Birthday presents

My final update for today is something that I completed AGES ago. It was for my girlfriend's birthday, and she asked specifically for cake. In fact she asked for 2 cakes. And no small cakes either...

What was requested was: a GIANT Fondant Fancy, and a caterpillar cake. Both of which are apparently available in some supermarkets. But hey, I was never going to just go and buy the cakes.

Unfortunately as it was a long time ago, and I didn't write it down at the time, I've forgotten the details of what I used/recipes.

The fondant fancy was based on 2 victoria sponges (8" square) layered on top of each other, with about 225g (9 oz) of buttercream on top (75g butter, 150g icing sugar). This was all wrapped in a vast amount (1.2 kg) of ready roll icing.

The caterpillar cake was based on a chocolate roulade (http://www.bbcgoodfood.com/recipes/8568/chocolate-roulade) with truffles for legs (recipe at bottom), a rolled icing face and coated in melted chocolate. Very yummy!

Suffice it to say, they went down VERY well... though they did take a long time to eat (and the fondant fancy was VERY sweet!).

Recipe for truffles:

Ingredients - makes lots, depending on how big you make them!

100g (4 oz) plain chocolate

3 tbsp condensed milk

75g (3 oz) cake crumbs (I use a bought madeira cake, and freeze any left over for another day)

Cocoa powder/icing sugar to dust. about 25g (1 oz) each.

1. Melt the chocolate and condensed milk in a double boiler (bowl over a saucepan of hot water). Make sure the bowl doesn't touch the water!
2. Mix until combined, and leave to cool until sticky.
3. Stir in the cake crumbs, and leave to cool a bit more. Once mostly cool, roll into balls and dust with the icing sugar/cocoa powder. Pop them in the fridge to set them if necessary. They can be shaped into anything you want too!

These truffles really are superb. Super easy, and if you use good chocolate, it pays dividends. Good for a little gift for someone, or a special treat.

MMFC

Treacle Sponge Pudding

Ok, I know this isn't strictly cake, but it is really tasty, and really quick and easy to make. Also it was suggested by a certain Miss Lies that I put it on here. It is from one of my mum's cookbooks, and I can't remember which one, but it's quite an old recipe. I've converted the oz measurements, but I always make it using oz s rather than grams. If I had the inclination, I'd server this with custard or a scoop of vanilla ice cream. So here goes:

Treacle Sponge Pudding - makes 4 portions or 3 large portions (but easily manageable)

100g (4oz) self raising flour
50g (2oz) caster sugar
50g (2oz) margarine
1 egg
45-60ml milk (you don't want it a little more runny that golden syrup, about 50ml). Also, I made it with skimmed milk recently, and it seemed to make it more airy and 'fluffy'
0.5 tsp vanilla essence
3tbsp golden syrup

1. Mix all the ingredients other than the golden syrup with electric beaters until smooth and creamy, a bit like cake batter, though slightly more liquid.
2. Spoon the golden syrup into the bottom of a steep sided, microwaveable bowl. Spread up the sides just under an inch from the bottom. Pour 1. in ontop, ensuring it seals around the edges (i.e. no golden syrup escaping!)
3. Microwave on high for 6-6.5 minutes, or until a skewer in the centre comes out clean.
4. Serve, spooning the HOT golden syrup out from the bottom onto the top of the sponge. Add ice cream if you like.

My record for having this prepared is in about 12 minutes from starting with ingredients in the tubs etc. Like I said, it is very quick, and very easy. You can vary it too - add a bit of cocoa to make a chocolate one. I quite like to add a bit of odd food colouring to make it seem REALLY odd e.g. green :D

Hope you enjoy it, sorry there isn't a photo, it all got eaten long before I got told to put it on here!

On a side note, apparently the cake survived the journey to France, and was, as ever, excellent. Though of course she might have just been saying that to get more... I'm going to make some more cakes soon, but my dissertation is absorbing my life currently, as after this week I'll have no time whatsoever to do it! :(


MMFC