Easter Creme Egg Traybake

Posted on Friday 10th April, 2020

This delicious tray bake is so easy to make and absolutely yummy. Brilliant to make with the kids for some family friendly baking.

creme egg traybake recipe

Cake Recipe – 20 x 20cm tin

180g butter

180g caster sugar

130g self raising flour

50g cocoa

3 large or 4 medium eggs

Buttercream –

150g unsalted butter

300g icing sugar

2tbsp cocoa powder

Hot water

Decoration –

Royal icing

Yellow food colour

Creme egs

Preheat your oven to 170 fan

Cake – Mix together the butter and sugar until lighter in colour. Add in the eggs one at a time and mix until just combined. Add in the flour and cocoa powder and mix until combined. Pop in a lined tray and smooth out. Put in a pre heated oven for 20-25 minutes or until a skewer comes out clean. You can use a mixer for the cake and buttercream. Kitchenistic can help you to find the best mixer for this.

Buttercream – Mix butter until very pale. Add in icing sugar and mix. In a small bowl add in cocoa powder and add in boiling water until it forms a very thick paste. Add this into your buttercream mix. Quantities is up to you, depends on how chocolatey you like it.

Mix up royal icing to running consistency. Colour some yellow, I used Sugarflair Melon although egg yellow would have been better.

Once the cake is cooled, pipe on buttercream all over the top. Add on white and yellow royal icing drizzle all over the top. Place on cut creme eggs to finish.

Hints and tips –

You could also add a sugar syrup to the cake before decorating. This is equal parts boiling water and sugar, mix until melted then brush over the cake.

You could also add 50g of melted dark chocolate into the cake mix for a richer taste.

Enjoy x

tray bake creme egg recipe

Chocolate Cake With Salted Caramel Sauce

Posted on Monday 6th April, 2020

The yummiest chocolate cake ever… in my opinion! Rich, moist and delicious, filled with chocolate buttercream and salted caramel sauce. Is there anything better?

chocolate cake recipe

Cake Ingredients – for a deep 6 inch cake or standard size 8 inch round.

300g salted butter
180g dark muscovado sugar
180g golden caster sugar

8 medium eggs
1 1⁄2 tsp vanilla extract

100mls buttermilk
350g self raising flour
80g cocoa powder
2 tsp baking powder
1 tsp bicarbonate of soda

120g melted dark chocolate

Caramel ingredients

200g granulated sugar

100g salted butter
110mls thick double cream

2–3tspsalt

Buttercream ingredients

250g unsalted butter

500g icing sugar

100g dark chocolate

Add the softened butter into a mixer and mix for 2-3 minutes. Then add in the sugars and again, mix for a few minutes. Add the eggs into the butter mix one at a time. It will look curdled but don’t worry.

Measure out the buttermilk into a jug and also add in the vanilla extract. Then add this into the butter mix. It can look very odd at this point but I promise it will all come together once flour is added. While it is mixing, weight out all your dry ingredients into a separate bowl. This is the flour, cocoa, baking powder and bicarb. Add in a spoonful at a time into the mixer.

Last of all, melt the dark chocolate in the microwave. Its best to do this 10-15 seconds at a time so it doesn’t burn. Pour this into the mixer and its all done.

We split this into 4 6 inch round tins and it made a super tall cake around 6 inchs high. Yum! It would make a standard size 8 inch round cake. It is quite a thick batter so spread it out in the tin and leave a dip in the centre of the tin to allow for rising. Cook at 150, gas mark 2, for around 30-35 minutes.

Caramel

Get all your ingredients prepared before starting. Chop the butter up into chunks. Measure out the cream.

Heat the sugar in a saucepan over a low – medium heat. Its best to take your time doing this. Make sure you stir constantly. The sugar will go quite lumpy then turn an amber/brown colour. It can burn very easily now.

Next add the butter and keep stiring. It may bubble but keep stiring. Once the butter is all melted add the salt and pour in the cream slowly. It will bubble lots but again, keep stiring. Boil for 45 seconds then remove from the heat and allow to cool before use.

Buttercream

Add softened butter into a mixer and mix on high for 6-7 minutes, scraping down a few times.

Add in the icing sugar and mix again for a further 5 minutes. Pour in your melted chocolate. Try not to lick the bowl too much!

chocolate cake

Piping

Using a Jem 2d or wilton 1m nozzle, pipe swirls of buttercream on each layer of your cooled cake, leaving the top cake until last. Before stacking, drizzle your caramel sauce all over the cake layers, letting it ooze over the sides. Stack the cake. You can pop in the fridge for 10 mintues at this point to firm up the buttercream before finishing off the top.

Smooth buttercream over the top with a palette knife then swirl buttercream in peaks around the edge. We finished the peaks off with Lindor caramel chocolate balls. Drizzle a little more sauce over the top. Make sure you hide it and keep it all to yourself!!!

Hints and tips

This made a double height 6 inch cake or it will make a standard 8 inch high cake.

Melt the chocolate in short bursts to stop it from burning.

If the caramel sets, you can soften it in the microwave, again, in short bursts of 10-15 seconds.

You can use unsalted butter, then add your own salt to taste.

Adding salt enhances the chocolate flavour.

The caramel will keep in the fridge for up to 2 weeks.

All ovens vary so please ensure you cook according to your oven. Timings may vary.

5 Simple Steps To Better Cakes

Posted on Friday 2nd March, 2018

Sometimes its seems easy to skip a step or rush a part of your cake to get it done. Especially when you have lots of orders and dead lines to meet. But, by following these simple steps, your cake life will be easier and your cakes will look much more professional.

Ice Cream Scoop –

Ice cream scoops are awesome for adding your cake batter into cupcake cases. The size I use for muffin cases is 56mm. Then all your cupcakes will be the same size and it reduces mess. I use this one Ice Cream Scoop

Prep –

Just spending an extra 5 minutes on prep makes all the difference. Get your tools out, soften the paste, make sure your buttercream is made and ready to use, get a system to keep everywhere clean and tidy as you are working. By following these simple rules, getting your cake completed will be a breeze.

Ganache or buttercream? –

Always a tricky one to decide on but in my opinion, ganache all the way! Yes it may take an extra 10 minutes to ganache your cake but you’ll be able to cover your cake in half the time. The cake ends up so much smoother and straighter that it tends to cut down on the time to cover, smooth and level. Just make sure you charge enough for ganaching. If not, stick with brilliant buttercream.

ganache

Which Sugarpaste?

So often I hear about people giving up on cakes because they never go right. Yet, something as simple as using the right fondant is life changing! I prefer to use a firm fondant such as Couture or Sugarpaste Direct as I get less tears and cracks.

Be organised

Even though all my admin work was done on a laptop or iPad, i still found it helpful to print out all my orders and information and store it all together in a folder. It is really handy to have everything all together in 1 place. Also, make sure money is received before you begin the cake. That way if the customer can’t make it to collect the cake, your time hasn’t gone to waste. Be consistent with sending out invoices, email receipts and terms and conditions. It’ll all make your life easier in the long term.

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My 5 simple steps for an easier cake life. What are your top tips? What do you find helps you?

Lots of cake love

Dani x