Birthday Treats

So today is my youngest niece's first birthday and I went a bit nuts on the baking.  I did forget to take a photo of the pecan pie last night before it was demolished, but it went down incredibly well!  There wasn't even a crumb remaining.

I did remember to get some photos of everything else.  And here they are:

Cheese scones

Fruit scones

Both types of scone are based on Paul Hollywood's plain scone recipe, just with a couple of little tweaks.



Double Chocolate Salted Caramel Cupcakes



Double Chocolate Salted Caramel Cupcakes
(with a well inside coated with chocolate, then filled with salted caramel and topped off with chocolate ganache)


It's safe to say these were a tremendous success!  So much so, that I haven't altered the recipe from the first tester batch a few weeks ago.  It's not often it's right first time.

White Chocolate and Lemon Meringue Layer Cake

White Chocolate and Lemon Meringue Layer Cake
(using lemon cream (not buttercream), lemon curd, and the very bottom layer is a sheet of meringue coated in white chocolate to stop it going soggy.  All the decorations are made of meringue too)

Okay, so the birthday cake isn't the most elegant or glamorous of cakes, but it tastes rather fine!  And what looks like finger marks in the cake are in fact... finger marks of said birthday girl.

All in all, a huge success :D  We're all a teensy bit full now!

My next plan:

A twist on a battenburg using chocolate and vanilla sponge, Baileys cream and chocolate ganache.  Oh yes.