Giant cupcake, first & second try

I had been keen to try out a giant cupcake, as I'd seen many other bakers make excellent work of them.  I found a silicon mould, with the help of an old colleague who now runs Cissyface Vintage, at a local The Works store and got to work. 

Unfortunately it doesn't come with a recipe, but rather says to use a box or two of packet mix and blah blah blah.  Well, that wasn't gonna happen at my house, so I tried a full batch of cupcake mix, sprayed the two halves of the mould with oil and went for it.  And boy, what a failure that was!  The mix was short by nearly half so I basically baked a pancake and a rugby ball shape - pretty darn useless.  Tasted good, but no-one wanted odd-shaped bits of cake.  And strangely, it didn't really come out of the mould well at all, despite the spray of oil.

So I emailed a couple of fellow bakers on Facebook who seemed friendly, and they were kind enough to share their cake recipe specifically for giant cupcakes.  I chose one and went for it.  And it worked!  And I even forgot to spray the moulds this time, but it came out almost perfectly (you may notice at the top of the top section, there's a tiny bit that isn't quite right).

I felt like orange for the icing (and neon orange for the glitter), and tried to make it a bit runnier than usual so that it may take the shape of the mould and run down the bottom half slightly.  Well, that had been my plan.  But it didn't quite work out that way...

So I added gold-touched butterflies and the words 'Becca Bakes' and declared us good to go.  The Team loved it, and were very impressed - with the look and the taste.  I found the best way to cut it was to slice up first the top half, then the bottom half.  And it had to be separated into halves to fit into a cake tin for keeping - not the tidiest thing to do, but hey, needs must.

And I'm pleased to say that it got good feedback on Facebook too.  While I'm fully aware that it isn't the best giant cupcake you've ever seen, we don't claim to be the best.  But we do have fun, and make great-tasting cake, so as Meatloaf once said, 'Two outta three ain't bad'.

Becca bakes bread

I know, shock horror - trying something savoury!  Well, to be fair it was from a packet.  I had chosen it a while ago because it sounded really tasty, Multigrain Bread Mix (I'm easily pleased really, aren't I?).  And this week at the supermarket we'd chosen fancy, rather than granary square/normal bread, so it'd been devoured rather quickly by The Team at Becca Towers.  Which meant we'd need more bread to last us the week until we next visited the supermarket...  Becca to the rescue!

Although the girls wanted to help with bread-making, by the time the dough needed to prove twice and so forth, it was going to be way past their bedtime, so I just showed them this photo and they were glad not to have been involved, ha ha.  Boy, what a mess!  Luckily it all worked out well in the end, and after waiting a mere 5 minutes for the completed loaf to cool, I cut myself a thick slice, slathered it in butter and tucked in.  Mmmmm, heaven!!  (a second slice soon followed)

I'm pleased to say that it lasted well in a cake tin for about 6 days, and was still soft and tasty on the last day.  By which time we'd been to the supermarket again...

The Cake Doctor is in...

'Hi Becca! Could I please order some more malteser slice and brownies :) may actually be medically addicted! Lol xx' 

I switched on my computer yesterday to see this on our Facebook page.  Of course, a few emails back and forth later and I was convinced I was going to be able to soothe her addiction and ease her longings.  Funnily enough, Mr Becca is actually Dr Becca, and confirmed that the NHS (National Health Service, to you non-British readers out there) would not pay for such treatment.  So Clare had to go private, and came to us. 

I didn't take any photos, as we've all seen a few Malteser Traybakes and trays of Brownies by now.  Suffice it to say, they were dusted with edible glitter to my heart's delight - and Clare's.  And I posted this on Facebook today, so spread the word cake-lovers!

'Becca Bakes wants to let you know that the Cake Doctor is in. If you're feeling unwell or know someone who is, have an addiction to Brownies or Maltesers, or even have a prescription for cupcakes - we can help. Just email or leave a message on the wall, we're here to help. Be sure to tell all your friends...'

Happy 5th birthday Jack

And so we come to the birthday boy himself, who decided that he didn't want a blue cake, simply blue icing (which, to a 5 year old, is a blue cake).  His mother requested simply 'blue, Jack, 5' as the starting point, and I thought to keep it simple.  So to the finished product...

A lovely vanilla sponge, layered with white icing and strawberry jam, covered in blue buttercream icing (I like the colour better this time), sprinkled with edible blue glitter and sprayed with gold lustre.  They all loved it, and I quote feedback left on our Facebook page 'It was lovely and much admired..........got party boxes for folk to take it home in........thank you :-)'.