Super cute my little pony birthday cake

When I was a little girl, my top three toys of choice would have had to of been Barbie, Polly Pocket and My Little Pony. To celebrate all things cute and girly, make this gorgeous My Little Pony cake for girls big and small alike!

My Little Pony Birthday Cake

Ingredients:

• 1 double sponge, unfilled
• 1/2 cup jam
• 125g butter, softened
• 4 cups icing mixture, sifted
• 1 tbsp milk
• 1 tsp vanilla extract
• 500g ready-prepared fondant icing
• pink food colouring
• blue food colouring
• yellow food colouring
• 3 My Little Pony figures

Method:

Take a large serated knife and cut across the top of each cake so that they are perfectly flat.
Spread the jam over the top of the bottom layer to 2cm from the edge. Place the second layer on top.

Using a mixer, beat the butter until pale and fluffy. Add the icing mixture half a cup at a time. Beat in the milk and vanilla until the icing is whipped and fluffy.

Roughly coat the cake in a thin layer of buttercream icing and place in the refrigerator for half an hour. Reserve remaining buttercream for the final finish.

Remove ready-prepared icing from the pack and divide into  5 portions. (See notes below). Tint each portion pink, yellow, pale green, pale blue and purple. Use the yellow and blue colouring to make green and the pink and blue to make the purple colouring.

Dust your work surface with some icing mixture and roll out thinly using a rolling pin. Cut 6 strips of each colour that is 2 cm longer than the side of the cake. Use remaining icing to cut out the hearts and star shapes. Lay all pieces on a piece of baking paper to dry until you finish icing the cake.

Remove the cake from the fridge and coat it in the remaining buttercream icing, giving it as smooth a finish as possible. I use an offset palate knife for this job.

Place the strips all around the cake and use a sharp pair of scissors to cut the overhangs at the top. Place stars and hearts around the cake board, putting a few on the top of the cake. Place the My Little Pony figures on top of the cake and on the board.

Notes:

• Using a ready made sponge is a great way to get a birthday cake made fast. It is one less step for a tired Mama to do when they are making a birthday cake late at night.
• If you have never used ready prepared icing, this is a great recipe to begin with. It is just like play dough in consistency and you just have to roll it over and over to get the colours mixed in. I like to dip my hand in icing mixture when doing this.
• This recipe was created by Jennifer Cheung for Kidspot, Australia's best recipe finder. This recipe is brought to you by the magical world of MY LITTLE PONY.

Blueberry buttermilk bundt cake

This cake uses few ingredients and takes little time to create, with maximum effect produced when the pretty-shaped creation emerges golden brown from the oven. I didn't skinny-fy this recipe, I felt a little old-fashioned indulgence was acceptable for this week's baking rotation. This one was a definite crowd pleaser. Plus I just adore anything in a bundt cake tin, so gorgeous and easy to sneak a quick little slice.

Blueberry Buttermilk Bundt Cake

Ingredients:

• 100 grams of organic butter, softened
• 1/2 cup of caster sugar
• 2 eggs, at room temperature
• 1 3/4 cup of self-raising flour
• 1/2 cup of buttermilk
• 3/4 cup of frozen blueberries

Vanilla syrup:

• 1/4 cup of caster sugar
• 1/4 cup of water
• 1 teaspoon of vanilla extract

Method:

1. Preheat oven to 180 degrees and thoroughly grease a small bundt cake tin.
2. Beat butter and sugar until creamy and add in the eggs, beating until slightly pale in colour.
3. Sift in the flour and pour in the buttermilk, gently stirring ingredients together until just mixed.
4. Spoon mixture into the tin and scatter oven the blueberries, lightly pressing into the mixture.
5. Bake in a moderate oven for 25 minutes, until golden brown.
6. Make the vanilla syrup by heating the ingredients over a low heat, until the sugar is dissolved.
7. Once the cake in cooked, take out to cool for 5 minutes before transferring to a wire rack. 
8. Pour over the vanilla syrup and leave to cool completely before storing in an airtight container.

Vintage waves inspired by Veronica Lake

Learn how to do amazing, gorgeous vintage waves courtesy of Lauren Conrad's gorgeous beauty blog. All you need is clean and dry hair to start and a curling iron, preferably in the number 1 size. Follow the pictures in this post for a step-by-step guide. 

Megan Fox does this trend perfectly

Veronica Lake

Gluten-free Sugar-free Red Velvet Cupcakes

This recipe is to make guilt-free gluten-free red velvet cupcakes, which taste as good as the real thing! Red velvet cupcakes have become super popular in the last few years, with their rich red cake and cream cheese icing, these cakes are making appearances at girl's birthday parties everywhere. 

• Cupcakes:
• 
  
• 1/2 cup coconut flour
• 2 tablespoons natural, unsweetened cocoa powder
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 1 teaspoon of apple cider vinegar
• 1/4 teaspoon baking soda
• 2 eggs
• 2 egg whites
• 2 tablespoons Melt® Organic Buttery Spread, melted over low heat
• 1/2 cup low fat buttermilk*
• 1/2 cup erythritol, such as NOW Foods
• 1/2 teaspoon vanilla stevia extract
• 7 drops red gel food coloring
•  
• Frosting:
• 
  
• 4 ounces reduced-fat cream cheese, room temperature
• 2 ounces Melt® Organic Buttery Spread
• 1 cup erythritol, powdered**
• 15 drops vanilla stevia, or to taste

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Place cupcake liners in 8 wells of a muffin tin.
2. In a small bowl, whisk together the coconut flour, cocoa powder, salt, baking soda, and powdered buttermilk, if using. Set aside.
3. In a larger bowl, combine the eggs, egg whites, Melt, buttermilk or water, erythritol, and stevia. Mix on low speed with a hand blender until combined. Add the dry ingredients and mix well, beginning on low speed and increasing to high, for about 2 minutes, until well-blended and no lumps remain. Blend in food coloring until desired color is achieved.
4. Divide batter evenly among the cupcake liners. Bake for 20 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted in the center of a cupcake comes out clean. Cool completely before frosting.
5. To make the frosting, beat together the cream cheese and Melt until fluffy (the Melt does not need to be warmed to room temperature; it will be soft enough straight from the refrigerator.) Add the powdered erythritol in several additions, beating well, until fluffy. Beat in liquid vanilla stevia drops to taste.
6. Decorate as you please, I added sugar flowers :)

Footnotes

• *You can substitute 1/2 cup water mixed with 2 tablespoons powdered buttermilk for 1/2 cup buttermilk.
• *Powdered buttermilk can be found in the baking section of your grocery store. If you only use buttermilk once in a while, this is a great staple to have in order to avoid the inevitable "What do I do with the rest of this quart of buttermilk I bought when I only needed a 1/2 cup?" Powdered buttermilk lasts in the refrigerator for a long time, and can be used in any recipe that calls for buttermilk. For every cup of buttermilk needed, add 4 tablespoons of powdered buttermilk with the dry ingredients, and 1 cup of water with the wet ingredients.
• **Use a coffee or spice grinder to crush the erythritol granules to a fine powder.

Nutritional Information 

Amount Per Serving  Calories: 185 | Total Fat: 12.4g | Cholesterol: 61mg