Christmas Baking Adventures - Jam Tarts

Jam Tarts:


Recipe is the same as for the Lemon Curd Tarts, but with jam instead of lemon curd! Delicious!

Christmas Baking Adventures - Lemon Curd Tarts

Lemon Curd Tarts:


Ingredients:

• 6oz plain flour
• 1/2 oz icing sugar
• 1 egg yolk
• 1 tablespoon of water
• 1 jar of lemon curd

Method:

• Mix the flour and icing sugar together, then rub in the butter until the mixture resembles breadcrumbs.
• Mix in the egg yolk and the water until a dough is formed
• Wrap the dough in cling film and leave to chill in the fridge for 20 minutes
• Pre-heat oven to gas mark 6
• Roll out the pastry onto a lightly floured surface and cut into rounds using a cutter
• Grease a 12 hole cupcake tray with butter or spray and place a pastry round into hole. Lightly press down
• Place a teaspoon of lemon curd into each of the pastry cases
• Place in the oven and bake for 15-20 minutes, or until the pastry is golden brown
• Place on a wire rack to cool

Adventures in Desserts #2 - Apple Crumble Cupcakes

Well, the Lemon Meringue Pie cupcakes were a massive hit!!!!! Yay me! So it got me thinking - "what other desserts can I turn into a cupcake?" and after some crazy suggestions (Chicken Korma Cupcakes anyone???) I came up with Apple Crumble.

Ingredients:

For the cupcakes:

Jar of apple sauce (around 270g)

1/2 tsp bicarbonate of soda
55g/2oz butter
85g/3oz  demerara sugar
1 egg
175g/6oz self raising flour
1 tsp cinnamon

For the crumble topping:
50g/2oz plain flour
50g/2oz demerara sugar
1 tsp cinnamon
35g/1oz butter

Method:

• Preheat oven to 180c/gas mark 4 and line a 12 hole cupcake tin with baking cases
• Make the crumble topping by putting the ingredients into a small bowl and rubbing together until they resemble breadcrumbs. 
• For the cupcakes stir the bicarbonate of soda into the apple sauce (you'll need a bigger bowl than you think for this - the chemical reaction between the bicarb and the apple sauce makes it expand!)
• Beat the butter and sugar together until light and fluffy. Gradually beat in the egg.
• Sift the flour and cinnamon in and mix. Stir in the apple sauce.
• Spoon the mixture into the baking cases, then top each one with 2 teaspoons of crumble mix. Press down slightly. 
• Bake for 20 minutes then allow to cool.
• To make them taste even better, serve with cream or custard!

Picture will appear soon!

Lemon Meringue Cupcakes

Ooooh, yummy! Three of the greatest things of all time - lemons, meringue and cupcakes, combined into one snack of awesomeness!

Ingredients

For the cupcake:

• 100g self raising flour
• 100g butter
• 100g caster sugar
• 2 eggs
• 3 tbsp lemon juice
• Lemon Curd

For the meringue:

• 2 egg whites
• 100g caster sgar

Method:

• Preheat oven to 180c/gas mark 4 and line a 12 hole tin with bun cases
• Beat the butter and sugar together until light and fluffy
• Stir in the eggs then the lemon juice
• Fold in the flour
• Spoon 1 large tbsp of the mixture into each case, then make a small dip in the middle of each one
• Spoon 1 tsp of lemon curd into each dip, then cover with the remaining mixture
• Bake in the oven for 10 minutes
• While the cupcakes are baking, make the meringue. Beat the egg whites in a clean bowl until they from stiff peaks
• Slowly add the sugar until the mixture is thick and glossy
• Spoon the mixture into a ziplock bag or piping bag and cut off one of the corners
• Remove the cupcakes from the oven and pipe the meringue over the tops of the cakes
• Return to the oven for 10 minutes
• Once cooked, remove from the oven and allow to cool in the tin

Et voila! Delicious lemon meringue cupcakes!

Halloween Cake!

And here it is, my Halloween Cake! Yummy!

If you want to make your own, the recipe is here

Halloween Adventures

Halloween Cake? Yes please!

I'm making a two-tier, orange and black Halloween cake. You don't have to, but I'm using a square tin for the bottom tier and a round tin for top tier (totally a pre-planned decision, not because I've left my large round tin that I need for the bottom tier at my mum's house...)

I'm using a pound cake recipe, as it not only tastes really light and moist, but is also really sturdy and great for stacking.

Recipe for the bottom, orange tier:

Ingredients

• 3 large eggs
• 3 tablespoons milk
• 1 1/12 tsp vanilla
• 150g cake flour *
• 1 tsp baking powder
• 150g caster sugar
• 185g butter
• Orange paste food colouring **

Method

1. Preheat oven to 175c/350f/gas mark 4. Line and grease a square cake tin
2. In a bowl beat together the eggs, milk and vanilla
3. Using a standing mixer on it's lowest setting or wooden spoon combine together the flour, sugar and baking powder. If using a standing mixer with different attachments, use the paddle attachment for this cake
4. Add the butter and half of the egg mixture to the dry ingredients and mix on a low speed
5. Increase the speed to medium and mix for about 1 minute
6. Gradually add the rest of the egg mixture, scraping down the sides of the bowl to make sure all the ingredients are mixed
7. Using a small, thin knife (I use a grapefruit knife) add some of the orange colour and mix. If you want to make the colour stronger just add more of the paste until you are happy with the colour.
8. Pour the mix into the cake tin and cook for 35 minutes, or until a cake tester inserted into the middle comes out clean.
9. Leave to cool for 10  minutes in the cake tin, then transfer to a wire rack. Make sure the cake is cooled completely before decorating.

Recipe for the top, black tier:

Ingredients

• 25g cocoa powder
• 3 tbsp boiling water
• 3 large eggs
• 1 1/2 tsp vanilla
• 125g cake flour *
• 1 tsp baking powder
• 175g caster sugar
• 185g butter
• Black paste food colouring **

Method

1. Preheat oven to 175c/350f/gas mark 4. Line and grease 2 small round cake tins
2. In a bowl mix the cocoa powder and boiling water until a smooth paste is formed. Leave to cool to room temperature
3. Whisk the eggs and vanilla with the chocolate mixture
4. Using a standing mixer on it's lowest setting or wooden spoon combine together the flour, sugar and baking powder. If using a standing mixer with different attachments, use the paddle attachment for this cake
5. Add the butter and half of the chocolate/egg mixture to the dry ingredients and mix on a low speed
6. Increase the speed to medium and mix for about 1 minute
7. Gradually add the rest of the chocolate/egg mixture, scraping down the sides of the bowl to make sure all the ingredients are mixed
8. Using a small, thin knife (I use a grapefruit knife) add some of the black colour and mix. If you want to make the colour stronger just add more of the paste until you are happy with the colour.
9. Pour the mix into the cake tin and cook for 20 minutes, or until a cake tester inserted into the middle comes out clean.
10. Leave to cool for 10  minutes in the cake tin, then transfer to a wire rack. Make sure the cake is cooled completely before decorating.

* A word about cake flour

Cake flour is different to self raising flour and plain flour. I haven't seen it available in supermarkets, although some people have said that Tesco and Sainsbury's sell it. Don't panic if you can't get it, as it is very easy to make your own. Recipe

**  A word about paste food colours

Paste food colours are my favourite food colours, they don't affect the consistency of your cake mix and a small amount can give a very strong colour. I haven't seen them for sale in supermarkets, so you will have to go to a specialist cake decorating shop or look online for them. I buy mine here: Cake Craft World

Decorating Your Cake

You will need black ready roll icing,  orange ready roll icing, buttercream (you can make it or buy it, doesn't matter!), a palette knife, a rolling pin, a pizza wheel, a piping bag with a very small nozzle and icing sugar or corn flour.

First, make sure your cakes are completely cooled. Then cover the orange bottom tier in a thin layer of buttercream, using the palette knife to smooth and even it out. Once this is applied, cover the cake with another layer of buttercream.

Then roll out your black icing onto a surface dusted with icing sugar or corn flour (to stop the icing sticking). When it is big enough to cover the top and sides of your cake fold it over the rolling pin and place it carefully on top of the cake. Cut off the excess icing at the bottom (a pizza wheel does a great job!) and smooth down the top and sides of the cake.

Now repeat the buttercream process for the top black tier. If you used two cake tins remember to sandwich the two cakes together with a thing layer of buttercream. 

Roll out the orange icing as above and cover the cake. Remove the excess icing and smooth down.

Now we need to place the two cakes together - put a dollop of buttercream on the middle of the bottom tier and smooth down. Place the top tier onto this and press down gently. The buttercream will act as a glue to keep the tiers together. 

I find that sometimes the icing isn't as neat at the bottom of the tier as I would like, and a great way to cover this up is to use strips or balls of icing - like this 

Looks really cute, and hides any mistakes! You can either use alternating black and orange balls or just one colour for each tier. It's up to you!

To finish, fill a piping bag with buttercream and pipe on cobwebs. Perfect!

Cake Flour

Some of you may have seen recipes call for 'cake flour' instead of self raising or plain. If you can't find it in a supermarket (I haven't seen it in any) you can make your own very easily!

Cake Flour Recipe:

95g plain flour
2 tbsp cornflour

Sift together the plain flour and cornflour several times.

And that's it! Super easy!