GBBO 2017 Week 4 - Caramel Poppy Seed Cake

The showstopper challenge on the mighty caramel week for the GBBO 2017 series was all about making an impressive caramel cake. As my partner's family is Polish, I've been keeping an eye on Julia's bakes, as she keeps making eastern European inspired bakes. I was really intrigued by the cake she made this week, a light poppy seed cake with a walnut and prune filling and caramel frosting, so thought it'd be fun to give it a go.

The cake was a big success! The cake was really lovely and airy, but still had a lot of flavour, and the filling was a bit hit with my boyfriend's mum :) I altered the caramel sauce and buttercream a little - I wanted the buttercream not quite as sweet, so used treacle instead of the golden syrup Julia used. otherwise this recipe doesn't stray too far from what was seen on the show. I had some fun with the caramel decorations though - they aren't as difficult as you might think! Just be very careful, boiling caramel really hurts :(

Makes one 20cm cake (easily feeds 12)

Ingredients:

For the sponges:

• 200g (7/8 cup) unsalted butter/margarine
• 5 medium eggs, at room temperature
• 200g (1 cup) caster sugar
• 1½ teaspoons vanilla extract
• 10g (2 tsp) poppy seeds
• 200g (1 & 3/4 cups) self-raising flour, sifted

For the filling:

• 75g (1/2 cup) walnut halves or pieces
• 75g (1/2 cup) semi-dried prunes (I used Whitworths, which are partially rehydrated)

For the caramel sauce:

• 50g (1/4 cup) butter or margarine
• 100g (1/4 cup + 2 tsp) treacle
• 150g (2/3 cup) caster sugar
• 150ml (3/5 cup) double cream

For the buttercream:

• 50g (1/4 cup) softened butter
• 50g (1/2 cup) icing sugar, sifted

For the caramel decoration:

• 240g (2 & 2/5 cups) caster sugar
• 4 tablespoons water
• 9 walnut halves

Method:

1. Preheat the oven to 190°C (170C fan)/375°F/Gas mark 5. Grease the base and sides of two loose-bottomed 20cm cake tins, and dust lightly with flour.

2. Gently melt the butter/margarine (in a microwave or in a saucepan) and leave to cool until needed.

3. Separate the eggs, placing the egg whites into a large grease-free bowl, and the yolks into a another large mixing bowl. Whisk using a hand-held electric whisk (or use the whisk attachment of a stand mixer) until the whites stand in soft peaks when the whisk is lifted from the bowl. Whisk in 100g of the caster sugar to make a stiff, glossy meringue. Set aside.

4. Add the remaining 100g of sugar to the yolks, along with the vanilla extract, and whisk (there’s no need to wash the whisk) until very thick and mousse-like and the whisk leaves a distinct, ribbon-like trail when lifted from the bowl. Whisk in the poppy seeds.

5. Using a large metal spoon or similar implement (I used a metal palette knife), carefully fold in a third of the sifted flour. Once you can't see any speckles of flour, add a third of the eggs whites, and fold in. Repeat this, alternating between adding flour and egg whites, until it has all been incorporated.

6. Pour the melted butter/margarine around the sides of the bowl and gently (but thoroughly) fold in. Divide evenly between the two cake tins.  

7. Bake the sponges for about 18-20 minutes until golden, well risen and starting to shrink away from the sides of the tin - if you press the centre of the sponge it will spring back. Leave to cool for 5 minutes in their tins, then turn out onto a wire rack to cool completely.

8. For the walnut and prune filling, roast the walnuts in the preheated oven for around 10 minutes, stirring after 5 minutes, until they smell nutty and are golden in colour. Leave to cool. Put the prunes into the bowl of a food processor and blitz to make a thick puree. Scrape down the sides of the bowl, add the walnut and blitz the pieces (briefly) until they are chopped medium-fine. Transfer to a bowl and set aside.

9. To make the caramel sauce to flavour the filling and buttercream: place the butter, treacle and caster sugar into a medium pan and stir over a low heat until melted and smooth. Meanwhile heat the cream in another pan until it is just simmering. 

10. Bring the sugar/treacle mixture to the boil and cook for about 4 minutes, or until becomes thicker and even darker in colour. Stir the mixture often to ensure it doesn't burn.  Remove the pan from the heat, cover your hand with an oven glove and very carefully add the hot cream. 

11. When the foaming subsides, return the pan to a low heat and whisk constantly with a wire hand whisk for a few minutes until thickened (on a sugar thermometer the temperature would read 110C/230F). Pour into a heatproof bowl. Leave to cool to room temperature, then place in the fridge to chill fully. 

12. For the caramel buttercream: beat the butter/margarine until it is very smooth and fluffy. , until very light in colour and texture. Gradually whisk in the caramel sauce. When it’s very smooth and light, remove 100g and mix this into the prune/walnut filling. 

13. Add the sifted icing sugar and beat until it is smooth but not too slack - if it seems very loose, add more icing sugar. Transfer ⅓ to a separate bowl for the ‘crumb coat’.

14. To assemble the cake, level both sponges, then set one sponge top-side down on a serving plate. Spread with the walnut/prune filling. Place the second sponge on top.

15. Evenly spread the top and sides of the cake with the buttercream set aside for the ‘crumb coat', using a palette knife or spatula. Chill for 10 minutes, or until it is no longer sticky to the touch. Using a cleaned palette knife or spatula, neatly spread the remaining ⅔ of caramel buttercream over the entire cake and chill until firm.

16. Meanwhile, make the caramel for the shards: put the sugar into a medium pan and shake the pan so it settles in an even layer. Add the water, and place on a low heat. Gently melt the sugar, tilting the pan occasionally until the sugar has dissolved. Meanwhile grease and line the base of a baking tray with baking parchment. 

17. Once all of the sugar has melted, turn up the heat and boil without stirring until the syrup turns a rich, golden-brown caramel colour. Take off the heat, and leave until cool (to speed up this process you can dip the pan in some cold water/ice). Once the caramel is thick enough to leave a trail from the pan, use a whisk to spread the caramel out on the baking parchment - make a thick line about 7cm in size at the bottom, then have fun drizzling the caramel above this (this will make a feature for the cake that should have stability due to this base). If the caramel gets too thick, place back on a low heat for a few minutes.

Reserve 1/4 of the caramel for the walnuts.

There are other fun things you can do with the caramel. For example, to make a sugar cage, grease a ladle and drizzle the caramel over in a web pattern. Whilst warm (but not too hot), gently peel the cage away. If it gets too cold, I found out (to my horror) the caramel sticks to the spoon...

18. Place the walnut halves in the reserved caramel and swirl to get an even coating (I'll admit, mine weren't as even as I'd like - we can always improve!), then tip out to cool. Leave to set.

19. Once the caramel is hard, press the large into the buttercream on the top of the cake and decorate the top with the caramel coated walnuts.

20. Enjoy!

GBBO 2017 Week 4 - Peanut Butter Millionaire's Shortbread

This was the best week of GBBO by far. I love love love caramel, so to find out that the whole theme of the show was caramel was like a dream. The signature challenge were millionaire's shortbread (or as my boyfriend calls them, Rich Man Biscuits), and I was really intrigued with what the bakers would come up with. Traditionally they have a shortbread base, caramel middle, and are topped with chocolate. I've made them before, but have never been able to make the caramel from scratch (i.e. without the help of condensed milk) before (my other recipe, which is also gluten free, is here).

So I was pretty excited to see what the baker's would bake. Some didn't appeal to me - bay leaf infused caramel for instance, just sounds a bit too weird for mass appeal. However, I loved the idea Sophie had of making individual shortbread biscuits, wrapping them in acetate then topping with layers of caramel, orange chocolate ganache, and chocolate.

Although I loved her ganache (I tried it out and it was amazing, so I may do another blog post about that later on), Liam's peanut butter millionaire's shortbread really took my eye so I decided to give them a go, with a few cheeky tweaks along the way.

Oh, and these taste incredible!! The caramel sets perfectly (helped by the peanut butter), and it sort of reminds me of a caramel snickers bar, except made even better with a layer of perfect shortbread. I've never used ground rice (also called rice flour) before, but it really worked a treat.

One money-saving tweak I tested, which worked really well, is to use baking margarine instead of butter. Personally I think the shortbread base doesn't suffer (with all the other flavours going on you don't miss it, and the texture seems very close to that when you use butter), and the caramel set just fine. Butter will obviously work too, but I thought it'd be nice to let people know when I'm able to cut the price of ingredients :)

I tried wrapping strips of plastic wallet (in place of acetate sheets), and had no issues of spillage. However, the end result wasn't perfectly clean as the caramel stuck too the sheet (but maybe if you grease the plastic that wouldn't happen). It was a lot less time consuming to use a loose bottomed individual mini cake tins - I already had one, which I got from Lakeland years ago (see below). If you don't have one, try the acetate trick out :) Instructions for both methods are in my recipe.

These tins have removable bases and have straight sides, perfect for shortbread

Easily makes 12 millionaire's shortbreads (unless you want huge ones...)

Ingredients:

For the shortbread :

• 175g (1 cup & 8 tbsp) plain flour, plus extra for dusting
• 90g (2/3 cup) ground rice
• ¼ teaspoon fine sea salt
• 85g (1/2 cup minus 1 tbsp) caster sugar
• 175g (3/4 cup) unsalted butter, chilled (or baking margarine)
• ½ teaspoon vanilla bean paste

For the peanut butter:

• 100g (2/3 cup) roasted salted peanuts
• 1/2 tbsp honey
• 1 teaspoon nut oil (vegetable oil will also work)

For the caramel:

• 90ml (2/5 cup) double cream
• ½ teaspoon vanilla extract
• 30g (2 tbsp) liquid glucose
• 185g (3/4 cup) caster sugar
• 100g (1/2 cup minus 1 tbsp) butter, at room temperature, diced (or baking margarine)

For the chocolate topping:

• 200g (1 & 1/3 cups) dark chocolate (55% cocoa solids)

Method:

1. Preheat the oven to 180c (160c fan)/355f/ gas mark 4.

• If you are using the individual moulds, grease the base and sides of each mould and dust lightly with flour.
• If you are going to use the acetate moulds, grease and line the base of two baking trays with baking paper. Find a circular biscuit cutter (I used a 5cm cutter) and cut out pieces of acetate/plastic wallets so that they are 5cm wide and around 16cm long (so that it could surround the 5cm biscuit).
• If you want to be traditional and make one large millionaire's shortbread, grease and line the base of a 20cm square cake tin with baking paper.

2. Sift the plain flour and ground rice into a bowl with the salt and the sugar. Add the vanilla, then rub in the butter/margarine to form a dough. Gently bring into a ball.

3. Line your surface with clingfilm and tip the dough onto the surface. Cover with another layer of cling film, then roll out until the shortbread is around 1cm thick.

4. If using the moulds or the baking trays, cut out 5cm circles of the dough and place in the moulds or on the baking sheets. If making one large shortbread, roll out until it is 20x 20cm, then transfer to the cake tin.
Place in the fridge for 30 minutes to firm up.

5. Bake the shortbread for 12-14 minutes, until lightly golden. Remove from the oven to cool.

6. If using the acetate to make individual shortbreads, after removing from the oven, use the biscuit cutter to trim the biscuits to size (if they have spread on the trays). Wrap one of the pieces of acetate around a biscuit and secure in place with some tape. Try to get it as tight as possible to avoid leakage later.

7. To make the peanut butter, add the roasted peanuts, honey and oil to a high powered blender (you could use a pestle and mortar too), and blitz until the peanuts have broken down but there are still chunks remaining. Taste, and add more honey or salt if needed.

8. To make the caramel, place 60g (4 tbsp) of the caster sugar in a saucepan with the liquid glucose. Place on a low heat and frequently tilt the pan, until the sugar has melted and is a caramel colour. Meanwhile, heat the double cream and butter/margarine in another saucepan until it is lightly simmering.

9. Add the remaining (125g) caster sugar to the melted sugar and swirl the pan to incorporate the sugar. Keep a close eye on the sugar bubbling, until it is all a rich caramel colour.

10. Take off the heat (be sure to be holding the pan handle with an oven glove!), and pour over the simmering cream and butter. The mixture will bubble up a lot so be careful. Return to the heat, and stir continuously until the mixture is 110c/230f. Take off the heat and leave to cool for 15-20 minutes, until the temperature is around 50c.

11. Add two heaped teaspoons of the peanut butter to the caramel, and stir to combine. Add two tablespoons of caramel to each mould (or pour the whole thing over  the cake tin), and place in the fridge to set.

12. Melt the chocolate in a microwave on high power for 30 second bursts, stirring well after each addition. Add a teaspoon of the melted chocolate to each mould - I made some of mine thicker and regretted it, so keep the layer thin! Place in the fridge to set for 20 minutes.

13. Remove from the moulds, slice (if necessary).

14. Enjoy!

GBBO 2017 Week 3 - Bara Brith Inspired Teacakes

It was bread week on the Great British Bake Off this week - I've had a bit of a love/hate relationship with baking bread - sometimes the dough just doesn't behave like I'd expect, or the tastes don't quite live up to expectations. I've had a few successes, like my pesto and feta swirl bread, but you may have spotted most of my recipes aren't yeasty. My partner however, is amazing at baking bread and is currently writing a guest post about this week's technical challenge.

I decided to have a go at the showstopper challenge, which were teacakes. When I was little, I remember going to my local market with my brothers and sisters, and eating toasted current teacakes with butter. Because of this and my inexperience with bread, I was pretty eager to attempt to master them.

None of the flavours the bakers in the tent took my fancy (way too many had cardamom in), so I decided to do a take on the welsh fruity bread known as bara brith. This bread contains mixed dried fruit (including raisins, sultanas and mixed peel), and is spiced with cinnamon, ginger and mixed spice. I used these elements in the teacake, to make a really tasty bun :)

After baking, I went a little away from my bara brith theme and glazed the teacakes with an orange and cinnamon glaze. This gave them a really lovely shine and added another dimension of flavour.

These are probably the most technically-correct bread I've ever made, and they really do taste fab. So give them a go - they're brilliant as an alternative to toast or a mid-morning snack. I'll definitely be making them again :)

This recipe makes 6 large teacakes, but double up the recipe if you want more.

Ingredients:

For the soaked fruit:

• 300g (2 cups) mixed dried fruit (I bought a blend of raisins, sultanas and candied mixed peel)
• 75ml (1/3 cup) strong black tea (I brewed 2 teabags in a cup of water for 5 minutes)

For the dough:

• 375g (2 & 1/2 cups) strong white bread flour
• 1 sachet (7g) fast-action dried yeast
• 3.5g (2/3 tsp) salt
• 1 tbsp ground cinnamon
• 1 tsp ground mixed spice
• 1/2 tsp ground ginger
• 45g (1/4 cup) light soft brown sugar
• Finely grated zest of one orange
• 35g (1/4 cup) butter, softened
• 225ml (around 1 cup) tepid water
• 1 medium egg, to glaze

For the glaze:

• Juice of 2 oranges (100ml)
• 1 cinnamon stick
• 50g (1/4 cup) caster sugar

Method:

1. Pour the mixed dried fruit into a mixing bowl and tip over the strong tea. Stir briefly then cover. Leave for at least one hour for the dried fruit to plump up. For the best results leave them overnight, but this isn't essential.

2. Sift the flour into a large mixing bowl. Add the salt, orange zest, ground cinnamon, mixed spice, ginger and crumble the brown sugar into the bowl (as brown sugar tends to clump). Stir in to evenly combine, then sprinkle over the yeast. Stir in.

3. Break the butter into small (1cm) cubes, then tip into the bowl. Use your hands to rub the butter into the flour. When you can no longer see any butter, make a well in the centre of the flour and tip in 3/4 of the water. Bring the mixture together with your hands to make a soft, slightly sticky dough.

4. Lightly oil a work surface and tip the dough onto the surface. Knead for 10 minutes, until the dough is really smooth and elastic. If you prod the dough it should spring right back. Cover the bowl with clingfilm and leave in a warm place for at least one hour, until doubled in size. 

5. Drain the dried fruit to remove excess liquid. Grease and line two baking trays with baking parchment.

6. Once the dough is ready, tip out of the bowl onto a lightly oiled surface. Knock any air out of the dough by pressing the dough down into a large rectangle. Scatter over the drained dried fruit then gently bring the dough over the fruit and knead until evenly incorporated.

7. The dough may have become stickier by this point due to the dried fruit addition.. If it does, sprinkle over a few tablespoons of flour and work in. Evenly divide the dough into 6 pieces. Roll each piece into a ball, then flatten slightly with the palm of your hand into a rough circle. Place on the prepared baking trays, leaving plenty of space between each teacake. Cover with clingfilm and leave for 45 minutes, or until it has doubled in size.

8. Remove the clingfilm and use a pastry brush to brush the top of each teacake with the beaten egg. Be careful not to let the egg wash drip down the sides of the teacake as this will inhibit it's rise. Bake the teacakes for 18-20 minutes, until the tops are golden, and if you flip a teacake over, it sounds hollow when tapped. 

9. Whilst baking, prepare the glaze by heating the orange juice, sugar and cinnamon syrup together for around 5 minutes, until the liquid has reduced by half.

10. Once the teacakes are out of the oven, brush over the glaze and leave to cool.

11. Enjoy on their own or with a little butter :)

GBBO 2017 Week 2 - Amaretti Coffee Sandwiches

The final bake I made for week 2 of the Great British Bake Off were Steven's amarpressi biscuits - they were piped amaretti biscuits filled with a coffee mascarpone filling. The first issue I had was finding one of the ingredients - semolina. None of my local big supermarkets stocked it (it must not be that popular in the UK anymore?), but luckily, my local Polish supermarket had loads of it!

The second issue I had was during the preparation of the biscuits. As I mentioned in a previous blog post (for the chocolate peanut butter spritz cookies), I've had some problems in sourcing good piping bags. I tried to make these on the same day as the spritz cookies and suffice to say, the piping bags were awful :(

I had a fix though, which doesn't look as pretty as Steven's, but is less fiddly :) I shaped balls of the dough, then squished them with a fork.

The filling is delicious, but not one children would like (or anyone who dislikes coffee). The instant coffee granules I used were pretty chunky (I used Nescafe Gold Black blend), so as you'll see in the recipe I used a little hot water to make the coffee into a smooth paste - this worked well, but if you have super fine coffee granules, the step isn't necessary.

This biscuit is very yummy, with a crisp outside and soft inner, even if you decide not to sandwich them. Perfect alongside a cup of coffee or tea, or even a cup of milk for the kiddies.

I increased Steven's original recipe and was able to make 24 small sandwich cookies.

Ingredients:

For the biscuits:

• 210g (1 & 3/4 cups) ground almonds
• 210g (1 cup - 2tsp) caster sugar
• 45g (3 tbsp) semolina (I used non-instant)
• 3 egg whites
• 1 & 1/2 tbsp amaretto liqueur 

For the filling:

• 190g (7/8 cup) full-fat mascarpone cheese
• 1 teaspoon very finely ground/espresso-grind coffee beans, or to taste
• 20-30g (4-6 tsp) instant espresso coffee powder (if using chunkier coffee granules, dilute in 1-2tsp of water to get a smooth but spreadable paste, and use that), or to taste
• 45-60g (3-4 tbsp) icing sugar
• 25g dark chocolate (about 70% cocoa solids)

To finish:

• 75g (1/2 cup) dark chocolate (optional)
• 1 tbsp desiccated coconut (optional)

Method:

1. Preheat your oven to 190°c (170°C fan)/375°F/Gas mark 5. Grease and line two baking sheets with baking parchment.

2. Put the egg whites in a large grease-free mixing bowl whisk (use an electric whisk or stand mixer for ease) until they stand in stiff peaks when the whisk is lifted.

3. Add the ground almonds, semolina, and caster sugar and carefully fold in using a large metal spoon or plastic spatula. When combined, add the amaretto. Use your hands to blend the amaretto in evenly.

4. Weigh out 10g of the dough and roll into a ball. Place on the baking sheet. Repeat to fill each sheet. Use a fork (lightly dusted with icing sugar) to press down each ball until they are about 5mm thick. Lightly press in the opposite direction to create a grid-like effect.

5. Bake the biscuits in the pre-heated oven for about 8-10 minutes, or until light golden with slightly darker edges.

6. Remove the trays from the oven and leave the biscuits for a few minutes to cool slightly and firm up before carefully transferring to a wire rack. Leave to cool before sandwiching.

7. To make the filling, spoon the mascarpone into a bowl and give it a quick stir, then add the finely ground coffee and instant coffee powder (or paste if your coffee isn't finely ground). Stir to combine, then cover and chill for about 10 minutes to allow the flavours to infuse.

8. Sift the icing sugar into the bowl with the coffee and mascarpone. Grate the chocolate on top and stir everything together. Taste the mixture and add more instant coffee or icing sugar as needed. Transfer the mixture to a piping bag (there's no need for a nozzle).


9. To assemble the biscuit, try to match the biscuits in pairs of the same size, shape and colour. Flip half of the biscuits over and pipe a mound of buttercream on these flipped biscuits.  Top each biscuit with the other half of the pair and gently press the two together so the cream is gently and evenly pressed towards but not over the edges.

10. To finish, for extra indulgence, melt the dark chocolate in a microwave on high power, heating for 10-15 second bursts and stirring well after each burst, until all of the chocolate has melted. Dip the biscuits into the chocolate, or drizzle over each pair of cookies. I then dusted mine with a little desiccated coconut, but this is completely optional (I just liked the look of it).

10. Enjoy!

GBBO 2017 Week 2 - Cinnamon Fortune Cookies

The technical challenge on the second week of the Great British Bake Off were fortune cookies - simply they are really thin biscuits (like a tuile), shaped into the classic fortune cookie shape whilst warm. Now I've never made a tuile before, but how hard could it be? The method for making the batter is very simple, but the published recipe is a little misleading when saying the amount of batter to use and how big to make the cookies. They say to use 2 tbsp of batter per cookie and to spread it out until it is 10cm in diameter....Suffice to say that makes an incredibly large circle and makes a really thick circle as well.
After a lot of experimentation, I did get a few of the cookies fortune cookie shaped, and my recipe is below :)
I'd recommend testing these before making them for a party/event - they are a tricky thing to master and need to be shaped seconds out of the oven!

Oh, and I added cinnamon to the cookie to make it taste extra yummy, and make a small portion of the batter chocolatey (with some cocoa powder) - this is completely optional but makes the fortune cookies seem a bit more worth making rather than simply buying them in (you'll understand if any of your cookies crack - the heartbreak!)

Makes 12-15 fortune cookies (depending on how much batter you use per cookie)

Ingredients:

• 2 large egg whites
• 3 tbsp vegetable oil
• 1 tbsp water
• 65g (1/2 cup) plain flour
• 1 ½ tsp cornflour
• pinch of salt
• 100g (1/2 cup) caster sugar
• 1 tbsp ground cinnamon (optional)
• 1 tbsp cocoa powder (optional)

Method:
1. Preheat the oven to 150C (fan 130c)/ 300f/gas 2. Line a baking sheet with greaseproof paper. Write your fortunes on pieces of paper around 6cm x 1cm in size.

2. Use a whisk to beat the egg whites, vegetable oil and water together until frothy but not aerated.

3. Sieve the flour, cornflour, ground cinnamon (if using) and salt together in a bowl, then stir in the sugar. Add the egg white mixture to the bowl and beat to a smooth batter. Try not to incorporate any air during the beating as you don’t want bubbles in the batter.

4. Take 3 tbsp of the mixture and place into a little bowl. Add the cocoa powder and beat in. Pour into a piping bag.

5. Take 1-2 teaspoons of the batter and spread until it is a 6-8 cm wide (use an oiled spoon to do this). Only make 2 or 3 cookies at a time. Cut the tip off of the piping bag and pipe small dots of brown batter around the cookie. Run a skewer/knife through the dots to create a feathered effect. Bake for 10-12 minutes until the cookies have started to turn brown.

6. As soon as the cookies are out of the oven, run a palette knife underneath to release the cookie. Flip the cookie over, place the fortune inside, then fold in half and pinch the semi-circular edges together to seal. Place the middle of the folded edge of the cookie over the rim of a glass and gently pull the corners down on the inside and outside of the glass, to form the classic fortune cookie shape. Place in a 12-hole muffin tin (as this helps to hold the shape) to cool and quickly shape the second fortune cookie.

7. Repeat with the other cookies.

8. Enjoy!

GBBO 2017 Week 2 - Peanut Butter Spritz Cookies

Week 2 in the tent as always was about biscuits, and the signature challenge focused in on sandwich biscuits - i.e. when you get two biscuits for the price of one, and have them sandwiched together with a delicious filling! I was impressed by Stevens amarpressi biscuits (which I did give a go and will be blogging about soon), as well as Stacey's chocolate marshmallow ones. However for my first bake I decided to go down a different route and made a chocolate spritz cookie - meltingly soft (but not fragile), with a subtle flavour of cocoa. I filled the biscuits with a flavour packed peanut butter buttercream and wowzerz the combo was yummy!

The only issue I had with these biscuits were my new disposable piping bags :( They were very flimsy, and kept tearing on me...very annoying!

They will keep for 3-5 days in an airtight container - they will soften with time.

This recipe made 12 sandwich biscuits (so 24 cookies)

You'll need two baking trays, a piping bag (use a decent quality one!), a 1D piping nozzle and baking parchment

Ingredients:

For the biscuits:

• 225g (1 cup) baking margarine (or softened butter)
• 110g (1/2 cup) caster sugar
• 1 egg
• 1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 250g (2 cups) plain flour
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1/4 cup cocoa powder
• 45ml (3 tbsp) milk

For the peanut butter buttercream:

• 250g (1 cup) peanut butter
• 55g (1/4 cup) softened butter
• 300g (3 cups) icing sugar, sifted
• 1-2 tbsp milk
• 15g (1 tbsp) dark chocolate

Method:

1. Preheat the oven to 180c (160c fan)/355f/gas mark 4. Draw 5cm circles on 2 pieces of greaseproof paper, flip and use this to line the base  of a greased baking tray.

2. Place the margarine and caster sugar into a mixing bowl and beat until very soft and fluffy. For this recipe, the best way to do is is by using an electric hand whisk (or stand mixer with the whisk attachment).

3. Add the egg, vanilla, salt, flour and cocoa and beat with a wooden spoon until a smooth dough is formed. Pour in the milk and beat in to loosen the dough - you want it to be loose enough to be able to pipe but hold it's shape.

4. Pour the batter into a piping bag fitted with a 1D (closed rose petal) nozzle. To pipe the biscuits, on the centre of one of the circles on the baking paper, pipe down and then spiral outwards to the edge of the circle. Repeat to fill the two trays. (You'll use around half the mix) They won't spread much so they can be fairly close together.

5. Chill for 10-15 minutes.

6. Bake for 8-10 minutes, or until the sides have slightly coloured and the top feels fi to touch. Leave on the baking tray to cool. Repeat with the remainder of the dough, piping onto lined baking trays, chilling and baking.

7. To make the buttercream, beat the butter until it is really soft, then add the peanut butter, icing sugar and 1 tablespoon of milk. Beat well with a wooden spoon, until all of the icing sugar has been incorporated. Add more milk,  teaspoons at a time, until the buttercream moves easily when you stir the bowl (but holds its shape on a spoon if you lift some from the bowl and tip the spoon).

8. Grate the chocolate into the buttercream and stir in.

9. To assemble the biscuits, flip half of the biscuits over, so that their bases are pointing upwards. Pipe filling over the biscuits with their bares pointed up. Top with the other biscuit and lightly press down.

10. Enjoy!

GBBO 2017 Week 1 - Showstopper - Roasted White Chocolate and Blueberry Pancake Cake

For the third challenge of Cake week, I actually made the cake before I saw the episode. I was too excited. It turns out one of the bakers had the same idea as me! The showstopper challenge was an illusion cake, i.e. a cake that doesn't look like a cake. I don't make many novelty cakes, so wanted to test myself.

What I ended up baking was a stack of pancakes - or is it? It's a simple but delicious Victoria sponge, which I filled and lightly frosted with a roasted white chocolate and blueberry buttercream. I then covered the cakes with fondant and painted them to look like the pancakes. Fun and not as difficult as it looks. Plus it tasted great.

I used hen eggs for the sponge but like previously (see here), I prefer using duck eggs when I get hold of them. The sponge tasted great with hen eggs but even better with ducks.

I've seen roasted white chocolate on some other cooking shows, and have wanted to make it for a while. Simply it involves slowly baking chocolate in an oven until it is golden. It tastes just like white chocolate chips in a fresh cookie, when the chips have turned a little brown on the outside. Even if you don't make the cake, try roasting a bit of white chocolate - you'll be amazed.

I also made a blueberry jam with frozen blueberries. It was really quick and added an extra dimension to the buttercream. This recipe makes about twice what you'll need for the cake - use the rest as a delicious toast topping :)

Makes one 20cm cake

Ingredients:

For the cake:

• 250g (1 cup) butter, melted
• 250g duck eggs (around 4) or equivalent weight of hen eggs
• 250g (1 cup) golden caster sugar
• 250g (2 cups) self-raising flour
• 1 tsp baking powder 
• 1 tsp vanilla extract

For the buttercream:

• 150g (3/5 cup) butter, softened
• 300g (1 & 1/2 cups) icing sugar
• 1 tsp vanilla extract
• 1 tbsp milk
• 150g (1 cup) white chocolate

For the blueberry jam:

• 200g (2 cups) frozen blueberries
• 1 tbsp lemon juice
• 50g (1/5 cup) caster sugar

To finish:

• 600g (around 5 cups) fondant icing
• Icing sugar, for dusting
• Concentrated gel food colourings, yellow, red, ivory, blue and violet

Method:

1. Preheat the oven to 180c (160c fan)/ 355f/gas mark 4. Grease and line the base of two loose bottomed (or springform) 20cm round cake tins.

2. Whisk the eggs in a large mixing bowl. Pour in the sugar and keep whisking for 3-5 until the mixture is pale and has at least doubled in volume (you can use an electric whisk at this stage if you like).

3. Whilst whisking, pour in the melted butter and vanilla extract. Once all of the melted butter has been added, sift in the flour and baking powder.

4. Fold the flour into the batter with a large metal spoon, just until you can see no more pockets of flour. As soon as this happens, evenly distribute the cake batter between the two cake tins.

5. Bake for 25-30 minutes, or until the tops of the cakes are golden, they are starting to pull away from the sides of the tin, and a skewer entered into the centre of the cake comes out clean.

6. Leave to cool for 5 minutes in the tin, then turn out onto a wire rack to cool fully.

7. To make the buttercream, beat the butter in a large mixing bowl with a wooden spoon until it is very soft (it will appear like a soft spread). Sift in half of the icing sugar and keep beating to incorporate the icing sugar.

8. Sift the other half of the icing sugar into the bowl, along with the vanilla extract and 1 tablespoon of milk. Beat until all of the icing sugar has been incorporated. If the mixture appears to thick (it is very hard to beat), add a little more milk (a teaspoon at a time). If when you spoon some buttercream out of the bowl, it immediately falls off the spoon, the mixture is too slack - if this happens add a few tablespoons of icing sugar. You want a spoonful of buttercream to slowly fall off the spoon, and to be spreadable.

9. To make the blueberry jam pour the frozen blueberries, sugar and lemon juice in a saucepan and heat for 5 minutes, until the blueberries are breaking down and the jam coats the back of the spoon. Break down with the back of a spoon and set aside to cool.

10. To roast the white chocolate, preheat the oven to 130c (120c fan)/265f/gas mark 1/2. Line the base of a baking tray with baking parchment. Chop the white chocolate as fine as you can, then scatter over the baking tray.

11. Bake for 5 minutes, then take out of the oven and stir the mixture, moving the white chocolate on the outside to the inside. Bake for another 5 minutes, and stir again. Repeat the baking and stirring until the white chocolate is a light brown colour. Set aside to cool, then chop finely.

12. To finish the buttercream, add the chopped roasted chocolate and a few tablespoons of the jam, so that it's a nice purple colour.

13. To assemble the cake, place a spoonful of the buttercream on the cake tray/serving dish. Use a serrated knife to level the top of the cake if needed. Place the first sponge cake on this buttercream and press down gently. This will stick the cake to the tray.

14. Spread on a thin layer of blueberry jam, and top with half of the buttercream. Use a palette knife to evenly spread the buttercream over the top of the cake. Top with the other levelled sponge.

15. Cover the top and sides of the cake with the remaining buttercream - this gives the cake the crumb coat, and will allow the fondant to stick to the cake. Set the cake aside whist you prepare the fondant.

16. Knead the fondant icing lightly until it is easy to work with. Set aside 150g of the fondant. Take around 75g of fondant and mould into a ball. On a lightly dusted surface use the palms of your hands to roll the fondant into a long cylindrical tube, about 1cm wide and 30cm long. Press the top down slightly then pick up and press around the edge of the cake, touching the cake board.

17. In a little bowl, add a splash of water and add small amounts (by placing toothpicks in food colouring) of the brown, yellow, and red food colouring, to make a deep orange wash colour. Use a paintbrush to paint this over the top the fondant tube you've just placed on the cake, and come about half the way down the side.

18. Roll out the next tube of fondant and lie this on top of the first piece of fondant. Paint the dark orange wash on the fondant as previously. Repeat this process until you're at the top of the cake.

19. Roll out 125g of the reserved fondant on a floured surface (or silicon mat) until it is about 22cm in diameter (so that it covers the top of the cake and there's around 1cm extra around the cake).

20. Place on the top of the cake, then paint over the orange food colouring. This is a good tip I found out - get a piece of kitchen towel, and dap the top of the "pancake" - this gets rid of the paintbrush streaks and looks really cool!

21. Make a light orange glaze with yellow and ivory food colourings and a splash of water. Paint this over all the white fondant currently on the cake. You can now touch the cake up as you like to get the balance of dark orange and yellow.

22. Finish the cake off by colouring two thirds of the remaining fondant with some blue and violet food colouring until you get the perfect shade of purple for a blueberry. Form little balls, then use a toothpick to draw a cross in each "blueberry". Scatter across the cake.

23. Colour the last bit of fondant with yellow food colouring. Roll out thinly and cut out two 3x2cm rectangles. Place this on the cake to be a little butter. You're now done!

24. Enjoy!

GBBO 2017 Week 1 - Technical - Chocolate Mini Rolls

When I heard what the title of the technical challenge of this week's GBBO was, I wondered "why?" (like what the bakers thought I imagined). Mini rolls, in case you don't know, are basically mini chocolate Swiss rolls filled with cream/buttercream and covered in chocolate. They're a popular addition to children's lunch boxes in the UK and I used to love them when I was little. I don't know if they exist in the USA, but there's probably something similar?

Now I've tried Swiss roll sponges in the past and have had mixed results. This seemed like a perfect opportunity to test out Prue's skills as a recipe writer, and maybe fix my historical issues with this flourless sponge.

Prue used peppermint extract in her buttercream, but my partner hates mint, and as blackberries are in season at the moment, I decided to add these to the filling of my mini rolls, which was simply flavoured with vanilla extract.

I only had a few issues with this bake. The first was that the recipe states to use two 20 x 30cm Swiss roll trays (normal baking trays are fine as long as their sides are at least 1cm tall) - I only own one 20 x 30cm tray, my other is bigger (about 36 x 25cm). This meant that my mini rolls didn't end up very uniform, but as I'm not in the tent, I don't think anyone will mind!

My second issue was just the quantity of buttercream the recipe said to use. I needed to loosen the buttercream (which wasn't suggested in the recipe) with a little milk, and needed to make more than was suggested.

Apart from that though, the sponge was easy to make, inexpensive as it used cocoa rather than melted chocolate, and came out really fluffy and chocolate-y. I was very impressed.

Makes 12 mini-rolls (but they're not that mini! Serve one per person).

Ingredients:

For the mini rolls:

• 60g (2/3 cup) cocoa powder (the best quality you can afford)
• 30g (2 tbsp) melted butter, plus an extra spoonful to grease two trays
• 1 tsp vanilla extract
• 4 tablespoons boiling water
• 6 eggs
• 150g (3/4 cups) caster sugar

For the filling:

• 200g (7/8 cup) softened butter
• 400g (2 cups) icing sugar, sifted
• 1 tsp vanilla extract
• Around 50g (around 3/8 cup) blackberries, washed

To finish:

• 250g (1 & 2/3 cups) milk chocolate
• 250g (1 & 2/3 cups) 70% dark chocolate
• 50g (1/3 cup) white chocolate

Method:

1. Preheat the oven to 180c (160c fan)/ 355f/ gas mark 4. Grease and line the base of two 30 x 20cm baking trays with baking parchment.

2. Sift the cocoa powder into a mixing bowl, and pour in the butter, vanilla and water. Beat with a wooden spoon until you get a thick paste.

3. Separate the eggs and put the egg whites into a spotlessly clean glass mixing bowl. To be sure of no grease, you can wipe the bowl and electric mixer whisks with a little lemon juice or vinegar. Whisk up the egg whites until they form stiff peaks (i.e. when the whisk is lifted from the mixture, a peak forms that doesn't fall to one side). Add 50g of the caster sugar and whisk well until you have a glossy meringue. Set aside for a few minutes whilst you make the rest of the cake.

4. Place the egg yolks in a mixing bowl and add the remaining 100g of caster sugar. Whisk up the yolks/sugar for a few minutes, until the mixture has at least doubled in size, has become lighter in colour and is really frothy. (I whisked the egg whites before the yolks because I'm lazy and didn't want to wash the beaters in between).

5. Add the cocoa/butter paste to the egg yolks and whisk in until the mixture is an even brown colour.

6. Add a third of the egg whites/sugar (meringue) to the chocolate mixture and beat thoroughly with a large metal spoon.

7. Add the remaining meringue and gently fold this into the mixture. The egg whites are the only thing that allow the cake to rise so this needs to be done gently. Fold only until you can no longer see any egg whites.

8. Evenly distribute between the two trays, and tip the tray from side to side to get it to each corner. Bake for 12-15 minutes until springy to the touch and the cake is slightly coming away from the tray. Take out of the oven, and cover the trays with a damp tea towel until the sponges are completely cool.

9. Whilst cooling, make the buttercream by beating the butter until it is really soft and spreadable. Add half of the icing sugar and cream the butter into the icing sugar. Once all of the sugar has been added, add the other half of the icing sugar, the vanilla and 1-2 tbsp of milk, and beat until all of the sugar has been incorporated and the buttercream is thick enough to spread (but doesn't fly around the bowl when you stir it).

10. Once the cakes are cool, tip the sponges on two sheets of greaseproof paper. Remove the top layer of greaseproof paper carefully away from the sponge. To each short end of each sponge, lightly score a line across the sponge about 2cm in, along the length of the sponge.

11. Cover each sponge evenly with the buttercream. Scatter the top with blackberries.

12. To roll up the sponges, from the front short edge, roll up the cake, stopping in the middle. Repeat the same from the back until both rolls meet in the middle. Cut down the centre between the rolls.

13. Trim the ends of each sponge. Divide each sponge into three (they will be 6 cm in length). Transfer to a wire rack with the seam facing downwards. Place in the fridge for 15 minutes to set up.

14. Once ready to decorate, melt the milk and dark chocolate in a large microwavable bowl in the microwave on high power, stirring the chocolate every 30 seconds or so, until all of the chocolate has melted.

15. Place the wire rack onto a baking tray to catch the drips, and pour the chocolate over each sponge. Use a small palette knife to gently spread the chocolate over the sides of each roll, to cover the sides. This requires patience, and you can probably do a neater job than I did. It did finally work though :)

16. Set aside until the chocolate has firmed up.

17. Melt the white chocolate in a microwave on high power, checking every 15-20 seconds. Once the chocolate has melted, do something I didn't do, and wait for a minute until the chocolate becomes slightly thicker (to a consistency similar to what the milk/dark chocolate was once it was out of the microwave). I didn't do this so it was a little runny.

18. Pour the white chocolate into a piping bag, and snip off the end (about 1/2 cm up). Pipe lines across each mini roll. Leave to set.

19. Enjoy!

GBBO 2017 Week 1 - Signature - Pineapple and Coconut Cake

The Great British Bake Off is officially back on our screens! I had some trepidation when the credits started rolling, what with going from the old-school quaint BBC to the outlandlish/off-the-wall Channel 4. 

However, I genuinely loved the episode, perhaps even more than I liked the simpler season last year. The new judge, Prue Leith, is very cool and her compliments to the bakers don't sound half-arsed or forced, both of which I've seen on some other baking shows. I also loved Sandi and Noel, and thought they were naturals.

But what about the challenges? I actually went crazy this week and made all three (gasp) cakes. In case you haven't seen my previous GBBO-inspired bakes, what I do is try to re-create at least one of the bakes (usually the technical but sometimes the signature). I then usually do my own thing in the showstopper :) I'm going to follow this formula this year as well, and started with the signature. 

The signature challenge was all about fruit cakes, where fresh fruit had to be used (no raisins or sultanas allowed!). If you've read more than a few of my posts, you've probably realised I love coconut, and there were two coconut cakes this week to choose from. The first was criticised for the amount of baking powder used, by the baker who actually left the tent (poor Peter). The other cake, made by the wonderful Sophie (who is definitely my favourite baker, if only because she is training to be a stuntwoman, which is super duper cool!) had another of my favourite fruits - pineapple.

She filled and frosted her cake with an Italian meringue buttercream and alas this is where my technique failed me. For some reason, it ended up too thin (maybe because I didn't whisk the egg whites for long enough?). I also personally found it too sweet. To rectify the cake, I made a lime buttercream and used this to top the cake.

It's not my prettiest work, but it does taste great. It's one to eat with a fork, and I'd recommend it as a dessert rather than a cake to have with a cup of tea. The coconut flavour really comes through, and if you can't get hold of a fresh coconut (or don't want the effort of preparing it), I'm pretty sure desiccated coconut will work just as well.

Makes one 20cm cake (easily serves 10)

Ingredients:

For the cake:

• 100g (1 cup) fresh coconut (I chopped up one coconut, which gave me about 125g of coconut flesh), with any brown bits removed
• 150g (2/3 cup) fresh pineapple chunks (around 1cm cubes), plus a few extra chunks to decorate
• 170g (3/4 cup) soft baking margarine (or softened butter)
• 225g (1 cup) caster sugar
• 5 medium eggs
• 240g (1 cup) self-raising flour, sifted, plus extra for dusting

For the buttercream:

• 200g (7/8 cup) softened butter
• 400g (2 cups) sifted icing sugar
• 1-2 tbsp lime juice

Method:

1. Preheat the oven to 180c (160c fan)/ 355f/gas mark 4. Grease the base and sides of two loose-bottomed 20cm cake tins and dust lightly with flour.

2. Dry the pineapple chunks well with kitchen paper. Place the coconut flesh in a blender and blitz to a fine gravel.

3. Pour the margarine and sugar into a large mixing bowl and use an electric whisk to cream the two together until light and fluffy. 

4. Add the eggs, one at a time, whisking well after each addition. From egg 3, add around a tablespoon of flour (this helps to stop the mixture from curdling). 

5. Pour the remainder of the flour into the bowl, with the pineapple and coconut. Fold in until all of the flour has been incorporated and the pineapple/coconut are well distributed.

6. Divide between the two cake tins, and bake for 25-30 minutes, until golden and springy to the touch. The cake will be coming away slightly from the sides of the tin. Remove from the oven and leave to cool completely in the tins.

7. Whilst the cakes are cooling make the buttercream. Beat the butter until it is really soft and spreadable. Add half of the icing sugar and beat in using an electric whisk or a wooden spoon - I find the wooden spoon less messy.

8. Add the other half of the icing sugar and enough lime juice to bring the buttercream together to the point where if you lift a spoon from the mixture the buttercream holds it's shape, but it doesn't take too much effort to move. Start with one tablespoon of lime juice, then add teaspoon-by-teaspoon until you achieve the correct consistency.

9. Once the cakes have cooled, the cakes are ready to assemble. Take both cakes out of the tins, and use a serrated knife to level the tops (so that they are flat). 

10. Place a spoonful of the buttercream on the cake board/dish, and press the first sponge on top. This holds the cake in position.

11. Pipe or spread half of the buttercream on the top of the first layer of sponge. I spread mine using a palette knife, but you could fill a piping bag with the buttercream, cut off the end (about 2cm from the tip) and pipe blobs all over. 

12. Top with the remaining layer of sponge. Apply a thin coat of buttercream all over the top and sides of the cake. I wanted the cake to have a semi-naked look, so left it like this, but you could skip this step and leave the sides fully exposed, or add another layer of buttercream to fully cover the cake (if you do this, chill the cake for 15-20 minutes before adding the second layer of buttercream).

13. Place the cake in the fridge for 15-20 minutes to firm up the buttercream. Place an large flower star (2D) nozzle in a piping bag and fill with the remaining buttercream. Around the edge of the cake, pipe little kisses by holding the piping bag directly above where you want to pipe and piping a small spike of buttercream. 

14. Pipe roses on the top of the cake by holding the piping nozzle where you want the centre of the rose to be. Pipe a spiral starting from this point outwards. Repeat as many times as you want. 

15. Leave the buttercream to firm up in the fridge for 10 minutes or so. Top with the reserved pineapple cubes.

16. Enjoy!