Your Custom Text Here
Fast forward 10 years and lots of cakes later.... and here's one I made last week for my God Daughters 4th birthday. The brief was for a pink Princess castle.
I'll have to hunt down a photo of the original fairy castle cake where it all began!
I came up with the idea of incorporating the lyrics and beautiful artwork shown above from his two newly released songs 'In My Blood' and 'Lost In Japan' as my daughter had been playing these on repeat. This is what I came up with...
Here's how I achieved this look should you wish to recreate it....
I used Flamingo Pink and Liquorice Black food colourings by Sugarflair to achieve the two main colours. I picked up a very reasonably priced lettering embosser set from Hobbycraft that matched the song title print on the official artwork.
I cut out a selection of delicate blossoms and leaves in various sizes using Almond Art and PME cutters and I handmade a rose using a 60mm FMM Rose cutter. I dusted the centre of the blossoms with a little Shimmer Pink food lustre by Sugarflair and finally I used a Rolkem super gold mixed with a little vodka to hand paint the golden lettering details I'd embossed earlier.
Shawn's eagerly anticipated 3rd album referred to as SM3 is due out on the 25th May 2018 and if his first three songs including the recently released 'Youth' featuring Khalid are anything to go by it doesn't sound like it's going to disappoint.
I may well be the newest and probably the oldest member of the Mendes Army! To celebrate this I also designed some cupcakes for Shawn's little muffins inspired by the new In My Blood music video.
When I sent the husband to the shop for mini Cadbury's creme eggs last week he found the shelves empty. It's that time of year where from the very moment the Easter goodies hit the shelves (which is straight after Christmas these days!), every organised baker starts to hoard mini creme eggs ready to bake in to brownies, cheesecakes, cakes and cupcakes. Unfortunately I am not that organised baker.
Nothing screams Easter more than baking an indulgent creme egg in to a recipe, with it's splash of white and yellow fondant yolk, adding extra chocolate, sugar, butter, biscuits and cream can only but seal the deal.
So my husband didn't return with mini creme eggs but he didn't return empty handed, he bought almost every other option available including several bags of Cadbury's Minis selection that contain lots of types of Cadbury's mini eggs including oreo, daim, dairy milk and creme eggs. Not a problem I thought! I can work with that!
Feeling like I was in an episode of Can't Cook, Won't Cook off of the 90's, I took the ingredients I had in front of me and set to work on creating an Easter Creme Egg Cheesecake Recipe. I wanted the cheesecake to mimic the sweetness of the fondant centre of the creme egg itself and by adding the secret ingredient of condensed milk, I achieved the taste I was aiming for.
Be warned this recipe is sweet. Very sweet. You definitely only need a small slice to satisfy the sweet tooth of sweet tooth's, but as my Mum use to tell me, good things come in small packages or in this case small slices! I for one will most definitely be making this one again.
CHOCOLATE FILLING
DECORATION
1) Line an 8 inch round loose bottom tin with baking paper.
2) Crush the digestive and Golden Oreo biscuits. Whether you bash with a rolling pin, use a food processor or a chopper, blitz those biscuits!
3) Melt the butter in a saucepan on the hob, remove from the heat and add your biscuit crumbs and stir until combined. This is your buttery biscuit base, pour evenly in to the lined tin, press the crumb mixture using the back of a spoon and place in the fridge to chill.
4) Chop the mini creme eggs or your preferred alternative chocolate filling into bite sized chunks.
5) Using a hand mixer, cream together the cream cheese, caster sugar and condensed milk.
6) In a separate bowl use the hand mixer to whip the double cream until it just starts to thicken.
7) Add the whipped double cream to the cream cheese and mix through on a low setting until combined. Add your chopped mini creme egg chocolate chunks and fold through the mixture until the pieces look like they are fairly evenly distributed.
8) Carefully spoon your mixture on to your biscuit base, smooth with the back of a spoon and pop back in to the fridge to chill. The cheesecake is best left to set in the fridge over night but if you cannot wait that long to face plant into it, try to leave it to set for at least 4 - 5 hours.
OPTIONAL DECORATION: If you want to give your Creme Egg Cheesecake that extra wow factor what better way is there to do it than to dress it up with strategically placed creme eggs and lashings of chocolate.
9) Once the cheesecake has chilled and is ready to be served, remove it from the tin and carefully pull away the baking paper. Carefully cut 3 large creme eggs and 2 Galaxy Caramel eggs in half. Melt the milk chocolate and the white chocolate in separate bowls. I melt my chocolate in the microwave by breaking the chocolate in to small pieces and placing in a bowl. Heat for 30 second bursts on a low setting, stirring really well in-between and repeat until smooth. To achieve a nice bright yellowy orange chocolate to match the colour of the creme egg yolk add Sugar Flair Egg Yellow food colouring to half of the white chocolate and stir.
10) Fill three disposable piping bags with the milk, white and coloured chocolate, snip off the ends one at a time and drizzle the chocolate over the cheesecake. I've gone for a bit of a haphazard tartan grid like effect, piping chocolate lines of each colour horizontally and vertically across the cheesecake. The chocolate sets rather quick on the chilled cheesecake so it's worth getting those creme egg decorations in place straight after.
11) Yay! You made it! What a clever sausage you are... now don't deny yourself, tuck in, you've earned it!
After adding the decoration I popped the cheesecake back in the fridge until it was ready to be served. Remember any recipe that includes fresh cream or cream cheese should not be left out of the fridge for any longer than 2 hours.
When I served the cheesecake later that evening the drizzled chocolate had formed a nice chocolatey cage that snapped beautifully when the serving knife cut through it.
Happy making! I'd love to hear how you got on and to see your results.... Tag me on Instagram @thecustomcakeshop, Twitter @customcakeshop
Rachel x
When I came across this Easter biscuit/cookie cutter set by Meri-Meri I fell a little bit in love with the pretty shapes. Bunny rabbits and rainbows are two of my favourite things, I couldn't wait to dust off my piping nozzles, mix up some royal icing and have a little play. Sometimes it's nice to work on a little project just because inspiration strikes, with no customer expectations or the pressures of a looming deadline.
Taking inspiration from the popular sleeping unicorn trend, I decided to opt for a dreamy sleeping bunnies design for my little fellas.
I choose a soft pastel pallet using Sugarflair food colourings in Claret, Party Green, Egg Yellow and Ice Blue to create the spring like colour schemed. The delicate gold details have been carefully piped, left to dry and then painted by hand using Sugarflair Gold Lustre mixed with a tiny amount of clear alcohol. Once the icing had dried Sugarflair Pink Shimmer Lustre has been dusted on with a dry brush to create the cute little blush on the bunnies rosy cheeks.
Once my creative juices were in full flow there was no stopping me, I couldn't resist adding a flower crown to some of the rabbits. I've decided these bunnies look like they could be off to a festival! What do you think?
