New house, new oven

We have decided to put our flat on the market.

No messing, just get the sale board out on the front lawn and welcome in potential buyers.

The boy's arrival eight and a half weeks ago has highlighted that a two bedroom flat is simply not big enough for a family of four whose hobbies include baking (me, obviously), playing the guitar (or rather three guitars - the other half) and making as much mess as possible using every toy possible (baby puddle duck is the guilty party here).

Combine this with the paraphernalia required for a newborn and it becomes difficult to navigate through the one living space we have to eat, work and play in.

So, decision made. A few decorating projects are underway, and we're taking the plunge into the murky world of estate agents and solicitors.

I have mixed feelings about selling. I'm pessimistic that we will find anything to move in to; I'm dreading trawling hundreds of properties we don't really want or like but can afford; expecting 'heated discussions' with the other half over location; but most of all I am excited that I might finally have a generously sized kitchen to bake in.

The kitchen in the flat at the moment could be described as "compact", "neat", "well planned" or "proportionate to the size of the property", and I look forward to seeing how the estate agent describes it on the details when they are drawn up, but if pushed, I would have to describe it as '"tiny".

Not only does the size drive me to distraction - and my husband too when I am baking in there and he can't get anywhere near the kettle for his caffeine fix - but the oven is about as useful as a chocolate fire guard.

In the glorious heat that has graced the country this week, I reckon I could cook a cake quicker outside using solar power. It's worse than useless. It's pathetic. It's temperamental. It's disastrous, or rather the results of anything that has the pleasure of being perched upon its sorry oven racks are.

I once cooked, or rather attempted to cook, a Sunday roast for my parents and brother. Four hours after the pork should have been ready we were still waiting as the oven had decided to terminate its own gas supply and go out on several occasions.

So top of the priority list when looking for our new home will be a family kitchen with enough cupboards that I can have a whole one to myself to house the many decorations, icings, cupcake wrappers, cutters, rolling pins, etc and one that has enough work surface that baby puddleduck and I can both decorate cakes and hubby can still get to the kettle!

Woman versus cake

I gave the giant cupcake another go and it beat me.

I did a 6 egg mix which was plenty and made enough mixture for cupcakes too. So far so good. I lined the tin with ground nut oil as advised but given that my previous attempt cooked unevenly I decided to cook the top and bottom separately (on my mum's advice).

I cooked the bottom section for an hour on gas mark 4, turning the pan around in the oven after 40 minutes. I checked the bottom section at 40 and 45 minutes but it was still uncooked in the middle so it was in the oven for 50 minutes in total.

The bottom layer came out of the mould with ease, but was overcooked and crispy on top but seemed soggy on the bottom. Also, there seemed to be a gap in the sponge in the middle when I turned it over.

The top section of the cupcake was a disaster. It got stuck in the mould and broke off. Gutted.

I don't know if it was the heat affecting the second batch of mixture which was sitting on the side whilst the first half cooked - it was 28 degrees here today - or whether it was because I put the mixture into a hot mould but the result makes me very reluctant to try the giant cupcake again.

Instead, I am going to make a Victoria sponge and cover it with raspberries to make it really summery.

Here is the replacement cake: I went into nearly every shop in the village for the raspberries, but there were none to be found, so it was topped with blueberries instead.

Giant cupcake part II

I am going to attempt my second giant cupcake. It's not my favourite shape cake but it was requested so I'll give it another go.

This time I am going to bake the top and bottom separately as the top was far too dry last time and the bottom undercooked. Despite following the instructions that said to bake the bottom for half an hour before adding in the top mixture, they did not bake evenly. Mom suggested baking in two separate batches instead which I hadn't thought of so hopefully that will result in a much nicer tasting cake.

I haven't decided yet whether to make a chocolate 'case case' for the bottom of the cake or use rolled out fondant icing. I've seen a few methods for doing this, including the inspirational Victorious Cupcakes who is on Facebook and also at http://www.goodtoknow.co.uk/recipes/Victoria-Threader.

I just don't want it to look amateur and the heat is incredible so I am not holding out much hope that the icing is going to handle all that well.

Results will be posted tomorrow when the cake is iced and finished.

Baking mad

Is there any scientific evidence that cake baking is addictive?

Some mornings I wake up with the urge; I cannot think of anything else other than baking. Nothing else will get done properly for the rest of the day unless I get my fix. It might be welcome by the recipients of the fruits of my labour but it certainly isn't welcome by my other half!

I've also been advised to 'slow down' given the fact we have a newborn in the house, but I honestly think baking helps. It is something else to concentrate on other than being a mummy.

So I will continue to create cupcakes and party cakes for any occasion and everyone's going to just have to put up with it.

Carrot cakes are one of your 'Five a day' - right?

I wanted some cakes with a healthier perception so attempted some carrot cakes today. These were for a family party where cakes haven't been too well received in general so I baked some biscuits to go with them. I had a bargain with the cookie cutters as they were in the sale on Ocado, left over from the Easter stock.

These were really good to make with "baby puddle duck" as she could make the carrots for the top of the cakes out of modelling icing. I made the green tops for the carrots in two ways. Half of them were moddeling icing and half were green writing icing. Either worked OK.

The biscuits were covered in rolled out modelling icing and scored with a knife to show the texture of the carrot. The icing was stuck on with warmed apricot jam.


Yum

Mummies meeting

The mummies and babies met up for a play session this afternoon so we all took along some tasty treats. It was definitely not a healthy afternoon as I took biscuits, another mum took flapjacks, and another mum bought carrot cake. Never mind they were all yummy.

I wanted some new cutters as the main audience for these treats were children so I added some on the weekly Ocado delivery. They were a bargain in the sale section, probably left over from the Easter stock.

Baby puddleduck was at nursery so she couldn't come but I made sure I saved her one of each design to choose from when she got home.

The flower design are covered in pink icing and a white chocolate button outlined with writing icing dotted around. If there had been more time (or I had been more organised) I would have waited longer for the pink icing to dry before adding the yellow writing icing detail. It seemed to bleed into one another a bit. the children didn't seem to mind though.

I was more pleased with the rabbit cookies which were covered with white royal icing with pink detail added on the top and the eye is black writing icing.