Hearts and Flowers

This week at work has seen much experimentation in the cake department. We acquired an enormous silicone cupcake mould which has been sitting around for a while now, unused. It has been picked up, turned over, muttered about in a 'How many eggs would that take' type way (cafe talk for how big a Victoria sponge mix would we need-7 eggs as it turns out, and 12 ounces of everything else) until finally we decided to stop wimping about and get on with it.

I am so pleased we did. The mould itself has a dip in the middle which basically means that when it's cooked you have a hollow in the cake which can be filled with sweets, presents or anything else that takes your fancy (diamonds, etc.etc) and then iced around it. Cool eh? We filled ours with a mixture of buttercream and hundreds and thousands (also known as fairy dust)

We make a HUGE amount of cakes in the cafe, several a day usually, but never has one gained quite as much attention at this. Apart from possibly the Guinness Cake, which Terry Wogan mentioned on his radio 2 breakfast show once...I digress...small girls and boys Ooohed and Aaahed, as indeed, did their parents. It would make a fab birthday cake for a party too. I think it would be great with jelly beans in the middle. And obviously it can be decorated in a million and one different ways too. I only wish I had taken the photo alongside a regular sized fairy cake to give you an idea of scale. It wouldn't fit in our glass cake domes, which means it has to be made and eaten the same day until we can find a tall enough container to store it, but as it turns out it didn't hang around for long anyway.

If you are keen on buying one I got ours from Amazon, for a fiver, in silicone. Having done various bits of research I discovered that they are more popular than the normal cake tins as the heat is controlled better. And they are much cheaper and go in the dishwasher. Hurrah!

The lovely husband bought me some beautiful red (of course) tulips this week which look beautiful in the kitchen on the table we inherited from a friend of a friend. This isn't actually our main kitchen table (doesn't everyone have two?!) but a general dumping ground and recipe book reading table. Very handy. I love the duck egg blue formica and the drop leaf style.

These are the other cakes we have been experimenting with, for Valentines Day. We have designed two sizes, small and large, with the idea being that children can buy the small ones for their Mums and Dads or teachers, etc.

And big ones for big people! I haven't worked out a gluten free version yet but that's work in progress. They are both chocolate, with chocolate ganache and chocolate hearts.

So there you have it! I have also made an orange and cardamom cake, several lemon drizzles and a sticky marmalade cake with orange icing this week. Yum.

Back to the diet....