Valentine's Day Cake

I stumbled across the design of this cake last year when I found myself going through a load of old posts on Bakerella's website.  I decided to make it for my wee mommy for Valentine's Day since for as long as I can remember she has made me a bag of goodies every year (usually consisting of socks, a keyring, chocolate or other V-Day themed items she finds in the stores) so I figured this year I'd surprise her with a little something for her.

Basically, this can be any kind of cake, but my mother's personal favourite is red velvet.  I got myself a moderately-sized heart shaped cake tin from ebay (though this design would work in other shapes too).

To make this you'll need:

Your chosen cake tin

Another cake tin for the excess batter (or another batch of batter, depending on the size of the cake)

At least 1 batch of frosting (again, it's up to you what kind you use)

Chocolate (milk, plain or white)

Decorations for your cake balls (sprinkles/ glitter/ candy melts)

Red fondant (or white fondant and red food colouring)

Mini cupcake cases

Bake your cake as normal.  Leave to cool and then take the extra cake, crumble it into a bowl and then mix in enough frosting to bring all the cake crumbs together, but isn't too sticky.  Roll your mixture into walnut sized balls and place on greaseproof paper on a baking tray.  Once you have rolled enough, place the baking tray into your freezer to help them firm up.  This will make the coating process much easier later on.

Roll fondant out over a cake board (I use edible glue to keep it in place) and centre your cake on the board.  Spread your chosen flavour of frosting over the top and sides, any messes can be cleaned up later with some kitchen paper.  Roll out some more fondant and cover the top of your cake and trim any excess fondant off for a clean line around the top.  Roll out even more fondant in a long strip, this will form the sides of your "box".  Make sure the fondant you roll is thick enough to stand up and not flop over, it should also be slightly taller than the side of your cake.

Melt your chocolate in a bowl over a saucepan.  Take the tray of cake balls out of the freezer, and using 2 teaspoons, roll them in the melted chocolate until they are covered and place them back on the tray.  Add sprinkles or glitter now before the chocolate sets.  Once you are happy with your cake balls, place them either in the fridge or freezer so that the chocolate can set completely.

Finally, place your cake balls in some mini cupcake cases and arrange them in your box cake.

Original idea from Bakerella website 

Cake balls technique also from Bakerella website 

Pumpkin Cupcakes with Lemon Cream Cheese Frosting

I had bought a couple of tins of pumpkin purée just before Christmas and instead of making pumpkin pie I decided to get a little more creative, since I liked the pumpkin bread I made a while back I thought I'd go with some pumpkin cupcakes.  The spices in the cupcakes made them super Christmasy, but they are tasty all year round!

Ingredients:

1 1/2 cups plain flour

1 tsp baking powder

1 tsp ground cinnamon

1/4 tsp ground ginger

1/4 tsp ground cloves

1/2 tsp salt

1/2 cup unsalted butter

1 cup granulated sugar

2 large eggs

1 tsp vanilla extract

3/4 cup pumpkin purée

Preheat oven to 180°C (350°F) Gas Mark 4.

Line a cupcake tin with cases.

In a bowl, sift together all of the dry ingredients.  In a separate bowl, beat together the sugar a butter until light and fluffy.  Add the eggs, one at a time mixing well between each addition.  Next, add the vanilla extract.  Add the dry ingredients, alternating with the pumpkin purée, in three additions, beginning and ending with the flour.

Spoon the mixture into the prepared cases and bake in the preheated oven for 18-20 minutes or until firm and a cake tester comes out clean when inserted.  Place on a wire cooling rack to cool completely before frosting.

I topped my cupcakes with lemon cream cheese frosting, but orange cream cheese would also work (and taste so good) or plain cream cheese is always a classic choice.

Ingredients:

115g cream cheese

2 tbsp unsalted butter

1/2 tsp lemon extract (or orange or vanilla)

1 1/2 cups icing sugar

In a bowl, beat the cream cheese until smooth (don't over beat the cream cheese or your frosting will become runny).  Add the butter and mix until well incorporated.  Next add your chosen extract and icing sugar.  Pipe or spread the frosting onto your cupcakes.  Top with chopped nuts, toffee pieces or sprinkles of your choice.

Bake A Cake In A Mug In Your Microwave!

Whilst on lunch break at work I often look through Google images for cake decorating ideas, or amazon for new recipe books, or baking blogs for anything and everything.  I stumbled across this recipe yesterday and I did try it last night but wasn't satisfied with how it turned out so I tried it our again tonight and got much better results.

Ingredients:

4 tbsp plain flour

4 tbsp granulated sugar

2 tbsp cocoa powder

1 egg, beaten

3 tbsp milk

3 tbsp vegetable oil (or canola oil)

3 tbsp chocolate chips

1 tsp vanilla extract

(I would've included flour in the photo if only the bag I had weren't a huge 25lb sack, lol)

First, put all the dry ingredients into your mug (try to find a mug that's slightly larger than normal, I used a normal sized mug the first time I made this and there was a little overspill).  Mix the dry ingredients with a fork until well combined.

Next, beat your egg and add to the mug.  Mix well, it will be very sticky.

Stir in your milk and oil.  The mixture will become much easier to mix.  Make sure you scrape the bottom of the cup with your fork to get any unmixed ingredients.

Add in your chocolate chips and vanilla.  If you don't want to use chocolate chips, get creative!  I used mint chips the first time I made this, for this attempt I used butterscotch chips and toasted pecans.  For a more colourful cake add M&Ms, or use peanut butter chips.  Try toffee pieces or fudge!  Whatever your sweet tooth is craving, throw it in there!

Mix the ingredients again, then move it to the microwave!  Cooking times are around 3 minutes for a 1000W microwave or 4 minutes for a 700W microwave.  To be safe (and to save on clean up time) put a plate under your mug when it's in the microwave.

When your cake is done, remove from the microwave and use a cake tester to see if it is cooked properly, it should come out clean when you insert in into your cake. The cake will also deflate slightly as it cools.

And there you have it!  A perfectly sized individual dessert ready in about 10 minutes!  It's great if you want a quick sweet treat and don't have a lot of ingredients on hand.  The cake is really hot so even though it might smell super yummy be careful when you tuck in.

Enjoy!

Chocolate Meringue Roulade

Every year I go back to my parents' house for Christmas and the last couple I have started baking something to bring with me for us to indulge in after our Christmas Eve dinner.  Last year it was cheesecake brownies with raspberry whipped cream, this year it was chocolate meringue roulade.  I just happened to be watching morning television while I was spending the weekend with a friend of mine in Birmingham and in between our geek out sessions this was on a cooking show.  It looked so good I just had to try it!

Ingredients:

5 eggs whites

150g caster sugar

2 tsp cornflour, sifted

1 tbsp cocoa powder

400ml double cream, whipped into soft peaks

1 tbsp icing sugar

1 vanilla pod, split with seeds scraped out

Preheat oven to 150°C

Line a 33x28cm swiss roll tin with greaseproof paper.

In a bowl, whisk the egg whites until soft peaks form.  Gradually add in the caster sugar and continue whisking until nearly stiff peaks form.  Use a spatula to fold in the cocoa powder and cornflour until everything is well combined.  Spoon the meringue into the swiss roll tin and spread evenly.  Bake in the preheated oven for 1 hour, or until crisp on the outside and soft on the inside and is still pliable.  Keep the meringue in the tin to cool.  In another bowl, mix the whipped cream, icing sugar and vanilla seeds together.  Spread another piece of greaseproof paper onto your counter and sieve icing sugar over it.  Turn the meringue out onto the new piece of greaseproof paper and then spread the cream over the top.  Use the greaseproof paper to help you lift the meringue and roll into the roulade. 

Don't worry if the meringue cracks, it is meringue after all and I have a suspicion that if you can indeed roll meringue without cracking it you are in possession of some strange and mystical power of kitchen prowess!

Using your greaseproof paper, lift the roulade onto a serving plate and dust with more icing sugar and cocoa powder to serve.

1st Birthday Princess Castle Cake

My cousin asked me a few weeks ago to create a cake for his daughter's 1st birthday.  He and his wife had a castle cake in mind so I had my work cut out considering I'd never tried anything like that before.  Shortly after being asked I jumped online and looked through pages of images on Google search and also spent a while on Youtube searching for ideas and inspiration.  I stumbled across a video on Youtube that provided me with the perfect ideas for this cake.

I knew I would have to use fondant icing again since it gives a better finish than buttercream for these kinds of projects, so this got me a little worried since I'm still not great at actually applying the fondant to the cake without a couple of holes or folds (I really should practise more).  So I went and collected my equipment and supplies from a local decorating shop and just decided to go for it.

I made two different kinds of cake for it, the base is devil's food cake and the upper tier is vanilla (just in case there are some crazy people at the party who have an aversion to chocolate).  Each tier has two layers of cake in it, with vanilla buttercream in between and on top to secure the fondant.  A friend came over to offer moral support for the evening but eventually got put to work helping me smooth the fondant onto the cake (thank you!).

After the tiers were both covered I rolled out some more of the pink fondant to line the bottom of the top tier to neaten up the edge.  After that I used some ivory fondant to make doors and brown fondant rolled out to line it for the door frame.  The door handles are heart shaped sprinkles which I got online.  All of these details are secured with the edible glue I got as well, best investment ever.  I have used it many, many times.

To finish the top tier off I rolled out more of the pink fondant and made the trim for the top.  It was just cut out by hand, I didn't measure it so it's not entirely even but I think it still looks pretty good!

After the main work on the castle was done I added a 'D' on the front (birthday girl is Darcy).  The stars are just cut out of yellow flower paste, but you can use sprinkles or fondant.  If the stars don't tickle your fancy try flowers or butterflies!  The large butterflies are also made from flower paste.  The towers are the cardboard tubes from kitchen paper, just covered in the pink fondant.  The windows are fuchsia fondant with the brown fondant serving as window ledges.  The tops of the towers are made from black construction card (again, the colour is up to you, it just happened it was what I had on hand).  The towers are fastened onto the cake with 2 toothpicks pushed into each.

To finish the cake off, I piped buttercream vines onto the castle (the design goes all the way around and is on all of the towers but I only took a picture from the front).  The flowers are all cut from flower paste with cutters (which I did on Monday) and stuck on with my edible glue.  The smaller butterflies are sprinkles too.  Finally, I used my grass piping nozzle to line the base with nice bright green buttercream grass.

It may not be the neatest cake in the world but I have to say I am pretty darn happy with how it turned out!!

Brownies!

Who doesn't love brownies?  They are little chocolaty pieces of heaven and they are so easy to make!

Ingredients:

200g dark chocolate

175g unsalted butter

325g caster sugar

130g plain flour

3 eggs

Preheat oven to 170°C (325°F) Gas Mark 3.

Line a 33 x 23 x 5cm baking tray with greaseproof paper.

Put the chocolate and butter in a heatproof bowl over a pan of simmering water (ensure the base of the bowl does not touch the water in the pan).  Stir until the butter and chocolate has completely melted.  Remove from the heat and if the bowl is big enough, add the sugar and flour.  If the bowl isn't big enough, add the melted mixture to a larger bowl containing the flour and sugar and mix until all ingredients are well incorporated (remember to scrape the sides of the bowl with a spatula) then add the eggs.  When all the ingredients have been combined, pour or spoon the mixture into the prepared baking tray.  Bake in the preheated oven for 30-35 minutes, or until flaky on top but still soft in the centre.  Leave the brownies in the tray to cool completely.  Once cooled you can slice the brownies into squares or bars.  To finish you can dust with icing sugar or just leave them plain.

To make your brownies super chocolaty you can always stir in some chocolate chips before you pour the mixture into the baking tray.  Yum!!

Trick or Treat? I Choose Treat!

It's that time of year again when the ghosts and ghouls come out to play... and fans of baking can get creative with their creations!

Add your own personal touch to parties this fiendishly festive season.  Grab some food colours; pumpkin orange, midnight black, gooey green, putrid purple, blood red and just go for it!  Look out for any sprinkles or candy to enhance your magical, scary baked goods.  I found some Haribo gummy ghosts and a "monster mix", but there are so many variations out there now.

I was at a party on Saturday (in my finest Dorothy Gale costume) and brought along some cupcakes and a haunted house cupcake stand I found in Lakeland.  The cupcakes were just plain vanilla, but I used my Americolor gels to colour the cake.  I divided it into 3 separate bowls and coloured one third orange, one third purple and the last third green.  After they were baked I topped them with contrasting coloured vanilla frosting (orange cupackes with green frosting, purple with orange and green with purple).  The frosting was coloured with my Americolor Electric gels which added to the eery Halloween look.  Topped with some gummy ghosts and bats.

Then yesterday my mother asked me to bake a cake for the family Halloween get together.  She had a Jack-O-Lantern cake tin, so I went to it and decorated it for her too.  I used my Americolor gels again to colour the vanilla buttercream (best investment I ever made).  To finish it off I melted some dark chocolate and used the cake tin to trace the eyes, nose, mouth and stalk of the pumpkin then used my leaf nozzle to pipe on some green frosting at the top.  I also used my red and gold lustre dusts to colour the chocolate eyes, nose and mouth to give a candle effect.

Hope these ideas help you to create some ghoulishly delicious treats.  Happy Halloween everyone!