Entertaining – Page 4 – Baking with Gab

The Boy’s Nutella birthday cake and 4WDs

It was The Boy’s birthday on Friday and all he asked for was an “epic cake.” I always make him a birthday cake, so that was no big deal, but having it prefixed with the word epic made the task slightly more daunting.

I love baking, but presentation isn’t always my strongest point – I value taste over looks!

The Boy is a big fan of 4WDing (and I’ve played dutiful partner and tagged along before), so I decided to give him a 4WD themed cake. In the end it wasn’t hard, we just ended up with massive amounts of cake. Like, three tiers of cake. I know what I’ll be eating for the next week… Continue reading “The Boy’s Nutella birthday cake and 4WDs”

Chocolate Malteser cupcakes and Mental Health Week

These cupcakes came about because The Boy has a ridiculous obsession with Maltesers. I was never that big a fan of them, but I’m an official convert. I made them yesterday on my day off and he was delighted with them when he came home from work. It reminded me how the tiniest of gestures can change someone’s day completely.

Which is why I thought I’d talk a little about Mental Health Week. For me, food and love go hand in hand, so when I want to let a person know that they’re special to me, or even just that I’m thinking of them, I bake. If you could bake (or buy baked goods) for a loved one at any point this week, do so! Continue reading “Chocolate Malteser cupcakes and Mental Health Week”

GF Rosewater rhubarb bundt and bundt obsession

If you’re up to date with Baking with Gab, you will have seen my darling little bundt babies. They were so cute that I almost struggled to eat them.

Almost. They were delectable enough that the guilt subsided eventually.

And those little cutenesses reminded me how much I adore bundt. They’re show-stoppers, centre-pieces, let-me-have-the-first-slice kind of cakes. Continue reading “GF Rosewater rhubarb bundt and bundt obsession”

Strawberry rhubarb bundt and miniatures

I am a fan of all things miniature. Norman is a testament to this – my family joke that if we had three Normans and stacked them one on top of the other, we’d have a real dog. I love that mini old-fashioned milk bottles are in vogue at the moment, I’ve used mine in various photo shoots. (You can see them in my chocolate milkshakes post.)

It’s rather funny that I made mini cakes out of the rhubarb I purchased, which was ginormous. Continue reading “Strawberry rhubarb bundt and miniatures”

Homemade twix slice and promises:

I dangled this tart in front of your eyes about a week ago. I taunted you with a picture of its shell, ready to go in the oven, and then I never gave you the recipe.

How mean of me!!

To be perfectly honest, I lost the recipe! I had all of the tantalising pictures and could still tell you how delicious it was, but I couldn’t give you the ingredients! One of the problems with me being a blogger is that I’m prone to misplacing things. I used to write my recipes on scraps of paper and then lose them and get disappointed. The Boy bought me a notebook to stop this happening…now I just lose the notebook. Continue reading “Homemade twix slice and promises:”

Blackberry pistachio friands and happy

Last night I went to see Meg Mac with some friends, and it was such a positive night! Rainy Day Women, played just before her and I’m so glad to have discovered them – they’re all catchy songs and enthusiasm, it’s adorable.

And Meg Mac was breath-taking – she’s amazingly talented and so humble. She was genuinely appreciative of the audience and completely adorable. Her performance made me so happy.

Continue reading “Blackberry pistachio friands and happy”

Peanut butter slice and broken ovens

This little slice was created at a time when I thought that I had no oven. The oven in my rental property had been smoking like crazy for no apparent reason at all. So I stopped using it while we tried to get the issue sorted.

Some people could cope with just a stove top to cook on…I can’t.

Ovens are kind of integral to what I do here at Baking with Gab.

So in the week that I went without an oven I went Pinterest crazy on no-bake recipes. I was amazed at the amount of food that people get away with not cooking! Lots of fudges are no bake, I almost made a cake batter dip, and there are so many raw desserts that I want to try. Continue reading “Peanut butter slice and broken ovens”

Pretzels and new things

I have a confession to make. I don’t like pretzels. Those little salt-laden little knots that always make their way onto dip platters. I just can’t stand them. They’re too salty and brittle – they dry out my mouth with such speed that it creeps me out.

I know, I’m sorry. But in the interest of full disclosure, I needed to let you know!

So when I set out to make my own, I knew that they weren’t going to be spindly and hard, they were going to be plush, pillowy little tangles of dough. And without too much salt!

These little knots do not disappoint. (I refrained from writing “do knot disappoint,” just fyi.) Continue reading “Pretzels and new things”

Lemon poppy seed cake and processes

I made this cake without the aid of Penelope, my mixer. I use her to do everything because it’s just so effective! Today, however, she stayed at my house while I visited Norman and mum. Faced with the prospect of no mixer and an urge to make a delicious cake, I decided to simply hand mix the ingredients.

I thought that I would begrudge it, but I really enjoyed it. I found that I paid so much more attention to what was going into the batter, and noticed the effect that certain ingredients had when they were added. Continue reading “Lemon poppy seed cake and processes”

Simple butter cake, boyish birthdays and partying dinosaurs!

Who knew that dinosaurs liked to get festive? Or that they suited party hats so perfectly? After this weekend’s birthday party shoot, I want to top every cake henceforth with dinosaurs in festive hats.

My favourite was the Brontosaurus, who struck a mean pose.

I have wanted to do a themed birthday party for a long time now. When I was given some adorable cupcake wrappers by Illume Design, I knew what my theme would be – DINOSAURS!! The milo cupcake recipe accompanying this cake will be up later in the week. (Illume Design also supplied the gorgeous chevron party plates.)

I very rarely do manly posts. Without even thinking, I drift towards florals and polka dots and tea pots. Browsing through previous blog posts, one might suggest that I don’t actually own anything monochrome or beige.