Cake Mountain
For a blog which will be predominantly concerned with baking, this seems like an appropriate post to start with. Cake, cake, oh and a some more cake (a few biscuits thrown in too)
It was my Mum’s 60th Birthday over Easter, so she decided to celebrate it over the next weekend – that of the 30th April (long before a certain couple kindly gave us an extra day off)
She foolishly mooted the idea that it might be nice to host afternoon tea and cakes for all her friends. My sister and I sprung into action and thus began the creation of TheCakeMountain.
After much debate about what cakes to make, rifling through many books, blogs and magazines (see list at the end of the post) we decided to bake ahead as much as we could one day. So, I trundled off to Reading and we spent a happy day making Viennese biscuits, Chocolate and Vanilla cookies, Orange and coconut cupcakes, and two very large lemon drizzle wedding-cake style sponges.
It’s great how easily you can freeze baked goods. Whilst I would normally avoid doing so (you can’t beat fresh), it was essential in this case as I was still baking most of the week beforehand as I made my first macarons, friands, tuiles, iced buns, profiteroles and eclairs. I think I got a bit over excited. I will write about each item in more detail individually, but in the meantime here’s a bit of a taster and some of the recipes we used so that you can compare notes with me.
Main macaron recipe: The Pink Whisk
Chocolate and Spuculoos macarons: The Boy Who Bakes
Friands: Waitrose
Iced Buns: BBC GoodFood
Tuiles: BBC food by Ross Burden
Profiteroles and eclairs: BBC food by Simon Rimmer
The giant lemon “wedding” cake (with no marzipan thanks to Lorraine Pascale’s icing know-how): BBC GoodFood
And various other recipes from a Sainsbury’s Cakes and Cookies magazine which will be forthcoming
Such a lucky mum! Shall I let you know when my birthday is so you can get baking?
I baked solidly for two whole days. I have lots to write about macaron and choux based trials and tribulations. Isn’t it funny how the first time you make something it’s the easiest thing ever and then when you need it to turn out perfectly, it goes wrong!