Entry tags:

baking, recipe

Well, it would seem they were right for a change. This morning it was -18°C outside, now it's -5°C. Looking at the temperature curve on FMI, it looks like it rose about 10 degrees in one hour, and then slowed down a bit.

Birthday cake:

Ingredients

Cake:

• 4 eggs


• 3 dl sugar


• 1½ dl potato flour


• 2 teaspoons baking powder

Mix eggs and sugar until white and fluffy. Mix together the flours and baking powder, sift and mix carefully into the egg mixture. Pour into a greased and floured cake tin. Bake at 175°C until it tests done (stick comes out dry). You might have to cover the top with a piece of baking parchment or something for the last part of the baking to stop it burning. Let cool a few minutes in the tin and then turn out to cool completely. Cut the cooled cake in three and moisten each layer lightly (with fruit juice or such), and fill with whatever filling you like.

Raspberry filling:

• 6 gelatine leaves (or equivalent in gelatine powder/crystals)


• 4 eggs


• 4-5 tablespoons icing sugar


• 250g raspberry puree (just press raspberries through a sieve/strainer, removing the seeds)


• 1¼ dl whipping cream

Soak the gelatine in cold water. Separate the eggs. Whip the egg yolks with the icing sugar until thick, fluffy and almost white. Add the puree. Melt the gelatine in a little boiling water. Add a little of the filling to the gelatine first, before pouring it into the filling, mixing the whole time. Put the mixture somewhere cold to set a little. Whip cream and add it to the mixture, and do the same with the egg whites. Fill the cake, and coat the whole cake with more whipped cream, decorate as you like.

---

Chocolate oatmeal balls:

Recipe

• 100 g butter


• 2 tablespoons cocoa powder


• 1 tablespoon cold coffee (or water)


• 4 tablespoons sugar


• 2½ dl oatmeal


• (pearl) sugar for coating

Mix all the ingredients together by hand, roll into balls and roll in (pearl) sugar to coat the balls.

---

Chocolate caramel squares:

Ingredients
Base:

• 225g (8oz) margarine


• 115g (4oz) caster sugar


• 285g (10oz) plain flour

Rub margarine into flour and sugar. Press into tray. Bake at 175°C (350°F) for about 20 mins, until golden brown, and leave to cool. Under cook rather than over bake.

Caramel:

• 225g (8oz) margarine


• 1 tin (397g/14oz) sweetened condensed milk


• 225g (8oz) sugar


• 4 tablespoons golden syrup

Bring all ingredients to boil. Boil for 5-7 mins stirring all the time. Cool a little and pour over base. Leave until cold.

Melt about 200g (7oz) chocolate and spread on top. Allow to set before cutting.

---

Chocolate Maltesers cupcakes:

I started out making the chocolate malteser cake from Nigella Lawson's book "Feast", but decided that cupcakes would work better, so I just tweaked the recipe a little. It turned out better than I thought, although they could have been maltier, possibly the problem was that I only had instant Horlics available.

Ingredients
Cupcakes:

• 150g soft brown sugar


• 100g caster sugar


• 3 eggs


• 175ml milk


• 150g unsalted butter


• 2 tablespoons Horlicks powder


• 175g plain flour


• 3 tablespoons potato flour


• 25g cocoa powder


• 1 teaspoon baking powder


• ½ teaspoon bicarbonate of soda

Whisk together the sugars and eggs until light and frothy. Heat the milk, butter and Horlicks powder in a small saucepan until the butter has melted and the mixture is hot but not boiling. Beat the milk mixture into the eggs a little at a time. Mix the dry ingredients together and sieve them into the mixture mixing carefully but thoroughly. Spoon the batter into baking cups filling them no more than ¾ full. Bake at 170°C (not sure about the time, I think it was about 20 mins, but test to be sure). Let cool.

Icing and decoration:

• 250g icing sugar


• 1 teaspoon cocoa powder


• 45g Horlicks


• 125g soft unsalted butter


• 2 tablespoons boiling water


• Maltesers for decoration

Mix together the icing sugar, cocoa and Horlicks carefully. Add the butter and mix again. Pour the boiling water in mixing all the time until you have a smooth buttercream. Spread over the cupcakes and decorate with Maltesers.

---

Lemon meringue cupcakes:

This recipe is from "The Artful Cupcake".

Ingredients

Cupcakes:

• 1¾ cups sifted cake flour


• 2 teaspoons baking powder


• ¼ teaspoon salt


• ¾ cup milk


• 2 teaspoons lemon extract


• 1¼ cups sugar


• 4 oz (1 stick) unsalted butter, room temperature


• 3 egg whites

Resift the sifted flour with the baking powder and salt. Combine the milk and lemon extract. Cream the sugar and butter until fluffy. Alternating the flour mixtture with the milk mixture, blend half of one, then the other into the butter mixture. Mix well after each addition and repeat. Mix until well blended. In a separate bowl, beat the egg whites until stiff, but not dry. Fold them into the batter.

Pour the batter into the muffin pans, filling at least half way. Bake for 15-20 minutes, until the cakes test done.

Filling:

• 1 cup lemon curd

Once the cupcakes are cooled (if you used paper cups, like I did, then take them off first obviously), cut the top half off and spread about 1 tablespoon lemon curd on each cake, replace the top.

Fluffy white icing: (this is only enough for about half of the cupcakes, not sure if you can just double the recipe though, I think it would be okay though, if you have a big enough pan. I did it in two batches.)

• 2 egg whites


• 1 ½ cups sugar


• 1/3 cup water


• ¼ teaspoon cream of tartar

Combine all the ingredients in the top pan of a double-boiler or in a medium, heat-resistant mixing
bowl placed over a pan of boiling water. Keep the heat or flame low on the stove. (To create the
high peaks, you want to keep the terperature of the mixture consistently warm.)

Beat the mixture with the electric mixer on medium speed until it’s light and fluffy. Remove the bowl from the heat, and continue beating the mixture until it’s cool.

Spread the icing over the cupcakes, completely covering the sides and top of each cupcake. Use a gentle upswing movement to
form small peaks all over the sides and top. If you have a culinary torch use it to lightly brown the icing peaks, browning
a big more on the top than on the sides. (It might take you a few tries to learn the exact touch to give the flame on the torch - if you burn some of the icing, just remove it with a fork and then smooth and peak the icing and try again.) If you don't have one, you can just stick them in the oven under the broiler for a few minutes.

---