My Best Friends Wedding... Cake!

Fiona and I at her Hen Party, Dingle, May 2015.

 

I have reached the point in my life where my friends have started getting engaged and married. I have always loved weddings from reading about them, attending them and even planning them (come on ladies who hasn't been planning their wedding since they were a little girl?). There is something very special about attending the wedding of someone you love but even more being part of the wedding of someone you love.

 

This photo was taken the day after our Debs, 2006!!  

 

Myself and Fiona, London, 2009.



 

I met Fiona over 11 years ago in school and our friendship was sealed over crusty rolls and chicken wings when we worked together in our local supermarket deli. Fiona lived outside of our town and I was in walking distance to work so early shifts (coupled with nights out before) meant Fiona stayed at my house quite a lot.. which is where she met Bommie. Bommie (Thomas) was friends with my brother Darragh and Bommie was also living outside of town so he also spent a lot of time at our house. I don't know when the two of them fell for each other but I do know that just over 9 years ago they had a sneaky little kiss on our front porch and the rest is history. They married on the 14th of this month in a beautiful ceremony in Abbeyside and then onto the most wonderful reception in the Radisson Blu, Little Island, Cork.

 

Mr and Mrs Kiely heading off to their Wedding Reception 

 

When Fiona rang me 2 years ago and asked me to be her bridesmaid it was a resounding YES from me. She was the first of my close school friends to get married and we were all beyond excited for the big day. I remember Fiona saying from the beginning that they did not want a big wedding cake but a desert table with a small token cake to cut. When they asked me to bake this cake I was absolutely thrilled to say yes.. although a little unnerved! It's one thing to bake a cake for a party but a wedding? This was a first!!

 

Having discussed it with the happy couple they decided on a two tier buttercream cake, lemon on one tier and chocolate on the other.  As I live in London it was difficult to have a tasting so they put their full faith in me from the get go.. no pressure!! I decided on a 10" lemon sponge filled with lemon curd and vanilla buttercream, covered in vanilla buttercream on the lower tier. For the top tier an 8" chocolate sponge filled with chocolate buttercream and covered in vanilla buttercream. Then we had some beautiful fresh flowers from Fiona's florist to decorate.

 

Mrs Kiely and I, August 14th, 2015.

 

The wedding was taking place on a Friday so I had initially decided on making the sponges the weekend before and freezing them which I had read on a number of blogs. Unfortunately this would not have worked out as our freezer at home was just too small and full for this. In the end I made the sponges on Wednesday, let them cool and wrapped tightly in cling film overnight. I then filled and assembled the cakes on Thursday ready for fresh flowers on Friday.

 

The finished product!

 

As I started to assemble the cakes on Thursday I thought to myself in the morning "This is going well". Spoke too soon. The weather decided to be unusually hot for Ireland those few days running up to the wedding.. as any baker will agree.. not ideal temperatures to be working with buttercream! With only one meltdown and an emergency trip into town for the lemon curd (thanks mum!) I got there in the end. I think I just wanted it to be perfect for Fiona and Bommie and when things weren't going well I panicked. I honestly would not have coped had it not been for my mum being my own personal cheerleader behind me all the way. Six batches of buttercream later the cake was done and chilling in the fridge and I could go and check up on the bride on the eve of her wedding.

 

Thank you to Mum and Dad for getting the cake to venue and Mum again for placing the flowers on the cake while I was glamming it up and sipping Prosecco with the bridal party :) ! The appreciation from the Bride and Groom made every bit of it worth it. The hotel even kept them back 2 slices of each when they were cutting it up and they enjoyed every bite of it the day after. Wishing Fiona and Bommie the worlds love and happiness for the rest of their married lives. Love you guys and thanks again for such an amazing weekend!!

 

Let them eat cake!

 

I'm back..

O x

Halloween Special- Part 2!

Graveyard Brownies

Once again I had so much fun making these!! The recipe for the brownies is my own triple chocolate brownie recipe and I covered them with Betty Crocker chocolate buttercream icing. 

I then used biscuits painted with gel food colouring and decorated with writing icing for the tombstones. I used Asda own brand rich tea fingers and malted milks as I liked the sizes and shapes but feel free to use your own favourites. 

I used Halloween sprinkles from Asda for the path but you can use any Halloween sprinkles. You could also use chocolate buttons or any orange / black sweet. 

The dirt is made from blitzing oreos in a food processor, 

The white mice can be found in any supermarket and I just painted on their red eyes and black ears and tails with writing icing. 

I got the skeleton sweets in M&S and the fence is made from Quality street Match Makers but you can also use chocolate fingers.

I made the brownies in a tin foil tray I got in Lakeland. They are great because you can just leave them in there to decorate and serve. They're also very handy to transport. 

So what will you need?

Foil Tray 

Brownies (recipe here)

Chocolate Buttercream Icing 

 Biscuits for Tombstones

Gel Food Colouring in Grey / Black

Tubes of Writing Icing in Black / White / Red (I used Asda Own)

White Mice (I used Asda Own)

Skeleton Sweets (optional)

Oreos for Dirt (crushed)

Match Makers or Chocolate Fingers for Fence

Whatever you do just have fun with this.. be as creative and adventurous as you like but keep it spooky...!! If you don't have gel food colouring why not just use chocolate covered biscuits? Head down to your local supermarket and you'll see a huge range of Halloween sweets and pick your favorites for your graveyard. 

As always please share your bakes with me if you try them yourself. I hope you all have a spooky and fun Halloween!! 

Happy Baking, 

O x

Happy Halloween!!

Part One!

Halloween has always been one of my favorite holidays! I have some of  the best memories from my childhood around Halloween. Deciding what costume to wear, putting it altogether, going trick or treating with my friends and of course having a big bag full of sweets at the end of the day!! But I have to say my fondest memory was decorating the house with my Mum. She went all out at Halloween. We had a porch at the front of the house and she used to make it into a cave. I don't think any description I could give you now would do it any justice but we always got so many compliments on the cave and we had so much fun doing it. I remember we used to pester my Dad for days (probably weeks) before Halloween to go up into the attic to get the costumes and decorations. The day was then spent planning and putting together our costumes, carving the pumpkin and then helping Mum put up all the decorations in the cave. I just won't mention how one Halloween I nearly set the house on fire... sorry again Mum and Dad! I definitely think I get my creativeness from my Mum and she's the best when it comes to holidays! 

Me- Halloween 2012

Things haven't really changed since I've grown up. I still absolutely love Halloween and adore getting dressed up every year. That said I just had to do a Halloween special on Breaking into Baking. For the Shattered Glass Cupcakes you can use my classic vanilla cupcake recipe with the vanilla frosting or feel free to use a box mix for the cupcakes and ready made icing which is what I did here. I used the Betty Crocker vanilla cupcake mix and the Betty Crocker vanilla buttercream icing. For my Graveyard Brownies I used my chocolate brownie recipe and some Betty Crocker chocolate buttercream icing but you can also use a box mix for the brownies. As this blog is called 'Breaking into Baking' I wanted to show you on this post that even if you don't posses the best baking skills that these two recipes are so easy to do that anyone can give them a go. If you have kids they are so much fun to make.. although maybe the cupcakes are not so suitable for children! 

Shattered Glass Cupcakes

You will need:

Vanilla Cupcakes

Vanilla Buttercream frosting

Glacier Mints (such as foxes)

Liquid Glucose (I used 1 Dr. Oetker tube)

1 tsp of Cornflour

2/3 tbs Water

Red Gel Food Colouring

Blue Gel Food Colouring

For the Glass:

Place your glacier mints on a baking tray covered in parchment paper. Put them in the oven at 180C to melt. They will only take a few minutes. Keep an eye on them. Once they have melted take out and leave to cool. Once cooled (again won't take very long) use a rolling pin or some other big utensil to smash the "glass". Set aside until ready to use.

For the Blood:

Put your glucose and cornflour into a bowl. Mix until well combined. Add a couple of drops of water to make the mixture slacker. Then add your red food colouring. I added about 10/12 drops of red and 2/3 drops of blue but you will know yourself when you get the desired colour. Then add more water until you have reached a thick syrupy consistency similar to blood. 

Once your cupcakes have cooled ice them with your vanilla buttercream (be as messy as you want here). Then start sticking your shards of "glass" in the top and pour on your blood over. 

Viola!

I hope you have as much fun making these cupcakes as I did. Check out part two of my Halloween special tomorrow for some spooky Graveyard Brownies. Here's a sneak peek...

As always you can find me on Facebook, Instagram and Twitter. If you do try these cupcakes please share some pictures with me on any of those sites or you can always leave me a comment below.

Happy Baking and Happy Halloween!!

O x

Classic Vanilla Cupcake

It was my god daughters 1^st birthday last month so I decided to make some pink cupcakes to celebrate. You really can’t beat a classic vanilla cupcake and they’re so quick and easy to make. I have been making cupcakes / queen cakes for as long as I can remember. Anyone who grew up in an Irish household will surely have grown up eating queen cakes.. which we now call cupcakes thanks to our American friends bringing them across the pond! One of my youngest memories is baking queen cakes with my Nana. I remember standing up on a chair so I could reach the counter and being her little assistant. I firmly believe I get my love of baking (and skills) from both my grandmothers as they were both two wonderful bakers.

Abigail didn't look too sure but she loved it! 

So back to the humble cupcake. All you need is butter, eggs, flour, sugar and a drop of vanilla extract and if you follow my step by step recipe then you can have perfect vanilla cupcakes too. In this recipe I am using a classic buttercream frosting from ‘The Hummingbird Bakery’ cookbook but feel free to use your own favourite frosting recipe. This recipe makes 12 cupcakes.

Ingredients:

170g Self Raising Flour (sifted)

170g Caster Sugar

170g Unsalted Butter (at room temperature)

3 Medium free range eggs

1 tsp of Vanilla Extract

For the Buttercream:

250g Icing Sugar

80g Butter (at room temperature)

25mls Milk

½ tsp of Vanilla Extract

Prepare:

Preheat your oven to 170C and line a 12-hole cupcake/muffin tin with cupcake cases.

Method:

Begin by beating your sugar and butter together until pale and fluffy. This may take a minute or two. Here is where it is so important that your butter is at room temperature or the butter won’t dissolve the sugar and it will just clump together.

Beat in your eggs one at a time and stir in your vanilla extract. Once your eggs and vanilla are all incorporated fold in your flour gently to keep as much air in your batter. Spoon the mix into your cases filling ¾ of the way full. Pop them into your oven and bake for 20-22 mins. You will know your cupcakes are baked when they are golden brown in colour and bounce back to touch. You can also stick a cocktail stick or skewer in and if it comes out clean they are baked.

Leave to cool on a wire rack and begin making your buttercream icing. Start by creaming your butter with your mixer (or hand held whisk) then slowly add your icing sugar. I stress doing this slowly or else you will end up with a face full of icing sugar!! Once your icing sugar has been incorporated add your milk a small drop at a time with your vanilla extract until the icing is smooth and creamy. I used pink gel food colouring here to colour the icing but feel free to use whatever colour you wish. I piped the icing using a star tip and I then decorated them with pink and purple sparkling sprinkles.

Delicious!

Let me know if you try these out yourself. As always you can find me on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram or you can leave a comment below.

Happy Baking,

O x

BBC Good Food Bakes and Cakes Show offer - ONE DAY LEFT!!

You have just one day left to get 20% off your ticket to The BBC Good Food Bakes & Cakes Show that launches in London on 25-27th October Half term!!

Simply quote 20PAR7 when you book.  Offer ends 30th^th September.

Whether you're a hobby baker or professional this is perfect place to practice your skills or learn some new tricks! Packed with baking, bread-making and cake-crafting demonstrations, free step-by-step master classes, and hundreds of essential baking products you won't want to miss it! 

Plus, you can watch Mary Berry, Mich Turner, Eric Lanlard, Paul Hollywood, and more of your favourite bakers LIVE at the show! A seat in the Bakes & Cakes Theatre is included in every full day adult advance ticket.

Book yours before tomorrow and save 20%!

https://www.theticketfactory.com/gfbc/online/

Ticket offer t&cs – please list if / where possible:

*Offer valid on Adult and Concession standard advance tickets only.  Offer ends 30.09.14.  †Standard Bakes & Cakes Theatre seat included per advance standard ticket, subject to availability. Gold seats available for £3 extra per person. All admin and transaction fees included. Ticket terms and conditions apply. Not all celebrities appear on all days, check the website for details. Information correct at time of print. Good Food® Good Food logo© BBC Worldwide

Gluten Free Banoffee Pie

Gluten Free Banoffee Pie

I have always been a big fan of Banoffee Pie; though technically not a pie as I always make it with a biscuit base and pies are typically made with a pastry base. I don’t know why it’s called Banoffee Pie but let’s not get into that discussion here. Let’s talk about the deliciousness that is Banoffee; It is my all-time favourite desert. If I am in a restaurant and it’s on the menu there is no question about what I’ll be getting after my main course (no matter how full I am- I always make room)!

I met my match in London with my friend Sarah.. Finally someone who shared my passion (maybe slight obsession) for Banoffee! But this shared passion / obsession was short lived when Sarah decided to up sticks and move back to Ireland. The night before she was due to board a plane to our beautiful Emerald Isle we all gathered for her ‘final supper’ in London town. Of course what else would I be providing for desert but Banoffee Pie.

For your typical biscuit base it would be a mix of digestive biscuits and butter. For me this posed a slight issue as one of my friends is coeliac and I definitely didn’t want him to miss out on desert. No fear, I knew my local supermarket had gluten free digestive biscuits in stock. I did a bit of research and learned from reading a few baking forums that some GF digestive biscuits tend to be drier than other digestive biscuits. If your biscuit base is too dry it will just crumble and would be very hard to slice and dish up. I thought to myself I could just add more butter but then I didn’t want the taste of the butter to come through. I decided to add ground almonds to the mix. I had never done this before but it worked out so well I will be adding it to all my Banoffees going forward! 

For this recipe I used a 9” spring form cake tin.

Ingredients

Biscuit Base

300g Gluten Free Digestive Biscuits

100g Ground Almonds

100g Butter

Caramel

1 Can Condensed Milk (397g)

100g Muscovado Brown Sugar

100g Butter

Top

4 Medium Bananas

350mls Double Cream (whipped)

Grated Chocolate (for decoration)

Method

Begin by breaking up your digestive biscuits (either in a food processor) or by hand until you have a sandy consistency. Melt your butter and add to your crushed biscuits with the ground almonds. Once all combined you should have a wet sand consistency. Transfer into the cake tin and press down to ensure the mix is well compacted into the bottom of the cake tin. Place in the fridge for a minimum of 30 minutes and you can move onto your caramel.

Melt your butter and sugar in saucepan over a medium heat while continually stirring. Once the sugar has all dissolved add your condensed milk and bring to the boil- stirring constantly. Boil for about one minute until you have a thick caramel consistency. Spread over the biscuit base and leave to cool (may take over an hour).

Once the caramel has cooled completely slice your bananas and layer over the caramel. Whip your cream until you have soft peaks and layer this over your caramel. I then grated some chocolate and sprinkled over the cream for decoration but this is completely optional.

I hope you enjoy baking this is. It is such a simple recipe that requires no baking only time and patience. If you have any questions please don’t hesitate to contact me. You can do so here or on my facebook or twitter pages!

Happy Baking!

O x 

**I am sorry I don't have any more pictures.. I unfortunately left my camera a home when I went to my friends house to make this! There will be more pictures on my next post I promise!**

Rainbow Cake

It was my friend, Áine's birthday last week and I decided to make her something special. She mentioned to me nearly a year ago that she loved Rainbow Cakes. This was before I started my blog and she asked me would I ever make her a rainbow cake? Challenge accepted!! What better time to try than for her birthday!! I had never made a rainbow cake before but I was very much looking forward to trying it. Off I went to the wonderful world of the internet. I researched blogs and YouTube tutorials.. finding out what sponge recipe best suited it, what food colouring to use, what size cake tins to use? I found a lot of great tips from a blogger I love Kerry Cooks. It was here I found a great tip to use tin foil flan cases from wilkos to bake the 6 layers of sponge. They were 6" foil cases and they worked out perfectly. Not only did I not have 6 cake tins the same size but I also hate washing up so the idea of just throwing these out after use really appealed to me!! 

(Image- www.wilko.com) 

I forgot to mention that I was against the clock baking this cake. You can by all means bake 2/3 layers at a time if you have the time but unfortunately I had to get all layers in the oven at the same time and cooled within a short time span. You see, we were having a surprise party for Áine on a Friday night so we had to come up with an excuse to get her out of the house for a couple of hours on the Thursday night (she's also my flatmate). We managed this with quite a few lies and I'd like to take this chance to thank everyone involved and sorry again Áine! So that is why I had to bake them all in one go.. which might I add was a bit stressful but worth it in the end!! 

So back to the cake..  When it comes to the food colouring it is very important to use a good quality GEL food colouring. I emphasise the use of a gel food colouring because with a rainbow cake you need good vibrant colours. Liquid food colourings just don't give a strong enough colour and they also water down your batter when you add too much and believe me you don't want to skimp on the food colouring!! I used Squires Kitchen QFC Gel Food Colours that I bought from my local catering store. You can buy these online or I would also recommend Wilton Gel Food Colours available online. I used 5 colours* to achieve my ideal cake colours.. Red, Yellow, Green, Blue and Purple. I mixed my red and yellow to make the Orange so I had 6 colours in total.

(Image- www.squires-shop.com) 

For the sponge I used a Victoria Sponge recipe and filled and covered the cake with Cream Cheese Frosting (of course!). As I mentioned before this cake is quite time consuming but it is so worth the time and effort to see the look on everyone's face when the cake is cut into. I'd also like to take this chance to apologise for the lack of photographs of the making process. As I said, I was really against the clock and it just completely slipped my mind. If I do get the opportunity to bake this cake again I will update this post with more pictures! The below ingredients are for 6 x 6" cake tins. If you are having trouble adjusting the measurements to suit the number / size of cake tins you are using please don't hesitate to contact me either here or on any of the social media platforms I use and I'll try and help you out. 

Ingredients

(sponge)

400g Caster Sugar

400g Butter (at room temp)

8 Eggs

400g Self Raising Flour (sifted)

2 tsp Baking Powder

2 tsp Vanilla Extract

Gel Food Colouring* (see above) 

(frosting)

120g Butter (at room temp)

280g Cream Cheese Frosting (from fridge)

680g Icing Sugar

1+ 1/2 tsp Vanilla Extract

Prepare

Grease your cake tins** and preheat your oven to 170C. 

Method

As I mentioned above I cooked 6 layers at once so I made one big batch of batter. I was using a free standing cake mixer with a paddle attachment. I began by beating my butter and sugar together on a medium speed until light and fluffy. I then added my eggs (beaten), flour, baking powder and vanilla extract and continued to mix on a low-medium speed until they were all well incorporated.

I then divided my cake batter evenly between 6 bowls. I did this by using an ice-cream scoop and counting equally between each bowl. I then coloured my batter accordingly and placed them into the prepared cake tins. Like I said before do not skimp on the food colouring and it's also important to note that the colour of the cakes do adjust when baked (become more vibrant) so remember this too. I used a pallet knife to smooth the batter out before placing in the oven and cooking for approximately 22-25 mins. Because I was using small cake tins I had to watch them carefully to ensure they didn't burn. If you are using bigger cake tins just adjust the cooking time accordingly. You will know your cakes are baked when a skewer or cocktail stick inserted in the middle comes out clean and the sides of the cake start coming away from the tin. 

It is very hard to judge the colour of the cakes when they first come out of the oven so do not be deterred if the colour doesn't look great. I was SO disappointed (ask my flatmates) with the colour of mine but cakes do turn a golden brown colour when baked and did not reflect the colour waiting inside!!

Leave your cakes to cool completely before decorating. I left mine over night as I was decorating it the next day. I wrapped them in cling film and placed them in air tight containers over night. When I got home from work on Friday I went straight into my icing!! I started by placing my butter and HALF of my icing sugar into the mixer and mixing on a low speed to begin with. It is so important that your butter is softened for this. Once combined I added the remainder of my icing sugar and continued to mix on a medium speed. If you are using a hand held whisk or have a small mixer you can make this in 2 batches. Once the icing sugar is combined add in your cream cheese and vanilla extract and mix on a medium-high speed for at least 5 mins. 

Now the assembly... This will be extremely difficult if you are working in a hot kitchen so do try to ensure you're working in a cool / dry environment. Begin by leveling your sponges. It will be very hard to stack your cake if your sponges have domes on top! Get a sharp serated knife and put the knife against the cake where you want to start cutting it and gently cutting into the cake turn it slowly and you will get an even level all the way around. Here is a great tutorial I found on YouTube by The Boy Who Bakes on how to level a cake. 

Once you have all your cakes level begin stacking them. Place a small smear of frosting on your cake board or plate and place your first layer of cake onto this (purple) and then spread a thin layer of frosting onto the top of this sponge. Then stack your next layer (blue) and again spread a thin later of frosting on top and repeat until you have your whole cake assembled (green, then yellow, then orange and red on top). Once stacked you can now crumb coat your cake. 

Crumb coating is applying a thin layer of frosting to the top and sides of your cake to catch any crumbs that may lift off your cake when icing it. Again, I found a great tutorial on YouTube from The Boy Who Bakes here. This is where working in a cool / dry environment is so important because you want to keep your cake as straight as possible. If your frosting is too warm or soft your cake layers will start sliding and you will end up with a leaning tower of pisa cake!

Once you have your crumb coat applied place into the fridge for a minimum of 30 mins to one hour. When your cake comes out it should be cool to touch and not leave any finger impression. If it does place back in the fridge for another half hour. Also remember to put the remainder of your cream cheese frosting in the fridge while you're waiting so it won't go too soft but give it a nice stir with a spatula when you take it out again or it may be too hard to spread. 

When your crumb coating has set you can now ice the rest of your cake. It is important to get a nice thick coating of frosting so you cannot see all the layers of cake underneath! You can frost it however you want.. using a piping bag, spatula or just spooning it on and spreading with a knife. I just roughly layered on the frosting evenly and then using my turntable and pallet knife I spun the cake while applying a very light pressure to the frosting and moving the pallet knife gently up the cake. I then decorated it with soft shimmer pearls I got from the Dr Oetker range in my local supermarket.

I know this is such a long blog post but please do not be deterred by this. I can honestly say I thought this cake was going to be a lot harder than it was. I know you're probably thinking "easy for her to say" but I would not put this recipe up on my blog if I didn't think each and everyone of you was capable of making this cake! My blog is called 'Breaking into Baking' after all! 

If you want to bake this cake and are unsure or have any questions please don't hesitate to contact me on facebook, twitter or even instagram. You can even leave your comments down below and I will do my very best to answer all your questions!

Happy Baking,

O x

** If you are using regular cake tins grease and line the bottom of them with parchment paper. If using the disposable ones you only need to grease them.