Mice on Cheese Cake

It's my friend Lisa's brithday this week, so in honour of her I've made her a mice on cheese cake. I couldn't resist, because she is having a little mouse problem at home--one keeps trying to take up residence in her loft!

I like how the mice seem to be playing peek-a-boo!

It's a lemon and orange sponge with lemon icing.

Sam and Winston the Hedgehogs!

Here are the two cakes I made for The Great Husbando's 41st. the slightly lumpy one was made by my 4 year old niece, with a little help. It is a coffee cake with coffee icing. The spikes are

made with Flake bars. Yummy! The other is Winston--he is all chocolate!

Cake recipe

I made another couple of cakes this week. 2 hedgehogs and a citrus ring. I will put up photos of the hedgehogs when I get aaround to down loading the photos. My 4 year old niece helped me ice one, which was hilarious! All fairness to her, she did a great job.
So, here is the recipe
The only thing is that it calls for self raising flour. If you are in the UK,that will be no problem. If you are anywhere else you'll probably have to make it, which is easilu done. Mix together:

•450g/1lb plain flour
•½ tsp baking powder
•¼ tsp bicarbonate of soda
•a pinch of salt

Right here is the recipe:

Preheat oven to 150

In food mixer combine:
1 cup self raising flour
1 tsp baking powder
1/2 cup of soft margarine
1/2 cup caster sugar
2 eggs

Whizz it all up until lovely and smooth. Put into a cake tin (greased and floured). Tap the tin lightly on the counter to get rid of big air bubbles. Cook until done--the recipe says 20 minutes but my oven takes almost double that, so you will have to experiment. If you want a bigger cake just double/triple the recipe. This quatity is for an 8 inch or 20cm round mould.

If you want flavours you can add:

LEMON AND ORANGE CAKE
lemon and orange juice and rinds (a few tesp of each, rind of one orange and lemon)

CHOCOLATE CAKE
1tbsp cocoa mixed with 1 tbsp boiling water

COFFEE CAKE
11/2 tbsp coffee mixed with 11/2 tbsp boiling water.

Obviously, if you double the original recipe, don't forget to double the flavours as well!

Let cool then ice with butter icing! If you make the citrus it is good with a glaze icing--mix orange juice and icing sugar and a touch of vanilla. Make it quite thick and gloopy. Spoon over the cake and let dribble everywhere. Looks really good if you make it in a ring mould.

ENJOY!

snail's pace

I found the smallest snail ever today. It was crawling up my recycling bin and i pick it up to show The Great Husbando. I put it on my finger and it was so light I could hardly feel it. Strange, but I really think snails are gorgeous.

Pink Fairy Castle Cake

My niece is turning four in a couple of days. Last week I asked her what type of cake she would like. So, we had a look through a huge cake decorating book and she decided on a Pink Fairy Castle Cake. Ellie was so cute, she kept asking if she could have two cakes, but when I said only one she kept coming back to this one. The colour is a little paler in the photograph then in real life--it is quite a shocking pink in reality. It's decorated in Jelly Tots, Midget Gems and Fizzy Rainbow Ribbon. If this doesn't make her jump for joy, I don't know what will!!!

It's the first time I've made my own fondant icing and I was a little worried about how it would work. Overall, I had nothing to fear--it's good stuff and quite easy to make.

WASP

Photographed last week

SPIDERS SPIDERS EVERYWHERE

It was a gorgeous September Saturday today--The sun was out and everything felt great.

We took my niece out to a local park where we found some great spiders. Here are the best shots.

No idea what type of spiders they are, if you know please tell me!