Stunning Strawberry Cake

I found the idea for this cake from an article in one of the Sunday Supplements.  Peggy Porshen had a receipe for a Strawberry Layer Cake and it was decorated using a doilie and coca powder.  I bought some really pretty doilies from Waitrose and used them to display some of my cakes when I went to the Rarebrandsmarket. 

The idea is you put the doilie on top of the cake and sieve cocoa powder over the top and voila!  You can get different designs on your cake depending on the doilie pattern.  I have put strawberries in the middle and it photographs really well.  This has proved to be a really popular cake, it is simple, tasty and as my friend said "stunning"

I think I will be making lots more of these cakes, at least for as long as the Strawberry season lasts!

The RarebrandsMarket

I had a fantastic time at the RarebrandsMarket last Thursday....here is a picture of some of the cakes I was selling.  I made Oreo Cookie Brownies, Strawberry Layer Cake and Cupcakes, Rocky Road Cupcakes, Melting Moments, Raspberry Fondants and Lemon Cake.  Everything sold really well, and people were very happy to see the Melting Moments.  It is a biscuit that was considered a bit old fashioned but is definitely making a happy comeback.

The Raspberry Fondants were courtesy of a recipe I found on www.iheartkatiecakes.blogspot.com ...Katies blog is one of my favourite cake blogs and I love trying her receipes and hearing about her baking experiences.  The fondants went down a storm with many people taking them home to have later, warmed up with cream or icecream. 

I met some lovely people at the market and was able to talk about what I did and hopefully some of them will be future customers.  I met two lovely ladies who both have blogs and their own websites www.olivehomeware.co.uk and www.lavenderloops.co.uk and they both mentioned me in their blogs...so lovely to be recognised as a good cake maker!  The photo below is courtesy of lavenderloops who also has a lovely facebook page........

Next event... Tarts For Troops www.tartsfortroops.org.uk on Friday 22 June at Bosham Village Hall.  This is an event I am actually organising myself...will let you know how it goes!

Happy Birthday Leah

My Sister-in-law Catherine asked if I would make her niece a birthday cake for 13th birthday.  A very important birthday for Leah as she had become a teenager.  A word to strike terror into every parent...I know I definitely went through the terrible teens.  Although my memories of my teenage years are a bit hazy, my mother seems to have a stock of stories recalling my worst moments.  Anyway,  Catherine has many talents but baking is not one of them and I am often asked to bake various cakes for all sorts of events.  This cake I was very happy to bake and I was able to use up the flowers and butterflies left over from the cakes I made for the Rarebrandsmarket....more of that later!

This is yet another Vanilla Sponge and Strawberry Buttercream Layer Cake, it seems people can't get enough of my Strawberry Buttercream...the flavour is intense due to my homemade Strawberry Jam but I won't wax lyrical again about the beauty of it....unless people insist!

The finished Cake!

The Joy of Jam!

Last year I made Plum Jam and I don't remember really enjoying making it...maybe it was because you have to remove the stone from every plum!  But Strawberry Jam is really easy and so delicious.  I found a brilliant receipe in my River Cottage Preserves Book by Pam Corbin.  She is the queen of Preserves and Jams and gives great advice etc when talking you through her recipes.

This is the first part of the Jam making process, where you put a couple of hundred grams of strawberries and sugar in the pan and then mash the fruit to pulp. 

The receipe suggests you use small fruit as if the strawberries are too big they will disintergrate and I have to say my jam is full of gorgeous whole strawberries.  I found the best Strawberries at Chichester Market, small and perfectly sweet.

And here are my lovely jars full of Strawberry Jam.  I just had to make some scones to see if the Jam was as good as it looked and guess what...its delicious.  So delicious I am going to take some with me to www.therarebrandmarket.co.uk on Thursday and share it with the general public.  I am also going to use it in my Strawberry Buttercream Layer Cake.

A Surprise for Claire!

I was phoned by a lovely lady called Pam who wanted to surprise her daughter by having a birthday cake delivered to her work!  Pam lives in Suffolk but found me on www.yell.com (hurrah I'm starting to show up on other search engines!).  I made a Vanilla Sponge Cake and used my Homemade Strawberry Jam in the middle and covered the cake with fresh Strawberry Buttercream.  I made White Fondant Flowers and painted the middles with Pink Edible Lustre.  The cake not only looked good but it smelt gorgeous too.

Pam phoned me later which was lovely as I had no idea if Claire had liked the cake or not.  Luckily she loved the cake and was absolutely thrilled with her surprise.  I don't mind saying I was left with a warm, fuzzy feeling!