Fist bump! (& a totally unrelated recipe)

[bluespirit]

How awesome is this?!
*loves*

On a completely different note:
I made chocolate tiffin the other day from this super easy recipe & it was soooo good. Yum!
Sorry - no pics as it didn't last long enough. *g*

Comments

[xanthe.livejournal.com]

You made it! LOL! Hee! I'm going to save that recipe - I thought I'd bake some cakes to take to the office on my birthday this year and this one would be a good one, along with my Auntie Dorothy's old Oaties recipe that everyone loves :-)

[bluespirit-star.livejournal.com]

Hee! I was inspired after that yummy one you had at Costa. :) It was so incredibly easy & quick, too. I did add extra raisins (cus we like them) & I only had Cadbury's Highlights not cocoa powder, but it worked fine. It is rather sweet, so I may reduce the sugar if I use the Highlights again. I think it probably needs it if you use cocoa. I used cooking chocolate, too, but I may try it with some 'real' choc next time to make it even more yummy.
I think it'll be perfect for your birthday goodies at the office. Hmmm, what's this old Oaties recipe of your Auntie D's then please? :)

[xanthe.livejournal.com]

LOL! My precious Oaties recipe is a family sekrit, but I will gladly share it with you *g*. I'll scan it and send it to you! But be warned - they are seriously moreish! One of my managers was nagging me the other day about making them again, and I had to promise I'd make them and bring them into the office before xmas - I think my birthday would be a good time.

On the subject of office baking, we're having a once a month charity event - we had our first one today - Jeans for Genes, with a raffle and cupcakes and everyone paid £2 to be able to wear jeans. Next month is pink for breast cancer, and I suggested the Royal British Legion for November. I'd like to make some poppy themed cakes - cupcakes or one big cake. I don't know! Do you have any ideas about what I could do for it? Maybe Lakeland has a tin! LOL!

[bluespirit-star.livejournal.com]

Shhhh... I promise to keep it a sekrit. *g*

I LOVE your charity events, & the RBL for Nov is perfect. You could make cupcakes with poppy seeds (lemon & poppy seed, etc) of course, but you could always make red velvet cupcakes. You could use a white frosting & then top them with a simple fondant poppy flower. If you're going to do that, I'd use a red food colouring gel as opposed to the liquid as it needs to be very strong to get the red colour.

I just checked Lakeland & couldn't see anything poppy-related. I googled 'poppy shaped baking mould' & got a few things that could help with decoration though:

http://www.etsy.com/uk/listing/123164617/flower-mold-poppy-flexible-silicone?utm_source=google&utm_medium=product_listing_promoted_en_gb&utm_campaign=supplies_low

http://www.makebake.co.uk/poppy-chocolate-transfer-sheet-x1?gclid=CJ6v7eGG2rkCFSXLtAodCwIA2w

Now I want to make poppy-themed cakes! *g*

[xanthe.livejournal.com]

Lol! Your poppy themed cakes will probably be better than mine! Thanks for googling those! Having looked at them, I was thinking that I should either make one big cake with white fondant icing and a big red poppy on it (no idea how to do that though!) OR I could bake smaller cupcakes (love the red velvet idea!) and do a smaller poppy on each cake in fondant icing. The big one would have more impact I think. Can you just ice any cake with fondant icing? I think a red poppy on white icing would look spectacular - maybe I could buy red fondant icing and make a template for the poppy? I could make the cake a red velvet cake inside...ooh, ideas! You'll have to help me figure it all out! LOL!

[bluespirit-star.livejournal.com]

It's my understanding that you can ice any fruit or sponge cakes with fondant (although I've only iced a lemon sponge so far but I do plan to make a fruit cake for Xmas & ice that. *g*)
If you want to ice sponge you need to cover it in buttercream icing first & I also spread a layer of warmed, seedless jam over it, too - to help the fondant icing to stick. If you're not sure about rolling out fondant, you can by the pre-rolled stuff. Though I rolled my own & found it a lot easier than I'd thought. You can buy already coloured fondant in loads of colours - so you could buy red for the petals & even black icing for the centre of the poppy & green for some leaves. :)
One larger cake with white icing & then a big poppy does sound lovely. Yes, I'd draw out a simple template & use that to cut the poppy, if I were you.
Yay for baking!