That’s exactly what happened with me and this polka dot cake. I spied it on Pinterest and with the excuse of Exeter Baking Club’s 1st birthday I decided to make it.

Of course, it didn’t turn out like the perfect cake in the original photograph with its perfect layers, and perfect multicoloured cake balls. But I have to say, it is not the worst cake I’ve ever made.

There were many trying moments whilst making this cake, first off being my cake balls silicone tray. Not good. Half of the things didn’t even come out in the right shape! Instead of the cake rising out of the holes in the top of the mould, it just spread inside the mould and I had to do much trimming with a pair scissors to get the nice ball-shapes that are needed.

Then later whilst icing the cake, I accidentally dropped it off the cake stand and onto the kitchen counter (not the floor thankfully). My perfectly lined up layers and smooth buttercream were maimed. I didn’t have time to get them back to their original state so I decided decoration could be my saviour and I whipped out the tubes of Smarties. I think they distracted the eye very nicely from the flaws underneath.

Once the cake was sliced I discovered that by some weird fluke I had managed to line the same coloured cake balls up in each layer. So each slice had the same colour dots in each layer. What are the chances?!

Recipe

200g unsalted butter
150g caster sugar
2 tsp vanilla extract
1 egg
300g plain flour
25g cocoa powder

• Cream the butter and sugar, beat in the vanilla and egg, then add the flour. Form into a dough and split in half. Work the cocoa into one of the portions. Shape both dough portions into rough oblongs. Wrap in clingfilm and chill for 30 minutes until firm.
• Roll out each dough to £1-coin thickness, trying to keep the oblong shape. Put the chocolate dough on top of the white dough and trim the edges to neaten. Roll up lengthways like a Swiss roll, then wrap in clingfilm and chill for 45 minutes. Heat the oven to 180°C.
• Slice the dough into discs as thinly as you can, put them on a non-stick baking sheet and cook for 15 minutes. Cool on wire racks.

In the Musical Interlude A-Z, P is for (We Are) Performance.

Freeze

Surrender

Year formed: 2005
Number of albums: 2
Link: http://www.last.fm/music/(We+Are)+Performance

And just a quick update to say that work on the Exeter Baking Club online recipe index is still in progress. I may even make the site public as work is continuing so the recipes I have uploaded so far will be accessible, rather than waiting until the whole thing is complete. More news on that to come soon.

Blueberry Muffins Recipe

125g self-raising flour
1/2 tsp baking powder
70g caster sugar
85g blueberries
2 tsp vanilla extract
1 egg
125ml buttermilk
2 tbsp vegetable oil

• Preheat the oven to 190°C and line a muffin tray with paper cases.
• Sift the flour and baking powder into a mixing bowl. Stir in the sugar and blueberries.
• In a separate mixing bowl, beat together the vanilla, egg, buttermilk, and oil with a fork until evenly combined.
• Tip the buttermilk mixture into the flour. Using a dessert spoon, gently fold the ingredients together until only just mixed. Don’t over blend the ingredients or the muffins won’t be as light.
• Spoon the mixture into the paper cases; it should be level with the top of the tin. Bake in the preheated oven for 20-25 minutes until a light golden brown and just firm to the touch (but really keep an eye on them after 15 minutes as I seem to remember mine browned very quickly).

The Hub On The Green logo was a challenge I set myself a couple of weeks ago when I decided I wanted to try and create my own cross stitch pattern from scratch and needed something to work from, and as it is an image I come into contact with almost every single day it popped straight into my head. It also fits into my category of being able to give away as a gift when it was done. Perfect.

Creating the pattern was more tricky than expected. But after a few afternoons sat working on it in cafes (and some ever so slight help from a computer program) I thought it was as close as I was ever going to get.

The actual stitching only took a couple of days and I am pretty pleased with how it’s turned out. I also made the hanger myself and I’d say that was surprisingly more awkward to make than anything else!

I love my cross stitch phone case, and I did like the previous Super Mario 1Up design I had on it, but I made one big mistake in using white cotton. Filthy. It doesn’t look good.

So I decided to create something new and unpicked the whole thing (I say “unpicked” but I actually just butchered it with a craft knife until the stitches fell out!). I’ve now stitched a Pac-Man design on to it, which I think looks better against the black background of the case. Stitching it was a total pain though because for some reason the yellow thread kept snapping and fraying. Very annoying. Due to that the stitch quality is not all that great and they do not all cross over in the same direction, which I wouldn’t be happy with normally but I was losing patience and in the end, who’s going to notice anyway?

To tie in with the theme I also downloaded a Pac-Man wallpaper!

One way to spot a Browncoat from a mile off is by the unmistakable orange glow of a Jayne Hat. Worn by the character Jayne in one episode of the series, the hat has become a symbol of Firefly fandom and people have been making and selling them for years.

Actor Adam Baldwin as Jayne Cobb

But now, after all this time, Fox has decided it wants to claim the Jayne Hat all for itself and has issued Cease And Desist notices to several hat makers.

The Browncoat world is not happy. The stars of the show are not happy. Even online stores selling a licensed version of the hat are not happy.

Luckily for Browncoats, free patterns for the Jayne Hat are available online. So if you can knit, or know someone else who can, a Jayne Hat is still within your grasp.

And luckily for me, my wonderful mum knows how to knit…and she knitted me this very cunning hat….

I decided to try the recipe (from the book Cakes, 100 Everyday Recipes) simply because I wanted to try something new and I happened to have all of the ingredients already in the cupboard. I love it when that happens.

Recipe

175g plain flour
1 tbsp baking powder
175g unsalted butter
175g caster sugar
3 eggs, beaten
1 tsp vanilla extract
2 tbsp milk
2 tbsp desiccated coconut

For the icing and coating:
500g icing sugar
40g cocoa powder
85ml boiling water
70g unsalted butter, melted
250g desiccated coconut

• Preheat the oven to 180C and grease a 9inch square tin
• Sift the flour and baking powder into a large bowl and add the butter, sugar, eggs and vanilla. Beat well until the mixture is smooth, then stir in the milk and coconut
• Spoon the mixture into the prepared tin and smooth the surface with a palette knife. Bake in the preheated oven for 30-35 minutes, or until risen, firm, and golden brown
• Leave to cool in the tin for 10 minutes, then turn out and finish cooling on a wire rack. When the cake is cold, cut into 16 squares with a sharp knife
• For the icing, sift the icing sugar and cocoa into a bowl. Add the water and melted butter and stir until smooth. Spread out the coconut on a large plate. Dip each piece of sponge cake into the icing, holding with two forks to coat evenly, then toss in the coconut to cover. Place on a sheet of baking paper to leave and set

So when I was looking for some artwork to fill up an empty wall in my living room, I immediately thought of him. Unfortunately the images I wanted weren’t available as canvas prints, so I got to work thinking how I could create my own.

That’s when I discovered the wonderful thing that is graphite paper! I had never heard of it before, and so had never used it but it seemed simple enough and would allow me to transfer any design I wanted on to the canvas. For others who are unfamiliar with how to use graphite paper all you do is print off a copy of the design you want and place it on top of your canvas, with a piece of graphite paper sandwiched in between. You then trace over your design with a sharp pencil and the graphite paper will transfer the design to the canvas underneath.

I am very happy with how they have turned out. I had some trouble using the graphite paper at first, with it not leaving a dark enough impression but I just drew over the design a couple more times and got there in the end. It was then just a case of using a sharpie and pencil to go over the design and add the finishing touches.

Now my living room is infinitely more cheery (I mean how can you do anything but smile at the sight of a skateboarding bird)…