can be expensive, so why not bake a basic sponge and top it with this simple Iggle Piggle design?
 

You will need...

• Icing
• Blue food colouring
• Red food colouring
• A knife
• A teaspoon or cocktail stick
• A rolling pin (optional)
• Grease proof paper
• A pen

 
1. Print and trace a drawing of Iggle Piggle, I used the one from the BBC colouring sheet


2. You need to make your icing blue.

• Shape the icing so that there is a dip in the middle, then with the end of teaspoon drip a couple of drops of colour.
• Fold the colour into the icing, trying not to directly touch the colour while it is unmixed and wet
• Shape the icing again and then add a couple more drops
• Fold the icing until the colour is evenly spread

 3. Make sure that the greaseproof paper is shiny side up so that your the icing doesn't stick. This may mean Iggle Piggle faces the other way, depending on which side of the paper you drew your design.
 

4. We're now going to start filling in the design. When I first started I thought I was going to cut out each shape with a knife and then put them back together like a jigsaw, but after the first couple of pieces (head and main body) I just started to take chunks of icing and moulded them into shape with my fingers (using the lines on the greaseproof paper as a guide)
 
5. Using slightly damp fingers blend the pieces and shapes together and smooth out any rough edges or marks

 
6. Take two small pieces of white icing and makes eyes, and two small balls of icing to make pupils (these should really be black but I didn't have anything suitable) Then make a blue nose and white smile.
 

7. Colour some icing red (as described in step 2) and finish off the design with four pieces of red hair and Iggle Piggle's trademark blanket. (I went outside the guide here). I also put a couple of small pieces of red under Iggle Piggle's feet for definition.

8. Allow to dry for around 24 hours and then gently peel the backing paper/drawing away.

 
9. Keep in an air tight container until the big day
 
10. Stick your fantastic, homemade, Iggle Piggle cake decoration to any cake with jam or a little bit of icing sugar and water...
 
Now isn't that a pip!!!

When you look at the finished picture above, the blue looks a little patchy and shiny, this is for two reasons - the first is that it is still slightly wet and needs to dry/harden, the second is that I used a completely natural food colour. If I'd used a stronger blue dye the results would have been better (but slightly less baby friendly).