Fool-proof family cake recipe

All celebrations, be they birthdays, engagements or weddings tend to require cake- so I thought I’d share our family ‘standard cake recipe’ which makes a lovely moist spongecake, ideal for cupcakes or celebration cakes.

Its very simple, and can be adapted and modified as necessary to give a whole host of flavour variations. The beauty of this recipe is it really has never failed me.

You will need:

eggs, sugar, baking margarine (I find Stork works fine!), self raising flour.

The difference between this method and most usual recipes is that you make a decision on the size of you cake, choose the number of eggs required, and measure everything else against the weight of the eggs.* As a guideline:

2 eggs = 24 cupcakes

4 eggs = small victoria sponge

6 eggs = larger celebration cake

So, for a small celebration cake (half size) I chose 3 eggs and weighed them (in their shells):

I then put in the same weight of marg’ and sugar, ‘creamed’ them together, added the eggs and flour- and mixed together (wooden spoon or a blender are fine).

You should end up with a ‘dropping consistancy’ mixture (add a few drops of milk if it’s too stiff). Put into cupcake cases/lined tins, and you are good to go!

Bake for around 12-15 min if cupcakes and 30-40 min for larger cakes (this mix wont drop, so feel free to open the oven and check if your cakes are done).

Like I said, you can adapt the recipe to any taste/occasion. Here’s a ‘berry and almond’ twist, with frozen red berries, 1 oz flour substituted for ground almonds, plus a drop of almond essence.

Almond and berries: for decoration add flaked almonds to cupcakes, or cover in marzipan and berries for a celebration cake

*This method works because eggs vary massively in their weight/ moisture content and you may end up with a very dry cake following standard 2 eggs = 4 oz recipe

Cupcake delights!

Cupcakes are all the rage nowadays. Whether its in a trendy west london eatery like hummingbird bakery, or at a local fete– these finger-food sized sweet treats have definately made a come back.

Ideal for all kinds of parties, from a kiddie table to a sophisticated soiree, their adaptability means they can look both fun and chic. Cupcakes are also very easy to display and are perfect for large gatherings and buffets, or the back of a village hall.

To top it all off, I just discovered these delightful ‘supercook’ cupcake wraps:

They give a very pretty lace look to your baking, and if you are getting different people to contribute a dozen or so cakes each, would be a perfect way to tie them all together.

Here seen with berry and almond muffins, they come in a pop out flat pack, and wrap around any standard cupcake case.

Best of all they were under £1 for a set of 12 at my local Sainsburys- Bargain!

Combine these with lacy bunting and doily lighting and you have an instant teatime party treat with a pretty delicate feel. Perfect for a garden party or church hall.

And one with icing

False economies- when DIY blows the budget

It’s really easy when planning a big event like a wedding to get caught up in the whirlwind of amazing DIY ideas. I check out new stuff on stumbleupon (great site if you like inspiration) all the time and often post ideas up on my blog.

BUT, since I’m all about budgets- a key piece of advice is not to forget to ‘cost’ your DIY projects. Some things may seem cute, and because you’re making stuff yourself you think it’s somehow ‘cheap’ or ‘free’. Not so. You are also only human and can’t do everything.

The cost of DIY projects can soon mount up

Here are two of the top ‘homemade bank-breakers’:

Invitations:

I was very tempted to get arty crafty with ours- but then I added up the costs. Blank Cards and envelopes for 150 invites + embellishments to go on top would come to at least £50-£100, maybe more depending on what kinds of cards/ patterns/materials you use (and that’s before you factor in the time taken to stick everything together). Our Vistaprint invites were free + P&P.

The same can be said for other stationery (service sheets/name tags) There may be cheaper options than getting tied up with ribbon and covered in glitter.

Homemade favours- Pots of jam/chutneys etc

There’s been a recent trend in giving home made treats as favours- which I think is both lovely and admirable. However- before you plan to slave over a preserve pan, don’t kid yourself that you are saving money. Sure- this will be a thoughtful and cute gift for your guests, but once you factor in the money for sugar, fruit, preserving kits and most importantly the jam pots themselves- this is not a budget option and it will take TIME. You are potentially looking at more than £2.50 per guest, which if you’re having lots of people really starts to add up. (Our favours were around £1.20 per guest, and included a £1 charity donation)

Don’t get me wrong here- I absolutely love crafty touches- and have saved lots of money on a few, like making my bouquet for example. I also really enjoy the process, so if you are one of those people who loves jam making, maybe you’ll relish (pardon the pun!) the chance to make up a mega batch to bless your guests.

Just be aware of what the real costs are before you get knee deep in sugar, chutney and glue.

Sweet rainbow colour!

I am completely in love with this rainbow cake idea from sweetapolita.com . Originally for a child’s birthday I can see so many applications to the plan: A fun themed wedding cake, that has a colourful surprise when you cut it? Maybe just one tier of rainbow colour? Why not get guests to ‘doodle’ on or sign the cake before you cut it?

from http://sweetapolita.com

Or maybe, as a twist on the ‘sweet table’ or cupcake trend you could do ‘decorate your own’ cupcakes? I can see plates of multicoloured cupcakes, covered in white icing, and a whole load of writing icing tubes and sprinkles at tables…

Ask guests to take polaroids of their cakes before eating- and collect them on a board for a twist on the traditional guestbook. Oh yes, the possibilities are endless

Anyway- these colourful pics should be enough to inspire your creative juices!

How can you use this idea?

Eco- wedding food?

How can we help you?

Can you be green on a budget? Often it feels like the ethical options come at a premium, so we were delighted to find a wonderful catering company who manage to combine eco with value.

“How can we help you” is run by a lovely man called Darren, and we were attracted to them because

a) They were offering very good value paella options

b) They were (unlike many catering companies) very upfront on their website about their costs and exactly what those costs included (no hidden extras)

c) When Darren came to cook for us it tasted AMAZING

d) They donate 10% of your bill to your chosen charity (added to our red nose day donations, this meant hundreds of pounds of our wedding costs went to good causes)

e) They have a gold eco-award, meaning they’ve been audited and go the extra mile to recycle, use local produce and to invest back into the community.

With all this going for them and for a cut price deal (we got a discount due to our high numbers) per head, we started to wonder what to catch was. Would something go terribly wrong??? Surely this was too good to be true?!

They were, it has to be said, late setting up the night before, but on the day the food and the service were faultless. We’d HIGHLY recommend!

Looking back at the photos even now makes me ravenous!!

Fabulous food!

 

French cruise and bargain booze

A spot of celebratory french fizz

Some would say that a dash over the channel for cheap wine isn’t worth it any more because the exchange rate isn’t what it used to be. However, when we were investigating buying the wine for our afternoon reception, it definately looked like you could still make a significant saving- especially if your wine superstore pays for your ferry crossing!

We pre-ordered £300 worth of wine and fizz from the Calais wine superstore, they paid for our crossing from Dover, and today we went to France and got all the wine for the wedding. Although we had preordered some things, it was with the understanding we’d be able to taste their wines and change our minds about what we wanted, so long as we still spent over £200.

It was a gloriously sunny day in France too, which topped up our vitamin D stores nicely!

Tasting the wines was essential. (And because we were both sharing the drive, we did a lot of swilling and spitting- very attractive!)

In the end, we hated the Echo Falls wines we had pre-ordered (which costs around £6 a bottle in the UK and only £2 per bottle in Calais) but fell in love with two ‘premium’ wines by a fairly new chilean brand “Gran Tierra” . We saved a good £4-£5 on each bottle by buying from the French wine store compared to UK retail prices. Multiply that up by 60 bottles and even though the Euro exchange rate is not so great, that’s a saving of almost £300 on the table wine alone. We then got some really nice tasting french fizz and saved a further £4 per bottle, making over £400 worth of savings. Not to be sniffed at, and definitely worth the trip.

Wedding cake wonderfulness

The average wedding cake can set you back hundreds of pounds, but thankfully I have a sister who is gifted in the baking department.

For a number of years her particular speciality has been a tweaked version of Nigella Lawson’s ‘Chocolate Guinness cake‘ which is a moist, dark, rich taste of heaven, offset wonderfully by the fresh, slightly bitter-sweet, cream cheese frosting. Yum!

It is my fiance’s favourite cake of all time and as such, my fabulous sister offered to make three tiers worth for our wedding cake. (plus an extra ‘cutting slab’ to cater for the numbers)

Guinness cake also keeps well for a few days and actually tastes even better a day or so after baking, which can’t said for some sponges, so its ideal for what we want.

She’s also been experimenting with some stiffer frosting (nigella’s tends to be quite runny) and has borrowed a cake stand from a colleague who recently got married, so with the addition of some ribbon and a few of those wooden roses around the outside of the stand, I think we are good to go!

The finished cake (and it tasted amazing too!)

Paella, salads and a quality caterer

 

Freshly cooked paella for our wedding 'breakfast'

It was while wandering one Saturday through Covent Garden that we came up with the idea of serving paella at the wedding.  We’d trawled through a few fork-buffet menus but weren’t inspired at the price that most London caterers charge.

My hubby to be was keen on having hot food, so the  minute paella (a classic mass-catering solution!) was suggested, it really clicked with us- we have a fun ‘fiesta’ type theme, and I have a part-spanish background, so it just seemed perfect.

With that idea in mind, we trawled the web for caterers and came across “How can we help you?” a food and events management company based in Surrey. They had their prices advertised with the menus, no added extras (apart for a £55 travel charge for coming up to London) and a real helpfulness about them.

They have a silver eco-award and donate 10% of the catering costs to a charity of your choice, which is something we really liked.

After tasting the food, we definately knew we were onto a winner!

Planned menu:

• Paella ( veg/meat/seafood options)
• Salads (including an amazing roast beetroot, butternut squash and feta salad, roasted asparagus and a classic tomato with mozzerella)
• ciabatta rolls
• Desserts (including a gorgeous chocolate torte and some amazing cheesecake!)

We’re also hiring table linen and glasses, and the team will stay behind and clear away the reception venue when we head to the boat cruise- brilliant!

all for well under £20 a head!

sweet!

We’re providing our own wine- so once we find the right deal on that, I’ll let you know all about it!