From cookies to cake, bunny bites and no-bake rocky road, my delicious recipes below have you covered.

Happy Easter and happy baking!

Britt xo

The post Easter Recipe Roundup! appeared first on She Who Bakes.

You will need;

• 10 cupcakes in green cases
• 12″ cake drum
• 300g sugarpaste to cover drum
• green 15mm ribbon
• 3mm double sided sticky tape
• 100g red modelling paste for the bow
• paintbrush
• edible glue
• drying foam
• green buttercream
• large piping bag
• 1J nozzle
• royal icing
• Christmas decorations made and dried overnight

This tutorial shows you how to make a cupcake wreath using 10 cupcakes and a 12” cake drum, but you can make them as big or as small as you like. Even doing a second layer inside the first for a really big party.

I’ve broken it down into separate tutorials as there’s a lot I want to show you.

You will need to make your wreath decorations, including the modelling paste bow, in advance. I’ve used a mixture of moulds which I’ve painted, cutters and mini candy canes, but this is where you can really personalise your wreath using whatever toppers and colours you like.

Firstly, cover a 12” cake drum in sugarpaste (roll out icing). To do this, roll out your icing to 5mm thick on a corn floured surface, turning the sugarpaste as you roll to get an even shape and to stop it sticking. Spray your drum lightly with water and then using your rolling pin to lift your sugarpaste, lay it gently on the board, securing it with your hand and cutting off the excess with a sharp knife. Leave this to set overnight. To see a video of me covering a board in sugarpaste, check out my post here.

Then, to apply a board ribbon, use 5mm double sided sticky tape and a 15mm width ribbon. The hardest part here is peeling off the backing of the tape!

Next, create a cute flat bow to attach to the front of the board. Use a length of your 15mm ribbon (approx 12cm) and fold in half to make a crease. On this creased line, stick two bits of double sided sticky tape, as pictured. Then fold the halves in on themselves to look like the middle picture. stick a shorter piece of ribbon around the middle of your bow. Attach to your board with more double sided sticky tape.

To create a bow out of modelling paste for the top of our wreath, cut four identical strips out of red modelling paste to your desired thickness. On two of the strips, cut a triangle to create the ends of the ribbon. Then cut a smaller strip for the middle of the bow.

With a small amount of edible glue, fold over the plain strips in on themselves to create the bow loops. Then glue the small strip in the centre as the third picture.

The strips that you have cut the ribbon ends, dry on foam with a ripple in the icing to create a more fabric look. Do this by pinching the top and bottom together, you can also use a cel stick if it helps.

Leave the bow to dry upright to create prominent bow loops.

Now for the wreath. Bake your desired flavour cupcakes in green cases, I’m using my vanilla cupcake recipe here (I’ve used metallic ones for a more Christmassy feel.) Make up some green buttercream (you can find my recipe here) and fill a large piping bag with a 1J nozzle.

Once the cupcakes have cooled, pipe onto them by starting in the middle of the cupcake and working your way slowly outwards. (I found I went round the cupcake 2 ½ times.) A gentle and even pressure is needed here.

Leave the buttercream to set slightly so they are easier to move about. Then position your cupcakes on your dried iced board. Once you are happy with the shape of your wreath, stick your cupcakes down with a little royal icing. You don’t need to use a lot. It’s just to secure them enough to transport the wreath. We still want people to take them off to eat them!

Once your cupcakes are secured to your board, decorate to your hearts content! Adding the bow to the top first, then using your toppers.

And there you have it! A cupcake wreath for the festive season!

Equipment can be purchased from Iced Jems.

For more information on how to decorate your cake and go from home bake to showstopper, check out my list of latest online cake decorating courses here.

Give it a go and let me know how you get on, either on Facebook or Twitter or Instagram.

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!

Happy baking and Merry Christmas!

Britt xo

All of my online cake decorating courses are currently HALF PRICE! Grab a bargain here

The post Cupcake Wreath Tutorial appeared first on She Who Bakes.

For this, I’m using my flat topped chocolate cupcakes which are perfect for decorating. You can find the recipe here.

I’m using brown cupcake cases and concentrated Sugarflair food colouring in Red Extra, Tangerine and Melon. Also my open star nozzle is a 1M and using large disposable piping bags. All equipment is available from Iced Jems.

You will need;

• 12 cupcakes
• 250g unsalted butter
• 500g icing sugar
• Matchmakers (I’m using the orange ones)
• Red, orange and yellow food colouring
• Piping bag
• Open star nozzle – 1M

Method;

1. Cream the butter for a few minutes
2. Add in the icing sugar and mix well
3. If flavouring your buttercream, put the flavouring in now
4. Divide the buttercream into three bowls
5. Colour the buttercream red, orange and yellow
6. Fit a piping bag with an open star nozzle
7. Put the piping bag into a stand or pint glass
8. Fill with all three colours
9. Squeeze down the buttercream and twist the bag at the top to stop buttercream coming out
10. Starting in the middle of the cupcake, squeeze out a large star shape
11. Then, from the outside squeeze the buttercream out and go around the outside of the star twice and into the middle
12. Stop squeezing and pull away
13. Using halves of Matchmakers press them into the sides of the buttercream swirl to create a ‘bonfire’ look

Store in a cool, dry room in a cake/cupcake box and enjoy within 2-3 days!

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!

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

Happy baking!

Britt xo

The post Bonfire Cupcakes appeared first on She Who Bakes.

This is because the type of allergy I have unfortunately developed is to uncooked egg proteins. If you get an egg and throw it in a pan for a few minutes it will very probably make me sick, but if you bake it at a high temperature for a longer period of time (as you do in baking and also known as ‘baked’ egg), the higher temperature changes the nature of the proteins enough that my body can tolerate them. Which is pretty cool.

Basically it means that eggs in my breakfast is a no (unless I just have cake for breakfast), but eggs in baking are thankfully a yes!

Laying hen farm. High Park Wall Farm. Barnard Castle. Co. Durham. United Kingdom.

Eggs play such a big role in traditional baking. The fats and proteins in eggs provide flavour, create structure and stability to cakes, add moisture, bind biscuits and cookies, help thicken and emulsify sauces and custards, act as a glue or glaze and even create delicate meringues.

But have you ever really thought about where your eggs come from and what kind you are using in your kitchen?

When I first started baking (and didn’t really know what I was doing) I was using the cheapest ingredients, and to be honest with you, this included using caged eggs. I’m not proud of it now but back then I couldn’t see a difference between the stacks of similarly shaped egg boxes in the supermarket, except for the price. I’d heard of ‘free range’ and ‘high welfare’ eggs but I didn’t really understand what that meant for me, my bakes, or for the chickens.

As my knowledge of baking and the importance of quality ingredients grew, but I learned about the truth of ‘caged eggs’.

The tiny spaces the chickens are confined to sometimes for their entire life makes living conditions uncomfortable and even physically painful. Having such a poor quality of life is not only cruel and unfair, but of course, it impacts the quality of eggs they are able to lay.

When the hens are looked after and cared for properly, given room to roam around, fresh air as well as decent food and living conditions, the eggs they lay are naturally more nutritious and tasty (based on research by Compassion in World Farming on the nutritional value of higher welfare eggs vs. battery/ caged hens. The main benefits seem to be more omega-3, antioxidants and Vitamin E). They are generally deeper in the colour of the yolk and richer with a buttery flavour which makes for a much better and more consistent bake.

But sadly, around 50% of egg laying hens in the UK are still kept in battery cages.

So how can you be sure you’re buying good quality, high welfare eggs?

There are a number of phrases and logos to look out for on packages. The Lion Mark that you see on most eggs shows you that they were laid in Britain and that they keep to food safety standards. Free-range, ‘woodland’ and barn are all phrases you will see on egg boxes, but to know that the chickens have truly been looked after, you need to look out for the RSPCA Assured logo as well.

RSPCA Assured is an ethical food label dedicated to farm animal welfare. It sends assessors and farm livestock officers out to the farms to make sure that they meet strict welfare standards, which lays out the kind of food, shelter and environment that the chickens must have access to. This includes things like plenty of space, perches and litter for dustbathing and foraging.

Once the assessors are sure the farm is following these practices to give the chickens their best life, the eggs are given the special RSPCA Assured mark. This mark can be found on 90% of non-caged eggs sold in the UK, and 50% of all UK eggs, so they are very easy to get hold of. They are only just pennies per egg more than the low quality, low welfare alternatives.

L to R: Graham Atkinson (Contract Supplies Manager, Noble Foods), Stuart Richardson (farmer), Rob Howorth (Freedom Food Assessor). Laying hen farm. High Park Wall Farm. Barnard Castle. Co. Durham. United Kingdom.

I stopped buying caged eggs many years ago and I believe that my bakes have vastly improved in quality and taste since then. As someone who buys eggs regularly as a baking ingredient, it’s important to me to buy the right ones and doing so gives me a sense of doing something good. By buying higher welfare eggs and spending our money wisely, we can all show large corporations (retailers, farmers and the food industry) that happy hens are important to us as consumers.

I implore every baker out there to do their own independent research when it comes to where their ingredients come from and the ethics and welfare standards which surround them. If I could go back in time and use higher welfare eggs sooner, I would.

Happy hens lay better quality eggs, which make better quality bakes. Better for you, better for the chickens.

Happy baking!

Britt xo

Laying hen farm. High Park Wall Farm. Barnard Castle. Co. Durham. United Kingdom.

This is a sponsored post in partnership with RSPCA Assured.  All views and opinions are my own.

The post The Importance Of Using Quality Eggs In Baking appeared first on She Who Bakes.

It requires a little patience and preparation but can save you a lot of time in the long run allowing you to bake ahead of schedule, perfect for a large orders, weddings and parties.

Also, flash freezing fruit cakes is a quick way of ‘maturing’ it! Well, the defrosting process is. If I bake a fruit cake and don’t have months to let it come to it’s best, a quick overnight trip to the freezer does the job!

You will be able to freeze most cakes. I find that madeira cakes (and their chocolate and lemon counterparts) freeze wonderfully without too much hassle, as do most cakes with a high fat content. It is very important that once your cakes are baked, you leave them to cool completely. If they are still warm this will create condensation which can cause cakes to get the dreaded ‘soggy bottom’.

Once they are cooled, it’s also important to wrap them well, otherwise they may get very dry when frozen (freezer burn isn’t tasty), which isn’t what we want. I find the best way to do this for sponge cakes is two layers of cling film and then a tight layer of foil. However for fruit cakes, I tend to use a layer of greaseproof paper and then a tight layer of foil.

It’s also ideal to freeze cakes that you plan to carve, mainly because the crumb structure is more solid so it will keep it’s shape better and there’s less chance of it crumbling when shaping and crumb coating.

If you are freezing cupcakes, firstly make sure to bake them in greaseproof or foil cases as this will prevent the dreaded peeling cases when you defrost them, (for more cupcake troubleshooting, check out my other blog post here) then pop them in a sandwich bag and make sure they have enough space on the freezer shelf and they aren’t squashed.

Here’s a few key hints and tips that will help you chill your bakes;

• Freeze naked! I find to get best results, freeze cakes and cupcakes un-iced and before you split them to fill them. This will stop them going dry and also stop any frosting and icing ‘sweating’ over your cake when it’s defrosting.
• Take your cake or cupcakes out of the freezer a few hours (preferably overnight) before you plan to decorate them. This will ensure they have fully defrosted.
• To defrost, leave on the kitchen side and not in the fridge. Also, I take off the layer of tin foil but leave it wrapped in cling film.
• Make sure they are fully defrosted before decorating as again, this can also cause condensation and promote mould growth.
• Don’t freeze for longer than three months. Everything has a shelf life and I find if you leave it longer than this, the cake is simply past its peak. Anytime before this will taste fine, however.
• Label and date your cakes. This is good practice for all food health and hygiene. Pop on a little sticker saying what it is and when you put it in.
• Putting your cake back in the tin once wrapped then putting the whole thing in the freezer can help it keep its shape if you’ve got quite a ‘busy’ freezer.

Does a frozen cake taste different? I honestly would say no. I’ve tried all manner of cake over the years and I have never been able to taste a difference if a cake has been frozen or not, some argue that it actually makes it taste better! If you’re unsure, give it a practice run. Any excuse to enjoy a slice of cake!

Give it a go and let me know how you get on, either on Facebook or Twitter or Instagram.

If you want to turn your baking hobby into a career, check out my ebook How To Start A Cake Business From Home for everything you need to know about running a successful baking business, including pricing, marketing, insurance and much more!

Happy baking!

Britt xo

The post How To Freeze Cakes appeared first on She Who Bakes.

For a bit of inspiration, check out my below recipe and tutorial video ‘Four Ways To Decorate An Easter Egg Cookie with Renshaw Baking​’ including my best no-spread sugar cookie recipe!

Happy baking!

Britt xo

The post Renshaw Baking’s Recipe of the Month appeared first on She Who Bakes.

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

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!

Happy baking!

Britt xo

The post World Nutella Day appeared first on She Who Bakes.

This is something I’m immensely proud of and so, so happy! There’s an interview with me in the magazine as well as one of my popular recipes.  Thank you so much to each and every one of you who reads my blog and bakes my recipes. Your support and love mean the world to me.

I love being She Who Bakes and sharing my baking knowledge with everyone who wants to pick up a mixing bowl!

Happy baking!

Britt xo

The post Brilliant Baking Magazine appeared first on She Who Bakes.

You can come and watch me, ask lots of questions, see how I work in my kitchen and the best part is, you can bake a long at home!

The live video will be me making the bake and then I will post a picture when it’s cooled and out of the oven!

The ingredients you will need to do it with me at home are;

• 250g milk chocolate
• 125g unsalted butter
• 250g caster sugar
• 300g plain flour
• 4 eggs
• pack of Bourbon Biscuits

You’ll also need;

• Bake ingredients
• 10″ x 8″ tin (a brownie tin will also work!)
• Greaseproof paper
• Scissors & pencil
• Cake release (spray, tub, tube, whatever you’ve got!)
• Silicone pastry brush
• Big spoon/spatula
• Sandwich bag
• Rolling pin/ something to bash biscuits with
• An oven!

I look forward to seeing you there!

Britt xo

The post Facebook Live Bake-A-Long! appeared first on She Who Bakes.

It’s a perfect staple recipe for all occasions. It’s easy to customise, great to ice and decorate and lends itself to freezing too, oh and it’s delicious!

This Saturday 4th June at 11am GMT I will be baking this recipe live on my Facebook page!

You can come and watch me, ask lots of questions, see how I work in my kitchen and the best part is, you can bake a long at home! I will be making a 7″ round vanilla madeira cake over the course of the day.

The first live video will be me baking the cake and then I will go back on live an hour and a half later when it’s baked so you can see the steps I take next to ensure a flat top and how to keep it moist and fresh for when you want to decorate it!

The ingredients you will need to do it with me at home are;

• 200g self raising flour
• 200g caster sugar
• 200g Stork/butter
• 50g plain flour
• 4 medium eggs
• 1 tsp vanilla

You’ll also need;

• Cake ingredients
• 7″ round tin
• Greaseproof paper & cling film
• Scissors & pencil
• Cake release (spray, tub, tube, whatever you’ve got!)
• Silicone pastry brush
• Big spoon/spatula
• An oven!

I also recommend using a stand mixer for this as I will be, but a hand mixer is also good!

I look forward to seeing you there!

Britt xo

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