Happy Birthday!

Hello all

It's been a few weeks since my last post and I can't say that I haven't spent the majority of my spare time trying to make the most of the gorgeous weather we've been having. Although the huge storm this week was an 'end of heat wave' warning sign, I'm still loving the sun pouring through the living room window and looking out of it at the last few bright pink roses in our front garden.

Talking of roses I crystallised some petals last weekend, along with sun flower petals, lavender, purple campanula and a few skullcap flowers, all picked from my garden. 

I've been finding it a little hard to relax lately, so doing this while listening to some classical music was so therapeutic! Here are a few of the songs I was listening to and a little how to so you can crystallise your own flowers.

Mum x There is a link for you at the end of this post…

Crystallised flowers

What you will need:

1 egg white

bowl of caster sugar

baking parchment

small paint brush

1. Add a few drops of water to the egg white to loosen it up a little.

2. Paint the egg white onto the petals or whole flowers if your'e using them.

3. Holding the stem or tiny corner of a petal, sprinkle caster sugar all over the flower and leave to dry on some baking parchment. Repeat process until they are all done, then leave to dry completely before using.

* Tip *

In fact, this isn't a tip this is a must! Make sure you have identified the flowers you are using and that they are edible. Some flowers can be poisonous and will make you very ill.

*

I used the crystallised flowers to decorate a birthday cake I was making for my friend but it took me a few ideas to decide what I would bake. I went from a very indulgent coffee, walnut and almond cake with white chocolate and brown butter icing to lime, orange and pistachio loaf with orange, white chocolate and yoghurt icing.

What with it being summer and all I thought the latter was a much better option, plus the recipe included spelt flour and the use of honey as a sweetener and I love experimenting with these sorts of alternative ingredients.

I found the recipe here, it's by Amber Rose:

www.telegraph.co.uk/foodanddrink/recipes/9984388/Lime-cake-with-orange-blossom-and-pistachios-recipe.html

As usual I got distracted by my own ideas while trying to follow someone else's recipe. I added some icing and changed a few of the ingredients, which I will list below in my own version of this lovely cake.

Lime, Orange and pistachio loaf

Ingredients

225g  white spelt flour - sifted

2     tsp baking powder

80g   ground almonds

100g  pistachios - toasted and chopped

pinch salt

2     eggs

250g  honey

250ml Greek-style natural yogurt

150ml coconut oil

½     unwaxed orange - zested

1     unwaxed lime - zested

Syrup

150ml boiling water

100g  honey

1     lime

Icing

100g  good quality white chocolate

60g   low fat natural yogurt

180g  icing sugar

½     unwaxed orange - zested

You will also need a 9x5" loaf tin -

(although I did have enough mixture left over to fill a small 10cm cake tin, which was brill as it meant the boyf and I could have our own mini version!)

1. Preheat your oven to 180C/160Fan/350F/Gas 4 and grease and line your loaf tin with baking parchment.

2. Measure and sift the spelt flour into a large mixing bowl, followed by the baking powder, ground almonds, toasted/chopped pistachios and a pinch of salt. These are all of your dry ingredients. Give them a stir until evenly distributed (this will help to give an even bake).

2. In a second bowl add the eggs and whisk until pale in colour with a little foam on top, now add the honey, yogurt, orange and lime zest and the coconut oil. 

As coconut oil has a higher melting temperature than olive or sunflower oil for example, you may need to gently melt it in a small pan over the hob before adding it to the rest of the wet ingredients. This will take less than a minute. 

Don't let it get too hot though, as you want all of your ingredients at room temperature.

3. Make a well in the dry ingredients and carefully pour in the wet ingredients. Beat using a hand mixer on a slow speed until just combined. You could also do this with a big spoon.

4. Now pour the mixture into your prepared loaf tin and bake for about 30-35 minutes, or until the sponge springs back when you press your finger lightly on the top and it's coming away from the sides of the tin slightly. 

**Note that the original recipe calls for 50 minutes baking time, this is because she is using a larger round cake tin. If you are using a loaf tin like me, please don't bake it at 180C for 50 minutes or else you'll end up with a crumbly burnt mess!

Syrup

5. Meanwhile pour 150ml boiling water into a pan along with the honey. Boil until reduced by half, this will take about 5-6 minutes. Now add the juice of one lime and boil for another minute.

6. When your cake is done, take it out of the oven and while it's still warm and in the tin poke little holes all over it with a skewer or tooth pick then pour the syrup all over the top. 

Leave it to cool for a while then take it out of the tin and leave it on a wire rack to cool completely.

Orange, white chocolate and yogurt icing

7. Melt the white chocolate in a bowl over hot water.

8. In a separate bowl measure in the yogurt, orange zest and icing sugar then give it all a good mix. Once the white chocolate has melted pour it into the bowl with the rest of the ingredients and mix until combined.

9. Spoon the icing on top of the sponge and smooth it out with a small spatula. 

If you're using crystallised flowers to decorate the cake carefully place them on now so that they stick to the icing before it sets.

You could do it afterwards if you keep a little of the icing aside and use it to stick them on one by one, but this will take a while. (Trust me… I know… It's all still trial and error!)

I also made some candied limes which I laid around the base of the cake. I was going to put them on top but there wasn't really enough room and the flowers looked so pretty on their own anyway. The candied limes do make a great addition though as they're super tasty! Here's a quick how to… 

Candied limes

Ingredients

1    lime - sliced

35ml water

35g  caster sugar

1. Blanch the sliced limes for 5 minutes. Drain and set aside.

2. Pour the water into a pan and add the sugar bringing to a boil over a high heat. Add the limes and simmer until the pith has turned translucent, this should take about 10 minutes or so.

3. Drain them and leave them to cool on baking parchment.

***

I just want to say thank you for some really lovely feedback regarding my first few blog posts. It's really encouraging x

Also, don't forget there is space to comment at the end of every post, so if you want to know anything more about what I've been writing I'm more than happy to answer anything you like, or even if you just want to say hi!

I'll be bringing some savoury bits for you soon, and maybe even some crafty makes too! One step at a time though :)

Lastly, this is a message for my Mummy x I know you can't see the playlist but I want you to know what one of the songs I was listening to was. Go to the link below.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LGs_vGt0MY8

St. Pauls Carnival

It's the day after St. Pauls Carnival and having danced into the early hours I thought I would spend my Sunday with Edie relaxing in the beautiful sunshine writing about cake.

This is Edie
(eed-ee)

I said I would bake for some friends when they next visited and this happened to be for St. Pauls Carnival. I immediately thought 'Carnival Cake', and started searching around for various inspirations.

To stay in keeping with the Caribbean carnival theme, I went for a coconut and peach sponge. For the icing I wanted something really bright, colourful and sparkly.

I came across a brilliant video tutorial for an icing technique by Sweetapolita's Rosie Alyea, which I've put at the end of this post. Wanting to try something new I thought this was the perfect way to go about it. A basic vanilla buttercream frosting in three different colours which you blend into one another in layers around the entire cake. Brilliant! I'm a big fan of cream cheese frosting and to stop the cake from being too sweet I thought that would be a nice choice for the filling. 

I actually found that the peach flavour was a little too subtle in this recipe, so next time I would add some peach jam in between the layers along with the cream cheese frosting to give it that extra kick.

Now I just needed something sparkly…

The Carnival Cake

Ingredients

Coconut and peach sponge

370g unsalted butter
370g self-raising flour
370g golden caster sugar
6    eggs
200g desiccated coconut
2tsp baking powder
420g can of peaches - pureed

Cream cheese frosting

60g    unsalted butter
100g   cream cheese
1/2tsp vanilla
250g   icing sugar

Vanilla buttercream frosting

200g unsalted butter
600g icing sugar
70ml full fat milk
2tsp vanilla extract
Red, green and yellow food colouring

Sugar paste letters

Purple glitter
Purple sugar paste

You will also need two 8inch cake tins.

Coconut and peach sponge

1. Pre-heat the oven to 170C/150C-fan/325F/Gas 3. Lightly grease and line the bottom of your cake tins with baking parchment.

2. Measure your flour, caster sugar, coconut and baking powder into a large bowl and mix together.

3. Add the butter and whisk until the mixture resembles fine bread crumbs.

4. Whisk the eggs until they become light in colour with a little foam on top, then add to the rest of the mixture until just incorporated.

5. Add in the pureed peaches and whisk on a medium speed until all of the ingredients are blended together.

6. Split the cake mix between the two cake tins and bake for 50 minutes or until the sponge springs back when you press your finger lightly on the top and it's coming away from the sides of the cake tin slightly.

7. Take the sponges out of the tins after about 10 minutes and leave them to cool on a wire rack.

Cream cheese frosting

8. Measure the butter into a bowl and whisk for about 5 minutes, then add the cream cheese and whisk again for about 2 minutes.

9. Add the icing sugar and vanilla and whisk again for a couple of minutes until all of the ingredients are fully incorporated.

10. Chill the cream cheese frosting in the fridge while your sponges are cooling down. Doing this will also make a firmer frosting which is handy when you're using it to sandwich two cakes together. Sometimes it can splurge out of the sides if it's too soft. If this does happen, don't worry, just tidy it up with a spatula.

11. Once the sponges have cooled and you're ready to add the cream cheese frosting, apply a thick layer on top of one of the sponges and spread evenly with a small spatula. If you are adding peach jam, spread a thick layer on the sponge before the cream cheese frosting. Now place your second cake upside down so the bottom is facing upwards. This will ensure that the surface is nice and flat when you add the vanilla buttercream.

Vanilla buttercream frosting

11. Measure the butter into a large bowl and whisk for about 5 minutes until it's pale in colour. Add the vanilla, milk and icing sugar and whisk again until all of the ingredients are completely blended together.

12. Before you add any colour to the frosting you need to add a thin layer of frosting all over the cake to seal in the crumbs. This is called a crumb coat. Once you have done this chill your cake for about 20-25 minutes.

12. Split the frosting into three bowls with a little more in one bowl than the others; this will be the icing for the top of the cake.

13. Add the colouring to each of the bowls until you reach your desired tone. The next part is a little easier if you have a rotating cake stand, but you can manage without one. Using a small offset spatula smooth the coloured frosting over the top of the cake, making sure it spreads about 1cm over the edge. Rinse the spatula and smooth the frosting over the bottom third of the cake, then the same again for the middle third. Now carefully blend all three colours together using a medium sized spatula, turning the cake around as you go. I added some multi-coloured hundreds and thousands and a little bit of pink glitter to the top of the cake, but you could add anything that takes your fancy.

This is what my kitchen looked like at this point..

Sugar paste letters

14. Sprinkle a little icing sugar onto a clean surface, knead your sugar paste until soft and pliable and then roll out to about 2mm, then cut out the letters. I find it easiest to use a dressing pin to do this. Wet the tops of the letters with a damp finger and then sprinkle glitter all over them. Leave them to chill in the fridge for a while before carefully placing them onto the cake.

***

*Tips*

Don't press the letters down into the icing too much at first as you may want to lift them off and re-arrange them.

You may not need to add all of the milk to the buttercream icing, but you can always add more if necessary. You can also use cream.

Do watch the video at the end as it gives lots of handy tips.

Finally, this is my Carnival Cake theme tune!… 

Sister Nancy - Bam Bam

How to Frost a Pastel Swirl Cake from Sweetapolita on Vimeo.

Father's Day

Okay, so I know this is a bit late but I thought I would do a post for it anyway.

Fathers Day 2012, I sent my dad a wholehearted attempt at red velvet cake in a jar, with a frosting recipe I found online which was made up of your basic buttercream frosting mix with added milk and flour. Yep. I had never heard of this before but was convinced that it would be amazing!

The red velvet cake wasn't red and the frosting was a bit dodgy. I sent it anyway.

So this year Fathers Day came around again and I couldn't think of what to give my Dad, then just as I lay my head down to go to sleep it came to me. I find this is when most ideas good or bad come to me, perhaps it's because I'm not distracted by anything else - and I am quite easily distracted.

Anyway, I decided I would try to post a bake again. Seems silly at first ey, but this time I made something that was a bit more withstanding! White Chocolate Rocky Road and Caramel Shortbread. Simple but classic.

White Chocolate Rocky Road

Ingredients

400g  White Chocolate
70g   Unsalted, lightly toasted pistachio nuts
70g   Shortbread
100g  Dried cranberries
100g  Vegan marshmallows (It took me a while to find these. In the end I had to ask the boyf to go and hunt them down on his day off! *The Better Food Company - Whiteladies Road, Bristol*)

You will also need the following equipment

9x6" dish
Large bowl
Bain Marie (I use a bowl over a pan of hot water.)

1. Carefully break up your shortbread. I used a knife as I found you can control the size of your biscuit bits more. Tip the biscuit into the large bowl along with the cranberries, pistachio nuts and marshmallows.

2. Break the chocolate into small pieces and melt in a bowl over a pan of hot water. Stir frequently.

3. Pour the melted chocolate into the bowl containing the rest of the ingredients and mix carefully making sure the biscuit pieces don't fall apart.

4. Tip the entire mixture into the dish, level out and leave to cool, preferably over night. I leave mine in the fridge.

* Tips * 

I like to leave the marshmallows quite chunky so you get the best of all the textures, the same goes for the biscuit.

I used pistachios with cranberries as the flavours compliment each other well, but you could use any nut or dried fruit.

Whether you are using milk, dark or white try to use a good quality chocolate. You will really notice the difference.

Caramel Shortbread

Ingredients

Shortbread base

100g flour

70g  butter (cut into 1cm squares)

40g  golden caster sugar

Caramel middle

75g  butter

40g  dark muscovado sugar

397g condensed milk

Chocolate topping

100g dark chocolate

You will also need the following equipment;

9x5" loaf tin

Large bowl

Bain Marie

1. Pre-heat your oven to 180C/350F/Gas 4. Lightly grease the tin then line with baking parchment, leaving an excess on the longer sides so you can lift the finished bake out easily.

2. First, your shortbread base. Measure the sugar and flour into your bowl and mix together. Add the butter and rub together until it starts to resemble bread crumbs. Now kneed until it forms a smooth dough and then press evenly into the base of your loaf tin pricking the top slightly with a fork. Bake for around 20 minutes or until the top of your shortbread is golden brown and firm to the touch. Leave to cool.

3. Now for the caramel middle. Put your butter, sugar and condensed milk into a pan over a low heat and stir until the butter has melted and the sugar has dissolved. Bring to the boil making sure you're stirring the mixture all of the time, or else it will catch the bottom of the pan. Now, turn the heat down slightly so the caramel simmers and stir until it's thick with a fudge-like colour. This should take no more than 8-10 minutes.
Pour the caramel over the shortbread and leave to cool.

4. Last but not least, the chocolate topping. Break the chocolate into small pieces and melt in a bowl over a pan of hot water stirring frequently. Now pour the chocolate over the caramel and leave to set completely before cutting into squares.

*Tips*

If I want to make a really clean cut I run a sharp knife under the hot tap, quickly dry it with a tea towel and then cut the caramel shortbread.

You could also use two different types of chocolate to create a marble effect which looks pretty. Or even decorate the top with dried pieces of strawberry or raspberry.

Great with a hot cup of tea

And the theme tune to this bake is...... Jazzanova - Little Bird