Trick or treat cake pops

Halloween has become a lot more popular in Britain since I was a child growing up in Newcastle. In my day, Halloween meant scraping a lantern out of turnip (yes, turnip!) and going round the neighbours asking for money (yes, money!). Not any more, it's all pumpkins and treats. I'm not complaining - pumpkins are way easier to carve and I have absolutely no problem with treats. In fact I've been making some today. Here are my Halloween cake pops.


I find these pumpkin cake pops a tiny bit scary. Like they are laughing at me.

Eyeball cake pops. Blue, like Daniel Craig's. Looking at me, unlike Daniel Craig's.

Skull cake pops, cauldron cake pops, and Frankenstein cake pops. I was pleased with my idea of using silver dragees for the bolts in Frankenstein's neck.

I saw these ghost cake pops in a book on Cake Pops that has just been published. It's the best book I've seen on cake pops as it gives detailed tips on making and decorating them and is full of great ideas.

Lastly, there is my little homage to Blackadder - heads on sticks in Traitor's Cloister.

Ointment! That's what you need when your head's been cut off.
        That's what I gave your sister Mary when they done her. "There, there"
        I said, "you'll soon grow a new one."

So these are the Halloween treats. But where is the trick?

One of these cake pops is actually a Brussels sprout. MUAHAHAHAHAHA! 

Smoky choc cherry cupcakes

Ruth Clemens recently posted a recipe for smoky choc cherry cupcakes that she’d created for last year’s Great British Bake Off. The recipe uses sweet smoked paprika. I love smoked cheese and I’m sure if I weren’t vegetarian I’d love smoked meat too. Something about smoked sweet paprika – both the challenge of finding it in the first place and the promise of an interesting cupcake – was irresistible.

I didn’t realise how hard it would be to find normal-sounding ingredients but Newcastle city centre gave me a tough time. I drew a blank on black cherry jam but managed to find some red cherry conserve in M&S. That’s more or less the same, isn’t it? I bought a tin of black cherries and found out that the syrup is a surprisingly nice drink. I also found out that if your blender makes a terrible noise when blitzing the cherries, it means you’ve NOT bought pitted cherries.

The cupcakes turned out just as Ruth promised: moist and chocolatey with a hint of smokiness. The swirls of dark chocolate ganache mixed with cherry jam set off the cake brilliantly.

To decorate the cupcakes I wanted to try a new way of making sugar butterflies. Many moons ago, a lecturer commented a propos of nothing “If you want students to remember something, tell them in an aside”.

He was right. I’ve no idea what the lecture was about, probably how lush Homer was or summat, but I remember the aside. Recently, I had some classes with Alan Dunn and as an aside he mentioned that a paper cutter can be used with florist paste to create some very delicate cake decorations. I hurried off to Hobbycraft and bought this Martha Stewart butterfly paper cutter.

Using it with sugar is tricky work – the florist paste needs to be very thinly rolled and allowed to dry a little before it is slotted into the cutter. I even dusted the inside of cutter with cornflour.

I painted the butterflies with edible gold dust, rendering them even more delicate and difficult to handle. An easier option is to attach edible gold leaf to the florist paste before cutting. It's a good idea to attach yourself to a millionaire before attempting this, as gold leaf is eye-wateringly expensive.

Lucy is here this weekend to do the Great North Run half marathon. She’ll need the calories so she can have the lion’s share of the cupcakes. Going for gold, bairn!

Float like a butterfly, sting like a bee. Run like a bastard.

Children's cakes

I love doing cakes for little children because they're so cute. This week I've made a christening cake and cake pops for a baby boy.

I also made a dozen of these little fellas for a two year old boy's birthday. 

Can we bake them? Yes we can!

 Lastly I made an In the Night Garden cake to celebrate a baby girl's first birthday.

Paws with Pride

Today Newcastle celebrated its second Paws with Pride, part of this month's Northern Pride festival. It's a very inclusive event with a lot of families and children (I even saw a nun) and as many animals as Leazes Park could hold.

I was delighted to be asked by the event organiser Ken Mortimer to make a rainbow cake.

I decorated it with the Northern Pride logo and cunningly invented a Paws with Pride logo on the side, using the rainbow petals and a paw print. Really, I don't know why I haven't gone into brand design. I also modelled a Westie and a brown dog of indeterminate heritage. The book described him as 'Santa's Helper', though I doubt that's a category at Crufts. I used a redundant garlic press to make the Westie's face fur and was pleased with the result, not least as it's a lot easier to clean than a craft gun.

The cake inside is seven layers of cake in the colours of the rainbow, which is why I call it rainbow cake. Perhaps I should go into brand design AND marketing, the brilliant ideas just bounce off me like fleas. 

One person who I believe will have a brilliant career in art and design is my cousin Helen. I mentioned her work in June and am very proud to say she's just graduated this summer from Manchester School of Art with a well deserved first class degree in Illustration. She drew this animal tea party for me and I LOVE it. 

There were dozens of gorgeous dogs competing at high level events like Waggiest Tail, Dog the Judge Would Most Like to Take Home, and Campest Costume. I failed to win Prettiest Bitch - not pretty enough and not enough legs. There were huge dogs, teeny tiny dogs, huggy dogs, dressed up dogs and Cutey McCute puppies. 

"Watch the sandwich". Worked a treat.

Glenn. Retired young from farm work as he ran away from the sheep.

One of these, please

Ten week old chihuahua. About as big as a kitten

Hard to capture on a photo, but this is the tallest Great Dane I've ever  seen

A male dog. He didn't seem bothered.

The rest of the animal world was represented by cows, ponies, alpacas, hedgehogs, rabbits, guinea pigs, birds of prey and snakes. I helped out for a while on the Wildlife Sanctuary  stall and met some lovely people, but kept a close eye on the snake under the tombola.


One of the few animals not present was cats, which people were asked not to bring after the Feline Federation described the event as 'hell on toast'. Cats were represented in a photo competition for Bonniest Cat.

Aaah, kittehs

Mia was gutted I'd not sent in her photo as she was sure she'd triumph 'because I'm proper mint'. 

Paws for Pride was a lot of fun and the perfect weather helped. I'm already looking forward to next year's and will not forget to nominate a Bonniest Cat. It just might not be Mia.