Sunday 24 July 2011

The House That Xinmei built!

Yes I know the photo isn't great, but it sure tasted good!

I made this for my boyfriend's birthday, Notebook style (because if I can't make a house out of wood, I can at least make one out of cake!) - except I'm being Noah here... :) There is a story, but that's for another day... (Hope you had a happy birthday!)

The cake is coffee cake, because it is The Boyf's favourite. The roof is shortbread because I like it (and yes, I just said 'Boyf'... please don't hate me, I don't think I'll ever say that again!). The icing is white chocolate, because it was on offer in Tescos ;)


And in terms of The Internship: it's going well! Very very busy, and you know what? Living take up time. Doing the washing.. the cooking or washing up afterwards... I have released to value student life whilst I have one year left. If you are a student, take my advice!! 


View from behind... 



I shall try and show you photos of The Making Of, but the recipe was a pretty simple coffee sponge. Aside from that, the 'cement' was marshmallow fluff, the fence and windows were mikado sticks, and the clock edges were Cadbury fingers. The mini marshmallows were simply there to look nice :)


Also, sorry but from now on it will just be pictures, I don't have time to think of anything funny to say as I have to be up in just under 6 hours for work :(









Ok that's it for now, night night!

p.s. guesstimated the recipe again, will give full recipe when I have time to work out the quantities!


More like a fort than a house, no?



Coffee cake cake

Cake
250g butter , at room temperature
250g caster sugar
4 eggs
250g self-raising flour
2 tsp baking powder
4 heaped tbsp coffee , dissolved in 100ml water

Icing
100g icing sugar
100g white chocolate, broken into chunks

Heat the oven to 170C/fan 150C/fan 3. Line a deep 18cm loose-based or springform cake tin. Beat the butter and sugar together with electric beaters and then beat in the eggs, flour and baking powder.

Beat in 1 tbsp of the coffee mixture and then add up to another tbsp little by little until the mixture drops easily off the spoon. Keep the rest of the coffee mixture for the icing.
Spoon into the tin, level the top and bake for 40 minutes or until a skewer comes out cleanly. Cool.

To make the icing, mix the icing sugar with 1 tbsp hot water and stir into a paste. Melt the white chocolate in a separate bowl, and then mix the two together. Add more icing sugar/water to make a paste consistentcy .(Note: I made up the icing recipe as I went, so take this recipe –not literally- with a pinch of salt!)

Shortbread recipe to come! (Also, I made that recipe up as I went along too, so I will have to guess the quantities there)

Building instructions: see photos?

27 comments:

  1. How much fun was this to make? I love the structural support. Food should be fun, I reckon!

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  2. What a delicious labor of love. Happy birthday to your boyfriend.

    Best,
    Bonnie

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  3. Wow! That's always the first word that comes to mind when I come to your site. I can't help but smile every time I even think of your blog. Which is one reason I awarded you the Cute little chef award on my site! Please stop by to claim it and pass it on to your favorite food bloggers too. Congrats! =] http://www.freespiriteater.com/2011/07/are-food-emotions-connected-blog-award.html

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  4. That's a very cute & creative little house, Xinmei! How did you have the heart to eat it? :) Nice job!

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  5. Cute and a lucky boyf to get such a wicked cake!!
    Great job girlf...

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  6. wow! love the cake house :). they call it gingerbread house in the states!

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  7. Beautiful! You are so creative! Lucky "boyf"! Great job, Xinmei!

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  8. Very impressive! Especially as you've been working so hard during your apprenticeship! I'm yet to have a proper day off from mine yet! Definitely going to heed your advice and make the most of my last year as a student.....and probs spend my time making cake sculptures like this :p

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  9. don't say boyf again please. :P

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  10. Wow what a creation! Such a clever idea and it looks extremely tasty too :)

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  11. You are something else! That's the sweetest little 'house of love' - lucky guy!

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  12. The fact that you keep so busy and yet you took the time out and & got so creative is v-commendable :)!!!The cake-House sounds and looks very yummy,I hope your boy friend had a good birthday and enjoyed the cake.BTW thanks for wishing me well while I was holidaying in India:)

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  13. You build a beautiful house there! Nice picture tutorial and your BF is a lucky guy!

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  14. That boyfriend of yours is one lucky fella! What a way to celebrate with such a wonderful construction. Fantastic!

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  15. You are so creative; I love it! Thank you for your visit.
    Rita

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  16. This is so cute! I've seen some raspberry flavoured marshmallow fluff and I've been dying to use it in something but didn't know what. Now you've given me a fantastic idea! Thanks. X

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  17. So cute! What a fun birthday treat.

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  18. Wouff ,wondefull labor, so beautifull that is no easy to decide eat it.
    best regard from Belgium

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  19. That cup holding up the roof is too cute! It's great that you made the time to bake this cake or your Boyf (I'll never say that again ever, too) even though you're quite busy with work and life. Hope someone builds you a lovely mansion like in the sample pictures above someday!

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  20. Very impressive. I'm sure your boyfriend enjoyed it. Happy belated birthday to him.

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  21. wow, the house that built with love. Very cute and creative.

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  22. That's fantastic. Well done you and lucky birthday boy.

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