Tag Archive | Chocolate

Cupcakes of Bakings Past

Aug20

I seem to have been getting a lot more traffic to my blog lately! Majority of this seems to be cake and baking related so I thought it would be a good time to look back at past cupcakes which never made it to the blog as I was not blogging then! I do miss baking for cupcake sales!

Ice Cream Cone Cupcakes:

I loved making these, easy to make and they were so popular!

Marble Iced Cupcakes:

Such an easy technique and the one I normally use for flowers. This example are very girly butterfly cupcakes and a mix of both vanilla and chocolate icing

Pirate Cupcakes:

I found that it was relatively easy to make kids cupcakes for girls but it was sightly more difficult to design cupcakes for boys. But different choices of colours and accessories can easily make a normal cupcake perfect for a little Prince, Princess or Pirate!

Fancy Fondant Flowers:

I haven’t done much fondant work, prefer piping and icing, fondant makes me angry! But these were not too dreadful for a first attempt!

Chocolate Cupcakes:

Never underestimate the power of a giant chocolate button decoration!

Definitely need to get back into cupcakes again!

Happy Baking 🙂

~Sam

Kinder Happy Hippo Cake

Jul22

Hello!

So this week I made one of the most important cakes I’ve made to date! My brother and his girlfriend (Chloe)’s joint 22nd birthday cake! I love making cakes as birthday presents as I know there is no way that anyone else will ever have the same thing. My brother said when he came to collect it that it is always nice to have things that are homemade and I’m so happy that they both loved the cake!

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I am so very proud of this! It is three layers of fluffy chocolatey cake, kinder bueno flavoured filling, chocolate icing (with real chocolate!) and an assortment of chocolatey decorations! Estimated calories per slice: God Knows. It’s cake, enjoy it, salad is always there tomorrow ;)!  For anyone who does not know, a Happy Hippo is a cute little wafery hippo shaped piece of deliciousness made by Kinder filled with either milk and hazelnut filling or coco and hazelnut filling. If you’re a fan of kinder chocolate, kinder buenos or any other kinder related chocolate you will love these. Actually I think most people will love these,such an underrated chocolate! They also made a special appearance on last year’s Kinder Cake. Click here to check out that one if you’ve not seen it yet!

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The Last Binge

Mar7

So for anyone who is not aware me and my lovely friend Jenna have undertaken a year long challenge for Children In Need. If you are interested you can visit our fundraising website at www.CINChallenge.com. Unfortunately this means it is time to get fit. Even more unfortunately this means saying goodbye to most of the stuff that I actually enjoy eating. Therefore I thought it was acceptable to partake in one last unhealthy night with a friend of mine. This unhealthy binge consisted of a bottle of wine and a rather interesting snack which I had stumbled upon at the local shop across the road. Up until then I had no idea that pizza could actually come in a dessert form. So with no further ado I present to you the Goodfella’s Sweet Fella’s Delicious Dessert Pizza. In fact there is a little bit of ado as I have now had to partake in a rather lengthy conversation with my flat mate about the difference between “ado” and “adieu”. Turns out “ado” is a lovely little English word meaning without fuss or unnecessary hustle and bustle (think Shakesphere, Much Ado About Nothing”. “Adieu” is a dramatic French farewell, think of it as a last goodbye. So here I am with now a little bit of ado but that is okay because it is not a French goodbye. Easy mistake to make, don’t judge me too harshly and trust me I am a lot more intelligent in Spanish than French! Muchas Gracias.

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So this was my choice of a final unhealthy snack. I have to say that I disagree with their slogan that “the best things in life are worth sharing” because that pizza was amazing and I would happily not share. But I am a sharing caring individual and shared. After looking at the calorie content I am very happy that I did.

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Outside of the box it looked a little bit like a pizza which had gone mouldy. I fought the urge to cover it in magic stars and maltesers and put it in the oven for 14 minutes.

14 minutes later and this calorific and chocorific (if that is not a word it is now) specimen emerged from the oven. Was it an acceptable last binge? Definitely so! Could I have eaten it on my own? 100% definitely not! Goodfella’s I am sorry and I agree with your slogan. Now I know that these are hanging out in the freezer at the Tesco across the road I don’t know how I am going to be able to leave them alone. However I think that the fear of not actually being able to complete this Children In Need challenge slightly outweighs the unhealthy pizza chilling in the freezer! Can’t even remember the last time I ran!

The Annual Chocolate Debate

Nov20

Obviously being at my parents house sick and feeling sorry for myself means that those chocolate cravings are bound to crawl out at some point. Chocolate is the ultimate comfort food. 

Unfortunately for me all there was in the house in the way of chocolate was a tub of Cadbury’s Roses which had been stashed away for Christmas. Initially I thought I’d hit the jackpot, but apparently Roses are not what I remember! Definitely got smaller and do not compete with the Heros and Celebrations or even the Quality Streets! 

However if I could take the Hazlenut Whirl out of the Roses and put it with the Malteaser and Galaxy from the Celebrations. Add the Twirl, Dairy Milk, Wispa and Creme Egg Twisted from the Heros and the Purple One and Green One from the Quality Street I think that would make a really decent box of chocolates. Also if they’d bring back the Truffle and Topic in the celebrations my childhood Christmas would really be complete.

How do people make that annual difficult decision which box to go with? Does anyone ever just get them all to eradicate the need to make that decision? Little box of each then put them all together? 


Now that has given me an idea. Instead of everyone going to the supermarket and purchasing their yearly tub of chocolates for Christmas there should be a Christmas Chocolate Tub/Tin Shop. A bit like M&M world, each of these sweets should be available in giant tubes and you can fill your Christmas Tub of Chocolates however you please. Of course this would involve all three confectionary companies getting on and collaborating in this but surly it’s worth it to prevent all those poor lonely unwanted chocolates (*cough* Toffees *cough*) lurking away in the bottom of the tin well into the next year as no one likes those ones?
Now please excuse me while I go fill my tub up with the malteasers. 

Thoughts and Opinions on the yearly struggle between the Roses, Celebrations, Quality Streets and Heros? 

– Chocolate Fiend