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Tag Archives: cake

Santa’s Coming to Town!

14 Saturday Dec 2013

Posted by melandjoycook in Christmas, Desserts

≈ 1 Comment

Tags

bake off, biscuit, british lung foundation, cake, christmas, colouring, father, figures, gingerbread, house, icing, layered, santa

Santa's Coming to Town!

Santa’s Coming to Town!

Special guest blogger, Cat Holland, explains how to make her fantastic ‘Santa’s Coming to Town’ cake.

Icing figures

Icing figures

Icing figures

The figures need time to dry and harden and so it’s best to make these a couple of days before you make the whole cake.

If you haven’t made icing figure before there are lots of YouTube clips out there so I recommend you watch a few to give you an idea of what to do and what you need.

To make these figures I used white ready to roll fondant icing and coloured them using icing colour paste. I made each of the body parts and constructed the figures using cocktail sticks, water and a paint brush. You can use edible glue but the icing becomes quite tacky when it’s being handled and so water is enough to hold the icing together.

Gingerbread House

Gingerbread house

Gingerbread house

I used my favourite gingerbread biscuit recipe for my house. There are lots of recipes out there and so I suggest using one with the right balance of flavours for you.
Using a ruler, pencil and baking paper I drew and cut out the shape of the house including windows. Have a think about the size and style of the house and roof you would like for your house before drawing.

When your ginger bread biscuit mixture is rolled out, (to approx. 5mm thick) place the baking paper cut outs on top and cut around then shapes using a pizza slicer for ease. Make sure you leave an extra 5mm around the roof triangles to makes sure they are big enough to fit together.

Lay the cut out ginger bread on to a baking tray cover with baking paper and put into the oven until they are golden brown, approx. 18 mins, depending on your recipe and the thickness of your ginger bread.

When it is baked, leave it to cool.

Check that the pieces will fit together and then get making the icing and butter cream.

To stick my house walls together I used icing sugar and water and piped it on to the edges. After a couple of hours I used a stiff, coloured butter cream, put into a piping bag with a star nozzle to stick the roof together and on to the house. The butter cream has a pretty finish, is strong and can cover up any gaps you may have between the biscuit.

Once it is dry and stable you are free to decorate the house as much as you would like. I decided to go for a simple house, but did add brown icing onto the roof to create a tilling affect.

The sponge cake

Layered cake

Layered cake

I wanted my cake to have Christmas flavours as well as a Christmas design and so I decided on the following; chocolate & cinnamon with dark chocolate chunks and a orange flavoured sponge.

For most of my recipes I use a basic mixture:

2oz unsalted butter
2oz caster sugar
2oz self-raising flour
1 egg

I then double/ triple this mixture depending on how much I need and then add the flavour I want.

For this cake I added:
2 teaspoons of cinnamon
2 tablespoons chocolate powder
100g of broken dark choc chunks
1-2 tablespoon of milk
The peel of one orange
½ the peel of a lemon
The juice of half an orange

To make the inside look Christmassy, I used my Christmas silicon pop cake mould to bake green mini trees. I then placed these in to the cake tin with the chocolate mixture before going into the oven so that the mixture would rise and bake around the already baked Christmas trees.

To make the orange flavoured sponge Christmassy I split the mixture between two smaller tins and added red bake safe colouring paste to one and green to the other.
Both cakes went into the oven for approx. 20- 40 minutes.

The icing

To cover the cakes before icing them with rolled fondant icing, I made a stiff butter cream flavoured with the juice of half an orange. Covering the cake with butter cream ensures that the rolled fondant icing has a smooth finish.

I wanted the outside of the cake to tell a story and to use blues and whites to represent winter and snow.

The bottom tear was wrapped with a blue plaited icing and covered with a flared white icing. The top tear was covered with plain white icing all over and trimmed neatly.
To create the plaited blue and white icing I added icing colours to two balls of icing to create different shades and left one ball white. Using an icing smoother, I rolled the balls into long sausage shapes. These three sausage shapes were then plaited together.

With a rolling pin I flattened and rolled out the plait to create a bonded patterned icing to wrap around the sides of the bottom tear.

Using plain white icing, I rolled it out and then cut a circle using the tin it was baked in and placed it on top of the bottom tear, scalloping the edges to give the wavy effect.
I then placed the top tear on top.

With a circle nozzle I piped blue butter cream around the edges of the cake to create a clean finish.

When the main cake complete you need to decide how you want your cake to look. I placed the ginger bread house on top, painted a pathway, and used green butter cream to ice on a Christmas tree, and grass.

And that’s how I made my “Santa’s Coming to Town” Christmas cake.

Enjoy!
Cat

Chocolate and Hazelnut cake

28 Saturday Apr 2012

Posted by melandjoycook in Desserts, Valentine's

≈ Leave a comment

Tags

birthday, cake, chocolate, ganache, hazelnut, icing sugar

Chocolate and Hazelnut cake

It was my friend Emma’s birthday at work and so I decided to make a chocolate cake I have been making since I was a kid. You can never really fail, unless you over-cook it. It turned out pretty good and everyone gobbled it down, so here it is:

Prep time: 20mins
Cooking time: 25 – 30mins at 180C

For the cake you will need:
200g dark chocolate (mine was 76% cocoa)
100g of hazelnuts (whole)
150g granulated sugar
150g butter
100g raising flour
4 eggs
1 tsp baking soda

For the ganache you will need:
100g dark chocolate
50g icing sugar
50g butter

Before you do anything turn your oven onto 180C. You will need two big bowls. Take your eggs and separate into the two bowls the yolks and the whites. Add the sugar to the yolks and whisk until it takes on a creamy colour (this will only take a minute or two).

Now you need to melt your chocolate and butter together. You can do this in a bain-marie but I like to cheat and use the microwave. Break up the chocolate in a bowl and the cut up the butter and place on top of the chocolate, add a tablespoon of water. Put in the microwave at medium heat for a minute. Check the chocolate, if it isn’t fully melted put it a back in for a while longer. Be careful not to leave it to long as it can easily burn if it goes past its melted form.

Once the chocolate and butter are melted make sure the mixture isn’t hot when you add it to the yolks and sugar (otherwise it will cook the eggs).  With a whisk mix all ingredients together.

Put the flour in a small bowl and add to it the baking soda. Make sure they are well mixed together and then add them to your cake mixture. Use a wooden spoon to incorporate the flour and then use the whisk to properly mix. Add the hazelnuts, though they are not a must have.

Now come the egg whites, you need to whisk them until you can literally turn the bowl upside down over your head without them falling out. This should take about 5 minutes. Then you need to use a wooden spoon to fold the egg whites into your cake mixture. This is so you don’t lose the air you have created with the whites, this will ensure you cake rises and is light.

Put the cake mixture in a not stick proof cake tin and place in the oven for 25 minutes if you like it a little gooey in the middle or 35 minutes if not.

Remove the cake from the oven and de-mold. Once it has cooled you can turn to your ganache.

Ganache:
Melt the chocolate and butter as you did previously. Then add to it the icing sugar and make sure the three ingredients are well mixed together. Now you can cover your cake with the ganache.

Fell free to add anything else to the top of your cake for decoration, or just leave it simple.

This is a definite success.
Enjoy!

Mel

Apple cake

11 Sunday Sep 2011

Posted by melandjoycook in Desserts

≈ Leave a comment

Tags

apple, cake, dessert, vanilla

A big apology for the abscence of blogs these past few weeks but I was on holiday in France enjoying the sun. It does however mean that I have come back with loads of new recipes. However today I’m going to share the apple cake Alexis and I just made  – perfect for a rainy day in England – though the apples did come from my grandmother’s garden in France.

Sugar coated violets

What you will need:

4 apples
150g of sugar
120g melted butter
85 g flour
3 eggs
75 ml milk
1/2 tbl spoon of vanilla extract

Oven at 180C
Cooking time of 40 minutes

Start with heating your oven to 180C. Peel your apples, remove pips and cut into small chunks. In a pan add apples, vanilla extract and about a tbl spoon of the sugar – mix together and cover on a medium heat. Every minute or so stir the apples and add a bit of water if you find they are caramelising.  Turn the heat off when they go soft – should take about 5 minutes.

In two bowls seperate your eggs. Mix the ingredients everytime you add a new ingredient – to your yolks add sugar, then your melted butter, flour and milk. Now turn to your egg whites and whisk until you can virtually tip the bowl upside down without them falling on your head 🙂 Now incorporate your whites to the other mixture. You don’t what to break your whites as their fluffiness is what will make your cake nice and light. So what you need to do  is add the whites little by little to the mixture and fold the mixture over the whites. Once you have added all the egg whites add in the apples and then add to a non-stick or buttered cake tin.

Place in the oven for 40 minutes. Whilst the cake is cooking the apples will fall to the bottom of the mixture – so when you cake is ready turn it upside down on a dish and leave it that way as it will give a classy but rustic look to it. (I had it with a bit of cream but it’s just as great eaten on its own.)

For the frosted violets click http://wp.me/p1sdbX-1n

Mel

Cinnamon and Walnut Banana Cake

28 Tuesday Jun 2011

Posted by melandjoycook in Desserts

≈ 3 Comments

Tags

banana, cake, cinnamon, flour, healthy, honey, no sugar, raisin, walnut

Two bananas have slowly been turning blacker and blacker on the top of my fridge. Now my flatmates are always happy when they see this happen as they know exactly what it means, it’s banana cake time!

My friend Claudia is the person who originally gave me her banana cake recipe but it’s different every time I make it now. I’ve realised it doesn’t really matter how much of anything you put in it as long as you have walnuts, cinnamon and honey.

This is a really healthy cake and is perfect for breakfast or an afternoon snack. I’m going to guess the weight of the ingredients I used, but please feel free to change them.

What you will need:

2 very ripe bananas (the blacker the better)
3 tbl of honey
50 grams of melted butter
150 grams of flour
½ tsp of baking soda
2-3 eggs
A big handful of walnuts
1 tbs of cinnamon powder
(you can also add raisins)

Pre-heat your oven to 180C. In a large bowl add the bananas and mush up with a fork and add in all the ingredients, there really is no order. You just need to make sure that you mix in the baking soda with the flour. Mix everything together with a spoon.

I usually use my bread tin but I couldn’t find it last night, instead I used a small ceramic oven dish and it rose more than it usually does, I’m definitely going to use that again.

Butter your dish and slightly powder it with flour, add you batter and leave in the oven for about 20 –  30 minutes depending how moist you want your cake.

PS: If your batter is too dry you can add a little milk

Have fun and let me know how yours goes.

Mel

Blackberry Upside Down Cake

30 Wednesday Mar 2011

Posted by melandjoycook in Desserts

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Tags

blackberry, cake, pregnant, sugar, upside down cake

With 4 weeks left of my pregnancy, I find myself wanting to eat sweets to calm my nerves. Normally, a chocolate shake would do the trick, but I’ve been lactose intolerant for almost 2 months now and can no longer splurge on ice cream. 

So, I went to the store on a mission to find a sweet treat but saw that blackberries were on sale again. I’ve been dying to use them for something. So, instead of making Pineapple Upside Down Cake, I used blackberries instead. I couldn’t believe how easy and delicious it was!

What you will need:

2 1/2 cups fresh blackberries
1/2 cup plus 1 1/2 tablespoons of sugar
1 cup flour
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/2 stick butter
1 egg
1 teaspoon vanilla
1/2 cup buttermilk

I got 2 bowls out, like I do when making chocolate chip cookies.
In one bowl, I whisked the flour, baking soda and salt.

In the other bowl, with an electric mixer, I beat the butter and 1/2 cup of remaining sugar.
Then I added the egg and vanilla.
Once that was all mixed, I slowly added the flour mixture and buttermilk.

I didn’t have a round 8 X 2 cake pan, instead I used disposable tin bread pans that were 8 X 4 ( I bought them for banana bread) 

These worked better because I didn’t have to grease the pans or even use parchment paper.

I divided the berries up between the three pans. Then I sprinkled the berries with 1 1/2 tsp of sugar.

Then I poured the mixture in all three pans and baked in the oven at 400 degrees for 30-35 min.
It’s important to immediately take the cake out of the pan so the fruit doesn’t get too soggy.

Because I cannot have whip cream or ice cream, I sweetened some greek yogurt with honey and put a dollop on top.

It was a huge treat as a dessert and perfect with my tea in the morning 🙂

Enjoy!
Joy

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