Saturday 31 August 2013
Friday 30 August 2013
Blueberry Friands and Vanilla Frosting
Hello all
I thought I'd write a short post on some lovely little friands I made a couple of weeks back. The recipe is from my trusty 'Sweet Tooth' bible by Lily Vanilli.
As we all know I find it near on impossible to stick to a recipe and here I've changed the redcurrants Lily uses for blueberries, but any slightly tart fruit would be perfect. I also added a little blob of vanilla frosting to mine for my super sweet tooth!
This is an interesting one as eggs whites are used for leavening and it's made up mostly of ground almonds. I love love love baking with ground almonds, they give such a gorgeous texture. The friands are so moist and light but with a little chew to them! It's almost like a cross between a sponge and frangipane.
I thought I'd write a short post on some lovely little friands I made a couple of weeks back. The recipe is from my trusty 'Sweet Tooth' bible by Lily Vanilli.
As we all know I find it near on impossible to stick to a recipe and here I've changed the redcurrants Lily uses for blueberries, but any slightly tart fruit would be perfect. I also added a little blob of vanilla frosting to mine for my super sweet tooth!
This is an interesting one as eggs whites are used for leavening and it's made up mostly of ground almonds. I love love love baking with ground almonds, they give such a gorgeous texture. The friands are so moist and light but with a little chew to them! It's almost like a cross between a sponge and frangipane.
Blueberry Friands
This recipe makes between 14-17 cakes depending on how much mixture you add to each case, mine made 16. So if you make sure you have about 18 cases you'll be ready and raring to go. Silicone cases work particularly well.
Ingredients
90g Plain flour
200g Icing sugar - sifted
180g Ground almonds
Pinch of salt
2 Lemons - Finely zested
6 Egg whites
200g Unsalted butter - melted and cooled
Handful of blueberries
1. Preheat your oven to 180C Fan/Gas 6.
2. Measure the flour and icing sugar into a large bowl and mix together. Now add the salt, ground almonds and lemon zest and mix again.
3. Whip the eggs whites until soft peaks form and then very gently fold them into your dry ingredients followed by the melted butter. Once throughly mixed this will create a batter.
4. Spoon your mixture evenly into the the cases, then gently press a few berries onto each one. Now put them in the oven for 15-20 minutes or until a cocktail stick comes out clean.
5. Once they are done leave them to cool completely before adding any frosting.
Vanilla frosting
This makes a batch of 450g - so you'll need to adapt the recipe to fit the friands if your just going to squidge a little blob on top of each cake. Or you could make the whole lot and keep it by for dipping biscuits or fruit into..!
Ingredients
100g Unsalted butter - room temperature
300g Icing sugar
1tsp Vanilla extract
75ml Double cream
1. Beat the butter on a medium-high speed for about 5 minutes, until very light in colour.
2. Add the vanilla, sugar and cream and beat on a medium-high speed for another 2 minutes or so.
*Tips*
Just after adding the icing sugar to the butter I use a big spoon to bring the ingredients together. I find if you go straight in with an electric mixer you will be living and breathing icing sugar for the next week. It's a mess and gets absolutely everywhere!
Depending on what you are using your frosting for you may want it softer or stiffer.
- If you are covering a cake in frosting you'll want it relatively soft.
- For piping you'll want the frosting stiffer, so that it holds a peak.
- For a crumb coat you'll want it very soft.
Measure the amount of cream you are adding to the frosting to ensure you reach the right consistency. You can also use whole milk, but you won't need as much.
You can keep frosting in the fridge for a while. When you need to use it let it warm up a little and give it a whizz with the mixer.
And here we have a De La Soul classic!
Tuesday 27 August 2013
Birthday Ganache!
Hullo!
It's been a while but I'm back and sooo happy that The Great British Bake Off is finally here!!
I'm more excited about baking than ever and am counting down the minutes until I can get my next fill of GBBO.
In the mean time I'll be using my blog as a full on creative outlet for all things baking, making, dreaming, thinking, idea-ing... You get my drift.
Although this blog will mainly be focused on baking I didn't want to limit myself to just that. I want to keep it open to lots of things that I, and I hope you, love. It's been a while but I'm back and sooo happy that The Great British Bake Off is finally here!!
I'm more excited about baking than ever and am counting down the minutes until I can get my next fill of GBBO.
In the mean time I'll be using my blog as a full on creative outlet for all things baking, making, dreaming, thinking, idea-ing... You get my drift.
I'll try to find my way with it by paying attention to what we both enjoy, so please keep your comments coming!
Anyway, back to baking (teehee!) for now.
Just a small pre warning, I haven't taken many pics of this bake, so apologies for that. I'll try to keep it short and sweet when explaining something that could have done with a pic!
It was my boyfriends birthday last weekend; it was also his brothers birthday. Yup, they're twinnys! They're non identical but both equally awesome and because they're both awesome I thought I would make them a scrumptious birthday cake, each! I did a bit of research and decided to make two small but tall cakes, both with the same basic recipe but decorated slightly different.
Caramel Sponge with White and Dark Chocolate Ganache Glaze
1. White chocolate ganache 2. Dark chocolate ganache
This was my inspiration, the littley on the top.
One with dark chocolate and the other with white chocolate glaze.
(This is not my cake/photo, although I wish it was!)
One with dark chocolate and the other with white chocolate glaze.
(This is not my cake/photo, although I wish it was!)
*
It was all going so well. I thought 'Wow, I'm actually getting quite good at this'. (You've got to give yourself a pat on the back sometimes, right?) Then, 'The Dark Chocolate Ganache Disaster' struck.
I used equal amounts of dark chocolate and cream to make the glaze, but this made it too thick to pour. It was late at night, the shops were closed and I had to do something to make the ganache thinner so I added some milk.. It worked (I thought)! It was much thinner, had a beautiful shine to it and poured perfectly over the top of the cake. Result!
Again, I gave myself a nice pat on the back! However, the cake Gods must have been looking down on me in my little kitchen in Bristol and decided I needed to get off my high horse and cast me a nasty spell of 'Dark Chocolate Ganache Disaster'.
The following morning, I was just about ready to leave the house for work, when I decided to have a peek at my little cake beauties, and there it was. My heart sunk. If you've ever had a cake disaster before you will know this feeling!
The dark chocolate ganache had cracked all over like a tiny earthquake had struck the poor little thing. I didn't have time to start trying to fix it or worst of all start again, so I shut the lid on the cakes, got on my bike and rode off to work.
I thought a lot about what to do but the only conclusion I came to was to use a spatular dipped in boiling water (dry it off), attempt to warm the chocolate so it became spreadable enough to smooth over. This sort of worked but I'm quite particular and still wasn't too happy about it! Anyway, the white chocolate ganache cake looked brill and they both tasted delish so it wasn't all bad!
I'm not going to give you the recipe for the dark chocolate glaze for obvious reasons! However, I won't be defeated by chocolate and I will try again and be sure to let you know when I do.
Caramel Sponge
Ingredients
330g Plain flour (sifted)
320g Dark brown muscovado sugar
1½ tbsp baking powder
Pinch of salt
175g Unsalted butter
3 Eggs (Whisked until pale with a little foam on top)
190ml Whole milk
1½ tsp vanilla extract
You will also need the following for this recipe:
Four 11cm cake tins, greased and lined with baking parchment.
I know, four tins, but we are making two four layer cakes. If you don't have four tins you can split the cake mix in half and bake two at a time. You'll be slicing horizontally down the middle to create two layers from each cake.
1. Preheat your over to 180C Fan/350F/Gas6
2. Measure your dry ingredients into a large bowl and mix together thoroughly. Now add the butter and beat on a low-medium speed until the mixture looks a bit like breadcrumbs.
3. Make a well in the centre of your dry ingredients, pour in the eggs and beat on medium until just incorporated. Now add the milk and vanilla and beat again on medium-high until all ingredients are fully incorporated and the mixture is nice and smooth.
4. Divide the mixture between the tins, level off it off and pop them in the preheated oven for about 25 mins 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.
5. Leave the cakes in their tins for about 10 minutes, then take them out and leave to cool completely on a wire rack.
*Tips*
If your cake is a little domed like mine, wait for it to completely cool and then slice the top off with a bread knife so that when you ice it it's nice and level. It's at the point where you will also need to carefully slice horizontally down the centre to create two layers from each cake.
Caramel Frosting
Ingredients
230g Dark brown sugar
230g Unsalted butter
80ml Double cream
460g Brown icing sugar
1 tsp vanilla extract
½ tsp salt
1. Measure the sugar and butter into a saucepan and bring to a boil, whisking constantly.
2. Add the cream and and bring back to a boil, then remove the pan from the heat. Leave the caramel to cool for about 20 mins.
3. Measure your icing sugar and salt into a large bowl then pour in the caramel and beat on a high speed until the mixture is combined.
*Tip*
If you think your icing is too thick to spread easily onto your cake just add a little cream or milk and beat again until you reach your desired consistency.
Icing your cake
You will need the following equipment:
Small angled spatular
Jug of boiling water
Crumb coat
Just before you fully ice your cakes I recommend doing a quick crumb coat to keep everything neat.
To do this take some of your ready made icing and coat the entire cake in a thin layer. Pop it into the fridge for 15-20 mins to let the icing set and then take it back it out to fully ice.
*Tip*
Don't forget to take your sponge out of the fridge after the required about of time. Sponges don't like being in the fridge for too long, it makes them stale which would ruin all of your hard work.
If you dip your spatular in the jug of hot water, dry it, and then use it hot to ice the cake it helps to really smooth out any lumps and bumps.
White Chocolate Ganache Glaze
Ingredients
100g good quality white chocolate
100g double cream
1. Using a sharp knife cut your chocolate into really small pieces (this way it won't take as long to melt) and tip it into a mixing bowl.
2. In a saucepan heat the cream until it reaches scolding point and pour it on top of the white chocolate. Wait a minute for the chocolate to begin melting and then carefully stir it together.
3. Leave the chocolate ganache to thicken before pouring it over the top of the cake.
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***
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Saturday 3 August 2013
Hobnobbing
I just dove into the social networking sea of crazyness and I am hobnobbing like no-bodies business! Well at least attempting too.
So please follow me, pin me, like and favourite things I post, tweet at me, re-tweet me, tell your mates, your mum, your dad, your nan (especially your nan, they've always got great baking tips) you know what I mean! To make it that bit easier for you I've put links to all of the places you can find me on the side bar..! There >>>>
Here's a nice song :)
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Thursday 25 July 2013
Happy Birthday!
Hello all
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
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:
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.
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…
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.
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.
Sunday 7 July 2013
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.
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…
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.
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.
 |
| 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
Monday 1 July 2013
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.
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.
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.
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
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.
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.
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| Great with a hot cup of tea |
And the theme tune to this bake is...... Jazzanova - Little Bird
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