Rose and Lemon Ombre Birthday cake

The Easter holidays ended on a bang for us! My son has been desperate to grow those few magic centimeters to allow him to ride the big theme park rides. On Sunday we headed to Thorpe Park for our first visit there. We headed straight to Nemesis Inferno where the queue was very small to try our luck. When I say 'our' I mean my husband and son! I do not do the big rides, even Dumbo in Disney has my belly doing somersaults! 

On this first ride they didn't even check his height! He must have looked the right size so he got to ride. The look on his face when he came off was priceless! One extremely happy boy! So we headed to another of the big rides, Swarm. This looked worse than the last one! Off they went again to try their luck. My husband could see in front that the attendant was checking heights, so he told my son to play it cool, as if he's been on it before. The attendant measured him and the bar touched the top of his head! As he was so ecstatic he forgot all about playing it cool and made a fist bump and screamed 'Yes!'. Needless to say this ride was an even bigger hit than the first. All I have been hearing these past few days is how he can't believe he went on them. When we measured him before we left he appeared to be just under the minimum height requirement but I guess we were wrong. I am glad we were as he has been waiting a long time to ride the 'proper' coasters and thrill rides.

On Sunday it was very cool and cloudy, not a hint of the lovely weather we have had lately. This week so far has brightened up a bit, so this makes it the perfect time to share with you this ombre birthday cake that I made for a dear friend.

A few years ago I attended some Wilton cake decorating classes. I finally learnt how to make buttercream roses. Before that, everything had been self taught, looking at the instructions in the back of Wilton books or just having a go! I had never attempted roses before and once I learnt I did them loads! However, more recently I haven't done them at all! I have made roses out of fondant but the buttercream skills I let slip. I decided to have a go for my friends recent birthday. I wanted her cake to be feminine but also bright for Spring. The cake itself was a light white sponge so I made delicate lemon flavoured frosting to complement it. 

The roses are not perfect, some looked a little cabbage like, however, seeing as I haven't even attempted any for about 3 years I was pleased that you could at least tell what they were supposed to be! The main thing I was disappointed with was the consistency of my frosting. It is supposed to be stiff for making the roses so that they hold their shape and so you can easily remove them from the flower nail once piped. However, my frosting must have been too stiff as the petals cracked as I piped them. Next time, use more water!

I followed the Wilton method for the roses which you can find in the back of any of their annual cake decorating books or here on their website.

I made the roses a couple of days in advance and left them in the fridge to firm up.

I kept them on their wax paper squares until it was time to place them on the cake. I do have a tool to remove the roses from the paper, however, as I had left them in the fridge for a couple of days I was able to gentle remove them by hand and place them directly onto the cake.

I went searching for some ombre techniques on Pinterest. Most ombre cakes go for just one colour, which of course makes sense! I decided I wanted to incorporate 2 colours in my cake, merging into one another somewhere in the middle.  I found this tutorial for an ombre cake and frosting by Java Cupcake here and decided to follow the basic principal for frosting the sides of my cake.

I started by crumb coating the cake and placing it in the fridge for a short while. When I brought it out I started at the bottom with a bright lemon colour.

I followed Java's instructions and spread on the frosting nice and thick. I then moved onto a slightly lighter lemon colour and frosted further up. I finished with a pink but left the top of the cake white for the roses to sit on.

I did take the pink up onto the edges of the top to blend into the white. As I was using 2 colours rather than one I decided I wanted a different finish to the sides. I used a comb that I purchased from Hobbycraft, and using a turntable, I spun the cake round carefully while holding the comb against the side of the cake to create the lined effect,

I did this once or twice to get a nice defined line going round the cake.

I then took a toothpick and marked out roughly on the top where the roses should go. I then piped a little buttercream onto the base of each rose before placing it on top of the cake.

I did start out marking a heart but decided the roses looked best in a round wreath shape.

Finally to finish off the cake, I piped a row of lemon drop flowers around the base. Whilst I don't mind that the cake had a rough finish to it I didn't want it to look 'unfinished' which is how it felt before I piped the border.

I left them plain rather than adding in middles so that the colours would continue to flow.

As you can see from the close ups I did cover my board with yellow fondant to complement the cake. I didn't like the gold edges of the board showing so I added a fun Spring themed ribbon to the sides. I piped the initial of the birthday girl in the middle of the roses to finish it off.

If you are looking for a quick and easy technique, you can't go wrong with buttercream ombre. Plus it was really fun to do!

Have a great week!

Buttercream Easter Cookies

Everyone likes treats at Easter. Lots of chocolate eggs, perhaps a lovely roast dinner, cake, pie, cookies, the list is endless!

My son loves Easter egg hunts. For a number of years I have filled little plastic eggs with pocket money toys, stickers, bubbles while also hiding the assorted eggs and other goodies he receives from friends and family. This year has got to be the hardest I have ever had in finding him things for the hunt. He is in the tween age. Some of the pocket money toys just seem too young or uninteresting to him now. This means that the things he is interested in become that much more expensive! I prefer to use Easter for token gifts rather than another birthday or Christmas! He does still like the cute and his favourite animal is a hedgehog but I couldn't find any of those either! I managed perfectly well on the chocolate front! I think that the things I have found will be appreciated and he will still have fun Easter Sunday! Fingers crossed!

I rarely make cakes or cookies for Easter as I have birthdays slap bang in the way! So we have birthday cake and what with all the chocolate, an Easter cake or cookies is just a no no! However, if you enjoy making some treats for your dinner guests or just because it is Easter, you may like these buttercream cookies I made.

I made some of the shortbread cookies I shared here. This time I added a teaspoon of lemon extract to the dough as that seemed a more Easter flavour to me! They really hold their shape which is why I like to use the recipe when making cookies to decorate. Plus they do not use any egg so great for allergy sufferers!

I used chocolate, lemon, vanilla and orange buttercream which all complemented the lemon cookies.

They didn't last long!

Freshly baked cookies! These do not spread at all in the oven, perfect for shaped cookies.

I always make more buttercream than I need for a cake as I would rather have too much than not enough. As I have made a few cakes lately, the amount of frosting in my fridge is pretty extensive! I decided rather than decorate the cookies with royal icing, I would use the buttercream instead!

Firstly I made up a small batch of Royal icing for outlining the cookies. I tinted it yellow with Wilton lemon yellow colour, used tip #2 and outlined the cookies.

I left these to dry while I gathered my supplies for decorating. This all looks nice and neat and organised, until you see what I am actually like when decorating!

Yep stuff everywhere! I have tubs full of frosting, bowls with more frostings, sprinkles, paste colours, icing bags, tips etc etc!! Organised chaos is how I like to see it!

You can frost large flat areas with buttercream. You need cornflour (cornstarch) and your finger!

Firstly, fill a piping bag with frosting and fit a large round tip (I used Wilton #12). Pipe some frosting onto your cookie.

Next you need to dip your finger in some cornflour and begin to push and flatten the frosting you have just piped. I press down and out to the edges, only occasionally adding extra frosting if needed. You will need to dip your finger a few times. The cornflour stops your finger from getting covered in frosting, and keeps the frosting where you want it, on your cookie!

The cornflour can leave residue like this but most dissappears after a while and the rest you can gently brush off.

Once you have filled in your cookie, you can go ahead and decorate it. I piped lines and zigzags onto the egg shapes and decorated with small chocolate beans.

These came from a sprinkle selection that you can purchase at Sainsburys. You could even use mini smarties or dots of icing.

For the butterfly shapes I used 3 frosting colours.

I firstly piped around the edge in pink and flattened this. I then took some yellow to create the body and head. I then filled in the remainder with blue.

I then flattened this into place.

Finally I decorated these with dots of icing, gave them a face and used the long sprinkles as antennae.

The flowers were pretty simple as I completely filled them in one colour and then decorated with the chocolate beans or frosting dots.

For the tulips, I used an edible food writer to draw lines over the buttercream to look like the petals.

For the bunny faces I did the exact same thing, covering the cookie in one colour.

I used a little pink for the ears, again flattening with cornflour. then took Wilton tip #3 and gave the bunnies their features.

When flattening buttercream, it doesn't give as smooth a finish as say royal icing, but it sure does make the cookies tasty!

They are bright and fun. You can get shaped cookie cutters from hobby shops, supermarkets and the good old web! These are from a Wilton set of 101 cookie cutters. They have been used many many times and not just for cookies!

Will you make cookies for your Easter gathering? Share on my Facebook page.

Have a great weekend!

Neapolitan Cookies

So we are having fondue on Valentine's Day. Yes it is very 70's as is the book I own but there is something so decadent and fun about fondue. Naturally I am making a chocolate fondue and having the usual things to dip in it, like strawberries, grapes and marshmallows, but I wanted to have something else, like cake or cookies. This gave me the perfect excuse to try out a new recipe.

My husband fancied some shortbread but I didn't have many ingredients to hand, so I went looking for a simple recipe and found this one by the Comfort of Cooking. I have made these cookies twice, once following the recipe as it stands and secondly adding spices to create Christmas cookies. After having a play with some spices I knew I would want to doctor the recipe further to create different flavour combinations. The other thing that has me returning to this recipe is the fact that the cookies hardly spread during cooking. They hold their shape beautifully. Another thing is that they don't use any eggs, so if you enjoy a little bit of cookie dough, you can go right ahead and scoff it!

I've seen on Pinterest many Neapolitan style desserts and it was this style of ice cream, along with raspberry ripple, that were my favourites as a child. 

Combining the 2 ice cream flavour ideas, I came up with these simple Neapolitan cookies. I wanted to make mini cookies for the fondue but also wanted to have a play with decorating larger cookies.

Lovely little tasty bites!

Not too thick, perfect for dipping!

Ready for the recipe?

I have followed the original recipe in it's entirety and it is reproduced here along with the additions I made.

The original recipe yields 15 cookies. As I wanted to make mini ones, this recipe made 27 mini cookies and 6 large. I would say the recipe would make between 25 to 35 mini cookies depending on whether you make large ones too.

Neapolitan Cookies

Ingredients

1 cup butter softened (I used Olive spread which is pretty soft to begin with)

1/2 cup Icing sugar

2 cups Plain flour

1/2 tsp Vanilla Bean Paste or 1 tsp of Vanilla extract

1 tsp of Raspberry or Strawberry extract (I used raspberry)

1 Tbs Cocoa Powder

Extra icing sugar as needed.

Method

Preheat oven to 180'C. Line at least 2 baking trays with greaseproof paper.

Cream together the butter and icing in a bowl.

Add flour and continue to work it until it forms a ball of dough.

Split the dough into 3 equal pieces.

To the first ball of dough, add the Vanilla bean paste. Work it into the dough until it is fully incorporated. Place dough in bowl and add a small amount of icing sugar and knead into the ball. The paste makes the dough a little sticky so this ensures that the ball will be easy to roll.

Take the second ball of dough and add the Raspberry extract. Do the same as with the Vanilla dough but also add some pink food colouring to get a nice colour for your dough. I used Wilton Rose colour.

Take the final ball and place in a bowl. Add the cocoa powder and work into the dough. This took the longest and you may find you do not need as much as a tablespoon of cocoa. This dough will be a little drier than the others but it bakes the same way.

Your dough is ready for rolling out. You can use any shape cookie cutter you want, these are not restricted to Valentines!

These are Wilton cookie cutters and measure 2 inch across and 3 1/2 inch across.

Roll out your dough and cut your cookies out! The original recipe states 1/4 inch thick. I just went with my best judgement!

Use plenty or icing sugar or flour on your board and rolling pin to stop the cookies from sticking. If they do stick, a small spatula can be used to help them up!

Space them out on the baking trays and place in the oven for 12 - 18 minutes. Be careful if you make mini cookies as they can get over baked quickly. You want to see a small browning on the Vanilla cookies.

Once baked, cool completely before decorating, if liked.

I can't wait to dip these beauties into chocolate!! Another thing you can do with these is dip them in chocolate and let them set for a chocolate covered treat anytime!

I did decide to decorate the larger cookies though for an anytime treat.

I took some different coloured fondant, rolled it out, used the heart cookie cutter to cut out a shape, painted on some clear alcohol (or edible glue) onto the cookie and gently pressed the fondant on top. I then used an edible food writer to write messages on them just like Love Hearts!

They are a lot brighter than Love Hearts and resemble the American Conversation Hearts more.

I can tell you they taste delicious!!

I hope you have a great day Saturday, no matter what you do!

Thanks for following and reading!