Festive Christmas Cake

Sorry for the delay in posting the next stage of the Christmas cake, things have been a bit hectic these last few days, but rest assured your soaking boozy fruit base won’t have come to any harm. The fruit should be plump, glossy and juicy by now and perfect for stirring into your Christmas cake mix to give a rich, moist texture and flavour. Peel off the clingfilm and inhale the fruits sweet, boozy, citrusy aroma, ahhh…it’s just heavenly.

When you have added the fruit to the cake mix just run a finger around the fruit bowl and taste the syrupy residue, it’s divine. The harsh raw note of the alcohol has mellowed and taken on the flavour of the fruits. The juices have become sweet and sticky while a wonderful rich fruity citrus flavour seems to explode in your mouth. It was hard to resist the urge to start eating the raw mix.

The cake mix is very easy to put together and contains its own Christmassy flavours of black treacle and an assortment of spices. This year I added ginger and cloves to help complement my choice of fruits. When you come to add the soaked fruit, you may think there is not enough cake mix for the amount of fruit, but a Christmas cake such as this is very densely fruited. Just think of it as the fruit being held together with cake, rather than it being a cake containing fruit.When spooning the cake mix into the tin it’s a good idea to create a little hollow or dip in the centre of the cake, this compensates for the cakes normal doming effect during baking and means you should end up with more of a flat surface on which to decorate later – we don’t want to have to cut off and waste any more of the cake than necessary!

During baking the cake will fill your kitchen with wafts of warm Christmas smells that linger pleasantly for several hours. Once baked, the cake is given its first ‘feed’ of some more Cointreau before being wrapped up tight. The cake will now be fed once a week until it’s time to decorate it just before Christmas. This ensures it continues to develop in flavour and stays moist – no chance of dry stale fruitcake here!

Festive Christmas Cake Base
Ingredients

225g plain flour
1½ tsp mixed spice
½ tsp ground ginger
½ tsp ground cloves
40g ground almonds
40g balanced almonds
165g light soft brown sugar
165g butter
1 tbsp black treacle
3 eggs
1 batch pre-soaked festive fruit mix (click to see)

Feeding
2 tbsp Cointreau (orange liqueur)

Method
Grease and line base and sides of a deep 8inch/20cm tin with greaseproof paper, allowing the paper to rise an inch above the rim of the tin.Pre heat the oven to 140C.In a large bowl add the flour, mixed spice, ground almonds, sugar, butter, treacle and eggs and mix together well using an electric mixer.Roughly chop the blanched almonds and add to the mix along with your pre-soaked boozy fruits.
Fold everything together using a spatula, making sure the fruit is evenly distributed.Spoon the mixture into the prepared tin, pressing down gently and smoothing the surface. Create a shallow dip in the centre of the cake mix to compensate for the cake doming in the oven. The dip should result in a flat surface when baked.Bake the cake for 2 hours and 50 minutes. (After 2 hours you can quickly cover the tin with foil if it is becoming too brown before baking for a further 50 minutes).Check the cake with a skewer, which should come out clean. Leave to cool for an hour in the tin.Measure out the Cointreau into a small bowl and prick the top of the cake all over with the skewer. Evenly drizzle over the Cointreau using a teaspoon.Allow the cake to cool completely before removing it from the tin but leaving the greaseproof paper on.Wrap it up well in clingfilm and leave in a cool dark place to mature for several weeks. ‘Feed’ the cake with an extra tablespoon of Cointreau once a week until required or ready to marzipan and ice just before Christmas.
Makes enough for an 8inch/20cm circular Christmas cake


Here is what I have been up to recently – my graduation! When I first started Uni I wasn’t sure it was really for me and a little part of me that never imaged I would actually get to wear the graduation robe - it felt like such an achievement to know I succeeded and it was a great day.

Stir Up Sunday - Festive Fruit Cake Mix

Today is stir up Sunday which means its time to dust off your pudding basins and hunt out your dried fruit as today is the traditional day to make your Christmas pudding and Christmas Cake. It’s called ‘stir up’ for the obvious reasons that you stir together your fruit mixes and it’s always held on the last Sunday before the start of Advent (next week) to acknowledge the start of the festive food preparations. This then gives your cakes and puddings four weeks to mature, develop in flavour and be ‘fed’ with Brandy or other spirits to give them that characteristic richness, moistness and boozy flavour.

Every year I bake the same Christmas cake recipe that I have tailored to suit my families tastes, but this year I felt like doing something a bit different and by simply changing some of the fruits included and the tray of soaking liqueur I’m hoping to end up with a different twist on my much loved classic. Below is the fruit base for the Christmas cake I’m baking this year but click here to see last years more traditional cake mix. The baking of the cake is to come!

I prepared and soaked the fruit for my Christmas cake yesterday, in readiness for baking today and I will be preparing my Christmas pudding mix today. It’s a fun festive tradition and I just love the colours and festive aromas you encounter along the way. Baking your own is so satisfying and rewarding that I encourage everyone to start up and stir up!

Festive Fruit Cake Mix
Ingredients
100g dried cranberries
75g glace cherries
175g dates
85g dried apricots
175g dried figs
½ Bramley apple
100g raisins
40g glace stem ginger
Zest of an orange
Zest of a lemon
2 tbsp Cointreau (orange liqueur)

Method
In a large mixing bowl place the cranberries and raisins. Quarter the cherries and add to the bowl.
Use a pair of scissors to chop the figs, apricots and dates into small pieces, similar in size to the quartered cherries.
Peel, core and dice the apple into ½ cm cubes. Finely chop the glace stem ginger.
Grate over the zest of the orange and lemon and drizzle over the Cointreau.
Give everything a good stir before covering with cling film and leaving to soak, plump up and macerate overnight.
Makes enough for an 8inch circular Christmas cake

The Cake Slice November 09: Burnt Sugar Cake

This months winning cake was a burnt sugar cake. The name alone instantly makes me think of bonfire night and sticky toffee apples. Burnt sugar cake encompasses all the scent and flavour of a deep golden caramel (burnt sugar) however, it is not called ‘caramel cake’ as this is often a white cake with caramel frosting, whereas this burnt sugar cake makes use of a golden caramel syrup which is infused into both the frosting and cake batter to give an intense flavour and aroma, the perfect cake for autumn.

I’ll let you in on a secret, I’m not a great fan of caramel. I don’t mind a little paired with other things but caramel on its own is just too sickly sweet for my liking and this cake sounded very very sweet. In order to tone down the caramel element, I decided to add a cinnamon spiced apple filling to my cake as apple and caramel are great flavour pairings. I used a sharp Bramley apple which helped combat the sweetness and made the finished cake taste rather like an apple tart tatin, only in cake form.

For the apple filling I lightly cooked the Bramley apple slices in a little butter until just beginning to soften before scattering over some cinnamon sugar which gave them a lovely bronzed look and made them smell wonderful.

A caramel syrup is required to add into the cake batter and frosting, and although this can sound rather daunting, it was quite simple. The sugar is first melted into a golden sugar goo, before boiling water is added and the goo turns into a glossy caramel syrup. I had never made a caramel where you add boiling water after the sugar has melted, but it worked well and resulted in a lump free syrup. My only advice would be to stand back when you add the boiling water, as the molten sugar is a lot hotter than the water and it foams up a bit as the temperatures collide, but it soon settles down again. It turned out crystal clear and such a deep amber colour that it almost looked red.

I didn’t have the right sized circular cake tins the recipe called for and so I baked my cake in two 8½ inch square tins instead. I was happy about this and everything was going well until I went to check on the cakes about half way through their baking time and that was when I saw DISASTER HAD STRUCK! One of the cake tins had a loose bottomed base and was rather ancient. It seems the base was no longer secure as the batter had gone soft and gooey in the heat of the oven and started to ooze its way out of the base and all over the bottom of the oven! I don’t mean a little bit, I mean over half the mixture was now burning into gloopy mound on the base of the oven. ARGGG! I quickly wrenched open the oven door and scooped the molten mass out onto a baking tray before it could start smoking and wrapped the dripping cake tin in foil, stuck it onto another baking tray and put it back in the oven and hoped for the best. All the door opening meant my other cake layer sank slightly in the middle… it was not going well. I ended up with one very thin cake layer and one cake layer with a dip in the middle.

I decided to make the best of it and assembled my cakes, being thankful of the apple filling which did wonders to hide the dip in one of the cakes. I filled and iced the cake with the caramel frosting and amazingly, considering the disaster that occurred, I don’t think it turned out too badly. As it had such an autumnal feel to it, I gathered some russet autumn leaves from the garden to scatter around the plate. Whew.

The cake itself was very pleasant, light and moist with a subtle caramel flavour which went wonderfully with the spiced apple. It tasted even better the second day once the apple juices had been absorbed into the cake. However, I found the frosting to be far too sweet. I think next time I would use a different one as all I could taste was sugar. I enjoyed making this cake despite its rather eventful baking session, afterall, life would be dull without a little excitement (although I could have done without having to scrub the oven!) Click here to see what my fellow Cake Slice bakers thought.

Burnt Sugar Cake
(Recipe from Southern Cakes by Nancie McDermott)
For the Cake
360g plain flour
1 tbsp baking powder
½ tsp salt
1 tsp vanilla extract
225ml milk
200g butter
370g caster sugar (I used 300g)
4 eggs
110ml Burnt Sugar Syrup (below)

For the Burnt Sugar Syrup
225g caster sugar
225ml boiling water

For the Burnt Sugar Frosting
375g icing sugar
110ml Burnt Sugar Syrup (above)
50g butter
½ tsp vanilla extract
2 – 3 tbsp evaporated milk or normal milk

For the Apple Filling (my own addition)
1 Bramley apple
20g butter
1 tbsp caster sugar
½ tsp cinnamon

Method – Burnt Sugar Syrup
Heat the sugar in a cast iron skillet or another heavy bottomed pan with high sides. Heat over a medium-low heat, stirring occasionally, until the sugar melts into a clear brown caramel syrup. It should be the colour of tea. Gradually add the boiling water, pouring it down the sides of the pan so that if the syrup foams and bubbles up, you should be protected.
Continue cooking, stirring often, until the water combines with the syrup and turns a handsome brown syrup. Remove from the heat and set aside to cool. Store the cooled syrup in a sealed jar if not using straight away.

Method - Cake
Heat the oven to 180C. Grease and flour two 9 inch round cake pans.
In a medium bowl, combine the flour, baking powder and salt and stir with a fork to mix well. Stir the vanilla into the milk.
In a large bowl, beat the butter and the sugar with an electric mixer at high speed for 2 – 3 minutes, until they are well combined. Stop now and then to scrape the bowl down. Add the eggs, one by one, beating well each time. Pour in 110ml of the burnt sugar syrup and beat well. Add a third of the flour mixture and about half of the milk, beating at a low speed, until just incorporated. Mix in another third of the flour and the rest of the milk. Finally, add the remaining flour.
Divide the batter between the cake pans and bake at 180C for 20 to 25 minutes until the cakes are golden brown, spring back when touched gently in the centre and begin to pull away from the sides of the pan. Let the cakes cool in the pans on a wire rack for15 minutes. Turn out the cakes into the wire rack to cool completely.

Method – Burnt Sugar Frosting
In a large bowl, combine the icing sugar, the burnt sugar syrup, butter and vanilla. Beat with a mixer at medium speed for 2 to 3 minutes, scraping down the bowl now and then to bring the ingredients together. Add 2 tablespoons of the milk and continue beating until the frosting is thick, soft, smooth and easy to spread. Add a little more sugar if it is thin, and a little more milk if it is too thick.

Method – Spiced Apple Filling
Mix the sugar and cinnamon together in a small bowl. Peel, quarter and core the Bramley apple and cut into ½ cm slices. Melt the butter in a large frying pan and add the apple slices. Cook for 1-2 minutes until just beginning to soften. Carefully turn over onto the uncooked side and scatter over the cinnamon sugar. Cook for 1 minute more before removing from the heat and leaving the apple to cool in the pan before using.

To Assemble
Place one layer, top side down, on a cake stand or serving plate. Scoop a third of the frosting onto the cake and spread to the edges. Gently arrange the cooked apple slices evenly over the top cover with the second cake layer. Frost the sides of the cake, and then the top until it is evenly covered.
Makes one 9 inch round cake

Spiced Sweet Potato Cake (Version 2)

This is my second attempt at a sweet potato cake. As you can see it looks drastically different to version 1.

The first thing you will notice is that it looks a lot bigger, more of a loaf shape. This is because I used slightly more mixture and baked in into one large cake rather than two smaller ones. I also ensured it really was fully cooked this time, meaning it rose beautifully and stayed that way! If you compare it side by side with version 1, you might think that I have burnt it, but rest assured its not burnt, I replaced some of the sugar with brown sugar in the hope of giving it a caramel overtone and this made the batter much darker, as you can see from the inside crumb.

The cake also contained oil rather than butter and I threw caution to the wind and mixed most of the ingredients together in one go, cutting down some of the process stages. This worked well and didn’t seem to have any negative effects on the cake. I loved the orange and spice mix from version 1 so much that I transferred those over into this cake as well.

The finished cake rose well and was light in texture. The crumb was soft and moist thanks to the oil and sweet potato and it had a very nice, faintly orangey flavour with caramel overtones. However, I think some of the magic of the orange, spices and sweetness from the sweet potato was lost by adding the brown sugar, as they were not as pronounced as in the first version. The lovely golden orange colour was also lost, which was a shame as I consider its sunny colour one of the most pleasing aspects of baking with sweet potato. This does not however prevent it from being a delicious and tasty cake and if I was not doing a comparison I would probably not find fault with it, so don’t let my judgements stop you from giving it a go.

I now had two different sweet potato cakes to try out on my friend. I told her I had been experimenting with spice cakes and invited her round for a tasting. She happily ate slices of each while considering them. In the end she told me that while she liked both cakes she preferred the flavour of version 1, but the height and lightness of version 2 (same as me – hurrah!) When I told her what the mystery ingredient was she was surprised and said it didn’t taste like sweet potato. As she had already said she liked both cakes, she had to eat her words and grudgingly agreed that vegetables and squashes may in fact have a place in baking. So even thought I may need to create a sweet potato cake version 3 to get my ideal cake, at least I achieved what I set out to do which is to broaden my friends mind to the possibilities of baking ingredients.

I have got quite a lot of cake(s) left over and I’ve got an idea forming of what to do with them, I’ll let you know if it works!

Spiced Sweet Potato Cake (Version 2)
Ingredients
240g plain flour
1 tsp bicarbonate of soda
½ tsp baking powder
130g sweet potato, cooked and mashed
1 tsp vanilla extract
100ml sunflower oil
2 eggs
100g caster sugar
100g soft brown sugar
Zest of ½ orange
1 tsp cinnamon
½ ground nutmeg
¼ tsp ground cloves20g pecans

Method
Preheat oven to 170C. Lightly grease and flour a 450g/1lb loaf tin.
Prick the sweet potato with a fork and microwave on high for 9 minutes until soft. Cut open, scoop out the flesh and mash with a fork. Weigh out the correct amount and set aside.
In a bowl, sift together flour, bicarbonate of soda, baking powder, and spices and set aside.
Place the sweet potato puree, vegetable oil, eggs, vanilla, orange zest and sugars into a large bowl and beat until well combined.Add flour mixture mix until just combined, a few small lumps are fine.
Spread the batter evenly into the loaf tin. Roughly chops the pecans and scatter over the surface of the batter.
Bake for 50 to 60 minutes until well risen and golden. A skewer inserted into centre of the loaf comes out clean. Cover the top quickly with foil after 45 minutes if you think it is browning too quickly.Cool the cake in the tin for 10 minutes before turning out onto a wire rack to cool completely.
Makes 1 loaf cake

Sweet Potato, Orange & Pecan Spice Cake (Version 1)

I was talking to a friend recently about the use of vegetables and squashes in cakes after we both watched a food programme that featured a chocolate beetroot cake. My friend was quite horrified by the use of beetroot and even more so when I told her that almost any vegetable could be used as a cake ingredient. She refused to believe that adding any vegetable would taste good in a cake, despite my protests that she already knew and liked carrot cake. I was determined to prove her wrong and surprise her with a piece of cake that contained a secret vegetable ingredient, but which one to choose? I thought it over and in the end settled on a sweet potato. They are not strictly a vegetable but neither are they a common cake ingredient and I thought their sweet flavour would be a good starting point. Now all that was left was to find the right recipe to bake with it.

After much hunting I decided to adapt a recipe for pumpkin cake that I found on Culinary Concoctions by Peabody blog. I also fiddled around with the quantities and added orange zest and spices which I thought would complement the sweet potato.

Everything went well and the resulting cake was very good. It was moist and a lovely golden yellow colour thanks to the sweet potato. The mix of orange and spices tasted fantastic and gave it a very autumnal feel. The chopped pecans added a nice crunch and they had got nice and toasty during baking. It rose well during baking but sank slightly as it cooled down with the result that the base was a little denser then I would have liked (I think 5 mins more would have been ideal – I’ve amended the recipe). All my family loved this cake, and it’s one I would certainly make again, but I wanted to experiment further, so I’m calling this sweet potato cake version 1, with version 2 to follow.

Sweet Potato, Orange & Pecan Spice Cake (Version 1)
Ingredients
1 small or ½ large sweet potato (130g cooked flesh)
180g plain flour
2 tsp baking powder
1 tsp cinnamon
½ tsp nutmeg
¼ tsp cloves
2 eggs, separated
150g and a separate 30g caster sugar
60g butter
1 tsp vanilla
140ml milk
Zest of ½ orange
40g pecans for decoration

Method
Preheat the oven temperature to 180C. Grease and line two small loaf tins.
Prick the sweet potato and microwave on high for 9 minutes.
When the sweet potato is cooked, scoop out the flesh and mash until smooth. Measure out 130g of potato puree and set aside.
Sift the flour, baking powder, cinnamon, nutmeg, and ground cloves. Set aside.
In a clean bowl, beat the egg whites until they form soft peaks. Gradually beat in the 30g of sugar and continue to whisk until the egg whites are fairly stiff.
In another bowl combine the sweet potato, butter, vanilla, orange zest and remaining 150g sugar. Beat until light and fluffy. Add the egg yolks one at a time, making sure to scrape the sides of the bowl after each egg yolk is added.
Add a third of the flour mix, followed by half the milk. Repeat with more flour, milk and ending with the last of the flour.
Using a spatula, fold in a third of the egg whites into the batter to lighten it. Carefully fold in the remaining egg whites until no streaks remain, but do not over mix and deflate the batter.
Spread the batter between the loaf tins. Roughly chop the pecans and scatter over the surface. Bake for 40 minutes or until a cake tester comes out clean. Let the cakes cool in the tins for 10 minutes before turning out onto a wire rack and leaving to cool completely.
Makes two small loaves.
Note: I think this mixture would also fit into one deep 450g/1lb loaf tin and would probably need around 50-60 minutes cooking time.

Bite Size Fruitcakes & Chocolate Truffle Squares for Afternoon Tea

As promised, here are the recipes for the other sweet treats I made for the afternoon tea party I had recently to accompany the macarons I made for this months Daring Bakers challenge. There was a selected of savoury sandwiches (including cucumber sandwiches with the crusts removed!), along with some of my favourite buttermilk scones served with clotted cream, jam and fruit, some bite size fruitcakes topped with marzipan flowers and some honeyed chocolate truffles served on tuile biscuit squares.

It made quite a spread and when rounded off with cups of freshly made tea and enjoyed in the company of friends and family it made for a most enjoyable afternoon. I do think it’s a shame that the tradition of afternoon tea has almost disappeared from our daily lives, but I for one vow to try and enjoy them at every possible occasion.

Bite Size Fruitcakes
You can’t have a traditional afternoon tea without the presence of fruitcake. As I was aiming for elegant food, I decided to experiment with baking the fruitcake mix in cannelé moulds in order to make them bite size. This worked a treat and when topped with a little marzipan flower I think they turned out rather dainty. You could eat a couple while still leaving room to sample other things and baking them individually meant they cooked very evenly and stayed wonderfully moist.

This is a scaled down version of my favourite fruitcake recipe. However, don’t feel you have to stick to it religiously. If you run out of one or more of the fruits, dried cranberries, peaches, pears, prunes or dates also work well. If you don’t want to use brandy then you could use a spiced fruit tea or apple juice instead.

Bite Size Fruitcakes
Fruit Mix
60g raisins
60g sultanas
60g currants
25g dried apricots
35g glace cherries
Zest of ½ lemon
Zest of ½ orange
1 tbsp brandy

Cake Mix
75g plain flour
½ tsp mixed spice
15g ground almonds
55g soft brown sugar
55g butter
2 tsp black treacle
1 egg
Zest of ½ lemon
Fruit mix (above)

Method – Fruit Mix
Weight out the raisins, currants and sultanas into a bowl. Sort through the fruit a handful at a time, removing any stalks still attached to the fruit (these won’t be nice to crunch on).Cut the apricots and cherries into small pieces and same size as the raisins. Grate over the zest of the orange and lemon.Drizzle over the brandy, give everything a stir and then cover the bowl with clingfilm and leave for at least 4hours or preferably overnight to allow the fruit to absorb the brandy and plump up.

Cake Mix
Have two cannelé trays (around 35 moulds) ready to hand (you could also use mini muffin trays). Preheat the oven to 140C.Measure the lemon rind, flour, mixed spice, ground almonds, sugar, butter, treacle and egg into a very large bowl and mix together until smooth. (It will be quite stiff)Add the soaked fruits and mix everything together using a spatula, making sure the fruit is evenly distributed.Spoon the mixture into the cannelé moulds using a teaspoon. Fill almost to the top and press down gently to ensure no large air pockets remain trapped at the base.Bake for 25 to 30 minutes until the cakes are starting to come away from the sides of the pan and a small skewer inserted in the middle comes out clean.Allow the cake to cool in the moulds for 15 minutes before turning out onto a wire rack and leaving to cool.
Top with small marzipan flowers or discs if desired.
They keep well for a week in an airtight container. (They can be kept longer than this as fruitcake keeps for a long time but due to their small size they can start to dry out after a week).
Makes 35 bite size fruitcakes

Honeyed Chocolate Truffle Squares on Tuile Biscuits
I had to include something rich and chocolaty for the chocoholics in my family and these little truffle squares were ideal. You can flavour the chocolate truffle any way you wish but I decided to use a little blossom honey to add a floral note and a touch of sweetness. Adding a small amount of liqueur, the zest of an orange or some strong espresso would also be good. As the truffles were being served with the rest of the afternoon tea treats, I decided to make some small tuile squares on which to serve them. This made them easier to pick up and eat, as the truffles can turn slightly soft if they are left out for more than half an hour and I didn’t want people getting chocolate over their fingers – not ideal for an elegant tea party!

If you don’t want to make the tuile biscuits, dusting the truffle squares in cocoa powder will make them the perfect petit fours to serve with coffee after a dinner party.

Chocolate Truffles
100g dark chocolate (70% cocoa)
100ml double cream
1 level tbsp blossom/runny honey

Method
Heat the cream and honey in a small saucepan or microwave until hot, but do not allow to boil.
Break the chocolate into pieces and add to the cream. Stir gently until smooth.
Pour the mixture into a small 15cm square shallow tray or container, which has been fully lined with clingfilm.
Allow to cool to room temperature before refrigerating for 2 hours.
Once chilled, remove the chocolate truffle sheet from the tray with the help of the clingfilm. Use a long sharp knife to cut the truffle into 1cm squares. Clean your knife with a sheet of kitchen roll between each cut to get neat squares.
Chill the squares until required.
To assemble, place each truffle square on top of a tuile square and serve immediately.

Tuiles
(Recipe from the Daring Bakers January challenge)
Ingredients

30g softened butter

30g sifted icing sugar

½ tsp vanilla extract

1 egg white

33g plain flour

Method

Preheat the oven to 180C. Cream the butter, sugar and vanilla to a paste. Gradually add the egg white, white continuing to beat.
Add the flour, a teaspoon at a time until you get a smooth batter/paste. Cover the bowl with clingfilm and chill in the fridge for 15 minutes to firm up.
Line a baking sheet with parchment paper.
Cut out a small square from card to act as a stencil, making sure its about 1cm larger than your chocolate truffle squares. Place the stencil on the baking sheet and use an off sided spatula or small knife to spread over a thin layer of the paste before carefully removing the stencil. Leave some room in between your shapes.
Bake for about 4-5 minutes until crisp and golden. Watch them carefully as they can burn quite easily.
Meanwhile, prepare the next batch of tuile paste squares on a new piece of baking paper, ready to bake once the first batch is cooked (this saves time).
When the tuiles are baked, lift the baking paper off the baking sheet and replace with the next batch of tuile paste squares and bake as before.
Continue until you have enough squares.
They will keep for 3 days in an airtight container.

Good Things Come In Unexpected Packages

Today I received a wonderful surprise. When the postman knocked on the door and handed over a parcel that was addressed to me I was intrigued as I hadn’t ordered anything. I was even more intrigued when I saw it came from Mexico!

To my excitement, I soon discovered it was from the lovely Monica at Lick The Bowl Good. I had commented on her blog a few weeks back that I was unable to find proper American Candy Corn sweets and being the lovely person that she is, she sent me some, along with some other Halloween themed goodies for me to try! How thoughtful is that! I’m particularly excited by the caramel apple flavoured Candy Corns – how did she guess I loved all things apple-y?

Thank you so much Monica, I’m really touched. You’ve brightened my day.

Spook-tacular Pumpkin Cupcakes with Cream Cheese Frosting

Woooooooo! Happy Halloween. We don’t really celebrated Halloween here, not like they do in America, but after reading about all the Halloween themed treats that have been popping up on many blogs over the past week I was determined to join the party. Some ookey-spooky cupcakes seemed the way to go.

I am so happy about a recent discovery I made on Thursday…Waitrose stock canned pumpkin puree! YIPPEE! I have been hankering after this for years, having spent many months feeling envious of many delicious pumpkin inspired goodies baked by fellow bloggers from other countries. I have never found in sold here in the UK until now. Finally I can start making some pumpkin treats myself! I have tried making my own pumpkin puree and although successful enough, when you open that first can of pumpkin puree you can see it’s not in the same league. Just look how vibrantly orange it is – and it had such a lovely flavour too.

After finding a tasty sounding pumpkin cake recipe, I whipped up a batch of pumpkin cupcakes with much enjoyment. I baked them in Halloween themed cupcake cases I brought back from my recent trip to Chicago (I must have known they’d be needed). The batter was a lovely orangey brown colour and speckled with spices. They smelt absolutely amazing while they baked, a cross between carrot cake and Christmas cake, like hot caramel and spicy. Once baked, they were puffy with slightly domed tops and I had to resist the urge to eat one straight away but I knew they would be even tastier once frosted.

To give them a Halloween theme I cut some spooky faces out of some rounds of orange fondant which I lightly scored to make them look like pumpkins. It was rather fun. I found depending on how you cut out the eyes they could either end up looking cute, spooky or downright evil!

I let the fondant dry a bit before propping them up on top of the frosting before turning the lights out and shining a torch behind them. Ooooo spooky. On a recent outing I also found a small shop in Milton Keynes that sold American foods, including some candy corns – another thing I have been longing to try, so of course they had to make an appearance too.

The cupcakes were divine! They didn’t taste of pumpkin, but they were incredibly light, moist and airy and I’m sure that it’s thanks to the pumpkin. They had a wonderful spiciness and the sweet, creamy cream cheese frosting was the perfect accompaniment. In fact I would go as far as to say they were spook-tacular!

Spook-tacular Pumpkin Cupcakes with Cream Cheese Frosting
(Recipe adapted from Furey and The Feast blog)
Pumpkin Cupcakes
270g plain flour
1 tsp baking powder
1 tsp bicarbonate of baking soda
1 tsp ground cinnamon
1 tsp grated nutmeg
1 tsp ground ginger
¼ tsp ground cloves
250g light brown sugar
4 eggs
225ml vegetable oil
425g pumpkin puree (1 standard can)
2 tbsp yoghurt
1 tsp vanilla extract
½ lemon, zest only

Cream Cheese Frosting
200g cream cheese
150g unsalted butter
15g soft brown sugar
1 tsp vanilla extract
500g icing sugar

Method – Cream Cheese Frosting

Start by making the frosting. Make sure you butter is soft. Beat the together with the cream cheese, vanilla and brown sugar until well combined.
Sift the icing sugar into a large bowl to ensure it is lump free. Then add it gradually into the cream cheese mixture, about 2-3 tablespoons at a time. Mix with a spatula, as electric mixers will make the icing fly everywhere. Once all the icing sugar has been incorporated, beat with an electric mixer to ensure its smooth.
Cover the bowl with cling film and place in the fridge until required.

For the Pumpkin Cupcakes
Preheat the oven to 180C and line two 12 holed muffin tins (24 total) with cupcake cases.Sift the flour, baking powder, bicarbonate of soda, cinnamon, nutmeg, ginger and cloves into a bowl and set aside.In another bowl, beat together the brown sugar and eggs. Add the vegetable oil, pumpkin puree, yoghurt, vanilla and the lemon zest. Whisk together until well combined.
Scatter half the spiced flour mixture over the top of the batter and fold in until combined. Fold in the remaining flour and whisk briefly to ensure everything is evenly mixed.
Divide the batter between the 24 muffin cases. I find using an old fashioned ice cream scoop works perfectly, but a large tablespoon would work just as well. Fill until three-quarters full.
Bake in the oven for 25 minutes. They should be puffy, slightly domed on top and springy to the touch when ready.
Allow to cool in the tins for 10 minutes before transferring to a rack to cool.

Fondant Pumpkins
Knead the fondant lightly to soften it up. Add small amounts of red and yellow food dye and work into the fondant until you have an orange colour you are happy with.
Lightly dust a work surface with icing sugar and roll out the fondant until 2mm thick.
Stamp out rounds of fondant and then cut out small slits for eyes. Cut a small zig-zag line for the mouth and gently pull the bottom on the fondant to enlarge it into a mouth.
Place the spooky pumpkins on a rack and leave to air dry.

To Assemble
Remove the cream cheese frosting from the fridge and beat lightly to soften. Pipe or spread the frosting onto the top of the cooled cupcakes.
Decorate the tops of the cupcakes with the fondant pumpkins or other sweets. (I used a candy corn sweet to prop the fondant pumpkins up).
Eat and enjoy!
Makes 24 cupcakes

Daring Bakers October 09 Challenge: Macarons

The 2009 October Daring Bakers’ challenge was brought to us by Ami S. She chose macarons from Claudia Fleming’s The Last Course: The Desserts of Gramercy Tavern as the challenge recipe.

There are two distinct types of macaroon/macaron. Usually the term “macaroon” refers to a chewy cookie made of coconut and egg white, often on a base of rice paper, but French “macarons” are either ground almonds or almond paste, combined with sugar and egg whites and are sandwiched together after baking. The filling usually consists of ganache, buttercream or jam. The flavour combinations are almost endless and for our challenge we were allowed to make them any flavour we wished.

Until this challenge I had never made macarons before. They had been on my ‘to bake’ list for many months but I had always put off doing them as I felt daunted by how elegeant and dainty they were and had heard they were difficult to make. So it was with nervous excitement that I set about this challenge.

Macaroon making is a little time consuming but not actually as difficult as you may think. Although, to achieved picture perfect macarons does require a lot of skill and mine could certainly be improved upon. One thing you must do is have your egg whites at room temperature. This ensures they beat up properly, as the meringue base texture is an integral component to macarons.

As this was my first time making macarons I decided to keep things fairly simple. I made the a basic vanilla macaron mixture which I then decorated and filled in two different ways to create two different flavours of macaron. I topped half the batch with some freeze dried raspberry pieces and filling them with raspberry jam and the other half I filled with chocolate ganache and topped with a dusting of cocoa powder. I’ll let you in on a secret – you can buy freeze dried raspberries but they are quite expensive, but they often come as part of a berry mix in some types of breakfast cereal – just fish them out and save yourself some pennies!

Everything was going well until I tried to remove the macarons from the paper. They had stuck fast and the thin sugar shells were so delicate that they shattered when I tried to ease them off. In a panic I sourced the internet for help and found some very helpful advice from Tartlette (who makes the most amazing looking macarons!). She suggested dampening the base of the paper in a little water, which would dissolve just enough of the sugar crystals to allow you to remove the macaron safety from the paper. This worked a treat and I’m so greatful to Tartlette for her advice. Just don’t leave them on the damp paper for longer than about 5 seconds or else the macarons will start to go soggy.

I was really quite proud of my little macarons. They look so dainty and elegant that I decided to host an afternoon tea party with my family and grandparents, complete with scones, finger sandwiches and a tier or miniature cakes, in order to show them off (recipes to follow). They had a thin delicate sugar shell with a moist, slightly chewy almond middle. I found the raspberry one a little sweet for my tastes, but I loved the chocolate one. The bitter dark chocolate was the perfect partner to the sweet crisp macaron.

Thanks Ami S for such an elegant challenge. Click to see other Daring Bakers macarons.

Macarons – vanilla & raspberry and chocolate & vanilla macaron varieties
(Recipe by Claudia Fleming from The Last Course: The Desserts of Gramercy Tavern)
Ingredients

225g icing sugar

190g ground almonds

25g granulated sugar

5 egg whites (must be at room temperature)
(I added 1 tsp vanilla extract)

Method
Preheat the oven to 93C. Combine the icing sugar and ground almonds in a medium bowl. (If grinding your own nuts, combine nuts and a half the icing sugar in the bowl of a food processor and grind until nuts are very fine and powdery).Beat the egg whites in the clean dry bowl of a stand mixer until they hold soft peaks. Slowly add the granulated sugar and beat until the mixture holds stiff peaks.Sift a third of the almond mixture into the meringue and fold gently to combine. If you are planning on adding zest or other flavorings to the batter, now is the time. Sift in the remaining almond mix in two batches. Be gentle! Don’t overfold, but fully incorporate your ingredients.Spoon the mixture into a pastry bag fitted with a plain half-inch tip (Ateco #806). You can also use a Ziploc bag with a corner cut off. Pipe 1inch/2.5cm sized mounds of batter onto baking sheets lined with nonstick liners or parchment paper.Bake the macaron for 5 minutes. Remove the pan from the oven and raise the temperature to 190C. Once the oven is up to temperature, put the pans back in the oven and bake for an additional 7 to 8 minutes, or lightly coloured.Cool on a rack before carefully peeling off the paper and sandwiching together with your choice of filling. (If they appear stuck to the paper, don’t pull them. Cut around the macarons and brush the underside of the paper with a little water. Leave for 5 seconds for the paper to go damp before easily peeling off the paper. Don’t leave too long or your macarons will go soggy).
Makes 25-35 macarons depending on size.

I made all vanilla macaron shells but made two differently flavoured macarons from them. I topped half the batch with some freeze dried raspberry pieces and filling them with raspberry jam and the other half I filled with chocolate ganache and topped with a dusting of cocoa powder.

Swirled Pumpkin & Chocolate Self Saucing Pudding

Autumn has well and truly arrived. The leaves have turned wonderful shades of russet red and golden amber, the daylight in dwindling and there is a distinct chill in the air. Autumn also marks the start of some of my favourite foods – squashes and root vegetables. Probably the most famous squash around this time is the pumpkin. When you say ‘pumpkin’ most people instantly think of the large orange pumpkins that are sold in supermarkets and destined to be turned into jack-o-lanterns for Halloween. However, there is an almost numerous variety of pumpkins and squashes available, in a whole assortment of weird and wonderful shapes and colours so do try and hunt out some different ones.

Thanks to my obsession with food, when I recently heard the word ‘pumpkin’ I instantly thought of all the tasty baked pumpkin goodies I have recently seen appearing on blogs worldwide. One of the most popular choices this year seems to be pumpkin swirl chocolate brownies, as presented here by Liz, Joe and Esi. I decided it was high time I experimented with a sweet baked pumpkin treat myself (something which is not that common here in the UK) and loved the idea of combining it with chocolate. I have had a chocolate self saucing pudding recipe on my ‘to bake’ list for some time and decided to try and incorporate the two. This gooey looking pudding is the result!

I made my own pumpkin puree by cutting a pumpkin into chunks and then steaming it until tender and mashing it with a potato masher. This particular self saucing pudding is a little different to others I have tried, as it doesn’t contain any butter, only a little oil and no egg in the chocolate batter, so along with the added pumpkin puree you don’t need to feel too guilty eating it – just don’t look too closely at the sugar content. I added spices and a little cayenne to the pumpkin batter which added to the overall flavour but was not an obvious flavour. You mix the two batters separately and then swirl them together. I love how striking the two contrasting colours were, it was almost a shame to cover the surface with the sauce ingredients and flood it with water, but the resulting glossy chocolaty sauce was worth it.

Most self saucing puddings result in the sauce seeping to the bottom of the dish with the cakey batter on top. This did happen with my pudding but not all the sauce made it to the bottom. I think this was probably because the pumpkin made my batter heavier than a standard batter, resulting in a quirky bumpy pudding with pools of glossy sauce still flooding the surface, not quite what I planned but no less delicious.

I was thrilled when I took my first spoonful of the pudding to find the pudding underneath still nicely marbled pumpkin and chocolate and surrounded by plenty of the thick glossy chocolate sauce. This is not a light and fluffy pudding but if you like sticky, fudgy, stick-to-your-ribs type puddings then this is the one for you! Its definitely a comfort food and best eaten straight away, as the pudding starts to soak up the sauce if left until cold. This makes it go rather stodgy, but still oddly comforting. Some sauce does reappear if gently heated in the microwave. So although not one of the prettiest puddings I’ve made, it was certainly very tasty.

On a different note, you will notice that from now on I will be adding a watermark to my photos. This is because the lovely Elise from Simply Recipes alerted me to the fact that there is some guy completely ripping off/plagiarising my blog posts, blurb, recipes, photos, the lot!! I hope that he will cease to use my work once the photos come with a watermark – this is not ideal but I hope it will stop him! He’s doing it to other people too so be vigilant and look out for your friends!

Swirled Pumpkin & Chocolate Self Saucing Pudding
For the pumpkin batter
120g self raising flour
¼ tsp cayenne or chilli powder
1 egg
1 tsp vanilla extract
250g mashed cooked pumpkin
1 tsp mixed spice
½ tsp cinnamon

For the chocolate batter
150g self raising flour
25g cocoa powder
100g caster sugar
160ml milk
1 tbsp neutral oil

For the sauce
70g light soft brown sugar
20g cocoa powder
1 tbsp cornflour
400ml boiling water

Method
Preheat the oven to 180C and have a deep 9inch/23cm baking dish to hand.
To make the pumpkin batter simple add all the ingredients into a medium bowl and beat everything together, using an electric mixer, until all the ingredients are fully incorporated.
In another clean bowl, add all the ingredients for the chocolate batter and beat until smooth. (Both batters will be quite soft).
Spoon large dollops of the pumpkin and chocolate batters into the baking dish, alternating each variety with every spoonful. Use a skewer or small knife to swirl the batters together to create a marbled effect.
To make the sauce, mix the brown sugar, cornflour and cocoa powder together in a small bowl. Scatter the sugar-cocoa mixture evenly over the surface of the pudding batter.
Boil the kettle and pour the 400ml of boiling water over the surface of the sugar-cocoa mix.
Carefully transfer the dish to the oven and bake for 35-40 minutes. The batter should start to rise up above the surface of the liquid as it thickens and seeps below to form a sauce. The batter protruding from the sauce should feel firm and springy to the touch when ready. (Some of the sauce will remain on the surface)
Remove from the oven and allow to cool for 10-15 minutes before serving.
Best eaten straight away, as the pudding absorbs most of the sauce if left until cold. (This makes it go rather stodgy, but oddly comforting.)
Serves 8