Blue Ombre Mini Cakes - Blogcademy Scholarship Entry

Attending the Blogcademy has been on my wishlist pretty much since they first started their workshops. For starters, everyone gets to wear glittery animal ears and the whole workshop looks like one big sparkly, albeit pretty damn informative, party. In all seriousness though, those girls really know a thing or two about blogs and the nerd in me gets really excited about two days devoted to blogging and taking notes. I LOVE taking notes. I told myself this was the year I was going to be brave with my blog so I'm putting myself out there and saying I need the Blogcademy's expertise!

This blog has been my little project for just over two years now and, if I'm completely honest, one day I would love it to be more than that. I'd love it to be my job to write about food. Sometimes I think bloggers don't want to admit that to their readers but writing this is what I love doing, and who doesn't want their job to be something they love? I want to learn how to increase, not just my readership, but engagement with my readers, how to write posts that you all really want to read and how to develop this hobby into a career.

I really think that the Blogcademy girls could help me push this blog forward. Shauna has an amazing eye for design, Kat knows how to build a strong readership and Gala is brilliant at creating killer blog posts. It would be so awesome to get to spend two days picking their brains AND getting to know other wonderful bloggers who are in a similar position to me. I have at least twenty questions I'd like to ask and no doubt that would triple halfway through the first day. I've never really had the opportunity to really talk about blogging in depth with anyone and it would be amazing to have this chance. I'd love to attend the London workshop on 19th and 20th July.

So, to show the Shauna, Kat and Gala just how much I want to attend, I threw myself a little Blogcademy themed party, complete with blue ombre mini cakes and plenty of glitter. It was the perfect way to spend a Sunday.

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If you want to know how to make these mini cakes, I've added the recipe below.

Vanilla and Cinnamon Mini Cakes
(frosting recipe from Stacie Bakes by Stacie Stewart - the best and easiest cream cheese frosting recipe I've tried)

makes 6 mini cakes

for the cake:
230g unsalted butter, softened
230g caster sugar
4 eggs
230g self raising flour
1 vanilla pod or 1 teaspoon of good quality vanilla extract
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
blue food colouring (I used baby blue by Sugarflair)

for the frosting:
125g unsalted butter, softened
175g cream cheese
500g icing sugar, sifted
blue food colouring

1. Line three small tins - I used 11"x7" rectangle baking trays - with greaseproof paper and preheat the oven to 180 C / 350 F / Gas Mark 4.
2. Beat the butter and sugar until light and fluffy. Add the eggs one at a time, followed by a tablespoon of flour inbetween each one. Finally add the rest of the flour and the seeds from the vanilla pod and cinnamon. Mix until the flour is just combined.
3. Divide the mix between three bowls and add a little blue food colouring to one and a bit more to another so that one bowl is plain and the other two increase in darkness.
4. Transfer to the cake tins and bake in the oven for 15 minutes, or until a cocktail stick comes out clean.
5. Leave to cool completely before turning out.
6. Using an 8cm round cutter, cut six circles out of each sheet of cake.
7. For the frosting, beat the butter until soft, add the cream cheese and mix for 5-10 seconds until just combined. Sift in the icing sugar in and mix until smooth. The longer you beat it for the creamier it will be. If you want to colour your icing, follow the same instructions as for colouring the cakes.
8. I'll be honest, these are hard to ice so to save yourself any stress it might be easier to leave them naked - they'll still look good. If you do want to ice them properly, crumb coat them first and place in the freezer for 10-15 minutes. Using a palette knife, smooth the darker icing around the bottom followed by the lighter one in the middle and the white icing on top. Each shade will move into the next as you work around the cake with the palette knife.