Meet The Pretty Baker!

We have been really lucky to have some wonderful sponsors supporting the work we do here with our blog.  To say thank you, show our appreciation and highlight to you how awesome they are, we are going to have a couple of posts sharing a little bit more about some of the business that have jumped on board to help with the Baking Makes Things Better journey. Last month we posted about The Vintage Table and today we want to let you know all about The Pretty Baker, if you haven’t checked out out all the amazing supplies available on Lisa’s too pretty website, you must!

Who runs (are the people behind) ‘The Pretty Baker’?

Me!  My name is Lisa Courtney. I’m a mum to three little monkey’s; 7, 5 and 2, so you’ll often hear yells of “Muuuuum” in the background when I’m fielding calls, posting orders and kid-wrangling at the same time.

 

Where did the idea for your business come from?

It really all began when I had my first daughter (how cliché is that?!).  After scouring the net for her parties I discovered there was a need for nostalgic party supplies and things that are...well pretty of course!  A friend and I started the search for products we knew other mums would love too and it has just grown from there.

You have an amazing range of products what would you say is your favourite product?

Oooh this one is a tricky one for me, I find it hard to choose just ONE thing.  I would have to say our Ice It Pretty! Icing Kit.  It gives the average home baker confidence to take their cakes and cupcakes to the next level.  I literally use it every few days.  The jumbo tips make icing a breeze and we include our favourite icing recipe so your creations will taste as good as they look.

What are your favourite things to bake?

I definitely bake a LOT of cupcakes but I actually really enjoy making pies.  There’s something therapeutic about making pastry I’m sure!My ‘go to’ cake would be a white chocolate mud cake with Italian meringue frosting.  I like to add freeze dried fruit powders to my icings too.  They look good, are natural and taste amazing.

 

What do you most enjoy about your business?

Gosh there are many things I love about The Pretty Baker.  It never feels like work for a start so that’s a bonus.  I find it exciting to watch it grow, I love interacting with my lovely customers – especially when they’re showing me what they created with our products.
It works around my family so I get the best of both worlds really.  I can play ‘Mum’ but have my own ‘work time’ when no one needs peanut butter removed from their hair.

Where do you go for baking inspiration and ideas?

Occasionally I’ll search the web but I’m pretty old school and love a great baking book.  Some of my favourites would be Hummingbird, Cupcakes from the Primrose Bakery, Sprinkle Bakes, The Caker, and Home Baked by the trusty Women’s Weekly of course.  I also love to try out new cafes and bakeries, there are so many talented and crafty people putting their own spin on old favourites.

You have thrown your fair share of parties , what is your favourite?

Well this is even harder to choose just one!!  I honestly LOVE kids parties, it’s one of my favourite things to do.  Even when I’m stressing about it, the cake is failing and the cookies haven’t been started (we all have those days) I still love it.  Seeing them come together and watching all the kids get really into the theme is just awesome.  It helps too that I have some super talented friends, one of which is a party planner that could create a fabulous theme out of chicken wire and feathers.  It’s a good trade – I bake cakes for her parties and she helps make mine look great!
I think my favourite would be our most recent.  The theme was “School Days” to celebrate our daughter Meg’s fifth birthday.  Lots of The Pretty Baker products came to the party (so to speak) including cute apple picks for the cupcakes.  A bookworm cake, pencil place settings, individual lunch boxes filled with delicious treats and paper planes for the kiddies to throw made it a really fun celebration.  The little guests were thrilled to take home school stationery supplies in our gorgeous treat bags.  (You can check out even more parties here on The Pretty Baker’s blog!)

Your products add the special touch to events, what are your 3 must have decorations?

Jumbo balloons always make a great visual impact with little effort required.  Tissue fans in matching or clashing colours.  Mini milk bottles for drinks, flowers or straw holders - so versatile!

Do you have a recipe you’d like to share?

Easy Peasy Rhubarb, Strawberry and Apple Pie

Ingredients:

8 stalks of rhubarb

1 orange

300g of frozen or fresh strawberries

2 Granny Smith apples

¼ cup of sugar

Freeze dried strawberry powder

Sweet short crust pastry (make your own, or store bought is fine!)

Method:
Preheat oven to 180˚C on fan bake. 

Chop rhubarb into 3 cm chunks.  Peel and chop apples into chunks.  Add all your fruit, sugar and juice of one orange to a small pot and simmer till slightly soft.  Set aside to cool slightly. 

Roll your pastry out between two sheets of baking paper (about 1 cm thick) and place in a 22 cm tart tin.  Blind bake for 10 minutes. 

Fill your pastry case with fruit filling.  Top with second sheet of pastry (or get fancy and create a lattice effect).  Brush the top of your pie with a little melted butter or egg wash and sprinkle sugar and freeze dried strawberry powder on top. 

 

Bake for 25-30 minutes.  Serve with vanilla ice cream, or a dash of cream drizzled on top.

For more information and to keep up to date with The Pretty Baker, check out The Pretty Baker on facebook or their website. 

Thanks Lisa for answering our questions and all the support you have given us!

Snickers Cheesecake

This was a special request from the youngest of my three baby sisters, she turned 21 a few weeks ago and I wanted to make her a special birthday cake, one of her favourite chocolate bars is Snickers and she loves Oreos –YUM! I have made it for another special occasion since and it was well received, I really perfected it second time around and am feeling rather proud of myself that I have mastered baked cheesecake and using a water bath!

Ingredients:
Crust
1 packet of Oreo cookies
25 grams butter, melted

Cheesecake
500 grams cream cheese, softened
3/4 cup sugar
2 eggs
2 teaspoons vanilla essence
1 tablespoon cornflour
4-5 full sized snickers bars, cut into 1/2 - 1cm slices
1/4 caramel sauce
1/4 cup peanuts

Method:
Preheat oven to 170ºC and grease a 20cm round springform tin or PushPan.
If using a springform tin you will need to wrap the bottom and sides with tin foil to protect it in the water bath, if you are using a PushPan the rubber seal means that this step can be omitted.
Pulse cookies in a food processor until crushed. Pulse in butter.
Press into an even layer in pan. Bake until firm, 5 to 8 minutes. Set aside to cool.
Place a roasting pan filled with 2-3cm of hot water on oven's centre rack, this is your water bath.
Beat cream cheese until smooth.
Add sugar and beat for approximately 1 minute, until well combined.
Beat in eggs one at a time.
Scrape down sides and bottom of bowl before beat in vanilla and cornflour.
Place Snickers evenly over crust.
Pour batter over the Oreo crust and place in water bath.
Bake until cake is set around edges but still jiggles in centre, about 50-60 minutes.
Remove cake from roasting pan and if you need to remove foil.
Place cake on a rack to cool.
Once cool, cover and chill in the fridge until firm – at least 4 hours or up to 1 day.
When ready to serve, drizzle top with caramel sauce and top with chopped peanuts and the remainder of your Snickers pieces.

Raspberry Melting Moments

How cool do these look? They are so easy and so yummy! I got the idea from my friend Mere (that’s right the same Mere who shared blondies with us!). I think they would be just perfect for a girly baby/bridal shower, a pink themed birthday party or something different for a high tea.

I used the plain melting moment recipe that Mel and I used for our high tea party (two years ago!) and adapted it slightly.

Ingredients:
For the biscuits
170g butter
55g icing sugar
170g flour
55g cornflour
½ – 2 teaspoons of pink food colouring (depending on desired colour)

For the filling:
30g butter (1 large tablespoon)
80g icing sugar (2 heaped tablespoons)
1 teaspoon boiling water
1 teaspoon raspberry essence

Method:
Preheat the oven to 180˚C and line two baking trays with baking paper.
Bring the butter to room temperature. 
Cream the butter and icing sugar until it is light and fluffy, then add add food colouring.
Sift in flour and cornflour then beat on a low setting until combined and colour is even.
Take teaspoonfuls or tablespoons full (depending on the size you want) of the mixture and roll into little balls.  Place them on the baking tray and flatten with a fork dipped in water.
Bake for 10-15 minutes.  Biscuits are cooked when they have spread a little and are slightly browned on the bottom.  Remove from oven and cool on a rack.
To make the filing, melt the butter in a small saucepan and add the boiling water.  Pour this into the icing sugar, add essence and mix to form a smooth paste.
Pair up the biscuits in matching sizes.  Put about a teaspoonful on half of the biscuits.  Put the partner biscuit on top of the icing and rotate slightly to encourage the filling to spread out to the edges.

They are delicious, so you better get in quick because they won’t last long!

Red Velvet Cake

One of my first posts on BMTB was about Red Velvet Cake.  Since making it for the first time just over two years ago it has become a favourite amongst my friends and family.  It was Shane’s birthday yesterday and his birthday cake request was for – you guessed it – Red Velvet Cake!  I haven’t changed much from Bakerella’s recipe but will share with you my way of doing things as my first post was just pictures on my attempt and a link to the Bakerella site.

Ingredients:
2½ cups all purpose flour
2 cups sugar
1½ tablespoons cocoa
1 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon baking soda
2 eggs
1½ cups oil
1 cup buttermilk
1 tablespoon vinegar
1 teaspoon vanilla
50ml liquid red food colouring (less if using gel colouring)

Preheat oven to 180°C. Grease two 20cm cake pans.
Lightly whisk eggs in a medium-large bowl. Add remaining liquid ingredients and mix together with whisk or whisk attachment on an electric mixer until blended. Set aside.
(Yes, it is shockingly red! BUT you do need to add all 50mls of food colouring otherwise you will end up with a rusty/brownish coloured cake. If using gel colouring add a teaspoon to start and go from there.)
Place all the dry ingredients in another mixing bowl and stir together to combine with another wire whisk.
Make a well in the middle of the dry ingredients and add wet ingredients to the dry ingredients.
Mix on medium-high with an electric mixer for about a minute or until completely combined.
Pour into cake pans and then drop the pans on the counter a few times to release any air bubbles.
Bake for about 30 minutes or until a toothpick inserted comes out clean.
After 15-30 minutes, remove from pans and cool completely on a wire rack.
Then make the frosting.

To make the delicious cream cheese frosting frosting you will need:
250 grams cream cheese, room temperature
200 grams butter, room temperature
1 teaspoon vanilla bean paste
5 cups icing sugar

Sift icing sugar and set aside.
Beat cream cheese and butter on high until creamy.  Add vanilla.
Then, add the sugar in batches.  I add two cups the first time and mix before scraping down the sides of the bowl and adding one cup at a time after that.
Place one of your cakes on a cake stand or serving plate and evenly cover the top with frosting.  Place your other cake on top and frost the rest.

A few more tips:
To ensure that your cake sits flat level each of your cakes, this is best done with a serrated knife.
To keep crumbs out of your frosting do a ‘crumb coat’ this is a thinner layer of frosting that acts like a glue keeping crumbs in one place.  The crumb coat needs to be dry to the touch before you put the final layer of icing on.  I was a little over eager to get my cake finished and my crumb coat wasn’t completely dry when I put my final layer of frosting on.  If you don’t have time or are just too eager to dig in and eat your cake you can flag the crumb coating.

If you haven’t tried red velvet cake yet, you must!  If you have, I hope you enjoy it as much as I do.

Chocolate Cake Pops

In January I had both Matthew’s (Andie’s son) and Max’s first birthday parties to attend so I decided to give making cake  pops a try.  This is a very simple ‘how-to’ for making them, I am in no way an expert and will gladly leave that title to Bakerella! 

Basically to make cake pops you need to make a cake.  Then you smash the cake and mix it with an icing-like substance.  Then you roll it into balls, chill them, then pop in some sticks and dip in chocolate :P 

You can use the chocolate cake recipe that I have given below or any other of your choosing – a packet mix is fine.  I got my pop sticks from Milly’s – they sell long Wilton brand sticks and they also stock their own brand of shorter sticks, which is what I used as they were half the price.

Chocolate Cake:
110g self raising flour
40g cocoa powder
200g caster sugar
80g unsalted butter, at room temperature
125g dark chocolate, finely chopped
2 eggs, lightly beaten
1 teaspoon vanilla extract

Icing Mix:
80g unsalted butter
125g icing sugar
2 tablespoons cocoa powder
2 tablespoons cream

Other:
375g Chocolate, melted, to cover the cake balls
30 (approx) lollipop sticks

To make the cake, preheat the oven to 180°C.  Grease and line a 22 cm round cake tin with baking paper.  Sift the flour and cocoa together in a large bowl.  Combine the sugar and 125ml boiling water in the top of a double boiler over a medium heat and stir until dissolved.  Add the butter and chocolate and stir until smooth.  Cool slightly.
Combine the egg and vanilla extract then add to the flour mixture and mix well.  Add the chocolate mixture and mix to combine.  Pour the mixture into the prepared tin and bake for 30 – 35 minutes or until a skewer inserted into the centre comes out clean.  Remove from the tin and cool completely on a wire rack.

Finely crumb the chocolate cake into a large bowl.  Place the butter, icing sugar and cocoa in the bowl of an electric mixer and beat for 1-2 minutes or until light and creamy.  Add the cream and mix well.  Add to the cake crumbs and mix well (the mixture should stick together when squeezed).
Line two baking trays with baking paper.  Roll the mixture into small balls, about the same size as a truffle.  Place on the trays and refrigerate for at least 30 minutes.
Carefully insert a stick into each cake ball and dip into the melted chocolate, swirling off the excess.

For Matthew’s party I coated the cake pop with white chocolate and then drizzled dark chocolate over the top as Andie had decided on a ‘Cookies and Cream’ theme.  For Max’s party I used red and light blue candy melts by Wilton (a little tip – mixing vegetable oil with the candy melts makes the consistency a lot better to work with, add a little a time while melting them until you have a consistency you are happy with) and topped them with sprinkles.

Max’s Robots and Rockets 1st Birthday Party

That’s Max, 2 weeks off officially tuning 1, hanging out with his little friend Molly (the gorgeous daughter of Jess, the talent behind Rosy Cakes) during his party last weekend.

I thought now that we (FINALLY!) have internet I would share some pics from the party with you as well as some hints/tips for anyone planning a kids party in the near future.

I had a very clear vision of what I wanted Max’s party to be (you guys saw my inspiration collages…), most importantly I wanted it to be a chance to gather with family and friends to celebrate the 1st year of my baby boy’s life but since I decided to theme it I really wanted to follow it through in the form of decorations, food, plates and napkins, right down to Max’s robot t-shirt – which of course all had to be in the same colour pallet. However, this was easier said than done and I may have over extended myself a little!  We moved cities less than a week earlier then I had to go back up to Auckland to use a kitchen I was unfamiliar with, before transporting everything across the other side of town for the actual party.  I also only had a 30 minute set up allowed before the party because of the rental period on our venue.

There were some minor disasters like my blue and red macarons (which more looked pink and green) that never even made it to the oven because they spread so much during the setting process!  Everything else got there in the end after help from Shane who did so many little things as well as cutting out all the robot faces for the shortbread cookies – I think he did an awesome job!  Melissa made some awesome cake pops and delicious meatballs and my Mum calmed me down mid-macaron meltdown and did a bunch of savoury items and delish profiteroles.  I was also helped by Wendy who cut out all the coloured stars for decorations, made up some yummy cheese and cracker platters and spent quite a bit of time in the kitchen at the party getting the savouries into the oven and cutting up cake.  My Dad also spent hours entertaining Max so I could get stuff done.  Thank you guys!  I also have to thank Jess for making Max’s robot cake topper for me.

Max’s Cake

Food from the sweet treats table

Savoury table, Sweet Treats table and Drinks table with goody bags

Decorations

Because of time constraints I have no new recipes to share with you, although I am sure Mel will let you all in on a cakepops ‘how to’ soon.  The robot cookies are shortbread which I flooded with ‘Queen’ royal icing (so easy to use!) and placed the faces and stars (which I sprinkled with edible glitter/shimmer) made of coloured fondant on top.  I made red velvet and vanilla cupcakes and the cake was 3 chocolate cakes layered with vanilla buttercream icing and covered in fondant.

In terms of party planning advice, I would recommend that you pick a theme/colour scheme a couple of months ahead of time if possible, hunt for ideas on the internet and start collecting bits and pieces as you come across them (I got my robot cups, plates and napkins months in advance at the $2 Shop of all places – bargain, and I found the little red and blue wooden robots in Whitcoulls).  Give yourself plenty of time, write a to do list and tick things off as you go, delegate jobs (if you can), make decorations in advance, and bake things like cookies a couple of days before the party and put them in an airtight container.  On the day have a crew of people who will help you set up and then tidy up and get someone to take lots of photos for you (thanks Mel and Imogen!) because you will probably be too busy with guests to do it.  If it’s a kids party have plenty of kid friendly food – think fruit platters, cheerios, sausage rolls.  Also if you are having a party over lunch and there are going to be Dad’s there make sure you have plenty of savouries (mini pies, sandwiches).

In terms of planning my party I spent ages looking on this site (LOVE!) for inspiration and ideas and got the majority of my decorations from this great NZ site ‘Poppyseed’, as well as using the awesome pictures our friend Andie took of Max’s cake smash.

Time To Party

Max is turning 1! This is an updated picture of him smashing his 11 month cake, I snapped it on my phone at a cake smash photo shoot we did with Andie who has guest blogged on here before. Of course we are throwing a party to celebrate, it is also doubling as a leaving party since our family has relocated to Taranaki (from Auckland) as of a week ago – which means a trip up to Auckland, the first of many to come I am sure.

I started looking for ideas for Maxie’s party when he was about 5 months old and and decided on a robots and rockets theme to match the bedroom theme we picked before he was born, after settling on the theme I created this little inspiration board…


I have had lots of fun coming up with decorating ideas and planning lots of yummy food. Since we don’t have a house in Auckland to have the party in we have hired a venue at the botanical gardens, I will only have half an hour set up time so I have to have all my decorations ready to go and the food has to look and taste delicious but easy to transport. Below are my two updated inspiration boards and a sneak peek at some of the goodies I have collected!

   
I will be sure to share all the yummy goodies with you after the party and I am sure I will be testing out my new kitchen once we are properly settled in our new home, I’m having serious baking withdrawals!

Carrot Cake

I asked my Mum if she would make Simon a carrot cake for his birthday and he ended up with a big square carrot cake that he (mainly he) and our flat mates wolfed down in no time.  I asked mum to make one as I remember her baking the most beautiful carrot cakes when I was a kid, but I stopped eating them and have never made one.  Why?  Haha, well… I don’t really like carrots and as I got older I stopped eating carrot cake because I knew it was chocka full of carrots and I now can’t bring myself to eat it, even though I remember it being delicious.  I just scoop off and eat the cream cheese icing when Simon orders a piece when we go out for hot chocolate!

1 cup wholemeal flour
1 cup plain flour
2 teaspoons baking soda
2 cups raw sugar
¼ teaspoon salt
2 teaspoons cinnamon
3 cups finely grated carrots
1 cup cooking oil
3 eggs, beaten

Icing:
25g butter
50g cream cheese
1 cup sifted icing sugar
½ teaspoon vanilla
½ cup chopped nuts

Sift and mix the dry ingredients.  Add oil and stir well.
Stir in the beaten eggs, then add the carrots.  Mix thoroughly.
Grease the sides of a 10 inch square cake tin and line the bottom with greased paper.
Bake at 180°C for 1 hour.
For the icing, beat together all of the ingredients, spread of over the cake once it has cooled.  Sprinkle the chopped nuts over the top.

This recipe comes from my Mum’s well-used handwritten cookbook.

It’s someone else's half birthday…

Ours!  Just like Max the other day, Baking Makes Things Better is celebrating a half birthday.  We are one and a half!  Yep, back in February 2010 I set up this blog, told Courtenay, made her my co-author and Baking Makes Things Better was born.  I had the idea of writing a reflection kind of post a while back but I had missed our actual birthday in Feb – I was starting back at work for the year and Courtenay was just a little bit busy with having a baby.  A lot has happened in a year and a half!

Awww, our old banner!

Anyways, I am pretty proud of what we have achieved with our blog during this time and what it has become.  We’ve picked up a few new skills on the computer, experimented with our photography and tried loads of new recipes.

During our year and a half we tried baking things we have always wanted to attempt.  Courtenay gave Red Velvet Cake and Macaroons a try and I experimented with making Lemon and Chocolate Tarts and Whoopie Pies.

Courtenay made many, many cupcakes in lot of different flavours – all decorated with beautiful icing.

And I developed a love for baking that involves lemon :)

We’ve also hosted a couple of High tea’s.

And Courtenay has started making a cake a month to hone her icing skills for Max’s first birthday cake!

I still love the first recipes that I posted about; I think Mint Chocolate Truffles are something I will always go back to making time and time again (and Courtenay still loves Red Velvet Cake).  Although, the Chocolate Hazelnut Slice has become a bit of a rival…

One thing I think we have both enjoyed during this time is seeing the blog grow.  We’ve had visitors from all over the world, we have gained new followers on blogger and facebook, and it is awesome reading all of your comments.

Your favourite posts have been anything to do with cupcakes, brownies, Oreos, Mars Bars and cheesecake!  Or recipes that are a combo of these things!
Over our first year and a half some of our most viewed posts by you, our readers, have been…

Marshmallow Brownie Cupcakes

Mars Bar Cupcakes

Baileys and Mars Bar Cheesecake

Oreo Cupcakes

Raspberry Macaroons

Oreo Cheesecake

Caramel Brownie

Thank you for following our blog and we look forward to bringing you many more recipes!

Banana Biscotti

I made this as a treat for the babies at Max’s 6 month birthday party, it went down an absolute treat and is able to be enjoyed by teething babies and anybody else that fancies a piece.  If you're worried your baby may bite off a piece you could wrap the biscuit in muslin.

Ingredients:
½ cup ripe mashed banana
½ teaspoon vanilla essence
1 large egg yolk
2 (packed down) tablespoons brown sugar
1 cup self-raising flour (sifted)
pinch of salt
1-2 tablespoons water if necessary

Turn the oven on to 160˚C.
Mash the banana with a fork on a board, once mashed place it in a measuring cup to ensure you have the right amount – I found one small banana was about right, then put into a medium-sized bowl with the egg yolk, vanilla and brown sugar.
Sift in the flour and salt.  Fold everything together until the flour is dampened, without over mixing, adding water if the mixture seems thicker than a muffin batter.
Line the long sides and bottom of a loaf tin with a strip of baking paper, then spoon in the mixture. Level its top with the back of a wet spoon.
Bake for about 15-20 minutes, until a skewer or toothpick comes out cleanly, then take your loaf from the oven, remove from the baking tin and cool on a rack.  The loaf should be a pale colour, not golden brown.
Turn down the oven to 125˚C.
When the loaf is cool or cold, cut it into 5-10mm slices (depending on how thick you would like your pieces) with a sharp, serrated knife (they don't taste very good at this stage).
Lie the slices in one layer on a cooling rack or oven rack and bake them again at the lower temperature for 20 minutes, or until the slices are golden brown and crisp right through (you will need to take one from the oven and cool it before you can check that it is dry in the middle).  Watch carefully, since the flavour is spoilt if the biscotti brown too much.

Store in airtight jars for up to two weeks, but, if your baby is anything like Max or the others we had around here it won’t last that long!

 Max and his friend Kaitlin enjoying some biscotti together

Angel Cake For My Angel

 
So I finally got around to trying something different for Max’s 5 month cake (in case you have missed previous posts – I am making a cake each month for my son Max in order to try out new recipes and decoration techniques in preparation for his first birthday).  This month I tried and ‘Angel Food Cake’, I found the recipe in ‘Gorgeous Cakes’ by Annie Bell.  To be honest, I thought the icing (which I made to suit my tastes) was the best part, but I was quite proud as the cake is a type of sponge and it turned out pretty well!  I think I’m more of a ‘Devil’s Food Cake’ kind of girl.

Ingredients:
Cake:
8 medium egg whites
¼ teaspoon sea salt
1 teaspoon cream of tartar
250 grams icing sugar (sifted)
140 grams plain flour (sifted)

Filling:
200 grams mascarpone
100 grams raspberry jam

Frosting:
120 grams butter
2 – 2 ½cups icing sugar (sifted)
200 grams cream cheese
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
M&M’s or Smarties for decoration

Preheat your oven to 150°C and grease two 23cm round tins.
Whisk the egg whites, salt and cream of tartar until they have risen.
Sprinkle in the icing sugar two tablespoons at a time while you continue to whisk, ensuring that you whisk well after each addition.
Fold in the flour in three separate additions.
Divide the mixture between the two cake tins and bake for 30-35 minutes or until lightly golden, springy and shrinking from the sides.
Once removed from the oven, run a knife around the edge of the tin and leave the cakes to cool in the tins for 30 minutes before removing them and cooling further on wire racks.

As you will be layering the cakes remove the top of the cake that will become the base, do this by using a serrated knife and starting at the lowest point on your cake, ensure that the cake is level as you will be sandwiching it. 
For the filling blend the jam and mascarpone and smoother the top of the bottom layer of your cake, leaving about half a centimetre at the edge as the filling will spread when you place the top layer on.

For the frosting combine the butter and cream cheese together, when it is well mixed and fluffy, add the vanilla and gradually add the sifted icing sugar until it reaches a consistency that you are happy with.
Use a palette knife to spread the frosting all over your cake and chill in the refrigerator, remove when you are ready to serve and decorate with M&M’s (I chose them because of the M for Max) or similar, for a bit of fun.