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I know that this probably won’t be the first blog you see featuring Jubilee cakes and it certainly won’t be the last. I think last year’s Royal Wedding and street parties has got people in the ceremonial baking mood. After Mr Whippy Cakes I wanted to have another go at patriotic stripy buttercream and have an excuse to play around with sugarpaste and royal icing.

To get vivid colours you do need to use quite a bit of gel colours. Liquid colours won’t work anywhere near as well. I recommend either Sugarflair gels or Morrisons now do a good range of colour gels. It’s also worth letting the colours rest for about 30min before using because the colours will continue to intensify. Because the colours are so bright the buttercream colour will bleed in to the neighbouring colour over time. This is one advantage of putting white buttercream between so you don’t up with dirty purple stripes in the buttercream..

To get very white buttercream you can use trex instead of butter, but seriously save your tastebuds and accept the fact that your buttercream will have a tint of ivory compared to the fondant.

Any fairy cake/cupcake recipe will work for these cakes. I use a recipe that Holly Bell gave me that has a small amount of almonds in and they deliberately sink slightly after coming out of the oven giving you a perfect flat top to work with. If your cakes hae domed too much, just slice the top off to level. I always bake cupcakes in foil wrappers. They work out more expensive than paper liners, but keep the cakes fresher for far longer. I buy them in bulk from Cake Craft Shop. Bonus of buying silver cases it that silver goes with everything!

If you are giving these cakes to children, wait about 30min then leave. Quickly. Just before the sugar and e-numbers kick in (only joking…kind of).

Striped butter cream

250g unsalted butter, softened

500g icing sugar

1 tbsp milk

1 tsp vanilla extract

blue and red food colouring gel

1) Using an electric whisk or mixer beat together the butter, icing sugar, milk and vanilla for 4 minutes until the buttercream is light and fluffy. You’ll notice the mixture whitens as it is beaten.

2) Separate the buttercream in to 3 bowls so you have 2x bowls of 180g buttercream and 1 x bowl of 390g buttercream. This larger bowl will be your white buttercream. Colour the two remaining bowls of buttercream blue and red.

3) Fit a Wilton 1M tip to your piping bag. Put the different colours of buttercream in the bag one spoonful at a time. Click here to see how the bag should be filled (look bottom right of picture).

4) When piping start from the outside of the cake and swirl inwards. Keep the piping tip at 90° to the cake.

Spotty bunting

To make spotty icing is easy. Roll out a small amount of blue sugarpaste. Then roll balls of red and white and press these in to the blue. Roll over gently with a rolling pin. Using a sharp knife to cut out strips of the icing then cut these in to triangles This icing does dry fast and can crack where the dots are so use it quickly. Stick the bunting to the cakes using vodka or water.

Crowns

Royal icing sugar (I like Silver Spoon Royal icing sugar)

4cm round cutter

small and large silver balls

no2 piping tip

piping bag

pin

tracing paper or baking paper

pencil

small soft paint brush

1) Draw your crown design on to a piece of baking paper (note the change of design in the photos as the original design didn’t work as well)

2) Roll out a piece of white sugarpaste. Place your drawing over the sugarpaste and using a clean pin trace around the pattern. Remove the paper and you’re left with an impression of your shape on the sugarpaste. Using the round cutter cut out a shape so the crown is in the middle.

3) Mix the royal icing paper with a small amount of water so it is suitable piping consistency. Using a no2 piping tip pipe over the pin marks and if you need to fill in the shape.

4) While the icing is still wet sprinkle over the small silver balls. Use a paint brush to get rid of the balls you don’t want. Place 4 of the larger balls in the correct place on the crown. Place the crown topper on a swirl of buttercream.

Stamps

Use a similar technique for making the silhouette as you do with the crowns. Pipe the silhouette first then cut the rectangle out. It saves having to try and centralise your piping. Allow the red bit of the stamp to dry out before doing the white perforated bit of the stamp. Stick the red piece of sugarpaste on top of some white sugarpaste with a small amount of vodka or water. Cut a boarder then use a scallop tool to make the stamp perforations.

The great thing about doing projects like this is the leftover buttercream and icing. A perfect time to practice piping.

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As with any national celebration it always brings out the best and often naffest commemorative ware, sometimes with the most tenuous link to the event. I very much believe it’s pointless bemoaning stuff like this and trying to fight it. If you can’t beat them join them. I make no apologies that in the next week this blog will feature some garish red, white & blue cakes.

Renshaw Great British Icing Pack (includes 4 x 200g packs – one red, one white and two blue) available now from Asda, Morrisons, Lakeland and Hobbycraft priced at £2.99. These icing packs are perfect for people who don’t decorate cakes often or are not confident colouring sugarpaste.

Singing in the Reign tea towel from the Great British stalwart John Lewis. Slogan quite appropriate given the weather we are experiencing at the moment.

Emma Bridgewater 1/2 pint mug - one problem with this mug is that it doesn’t come pint sized. Some days I could easily drink a pint of tea.

Jan Constantine hand embroidered street party cushion. – I like the design and needlework on this cushion and as any woman will tell you, you can never have too many fancy cushions.

Pieminister Lovely Jubilee Pie – a really rather delicious creamy coronation chicken pie by the lovely Pieminister. This is by far my favourite Pieminister pie and it’s a shame it’ll only be on sale for a short while.

Union Jack bunting - no self-respecting British tea party is a party without bunting. I love this bunting that dotcomgiftshop kindly sent me. It is currently adorning the lounge and next week will be moved to one of the schools I work at for their Diamond Jubilee celebrations. I’m also coveting this birdcage glass cloche.

Jubilee Pop Top cake decorations – Naff, kitch and my anti-royalist father-in-law is getting these on cakes. This will accompany all the trashy royal memorabilia we have given him in the past.

M&S biscuit tin illustrated by Debbie Powell. – As mentioned in a previous post I’m a big fan of M&S biscuit tins and the designs they have brought out for this summer are fabulous.

Lyle’s Golden Syrup – this iconic packaging has been given a makeover for the Jubilee. I hoard golden syrup tins as once the glorious gold liquid has been used you are left with a practical tin. Our outhouse is full of them.

Have you seen any great Diamond Jubilee things for sale?

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FareShare is a charity that has supported communities with food poverty since 2004. Many people think how can a westernised country like the UK have problems with food poverty, but with the country dipping into a second recession it is more real than ever. As a student I helped coordinate food parcels for those in need and I now work with families on the breadline by teaching cookery skills. I’ve seen food poverty first hand and it is very much an issue. Today FareShare feeds 34,000 people. Fareshare works by:

• Providing quality food - surplus ‘fit for purpose’ product from the food and drink industry – to organisations working with disadvantaged people in the community
• Providing training and education around the essential life skills of safe food preparation and nutrition, and warehouse employability training through FareShare’s Eat Well Live Wellprogramme
• Promoting the message that ‘No Good Food Should Be Wasted’

Between 16th – 20th May Citroen and 2011 Masterchef winner Tim Anderson are opening a charity pop-up restaurant in Shoreditch with all proceeds going to FareShare. The meal features 5 courses inspired by the 5 senses.  Each £5 ticket sold will allow FareShare to feed 20 people.

Places are limited and will be assigned via a ballot. Successful applicants will find out if they have a table between the 7th and 9th of May. To apply for a place go to https://www.facebook.com/CitroenUK and click on the Delicious at DS5 tab.

I was originally invited to the preview event a few weeks back, but due to business commitments I was unable to make it. We will however be attending the pop-up and we’re both looking forward to it. To find out more information about the preview event see the blogs by Faerietale Foodie, Tea Time in Wonderland, Food Urchin and Lady M Presents.

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Just like Rachel Khoo and her Parisian window box of herbs I’ve been growing herbs in the garden for a good few years. I love using herbs in cooking, but fresh herbs can be quite expensive to buy so by growing them it means we are saving money and I have my own little patch of the garden while Hubs concentrates on the rest of the fruit & veg. Another advantage is that herbs need little maintenance. As anyone who grows herbs will tell you, even a harsh winter and drought won’t kill the resilient mint & rosemary. The herbs are always the first to spring to life in our garden after winter. We grow all our herbs in containers. This helps to keep the plants under control as certain herbs like mint and borage can go a bit mad if left to their own devises.

Over the years I’ve grown different herbs from the beautiful borage to various types of thyme and basil, but due to limited space I’ve settled on the four most used herbs in my kitchen. Chives, thyme, rosemary, mint. Boring – maybe, but practical? – yes.  These herbs have an additional benefit, like may herbs they sometimes produce tiny flowers. These flowers can be eaten too and have a similar taste to the herbs. I love using chives as it is so versitile and great for giving a subtle onion tastes to food. I really like it in mash or jacket potato.

Even though I’m a big fresh herb fan I’m not against dried herbs in the slightest. When I’m too lazy to walk down the garden or during the depths of winter when the herb pot looks a bit desolate dried herbs can still pep up a dish. Next time you make roast potatoes just before you are about to roast them, sprinkle the potatoes with a tablespoon of dried mint. It really does transform the essential Sunday roast accompanyment. However some herbs just work better fresh. Chives, coriander and parsley. Coriander, just doesn’t grow well in my garden so with this herb, of which I use quite a bit of, I have to end up buying fresh. Just wash, pat dry and then freeze in a bag. I then use coriander directly from the freezer. Of course not the best if being used in salads, but perfect for use in hot dishes like curry and stir fry.

In our next house I’m hoping to expand the herbs I grow with the wild garlic Mat Follas kindly sent me along with bay, parsley, borage and something more exotic. What herbs do you grow?

Here is some recipes on the blog that contain herbs:

Courgette & Feta Fritters (Also work well with chives instead of mint)
Hogget & Mint Pasties
Focaccia
Lamb, Pistachio & Mint burgers
Veggie Burger
 

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Biscuits are wonderful from the spicy speculoo to the melt-in-the-mouth Cherry Bakewell biscuit. I’ll also never say no to gaudy pink wafer. For many making biscuits was one of the first things they baked as a child. In my classes children love making biscuits. I think it’s the tactile nature of them or the fact they are let loose on my eclectic collection of biscuit cutters. Handbag shaped Easter biscuit anyone?

All good biscuits need a tin. I’ve been a bit slow on the uptake here in discovering Marks & Spencer’s range of biscuit tins. I first heard about this untapped source for tins last week on Twitter. For £5 you get a fabulous tin that is full of biscuits. M&S bring out differently designed tins for different occasions. For Will & Kate’s wedding they brought out a Rob Ryan inspired tin and 2012′s summer of various events is no exception. I have a particular love for their union jack tin with various British landmarks in a 1950′s graphic style.

It turns out I’m not the only one who is a fan of their tins. Holly has been collecting them since Christmas 2010, Janet’s mum has a rarer white mouse tin, Penny likes to give them as gifts and Shelly owns the Bourbon biscuit tin I now covert.

The queen of biscuits for me is Jammie Dodgers and I will fight you for jam ring creams. The photo on this post is testament to this claim. We scoffed quite a few of the biscuits before remembering we needed to take photos of them. When making party rings last year I froze some of the uncooked biscuits with the plan of making Jammie Dodgers.

Jammy Dodgers
Dough recipe from The Pink Whisk
Makes around 25!

225g butter

225g caster sugar

1 egg, large

1dsp vanilla extract

375g plain flour

approx 7 tsp of raspberry jam

1) Cream together the butter and sugar until light and fluffy then mix in the egg and vanilla. Sift in the flour and mix until you have a well mixed dough.

2) Split the dough in half and place one half between two sheets of baking parchment. Roll out until dough is around 4mm thick. Repeat with the other ball of dough, then chill the dough for 30 minutes.

3) Using a 6cm diameter cutter cut out rounds then using a 1.5cm cutter cut out a hole in the middle or half of the rounds. Place the rings on a baking sheet lined with baking parchment. Place back in the fridge for another 30 minutes. If you wanted to freeze some of the dough, open freeze it at this stage then once they are frozen place in a ziploc bag and cook at a later date.

4) Preheat the oven to 160°c (fan)/180°c then cook the biscuits straight from the fridge for 12-15 minutes until beginning to turn golden brown.

5) Once the biscuits have baked transfer to wire rack and leave to cool completely assembling. You could bake them in advance as long as you keep the cooled biscuits in a Tupperware box to stop them going soggy.

6) Place 1/4 tsp of jam in the centre of a whole biscuit, then top with a ring biscuit. Gently press together. Brew a cup of tea. Dunk. Eat.

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As a student living in catered halls of residence a staple part of my kit was a toasted sandwich maker. Value bread and plastic cheese, voila hot lunch without having to leave my room. Ah those were the days when I could eat a cheese toastie, packet of Wotsits, Fuse bar and can of coke for lunch on a regular basis (all for £1) and still comfortably get into a size 8 pair of trousers. The mid 1990s for me saw the introduction to the exotic sounding panini in Long Cat Cafe housed in basement of C&A, Liverpool or the ‘Hot Baguette’ of student union bar days but for me it still has to be a proper triangular toastie.

Our tiny house means we are limited to what appliances we have and recently when we had a few vouchers that needed spending the toasted sandwich maker was deemed more important than a toaster; though it is stored out of sight due to the fact it doesn’t match the rest of the kitchen. Nope, no kitchen vanity here.

You’d think working from home means I have a whole kitchen at my disposal. I don’t have to jostle with workmates for the crusty microwave or pray that someone hasn’t half inched my lunch. Well working with food can sometimes kill your appetite. Some days all I need is a simple toasted sandwich. Not melted filling sandwiched between two pieces of toast, but a toastie made in a proper sandwich toaster that makes a quick hot lunch with filling that is sometimes comparable molten lava.

I’m a bit of an unadventurous toastie fan. Here the ultimate toastie filling is cheese & beans, trust me it’s delicious, closely followed by a toastie pizza made with a spoonful of tomato ketchup, cheese & salami. However toasties don’t need to be just savoury. As a student I may or may not have eaten banana, nutella & peanut toasties during late night revision sessions.

Rules of toasted sandwich making:

• Fine artisan crusty bread just won’t work. It pains me to say this but often the cheaper and pappier the white bread the better.
• Don’t take your filling right to the edge of the bread unless you want to clean up caked on gooey mess.
• Don’t forget to butter the outside of the sandwich rather than the inside if you want to get the toastie out in one piece.

Kavey recently blogged about toasties with combinations I’d never heard of. The hot dog toastie will be made here soon.

So, do you own a toasted sandwich maker? What’s your favourite fillings?

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Through both my business and blog I get to meet some great people and recently I’ve begun to spot a trend. Most of these people turn out to be science (principally Biology) graduates. Seems like us science geeks are quite an entrepreneurial bunch. I met James, who runs Buffalo Brownies, while we were both running our stalls at an event in the run up to Christmas. Unfortunately poor James can no longer get rid of me as I turned up with my stall last weekend for another event and set up right next to him. Partially because he knows far more about running a stall than I do (thanks for the bluetac & chips James!) and because I knew I’d get first dibs at the popular Chip blondie.

Buffalo Brownies are based in South Derbyshire and have created a range of brownies and blondies that are available for sale in a few outlets Derbyshire and through the post. I also mention them in the Marvellous Midlands part of the blog. If I had to choose just two of their range it’d be the most amazing Chip blondie that is like eating tablet fudge in cake form and Clementine brownie which is essentially a pimped up jaffa cake brownie. Hubs really likes the rhubarb & custard brownie – Arcee.

During our 6 hour stint on the stall we got talking about flavours. Buffalo Brownies are passionate about developing flavours for their brownies and blondies, many of which may push people’s flavour boundries. Some of the flavours that are going to be developed soon will involve alcohol. We’re talking about perfect brownies with an alcoholic kick. As to how James is going to do that, well that’d be telling.

All the flavours developed so far have been put in the Buffalo Brownies periodic table. It has about 75 slots at the moment, of which about 40 are already filled. So your challenge is to suggest the most amazing brownie/blondie flavour combination and you could be one of the lucky three to win a mixed box of classic shaped Buffalo Brownies. It’s only fair that those of your outside Derbyshire finally get a chance to try these delicious brownies.

To enter:

1. Use the Rafflecopter widget below to enter (If you’re reading this via email you will need to click through to blog)
2. There is one main way to enter the competition and other ways to get bonus entries.
3. Open to UK entrants aged 18 and over.
4. Competition closes on 30th April 2012
5. Please follow the Rafflecopter instructions and read the terms and conditions below. Entries will be verified. If an entry cannot be verified they will be disqualified.

a Rafflecopter giveaway

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A few years ago I made an alternative Simnel Cake that wasn’t really traditional apart from the inclusion of dried fruit and marzipan. This year after making baked bean tin Christmas Cake I decided to use the same method to make two mini Simnel Cakes.

Some myths state that traditionally Simnel Cakes were made on Mothering Sunday and if the cake was still moist by Easter Sunday it would be a sign that you would make a good wife. The cake is similar to a Christmas cake but has less spice and alcohol and it decorated in a more modest manner. The 11 balls of marzipan represent the 11 true deciples and of course omitting Judas.

Rather than baking these in baked bean tins, I use two similar sized chefs rings sent to me by Mermaid Bakeware to trial. They worked perfectly and are slightly easier to line than baked bean tins. I also used Dr Oetker’s fabulous cake release spray to help stick the baking parchment to the tin.

Simnel Cake
12 mini (small baked bean tin) cakes (also makes 8 inch (20 cm) round cake or a 7 in (18 cm) square one just bake for 3.5-4 hours instead)

200g glace cherries
500g mixed dried fruit
500g sultanas
zest of one orange
200ml orange juice
225g butter, softened
225g dark brown sugar
4 large eggs, lightly beaten
225g plain flour
1 tsp almond extract
2 tsp mixed spice
50g flaked almonds
apricot jam
Marzipan (approx 50g per mini cake)

1) Put cherries and other dried fruits plus zest in bowl and soak in orange juice overnight.

2) Line a tall cake tin: Lightly grease base and sides. Line sides with a double thickness of baking parchment that stands 5cm above tin. Make 1 cm cuts at base to help it lie flat. Line base with double layer of parchment. Look here for more detailed instructions.

3) Preheat oven to 150°c. Whisk butter and sugar for 5 min till light and fluffy. Whisk in eggs slowly. When almost added, whisk in some flour to stop it curdling. Fold in flour, spice, almond extract, fruit and almonds. Spoon half of the mixture into lined tin(s)

4) Take 25g of the marzipan (for each cake) roll into a disk and place on top of the cake mixture. Cover with the remaining cake mix. Make a small dip in the middle of the mixture. Wrap tin in a double thickness of brown paper (or parchment) and tie with piece of string. Cook for 60-90 minutes (3.5-4 hours for larger cake). If you want the top of the cake to brown a bit more untie the string, so the top of paper is open, for the last quarter an hour.

5) Leave to cool in tin. Then remove from tin, remove paper. Roll out 20g of the marzipan into a disk. Brush the top of the cake with apricot jam then place the marzipan disk on top. Roll the remaining marzipan into 11 balls and stick in a circle, using water, on top of the cake.

6) Using a blow torch or a grill lightly brown the marzipan.

Continue reading »]]> After visiting Birmingham’s Malmaison in February for their Tuscan wine & food event I was invited back to take part in FemAle 2012 – a beer & food matching event to show that great beer isn’t just for the male species and that beer can be a lower alcohol alternative to wine. Don’t forget it was us women that invented beer. Sorry about the quality of the photos. I only had my point & shoot and light levels weren’t great.

As this was a female only event Hubs wasn’t invited (though he was prepared to dress in drag to get in) so I took along my trusty friend Rach. She doesn’t really drink beer and I occasionally dabble with the hoppy stuff given I live near the home of brewing, Burton-on-Trent.

The evening was hosted by Beer Beauty Marverine Cole along with talks from Paul Corbett (MD of Charles Faram – hop merchants) and Paul Halsey (MD of Purity Brewing Company) who provided the beer and are based near Stratford upon Avon. The menu was devised by Malmaison’s Head Chef Brian Neath and Sous Chef Mark Walsh who delivered it on the night. Between each course we were encouraged to chat about the beers and discuss what we thought of them. It was clear by the end of the evening that we both liked very different beers.

Veltins Pilsner (4.8%)
Grilled vegetable ceviche bruschetta with saint-maur goat’s cheese crumble

This beer was served in champagne classes when we arrived and turned out to be one of Rach’s favourite beers of the night. It’s a very light beer that for me was too light in taste as I prefer drinks with a more defined flavour. The Veltins Pilsner was matched well with the bruschetta as it didn’t overpower the flavours of the cheese.

Veltins Pilsner (left) & Purity Gold

Pure Gold (4.3%)
Smoked salmon cannelloni with guacamole
For me this beer had a strong metallic, mushroomy aroma that tasted far milder than its scent. Only a couple of other people in the room agreed with what I could smell. When paired with the rich smoked salmon cannelloni the taste of the beer transformed to a delicate liquorice taste that perfectly cut through the salmon.

Pure UBU (4.5%)
UBU braised blade of beef with smoked pomme puree
One of the best food courses of the night. The beef just fell apart and the beer complimented the beef well due to its caramalised flavours. This Pure UBU reminds me of other beers I’ve tried and enjoyed.

Maisel’s Weisse (5.2%)
Roasted pork tenderloin stuffed with apricot & sage
One of the best beers of the night. The aroma of this cloudy German wheat beer was a heady mix of banana bread, cinnamon and apricots. I spent a good few minutes just smelling this amazing beer! While it had a sweet smell the smooth, fruity taste wasn’t too sweet that it would overpower the pork.

Bacchus Kriek

Bacchus Kriek (5.8%)
Dark chocolate delice, Bacchus glazed cherry
Sorry Sam Smith’s fruit beer I have a new love – Bacchus Kriek. Like the first beer this was served in a champagne glass. Bacchus Kriek is a beautiful, sweet, spicy beer with an almost cherry menthol like taste and tiny bubbles similar to the ones you get in a good champagne. If I didn’t know it was a beer I would have assumed I’d been served a champagne cocktail. It’s not a beer you could drink lots of due to its sweetness, but makes a sublime drink and a new favourite for both me and Rach. The beer went perfectly with the delicious delice. This course was so good Rach manage to sweet talk the waiter into giving her another slice to eat.

Sierra Nevada Stout

Sierra Nevada stout (5.8%)
Isle of Mull Cheddar
By this course I admit we were beginning to flag due to the richness of the previous course but the good women we are will never pass on a cheese course. I liked this beer as I can drink small amount of stout, but Rach found this beer too heavy and rich. I’d never think of drinking a stout with cheese, but the dominant flavours of both the cheese & beer worked together to mellow each other.

Once the event was done Rach & I decided to head down to the bar and have a good girly catch up and a night cap before heading back to our room. After asking the bemused barman if they sold various shots harking back to our student days (he said ‘no’) we then settled on a bottle of Maisel’s Weisse and two champagne glasses. The barmans face was classic and we had to assure him that yes we wanted champagne glasses as we were ladies and didn’t want to sip daintily from a pint glass. Drinking from a non-traditional glass certainly makes for a more refined beer drinking experience. However, I’m not sure my request for a champagne glass next time I’m down at the Burton Bridge Inn will go down as well!

Many thanks to Malmaison, Purity Brewing Company & Beer Beauty for inviting us to the event, giving us a bed for the night along with the well needed bacon cobs for me and waffles for Rach the morning after.

We were the guests of Malmaison who kindly paid for the event and room for the night. All words and opinions are our own.

Great view from our 6th floor room.

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These are the type of cakes I love but rarely get to make, hence why I’m such a keen member of Clandestine Cake Club. You can’t complain about getting the opportunity to bake a big proper cake and share it with like-minded people. This was made for a last-minute Clandestine Cake Club, details of which will come clear soon.

There was some prerequisites for the cake. While there was no theme for the event it needed to be a cake that could sit in my car while at work and stay intact in the dash along the A38 to Derby. I also wanted to it be a summery cake. This is essentially a giant version of the cupcakes I made for a friends 30th birthday.

I ended up piping more buttercream on the cake than I intended too. I have 3 cake tins that are allegedly the same size but between the smallest and largest tin there is a 2cm difference. Usually it’s not too noticable, but in this case it was so I trimmed one layer, only to make it even more noticeable with a raw edge. Icing can hide a multitude of sins. It also does a good job to sticking the cake to the plate during transportation. The buttercream on this cake looks remarkably like duchess potatoes the dinnerladies used to serve in school for lunch, but I promise this tastes better.

Blueberry & Lime Cake
Serves 12

240g caster sugar

240g Stork or butter

4 large eggs

240g self raising flour

250g fresh blueberries

2 limes

150g lime curd

250g unsalted butter, softened

500g icing sugar

1) Line the bottom of two 20cm cake tins with baking parchment. Preheat oven to 180°c.

2) Beat the butter and sugar together until fluffy then beat in the eggs one at a time until well combined. Before adding the fourth egg add a spoonful of the flour into the mix to help stop the mixture curdling.

3) Stir in the zest and juice of one lime then fold in the flour. It needs to be of dropping consistency (in other words it drops off the sponge easily). If not, add a small amount of milk to help loosen the batter.

4) Share the cake batter between the two tins then sprinkle 130g of the blueberries over the two cakes.  Bake for around 30 minutes until the cakes are risen, golden and a skewer comes of out the cake clean.

5) Allow the cake for rest for a few minutes for the cake to rest before turning it out of the tin and removing the baking paper. Allow to cool on a wire rack before filling.

6) Place the bottom layer on a plate then cover with a thick layer of lime curd and sprinkle with 60g of blueberries.

7) Put the second layer on top of the first. To make the buttercream beat together the softened buttercream, icing sugar along with zest and juice of one lime until icing is light and fluffy. Spoon into a piping bag and pipe on to cake.

8) When ready to serve decorate with the remaining blueberries.