Strawberry Cinnamon Birthday Cake

I am post nights, so my sweet tooth is appearing! That kind of thing tends to happen when you've been awake for 24 hours. Restraint becomes.. difficult and cake becomes ambrosia!

My boyfriend is very patient. I was really sick during his birthday. Really, really sick. So the cake that I had planned carefully to make him didn’t happen. And he got no cake on his birthday at all. It’s pretty much the worst case of me dropping the ball.

But this story has a happy ending.. One week later, I was all better, and there was cake!

So, I could make the cake I’d been planning. My boyfriend loves fruity cakes, and my strawberry crumble is his absolute fave. But it is FAR too hot for crumble. Since summer is a cake season, I decided to reprise an old favourite- the strawberry rosette cake, giving it a twist from my crumble flavours. I added a little twist of cinnamon, some ground almonds, and played around with the decoration. I really love decorating cakes, but I’m working on it. I wanted to do like a cascade of roses, and little mini rosettes, but it wasn’t the effect I quite wanted. Maybe I should have added glitter. Glitter always helps.

Strawberry Rosette Cake

The best way that I can think of to try to hurry spring-time along! I finally felt the grip of winter release a bit this week - I haven't worn a winter coat for 3 days in a row.. And I think it might have something to do with this little cake.

It is one of my absolute and utter favourites, and I think that is mainly due to the fresh flavours and the easily-achieved look of the cake.

Rosettes are my new favourite way to decorate a cake – simple but utterly effective. They turn an otherwise rather ordinary looking cake into a thing of beauty, and while I am of the opinion that the taste matters most of all, it is a completely lovely bonus when it also looks as good as it tastes!

Now, I have said before that pieces of fruit have no place in dessert. And I will stand by this opinion come hell or high water! There is nothing worse, for me, than seeing an otherwise lovely cake smothered in berries and stuff. Just eat a fruit salad for dessert if you love fruit that much!

Having said that, we all know that even the best rules have exceptions. And to me, the exceptions are this cake, which only has a minimal fruit aspect (jam doesn't count), and banoffee. Of course banoffee.

Neapolitan Cake

This cake is SO. MUCH. FUN. Chocolate! Strawberry! Vanilla! Rosettes! Sprinkles!!

The nights are getting longer and colder, so I think we all need a little more cake in our lives in these dire times.

Neapolitan combines my favourite simple and sweet flavours, and I think the colours are absolutely classic together. I have been trying to up my cake decoration game lately, but I’m still quite cack-handed and impatient.  So I needed something which looked nice but was relatively simple. Enter, the buttercream rosette!

To make this, you just need buttercream icing, piping bag with star shaped nozzle, and a little bit of effort. To make the rosette, start in the centre with a blob of icing and then move the tip around the centre part, piping the entire time. I quickly youtubed it before having a go the first time.

You will have noted that this is a Neapolitan cake which is quite heavy on the chocolate. But I think that it looks quite impressive (if I do say so myself) and by decorating it all in chocolate on the outside, the inside becomes a complete surprise. I put some chocolate sprinkles on it because this is a lighthearted little cake, and I wanted to hint at the insides. Feel free to decorate however you like, but this was easy peasy!