Ninjabread Christmas Cake

So, a few months ago, I made two Christmas cakes (see the recipe for the cake here) - one 20cm, and one 15cm cake. For the 15cm cake, I halved the recipe, which results in a smaller but deeper cake. This was fed with brandy as with the 20cm cake. Around a week before Christmas, it was time to cover the cake. I then finished decorating the cake on Christmas Eve. Now I know I'm no expert when it comes to fondant work, so I decided to keep the design fairly simple. Firstly I covered the cakes with marzipan and white fondant. Then I added some royal icing decorations and gingerbread men. There's a more detailed recipe/guide below :)

Ingredients:

2 Christmas cakes (one 20cm and one 15cm) - see linked recipe above

For the royal icing:

• 225g (1 cup) icing sugar
• 1 egg white
• 1 tsp lemon juice
• 1/2 tsp glycerine

For the gingerbread:

• 95g (2/3 cup) butter or margarine
• 75g (2/5 cup) dark soft brown sugar
• 40g (1 & 1/2 tbsp) golden syrup
• 225g (1 & 1/2 cups) plain flour, plus extra for dusting
• 3/4 tsp bicarbonate of soda
• 2 tsp ground ginger
• 1/2 tsp ground cinnamon

Other:

• 500g ready to roll marzipan
• 500g ready to roll white fondant
• 75g ready to roll purple fondant
• 1-2tbsp sieved apricot jam
• Icing sugar, for dusting
• Concentrated green gel food colouring (mine was Leaf green from Wilton)

Method:

1. A week before Christmas, the cake needs to be covered with marzipan and fondant. Lightly dust a work surface with icing sugar and roll out 1/3 of the marzipan to a circle roughly 25cm in diameter - this should be enough to cover the top and sides of the 15cm cake. Try to get the marzipan 2-3mm thick. 

2. Brush the 15cm cake lightly with the sieved apricot jam. This acts as an adhesive to the cake, letting the marzipan stick. 

3. Transfer the marzipan onto the sponge, and gently smooth down the tops and sides of the cake - try to be as smooth as possible. However, the odd rip doesn't really matter as it will be covered with fondant. After smoothing down the sides (using your hands or you could use a fondant smoother), trim off the excess fondant from the base.

4. Roll out the remaining marzipan to a circle around 30cm in diameter. As with the 15cm cake, brush the 20cm cake with apricot jam and transfer the marzipan onto the cake. Gently smooth the top and sides. Try to get the top as level as possible (as this is where the 15cm cake will sit). 

5. Place some cling film on your surface (enough to fit a 25cm circle of fondant), then dust with more icing sugar, and then roll out 1/3 of the white fondant to a 25cm circle. Keep the fondant 3-4mm thickness to help prevent rips. 

6. Brush the surface of the 15cm cake with a little water, then carefully transfer the fondant to the cake. The easiest way to do this is pick up the clingfilm holding the fondant, and then flip this onto the cake. Whilst the clingfilm is stuck to the fondant, smooth your hands over the top and sides. Then remove the clingfilm - this helps me at least to get a smoother finish/the chance of ripping seems less.

7. Repeat for the 20cm cake with the remaining fondant. Roll 1/2 of the purple fondant out to a long rectangle (around 50cm in length and 2cm in width). Cut into a neat 1cm thick rectangle. Lightly brush the base of the 15cm cake with a little water, then transfer these ribbon across. Roll the remaining purple fondant to a long rectangle about 60cm in length and 1.5cm in width, and gain cut into a neat 1cm thick rectangle. Transfer to the base of the 20cm cake.

8. Stack the 15cm cake on top of the 20cm cake, then set aside for 3-4 days for the fondant to firm up.

9. A few days before/on Christmas Eve, begin the other decorations. To make the gingerbread, preheat your oven to 200c (180c fan)/400f/gas mark 4. Grease and line the base of a baking tray with baking parchment.

10. Melt the butter, sugar, and golden syrup together in a saucepan, stirring regularly until the butter has melted. Set aside for a few minutes to cool.

11. In a mixing bowl, sieve together the plain flour, ground ginger, ground cinnamon and bicarbonate of soda. Make a well in the centre and pour in the melted butter/sugar/syrup. Beat until you have a warm dough.

12. Dust your surface with a little plain flour, and then roll the gingerbread out until it is about 3/4cm/1/2 inch thick. Use gingerbread men cookie cutters (I had some funny "ninjabread" ones I used) to neatly make the gingerbread men, Depending on the size of the cutters, you should get between 6 and 12 men with the dough. My cutters were about 6cm tall.

13. Bake the gingerbread men for around 8 minutes, until the biscuits have become slightly more golden. Set aside to cool.

14. To make the royal icing, tip the egg whites into a grease-free bowl and whisk briefly until they have become frothy. Add the icing sugar a tablespoon at a time, and whisk after each addition. If you have a stand mixer (with the whisk attachment), you can leave it running whilst you add the icing sugar.

15. Add the lemon juice and glycerine, then whisk until the mixture forms stiff, glossy, white peaks. 

16. Take 1/3 of the mixture and set aside in a bowl. Dip a cocktail stick in the green food colouring and use this to colour this royal icing. Beat well to evenly distribute the colour.

17. Place a "Grass piping nozzle" (Wilton nozzle 233) in a piping bag and fill the bag with the green royal icing. Snip the tip off the bag, then pipe vertically downwards on the 20cm cake top (around the 15cm cake). Stand your gingerbread men up in the "grass".

Grass piping nozzle/Wilton 233

18. Place a 1M piping nozzle (open star) into another piping bag and fill this with the white royal icing. Pipe swirls over the top of the 15cm cake. Leave to firm up.

1M Open Star piping nozzle

19. Enjoy!

Mulled Wine Marshmallows

These marshmallows are my newest creation. Firstly, there's no alcohol in them - instead, I infused grape juice with all the spices in mulled wine, and used this in the marshmallow mix. The resulting marshmallows had a lovely tang of grape with undertones of cinnamon and cloves. Pretty delicious, even if I do say so myself. I gave them away as part of a Christmas hamper, and they'll keep for one to two weeks if kept in an airtight container.
As for all of my marshmallows, these are egg-free. I find powdered gelatine works far better to create the perfect marshmallow.

If you like these, try out my other marshmallow recipes:

• Foraged Blackberry Marshmallows
• Pineapple, Lime and Coconut Marshmallows

Makes 24 large marshmallows

Ingredients:

For the non-alcoholic mulled wine:

• 250ml (1 cup) grape juice
• 1 cinnamon stick
• 1 slice of orange (peel and all)
• 4 cloves
• 1 star anise

For the marshmallows:

• 2 x 12g sachets gelatine powder
• 450g (3 cups) caster sugar
• 150ml (2/3 cup) golden syrup
• 150ml (2/3 cup) water
• 50g (1/2 cup) icing sugar
• 2 tbsp cornflour
• Purple concentrated gel food colouring (optional)

Method:

1. First, make the grape infusion. Pour the grape juice into a saucepan and add all of the spices. Bring to the boil, then gently simmer for 10-15 minutes, until the grape juice has reduced to 120ml (if it over reduces, don't worry. Simply top up with more grape juice).

2. Grease a 20cm square tray/tin (I find a silicon tray works best) lightly with a flavourless oil.

3. Pour the infused grape juice through a sieve into a large mixing bowl. Sprinkle with the sachets of powdered gelatine and stir briefly. Leave for 5-10 minutes for the gelatine to absorb the juice (it will become very thick).

4. Pour the golden syrup, caster sugar and water into a medium saucepan and slowly heat (keeping the heat low), stirring constantly until the sugar has dissolved.

5. Turn the heat up and bring the mixture to a boil. Continue to boil until the mixture reaches 130C/ 266F. Remove from the heat for a few minutes (just until it has stopped boiling).

6. Start whisking the gelatine mixture in the mixing bowl (using an electric whisk or in a stand mixer with the whisk attachment). Slowly and carefully, pour the hot sugar syrup onto the gelatine mixture, whisking constantly. The mixture will steadily grow in volume and become paler in colour.

7. Once all of the sugar syrup has been added, keep whisking for 5 to 10 minutes, until the bowl just feels warm to the touch. I find that if using an electric whisk, I whisk until the marshmallow is so thick I can't whisk the mixture anymore even on the highest power setting. The marshmallow will be very thick and sticky.

If you want the marshmallows to be vibrant and purple, dip a cocktail stick in the purple gel food colouring and dip this in the marshmallows. Whisk in to combine. I didn't do this so my marshmallows are a very light purple. Up to you.

8. In a small bowl, sieve together the cornflour and icing sugar.  Sprinkle half of this on the base of the lined square tub.

9. Lightly oil a spatula and use this to transfer the marshmallow into the container. Leave to set at room temperature for at least 6 hours (you want it really firm before you slice it!) - ideally, leave it overnight.

10. Once set, sprinkle the remaining of the icing sugar/cornflour onto a chopping board, and tip the marshmallow out onto this board.

11. Dip a sharp knife in hot water, dry, then slice the marshmallow into 24 pieces. After each cut, repeat the dipping and drying - this will give the cleanest slices.

12. Turn the marshmallow squares in any spare icing sugar/cornflour, so that all sides are covered.

13. Enjoy!

Mince Pie Baklava

Merry Christmas everyone! Do you want a funky variation to the traditional mince pie? This year, I got experimental and tried baking a baklava with a mincemeat filling. The result was delicious - crisp layers of filo, with the honey stickiness of baklava and lovely almondy mincemeat layers. It was a bit hit, and much less fiddly than rolling out shortcrust pastry to the perfect thickness and worrying about soggy bottoms.

Mades one 20cm square baklava (cuts into 20-24 pieces)

Ingredients:

• 100g (7/8 cup) ground almonds
• 100g (2/3 cup) mixed nuts (walnuts, pecans, hazelnuts, pistachios - whatever your preference really), chopped roughly
• 1 orange, zested
• 1 tsp ground cinnamon
• 1 (411g) jar of mincemeat
• 1 pack (270g) of filo pastry, divided into two squares
• 100g (7 tbsp) butter, melted
• 150g (3/4 cup) granulated sugar
• 190ml (4/5 cup) water
• 6 tbsp honey
• 1 large piece of lemon peel

Method:

1. Preheat your oven to 180c (160c fan)/ 355f/ gas mark 4. Grease the base and sides of a 20cm square cake tin (I used a silicon-based one, but a standard cake tin should work fine, provided the sides are at least 5cm deep).

2. Make the mincemeat filling by tipping the mincemeat into a mixing bowl. Add the ground almonds, mixed nuts, orange zest and ground cinnamon and beat until the nuts are well distributed and you can no longer see any more ground almonds.

3. Place the first square of filo into the cake tin and brush over some of the melted butter (using a silicon/pastry brush). Cover with the next filo square, and brush butter on top of this layer. Repeat this layering until you have used half of the filo sheets (i.e. half of the pack of pastry).

4. Smooth over half of the mincemeat mixture as evenly as possible. Top with a filo square, brush with butter, then repeat this layering with 3 more sheets.

5. Add the rest of the mincemeat filling, and spread this over the pastry. Top with the next filo sheet, brush with butter and repeat this layering of filo sheets/butter until you have used up all of the pastry. Brush the top layer with butter.

6. Bake for 40-45 minutes, until golden and crisp.

7. Whilst baking, make the syrup by pouring the sugar and water into a saucepan. Heat gently until the sugar has dissolved. Once dissolved add the honey and lemon peel, and bring the mixture to the boil.

8. Boil the mixture for 10-15 minutes until it has thickened and is syrupy. Remove the lemon peel.

9. As soon as you take the baklava out of the oven, pour over the syrup, making sure to cover all of the baklava. Leave to cool.

10. Slice and enjoy!

Murzynek (Polish Chocolate Cake)

Here's another Polish bake I tried out last week. I had baked this around 4 years ago for a Polish friend's birthday, but then had completely forgotten about it! This chocolate cake has a deep chocolatey taste, which isn't too bitter, and the glaze is simply some of the cake mixture (before you've added the eggs or flour). Sounds weird but it really tastes fabulous and stays moist for days after baking. Perfect with a cup of tea and alongside other Polish cakes (like my makowiec).

Makes 1 20cm cake (easily serves 10)

Ingredients:

• 250g softened butter (or margarine)
• 3 tbsp cocoa powder (the highest quality you can afford)
• 1 tbsp hazelnut spread (I made my own by melting down some milk chocolate and adding roasted ground hazelnuts, but Nutella would be a much simpler option)
• 300g (1 & 1/2 cups) caster sugar
• 105ml (7 tbsp) water
• 3 eggs, separated
• 190g (1 & 1/2 cups) self-raising flour

Method:

1. Preheat your oven to 180c (160c fan)/ 355f/gas mark 4. Grease the base of a 20cm circular cake tin and dust with flour.

2. Melt the butter, cocoa powder, hazelnut spread, sugar and water together in a large saucepan, stirring regularly until all of the butter has melted. The mixture should look like a glossy chocolate sauce.

3. Take 100ml (3/4 cup) of the mixture and set aside. That will be the glaze!

4. Pour the remaining mixture into a mixing bowl and set aside for 10 minutes to cool.

5. In a grease-free bowl, whisk the three egg whites with an electric hand whisk until stiff peaks form when the whisk is lifted from the mixture.

6. Once the chocolate mixture is cool to the touch, add the egg yolks, and whisk in. Sift over one-third of the flour, and gently fold in. Once no more flour can be seen, add a third of the egg whites and fold this in. Repeat with the second third of the flour, and so on, until you have used up all of the egg white and flour.

7. Pour into the prepared tin, and bake for 40-50 minutes, until a skewer inserted into the centre of the cake comes out clean.

8. Remove from the oven, leave to cool for 5 minutes, then turn out onto a wire rack to cool completely.

9. Once cool, pour over the chocolate mixture reserved from earlier. If it has thickened too much, place in the microwave for a few seconds to loosen the mix, then pour over the cake.

10. Enjoy!

Makowiec (Polish Poppy Seed Cake)

The Christmas bake-a-thon has begun and I've been fairly overwhelmed practising my bakes for both my boyfriend's and my families. This bake is for my boyfriend's family. I adore Polish baking, and I honestly think it's not appreciated well enough in the UK. This poppy seed cake is a delight - a sweet (but not overly sugary) bread (although it's called a cake, it is bread, odd but yummy) dough, filled with a sweetened poppy seed paste with walnuts, raisins, and homemade candied orange and lemon peel. It's served at Christmas, so it's a perfect bake for me to test my bread-making skills and bake something different for the holiday season.

Traditionally this is served as a log, with swirls of filling inside. This is delicious, however, I decided to take a step away from tradition and shaped my bread like a couronne, which is like a crown where the filling sort of spills out of the bread. I've seen it done before with apricot fillings and the like, so I figured, why not try it with this bread.

I think it turned out pretty well - the only step I now wish I'd taken would be to brush a little sieved apricot jam over the bread after it comes out of the oven - this would give the bread a lovely shine.

Makes 1 large couronne

Ingredients:

For the bread:

• 7g pack of dried fast-action yeast
• 30g (2 tbsp) caster sugar
• 1/4 tsp salt
• 160g (1 & 1/3 cups) plain flour, plus extra for dusting
• 1/2 tbsp vodka (I used a lovely Polish vodka called zoladkowa gorzka, but any should work fine)
• 1 tsp vanilla extract/paste
• 2 egg yolks
• 60ml milk (1/4 cup) (I used skimmed milk), lukewarm
• 50g butter (1/4 cup) - melted then cooled until it is lukewarm

For the filling:

• 160g (1 & 1/3 cups) poppy seeds
• 60g (1/3 cup) light soft brown sugar
• 75g (1/2 cup) raisins/sultanas
• 50g (1/2 cup) chopped walnuts
• 1 tsp almond extract
• 2 tbsp honey/maple syrup
• 1 tsp ground cinnamon
• 1/2 tbsp softened butter
• 50g (1/2 cup) candied oranges/lemons (see below)
• 2 egg whites

For the candied oranges and lemons:

• 1 large orange
• 1 lemon
• 100g (1/2 cup) caster sugar
• 100ml (2/5 cup) water

To finish:

• 50g (3 tbsp) apricot jam, boiled, then sieved

Method:

1. Firstly, make the dough as it needs a long time to prove. Sift the plain flour into a large bowl. Add the salt and sugar to one side of the bowl, and the yeast to the opposite side. Briefly, stir.

2. Make a well in the centre of the flour, and add the vodka, lukewarm milk, vanilla, and egg yolks. Bring the dough together. If it is very sticky add a little more flour. The dough should slightly stick to your hands but should be manageable.

3.  If you have a stand mixer at this stage, use the dough hook attachment to work the dough for 6 - 8 minutes, until it is smooth and bounces back when lightly pressed.
If you're working the dough by hand, knead the dough for 8-10 minutes.

4. Slowly pour over the lukewarm butter and knead until the butter has all been incorporated.

5. Transfer the dough to a clean, lightly greased bowl and cover with clingfilm. Leave for at least 4 hours, until it has doubled in size.

6. Meanwhile, prepare the candied oranges and lemons. Wash the orange and lemon under hot water (in case they have a wax covering), then slice as thinly as possible.

7. Place the orange and lemon slices in a saucepan and cover with the sugar and water. Bring to the boil and cook for 10 - 15 minutes, until the white pith is starting to turn translucent.

8. Remove the slices from the syrup and leave to dry on greaseproof paper.

9. To make the poppy seed filling, pour the poppy seeds into a large bowl and cover with freshly boiled water. Set aside until the water has completely cooled down.

10. Drain the poppy seeds well, then place in a blender (or use a pestle and mortar). Blitz/grind briefly to break down the seeds. Pour into a large bowl and add the brown sugar, raisins/sultanas, almond extract, honey/maple syrup, cinnamon and softened butter, and beat well.

11. Chop the candied orange and lemon slices finely, and add 50g to the poppy seed mix. Stir to incorporate.

12. Whisk the egg whites until they form stiff peaks when the whisk is lifted from the bowl. Fold into the poppy seed mixture.

13. Once the dough has doubled in size, turn out onto lightly floured baking parchment. Roll the dough until it is a 35 x 25 cm rectangle. Turn the dough so that the long edge is facing you.

14. Spread over the poppy seed filling, as evenly as possible, leaving 1/2 cm border bare.

15. Roll the dough like a swiss roll (rolling up from the long edge), as tightly as possible.

16. Use a sharp knife to cut down the roll lengthways, leaving a cm or so uncut (imagine a pair of jeans). Twist these "legs" over each over, turning the dough to make a circular crown. Gently press the bottom and top of the dough together to seal.

17. Cover lightly with cling film, and leave for an hour to prove.

18. Preheat the oven to 190c (170c fan)/375f/gas mark 5.

19. Remove the clingfilm and place the baking parchment with the bread onto a baking tray. Cover loosely with another layer of baking parchment (the bread browns very very quickly before the dough is cooked if you don't do this). Bake for 20-25 minutes - until the top is brown and when you lightly press the centre of the couronne, it feels firm.

20. Take out of the oven, and brush over the apricot jam. Leave to cool.

21. Enjoy!

Hummingbird Cake

I made this cake for my mum's birthday, as she had requested a fruit-filled cake. A Hummingbird cake is, to my understanding, a banana and pineapple cake, with spices like cinnamon and allspice thrown in, and toasted nuts for extra jazz. I've been wanting to make it for a while, but haven't had the opportunity. Now was my chance. I baked her two layers of Hummingbird cake, frosted and filled the cake with a cinnamon buttercream and then covered the cake with fondant. I used the fondant as I wanted to try some "cake art" - using concentrated food colourings (mine are from Wilton), I painted a Hummingbird on top of the cake (as well as some flowers). I'm no artist, so I was so happy when my mum immediately knew what kind of bird I'd attempted (before I'd told her what the cake was).
The cake itself I am told was delicious (I'm allergic to bananas so couldn't give you my opinion!), and it looked and smelled amazing. The spicing gives it an extra dimension of flavour (as well as a slight Christmassy feel because of the cinnamon), and the cake easily serves 12.

Makes one 20cm cake (two layers)

Ingredients:

For the cake:

• 190g (1 & 1/2 cups) chopped walnuts
• 370g (3 cups) self-raising flour, plus extra for dusting
• 1 tbsp ground cinnamon
• 1/2 teaspoon ground mixed spice
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 4 ripe bananas, mashed
• one 200g can crushed pineapple
• 3 eggs
• 160ml (2/3 cup) vegetable oil
• 1 & 3/4 cups (350g) soft light or dark brown sugar
• 2 teaspoons vanilla extract

For the buttercream:

• 200g (7/8 cup) softened butter
• 400g (4 cups) icing sugar
• 1-2 tbsp milk
• 1 tbsp ground cinnamon
• 1 tsp ground ginger

To finish:

• 500g ready to roll fondant
• Concentrated gel food colourings

Method:

1. Preheat your oven to 180c (160c fan)/355f/ gas mark 4. Grease the bases of two springform 20cm round cake tins and dust the bottoms and sides of the tin with a little flour.

2. Line a baking tray with greaseproof paper, and pour over the chopped walnuts. Bake for around 5 minutes, until toasted (they'll smell strongly of toasted nuts when they're ready).

3. Pour the toasted walnuts, flour, cinnamon, mixed spice, brown sugar and salt into a bowl and stir briefly (making sure the break up the sugar if there are any lumps).

4. Make a well in the centre of the mixture and pour in the oil and eggs. Beat briefly until evenly distributed.

5. Add the mashed bananas and the pineapple and fold in until evenly distributed. Divide the mixture between the two cake tins.

6. Bake for 25-30 minutes, until lightly springy to the touch, and a skewer inserted into the centre has no uncooked mixture on it (it may be a little wet due to the pineapple). Leave to cool in the cake tins for 5 minutes, then turn out onto a wire rack to cool completely.

7. For the buttercream, beat the butter until is very soft and spreadable. Sift over half of the icing sugar and 1 tbsp of milk, and beat in. Once you can no longer see any icing sugar, add the other half the icing sugar, the cinnamon and ginger, and beat. If the mixture seems very stiff, add more milk, a teaspoon at a time. It is ready when it is easy to spread, but holds it's shape.

8. To assemble the cake, level both cakes by using a serrated knife to trim off any dome of the baked cake.  Place a tablespoon of buttercream on your serving dish/board.

9. Place your first sponge on the board/dish, pressing down lightly to stick the cake to the board. Top with a third of the buttercream and spread evenly over the top of the sponge.

10. Place the second sponge on top of the first, and press down lightly. Cover the top and sides of the cake with the remaining buttercream. Use a palette knife to smooth the tops and sides (this will help when you put the fondant on the cake). Place the cake in the fridge for around 10 minutes.

11. Dust your work surface with icing sugar, and roll the fondant out until it is around 25cm in diameter (and a rough circle). I roll the fondant out on a silicon mat as I find the fondant is less prone to stick to it than my work surface.

12. When ready to cover the cake, take the cake out of the fridge. There are two ways to transfer the fondant. I transferred mine by rolling the fondant over a non-stick rolling pin and then gently moving the rolling pin over the cake (unrolling the fondant over the cake in the process). If you've used a mat, you could also simply flip the mat onto the cake, then unpeel the mat off to reveal the fondant.

13. Quickly but gently, ease the sides of the fondant down over the cake. If you come to a crease, unfold it and lightly press down. If you notice any air bubbles on top of the cake, use a pin to pop them. If you notice air bubbles on the side, gently smooth the fondant down, effectively pressing the air out of the bottom of the cake. You can then use fondant smoothers to smoothen out the sides and top of the cake.

14. Leave the cake to firm up for at least 1 hour. Paint your cake as desired - I used Wilton food colourings and sugarcraft paintbrushes, and just had a go. Have fun with it :)

15. Enjoy!