Thursday 5 April 2012

Cornwall



Hi Everyone.



Yet again have been very bad at getting another blog posted. This time though I do have a little excuse as we went to Cornwall for a few days holiday. It was fantastic to get away for a while and as normal we had a wonderful time. Lots of walking and although we have driven and had done a walk from the beach this time we visited Carhays Castle gardens. If you do find yourselves staying in Cornwall over Easter the I can recommend this place for a visit. I have never seen such beautiful and enormous flowers. The walking is easy although steep at times but lots of paths so you can do as little or as much as you like, not only was it beautiful but if kept on a short lead you can take your dog brilliant we wouldn't have gone if Lewis hadn't been able to come. The photo's were taken from one of the glorious Magnolia trees.






































The cake above is my wonderful daughters in law birthday cake,  we celebrated with her just before we went away. She didn't seem to mind at all that her weird M.I.L had put Peppa pig on top for her Grandson she is an understanding Mummy and the little lad loved it. Hubby mentioned that he thought it was a Clanger to which I had to agree although we had to show the rest of the family what a Clanger was. I hadn't noticed the likeness before but perhaps it was because it was a model, so who out in the blogging world can remember Clangers we use to love them.( In fact my nephews 21st birthday party this weekend is for Childhood heroes perhaps I should go as one. If I remember I'll be brave and post a picture of what I finally choose to go as.) Back to the above the base of the cake was a chocolate I got the recipe from here Sweetapolita who is just brilliant and her icing skills far exceed mine. For the icing I used the very easy if somewhat rich Chocolate Ganache as you can see I've used white chocolate but you can use plain and it goes without saying the better the chocolate the better the taste. 

CHOCOLATE GANACHE.
400g Chocolate (Plain or white )
400ml Double Cream.
Chop the chocolate into fairly small pieces and put into a heatproof bowl. Put the cream into a heavy based saucepan and bring to the boil, pour over the chocolate. Leave to stand without stirring for 5min, then stir until the chocolate has melted and then allow to cool.
Whisk the cooled mixture until it looks like whipped cream this can take some time and really does need an electric whisk ( I suppose it could be a good arm workout with a hand whisk but not one I would like to try!) When it looks like cream pop it into the fridge for 30 to 45min. Then cover the cake with it, if it gets too warm and starts to look a bit funny place it back into the fridge for a while. If its to hard to then place the bowl over some hot water until it softens. If like mine you decide to decorate with an icing bag and nozzle try to keep your hands as cool as possible and work quickly!

I've just remembered for the middle of the cake I made this icing that I found in the April Good Housekeeping mag.

CHOCOLATE HAZELNUT SPREAD ICING.
100g Chocolate hazelnut spread (I used Nutella)
200g full-fat cream cheese.
100g icing sugar.
Combine the ingredients together and put on top of one of the cakes then place the other cake on top. Put in fridge or if your Ganache is ready place into the freezer for about 15mins this helps to prevent the crumbs coming off when icing a cake with any icing or jam. A useful tip that I only learnt about a year ago. My icing differs a little from the G.H one as I added icing sugar to make it solid enough to hold the decorations.

I will finish with this picture that I took at the party of my darling Granddaughter it was taken a few weeks ago and yet again not very well as it's not one of Wellies! If you do have the time have a quick look at her new site Tori photography, I know I'm biased but her latest ones from a walk near here I think are stunning.

I'll try and get back soon with son in laws cake and the one for my nephew.

Love Caro xxx

1 comment:

  1. Aw, Easter in Cornwall sounds like it would be perfect, it's my favourite place in the world! Your cake is beautiful and it sounds delicious! xxx

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