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The Eurovision Song Contest was here again. And we didn’t win again!My friend Ewan always throws a party for the event and this year’s ‘do’ was a select gathering of us boom bang-a-banging, skirt ripping Europop fans.Personally I don’t know what the BBC have been thinking the past few years. Firstly we no longer get a chance to vote for the act we, the British public, would like to represent us. T
R is for Rock CakeRock cakes are a small fruit cake, popularised in Great Britain. They have less eggs and sugar so were promoted by the Ministry of Food during the Second World War, when these commodities were scarce. They were also bulked out by oatmeal at the time, which was easier to come by. They have quite a rough, jagged appearance, hence the name Rock Cake.
As well as Cakeyboi turning one this month, the Dundee branch of the Clandestine Cake Club turned one at the end of April.I wanted to feature the Clandestine Cake Club this month, as had it not been for the CCC, I would never have started my blog. A friend last year mentioned that the club was starting up in Dundee and as soon as I heard, I fired off an email to the organisers. Jac of Tinned Tomat
As I'm sure we all know, it's Eurovision this weekend, so I thought this one was rather apt!!Good luck Bonnie (think you're going to need it!!)
Since I created Cakeyboi a year ago, I have often wondered what flavour he might be. So, with it being his first birthday I thought it was about time I set about making a Cakeyboi cupcake!I thought long and hard, asked friends what flavour he might be, what flavour his frosting might be. And I came up with white chocolate coconut cupcakes with a tangy lemon butter frosting.Quite a mouthful I know
The alphabet has reached Q and I really did puzzle over this one, but then I remembered Cakeyboi's sweetheart - the Great British Bake Off judge - and so much more! - Mary Berry, the Queen of Cakes.I remember Mary on TV when I was a wee lad, she was always making delicious looking meals on some show I can't quite remember the name of. And I was thrilled last year when I got to see her in person at
What’s a hand pie? It’s basically what we in the UK call a turnover. It’s pastry, semi-circular in shape and can have a sweet or savoury filling. And you can hold it in your hand, unlike a messy slice of pie! Of course I am going for a sweet filling, and I decided to use the delicious Single Farm conserves from Mackays, which I was given to try out the other week.The Single Farm conserv
Seeing as we are in the party mood this birthday month, how about a fiesta inspired toon? Thanks to Cakeymum for this idea...
I love this stuff! I’ve made it for Birthday month here on Cakeyboi, but my goodness, it would be good at any time. If you love cake batter and licking out the bowl, Birthday Cake Batter Bark is for you!I have made various versions of my bark over the past year, and they have all followed the same sort of format, with white chocolate and rice krispies. This bark is altogether different, but just a
I promised you a couple of Giveaways for Birthday month here on Cakeyboi and this is the second! Nigella Lawson Measuring Cups. But before we get to these, a few weeks back a company called Red Candycontacted me and asked me to mention them here on Cakeyboi.Although my personal favourite colour is orange, I am not averse to red! Just as well, because Red Candy is a great website dedicated to celeb
I am pleased to bring you the first of a couple of giveaways to help celebrate Cakeyboi turning one this month! This is no ordinary cafetiere, it’s an OXO French Press which cleverly makes getting rid of the coffee grounds a cinch! It holds 2 litres of freshly brewed coffee, and the winner will also receive samples of Douwe Egberts coffee to use in the French Press. Here’s the official line -‘A mo
It's May and that means one thing - Cakeyboi is one year old! It's been so fast, but it's been a blast.This month I will bring you a couple of giveaways to celebrate and some birthday inspired treats, so stay tuned folks...
A couple of weeks back my friend Jac from vegetarian site Tinned Tomatoes, asked if I would like to accompany her on a tour the Mackays’ Jam Factory in Arbroath. I jumped at the chance!Aside from the factory being in my neck of the woods, I love Mackays’ product. They make a wide range of delicious marmalades, preserves, conserves and curds and I was very keen to see how they were made. Upon our a
P is for Pie in the Cakeyboi AlphabetSuch a versatile food item a pie, isn't it? Sweet or savoury, designed as a way to encase all the filling so working men could take them out into the fields, pies have come a long way.From Lemon Meringue to Steak and Kidney, the varieties are endless. My favourite is blueberry pie (can you see the blueberry juice leaking out above?). So tell me, what is y
I was lucky enough to be sent a hard anodised loaf tin from the kind people at Mermaid cookware. The 1lb tin is made of very strong aluminium, boasting that it is twice as strong as stainless steel.I had a bread idea which I knew would be a good test for the tin. A banana strawberry swirl bread. I have seen swirl breads about and they all seemed to differ quite wildly. But I wanted a yeast bread,
A couple of months back I was very excited, as I had picked up some ‘Speculoos’ on our last trip to London. Didn’t see it? What is Speculoos?Well, Speculoos seems to go by a few different names depending where you are in the world. Biscoff spread, Lotus Spread and Cookie Butter are other names it goes by. But basically it is a paste, similar in texture to peanut butter, which is made from those yu
Poor cakey!One of my biggest mistakes in the kitchen is overbaking! I never set a timer and then forget when I have popped my baked good in the oven. I haven't quite found cinders on the baking tray - yet. But there is always time!Tell Cakeyboi your biggest baking disaster here or over on the Cakeyboi Facebook page.
Anybody who knows Disneyboi and I know our love of Starbucks. If you are looking for either one of us, more often than not we are sipping beverages in our local ‘bux. It has been said that we should get shares in the place.I usually plump for a filter coffee, sugar-free vanilla syrup and soy milk. But Disneyboi sometimes goes for something altogether different. London Fog. What the heckythump is t
Edvard Munch had quite an apt name...
I had a couple of packs of Rolos left over from Easter eggs the other week and thought they might work well mixed into brownies. I hadn’t made brownies in a while and was in the mood. But I wanted to pimp my brownies a bit more, so thought about frosting the tops. And what goes perfectly with chocolate? Peanut butter! I love peanut butter and chocolate together. So do Americans if you check out th
Can't believe that the alphabet is over the half way mark! Where is this year going?Anyhoo, N is for nom nom nom...Hopefully this might be the sound you make when you try out a recipe from Cakeyboi. But called me old fashioned - where did 'nom nom nom' come from? It's only in the past couple of years I have noticed it used to describe the sound someone makes when enjoying something tasty.I think i
I hadn’t made marshmallows in such a long time and I had bought the wonderful Shauna Sever book – Marshmallow Madness! Whilst having a flick through I saw a recipe for Kool-Aid Marshmallows and I had a sachet of Kool-Aid hanging about in my cupboard. It was cherry flavoured, and I had an idea of making cherry cola mallows. I was obsessed with Cherry Cola when it came out in the UK, in the 80’s. I
I was having a bit of a clear out of my baking bit and bobs, checking the sell by dates on some of my used ingredients and came across a couple of things I hadn’t used in a while. The mint chips I used in my ChocMint Chip Cookies and the butterscotch chips, used in my Butterscotch Cinnamon OatmealCookies.They were in date still, and I popped a couple in my mouth, and I was hit with an idea. The ta
M is for (Cake) MixIt's only this year that I discovered how versatile boxed cake mix can be. For one thing, it can be made by just adding 1 can of any fizzy drink you like. Imagine a chocolate cake mix with cola added?!And the mix can be made into loads of other sweet type treats, such as cookies (check my Strawberry Choc Chip Cookies), bars and puddings.Google 'Other uses for Cake Mix' and you w
How cute are these individual sweet pies? They are a cinch to make and are a great way to use all those leftover dip jars! I usually have a few dip jars waiting to go into the recycle, but why not give them a wash (a very good wash, we don’t want jalapeno pepper flavour pies now) and put them to good use!I made the bottom crust from some crushed Cinnamon cereal mixed with melted butter. Then I put
It's meant to be a scone, honest...
Don’t be fooled by the date. This is genuine…First of all, cookie dough dip? Who doesn’t love to scoff on the leftovers in the bowl when cookies are being made? As I have said on a few occasions, I love cookie dough, cake batter, that sort of thing. A purpose made dip of this stuff (?) – heaven!And when I saw a cookie dough dip which was a bit more on the healthier side, I knew I wanted to try mak
Last month I was extremely lucky to be awarded two blogger awards – The Liebester Award from Ryan at Baked with Kindness and The Versatile Blogger Award from Kat over at The Baking Explorer. I figured I must be doing something right to be presented with these!The Liebster Award is for bloggers with less than 300 followers and the recipient nominates eleven fellow bloggers asking them eleven random
After my first attempt at making scones a few weeks back (CheddarberryScones) I was eager to try more. My combo of cheddar and strawberries went well, so what else could I come up with?As it is Easter soon, I wanted to try and encapsulate this holiday in a scone. My mind got to thinking and I thought of putting a Hot Cross Bun and a scone together. If you aren't familiar with Hot Cross Buns, they
He's dressed as a bunny, overheated and grumpy, so...
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We've reached K in the alphabet - in Cakeyboi's world this is KissWhen I think of Kisses in the sweet world, I think of yummy Hershey Kisses, but Kisses can also refer to a cookie made with egg whites and sugar!
Here are a couple of quick Easter ideas for you.I have been asked to do a few more kid friendly recipes and I think the above Easter Pops are very simple. And of course, no holiday can go by, without my bark, equally as easy, and kids love it!To make the pops, look for small Easter type sweets, such as micro mini eggs, bright coloured mini-mallows, Froot Loops look very spring-like (well the
Congratulations to Helen D from Southampton who won the Great British Bakeware, which is winging it's way to her right now. Now for this Wednesday's cartoon and it's sorta Easter themed...
Happy Belated Red Nose Day everyone! £75 million on the night is quite an achievement in this economic climate. In our office we made £5 just from selling our baked goods and some books.If you are not from the UK, you might wonder what the heck that entire last paragraph meant. But Red Nose Day is a fundraising day, held once every two years in the UK, in aid of Comic Relief, a charity that aims t
A quick break from the Cakeyboi Alphabet this week, as I have something delicious to share with you.Easter is fast approaching and if you haven’t bought your loved ones' egg yet, here is something a bit more special than the average chocolate egg on sale at the supermarket!I was asked to review an Easter egg from the good people at Hotel Chocolat. Have you been to one of their stores before? They
It’s getting close to Easter and although I am not religious, I like the whole Easter Bunny, chocolate eggs and time off from work shenanigans!And I wanted to share a few Easter themed recipes in the build up to the event. The idea for this one stems for the craze to stuff just about any sort of sweet/candy inside a cookie. And I know what you are thinking – a creme egg inside a cookie?!
Cartoon for this coming St. Patrick's Day - Cakeyboi's cousin...Have a good one!
What with St. Patrick’s Day coming up, I wanted to make something that would tie in with the Irish theme. And at Cake Club recently I had a piece of Chocolate Guinness Cake. It wasn’t what I expected, but it was delicious. You couldn’t really taste the Guinness, but it left a certain something different.As I am obsessed with Salted Caramel at the moment, I thought a frosting in this flavour would
J is for Cakeyboi in a Jar.Cookies and bars in jars are very trendy at the moment. It's such a simple idea, but makes a lovely gift which gets your recipient to add wet ingredients to the dry ones provided in the jar!I recently gave my nephew's Cakeyboi in a Jar for their birthdays and they had great fun mixing up the goodies inside, popping them in the oven and sampling the results.Check out
A few weeks ago I was asked to review a pancake set from OXOGood Grips. Sadly, I missed Pancake Day, but then I thought – I love pancakes at anytime! And Scottish pancakes especially.The pancake set comprised a 2.8 litre stainless steel mixing bowl, a silicone flexible pancake turner and an 11” silicone balloon whisk. I set about making my pancake batter, taken from Nigella.com. The batter bowl lo
I don't think Bakerella would approve...
Two disclaimers before I start;1 – This stuff is seriously addictive – don’t blame me if your jeans get tight!2 – On a more serious note, this recipe is NOT suitable for dogs as it contains chocolate, which is bad for our canine friends.Okay, with that over with, you may be asking what Puppy Chow is? Well, in America it uses a certain brand of cereal called Chex, which is then coated in a combo of
In the Cakeyboi Alphabet, I is for IcingIs there a difference between Icing and Frosting I have often wondered. Certainly Frosting is a much more American term, but I have often heard the two used in place of one another.But online, I found this...Icing is composed more of sugar, is put on the cake with a little bit thinner consistency, and then hardens some on the cake. Where as frostin
I was in the mood for experimenting in the kitchen again, and I was craving some rice krispie sort of concoction, so obviously, RKT’s were the order of the day.I have made a few different flavours of Rice Krispie Treats before, and this is sometimes dictated by what ingredients I have to hand. As it happened, I had some digestive biscuits open, and some lemonade flavour Kool-Aid. It had to be Lemo
Thanks to Dolly from Friockheim for this one...she suggested that Cakeyboi gets a new gingham cupcake liner so he can go all....
How many times can you get the word cake in a food blog post title??!It was that time of the month again last Sunday – Clandestine Cake Club! The good excuse to eat lots of cake, meet friends and chat about all things cake related.The theme for February was ‘I Love Cake’ which was open to interpretation really. It could be a Valentine’s theme, or it could be a cake you love or one you have always
H in the Cakeyboi alphabet stands for H. So now's as good a time as any to meet Cakeyboi's friend Honeybunch the bee...Honey which is made by bees from the nectar of flowers is a very versatile ingredient in cooking and baking. It can be used in sweet and savoury dishes and has approximately the same relative sweetness as granulated sugar.
