Change of blog

I have moved to a blog that merges this and my other blog.
http://suburban-kitchen-allotment.blogspot.co.uk/

Icing, frosting and decorating.

I'm not sure why we say icing and in America it is known as frosting but I suppose they both herald back to comparing the look of this sweet cake topping being like ice or frost. I like to use both, frosting seems to fit cupcakes better than icing; icing tends to conjure up images of cupcakes dipped in water icing and royal icing making stiff peaks for that classic snow scene christmas cake decoration. On that note I have decorated my Christmas cake. I know it's almost a whole month late but the great thing about fruit cake is how it lasts for a long time, especially if it's been fed with brandy; which acts to preserve it.

Icing
Here's how to ice and marzipan a fruit cake.

Turn the cake so it is resting on its top. The base of the cake makes a great flat surface for icing on.

Roll out two thirds of the marzipan into a long strip that is about half a cm thick. Use icing sugar to stop it from sticking to the rolling pin.

Cover the cake with apricot glaze/jam which serves to glue the marzipan to the cake. By the way I just use shop bought marzipan though you could make your own if you wanted to.

Roll the cake along the marzipan and seal it at the join.

Trim off the excess to allow for the top to be rolled out and put on. 

This is the completed marzipanned cake. 

I make my royal icing by mixing 2 egg whites and then sifting in icing sugar until the icing is the required consistency. It needs to be thick, but not too thick that you can't spread it. At that point add about a tablespoon of glucose syrup, this magic ingredient stops the icing becoming like rock and braking your teeth when you eat it.

Egg whites.

Sifted icing sugar.

Mix mix mix

Add the glucose syrup.

Spread it over the cake and with the back of a spoon make it spiky. Adorn with your favourite christmas cake ornament and enjoy your belated christmas cake!

Frosting

Having made some very tasty cupcakes and muffins in the past the perfectly iced/frosted cupcake has alluded me. I have explored piping and spreading frosting on and my attempts have failed to impress.

These red velvet cupcakes did taste very good, but they looked like a child had decorated them. So with that in mind my friend and I enrolled on a 2 hour piping course held by the Cookie Girl. We managed to get a very cheap deal for the course and were excited when the day eventually came around.

On offer were a variety of frosting colours, piping nozzles and also decorating bits and bobs. First we were shown how to fit the nozzle and fill the bag, a disposable plastic piping bag, not the most eco-friendly way to do this I know, but a much easier way. 

We were shown a variety of piping techniques, the rose, iced gem, shell amongst others. 

The iced gem style. Do blobs with a classic 'mr whippy' piping nozzle and space them apart from each other then fill in the gaps on your second go around.

The classic swirl. Start on the outside of the cake, overlapping the casing a little and swirl around to the middle.

The shell, do two half moon swirls, that look like a letter C and then finish with an iced gem in the space left over. I added the silver balls to cover up a mistake I had made but the effect was really good in the end.

This is one of my friends cakes, demonstrating a good two tone swirl. 

This is the rose, you start in the middle and swirl the frosting to the outer edge, trying to keep the level of it the same as you go. 

We had a great time (though I wasn't too keen on the apron) and got to take home 8 cakes in total. 4 practice ones and 4 decent ones. Thanks to Siobhan for organising!

Next time, sourdough bread.

Happy New Year

And a very merry festive season to you all, it's been a while since I last posted and I have only one thing to blame for that, Oliver! I was playing the part of Mr Sowerberry in a local production of Oliver! and it pretty much took over all my free time in November and December so that is why I've been absent. Anyway I'm back now and with a whole slew of photo's and two recipes to share. Less of the alchemaic this round though as I've been following tried and tested recipes for the Christmas.

Great Grandad Bellamy's Christmas Cake.


Every year around the start of November I make this cake from a recipe that has been used in my family for years. It's a rich fruit cake which is fed with brandy for about a month, then covered in marzipan and royal icing (I don't use the plastic that is ready roll icing).

Ingredients

• 1/2lb of unsalted butter
• 1/2lb of soft brown sugar
• 4 eggs
• 10oz plain flour (all-purpose)
• 1/2 tsp mixed spice
• 1/2 tsp baking powder
• 1/2 tsp nutmeg
• 2oz dried cherries (or glace, but wash them first so the syrup isn't in them so much as this causes them to sink)
• 1/4lb currants
• 1/2 sultanas
• 1/4lb chopped candied peel
• 1/2lb raisins
• 1/4lb chopped almonds

Method
Line an 8" round loose bottomed cake tin with double thickness of greaseproof paper.
To do this roll the tin along the paper to measure its circumference and the take out the bottom and draw around it to get a piece to line the base. You want two pieces of paper for the sides and bottom.

Cut some slits along the bottom which will help it fit into the tin like below.

Pop the disc for the base on top then repeat with the second side layer and second base layer.

Make sure it extends over the top of the tin.

When the tin is prepared set it to one side ready for the cake batter.

Beat the butter and sugar to a soft cream and then add the eggs one at a time beating well after each one.

It really does help to have a free standing mixer especially when cream butter and sugar together.

Add half of the fruit next, followed by half the dry ingredients (that have been sifted together), then the remaining fruit and finally the remaining dried ingredients. Spoon the batter into the tin and smooth off the top with the back of a spoon.

Bake in the over at 300F for one hour and then turn down to 275F for 2 to 2.5 hours, if the top looks like it's browning cover it with some baking parchment. 

When its cooked, let it cool in the tin and the the next day turn the cake upside down and prick the bottom several times. Spoon over 4 tablespoons of brandy and store upside down in the tin until ready to ice.

When I have decorated my cake I'll upload a photo of it. 

Chocolate Mint Thumbprints

This recipe comes from the book 'Baked Explorations: Classic American Deserts Reinvented'.

Ingredients

For the thumbprints

2oz of plain chocolate, about 60-72% cocoa solids.

2oz of mint chocolate

1.5 cups of plain flour

1/2 cup of unsweetened cocoa powder

3/4 tsp salt

1 cup (2 sticks) unsalted butter cut into cubes and at room temp.

2 tbsp of dark brown sugar (muscavado)

1/3 cup granulated sugar

2 large egg yolks

vanilla essence

coarse sugar for rolling

For the white chocolate filling

3oz white chocolate

2 tbsp heavy cream (double cream in the UK)

1/2 tsp peppermint extract

Method

Melt the dark chocolate and mint chocolate either in the microwave or a double boiler, stir until smooth and combined and set to one side. Sift all the dry ingredients together a separate bowl.

Beat the butter until creamy add the granulated and brown sugar and continue to beat until light and fluffy, about 3 minutes. Add the egg yolks and vanilla and beat again. Then add the chocolate and mix well finally add all of the flour. Beat until the dough comes together and then remove it from the bowl, wrap it in cling film and pop it into the fridge for at least 30 minutes.

Preheat the oven to 180C, line two baking sheets, put the coarse sugar into a bowl and break off tablespoons of the dough, roll them in the sugar and put them onto the sheet. Press the slightly and then using the end of a wooden spoon make a dent in the middle of them. 

Bake for 10 minutes and then take out of the oven, re-dent them and pop them back into the oven for a remaining 5 minutes. Remove them from the oven if they start to crack.

 Cool the completely before filling them.

For the filling, put the cream into a microwave proof bowl (a jug would be best), and heat on full power for about 30 seconds. Remove and stir in the chocolate until it is melted. Add the peppermint extract and stir until all is combined.

spoon this or pour it, into the indents of each biscuit and then cool them in the fridge until set. 

Simple and delicious, in the words of Ina Garten, 'how easy is that?'

Vegetables in baking

Vegetables are undergoing a bit of a fashion revival at the moment I feel, teaching 5 year olds I was amazed when we did our topic on healthy eating and they came up with a whole multitude of veg that they enjoy. Exposure to more unusual veg through farmers markets and organic box schemes like Riverford and Abel and Cole have helped this somewhat. Even my personal food hero Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall is championing the eating of more vegetables in our meals. 

In fact watching River Cottage Veg Everyday has got me to thinking about how I can use more veg in my baking. I tend to bake only sweet things so it is really is an area of alchemy ripe to explore. 

I'm tempted to try this recipe avocado chocolate tart, it seems really easy and looks delicious. I can totally see how avocado would make a smooth and creamy chocolate ganache. No cooking involved either and no dairy or gluten too! Apart from the walnuts in the base it's quite a good dish for intolerances. I may suggest making it instead of the chocolate truffle torte I usually make at Christmas.

I have a feeling my upcoming allotment will feature heavily in an increase of eating vegetables in my diet after xmas. I can feel a second blog coming on too perhaps...

Recipe

Courgette cake

recipe from hummingbird bakery cake days

This couldn't be simpler, in fact there's not even any butter in it so there's no fussy creaming to do. 

In the bowl of an electric mixer, with the paddle attachment (or in a bowl with an electric hand whisk)  mix together 3 large eggs, 300ml of sunflower oil, 1/2 tsp of vanilla essence and 300g of soft brown sugar. Beat until well combined. In another bowl, sift together 300g of plain (allpurpose) flour, 1tsp bicarb, 1tsp baking powder, 2tsp ground cinnamon, 1/2 tsp ground ginger, 1/2 tsp of ground nutmeg. Add this to the oil and egg mix slowly and in two batches. Then when it's all mixed in, add 300g of courgettes peeld and grated and 100g walnuts chopped. 

Divide the mix evenly between three 7inch sandwich tins that have been lined with baking parchment. Bake in an oven at 180C for 30 -35 minutes or until the cakes have slightly come away from the sides of the tin and when you touch it lightly it springs back. 

Remove from the oven and allow to cool in the tines slightly (this makes the cakes easier to remove) then cool completely on a wire wrack.

Assemble your cake using a good cream cheese frosting, putting a couple of table spoons between each layer 

Then frost the sides and the top, smoothing out with a palette knife. 

A dusting of cinnamon at the end is optional, as was the purple edible glitter that my flatmate added afterwards. This was for a birthday cake for my flatmate's mum and it went down a real treat, considering that the idea wasn't one that was intially taken wholeheartedly. 

I do recommend you try it out!

What vegetables have you used in sweet baking and how did you use them?

That's all from me for today, a shorter post I know but next time will be more xmas baking!