Simple Chocolate Cake!

Simple Chocolate Cake!

As it's my dad's birthday, I thought it was the perfect opportunity to make a cake and blog about it. So, instead of making it by hand like usual, I decided to use a Betty Crocker boxed "Devil's Food" cake for quickness. Also, they never seem to go wrong!! Here's how it was made;

Here are my ingredients that I used. For the chocolate box, you need sunflower oil/vegetable oil, water and 3 eggs. To decorate, I have picked the Betty Crocker Chocolate Fudge Icing, some popping candy sprinkles and triple chocolate curls.

First, you combine the oil, eggs, water and the packet chocolate mix into a bowl and combine for 2-3 minutes with an electric mixer (you can mix by hand, but I found this quicker!

I then placed the mixture, once creamy and combined, into two separate tins. I greased the sides with butter and layered with greaseproof paper before hand to ensure that the cakes didn't stick.

Once baked for 23-28 minutes, I took both cakes out of the oven to cool. Once they had cooled, I removed them easily from their tins, turning them out onto a clean, large plate. Once stone-cold, I filled the middle with half the tub of icing, and place the other cake on-top. I used the rest of the icing on the top of the cake, and then decorated with popping candle and chocolate curls. I then wrapped around a ribbon band to hold the cake nicely and make it more of a celebration cake, than a normal chocolate cake. Here is the finished product;

Love, Hannah

Coffee Morning!

Coffee Morning!

I've been so busy recently with studying, training sessions and work, that I felt a much needed coffee morning was in order to de-stress. It was a lovely morning today, so without much deliberation, my study books went down and I went out! My mother and myself, walked to a local pub, The King's Arms. This doubles as a restaurant and hotel, whilst also serving breakfast and morning coffee's. The atmosphere in there was lovely for 11am, with many other locals drinking coffee and chatting, with low music in the background. We were served instantly by a friendly waitress who was smiley and couldn't have done enough to make the morning pleasurable. There was a little fire going in the corner and the whole atmosphere was cosy and traditional, whilst having a modern vibe to it.

After this, I visited one of my favourite shabby-chic shops, which I was devastated to hear is going to close down shortly and may not re-open. Ever since this shop opened in my town, I have loved going in and browsing all the gorgeous furniture, nick-knacks, jewellery and art work that cover the shop and garden area. It is perfect if you are looking for a vintage gift for someone special, that you want to be unique and beautiful. This shop will not disappoint!

Love, Hannah

BIRTHDAY CAKE, YUM!

Birthday Cake!

It's my mother's birthday and I decided that instead of purchasing a cake, I would use some of the ingredients in the kitchen up and make her one. I used a recipe from the BBC Good Food's website, which was simple and easy, then I decorated the cake to make it more impressive!

First, I weighed all the dry ingredients and put them into a mixing bowl. I then weighed the wet ingredients (egg, milk, butter) and combined everything with a electric mixer until the mixture was soft and smooth.

Next, I greased two cake tins with butter and then cut out some grease-proof paper to coat the inside, to ensure the cake wouldn't stick to the tin and would be easy to remove. Next, I separated the mixture into both of the cake tins and popped it into the over for 20 minutes.

Whilst my cake was in the oven, I began to organise the decorations for the top of the birthday cake. My mum loves flowers, so I chose wafer flowers to put on the top of the cake. I also used

silver balls, butterfly candy and a mixture of vanilla and cream cheese buttercream icing.

I removed the cakes from the oven and waited until they cooled before removing them from their tins and getting ready to decorate. Then the fun part began!! Decorating and eating!!

Love, Hannah