Max’s Cakes

True to my word I have baked my little Max a cake (that Shane and I enjoy on his behalf) on the 10th of the month each month since he was born, I just didn’t post one last month as it wasn’t a new recipe.  Unfortunately due to time constraints I didn’t try a new recipe this month either – but I thought my attempt at cake decoration was worth sharing.

This little guy is one of the little alien critters on the freeze Shane and I created in Max’s room and he tasted delicious I used this excellent easy peasy chocolate cake recipe.  Have a look at the photo below and let me know what you think.

 
Last month I re-made this Marble Cake, I must say second time round the marbling was much improved and to change things up a bit I used ‘boyish’ colours instead of the traditional pink, yellow and brown.

 
I am hoping to get the time over the weekend to try out a new recipe (maybe even two – but I think that would really be pushing it, haha) so hopefully there will be something new to share with you next week!

Marble Cake

 
I have been wanting to make a marble cake for months, but have put it off because I wasn’t sure how it would come out and I hate not getting things right.  I finally gave it a go and it came out okay… the cake tasted good and was lovely and moist, the icing was probably some of the best I had ever made, BUT the ‘marbling’ left a lot to be desired aesthetically as you can see, so this might be a case of practice makes perfect.

250g butter, softened
1 ¼ cups caster sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla essence
3 eggs
2 ¼ cups self-raising flour, sifted
¾ cup milk
2 tablespoons cocoa
3 drops red food colouring

1. Pre-heat your oven to 160˚C and grease a 22cm spring form cake tin.
2. Beat butter and sugar in a bowl until creamy. Beat in the vanilla essence and eggs one at a time. Stir in sifted flour in two batches, alternating with the milk.
3. Divide the mixture into three bowls, beat cocoa into one and mix food colouring into another leaving the third lot plain.
4. Drop large spoonfuls into the greased cake tin, alternating between colours. Drag and swirl a blunt knife through the mixtures to create the marble effect (I think I over swirled so be careful here).
5. Bake for 1 hour or until you can remove a skewer cleanly. Cool in tin, remove and ice.

To make the icing you will need:

50g butter, softened
1 ½ cups icing sugar, sifted
1 tablespoons vanilla essence
3 tablespoons boiling water

Place all the ingredients in a bowl and mix until pale and creamy.