St Clements Cake

This weekend I decided I wanted to treat a colleague/friend's folks.  They've been having a very tough time lately and I so often hear (and say) the line, "If there's anything I can do, just let me know."  Well usually there isn't anything we can do and often people don't "just say" because they don't want to impose.  So this time instead of saying it I considered what I might actually be able to do; not to help their situation (because I know I can't), but just to maybe make them smile for a few moments, have a few seconds where everything isn't just bad, painful and upsetting.  Then I remembered that they once tried cupcakes I made for my colleague, and ever since then almost every cake they eat is followed by the line, "It's nice, but it's nothing like that girl's cakes, that one you work with!".  Apparently they tell anyone who'll listen.

So this weekend was a special St Clements cake made to a recipe I made up as I went along.  I bet you never saw that coming!

The basic mix was the usual victoria sponge, but with added lemon zest in one, and orange zest in the other.  This was to be a three-layered cake.

The icing was a blend of mascarpone, double cream and icing sugar.  I separated it into three parts.  First, the main bulk, coloured yellow, the second coloured orange, and the third was set aside to make the orange filling.

St Clements Cake - the main event
The two-tone mascarpone icing.  The picture isn't as clear as I'd like but you hopefully get the idea!

I considered making my own lemon and orange curds, but as this was the first stage of an experimental recipe I decided instead to use the best lemon curd I could find in the shop (one I've had before and know it's blimmin' good!), and for the orange layer I warmed some good quality orange marmalade, which I then sieved and mixed into the batch of icing I'd set aside earlier.  There was a bonus to using marmalade that I didn't anticipate; it added a little bitterness to the cake that balanced very well with the sweetness of the lemon curd.

So then it was just a case of slicing the cakes and putting it all together.  As it turns out there was enough cake for two, although the 'spare' cake was a bit wonky and uneven and had no icing on the sides.

St Clements Cake - the spare one
No icing on the sides but plenty for the top.
Yes, it's in the shape of a flower that was lovingly carved by hand from square cakes, not from a flower mould.

The main cake unfortunately didn't have the finish I was going for, mainly because I'm still a novice at decorating large cakes and the end result was actually my third attempt at something even remotely attractive, but I think the two-tone effect has real potential now that I have an idea what I'm doing with it and how it spreads and pipes.

I did write down the recipe as I went along, which I think is the first time I've ever done that.  I'll post it once I've tweaked it and made it again.

All this experimenting with cakes really isn't all that difficult.  If you know what you like and you're not afraid to make mistakes, it's a lot of fun and a feck load more satisfying than a Mr Kipling!

The cake has approval

Victoria Sponge Flowers

This afternoon has been an exercise in simplicity.  I decided to make victoria sponge with jam and cream because it turns out that it's one of dad's favourites, and as he's feeling a little fragile this weekend I thought I'd treat him.

But can I really just make a sponge cake and fill it with jam and cream?  Um... it turns out I can't.

I used Mary Berry's basic recipe for butterfly cakes and added a touch of vanilla extract, as I usually do with a bog-standard sponge.  Instead of making one big cake or lots of little butterfly cakes, I wanted to try out some flower-shaped silicone moulds that I originally bought for making rather large chocolateycakeythings (which I'll still make, and I have lots of ideas!).

Victoria Sponge Flowers

The cakes with cherries on top are simply filled with raspberry jam and whipped cream.  The cakes without the cherries are filled with ginger and whipped cream.  To be more specific, I took a few pieces of stem ginger in syrup from the jar, and blended it until smooth with some of the syrup, essentially making a rather potent sweet ginger jam.  I definitely prefer the ginger ones to the raspberry!

Victoria Sponge Flowers
The close-up

I wanted these to look more pretty than they do, and I had planned to pipe the cream on instead of spreading it, but I ran out of piping bags and forgot to replenish my stock.  Oops.

So anyway, that's it.  Simple, quick and blinkin' moreish!  And you can't beat a cake with a nipply cherry on top!

Lebkuchen & a huge Caramel Slice!

About a week ago I made some Lebkuchen using one of my nice sparkly new baking books from Christmas, The Great British Bake Off: How to turn everyday bakes into showstoppers.  It didn't stay sparkly for long!  These soft, spiced, light cakes are ridiculously addictive, but I was surprised to find no flour listed in the ingredients.  Like the curious beast I am I decided, for once, to follow the recipe to the letter and see what happened.  As far as I could tell they would end up as Lebkuchen style meringues.  I wasn't wrong.

It appears that original recipes for this delectable German delight vary depending on the area they were made.  Most had flour, some didn't.  My personal taste is with flour, although the ones I made were light and crumbly and no less delicious!

Here they are in all their huge, palm-sized glory.

Rather large Lebkuchen!

Next time I'll make them bite-sized and dip their little bottoms in chocolate.  At some point I also intend to try a flour-based recipe.  Maybe I could make them at the same time and do a taste test.  If you decide to make these without flour, be extremely careful when handling them; they're very, very delicate.

Right, onto the next.  This slab of chocolatey goodness is one big Caramel Slice, or as some would call it 'Millionaire's Shortbread', which to me is just plain wrong!  Sorry.

A slab of Caramel Slice

This is what I made today ready for a colleague's birthday this week.  He has no clue it's sitting there waiting for him like a crunchy, soft, sweet heart attack waiting to happen.  I did consider making a cake, but there's a little running joke about caramel slices and I just couldn't resist making one huge one for him (it's about 9x13"), and pimping it up Kirsty stylee.  Yes, yes I did just type that.  No, I'm not going to delete it.

Essential close-up of the slab!
The sweets on top are Curly Wurly, Maltesers, Smarties and fingers of Fudge.

The recipe I used is here (BBC Good Food website), and I did change this one.  My experience of using extra sugar when making the caramel with condensed milk is that is crystalises incredibly easily, leaving a very grainy mouth-feel when it's eaten.  So I omitted the sugar, I used unsalted butter in both the shortbread and the caramel and I added a little salt to each separately.  You might think this an odd thing to do, but it just means I can control the salt content precisely to my needs and taste, and this recipe really does need a touch of salt to take the edge off the sweetness, even without the additional sweets on top and the extra sugar in the caramel!

I also baked the shortbread for 30 minutes instead of the 20 recommended.  When a recipe doesn't specify a 'fan assisted' oven temperature and the book/recipe doesn't make it clear either way, I always assume it's not and I knock 20 off the total.  So I baked for 30 minutes, 160 fan, but kept a good eye on it just in case.

It would have been incredibly easy to chop a big slice off the edge.  My colleague would never have known, and I'd be sitting here with a big chocolate/caramel/sweeties grin on my face while waiting for the sugar crash to knock me out for the evening.  I behaved.  I only cut off the tiniest sliver from each end to make it fit into its carry box.  I'm talking millimetres.  It was hardly enough for even a mouthful.

I don't blow my own trumpet often, but what little I did taste was friggin lush!  You really should try it.  I mean really, it's all I can do not to go back to it, pick it up in that one big slab and sink my teeth into it.

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