Welcome to the fourth cake, recipe and cake decorating tutorial in partnership with Juniper Cakery! In their development post they blogged about creating an exciting candy themed cake which would fit right in at children’s parties and picnics. To recreate that sense of fun they’ve chosen a rainbow cake filled with toasted raspberry marshmallow fluff and piled it high with colourful handmade sweets, candies, stripes and spots. To add a textured finish to the board, and to add a little sparkle, they also added liberal amounts of purple glitter for the three-tier candy cake to sit atop. After the following images you’ll find the recipe and a tutorial on how to make this cake and the decorative sweets. Why not try it for yourself?

Raspberry Marshmallow Fluff Recipe

- 3 egg whites at room temperature
- 256g icing sugar
- 256g light corn syrup (easily found on Amazon or online American food stores)
- 1/2 tea spoon of salt
- Natural raspberry essence

Weigh the icing sugar and corn syrup in preparation and leave them to one side. Separate three egg whites into a bowl.

Place the egg whites, corn syrup and salt into your mixer and leave on high speed for 5 minutes.

This will be done when it turns white in colour.

Cake recipe

To create this cake (a 9 inch circle) you will need the following…

7-8 happy eggs
1 lb self raising flour
1lb caster sugar
1lb butter

Gel paste food colour in a range of rainbow colours (purple, blue, green, yellow and pink)

To make the cake cream your butter in a mixer then add the caster sugar. Add in the flour along with half of the happy eggs for around one minute. Once half of the happy eggs are combined add the remaining and mix for about 5 minutes.

Pour each colour into separate greased cake pans and place on the top shelf of a pre-heated oven at Gas Mark 3/325F/170C. Bake for around 30 minutes.

Note: Repeat this recipe for your second tier and half it for the cupcake tier.

Leave to cool and in the meantime prepare your buttercream.

Buttercream recipe

For the buttercream you will need…

- 1lb butter (don’t use margarine as the water content is higher and not suitable for buttercream)
- Up to 1kg icing sugar (choose your own consistency and taste)
- 3 vanilla pods

For the buttercream add half of the 1lb of butter diced into pieces. Cream the butter in a mixer. Then gradually add icing sugar and the remaining butter (cut into cubes). Once the buttercream is of a smooth consistency add some the inside of your vanilla pods and mix well.

As this cake is stacked with five multi-coloured layers the cake batter needs to be split accordingly. Juniper aimed for reasonably thin layers which meant splitting each 1lb of batter into five.

How to Make the Fondant Sweets

What you will need:

- White sugarpaste/fondant
- Gel paste food colour in a range of rainbow colours (purple, blue, green, yellow and pink)
- Edible glue
- Cocktail sticks

- Step one: Custom colour your white sugarpaste

- Step two: Begin rolling to make two long ‘sausage’ or ‘snake’ shapes.

- Step two: Pinch the two strips of fondant together and gently twist to create the entwined colours and pinch the other end.

- Step four: Begin rolling to create a swirl.

- Step five: Cut a cocktail stick down and stick into opposite sides of the swirl and set to one side. Cut one two triangles and use the small Tala cutter to create a scalloped edge.

- Step six: Place a small amount of edible glue on each piece of cocktail stick and press the triangles in place.

This cake is easily customisable and would be great in any season; changing the colours to reds, greens and golds would make for a fantastic Christmas cake!

If you are feeling less daring why not create cups of bright rainbow batter, add the colours together in cupcake cases, bake, and then top with the fondant candy decor featured in this post!

As the days get longer and the months get warmer ice cold drinks and fruity snacks become all the more appealing. With this in mind the third cake in partnership with Juniper Cakery will incorporate some key somertime flavours, colours and styles.

The first thing Juniper gathered were ideas and inspiration for the all-important flavour. They discussed the typical summer tastes of sweet marshmallows, fresh fruit, sour jellies, floral hints, herbal undertones and bitter treats. Their attention then turned towards colours that were associated with picnics, confectionery, traditional treats, ice creams and fizzy drinks. From the above ideas they’ve decided upon a rainbow layer cake filled with sticky, homemade raspberry fluff.

With summer being such a convenience fueled season they’re happy to have settled on a sweet marshmallow fluff with hints of raspberry as the flavour. Being inspired by fun seasonal colours and traditional sweets they also looked to other spring and summer time traditions; envisioning fun days spent in the garden, visits to the park and holidays at the beach in which the idea of the cake fit perfectly. Though summer is not quite here, the warmer weather seems to have spurred them into thinking about textures and materials and how they could use them when decorating the actual cake.

From the rather fun (and tasty) research they put together the design board utilises childrens’ cupcakes, sprinkles, party bows, and bright confections. From this they developed and decided upon a simple rainbow-like palette of yellow, apple green green, sky blue, raspberry pink and a slightly dusky violet; also incorporating several shape and texture ideas such as pleats, swirls, loops, ruffles and curls.

While taking the photographs for the design boards they looked at the vibrant tones used in sweets, the swirls and appeal of sugar fuelled snacks and the textures of jellies, marshmallows and boiled candies. The lure of the energetic hue of the jelly beans evolved into looking at how it might translate these fun aspects of summer onto the finished cake!

Above and below are a couple of quick watercolour sketches pulling together a few design details Juniper Cakery felt would create a fun and lively candy inspired cake! Aside from the vibrant, playful colours they also loved the idea of graphic stripe and dot patterns taken from the pleats of cupcake wrappers and scattered sprinkles and Rainbow Drops; swirled lollipops, candy dots, tiny wrapped sweets and the possible inclusion of a cupcake topper.

Stay tuned to see this month’s cake, recipe and cake decorating tutorial coming soon!

In their development post Juniper blogged about creating a traditional cake which would fit right in at picnics or at summer fetes. To recreate that sense of tradition they’ve chose a layer cake filled with rhubarb and honey curd, decorating it with lashings of vanilla pod infused buttercream. To add a textured, homemade finish they’ve also ensured the buttercream was rugged and imperfect by spreading it on in layers resulting in a fun, quick and easy cake.

After the following images you’ll find the recipe and a tutorial on how to make this cake and the decorative bunting. Why not try it for yourself and let us know on Facebook or Twitter!

Cake and buttercream recipe

To create this cake (a 9 inch circle) you will need the following…

- 7-8 happy eggs
- 1 lb self raising flour
- 1lb caster sugar
- 1lb butter

For the buttercream you will need…

- 1lb butter (don’t use margarine as the water content is higher and not suitable for buttercream)
- Up to 1kg icing sugar (choose your own consistency and taste)
- 3 vanilla pods

To make the cake cream your butter in a mixer then add the caster sugar. Add in the flour along with half of the happy eggs for around one minute. Once half of the happy eggs are combined add the remaining and mix for about 5 minutes.

Pour each colour into separate greased cake pans and place on the top shelf of a pre-heated oven at Gas Mark 3/325F/170C. Bake for around 30 minutes.

Leave to cool and in the meantime prepare your buttercream.

For the buttercream add half of the 1lb of butter diced into pieces. Cream the butter in a mixer. Then gradually add icing sugar and the remaining butter (cut into cubes). Once the buttercream is of a smooth consistency add some the inside of your vanilla pods and mix well.

Rhubarb, honey and vanilla curd recipe

- 400g rhubarb cut into pieces
- 60g granulated sugar
- 60g butter
- 3 egg yolks
- 1 tablespoons of honey
- 2 vanilla pods
- Airtight jar

Now to make the rhubarb, honey and vanilla curd filling! Boil all 400g of rhubarb in a saucepan of water stirring every so often with a wooden spoon. When the rhubarb is ‘mushy’ pour into a colander to remove the water. Lower the heat on the stove to half of what you used to get to boiling point. Pour the rhubarb back into the pan and add the sugar. Stir gently until the sugar is dissolved then add the two tablespoons of honey. Stir again until well mixed then add the insides of your two vanilla pods. Now add the butter and stir until melted.

In a separate bowl beat your egg yolks well. Pour these slowly into your rhubarb mix and keep stirring the yolks in gently. Keep mixing and checking the curd by scooping the back of your wooden spoon into the curd; when the curd coats the back of your spoon thickly then it is ready to pour into a jar and set.

NOTE: Different types of rhubarb, when they are harvested and even how intensely coloured your egg yolks are can affect the colour of your curd. It’s not unusual to end up with a more golden champagne coloured rhubarb curd, however, if you desire a pink tone you can add a little amount of pink gel paste colour.

Buttercream technique

The great thing about working with buttercream is that it is easy to change, sculpt and even scrap off and start again. Another selling point to butercream icing your cakes is that it doesn’t matter if it is perfect; buttercream is messy and evokes a rustic charm. The fact that buttercream creates a lovely homemade look is perfect for this cake inspired by traditional flavours!

A very simple and effective buttercream technique to use is to create a pinwheel look on the top of your frosted cake. Once you’ve iced your cake smoothly take a small spatula and using only its tip begin in the centre of the top of your cake. You want to quickly (and not too heavily) drag the end of your spatula from the centre to the edge of your cake. Keep doing this around the cake and you should be left with the below effect! Once finished the edges will just need a quick tidy with your spatula.

How to make the edible bunting

To make your edible sugarpaste bunting you will need…

Sugarpaste coloured in three or more colours (we coloured ours with Wilton’s Juniper Green, Wilton’s Rose Pink and Sugarflair’s Dusky Rose)
A good straight edged knife or pizza cutter
A quilting or stitching tool (optional)
Icing sugar to dust the surfaces with
Fondant rolling pin

- Step one: Dust the surface with icing sugar and begin to roll out your chosen fondant. Cut it into an oblong shape and put any excess sugarpaste to one side. The size and length of the oblong will depend on how large you would like your bunting to be.

- Step two: With a knife or pizza cutter begin cutting out triangular shapes at your required size. See the images for the technique we used and repeat with all of your fondant using your first piece of bunting as a template.

- Step three: Now you have your bunting use the quilting tool to add traditional stitching detail to your bunting.

- Step four: If the buttercream on your cake is still soft simply stick the pieces of bunting in place. If, however, the buttercream has set spritz a little water onto your cake and affix the bunting to the sides.

Now you have a gorgeous tasty cake perfect for late spring and early summer months!

After an amazing four days watching 16 eggs hatch and transform into gorgeous fluffy chicks, Chick-Cam has come to an end, with all the chicks ready to be rehomed to the happy chick company’s trusted network of poultry owners and smallholders.

We’ve had a great four days hosting Chick-Cam and hope you’ve enjoyed it as much as we have. We’ve learnt all about the happy chick company in our live interview with Madeline, suggested names for the chicks, given away happy eggs goodies in our Golden Egg competition as well as interviewing one of our very own happy eggs farmers, JP.

You can watch back some of our Chick-Cam highlights below:

From everyone at the happy egg company, have a great Easter!

And as well as that, we also hosted an interview with one of our very own happy eggs farmers, JP, who educated us on the welfare standards of the happy egg co, what life’s like as a happy eggs farmer and also answered some of your questions sent in via Twitter and Facebook.

You can watch the interview back below:

Today is the final day of our Chick-Cam live feed and to see it out in style, we’re giving you the chance to get your hands on a whole load of happy eggs gooodies!

All you have to do is keep glued to the Chick-Cam live feed (which you can watch here) and email competition@thehappyegg.co.uk as soon as you spot the golden egg in one of the shots! The first five people to respond will be the lucky winners of one of these:

You’ll have to tune in to be in with a chance! Watch live here

WINNERS:

Congratulations to

Caroline Coward
Daniel Coward
Tabita W Harvey
Sarah Fox
Cordelia Oxley

Thanks to everyone who entered and for being a part of Chick-Cam!

 

T&Cs:

1. The “Golden Egg ” Competition (“the Competition”) is open to UK and ROI residents only aged 16 years and over excluding employees of Noble Foods or any other company linked to the competition in any way and by entering the Competition, you are agreeing to these terms and conditions.
2. To enter, entrants must email competition@thehappyegg.co.uk once the ‘Golden Egg’ is placed into the frame on the ‘Chick-Cam’ live video stream. The first five entries following the ‘Golden Egg’ appearing in the video feed emailed to competition@thehappyegg.co.uk including their postal address and full name will win the ‘Prize’
3. Noble Foods accepts no responsibility for late, incomplete, incorrectly submitted, corrupted or misdirected entries, claims or correspondence whether due to error, omission, alteration, tampering, deletion, theft, destruction, transmission interruption, communications failure or otherwise.
4. A maximum of 1 entry from any person can be entered
5. The competition runs from 13:00 on the 28th November 2013 (GMT) until five correct answers have been received on the competition@thehappyegg.co.uk email account.
6. The prize is one “Happy Egg Prize Bundle” consisting of 1 happy egg co mug, 1 happy egg co frisbee, a Freda Roam stuffed toy, a Nice Pecks calendar and a happy egg co shopping tote bag. If for any reason the prize is not available, Noble Foods reserves the right to substitute another prize for it, in its sole discretion, of equal or higher value.
8. The winners must, at the Promoter’s request, participate in all promotional activity (such as publicity and photography) surrounding the winning of the prize, free of charge, and they consent to the Promoter using their name and image in promotional material.
9. The winner will be notified via email by 29th March 2013.
10. Winners will receive their prize via post within 28 days of supplying their full postal address.
12. The Promoter and its associated agencies and companies will not be liable for any loss (including, without limitation, indirect, special or consequential loss or loss of profits), expense or damage which is suffered or sustained (whether or not arising from any person’s negligence) in connection with this competition or accepting or using the prize, except for any liability which cannot be excluded by law (including personal injury, death and fraud) in which case that liability is limited to the minimum allowable by law.
13. The Promoter reserves the right to publish the names and counties of residence of the competition winners.
14. The promoter is Noble Foods (the ‘Promoter’) whose address is
Noble Foods, Hives Lane, Lincoln, LN6 9HA
15. These terms and conditions are governed by English Law and shall be subject to the exclusive jurisdiction of the English Courts.

 

The cracks were already beginning to show on our eggs and the anticipation was really starting to show

And then at around 5pm GMT, we welcomed our first Chick-cam chick into the world, to a wonderful response on G+, Twitter and Facebook. (Thanks for everyone’s messages of encouragement, we pass them all onto the chicks!)

As afternoon turned into evening and then to night, the chicks just kept on hatching, with 8 chicks hatched by midnight!

With our first hatched chick dried out and fluffed up, we could tell the cuteness was going to be off the scale over the next few days!

Just look at this!

Want to watch the cuteness in realtime? Join in and watch the live broadcast

We also managed to get a few questions asked from our friends on @thehappyeggco Twitter and Facebook.

Don’t forget you can watch the super cute chicks on the Chick-cam live feed 24 hours a day on our Chick-Cam Live blog post.

A huge thank you to EVERYONE who suggested names for our chick-cam chicks. We were overwhelmed with the number of responses and have picked out the 17 below as some of our favourites!

From our Google+ friends:
+Krithika Nelson – ‘Ginger’
+Mia Spicer – ‘Fluff’

From our friends on our Twitter:
@FloellaTheHen’s – ‘Woger’
@rocknrollerbaby – ‘Daisy’
@CordeliaOxley – ‘Daphne’
@domesticgoddesq – ‘Eggly’
@itssophiefisher – ‘Dipper’
@EllieSmithPR – ‘Mar-Shell’

From our friends on Facebook:
Tany Sunderland – Shelley
Little Bagpuss – ‘Chirpy’
Barbra Sweetapple – ‘Fluffy’
Becki Routledge – ‘Sheldon’
Tommy Harris – ‘ Joy’

And of course not forgetting our friends right here on the blog:
Charlie – ‘Brian’
Indie – ‘Dave’
Marsha – ‘Uno’
Jammy – ‘Stanley’

What a great selection of names our Chick-Cam chicks have now! Thanks again to everyone who took the time to submit, we’ll be passing on all of the names to the chicks rehomers and letting them decide which chick should get each name!