Saturday, 19 January 2013

back to business & butterfly cakes

now i'm sure you were all very panicked that i was going to miss my one blog post a week goal, but never fear i am here! and i can assure you that it feels so nice to be able to sit down and indulge my procrastinatory tendencies. this week has been absolutely hectic and it feels as if my feet have barely touched the ground. so naturally after a 'slightly' heavy one last night today has been a make-up free onsie day where i have been in bed longer that out! so i am feeling refreshed and ready to go...

part of this week's schedule was the new term bakesoc meeting. armed with vegetable crisps and several bottles of wine we sat down for two hours to plan out the term ahead. i can promise you it is looking very exciting and i have a couple of projects that i am rearing to get my teeth in to - but no spoilers! it was so nice to catch up with the girls and hear all the baking delights people made and received over the festive period.

before the week got underway i managed to squeeze in a therapeutic baking session on sunday afternoon. the bake of the day was chocolate butterfly cakes. these are cakes i completely associate with my mum (both the chocolate and vanilla variety) and the best thing was to come home from school on fridays to a freshly baked batch.

while i can't claim for certain that the chocolate twist is entirely my mum's own invention i will! this replaces the usual jam and butter icing filling with nutella and butter icing! it is soooo indulgent and super scrummy - the hazelnut centre adds something really special.

to make butterfly cakes make a batch of fairy cakes as usual (they work best in muffin sized cases so you have enough cake to scoop out).

WAIT for them to cool before attempting the assembly (we were far too impatient and so they were too crumbly and the results were not all that dainty!)

there are two methods depending on how your cakes have risen. if they have a defined peak then cut this off and then in half to form the wings. however most of the time you need to use a knife (or teaspoon) to cut a well in the centre of the cake, which you then cut in half for the wings.

april and i had a production line going - she was in charge of shaping and i did the filling (excuse the pile of cutlery!)

using a teaspoon place firstly a small amount of nutella in the well and then cover with a layer of butter icing.


one of the most heavenly substances...

finally rest the wings on top. if you have the patience (and there is not a crowd of hungry students gathered, dust the cakes with icing sugar for the ultimate finishing touch).


an example of the finished result (they didn't stay around long enough for me to get a final photo!)

these cakes are a perfect sunday afternoon treat if you are looking for some baking inspiration this weekend!

enjoy your week
love,
nen
x

ps. to keep up with blog posts and for other baking happenings follow this blog on twitter at @NensBakery or like it on facebook www.facebook.com/NensBakery

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