Swiss meringue buttercream

I've always wanted to try out Swiss meringue buttercream (SMBC) but the fear of failing always puts me off.  The method sounds complicated and I don't know anyone that's made it to give me advice.

What made me try this for the first time, it's because my son's birthday party was coming up, he wanted a Spiderman cake.  The party is held at a soft play center and the cake would be left out for 2 hours. Ok, so cream cake is definitely a no no!

But I dislike buttercream as its too sweet.

So I had only one choice and that is SMBC!

So, I googled Swiss meringue buttercream, there's like a million recipe but which one should I try?

I follow Sweetapolita and I love her site, I remember seeing a SMBC she's made for a ruffle cake and I decide to try her version. I have made 1/3 of the recipe to try it out, after a successful attempt I made more!

Surprisingly, it's not difficult to make and it is smooth and very fluffy!

Spiderman cookies

My little boy is having a birthday party and this year he knows exactly what he wants.

He said he wants a Spiderman cake and cookies.

Hmmm... ok, shall we start with some cookies first?

I love making cookies but I've never made Spiderman ones?

I remember seeing a photo on Pinterest and they used an egg shape cookie cutter to make the Spiderman's head. Great!! I have an egg shape cutter which I bought during Easter to make e

Egg shaped cookies.

So I drew around the cutter as a template and copied a photo I saved from Pinterest

I drew the lines that goes on Spiderman's face. It's not that hard really?

So, lets bake some cookies first.

Pumpkin shaped Macarons

It's Halloween!! One of my favourite time of year as kids are usually excited about going to Trick or Treat.

But it seems like the weather have got the better of us as we are all poorly and both kids have temperature and not been well all week.

It's schools half term and kids have a week off, we done nothing apart from cuddled up to watch telly and drink medicine!! But that doesn't stop the fun from baking.

First Halloween bake off are these cute little pumpkin shaped macarons.

Genoise sponge recipe

Genoise sponge

This is one of my favourite sponge I use for most of my cakes.

 It uses the whole egg method and does not need baking powder as the eggs are beaten to ribbon stage, the air helps hold the sponge during baking.

Here's a video clip to show you what the egg and sugar mix to ribbon stage looks like here



 

The recipe below can be used in an 8 inch cake tin, bake at 25 minutes.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

 

This is for a 7 inch cake tin.