The Zen Baker

Mini raspberry cheesecakes

2015-03-12T16:57:00.003+00:00

I love cheesecakes (in case you haven't gathered that by now) and would probably make one every time I'm on dessert duty for family gatherings if I was allowed to! Such a high effort-to reward ratio don't you think? ;) These are really yummy and so pretty. I adapted this recipe. I just blended the raspberries with some icing sugar to make a sauce that I could swirl in. I didn't add any limezest either. Another great mini cheesecake recipe is this one from a few years back!

Before going into the oven

After coming out of the oven

No bake cookies and cream pops

2015-03-12T15:58:00.000+00:00

These are super easy and fun to make. Definitely something you can make with children! And everyone that has had them really enjoyed them.(Oreos happen to be my older sons favourite biscuit). I have made them a few times-once for my sons end of year at nursery. For that I ordered some little bags and ties online (lollipop sticks also bought online), it was such satisfying work putting them in the bags and tying the ties.:) The cardboard cakepop holder is the Wilton brand one bought from Jhon Lewis and I really wouldn't recommend it - It didn't assemble or hold the pops very well. I stuck to a very simple decoration but of course you could go to town with faces and all sorts especially as they are so easy to make. Also if making during a heatwave the cream cheese will go very soft so best to keep half the mixture in the fridge while you do the first lot of pops. I found dipping the pops didn't really cover them in chocolate and so used a teaspoon to help with the covering. Recipe is below-enjoy!

Recipe from Lorraine Pascals Fast, Fresh and Easy Food

Lollipops:
2 X 150 g packs of Oreo biscuits
150g cream cheese

Coating: 200g white chocolate
2 tsp of sprinkles/decorations

Equipment: Large baking tray, 18-20 15cm lollipop sticks

1. Line a baking tray that will fit inside your fridge or freezer with parchment paper
2. Blitz the Oreos in a food processor until they are fine crumbs, then add cream cheese and whiz until mixture starts to form a ball.
3. With cold hands roll the mixture into 18-20 balls about 3 cm in diameter and lace on the lined baking tray
4.put in fridge for 30 mins or freezer for 15 mins to firm up
5. Melt the chocolate either in ban marie or in the microwave. I would recommend the Ban Marie for the white chocolate.
6.Dip the end of a lollipop stick into the white chocolate and then push i into a ball so that it goes in 2/3rds of the way in-so 1/2 cms. lay the balls back on the tray with stick points upwards as you go.
7. Dip the balls in the melted chocolate swirling and letting excess drip off or you could use a teaspoon to help spread it on...then dip into the decoration or put the decoration on with hands...
stand upright in a cake pop stand or small jars...return to freezer for 10 mins.

Chocolate coffee cake with dark chocolate ganache

2015-02-05T23:16:00.002+00:00

I finally got around to baking from this book , it's been sitting on my shelf for a few years! It has some great recipes but they are slightly more complex than the kind of baking I do on a regular basis at the moment. I normally do fairly easy kid-friendly baking ; low effort high reward kind of recipes that I never seem to blog about - will do soon! I also never seem to blog about the things that I make over and over again like chocolate fondant puddings or tiramisu or choc chip bread and butter pudding....one of these days...drop me a line if you would like to see any of those make an appearance on the blog. Anyway back to the cake: skip this post if you don't seriously like chocolate! It's very very chocolaty -I suppose you could skip the dark chocolate ganach - you could definitely make half the amount and just do a small drizzle across. The glaze however is really fun to pour over and rather glorious in appearance.glossy gleaming and dark when you pour it on then drying to a matt finish. The vegetable shortening used in the cake gives it a bit of a different texture then your usual home made cake-I think it tastes more shop bought but that's not necessarily a bad thing here. The buttercream is so so creamy,soft and melt in your mouth -I actually find regular buttercream too sweet often so this one is a perfect alternative, I will definitely be using the recipe for other cakes-it is slightly more labour intensive but definitely worth it. The recipe says granulated sugar for both cake and icing- a little confusing-I went with caster sugar in the cake and icing sugar in the buttercream.

Recipe

Yield: One 8-inch, 3-layer cake

Ingredients

For the Classic Chocolate Cake:

¾ cup dark unsweetened cocoa powder (like Valrhona)
2/3 cup sour cream
2 2/3 cups all purpose flour
2 teaspoons baking powder
1 teaspoon baking soda
½ teaspoon salt
¾ cup (1 1/3 sticks) unsalted butter, cut into 1-inch cubes, softened
½ cup vegetable shortening
1½ cups granulated sugar
1 cup firmly packed dark brown sugar
3 large eggs, at room temperature
1 tablespoon pure vanilla extract

For the Coffee Buttercream:

1½ cups granulated sugar
1/3 cups all purpose flour
1½ cups whole milk
1/3 cup heavy cream
1½ cups (3 sticks) unsalted butter, soft but cool, cut into small pieces
1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
3 tablespoons coffee extract

For the Chocolate Glaze:

8 ounces good-quality (60 to 72%) dark chocolate, coarsely chopped
¾ cup (1½ sticks) unsalted butter, softened and cut into ½-inch pieces
1 tablespoon light corn syrup

For assembly:

10 to 12 chocolate-covered espresso beans

Directions

Preheat the oven to 325 degrees F. Butter three 8-inch round cake pans, line them with parchment paper, and butter the parchment. Dust the parchment with flour and knock out the excess flour.

In a medium bowl, mix the cocoa powder and sour cream with 1¼ cups hot water and set aside to cool.

In a large bowl, sift the flour, baking soda, baking powder, and salt together and set aside.

Using a standing mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, beat the butter and shortening together on medium speed until light and fluffy, about 5 minutes—the mixture will appear to string or ribbon throughout the bowl. Add the sugars and beat on medium speed until light and fluffy, about 5 more minutes. Add the eggs, one at a time, mixing about 10 to 15 seconds after each addition until the egg is incorporated into the mixture. Then turn the mixer to low, add the vanilla, and beat until incorporated. Scrape down the sides of the bowl and mix again for 30 seconds.

Beginning with the dry ingredients, add the dry mixture and the cocoa mixture to the mixer bowl in three alternating parts, ending with dry.

Divide the batter among the prepared pans. Use an offset spatula to level the batter. Bake the cakes for 35 to 40 minutes, rotating the pans halfway through the baking time, until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean. Transfer the pans to a wire rack and cool for 30 to 45 minutes. Turn the cakes out onto the rack and let them cool completely. Remove the parchment.

To make the Coffee Buttercream:

In a medium, heavy-bottomed saucepan, whisk the sugar and flour together. Add the milk and cream and cook over medium heat, whisking occasionally, until the mixture comes to a boil and has thickened, about 10 to 15 minutes.

Transfer the mixture to the bowl of a standing mixer fitted with the paddle attachment. Beat on high speed until cool (this takes about 7 to 9 minutes of mixing; however, you can speed up the process by pressing bags of frozen berries or frozen corn around the sides and bottom of the mixing bowl). Reduce the speed to low and add the butter; mix until thoroughly incorporated. Increase the speed to medium-high and beat until the frosting is light and fluffy, about another 1 to 2 minutes.

Add the vanilla and coffee extracts and continue mixing until combined. If the frosting is too soft, put the bowl in the refrigerator to chill slightly, then beat again until it is the proper consistency. If the frosting is too firm, set the bowl over a pot of simmering water and beat with a wooden spoon until it is the proper consistency.

To assemble the cake:

Place one cake layer on a serving platter. Trim the top to create a flat surface, and evenly spread about 1¼, cups frosting on top. Add the next layer, trim and frost it, then add the third layer. Spread a very thin layer of frosting over the sides and top of the cake and put it in the refrigerator for about 15 minutes to firm up. (This is known as crumb coating and will help to keep loose cake crumbs under control when you frost the outside of the cake.) Spread the sides and top of the cake with the remaining frosting. Refrigerate it for 15 minutes to it firm up.

To make the Chocolate Glaze:

Place the chocolate, butter, and corn syrup in the top of a double boiler. Using a rubber spatula, stir the mixture until the chocolate and butter are completely melted and smooth.

Remove the pan from the heat and stir the glaze to release excess heat. Drizzle glaze over the cake. Refrigerate the cake for about 15 minutes to set the glaze before serving.

To glaze the cake:

Line a rimmed baking sheet with parchment paper. Place your cake on a wire rack over the baking sheet. Slowly pour about ¾ cup of the glaze over the cake. Use a small offset spatula to smooth it out to the edges. Place the cake in the refrigerator for 5 minutes to set the glaze. Remove from the refrigerator and slowly pour the rest of the glaze over the cake. It should run down the edges in thick streams. You should be able to control the size and length of the streams by the pour. Feel free to experiment, and have no fear in playing around. This is the fun part, and there is no right or wrong way. Garnish with chocolate-covered espresso beans. Chill the entire cake for approximately 20 minutes, or until glaze is set, then transfer to cake plate. Serve at room temperature.

The cake can be stored, covered in a cake dome or cake saver, at room temperature for up to 3 days.

Notes

There is no road map to creating the perfect chocolate ganache topping. The design (i.e., the width and number of drips) is entirely up to you. I did a fairly light ganache topping for this particular photo. For heavier ganache coverage, double the ganache recipe, pour half over the cake, and refrigerate it for 15 minutes. Then pour the remaining ganache on top.

Plum Frangipane Tart

2014-11-28T22:33:00.000+00:00

Another bake from Jo Wheatley. Its one of those recipes that is definitely comfort cooking! I made it mostly because I had a punnet of plums to use up. They always s look so appetising in the supermarket - deep purple and juicy that both me and my son (older son I should say now!) get seduced into buying them. Then you bring them home and they are rock hard and don't ripen. I also love frangipane (does anyone not??) so one hot summers weekend I made this for tea. Thin buttery crisp pastry encases soft sweet moist frangipane with a hint of crunch from the hazelnuts and punctuated by tart pieces of plum. I really can't wait to make it again! It would work well with plenty of other fruits I imagine, Raspberries,Apricots....

I like this picture with the summer light streaming in through the open doors :) My tin wasn't quite deep enough so some of the filling spilled over in parts....

I like this picture too- a little bit of reality -what it's like when I am trying to take a picture, little boys and their toys have to be kept out of shot! ;0 ; Have to clear enough space on the table...

Recipe:

you will need a 23 cm tart tin with a depth of about 3-5 cm

Sweet shortcrust pastry:
250g plain flour
125g Unsalted butter
a pinch of salt
1 large egg yolk
2-3 tbsp water,chilled

put flour and butter and salt into a food processor with a metal blade. whizz using pulse button until you have a breadcrumb consistency. Add the egg yolk, whizz briefly, then add water a tablespoon at a time until the dough comes together. Turn onto a floured surface and work very briefly with your hands until smooth.Wrap in cling film and chill for at least half an hour before using.

filling;
50g Hazelnuts, chopped (I used ready chopped one from supermarket and toasted in a dry frying pan)
175g unsalted butter,softened
175g caster sugar
3 large eggs and 1 yolk
150g self-rising flour
100g ground almonds
1/2 tsp cinnamon
6 plums, firm

Lightly dust work surface with flour and roll the pastry out into a thickness of about 2 mm. Carefully line the tart tin, being sure to push the pastry neatly into the corners and trimming off excess pastry from the top. Prick the base of the tart shell several times with a fork. Screw up a sheet of baking parchment and use it to line the inside of the pastry case. Chill for 10 mins in the freezer.

Preheat oven 10 180 degrees
Tip baking beans into the pastry case and blind bake on the middle shelf of the preheated oven for 20-25 minutes until pale golden. Remove the baking parchment and beans. Reduce oven temperature to 170 degrees and bake the case for a further 5 minutes.

Tip hazelnutes onto a baking tray and lightly toast in the oven or in a dry frying pan

to make filling mix together butter,eggs,sugar,flour and ground almonds. Cut plums into quarters and arrange evenly spaced,skin side up around the tart. Bake for 35-45 mins or until golden, if tart colours too quickly cover with foil.

cool in tin for 10 minutes and then transfer to a wire rack to cool completely.

American style chocolate chip cookies

2014-10-17T19:05:00.000+01:00

Finally some time to blog! 3 months post baby no.2. I have been trying to get to this space and failing. I finally made it, admittedly at the expense of putting the laundry away and tidying the kitchen...but you know life's too short.... !

These chocolate chip cookies have been on my list of things to blog about for ages, I have plenty of other things to blog about too,possibly more exciting things than some classic cookies but they will take a bit longer so lets go with these to begin with! You have got to have a classic choc chip cookie recipe in your repertoire right? Well I have made these Nigella one loads but never managed to take a picture.They really are excellent. The raw dough is yummy too and they freeze well so you can have a batch handy anytime.The pics here are for the recipe from Jo wheatleys A Passion for Baking, one of my most used books.Totally scrumptious though I'm not keen the demerara sugar as you can taste the crunch of the sugar in the cookie too much so I may substitute with some other form of brown sugar or just use all light brown soft sugar next time. How long you cook them for depends on how gooey you want them in the center, and if you prefer a Bens cookies style cookie (if you haven't tried them you really ought to!) then you can omit the banging the tray on the counter step. Recipe below pics. Its nice to be back :)

200g unsalted butter, softened

200g light soft brown sugar

125g Demerara sugar

2 large eggs,beaten

1 tsp Vanilla

400g plain flour

1 tsp baking powder

1 tsp bicarbonate of soda

a pinch of salt

200g dark chocolate chunks.

Preheat oven to 170 ◦C

Cream butter and sugars until light and fluffy. Gradually mix in eggs and mix well, add vanilla extract and mix again.

Sift in flour, baking powder, salt and bicarb and mix until combined.

Fold in the chocolate chunks

Bake the cookies in batches on middle shelf of oven. bake for 5 mins then remove from oven and bang the tray sharply on the worktop to deflate the cookies, then return to oven for 5-7 mins.

Allow cookies to cool on baking tray for a few mins then remove to wire racks until cool.

Espresso Tiramisu Mini Cupcakes

2014-03-28T14:38:00.000+00:00

These yummy cupcakes are from Making cupcakes with lola (the same book that the red velvet cupcakes are from. I used instant espresso powder instead of ground espresso and the coffee taste just was not strong enough so if you do use instant espresso powder double up the quantities and taste the batter/icing and add more if needed! The recipe says it makes 24 normal cupcakes or 48 mini-I used mini gold cases and think I made much more than 48,so you may want to make half the amount listed below...apart from those disclaimers which I thought I would get out of the way, these cupcakes are great. The sponge is soft and moist with a nice bite from the chocolate chips and the marscapone and double cream icing is really nice -not too sweet and very flavorful,soft and dreamy-I would definitely use it for other coffee cakes too....

Recipe:

400g plain flour
4 tsp baking powder
1 tsp bicarbinate of soda
1/2 tsp salt
2 tsp ground cinnamon
1 tablespoon ground espresso
275g sugar
120ml sunflower oil
150 ml plain yoghurt
150 ml milk
2 eggs beaten
200g dark chocolate chips
24 or 48 chocolate covered cocoa beans

Espresso Whip
600 ml double cream
50g confectioners sugar
2 tsp ground espresso
250 g marscapone

Preheat oven to 180◦.
Sift together all the dry ingredients apart from the sugar. Put the sugar, oil, yoghurt,milk, chococolate chips and eggs into another bowl and whisk well with a balloon whisk. Add the wet mixture to the dry and fold in gently -do not overmix. Divide the mixture between cases and smooth tops. Bake for about 25 minutes for normal cupcake size, less for mini ones, until risen and a skewer comes out clean.Let cool before decorating.

Profiteroles

2014-03-03T16:11:00.002+00:00

I have been meaning to post these for an age (like all the other trillions of bakes.....). You really can't beat a classic profiterole and they are so much better freshly made than from the supermarket. They might seem a little fiddly to make but actually its fairly straight forward and this recipe is fool proof! And you could make the choux buns the day before you needed them and store in an airtight container and fill with cream on the day you needed them. Recipe is posted below and is from the Great British Bake Off book. I did find the chocolate sauce a bit dark so you could tone it down by substituting some milk chocolate instead of the dark....

Choux pastry (makes 12 eclairs or 48 profiteroles)

100g plain flour
1/4 tsp salt
75g unsalted butter, diced
3 free range large eggs at room temperature

Put flour onto a sheet of greaseproof paper. Put the salt, butter and 175 ml water into a medium-sized pan and heat gently until the butter has melted completely - don't let the water boil and begin to evaporate.Quickly bring the mixture just to the boil, then tip in the flour al in one go.

Remove pan from heat and beat furiously with a wooden spoon. The mixture will look a mess at first, but don't worry - as you beat it it will turn into a smooth, heavy dough. Put the pan back on low heat and beat for about 2 minutes to slightly cook the dough until it comes away from the sides of the pan in a smooth glossy ball.

Tip the dough into a large mixing bowl and leave to cool until barely warm. using an electric mixer (wooden spoon won't give same result) gradually beat in the eggs, beating well after each addition. Add enough egg to make a very shiny and paste like dough that just falls from the spoon when lightly shaken. You may not need the last tablespoon or so of egg because the dough has to be stiff enough to pipe and if the dough is too wet it will spread out rather than puff up.

Use immediately or cover tightly and keep at room temp. Use within 4 hours.

Preheat oven to 200 ◦C. Pipe mounds of dough using a piping bag fited with a 1.5 cm round nozzle. Make them about 3cm wide and 2cm high on the prepared baking sheets spacing well apart. dip your finger in water and pat down any point tips on the choux buns.

Lightly brush with beaten egg. Bake for 15 mins then reduce oven temp to 180◦C . Quickly open and close oven door to get rid of steam and the bake for another 5 minutes. Romveove from oven and make a tiny hole (with a toothpick) at one side to let out the steam. Return the sheets to the oven and bake the profiteroles for a final 3 to 4 minutes until firm. cool on a wire rack.

Cream and chocolate sauce:
cream:
250 mls double cream
2 tablespoons icing sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla extract

whisk until firm enough to hold a peak

Chocolate sauce:
100g dark chocolate
25g unsalted butter
2 tablespoons icing sugar
100 ml water

Put all ingredients into a small pan and heat gently until smooth

Just before serving fill profiteroles with cream by piping in through a hole or by splitting the buns in half and drizzle over the hot sauce

Grown up go-to chocolate cupcakes

2014-02-23T19:04:00.000+00:00

Yes I know I sound a bit american with the "go-to" but seriously every time I think of making of chocolate cupcakes this is the recipe I go to. Never mind all those recipes earmarked in the Hummingbird bakery books....I say grow up because they have lots of dark chocolate in them. I have been making them for a long time and have made them a lot over the years so I can't believe I am only just sharing them with you now! You have to try them to know what I mean when I say they are really good! Tender, soft, very chocolatey sponge topped with a thin cap of crisp dark chocolate. And super easy to make too. Recipe is from the book by the author of fave blog Orangette "A Homemade life". A little instruction from experience: do not overfill the cases-the batter is very liquid and the cakes rise quite a lot and will be very soft when cooked. So under fill if anything! And seeing they are delicate when taken out of the oven use foil or thick cupcake cases if you can.

For the cupcakes:
1 oz finely chopped dark chocolate
1/2 cup hot coffee
1 cup sugar
3/4 cup plain flour
1/2 cup cocoa powder
1/4 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp bicarbinate of soda
1/4 tsp salt
1 large egg
1/4 cup canola oil
1/2 cup plain yoghurt
1/4 tsp vanilla extract

For the glaze:
8 oz dark chocolate

Preheat oven to 300 ◦ F or 150 ◦C

Pour hot coffee over the chocolate and leave to melt stirring occasionally.

In a medium bowl whisk sugar, flour, cocoa powder,baking soda, baking powder, and salt.

In a separate bowl/mixer beat the egg on medium speed until it is pale yellow, about 1 minute. Add the oil,yoghurt and vanilla, beating well.Gradually beat in the chocolate mixture. add the dry ingredients all at once, and beat on low speed until the batter is just combined. Spoon batter in cupcake cases. bake for 20-25 mins or until skewer inserted comes out clean. Allow to cool completely before glazing. To glaze, melt chocolate and spread a thin layer on each cupcake with a teaspoon. let the glaze harden before serving.

Recipe in book says this makes 12 muffin size cupcakes but with the gold liner I use I always end with 25-30! I also also have melted chocolate left over so you may want to melt less than 8 oz for the glaze.....

All butter vanilla pod and chocolate wedding favor iced biscuits

2013-12-29T15:41:00.000+00:00

I have been wanting to try iced cookies for awhile now (or sugar cookies as they are called in the states). I finally got the chance to make them for a friends beautiful small wedding. My first time attending a wedding with only 21 people and my first time making iced biscuits too! So I was a little nervous and planned well ahead (oh what fun it was looking at all the different cookie cutters and decorations!) I had to restrain myself and stick to two shapes and two beaded decorations. I looked up how to make the cookies on lots of different websites. You could take a look here and here. I had Miranda Gore Browns book Biscuit from the library so I used her cookie and icing recipe..Purple was the colour to go with the brides flowers hence the purple-I used violet gel colouring from Wilton. I bought the little bead decorations when I went to the cake and bake show. The biscuits were really delicious-buttery and crisp, I made them a week in advance and stored in an airtight container and stored in the fridge. They stayed nice and fresh and were still crunchy. However when you do the icing you have to leave them overnight to dry (yes it really is a bit like painting!) and this is when they go a bit soft-they still tasted great though and I do not think you can avoid that. I used the writing tubes to do the outline on the cookies and the squeezy bottles to do the filling in (best thing for the job). You make a slightly stiffer icing for the outline and a thinner one for filling in. I made way too much icing (have frozen half) but seeing as it was the first time I made it I didn't want to run out! Toothpicks were very useful for smoothing out bubbles when doing the filling in. I also put toothpicks into the writing tips to stop them drying out. Equipment and recipes listed below pics:

Here's the equipment I used:
Heart cookie cutter
wedding cake cookie cutter
PME writing tube No.2 (X2)

3 oz Squeezy bottles (x2)
4 bowls
2 piping bags
toothpicks
trays for drying cookies

Recipes:
Royal icing
Makes enough to cover at least 24 biscuits
13g Merriwhite (dried pasteurised egg white powder)
500g icing sugar
150 ml warm water
1 tbsp lemon juice or flavouring,such as lemon,orange or lime juice (optional)

Put the dry ingredients into a bowl, add the warm water and lemon juice and beat well to form a thick paste (this will take about 7 minutes in a mixer on the highest speed.) You can then add a tiny bit of extra water to make it a good thickness and even more water to make run-out icing. To check the consistency of the run-out icing,pull a spoon through the mixture-the icingh should return to being completely smooth.

Chocolate biscuits
Makes 24
55g dark chocolate
200g soft unsalted buter
160g caster sugar or vanilla sugar
50g golden syrup
1 egg lightly beaten
350g plain flour
50g cocoa powder

You will also need
5-6 cm cutters (to make 24 biscuits)
Preheat oven to 180 ◦C

Melt the chocolate (see page 6). Cream the butter with the sugar,then beat in the melted chocolate and syrup until light and fluffy.
Add the egg and mix well. Sift in the flour and cocoa powder, then mix together until dough forms . Bring together with your hands and divide in half. Roll each half into a ball and flatten into a disc.wrap each disc in clingfilm and put in fridge for atleast 1 hour. Roll out each chilled disc between two sheets of clingfilm, then stamp out your shapes. Place on baking trays lined with greaseproof paper spacing them atleast 3cm apart, and chill for another 15 minutes.
Bake for about 10 minutes until surface is dry and the base is firm. Allow to cool on the tray for 10minutes, then use a palette knife to transfer to a cooling rack. Decorate when complete cold.

Vanilla pod butter biscuits
Makes about 24
200g soft unsalted butter
200g caster sugar
seeds from 2 vanilla pods
1 large egg lightly beaten
400g plain flour preferably 00
you will also need 6 cm cutters

Preheat oven to 180 ◦C
Cream butter,sugar and vanilla seeds until light and fluffy. Beat in egg and then add flour and mix on a low speed until dough forms. Shape into two flat discs and wrap in clingfilm. Chill for atleast 30 minutes. roll out dough between two sheets of clingfil and cut out your shapes. place on baking sheets lined with greaseproof paper atleast 3 cmm apart. Chill for atleast 15 minutes. Bake for about 9 minutes until golden brown at the edges. Allow to cool on trays for about 5 minutes the use a palette knife to transfer to a wire rack. decorate when complete cold.

Cinnamon buns with cream cheese frosting (cinnabon stylee)

2013-12-23T16:24:00.003+00:00

These are from the Hummingbird Bakerys' latest book Home Sweet Home. They are very american style cinnamon buns. Rich and soft and covered with a generous dollop of gooey cream cheese icing which melts on the warm buns. You really can get away with half the icing I had plenty left over-I often find this with Hummingbird recipe-there just too much icing! The buns however went very fast. Although it says makes around 16-that's fairly small ones and it's very easy to eat two! Just saying. You could, I reckon, make these the day before and leave in the fridge and then take them out about three hours before you wanted to bake them for the final rise. Or freeze them before the second rise and then leave them out overnight....Just thinking maybe if you wanted to make them for Christmas morning/tea or something... Full recipe below the pics.

1. Make the dough and let it rise

2. Roll out and dot with butter

3. Sprinkle with cinnamon and sugar

4. Roll up and slice

5. Leave the buns to rise in a warm place

6. Bake until golden and delicious

7. Smother with as much icing as you like and eat!

Recipe:

Makes 16-18 buns
for the dough
300ml lukewarm water
25g caster sugar
1.5 tp dried active yeast
500g strong white bread flour
1 tsp salt
85g unsalted butter

For the filling
80g unsalted butter softened
80g soft dark brown sugar
1.5 tsp ground cinnamon
1 large egg beaten

For the glaze
50g unsalted butter softened,softened
300g icing sugar,sifted
125g full fat cream cheese

one 25 cm or two 20 cm tins/pie dishes.

1. mix milk,sugar and yeast and stir well. leave for 20 mins until mixture becomes frothy
2.sift together flour and salt in a large bowl. Add the butter and rub into dry ingredients to form a crumb like consistency with no large lumps of butter. Make a well in the center of the dry ingredients and pour in the milk and and yeast. Using the spoon, bring the mixture together to form a dough.
3. Turn the dough out onto a lightly floured surface and knead well until soft and smooth. Place the dough back into a large,lightly floured mixing bowl. Cover the bowl with cling film and leave in a warm place to allow the dough to rise for approximately 40 minutes or doubled in size.
4. Once the dough has risen,knock it back in the bowl and turn it out on to a lightly floured surface. Knead it gently to get the dough smooth, then roll it out into a rough triangle, about 1.5cm thick.
5. Gently spread the soft butter evenly over the dough. In a small bowl mix the dark brown sugar and ground cinnamon together. Sprinkle the cinnamon sugar evenly over the dough. Roll the dough up lengthways like a swiss roll. Using a sharp knife cut he roll into 16-18 slices.
6. Line the cake tin with baking parchment or butter the pie dish. Very gently place slices,flattest side down,into the tin, arranging them snugly.

Cinnamon and cardamom buns

2013-11-15T16:06:00.000+00:00

It is SO cinnamon bun season if there ever was one. Especially here in London where it has suddenly turned cold. Just look at them so beautifully snuggled. Sorry no in-process pictures. I have high hopes of trying some more cinnamon buns this weekend from the new Hummingbird book that I got for my Birthday :) . So will try to take some then, you can find very good pictures on the blog that I got the recipe from. I used half the amount of cardamom-a tablespoon seemed a little excessive to me and I thought half a tablespoon worked great. I also put chopped pecans in half the batch. I loved them with out any icing and so did everyone else.They are so comforting to make- its lovely watching the spirals swell up in the oven and the house smells amazing. And while we are on the topic of buns smitten kitchen just did a post on some orange and cranberry ones, very seasonal.

Pink Ombre Rose Cake

2013-11-01T10:28:00.000+00:00

I am a little obsessed with ombre cakes at the moment. Pintrest is a veritable treasure trove of inspiration. As are other blogs. This rose cake is really not as hard as it looks-all you need is a few Wilton 1 M tips and some good gel food colourings. I love that it’s simple to do but stunning to look at – and all edible unlike cakes covered in fondant and sugarpaste. Although I think cakes look pretty when covered in fondant and sugar modelled stuff and sugar flowers I prefer cakes to all be edible and I find myself and others just peel sugar decorations off and leave to one side.

So I trawled the internet (as you do) and found some good inspiration on Pintrest and here and here. When piping the roses you can practise on a chopping board or on the actual cake-it’s very easy to scrape a rose off with a spoon if you go wrong. When doing the three different colours you can spread some on a chopping board next to each other to see how they will look. That is probably the most finicky bit of the whole process-separating the icing and colouring it-the actual piping is very quick! It was a really hot summers day when I made this so you can see my roses are very soft-the second time I made this cake (coming soon- a purple ombre one!) it was much cooler so it was easier to pipe the buttercream and I didn’t have to keep putting it in the fridge to firm up!

I used a creamy white chocolate buttercream for the roses on the outside and for the inside it was a standard Victoria sponge and strawberry meringue buttercream. The latter is a buttercream that is slightly harder to make but silky smooth and very yummy! I wanted pink layers when you sliced into it and the fresh strawberries lift the cake a bit. You could alternatively use whipped cream with strawberry puree mixed through or use the same buttercream as on the outside. I used Wilton rose pink gel food colouring to colour the icing. I always start with mixing the darkest color first and then do the two lighter colors You want the dark pink to be quite dark-otherwise there won’t be a decent enough colour gradation! I crumb coated the cake and put it in the fridge for about half an hour to firm up before doing the roses.

I have written about the Victoria sponge here (I made 1.5 times the recipe as I wanted three layers) and you can find the strawberry meringue recipe here-it is from this Martha Stewart book. The creamy buttercream recipe is below-I make double and always have some left over which I freeze. Better to have more than you need in case you over color one part or something!

The strawberry meringue buttercream as it progressed-no butter, with butter added and then with strawberry puree added.

The creamy buttercream

Creamy buttercream

Ingrediants:

1 Cups unsalted butter, softened

2 Cups powdered sugar (or more, depending on how you like your buttercream)

Pinch of salt

2-3 oz. good quality white chocolate, chopped (optional)

¼ Cup whipping cream

¼ tsp. vanilla extract

Method:

Put the chopped white chocolate into a small bowl.melt over a ban-marie or in microwave. set aside and allow to completely cool.

Sift salt and powdered sugar over the butter, in a large bowl. Cream the butter and sugar mixture together until light and fluffy, scraping the sides of the bowl as needed. Measure the whipping cream into a cup, and stir in the vanilla extract. With the mixer running on low speed, gradually pour the cream mixture the bowl.

Once the cream mixture has been incorporated into the frosting, fold on the melted white chocolate until incorporated. Increase the mixer speed to medium-high, and beat frosting for an additional 3 minutes.

Makes about 2 ½ cups of frosting (I made double for the cake).

Mini pistachio and raspberry meringues

2013-10-11T11:40:00.000+01:00

These are one of my favourite recent bakes. They are equally beautiful looking and tasting and they are from one of my favourite books - Jo Wheatley' A passion for baking. The meringues are slightly crisp on the outside when you bite, then you get a bit of chewyness and then they just melt in your mouth. The recipe is below. I cannot wait to try a hazelnut and dark chocolate version of these...

Ingredients:

3 egg whites

1 tbsp lemon juice

30g Pistachios,shelled,unsalted and finely chopped(I did in my mini food processor/chopper thing)

100g white chocolate with freeze dried raspberry pieces(I couldn't find so used white choc and mixed in bought freeze dried raspberries from Sainsburys (in a small tube in baking section)but you can also buy online.

150ml double cream

30 fresh rasberries

30 fresh mint leaves

you will need:baking tray lined with baking parchment, a couple of piping bags -one fitted with a small plain round nozzle and with a star tip.

Preheat oven to 110 degrees celcius/225 Farenheight/gas mark 1/4

whisk egg white in clean bowl to soft peaks, add lemon juice.

Gradually fold in sugar,then add nuts by folding in using a large metal spoon.

spoon into piping bag, and pipe little nests on to the prepared baking tray, about 3 cm wide and 3 cm high.

Bake for about 1 hour until dry and crisp. Turn oven off and leave meringues to cool inside

Melt chocolate, add freeze dried raspberry pieces and brush/spoon onto meringues, the leave to set. whip cream into soft peaks and pipe swirls on to meringues. (I ran out of cream for the last few probably cos I piped too much on the first few so would use 200ml next time)

top each meringue with raspberry and mint leaf.

Churros with chocolate dipping sauce

2013-10-07T11:47:00.000+01:00

These are simple Spanish doughnuts which are very popular in London at the moment. The recipe is from Nigellas Kitchen. I'm sure you an tell by now that it is one of my favourite books. They are great to make for tea when you have people over. You can't really go wrong with fried dough rolled in cinnamon and sugar and then dipped in a thick chocolate sauce. Recipe is here. I made an edit to the chocolate sauce I used 50g dark chocolate instead of 100g as I often find Nigellas recipes have too much dark chocolate for me.These are JUST enough for four people ie. you are unlikely to have any leftovers! Note: the second time I made these the batter went very liquidy after I added the water as I added it all in one go - so I would add it gradually as you want a thick sticky dough that is pipeable. I just used two tablepoons instead of a piping bag as you can see in the pics to make fat little ones which take a little longer to fry than thin spindly ones. I don't do the cube of bread test to see f the oil is hot enough -just drop a bit of batter in to see if it sizzles up. I would lower the the temp as soon as you put the doughnuts in as you don't want them to brown on the outside and not cook through in the middle. When frying I always test one before I take them all out to see if cooked through in the middle.

Jalapeno and cheese muffins

2013-09-24T17:32:00.000+01:00

You know you want to try these from the their name right? the jalapenos and cheese combo is a bit like the peanut butter and chocolate combo...you can't really go wrong. These are like cheese rolls punctuated with a tangy chilly hit. I definitely needed more Jalapenos than the recipe specified- I would double up next time. You could do any number of things with these-put some tomato chutney in the middle, put some cream cheese with jalapenos/mustard stirred through it in the middle...you get the idea...They are from the lovely blog of Joy the Baker. She has much better pics on her post so check it out.

THE best carrot and pecan cake

2013-09-17T15:56:00.001+01:00

I have tried many a carrot cake in my time and this really is my favourite so far. It is from Jo Wheatlys' "A Passion for Baking". It is my favourite baking book- a real home bakers book. I have already made lots of things from it already and have so many things earmarked! I found the recipe already typed up here. The cake is super moist with just the right amount of pecans. I loved the icing-I thought had the right amount of tang and I thought the amount of icing was right too, but I like a fair bit off icing on my cakes! It might be a lot for some people so if you don't like as much icing you could probably get away with 2/3 rds the amount I would say. The tang is from orange juice,so go easy when squeezing the juice-add gradually and check consistency and taste as you go. I made this traybake for the cake table at our summer street party this summer which was amazing. We had it on a beautiful sunny day in June (not always a given in London) and it was my sons first street party so very special indeed. I also made some pistachio and raspberry meringues which you can see in the cake table shot (post on those coming soon). And that is my son in the last shot driving happily down the street :)

Butterscotch pecan cheesecake

2013-03-24T18:05:00.002+00:00

Well you can tell from the title and the picture in the book that this is going to be good. I came to cheesecake relatively late in life, well late teens and it was a self-introduction at Marks & Spencer’s and there’s been no looking back - I have been eating and making them ever-since. The Hummingbird bakery’s cake days book has many a fabulous version. Sorry again for the not-so-great pictures. Seriously give this a go, it tasted really great, though the topping wasn’t as smooth as picture in the book, maybe I stirred it too long-it thickens quickly. See here and here and here for other cheesecakes! I found the recipe written up online here.

Yoghurt pot cake

2013-01-11T15:28:00.000+00:00

This gorgeous cake is from Nigellas latest book (and TV program) Nigellissima . It is, thus far, not my favourite of her books -I have only made the Meatzza ( not too impressed with it) and this cake from it so far. Normally her books are so inspiring I tend to make a lot of things from them when I first buy the book. Anyway this cake is both comforting to make, look at and eat. It is a beautiful pale yellow and damp and soft-crumbed to eat. It is a plain vanilla cake with a slight lemony flavour and tang from the yoghurt. It is also very easy to make. It is called yoghurt pot cake as the yoghurt pot is the unit of measurement, but she does thankfully give the metric measures as well. I have had a mishap with my camera so there are not many pictures but hopefully you get the idea….

Ingredients:

150g plain yoghurt

150ml flavourless vegetable oil

3 eggs

250g castor sugar

2 capfuls vanilla extract (1.5 teaspoons)

Zest ½ unwaxed lemon

175g Plain flour

75g cornflour

1 teaspoon icing sugar

Method

Preheat oven to 180◦C and grease a springform ring mould or tin

Separate eggs and whisk the whites until you get firm peaks. Add the yoghurt to the eggs and use the yoghurt pot to measure out other ingrediants.

Fill yoghurt pot with oil and to egg yolks mixture slowly while beating

Add the vanilla extract

Still beating add 1 yoghurt pot of cornflour, scrape down sides of bowl then gently fold in the egg whites

Fill the tin with the batter a bake for 30-35 minutes-sides should be coming away from the tin. Remove from tin and let cool for 10 minutes before turning it out. Once cooled dust with icing sugar.

Victoria sponge

2012-10-29T15:52:00.002+00:00

This one is Mary Berries' recipe from last year’s Great British Bake Off book. You can’t beat a good Victoria sponge as a tea time treat and this one is excellent. I had some strawberries that needed using up so I made some conserve and used that with a few tablespoons of jam. The sponge is golden and moist as it should be and holds a good amount of filling when sandwiched together. You can find the recipe here. Mary Berry uses just jam for her filling but I always add some whipped cream….

Fruit tart

2012-10-01T12:59:00.003+01:00

This is Nigellas’ “no-fuss fruit tart”, well I don’t think it really is a tart, it’s actually one of those no-cook cheesecakes masquerading as a tart. I kind of never really think of no-bake cheesecakes as real cheesecakes anyway and think they should just be called desserts so I am kind of glad that Nigella has called it a tart. Not that I think the no-bake stuff isn’t delicious (but I do prefer the proper baked cheesecake). In fact I cannot wait to try the chocolate hazelnut cheesecake from Nigellissima which I bought last week. It is fabulous of course and I have already earmarked lots of recipes that I want to try! (I also loved the TV programmed which aired last Monday).

Anyway let’s concentrate - the fruit tart-well it doesn’t need much concentration actually-it’s just a construction job (albeit a bit of an expensive one). You have a standard cheesecake biscuit bottom topped with luscious lemony cream and fruit. You do need to buy good quality lemon curd here as it has a pretty starring role, I have bought the cheap stuff once and regretted it! And use whatever fruit you like ofcourse I used strawberries, blackberries,blueberries and a last minute addition of some mango also tasted great. The perfect pud on a very hot summers day (which is when I made this). Admittedly we are unlikely to get one of those now for a while now here in the UK :( …I will post more weather-suited things hopefully once I have cleared my summer backlog of baking….you can find the recipe here and enjoy the pics below…

Strawberries and cream cheesecake

2012-08-05T21:33:00.000+01:00

I’ll start off by saying sorry for the unannounced hiatus on the blog. It has been crazy-busy at my end and although I did a fair bit of baking last month there just has not been time to upload. But I am hoping for a lull really soon so posts should pick up! This cheesecake is from The Hummingbirdbakery’s cake days book. They have put in to the summer afternoon tea section…I’m not sure though that you can have anything more than a slice of this at one sitting as it’s a very rich cheesecake. I don’t think you can go wrong though-nubbly biscuit base, fruity creamy cheesecake topped with a velvety layer of mascarpone cream….you really do have to try it before the summer is up…(and sorry for the not-so-great hastily taken pictures!better ones next time I promise!)

Recipe:

(Cake Days by The Hummingbird Bakery)

Serves 8-12

You need one 20cm springform cake tin

(mine is 23 cm-it was fine)

For the base:

220 g digestive biscuits

100g butter, melted

For the filling:

200g fresh strawberries (chopped)

180g castor sugar

600g cream cheese

2 eggs

Line the tin with baking parchment. Process biscuits and butter until fine crumbs and line tin with them. Place in fridge for 20-30 mins.

Place the strawberries in a saucepan with 80g of the sugar and 30ml of water and bring to a boil. Reduce heat and cook until the strawberries are soft and the liquid has reduced by half (takes about 10 mins on medium heat-do not cook for too long on strawberries will burn-there should be some liquid left and its fine too have too much rather than too little) Set aside until completely cold.

Preheat the oven to 160℃. Prepare the filling by beating together the cream cheese and the remaining sugar on a medium speed until smooth. Add the eggs one at a time. Pour in the cooked strawberries and stir in by hand.

Pour the mixture into the prepared cake tin and bake for about 30 mins or until firm with a slight wobble in the middle. Allow the cheesecake to cool to room temperature still in the tin, then place in the fridge to chill and set for 1-2 hours.

For the topping:

100g mascarpone

20g icing sugar

100ml double cream

Beat the mascarpone and icing sugar on a medium speed until smooth. In a separate bowl, whisk the double cream until soft peaks form. Then fold the double cream into the mascarpone mixture.

Spread on top of the cheesecake and chill again for 1 hour. Decorate cheesecake with fresh strawberries.

Apple and cinnamon muffins

2012-06-10T19:45:00.000+01:00

These muffins are again from Nigella Kitchen. They really are the best tasting healthy muffins I have ever had, even my not-particularly- health- conscious husband really liked them. They are moist and fruity from the apples, wholesome tasting from the spelt flour and have a lovely crunch on top from the almonds (spelt flour is a wholegrain flour which is high in nutrients). I made them the week when my baby was ill and it was one of those weeks when even making your porridge in the morning feels like a chore and it was great to have these to grab and go. I will definitely make them again when I have a couple of old apples that need using up. Recipe is below pics:

Apple and Cinnamon Muffins, taken from Kitchen, by Nigella Lawson

Makes 12 muffins

Ingredients:

2 eating apples or 1 large cooking apple, peeled and cut into small dice

250g plain flour or spelt flour

2 tsp baking powder

2 tsp ground cinnamon

125g light brown sugar, plus 4 tsp for topping

125ml honey

60ml runny natural yoghurt

125ml flavourless vegetable oil

2 eggs

75g whole almonds, skin on

Method:

1. Preheat the oven to 200 degrees Celcius and line a 12-hold muffin tin with papers.

2. Measure the flour, baking powder and 1 tsp cinnamon into a bowl.

3. Whisk together the 125g brown sugar, honey, oil and eggs in a bowl or a jug

4. Chop the almonds roughly and add half of them to the flour. Keep the other half aside, and to them add the second teaspoon of ground cinnamon and 4 tsp of brown sugar. This will make the topping for your muffins.

5. Fold the wet ingredients into the dry. Add the chopped apple and stir to combine. As with all muffin batters, don’t overmix – the lumpier and heavier the batter, the lighter the finished muffin will be.

6. Spoon the batter into the muffin papers and sprinkle with the topping.

7. Put into the oven and bake for 20 minutes, by which time the muffins should have risen, and become beautifully golden.

8. Remove from oven and allow to stand for 5 minutes, before taking them out of the pan

Blueberry cornmeal muffins

2012-05-07T22:12:00.000+01:00

These muffins are slightly different from your usual blueberry muffin because of the addition of cornmeal. This makes the top golden and crunchy. The cornmeal also means that the tops are flat rather than domed. They are from Nigella Kitchen. The recipe makes 12 but the muffins are quite small so they do get finishes very very quickly…if you wanted a slightly healthier muffin you could I suppose experiment with reducing the sugar and upping the blueberries….Also I found the stipulated 200◦C too high-the tops got browned too quickly so maybe 180◦C would be better. They are very yummy eaten warm.

Recipe :

Makes 12

150g plain flour

100g cornmeal-it doesn’t specify which kind in the book but I used course cornmeal

2tsp baking powder

½ tsp bicarb

150g caster sugar

125ml veg oil

125ml buttermilk or plain runny yoghurt

1 egg

100g bluberries

Preheat oven to 180◦C and line muffin tin with cases

Mix flour, cornmeal, bicarb, baking powder and sugar

In a measuring jug pour in the oil and buttermilk and whisk in egg

Stir wet ingrediants into dry, fold in half the blueberries

Divide this batter between each case, dot the remaining blueberries on top-about three per muffin.

Cook for 15-25 mins until a cake tester comes out clean

Birthday baking

2012-05-07T21:57:00.000+01:00

Here are some pictures of some birthday baking I did last weekend. The Birthday cake is a chocolate fudge cake surrounded by white chocolate cigarillos. I made it in 2 x 20cm tins. And the cupcakes are from the Hummingbird bakery book-I have blogged about those before.

Tangy and chilli Kerala beef fry

2012-04-22T21:33:00.000+01:00

Hello again, it’s been awhile as I have been away on holiday in Singapore. Hope you all had a good Easter break. I have not had much time to do baking recently so here’s a Savoury recipe that I have made quite a few times recently. It’s from miss masalas blog. Do not be put off by the ingredients list-this is super quick and easy to make and fairly low in fat too. I tend not to have fresh red chillies on hand so I use four whole red dried chillies. I also found the amount of coconut was too much for me so I used half the amount and I used frozen grated coconut. I have lots of newsagents nearby owned by south Indians so things like coconut and fresh curry leaves are readily available. I also used double the amount of tamarind roughly. Again from the south Indian shops I buy one of those jelly-ish blocks of seedless tamarind. I soak a 2 by 1 inch piece roughly in a few tablespoon of boiling water and then crush the tamarind in this after it has soaked for a bit. I use 2-3 teaspoons of this paste.

Recipe:

Feeds 2

350gm thin beef steaks

50gm fresh grated coconut

1 medium onion

Half tsp fennel powder

1 tsp coriander powder

1 tsp cumin powder

Half tsp chilli powder

4 whole red chillies

        20 -30 fresh or freshly frozen curry leave
    1 inch ginger
    4 medium cloves garlic

1 tsp tamarind paste

         2 tbsp oil
      Salt to taste
   If using frozen coconut, take it out of the freezer first. Slice the beef steaks very thin and chop the onion into small pieces. If using boneless chunks of meat, cut them into small bite-sized pieces. Peel and finely chop the ginger and garlic.

In a medium sized wok, bring the oil to heat over a high heat. When it starts sizzling, add the onions, ginger and garlic, chillies and curry leaves and fry until the mixture turns golden in colour. This will take 5-10 minutes.

Next, toss in the beef with all the spice powders and fry on a high heat until the meat is cooked and turns a rich dark shade. Now stir in the coconut, tamarind and when it’s mixed through with the beef, add 2-3 tablespoons of warm water and simmer until it is absorbed. Add salt to taste and eat straightaway curled into hot rotis.

If using a pressure cooker, pressure cook on high for one whistle and at least 25 minutes on low. Don’t add the coconut or tamarind until after the meat is cooked