Raspberry Milkshake Layer Cake

I'm taking a little break from posting the Halloween Style bakes as today is Wear it Pink day!

Wear it Pink day is Breast Cancer Campaign's biggest annual fundraising event, and the idea is simple – everyone makes a donation to the charity and wears something pink to show their support. If you're feeling particularly charitable today and would like to make a donation, or to find out more, just visit www.wearitpink.co.uk

Anyway, to mark the occasion, I wanted to share this recipe for my raspberry milkshake layer cake. The reason I call it raspberry milkshake cake is because it gets it's flavour from some raspberry Crusha – the milkshake flavouring syrup.

Ingredients:

For the cake:

200g margarine

200g caster sugar

2 medium eggs

1tbsp milk

1tbsp raspberry Crusha

Pink food colouring

200g self raising flour

For the icing:

150g vegetable shortening (Trex)

400g icing sugar

2tsp vanilla extract

A little milk, if necessary

Pink food colouring

Prep time: 15 – 20 minutes

Cook time: 20 - 25 minutes

Makes 8 – 10 slices

1. Preheat the oven to gas mark 5 and grease and line three 6 inch cake tins.
2. Beat the margarine and sugar together until smooth and creamy. In a separate bowl or jug, beat the eggs, milk, raspberry milkshake syrup and pink food colouring until smooth and slightly frothy.
3. Mix a little of the wet mixture into the creamed butter and sugar, followed by a little of the flour. Repeat this process until all of the ingredients have been incorporated into a smooth batter.
4. Put even amounts of the batter into the cake tins and bake for 20-25 minutes until the cake layers are golden brown on top and springy to touch. (Please note: if you're cooking all three layers at the same time, you may find that they take different times to cook depending on which shelf they're on in the oven – just keep an eye on them and give them longer if need be!)
5. Remove the cakes from the oven and place on a wire rack to cool.
6. Once the cakes have cooled completely, make the icing. Beat the Trex, icing sugar and vanilla extract together until you have a smooth icing, adding a little milk if necessary to achieve the desired consistency. Use the icing to layer the three cakes, then spread icing evenly over the top and sides of the cake. Colour any remaining icing pink, then pipe this on top of the white icing to decorate.

Happy Thoughts
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B is for Buy N Large, Your Very Best Friend

Disney Pixar # 9 - Wall-E

I think I mentioned in the last post that I'd found it particularly tricky to come up with an idea for Wall-E, but once I had that idea, it was a bloody good one! When struggling to come up with ideas for the films, I usually fall back on one of the following three options:

1. Does any food feature in the film that could be replicated?
2. Are there and themes or images in the film that can be played on?
3. Where is it set?

Looking for food that featured in the film, I initially brushed this off - Wall-E is set in an almost post-apocalyptic future where the entire human race lives on a massive spaceship and takes all of their food in liquid form, how was I supposed to bake a liquid cake? When I later came back to this idea, I did a random google search for "cupcake shake" and found out that this was an ACTUAL THING THAT BURGER KING DID IN THE US! Cupcake flavoured milkshakes... now there's an idea.

I wasn't able to find a recipe for the Burger King cupcake shake, so I just made up my own. They were really, really tasty, but I don't even want to think about the sugar/fat/calorie content!

For the Cupcakes

Prep time: 15 minutes
Cook time: 12 - 15 minutes
Makes 10-12 cupcakes (in my usual cake pan I can get 12 cupcakes from this mixture, but in a new one I used this time which is smaller but deeper I only got 10!)

Ingredients:
100g margarine
100g caster sugar
1 egg
A few drops of vanilla essence (to taste)
1 tbsp milk
A few drops of yellow food colouring (optional)
100g self-raising flour

For the frosting:
75g butter
150g icing sugar
Vanilla essence (to taste)
Up to 2tbsp milk, as necessary
Multi-coloured sprinkles, to decorate

1. Preheat the oven to gas mark 5 and line a bun tray with cupcake cases.
2. Beat the butter and sugar together until creamy, then add the egg, vanilla essence, milk and food colouring (if using) and beat until combined. Fold the flour into the mixture, then divide the mixture amongst the prepared cupcakes cases.
3. Bake for 12-15 minutes until golden brown and springy to touch. Transfer to a wire rack and allow to cool completely before frosting.
4. Prepare the frosting by beating the butter, icing sugar and vanilla essence together in a large bowl until creamy. If you find your frosting is too stiff, add a little milk at a time until the desired consistency has been reached. 
5. Once the cakes have cooled, place the frosting into a piping bag fitted with a star tip nozzle and pipe a large swirl onto the top of each cupcake. Decorate with sprinkles then serve. Tip: I LOVE!!! the Wilton 1M nozzle for piping cupcake swirls. Placing even pressure on the piping bag, start your swirl in the centre of the cupcake and pipe almost to the edge, then  - without releasing the pressure - bring your swirl back over itself and into the centre. (I'm not articulating this particularly well, so one day I may venture into video tutorials and post it here...!) 

For the Cupcake Shakes

Prep time: Less then 5 minutes
Cook time: None
Makes 1 Shake!

Ingredients:
2 cupcakes, frosting and all
100mls milk
3 scoops of vanilla ice cream
Sprinkles, to decorate

1. Put the cupcakes, milk and 2 scoops of ice cream into the blender and whizz until smooth. Pour into a  cup and plop the final scoop of ice cream on top. Decorate with sprinkles and enjoy!

Next time it's Up!

Happy Thoughts
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