Red, White and Blue Mini Panettones

Hello all, I hope you have had a nice Christmas or a general happy holidays if that's not your thing.  Mine was quite lovely except for the fact that I have been ill since I came off from school!  I was bed-ridden for 3 days, where I did nothing but watch movies on Netflix and sleep.  The Hubby did a wonderful job taking care of me (bringing me food and drinks and sitting with me for a bit) and has ended up being sick himself for his troubles.  It doesn't quite seem to be the same thing: he's really stuffed up whereas I was hurting and suffering an annoying and painful cough.  I've still got the latter.  Curse my weak lungs and the sensitivity to the weather.  It's worse this year though as it is far too easy for me to get out of breath.  I was almost done in by a walk to the train station yesterday (which is 3 minutes away).  

But enough about that.  As I was saying, my Christmas has been lovely.  There were some lovely presents under my  beautiful (if I say so myself since I made all the decorations) Christmas tree and it was nice having dinner with the Dunion side of the Hubby's family, as well as skyping mine.  I even spent a chunk of the day making mince pies because the mother-in-law had requested them.  I made a batch for taking to Christmas dinner and then sent another batch along to Falkirk with the in-laws on Boxing Day when they visited the McGinlay side of the family.  The Hubby and I didn't go.  We took the day to recover.

Now with the Dunion side of the family, one of the siblings hosts Christmas Dinner.  This year it was the Hubby's Aunt Linda.  We all go for our tea and then we all exchange presents with each other.  We didn't go last year since we were down in England visiting my family.  I try and make my presents for extended family.  The year before last it was orange shortbread.  This year, I made panettone since the Dunion side has Italian roots.

I'll say right off the bat, this is not a proper, traditional panettone.  You can probably see that from the photos since they are quite tall and skinny panettone and baked in tin cans.  True panettone would also require a sourdough starter, which I do not have the patience to cultivate or maintain, and several days for proving.  Admittedly, I did have that latter bit but it was slightly scuppered by the being ill thing.  Hence they are not as beautifully fluffy as a real panettone should be.  Finally, I'm not using the most traditional of ingredients.  No mixed fruit or Fiori di Sicilia.  This has cranberries, blueberries, white chocolate and candied peel.  Hence the red, white and blue in the title.  That being said, these are still very yummy and went down well as gifts.

I wanted the panettone to be as fresh as possible so I made them on Christmas Eve.  I just about managed to stay upright whilst doing it.  It gave me a fair bit of trouble.  The dough is ridiculously sticky for a start.  However, I may have added slightly more egg that I was meant to because a bag of sugar fell out the cupboard and upended my jug of beaten egg onto the floor.  There was still some left and I just mixed up 3 new eggs.  The recipe said it is meant to be sticky, but I'm also supposed to be able to knead it into a ball, which was a bit of a hassle and very messy.   It also did not want to rise so I was constantly worried that I had killed the yeast.  I ended up leaving it whilst we went for Christmas Eve tea and board games with the Hubby's parents, sister and sister's boyfriend.  I was praying they had risen by the time I got back so I could cook them before bed.  Otherwise I was going to have to start over again.  I stole eggs from my mother-in-law's kitchen just in case.   Thankfully though, I came home and they had risen.  I'd put them in the oven since I figured it would be a bit warmer in there and that seemed to do the trick.  Baking took forever as I was wanting that golden brown finish on the top and it was pretty late by the time I finally got to go to bed but the blasted things were done.  I would just need to spruce them up and package them the next morning, as well as grab a few photos (what a shame most of them blurred because I forgot to correct the ISO...).

Recipe - adapted from Good Food: Delicious Gifts

Makes 5 


There is a lot of waiting around and a lot of rising to be done with these.  At the least add in 2.5 hours for rising time but may take longer if it is cold.  Mine did.  Along with the prep and cooking time, you're looking at at least 4 hours from start to finish.

Panettone:

•  500g/1lb 2oz plain flour
• 14g/0.5oz easy blend, dried yeast
• 1 tsp salt
• 100g/3.5oz golden caster sugar
• 3 eggs
• 1 tsp vanilla extract
• 200ml/7fl.oz milk
• 200g/7oz butter
• 75g/3oz dried cranberries
• 75g/3oz dried blueberries
• 100g/3.5oz white chocolate chips
• 100g/3.5oz mixed candied peel

To finish:

• 1 egg
• 2 tbsp flaked almonds

1. In a stand mixer fitted with a dough hook, mix the flour, yeast and salt together briefly before adding the sugar and mixing again.
2. Heat the milk in a saucepan until it is hand hot.
3. Beat the eggs with vanilla extract and add to the dry ingredients along with the warmed milk.  Mix to make a soft, sticky dough.
4. Work the dough for a few minutes in the mixer then remove the hook and allow to rest until it has doubled in size (about 1 hour but maybe more if it is cold).
5. Put the hook back in, add the butter to the dough in small pieces and mix to incorporate.  Leave to rise for another hour.
6. Add the cranberries, blueberries, white chocolate chips and mixed peel to the dough and mix in until just incorporated.
7. Grease the bottom of 5 clean 400g soup tins and add a circle of baking parchment.  Cut a strip of baking parchment that is just over double the height of the tin.  Fold in half and place inside the tin to form a collar.  Make sure the parchment sticks out over the top of the tin.
8. Tip the dough out onto a floured surface and knead quickly into a ball (the dough is very sticky so this is quite tricky and messy, I recommend using a dough cutter to help).  Divide the ball into 5 pieces and put one in each of the tins.  Leave to rise for about 30 minutes.
9. Preheat the oven to 180°C/350°F/Gas Mark 4.
10. Beat the egg and brush over the tops of the panettones and sprinkle with the flaked almonds.
11. Bake for about 50 minutes or until the panettones are a deep golden colour.  
12. Cool in the tins on a wire rack.  You should then be able to remove the parchment collar and decorate your tins with a bit of wrapping paper to present as a gift.

Great British Bake Along: Povitica

This was the last thing I was able to do as part of my bake along challenge before I really started to struggle with finding time to do it.  As I have said before, I do hope to be able to go back to the ones I missed/failed miserably at *cough*custard tart*cough*, however, it's dependent on time and the fact I am likely to be distracted with seasonal baking (I have so many pumpkin bakes in mind, it is a bit ridiculous).  I may be able to combine a few challenges with said seasonal baking but we shall see.  So without further ado, let's get on with this Bake Along (for the time being).

Week 8 on the GBBO was Advanced Dough, where the bakers were working with enriched dough.  That means there is a higher percentage of fats, eggs, milk and sugars in the dough, usually resulting in something much richer and sweeter than your average dough.  Deviating from my usual process of attempting the signature challenge, I decided to take on the technical challenge for the week: povitica.  I had never heard of it before the episode but when I saw it, I thought it just looked so cool.  I really wanted to try it as I thought it would be the most challenging.  I also thought it would also make a nice bake to take into work to share.  Sealing the deal was the fact that I had been given the book for the series for my birthday by my brothers, so I had Paul Hollywood's recipe all ready and waiting for me to try.  Obviously, having the full recipe means I did not have as much trouble with this as the bakers did.  That's not to say I did not encounter problems, but I wasn't having to guess anything.  I will admit though, I tampered with the recipe ever so slightly.  I changed out some of the walnuts in the filling recipe for hazelnuts.  I was hoping for a more Nutella like flavour.

I had two issues when making this recipe; one was minor and one was major.  The minor issue came from the fact that the recipe requires a stand mixer with a dough hook to do all the hard work of making the dough.  I do not own such a thing for I can not afford it and even if I could, I have no where that I could keep it.  My lovely yellow kitchen is, unfortunately, quite small and we already struggle to store things (which is actually a problem with our flat in general).  It makes me a bit sad when things rely on mixers in recipes.  It makes things difficult for those of us who still have to do things the old fashioned way!  So I kinda had to muddle through making the dough by hand.  I mixed with a spoon and then kneaded the dough myself for a long time until I got the texture I assumed I was aiming for.

The major issue was the stretching.  You have to stretch the dough by hand after rolling it out to double the size!  It is not an easy feat.  Initially I did not use a bed sheet and had clingfilm covering my partially opened table instead.  Disaster.  The table wasn't big enough and everything stuck to itself.  After I extended the table further I found I could not rotate my dough to fit without it falling to pieces.  So I had a brief strop, where I scrunched it up and threw it down on the table, then went and got a bed sheet and started over.  I was concerned I would somehow ruin the dough by doing this but it didn't seem to have an adverse effect.  The sheet does make things easier but I still struggled with the stretching.  The blasted thing just kept tearing, a massive hole formed in the middle and I was unable to get it to the desired size.  So in the end I got it as big as I could, patched the hole and just went with what I had.  When writing up the recipe, I realised I had been using my hands the wrong way up, so that probably contributed to my problems somewhat but oh well, I know for next time.

Putting on the filling did not prove to be too much of a problem, and neither did rolling and shaping the loaf.  Really, after the stretching mess, everything else was pretty simple and I did end up with a pretty good looking povitica.  I was so pleased when I cut into it and could see all the spirals and that it was cooked all the way through, unlike most of the poor bakers' on GBBO.  I will say, once I tried it, it wasn't really my cup of tea.  But I'm fussy.  You all know that by now.  The lovely ladies I work with all seemed to enjoy it as once again it was eaten up rather fast.

Recipe - adapted from Great British Bake Off: Big Book of Baking


Dough:

• 300g/10oz plain flour
• 40g/1.5oz caster sugar
• 1.5 tsp salt
• 2 tsp fast action dried yeast
• 30g/1oz melted butter
• 1 large egg
• 150ml/5.5fl.oz lukewarm milk
• 1/2 vanilla pod

Filling:

• 60g/2oz butter
• 4 tbsp milk
• 200g/7oz hazelnuts
• 80g/3oz walnut pieces
• 100g/3.5oz caster sugar
• 2 tbsp cocoa powder
• 1/2 vanilla pod
• 1 egg yolk 

Assembly:

• 15g/0.5oz melted butter
• 1 egg white, beaten
• 100g/3.5oz icing sugar
• Cold water 

1. Put the flour and sugar into a large bowl.  Add the salt to one side and the dried yeast to the other.
2. Add in the butter, egg and milk, along with the seeds scraped from the inside of the vanilla pod.
3. Mix them the ingredients together until they start to form a dough, then knead with your hands until it is soft, smooth and stretchy.  (Much easier to do if you have a mixer fitted with a dough hook I'm sure.  Alas, I had to do it with a wooden spoon and my hands).
4. Give the bowl a light coating of oil, shape the dough into a ball and place inside.  Cover with clingfilm and leave to rise in a warm place for about an hour, until the dough has doubled in size.
5. Whilst you wait, make the filling by putting the butter and milk into a small saucepan and melting gently together over a low heat.  Remove the butter from the heat.
6. In a food processor, combine the cocoa powder, sugar, walnuts, hazelnuts and seeds scraped from the vanilla pod.  Blitz into a sandy powder.  Some nut chunks are okay as it will add a nice texture.
7. Add the egg yolk and milk/butter mixture and pulse to combine.  Set aside.
8. Spread a clean bed sheet over a large work surface or table and dust with flour.
9. Roll out your dough into a rectangle that measures 30x50cm/12x19.5inches on the bed sheet.
10. Brush the surface of the dough with the melted butter.
11. Dust your hands with flour then ease them under the dough and carefully start stretching it out from the centre. (Paul Hollywood recommends doing this with your palms facing down so you are using the top of your hands).  It will become very thin and translucent (you should be able to see the sheet through it).  You are aiming for your rectangle to measure 60x100cm/24x39inches.
12. Spread the filling gently over the dough, taking care not to tear it. (If necessary, add a little warm milk to the mixture to loosen it up if it is difficult to spread).  Cover the dough as evenly as possible.
13. Prepare a 1kg loaf tin by greasing it with butter.
14. Starting at one long edge of the dough, gently roll over about an inch of dough to start your roll, then carefully lift the sheet to slowly roll the dough up tightly like a Swiss roll.
15. Carefully pick up the rolled dough and ease one end into the bottom corner of the prepared loaf tin.
16. Wrap the roll around the base of the tin in a U shape and then continue to lay the roll on top of itself to form a second U shape.
17. Place the tin inside a large plastic bag, seal and leave to prove for about an hour.  
18. Preheat the oven to 180°C/350°F/Gas Mark 4.
19. Remove the tin from the plastic bag and give the top of the dough an egg wash with the beaten egg white.
20. Bake in the oven for 15 minutes before turning down the oven temperature to 150°C/300°F/Gas Mark 2 and baking for another 45 minutes. (Cover the top with foil if it starts to burn).
21.  Allow the loaf to cool in the tin for 30 minutes after removing from the oven.  Then turn out onto a wire rack to cool completely.
22. When the loaf is completely cold, mix the icing sugar with a small amount of water to make a runny icing.  Drizzle the icing over the top of the loaf and leave to set.

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Exciting news!  This blog has entered into the UK Blog Awards 2015.  Voting starts November 10th so hopefully I can count on your support!

Individual Honey and Walnut Cheesecakes

Dessert Challenge time has rolled around once again!  And once again we have a classic combination that I have never encountered before!  This month's ingredients are honey and walnut and my contribution is little, individual cheesecakes!  Also, as an added bonus, these cheesecakes are both sugar free and wheat free, as all the sugar is replaced with honey and the base is made of nuts! 

When I sat down to think about this challenge I was at a bit of a loss.  Honey and walnut is not something I've really used in combination and I've only used honey...once I believe as a significant ingredient, back when I made that honeycomb layer cake.  Oh wait, there was also that honey wheat bread.  But yes, for the most part, not really worked with this month's ingredients.  Hence I decided to turn to Google and see what came up for the two of them.  Of course, the most popular result was baklava!  I did consider baklava.  But it does involve my nemesis: pastry!  And you know me, I am wanting to make my own pastry.  I can't just buy it from a shop!  But baklava requires phyllo pastry, which is possibly one of the most terrifying looking pastries to make and I didn't think I was quite ready to attempt that.  Besides, I don't have a big enough table for all the stretching.

So it was back to the drawing board.  To be honest, I am not entirely sure how I eventually ended up at cheesecakes.  I have never made cheesecake ever.  Nor have I eaten it.  It just doesn't really appeal to me.  But that never stops me from making something.  Some browsing around yielded that I could use walnuts to make a base so that was great and I figured I could get the honey bit into the cheesecake's filling somehow.  It was then I had an idea!  Honey can be used as a sugar substitute so why not substitute the sugar in the filling for honey!  Clearly this was a stroke of genius!  So I looked into ratios and advice of substituting honey.  When it came to cheesecakes though, most places recommended against it due to the liquid content.  But one site did have some suggestions on how it could be done so I took inspiration from there.  I then found a simple looking cheesecake recipe to work from and was set!

Now obviously, when you have no experience either making or eating something then it is clearly a great idea to mess with a recipe!  You may have guessed that the first attempt did not go quite to plan.  Its main problem was the base.  My first issue was that I did not have ground almonds.  Well, I did but they were out of date so I couldn't use them and I hadn't ordered more.  I should really not be so lazy about walking over to the kitchen and checking these things when I am ordering my weekly shop.  Anyway, it meant I ended up substituting in more walnuts.  I also did not bake the base on its own, because the recipe I was adapting didn't either.  I had also read that nuts could burn much more easily than a biscuit base and didn't want to risk cooking them for too long.  The result after baking the whole thing was that I had a greasy base that remained rather gross and soggy even after the cases were removed.  They also fell apart very easily and were apparently quite bitter tasting.  Oh dear.  The topping was apparently quite nice according to my lovely tasters at Markinch Primary School, which was something at least because I had no idea if it had come out correctly.  I had kept them in the oven a lot longer than recommended because I could not work out if they were cooked or not.  However, overall, I was not happy.  So I made a second attempt the following weekend.

This time I made some changes.  I actually put the ground almonds in this time and I baked the base sans topping for a bit first to try and firm it up somewhat.  I had also been unhappy with the presentation of the previous cakes because I had used very large cases to line my tins.  Too large and so they folded in and caused the final cakes to have weird shapes.  This time, I used smaller cases.  I also decided to pipe my filling in, rather than use a spoon since it gave a smoother finish.  I stuck to the cooking time too.  I could actually see a change in colour on this attempt.  I couldn't with the last batch which is why I cooked them longer than I should have.  My final changes came with the decoration.  Before I had just drizzled them with honey and topped with a walnut.  I figured I could do better and go a bit fancier.  So I made a honey glaze to coat the walnuts and then roasted them!  And then made a honey sauce for drizzling.

And the final result?  A VAST improvement!  For a start, they looked much nicer and more appetising.  The bases were not greasy though they were still a little soft in comparison to a normal cheesecake base.  And the taste was much, MUCH better according to my tasters.  These ones were scoffed!  I was very pleased.  I am definitely getting better at this baking thing if I can mess with a recipe to such an extent and get a great result on the second attempt.  Of course, I would have preferred it to be right first time around but I am still very happy!

Recipe - inspired by Bill Granger, via GoodFood

Makes 12 individual cheesecakes

Base:

• 100g/3.5oz walnut halves
• 55g/2oz ground almonds
• 50g/1.7oz butter 

Filling:

• 400g/14oz cream cheese
• 55g/2oz runny honey 
• 100ml/3.5fl.oz sour cream
• 1 egg yolk
• 1/2 tsp vanilla extract
• Zest of half a lemon

Honey Roasted Walnuts:

• 30g/1oz runny honey
• Pinch of cayenne pepper
• 55g/2oz walnut halves

Honey Drizzle:

• 55g/2oz runny honey
• 15g/0.5oz butter
• 1 tsp water 

1. Preheat the oven to 160°C/325°F/Gas Mark 3 and line a 12 hole muffin tin with paper cases.
2. Blend the walnuts into crumbs in a food processor.
3. Melt the butter in a small saucepan and then add it and the ground almonds to the walnuts.  Mix to combine.
4. Divide the nut mixture between the paper cases and press flat.
5. Bake for about 20 minutes.
6. Meanwhile, make the filling by first mixing the cream cheese, sour cream and honey together in a large bowl until smooth.
7. Add the egg yolk, vanilla extract and lemon zest and mix to combine.
8. Either spoon or pipe the mixture into the prepared cases on top of the walnut base.
9. Put back in the oven and bake for about 20 minutes, or until the topping has puffed up and started to change colour.
10. Switch off the oven and leave the door ajar.  Let the cheesecakes rest in the oven for about 30 minutes before removing and carefully transferring to a wire rack to finish cooling.
11. Whilst the cheesecakes cool, make the honey roasted walnuts.  Cover 2 small trays with baking parchment and preheat the oven to 150°C/300°F/Gas Mark 1.  
12. Put the honey in a small saucepan and heat gently until it becomes thin and very, very runny.
13. Stir in the cayenne pepper with a rubber spatula.
14. Add the walnut halves and stir until they are fully coated. 
15. Spread the coated walnuts out onto one of the trays in a single layer and then bake in the oven for about 10 minutes.
16. Remove from the oven and transfer to the other tray and allow to cool so that the glaze sets.
17. When the cheesecakes have cooled, press a glazed walnut piece into the top and then store in the fridge until ready to serve.
18. Make the glaze shortly before serving.  Put the honey, butter and water into a small saucepan.
19. Cook over a gentle heat until the butter melts and the honey turns thin.  Whisk together for about 5 minutes.
20. Remove from the heat and allow to cool.  It will darken and thicken.
21. To serve, remove the cheesecakes from their cases and plate.  Give the sauce a quick whisk and then drizzle over the top of the cheesecakes.

Ferrero Rocher (Chocolate and Hazelnut) Cake

It was the birthday of one of the fiancé's friends yesterday and so I offered to make a birthday cake for the occasion.  Well, actually I offered to make it last week with the intention of having it done for Saturday since that is when they were having their birthday party.  A Ferrero Rocher cake was requested, since the cupcakes I made had been a favourite of theirs.  I thought this would be an interesting challenge because ideally I still wanted a nut and nutella filling in the centre of every cake slice, rather than just having a layer of nutella and nuts between the cake layers (though I did end up doing both).  And then I had the idea to make it spherical!  I had invested in some hemisphere pans from Lakeland at the start of the year and so far had not had an excuse to use them.  This could be perfect and then the cake could look like a giant Ferrero Rocher!

Now, I bet you're thinking, 'But Becca, that cake in the picture isn't spherical.  That's a standard, round cake.'  Well, you're right, it isn't spherical.  It's not spherical because the spherical cake was a disaster.  When I set out, all seemed to be going well though I did discover I had lost the accompanying sheet of instructions for the tins and therefore was not sure how much to fill them by and since I was working from a cupcake recipe, I was going to have to work out the timing as I went.  My initial guess at the amount to fill the tin by was way off, since I put the entire amount in, and the thing overflowed.  In spite of that though, the cake itself came out pretty perfect.  A lovely hemisphere indeed, especially after I cut off the overflow.  It did take forever to cook all the way through but it was beautifully moist and no part of it was overcooked.  I was rather pleased as I whipped up a second batch of mixture, with the intention of only filling the tin with half of it this time.  

This is where things started to go wrong.  I only have one of each size of tin, so I had to bake the two halves one after the other in the same tin.  On the first one, I took the time to both grease the tin and line it with greaseproof paper.  As you can imagine, this is really quite fiddly.  However, I'd found a review of the pans whilst the first half was baking (to help me work out how much I should fill it so it didn't overflow again) that said the instructions only called for the pan to be greased.  No paper should be needed as it was supposed to be non-stick, something that would improve over uses due to a natural patina building up.  Well, cool, I thought and on the second go I only greased the pan.  I bet you can guess what happened?  The cake stuck.  According to what I had read, a couple of shakes was all that was needed to release the cake from the tin.  My couple of shakes caused the centre of the cake to fall out.  Oh dear.  I was not happy but I still had batter left so I cleaned the tin, lined it with paper this time and put the rest of the mixture in.  It would be fine, if getting late in the day as it was about 11pm by this point.

The third attempt didn't even get to finish cooking.  Whilst attempt two had been in the oven, I had decided to start filling the first half of the cake.  I cut out a 'tunnel' in the flat side of the hemisphere and filled it with nutella and hazelnuts.  My intention was to mirror it on the other half so once they were sandwiched together and then sliced, there would be a 'core' that ran through each slice.  I'm sure it would have been awesome...if the cake had not collapsed in on itself, with my assistance.  The cake had been fine with its filling until just after I put in attempt three.  It was then that I noticed a split had occurred on one side of the first half.  Concerned, I tried to patch it with nutella but I needed something to hold it together.  So I moved it to sit inside a slightly smaller hemisphere pan.  It certainly squeezed the crack shut, but it also caused the centre of the cake to drop out and all the filling to spill.  It was in pieces and therefore ruined.  The fiancé had to pause his running of his online RPG to come comfort me after he heard the wail from the kitchen.  I then proceeded to turn the oven off and sulk on the sofa for the remainder of the evening before the fiancé finished up and we went to bed.

Looking back, I think I know what my major mistake was.  I should have let the cakes cool in the tin.  It's something I usually do but have never given consideration as to why.  You do it because it improves the cake's structure.  I'm not sure how (I should find out), but it does.  Many a cake collapse can be put down to not cooling in the tins.  Also, gravity didn't help and I should not have essentially suspended my cake during my attempts to save it.  But really, if it was cracking under its own weight, it would definitely not have been able to support the top half of the sphere when it got put on anyway.

So that's why the cake is just a regular, round cake.  I was tempted to try the sphere again but I decided I would risk it on something that wasn't meant to be a gift for someone else.  I already messed up by not providing a cake for the party (and he was so nice about it too) I was not going to let anyone down a second time.  A small part of me thinks that not having the sphere cake done for said party was probably okay since it turned out there were more people than I had thought.  I had assumed it would just be the fiancé's usual group but turns out there were 14 people in total instead.  I don't think the sphere would have been big enough in the end. Plus it probably would have been a pain to try and get it to Dundee on the train.  It wouldn't have fit in my cake transporter and if it went in one of the large tupperware boxes I'd probably have to pad it to stop it rolling about the place.  In future I shall save spheres for cakes that are not travelling very far.

I have to say, I was rather pleased with the finished product.  For a plain looking cake it still looked inviting, especially with that gold ribbon wrapped around it.  I thought that added a nice touch of flair and could represent the gold foil of the Ferrero Rocher.  Those of you who saw the cupcake version will probably have noticed that I took things a step further in this cake, as I decided to coat it in melted chocolate just to drive home that it is meant to be a Ferrero Rocher cake.  Part of me thinks I should have made a ganache but I don't always seem to have much success with it.  I attempted to make a chocolate and raspberry tart last week but it failed miserably, and part of that was down to the ganache splitting for unknown reasons.  Honestly, ganache seems like such a simple thing to make on paper but I never quite get it right.  I will conquer you one day you wretched beast!  So yeah, melted chocolate it was.

So the verdict on the taste is?  Well, one person said it was the best cake they've ever had in their life.  One was lost for words and had been 'reduced to a drooling caveman' and the birthday boy thought it was amazing.  I got phoned up to be told personally rather than waiting for the fiancé to get back and relay the result.  Obviously I am unbelievably chuffed with that response. 

Recipe:

Cake - adapted from The Hummingbird Bakery: Cake Days

Makes 2 x 20cm/8inch round layers

• 80g/3oz butter
• 280g/10oz caster sugar
• 200g/7oz plain flour
• 40g/1.5oz cocoa powder
• 1/4 tsp salt
• 1 tbsp baking powder
• 2 large eggs
• 240ml/8fl.oz milk
• 50g/1.75oz hazelnuts

1. Preheat the oven to 190°C/375°F/Gas Mark 5 and grease and line two 20cm/8inch round cake tins.
2. In a large bowl, beat together the butter, sugar, flour, cocoa powder, salt and baking powder until you get a mixture that resembles sand in texture.  To get the last of the lumps of butter out you may wish to rub it in with your fingers.
3. Put the eggs and milk in a jug and whisk together.
4. Pour three quarters of the egg milk into the dry ingredients and mix in until incorporated.
5. Scrape down the edges of the bowl and add the rest of the liquid, beating until smooth and even.
6. Crush the hazelnuts and beat into the mixture.
7. Divide the mixture between the prepared cake tins and then bake in the oven for  30-35 minutes until risen, springy to the touch and a skewer inserted in the middle comes out clean.
8. Allow to rest in the tins for about half an hour before turning out onto a wire rack to finish cooling.  Cakes must be cooled completely before decorating. 

Filling:

• 340g/12oz Nutella
• 100g/3.5oz roasted hazelnuts   

1. Once the cakes have cooled, place them with the topside of the bottom layer and the underside of the top layer facing upwards.
2. Use a knife to trace around a 15cm/6inch circle (I used a cake tin) in the centre of each cake layer, being careful not to cut very deep.
3. Do the same again with a 9cm/4inch circle.
4. Now carefully remove some of the cake between the two sets of knife lines so you have a  dipped, circular ring running around the cakes about 5cm/2inches away from the edges.
5. Put the Nutella in a saucepan and heat gently, stirring all the time until it reaches a runnier consistency.  Fill the rings with Nutella and then use the rest to cover the remaining tops of the cakes (the very centre and the two inch border around the edge).
6. Top the Nutella inside the rings with whole hazelnuts.
7. Crush the remaining hazelnuts and sprinkle over the rest of the Nutella.
8. Carefully but quickly turn the top layer over on top of the bottom layer. Make sure you have one hand under the base and not both holding the sides or it will cave in on itself before you get a chance to flip it.  If it lands a little lopsided (mine did), gently adjust it.

Chocolate Buttercream:

• 200g/7oz butter
• 400g/14oz icing sugar
• 155g/5.5oz milk chocolate
• 175g/6oz roasted hazelnuts

1. Melt the chocolate in a glass bowl placed over a pan of lightly simmering water (but not touching the water).
2. Beat the butter in a bowl until creamy.
3. Sift in the icing sugar and mix in until your buttercream is pale and fluffy.
4. Pour in the melted chocolate and beat until evenly incorporated.
5. Use a butter knife to apply a very thin layer of buttercream to the top and sides of the cake to create a crumb coat.
6. Use a rubber spatula to cover the cake with the rest of the buttercream and make sure it is smooth.
7. Crush the hazelnuts with a rolling pin and press the pieces into the buttercream, covering the whole cake.
8. Put in the fridge to chill and set the buttercream.

Chocolate Shell:

• 200g/7oz milk chocolate

1. Melt the chocolate in a glass bowl placed over a pan of lightly simmering water (but not touching the water). 
2. Remove the cake from the fridge and sit it on a wire rack suspended over a tray.
3. Pour on top of the cake in the centre and then coax it towards and over the sides so that it covers all of the nuts and buttercream.  You can use a rubber spatula to help smooth the chocolate out but be gentle in case you dislodge the nuts.
4. Leave to set.  

Ferrero Rocher (Chocolate and Hazelnut) Cupcakes

So after I met the challenge for After Eight cupcakes so successfully I was asked for Ferrero Rocher cupcakes by the fiancé's friends in Dundee.  Now I know such a thing has been done before, several times in fact (so many different pictures came up when I Googled it) but for the most part they've baked a Ferrero Rocher into the centre of the cake, or placed one on top.  I didn't investigate beyond photos, because I like developing my own ideas without being too influenced by someone else's (because where's the fun in that?).  Incorporating a Ferrero Rocher is fine and I'm sure it is delicious but I wanted to make things difficult for myself and try and recreate the thing in cake form, complete with all its layers!  That shouldn't be too difficult, right?

Hence my first task was looking into exactly what made up a Ferrero Rocher.  I knew it was chocolate and hazelnuts and I had eaten a couple in my life (I'm not really a nutty chocolate person) but I wanted to get this right.  Wikipedia describes them thusly:

"..a whole roasted hazelnut encased in a thin wafer shell filled with hazelnut cream...and covered in milk chocolate and chopped hazelnut."

Now, I knew said 'hazelnut cream' was a chocolate cream so obviously my version would be something similar and when you think hazelnut and chocolate I think most people are going to think of Nutella.  So that was that bit solved.  For the most part, the rest was obvious: a chocolate cake, chocolate buttercream and chopped nuts, plus a whole nut dipped in chocolate to go in the centre.  I knew I wanted to find a cake recipe that used a lot of milk, as well as cocoa powder, since it is meant to be milk chocolate and I always get nice moist cakes when I do that.  I had many books of chocolate cake recipes to hand though so finding one of those was pretty easy (I found it in the second book I looked at).  Really, the only problem I had with that bit was actually finding hazelnuts, since my supermarket didn't sell them.  I eventually managed to grab some in Holland&Barrett.

The bit I had to think a lot about was the wafer shell.  How on earth was I going to achieve that?  My solution was to make tuille wafers, which are really thin biscuits which can be moulded into shape right after they come out the oven.  I decided to shape them into rings to sit inside the centre of the cakes and would then fill them with Nutella and the chocolate covered hazelnut.  A good plan in theory, except for one obvious flaw that I was aware of but figured was worth ignoring for the sake of experimentation: biscuits take on the taste and texture of the things around them.  That's why you don't store two different types of biscuit together in the same tin.  So of course, whilst the wafer started out nice and crispy, it went soft once it had been sitting inside the cake for a while.  This was not detrimental to the cake but it was a little disappointing.  Hence I'm tempted to say that part of the method is optional, though the fiancé says I should include it anyway because not doing it might take something away from the overall cake.  I'm wondering if next time I should bake the biscuit inside the cake?  Maybe that would make a difference?  Though filling it afterwards might be difficult since it wouldn't be easy to work out exactly where to cut the hole.

I will admit, I was a bit disappointed when I had finished them.  I was worried about the soft biscuit and I wasn't sure if I should have covered the tops of the cake with melted chocolate or not.  I chose not to because I thought I would lose a lot of the nuts in the dipping process.  I was also hugely annoyed at myself for not checking my supply of muffin cases to see if I had enough gold foil ones.  I was just convinced I was fine, only to discover on the day that I only had three.  The rest had to go into brown ones which didn't look anywhere near as good.  So when the fiancé ate the one I cut up for photos I was worried about what he might say.

Turned out it I was worrying over nothing (as I have a tendency to do it seems) as it was good things apparently.  He really liked it.  Lovely light, moist cake with the crunchy hazelnut.  The crunch from the nuts made up for the loss of the biscuit, which almost disappeared into the cake taste-wise.  Almost.  He also alieviated my concerns about not dipping in chocolate by saying he thinks that would have overwhelmed it and the nuts would have been lost flavour-wise.  They were very well received by his friends too and ended up competing with previous favourites such as the chocolate orange buttercream, After Eights and hot chocolate cupcakes.  Another success in that apparently they were just like a Ferrero Rocher.  Huzzah!

Recipe - makes about 14

Cakes - adapted from The Hummingbird Bakery: Cake Days

• 80g/3oz butter
• 280g/10oz caster sugar
• 200g/7oz plain flour
• 40g/1.5oz cocoa powder
• 1/4 tsp salt
• 1 tbsp baking powder
• 2 large eggs
• 240ml/8fl.oz milk

1. Preheat the oven to 190°C/375°F/Gas Mark 5 and line muffin tins with 14 muffin cases (ideally gold foil to get that Ferrero Rocher feel).
2. In a large bowl, beat together the butter, sugar, flour, cocoa powder, salt and baking powder until you get a mixture that resembles sand in texture.  To get the last of the lumps of butter out you may wish to rub it in with your fingers.
3. Put the eggs and milk in a jug and whisk together.
4. Pour three quarters of the egg milk into the dry ingredients and mix in until incorporated.
5. Scrape down the edges of the bowl and add the rest of the liquid, beating until smooth and even.
6. Divide the mixture amongst the muffin cases, filling about two thirds full and then bake in the oven for 18-20 minutes until risen, springy to the touch and a skewer inserted in the middle comes out clean.
7. Let them cool in the tins for 15 minutes before transferring to a wire rack.

Tuille Wafer Rings - adapted from The Great British Bake Off: How To Bake
You will end up with more batter than you need but I figured it's better to be safe than sorry because the wafers can snap if you're not quick enough to shape them.
This is also optional.  You don't have to make the wafer shells for the centres if you don't want. 

• 1 large egg white
• 60g/2oz caster sugar
• 35g/1.25oz butter, plus extra for greasing
• 1/4 tsp vanilla extract
• 35g/1.25oz plain flour

1. Grease 2-3 baking trays with butter.
2. Melt the butter and then allow to cool.
3. Whisk the egg white to stiff peaks.
4. Gently whisk in the sugar a little at a time until incorporated.
5. Add the melted butter and vanilla and whisk in.
6. Sift in the flour and carefully fold in with a metal spoon.
7. Spoon a teaspoon of mixture onto the tray and spread into a thin rectangle about 10cm long.  You'll probably get four to a tray as they do spread quite a lot.
8. Bake for about 5 minutes, until they are pale gold and the edge have started to brown.
9. Remove from the oven, let stand for about 15 seconds and then use a palette knife to separate them from the tray.  Do this one at a time and as soon as you pick one up, bend it into a ring shape that is of a smaller diameter than your cakes.  If you ended up with quite wide biscuits (making for tall rings, which I did) you can quickly cut them in half first and then bend them.  If the biscuits on the tray firm up too much for bending, pop them back in the oven for about a minute to soften up again. 

 Chocolate Buttercream:

• 140g/5oz butter
• 280g/10oz icing sugar
• 100g/3.5oz milk chocolate

1. Melt the chocolate in a glass bowl placed over a pan of lightly simmering water (but not touching the water).
2. Beat the butter in a bowl until creamy.
3. Sift in the icing sugar and mix in until your buttercream is pale and fluffy.
4. Pour in the melted chocolate and beat until evenly incorporated.
5. Put into a piping bag fitted with a large, round nozzle.

Assembly:

• 75g/3oz hazelnuts, plus 14 extra ones for the centres
• 25g/1oz milk chocolate
• 100g/3.5oz Nutella

1. Melt the chocolate as for the buttercream.
2. Dip the 14 hazelnuts for the centre in the chocolate to coat them completely and then leave to set.
3. Put the Nutella in a small saucepan and heat it gently, stirring as you do until it has a slightly runnier consistency, just to make it easier to get into the cakes.  Transfer to a small bowl.
4. Sit one of the wafer rings on top of each cake and use as a guide by cutting around the outside of it to make the hole in the centre of the cake.  Depth of the hole will depend on the height of the ring.  Make sure to keep the bit you cut out.  If not using the wafer ring, just cut a core out the cake and go to step 6.
5. Place the wafer ring inside the hole.
6. Put 1 teaspoon of Nutella into each hole, followed by a chocolate covered nut.  Add more Nutella if you have enough.
7. Cut the very top off each core you cut out and place it back on top of each cake.  Press down gently.
8. Pipe a flat spiral of buttercream on top of each cake, starting from the outside and working your way to the centre.
9. Crush the remaining 75g/3oz hazelnuts into small pieces and then dip each cake in them, making sure to cover all the buttercream.