Gloverly Cupcakes

Just over a week ago it was Chloe’s first Birthday! I decided to do a frog themed cake and mini party for her, Emily was so excited! I spent a long time on Pinterest looking at frog cakes for some inspiration and then on Facebook I spotted a YouTube video from The Little Cherry Cake Company on how to make a frog cake, so I had a look and thought I would give it a go, it is definitely the cutest froggy cake I had seen. Click

The Old MacDonald cake I made for Emily’s second was also a design from the Little Cherry Cake Company, I love their cakes, especially the kids ones, they are so bright and bold. I made 3 5″ cakes rather than 6″ ones as didn’t want to make an enormous cake. I used a recipe from the Hummingbird Bakery, their orange and almond loaf cake. I sandwiched it together with almond butter cream and marmalade. Then covered it with white chocolate ganache. Here’s the cake recipe:

Orange, Almond and Yoghurt Loaf Cake

190g Butter

190g plain flour

1 tbsp orange zest

190g caster sugar

3 large eggs

60g ground almonds

1 tsp baking powder

1/4 tsp salt

25g plain yoghurt

1 tsp vanilla extract

10g flaked almonds

Pre-heat the oven to 170C and grease your cake tin.

Using a hand held electric whisk or free standing mixer with the paddle attachment, cream together the butter, sugar and orange zest till soft and fluffy. Gradually add the eggs one at a time whisking well after each addition. Scrape down the sides of the bowl every now and again to ensure they are properly mixed.

In a separate bowl, mix together the flour, ground almonds, baking powder and salt. Tip the dry ingredients into the creamed mixture in two batches and whisk together on a low speed till just incorporated. Then add the vanilla and yoghurt. Sprinkle the flaked almonds over the top.

Pour into the tin and place in the oven, bake for 50-60 minutes till the sponge is firm on top and a skewer inserted into the middle comes out clean. Remove from the oven and leave to cool in the tin till cool enough to turn out onto a wire rack.

Almond Buttercream

500g Icing sugar

160g butter

50ml whole milk

1/2 tsp almond essence

Beat the icing sugar and butter together on a very slow speed until the mixture resembles coarse breadcrumbs. Slowly add the milk and almond essence to the butter and icing sugar. Once it’s all been added increase the speed and beat on high for 5 minutes until light and fluffy.

The video was really easy to follow and I really enjoyed making it. I bought some Massa Tropical icing a few months ago and it was brilliant to use, no tears or cracks and it smooths out so nicely, it was very satisfying to cover a cake with a rounded top and smooth it all out! Chloe had a wonderful Birthday and definitely enjoyed eating some of her cake!