Vanilla and Fudge Cupcakes With Chocolate Fudge Icing

Friday was an I-must-bake day and I decided to bake something I've been wanting to do for a while.  I've had the important ingredients sitting in my baking cupboard for about a month now and just hadn't gotten around to making anything with them.  But we had finished all the Portal cookies and I wanted something new to be the after dinner treat.  Hence, these cupcakes!

So what do we have?  Well, they are vanilla cupcakes with pieces of fudge baked into them.  Then they're topped with a chocolate fudge icing and decorated with bits of fudge, white and milk chocolate.  They really are quite indulgent and so so yummy!  Especially because the fudge is the clotted cream fudge from Thornton's, which is some of the most amazing vanilla fudge ever!  I am a bit of a glutton if presented with this fudge.  I got that instead of an Easter egg from the fiancé this year.  I was not at all put out.  I used a lot of my favourite brands of sweet for my decorations this time around.  So not only is there Thornton's fudge, but I used Cadbury Dairy Milk chocolate for the icing and milk chocolate decoration, and Milky Bar buttons for my white chocolate.  Like I said, these are something I've wanted to do for a while.  Something delicious and sweet for me!

I used pretty much my usual vanilla cupcake recipe, but I upped the amount of ingredients slightly to get bigger cakes.  My cupcakes have always been a bit small, though I generally don't mind that.  But for something like this I wanted some that were a bit bigger.  And it worked!  They look good and taste just the same.

Recipe - Makes 12


Cupcakes:

• 140g/5oz caster sugar
• 140g/5oz butter
• 3 eggs
• 170g/6oz self-raising flour
• 1 tsp vanilla extract
• 85g/3oz vanilla clotted cream fudge 

Fudge Icing - adapted from Cake Decorating Magazine

• 100g/3.5oz milk chocolate
• 55g/2oz butter
• 1.5 tbsp milk
• 75g/2.6oz icing sugar
• 1/2 tsp vanilla extract

Decoration:

• White chocolate buttons
• 1 Cadbury Flake
• Vanilla clotted cream fudge
• (I also used leftover, broken milk chocolate decorations that I made when doing the chocolate and orange marble cakes)

1. Preheat the oven to 180°C/350°F/Gas Mark 4 and line a 12 hole muffin tin with cases.
2. Cream the butter and sugar together in a large bowl until pale and fluffy.
3. Add the vanilla extract and beat in.
4. Add the eggs one at a time, and beat until fully incorporated after each addition.
5. Sift in the flour and fold into the mixture.
6. Chop the fudge into small pieces and fold into the mix.
7. Spoon into the cases, trying to distribute the mixture and fudge equally.
8. Bake for 20-25 minutes.  The cakes should be risen and golden, and a skewer inserted into the centre should come out clean.
9. Leave to cool on a cooling rack.
10. Make the icing whilst you wait.  First melt the chocolate and milk together in a medium glass bowl placed over a pan of simmering water.
11. When melted together, add the butter and wait for that to melt too.
12. When the butter has melted, mix it all together.
13. Gradually add the icing sugar and mix in.
14. Add the vanilla extract and beat that in too and then leave the icing to cool.
15. When the icing has cooled, beat again until fudgey.
16. Use a spoon to smooth the icing on top of each cake.
17. Crumble the Cadbury flake and sprinkle over the top of the icing.
18. Chop up the fudge and white chocolate buttons (and milk chocolate pieces if you have them) and place some of each on top of the cakes.

Chocolate and Orange Marble Cupcakes with Orange Buttercream

Cakes for the fiancé and his friends.  After not being able to find an important ingredient for what I originally wanted to make this week, I gave the fiancé two options for alternatives.  This is the one he chose.  I'll save the other for another day. 

So rather than the traditional chocolate marbled cakes where you have half a vanilla cake mix and half a chocolate cake mix, this is actually an orange flavoured cake mix marbled with melted milk chocolate.  Not chocolate cake.  Chocolate.  It was something I saw in a recipe in a magazine but I just took the idea, rather than using the actual recipe because I wanted to do it my way.  I also didn't have any yoghurt.  I've seen quite a few cake recipes that call for yoghurt recently.  I'll have to investigate and try that out at some point.

Orange buttercream seemed a natural compliment.  The fiancé did ask how it was different from chocolate orange buttercream and I said because it wouldn't have chocolate in it.  It was a bit of a silly question.  And for decoration, more chocolate!  I decided to try making piped decorations and they did turn out rather nicely.  I had far too much chocolate though so I made many more than I actually needed.  Originally I was only going to make a star for each cake but had enough chocolate to do 30 or so stars, 20 hearts, 13 squiggles and 7 names, and still had a little to spare.  So I'll halve the amount when I write the recipe up below. 

They are quite scrummy apparently.  The fiance certainly enjoyed them.  You can really taste the orange and the milk chocolate in the cakes adds a nice crunch.

Recipe - makes 12

Cakes:

• 115g/4oz caster sugar
• 115g/4oz unsalted butter
• 2 medium eggs
• 115g/4oz self-raising flour
• 1 tsp orange extract
• 100g/3.5oz milk chocolate

Orange Buttercream and Decoration:

• 140g/5oz unsalted butter
• 280g/10oz icing sugar
• 1 tsp orange extract
• Orange food colouring
• Chocolate sprinkles
• 40g/1.5oz milk chocolate

1. Preheat the oven to 180°C/350°F/Gas Mark 4 and line a 12 hole muffin tray with cupcake cases.
2. Melt the chocolate in a glass bowl placed over a pan of simmering water.  Do not let the water touch the bowl and don't let the chocolate get too hot or it will seize.  Stir it occasionally with a spoon.  When melted, remove from the heat and put to one side.
3. Beat the butter and sugar together in a large bowl until very pale and creamy.
4. Add the orange extract and beat in.
5. Whisk the eggs together in a small bowl then add to the butter sugar a little at a time, beating in after each addition.
6. Sift in the flour and fold into the mixture.
7. Spoon half the mixture into the cake cases.
8. Put half the chocolate into the cake cases.
9. Put the rest of the cake mixture into the cases and top with the remaining chocolate.
10. Use a cocktail stick to marble the chocolate and cake mix together.  I find a figure of eight pattern works well.
11. Bake in the oven for about 25 minutes.  Because of the melted chocolate, it takes a bit longer for them to cook than a normal cupcake.
12. When baked, remove from the oven and let cool on a rack.
13. Meanwhile melt the chocolate for the decorations.
14. Spread greaseproof paper on a tray and fill a piping bag fitted with a small, round tipped nozzle with the melted chocolate.  I recommend clipping the bag with a peg just before the nozzle whilst filling to stop the chocolate escaping.
15. Use the chocolate to make your decorations.  Try and keep the lines fairly thick or they will snap when trying to remove them from the paper.  Keep shapes fairly simple too.  I made stars, hearts, squiggles and wrote names.  I recommend making spares just in case some do break.
16. Put the tray in the fridge to help set the chocolate.
17. Make the buttercream by putting the butter, icing sugar, orange extract and orange colouring into a bowl and beating until smooth and creamy.
18. Put into a piping bag fitted with a large star nozzle and pipe onto each cupcake.
19. Decorate with chocolate sprinkles then leave to set for a while.  The buttercream needs to firm up or it won't support the chocolate decorations when they are standing.
20. When the buttercream is quite firm and the chocolate decorations are set, remove the decorations from the fridge and carefully push them into the buttercream.  Try and keep your hands cold and handle the chocolate as little as possible to avoid it melting.

Chocolate Covered Sugar Cookies - 'Portal' Themed

Cookies!  Sugar cookies to be precise.  From an American recipe that came with the cutters so they are quite chewy.  The cutters were a present from the fiancé and are related to a video game called 'Portal' of which I am rather fond.  When I saw these cutters I knew I had to have them.  So how nice it was that I got them for my birthday.  It's only now though that I had a chance to use them.

All the cookies are covered in milk or white chocolate, with a tiny touch of strawberry chocolate where I needed some pink.  The orange and blue is just tinted white chocolate.  I love my blossom tint powder!  Not the neatest icing job I admit.  I only piped the pink.  Everything else was dipped, or spread on with butter knives and skewers.  It all still took me over an hour to do them all.  The Companion Cubes (the squares) were the trickiest since they had lots of little pieces to be dipped and stuck on without losing half the chocolate.

They are very yummy!  Quite soft but still delicious, especially with the chocolate.  The Turrets (the little three legged robots) are my favourite I think.  The fiancé keeps wanting to eat more of them and is having to restrain himself.

Recipe - adapted from the recipe that came with the Portal 2 Cookie Cutters

Makes 2-3 dozen cookies, depending on the size and shape of your cutters 

• 390g/13.8oz plain flour
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 185g/6.5oz unsalted butter
• 250g/8oz caster sugar
• 1 egg
• 1.5 tsp vanilla extract

1. Sift the flour and salt together in a small bowl and place to one side.
2. Using an electric mixer, beat the butter until it is really creamy. (You can do this by hand but it will take a while).
3. Slowly add the sugar whilst still beating.  Remember to scrape down the edges of the bowl occasionally. 
4. When the mixture is pale and fluffy, add the egg and vanilla extract and mix in.
5. Add half the flour and beat slowly until all the flour is absorbed.  
6. Add the remaining flour and beat until a dough forms.  (My hand mixer couldn't take this step so I had to do it with a spoon and then scoop the dough together with my hands at the end).
7. Divide the dough into two halves, flatten each half into a disk and then wrap in clingfilm.  Refrigerate for at least 2 hours (mine was in there for about 6).
8. After the 2+ hours, remove from the fridge and let sit for 5 minutes.  Meanwhile, flour a work surface and preheat the oven to 180°C/350°F/Gas Mark 4.  Line baking trays with greaseproof paper.
9. Roll out the dough so it's about 0.5cm/0.25inches thick.  Cut out your shapes and place on the baking tray.  Scoop together any scraps and roll out again.  Repeat until it's all used up.
10. Bake the cookies for 10-15 minutes until the edges are a slight golden brown. 
11. They will be soft when removed from the oven but they firm up as they cool.  Transfer to a cooling rack once out of the oven.
12. Decorate as you please.  To decorate these specific cookies, I used about 100g/3.5oz white chocolate, 75g/2.6oz milk chocolate, 25g/0.8oz strawberry chocolate (and used the leftovers to make a bunch of tiny hearts from a mould), and orange and blue blossom tint.

Strawberry and Vanilla Cupcakes with Not-too-Sweet Cooked Buttercream

I was bored this evening and wanted to bake.  But what?  Nothing too complicated but still more interesting than just my usual cupcakes with a bit of glacé icing, even though that's probably my favourite cake to eat.  That's boring!  So I decided to make a slightly fancier version, with a stripe of strawberry flavoured, pink sponge running through the middle.  I also thought it was time to try that not-too-sweet buttercream recipe I stumbled across a few weeks ago.  You may know that I'm not the biggest fan of buttercream.  It's usually far too sweet (and yet I like glacé icing...).  So discovering a recipe for a less sweet version intrigued me.

It is quite a fascinating buttercream.  It's cooked for a start and reminded me a fair bit of something I've made before from last year's Great British Bake Off Book.  It's very like the 'cream' in the Melting Moments Mary-Anne made.  It also remains lovely and soft.  It doesn't seem to harden slightly like other buttercream.  Personally I don't know if I like this.  I think it's too soft.  But that's just me and I'm ridiculously picky.

The stripe idea worked quite well although it's not really visible from the outside, which is a shame.  You can see patches of pink but otherwise the stripe won't be seen until the cake is bitten into.

I ended up making up the decoration as I went based on what I had in my cupboard.  Since it was pink buttercream, I thought white would set it off nicely so dug out the white chocolate stars.  Then I remembered I had Milky Bar buttons, so got them out too.  After dilly-dallying a bit, I thought I would make chocolate button butterfly wings.  Suddenly it occurs to me that I have strawberry chocolate buttons in my cupboard which are a bit smaller and would do for the lower wings! Hence two tone butterflies.  I got the strawberry buttons from the baking section of the supermarket.  They're made by Silver Spoon.

It was a fairly successful little experiment and quite a nice tasting cake.  Not my best but still yummy.

Recipe - makes 6

Cakes:

• 55g/2oz caster sugar
• 55g/2oz butter
• 1 egg
• 55g/2oz self-raising flour
• 1/2 tsp vanilla extract
• 1/2 tsp strawberry flavouring
• Pink food colouring

1. Preheat the oven to 180°C/350°F/Gas Mark 4 and line a 6 hole muffin tray with paper or silicone cases (I used silicone).
2. Put the butter and sugar into a bowl and beat until pale and fluffy.
3. Beat the egg in a jug and then add to the sugar butter a bit at a time, mixing in well after each addition.
4. Sift in the flour and fold into the mixture.
5. Transfer 1/3 of the mixture to another bowl.  To this 1/3, add the strawberry flavouring and a couple of drops of pink food colouring.  Mix in.
6. Add the vanilla extract to the remaining 2/3 and mix in.
7. Distribute half the vanilla mix between the six cases, trying to cover the bottom of each completely.
8. Put equal amounts of the strawberry mixture into each case and again, try to smooth it over so it reaches the edges.  Do this gently otherwise you'll start to marble the mixture.
9. Put the remaining vanilla mix on top and smooth slightly.  It will melt and spread out when baking so this isn't so important.
10. Bake for 18-20 minutes so that a cocktail stick inserted into the centre comes out clean.
11. Leave to cool on a wire rack. 

Buttercream - adapted from YoyoMax12 

• 120ml/4.2fl.oz milk
• 2 tbsp plain flour
• 115g/4oz butter
• 115g/4oz caster sugar
• 1/2 tsp vanilla extract
• Pink food colouring
• White chocolate buttons
• Strawberry chocolate buttons
• Any other decorations you want

1. Put the flour and the milk into a medium saucepan over a medium heat. 
2. Whisk the mixture constantly over the heat until you get a thick-ish paste.  Remove from the heat and set aside to cool.
3. When mixture has completely cooled, add the vanilla extract and then beat with a hand mixer until really soft and fluffy (about 4 minutes).
4. In a separate bowl, beat the sugar and butter together until really pale and fluffy (again, about 4 minutes with an electric mixer).
5. Add the sugar butter to the flour mix and beat with the mixer for another 3 minutes until really creamy.
6. Add the food colouring and mix in. 
7. Attach a large star nozzle (eg. Wilton 1M) to a piping bag, spoon in the buttercream and pipe swirls onto each cake.
8. Break a white chocolate button in half and stick onto the buttercream so two of the points stick up and the rounded sides face outwards to look like wings.
9. Do the same with a strawberry button, placing it below the white button.
10. Add any other decoration you like.

French Baguette

I decided we needed to have soup for tea today, mostly down to me considering my lack of vegetable intake this week due to hectic schedules and just no desire to eat them.  Also the fact that the fiancé is away tomorrow night and Monday is usually soup day.  Hence Sunday had to be soup day!  And with soup comes bread, and it being a Sunday with no work meant that I could in fact make the bread myself.  

Originally I thought I'd just end up making the basic loaf or the bloomer again, because as I flicked through my book there were a lot of overly fancy flavours or things which just didn't appeal to me.  What can I say, I have a boring taste range.  But then I found the recipe for French baguettes and it all looked easy enough.  I even had all the ingredients...or I thought I did.  Turns out I didn't have plain flour so had to make a quick dash to the local shop for some.

Anyway, it was fairly successful.  I don't think it looked entirely like a French baguette.  It ended up much shinier than I think it's supposed to.  I also thought the taste wasn't quite right.  Not bad, it was still quite nice, but it didn't taste like the baguettes I'm used to.  The fiancé was perfectly happy though.  He ate most of it.  I will say though, it certainly smelt like a French baguette does, so that was something at least.  I may investigate different baguette recipes at some point because I do love me some baguette.

Recipe - adapted from The Big Book of Bread 

• 200g/7oz strong plain white flour
• 62g/2oz plain flour
• 1.25 tsp salt
• 1/2 sachet (3.5g/0.125oz) yeast
• About 170ml/6fl.oz warm water
• 1/2 tsp cornflour

1. Sift the flours and 3/4 tsp of salt together in a large bowl, then stir in the yeast.
2. Add the water a bit at a time until you get a soft dough.
3. Knead the dough on a floured surface, or inside your bowl if it is big enough, until it is smooth (about 10-15 minutes of kneading).
4. Roll into a ball and place in an oiled bowl.  Cover and leave in a warm place to rise until it has doubled in size.
5. Punch the dough in the bowl and then turn out onto a lightly floured surface.  Knead for another 10-15 minutes.
6. Shape into a baguette that is about 25cm/10inches long.  Place between the folds of a pleated tea towel and cover.  Leave to rise until doubled in size.
7. Meanwhile, preheat the oven to 200°C/400°F/Gas Mark 6 and place a roasting dish full of water on the bottom shelf of the oven.
8. Make a glaze for the bread by mixing the cornflour and the remaining 1/2 tsp of salt together with 1 tbsp of water.
9. Put 65ml/2.3fl.oz of water into a small saucepan and add the cornflour mixture.  Bring the boil, stirring the whole time, and then take off the heat.  Set aside.
10. When the baguette has risen, slide onto a baking tray which has been floured.
11. Use a sharp knife to cut slashes into the top of the bread at even intervals.
12. Use a pastry brush to cover the bread in a layer of the glaze.
13. Bake in the oven for 35-40 minutes.  Every 10 minutes add another coat of the glaze to the bread.
14. The baguette is ready when it is brown, crisp and sounds hollow when tapped on the bottom.
15. Cool on a wire rack.

Turkish Delight

So today is another branch into new territory: sweet making!  I tried making fudge a couple of years ago but it didn't work.  I think I suffered by not having a sugar thermometer since I could not tell if I'd reached the soft ball stage or not, even with the water test.  The fiancé also attempts to make fudge for me each Valentine's Day, with varying degrees of success.  He certainly gets better every year.  Anyway, since my first failure I'd not really considered making sweets again until I visited my family over Easter.  My Dad's partner has a bunch of cooking books in her kitchen which I decided to rifle through since that is what I do when I'm bored.  I fell in love with The Home-Made Sweet Shop.  It is a GORGEOUS book with lots of recipes that I wanted to try.  I have since bought my own copy but it was only yesterday that I was brave enough to try one.

Today is the birthday of the fiancé's dad, and he likes Turkish delight, thus providing the perfect excuse to give it a go.  I only made a fifth of the amount in the book since 1.6kg of the stuff seemed a bit excessive.  Consequently I shortened some timings based on what looked right.  I also ended up doing it twice because the first batch caught and burnt.  I blame some of the sugar in the sugar syrup re-crystallising.  When I made the second batch I switched up the order I did things to get a better flow and so my syrup didn't cool too much and become impossible to transfer into the rest of the mixture.  Hence I'll document the way I did it.  It was probably the smaller amounts which affected the method.  Ah well.

The final result looks quite good.  Having never had Turkish delight though, I honestly wasn't sure if it was right.  The fiancé tried it for me and said it tasted nice but he's never had it before either so that didn't help much.  So I'll have to wait for a final verdict on taste from his family. The results are in!  Apparently it tasted very much like Turkish Delight and was therefore delicious, it was just a little bit too soft.

Recipe - adapted from The Home-Made Sweet Shop

Makes about 320g

• Butter for greasing
• 180ml/6fl.oz water
• 90g/3.2oz caster sugar
• Pinch of cream of tartar
• 15g/0.5oz cornflour
• 40g/1.4oz icing sugar, plus extra for coating
• 10g/0.35oz honey
• Lemon extract
• Rose extract
• Pink food colouring

1. Grease a small square tin with the butter.  I used two 5x10cm/2x4inch tins.
2. Mix the cornflour, icing sugar and 10ml/0.3fl.oz of the water together in a heatproof bowl to make a paste.
3. Boil 140ml/4.7fl.oz of water and then pour onto the cornflour paste.  Whisk until dissolved.
4. Pour into a saucepan and simmer until it is clear and thick.
5. Meanwhile, put the caster sugar, cream of tartar and the remaining 30ml/1fl.oz of water into a saucepan placed over a medium heat.
6. Stir the sugar to dissolve it, bring to the boil and heat until it reaches the softball stage (114°C/238°F).
7. Add the the clear cornflour mixture slowly, whisking the whole time and then boil for another 5 minutes.  The mixture should be a pale yellow and rather transparent.
8. Turn down the heat and add the honey and a little lemon and rose extract.  I used about 1/4 tsp of each.  Add a couple of drops of pink food colouring and mix.
9. Pour into the prepared tins and leave to cool for several hours.
10. Cover a board with icing sugar and turn the Turkish delight out onto it.  It may need a knife run around the edges and a slight nudge to encourage it out.  
11. Coat in icing sugar and cut into smaller pieces.  Re-coat with sugar a few times as it will absorb it.
12. When storing, do so in an airtight container with lots of icing sugar to stop them sticking together.  Eat within one week.

Honeycomb Layer Cake

Today is my birthday!  So now I'm 24.  And engaged, since the boyfriend proposed to me this morning over presents (and should probably be promoted to 'the fiancé' now).  I may just be terribly chuffed.

Anyway, I've usually made my own birthday cake since I was about...9...10, after my first brother was born at the very least (on my eighth birthday, I was not happy).  I was never a fan of store bought cakes, especially as I didn't really like buttercream at the time.  So I figured I would start making my own so I could have it any way I wanted!  Usually it was a pretty simple sponge made of fairy cake batter with jam in and rolled out fondant on top, decorated with something to do with whatever I was into at the time.  Admittedly my first cake was a domed ladybird covered in chocolate.  Very nice although the middle didn't cook properly...But I was 9/10.  I thought I did quite well in spite of everything.

My point is, I do this every year.  It's just this year I divulged from the norm slightly by not doing my usual cake.  Last year was an experiment with a new sponge recipe but was still a vanilla sponge.  It was the origin of the chocolate orange buttercream though.  This year I stumbled across this cake on Preheat the Oven, the blog of 2011 Great British Bake Off contestant Jason, back at the end of July and knew it was what I wanted for my birthday cake.

It was a bit more of a challenge than I thought.  The honeycomb gave me the most trouble and took me three attempts before I could melt all the sugar without some of it burning and ruining the whole thing.  My poor fiancé is now trying to clean up the mess I made of the saucepans as he clears up my kitchen (being the birthday girl has some perks).  I've also never covered a whole cake in buttercream before, so that was interesting.  I've by no means done a perfect job.  Far from it in fact.  But I'm still rather pleased.

The only other thing I can say about the cake that disappointed me was that it was a bit flatter than expected.  But that's my own fault.  I was very silly when reading through the recipe to see if I had all the ingredients and forgot to check the size of tin.  It was supposed to be a 6 inch tin, which I did not have and could not find when I was in Kirkcaldy.  I was kicking myself for not buying the ones I saw in Sainsbury's last week.  That's what I get for behaving myself.  So mine is made in 7 inch tins instead, because that's the smallest I could find.

Taste wise it is quite lovely.  You can taste the honey in the cake but it's not too strong, which is great if you're not much of a honey lover, like myself.  The buttercream is quite sweet but not ridiculously so and the honeycomb is lovely, crunchy and sweet.

Recipe - adapted from Preheat the Oven 


For the cakes:

• 150g/5.3oz unsalted butter
• 180g/6.3oz light brown sugar
• 3 medium eggs
• 150g/5.3oz self-raising flour
• 75g/2.6oz plain flour
• 75ml/2.6fl.oz milk
• 6 tbsp honey

For the honeycomb:

• 100g/3.5oz caster sugar
• 1 tbsp golden syrup
• 1/2 tsp bicarbonate of soda

For the buttercream:

• 480g/17oz icing sugar
• 120g/4.2oz unsalted butter
• 60ml/2fl.oz milk at room temperature
• 1 tsp vanilla extract

1. Preheat the oven to 180C/350F/Gas Mark 4.  Grease and line a 15cm/6inch cake tin (you can use a 17.5cm/7inch pan like I did but you get a shorter, wider cake obviously).
2. Start by making the cakes.  You make the batter for each cake individually, using 1/3 of the ingredients for each.
3. Beat together 60g/2.1oz of sugar and 50g/1.8oz butter until pale and creamy.
4. Add one egg and beat in.
5. Combine 50g/1.8oz self-raising flour and 25g/0.6oz plain flour together in a bowl.  Add half to the cake batter and mix in.
6. Add 25ml/0.6fl.oz milk and 2 tbsp of honey to the batter and mix in.
7. Add the rest of the flour and beat in until smooth.
8. Transfer batter to the cake tin, smoothing with a rubber spatula.
9. Bake for about 20-25 minutes, or until a skewer inserted into the centre of the cake comes out clean.
10. Cool in the tin for 10 minutes before transferring to a wire rack.
11. Repeat steps 3-10 until you have a total of three cakes.
12. To make the honeycomb, first prepare a baking sheet with greaseproof paper. 
13. Put the sugar and golden syrup into a saucepan and place over a medium heat.  I recommend using a fairly large saucepan that distributes heat evenly and place it on the biggest ring on your hob.  That way most of the sugar should dissolve at the same rate.
14. You want the sugar to melt and the mixture to be the colour of honey.  Do not stir.  Just be patient.
15. When the mixture is the right colour, quickly add the bicarbonate of soda and whisk it in, then pour immediately onto the prepared baking sheet.
16. Leave to one side to set.
17. To make the buttercream, mix half the icing sugar together with the butter, vanilla extract and milk until smooth and creamy.
18. Add the rest of the icing sugar a tablespoon at a time, mixing after each addition.  The result should be thick and creamy.
19. Transfer 1/3 of the buttercream to a different bowl.
20. Crush 30g/1oz of the honeycomb and mix it in to the smaller amount of buttercream.
21. Place the first layer of cake on a cake board or serving plate and cover the top with half the honeycombed buttercream.
22. Place the second layer on top, cover with the second half of the honeycombed buttercream, then top with the final layer.  Press down gently to squish them together a bit more.
23. Cover the top and sides of the cake in a fairly thin layer of buttercream to create a crumb coat.  This is basically to prevent crumbs showing through.
24. Coat the top and sides with a thicker layer of buttercream, smoothing over as you go.
25. Break off about 6 large-ish shards of honeycomb and place on top.  Break the remaining honeycomb into small piece and place around the base of the cake.  If there's still a bit left over after that, crush it and sprinkle it on top.