Homemade by Fleur Jubilee Baking Competition

With all the excitement surrounding this weekend celebrations, there has been many a jubilee baking competition or challenge popping up over the past couple of months. I am entering this post into the Homemade by Fleur Jubilee Baking Competition - Homemade by Fleur is on of my favourite blogs and you can find out more about the competition here. It is sponsored by Appliances Online http://www.appliancesonline.co.uk.

I have seen many wonderful jubilee creations on blogs and twitter; red, white and blue cupcakes, macarons and even battenberg! I wanted to step away from the union jack theme however and focus on the ingredients - something that would scream 'British' in some way. Unfortunately when I started brainstorming I seemed to come up with a lot of fish and chips, roast beef and shepherd's pie! I had the idea of incorporating a traditional ingredient from each of British nations but in the end I decided to go with something a bit simpler.

My recipe is inspired by afternoon tea, the Queen herself and my own love of a good cuppa! As such it definitely represents England more than Britain but the Queen is English so that's ok right? I really wanted to make something that I'd never seen or eaten before. I love afternoon tea and really wanted to use that idea in some way so I came up with the rather cliched idea of Tea and Cucumber Cake. Obviously taken from our supposed love of tea and cucumber sandwiches and on this occasion and I happy to satisfy this stereotypical image of us!

This post and bake has been a long time coming and I did a bit of an experiment with the cakes - should they be sweet, minty, have a citrus twang? And how the get the tea flavour into the frosting?

Originally I didn't want to make cupcakes but once I'd settled on this recipe the only way to serve the cake was in tea cups! To keep the flavour of the tea I made the icing thinner than I would usually and poured int onto the cake to replicate a nice cup of tea - finished with a white chocolate crown and mini teaspoon!

So here is my recipe and final creation:

Cucumber cakes

6oz butter
6oz caster sugar
2 eggs
9oz flour
1/2 tsp vanilla extract
1 large cucumber, peeled and grated

Preheat oven to 160C. Cream the sugar and butter. Beat in the two eggs and add the vanilla extract. Fold in the sifted flour. Drain the water from the cucumber by pressing it through a seive. Pat dry with kitchen paper and stir in until well mixed. Divide the mixture between well greased tea cups and bake for 30 mins or until golden on top.

Tea icing

6oz butter
loose tea
500g icing sugar
1 tablespoon milk

Melt the butter in a saucepan over a low heat. Add the loose tea and continue to heat for a few minutes. Seive the mixture in a bowl to remove the tea and allow the butter to cool. Using a different seive (or clean and dry the same one) sift the icing sugar into the butter and whisk. Add the milk and continue to whisk. Add tea/more icing sugar until you get the desired consistency and taste (can be quite running but the taste will depend on how strong your tea is)

White chocolate decorations

100g white chocolate

Break up the chocolate into sqaures. Melt half the chocolate in a heatproof bowl over a pan of simmering water until melted. Remove from the heat and stir in the remaining chocolate until it is all melted. Allow to cool a bit but whilst it is still runny and pipable pour the chocolate into a piping bag with a small round nozzle. Pipe the patterns onto baking parchment (if it helps you can draw the patterns on the back and trace over them) and put in the fridge to cool and harden.

The cucumber was obviously not a strong taste but it made the sponge very moist and had quite a light taste. This was contrasted by the sweet tea icing which really made me feel I was having a cuppa! Overall I was happy with the cakes, especially as I created the recipe from scratch and was pleasantly surprised with how well the crowns turned out.

Foodie Pen Pals

I mentioned foodie pen pals in my last post and today is reveal day! A little bit about foodie pen pals: the project was started by Lindsay at www.theleangreenbean.com in the US and more recently Carole-Ann at thisisrocksalt.com has started a UK and Europe version. I found out about foodiepenpals through Fee at feehatesrain.wordpress.com and my inner foodie couldn't resist!

Each month you get matched with someone to send a food parcel to and in turn someone else sends you a parcel of goodies. This month Libby at everydayisyummy.wordpress.com was my foodie pen pal. I was looking forward to the arrival of my parcel but it was even better than I could have imagined - i think Libby knows me better than I do! Here is the contents of my box:

Libby sent me:

- some mini union jack cupcake cases which I'm going to use to make jubilee cupcakes for the pageant on Sunday

- Some special jubilee tea which I haven't tried yet but I'm off all next week so I think I'll enjoy them over a leisurely breakfast :)

- some mini packs of Teapigs tea - one choclate and one caramel. I tried these straight away - a brilliant way to keep me away from the biscuit tin in the evening!

- this fantastic little gadget for removing the centre of cupcakes for filling with jam, ganache, peanut butter, nutella, salted caramel - the possibilities are endless....! I haven't used it yet but I'll be sure to blog the results when I do!

- Finally, I saved the very best to last. This is the proof that Libby had definitely had a good look at my blog. Last month I made a chocolate bacon cake (more accurately, in the end I made five!) and converted many a sceptic. Libby absolutely made my day/week/month by sending me..... Bacon Jam! I don't know where she found it but it is wonderful!

I can't express how happy my foodie pen pals parcel had made me - Libby had obviously really thought into what she sent which made it really special.

I definitely recommend foodie pen pals for anyone who is a foodie at heart. Take a look here for more info and to sign up.

Flapjack

My mum has always made flapjack and from an early age I developed a snobbery against sickly sweet shop-bought flapjack. Mum puts sultanas in hers which is what I usually do as they are cheap ands easy to get hold of. However recently I've taken to packing my flapjack full of nuts and other dried fruit.

When pondering what I could send to my Foodie Pen Pal which would survive the journey, I decided to experiment with yoghurt dipped flapjack. A bit of googling told me that 'yoghurt-dipped' flapjack contains a shocking amount of white chocolate - but it tastes great! I made my penpal cranberry and walnut flapjack, the remains of which went down so well (or quickly) with my boyfriend that I made a hazelnut and sultana version to sell at a market last weekend.

The great thing about flapjack is that you can adapt it to suit what's in your cupboards, just chuck in whatever dried fruit, nuts or seeds you happen to have. The below recipe is my mum's which I adapted for these cranberry and walnut bars of oaty goodness! For me the key to a good flapjack is brown sugar and the addition of an egg which many recipes don't include but I find that it binds the oats well and still creates the perfect amount of 'chewiness'. For an extra treat dip in or drizzle with the yoghurt mixture - it goes perfectly with the cranberries but the flapjack is still delicious without it!

Recipe:

4oz butter

4oz light brown sugar

3 tablespoons golden syrup

12oz porridge (I find that cheap ones work best)

1 beaten egg

about 5oz of cranberries and walnuts (or other dried fruit/nuts)

- Preheat oven to 160C and line a baking tin

- Melt the butter in a saucepan over a low heat

- Add the sugar and golden syrup to the melted butter and stir until the sugar has dissolved.

- Remove from the heat and stir in the oats

- Once the oats are completely covered in the mixture, add the egg and mix well.

- Add dried fruit and nuts and pour into the baking tin.

- Bake for 20-30 minutes, until golden brown on top.

- Remove from the oven and allow to cool in the tin before cutting and eating :)

Optional Yoghurt Topping (recipe from thepinkwhisk.co.uk)

200g white chocolate

100ml plain yoghurt

- Melt the chocolate in a heatproof bowl above a pan of simmering water. (Be careful not to let the bowl touch the water)

- Remove the bowl and allow to cool slightly

- Mix in the yoghurt and leave the mixture to cool.

I'm entering this into the Flapjack Challenge being hosted by Homemade by Fleur. Check out Fleur's blog including some fabulous recipes here.

Gluten-free traybake

My housemate was hosting a dinner party back in Brighton last weekend with several wheat/gluten free guests. She asked me if I could made a 'sweet' to have after the meal. Obviously I was more than happy to have an excuse to bake and agreed!


I immediately started dreaming up cheesecakes and meringue creations but as it would have to travek with her to work and then down to Brighton I figured a traybake might be the best idea. I have a really good flourless brownie recipe but I noticed that I've made quite a few chocolately things recently and wanted to make a bit of a change.


I rarely make traybakes as I find it more exciting and interesting to make cupcakes or a large celebration cake and I'm not sure I completely succeeded here. This little invention was inspired by bakewell tarts (her favourite!) and cheesecake brownies. I made a traybake version of a gluten free almond cake I've made a few times, spread a layer of raspberry jam on it and topped with baked cheesecake.


The result was a little thinner than I had hoped for - if I made it again I would use a smaller tin. However I hear it did go down very well so I think I might experiment with the recipe again.

Recipe

5ggs, separated
200g (7oz) caster sugar
225g (8oz) ground almonds
rasberry jam
280g (9oz) cream cheese
2 eggs
120g (4oz) caster sugar
tsp vanilla extract

Preheat the oven to 180C (160C fan) and grease and line your baking tray. Whisk the egg whites until they form stiff peaks. Add half the sugar and continue to whisk for one minute. In another bowl, whisk the egg yolks with the remaining sugar for 2-3 minutes until pale and thick. Fold in in the ground almonds. Stir in 3 spoonfuls of the
egg whites to loosen mixture. Fold in the rest of the egg whites. Pour into the baking tray and bake for ten minutes.

Whilst the cake is in the oven, beat the cream cheese, sugar, eggs and vanilla extract until smooth and fluffy.

After ten minutes, spread a layer of raspberry jam on top of the sponge then top with the cream cheese mixture. Put back in the oven for 15-20 minutes until golden brown. Remove from the oven and leave to cool before cutting into large portions :)

Chocolate and Strawberry Roulade

Ever since I saw all the wonderful looking roulade's entered into the Weekly Bake Off a few of weeks ago I've been wanting to make one. I went home to my parents' last weekend and as my mum follows a wheat free diet (and loves cream!) I thought it would be the perfect opportunity to test out this flourless wonder.



This was a bit of a challenge to myself, it's not anything that I've ever made before and I've always been terrified of rolling the cake so I wanted to see whether I could do it. It was nice to be back in a spacious kitchen and I got all my ingredients prepared before starting (this is very unlike me!). After debating whether I should use the baking tray that was slightly to big or the one that was slightly too small, I set about making the simple chocolate sponge.


It became apparent once the cake was baked that I had not done a very good job of spreading the mixture evenly but apart from that all seemed to be going well and I left the cake to cool whilst I went out for dinner. Fast forward a few hours and I arrive home full of food and ready to complete my roulade. Following my Dad's advice I trimmed the edges of the cake to make it easier to roll and less likely to crack. I whipped the cream and sweetened it with icing sugar (I know this makes me a bad person but I have a sweet tooth ok!). I had wanted to fill the roulade with raspberries to make it more summery but they didn't have any raspberies at the market so I settled for strawberries. I sliced the strawberries and lay them over the layer of cream. Now came the moment of truth..... As soon as I began rolling I realised that I had made my life difficult for myself by using strawberries. They are not as 'squishy' as rasberries and did not take well to being rolled.


The result was rather more cracked than I had hoped for so in an attempt to make the cake more aesthetically pleasing I decided to use the leftover chocolate I had to make a ganache and drizzle it over the roulade. Topped with some strawberries, I was quite pleased with the end result.

Chocolate sponge and cream is not really my kind of cake to be honest, I prefer something a bit more 'cakey' with some exciting flavours. I was pleased I had made it however and will probably make it again to practice my rolling and experiment with flavours. It was a new challenge and I certainly wouldn't have won this technical bake but I'll keep trying!

Salted Caramel

I have been very intrigued by the recent salted caramel craze and it's high on my list of things to try/make/bake with. So I was very excited when my mum brought me a present back from Paris: a cute little jar of 'caramel au beurre sale' with it's own little spoon. She said that she thought I could bake with it and I fully intend on doing so but not before i had tasted it.


So it turns out salted caramel tastes like Werther's Originals - who would've known?! (Probably plenty of people but certainly not me) I'm not sure whether this is the same salted caramel that is featuring it cupcake bakeries over here but it's certainly yummy. I'm thinking of using it to sandwich together macarons. If there's any left......

They're not Mary's, They're Mine! - Indulgent Walnut Brownies

In my bid to be prepared for the pre-Bake Off baking marathon, I may have gone a little overboard on the Tesco shop and now have a cupboard full of walnuts. So when it was announced that this week's WeeklyBakeOff was Mary Berry's Dark Indulgent Walnut Brownies I knew I was taking part!



Perfecting a brownie recipe is an art form which is completely beyond me; I usually use Nigella's flourless recipe as my mum is gluten free and they make deliciously gooey brownies. That, I think, is the key - I have tasted far too many sad, dry brownies (or maybe I have tasted too many brownies - no, that can't be right!). For me, the perfect brownies also must contain nuts so this recipe sounded promising.



To give the brownies their extra chocolatey indulgence Mary added chocolate chips as well as the dark chocolate melted into the brownie mixture. Wanting to do something a little different, I decided to swap these for white chocolate chunks. I cut big chunks so they wouldn't melt and disappear (as expected, I lost the smaller chunks.)

The recipe said to bake for 40-45 minutes but when I checked after half an hour they were definitely done and the edges were almost burned (oops!). I think I need to buy an oven thermometer as this often happens and I am not convinced of the accuracy of my oven temperature. I definitely need to buy a new tin for traybakes as the one I used was too big so the mixture spread so some of the brownies were thinner than I would have liked.



I was worried that the brownies would be dry, especially as I used less than the extortionate amount of chocolate the recipe called for (not deliberate, I hasten to add, just an error in not taking the recipe when buying ingredients). But in fact they were very moist without being so gooey that they lost all structure.



I must admit that I was a little unsure about this recipes. Not that I doubt Mary is any way but I am always a little hesitant when it comes to brownie recipes. However, they are delicious and are disappearing quickly for a flat that it supposedly on a diet..... I will definitely be repeating this recipe with the full amount of chocolate!