Baking Session- Coffee Cake and Peanut Butter Cookies!

So. Much. FOOD!

My friend, the wonderful Rena Freefall, came over to my house for the last time in... quite a few months. You see, she is going off to America for a few months and I will be shortly embarking upon my fourteen month long expedition of Germany and China (I say expedition, I will just be working and studying for the large majority of those fourteen months...)

So to celebrate our adventures? We made cake. Cakes. Cakes and Cookies.

Yeah... We went a little overboard....

We started with the cake, using a recipe from The Hummingbird Bakery cookbook, we decided to make the coffee cake as recently I have formed a sort of addiction to coffee cake (ironic really, considering coffee itself I don't find to be hugely addictive...). The recipe involved about 8 eggs, lots of sugar, a surprising amount of baking powder (which lead to our cakes overflowing somewhat....) and tons of sugar! 

(Look at her! Being all cool with her one handed egg cracking skills!)

The peanut butter cookies were very simple to make. With only three ingredients, it was the perfect way to distract ourselves whilst waiting for the cakes to be made! 

The we got back to the task of the icing sugar!

Rena turned her talents to the decorating of the cake, which was simply sublime, whilst I sorted out the cookies! Soon we had a nice leaving feast prepared for ourselves (plus my family)!

Needless to say, it really was the perfect goodbye. A bit of chatter, a lot of sugar and even more fun.

Finally, I just wanted to say a huge WELL DONE to Rena for getting chosen to be part of Camp America and have a really great great great summer abroad in NY. Can't wait to hear all about it :)

Until next time everyone~

xxx

Ready... Get Set... Bake!!

Yet another post where I talk about the amazing food in my life... 

(Tasha with the finished product) 

So, as a little celebration to ourselves for getting through (yet another) exam, my friend and I decided that the only reasonable thing to do would be to bake a cake as a little mid exam treat (it seems like I'm doing an awful lot of that at the moment...)

(Dress for the occasion!)

Today, we decided to be experimental and even a little adventurous by taking on the humongous project that is and Opera Cake. (Recipe can be found on the BBC good food website here!

The total process took us roughly 7 hours, from buying ingredients to downing our unexpected hot chocolate! However all out hard work (and mess...) was very worth it as the cake we made is possibly one of the nicest cakes I have ever encountered! With the help of fourteen eggs and three different styles of filling, it is the fluffiest most delicious sensation for your taste buds! As my friend stated, 'it is an experience' eating that cake! 

We did have to make a few alterations to the recipe however due to lack of supplies. Originally the cake is supposed to be three tiered, and shaped like a large rectangle, however due to only owning two circular cake tins, we found that there was a lot of filling left over! 

We also didn't bother with making a glaze in the end because we already had so much stuff to put on the cake! 

So we used the leftover chocolate and cream to make the best hot chocolate to ever grace this earth (and probably the last I will ever encounter due to the oncoming heart attack I'm due from all the food today!). 

Needless to say that if I ever have a free

Eight hours or so to spare, this recipe will definitely be one I shall try again! 

Thank you for reading~

Xxx