The joy of baking ... a giant flower power doughnut and ice-cream cupcakes!

Well .. here it is, my first blog post!  Wow, it felt good to say that.  I've been agonising over it for months and finally today ... with a little sun and help from my little sister my blog was born!  So what better way to start than by showcasing some of the cakes that I made this weekend.

My little sister, Giovanna, has just completed her degree (OK, not that little, but she is the youngest and therefore will remain so for me!) and asked if I could bake her a cake when she came home for the weekend.  Never to be outdone by a challenge I set about doing some "research"; if browsing YouTube can be classed as such anyway.  I always have trouble in deciding where to start, you see, I have sooo many gadgets to choose from, the Cricut Cake, various moulds not to forget my beloved KitchenAid mixer. 

If I could I would combine using them all! Recently however, I bought some Blossom SugarArt moulds and really wanted to use those on a bona-fide cake.  This is because I've been just making random flowers out of marzipan and fondant icing just for the fun of it and because I'm on a diet, forcing them on whoever crossed my path.  I don't care as long as I'm not the one eating them as I would have once-upon-a-time but that's another blog post.   Anyway, back to the cakes ... so I had one element, my blossom moulds. 

During my "research" I came across a super idea of making cupcakes in ice-cream cones! WOW! That's amazing (I am easily wowed by the way) I shouted across the lounge.  Archie, my deaf white border-collie (yet another story) was not very impressed as at my booming exclamation must have made the floorboards vibrate!  So, I started hatching a little plan ... what could I do to showcase these little gems.  Well, last year I made my little sis a giant cupcake so I couldn't do that again, wait, I'd bought a giant DOUGHNUT mould ages ago and never used it!  I have a tendency to buy things when I see them and store them away, because they'll come in handy at some point ... I love it when a plan starts to come together.  Right, I can make a huge doughnut, cover it in icing and then put some of the blossom flowers on it! Yay!  I was getting excited now.  

Back to the ice-cream cones, how could I make them more exciting.  Think, think ... ha!  Got it!  I can make them all different colours, like ice-cream flavours and put white chocolate chips in them, she loves white chocolate and they would be a further "surprise" element.  But what about the topping, we are all on diets and not too keen on the texture and flavour of buttercream icing.  American frosting was to be the answer, I love it.  It's like Fluff, soft and dreamy on the inside and form a slight crust which is perfect for keeping its shape.  Better still it's only sugar and egg whites and is a pure brilliant white shade in colour! Just like a '99'! If anyone is old enough to remember those. 

And there we have it, I set to work baking the cakes, colouring the batter, spooning it into the ice-cream cones ... oops we have a problem here! The cones are pointy!  They won't sit on the baking sheet to go into the Aga!  What to do ....  what else? Cut the bottoms off. Then what? Erm ... Tin foil the bottom and so all was not lost, with foil-bottomed cones in the oven they went.  A nervous 20 minute wait and success! Even better, the batter has slightly spilled out, colouring the outside of the cones like a melted ice-cream dribble!  I was so giddy at this point as they were looking fab! 

I set them out on a cupcake stand (bought for me by my other sister, Sara!) at which point my Dad came round to walk the dogs.  "Pe! (short for Giuseppe, don't ask!) put da ice-creams in the fridge or they will melt". Yes! They were that good!  "Dad don't worry, they are cakes".  Well ... if you could have seen the look .. just magic!  Needless to say, the cakes went down a storm and I had a lovely warm feeling which is what baking should be about!

If you like the idea of the ice-cream cupcakes and would like me to write a post on how to make them, leave me some feedback!