Tonight was one of those nights (i.e. Saturday!)

I love the Chocolate Cake in A Cup recipes which are doing the rounds, but I wondered whether it was possible to do a vanilla sponge in the same way. Prepared for it to turn out more pale, steam-pudding-esque in colouring, rather than golden brown, I set to work.

I wanted a recipe for a vanilla sponge; preferably which had used additional ingredients to the basic cake mix. I had in mind to use some frozen raspberries in my mix. I found a variation by Smitha’s Spicy Flavors, which included Hershey’s Kisses inside, so thought I’d give it a whirl.

I had done a chocolate recipe previously (not tonight I hasten to add!! I’m not that greedy!) which had used oil instead of butter. The original recipe by Smitha called for butter, so (partly through being too lazy to measure out tablespoons of margarine, and) because I’d used oil before my variation on the recipe was as follows:

1/2 cup Plain Flour
1/8 cup Caster Sugar
1/4 tsp Baking Powder
1 Egg
1/4 Oil (I used vegetable, but sunflower or rapeseed would be fine)
1/4 tsp Vanilla Extract
1/8 cup Milk
approx 7 Frozen Raspberries

I mixed the dry ingredients in a fairly large cup (think original Friends/Central Perk sized cups). In retrospect, a mug may have helped the cake rise quicker, but might be something to experiment with.

I then cracked the egg into the cup and beat it in with the milk and extract, using a fork. Ensuring that all of the flour had been incorporated, I then added the raspberries.

I was so eager to get the cake cooked I threw it into the microwave on full power without checking how long it needed to be cooked for. Quick research between my original recipe and Smitha’s and I eventually cooked the cake for around 4 minutes. It’s essential to ensure it is cooked through, by testing with a knife as you would a normal sponge. You have to be careful not to overcook, however as it could take as little as 2 minutes depending on the cup used.

Despite my guesswork with the cooking time, it actually turned out ok! Technically I would say this recipe would serve two….. ahem…. unless you’re really hungry! And, then add ice-cream!! Heck, it’s Saturday night!

The raspberries exploded within the sponge, staining the cake bright pink, and adding a sharpness to balance the sweet. I have bags of berries in the freezer, initially intended for health smoothies at the drop of a hat. I think emergency cakes are far better for the soul! xx

Dinner was always going to be an uninspiring affair, but burnt veggie nuggets and charcoal chips wouldn’t do, no matter how naughty the children had been.

I’d taken my eye off the ball, and in fielding the fallout from the days events I’d forgot about the dinner crisping up in the oven.

Time ticking and children hungry it was too late to start again I devised a plan.

In the tradition of waste-not-want-not and make-do-and-mend, I thought ‘when life gives you lemons’ (or in this case, burnt nuggets) make noodles!

Having discovered that my children both love noodles, and being a way to trick then into eating the odd veg or two, I always keep a few packs of the really cheap supermarket instant noodles on the cupboard. Discarding the sachet of horrid favoring, the noodles are fairly harmless.

Kettle was boiled and while the noodles were softening in a quick vegetable stock I set about salvaging the nuggets; cutting off the burnt bits and breaking them into pieces.  I drained the noodles, tossed them in a bowl with some soy sauces and the veggie nugget pieces and served with some microwaved broccoli florets and dinner was saved!

The lesson; always keep instant noodles in the cupboard.

The irony; both children wanted seconds.

Having never attempted a Christmas pudding before I had a nosey on the internet to see what I could find, that was easy and more importantly quick to make!

I came across one by Lesley Waters on the BBC Website which appealed, mainly as it didn’t use suet (which I didn’t have in the cupboard!)  I’m vegetarian so wouldn’t have used beef suet in any case.  Having checked that I had virtually all of the ingredients (always one to improvise!) I set about measuring out.

I’ll be the first to admit I do tend to cut corners when I’m doing recipes for home, and if there’s a way of making something more simply I’ll try it.  I’m also guilty of not quite reading the instructions through before starting, and only when I’d started did I notice that part of the mixture had to be left overnight.  OVERNIGHT?!?!  I’m a mum of three, I haven’t got time to leave things overnight – I’d have forgotten all about it by the morning!!

I opted instead to put the fruit, butter, brandy, juice and sugar in a saucepan and let it simmer for about 15 minutes.  I then added the flour, spices and eggs.  I then put the mixture into a greased bowl, then steamed the pudding as instructed, for 4 hours.

It was great to bake something which didn’t need to be whipped out of the oven as soon as the timer sounded to prevent it burning.  I think I ended up leaving this pudding steaming away for an extra 40 minutes while I but my 2 year old to bed!  When I took it out and unwrapped it, it looked fantastic and smelled even better!

Despite my impatience to cook it with minimum fuss, I’ll have to wait until Christmas Day before seeing whether it tastes as good as it looks!  I’ll be wrapping this up well and storing it until it’s time to heat it up after our Christmas Dinner.

UPDATE: 29th December 2012

Well, I finally got to test my Christmas pudding, though not until 28th December as we’d eaten far too much on Christmas Day! Couldn’t believe how rich and dark the pud looked having been stored for a month! It was gorgeous, moist and surprisingly light! Admittedly in my hurry to remove the cooked pudding from the bowl, the top did come off slightly! Quickly stuck it back on though, ready for it’s fiery moment at the dinner table! I am definitely no longer fearful of the Christmas pud, and will certainly be revisiting this recipe next year!

My 6 year old loves school but hated writing.  It wasn’t that he wasn’t good at it, just useless at applying himself.  Imagine my pride when I open a letter saying that my son had written a poem at school which had been chosen for publication!  Having had my own ambitions of becoming a writer when I was a teenager, I was so pleased that some of this ambition might, as a result of this achievement, be instilled in my son!

The challenge then, was to find a way to reward him in such a way that he would remember the achievement, but something which I could achieve in the 2 hours I had before I needed to leave (with a tired 2 year old!) to pick him up from school.

The plan (unsurprisingly maybe!) was a cake.  Instinct said chocolate with a writing theme.

I made up a quick 3 egg chocolate sponge cake mix (usually a traybake sized cake) and divided it between three 8″ round cake tins.  My plan was to have quite a tallish cake, and by baking thin layers I knew they’d cool quicker.

While the cakes were in the oven (30 mins baking time), I made some fondant decorations which I knew would have time (almost!) to harden off, before being placed on the cake.  The original plan was to make paper bunting suspended on wooden skewers but I ran out of time.  Instead I opted for a number of 2D pencil shapes and fondant books.  The pencils were made from a length of coloured fondant, and I painted the “wooden” part of the pencil using some matt lustre.  Just by making indents to distinguish between the colour, wood and main body of the pencil, as well as indentations to create the sides of the pencil, they actually looked quite effective (if rushed!!)

The books were devoured as you can see from the photo!  I’d not made enough pencils to go all the way around the cake, but it didn’t seem to matter.

Sometimes the best cakes are the most unexpected  ones; the ones which aren’t planned, which are what they are; in this cake a huge slice of chocolate cake after school on a Friday.  A well done from a manic mum who wanted to give make her little boy feel special.

For the record; if you think that the image of domestic chocolate cake bliss lasted all evening – it didn’t!  Within about half an hour of cake being demolished, both boys were fighting over train track!

It’s hard enough for them as it is when they see me finishing off cakes ready for delivery and are constantly told “don’t touch!” by their snappy mother! I’m trying to pull together some recipes which are quick to mix and bake and which produce things which are suitable (and not too full of sugar) for after school snacks and for popping into lunch boxes as a bit of a treat (or an alternative to sandwiches!)

As the first Friday back at school I thought a home time treat was in order so set to seeking out an oat-based cookie recipe, which was filling but not too calorific. I came across one for Anzac Biscuits in the BBC Good Food 101 Cakes and Bakes recipe book.

It used porridge oats as a base and stated that each cookie was 118kcal. The recipe called for desiccated coconut, which I was convinced I had lurking in the back of the cupboard, but upon further investigation it turned out to be ground rice! Undeterred I opted to swap the 80g coconut to 50g sunflower seeds and 30g raisins. The original recipe can be found via this link: http://www.bbcgoodfood.com/recipes/3803/anzac-biscuits

Now the recipe stated that it made 20 cookies. I somehow only managed to spoon out 12, but next time will opt for a smaller spoon as they spread quite a lot and turned out to be ginormous! (Definitely more than the 118kcal quoted!)

It took about 30 minutes from start to finish and they are now cooling beautifully ready for the end of school. Can’t wait to see what the verdict is!

UPDATE: 27th Nov 2012

Well the biscuits were a hit, but as usual I immediately forgot about this recipe and have only just rediscovered it! Today’s version again needed a bit of improvisation due to lack of ingredients, but substituting the dessicated coconut for the same amount of muesli did the trick. Plus the muesli included nuts and raisins which were an added bonus!

I used a smaller spoon to put mixture onto the trays and made 27 cookies. As these are packed with oats they’re really filling and minimise the sugar dip other treats might cause – particularly in tired children!! I’m planning on using this as a base for other flavours… maybe cranberry and orange? Ginger? Chocolate chips?

It’s sometimes daunting when a child’s birthday party approaches, particularly when they are still in nappies.   There is a temptation to follow suit and go to great lengths to throw extravagant celebrations; go to soft play centres, or hire a string of entertainers.   There can be a lot of pressure to keep up with the parties of siblings or friends’ children, when most of the time the children are happy with some running around games, pass the parcel and a party bag!

The under 5′s market can be particularly challenging.   As a parent, you naturally want to celebrate, but how to celebrate can prove tricky.  If your tot is anything like my youngest, his friends are actually the children of my friends, and the younger siblings of my older son’s friends.   The party tends to centre around the needs of the older children present, as they can engage in games more than the younger ones can.  The party guests are generally dominated by older friends and family, with a few littlies running around.

For my son’s 2nd birthday we were struggling with an idea for a cake, let alone a party.    About a week before his birthday he suddenly became obsessed with trains.  ”Choo Choo” became our theme!

We timed the party for 2:30pm until 4:30pm which meant we could focus on providing afternoon tea.   This meant no leftover sandwiches and gave us the opportunity to create a fantastic sweet table!  All of the decorations were designed by me; hand cut cardboard cupcake toppers, pin the funnel on the train game, ‘Platform 2′ signs, tissue paper pom poms and the theme was set.

The food comprised of train shaped biscuits, Tunnock’s Teacakes (purely for their red striped packaging), various sweets, red jelly, popcorn, strawberries and all complimenting the colour scheme and theme. In terms of what was actually on the table, the spread was fairly modest, but the attention to detail made it all the more impressive. I did have to encourage everyone to dig in!

Curiositea Parties will be priced according to your needs, and we will work with you to come up with the perfect party table for your little one’s big day.  Please email lisa@curiositeashop.co.uk to find out more, and for a no obligation quote.

I’d been meaning to try out the two colour cake ideas I’d seen used for cupcakes, but wanted to try it in a format which meant the heart was immediate, rather than relying on cutting a cupcake in the right place.

I was wanting to bake something for my son’s school cake sale which had a Valentine’s theme, so thought it would be the perfect opportunity to test out this trick. But… as a traybake.

1. First bake a thin (and pink!) traybake. You’ll need it to be around an inch thick when cooked.

2. Let it cool and cut out as many hearts as you can from the rectangular cake.

3. Next make up twice as much chocolate cake mix as you did for the pink.

4. Spread a thin layer in the bottom of a traybake tin, about half an inch thick.

5. Stand the hearts in a line, upside-down so they’re like a heartshaped sausage, pointy ends up (wish I’d taken a photo of this bit!) then spread the rest of the chocolate mixture around and over the hearts. I managed almost 3 lines of hearts along the length of the traybake tin.

6. Cook as per your traybake recipe.

7. As I didn’t quite cover my hearts when it was cooked I could still see the gaps between the hearts so I just cut them apart at the gaps.

8. If cutting into the hearts when cutting into slices, the hearts should be revealled immediately. If you cut between the heart pieces as I did, then cut a sliver off the fronts to reveal the hearts!

And that’s it! If you come up with a way of getting buttercream in there somehow do let me know! Otherwise, they’re just pretty treats for Valentine’s day.

It’s a cake I remember permanently being in our house. My Dad took a slice in with his lunch to work, and Sunday teatime wasn’t complete without it.

A dense fruity loaf bake, which we served sliced and spread with butter.

When I actually read the recipe I couldn’t believe how straight forward it was, no need even to get the scales out!

1. Add the following to a bowl

1 cup of bran (either Albran or equivalent, Bran flakes or something along those lines)
1 cup sugar
1 cup sultanas
few cherries
1 cup milk

2. Soak the bran mixture in the mile for about an hour.

3. Stir in 1 cup of self raising flour

4. Mix well and pour into a 1lb loaf tin.

5. Bake for about 1 hour and 15 mins at 160*C.

And that’s it! I think I need to perfect it a bit, but it’s such a satisfying treat, and despite the sugar actually feels quite virtuous as there is no butter or eggs. Mum mentioned that she often substitutes half of the milk for water. I feel some experimenting coming on!

This year my son wanted a Star Wars party, so a Star Wars themed cake was inevitable.

I managed to steer him round to the idea of R2D2 which I thought would be an achievable shape, easy to serve etc. He then threw me completely by grabbing a Yoda cake off the shelf in a supermarket and exclaiming “I want this for my party!” I asked him if he’d changed his mind about me making him the R2D2 cake and said he didn’t want me to be busy making cakes before his party. Heart melting moment, tinged with pangs of guilt for constantly baking cakes which never stay in the house!

As the party grew nearer we were back on with R2. Usually when I bake for a customer, I bake the cake and that is all. This time I was also the host so I was coordinating the blowing up of balloons, preparing party games, thinking about the bowls and plates for food and generally panicking.

I didn’t begin baking until 9pm and by 2am I was wondering why on earth I’d talked him out of the Yoda cake!

My usually focussed baking and decorating demeanor crumbled and I very nearly threw a saggy, fondant covered robot torso against the wall.

A cup of tea later and I pressed on. Saggy fondant removed, unevenness filled, fondant reapplied, legs covered (a lot easier than I’d expected them to), head covered (again, perfectly), sprayed silver, fitted together, and within half an hour he looked half decent! All was not lost!

Fondant detail worked first time; hand painting silver detail and imprinting others proved speedy and effective and by 3am he was finished!

My little Jedi’s at the party made me look at the cake in a different light. One said “it is the best cake ever”, which made my day. Despite the challenge, the near disaster and the fact that fear almost got the better of me; R2D2 has turned out to have been one of my favourite cakes yet.

I wanted something small which was still appealing to a 6 year old, but which also didn’t mean I’d be up until the early hours decorating it (as I expect to be for his ‘party’ cake!!)

I made a mix which would usually make a dozen cupcakes, but instead put it in a deep 6″ tin. It rose up into a dome shape once cooked, but slicing it through, flipping the top half over, and some creative construction with buttercream, resulted in a deep and flat topped little cake.

The icing in the centre was done with the remains of some rainbow icing I’d prepared in a piping bag, as I’d done mini cupcakes for my son’s classmates. A swirl of this gave the mottled rainbow effect once cut. Smooth buttercream covering, and sprinkles on the side and it was done!

I found the perfect candle (quite by chance) in Sainsburys, and had some indoor sparklers to finish it off, and his midweek birthday cake was complete!

I’m starting to get into the ‘traditional’ cake idea. I love the novelty cakes (and thrive on the challenge!), but there’s something about a cake which is simply that ‘a cake’. But it has to still do the job. It still needs to delight, to celebrate, to appeal, and taste as good as it looks!