This is one of the most time consuming cakes I can remember doing during the past couple of years. I know I made life hard for myself by making each book individually on the side of the cake and piping so many authors and novels but even so, it took hours and hours to do the side alone. Sadly, I don’t feel the cake has photographed nearly as well as I wanted. I really liked the effect on the sides of the cake when it was finished – The book on the top of the cake was so much more detailed than it appears in the pictures too. Hey ho, that’s the joy of working with icing. I’m sure I could have done a quicker job but as a Book Lover myself, I wanted the perfect cake for Sue.
Sue is the sister of my very good friend, Louise and used to be a librarian. I asked for her favourite authors and did some research into their books. I’m very impressed by how high brow her reading tastes are! Definitely some new reading recommendations for me there.
The piping is done using a Number 1 nozzle (which is really tiny!) – Tip: Practice a lot before adding to the cake. I did all the piping before sticking the books onto the sides of the cake – It’s nigh on impossible to pipe neatly sideways. My brief was blues and greens and quite feminine. So many of the book cakes that we were looking at for inspiration were either very masculine, bold or quite childlike.
Bake of the Week
Its so fantastic to see our entries increasing each week on #BakeoftheWeek. Myself and Jenny really do love sharing your posts and get so much inspiration from our wonderfully creative bloggers. If you are new to Bake of the Week, welcome! We love to welcome new members – there’s hardly any rules – just add the #BakeoftheWeek badge to your post (old posts are fine) and link to both me (https://casacostello.com) and Jenny (http://mummymishaps.co.uk).
In return we share your posts across Twitter, G+, Pinterest, Yummly & StumbleUpon & sometimes Facebook. This is all in addition to linking to every post in the following week’s roundup. There’s no theme, we welcome any type of bakes either in an oven or slow cooker – If you are just learning to bake, that’s great too. We have all levels of bakers here and love you all!
So let’s get on with admiring our latest entries:
Featured Bake of the Week:
My featured bake this week comes from The Baking Explorer with her Vegan Oreo Brownies. I had heard before that Oreos are vegan but had forgotten. I love how versatile brownies can be by just adding one or two different ingredients. My girls would definitely love these Oreo Brownies even though they aren’t vegans. Kat also shows step by step instructions on how to make her brownies too which is great for new bakers.
I’ve divided this week’s #BakeoftheWeek entries into Fruit/Veg based bakes and Non-fruit bakes for ease. Once again, I’m overwhelmed by the creativity of our bloggers:
Fruit & Vegetable Inspired Bakes:
1. These Raspberry & Rose Friands from Tin & Thyme look so delicate but are actually a super easy bake and GF too.
2. Trying out sugar free baking & being brave enough to test it on her kids is Searching for Spice with this Sticky Date & Apple Cake.
3. Sharing her useful tips for a successful Strawberry Baked Alaska is Only Crumbs Remain. I still remain in awe of how ice-cream can survive whilst being baked.
4. So creative with her ingredients is Everyday Healthy Recipes with these incredible Avocado Raspberry Muffins. They are Dairy Free too!
5. Another really interesting combination of flavours but I bet they work brilliantly together, Zucchini (Courgette), Apricot & Pistachio Bread from Allotment 2 Kitchen.
6. I love how Bake of the Week can introduce me to something completely different & this Zucchini (Courgette) Savoury Slice is very new to me. I will definitely be trying out Allotment 2 Kitchen’s recipe as soon as I get some Courgettes though!
Non Fruit Bakes:
7. The green filling with the dark of the chocolate in these Chocolate Mint Whoopie Pies is just incredible. And they were baked by the Gluten Free Alchemist’s daughter too – Very talented baker there!
8. Everyone needs a good recipe for Soft Chocolate Chunk Cookies and these from the Proper Foodie look wonderful. I read from her post that they didn’t last long though!
9. Celebrating Yorkshire Day yesterday was Only Crumbs Remain with this magnificent Homemade Gingerbread Cake.
10. This party food cake is a must for any children’s birthday celebration. I love Jenny at Mummy Mishaps for how she pulls out all the stops when its celebration time!
So here is the badge for you to add to your posts. We accept up to 3 posts per blog each week. The linky is open below for you to add your links too also.
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What a great cake Helen, I think the photos really do show an awful lot of detail on the cake and I can well imagine how long it must have taken. I decorated our own wedding cake after seeing something I liked in a magazine which also had words, and although I used stencil letters rather than piping it on it still took an absolute age! Definitely worth the effort though 🙂
Angela
Awww I love the look of those Vegan Oreo brownies. I’ll definitely give Making those a go!
That book cake is incredible Helen, well done you. I’d have got stressed and ended up eating the cake before it was finished haha. Gold star for making it to the end haha.
Oh wow! That book cake is such a good idea – I’m gonna bookmark this for my husbands birthday – he’s a total bookworm!
You are really talented, the cakes look so good! The details are astonishing, I can imagine you have spent hours just to make the tiny books on the border. I would feel sad to cut it, that’s how beautiful it is.
My kind of cake! I’m a book lover and I love it. It’s so pretty and it looks so delicious
Oh my goodness that cake is amazing and just perfect for a book lover, I would be thrilled to have one myself.
What an amazing cake! It’s truly a piece of art!
Oh wow I would LOVE this cake! I’m a huge fan of books and also of cake..this would be perfect!
Wow! You are incredible. It is amazing how you managed to make a cake look like a book x
What a fab looking cake. I have a book obsessed friends that would just love this.
Oh my goodness, the detail on this cake is amazing. I would definitely be thrilled to receive a cake like that!
There’s some great posts linked up. We love the fruity bakes and it’s making us hungry now!
I love the look of the book birthday cake! Such a good idea for a book worm 🙂
I can not believe that you can hand piped all those book names on, that’s so impressive you should be very proud x
The cakes all look great. Hope it’s okay to ask is it a follow link if we join in that we need to include? and if so the link to us would that also be follow? I might join in sometime 😉
Wow that cake is amazing, to hand write each of the book titles, what a lovely thing to do!
That cake is perfect. I love it and those other bakes are making me hungry. I don’t even like oreos but I could manage a couple of bites of that brownie
My goodness what an amazing cake, I just love books and cake so this is just perfect for me
fabulous cake as always Helen – love the detail of the book names around the cake.
thank you for your kind words about my party food cake too x
Don’t sell yourself short as the cake turned out week and the detail is absolutely impressive. You’ve done an amazing job
This is a great looking cake. I can bake a cake but It will never come out this nice
I’m a book lover, and I would most definitely love a cake like this! It’s just awesome 😀
Louise x
That cake looks fab, I really like the book design on it too
The cake with the books on is absolutely fabulous; sucha . great idea for someone who loves readin xxx
That cake is amazing, the skills and detailing are just unreal. I wish I could create something like this, I’m sure Sue loved it! I love your choice for Bake Of The Week too
This cake look so amazing. All the detailing done on the cake is fantastic. I wish I can make such cake like that for my brother. He is so much fond of books. He would have loved this cake seriously. Color of the cake is nice. Thank You for sharing.