Well, you could start by making some delicious cupcakes that will waft the healing scent of warm cinnamon, maple syrup and vanilla around your abode and then top these little cakes with a smiley faced gingerbread man!
If you're feeling annoyed you may also particularly enjoy the bit where you get to chop the head off several mini gingerbread men :D
So as you've gathered, I decided that I needed cheering up. We all feel a bit blue at one time or another and personally I think the best therapy is a combination of baking something cheery looking (check), eating something delicious off a pretty plate (check) and drinking something splendid out of a pretty cup (check) optional extras include thinking about kittens, buying shoes and watching a Disney film in warm pyjamas. (I'm sure these should all be prescribed by doctors). In fact, it was during my week of cheer up baking that I first thought of my alternative therapy cake shop surgery. I'd listen to your woes whilst you stroked a kitten and then I'd prescribe the perfect combination of sugary goodness to cheer you up. 'Hmm, so you've lost your job and you keep having recurrent chronic bad hair days- take this cinnamon, apple and maple triple layer cake with vanilla frosting and administer a slice once every three days for two weeks alternating with a chunky serving of peanut butter and milk chocolate tray bake every other dose. Come back and see me in a week if matters do not improve.'
Of course, if you're allergic to cats or you are diabetic I may not be able to help this in the kitten cake surgery.
Anyway...
Back to the cakes!
Firstly I made up the cake mixture. I got the recipe for this and the buttercream from 'Cookie Girl's' Eat Me book of cakes. You can't miss this book in the book shop, its bright pink! This is a fantastic book crammed with imaginative and truly delicious cupcake recipes and other treats. All the recipes I've tried from it have been wonderful. The recipe I used was for these cakes was the 'french toast' cupcake.
Here they are... fresh out of the oven and all puffed up with pride. And so they should be, they've managed to make the house smell of warm freshly baked cake with a lingering subtle scent of vanilla, cinnamon and maple syrup. Morale of all house occupants is boosted by approximately 37% at this point.
I let them cool and set about making the frosting, which is a mixture of cream cheese, buttercream and just a touch of cinnamon. It sounds a tad unconventional but it really works and does not taste at all of creamcheese!
Then I used a very large piping nozzle to whip up the toppings. Actually, I tell a lie. I used no nozzle at all. The frosting is quite dense, more so than normal buttercream and using a nozzle and squeezing the icing bag as hard as possible whilst muttering unmentionables at the frosting (which I was now starting to become personally offended at. Why was it refusing to get out of the bag in the stylish fashion I had intended??!) only resulted in the nozzle popping off the bag completely and landing behind the radiator at the other side of the kitchen.
Oh well.
So I just piped straight out of the bag with no nozzle and as luck would have it, I quite liked the results. In fact, if anyone asks that's exactly what I meant to do in the first place. Honest.
Now we're getting to the fun part... Then I topped the cakes with mini gingerbread man sprinkles and the 'heads' of mini gingerbread men. Cutting up these little chaps was quite troublesome and there were quite a lot of casualties. Getting them to snap in the right place was very tricky!
There! Very pretty indeed. An army of unsuspectingly optimistic but ultimately doomed cheer-up gingerbread men. All cosily tucked up in their soft warm blankets of buttercream and cake, unaware of their fate.
Next I prepared a nice cup of spiced tea, set out one of my favourite cups and saucers (an uplifting pale shade of spring green) and a cake fork and placed my smiley, ill fated friends on my cheeriest cake stand.
How delightful!
The cake was moist with maple syrup but light and airy with hints of vanilla and cinnamon. The buttercream was sweet and creamy but with a warm, subtle cinnamon touch and lets face it, it was great fun dunking Mr gingerbread mans head in my elegant cup of tea and then devouring his little gingerbread man face. At this point he was all crunchy, just as gingerbread men should be. I had another of these cakes (for medicinal purposes of course) the following day and by that point he had become all soft. Still delicious but not really a biscuit any longer. If you want the crunch of the biscuit, make sure you decorate at the last minute before serving!
This is the perfect cake both for a warm summers day garden party to delicately nibble on with a glass of cool prosecco but is equally a big cakey hug that is superbly paired with a big steaming hot mug of tea. To be eaten on one of those cold, wet and blustery days when you've just arrived through the door, soaked through and red faced from the wind and rain and need a cheer up hug. What better type of hug than one that comes in cake form? Because that's what this cake is, a cheer up hug of a cake.
After polishing off one (or two) of these little sponges, serenity is restored and a smile is induced by the cheery gingerbread man cake which is hugging me from the inside!
And there we have it. Cake therapy!
Mr CaptainEggCupCake also had a go at decorating a cake. He took more of an alternative approach and created a 'gingerbread man grave yard masacre' cake. hmmm. Not quite in keeping with my cheery theme but still delicious.
And just for good measure, here is another of my cheer up cakes made for a friend in great need of cake therapy...
Cakes with a smiley face. Just that bit more uplifting than the average cake!
And you never know, maybe one day the Cake Therapy Surgery will open its doors to the public. For now, I am only prescribing to those friends in need that I already know, however, my little kitten arrives this weekend! So perhaps the surgery isn't really that far off from opening...
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