chocolate – Little Peach Cakery

Giant cookie recipe

This recipe is an easy way to create a perfect giant cookie. Decorate it any way you like!

It’s a great base to add your favourite chocolates too and the perfect alternative to birthday cake.

I’ve made this giant cookie recipe for birthdays, thank you gifts, fathers day and as a tasty treat.

You can use this recipe as a base for lots of flavours or styles. White choc chips and salted caramel was delicious!

You’ll need

A round cake tin – 8, 9 or 10 inch

Bowl and spoon

Baking paper

Recipe

200g – 300g of Chocolate chips (white, milk or dark)

225g self raising flour

125g stork or butter at room temp

225g caster sugar (or 125g caster and 100g granulated sugar)

1 medium free range egg

1/4tsp vanilla extract

**For a chocolate cookie replace 25g of the flour with 25g cocoa powder.**

Method

1. Preheat your oven to 180°C.

2. Grease the cake tin and line the base with baking paper.

3. Mix the stork or butter with the sugar until smooth.

4. Add the egg and vanilla extract and mix again.

5. Mix in the flour (and cocoa powder if using it). The mix will start getting firmer but mix until all combined in the dough.

6. Add most of the choc chips, keeping a small handful for the top.

7. If you are using a 10 inch tin push all the mix into it and evenly across the tin. I use a spatula or back of a spoon to do this. If you are using a 9 or 8 inch tin remove a couple of spoons of mix and pop them on a tray to bake (you’ll have these couple of normal sized cookies as spares). Sprinkle the saved choc chips over the top of the cookie.

8. Pop in the oven for approx 17mins. Check on the cookie after 15mins, if it looks shiny on top leave to cook for a little longer.

9. When you remove from the oven let the cookie cool completely in the tin before removing it.

10. To write on the cookie you can use royal icing or buttercream icing. Pop in a piping bag and snip off the end to write. Or pipe swirls around the edge and top with sprinkles or chunks of choc etc.

11. A new plain white pizza box makes a great way of boxing it for a gift.

Rat cake with buttercream flowers

Why a rat?! I made this cake for my husband and I’s wedding anniversary. 10 years before this cake was created we lived in a little rented house in Slough, our housemates were our pet rats and later our chinchillas.

On top of our wedding cake sat a pair of crystal rats and so for our anniversary I thought a rat cake would be a reminder of those times.

The piped flowers shapes and colours are based on the real flowers in my bouquet.

So there you have the thinking behind this little Ratty cake.

I hope this guide helps you to create your own cute rat cake for whatever special occasion he/she is need for!

You will need:

5 inch round cake

10 inch cake board

Buttercream (approx 250g butter and 500g icing sugar)

White fondant

Pink fondant

Black fondant or edible black balls for eyes

Florist wire or fine dry noodles for whiskers

Some basic sugarcraft tools including a small circle cutter, cutting tool or knife and smoother.

To decorate the cake board:

1. This is usually my first step, I cover the cake drum in a layer of white fondant.

2. I use Sweet Stamps to emboss a name or message.

3. I handpaint the imprint with edible paint.

To decorate the cake:

1. Cut the cake into 3 or 4 layers and fill with buttercream or filling of your choice.

2. Cover in a thin crumb coat of buttercream.

3. Roll out some white icing to approx 3mm thick and cut a tummy shape. Gently push this onto the front of the cake.

4. Cut 2 small circle ears from the pink fontant. Make 2 little sausages for the arms and thin it a little on the wrists. Make little finger marks with a cutting tool or knife.

5. To make the mouth take a grape shape with white fondant and push a dent across the middle. Pop a smaller ball of pink fondant onto this as a nose. Cute 6 equal ish lengths of florist wire and push 3 slightly into each side of the mouth (NB the nose will not be edible if using wire, noodles are a possible food safe alternative).

6. To make the arms and feet, roll your fondant into sausages first. Use the cake to judge the size you need. Use a knife to mark the fingers and toes.

7. For the tail roll pink fondant into a long thin sausage with one end thinning into a tip.

8. Use your black fondant to make two equal pea sized balls for eyes or use large black sprinkles.

9. Set aside all your fondant details to allow to hardern.

Time to use your buttercream!

1. Select the colours you’d like the flowers to be. Colour up the buttercream into seperate bowls.

2. Select the piping tips and fill your bags with buttercream.

3. Start piping the largest flower first. I used a closed star to create the ‘rose’ swirls.

4. Add the medium flowers next, I piped squiggles!

5. Fill the gaps with your smaller drop flowers making sure not to go right over the fondant tummy area.

6. Whilst the buttercream is still soft add the nose, eyes, arms, feet and tail. They should stick to the buttercream, you may need a bit of edible glue to attach the arms over the fondant tummy.

If you’d like to add a heart plaque I just used a small heart cutter and imbossed with a mini message embosser.

And there you have it! Possibly the most adorable rat cake ever (well at least I think so).

I hope this tutorial has been helpful for you. Don’t forget you can follow my latest creations over on my Facebook and Instagram pages.

Happy cake decorating x

Marble vanilla and chocolate cookies

A twist on an old favourite these marble cookies are fun to make, quick and tasty.

Here’s what you need to make 12 marble cookies.

Ingredients:

200g self raising flour

175g caster sugar

50g soft brown sugar

20g cocoa powder

125g stork or butter

1 egg

1/4tsp vanilla

60g -150g of chocolate chunks

Preheat the oven to 180°C (fan). Pop some greaseproof paper on 2 baking trays.

Method:

1. Mix the sugar and butter together with a spoon.

2. Stir in the egg and vanilla until completely combined.

3. Add the flour and stir until a dough forms.

4. Now seperate the dough into roughly half in two bowls.

5. To one bowl add the 20g cocoa powder and mix in until fully combined in the dough.

6. To the vanilla dough add the chocolate chunks and stir (the amount is up to you!).

7. Take a spoon of each dough and form into a ball. Make 12 roughly the same size balls.

8. Bake for 10mins.

Delicious still warm but will keep nicely for a few days. Enjoy!

Giant floral cupcake decorating tutorial

Here I share tips to create a unique and impressive giant cupcake.

You’ll need a few things to follow this tutorial:

Silicon cupcake baking mould set

Selection of piping tips including size 1, drop flowers, 2D and leaf tip.

Piping bags

Buttercream

Cake batter (sponge cake approx 5 eggs worth)

Cake release spray

Spatula

Method:

Stage 1 make the chocolate case.

You’ll need approx 300g chocolate. I have found dark chocolate is the easiest to work with.

1. Melt the chocolate slowly.

2. Pour into the cupcake case and tilt the case to pour the chocolate on to the sides. Turn the case whilst tilted to cover all of the inside. You might need to gently shake it forward to reach the final areas.

3. Now put the case in the fridge for about 20mins.

4. To remove chocolate case, hold both sides of silicon mould firmly and pull directly down.

Stage 2 Mix the cake batter and bake.

1. Spray silicon tins with cake release.

2. Fill the cases to approx 3/4 with the cake batter. I bake at 140°C fan oven for about 1hr 30m.

3. Allow to cool completely.

Stage 3 cake into case

1. The sides of the cake will need a trim to allow it to fit into the chocolate case. I also cut the base cake into 2 layers and fill.

2. Cover the cake in buttercream.

3. Gently drop the cake into the chocolate case.

Stage 4 buttercream flowers

1. Using a petal tip pipe 4 or 5 petals onto a flower nail. Repeat 5 times and leave to set. Or refridgerate.

2. Fill a piping bag with blue and white buttercream and pipe drop flowers using 2D tip.

3. Use a rose colour buttercream and pipe swirls with 2D tip. Starting on the inside and swirl out. Maybe 3 or 4 of these around the cake.

4. Use smaller drop flowers to create bunches of flowers around the cake. Fill as much as possible.

5. Pipe leaves around the cake and flowers.

6. Add the first piped flowers that are now cool and set. Carefully stick them to the cake with buttercream. Using a 1 tip add stamen to the flowers.

Try different colour combinations to match your theme.

Thanks for visiting!