Flirty Friends

Back to the yummy cakes we ate at our second Hot, Sweet and Yummy meeting. We have already scoffed David's strawberry shortcake, Jan's Layered Love Cake and Harry's Hot, Sweet and Yummy Heart cake so you'd think we would all be full up but there were many delicious things on the table still to be consumed! Fiona had tried out a recipe she'd had her eye on for a while but never got round to doing anything about it. She decided to have a go at some Friands.....not friends! These little cakes are popular in Australia (she thinks but not sure) but originate from the French Financier sponge cake. They are predominately made with egg white and almond but you can add all sorts of flavours apparently! How odd we all thought but looking at them, we didn't think they looked at all like a meringue!!! Anyway, Fiona had made hers with blueberries and in the shape of lovehearts, instead of the traditional rectangular shape. Apparently you can buy a friand pan especially for these little delights and Fiona thinks she might just do that as her hungry hoards at home all loved them and ate quite a few before our meeting. Well, they looked lovely, dusted with icing sugar and the blueberries had swollen up and burst so the friands has a lovely purply marbled effect through them. We greedily gobbled them up and all agreed that the egg white flavour hadn't come through which was a relief for Fiona as she worried they would taste like an omelette. Fiona, these were scrummy delicious and very unusual. We hope you experiment with other flavours and we can enjoy these again. Here is the recipe..
Fee's flirty friands
100g butter
4 large egg whites (we use eggs with a minimum weight of 59g)
45g plain flour
140g pure icing sugar
85g  ground almonds
1/2 tsp almond extract - not essence
About 40g (about 30 large) blueberries
Extra icing sugar, for dusting

• Preheat oven to 190 degrees Celsius (170 degrees Celsius fan). If you are not using a fan oven, adjust the oven rack to the middle position so the friands brown evenly.
• Grease a six hole muffin pan - I bought a silicone love heart shaped one especially but any non stick bun or muffin tin would do.
• Melt butter and set aside to cool to lukewarm.
• In a medium bowl, beat egg whites with a fork or whisk until foamy (about 30 seconds)
• Sift flour, icing sugar and ground almonds into the bowl with the egg whites.
• Stir ingredients together until just combined.
• Add the melted butter and almond extract to the bowl and stir until just combined.
• Divide mixture evenly among the holes of the prepared pan. Place about five blueberries in a cluster in the centre of each friand.
• Bake for about 25 minutes, or until the friands are a light golden colour and spring back when lightly pressed. A thin-bladed knife or wooden skewer inserted into the centre of a friand should come out without any raw-looking batter attached.
• Remove friands from the oven and allow to stand in the pan for five minutes.
• Mine turned out really easily from the silicone mould but be careful if using a rigid pan...they seemed quite delicate.
• Dust a little icing sugar over each one once they are cool.

Fiona said she was in Tinderbox in Princes Square last week and they had friands for sale. She was most surprised as she thought they were an Ozzy thing only! Don't go rushing off there to buy one though...bake your own!

Love Hot, Sweet and Yummy xxx

Layered love

At the second meeting of Hot, Sweet and Yummy baking group, we feasted on many luscious, romantic treats and Jan's Layered Love Cakes were no exception. In true continental style, Jan wowed us with these gorgeous looking chocolate delights and had even decorated his plate beautifully too. The man's patisserie prowess is becoming legendary in these parts so we asked him how he was able to create such masterpieces. He modestly revealed that he once won a national Slovakian competition for best cake decorating so its no wonder. I just love that Slovakia has a national competition involving cakes...wonder who the lucky judges are?
Well in true mysterious Jan style I don't yet have his recipe...another state secret no doubt but as soon as I have it I will let you know. Here is a picture or two to let you see how delicious it looks in the meantime. Look at the cute little lovehearts adorning the plate, never mind the chocolate icing. Jan was eager to show me the inside of his little cakes so I made sure I took a shot of the layers of yumminess to show everyone too. I think we were all impressed when we realised that inside each heart were layers of moist sponge, fresh cream and jam so without a word we were soon munching away. I don't think I could do them justice by simply writing about them. I think you either need to come and join our baking group and hope that Jan makes them again or visit Slovakia and learn the sacred art of cakery for yourself. Well done Jan, we can't wait for the next meeting and your next yummy creation.
Love hot sweet and yummy xxx

P.S - here's that shot of the layers.....drool!
Added 8.3.10  -Jan has sent the recipe! 

Sponge:

4 eggs- separated

100g caster sugar

100g flour

Butter cream:

150g butter

50g icing sugar

Vanilla essence, jam and chocolate

Preheat oven to 200°C Gas

-      Put the yolks into the bowl with half the sugar and beat until it is thick. In the other bowl put the egg whites with the caster sugar and beat until it is thick and foamy. Pour the egg yolk mix into the egg white mix and mix slowly together with the flour.  Pour this onto a baking sheet and spread it out to about 1cm thickness 

-      Bake in the oven for only 5 minutes until the dough is golden. If it is overbaked it will really dry out. Allow to cool.

-      Meanwhile beat the butter with the icing sugar and the vanilla essence until it resembles a medium thick cream.

-      Take your heart shaped cutters and cut out 3 hearts. Spread one with jam, then some butter cream and then sandwich anther on top. Repeat this and then cover all the edges (sides, top and bottom) with buttercream. Keep cutting out sets of three hearts until all the sponge is gone. Repeat the jam and cream process each time. Put them all in the fridge.

-      Heat a pan of hot water on the hob. Break the chocolate into a bowl and melt over the boiling water until it is runny.

-      Take your heart sandwiches and balance one on a knife over the chocolate bowl. Scoop up some chocolate and smother the heart in it.  Put onto a wire rack to set.

-      Once set – decorate as desired.

Thanks Jan - I'm really going to try this!

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