Meeting 3 and Slovakian potato cakes!

OOh its so exciting to be back blogging about cakes again following the third meeting of the Hot, Sweet and Yummy baking group. I can't believe how quickly the time passes between each meeting. We all look forward to each meeting with a shared sense of dread, excitement and hungry anticipation! None of us are very confident about our baking skills but we all give it our best and hope we've improved since the last meeting. The third meeting was no exception and we were all doubly excited because we had changed the format slightly. Firstly, Jan was making something savoury to start with. We all discovered that we weren't eating tea before the meetings so we could save room for the cakes but this had its down side in that we all felt quite hyperglycaemic after a couple of tastings. So we thought starting with something savoury would help to combat this. Secondly, the theme was Indulgence to celebrate the end of Lent (well almost) so everyone had free reign to decide what indulgence meant to them. Thirdly, Harry and Fee were having a carrot cake-off. They had both been sent different carrot cake recipes so thought it a good idea to make one each and see what everyone thought. More about this later!

Anyhoo, the meeting commenced with the usual glass of bubbly and we all welcomed Grace as our newest member. Apologies were sent from Jan who had to work late and although we were bitterly disappointed that he wasn't there, we were all somewhat relieved that he had sent over the savoury course as promised! Fee was the hostess with the mostess and kicked off the meeting when suddenly Richard's phone trilled loudly. Richard is a high flying executive and never misses a call so he answered of course. It was Jan! He had managed to finish early and was on his way after all  - phew! We could all enjoy his savouries guilt free. We did however, very selfishly start without him! 
The potato cakes that Jan had prepared looked big, delicious and like something that we all wanted badly. He had made three different varieties..two were meaty and one was veggie for Paul. Jan is very considerate we all agreed. Everyone grabbed a bit of cake and got stuck in. I tasted all three and have to say they were really yummy. There were plenty of oohs and aaahs from round the table so I think we can safely say they were hitting the right spot! Two were a potato cake and one was a herby bread affair but all three were to die for.  I wish Jan could have been there at that point but we did congratulate when he finally arrived.  David also discovered that the outer crusts of the bread made a nice wee palate cleanser in between cake sampling but I suspect this was just another cunning way to scoff more of Jan's savouries. I don't think anyone will be surprised to hear that we don't as yet have any recipes from Jan. I suspect that Jan is checking with the 'potato cake bureau' back home in Bratislava to make sure these aren't state guarded secrets! I will of course post a picture of them in the meantime and then add the recipe when it filters through! 

Jan - your potato cakes and herby bread were gorgeous as ever. Well done and we were all so glad you made it after all. Next meeting, Jan is holding a sugar craft and cake decorating masterclass - what fun! He is very inspired by Fiona Cairns, the baking lady who supplies Harrods, Selfridges and Waitrose amongst other fine establishments.  I cannot wait to see what he'll show us but be assured there will be lots of lovely photographs of the session. Anyway, here are a couple of yummy shots of Jan's potato cakes and Jan's herby bread! Enjoy!
Love Hot, Sweet and Yummy xxx

Happy Mother's Day

Well, I hope all you Mum's woke up this morning to something hot. sweet and yummy...like a bacon butty or some home made porridge! If you didn't then never mind...there are lots of lovely cake recipes here for you to try and enjoy! In the meantime, here's a gratuitous shot of some hot, sweet and yummy men.....we can go back to shots of cake tomorrow!


Xxx

Raspberry coconut scrumptiousness!

So, this is the last delicious recipe from the second meeting of Hot, Sweet and Yummy baking group. But don't worry as our next meeting is this Monday coming and will be a cracker...the theme is Indulgence to celebrate almost the end of lent when everyone can stock up on all the goodies they have been denying themselves. We actually just wanted an excuse to gorge ourselves again and indulgence seemed like a nice name for 'loads of calories'!!
Anyway Paul, as I've mentioned before is an expert in the kitchen and is always cooking up nice, tasty treats at any opportunity. His finger buffets are indeed sumptuous and I think  he should start a catering company but he'll just poo poo that idea. he is very modest. He made a plate of gorgeous little coconut sponge hearts for this meeting and they looked so cute and tasty. I think this was also adapted from a Delia recipe but I'm not entirely sure. You'll have to ask him yourself...well we delved in as we always do and I think the plate was empty within a few noisy minutes. The flavour of these little cakes was really yummy and you could pick out all the different ingredients no problem. Paul himself admitted this was the first time he had made this recipe and thought it need slightly less time in the oven or a little more liquid to compensate for the desiccated coconut he added! Some good tips there Paul - if anyone gives this recipe a go please let us know how it turns out. Anyway, Paul's yummy sponge hearts were a delight and we all munched them down hungrily even if we had already exceeded a week's worth of calories in half an hour! If you are curious what Paul will make for our Indulgence evening then just check back here next week as all our recipes and photographs of the evening will be posted here! In the meantime, here is the recipe for Paul's Raspberry and White Chocolate Coconut Sponge Hearts.

Swiss Roll Sponge Ingredients

3 Eggs, at room temperature

3oz (75g) Castor Sugar,
3 ox Self-Raising Flour, sieved
2 tablespoons of desiccated coconut

Filling

Tin of raspberries in juice

1 tablespoon of sugar

melted chocolate

grated white chocolate

• Pre-heat the Oven to 220c 425F Mark 7. Grease and line a shallow Swiss Roll tin 9inch x 12inch (23cm x 30cm) with greaseproof paper.
• Whisk the eggs with the castor sugar until the mixture is light and creamy. It should leave a trail when the whisk is lifted out. Then fold in the Self-Raising Flour and coconut using a metal spoon.
• Pour the mixture into the tin and smooth level with a palette knife. Place in the hot oven and bake for 7 to 10 minutes until the sponge is pale golden and begins to shrink from the edges of the tin.
• For the Raspberry filling I used a tin of raspberries and emptied the whole tin to a blender and pureed – then I heated this up in a saucepan, added 1 tablespoon of sugar, until it had reduced right down to a gooey consistency.
• I grated the white chocolate and mixed this into the raspberry coulis.
• I cut the heart shapes out of the sponge and sandwiched 2 together with the white chocolate and raspberry mixture, then drizzled some plain chocolate over the top.
•  This is the first time I have tried this sponge and must admit I found it a bit dry – doing it again I would maybe give slightly less time in the oven, or use a better baking tray.  I added the coconut to the original recipe so perhaps some more moisture was needed.

So, that's them all now! I hope you've enjoyed reading about our fab little baking group and I really hope you do try out some of our recipes. If you do or if you have any hot, sweet and yummy recipes of your own please email us or just post something here on the Blog. We'd love to hear from you.

Love Hot, Sweet and Yummy xxx

Unbreak my heart!

Richard tells us he only comes along to catch up on the gossip and to obviously sample our wonderful creations but we suspect that he actually enjoys our get togethers and he does go to the trouble of baking something! So in keeping with our Valentine's theme Richard made some cute little shortbread hearts filled with yummy chocolate. Richard is a high powered executive travelling all over the UK making the most of his generous expense account so I think that the recipes from Richard are going to be recipes that are deliciously tasty but can be made when time is scarce! Its a wonder he does manage with his schedule. Well, we all thoroughly enjoyed them. They were crumbly and light and buttery and the chocolate cream filing was really good. I could have easily split another one in two and licked the cream off! Yum. Next meeting's theme is Indulgence so we can't wait to see what Richard creates. Here's the recipe for Richard's Unbroken Hearts and a wee picture to get the taste buds tantalised!

Biscuit

100g icing sugar 

200g butter 

300g plain flour 

10g vanilla sugar

Chocolate filling

100g chocolate

100g unsalted butter

jam

Mix all ingredients together and cut out using heart shaped cutter then bake in a preheated oven (180 °C) for about 15 minutes.

Melt 100g of chocolate in microwave and blend in 100g unsalted butter for chocolate cream filling. 

Then sandwich together with a little strawberry jam and the chocolate cream.      

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

Here's the science bit!

I love researching new recipes, supplies and techniques online and there are millions of fabulous baking and cooking sites out there to explore. I found this one and loved this article! It really made me understand what I was doing at every stage of the baking proecess and why I was doing it! If you have a spare ten minutes, grab a cuppa and have a read. It might surprise you...or you might just want to grab a cuppa, a yummy home made cake and a trashy mag instead! Its up to you!!!!!

Article taken from Cake Baker 

So you’ve done all the mixing and folding; you’ve pre-heated the oven and put your cake in its greased and lined tin. Now you're going to pop it in the oven and hope the magic works. Keeping your fingers crossed that what is going in as a flat wet shapeless layer will come out as a soft risen recognisable cake.

Magic!

But it’s not Magic. There are very good scientific reasons for this transformation and understanding them should make you less nervous about cake-making. And if you’re more confident about what you’re doing, your cakes will be better.

So here’s a simple introduction to the science of cake baking.

Let's Begin at The Beginning

The recipe says to beat together the fat and sugar. What are you actually doing when you do that?

You’re introducing air into the mix. Sugar crystals have jagged edges that help draw air in to create little bubbles, each with a film of fat. These bubbles cause the mixture to become paler in colour – imagine it as being like foam.

Now you’ve got air bubbles in the cake you need to make sure they stay there. The egg you add next will form a layer around the bubbles. When the cake is in the oven and the temperature rises, the air in the bubbles expands making the cake ‘rise’ and the egg layer coagulates or hardens, protecting the bubble, and stopping it collapsing.

On to the flour. The plain and self-raising flour that you’ll use for most cakes is soft flour. That means it has a low gluten content. Handling flour – by mixing or kneading - makes the gluten tougher. You don’t want tough gluten so this is why cake recipes will tell you to fold in the flour as gently as possible.

The gluten, when wet, becomes stretchy and creates an elastic network around the bubbles. When it gets to the right temperature it will lose its elasticity, the shape will be fixed, and your cake will stay nicely risen.

Your recipe may tell you to add baking powder or bicarbonate of soda. When this is moistened with the cake mixture, a chemical reaction occurs and carbon dioxide is released, meaning more bubbles in your mixture. However a cake mixture is only able to hold so much gas and if too much raising agent is used, the cake, after rising wonderfully initially, will collapse. So make sure you follow recipe quantities!

Don’t open the oven until at least ¾ of the stated cooking time has elapsed. Letting cold air in can result in a drop in temperature and in your cake!

So that’s the science; now let’s look at a few other things that will affect your final product.

The Ingredients:

Naturally the best cakes will result from the best fresh ingredients being used. Organic, free-range, unrefined are all good words to look for!

• Fat

If you’re using butter, which you might choose to do for its flavour, make sure it is at room temperature before you start; soft margarine is ideal for most cakes. If oil is used, choose a light vegetable one.

• Egg?

If not specified, use standard or large eggs. You might need to use extra egg if you use small, or if you only need a little more liquid, use extra milk.

• Sugar

Caster sugar is the basic cake sugar used for its fine texture. There are, of course, a variety of brown sugars available: your recipe will specify which to use for colour, taste and texture. Honey and syrup are also used. Once you’re confident you might like to experiment with different sugars and see what the result is.

Finishing Off

How do you tell if a cake is cooked?

Small cakes should be well-risen, nicely coloured and firm to the touch.

To test if a large cake is cooked, first press it gently with your finger-tip. It should feel spongy and should spring back when you’ve removed your finger. It should also be starting to come away from the edge of the tin.

You don’t want to do this with a sponge cake but with a more substantial cake you can insert a hot skewer into the centre. If it comes out clean, the cake is cooked; if it has some mixture sticking to it, leave it a bit longer.

An alternative way of seeing if a fruit cake is cooked is to listen to it (yes, really!) If it’s whistling, it’s not ready to come out. When you’re satisfied that the cake is cooked, remove from the oven and allow to cool for a few minutes in the tin. This will give it a chance to shrink away from the sides and it will be easier to get out of its tin before leaving it to cool completely on a wire cooling rack.

And that’s cake baking explained for you. It’s not rock-cake science, is it?!

Jam

I'd like to think that one day I will be a whizz in the kitchen and besides cooking up nice, tasty treats I'll also make my own jam. Our group has already used jam in many of our recipes so I thought I'd quickly let you know which jams will work well and add depth and flavour to your cakes. I love all things French so its no surprise that my top two are both from the home of fine food and I always have a jar of each in my fridge. Bonne Mamam conserves are fun, fruity, sweet and perfect to splodge on or in anything you fancy. The strawberry is my children's absolute favourite and I'm sure its not only to do with the taste but the packaging. Its very appealing and you'll recognise their jars instantly by their red and white checked cheesecloth lid and handwritten-look label. The jam itself has nice whole fruits in it and has an unusual consistency...not runny but more like liquid fruit! It comes in many flavours including apricot, cherry, blueberry and wile strawberry...yummmm! Try it on your scones, on toast, in croissants, with a slice of emmental in a warm baguette (cheese and jam really works!) or use it whenever a recipe calls for jam. Its a little more expensive than most jams but definitely worth the extra pence.

The second jam worth buying is St Dalfour Rhapsodie de Fruits. Its a rather more sophisticated affair but just as yummy. Its a 100% fruit spread and comes in tons of delicious varieties like black cherry, pear and peach. They have a good website and hope to put up some recipes soon. I know Nigella usually uses St Dalfour in her baking...the perfect endorsement. Their jars are tall and slim and usually on the top shelf like all good adult products! The spread is much less runny than Bonne Mamam so its good for using in between sponge layers. Anyway, the best thing to do is try them out and see which one you like best. We love them both and I'm certain you will too!
Love hot, sweet and yummy x