Cakes & Bakes with

Photograph  © David Loftus

Hello Baking Heaven friends and welcome to this fabulous May issue. Hope you’ve all been enjoying the weather and of course, baking some lovely recipes! I’ve been very busy on a fantastic job this month creating an iconic cake for a movie which has taken weeks, it’s all very exciting. I can’t wait to see it on screen and I’m looking forward to celebrating soon when we can be inside and meeting with friends!

I’ve created a really happy and fun traybake for this month’s issue, it’s so jolly I call it my ‘Yay Bake’. It’s super fun to decorate and if you use a few different kinds of nozzle shapes in different colours, it’s so effective but very easy to do. You can add extra sprinkles or silver balls on the top for a bit of sparkle, and don't forget candles if it’s for a birthday!

Of course, the weather is hotting up and we’re now well into edible flower season, so I thought I’d share with you a couple of my mini bakes from my book, Botanical Baking.

First off, my meringue lollies! They’re sweet and crisp swirls of meringue, piped over paper lolly sticks, then drizzled with chocolate and dotted with fresh flowers for the prettiest pops ever!

Then how about a delicious choux recipe? Choux has a bad rap for being tricky, but as long as you don’t open the oven for the first 25 minutes at least and bake them well so they are deep golden and crisp they will turn out well. The choux is piped in rings and filled with crème diplomat so they are really light. I’ve used oregano flowers, alyssum and pink butterfly sorrel to decorate these, but you could use any flowers or petals you like.

I hope you’ll enjoy baking this month and I look forward to seeing you in next month’s issue. Do get in touch if you have any baking related questions or any photos of your bakes to share, you’ll find me on Instagram @julietsear

Happy Baking!

Juliet xx

Funfetti buttercream traybake

SERVES 16

For the funfetti sponge cake 

300g (10½oz) unsalted butter, softened 300g (10½oz) white caster sugar 2 tsp vanilla bean paste or extract 6 medium free-range eggs 300g (10½oz) self-raising flour ½ tsp salt ½ tsp baking powder 100ml (3½fl oz) milk 3 tbsp bright cake sprinkles

For the buttercream icing

1kg (2lb 2oz) icing sugar 500g (1lb 1oz) soft unsalted butter 2 tsp vanilla extract food colouring pastes of your choice (I used a mix of pink, yellow, blue and green paste colours and diluted some to create two shades of the same colour)