Beer Bucket Birthday Cake

So yesterday was my brother's eighteenth. When you think eighteen, what comes to mind? Alcohol? Well it did for me and my sister so we decided to go along those lines for his birthday cake. How do you make a non-alcoholic alcohol cake? Well this is what we came up with...

I was on cake making duty.

We used the book below for our cake recipe. It's a fantastic book with loads of creative cookie dough ideas. The only problem is the measurements are in in 'cups' or 'sticks' and here in Britain that isn't how we like our recipes. I've put the 'British translation' of this recipe below. 

We knew that we had to make a slightly bigger cake than the given recipe so I'll put the ingredients below as I used them rather than what the book says. 

Click here to buy the book

What I used for the cake:

• 576g plain flour
• 2 1/4 tbsp baking powder 
• 150g granulated sugar
• 300g light brown sugar 
• 226g softened unsalted butter
• 300ml milk (1 1/4) cups milk
• 2 eggs
• 6 egg whites
• 2 tsps vanilla extract
• 
  

What I did: 

• Turn the oven onto fan 180 degrees Celsius and prepare 9 inch cakes tins
• Mixed all of the dry ingredients together (butter goes in here)
• In a separate bowl beat all the wet ingredients together
• Slowly pour in the wet mixture into the dry mixture - mixing it all together as you go along
• Bake for 25-30 minutes. 
• Leave to cool

• Once cooled, stack your cakes up and using a sharp knife, cut a round hole in all but the bottom layer - make sure your beer bottles will fit (recipe). Take out the centre and then take the cakes apart again.

What I used for the cookie dough: 

• 173g softened unsalted butter
• 100g granulated sugar
• 110g light brown sugar
• Add a bit of milk if it doesn't get to the consistency of a spread.
• 1tsp vanilla extract
• 70g plain flour
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 100g mini chocolate chips

What I did: 

• Mix all the ingredients together until it has the same consistency of chocolate spread.
• Evenly layer the top of each of your cakes (except the top one) with cookie dough but do not stack them up quite yet.

What I used for the ganache:

•  90g dark chocolate
• 175g double cream

What I did: 

• Boil water in a saucepan and put your chocolate in a heatproof glass bowl
• When the water is boiled bring it down to a low heat and melt the chocolate
• After the chocolate is all melted add the cream and stir until everything is mixed together

• I let it cool a bit and then evenly layer the ganache over each level of cookie dough.
• Now stack the cakes back up
• Place in fridge - cold cakes are easier to frost

Now that the cake is ready to be decorated and the chocolate bottles are chilling in the fridge. We both set about to turn this cake into the beer bucket.


What we used to decorate:

• Betty Crocker's chocolate fudge butter cream 
• 500g grey fondant rolled out
• edible silver paint 
• Chocolate beer bottle
• Paper beer labels
• 115g whipped cream  

What we did:

• Cover the outside of the cake with butter cream frosting and use a palette knife or a normal knife to make the frosting as smooth as possible (see picture above)
• Take the rolled out fondant and drape it over the cake
• Cut out the middle circle and use it to cover the inside of your bucket
• Use a rolling pin to smooth out the fondant on your cake
• Use excess fondant for the handles
• Mix your paint with a tbsp of vanilla essence and paint your bucket
• Let the paint dry and then assemble the beer bottles in the bucket

If you want to make the whipped cream look like it's coming out the bottle then this is what you do:

• Whip the cream in a bowl
• start from the open end of the beer bottle and start building the cream down the side of the cake getting wider as you get lower down the side. 
• We used a hint of yellow to give our cream the beer colour

Here is the final result. The birthday boy seemed happy with it so I'm going to consider this cake a success!

Chocolate Beer Bottles

So yesterday was my brother's eighteenth. When you think eighteen, what comes to mind? Alcohol? Well it did for me and my sister so we decided to go along those lines for his birthday cake. How do you make a non-alcoholic alcohol cake? Well this is what we came up with...

My sister was on chocolate duty so this is how she made the chocolate beer bottles.

Click here for the cake recipe 

What she used:

• 200g of plain chocolate per bottle (We had four)
• Boiling water (to melt the chocolate but it shouldn't touch the bowl)

• Plastic bottle mould (comes as two half moulds)
• Confectionery thermometer
• Glass heatproof bowl 
• Small saucepan 
• teaspoon

What she did:

Tempering chocolate is not actually as hard as it sounds...

• Boil the water for your saucepan and then keep it on a low heat on the hob 
• Put your chocolate in your glass heatproof bowl and let it melt 
• Use the thermometer to keep an eye on the heat
• When it reaches 45 degrees Celsius take it off the heat - stir every now and again.
• Stir it slowly and let it cool to 27 degrees Celsius 
• Once it reaches 27, put it back on the low heat until it reaches 29 degrees Celsius  - stir every now and again
• It's now ready to use

Eric Landlard's book pictured behind - helpful tempering tips

As you can see from the picture above, tempering chocolate gives it a nice thick, smooth and shiny look. 

What she did next:

• With a teaspoon, evenly distribute the chocolate in the mould
• Stick the two moulds together to create the bottle
• Leave it in the fridge to harden

If there are any gaps in the bottles, you can fill them in with left over tempered chocolate. It is very easy to re-melt the chocolate. 

The Theatre Cafe

A theatre lovers heaven. The whole experience reminded me of the time I saw The Book of Mormon. I was concerned that maybe I had built it up too much in my head and the actual reality would disappoint. However, much like The Book of Mormon, all my expectations were exceeded and I am sure this was just my first visit of many more. 

Located on Shaftesbury Avenue opposite Les Miserables, this cafe has everything a theatre fan could want; show memorabilia, show tunes and your aptly named drinks come in a theatre themed cup. If that isn't convincing enough, how about the iPads on every table where you can buy your theatre tickets while sipping at a cup of coffee? 

It is a relatively small cafe with small long tables but it is perfectly cosy and comfortable enough to sit in and chat for hours (I should know, I did). All the tables are covered with collages of show posters. For the avid theatre goer this is a good way to test how many shows you've actually seen and how many left you have to see. 

The staff are very friendly and efficient, they did everything that I expect from good customer service. It just has the perfect atmosphere for a West End cafe. 

Check out their website for some more information here

If you would like some suggestions for what to see in the West End (or generally in London) please check out my other blog Oh, What a Night for my theatre reviews. 

Slimming World Mac n Cheese

Macaroni and cheese is a popular dish but so heavy. In my family, we always try to be as creative as possible in our meals but with a healthier touch, sometimes we need some help. So I took this recipe from the Slimming World website and seasoned it to my family's taste. 

For anyone who follows Slimming World, this recipe is free (if you're using your healthy extra for your cheese).

'Serves 4' can sometimes be a loose term in our house and often you'll find 'serves 4' serves like two. However, this time 'serves 4' left an empty dish and four happily content people. 

So this is what I used: 

fry light

500g macaroni 

1 garlic clove (we use garlic paste so about a tsp)

1 small red onion - chopped up 

1 courgette - grated

400ml  vegetable stock

200ml cottage cheese

2 tbsp tomato puree

2 eggs

salt

pepper

herbs de Provence 

130g cheese -grated (because we didn't have any low fat or it would be 160g)

and this is what I did: 

• Cook the macaroni according the packet's instructions
•  Fry the onion with the courgette and garlic
• Mix it together with the cooked macaroni and put in an oven proof dish
• Separate bowl mix all the wet ingredients and season
• pour the wet ingredients mixture over the macaroni and mix in the cheese leaving enough for the top.
• Put the rest of the cheese on top of your dish.
• Put in over at 180 degrees Celsius for 30-40 mins
• Serve.  

I think if I made this recipe again I would try and add some extra vegetables - perhaps some tomatoes and mushrooms, maybe even sweetcorn. 

Of course we served this up with a leafy salad and some cherry tomatoes. 

The Spiralizer

When I started this blog, a friend (Thanks, Tamara!) suggested I look into this kitchen gadget called a spiralizer. After she explained to me what it was, I decided it would be a good device to own - especially as I could live off pasta. 

So after looking at a few different types we settled on one that was small enough to keep in a draw and that my mum found aesthetically pleasing. As you can see below, it's a simple device that you can stick your vegetables in and just turn them as if you were sharpening them. It comes with a brush to help clean out the bits that get stuck in the middle. The small round object with the spikes is for when you reach the end of your chosen vegetable and need to keep going without getting your fingers in the way.  

So what does it do? Well the spiralizer grates your veg into spaghetti like shapes. I tested it with a courgette and sweet potato and found the courgette really easy to do but the sweet potato was naturally much harder. I was still quite impressed with the shapes I got from both vegetables. 

It isn't the easiest thing to clean as the food can get stuck in the blades and it's a bit hard to get out but other than that no real problem with keeping it clean. 

It's a great idea if you want to make a healthier alternative to pasta and I look forward to posting the recipes I make using my spiralizer. 

It's not very expensive at £15.97 on Amazon and it's a great way to be more creative with your meals. 

Sport Huevos - Egg Shapers

Another exciting find on the Monkey Business website. Also designed by Avichai Tadmor, these tools are to be used to make your meal fun and exciting.

 

I'm not particularly a sports fan but I would be eating hard boiled eggs every day if I had one of these. In fact, I can't imagine anyone who wouldn't be excited to find a tennis ball or a football on their plate. 

The images show how simple it is to use and it also comes with straightforward instructions to make meals quick, easy and fun. They come in different colours and there are  three shapes: Footballs, golf balls and tennis balls, so something to appease every sports fan!

Currently the golf ball is the best seller.

Hopefully these egg shapers will roll their way over to the UK soon!

Karoto - Sharpener & peeler

Who says that salads just have to be a few vegetables chucked together? 

Why can't the salad be the most appealing dish on the table? 

While I was at university, this giant sharpener made its way into our home and even as a student, I found it a very helpful tool to keep in the kitchen. 

Designed by Avichai Tadmor, this giant sharpener is ideal for topping your dishes with edible designs. One end has a peeler meaning that you only really need this one item to make your salads perfect (less washing up - need I say more?) and the other end works just like a pencil sharpener. 

Just as you would with a pencil, the sharpener is big enough to fit a full sized carrot to create the lovely shape as you can see in the picture below. 

As anyone who was ever a procrastinator in school will know, you can decide just how big or small you want it to be just by turning the carrot in the sharpener. 

We managed to use parsnips as well, it looks so good and the colours of the carrots and the parsnips contrast beautifully. 

It doesn't just have to be a salad topper. Use it to spruce up any meal!

Here in the UK you can find it on Amazon for just £3.99!