What with it being birthday season, there's been a fair amount of baking going on.
The hubs got pumpkin whoopie pies (from The Hummingbird Bakery Cake Days)
With cream cheese frosting. Which was my subversive twist as he loathes cheese. Ha! Nobody was any the wiser - they just yummed them up. I am nothing if not a stealth cheese pusher.
And then my Mum - she has never had a terribly sweet tooth and would not class herself as a cake lover. But birthdays demand cake and I knew the boys would eat it. Spiced apple cake with brown sugar frosting sounded suitably Autumnal and a little bit grown up. In my enthusiasm, I neglected to register the part of the recipie which said 'serves 14 - 16....
It was truly a whopper, thankfully an incredibly tasty one, with icing made by making brown sugar Italian meringue and then whipping butter into it, which results in the most divine, fluffy, yet not too sweet frosting. Just don't try to work out the calorie content of a cake which used more than half a kilo of butter, 10 eggs and goodness knows how much sugar. But it did have two apples in too - so at least it counts towards your 'five a day'!
My brother's birthday comes next - he lives too far for me to bake - shame, as there is half an enormous cake left. In fact, if I had been thinking straight, I could have sent it off with my parents to deliver to him on the way home. Thereby saving me from eating any more slices. My thighs would have thanked me.
And that just leaves Mark's birthday at the weekend. He wants a Chelsea FC cake. I am so over baking novelty cakes. The supermarket lurid cake aisle is beckoning....
Now *that's* what I call a cake!
Posted by: Dragonfly | 26 September 2011 at 10:14
That cake needs its own postcode.
Posted by: jodie | 26 September 2011 at 10:45
Wowsers trousers. That is bigger than my hair, and that takes some doing.
Posted by: Emma (silverpebble) | 26 September 2011 at 10:57
Wow you've been baking up a storm over there! Your whoopie pies look perfect and that whopper of an apple cake is tuly tremendous!
Posted by: Julie | 26 September 2011 at 11:13
Gosh, that's some cake. Isn't strange how family bithdays come in clusters?
Posted by: Jane | 26 September 2011 at 11:28
That cake and and that stand is perfection, can you send me a piece!?
Posted by: raspberry | 26 September 2011 at 12:20
oh yum!
Posted by: jen painted fish studio | 26 September 2011 at 12:34
Oh my word - cake over load!
I made an apple cake yesterday, but nothing like yours. Mine was more rustic with bits of apple sticking up all over the place.
Nina xxx
ps. cream cheese frosting - nice one. N x
Posted by: Nina - Tabiboo | 26 September 2011 at 12:44
What a whopper! TEN eggs you say?!!! I don't think I've ever baked anything that needed more than 6!
Posted by: lina | 26 September 2011 at 13:53
Just wondering if the cake comes complete with a bed to lie down on after eating? Definitely food coma inducing. Love the whoopie pie. C.x
Posted by: noknittedknickers | 26 September 2011 at 16:02
What a fantabulous cake Ali! I love Jodie and Emma's comments! And your subversive cheese pushing was ultra sneaky - have you confessed yet? Lucy x
Posted by: lucylocket | 26 September 2011 at 16:19
It's birthday season in our family too - I made two at the weekend! Your apple cake looks AMAZING and your stealthy cheese pushing made me laugh. Lots.
Posted by: domestikate | 26 September 2011 at 19:46
Now that is what I call a cake! It's huge!
What a lucky Mum :o)
xx
Posted by: Lesley | 26 September 2011 at 20:17
never mind the cakes (sorry.. they look delicious but I'm still full of caramel slices from last week...)
I WANT YOUR CAKE STANDS!!!
Posted by: Monica | 26 September 2011 at 20:51
If there was ever a cake to turn your mum into a cake lover - that one should do it.
It looks absolutely amazing.
Posted by: Helen | 26 September 2011 at 22:36
Feel free to send some slices my way. I feel my fruit ratio is a little down this week....
Posted by: Amaranthine | 27 September 2011 at 08:23
You could courier me a slice over if it would help.
Posted by: The Coffee Lady | 27 September 2011 at 09:53
Surely the effort in lifting the gigantic cake onto its stand must have burned enough calories for at least 4 slices?
We are entering birthday season too. I have made over ambitious party plans. When will I ever learn?
(PS I had my first telling off from a school mum about the pretty lunches. I am tempted to start sticking in menus to really wind them up ;-)
Posted by: dottycookie | 27 September 2011 at 17:08
Well, it IS a huge cake but boy is it fantastic to look at. And that cake stand!
Superb. Lucky people, your family members.
Posted by: Paola | 27 September 2011 at 17:15
You are the queen of the whoopie pies--those look amazing! And what a cake! K x
Posted by: kristina | 28 September 2011 at 13:46
That is one awesome cake ... I can hear the cake stand groaning from here!
Posted by: Annie | 28 September 2011 at 21:37
I love the cloche on top of the cake - it clearly deserved a monster cake to go under it. And beautifully turned out whoopies!
Posted by: Joanne | 29 September 2011 at 15:26
It all looks so yummy - I especially like the look of those pumpkin cakes.
Ali - could you please tell me how you got the Pinterest button in your sidebar? I've looked at Pinterest and can't find how to do it.
Thanks :)
Posted by: Kitty | 29 September 2011 at 19:36
Cancel that question ... I just found it! :) x
Posted by: Kitty | 29 September 2011 at 19:40
Those pumpkin cakes look amazing! We're entering pumpkin season here, and I bet I could make some boys pretty happy with those!
xofrances
Posted by: frances | 01 October 2011 at 13:26
What I find as impressive as the cake is the fact that you had a cake cover in the right size - how about that for forward planning!
Posted by: Toffeeapple | 03 October 2011 at 18:51
Your whoopie pies look perfect and that whopper of an apple cake is tuly tremendous! You are the queen of the whoopie pies--those look amazing!
Posted by: Affordable Insurance | 19 October 2011 at 12:58