Butterfly mad!

I've always liked the idea of having a wedding cake decorated with origami flowers or butterflies so I thought i'd try them out - these are a really simple fold and I really like the look of them, especially the patterned ones. Everything I eat today is going to have a paper butterfly on a wire sticking out of it to celebrate of it being a lazy saturday (the best kind)!

Coconut & Lime Cake - finally!!

This is one for my lovely geezer who has been asking me to make him a coconut cake for ages and I somehow haven't got around to it... sorry love! Anyway here it is. Recipe is from Mich Turner's Fantastic Party Cakes which is a really cracking cake book. The sponge and icing both have loads of coconut cream in them and the icing is laced with lovely sharp lime juice which really cuts through the sweetness. Also I get to show off my shiny new glass cake stand all the way from the U.S. of A! I love it even though it takes up about a quarter of my tiny kitchen!

Uncooked cake mix - my secret shame!

Does anyone else eat as much uncooked cake mix as they can when baking? I think i'm addicted... I wonder if I should worry about all that raw egg? Oh well! It tastes damn fine, I reckon a little bout of salmonella would be worth it.

Wasabi peanuts - sinus burning ahoy!

We got these wasabi peanuts from Borough market a couple of weeks ago and they are seriously powerful - i've had wasabi peas before but never peanuts, and I don't think they were ever quite this strong. I have to eat them one by one and even then the odd rogue one brings tears to my eyes! What I love about wasabi is the fact that the sensation only lasts a couple of seconds, so if you can get through that initial burst of pain behind your nose then you're away. Perfect with freezing cold lager!

Simplest & best lunch of brie, bread & grapes

There are few things better for lunch than this - grainy, malty bread full of seeds, a slab of creamy brie and a handful of ripe juicy grapes. Really simple but somehow incredibly satisfying, and full of a sort of rustic charm that makes me feel like a french farmer sitting down for grub. All that could improve this is a glass of wine but i'm not quite at the point of drinking this early in the day on my day off. Never say never though!

My first Dundee Cake!

Made for a mate of my friend Laura, who is apparently a big Dundee cake fan. Is it unusual to have someone young who really loves fruit cake? I don't know many people who do... This smelled absolutely gorgeous when I was mixing it, and the lovely fruity, whisky smell in my kitchen stayed around for days...

Mocha Cupcakes - so good!

These were taken from Cupcakes by Susannah Blake, but I substituted the chocolate coffee beans she added to the mixture for chocolate chips. The result was fantastic- I really REALLY loved these, and they were very popular with my family, in fact my sister nearly choked trying to shove a whole one in her mouth. And then showered me with cake crumbs by laughing through the mouthful. Nice.

Mini Chocolate Orange Muffins

I made these to try out my new rigid paper cases, which I really like the look of - they make the cake look so sweet and self-contained if that makes any sense(?) They didn't rise quite as high as I wanted but think that was my fault for trying to make quantities stretch too far - really wanted enough to fill my new wire cake stand so I could show it off!

Greg's Spidey Cake

What kind of cake do you make for a 25 year olds birthday? Spiderman! Why not?

The Ward Family Lion Cake

This cake has such a long tradition in my family. My mum used to make it for one or other of me and my sisters every year, I think she could probably make it with her eyes closed now. The design is from an ancient cake book which I think only ever got used for this recipe! I will continue the tradition by making it for my future children for each and every birthday until they move out...

Random birthday cake for Clare...

Music Themed Cupcakes

These were for a music night my friend Jen was hosting, and I stayed up really late after work to get them done. I remember icing tiny guitar strings and drumsticks at gone midnight and thinking this was a fairly bizarre thing to be doing.

Pistachio & White Chocolate Fairy Cakes

By the time I got round to photographing these there were only 3 left which explains the rather spartan photos. These were gorgeous, tiny little bites of complete decadance. What is it about pistachios? They make anything you add them to seem all exotic and luxurious instantly.

Winnie the Pooh Book Cake

This was for Chris' dad's birthday last year, and a thank you for taking us to Rome to celebrate it! It's the first book cake i've made and I really like the way it turned out.

R2-D2

Bowling Cake

This one was for Digby, my friend Daisy's son. I love the tiny bowling pins, made of icing.

Piggy cake

For the pork lovers out there. Made with genuine bacon-flavoured icing! (joke)

LARPing Cupcakes

These were for my sister and her LARP buddies, hence the little axes and daggers on them. I'm not a psycho, I promise.

Another random birthday cake!

Note the chocolate cigars around the sides - class all the way.

Nigella's Honey Cake