Last week-end was my mother-in-law’s 80th birthday. I call her Granny, as I no longer have any living grandmothers. The whole family helped to organize a big birthday party for her, and as I’m the baker in the family, I made the cake. Granny is as fit as a fiddle, smart as a tack, and has a better social life than I have. We invited seventy five of her friends, so I knew that I’d need to make a lot of cake. A tower of cupcakes was the final result. There were lemon cakes with a curd filling, strawberry cakes with a jam centre (with jam I made from last summer’s berries). Both of these cakes were made with recipes from Martha Stewart’s Baking Book, but the fillings and frosting were little fillips of my own. Also passionfruit cakes with a curd centre, and chocolate devil’s-food – from Tish Boyle’s “The Cake Book”, with a dark chocolate mint ganache inside, and peppermint schnapps icing on top (the light green cakes).
The frostings were all based on an Italian meringue buttercream base that became soft and fluffy in the heat of a roomful of people. I didn’t want the ladies in their lovely party dresses to spill icing on themselves, so the spoons make a neat and easy way to eat the cakes. I picked these up from my local gelati shop. The colours looked lovely too!
Well done you!
VERY WELL ON YOUR SITE KAREN.LOVE BRENTXXX
Hey there Bro, thanks for encouraging me on my new venture, love & hugs, K
The cupcakes were amazing! Great blog Karen
Looks like I missed out on quite a shindig! The cupcakes sounds delish. Cool site Aunty Karen 🙂
dear claire, really missed having you there. would have done strawberries in bow ties, if the expert had been at hand!
Excellent Blog Karen – nice one! Looking forward to your next entry.
Thanks you guys, love karen
Great blog Karen! Can vouch for the cupcakes etc Claire. Love to all
glad your checking in Claire. What did you think of the snow video? Unbelievable, eh! Love and hugs, Karen
Just love your blog Karen and good to hear about absent family members at the same time – hi Claire!! Your macaroons have to be seen to be believed, more professional than the professionals. Cheers N.