New Kitchen

I thought it would be fun to share some photos of the new kitchen I'm renting to make my cakes in.  It was a pleasant surprise that I finished my work much quicker than I expected, which is unusual for me, I may be finally getting a little more realistic with my timing!

It could also be that the kitchen is so well appointed with all the tools and equipment that one could ever need for their various culinary endeavors.  Giant muffin pans, lots of bowls, whisks and measuring jugs, food processors, a large kitchenaid professional and a huge hobart mixer!

I haven't needed to use the big mixer, but that will sure make my life a lot easier when I have huge orders!  Its really useful for whipping up a giant batch of buttercream, as I get through a ton of that!

The large convection oven turned out to be a little trickier than I thought, it took me several attempts to work out how to switch it on!!

Once I had it working, I found my cakes were beautifully baked.  the rejects were destined to be trifles for a fundraiser that I was baking for, so no waste!

Renting a shared kitchen is a great way to get started in a food enterprise, you do need to organise a separate inspection (if you are in the state of California) but it is really nice not having the startup cost of buying all that equipment, and the tricky business of maintaining a kitchen.  I'm sure it requires a lot of good will on the part of all the tenants to maintain a good environment.  

One of the downsides to this kitchen is that it is pretty warm in the summer, but I've yet to come across a kitchen that isnt, so I think it is a hazard of the trade.  I dont like heat in general, but I'm definitely coming to the idea that I prefer the other seasons here in San Diego!

If you order a cake or desserts from Jennywennycakes, you now know where it will be baked!!

Sugar Free Apple Cake

Finally something healthy!  I had someone ask me if I made any sugar free cakes and I've not tried any recipes so I started with this apple cake.

The recipe I found used agave nectar as a sweetner.  This is a controversial issue though, various people seem to think that agave is no better than sugar, and it is very similar to high fructose corn syrup.  So I was left a little confused about whether this was going to be a useful sweetner for diabetics.  Please tell me in the comments if you know more, or have recipes with natural sweetners, I dont like to use splenda.

I do know that it is a little sweeter than sugar, so you can maybe use a little less than you would with sugar, and this cake incorporates whole wheat flour and large chunks of apples, so I think that offsets the sugar spike that you might get. 

I thought the cake looked quite nice just as is, but it could be served with a little whipped cream cheese sweetened with honey or agave, or maybe whipped cream.  I can see this being a nice afternoon snack for me, I plan to make another in a square pan and cut into squares and freeze.

Whole wheat apple cake (adapted from dinners and dreams)
Preheat oven to 350f, prepare a 9 inch pan with oil and/or parchment

4 medium sized apples, peeled, cored and chopped into 1 cm pieces)
1 packed cup whole wheat pastry flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon vietnamese cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon salt
4 oz (1 stick) butter softened
3 eggs
1 teaspoon vanilla

Sift flour together with baking soda and cinnamon
Beat together the agave, butter, vanilla, salt and eggs, fold in the flour and the apples and pour into the prepared pan.
Bake for 25 minutes, or until a toothpick comes out clean.

Avocado Frosting

I tried my hand at another vegan frosting idea. Having found two beautiful avocados in my CSA from Bewise, I decided to put them to use in a sweet way. I'd seen Alton Brown and Joy the Baker use them, so I thought it might be worth a try.

Although I'm a buttercream fan, I cant stand the thought of using anything but real butter for it, so the thought of using margerine was out for me. I'm happy to use tofu, or maybe coconut cream, but I wanted an alternative.

I'd say this was fairly successful, it did sit on the cake, but it refused to firm up enough to pipe into a pretty swirl, and the flavor is distinctly of sweet avocado, which I found unusual. The color is pretty alarming too! My friends at bookclub loved it though, so it was a hit for most people!

It will come in handy for the times I want green, but dont want to dye my frosting!

Avocado Frosting

2 large avocados

1 lb powdered sugar (add to taste)

juice of 1 large lime

Mash up the meat of the avocados then mix with powdered sugar until it thickens. Pipe onto cupcakes

Gingerbread Pumpkin Muffins

I wanted to share this recipe despite my crummy picture on a gloomy day. These muffins were extremely satisfying yet very healthy. The lack of butter was made up for by pumpkin, lots of spices, molasses and dried fruit. I added in some pecans for a nutty crunch, and subbed some wholemeal flour for a healthier profile.

As you may see, there is an unusual off white countertop, yes, I've finally moved into the new house, and the kitchen is truly wonderful. It deserves its own post soon, once I have it shipshape, suffice to say, I'm delighted!

These muffins perfectly fit the fall drizzle and gloomy weather we've been having lately, and the ginger will give a kick to remind you of the tropics. You could even serve with a cider and caramel sauce or a bit of custard to serve as dessert. If you cant be bothered with measuring all those spices, 3 tsp of pumpkin pie spice could be substituted for most of them, add pepper and ginger though!

Ginger Pumpkin Muffins (recipe adapted from Cooking Light Magazine).
Makes 18 muffins
1/3 cup raisins
1/4 cup chopped pitted dates
3 tbsps chopped candied ginger (adjust to taste)
2 tablespoons (or a litle more!) dark rum

1 tsp vanilla extract
2 large egg whites
1 large egg
2/3 cup packed brown sugar
1/3 cup molasses
1 1/3 cup all purpose flour
2/3 cup whole wheat pastry flour
1 1/2 tsp ground ginger
1 tsp baking soda
3/4 tsp ground allspice
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 tsp ground nutmeg
1/4 tsp ground cinnamon
1/4 tsp ground cloves
1/8 tsp ground pepper

1 cup canned pumpkin
2/3 cup low fat buttermilk
4 tablespoons/2 oz butter, melted
1/2 cup chopped pecans

Preheat oven to 350f or 325 convection

Combine the dried fruit and rum and soak for at least 30 minutes

Whisk together the eggs, sugar and molasses, keep whisking for a few minutes. Meanwhile, sieve together the flour, baking soda, salt and spices. Combine the pumpkin, buttermilk and melted butter. Add the flour and the buttermilk mixture in portions, alternating between the two, mix just until combined. Stir in the pecans and the soak fruit. Scoop into cupcake cases and bake for around 18-22 minutes(5 mins less for convection). Check with a toothpick after 15 minutes and if it comes out clean they are done!

Serve warm with caramel sauce or custard as dessert or eat for breakfast with a cup of tea!

Island Style Wedding

This weekend I had the enormous pleasure of making a big showy display of cupcakes with a cutting cake for a guy that I've known for a while. He was our honored team-mate on our bike team, and I've ridden on teams with both his parents, so it was great to be involved in his wedding cake and to see him so healthy and happy.


The couple wanted a hawaiian theme to their wedding and it was more on the tasteful side, so I learned to make frangipane flowers and got some moulds to make little frangipane flowers and hibiscus for each of the cupcakes.


I was so happy with how well this theme came together, it all looked really professional and the flavors were just divine. It sounded like they were all gone with no leftovers so that is a success!! I can never find a general consensus on how many cupcakes should be provided for guests, my intuition tells me around one and a half per guests as some people often take a couple!


There were four flavors, mango macadamia with mango buttercream, chocolate mocha mudcakes with poured chocolate ganache, guava chiffon cakes filled with guava, and topped with guava buttercream and a delicious hummingbird cake packed with pineapple, coconut, pecan and banana, topped with cream cheese. The cutting cake was the mango macadamia flavor.

This cake is a wonderful cake, the original recipe is for strawberry, but I've made it with mixed berries, and it worked very well with mango and macadamia. Keep in mind that this is an extremely rich cake!

Mango Macadamia Butter Cakes adapted from Sky High Irresistable Triple Layer Cakes by Alicia Huntsman and Peter Wynne

Makes around 24 cupcakes

2 1/4 cups cake flour
1 1/2 cups sugar
2 1/2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
6 ounces (1 1/2 sticks) soft unsalted butter
1/2 cup mango puree
4 egg whites (100g)
1/3 cup milk
1 diced mango
1 cup chopped toasted macadamias

Preheat the oven to 350f and prepare cupcake pans

Sift the flour into a mixing bowl with the sugar, baking powder and salt and mix briefly. Add the butter and puree and beat for a couple of minutes until fluffy.

Meanwhile, whisk together the milk and the egg whites, adding to the batter in 3 additions. Mix for another 20 seconds until combined, then add the madadamias and diced mango, mix just to combine.

Scoop into cupcake wrappers until 2/3 full and bake for around 20 minutes, or until a toothpick comes out clean.

Top with your choice of topping, I used a standard swiss meringue buttercream with mango puree added, and topped with a fondant flower!

Smores

I found these little treats so delicious I just had to share! It really is worth making the effort to make your own graham crackers, they are totally addictive!

I took a graham cracker recipe from culinary in the desert, next time I'll probably roll them out a little thinner. It really helped to use a pizza cutter and cut them before they went in the oven, and then again before they cooled to make it easy to separate them.

I then topped with a little chocolate ganache, which is just 1 part boiling cream to 1 part good chocolate, combine then stir occasionally until the chocolate is melted and chill a little until the consistency is thick enough to stay on the crackers. 100g of each should be plenty.

I then topped with home made marshmallow from this recipe on the food network and got my torch out to brown the tops, my favourite thing to do in the kitchen!

These treats are going to round out a dessert platter for a wedding I'm involved with at the beginning of next month. There will be a plate for each table containing lemon tarts, choc chip cookies, peanut butter cookies, these and some mini cupcakes!

The next thing I'd like to try with this recipe is making larger cookies, covering with ganache and decorating with fondant, I think that would be a super delicious and cute party favor! Here are some similar sugar cookies I did, I think graham crackers would be delicious!

Daring Bakers-Sticky Toffee Pudding worth waiting for!

I was so determined to get this recipe in under the wire! Pudding is what we brits are famous for, I just couldnt possibly let this one pass me by! I thought about pudding and I just couldnt get my favourite out of my mind, sticky toffee pudding! I recall eating it at my friend's wedding last October and it nearly brought tears to my eyes, I was so full but I had to really work hard to stop myself from licking up every little bit of the caramelized brown sugar sauce!

It seems that most of the recipes I've come across are for a baked pudding although I think the original roots of the pudding may be as a steamed suet pudding. I didnt have any suet on hand and I dont eat meat, so I substituted coconut oil, which I felt had similar properties.

I added a little lemon to the recipe, lemon zest in the cake and juice in the sauce, I loved the little zing in there.

I really loved this cake, I think butter would work just as well as coconut oil, and the individual pots steam pretty quickly, I cooked them for 30 mins but I think 20 mins would have been just perfect, since it was on the dry side. Of course the fantastic sauce made up for any dryness!

Here is a recipe from channel 4 in the uk if you want to try a baked recipe.

It was fun getting to use my 'Dairy Book of Home Cookery-new edition for the 90's'!!

Sticky toffee steamed pudding (makes 4 large servings or 6 small ramekins)

4oz dates, chopped and soaked with 1/2 cup hot water and 1/2 tsp baking powder

4oz flour

1 1/2 tsp baking powder

1 oz panko breadcrumbs

zest 1 lemon

3oz sugar

3 oz coconut oil (can be replaced with butter or suet)

1 egg

2 oz milk

Mix the dry ingredients, whisk the egg, combine all the ingredients then spoon into 6 greased ramekins. Steam for 20 minutes. Serve warm.

Toffee Sauce

100g butter

100ml cream

1 cup brown sugar

juice of 1 small lemon

Heat the sauce until the sugar is fully dissolved and simmer for a couple of minutes. Add the lemon and stir to combine. Serve warm.

The April 2010 Daring Bakers’ challenge was hosted by Esther of The Lilac Kitchen. She challenged everyone to make a traditional British pudding using, if possible, a very traditional British ingredient: suet.

Delicious Failures!

So there I was whipping and whipping a meringue topping for my smores cupcakes and nothing was happening. Either my proportions were wrong or there was a tiny amount of fat, but I never got any billowy clouds of meringue.

Since I hate to waste anything, I turned my failed meringues into a success by folding in coconut, almonds, dried tart cherries, a little vanilla and almond essence. They were very well received at my bookclub!

We read 'The Survival Club' and it was a very interesing book. The basic principle that it seemed to keep returning to is that survival is often based on the determination of the person and that the mind is a very powerful thing.

Coconut Almond Cherry Meringues

2 egg whites

1 cup sugar

2 tbsp corn syrup

2 tbsp water

1 cup coconuts

1/4 cup slivered almonds

1/4 cup dried cherries

1/2 tsp almond essence

1 tsp vanilla essence

Preheat the oven to 325

Whip up the egg whites, sugar, corn syrup and water.

Fold in the remaining ingredients

Bake for around 20 minutes until the macaroons are starting to brown

Wait until fully cooled before removing from the sheet.

Nom

Scoop walnut sized scoops onto a parchment covered baking sheet

I'm back! I brought some cakes!

Oh gosh, its really been a whirlwind few weeks in the jennywenny household! I had a wonderful time in Australia seeing my family, and playing with my adorable niece, then I drove up to central california to do a wonderful century bike ride. More about those trips later, I thought I'd share some delicious cupcakes that I made for bookclub.

The great thing about these is that they are dairy free and gluten free. Be careful to check that your ingredients and equipment arent contaminated with any dairy or wheat!

Flourless kumquat almond cake- adapted from Planet Cake by Paris Cutler
Makes 24 mini cupcakes (maybe around 10 cupcakes)

110g kumquats, frozen
2 eggs
150g almond paste (can be subbed with 100g almonds and 50g sugar)
50g superfine sugar
½ tsp baking powder

Preheat the oven to 350f

Microwave the kumquats for 3 x 30s. Squeeze and remove the pips. Put in a food processor and process until smooth.

Add the eggs, followed by the almonds and the sugar, then process until smooth. Add the baking powder and process, then put into the baking cups almost to the top.

Bake for 12-15 mins for the small cupcakes, 20-25 minutes for the larger ones, check for done-ness with a toothpick.

To continue the dairy free, I melted some dark chocolate with coconut oil and a little orange oil for flavor and drizzled it on the cakes, topped with orange zest.

Tiramisu Cupcakes

I'm so sad, I just didnt have enough time to get the Daring Bakers Challenge done. I guess my full time job, training for a century bike ride, and trying to raise $3000 by making cakes for friends for charity all caught up with me. There have been way too many late nights, and not enough leisure.

Thankfully I'm taking off for Australia this weekend to see my lovely family, so I'll at least get a bit of a break!

I recently made these tiramisu cupcakes, and since the Daring Bakers made a delicious tiramisu, I thought I'd share a spin on it. I'll try and revisit the challenge when I have more time, which will be soon, after March 13th when I finish my bike ride.

If you want to see real Tiramisu then check out what the other Daring Bakers got up to.

Tiramisu Cupcakes-makes 1 dozen cupcakes, or 3 dozen minis

Vanilla buttercakes

90g butter

110g sugar

2 eggs

1/2 tsp vanilla

150g self raising flour, sifted

40ml milk

Preheat the oven to 350f

Cream the butter and sugar together, beat in the eggs, one at a time, then the vanilla. Stir in 1/2 the flour, then the milk, then the rest of the flour, just until combined.

Scoop into cupcake wrappers and bake for 18-20 mins until a toothpick comes out clean when inserted into the middle. Cool.

Kahlua syrup

50g brown sugar

100ml water

50ml kahlua

Heat sugar in water until dissolved. Add kahlua and drizzle on cupcakes.

Marscapone cream

250g Marscapone cheese

1/4 cup (40g) icing sugar

1 tablespoon madeira/sherry

3/4 cup (180ml) heavy cream, whipped to medium peaks

Whisk together the cheese, sugar and madeira, then fold into the cream. Pipe onto cupcakes and shave chocolate onto them to finish

An inundation of kumquats!

My friend at work brought a heaving bag of kumquats in and I quickly had to work out what to do with them all before they started going off. I put them in the fridge immediately, then a few days later I got to them. Never keep kumquats out of the fridge, they will go off in a day or two!

I set about preserving a load of them, thanks to garrett, those will be delicious in a few weeks on salads, brightening up greens and maybe some stews.

I then made a big pot of marmalade.

I candied some of them, which was a massive pain, but very pretty.

The lovely molly, of orangette gave me an idea for another cup of them, marmalade cake. It also used up some of the giant stash of almond paste I had in the fridge from christmas.

I deviated so far from her recipe that I thought I'd share! This was such a quick cake to make, had a lovely crumb to it and was a nice change from all the boring chocolate and vanilla combos I've been making for other folks!

If you dont have almond paste, then you can use around 6oz ground almonds, which have been slightly toasted, and an extra 1/2 cup of sugar.

Kumquat Marmalade Cake

1 cup stewed kumquats (chop, remove seeds and heat for a few minutes)

12 oz almond paste

1 cup sugar

2/3 cup olive oil

3 large eggs, whisked lightly

1/2 tsp salt

1 cup flour

1 tablespoon baking powder

Preheat Oven to 350f

Throw the almond paste and kumquats in a food processor. Pulse until combined. Add sugar, then turn the processor on and drizzle in the olive oil. Add the eggs and salt, process.

Add the dry ingredients and pulse a few times until combined.

Pour into a lined 9" cake tin and bake for around an hour, until a toothpick comes out clean, check after 45mins.

Serve decorated with candied kumquats on top and whipped cream with a little lemon zest and a touch of sugar.

Plum Frangipane Tart

I recently received some plums in my CSA and they just languished in my fridge and I couldnt think what to do with them. I also had a huge tub of almond meal that I bought, thinking it would come in handy to make marzipan for christmas. Bookclub seemed the perfect occasion to make a nice tart, using some of my almond paste, and the plums.

This tart is so pretty and easy. I made the pastry the jamie oliver way, although he says to press the pastry into the tart pan, and I think it is far easier to roll it out, that way you can get it nice and thin and delicate.

This is definitely not something to be eating giant pieces of with all the butter and sugar, but is definitely a nice treat if you can make yourself just have a small piece. I found that bookclub was the perfect opportunity, since it would be shared.

Plum and Frangipane Tart

Short crust pastry crust, baked blind I used this recipe

100g Almond Paste

16g Sugar

1egg

50g Butter

20g Cake flour, sifted

6-8 plums, or 2 pears if preferred

Cream the almond paste, sugar, butter and egg, then add the flour and mix until combined. Smooth the paste on the bottom of the crust until even, then arrange slices of plums on the top.

Put foil around the crust of the tart to make sure it doesnt burn.

Bake for around 30mins at 350f until the frangipane is slightly browned.

Beas of Bloomsbury

One of the really fun things I got to do while in London was to check out Beas of Bloomsbury
I took my dear friend John there for lunch, and we snagged a great table at the back where I could watch all that was going on in the pastry kitchen as we munched on our lunch.

We chose to share a sandwich and a couple of salads, which were both totally delicious. I think it was a cheese and roasted veggie sandwich, and a pasta salad with a really tasty broccoli salad.

We saved room for some cake, which we had to sample! I chose an amaretto cheesecake and a chocolate cupcake with praline buttercream. The buttercream was to die for, and I really loved the oaty crust on the cheesecake.

I then ended up saying hello to the chef, Bea, and I'm so glad I did as they were nice enough to offer me an afternoon of work experience. So I dashed off to the Burkenstock store and snapped up some chef shoes and showed up the next afternoon.

Despite her formidable reputation, she was an amazing teacher, and incredibly patient with me. My first test was to quickly weigh out eggwhites and sugar for meringues. I didnt take too long to do that, so it was on to the next task, whipping up some gluten free orange cakes. These were a snap to make, and totally delicious, I was lucky enough to taste one. It was a simple mixture, which didnt even need any frosting, totally delicious and moist.

I then set to work piping meringues, which I found really tricky, but after being corrected several times, I managed to get it right, and set about piping tray after tray of meringue, which eventually winged their way to selfridges (oooh!!).

Even though it was just an afternoon, I had a fantastic time, Bea had created a really great atmosphere with the people working there, I met two people, Naomi and James, who were both really nice, and it felt like fun to work, which is important as its often a very long day in this kind of business.

I would love to think that this could be my job one day, although its so much better paid being a chemist than a cook/pastry cook/cake artist! Its lovely to visit a bakery like Beas, where quality ingredients are of the greatest importance and attention to detail is impeccable.

Be sure to check the bakery out if you're in London, and also try a lesson with Bea, she's a great teacher!

Butter Cake

Thank you sunset magazine, I've been looking for a vanilla cake to add to my repertoire, this worked very well. I made 2 9 inch cakes and then sliced them into thin layers and sandwiched them with a chocolate buttercream. I didnt follow their recipe, I just made my usual chocolate buttercream. It was yummy.

The only downside with it is that it uses cake flour, and that makes it much more expensive than a cake with all purpose flour. If anyone knows a good cheap source for cake flour I would be eternally grateful, the only stores that carry it are ralphs, vons and albertsons and its hellish expensive.

I made it for a friend, so I didnt obsess about getting the decoration perfect, I had my first play with modelling chocolate and I really like working with it, and it has the added benefit of being much more palatable than fondant, especially the dark chocolate version. Soo easy to make too!!

Visit sunset for the recipe and some variations!

Chocolate buttercream- makes enough for more than this cake!!
1 lb butter-soft
1 lb confectioners sugar
1 tsp vanilla
3 oz cocoa powder
3 oz melted chocolate (I used a mixture of milk and dark)
milk-as needed

Sift the cocoa powder and sugar. Beat the butter until fluffy, add vanilla, beat, then add the cocoa and powdered sugar in two batches, starting off really slowly to begin! Add the chocolate and beat again. If the mix looks too thick, add some milk until as soft as desired.

Modelling chocolate
1 part chocolate to 1 part corn syrup. Melt chocolate then add corn syrup and mix together. Put in fridge then knead. Keep in fridge wrapped in plastic until needed. Warm with hands before use.

Cake extravaganza!

I've been so busy attending classes, making easter goodies and all sorts that I've not really been trying any new recipes! More grossmont cakes to come, although we finished the last cake baking in my cake class and we're now doing cake decorating for the rest of the semester.
We started yesterday with buttercream roses, I never got the hang of them. I feel like I just dont have enough interest in them, I cant see myself ever wanting them on my cakes, so there is no incentive to try and perfect them. I might try at the weekend again though.

I started with some cupcakes for a fellow medicinal chemist, making dinky little labcoast and drawing molecules, and some beakers and erlenmeyer flasks, really fun!



Then I had the pleasure of making a cake for the lovely Canine Cologne, who was celebrating a birthday, I'm so glad I finally got to meet her, she's just as sweet and fun as I imagined and I'm really glad she took a risk and asked me to help with her special birthday. Thanks for the shout out too!

I made a banana cake with caramel, banana and cream cheese frosting with chocolate fondant.

The other request was the chocokat cupcakes, these were also fun to make, I love doing cartoon characters!

We then moved onto easter, and I made a mixture of cupcakes with an easter theme, I was asked to make some peeps ones, and some baby birds. I rounded it out with a few birds nests with robin eggs in

I also enjoyed making a fun easter cake. If I'd known quite how big it was going to end up, I'd have made lots more daffodils for it, I also made a birds nest basket with chocolate, caramel syrup and rice krispies

The most recent project was a spur of the moment thing, lots of people are always banging on about 'Yo Gabba' and I have no idea what it is but it sounds fun. A friend recently gave birth to a very adorable little boy, her 2 year old was being a very cute big brother and I thought it would be really fun to make some treats with his favourite characters on. I was really happy with how they came out, I'm a bit annoyed with myself for not taking the time to pipe the frosting, but the characters are cute.

Opera Cake

My favourite cake at Grossmont Cake Classes has been the Opera Cake. Layers of delicious almond jaconde moistened with coffee syrup, layered with chocolate ganache and coffee buttercream. How could you go wrong!!



I was excited to make this as I'd made the opera cake with the daring bakers just over a year ago, with white chocolate and I knew I'd love the dark chocolate and coffee flavors.



Be sure to serve this at room temperature, its much better when the chocolate and buttercream is nice and melty.


Opera Cake- Serves around 12



Joconde

6oz almond meal
4 oz powdered sugar
2 1/2 oz cake flour
6 eggs
6 egg whites
1/4 tsp salt
1/4 tsp cream of tartar
2 1/2 oz sugar
2 1/2 oz butter melted

Sift together the almond meal, powdered sugar and cake flour

Beat egg whites with cream of tartar, adding sugar slowly until the eggs reach medium peaks.

Whisk the eggs into the flour mixture, fold the egg white mixture in followed by the butter. Be sure to make sure the butter didnt just fall straight to the bottom but dont overmix.


Bake on a parchment lined half sheet pan at 350f convection for 5-7 mins.



Coffee Buttercream

5 1/2 oz sugar
2 1/2 oz water
1 tbsp corn syrup
2 eggs
7 oz butter
1/2 tsp vanilla
1/8 tsp salt
1 1/2 tsp mocha extract



Heat the sugar water and corn syrup to a temperature of 240f. Meanwhile, whip up the eggs for about 5 mins until theyy reach full volume. Slowly pour the syrup into the eggs, beating continuously. Beat until cool, then add the butter a tablespoon at a time while beating. If the mixture curdles, stop adding butter and beat until it comes together again. Add the vanilla, salt and mocha extract and beat to combine.



Espresso Syrup

5 oz espresso
2 1/2 oz sugar
3 oz kahlua


Dissolve the sugar in the espresso, heating. Add the kahlua



Ganache
20 oz cream
1 lb 3 oz dark chocolate-chopped


Heat the cream until it reaches a boil. Add to the chocolate and mix until smooth. Keep half warm and allow half to cool to room temperature

Assembly

Cut the cake into 3 equal pieces

Take the bottom layer, brush with coffee syrup

Top with a layer of the room temperature ganache

Add cake, brush with syrup

Add a layer of half of the buttercream

Top with the last layer of cake, brush with syrup

Spread the rest of the buttercream on the top.

Chill for around 30 mins or so

Pour the warm ganache over the top and smooth.

Trim the edges, then cut into slices.

Optional: Write 'opera' on the slices

Raspberry Mousse Charlotte

Another Grossmont cake! We made a delicious raspberry mousse cake, 2 layers of sponge with layers of raspberry mousse, surrounded by ladies fingers and topped with a pretty mirror layer, meringue and raspberries.

I learned a clever technique to pipe the lady fingers out to make things a lot easier. This is a really nice cake to serve for a special birthday, I'm annoyed I didnt get a shot of a slice, its very pretty indeed, not to mention delicious!



Raspberry Mousse Charlotte

Makes 2 cakes

Sponge Cake

makes 1 9" cake

4 1/2 oz cake flour
3 1/4 oz sugar
1 1/2 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp salt

3 egg yolks
2 oz oil
1 tsp vanilla
1/3 cup water

4 egg whites
1/4 tsp cream of tartar
2 oz sugar


Sift together the dry ingredients, whisk together the eggs, oil, vanilla and water then whip the egg whites and cream of tartar, adding the sugar together and beating until the mixture has soft peaks.


Fold the egg yolks into the egg white mixture followed by the flour.

Bake for around 30 mins at 325 in a conventional oven. Allow to cool while the other components are made.

Ladies Fingers

400f convection oven 3-5 mins

2 2/3 oz AP flour
2 oz corn starch

4 egg yolks
pinch of salt
2 oz sugar

4 egg whites
2 1/2 oz sugar
3 drops lemon juice

Sift the flour and corn starch twice. Whisk the egg yolks with the sugar for about 5 minutes until they reach full volume. Whip up the egg whites with the lemon juice, adding the sugar slowly and allowing to form medium peaks. Fold the egg whites into the egg yolks, followed by the dry ingredients

Prepare a baking sheet with a guide so that you can pipe the batter to surround a cake, for us, our circles were about 2 inches high, so we piped our ladies fingers to be slightly wider. As you can see, this is a quick technique for forming the surround for a cake without having to make individual fingers.

Bake at 400f in a convection oven for 3-5 mins, rotating when half done. Remove from oven and take the parchment out of the baking sheet to prevent over cooking.

Raspberry Mousse

18 oz seedless raspberry puree
8 oz sugar
pinch salt
2 tablespoons lemon juice

6 sheets gelatin=bloomed in cold water

24 oz whipping cream

Warm the puree, sugar and lemon juice in a saucepan until sugar is completely dissolved. Squeeze out the gelatin and whisk into the puree mixture. Allow to cool.

Whip the cream until medium peaks form, then fold the raspberry mixture in.

Raspberry Glaze prepare when cake is ready to serve

6 oz seedless raspberry puree
4 oz water
3 1/2 oz sugar
1 tablespoon pectin

2 sheets gelatin-bloomed

Combine the puree, water and sugar and bring to a boil. Sprinkle pectin in, boil gently for a minute, then strain through a chinois. Strain gelatin and whisk in.


Italian meringue

1 parts egg whites
2 parts sugar

whisk over boiling water until temp reaches 240f then whip at high speed until firm.

Soaking syrup
4 oz simple syrup
1 oz Chambord

Assembly


Cut the ladies fingers to fit into a 9" cake ring, fit in nice and snug.

Cut the cake into 4 layers and trim until it fits snug inside the ladies finger ring. Brush with syrup then ladle a layer of raspberry mousse. Add second cake, brush with more syrup them add more raspberry mousse. Get a nice flat finish, leaving 1/4 inch for the glaze, then freeze the whole cake for at least 4 hours until firm.

Remove cake from freezer, then quickly pour glaze over the top. Allow to cool for 30 mins

Pipe meringue onto cake

Brown meringue wiht a blowtorch, making sure not to burn the sides of the cake

Decorate with raspberries, make sure the cake has fully defrosted before serving.

Hot cross buns

Since Easter is on its way I thought I'd try my hand at some Hot Cross Buns. Especially since they arent very common over here in the US.

The buns are supposed to be something to do with the cross and are traditionally served on Good Friday.

I referred to my trusted Dairy Book of Home Cookery, which my mum bought from the milkman years and years ago.

Hot Cross Buns
Preparation 1 1/4 hrs plus rising
Cooking 25 mins

450g (1 lb) bread flour
50g (2oz) superfine sugar
25g (1 oz) fresh yeast or 20ml (4 tsp) dried yeast
150ml (1/2 cup, 1/4 pint) milk, warm
60ml (4 tbsp) warm water
1 tsp salt
1 tsp mixed spice
1/2 tsp cinnamon
100g (4oz) currants
50g (2oz) chopped mixed peel
50g (2oz) butter, melted
1 egg, beaten
50g (2oz) sugar
45ml (3 tbsp) milk

Place 100g flour in bowl with the caster sugar.
Mix the yeast with the milk and the water, leave to stand until frothy.
Mix the two together and leave for 20-30 mins until frothy.
Meanwhile, combine the dry ingredients. Add the frothy mixture, egg and butter and then knead together for around 5 mins until dough is smooth.
Place in a bowl and cover until doubled in size.
While dough is rising, mix some flour with water and make into crosses for the top of the buns.
Lightly knead and shape into 12 buns, leave to rise for a further 30 mins.
Cut crosses in the tops, top with the flour crosses and bake at 220c, 425f, gas mark 7 for 20-25 mins.
Make glaze by melting sugar in milk in a saucepan, boil for a couple of minutes.
Brush onto hot buns twice.
Eat while warm, or reheat, slice in half and serve with butter.

Mmmm

Mini Pavlovas

These mini pavlovas were inspired by my trip to Australia at the beginning of the year. The pavlovas were the most delicious thing in the middle of summer.

I knew I wanted to re-create what I'd enjoyed so much in an individual form. I made little mini meringes and topped with a dollop of whipped cream, some lemon and strawberry curd and the lovely local strawberries.

I served these as part of a mini dessert spread at a wedding and I'm told they were the hit of the party!

Pavlova- Donna Hay Modern Classics Book 2

4 egg whites
1 cup superfine sugar
3 teaspoons cornflour
1 tsp white vinegar

Preheat the oven to 300f

Beat the egg whites until frothy, then start to add the sugar slowly while beating. Continue whipping on a med/high speed until the mixture has a medium peak. Fold in the cornflour and vinegar then pipe 3 inch circles onto a silpat or parchment paper.

Place in oven then reduce temperature to 250f and bake for an hour, turn the oven off with the door ajar and allow to cool.

Lemon Strawberry Curd
100g (4oz) butter
225g (8oz) sugar
3 eggs plus 1 yolk, beaten
grated rind and juice of 2 lemons
1/2 cup strawberry puree, strained

Melt butter on a double boiler, add remaining ingredients and whisk over the heat until the mixture coats the back of a spoon, taking care that the mixture doesnt boil.

Pour into clean jars and keep refridgerated for up to 2 weeks.

Assemble pavlovas as soon before eating as possible. Take the meringe, add a tablespoon of unsweetened whipped cream, then some lemon curd and top with sliced strawberries.