None More Black

03/17

This week, I made a birthday cake for my friend’s husband. The brief was a very black cake with hints of purple, skulls and other black decorations but with a surprise inside. The surprise was a bright, 6 layer rainbow sponge with white buttercream, a complete contrast to the outside. Scroll to the bottom for a picture my friend kindly sent me when the cake was cut into!!

I absolutely love how this cake turned out! All relevant info on how I made it can be found below –

I used Sugarflair colours inside and out, to find out more about how to make a rainbow cake click here.

To find out more about how to make black buttercream click here.

To find out more about how to make white buttercream click here.

The drips and shards were made with black Candy Melts.

The skulls and other decorations were made with Renshaw black modelling paste and silicone moulds.

Hope you like it as much as I do!

Come find me on FacebookTwitter or Instagram.

Happy Baking!

Britt xo

If you want to turn your baking hobby into a career, check out my book Cakes, Bakes & Business for everything you need to know about running a successful baking business, including pricing, marketing, insurance and much more!

How To Make Black Buttercream

03/17

Whether it’s for a space themed cake, Halloween, a specific colour theme or just because, black buttercream can look stunning. However as it’s right at the end of the colour spectrum, it can be a tricky colour to achieve without using a TON of food colouring which leaves a bit of a funny taste but using enough colour so you don’t end up with grey!

This is the best way I’ve found to get black buttercream while still having it super tasty and firm enough to decorate with.

If you’re interested in how to make white buttercream, check out my blog here.

Cut your butter into cubes and pop it in your mixer bowl. Then beat it on a high speed for about 4-5 minutes. This will aerate the butter and create a neutral colour.

Next, add in your icing sugar and make your buttercream as usual. I use 250g butter to 500g icing sugar. Try not to add liquid as it will make it too soft, instead just keep mixing until you get a nice consistency. You want a firmer buttercream for piping onto cupcakes so they hold their shape and a softer buttercream for filling and covering cakes so it doesn’t rip the cake apart. If it’s too hard, put the mix in the microwave in 10 second bursts until you get the consistency needed for your bake.

Then, we’re going to turn it into a chocolate buttercream as it’s a lot easier to get from brown to black than yellow to black!

To your buttercream, add in 100g melted and cooled dark chocolate and 50g cocoa powder.

Once you have a nice chocolate buttercream, then it’s time to add the colour. With black, (as well as red and navy) I’ve only found one colour to get a true black, and that’s this stuff! Sugarflair Black Extra. Add a small amount and then keep adding until you have achieved your desired colour.

*TIP* – The colour will darken over time so I suggest adding a small amount, mixing it in, covering the bowl with cling film and popping in the fridge for 30 minutes to an hour. Once you take it out of the fridge, pop it in the microwave in 10 second bursts and mix well until it is a good consistency to spread.

You can see the awesome black cake I made using this buttercream here!

Give it a try and let me know how you get on either on FacebookTwitter or Instagram.

Happy Baking!

Britt xo

If you want to turn your baking hobby into a career, check out my book Cakes, Bakes & Business for everything you need to know about running a successful baking business, including pricing, marketing, insurance and much more!

Creme Egg Hunting Lodge

03/17

When I got the email inviting me down to the Creme Egg Hunting Lodge in London at the weekend, I knew there was only one person I wanted to take with me, my baking bestie and fellow Creme Egg connoisseur, baking blogger and all round amazing lady, Jemma from Iced Jems.

The Creme Egg Hunting Lodge is the ultimate hunting experience for any Creme Egg fan! Set up in the back of a purpose built trust, this lodge has travelled around the country for the past month with all proceeds generated at the lodge being donated to the Prince’s Trust Charity.

The travelling lodge gave people the opportunity to hunt Creme Eggs in a Crystal Maze style game as well as sampling some of the amazing delicacies from the cafe including Gooey Creme Egg S’mores: Gooey Cadbury Creme Egg pieces and a giant marshmallow, sandwiched between two biscuits, toasted for added gooeyness, Creme Egg Black Forest Toastie: A hot and crispy Cadbury Creme Egg Toastie, this time with a black cherry twist and Creme Egg Hunters’ Hot Choc: Mouth-watering Cadbury hot chocolate, with melted Cadbury Creme Egg added in for goo-d measure. It all sounded perfect!

The lodge was set up along the South Bank in London opposite the London Eye and looked pretty epic even from the outside! With the Creme Egg banners, outdoors garden set up and giant binoculars it was a great spectacle!

When we went into the lodge we were greeted by a super friendly member of staff who told us all about Gregg the hunter who owned the lodge and who was their main man when it came to hunting Creme Eggs! We were shown around his home which included a cosy fireplace, tons of awards, Creme Egg butterflies on display and specially made books such as Romeo & Juliegg and Goolivers Travels!

We were put into a team of 6 and were told to put our hunter skills to the test in The Ultimate Egg Hunt, deep inside the Creme Egg Hunting HQ room! We had to work together to solve the clues and crack the safe! I was told to knock on the bookshelf and out of nowhere a secret door opened and a moustached man scared the life out of me! We were given our first clue with a number on it and had to find the further four clues and corresponding numbers to get to our goodies! I’m happy to report we did so successfully and in record time so we were told!

We then got to go to the cafe and enjoy a treat! I went for the Gooey Creme Egg S’mores and Jemma had the Cadbury Creme Egg Toastie. They were delicious!

You can read more about the Creme Egg Hunting Lodge here.

We had a fantastic afternoon hunting eggs and it’s now put me in the mood to do some more baking (and eating) of them this Easter! In the meantime, check out my popular Creme Eggs Cookies which are easy to bake and easier to eat and my Creme Egg Cake.

Did you go to the lodge? Let me know on FacebookTwitter or Instagram.

Happy baking!

Britt xo

 

 

 

 

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