Hasn’t it been wonderful having The Great British Bake Off back on our screens? It might be on a new channel with new presenters but Bake Off is still the best. So we’ve got our spatulas at the ready, and as we at Haven love the seaside, we have picked our top three, easy-to-make seaside theme bakes!
Fish Cupcakes
What you will need:
12 sponge cupcakes
6” width 2” height (approx) circular Sponge cake
3 butter icing colours
Method:
Step 1:
Cut the sponge cake with one half slightly bigger than the, the larger will become the head and the smaller the tail. Assemble the frame of the fish with both semi circles facing the same way and the 12 cupcakes in between to make the body.
Step 2:
Take the ‘tail’ end and cut a triangle out of the straight edge to create a fish fin effect.
Step 3:
First ensure the cake is cool and then cover the head and tail in your 1st desired butter icing colour, you can get as creative as you like! Try and make the head’s icing as smoothly placed as possible; after covering the tail make ridges in the icing to make it look more authentic. Put in the fridge to harden up.
Step 4:
Using a piping bag use the two remaining butter icing colours to decorate your cake icing each cake individually – this will give it a scale effect!
Step 5:
Roll out the fondant icing and cut out one circle (width approx 1”) this will make a white for the fish’s eye. Add the black food colouring to a small portion of the fondant icing roll out and cut another circle approx 0.5” in width and leave to dry for half an hour.
Step 6:
Add the pink food colouring to a small portion of the fondant icing, roll out and cut out a lip shape (shown below) and leave to dry. When dry, put a cocktail stick through the middle of the lips.
Step 7:
Assemble parts. Put the cocktail stick through the centre of the fish’s head and place the eyes on the top. Place all pieces how they originally were at the beginning and ta-dah! You have your own fabulous fish!
Crab Cookies
What you need
Cookies
Method:
Step 1:
Make some cookie dough from your favourite recipe and roll it out, then using a butterfly cookie cutter cut your biscuits. Bake and leave them to cool.
Step 2:
Make royal icing of a medium consistency and scoop out two small portions of uncoloured icing and separate. With the remaining icing add red food colouring (make sure you mix well so the colour is consistent). Scoop out another portion of the icing leaving a bigger portion in the bowl, thin down the bigger red mixture and your ready to decorate.
Step 3:
Put the thinner icing in a small piping bag. Draw an American football outline in the centre and fill immediately, this is the main body.
Step 4:
Next using the same technique draw two semi-circles at the top inner portion of each wing, Leave the icing to dry for at least 10 minutes before you start next step.
Step 5:
Make a bigger semi circle next to the smaller – this will make the claws so make sure the two connect at the bottom but aren’t overlapping. Then fill like before.
Step 6:
Put the red thicker icing in another small piping bag; draw two small circles in the centre, on top of the body. Immediately add a drop of the white icing to fill to make the eyes.
Step 7:
Using the same icing make the legs underneath the body, pipe three sets of four dots each side adding an extra dot to the inner legs that is angled to the centre. Then connect the claws with the body with four more dots.
Step 8:
Add a mouth with any expression you choose.
Step 9:
Add the black food colouring to the other uncoloured icing and put small dots into the middle of the eyes to make pupils and you are done! Your very own Crab biscuit!
Beach Scene cake
What you will need:
10” square cake – two layers
Seaside decorations
Method
Step 1:
Separate the butter icing into two halves and dye one blue with the food colouring.
Step 2:
Mark a diagonal line from corner to corner and spread the non-coloured icing onto one of the triangular halves.
Step 3:
Blend 10 plain digestives in a food processor so it becomes a finely ground mixture and looks like sand. Then cover the iced half with the crumbs making sure you cannot see any of the icing.
Step 4:
Cover the other half of the cake in the blue icing. When fully covered create ridges in the blue so it resembles waves as the blue will become the sea. Put in the fridge for icing to harden.
Step 5:
Decorate your scene! Choose whatever you like to go on the scene, toys, paper umbrellas, animal biscuits… anything!
