I’ve been busy. But not the bad kind of busy where I forget about you all! If you’re following me on instagram (follow me @bakerbowie) you might have noticed a sharp increase in my baking productivity with far more photos of things i’ve made myself than things i’ve bought from fancy places. The truth is, I really love baking. I find it soothing and it feels as though everything is right in my little world when I have something delicious in the oven. Since I realised that baking has this effect on me i’ve been deliberately making more time to experiment in the kitchen and try to get a bit more creative. So I decided to try making a cake that wasn’t a cake – or at least a cake that didn’t look like it was a cake!
I began with my usual chocolate cake recipe which is the one from the Hummingbird Baker Cookbook. These little ceramic patty pans had been sitting in the cupboard for far too long so I busted them out to add some pastel goodness to the cakes. And from there it was, well, a piece of cake! Boom tish!
All I did next was make a simple vanilla buttercream, pipe it on in swirls and then garnish with a maraschino cherry, a slice of wafer and some sprinkle confetti. Because everything sweet needs sprinkles.
I brought these sweet little things over to my mum’s house for morning tea one weekend. They were a huge hit and will definitely be making more appearances on my instagram feed and right here on the blog. I think that they epitomise what make a good cake i.e. a reliable recipe with simple steps, simple ingredients and simple techniques that combine to make a show stopper of a dessert!
So, lovely readers, what have you been baking recently and what do you do to try to coax some creativity back into your life?
To make this recipe you will need:
- One quantity chocolate cake mix (recipe can be found here)
- One quantity vanilla buttercream (recipe below)
- Marachino cherries
- Wafers
- Sprinkles
Instructions
1. Bake cupcakes according to the recipe and set aside to cool completely
2. Whip up a batch of vanilla buttercream according to the recipe below
3. Using a star nozzle and piping bag, pipe a swirl of icing on each cupcake
4. Top with one cherry, one wafer and a sprinkle of… sprinkles!
5. Devour
Vanilla Buttercream Recipe
Ingredients
340g icing sugar
100g unsalted butter
1 tsp vanilla extract
40 ml full cream milk
Method
1. Beat icing sugar and butter until smooth
2. Slowly add the milk and vanilla then turn the mixer to high speed and beat until light and fluffy
