Ombre Cake

Hi everyone,
I haven't been feeling too inspired in the baking department recently .. probably down to lack of time ...  but last Saturday my good friend Christine had her 40th birthday so I thought I should take this golden opportunity to branch out and try something different ... preferably with a bit of  a "wow factor"!

I had seen various blog posts about "rainbow cakes" and liked the idea in one sense, though in another the thought of eating such vibrantly coloured sponge made me feel a little apprehensive ... so I decided to compromise by trying a pastel ombre cake.

I wanted multiple layers, so I decided to purchase and have a go with Wilton's Easy Layer Cake Pans, from Lakeland.

The set will make a 5 layer 6 inch cake. It also has a recipe leaflet which included a rainbow cake; but as this was an egg-white cake (which I've never made before) I decided to play safe and use a Victoria sandwich cake mix instead, so I used a 4-egg mix based on the number of eggs used in the set's recipe leaflet.  I also decided to go for a buttercream icing rather than my first choice of cream cheese frosting, on the basis that this would be less problematic for transportation if the birthday girl wanted to go round visiting friends and relatives :-)

Ombre Cake

Ingredients:

For the cake:
4 eggs (weighed) - mine weighed 236 g
Same weight as eggs for each of self raising flour, caster sugar and butter (softened)
1 tsp vanilla extract
Up to 40ml milk
Food colour pastes (I used Sugarflair pastel pink and lilac)

For the icing:
500g icing sugar
250g butter (softened)
1 tsp vanilla extract
Edible decorations (eg. hundreds and thousands) to finish.

Equipment:

1 * Wilton Easy Layers Cake Pan set, or 5 individual 6" sandwich tins.

Method:

1. Preheat the oven to 180 C/160 C(fan)/gas mark 4. Prepare the cake tins by greasing and possibly lining the bases with baking parchment.

2. Beat together the butter and sugar in a large bowl until very pale and fluffy.

3. Add the beaten eggs to the mixture a little at a time, beating well to combine. Add the vanilla extract, then gently fold in the flour (do not overbeat or the cake will be tough). Add the milk a little at a time and combine gently until the mixture reaches "dropping" consistency. 

4. Divide the mixture evenly into 5 bowls, and add the food colouring to achieve the shades you desire. Spoon mixture into baking tins and smooth the tops. Bake in the preheated oven until firm and springy to the touch, and a toothpick comes out clean (approx 12-13 minutes).

5. Cool cakes in tins for approx 5 minutes then turn out onto a cooling rack and allow to cool completely. 

6. Meanwhile, make the buttercream icing by beating the butter until very pale, light and fluffy, then adding the icing sugar in stages and beating well. Add the vanilla extract and beat well.

7. Before assembling the cake, cut off any browned edges if necessary to reveal colour of sponge. Place a small swirl of buttercream on serving plate or  board and then place darkest coloured sponge on top. Spread thinly with buttercream then place the next sponge on top, and repeat until all 5 sponges are neatly stacked.

8. Using a large offset palette knife, spread a thin layer of buttercream all over the sides and top of the assembled cake to form a "crumb coat". Chill in the fridge for an hour.

9. Spread the rest of the buttercream over the top and sides of the cake to completely cover, and swirl with a large palette knife. This is best achieved using an icing turntable. 

10. Sprinkle with edible decorations (I used pastel confetti dots) to finish.

Observations:

I thought that the Wilton cake pan set was a really good idea; but having tried it I'm not so sure. The sides of the tins aren't very straight which made it difficult to line even the base; and the sides of the cake did burn a bit. The recipe leaflet in the pack was not very helpful as the recipes in English all used American cup measurements, so I had to find a French or Spanish equivalent and do my best to work out the equivalent grams! :-(    In the end I didn't actually use a recipe from the leaflet; thought their suggested cooking times of approx 17-20 minutes were WAY over the top ... I looked after 12 minutes and could already see some browning!

Essentially this cake was very easy to make if somewhat fiddly, and it's fair to say it generated more washing up than anything I've ever baked before!! The most difficult bit was stirring in the food colouring ... I had read that I must definitely use gel or paste to get a good and consistent colour, but I found it extremely difficult to distribute evenly and was rather worried that I was beating all the air out of the batter!  On reflection I also didn't get much of a colour difference between layers 4 and 5, even though the batters looked a bit different in the pans before going in the oven. 

I tried using an old icing turntable inherited from somewhere but it wasn't very successful as it couldn't really take the weight of the cake ... so a new one is now near the top of my baking wish list!

I did get to try a slice of this cake as Christine very kindly saved some for me, my husband and my dad :-), and if I'm totally honest I would say it was a bit more dense than I would have ideally liked ... but not so much so as to make it a failure and it certainly did look very pretty and have the wow factor!! Overall  I was pleased with this as a first attempt, and my friend did make some very kind comments about my efforts :-)

I'd like to enter this into this week's Bake of the Week hosted by Linzi, whilst Helen at Casa Costello is on holiday.

Also I would like to enter my effort for this week's #CookBlogShare hosted by Lucy at Supergoldenbakes

That's all for today ... 

Hugs,

Baileys and Chocolate Miniature Cheesecakes

Hi everyone,
I've not been around over the past few weeks for one reason and another ... mostly on account of work, but also because I've had some persistent sinus trouble for the past three months which is not the best recipe for baking!!  I've also done one or two repeat bakes plus had the odd baking disaster (my recent albino Battenberg may have tasted good but it certainly wasn't ready for its close-up!!) so I decided to draw a blogging veil over my recent efforts!

Anyhow I'm feeling quite a bit better right now, and also I've got a bit of a boost to my mojo with the start of series 5 of Bake Off .... so I thought I would make some miniature cakes like they did for this week's showstopper challenge!! Not 36 though ... much as I like cake, I don't think that me and my husband could get through that many lol!!

I have a bottle of Baileys in the cupboard which needs finishing, so I decided to use it to make some miniature cheesecakes, also using my Lakeland 12 cup mini sandwich tin as seen on this week's Bake Off (oh how I would love one of those gadgets that Norman invented to make all the cakes pop out at once ... Lakeland why don't you patent it??)

By the way, please excuse the pictures ... it's been a while since I took pics of my baking, and today I forgot to set my macro on, so the close ups are a bit blurred!!

Baileys & Chocolate Mini Cheesecakes

Taken from: Lakeland website

Ingredients:
100g butter, plus extra to grease
250g digestive biscuits, crushed
600g soft cream cheese
25ml Baileys liqueur
100g icing sugar
300ml double cream, whipped
100g good quality dark chocolate, coarsely grated
100g dark chocolate, roughly chopped

Equipment:
Lakeland 12 Cup Mini Sandwich Tin

Method:
1. Grease the Mini Sandwich Tin with a little butter (I used Cake Release).

2. Crush the biscuits, either in a food processor, or (as I did) by placing in a freezer bag and crushing with a rolling pin.

3. Melt the butter in a pan, add the crushed biscuits and stir well until the biscuits have absorbed all the butter. 

4. Remove from the heat, divide the mixture equally between the cups in the cake tin and press firmly into place. Place in the refrigerator and allow to set for one hour.

5. Lightly whip the cream cheese then beat in the Baileys and icing sugar. Fold in the whipped cream and roughly half of the grated chocolate. 

6. When smooth, spoon evenly onto the biscuit bases. Refrigerate and allow to set for at least two hours.

7. Once set, carefully remove by running a knife dipped in hot water round the edge of each cheesecake and gently pushing up the tin’s loose bases. Just before serving, sprinkle the remaining grated chocolate then the chopped chocolate over each cheesecake.

Observations:
I  made half the recipe amount listed above, with a view to baking a manageable (for eating!) 6  mini cheesecakes ... but it actually made 7, and had so much cheesecake mix I wished I had divided my biscuit base into 8!!  I also found that I needed considerably less than half the amount of chocolate listed in the recipe.

This was only my second ever attempt at cheesecake (my first was a baked cheesecake) and it was incredibly easy  .. the most difficult part was getting it out of the tin.  After 2 1/2 hours it was set enough (just!)  to get  2 out of the pan to eat with our evening meal; but I left the rest in the fridge overnight to firm up more.  I was very pleased with the flavour and texture of the cheesecake mix though .. absolutely delicious!

I'd like to enter this for a couple of baking challenges ....

Firstly, this month's Treat Petite challenge, hosted this month by Stuart at Cakeyboi, and alternate months by Kat aka The Baking Explorer. This month's theme is No Bake - perfect for these little desserts.

Secondly, I'd like to take part in Lucy from Super Golden Bakes' #GBBO Bake Along (Episode 1)

I am of baking along with this week's showstopper challenge of  "miniature British classics". I doubt I'll be troubling the Bake Off tent any time soon, but I still really enjoy it. ... nonetheless I have also tweeted this post to #Extra Slice ... you never know!!

Update: I have just spotted August's Baking With Spirit challenge hosted by Janine at Cake of the Week, which is to go crazy  and do whatever you want with alcohol (oo-er!).

Chocolate rum Easter torte

Happy Easter everyone ... hope you are all enjoying the extended break from work.

As this is the first Easter time since I started baking, I decided to swerve Easter eggs this year and do a spot of Easter themed baking instead.  There were some fabulous-looking recipes in  last week's Mail On Sunday You magazine, so I thought I would try one ... and here it is 

Chocolate rum Easter torte

Taken from The Mail On Sunday You Magazine 13/4/2014 - recipe by Annie Bell

Serves: 6-8

Ingredients:

For the cake:

150g dark chocloate (approx. 70% cocoa solids)

4 eggs, separated

150g golden caster sugar

150g unsalted butter, softened

25g plain flour, sifted

1 tbsp dark rum (I substituted approx. 1/2 tsp natural rum flavouring)

For the glaze:

100g dark chocloate

55ml boiling water

1 tsp dark rum (I substituted approx 1/8 tsp natural rum flavouring)

To finish: 

Easter themed edible decorations (I used micro eggs and choclate spaghetti)

Equipment:

1 * 20cm (8") loose bottomed cake tin (I used my Lakeland non-stick pushpan)

Method:

1. Preheat oven to 180 C/160 C fan/gas mark 4. Grease cake tin and line the base with baking parchment.

2. Gently melt the chocolate for the cake in a heatproof bowl over a pan of gently simmering water, then set aside to cool.

3. Beat the egg yolks and sugar until pale and creamy, then add the butter and continue to beat until smooth.

4. Incorporate the chocolate and then the flour and rum.

5. Whisk the egg whites in a large bowl until stiff, and fold into the chocolate mixture in two halves.

6. Pour the mixture into the prepared cake tin, and smooth the top.

7. Bake for approx 25 minutes or until risen, and a cake skewer comes out clean or with only the slightest moist crumb. Run a small palette knife around the cake and leave to cool - it will sink a little (mine didn't actually!!)

8. When cool, turn out the cake onto a plate with the base uppermost, and peel off the baking parchment.
9. melt the chocolate for the glaze, then add in 55ml of boiling water and the rum. Smooth the glaze over the top of the cake and top with edible decorations.  Leave to cool - you can refrigerate for a short while to serve chilled. Serve  with creme fraiche.

Observations:

This cake was very easy, though boy did it create a lot of washing up!! Yesterday afternoon when I went out I couldn't get any Cadbury's mini eggs for love nor money, but luckily I spotted some micro eggs in my local Tesco which I think were actually a better size for topping a cake. I also decided to use a bit of stray chocolate spaghetti I had around the place to give a slightly more nest-like appearance. 

I did have to guess the amount of rum flavouring to use, but googling indicated I should use 1/9 of the amount of actual rum (ie 1 tsp flavouring for every 3 tbsp of rum). My husband said he couldn't really taste the rum, though the cake was very rich although light ... I thought it better to err on the side of caution so maybe I would use a bit more next time :-)  Eating it with a dollop of creme fraiche was definitely the way to go though ... fab treat after our Easter dinner!

I would like to enter this cake into a few baking challenges, namely ...

Cake of the Week: Baking With Spirit - Chocolate & Alcohol (my rum flavouring does contain alcohol .. it's just more concentrated and cheaper than buying a whole bottle lol!)

Simply Food - Let's Cook Sweet Treats For Easter

Calendar Cakes (April), hosted by Dollybakes -  Easter Bakes

The Pink Whisk (in conjunction with Two Little Fleas) - Easter Bake & Make  (2nd entry - I'm not sure if more than 1 is allowed as I couldn't see anything bout it in the rules .. so hope this is ok!! :-) )

That's all from me for today .... all caked out now so I think I will be having a little rest from baking. Til next time ...

Hugs,

Charity Bake #5 - Easter chocolate cornflake nests

Hi everyone,
Well, easy peasy though these may be, I had never made Easter chocolate cornflake nests before, so as I'm very busy at work at the moment I thought they would be the perfect quick charity bake!

Easter chocolate cornflake nests

Serves: 24

Ingredients:
450g cooking chocolate, broken into small pieces (I used a mixture of milk and dark)
125g butter
200g cornflakes
5 tbsp golden syrup
72 Cadbury's mini eggs

Method:
1. Melt the chocolate and butter gently in a heatproof bowl over a pan of simmering water, stirring constantly  until completely smooth.
2. Stir in the golden syrup.
3. Place the cornflakes into a large bowl and pour the chocolate over. Stir gently with a heatproof spatula or wooden spoon to combine.
4. Place paper cases into 2 muffin trays, and spoon the mixture into them, wedging 3 mini eggs into the top of each cake.
5. Place in the refrigerator to cool and set for approx 1 hour.

Observations:
I googled around and found several recipes, all with slightly different proportions of cornflakes and chocolate. Most seemed to use 100g of chocolate and 75-100g of cornflakes for 12 cakes; but several commenters had said this amount of chocolate isn't enough to bind the mixture. I can't emphasize this enough .. it isn't NEARLY enough. You definitely need 200g + of chocolate for each 100g of cornflakes. that's the reason i used a mixture of milk and dark chocolate - I used up the milk choc I intended for the job, and had to pull some dark choc out of the cupboard to top it up!!

Also I used less golden syrup than some recipes which use up to 2 tbsp per 100g of chocolate!  The other thing I would say is that I used medium size cupcake cases (not the largest) and didn't overfill them but this mixture made 19 cakes.

Having said all of the above they were one of the quickest and easiest things I have made, so i hope they'll go down well with my colleagues.

I would like to enter these into a couple of Easter baking challenges as follows:

We Should Cocoa (hosted by Rachel Cotterill) - Easter

Treat Petite (hosted this month by Cakeyboi and also by The Baking Explorer) - Spring Into Easter

Simply Food - Let's Cook Sweet Treats For Easter

That's all for today. I'll be back later with a fundraising update.

Update: well these seemed to go down an Easter treat - they were soon snapped up, and when I tried one I definitely think it was worth using the extra chocolate :-)

Amount raised: £18.00
Hugs,

Passion Fruit Cake at the Clandestine Cake Club

Good afternoon everyone and hope you're having a great weekend.

I was very excited on Thursday, as I attended my first ever meeting of the Clandestine Cake Club - Warrington branch. I live in Liverpool but work in Warrington, so I thought a branch which meets weekday evenings would be perfect for me to visit and unwind after a hard day's slog in the office. 

The event was held in Jenny Wren's Coffee and Ceramics - a lovely cafe and pottery studio in Stockton Heath, a pretty village area to the south of Warrington town centre.  The theme was to bake a recipe from the Clandestine Cake Club Cookbook which you have never baked before ... a theme which had apparently been requested by several members. This was easy for me as I didn't own the book .. but I quickly went out and bought it and wasn't disappointed as it contains some great recipes. (For anyone who hasn't got it, it is currently on offer for £4.99 in The Works .... alas cheaper than when I bought it two weeks ago!!)

I was a bit nervous, partly because I'm not very familiar with the area so hoped I would find both the venue and parking ok; and also because I wasn't sure whether I would know anyone and whether my cake would be up to standard given that I have still only been baking for a few months. I needn't have worried though ... I found the place ok, and everyone was very friendly. It was lovely to meet Helen Rimmer the organiser, and I also got talking to several other ladies including Julie Carney who actually has a recipe published in the book!!  There were also a couple of ladies there from my office so all in all it was a great social get together.

In my initial state of apprehension when I first entered I forgot to take any photos  of the cake table while it was still "intact", so the photos show the state of play after we had all dived in !!

There really was an amazing selection of cakes  as you can see, covering a whole spectrum of flavours. There really was something for everyone!

I made a heroic effort to sample several of them but there was such an array of delciousness that I was defeated way before I got through the whole range of cakes, even though I only took mini slices lol!

 Here is what I made ..... 

As you can see I made a passion fruit cake - and here's the recipe.

Passion Fruit Cake

Taken from The Clandestine Cake Club Cookbook

Serves: the book says 8-10, but I would say 12 medium or 16 small slices.

Ingredients:

For the cake:

225g butter, softened

225g cater sugar

2 heaped tbsp passion fruit curd (the recipe in the book contains details of how to make your own, but I have to confess I wasn't really geared up to making and storing preserves so I bought some Thursday Cottage Passion Fruit Curd from a local deli - and very nice it was too!)

4 large eggs

225g plain flour (ideally half white, half wholemeal)

1 heaped tsp baking powder

2 tbsp milk

1 tbsp lemon jiuce (I used concentrate so used 1 tsp)

For the filling and topping:

100g white chocolate

100g butter, softened

160g icing sugar

3 tbsp passion fruit curd

Equipment:

2 * 8" (20cm) round sandwich tins

Method:

1 Preheat the oven to 190°C / fan 170°C / Gas mark 5. Grease and line  the 2 sandwich tins.

2. Beat the sugar and butter until light and fluffy, then beat in the curd. Add the eggs one at a time, beating well after each addition, and add a tablespoon of flour with the final egg to help prevent curdling. Sift in the remaining flour and baking powder, and fold in gently until thoroughly combined. Combine the milk and lemon juice and stir into the mixture. Divide the mixture between the two tins, spreading evenly. bake for about 25 minutes until a skewer comes out clean. Leave to cool in the tin for a few minutes and then turn out onto a wire rack to cool completely.

3. Make the icing by melting the white chocolate gently in a heatproof bowl set over a saucepan of barely simmering water. Beat the butter and icing sugar for the icing together in a separate bowl until light and fluffy, then mix in the melted chocolate until well combined. Finally beat in the curd. You will need to use the icing quite quickly as it will firm up as it sets.

4. To assemble the cake, spread half the icing mixture over the top of one sponge (I actually turned it upside down to get the flat surface uppermost), then sandwich the two together and spread the remaining icing over the top.  As an optional extra I decorated the top of the finished cake with some white chocolate curls (pre-bought from Asda).

Here's the finished article ....

Observations:

This cake had a really nice flavour imparted by the passion fruit curd - this recipe is a definite keeper.  I was little apprehensive as to how it would turn out, as for the first time ever I broke my eggs straight into the mixing bowl one by one (instead of whisking them first in a separate bowl) and THREE IN A ROW had double yolks - yikes!! I don't think I've ever had a double yolk egg before so that was pretty remarkable and I didn't know how much difference it would make to the finished result. 

Luckily it didn't seem to spoil things as the cake seemed to down fairly well at the CCC, my husband liked it, and when I took some leftovers to work the  next day they also got a positive response. Overall this was quite a confidence-boosting bake as it was easy to make and the results were good.

I would like to enter this cake into a couple of baking challenges ...

First of all, Love Cake (April) - Spring into Easter

I deliberately chose Passion Fruit cake for my CCC bake as it ties into Easter through the theme of Christ's Passion, rather than through the usual chocolate eggs and bunnies!.

Secondly, The Pink Whisk (in conjunction with Two Little Fleas) - Easter Bake & Make 

That's all from me for now - feeling a little "caked out" right now, but I'm sure I'll soon get over that!! ;-)
hugs,

Charity Bake #4 - Raspberry surprise cupcakes

Hi everyone,
Here I am again with another charity bake. Today I took my inspiration from springtime, which was brought on by the gorgeous pastel spotty and stripy cupcake cases I spotted in Lakeland on Saturday.

Raspberry surprise cupcakes

Makes 12 (I made double quantity)

Ingredients:
For the cakes:
175g softened butter
175g caster sugar
175g self raising flour
3 large eggs
1 1/2 tsp vanilla extract
1 1/2 tbsp milk
Approx 60g seedless raspberry jam

For the icing:
150g softened butter
280g icing sugar
1 tsp vanilla extract
1-2 tbsp milk

Equipment:
1 12 hole muffin tin

Method:
1. Preheat oven to 180°C / 160°C fan / Gas 4, and place 12 cupcake cases into a cake tin.
2.  Place the butter and sugar into a large bowl and beat until pale and fluffy.
3.  Beat the eggs and then add gradually, beating well to combine. With the last addition add a little flour to stop the mixture from curdling.
4.  Add the vanilla extract and beat well to combine.
5.  Add the flour a little at a time and fold in gently. Add the milk and fold in gently until the mixture is a "dropping" consistency.
6. Fill each cupcake case  1/2 - 2/3 full of mixture; then bake in oven for approx 20 minutes until a skewer comes out clean and top of capek springs back when pressed gently.
7. Cool in tin for approx. 10 minutes then turn cupcakes onto wire rack to coll completely.
8. Core top of each cupcake using a corer or sharp knife, and fill cavity of each cupcake with 1/2 - 1 tsp of seedless raspberry jam.
9. Make buttercream by placing butter into a bowl and beating til very pale and soft, then adding sifted icing sugar gently, interspersed with a little milk until desired consistency is reached.
10. Ice top of each cupcake with buttercream and decorate as desired ... I used pastel sprinkles to match my cupcake cases - dots for the spotty cases and sugar strands for the stripy!! :-)

Observations:
I made a double batch of these as they were for a charity bake, and it did mean I struggled a bit with my timings and where was best to place them in the oven. I also didn't have quite enough icing sugar to make double quantity of icing so I had to skimp a bit on that, and still left a couple of cakes uniced! .. and I STILL CAN'T get the hang of piping ... I ended up in a complete mess with a split bag which I then had to try to scrape out and spread on the cakes with a palette knife!! waaah!!

However I DID make good use of the leftover sponge "cores" by having  them as pudding with a spoonful of cream and jam - nice!

I would like to enter these into this month's Calendar Cakes challenge hosted by Rachel (Dollybakes) and Laura (Laura Loves Cake) - the theme for March is spring, and I think these bright pastel colours are very spring-like :-)

That's all for now ... back later with a fundraising update.

Update: I was amazed and delighted with the popularity of these cupcakes ... they were all gone in an hour and I was beating off disappointed customers (who didn't make it to the kitchen in time) with a mucky stick!! 

Amount raised: £21.00

Hugs,

Happy birthday with an extremely chocolatey cake!

Yesterday was my darling husband's birthday; and he went out the evening before to a concert so I decided to make him a surprise birthday cake!! As I only started baking last August this is the first birthday of his that I had opportunity to surprise him like this :-)

Here's what I made ...

Mary Berry's Very Best Chocolate Cake

Serves: recipe says 6 (!) but I would say at least 12 !!

Taken from Lakeland website (with slight adaptations as I used sandwich tins instead of pushpans).

Ingredients:

For the cake:

50g (2 oz) cocoa

6 tbsp boiling water

3 eggs

2 tbsp milk

175g (6 oz) self raising flour

1 rounded tsp baking powder

100g (4 oz) softened butter or baking spread (I always use butter!)

300g (10 oz)  caster sugar

For the icing/filling:

150g (6oz) dark chocolate broken into small pieces

150ml pouring double cream

3 tbsp apricot jam

1 small bar white chocolate (optiopnal) - I used white chocolate curls from the supermarket)

Equipment

2 * 8" loose-bottomed sandwich tins

Method:

1. Pre-heat the oven to 180°C/160°C fan/Gas 4

2. Grease 2 x 8" sandwich tins and line the bottom with baking parchment.

3. First measure the cocoa and boiling water into a large bowl, and mix well to make a paste. 

4. Add the remaining ingredients and beat again until combined. 

5.  Divide the cake mixture between the prepared tins. Bake in the pre-heated oven for about 30 minutes until well risen and shrinking away from the sides of the tin. 

6. Cool in the tin for ten minutes, then turn out onto a wire rack to cool completely.

7. For the icing and filling, pour the double cream into a saucepan and place over a medium heat until just simmering.

8. Remove from the heat, then add the chocolate and stir well until the chocolate is melted and the mixture smooth. Set aside and allow to become cold and almost set.

9. Spread the top of each cake with apricot jam. Sandwich the cakes with half the icing and spread the remainder on top. Shave the white chocolate into curls with a potato peeler and arrange over the top of the cake to decorate.

Observations:
This was really easy - I think it was actually more or less Mary's tray bake in a different shaped tin! It also had a richer taste as the chocolate ganache was dark rather than milk chocolate, and there was more of it per slice - yum!

This whole baking experience was somewhat hilarious as I was quite late getting started, so I was really against the clock to get everything completed and out of sight before my husband came home ... rushing around madly washing equipment and utensils, and trying to wipe up crumbs from the worktop as I went along!! I finally shoved the last of the washed-up utensils hastily into its drawer and ripped off my apron ONE MINUTE before he walked in the house ...phew!!  Luckily despite the fact that I later discovered I had chocolate on my face (no doubt from licking the spoon!!) he didn't notice anything untoward, and was delighted the next morning when I presented the cake! Apparently it went down very well with his colleagues at work, and he saved a bit to bring home so I also got to sample it :-)

All in all a pretty good outcome ... good old Mary Berry has helped produce another winner!!

hugs,