The Hungry Caterpillar 1st birthday cake
Firstly apologies, I’ve been meaning to write this post for weeks and Izzy is now 13 months old!
Anyway here it is! I had wanted to make Izzy a Hungry Caterpillar cake for her first birthday since spotting one on Pinterest when she was only 3 months old, when she was a little older her aunty & uncle bought her The Hungry Caterpillar pop up book and she LOVES it so it was definitely a go.
The cake I saw on Pinterest is here and that’s more or less what I was planning to do. I made a batch of cupcakes and then my piping bag broke and well I got really annoyed and frustrated as it was the night before her party and ended up rethinking the whole idea and what I ended up with was this:
And I actually preferred it this way in the end although as someone who is far more into the taste of food than the look of food I did find it harder than it needed to be but I enjoyed it.
Heres how I did it:
You will need :
The ingredients for one Mary Berry traybake ( recipe can be found here ) I added green colouring to my traybake to make a vibrant green flesh for my caterpillar.
500g of fondant icing sugar
Icing colour ( I bought red red and kelly green from Hobbycraft)
Basic buttercream using icing sugar and butter with vanilla extract (Nielsen Massey is best) – I used leftovers from cupcakes I was making for the party so unsure of quantity.
1 cake board or piece of cardboard covered in white paper.
Cadburys chocolate fingers
Chocolate sprinkles
Follow instructions for traybake and when cooked leave until completely cooled.
I cut out a basic caterpillar body and head from my traybake – reserve the leftover sponge in case of errors or just to munch on later.
Mix up 1/2 of your fondant icing following instructions on packet and split into two, using a cocktail stick put green colouring into one 1/2 of the icing and knead to mix the colour through making one a dark green and the other 1/2 paler. Roll out and cut into strips. Spread a little buttercream over your cut out caterpillar body and then wrap in your green icing alternating between the darker and lighter colours. Reserve any leftover icing for extra decorations such as fruit for your board.
Mix up the rest of your fondant icing and split into two, use your red colouring to make a very vibrant red icing for your caterpillar head and leave the rest white.
Spread some butter cream and wrap your caterpillar head in red icing and attach to body using more buttercream if necessary. Use cadburys fingers to make legs and antenna as well as the body for your butterfly. Use leftover icing to make fruit, leaves and a butterfly as well as to make name or message for cake. I used chocolate sprinkles to make the seeds on my strawberries and my apple stork. Use dark green icing to make eyes and a chocolate chip for the nose.
To make your cake have a little sheen brush on some lemon extract or juice with a pastry brush.
I used some leftover sponge and buttercream to make a patch of grass but I don’t think it’s necessary.
She did like the cake although looked a little shocked at first, and kept wandering over to look at it every chance she got:
All in all it was a success although far from perfect which you will notice if you look closely but I loved the fact that I made her a special first birthday cake. I’m guessing as the years go on I will have to become more elaborate!
BBQ pulled pork
I’ve been on the hunt for the perfect pulled pork recipe for ages and I’ve scoured the web for one that sounds just right but couldn’t find what I wanted until a twitter friend ( @babberblog ) mentioned that he had a great recipe and very kindly agreed to email it to me. Fast forward about two weeks and we were on a few days break at an apartment in a holiday park in Woolacombe and I thought that it was the ideal time to try out this recipe.. The fact that I wouldn’t be paying for the 8 hours of slow cooking in a gas oven may have swayed that decision.
I bought all the required herbs and spices locally ( well the ones I didn’t already have) and then picked up a big pork shoulder in Tescos. We didn’t know where the nearest butchers was and I was convinced that a basic pork shoulder from Tesco wouldn’t be great but it really really was.
So anyway here are the ingredients you need, I’ll show you the ingredients listI was given then how I adapted it slightly to suit me:
Babberblogs pulled pork:
A big Pork shoulder
2 tbsp American Mustard
10 tbsp Dark brown sugar
10 tbsp white sugar
6 tbsp Paprika
3 tbsp Sea salt (coarse ground)
3 tbsp Garlic granules
2 tbsp Black pepper (freshly ground)
2 tbsp Ginger powder
2 tbsp Onion powder
2 tbsp Rosemary (ground)
2 tbsp Celery seeds (coarse ground)
My slightly adapted list:
Biggest pork shoulder Tescos had, it cost me just £4 ( not on offer)
2 tbsp Colmans English Mustard ( could not find American anywhere at the time)
8 tbsp Billingtons Molasses
8 tbsp white sugar
5tbsp Paprika
1tbsp smoked Paprika
2 tbsp standard sea salt
1 tbsp Maldon smoked sea salt
3 tbsp garlic granules
1 tbsp black pepper
1 tbsp Sichuan peppercorns
2 tbsp Rosemary
2 tbsp celery seeds
1/2 an onion chopped thickly
As you can see there are no massive changes, the mustard was substituted due to me not being able to find the American mustard. The salt, pepper and Paprika were substituted in some part due to personal taste as I love variety in my seasonings and also to encourage some smokiness and the chopped onion which I added just for the overnight marinade was because I forgot to get onion powder. The major change for me was swapping the brown sugar for molasses. Molasses are more expensive but the taste difference is incredible as well as creating a sticky BBQ sauce … Yum.
How to cook:
The night before you want to cook your pork mix all your dry ingredients into a bowl before rinsing the shoulder in cold water and removing the skin and trimming the fat down to a 1cm layer. Rub the mustard into your pork, massaging it in to every bit of the meat and leave to sit for 30 minutes. After the 30 mins has elapsed rub your dry mix into the meat. You may find there is too much mix for your meat depending on the size of the shoulder. I used it all! Wrap your meat in clingfilm or sit in a bowl and cover in clingfilm which is what I did and place in fridge.
The next day remove your meat from the fridge several hours before you want to cook it and allow to get to room temperature. Place in roasting tin and cook at 120C/gas mark 1/2 for 6 hours before double wrapping in foil and cooking for further two hours. Do not be tempted to check on your meat just leave until the time is up. After the 8 hours remove from oven and leave to sit in foil for 30 minutes as I think this will make it even more tender. Whilst you do this return your roasting tray to oven to warm up the sticky sauce at the bottom.
Open your foil return meat to the tray and tear apart with two forks stirring into the sticky sauce as you do. Serve immediately or cover in foil to keep warm.
I served mine in tortilla wraps with fresh green leafy salad and coleslaw and a teeny amount of Gefen BBQ sauce. There was no need for sauce really as it was very moisty and tasty. It was equally good the next day in rolls and even 2 days later when we gave some to Izzys grandparents to take home.
Definitely worth trying and thanks so much to Lewis @babberblog for sharing the recipe with me.
Let me know if you try this 🙂
Eating well on a budget. Simple suppers #2
Last year sometime I saw a version of this recipe on Pinterest and it looked good but I forgot all about it until a few months ago when I was struggling for ideas on what to cook for supper with very few ingredients at home. I vaguely remembered seeing this but couldn’t remember the quantities etc so I just threw it all together with the addition of an extra ingredient and WOW.
I don’t know who originally gave me the idea on pinterest but thanks 🙂
So here you go a very simple supper:
Garlic sugared chicken
You will need:
3 chicken breasts
5 tablespoons of brown sugar
5 tablespoons of olive oil
4 garlic cloves crushed or diced
1/2 teaspoon of dried chilli flakes
Preheat your oven at gas mark 4.
Warm olive oil in a cazuela or ovenproof pan in your hob before adding your garlic and chilli until softened and then add your chicken for just long enough to brown. Once your chicken is browned stir in the brown sugar until coated and then place in oven for around 15 minutes before stirring again to ensure your chicken is well covered in the garlicky, sugary goodness. Place back in oven for 10 mins then shred the chicken whilst still in the pan, stir through again and cook for a further 5 minutes.
Serve with a large salad and Nigella Lawsons Tuscan chips. ( recipe below)
This chicken is deliciously sweet and goey with a kick of chilli.
Ahh Tuscan chips. Nigella is so clever, creating beautiful chips with minimal effort. Here is the recipe Tuscan chips
Next up on the blog is BBQ pulled pork 🙂
Cooking with mother.. Be-ro style
Someone recently asked me when my love for the kitchen began. It made me think back on a million different cooking/baking memories and my very first ones all involve a certain recipe book:
Myself and my mum would use this book at least once a week to make treats for the rest of the family and I loved it. I tried to get her to part with the book when I moved out but it wasn’t going to happen .. I didn’t think for one minute that the book was still being printed until I spotted one on a random shopping trip a few months ago. I was so excited! I think this book definitely helped to develop a love for baking.
I mentioned this on twitter and on the Britmums forum and it seems a lot of us grew up with Be-Ro and it was interesting to read peoples memories of the book and also the favourite recipes of the people who like me are now using it on a regular basis:
Heather on twitter uses it most weeks to make scones or for basic recipes such as cheese sauce.
Mummy Zen a Britmums member has fond memories of cooking with her mum with her personal fave being the Australian crunchie!
Lisa Burns also from Britmums (40s chic) remembers a battered, torn Be ro book and cooking from it each week with her mum. Like me she recently bought an updated version and uses it a lot.
Since I rediscovered my book I have made:
Quiche Lorraine – a really easy to follow recipe for a beautiful quiche.
It didn’t last long in our house!
Cheese straws – beautiful cheesy flakey pastry. I made these for Izzys 1st birthday party and they went down so well that I have no pics. Sorry!
Victoria sandwich and milk chocolate icing – I used the basic recipes for these items in the book before adapting to make a layered chocolate orange cake for a local MacMillan coffee morning. It was delicious.
There are four layers of cake so it was pretty huge!
I’ve also made rich biscuits and chocolate eclairs amongst other things and am looking forward to working my way through the book.
Next on my list is the Australian Crunchie as its one of the only things I don’t remember trying when I was younger. I’ll let you know how it goes.
I’m excited to teach Izzy how to cook using this book as she gets older and who knows maybe she will pass it onto her children. 🙂
What are your memories of this book? Any special recommendations?
I’d love to hear from you xxx
Sandwich fit for THE king
I took a photo of my Sunday supper to use for my Silent Sunday post but after eating it I decided it would be a little unfair if I didn’t explain this delicious naughtiness.
So here it is some photos of a fried peanut butter and banana sandwich. Ok so it wouldn’t be good to eat this every day in fact I’ve had it maybe twice in the past year but as a one off on a cold autumn evening why not?
This sandwich was made famous by being a favourite food of Elvis Presley but I first discovered the recipe in a Nigella Lawson book (Nigella Bites) a few years ago.
A friend of mine tweeted that she was having a non fried boring old peanut butter and banana sandwich yesterday so it’s been kind of on my mind..
When I discovered a bag of bananas that were well … shall we say ripe in my kitchen tonight it seemed like a sign so I made these deliciously indulgent gooey delights to enjoy whilst avoiding X factor and watching Dexter! It was a perfect combo.
I won’t bore you with any more chatter when all you really want is the recipe so here you go: Nigella takes on the Elvis sarnie
Silent Sunday
How to make homemade nutella
Had to share this with you after the thumbs up from Kerry. It looks tremendous.
Eating well on a budget- simple suppers
The nights are getting colder and I want to create more warm, inviting dinners but without spending a fortune. I will try to post recipes as and when I use them to give you some tips for cheap and cheerful meals that all the family can enjoy.
Tomato and bacon gnocchi bake
500g Gnocchi – I use Il Pastaio Gnocchi which is a bargain 78p in Asda
400ml Passata – I typically use the value range from Sainsburys or Asda which is around 30p.
4 or 5 rashers of smoked bacon diced- roughly £1.50
75g of cheddar grated – approx £1
2 garlic cloves diced finely -approx 20p
1 glug of Olive oil -from cupboard
Any fresh herbs you have (dried at a push)
Sea salt
Black pepper
Cook gnocchi to packet instructions and set aside.
Heat olive oil in a small cazuela or ovenproof pan and sauté garlic and bacon until bacon is golden, add your gnocchi and passata. Stir well adding your herbs and season. Sprinkle over grated cheese and place in your oven for 15 minutes until golden on top and bubbling.
Serve with a large leafy salad.
Serves 2 hungry adults with a little leftover.
A beautiful tasty meal for around £4.
Simple basil dressing
We bought 10 potted herbs over the weekend to add to our increasing herb garden.. Theses included chocolate mint ( smells good) and an African Blue variety of Basil which looks like this:
The basil has been taunting me since yesterday just begging me to start using it and so I succumbed and tonight I made a beautiful basil oil dressing to drizzle over a huge salad to accompany our meal of jerk chicken and rice. Its probably the nicest dressing I’ve ever made and I will definitely be doing it again.
If you want to try it yourself it’s very simple, you just need a pestle and mortar, a bunch of basil ( whatever variety you have in your garden or can buy in supermarket) a good glug or two of extra virgin olive oil, a pinch of seasalt ( I used Maldons smoked) and some peppercorns ( I used Sichuan). Place everything in your mortar and use your pestle to give it a good bash until all the ingredients combine. Use immediately to drizzle over anything, would also be a lovely dip with some homemade bread.
I can’t say enough just how good this tasted. Try it.
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