ALet me know how you get on Siany.

I'm going to make a 10"?later , the start of my 8 cakes!!

AHi Maisie, I paid £13.99 for mine from Amazon, I havn't used it yet but thats a good tip, because,with me for forsake I always seem to find a hard way yo do things. How you doing anyway? You ok?

ASiany, I'm the same, I over think things. This is an easy way though.

To alter things slightly for you, when I want an 8' round, I use 3 tins and make a 12 oz mix, 3 sandwich tins I mean, so It resembles a Victoria jam and cream sponge, but the extra layer gives a really good height.

A

oh that's a good tip. I want to get in the kitchen now but I know my husband will get up as soon as I do and want to make his breakfast lol

Morning All 

 

I didn't get a chance to get my airbrush out on the cake lace yesterday but definitely will today.

 

Siany my partner is exactly the same as soon as I'm in the kitchen he wants to come out and get in my way  that's why I bought a little table from Ikea an put it in the spare room so when I'm making things out of SP I can have a bit of peace.  

A[IMG]http://cakecentral.com/content/type/61/id/3240974/width/200/height/400[/IMG]

I just thought I'd have a look at the quantities in my book for vanilla sponge and they are way higher than your book Nanny. For an 8 inch square it used 700grm of everything and 14 eggs. That's a whole lotta egg lol

A14 eggs for an 8 inch? That's a very eggs cake haha.

For anyone who might find it useful I like this guide...http://www.thecakemakery.co.uk/images/celebration-cake-recipe-grams.jpg

Makes a nice moist, quite heavy cake that is good for stacking and carving and lasts ages. I always find it takes a lot longer to cook that it says though but that could just be my oven. The chocolate type is good too but not tried the coffee (I hate coffee!) You have to put slightly less flour in the chocolate one then it says otherwise it comes out a little dry.

Hope someone finds it useful.

That is a lot siany, I've just looked in my book and for an 8" square it says 450g Sr flour and 400g everything else. Funny how they're all different. Think I'm gonna try Nanny's one and compare it to mine.

Thanks Sugarluva I have the cost a cake app on my phone by the cake makery it tells you how much it costs to make each size cake using there recipe.

 

The recipe I use is moist and good for carving. Its very similar but uses SR flour instead of plain with baking powder.

Morning all. Does anyone use vanilla pods for their cakes and does it make a difference? I use vanilla bean paste for vanilla cakes, madagascan vanilla for everything else and that seems to work. 

sugarluva, just had a look at the link. That is an unusual recipe for choc cake using drinking chocolate and black treacle!

AMorning everyone !!

Roxylee what is the book your sponge recipe comes from ??

I'm on my running machine doing a walk warm up typing a the mo! Got to try and get back into it before holiday !!

Has anyone got a good carrot cake recipe that's good for decorating ?? Got family visiting in Aug from Australia that is their chosen cake !

Oh before I forget have all you ladies changed your Ebay password after them being hacked. I have changed my Paypal one to as they are linked just to be sure.

AI don't use vanilla pods in my cakes but I like to make vanilla sugar with them and use that. In fact I live vanilla sugar in everything is yummy. I just use a good vanilla essence in my cakes.

AOh and Jean yes I thought that at first but it's such a small amount of drinking chocolate I'm not sure what difference it makes actually. The black treacle really helps to bring the flavour out though.

Jo it is called Carol Deacon No time party cakes. It is the first book I bought when I got into cake decorating and I always end up going back to that recipe even though I try the ones out of my other books. I got it of amazon for around £2.50 second hand but looks new. 

 

Petitecat I don't normally flavour my sponge for an iced cake just flavour the buttercream, Ihave flavoured sponges though but never used vanilla pods usually just use vanilla extract.

Jo here is a link for the book I will scan the recipe for you if you want it.

http://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/184773331X/?tag=cakecentral-20+deacon+no+time+party+cakes%5D

A

Morning everyone :-)

Vanilla pods are lovely in cakes, but the one thing my hubby notices is that you get a tiny granular texture from the seeds. No-one else has ever mentioned it, and to be fair hubby is possibly the only person in the planet who's not keen on vanilla (I know I know, I should have checked before we got married :-)).

Has anyone tried making their own extract? It's really easy, and if you're using a good bought one one it's a lot cheaper and every bit as good!

I didn't know you could make your own Lizzy but would be interested in trying it if you have a recipe you would share please

AI didn't know you could make your own either lizzy. Would love to know how because store bought good ones are expensive and I use so much of it!

For anyone who is interested the Cassie Brown airbrush has been reduced to £76.95 on amazon. 

http://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B00DSNB690/?tag=cakecentral-20+brown+airbrush

AI put bean paste in mine. My first ever 8 inch square is in the oven. Fingers and everything else crossed lol

AOf course, although it's not so much of a recipe as plonking vodka and beans in a bottle!

You need to clean out a red wine bottle really well, then put in a good handful of beans, cut open but not scraped (I also use spent beans to top up every so often).

Pour in a bottle of vodka to cover the beans and reach the top of the bottle, then shake and leave for a couple of months, shaking every week or so.

You don't need to make that much btw, but I get through a ton so I make a big batch.

I know it sounds expensive as pods at the supermarket are ridiculous, but I buy the cheapest vodka I can find - usually Russian standard of similar, and I get my beans online. The last lot I bought were extract grade Madagascan and cost £18 for 500g (I used maybe a 5th for one batch). When I find a good deal on vodka it works out to under £15 for about 700ml,and is lovely.

The original recipe is here http://www.vanillamart.co.uk/recipe-for-homemade-vanilla-extract/ and this is where they sell the beans too. They do have smaller quantities if you don't fancy buying that much (or larger if you're really going for it!).

Their proper Madagascan pods are very very good too, the last time I bought it was under £8 for 20 top grade ones. In all honesty though, even the extract grade Madagascan is good, and I would use them in a pinch.

Their recipe leaves it for longer than I can wait for, so I just use a little extra bean to hurry it along and use when it looks and smells good enough to me.

It also makes fantastic vanilla vodka if you cut down on the beans ;-)

Ps - has anyone tried using Tahitian vanilla? I keep reading good things about it but haven't tried yet.

Siany did you use the amounts for the 8" square from the recipe or scale it up?

Thanks Lizzy.

ASiany, can send you the choc cake recipe and quantities if you want them. My 2nd cake is in the oven now 2.

Oooo so tempted to get the air brush.

Go on Nanny Treat yourself, think of it this way it saves in the long run because you will but less paste colours and save time colouring bits of everything. I know I'm bad encouraging you 

 

I would like to see the chocolate cake recipe please Nanny.

Petitecat did you cover you dummy in MMF how did it go?

ANot yet Roxy. Hoping to be able to do it today without constant interruption!