Cake Pop Cupcakes

As is often the case, the idea for these started out much more elaborate than what I ended up with.  Not to say they were a complete disaster.  They still looked cool and were very yummy.  I just wish the cake pops looked a bit better (they were meant to look like balloons) and I would have done something more fancy on top of the icing but I was so tired by that point that I just went with pretty sprinkles.  And trust me, I was tired.  I even used a hand mixer to make the cake batter, which I NEVER do usually.

The cake pops did give me some trouble with putting together.  I made 34 cake pops, meaning I had 3 I could lose.  I lost those almost immediately so I was really careful not to lose any more.  I got them all coated and left them to set.  Then I came back and one had come apart!  I was so upset.  Luckily I still had loads of cake left over so was able to make up a few more.

Then there was the chocolate!  I didn't have much of it so carefully worked out how much I needed and had just enough for each colour.  Then water got in one batch!  So frustrating!  I think I was a bit irritable at the local shop when I ran round to grab more chocolate from the sweets section.  I could only find small Milky Bars but they worked fine.  It all turned out fine in the end and the kids enjoyed them and that's what counts.

So the cupcakes were my usual ones.  I made a batch big enough for 36 but ended up with 40.  Since I only needed 31 so I had some spare to scoff myself.

The cake pops used the same method I used last time but I used a different cake than what I used before.  Namely the one they had in the original recipe.  Also, I only coated them in white chocolate but I coloured it with blossom tint.  I used about 250g of chocolate, 50g per colour.

Triple Chocolate Mousse Cakes

Wednesday was a busy day.  I was not needed at school, which turned out to be a blessing because everything I had to do took so long!  Since Thursday was going to be the last day of school before the summer holidays I wanted to bake presents for people.  I made cakes with cake pops in them for the kids in P4 and then I made these triple chocolate mousse cakes for the staff.

The triple chocolate mousse cakes are something I've been wanting to make for a while since I saw them in Baking Heaven magazine.  They were just so pretty!  But didn't have a reason until now.  And for the most part they came out perfect.  The only problem was that I didn't make the shells thick enough so when I tried to peel off the paper they started to fall apart.  This worked out for the best though since it meant stopped them melting when I handed them out to people.

I made one alteration to the recipe, which was that I used double the amount of mixture for the cake bases.  This was because I didn't have enough mini muffin trays and it would take far too long to do it in two halves.  So I used full sized cupcake trays and hence needed more mixture.

They were very well received.  Everyone thought they were pretty and said they tasted great.  I was very pleased.

Recipe - adapted from Mini Cakes and Other Bite-size Treats via Baking Heaven Volume 1

Makes 24

• 120g/4oz unsalted butter
• 120g/4oz caster sugar
• 2 eggs
• 90g/3.5oz self-raising flour
• 30g/1oz cocoa
•  300g/10.5oz dark chocolate
• 150g/5.5oz white chocolate
• 225ml/7.5fl.oz double cream

1. Preheat the oven to 180°C/350°F/Gas Mark 4 and grease two 12 hole muffin trays or line them with paper cases.
2. Put the butter and sugar in a bowl and beat with a whisk until pale and creamy.
3. Add the egg and beat that in too.
4. Sift the flour and cocoa together into a separate bowl and then add to the sugar mixture.  Fold in.
5. Put a dessert spoonful of mixture into each hole in the tray.
6. Bake for 10-12 minutes.  The cakes should be springy to the touch.
7. Transfer to a wire rack to cool and clean out the muffin trays.
8. Cut out 24 12cm square pieces of baking parchment.
9. Melt the chocolate in a glass bowl over hot water.
10. Use a pastry brush to paint a very thick layer of chocolate onto each square.  Don't paint all the way to the edge and try to keep some chocolate back for drizzling.
11. Put a cake into the centre of each square (if the cakes are in cases, take them out) and then push each on back into one of the holes in the muffin tray so that the sides of the baking parchment sit up around the cakes like a wavy case.
12. Make the mousse by melting the white chocolate and leaving to cool.
13. Whip the cream and then fold into the cooled white chocolate.
14. Spoon the mousse into a piping bag which has a large star nozzle attached to it (I used Wilton 1M) and pipe a swirl of mousse on top of each cake.
15. Drizzle dark chocolate over the mousse and then put the trays in the fridge to set.  This is about 3 hours.
16. Remove from fridge, carefully peel off the parchment and serve.

Murderwang Birthday Cake

My boyfriend asked if I would make a cake for his friend's birthday, which isn't actually until next week but we're on holiday so he wanted to take it this week.  I asked what to do and he said just a simple sponge and nothing too sweet.  So I did my usual vanilla sponge cake split across two tins and then filled with jam.  No buttercream because even I think buttercream is too sweet.  But I figured a little bit of icing wouldn't hurt.  The decoration is inspired by a Mitchell and Webb, sketch: the Numberwang Code.  The friend uses the name 'Murderwang' on their society forum, which is inspired by this sketch.  Thus I translated it onto a cake.  I did the red first and let it set before I did the white.

It went down really well apparently, so I am very pleased.

Failed Experiment: Baked Doughnuts

I love doughnuts.  LOVE them.  Especially Krispy Kreme doughnuts, which I cannot get now that I live in Scotland!  I'm originally from Kent and my Dad and his partner work in London, where a Tesco by their station sells Krispy Kremes so occasionally they would come home with a box.  I miss that!  

I've been wanting to make my own doughnuts for ages but I've been put off by the need to deep fry them.  I get off things a lot because I have to deep fry them.  Not because of the unhealthy factor, but because I hate using so much oil.  I also find the timings tricky.  So discovering baked doughnuts was an amazing thing for me.  Imagine my disappointment when the recipe I chose failed.

It's probably obvious from the picture that they turned out more like bread rolls than doughnuts.  I ended up making two batches because I thought I might have killed the yeast in the first batch, and considering how close together the inside of them were, I believe I did in fact do that.  So I made a second, which rose much better and the inside was certainly softer after baking.  But it also was more bread roll than doughnut.  So disappointing!

The glaze I put on the first batch was quite lovely though.  I'll be making it again when I attempt a different doughnut recipe.

Divine Chocolate Birthday Cake

(Again, sorry for the poor picture.  I was in a bit of a hurry.)

I was requested to make a birthday cake by my boyfriend's mother for a party she was having yesterday.  What kind of cake was completely up to me so I sat down with my Mary Berry Baking Bible and had a look.  I didn't want to do my usual sponge cake because that's repetitive.  If anything I was keen to make a chocolate cake, because I very rarely make those.  I'm not a fan of chocolate cake so I never make it for me.  Thus I settled on the Divine Chocolate Birthday Cake.  It sounded ideal, particularly because there was no flour in it.

For the most part it was a successful ordeal, with three exceptions.  I burnt the bottom again!  I still need to work out shelving in my oven because it's really quite annoying.  It also rose really well, but sank slightly after I removed it from the oven.  And then there was the chocolate lump.  In the recipe you have to add coffee dissolved in water to the melted chocolate.  But of course, when you add water to chocolate it hardens.  So I ended up with a chocolate lump on my first attempt which I could not use.  So second time around I just added it to the cake mix instead, at the same time as the chocolate.  Much more successful.

The icing turned out really well so I was pleased!  I've never made such a good looking pourable icing before. 

As for the topping I had no idea what to do.  I tried to do chocolate curls but couldn't get it to work.  I then attempted something slightly fancy with buttercream.  That didn't work either.  In the end I settled for flakes of milk and white chocolate scattered over the surface.  I didn't want to overdo anything since the cake is being served with cream and fruit.

The response I had over the phone was that it is the most amazingly delicious chocolate cake any of them had ever had.  Also, it apparently tastes really good served warm after being put in the microwave for about 30 seconds.

Recipe - adapted from Mary Berry's Baking Bible

Note: I could not find plain chocolate that was 39% cocoa solids, so I mixed a full bar of plain chocolate at 54% with enough milk chocolate to make up the required amounts.

• 6 large eggs
• 215g/7.5oz caster sugar
• 265g/9.5oz plain chocolate (39% cocoa solids) 
• 1 tsp instant coffee granules
• 1 tsp hot water
• 150g/5oz ground almonds (or get flaked and blitz them in a blender if you can't find ground)
• 4 tbsp apricot jam
• 225g(8oz) plain chocolate (39% cocoa solids)
• 100g/4oz unsalted butter

1. Prepare a 23cm/9inch deep, round cake tin by greasing it with butter and then lining with greaseproof paper cut to fit.  If you don't have a deep tin then cut the paper so it finishes high above the top of the tin.  (I did this, and also had to use an 8inch tin because I didn't have a 9inch one).
2. Pre-heat oven to 190°C/375°F/Gas Mark 5. 
3. Separate 5 of the eggs then add the yolks and the remaining whole egg to a large bowl along with the sugar.  Beat together until thick and pale.
4. Melt the (265g) chocolate in a glass bowl over a saucepan of hot water, stirring from time to time.  When melted, leave to cool slightly.
5. Dissolve the coffee granules in the water.  Also leave to cool.
6. When coffee and chocolate have cooled slightly, add to the egg and sugar mix, along with the ground almonds and stir together.
7. In a separate bowl, whisk the egg whites until stiff.  Fold them into the egg and chocolate mix gently.
8. Pour into the prepare tin and tap against the work surface to level the mix.
9. Bake in the oven for about 50 minutes or until it is well risen and a skewer inserted into the centre comes out clean.
10. Leave in the tin for 10 minutes to cool before turning onto a cooling rack and peeling off the parchment.
11. When the cake has cooled, put the apricot jam in a small saucepan and melt it over a low heat then brush over the surface of the cake.
12. Melt the (225g) chocolate in a bowl over hot water, stirring occasionally.  
13. Add the butter to the chocolate and stir until it melts and the icing has the consistency of thick pouring cream.
14. Put baking parchment under the cooling rack to catch drips and then slowly pour the icing onto the cake.  Just pour into the centre and use a palette knife or rubber spatula to coax it to the edge and over the sides.  Trust me, there's plenty of icing to cover the whole cake.
15. Leave to set, which may take a couple of hours.
16. When done, decorate if desired.  I made milk and white chocolate flakes by scraping a knife across the back of a bar of milk/white chocolate and sprinkling them all over the top.

Vanilla and Honeycomb Ice Cream

This was not what it was supposed to be.  It wasn't meant to be vanilla.  It was actually meant to be butter caramel.  Problem was that I completely failed at making caramel.  I think my frying pans were a bit too small to handle the amount of sugar so it didn't all caramelise before the rest started to burn.  Not nice.  I attempted it twice and then gave up because I didn't want to waste more sugar.  But I'd bought the Maltesers and cream and didn't want to not make ice cream.  So vanilla it was.  And it's pretty good.  And unlike ice cream I've made before it didn't go rock hard in the freezer so could be dished up right way.  So that was a plus.

The recipe is based on a Gizzi Erskine recipe that showed up in my emails.  Obviously I made some adaptations because, like I said, it was originally caramel and butter.

Recipe - makes about 1 litre of ice cream

• 150g/5.25oz caster sugar
• 250ml/8.8fl.oz double cream
• 125ml/4.3fl.oz skimmed milk
• 3 egg yolks
• 1 tbsp vanilla extract
• Pinch of salt
• 2 x 37g packets of Maltesers (or 2 Crunchie bars)

1. Put the sugar in a bowl and add the vanilla extract.  Mix together to coat all the sugar and leave to infuse.
2. Add the salt to the egg yolks and whisk together.
3. Heat the milk and half the cream in a saucepan until it just starts to boil.
4. Add to the egg yolks and mix well.
5. Pour back into the saucepan and heat gently, stirring all the time until the mixture coats the back of the spoon.  Leave it too long and it will start to turn to scrambled eggs.
6. Put back into a bowl and leave to cool on the worktop with clingfilm over the top for about 2 hours.
7. After it has cooled, add the rest of the cream as well as the vanilla sugar and mix well.
8. Put into the ice cream maker and mix for 20 minutes.
9. Crush the Maltesers (or Crunchy bars) and add to the ice cream whilst it is still mixing.
10. Leave it to mix for another half and hour then transfer to a tub.
11. Put in the freezer for at least 2 hours before serving.

Angel Food Cupcakes

I had some egg whites left over from making ice cream at the weekend (recipe to come one I take photos).  I could have frozen them but figured I'd make them into angel food cupcakes for my boyfriend's mum, since she likes them.  I had 3 egg whites so I made a halved batch of the angel food cake recipe I did for her birthday but put the mixture into a foil lined silicone muffin tin rather than a loaf tin.  I had enough mix for 6 regular sized cupcakes and 4 mini ones, but I wouldn't recommend making the tiny ones.  They get a bit tricky to remove from the foil.  So I reckon you could get about 8 cupcakes from the halved cake mix.

Apple and Cinnamon Cupcakes

I came home today feeling a bit down.  And when I'm down I usually try to bake something.  I was intending to make angel food cake cupcakes but had forgotten to take my egg whites out the fridge so I wouldn't be able to do those until a bit later in the day.  So I flicked through one of my cupcake books and found some apple and cinnamon ones.  My boyfriend usually loves these kind of thing and his dad seems to like them too so that was what I decided upon.  The only problem was that I didn't have any soured cream.  And what do I do when I don't have something?  I go see if I can substitute it for something else.  Oh Internet, you are so helpful that way.

After a quick search I found there were a number of things you could substitute for soured cream, one of which was soured milk with some butter for thickening.  Well, I had milk.  This led me to look up soured milk and apparently I could make my own if I had vinegar or lemon juice.  I had the latter, so I made my own.  As far as I can tell, it worked well.  I had no complaints from my taster.  He's already scoffed two.  I'll post the method for it along with the cake recipe.

For my topping I added some muscavado sugar, which was an idea that came from Mary Berry's Baking Bible.  I also made a quick lemon flavoured icing to drizzle over it, rather than the soured cream icing they had in the book.  I didn't want anything too thick or too sweet and both the people who would eat these don't particular like lots of that kind of thing.

Substitute Soured Cream - makes 1/2 cup (about 125ml) 

• Milk
• Lemon Juice
• Butter 

1. Measure out 1/2 tbsp of lemon juice into a jug or 1/2 cup measure.
2. Top up to 125ml or the top of the 1/2 cup with milk.
3. Let sit for 5 minutes or more.
4. Cream 1 and 1/2 tbsp of butter in a bowl.
5. Add the soured milk and mix together.

 

Cupcake Recipe: Adapted from Cupcake Heaven

Makes 12

•  85g/3oz unsalted butter 
• 100g/3.5oz caster sugar
• 1 egg
• 125ml/4fl.oz/1/2 cup soured cream (recipe for a substitute above)
• 150g/5oz self-raising flour
• 1/4 tsp bicarbonate of soda
• 1/2 tsp cinnamon
• 1 eating apple
• Dark muscavado sugar for sprinkling
• 40g/1.5oz icing sugar
• Lemon juice

1. Preheat the oven to 180°C/350°F/Gas Mark 4 and line a baking tray with 12 cupcake cases.
2. Peel and core the apple and then chop into small pieces.
3. In a bowl cream together the butter and the caster sugar until it is pale and creamy.
4. In a separate bowl whisk the egg and then gradually add to the butter mix, beating in with each addition.
5. Stir in the soured cream.
6. Place a sieve over the bowl and place the flour, bicarbonate of soda and cinnamon in it.
7. Sift it together into the cake mix, then add the apples and gently fold in.
8. Spoon the mixture into the cases and sprinkle the muscavado sugar over the top of each one.
9. Bake in the oven for about 20 minutes or until a skewer inserted into the centre of the cake comes out clean.
10. Cool on a wire rack.
11. For the icing, add a bit of lemon juice at a time to the icing sugar until you have quite a runny consistency.
12. When the cakes are cool, use a spoon to drizzle lines of icing over the cakes.

Glenrothes Road Run Cakes

Not my best photo admittedly but I was in a rush.  I took the picture just before I finished packing them away in the box (you can just see one of the layers below the four on top) and heading out the door.

Saturday night I made 32 fairy cakes from my basic recipe which were supposed to be for all the kids in the class I work in who showed up to take part in the Glenrothes Road Running Festival on Sunday.  Unfortunately only two showed up so I ended up handing out a bunch of them to random people and then taking the rest into school on Monday for the teachers to eat.

Originally I was going to ice them completely yellow...except I did not realise I only had a small amount of icing sugar.  Even the stuff I had needed to be supplemented with a few melted marshmallows.

Simple but still yummy.

Sourdough Cake aka Chain Letter Cake

This was a strange thing and what I have been referring to as 'chain letter cake' talking about it with someone.  In the middle of last week, one of the students in the class I help out in presented my boyfriend's mother with a container of liquid and a set of instructions, saying she had to take care of it and in the end would get a cake.  Since I'm the avid baker, the thing was foisted off onto me.  So I took it home and it was living on my worktop for ten days as the instructions dictated with me having to feed it flour, sugar and milk.

The reason I call it 'chain letter cake' is because on the ninth day, you feed the mixture and then split it into four, passing three parts off to friends.  Admittedly I did not do this bit.  I left the remaining 3/4 in a jug, where it grew overnight and split over my work top.  After that it ended up in the sink.  I'm kinda wishing I had kept it now since the cake I ended up with has gone down well.  Not with me, because I do not like cinnamon or apple or raisins in cakes.  (Picky, I know.)

Making the cake itself was very easy.  Basically putting all the ingredients into the remaining part, mixing it up and baking it.  I had to bake it for longer than instructed.  The middle would just not cook.  Eventually I was getting fed up because it was taking forever to cook the middle at the bottom so I moved it down a shelf to speed it up.  Within a few minutes the bottom was burnt so I'm a bit miffed about that.  I think I'll move that shelf up a bit.  That's the second time something has burnt sitting on it.

After researching, it turns out that what I was given was a sourdough starter, which is used by a lot of bakers.  You feed it regularly and it will grow into more sourdough thanks to the yeast that develops inside.  You can then use some of it to make things like cakes and bread.

Unfortunately this means I cannot give you the whole recipe because you need a sourdough starter.  But if you can acquire one, then you can do this cake too.

Recipe: adapted from the recipe that came with my sour dough starter

Makes a 20cm square cake

• 1/4 pint/150ml sourdough starter
• 200g/7oz caster sugar
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 256g/9oz plain flour
• 150ml/5 fl.oz cooking oil (I used rapeseed)
•  2 eggs
• 2 tsp vanilla essence
• 2 cooking apples
• 1 cup raisins (or sultanas or a mix of the two, which is what I had)
• 2 heaped tsp cinnammon
• 2 heaped tsp baking powder

1. Preheat the oven to 180°C/350°F/Gas Mark 4 and grease a 20cm/8inch cake tin.
2. Cut the apples into chunks. 
3. Mix everything together in a large bowl and then pour into the greased tin.
4. Bake in the oven for about an hour, or until a skewer pushed through the middle comes out clean (mine took almost 2 hours to cook).

Rainbow Pinwheel Biscuits

So, when I last made spiral biscuits, what I was actually aiming for was something like this.  What a difference the right biscuit dough and good quality food colouring makes!  I recently invested in some more Sugarflair Blossom Tints, having previously purchased the yellow one for making the chicks on my Easter cupcakes.  I was a bit unsure how well the powder would do at colouring dough that was going to be baked in the oven.  But it did not fade!  I was so pleased.

I made these for my friend, Jess.  She was the one that showed me the coloured biscuit idea and said I should make them so since I was seeing her today I wanted to try again and hopefully make a better go of them.  And I did, except for burning a few.  Still getting used to my new oven and this was the first thing to be baked in it.  I put one batch too low down and their bottoms went black.  Oops.

The recipe for the biscuit dough comes from my boyfriend's mum.  This is what she uses for her Easter biscuits and for biscuits for Father Christmas.  It ended up being a good dough, though does start out a bit sticky.  Tastes good too.

Recipe - adapted from a recipe from Mrs McGinlay, and Sounder Studios

Makes about 24

• 225g/8oz self-raising flour
• 115g/4oz butter
• 115g/4oz caster sugar
• 1/2 tsp baking powder
• 1 egg
• Food colouring
• Hundreds and Thousands

1. Rub the butter into the flour.
2. Add the sugar and the baking powder.
3. Beat the egg in a separate bowl and add a little at a time until you get the desired consistency.  (I added my whole egg but probably shouldn't have because it was a sticky dough).
4. Divide the dough into equal amounts and put into separate bowls depending on the number of colours you're using.  I had 5 colours so had five bowls with pieces of dough weighing 98g in each.
5. Add a different colour to each bowl and mix into the dough until distributed evenly.  If your dough is still a bit too sticky, add some more flour to it.
6. Prepare 2-3 baking trays with greaseproof paper and preheat the oven to 180°C/350°F/Gas Mark 4.
7. Break off a small piece of dough from each colour and roll each into a ball.
8. Roll the balls of dough together into a bigger ball to get something that resembles a beach ball.
9. Now roll that out into a long sausage.
10. Curl the dough around itself into a circular spiral, twisting the dough as you wrap to swirl the colours.  This does take a bit of practice so don't worry if you don't get it right straight away.
11. Roll the edges in the Hundreds and Thousands and then place on one of the trays.  Space them a reasonable distance apart because they do expand a little when baking.
12. Repeat steps 7-11 until all the dough is used up.
13. Bake in the oven for about 15 minutes.
14. Transfer to a cooling rack after baking.