Golden Rose Cake

So, it's been a while... We've had chickenpox and been away for a large amount of the past couple of months, but the spots are gone & I'm back to the cakes.

This one was for a coeliac lady so it was all gluten free, lemon on the top and vanilla for the bottom tier.
She requested golden yellow roses - actually I think it was golden showers roses but googling that made all sorts of horrible things come up!

I hope the colour was OK for her, it's so difficult to get an exact replica in icing & there's a lot of shades of yellow!

I baked this cake the other day

With my girls, it was delicious - so dense and moist, I followed this recipe http://www.bbcgoodfood.com/recipes/3092/ultimate-chocolate-cake You should totally try it - it was really fab. I won't bother with the recipe for the frosting, even my six year old wouldn't eat much of it, it was so sweet! Stick to a ganache instead.

What's your favourite cake recipe? I'm always looking for new ones to try!

Afternoon tea for Mothering Sunday

We decided against doing the usual flowers and chocolates this year & instead decided to make our Mums afternoon tea. We are lucky in the respect that they both live in the next village to us and are friends so it's lovely and easy to do things together sometimes.
The menu was
Sandwiches: Cucumber & mint; coronation chicken; salt beef, horseradish mayo & rocket
Sultana scones with clotted cream & strawberry jam
Carrot cake & cream cheese frosting
Luxury fruit cake
Chocolate eclairs

Wow, when it's written it looks so bad for you! In my defense I didn't have some of everything!

I will take a better scone photo tomorrow, last time I made them they were awful but this time they turned out beautifully, the trick is to not roll them out too thinly.
Updated photo of scone:

Sultana scone recipe
500g plain flour 
4tsp baking powder 
75g caster sugar 
85g soft, room temp butter 
2 eggs, lightly beaten + extra for glazing
Carton of buttermilk (usually 184ml) 
1 large handful sultanas 
cup of tea   


1. Soak the sultanas in the slightly cooled cup of black tea for a couple of hours or so, when you come to start making your scones drain the sultanas and place on some kitchen towel.


2. Preheat the oven to 210°C/gas 7.
 
3. Sift the flour, baking powder and sugar together in a bowl twice.

4. Rub in the butter until the mixture resembles fine breadcrumbs.
 
5. Make a well in the centre and mix in the eggs and enough buttermilk to give a soft, fairly wet dough.

6. Mix in the (patted dry) sultanas.

7. Turn the mixture onto a floured surface. Roll out lightly to a thickness of about 2.5cm. Cut into circles with a 5cm cutter.

8. Place the rounds on a baking sheet lined with parchment. Lightly brush with beaten egg, making sure the egg wash doesn't spill over the edges.

9. Bake for about 10-15 minutes until brown and well risen.

10. Cool on a wire rack. 


Last weekend we spent the day at a local airfield, it's a fun thing to do, sit & chat & watch the planes.

 Oh and my husband did this while I stayed safely down on the ground.

I couldn't do it, I could barely watch him until I saw the parachute open, then it looked quite enjoyable, I'll take the gently floating down to earth minus the plummeting towards the ground please!
This is my daughter, it's lovely when you just catch children looking natural, it's rare in our family as whenever you pull the camera out they fake smile at you & look a bit forced. Love the classic style of this shot though.

 I hope all my UK readers had an enjoyable Mothering Sunday?

Lily's 6th birthday - Nigella's birthday custard sponge & real raspberry cupcakes

It was my eldest daughter's sixth birthday earlier this week, it was a school day so her party is coming up. Any birthday celebrated in our home comes with 'My Birthday My Rules', luckily so far our girls haven't realised the extent to which this could work in their advantage so all that was requested was for a couple of gifts to be opened before breakfast & hot dogs for dinner, fine - a nice, easy day for me!
So, off she went to school with a batch of raspberry cupcakes to share - They're actually vanilla cuppies with raspberry frosting, Lily asked for pink frosting so to keep it colouring free I blitzed some raspberries in the blender and whipped them into standard, unflavoured buttercream. I made the mistake of thinking I'd pureed the raspberries for long enough to obliterate any seeds but it turned out crunchy so I spent half an hour forcing it through a sieve, not fun so my advice is to really sieve the raspberries before adding to your buttercream! The frosting (when crunch free) was delicious and I'm planning on trying it on a white chocolate mud cake next, watch this space!

So when Lily was at school her sister and I had a go at making Nigella's birthday custard sponge, she'll have a 'proper' cake on the day of her party but we couldn't let her actual birthday pass without some candles being blown out and I always turn to Nigella for simple but delicious cakes. The custard powder you add to the cake seemed to make a standard sponge cake really moist and springy, my only advice would be to make the chocolate icing in advance and let it cool a bit before spooning on top, that way you still get the oozing down the sides look without loosing the majority of your icing to sit in a puddle around the base.

And Lily blowing out the candles

If you want to have a go at the sponge you can find the recipe here http://www.nigella.com/recipes/view/best-birthday-cake-118 or in her book Feast which I highly recommend.

Profiteroles

I love profiteroles, even though they are a bit of a stereotypical 80's dessert - anyway everything goes in cycles and comes back in fashion, right?! So, I'm bringing profiteroles back, here's my recipe.

For the choux pastry
60g unsalted butter
2 tsp caster sugar
80g plain flour
small pinch of salt
2 eggs, beaten
135ml water

For the chocolate sauce
50g unsalted butter
200g good quality dark chocolate
1/2 cup of cream
1tbsp golden syrup

For the filling
400ml Double cream
Vanilla pod seeds, or good quality vanilla extract
1 dessertspoon of icing sugar (optional)

Preheat your oven to 200°C.
Line a baking tray with non stick baking parchment.
Place the water, butter and sugar in a good sized pan and heat until the butter is melted and the water is just beginning to boil.

Remove the pan from the heat and tip in the flour and salt, stirring immediately, don't worry if the pastry looks like a gloopy mess, it will all come together if you keep beating. Once the pastry has come together as a smooth dough, return to the heat for a whiles, no more than a minute, until the pastry begins to shrink away from the sides of the pan.

Remove from the heat once more and gradually add the eggs, beating well after each addition. You will end up with a smooth, glossy mixture that is dropping consistency.

Spoon or pipe small mounds of the mixture onto your baking tray, about 1 1/2 teaspoons per bun.

Sprinkle the tray with water to help create steam in the oven. Bake for 10-20 minutes until well golden brown, if you take them out too soon they will be too soft.
On removing the profiteroles from the oven, pierce each one on the underside with a skewer to let the steam escape. Leave to dry upside down on a cooling rack.

To make your chocolate sauce, put all the ingredients in a pan and melt together over a low heat, stirring continuously.

Whip the cream until it forms soft peaks, then whisk in the vanilla and if using, icing sugar.

Using a piping bag, fill the profiteroles with cream then serve with a spoonful of chocolate sauce.

This recipe made me 12 profiteroles so would generously serve 4.

Have you got any nice plans for the weekend? I think my girls want to write to Father Christmas, they're so excited and he likes to get a head start on the wrapping! xx