And a whole lot more baking.....

It's all I seem to do at the moment...... bake.....not that I'm complaining, it's just that I'd like to ease up on the baking and make time for some sewing or crochet.

But baking it is....and always in such a frenzy inbetween those wretched seasonal colds I keep catching...now that's NOT funny!

It has been fun though...take a look at this..... cute or what!

Just look at those little toes....and the concentration!

She was mixing the sponge bit for the man-sized Bakewell Tarts.

She had already helped cut pastry circles and hearts and fill pastry cases with jam before popping hearts on top (hence she calls then Jam Hearts!  Ahhh!)

Here they all are in the oven bubbling away..... 

and here are the finished Jam Hearts!

Ta-Dah....................!

Next up were individual cakes for Twelve-Teen Daughters friends to take home after Bowling and their Strada meal.

I lined up the individual Square Bakers Moulds that I bought from Lakeland at Christmas with the cases I used in this post.  They looked about the same size as my traybake which takes the 4 egg mixture in this same post .... so I made the 4 egg chocolate mixture and split between the 8 cases.

Like this...here they are just going into the oven! MMmmm!

 And here is a Little Lady (aka Tiddly Toes) helping with the clean up operation!!  Is that a sugar high I can see in her eyes...hahahaha!

Chocolate Icing was the order of the day....apparently my recipe tastes REALLY good! 

Want to know what it is?

Well, basically, beat 80g of butter until soft, add 250g of sifted icing sugar (including 40g of chocolate powder) and 25ml (1tbs and 1 dstsp) of milk and beat together thoroughly.  It has a lovely piping consistency and tastes VERY chocolatey without being too sickly.

It pipes quite nicely even for a complete Do-do like me....icing has never been my strong point.....rustic is the way to go!    But not for these...... 

My Twelve-Teen Daughter loved butterflies before they became fashionable...so on with the butterflies!

We thought Party Pokes with the girls names on and wrapped in cellophone sealed with curling ribbon would be pretty.

What do you think?

Ready........ Ta-Dah..............!

We are ridiculously proud of these, the girls loved them.....they are quite special though, don't you think?

Well Twelve-Teen Daughter is no longer....she is a Fully Fledged Teenager (Oh my!!  The blink of an eye and there they are all grown up!)

So, guess what?

Yep, you got it....Birthday Cake!!!!!!!!!!!!!

She asked for an over-sized cup cake and luckily I found a silicone mould in theworks for only £6!!

Wasn't sure the 4 egg mixture from here (again!) would be enough so I added 50% and made it a 6 egg mixture.

Here it is baking nicely....just needed to turn it so I grabbed a quick photo.

Once cooled, sandwiched together with apricot jam and buttercream (same recipe as above but no chocolate powder just the full 250g of icing sugar and half a teaspoon of vanilla essence instead).

Buttercream on top and yet MORE butterflies!  She loved it..... it tasted good...what more could a Mum ask for?  A big hug and thanks were mine!  Not all Teenage angst then?

Want to see.......

Oh go on then..........

Ta-Daaaaaaahh!................

Golly!  It's been a real Bake-a-Thon recently.  I'm quite giddy with it all.  Now maybe I can move on to some other kind of making!

Hope to see you soon, N x