Macarons

Of all people, I happen to be married to someone who does not like cake.  He gets annoyed with my "cake stuff'.  I don't let it get me down, I was baking long before we met but I have to admit I sometimes wish he would get excited about the things I make.  I've become accustomed to his lack of interest and understanding for my passion so I was a bit surprised when he did a double take in the kitchen yesterday.  Of course everyone in the house knows the rules, you can't touch it until I've taken my photos.  We woke up this morning and again he was asking about the Macarons.  It made me smile.  He will be pleased to know I have finished this post and they can now be eaten.  Finally I've made something he really likes!  But I guess it is hard not to fall in love with these delicious colourful little gems.

Ingredients:

175g icing sugar
125g ground almonds
3 large egg whites
pinch of salt
75g caster sugar
1 tsp vanilla

For the filling:
100g butter
100g icing sugar

Method:

Sift together icing sugar and ground almonds through a fine sieve to remove any lumps and larger almond pieces.  Set aside.

In the bowl of an electric mixer whisk eggwhites and a pinch of salt until frothy.  Continue beating eggswhites while adding caster sugar a little at time until well incorporated.  Add vanilla.  Continue beating until soft peaks form.

Fold in half of icing sugar/ almond mixture into egg whites and fold until blended.  Add the other half of icing sugar/ almond mixture and fold again until well blended.

At this point you can add the colour. Seperate the mixture if you want to make more than one colour.  I used Wilton Icing colours in Rose, Teal, Purple and Golden Yellow to colour mine.

To make the Macarons, line a cookie sheet with baking paper.

Note, you may already know this but I didn't and learned the hard way.  Do not use a baking stone for Macarons, use a metal cookie sheet.  I tried one batch with my baking stone and they ALL stuck.  All the ones I made with my metal cookie sheet came out perfect.

Add Macaron mixture to a piping bag fitted with a round nozzle and pipe circles onto the baking paper.  Try to keep them all the same size.  It may help you to draw circles onto the paper before piping the macarons to keep to a uniform size.

Once you have piped the macarons turn on the oven to preheat to 160C / 325F / Gas Mark 3.  Leave the Macarons on the counter for about 20 minutes.  You want them to form a crust on the top so that if you lightly touch them your finger will not stick to the top.  Don't put them in the oven until they have crusted on the top.  Once ready pop in the oven and bake for 15 minutes.

When done, remove from oven and let them completely cool before gently removing from the wax paper.

Mix together the filling.  I like to divide up and colour my buttercream filling to match the colour of the macarons.  Sandwhich together macarons with buttercream filling.  

Yummy!

Peanut Butter Cupcakes

Ingredients:

350g plain flour
2 teaspoons baking powder
1/4 teaspoon salt
75g butter
200g peanut butter
200g light brown sugar
2 eggs
1 teaspoon vanilla
250ml milk

Peanut Butter Icing:
125g butter
125g peanut butter
500g icing sugar
1teaspoon vanilla
milk


Method:

Heat oven to 170C / 325F / Gas Mark 3

Combine flour, baking powder and salt in a bowl and set aside.

Cream butter, peanut butter and light brown sugar in the bowl of an electric mixer until smooth, fluffy and light.

Add eggs 1 at a time and mix well.  Add vanilla.

Alternate adding the flour mixture and milk (begin and end with flour).

Spoon into muffin cases and bake until done.  Approx 22 minutes.

Makes 24 cupcakes.


To make the icing:

Combine butter, peanut butter, icing sugar and vanilla and mix with an electric mixer until smooth.  If icing seems to thick add milk a tablespoon at a time until you reach the right consistency.

Upside Down Frosting Technique

I first saw this technique demonstrated by Jessie Cakes a while back and have wanted to try it for a while.  A recent post on one of my Facebook haunts brought it back to the forefront of my mind and I decided to give it a go for our family Easter Cake this year.  I'm a complete novice but I was very happy with the results I achieved and am confident they will only get better with practise.  So here is a realistic pic of what the average joe can expect to achieve using this fabulous techinique and frosting your cake UPSIDE DOWN :)

For starters to do this you'll need a spackling knife, a piece of card, some grease proof paper and a decorators turntable.  

Trace around the top of your pan onto the card and tape down a piece of grase proof paper making sure there are no creases.

 Add your Buttercream and spread until it is about 1/4in past the circle you traced.

Place in the fridge for about 15 minutes.

Once chilled, remove from fridge and position the top cake layer upside down on the buttercream circle.

Fill stack and crumb coat your cake and return to the fridge for 15 miuntes.

Remove from fridge and add the final coat of buttercream to the side of your cake.  Be generous as you will remove the excess in the next step.

Forgive my photo,  the spackling knife should be held at a 45degree angle not straight on.  It was just hard for me to hold it correctly and snap the picture.  I should say it also took a few spins for me to get the hang of the correct angle to hold it.

Using your clean spackling knife held at approx 45 degree angle place your hand all the way around the cake back to where the knife is touching the cake and spin the turntable all the way around without stopping.  Make sure the spackling knife is touching the board as you do this.   If you need to go over it again make sure the spackling knife is clean each time you go around.

When you are happy with it turn the cake over onto its board.  Remove the cardboard from the top but do not remove the greaseproof paper.  Return the cake to the fridge for 15 minutes.

Remove from the fridge and carefully peel away the grease proof paper and Voila!

You should have a flat top and nice crisp edges.  Now as I said, I'm a novice.  This demonstation is the first time I have EVER tried this technique.  So no, mine doesn't look as perfect as Jessie Cakes but I think it does show that you can get very clean lines with this technique and with a little practice mine could look as good as hers.  So there you have it.  The upside down frosting technique is the way forward in my books.

 So what to do with my lovely cake.  It is Easter after all so I decided to make a treat for the Family to enjoy Easter Sunday.  And since I'm sharing techniques in this post I thought I would add another very useful tip.  This one is for piping with buttercream.  I have reusable bags but would often use the diposable ones because I hate the clean up.  Then I discovered this handy tip.

First place the buttercream in some cling film.

Then roll up the ends of the cling film.

 Insert the coupler and then insert the icing into your piping bag.

Pull the end of the cling film out.

And cut it off.  

 Twist your bag closed and it is ready to use.

When your done simply remove the insert and throw it away and the inside of your bag will still be clean.

Chocolate Wedding Cake

My Sister in Law was kind enough to ask me to make her Wedding Cake for this weekend.  I have created a 2 tier Chocolate Mudd Cake with Ivory Roses and Purple Hydrangea.

I used Wiltons recipe for Chocolate Fondant and was pleased with the results.  Allbeit I did find it much harder to roll out, but the end result looked and tasted lovely.

I used my new Blossom Art Hydrangea cutter to make the lovely little hydrangeas and add purple accents around my Ivory gumpaste roses.

 I also experimented with Gelatin Butterflies for the first time.  I used the PME Butterfly Cutters and "painted" a thin layer of gelatin directly onto the cutter.  After a couple of hours I peeled the gelatin off and placed in a folded piece of cardboard to dry completely in the folded butterfly shape.  It was surprisingly easy to work with.  I thought the gelatin would be very delicate and break easily but it was very much the opposite.  It peels very easily from the cutter without breaking and dries very stable and hard. 

My Chocolate Mudd Cake recipe is the bomb if I do say so myself.  It has a dense rich texture and is almost like a Chocolate Brownie.  Perfect for any chocolate lover and the perfect consistency for a wedding cake.  

Chocolate Mudd Cake

Ingredients:
250g unsalted butter
250g chopped dark chocolate
1 packet instant cappuccino
175ml hot water
150g plain flour
60g cocoa powder
1/2 teaspoon biocarbonate of soda
1/4 teaspoon salt
450g caster sugar
4 eggs
2 tablespoons vegetable oil
125ml sourcream

Method:


Heat oven to 170C / 350F / Gas Mark 4

Place butter, chopped dark chocolate, instant cappuccino and hot water in a sauce pan and stir on medium heat until smooth.

Mix plain flour, cocoa powder, biocarbonate of soda, salt and sugar in a large mixing bowl and sieve together.


Mix eggs, oil and sourcream together in a seperate bowl. 

Make a well in the centre of your flour mixture and pour in chocolate mixture and egg mixture.  Stir together until well blended. 

Pour into prepared tin and until cake tester comes out clean when inserted into the centre, approximately 1 hour. 

Recipe makes 1 9inch Round. 

 

Pancake Day PanCake Pops

If you're looking for something a little different and fun this Pancake Day, why not try some PanCake Pops?  Little ones love food on a stick and these are so simple to make.  

I mixed some nonpareils with my pancake batter (I love this recipe from Jamie Oliver) and spooned about a tablespoon of batter per pancake.  Just insert a lollipop stick while the batter is cooking and gently flip to cook the other side.  

For the topping I went with a simple mixture of icing sugar and apple juice to form a thick consistency icing.  Make sure to scrape off the mixture a bit after dipping your pancake or it will end up running and dripping, you just want a little bit to coat it.  Then dip in nonpariels and serve.  

Or you could try serving plain with a little bowl of maple syrup for dipping?  

Either way these are fun and delicious.    

A Sugar Flower Birthday Cake

Just thought I would share my most recent creation.  A Birthday Cake for a Friends Family. This is an 8 in Round Cake.  The spray was made up of 1 Stargazer Lily, 1 Full Rose, 2 Rose Buds, 3 Stems of Lily of the Valley, 3 Stems of Rose Leaves and 5 Stems of Ivy.  All flowers I have in my tutorials pages.

Strawberry Cupcakes with Mascarpone Buttercream Icing

I came across a competition to create a new cupcake flavour for the Hummingbird Bakery.  After a bit of research into their range I decided to create a Strawberry Cupcake.  I know it might not be the most exotic or exciting cupcake, but sometimes the nice simple flavours are the best.  It took 3 attempts to achieve a recipe I was pleased with.  I hope you will enjoy it and fingers crossed on the competition :)

Strawberry Cupcakes with Mascarpone Buttercream Icing

Ingredients:
4 large eggs
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
200g butter
200g caster sugar
250g frozen strawberries
200g good quality self raising flour
90g strawberry gelatin powder (like Hartley's gelatin sachets but I actually
used Osem Strawberry Flavour Quick Jel Dessert Mix)

Icing:

125g mascarpone

125g butter

500g icing sugar

1 teaspoon vanilla

chopped fresh strawberries and pecans for garnish

Method:

Preheat oven to 180C /Gas Mark 4/ 160C Fan Oven

Combine butter and sugar in the bowl of an electric mixer and mix on high speed until very light and fluffy, at least 5 minutes.  

Break eggs into a small bowl.  Add vanilla extract and whisk together.  Add the egg mixture to the butter and sugar mixture a very little bit at a time blending well after each addition.

Combine flour and gelatin into a bowl and blend together.  

Pour frozen strawberries into a food processor or blender and puree strawberries.  

By hand gently fold in the flour gelatin mixture and pureed strawberries into the butter egg mixture.  Fold in just until combined, don't overwork the mixture.  

Spoon into muffin size cupcake cases.  

Bake until lightly browned and a toothpick or cake tester inserted in the centre comes out clean. Mine took 25 minutes.   

Top with Mascarpone Buttercream Icing and garnish with fresh chopped strawberries and pecans.  

Makes 12 

Enjoy!