Merry Christmas!

Merry Christmas to all of our customers, we hope that you all have a fun filled Christmas and a safe and happy New Year. 

We look forward to seeing you all in 2014.

We're still here...

Phew! We made it, it's Christmas Eve and we've finally been able to switch off the oven, put the icing away and relax for, well a little while anyway. It's been a hectic month but a fantastic one too, plenty of Christmas baking a few birthday's thrown in too. We've absolutely loved it!

Here are a few pictures and posts of what we have been up to this month.

At the start of December we supported two charities one for Dementia and Crossroads Care. We supplied lots of treats to raise money for two very important causes.

Check out our naughty chocolate, cherry and
amaretto cupcakes, Christmas cake samples and mince pies with a delicious rich almond pastry.

We were so proud to support the Huddersfield WI
Tea and Tarts by providing their cake for their
forties themed Christmas party, "Blitz Blast and Ration Book Supper." We provided a two tier fruit cake decorated with a fiery London skyline, bomb, planes and searchlights.

Christmas Cake - Order Yours Now!

Make sure that you have your Christmas cake order in before the 29th November 2013.

 

E-mail us here at kissmecakebakery@gmail.com or contact us via our Facebook page.

Prices start from just £15 and you can choose icing and marzipan toppings to a plain fruit cake with almonds.

Decorations start from just £4.

If you're not a big fan of fruit cake, why not order some of our other festive treats:

• Chocolate Orange Cake - £20
• Festive Brownies - squidgy chocolate brownies with cranberries, a hint of orange zest and white chocolate chips and laced with brandy...naughty but very, very nice! - £15
• Gingerbread cupcakes - £13 for a box of 6
• Gingerbread cookies, chocolate or plain. - £5 a bag
• Chocolate and Amaretto Fudge - £4 a bag
• Chocolate and Vanilla Fudge - £4 a bag
• Iced Novelty Cupcakes £4 per cupcake or £20 for a box of 6
• Flavoured cupcakes - Lemon drizzle, Chocolate, Cherry and Amaretto, Strawberry and Vanilla, Double chocolate and Chocolate Orange. £13 for a box of 6

We can also create you a fabulous Kiss Me Cake hamper filled with lots of treats to make Christmas extra special. Prices start from £25 and you can choose from the above treats. 

Spoooooooky Cakes!

It's Halloween folks and there's nothing better than creating some scary cakes to impress everybody with! Phoebe threw a spooky Halloween party on Saturday and we baked up some terrifying treats. Have a look at our frightening fancies...

Meringue ghosts and vampire fangs...filled with blood (ok jam!)

Messy but sooo delicious - Salted caramel chocolate cake

 

Spiced pumpkin cupcakes with chocolate spiders

And how about this amaaazing wedding cake somebody shared with us...how much fun would a Halloween wedding be? 

 http://cakesdecor.com/cakes/68322

Make some chocolate spiders

To make some chocolate spider decorations just simply melt dark chocolate over a pan of water. Once melted, place in the fridge for a few minutes until the chocolate thickens slightly. Place in a piping bag with a small round nozzle on the end and pipe spots on to a sheet of grease-proof paper. Next pipe legs and then place in the fridge until the chocolate has set hard. Once set the spiders should be easy to remove from the paper and ready to decorate your Halloween cakes and desserts. Sprinkle with a bit of glitter to make them shine...eeeeeeeeeeeeeek!

Happy Halloween...mwahahahahahahahah!

Wentworth Woodhouse Wedding Fair

The very first wedding fair at Wentworth Woodhouse was an exciting event! We packed up our cakes and headed over to one of the most beautiful venues in South Yorkshire. Hidden away among the trees is Pemberley! OK so not really Pemberley but Wentworth wouldn't have been out of place in Pride and Prejudice, especially with Mr Darcy emerging from the lake in his wet shirt! 

Wentworth Woodhouse was such a beautiful setting for the wedding fair and we felt so privileged to be taking part. So many different exhibitors were there and it was fantastic to take a wonder around the beautiful interiors and look at some of the talent that was on display. Our favourites were a giant Ferrero Rocher heart, a beautifully set dining table and a giant chocolate fountain display...all unsurprisingly linked to food and chocolate! We shared the room with several cake exhibitors but the competition was healthy as we all seemed to bring something different to offer the Brides and Grooms. It was great to speak to other cake decorators and take some inspiration away.

For Wentworth we created a fairy tale cake, with pink sugar roses and topped with a colour changing castle. But we absolutely loved one of the exhibitors who had taken inspiration from the grand decor of the house and incorporated it all in to her cakes with beautiful gold piping and mouldings.





It was such a wonderful day and we are extremely grateful to the Rotherham Advertiser for including us in such a fantastic event at a stunning venue. We can't wait for the next event!

The World's Biggest Coffee Morning

Events are taking place all over tomorrow...make sure you support Macmillan and pick up some coffee and cake at one of the events taking place near you.

We've made vanilla and strawberry cupcakes to help raise money at one of our local events.

http://coffee.macmillan.org.uk/Home.aspx#.UkSQ975wbIU

Cookie Kits

For your baking mad friends or family why not surprise them with a Kiss Me Cake cookie kit.






Each kit contains:

Dry cookie mix
Instructions
Edible decorations
Cookie cutter
Cookie jar

We love our chocolate gingerbread cookie kit, all you have to do is add butter and eggs. Easy! E-mail us now for prices and more details.

Kiss Me Cake Bakery will be supporting charity football match

Kiss Me Cake Bakery will be supporting the Doing It for Stuart Charity Football Match on Sunday 8th September.

For more information or to purchase raffle tickets, please contact Catherine at kissmecakebakery@gmail.com

Get a head start on Christmas!

Decorated Christmas Cupcakes - £13 for 6 or £2.50 each

We know, this wasn't something we were looking forward to posting; just the word Christmas seems ridiculously premature to be using when the summer is barely over. But, we'll just mention it quickly, plant the seed and then we promise we won't say a word until next month! 

October is the month when we start making our Christmas cakes, if you want a rich, delicious, boozy cake then it's vital that we start them so early so they can be fed with brandy up until they need to be decorated.

September is the time to start planning...

We are happy to start taking orders and queries now. Our prices start from £10. Just send us details of how many people you want the cake to feed, whether you would like your cake decorated and any dietary requirements (nut allergies, gluten free...). Our cakes come lovingly packaged and make the perfect gift or a beautiful centrepiece for your table.

Have a look at some of our cakes that customers ordered last year. 

Scandinavian Christmas Cakes - from £15

Gingerbread cupcakes - £2.00 each or £10 for a box of six

Give something a bit different this Christmas or impress your guests with some delicious treats from Kiss Me Cake Bakery. Look out on our blog and Facebook page for more Christmas gift ideas over the next few months.

Raspberry and Vanilla Cupcakes

These cupcakes were a bit of an experiment and we don't mean to boast but they are just a little bit brilliant! Light vanilla sponge, filled with a seedless raspberry jam and topped with raspberry flavoured butter cream. They are simple to make and so we are sharing our recipe with you, you lucky, lucky people. Get baking them now and let us know what you think.



Ingredients 

6ozs/150g or unsalted butter
8ozs/200g of Self raising flour
1 1/2 level teaspoons of baking powder
6ozs/150g of caster sugar
3 medium eggs
cupcake cases
1 tsp good quality vanilla extract

for the butter cream:

6oz/150g softened unsalted butter
12oz/300g sieved icing sugar
handful of fresh raspberries

Good quality raspberry jam (seedless is better)
Raspberries, sugar and edible glitter to decorate

Method

1) Pre-heat the oven to Gas mark 4/180c/350f and line your cupcake tray with the cupcake cases.

2) Place the butter in a bowl and beat until light. Next add all of the other ingredients and beat for 2 mins until the ingredients are well incorporated.

3) Scoop the mixture into your cupcake cases and bake in the oven for 20 mins or until golden brown and a skewer inserted in to the middle of the cake comes out clean. Leave to cool.

4) Whilst the cakes are cooling mix your butter cream. Soften the butter and then add the icing sugar gradually and mix until you have a light fluffy consistency.

5) Blend the raspberries and strain the mixture through a sieve to remove the seeds. Add this to your butter cream to create a natural pink colour.

6) When the cakes are cooled. Scoop out a small amount of cake from the centre and fill with raspberry jam. If you can't get seedless jam, place your jam in a sieve and stir to remove the seeds by straining it.

7) Next pipe your butter cream or smooth it on to the top of the cupcake. 

8) Add the finishing touches by mixing together a table spoon of granulated sugar with edible glitter, roll a raspberry in the sugar mixture and place on top of the cupcake. Add a mint leaf if you like to complete the decoration.

Place on a cake stand and watch these little beauties disappear before your eyes...make sure you save the biggest one for yourself. After all that hard work you deserve it!

Wentworth Woodhouse Wedding Fair 2013

We are pleased to announce that we will be at the first ever wedding fair to be held at Wentworth Woodhouse near Rotherham. 




We are so excited about this fantastic event, which will be held in such beautiful surroundings.

The event will take place on Sunday 29th September and will start at 11:00am and continues until 4:00pm. 
Entry in to the Wedding Fair is £5 and all the proceeds will be donated to the House Restoration Fund. 
Brides will receive a goody bag and there's a glass of Bucks Fizz for everyone! 

Customers can purchase cupcakes from our stand near to the end of the event and we will be giving out free samples of our delicious cakes and lots of other goodies for the bride-to-be.

For more information visit www.rotherhamadvertiser.co.uk

We hope to see you there, it's going to be fabulous! 

Huddersfield WI Hullabaloo 2013

We were thrilled to be working with the Tea and Tarts Huddersfield WI this week to help them with their 'Guess the weight of the cake' stall. We designed and donated a bespoke Kiss Me Cake creation to fit in with their Time Travel and Steam Punk theme.

Our cake was a delicious chocolate madeira cake, sandwiched with vanilla buttercream and covered in chocolate icing. It smelt truly amazing, and seen as chocolate (in our opinion) is good for you it was extremely healthy too. We decided to make a time travelling top hat, complete with goggles, clock cogs and a pocket watch. We used textured icing with a pattern for parts of the cake and finally we were able to put our airbrush to use by creating a leather effect on the chocolate icing.

The lucky people to win our creation were Dave and Nicola from Huddersfield who guessed the correct weight of the cake at 2.8kg. Well done!

The Tea and Tarts Hullabaloo takes place every year, usually in Greenhead Park. This year they had live music, silly sports with the Laura Crane Youth Cancer Trust, The Tearoom at the End of the Universe (how fantastic!), craft stalls, make and do stalls and lots more endless fun and entertainment.

You can read about the Hullabaloo here http://www.teaandtarts.ukpeople.com/hullabaloo_2013.html

That's our kind of event and we were thrilled to be a part of it...well done ladies!

Pink Grapefruit Drizzle Cakes

This is such a simple recipe. You just throw all of the ingredients in to a bowl and mix away! Grapefruit can be an acquired taste, but these are nice, fresh and summery and leave your mouth with a pleasant tingle of grapefruit. Why not have a go:





Ingredients

200g unsalted butter (softened)
250g caster sugar
3 medium sized eggs
finely grated zest of 1 pink or red grapefruit
250g self raising flour
1/2 level teaspoon of baking powder
100ml milk
12 muffin cases
pink food colouring (optional)

For the syrup

100g caster sugar
juice of 1/2 grapefruit
zest of 1/4 grapefruit

For the topping

150g of icing sugar
juice of 1/2 grapefruit
zest of 1/4 of a grapefruit

Method 


Preheat the oven to gas mark 4/180c/350f. Put the butter, sugar, eggs, grapefruit zest into a large bowl. Sift the flour and baking powder on top of the other ingredients and then add the milk. Blitz all the ingredients together with an electric whisk or food mixer until all the ingredients are incorporated and smooth. Divide the mixture in to two portions and colour one portion pink.

Spoon half of the pink mixture into the muffin cases and top with the plain mixture then bake in the oven for 20 minutes and the cakes are golden brown. Check they are cooked through by inserting a skewer or cocktail stick in the middle, if it comes out clean the cakes are done!

Whilst the cakes are baking mix the caster sugar and grapefruit juice and zest to make a syrup. When the cakes are ready place them on a cooling tray with a sheet of greaseproof paper underneath. Prick the top of each cake with a cocktail stick and spoon the syrup over the cake to allow it to soak in to the holes. Leave to cool.

Whilst the cakes are cooling sieve the icing sugar and then add the juice and zest. You may find you need more icing sugar but the icing should be the consistency of pouring cream. Once the cakes have cooled drizzle your icing over the top of each cake and allow to set before serving. Yummy!

A Corporate Cake

We were very excited this month to be working with Getech in Leeds as they launched their new branding. We were set the challenge of recreating their logo in cake. It looks like a simple challenge when you first see the logo, but we soon found this was going to be a real test of skill and patience.

Each contour of colour needed to be higher than the other, meaning the middle of the logo would be the lowest point and the furthest contour away from the centre the highest. We were also asked if the cake could be two different flavours, one chocolate and one lemon.

Applying the icing was the trickiest part, on one of the hottest days of the year it was difficult to keep the icing at just the right temperature. Applying the strips of icing to make up the logo was proving to be a real challenge as the icing became too warm and began to break as we moved it. But we persevered, kept the kitchen as cool as possible and finally we managed to get the cake finished and looking like the Getech logo.

It was hard work but extremely satisfying once we had finished the cake and the feedback from Getech was well worth taking on the challenge for...even the founder of Getech commented that our cake "cut like butter!" Brilliant...that's what we like to hear!

Mojito Cupcakes

When the sun is shining there's nothing better than a nice cool cocktail. A Mojito has to be one of our favourites for sipping beneath the garden umbrella. Naturally we had to bake up these little lovelies to enjoy in the sun.

They absolutely taste like Mojitos, the sponge is light with a hint of lemon and lime zest and then a kick of fresh mint. Whilst the sponge is still warm we poured a syrup of sugar and rum over and then left to cool. Finally we piped a swirl of buttercream on to the top made with butter, icing sugar, lemon and lime zest and a shot of rum. A cocktail isn't a cocktail without a bit of sparkle so we mixed lime zest with sugar and edible glitter and sprinkled on the top of the cupcake and topped with a mint leaf...delicious!

These cupcakes are perfect for parties, they always get a good reaction when brought out on a nice
elegant cake stand. Unsurprisingly these don't last very long! Cake and alcohol, what could be better?

E-mail us and we can supply a selection of cocktail flavoured cupcakes for your next soiree!

Soda Pop Cupcakes

Look out for our new soda pop cupcakes...here's a sneak preview of our Dandelion and Burdock cupcakes, they may sound strange but they taste yummy! Watch this space for Ginger Beer, Lemonade and Fizzy Orange cupcakes coming very soon.

Chocolate, Cherry and Mascarpone Cake

This is a really easy recipe and a simple cake to bake for an occasion or for afternoon tea. The triple layers of chocolate sponge sandwiched between thick mascarpone cream and cherry jam make this a really indulgent cake.







Ingredients

6oz/150g of unsalted butter
8oz/200g of Self raising flour
1 1/2 level teaspoons of baking powder
6oz/150g caster sugar
3 medium eggs
3 tbsps. milk
3 tbsps. of cocoa blended with 3 tbsps. hot water (cooled slightly)

250g Mascarpone cheese
300ml whipping cream
Cherry Jam
Fresh cherries to decorate (optional)
Edible glitter (optional)


Method

1) Pre-heat the oven to gas mark 4 (180c)

2) Grease and line 3 shallow round cake tins with greaseproof paper.

3) Beat the butter until light and fluffy.

4) Add all of the ingredients to a bowl and beat with a hand mixer for 2 minutes.

5) Divide the mixture evenly between the trays and place in the oven for 20-25 minutes or until cooked through and springy.

6) Next place the mascarpone and whipping cream in a bowl and whip until firm. Place in the fridge.

7) When the sponges have cooled start to assemble your cake. Top one layer with a thick layer of mascarpone cream and then spoon on a generous amount of cherry jam. Repeat the layers saving some of the mascarpone cream to decorate the top of the cake. Sprinkle with edible glitter and top with fresh cherries.

This cake needs to be cut into very large slices, forget about the diet...remember we have a separate stomach for dessert and cake!

Mich Turner's Rose Cake

This weekend we were asked to make Mich Turner's rose cake to help celebrate a fortieth wedding anniversary. We adapted it to include yellow roses as the bride carried yellow roses on her wedding day. This cake is four layers of vanilla madeira cake and is sandwiched with a deliciously fruity strawberry jam and vanilla buttercream. We used different shades of yellow buttercream to pipe roses around the cake. Beautiful! This is the perfect cake to celebrate any occasion.

Look out for our demos coming soon to learn how to pipe the perfect buttercream rose. Have a look at our rose cupcake tower, each cupcake has been lovingly piped with a beautiful buttercream rose and finished with a sprinkling of glitter. Simple yet so effective and perfect for a wedding or to give as favours to your guests.

Summer Strawberry and Vanilla Cupcakes

The sun is shining, the garden furniture has been dusted off so it's time to hold an al-fresco tea party! Our Summer Strawberry and Vanilla cupcakes are the simplest and prettiest things to make to serve with tea and a glass of fizz. Try out our easy recipe the next time you need to impress your guests.

Ingredients

150g/6oz of Butter (softened)
200g/8oz Self Raising flour (sifted)
1 1/2 level teaspoons of baking powder
150g/6oz Caster Sugar
3 medium eggs
3 tablespoons of milk
2 teaspoons of vanilla essence

Large cupcake or muffin cases x 12
Muffin tray

300ml Whipping cream
Strawberry Jam (good quality)
Strawberries

Optional to decorate
Mint leaves
Edible glitter
Icing sugar

Method
Heat the oven to 180c or Gas Mark 4

1. Start by beating the butter until light and fluffy.

2. Next add the sugar

3. Sift the flour and baking powder in to the bowl

4. Beat the eggs together and add to the bowl

5. Add the milk and vanilla essence

6. Beat the ingredients together with a hand mixer for 2 -3 minutes. Arrange your cupcake cases in the muffin tray and spoon the mixture in to each case. Put the cupcakes in to the oven and bake for 25 minutes or until golden on top and a skewer inserted in to the middle of the cake is clean when removed.

7. Next whisk the cream until whipped and fluffy and place in the fridge.

8. When the cakes are ready, place them on a wire rack to cool completely.

9. When cool, cut out the middle of the cupcakes carefully to make a deep hole in the middle. Place a teaspoon of jam in each cupcake and spoon or pipe the cream in until the hole is full and some of the mixture is on top of the cupcake. 

10.Dust each cupcake with icing sugar. 

11. Next slice your strawberries in half and decorate the cupcake, sticking them to the excess cream on top. Decorate the strawberries with edible glitter and a mint leaf. Arrange on a pretty plate or cupcake stand...doilies are optional. 

Now relax in the garden amongst the flowers with a cupcake and a glass of fizz, whilst your guests worship you and your baking skills. Enjoy!

Creating a Dream Cake

One of our favourite challenges was our Snow White Cake. It was created for a 21st Disney themed birthday party and the birthday girl was going to be dressed as Snow White. We were given free reign over the design of the cake, the only request was that the cake needed to be made out of carrot cake.

A vanilla sponge with a core of strawberry jam iced with red sugarpaste

We contemplated various cake designs, a fairy tale castle seemed too obvious so we thought it would be a good idea to create a giant poisonous apple to compliment the birthday girls costume. We set out by creating a very, very rough sketch which involved a rectangle and a circle and then built the design around this.

Here's Phoebe. We painted the apple effect with red food colouring and edible gold dust, before leaving it overnight to dry.
 

The base of the cake was a delicious carrot cake, iced in pale green sugarpaste and decorated with edible leaves. The leaves were cut out, printed with a veiner and moulded before leaving overnight to harden. We then decorated the leaves with green, gold and silver dust. The vines were painted on to the cake with a mixture of green food colouring and vodka and then edged in gold.

A mixture of edible glue and sugarpaste helps the leaves to stay stuck on to the cake.

 Here's Catherine, painting the apple. Once the colour had dried we glazed the apple with sieved jam and then added some sparkle with a touch of edible red glitter.

A sugarpaste stalk and a flower paste leaf completed the apple and it was carefully lifted on to the base of the cake and secured with dowel rods to ensure the cake did not sink. A flourish of edible fairy dust added a magical shimmer to the completed cake.

 
Here we are with the cake...all ready for the ball!

Our cake took centre stage on the buffet table at the party.

Very naughty Chocolate, Amaretto and Raspberry Brownies

These brownies are so good and very, very naughty! But then it's ok to have a naughty little treat every now and again and if it's for a special occasion well then even better...these little babies will go down a treat with your friends and family. Forget about the calories, once you smell them baking in the oven you'll forget that they are slightly sinful and you'll feel like a wonderful, domestic goddess instead. They are also great for winning over your other half...they'll worship you after one bite!

Ingredients

250g unsalted butter
200g chocolate (70% cocoa)
80g cocoa
65g plain flour (sifted)
360g caster sugar
1tsp baking powder
4 large eggs
small pack of fresh raspberries
4ml of Amaretto
100g sliced almonds

Method

Pre-heat your oven to 180c/450f or gas mark 4. Grease and line a square baking tin with greaseproof paper.

1. Melt the butter and chocolate in a bowl placed over a pan of hot water.

2. Whilst the other ingredients are melting mix the cocoa, flour , sugar and baking powder together in a separate bowl.

3. Wash the raspberries carefully and tip on to some kitchen roll to absorb any water.

4. Beat the eggs together and put to one side.

5. When the butter and chocolate has melted, take off the heat and add 4ml of Amaretto to the mixture and stir. Add the butter, chocolate and Amaretto to the dry ingredients and stir thoroughly until all the ingredients are combined.

6. Pour in the beaten eggs and mix in well until you have a shiny, silky mixture.

7. Pour the mixture into the baking tin and then carefully drop the raspberries into the mixture making sure they are spread out evenly and covered in the chocolate (try not to stir them in or they will break up and you want to keep them whole.)

8. Sprinkle the almonds over the top and place into the pre-heated oven for 25 minutes.

9. After 25 minutes check your brownies, the outside should be crisp, the inside should be slightly soft and almost gooey. Stick a skewer or knife in the top, if it comes out covered in mixture leave for 5 minutes and check again, the knife/skewer should be almost clean.

10. Leave to cool slightly in the tin, then very carefully turn out on to a cooling rack and allow to cool completely before cutting.

Serve on their own or with some really good vanilla ice cream. Yummy!

You are now a smug cake goddess!

Cake, Hope and Charity

Well done to Waterstone's New Street in Huddersfield who have been supporting the Children's Reading Fund by holding a bake sale amongst the books today to raise money for an important cause. The Children's Reading Fund targets disadvantaged children by giving them the opportunity to engage  more with reading and writing. With our help by donating to the Children's Reading Fund more children will get a better chance in their education and the potential of so many disadvantaged children can be discovered.

The lovely Waterstone's Booksellers at New Street cooked up a storm. Let's hope that their display of beautiful cakes will have been far too tempting for their customers and plenty of money will have been raised for this very important charity.

To read more about the charity and how you can support it visit http://www.booktrust.org.uk/support-us/childrens-reading-fund/ 

Cake makes everything better!