Chocolate Guinness Cupcakes

It seems that the Chocolate Guinness Cake is becoming my signature cake. Not just that I have made it a few times now but that it is just yummy and I guess that is why I keep going back to it. There may be an Irish thing too, can't be sure about that though....
A few weeks ago someone posted a link on facebook to a Guinness Cupcake round-up which I duly perused, something to try at a later date. Last weekend became that later date.
We had a BBQ with some friends and as well as making many salads (Ottolenghi to the rescue) I also made a chocolate Brioche, vanilla fairy cakes for the kids (although many adults seemed to be attracted to the jelly tot/smartie be-decked cakes!) and for the adults Chocolate Guinness cupcakes. I went back to the round-up but in the end I used Nigella's Feast recipe, why mess with the classic?
I wanted to make 2 dozen cakes and I figured the recipe in Feast for a 23cm cake would probably do the trick. The batter is very wet so I put it in a jug and poured it into the cases, about three quarters of the way, and it made 24 with a little dribble to spare. They cooked for 20 minutes @ 200 degrees, left to cool in the tin for 10 minutes an then cooled completely on my grill tray. I had some cupcake boxes leftover from the dog cupcakes and used them to store overnight and iced them the morning of the the BBQ.
I made the amount of icing in the recipe and wasn't sure if it would be enough to pipe icing on to all the cakes so I spread icing on the first 12 cakes with a palatte knife and then piped the other 12.

Once I put the cakes out at the BBQ what followed was an interesting experiment in peoples choices. I told everyone that both batches were exactly the same apart from how they were iced but it was the piped cakes that went first! I have to say they did look prettier than the other ones, nothing like a bit of good piping.

Here's the chocolate brioche I made too....

Lemon Curd Sandwich Cake

Being in need of practising my cake making I have to take every opportunity. The problem with not working is that I can't bring my cakes into work and you know what happens if the stay here? Yes, my husband and I have to eat them and that isn't conducive to healthy eating (I do try with the healthy eating, honest). Knitting group was at my house yesterday, opportunity knocks!
Having watched Great British Bake Off (SO EXCITED that it's back) that afternoon I thought a sandwich cake was the order of the day. I kept it fairly simple, vanilla sponge sandwich (from How to Be a Domestic Goddess) filled with lemon curd, lemon curd cream and lemon curd cream with blueberries for decoration.
It was a bit like GBBO in the my kitchen yesterday (apart from the fact that Paul, Mary, Mel and Sue weren't there!), I burned myself on the cooker ring and then stabbed myself with a knife when I was removing the nozzle from the piping bag! Not as bad as some on GBBO but getting there.
The sponges came out well with no sinking, you never do know. The lemon curd cream filling came from my Lemon Macaron making of two weeks ago. I mixed 200mls of whipped double cream with 4 tbsp of lemon curd. I think I might up the lemon curd next time, it needed a bit more of a kick. I then piped this over the lemon curd spread on the first sponge and then piped swirls on top. I thought the swirls needed some decoration so I popped a blueberry on each one. A sprinkling of icing sugar later, voila.

It went down well with the knitting girls and was a treat this afternoon with a little cappuccino.

Basil, Sun-Dried Tomato and Parmesan Twister Bread

Last Sunday morning I was enjoying a mornings reading in the conservatory, as you do. As the morning wore on I began to think about lunch, food never being far away from my mind. We didn't really have much in so I needed to be creative. As I looked up my eye caught our basil plant. This was just one of those plants you buy at the supermarket and rather than chucking it after using it we decided to keep it and it has done us proud over the summer. All it needs is a bit of water every day and to be used once a week and it will keep you in basil, well for the summer.
So I had basil. I also remembered that I bought some sun-dried tomatoes a while ago for some recipe or other and they had been languishing in the fridge ever since. Basil and sun-dried tomatoes, a culinary match made in heaven. But they needed to be in something substantial, a bread? I recently made a Lorraine Pascale recipe for a twister bread which had a sesame oil and sesame seed filling. What was to stop me from putting basil and sun-dried tomatoes in it instead? The answer, nothing. Once I started rummaging in the fridge I found some parmesan and some Italian cold meats, I do believe we have lunch!
The twister bread recipe is very simple, if a bit messy and doesn't take long in the rising department. Once I had my dough rolled out I brushed it with olive oil, scattered the chopped basil, tomatoes and grated parmesan on top. Then it was just a case of cutting it into six lengths, twisting each one individually and then twisting all six to form the ring. The join wasn't very pretty but the rest looked good. It then has a rise for 45 minutes and baked for about 35 minutes.

This is a great sharing bread, you just pull it apart and eat. With the Italian meats it was perfect and it made a starring roll in Wednesdays dinner when it went into a Panzanella (a tomato and bread Tuscan salad). Bread is indeed the food of the Gods.

The Macaro(o)n

I have now made macarons four times. The first time they worked out ok, see here, the second time they were a disaster (nothing to see here, go back to your homes). My third attempt was a couple of months ago. I had some egg whites left over (can't remember from what) and decided to put the previous failure behind me and try again. This time I used a recipe from the Hairy Bikers Big Book of Baking (the one from their TV series Bakeation, which is full of many splendid things).
This recipe is from their time in France, so these would be macarons as opposed to macaroons, in this case a Raspberry macaron. However, when I came to make them I didn't have the ingredients, i.e. the raspberries. The filling has rose water in it and this gave me an idea. I would make rose water macarons with a pistachio filling (I did have rose water and pistachios). These were a triumph, I gave some to the neighbours and brought the rest in to work.

Ok, so we are on a roll. A couple of weeks ago I made a Boston Cream Pie which calls for a pastry cream filling (my first attempt at this, I will be trying again and will let you know how I get on) and I was left with egg whites. I turned to the Hairy Bikers again and this time a Lemon Macaron. I seem to be fine with the method (having the Kicthenaid helps) it is the piping that seems to be the problem. They either come out too big or too small, although that isn't really a problem I guess. The main thing is getting them lovely and smooth and shiny as per the picture and every other macaron I have seen. I followed all the instructions (use
water on your fingers to smooth the top, bang the tray on the surface a few times, leave them for 30-60 minutes to create a shiny crust) but they still came out lumpy. They tasted lovely, the filling of cream and lemon curd was dreamy but in the looks department they had failed miserably, see what you think.

They made lovely gifts for friends at our recent dining club, despite their imperfections. No feedback yet on taste but they seemed pleased to receive them!

From Little Acorns.....

I love making cakes, you know this about me. I love it, love it. Recently I have made some more elaborate cakes. A wedding cake (yawn!) and a couple of friends birthday cakes (one involving a frog on a lily pad and one with very bad writing!). But none of my cakes have ever been made for public consumption i.e. for people I don't know, until recently.
I was at a friends birthday party (the bad writing cake) when another friend asked me to make a cake for her daughter's upcoming 5th birthday. Her daughter likes dogs, well actually she LOVES dogs, obsessed. The commission was to make a dog based cake for a five year old and some cupcakes for the adults attending the party. My friend insisted that she would pay me, I demurred, she insisted again and I said "well, let's talk about that later" (not good at the taking of the money from friends, you know what I mean?). I came away from the party with a hangover and a job, not too shabby for a Sunday night in Camberwell.
I had a few weeks before the big day and spent some time researching dog cakes on the internet, as you can imagine there was a lot to see. In the end I decided on dalmatian cake, the dalmatian being Ella's favourite of all the dogs. The cake itself was a chocolate cake (from Nigella's Feast), two layers with a vanilla butter cream in the middle, covered with white fondant icing and decorated with black spots. The crowning glory was a fondant dalmatian (with red scarf) sat atop the cake. After getting approval for my design it was just a matter of waiting until the week before to make the fondant dog and ice the cake board and the night before to make the cake.
The morning of the party I made 2 dozen cupcakes (12 vanilla, 12 chocolate) and decorated them with fondant icing paws (see below). All that was left to do was to get them safely to the party, that's where a husband with a car comes in handy (especially when I don't drive). We delivered the cakes and stayed to enjoy the festivities (5 year olds birthday parties a very tiring...) and saw the cake delivered to Ella with candles. She was very happy with her doggie cake and there were compliments from the adults for the cupcakes. My first foray into paid cake making was a success.

Since then I have been made redundant from my day job and one of my ideas is to start a Cakes and Cardies business, to somehow turn my love of baking into a job. It is a challenge, daunting etc but if I don't try it now when will I? Onwards and upwards.

Sorry

..about the earlier technical difficulties. The publish button is next to the save button! Full post to follow.