Love Hot, Sweet and Yummy x
Showing posts with label icing. Show all posts
Showing posts with label icing. Show all posts
Monday, 22 March 2010
Grace's double rum and raisin cakes
At the third meeting of our Hot, Sweet and Yummy baking group, the theme was 'indulgence' and we also had a new member! Grace is a good friend and we were delighted when she agreed to come along. Grace's roots are in the Caribbean and we were all quite excited about the possibility of something tropical and exotic and weren't disappointed. Grace had been soaking raisins in something alcoholic for months for no other reason that its a good thing to do and you never know when you're going to need some boozy raisins. It was lucky that we invited her when we did as I'm sure the potency of booze soaked fruit quadruples with every passing week and therefore some of our members may have been driving home slightly tipsy!
I love Grace's sense of humour and was delighted to see she hadn't lost it whilst creating something for Hot, Sweet and Yummy. She had cunningly disguised her lethal raisins as Tom and Jerry cakes - genius! So beneath the innocent looking face of Jerry mouse and the sweetie pink icing lay those devilish raisins literally bursting with rum. We demolished one each no problem and all agreed that although they were definitely potent, the rum wasn't overpowering. It seems rum was the order of the evening after Jane's rum and chocolate cake. Maybe we should have a boozy themed meeting sometime soon! Anyway, we all throughly enjoyed Grace's double rum and raisin cakes and look forward to the next meeting as Grace has volunteered to cook up something savoury for us. Yummy. Grace, welcome to the group and well done on baking something completely sweet and yummy but please send us your recipe soon so everyone can enjoy some double rum and raisin cakes.
Love Hot, Sweet and Yummy x
Love Hot, Sweet and Yummy x
Monday, 1 March 2010
Yummy love cake!
So Harry wanted to impress us all with his baking skills and had chosen an old favourite from Delia's book. It might be an old favourite but Harry put his own contemporary twist on it and iced it beautifully. It actually looked better than a certain M&S cake I once bought at huge expense but that's another story! Anyway, we decided his cake had been uneaten long enough and watched impatiently as he sliced through the pink icing and into the moist sponge below. The cake was light and fluffy and the icing wasn't too sweet but just perfect. It looked good, it tasted good and it didn't last long! Here's some shots I took...the photos don't show the true skill employed in the decoration but you get the idea. Harry - your Hot, Sweet and Yummy Heart cake was fabulous. You and Delia are a winning team.
The recipe is below...
The cake recipe is Delia Smith’s classic “All-in-one” sponge recipe, taken from the classic book, “Delia Smith’s Complete Cookery Course”. I used 1.5 x quantities of the cake mixture in order to make a taller three-tier cake – but following the recipe as below will work perfectly well.
For the cake:
4 oz self-raising flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
4 oz soft margarine, at room temperature
4 oz caster sugar
2 large eggs
2-3 drops vanilla extract*
*original recipe states “vanilla essence”, but I recommend that pure vanilla extract, which has become available in the last 10-15 years, is used instead for better flavour.
For the cake:
4 oz self-raising flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
4 oz soft margarine, at room temperature
4 oz caster sugar
2 large eggs
2-3 drops vanilla extract*
*original recipe states “vanilla essence”, but I recommend that pure vanilla extract, which has become available in the last 10-15 years, is used instead for better flavour.
For the decoration:
1 x 500g pack of fondant icing
170g strawberry jam
Few drops pink food colouring
a little cornflour or icing sugar for rolling the icing
Instructions:
Pre-heat the oven to gas mark 3 (170°C).
Two 7 inch (18 cm) sponge tins, no less than 1.5 inches (4 cm) deep, lightly greased and lined with greaseproof paper (also greased) or silicone paper.
Take a large roomy mixing bowl, and sift flour and baking powder into it, holding the sieve high to give the flour a good airing. Then simply add all the other ingredients to the bowl and whisk them—preferably with an electric hand whisk—till thoroughly combined. If the mixture doesn’t drop off a wooden spoon easily when tapped on the side of the bowl, then add 1 or 2 teaspoons of tap-warm water, and whisk again.
Now divide the mixture between the two prepared cake tins, level off and bake on the centre shelf of the oven for about 30 minutes. When cooked, leave them in the tins for only about 30 seconds, then loosen the edges by sliding a palette knife all round and turn them out onto a wire cooling rack. Peel off the base papers carefully, and leave to cool.
When cool, sandwich the layers together with jam. To make the heart shape, form the top of the heart by cutting away segments as shown on the first picture in the diagram. Then form the bottom of the heart by moving these pieces to the bottom of the cake – but to the opposite side of the cake from whence they came – as shown in the second picture in the diagram. These pieces can be trimmed slightly if necessary to give you a perfect heart shape. Use some more jam as “glue” to stick these pieces to the cake.
Then spread the cake all over with the remaining jam. Roll out the fondant icing 2-3 mm thick, dusting the rolling pin and the work surface with either some cornflour or icing sugar to prevent the icing sticking. Transfer the icing to the cake, smooth over, and trim away the excess icing. Colour the excess icing with the pink food colouring, and roll out. Cut out small heart shapes with a heart-shaped cutter and decorate the cake with these hearts, sticking them to the cake with a few drops of water.
1 x 500g pack of fondant icing
170g strawberry jam
Few drops pink food colouring
a little cornflour or icing sugar for rolling the icing
Instructions:
Pre-heat the oven to gas mark 3 (170°C).
Two 7 inch (18 cm) sponge tins, no less than 1.5 inches (4 cm) deep, lightly greased and lined with greaseproof paper (also greased) or silicone paper.
Take a large roomy mixing bowl, and sift flour and baking powder into it, holding the sieve high to give the flour a good airing. Then simply add all the other ingredients to the bowl and whisk them—preferably with an electric hand whisk—till thoroughly combined. If the mixture doesn’t drop off a wooden spoon easily when tapped on the side of the bowl, then add 1 or 2 teaspoons of tap-warm water, and whisk again.
Now divide the mixture between the two prepared cake tins, level off and bake on the centre shelf of the oven for about 30 minutes. When cooked, leave them in the tins for only about 30 seconds, then loosen the edges by sliding a palette knife all round and turn them out onto a wire cooling rack. Peel off the base papers carefully, and leave to cool.
When cool, sandwich the layers together with jam. To make the heart shape, form the top of the heart by cutting away segments as shown on the first picture in the diagram. Then form the bottom of the heart by moving these pieces to the bottom of the cake – but to the opposite side of the cake from whence they came – as shown in the second picture in the diagram. These pieces can be trimmed slightly if necessary to give you a perfect heart shape. Use some more jam as “glue” to stick these pieces to the cake.
Then spread the cake all over with the remaining jam. Roll out the fondant icing 2-3 mm thick, dusting the rolling pin and the work surface with either some cornflour or icing sugar to prevent the icing sticking. Transfer the icing to the cake, smooth over, and trim away the excess icing. Colour the excess icing with the pink food colouring, and roll out. Cut out small heart shapes with a heart-shaped cutter and decorate the cake with these hearts, sticking them to the cake with a few drops of water.
Sunday, 14 February 2010
\mother in law sends some sweetness!!!
My dear mother-in-law is a wonderful cook and a brilliant baker and always always prepares us delicious things when we visit! She has tons of cook books and collects recipes all the time! I have been looking for a really nice carrot cake recipe that is moist but not too sweet for ages! Christina has tried this one and assures me it is totally fool proof (good thing for me) and that it is 100% gorgeous! So here you are...let us know if you try it and how it turns out!
Christina's Recipe for Carrot Cake
8oz self raising flour
1 and a half teaspoons baking powder
1 and a quarter teaspoons cinnamon [sieve this and the baking powder together]
1/2 teaspoon salt
3 eggs beaten
6oz sugar
6oz vegetable oil
7oz grated carrot
7oz chopped walnuts
Beat eggs till thick,add sugar and oil. Fold in flour, carrots and nuts. Divide into 2 x 8inch tins, greased. Bake for 35mins 300F/150C/Gas2.
Topping
4oz cream cheese [must be full fat]
2oz melted butter
8oz icing sugar
2 teaspoons vanilla essence
1 teaspoon lemon juice
Beat together. Can be sandwiched together or iced separately to make 2 cakes with icing on top only. Decorated as you desire!!!
Happy eating!!
Love hot sweet and yummy xxx
p.s this is only a stock picture of another carrot cake!
Christina's Recipe for Carrot Cake
8oz self raising flour
1 and a half teaspoons baking powder
1 and a quarter teaspoons cinnamon [sieve this and the baking powder together]
1/2 teaspoon salt
3 eggs beaten
6oz sugar
6oz vegetable oil
7oz grated carrot
7oz chopped walnuts
Beat eggs till thick,add sugar and oil. Fold in flour, carrots and nuts. Divide into 2 x 8inch tins, greased. Bake for 35mins 300F/150C/Gas2.
Topping
4oz cream cheese [must be full fat]
2oz melted butter
8oz icing sugar
2 teaspoons vanilla essence
1 teaspoon lemon juice
Beat together. Can be sandwiched together or iced separately to make 2 cakes with icing on top only. Decorated as you desire!!!
Happy eating!!
Love hot sweet and yummy xxx
p.s this is only a stock picture of another carrot cake!
Saturday, 13 February 2010
empire state of yumminess
Well, here we are - almost 4 weeks after the inaugural meeting of Hot Sweet and Yummy and I still haven't managed to Blog about all the delicious things that everyone made! I still have to tell you about harry's Empire biscuits, David's peanut cookies and Heather's all bran loaf and I'm very happy to tell you that I have managed to extricate Jan's blueberry apple crumble cake recipe from him...it wasn't that difficult but I wonder if he has disclosed it all or whether he has kept a secret ingredient to himself! Oh well...you'll have to make it to see!
So, anyone who has ever been at Harry's famous Eurovision parties will have sampled his delicious Empire biscuits! They are the most gorgeous, crumbly, melt in the mouth biscuits you could ever imagine and this batch were not going to disappoint! Harry had iced half with chocolate vermicelli and the other half with sugar flowers and little silver balls...apparently they have gelatine in them so Paul wasn't able to enjoy them! Harry was a star pupil and emailed me over all the bits and bobs he wanted you all to know so here goes!
Harry's Empire biscuits
8oz plain flour
6oz icing sugar
2oz cornflour
8oz butter at room temp
strawberry jam
one egg white
decorations
Firstly, sieve the plain flour, 2oz of icing sugar and the cornflour into a large bowl. It is the addition of cornflour which gives the biscuits such a light texture. Next, work in the butter into the dry ingredients with your hand. This can also be done effectively in a food processor – which also has the benefit of keeping the ingredients cool. This recipe is effectively one for a sweet pastry, and the heat from your hands can make pastry difficult to work with. I usually use the food processor but couldn’t on the day of preparation for the baking group as Paul was using it to make the chocolate cheesecake!
Next, roll the pastry out thinly on a floured surface, and cut out biscuits using a 2 inch round pastry cutter. Always cut with a sharp downwards tap, and never twist, or your biscuits will come out of the oven oddly shaped. Place the biscuits on a lightly greased baking tray and bake in a pre-heated oven at 180° (gas mark 4) for 15 minutes. Once cooked, turn the biscuits onto a wire rack and leave to cool. On the occasion of the baking group, the recipe yielded precisely 46 biscuits – i.e. when paired, enough for 23 empire biscuits.
Once cooled, sandwich pairs of biscuits together with strawberry jam. You’re now ready to decorate. Mix about 4oz of icing sugar into a thick syrupy consistency. I used an egg white to mix the icing sugar which gives a harder, crisp finish. But you can use water if you want to avoid raw eggs. Spread a little icing on each biscuit, and finish off with decorations of your choice. I used silver balls, sugar flowers and chocolate strands. Halved glace cherries or sugar strands look good too. Oddly enough, the Dr Oetker brand silver balls from contain gelatine and thus are non-vegetarian – but I later noticed that Asda’s own make ones do not, so stick to Asda if you want to be veggie-friendly.
Everyone agreed that they were amazing and we all scoffed one each -after the night was over we all got to take home a doggy bag and I'm happy to report that Harry's biscuits got a huge thumbs up from my greedy boys!
Next up were David's peanut cookies...and I love cookies so this was going to be make or break for me! They have to be crispy round the edge with a nice crumbly bite but soft and gooey and sticky in the middle! Well they were all of that and totally gorgeous too!!! David bakes a lot and is one of those guys who doesn't work from a recipe...he seems to know exactly what will make a good treat and just throws it all into a bowl. David is one of those naturally busy people and he manages to squeeze a million things into his day...I cannot quite remember all that he had done that day but were all in awe of this man machine! Anyway, I'm just delighted that he managed to make these yummy cookies for us and now you all can too!!!!
David's Peanut and Banana Cookies
INGREDIENTS
6oz plain flour
6oz caster sugar
4oz butter
1 ripe banana - mashed
2 tablespoons peanut butter
1 tablespoon porridge oats
1 tablespoon golden syrup
1 tablespoon dessicated coconut
1/2 teaspoonful bicarbonate of soda
METHOD
Cream butter and sugar til creamy.
Add banana, peanut butter, oats, syrup and coconut
Mix well
Add flour and bicarb and mix well to form a sticky dough.
Dough should be fairly stiff..if not, add little more flour.
Spoon teaspoon sized dollops onto a greased baking tray leaving about 2-3 inches between dollops to allow cookies to spread while cooking.
Bake in moderately hot oven 180oC /350oF/ Gas Mark 4 for around 15 minutes.
Cooking time will vary depending on fan assisted, electric or gas oven so you need to keep your eye out after ten minutes!
Bake until golden brown. Leave on tray to cool slightly then remove to cooling tray.
Cookies will be very soft when removed from oven, but will firm up when cooled.
This recipe should make around 20-25 cookies depending on how generous your teaspoons are!
Well there you go - two more totally delish recipes from our group! I hope by now you have tried at least one of the recipes...we really are trying to get all our friends baking again! Just think how lovely it is to create something all by yourself and smell it cooking...I know my house always feels so much more homely with the smell of something yummy baking through!
I'm going to Blog the final two recipes after this one and you will be able to find Jan's crumble cake recipe back in the first post!!!
Remember if you have any fab recipes you want is to road test or just share with us then you can email us here hotsweetandyummy@hotmail.com or visit our Facebook group!
Lots of love hot, sweet and yummy xxx
Harry's Empire biscuits
8oz plain flour
6oz icing sugar
2oz cornflour
8oz butter at room temp
strawberry jam
one egg white
decorations
Firstly, sieve the plain flour, 2oz of icing sugar and the cornflour into a large bowl. It is the addition of cornflour which gives the biscuits such a light texture. Next, work in the butter into the dry ingredients with your hand. This can also be done effectively in a food processor – which also has the benefit of keeping the ingredients cool. This recipe is effectively one for a sweet pastry, and the heat from your hands can make pastry difficult to work with. I usually use the food processor but couldn’t on the day of preparation for the baking group as Paul was using it to make the chocolate cheesecake!
Next, roll the pastry out thinly on a floured surface, and cut out biscuits using a 2 inch round pastry cutter. Always cut with a sharp downwards tap, and never twist, or your biscuits will come out of the oven oddly shaped. Place the biscuits on a lightly greased baking tray and bake in a pre-heated oven at 180° (gas mark 4) for 15 minutes. Once cooked, turn the biscuits onto a wire rack and leave to cool. On the occasion of the baking group, the recipe yielded precisely 46 biscuits – i.e. when paired, enough for 23 empire biscuits.
Once cooled, sandwich pairs of biscuits together with strawberry jam. You’re now ready to decorate. Mix about 4oz of icing sugar into a thick syrupy consistency. I used an egg white to mix the icing sugar which gives a harder, crisp finish. But you can use water if you want to avoid raw eggs. Spread a little icing on each biscuit, and finish off with decorations of your choice. I used silver balls, sugar flowers and chocolate strands. Halved glace cherries or sugar strands look good too. Oddly enough, the Dr Oetker brand silver balls from contain gelatine and thus are non-vegetarian – but I later noticed that Asda’s own make ones do not, so stick to Asda if you want to be veggie-friendly.
Everyone agreed that they were amazing and we all scoffed one each -after the night was over we all got to take home a doggy bag and I'm happy to report that Harry's biscuits got a huge thumbs up from my greedy boys!
David's Peanut and Banana Cookies
INGREDIENTS
6oz plain flour
6oz caster sugar
4oz butter
1 ripe banana - mashed
2 tablespoons peanut butter
1 tablespoon porridge oats
1 tablespoon golden syrup
1 tablespoon dessicated coconut
1/2 teaspoonful bicarbonate of soda
METHOD
Cream butter and sugar til creamy.
Add banana, peanut butter, oats, syrup and coconut
Mix well
Add flour and bicarb and mix well to form a sticky dough.
Dough should be fairly stiff..if not, add little more flour.
Spoon teaspoon sized dollops onto a greased baking tray leaving about 2-3 inches between dollops to allow cookies to spread while cooking.
Bake in moderately hot oven 180oC /350oF/ Gas Mark 4 for around 15 minutes.
Cooking time will vary depending on fan assisted, electric or gas oven so you need to keep your eye out after ten minutes!
Bake until golden brown. Leave on tray to cool slightly then remove to cooling tray.
Cookies will be very soft when removed from oven, but will firm up when cooled.
This recipe should make around 20-25 cookies depending on how generous your teaspoons are!
Well there you go - two more totally delish recipes from our group! I hope by now you have tried at least one of the recipes...we really are trying to get all our friends baking again! Just think how lovely it is to create something all by yourself and smell it cooking...I know my house always feels so much more homely with the smell of something yummy baking through!
I'm going to Blog the final two recipes after this one and you will be able to find Jan's crumble cake recipe back in the first post!!!
Remember if you have any fab recipes you want is to road test or just share with us then you can email us here hotsweetandyummy@hotmail.com or visit our Facebook group!
Lots of love hot, sweet and yummy xxx
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