An egg-citing time of year

The smell of simnel cake baking in the oven, hot cross buns with lashings of melting butter and of course the familiar cracking sound as you break that first piece of chocolate off your egg.

 

Those are just a few of the reason we at The Cakehouse love Easter, and of course they’re all food related! But the best part for us is sitting down to Sunday lunch and enjoying a glass of wine and great conversation – we never need an excuse to do that, but it’s always nice to have one!

So this Sunday, after we’ve ripped the shiny coloured wrapping from our yummy Easter treats, we’ll be relaxing with family friends. We hope it’s going to be an egg-celent egg-stravagansa.

 

 

                  We're loving this handmade Easter Egg and chocolate chicks lolly-pops!

Mummy's Yummy Scrummy Carrot Cake

Here at The Cakehouse we believe Mother’s day is one of the most important dates in the diary. Without our mums we wouldn’t be the people we are today, so on Sunday we all celebrated.

While most of us were with our mums, Sarah couldn’t make the trip from Cardiff to Chester, so instead she became her for the day!

After tidying the house, she then finished painting the living room (her mum Pauline loves a room to be clean and fresh) before moving to the kitchen. Carrot cake always reminds Sarah of her mum, as it’s her absolute favourite, so on Sunday she baked one!

Mummy’s Yummy Scrummy Carrot Cake is a delicious moist sponge with a special cream cheese frosting. Sarah says "In amongst all her other lovely cakes and treats, I always remember my mum making super carrot cake.” It’s so good we wanted to share the recipe with you, so, with Pauline’s kind permission, here goes....

For Mummy’s Yummy Scrummy Carrot cake you will need:

·         175g light muscovado sugar

·         175ml sunflower oil

·         3 large eggs, lightly beaten

·         140g grated carrots (about 3 medium)

·         100g raisins

·         grated zest of 1 large orange

·         175g self-raising flour

·         1 teaspoon bicarbonate of soda

·         1 teaspoon ground cinnamon

·         ½ tsp freshly grated nutmeg

·         ½ standard tub of cream cheese

·         Equal weight of butter to cream cheese

·         ½ standard tub of mascarpone cheese

·         3 table spoons icing sugar

·         Chopped walnuts to decorate

Preheat the oven to 180C/Gas 4/fan 160C. Oil and line the cake tin (approx 18cm tin). Tip the sugar into a large mixing bowl, pour in the oil and add the eggs. Lightly mix with a wooden spoon. Stir in the grated carrots, raisins and orange rind. Mix the flour, bicarbonate of soda and spices, then sift into the bowl. Lightly mix all the ingredients - when everything is evenly amalgamated stop mixing. The mixture will be fairly soft and almost runny. Pour the mixture into the prepared tin and bake for 40- 45 minutes, until it feels firm and springy when you press it in the centre. Cool in the tin for 5 minutes, then turn it out, peel off the paper and cool on a wire rack. Mix the cream cheese, butter, mascarpone and icing sugar in a bowl. Cut the cake in half, use half of the mixture as a filling and the rest to ice the top. Decorate with chopped walnuts.

If you make this cake for your mum, then any day can be Mother’s Day!

 

Time for a Tea Party

If we had to choose a favourite literary character we would definitely pick the Mad Hatter. Granted, he’s more than a little crazy, but you can’t fault his passion for a party, and there’s no better party in our eyes, or his, than a tea party.

So this weekend we held our own, but thankfully our event was more classic than crazy!

 

 

The table was adorned with a lace cloth, pretty pink napkins, a china tea pot and matching cups and saucers. While vintage bunting hung from the walls, and the four cake stands were covered in flavoursome finger sandwiches, sumptuous scones, cute cupcakes, wonderful welsh cakes and marvellous mini bites, the main focal points of the room were the two carefully crafted cakes – a moist Victoria sponge topped with crystallized raspberries and a rich and decadent chocolate cake.

What was the reason for this spectacular spread I hear you ask! Well, it was twofold. Firstly we wanted to say a huge thank you to some special supporters, family and friends, who have backed us from the start. And secondly we wanted to create the perfect setting for a photo shoot to promote our latest offering!

 

 

As we still haven’t found the right property to base ourselves in, we’ve decided we can wait no longer, so we are going to be bringing our shop to you instead, by hosting afternoon tea parties in the comfort of your own homes!

If you want a beautiful bridal shower, a classy christening or brilliant birthday (even an un-birthday like the Mad Hatter!) we will create an amazing afternoon tea wherever you want it. We’ll provide the crockery, the decoration, the bubbly and of course the food, all you need to do is bring the fun!

So don’t be late for an important date, and book us for your afternoon tea now!