Chocolate Ripple Cheesecake

This a quick post as I'm tryign to make the deadline for this week's WeeklyBakeOff. What you should probably understand is that cheesecakes are kind of my 'thing'. They are one of the first things I started to bake and I've always used the same recipe which uses soured cream as well as cream cheese and whisks the egg whites into stiff peaks. It is by no means fool proof and often cracks but produces a deliciously light cheesecake. So I wasn't sure whether to enter this week but I had cream cheese in the fridge and chocolate left over from the bake off so I thought I'd give it a go.

I must admit that, true to form, I adapted the recipe to avoid buying extra ingredients. Cocoa powder was added to plain digestives as I didn't have chocolate ones. In hindsight I wish I'd just used the plain biscuits as I think the cocoa made the base bit softer. The recipe called for plain chocolate but I wanted to use up the leftover white and milk chocolate I had so I used that and added a bit of cocoa powder for a darker look and an extra chocolatey flavour. Also, some of the cream cheese I used was low fat but it seemed to work, the cake was a bit cracked but I was fairly pleased with it.



As you can see I ended up with a layer of the layer of the plain cheesecake and a chocolate so it could have done with being mixed up a bit better but I was worried about mixing it together too much and losing the ripple look. The cake was nice and disappeared quickly when I took it into the office; it was a thick and rich cheesecake and although it was tasty it won't be taking over from my trusty recipe.

I'm thinking of starting a quest for the ultimate cheesecake so let me know if you have a good recipe and I'll out it to a blind tasting test :)

The Great Brixton Bake Off

So the task finally arrived and I was the project manager. I was scared and excited for my first market; aware that a lot of the stalls would be professionals I was a bit concerned that no-one would buy any of my cakes and I would be left with hundreds of cakes and a big belly! Although preparations had been going on for quite some time (getting insurance and hygeine certificates and sourcing bags, stamps, ingedients etc.) with our freezer dead the actual baking was all to be done the day before the bake off.



Knowing that I had a big task ahead of me (and that our landlord was due to make an inspection) my day off began early with a good breakfast and cleaning the flat (people who saw the state of it later that night/the next morning might say this was pointless but I wanted to start on a clean slate. And there was the Landord!). All in all I would say that I a) underestimated how long everything would take; b) was way too relaxed about it all at the start of the day; c) need more than one of each size cake tin.



By the time by sister arrived to help at about 8 o'clock it was clear that I wasn't going to get much sleep. Having eaten a lot of cake mix but no meal since breakfast (and the kitchen obviously being out of bounds for anything other than cake baking!) we ordered a takeaway and Kate set to work on stamping my bags and making cake stands.



In the end I got no sleep and my sister woke up at 7am to find me still in the kitchen, bleary eyed and covered in icing sugar! All hands were on deck to set up the stall and I was quite pleased with it in the end. It certainly wasn't as jam packed with cake as some stalls but I felt it had plenty of personal touches :)

Despite the rain (which was relentless) Brixton out did itself with it's impressive turn out and I enjoyed my first venture into market trading! But about the cakes.........



After the bacon cake being such a hit last week, I decided to release it to the public! I won't write much as I've already blogged about this but I did use more bacon this time and it only improved this indulgent cake! Almost everyone passing my stall did a double take and were reluctant at first but once I'd put out some samples I won most people over (apart from some unsuspecting vegetarians eager for free cake!)

Next up, my bestseller: Rum and ginger beer cupcakes. These were ginger beer cupcakes (crucially made with ginger beer aswell as ground ginger) topped with a rum and lime frosting and decorated with a slice of lime. I had made the frosting before but this development was inspired by one of my favourite drinks and proved very popular! I want to experiment more with boozy cupcakes as I think they are good for celebrations and always go down well :)



I had planned to adapt my mum's carrot cake recipe into cupcakes and top with cream cheese icing and a walnut. I am probably biased but I think my mum's carrot cake is the best ever (and I have tasted many!) - the secret is that it has banana in it which makes a very moist cake. You usually can't taste the banana but I think the bananas I used were a bit too big and the taste was quite distinctive so these became carrot and banana cupcakes but I still managed to sell out!

Lastly I made bigger versions of the filled shortbread I have made several times. These are made by cutting two circles of shortbread dough, putting chocolate/a dollop of chocolate ganache/jam/caramel (this time I went with milk chooclate, white chocolate and raspberry jam) on one circle then placing the other on top and moulding so that the edges are sealed. These were tasty and one woman bought nearly all my raspberry ones but I think I prefer making the little dainty ones.

Unfortunately in the manic early morning rush, I forgot my camera so I don't have as many picture as I would like - especially of the cakes. By the time I started packing up at about 4pm my feet were killing me and I realised that I hadn't sat down for 17 hours! Despite the comatose state I was in by the end, it was a great experience and I'm hoping to do another market soon - there are definitely a few things I would do differently:
1. Sleep!
2. Take my camera
3. I would really like to have plastic pods or boxes for my cupcakes but this is an added expense.....
4. Meet more of the other stallholders - for some reason I was quite nervous of leaving my stall!
5. Have some savoury options on offer for those without a sweet tooth

The day also had a competition element and the judging panel, which included Levi Roots, the mayor of Lambeth and Victor Scalzo of Patisserie Valerie visited each stall and tasted their offerings. Unfortunately Levi doesn't eat bacon but he tucked into my rum and ginger beer cupcakes and overall they seemed to enjoy my unusual flavours! I want to say a huge well done to all the winners:

Overall winner: Anna Smith Bakes
Cakes: Mahalias Kitchen
Cupcakes: The Carob Pod
Biscuits and Bites: Lillyput
Fruit Pies: Anna Smith Bakes
Bread: Pistachio Rose

A round up of the market can be found here: http://brixtonia.wordpress.com/tag/great-brixton-bake-off/ and GreenBeanLondon's film of the event features my horrendous voice (it really is horrednous, I maintain that is not my voice and I put on a posh voice when I'm nervous. If it makes you want to punch me, I feel the same but please look past that!) http://bit.ly/JLol2p

'Bake-on' Chocolate

As a child I can remember firmly rejecting my Granddad's bread and butter pudding without trying a bite and for years I maintained for years that I didn't like cheesecake. However, slowly I have realised that I have a love for mixing sweet and savoury. I know some people hate it but I love pineapple on pizza, sultanas in curry or naan, apple or pomegranite in salads... I can recall the magical moment of madness when I first risked a bacon and maple pancake without any real hope that I would enjoy the result. I was sold. One of my favourite breakfasts (a high accolade as breakfast is probably my favourite meal - unless maybe you count afternoon tea...?) is now eggy bread with bacon and maple syrup - I cannot get enough of it!


I'd been thinking for a while that I'd like to make a cake version of this breakfast combo but maple syrup isn't cheap and with the end of the month looming and my bank balance running low, I was determined to use the contents of my cupboards. I had chocolate left over from Easter and a few google searches assured me that I wasn't completely mad so I set about adapting a combination of recipes to fit what I had in the depths of my kitchen!

My housemate was not happy about my meaty cakey experiment. In fact she was angry and when I arrived at Apprentice Club with my creation it was greeted with crossed arms and a scowl. Appreciating that this cake would demand everyone's full attention, I waited until the end of a controversial episode - involving shorter shorts than is ever healthy - before imposing it on my company (they didn't really have a choice!)


It was good. Even my more than skeptical housemate was helping herself to more. One friend who sat in almost silence with his cake later sent me this message: 'Having now finished my homework for the eve and having had time to reflect, I can quite honestly say that the combination of flavours was better than beer and cheese - and for a welshman, life don't come much better than brains and brie. Thankyou.'


This recipe was adapted from the BBC Food website and I think I'll be changing it slightly when I make it again (won't be long....). I'm not very good at following recipes so it's probably better to follow the orginial but I'll post tips and comments as I test it out :) The original recipe was for cupcakes but I did a three layer cake in a 15" tin. I'm also thinking of making chocolate and bacon biscuits/cookies to really exploit the sweet and salty taste.


Ingredients:
10 slices bacon
100g/3.5 oz milk chocolate
225g/8oz plain flour
50g/2oz cocoa powder
250g/9oz caster sugar
2 tsp bicarbonate of soda
1 tsp baking powder
2 free-range eggs
50ml/2fl oz strong coffee, cooled
6 tablespoons yoghurt
2 tablespoons milk
120ml/4fl oz vegetable oil

Recipe:
Preheat the oven to about 180C (I put mine a bit lower as it's fan) Grill the bacon until crispy, allow to cool and then crumble up the bacon onto a lined baking tray. Melt the chocolate and pour it over the bacon. Allow the chocolate to set and then break up into little chocolatel bacon bites.
Beat together the eggs, yoghurt, milk, oil and coffee. Sift in the dry ingredients and mix well. Stir in the bacon chocolate chips.
Pour the mixture into a lined and greased tin and bake for about half an hour (I can't remember exactly how long mine was in for but until a knife/skewer comes out clean) Leave to cool.
The BBC recipe topped their cupcakes with a chocolate frosting. I didn't want to overpower the bacon with too much chocolate so settled on a buttercream frosting with a little caramel added. Next time I'm thinking of making a salted caramel frosting - overkill....?

Frosting:
(amounts are rough as I always find you need to add the icing sugar as you go to get the right consistency and how much you need will depend on thick you like your icing!)

80g/ butter
325g/ sifted icing sugar
6 tablespoons caster sugar
6 tablespoons water

Cream the butter then add the icing sugar and beat until light and well mixed (I find that adding just half first minimises the 'covered in icing sugar looking like a ghost' effect!)
Pour the sugar into a pan, cover with the water and place over a low heat. Simmer over a low heat (too not let the mixture boil rapidly) without stirring until a golden caramel colour.
Mix the caramel mixture into the buttercream. Allow both the cake and frosting to cool before icing.

I have made this my first entry for AlphaBakes (hopefully I'm not too late) a monthly baking challenge hosted by The More than Occasional Baker and Caroline Makes. The More than Occasional Baker is hosting this month's challenge and the letter is B. So B is for Bacon!

Gluten Free Chocolate Truffle Cake

Looking forward to a Sunday lunch with mine and my boyfriend’s families, I offered to bring dessert. My options were restricted by the fact that mum can’t eat wheat and my dad doesn’t believe in pudding without chocolate. I came across Gluten Free Goddesses Chocolate Truffle Cake (recipe found here)which seemed to be mainly chocolate, cream, sugar and eggs. Sounded perfect to me and wonderfully easy :)

I replaced the vanilla extract with Baileys (a bit of a trait of mine!); and added some almond meal to make it a bit more ‘cake’ than truffle’ and decorated with cocoa powder and white chocolate. It went down very well. I must say that it was definitely a dessert rather than a cake and perhaps more just chocolate! Nevertheless it tasted wonderful, especially teamed with a few strawberries and a generous serving of cream.


I will certainly be keeping this in my collection of gluten free sweet treats.

Baking Failure

So it turns out I can’t make hot cross buns. After being inspired by @WeeklyBakeOff, I decided to make some to take home for Easter. I followed The Pink Whisk’s recipe and made half a batch of buns and half of swirls. All was going well and using a bit of oil on the surface instead of flour even meant that I didn’t quite look like a ghost in a snow storm! The buns and swirls went into the oven and the kitchen smelt amazing. Then something went wrong.


I think that maybe I forgot to compensate for the fan oven or maybe my temperamental oven was just too hot. Either way, despite the fact that I always take things out a bit early out of a fear of over cooking anything, I over did them. I wouldn’t say that they were burned but I wasn’t happy with them. I tried to salvage the swirls by slathering them in jam (can’t go wrong) and actually they were ok.

Determined that I would make successful buns and convinced that it was close enough to Easter to still make them, this weekend I went for attempt #2. This time I wanted to use Paul Hollywood’s recipe but I didn’t have apples, peaches or mandarins and was too lazy to go back to the market so I decided to use Mary Berry’s recipe. I omitted the candied peel and added in the zest of half an orange but other than that I followed the recipe exactly. I promise. It was a complete disaster. The dough didn’t rise. At all. In an act of desperation I rolled the dough like The Pink Whisk’s swirls and made what my boyfriend called ‘magic swirls’.

So from now on I think I’ll just buy hot cross buns.


On a better note, I am trying to decide what cupakes to make for the Brixton Bake Off and would appreciate any opinions/ideas/suggestions. At the moment I'm thinking of white chocolate and cranberry, strawberries and cream and chocolate orange..... tweet me (@mixingbowlmagic) or comment on this post.

Pear and Frangipane Tart

With our friend returning from Germany for Easter and the summery weather coming to an end, what else to do other than squeeze ten people into our little flat for a good old fashioned roast. Of course I was in charge of the pudding (or rather no one else was particularly bothered about having one!). Normally for this kind of thing I would make a cheesecake because a) I like making them, b) I like eating them, and c) I can make it in advance of the roast chaos! But this blog is supposed to be about trying new recipes instead of being a lazy baker so cheesecake was banned from the menu.


My Aunty gave me a jar of pears in brandy a couple of months ago. They are absolutely delicious (coming from someone who can’t stand brandy!) and make a gorgeously simple desert just served with vanilla ice cream. However I felt that they should probably be used up soon and I wanted to try something a bit more exciting. I love frangipane and have wanted to try making a bakewell tart for ages so I decided on a pear and frangipane tart with shortcrust pastry. I wasn’t really sure whether pears and frangipane went well together but pastry=good, pears=good and frangipane=good – what could go wrong? (It turns out nothing apart from me getting over enthusiastic and clumsy removing it from the tin!)

I am very much a novice when it comes to pastry so I followed Mary Berry’s recipe for rich shortcrust pastry (sounds good doesn’t it!). Determined not to end up with a ‘soggy bottom’, I rolled out the pastry very thinly, pricked with a fork, filled with baking parchment and rice (note to self: must buy baking beans) and blind baked for 5/10 minutes . I am convinced that this made all the difference because the pastry turned out brilliantly (even if I do say so myself!). It was not at all soggy but not burned or overdone and received lots of compliments!


I completely forgot that the tart tin has a removable bottom so didn’t use it, this was not a problem because it came out of the tin very easily. However, my eagerness betrayed me and I broke the tart as I removed it from the tin. A simple fixing job put it back together – not as pretty as before but it barely lasted long enough to look at it! It went down much better than I’d expected, even among those deluded few who ‘don’t eat pudding’!

So I have learned that pear does in fact go with frangipane and that I can make pastry./ I feel that I can sleep better at night knowing that if I end up in a ‘make pastry or die’ situation, I’ll be fine!

Hen Cupcakes

I am always keen to have a baking project so when someone at work asked me to make cupcakes for a hen party; I couldn’t wait to get started and began to sketch ideas. The brief was for thirty cupcakes: any colour but not be too girly and with ‘rude’ decorations! My initial idea was a pun on cocktails (I’ll trust you can figure out the rest....). I was thinking of mojito or pina colada flavoured cupcakes and frosting decorated with a cocktail umbrella and a ‘rude’ straw :)

After a request for ‘bubbly’ to be used in the cupcakes, I decided to adapt my idea and in the end I settled on 15 vanilla cupcakes filled with cava pastry cream and iced with cava flavoured frosting and 15 red velvet filled with chocolate ganache and iced with cream cheese frosting. I kept my original decoration idea for the cava cupcakes and for the red velvets I decided to stick with a red and white theme and made ‘L plates’ from icing which I paired with lip jelly sweets.

So last Thursday night I prepared for a late night baking session and accepted this would mean very little sleep. Accompanied by my trusty F.R.I.E.N.D.S box set and an extensive catalogue of Gervais’ XFM radio shows I set about destroying my kitchen with flour and icing sugar!


Although they were tasty, I don’t think I’d make the cava cupcakes again as the flavour doesn’t come through very well and it’s just not the same without the fizz. Frankly I’d rather drink it! However I still want to experiment with cocktail flavours so expect some boozy posts in the future.... :) My baking and cooking tends to be unstructured so I enjoyed having a theme, task and deadline. I am yet to hear from the hen party but I hope the girls enjoyed them – the leftover cakes certainly went down well.

I was also able to christen my new investment with this batch of cupcakes -it made my morning a lot less stressful. I had to take the umbrellas and straws off the cakes to fit them in the courier but there was plenty of space for the deep cupcakes with a generous mountain of frosting.

In other, exciting news I have now completed my food safety certificate and registered with Lambeth Council so I am look forward to the Great Brixton Bake-Off on April 28th. I will be entering into three categories: “Cupcakes”, “Cakes” and “Biscuits and Bites” so now I need to work out how on earth to choose just one of each! Suggestions are welcome and if you see me in the next few weeks chances are I will force feed you cake and then make you fill out a four page evaluation document (but don’t let that put you off!)


More baking fun soon.... X