Lotsa Choccy

You could be forgiven for thinking I've been lazy in the approach to Christmas since I've been so quiet on the blog.  It's true that I haven't been baking recently, but that's only because I've instead been experimenting with making chocolates.

It's taken a few attempts to get the fillings right but I finally got there in time for Christmas, and gave myself the mammoth task of making enough to give to all my family.

It would have been easy to opt for standard truffles rolled in cocoa powder, or even peppermint creams, but I've never been someone to go for the easy option.  So I took inspiration from the Double Chocolate Salted Caramel Cupcakes, and decided to make chocolates filled with soft, salted caramel.  This idea just kept growing, and eventually what I produced (in various batches along the way) was:

• Soft butter caramel
• Salted caramel (soft caramel with cracked sea salt)
• Banoffee (soft caramel with mashed banana)
• Peanut caramel (soft caramel with crushed roasted peanuts)
• Pistachio cream (whipped cream, lightly sweetened, with crushed pistachios)
• Maple & pecan cream (whipped cream with crushed toasted pecans and maple syrup)
• Ginger cream (whipped cream with finely chopped preserved ginger and ginger syrup)
• Gin fizz (whipped cream, lightly sweetened, with gin and lemon zest, finished with a dusting of sherbert for the 'fizz')

And here they are:


A small selection of the caramels and pistachio cream


I do have a small problem now when it comes to chocolates.  Others just won't do!  They're nice, but they're not my own recipes made to my taste with my favourite flavours.  They don't make me produce that little moan of pleasure when I bite down.  For someone who needs to get back to a healthy diet and lifestyle, knowing there are leftover fillings in the freezer and plenty of special chocolate ready for filling moulds is a dangerous thing!

Oh, so very dangerous....

Ah, but now we come to the joint creation of the richest yule log in the world, made by my sister and me.  We decided in our infinite wisdom to make a nice dessert from one of our new baking books that Santa brought.  We settled on a Buche de Noel from Paul Hollywood's 'How to Bake'.  However me being me, I couldn't resist playing with the recipe, and instead of coating it with the chocolate buttercream that was suggested we instead went for a chocolate ganache.  It was filled with raspberries and (instead of whipped cream) extra thick cream with brandy.

Buche de Noel, aka the richest yule log in the world.  Ever.

In my defense one of my nieces doesn't like buttercream, so it wasn't all my fault.  However as nice as this cake was (and still is), it doesn't change the fact that it has the ability to melt fillings from ten paces.  Perhaps next time I'll just stick with the buttercream.  Oh, or I'll use milk instead of 70% chocolate.  Yeah, that might do the trick.

Lebkuchen will be next.  Oh yes!

Chocolate Cake Bites

My intention this morning was to make Ice Cream Cakes for my nieces, and croissants for a hangover breakfast on Sunday morning for my sister, dad and me.  What came out the other end of the day was Ice Cream Cakes and experimental Chocolate Bites.

I have too many cake ideas fighting inside my head and it's starting to get a bit noisy, so the croissants were unfortunately sidelined on this occasion so I could let out some ideas.

Now, bear in mind that these aren't meant to look perfect (no, really), because they're mostly a taste/idea experiment.  I also couldn't get hold of the silicone moulds I wanted for them in time to try them out, and excitement won out over patience.

So here we have Chocolate Bites:



Chocolate Bites


There are two flavours with the same basic idea.  They're made up of chocolate sponge as the base, topped with whipped cream, coated in melted chocolate.  The variations are:

1. Choc 'n' Orange Cake Bites

• Chocolate sponge
• Drizzled with orange syrup (sugar and orange juice)
• Topped with whipped cream which is flavoured with a little orange extract and lots of orange zest
• Coated with milk chocolate
• Decorated with orange zest



Choc 'n' Orange Cake Bites


2. Choc 'n' Ginger Cake Bites

• Chocolate sponge
• Drizzled with ginger syrup (the syrup from a jar of preserved stem ginger)
• Spinkled with chopped preserved stem ginger (from the same jar)
• Topped with plain whipped cream
• Coated with dark chocolate
• Decorated with preserved stem ginger





Choc 'n' Ginger Cake Bites

You might think that as there's one less orange cake than there are ginger, that I've already taste tested one.  You'd be wrong.  That one was a fallen soldier.  Literally.  He fell off the tray when I was putting them in the fridge, cream-side down of course  :(  I hate cake waste!

So there they are, all imperfect and not at all glossy.  The intention, when I have the lovely bendy, non stick silicone tray I want, is that they'll be perfect domes of cakey goodness.  Until then homemade imperfection will just have to do.

Oh and just in case there was any doubt... cakey goodness is the best kind!

Ice Cream Cakes. Sort of.

A short while ago I made Raspberry & Marshmallow Cupcakes.  When two of my nieces taste tested them for me I asked them if I were to make marshmallow cakes again, what flavour should I put with them?  The answer was, of course, chocolate.  They were specific though.  They asked for chocolate chips and chocolate sauce.

So there I was soaking in the bath yesterday thinking about cake (this isn't as unusual as it sounds!), and I considered adding a flake as decoration, stuck out like a '99', and I realised just how much it would look like an ice cream.  Then the cogs really started turning.  How could I make it look even more like an ice cream?  It was simple.  Bake the cakes in flat-bottomed ice cream cones instead of paper cases.

Now, I've googled this since I sat down to write this blog and of course I'm not the first person to think of it, but I do wonder whether I'm the first to mess around with it quite this much....

Oh, wait.  You need photos first!



'99' Ice Cream Cakes

 Before I continue, I feel I should add that I didn't intend for the marshmallow topping to look like melting ice cream.  It should have been all pert and pretty like it just came out of the Mr Whippy machine, but some accidents are happy ones and I think these are just cute!

So, yes, I baked the little cakes inside ice cream cones... or rather, cups.  It was just bog standard vanilla sponge, but once they were cooled I took out the cores and filled them with marshmallow.  Next I pushed some chocolate chips down into the marshmallow, then added more marshmallow in a ring around the edge which gave me more of a well.  Then I poured in chocolate sauce.  Oh yes!  "And then what?  There can't be more!".  Oh yes there can.  I added more chocolate chips, then finished piping on the marshmallow.  I popped in the Flakes and dusted them with an equal mix of icing sugar and cornflour.

So there they are, my '99 Ice Cream Cakes.

You might think that I stopped at that little experiment but you'd be wrong.  Look here...

Haribo Ice Cream Cake

The Haribo Ice Cream Cake was inspired by my sister who recently made a cake and decorated it with Haribo.  I also have a friend who could quite possibly live on them, so she may want to be prepared for a cakey delivery tomorrow!  You know who you are.

I followed the same steps as with the '99' cakes, but substituted the chocolate sauce for raspberry sauce, and the chocolate chips and Flake for Haribo.

Personally I prefer the chocolate version, which happily for my friend means she gets more Haribo cakes.  Hurrah!

I have a headache now.  Perhaps it's too much baking and not enough eating.  Or maybe I got that the wrong way round... hmmmmmmm...

Tomorrow I have soup and stew to make, perhaps with a side order of sundried tomato and parmesan buns.  If I get around to it, there might be photos of those too.

My Big Cheesy Buns

Indeed.  I do have big cheesy buns.  There are seven in total because I ate one with my soup!

This weekend I was planning to bake something bready that would challenge me, but other events took over, my life became an unexpected blur of activity, and this morning all I really wanted to bake was bog-standard bread rolls.  Except with a bit of very strong parmesan on top for some delectable cheesiness.

My big cheesy buns

The recipe I used is here.  It's a Hairy Bikers recipe, and unusually it suggests kneading the dough the first time for 20-25 mins.  I only kneaded mine for about 10 mins and it was plenty.  It was all nice and silky smooth so I figured I was onto a winner.

My first proving time took about 1 hour, and the second proving after shaping into buns and directly before baking was about 30 mins.

The result was eight large, light, fluffy buns, and I couldn't be happier.  For my next batch I'll make 12 from the same recipe because these are a little too big for my current dietary requirements.  However for basic bun loveliness I see no reason to look for any other recipe.

My next bready challenge may involve focaccia.  Or... oooooh... I could drive myself demented with Mr Hollywood's eight-strand plaited loaf!

Cherry Bakewell Fondant Fancies

I went and did it again.  I made something I want to scoff until I'm sick!

Today was the turn of Mary Berry's Fondant Fancies.  When I first saw them being made on the GBBO masterclass the words 'cherry bakewell' popped into my head, and despite intending to follow a recipe as it's written for once in my life, I had to play around with it.

First, here are my Fancy soldiers all freshly dripping with icing. 


Cherry Bakewell Fondant Fancies

 There's a few that look a bit wonky, and I had to keep replacing a cherry here and there that was sliding off (!), but for a first attempt at a difficult challenge I'm pretty chuffed with myself!  There's definitely a knack to the butter and fondant icings.




Cherry Bakewell Fondant Fancies
(because all cakes should have a close-up)

Right then, so what did I change from the original recipe?

1. I omitted the blob of butter icing on top, instead replacing it with half a glace cherry (rinsed and dried to avoid leakage of syrup on the top)
2. I replaced the apricot jam with raspberry
3. I used almond essence in the fondant icing

The eagle-eyed amongst you may have noticed there's one Fancy soldier missing in action (there should be 25).  He broke mid dip.  I did everything I could to patch him up but in the end I did the only thing left to do... the kindest under the circumstances.  I ate him.  I'm not sorry.

If I was to do anything differently next time, it would only be to not worry so much about how neat the butter icing is on the sides.  After being in the fridge for a while it hardens up nicely so you can tidy them up much easier and with much less mess right before dipping in the fondant.

Next time I'll play around with a few different flavours.  Orange fondant with orange marmalade inside, maybe lemon fondant with lemon curd.  Oh, and coconut sponge with lime fondant and lime curd.  No, these are definitely not imminent!  I need a rest.  And maybe a little cake with a cherry nipple...

Pecan Chelsea Buns

I've been messing with Paul Hollywood's buns.  Unfortunately they were only the Chelsea kind.

I did plan just to make the recipe that was on the GBBO Masterclass on Thursday, which is here, but I can't help myself; I have to play around with recipes.  Now don't go thinking I'm daft enough to change the basic dough recipe.  This is, after all, a master baker's tried, tested and trusted one, so I left well alone there.

This was the first time I'd made dough like this since I was at uni, and I have to admit it was incredibly therapeutic and very enjoyable!  I'm also chuffed to say they rose extremely well, so a gold star to me thankin' ya kindly  ;)

So instead of making Chelsea Buns filled with sultanas, apricots and cranberries, topped off with apricot jam then orange icing, I created said buns filled with pecans and cinammon, topped off with maple syrup then cinammon icing.  Uh oh, they're dangerous.  Take a looksie...

Pecan, maple & cinammon chelsea buns
(I couldn't resist this picture with the dribbling icing!)

And just in case you need proof of the delectable soft dough, here's another...

There are two things I'd do differently next time.

First I would use less pecans.  I substituted the total 300g of dried fruit in the original recipe with 300g of pecans.  Now, it tastes fantastic but they don't hold together as well as they perhaps could have.  So next time there'll be fewer nuts (there's a sentence I've definitely said before!).

Second I would use two tins to give them more proving space.  There should have been about a 1cm gap between them before the final proving, but these had less than half that, and it shows a little on the end result, most noticably with the buns in the centre.

All that said, they're incredibly tasty and moreish!  Really.  I had a small tester of one of the offcuts (because you have to, it's one of the most important laws of baking!), and they do taste good!

I've already picked out my favourite and I'm saving it for after dinner, after soaky hot bath, and with a good strong cuppa in front of the TV.

Tomorrow I intend to attempt Mary Berry's Fondant Fancies (not a euphemism), but of course you know there's a twist to those too!

Raspberry & Marshmallow Cupcakes

Day two of the experiments has paid off.  I should know by now not to try to cut corners because it just never works out the way you want!

After yesterday's fail on the first version of these cakes I went all out.  Instead of using jam, I used fresh raspberries in the sponge itself and on top as decoration.  And although it was a bit of a faff, it was absolutely worth making my own marshmallow.  Really.  Highly recommended, but not one to make with young kids thanks to the whole boiling sugar thing.  Some adults should possibly avoid it too ;)




Raspberry & Marshmallow Cupcakes

 Drooling yet?

I decided not to bother toasting the marshmallow this time, and instead dusted it with a mix of icing sugar and cornflour (as you'd find on most marshmallows).  The recipe I used from BBC Good Food was also too much for the cakes alone so there's also a slab of marshmallow with raspberries currently setting on a baking sheet.  Bonus!

The result is a feckin' tasty mouthful, even if I do say so myself.

Experimental marshmallows

Most of the cakes I bake at the moment are experimental.  I rarely follow a recipe to the letter, and instead I use a basic sponge recipe and adapt it to what I feel like making.

Today was Raspberry & Toasted Marshmallow Cupcakes.

As a starting point they're fine, but they need some work.  So here's what I did...

1. Substituted some of the sugar in the sponge recipe with raspberry jam
2. Pushed a marshmallow into the centre of the cake mix
3. Put a little dollop of jam on top of the marshmallow
4. Made sure the jam was fully covered with a little more cake mix before baking
5. After baking I placed another marshmallow on top of each cake then grilled them, watching constantly because they burn so quickly

This is the result after a messy addition of drizzled icing

The marshmallow inside the cake melted almost to nothing, so next time I'll leave that out.  Also, I'd originally planned to make marshmallow, pipe it on then toast it.  There were two drawbacks to this; I didn't have gelatin but I did have a big bag of pre-made marshmallows.  And it's Sunday.  And I was too lazy to go shopping.  Okay, so that's four drawbacks.

Next time I'll make the effort with home-made marshmallow, and instead of the jam in the cake mix (which didn't alter the taste much, but did make them nicely moist) I'll use fresh raspberries.

Next time they'll be perfection.

This time they really aren't perfection, but they're still cakey goodness!  I suspect there's a 9 yr old and a soon-to-be 7 yr old who'll gobble them up regardless of how they look!

Last minute birthday choccy cake

So I had a couple of weeks off from the kitchen, I came home from a weekend away to be asked if I'll make a chocolate birthday cake for me fatha's tennis coach.  It's a good thing I was allowed a sleep first or I may have told him where to buy one.  Me being me, though, I couldn't resist.

It's just a basic chocolate sponge recipe, single layer (so there's no filling), but the icing is chocolate ganache made with Lindt extra creamy milk chocolate, and the topping is chopped up fudge.  It's what the guy asked for and it's what he got.

I can't remember ever making one so fast, I had so little time to get it done, but there it is.

It's not the most elegant (but at least this one isn't a brick!), and I have to admit the piping isn't my best, but I get the feeling it will all go down just as easily.

I only had a tiny bit of the ganache left over to have on a tiny bit of offcut.  Really.  This time I didn't pipe the leftovers straight into my mouth (yes, it's been known!), and dad is under strict instructions to eat the remaining offcuts before I eat them myself.  I don't see it as being a problem.  In fact they're probably already down his neck.

I'm considering making some pink cakes and biccies this weekend to sell at work (or wherever they can be sold) for Breast Cancer Awareness Month.  Hmmmm.... Eton Mess Cupcakes?  Raspberry Ripple Traybake?  Strawberry Shortcake Slices?

Watch this space  ;)

Birthday Treats

So today is my youngest niece's first birthday and I went a bit nuts on the baking.  I did forget to take a photo of the pecan pie last night before it was demolished, but it went down incredibly well!  There wasn't even a crumb remaining.

I did remember to get some photos of everything else.  And here they are:

Cheese scones

Fruit scones

Both types of scone are based on Paul Hollywood's plain scone recipe, just with a couple of little tweaks.



Double Chocolate Salted Caramel Cupcakes



Double Chocolate Salted Caramel Cupcakes
(with a well inside coated with chocolate, then filled with salted caramel and topped off with chocolate ganache)


It's safe to say these were a tremendous success!  So much so, that I haven't altered the recipe from the first tester batch a few weeks ago.  It's not often it's right first time.

White Chocolate and Lemon Meringue Layer Cake

White Chocolate and Lemon Meringue Layer Cake
(using lemon cream (not buttercream), lemon curd, and the very bottom layer is a sheet of meringue coated in white chocolate to stop it going soggy.  All the decorations are made of meringue too)

Okay, so the birthday cake isn't the most elegant or glamorous of cakes, but it tastes rather fine!  And what looks like finger marks in the cake are in fact... finger marks of said birthday girl.

All in all, a huge success :D  We're all a teensy bit full now!

My next plan:

A twist on a battenburg using chocolate and vanilla sponge, Baileys cream and chocolate ganache.  Oh yes.

How I found my way back here I'll never know.  Until I'd finished watching The Great British Bake Off tonight I forgot this blog even existed.  Wow, my last post was in 2007!  Time indeed flies like a fast flying thing!

I had a baking break for some time, most notably in the last year while I've been concentrating on getting smaller and fitter.  Baking doesn't go especially well with a huge lifestyle change.  Now, however, I got the bug back and I'm having a blast.  In fact I spent almost three whole days in the kitchen recently.  The sum of which was:

Pecan pie
Fruit scones (based on Paul Hollywood's plain scone recipe)
Macaroons - some mint, some pistachio
Chocolate fairy cakes - this weekend to be turned into 'Double Chocolate Salted Caramel' cakes
2 x large plain sponges, meringue sheets and decorations - this weekend to be turned into my niece's first birthday cake, which will be 'White Chocolate and Lemon Meringue Layer Cake'

Busy?  Yes.  Happy?  Hell yes!  I wish I'd never stopped baking.  I got back in the kitchen to find myself nothing short of relieved to be stood surrounded by full cooling racks, squeezed empty piping bags and flour on the floor.

Yesterday I managed to flick cake mix into my face.  I couldn't repeat it if I tried!  I must have looked like a right looney with cake mix splattered over my face and in a fit of giggles all on my own, spatula in hand, amidst kitchen carnage.  It's bloomin' hard to beat though!

So, photos will be taken of finished cakes and updates posted this time.

And this time I won't stop baking.  I'll just give it away instead of eating it all myself.  Lucky friends unless you're guinea pigs, then you might want to prepare yourself for disasters of the experimental kind!