Formula One Cake

I was planning on making a post of Easter recipes (creme egg brownies & hot cross buns) however, I have not really found the time to make these in between revision.

So it was my brother and dad's birthday yesterday (19th April) and so I thought why not take on the challenge to make them a formula one car cake. I'm no professional cake maker so this was defiantly a big challenge for me to take on.
I started off by making two 23cm square cakes and sandwiching them together with butter cream and jam. I then covered the cake in a thin layer of butter cream to ensure that the fondant icing would be smooth. I covered it in white fondant and placed 2.5cm by 2.5cm black squares round the outside, which created a pattern similar to the flag used at Formula One races.

A road was made down the middle of the cake with black fondant, and green fondant was used on either side as grass.
Now we get onto the hard part...the car. I first found a template of a basic f1 car outline.  Which I used to cut out the body of the car.

To make the seat I cut a semi circle of cake which became thinner towards the bottom and another square piece which sloped towards the back of the cake. I again covered the whole shape in butter cream and covered it in grey fondant, adding extra detail to the shapes by shaping the fondant.
To make the wheels I used rice crispy squares and cut them into circles using a pastry cutter. These were again covered in a thin layer of butter cream and covered in black fondant. I made an indent in the middle of each wheel and placed a piece of grey fondant in this indent. The front and back wings were made out of pieces of cardboard covered in fondant (I thought it may be a bit difficult to get cake to stand up). However, I've have now thought that these could have been made of wafers covered in fondant.
Finally, detail was added by using red icing and strips of red and black fondant to make the car look like a McLaren Formula One car.

I hope you liked this post and that it has maybe inspired you to challenge your baking skills and try out something new that could be a great surprise or gift for a family member or friend. I hope that I can make more celebration cakes like this in the future and share them with you as I learn :)

Exams!

I am currently studying for my AS level exams in Food Technology, Psychology, English Literature and ICT. As exams are getting closer and closer I though I share some of my ways to deal with stress and how to handle revision.

I've found this year I've become more and more stressed with the workload than ever before. This is most likely because of the huge leap between GCSE and A-levels. The year has gone so fast and I haven't really had much time breathe and take  a step back.

Here are ten ways I've found to deal with stress and revision:
1. Make a revision timetable for each day
2. Take frequent short breaks
3. Revise in 20 minute blocks
4. Don't forget to go out into the 'real world' and have some fun
5. Make revision fun- create games for yourself, get others to test you or have a revision day with your friends.
6. Keep motivated and attention by having a glass of water while doing revision.
7. Eat healthily- try not to slip into bad eating habits during exam period as this can lower your performance.
8. Sleep well- Don't stay up all night revising.
9. Keep on exercising- This keeps you awake and can act as a stress release.
10. Plan something exciting with family or friends for after exams that you can look forward to. This could be going out for a meal, going to a festival, having a party, a movie night with friends or even a family meal.

I hope that these little tips help with whatever exams you are doing if they are end of unit/year tests, GCSE exams, ALevel exams or even degree exams. Good Luck! :)