Okay, so you're probably wondering why I've been a bad girl? Well, it's fairly obvious really...I've not updated my blog quite a while (as you may have noticed!). However, that isn't to say I haven't been baking. Quite the opposite really. I've been very busy baking, cake decorating, and trying to fit in a little college work inbetween (eek!). I was planning to wait until college was over until I made my next blog post, but tonight I decided that would be far too long, and that I would get straight to work on a new update. So here it is! As I have made quite a lot of sweets and treats in the past few months, I thought I would share a few of the best with you.

Last week we celebrated a special occasion, as my (not so) little sister Helen turned 21 years of age. With help from my sisters boyfriend Rabbi, me and my parents organised a suprise jungle themed party for Helen last Saturday, which, luckily we managed to keep a suprise until the big night! The party was a success and everybody seemed to have a brilliant time.

I put myself in charge of the sweets and cake (not suprisingly) and created a birthday cake that tied in with the jungle theme. I'd actually been planning this cake for a long time as last year, I said to myself that Helen's 21st birthday cake would be the best cake I've ever made! I really wanted to live up to my own expectations...

The finished cake consisted of three tiers made from different types of sponge: fruit cake, chocolate cake and victoria sandwich. The best three types of cake in my opinion! I decorated the cakes in animal print designs and made jungle animals out of marzipan (I also sneaked in a Tigger, did you notice?)

Everybody was certainly very impressed with the cake (including Helen) and although it took a lot of work, I felt a great sense of achievement once the finished piece was put together- the hard work always pays off in the end- especially when you eat the first slice!
I managed to get a few close up shots of the marzipan animals as I think they are kinda cute. What do you think?

As it's easter time I thought I'd bake some traditional easter treats, starting with these crisp easter biscuits with lemon zest and currants. Making these reminded me of childhood as I recall my mum making them at some point. I took my recipe from the Readers Digest recipe book, one that my mum has owned for quite a long time. I think this is a brilliant book as it contains all the British classics and a brief description of the history behind most of the recipes which I find really interesting (considering I don't really like history!). I also took my simnel cake recipe from here, as this is the one my mum has used in the past. This is a lovely moist, flavoursome cake which is packed with dried fruit and has a sweet layer of marzipan running throught the middle. The cake is baked at a very low temperature (gas mark 1) for 1.5-2 hours so you have to be patient! I think I over baked mine slightly so after taking it out the oven and letting it cool I brushed the top in some amaretto liqueur (hehe!) It smelt absolutely delightful as the amaretto enhanced the almondy flavour. I decorated the top in marzipan and 11 marzipan balls which represent the disiples of Jesus. I also made a simnel loaf cake along with this so I could cut it up into slices and give out as gifts (meaning I wouldn't have to give away any of our cake!).

This year I also really wanted to have a go at making hot cross buns- slightly sweet spiced bread with dried fruit traditionally eaten in Britain on Good Friday. I've never made bread before so I was unsure as to whether they would be successful. Everything was going well- the dough rose beautifully the first time but unfortunately when I shaped the dough into buns and left them to prove, the house just wasn't warm enough for them to rise so I ended up with rather heavy, cake-like buns! This was quite annoying considering I'd spent all day making them, but they actually taste quite nice and I almost like their denser texture! However, I have still bought a pack of hot cross buns from the shop, Birds, where I work which I know will be good! Nevermind, I'm just going to fob them off as hot cross 'rock' buns instead!