Red Nose Day Fairy Cakes

Have you been watching the Great British Bake Off for Comic Relief? I have and while some of it's been comedy gold (Dame Edna Everage needing secateurs to remove a cookie tin, anyone?) I definitely think the proper version is the best. However, I also love Comic Relief and watch it (or the highlights) every year as most of the special sketches are great. They raise so much money for good causes and this year I've supported them by buying red noses, nail stickers and funny mugs as well as a cupcake cases kit. A kit which got me thinking - how could I incorporate my love of baking into a blog post which would help people raise money for Comic Relief? I'm not doing a bake sale, quite simply because I'm running a pop up shop to raise money for Teenage Cancer Trust (Monday 16th March 2015 at the UoM Student Union - come along and buy some amazing (and cheap) clothes) and I have a couple of 2,000 word essays to write before the Easter hols, but you might be holding a bake sale and so I'm here to help.

These cupcakes have a hidden surprise in them - crack one open and you'll reveal a red nose! I made my cakes using a Red Velvet batter (I left out the colouring and added it only to the last bit of batter reserved for the centres) but this recipe is going to be just a regular mix to make it easier for children to get involved. If you want to make Red Velvet then by all means do - this is my recipe - just make sure you leave the colouring 'til last! I have a silicone tray of tiny spheres (bought in the hope that I'd make chocolates) which cost a few pounds off Amazon. If you don't have that then use a few cupcake cases to bake the coloured batter and then whilst they're hot tear them up and mould the cake into balls - you'll need to work quickly!

As I feel I'm about to fall asleep at my desk I'm going to love you and leave you until the morning when I shall finish and post this. Otherwise the rest of it might look something like this ygtfgxbhjfgsilubjknmd"SLVmSP"DVMDFSPKBjmdfgoiajhbnd and we don't want that!

Red Velvet Birthday Cake

One of my friends came over for supper last night, and, since it's her birthday today (happy birthday, Grace!) I decided to bake her a birthday cake. The only flaw in this plan was when I realised, five minutes before serving said cake, that we didn't have any matches in the flat to light the candles with!  Cue a candle-less cake with an uninterrupted pattern.

I love to decorate the cakes I make but I often don't due to the amount of time and space it requires to do a proper job (halls of residence especially hindered my cake inspirations last year). However, I now have a lovely kitchen in my new flat with an orange KitchenAid mixer sitting in pride of place on the work surface; a fact that makes me keen to get out my toolbox and start decorating again.

My choice of cake for the occasion was a red velvet cake with cream cheese "frosting" (made from the Hummingbird Bakery recipe). Unusual ingredient of the day? White wine vinegar. Fortunately you don't taste that particular ingredient in the finished cake, it just helps the bicarbonate of soda to do its magic. To top the cake I used a curly stencil and filled it in with my new Callebaut cocoa powder (it smells so good!), which worked surprisingly well as only one bit of powder fell where it wasn't supposed to.

Grace was suitably impressed by the pretty pattern and white icing. Most importantly it tasted pretty good too!