Rainbow Cake

Ok, so I realise I promised that my next bake would be something healthier than the last few. Well, I hate to admit it, but I've broken my promise. And not just a bit either. Completely and utterly, sugary and buttery broken. But it had to be done. And it was 100% worth it. I don't even feel a tiny bit guilty. Because in all honesty, when the idea for this cake was first born I was very dubious as to whether or not it would actually work. Which is why, after slaving in the kitchen for a grand total of 6 hours (I kid you not!), I jumped around with joy (literally) when I saw the finished result. It worked!! It actually looked like a rainbow!! It was a small miracle. No it wasn't. It was a massive miracle. A little lopsided perhaps, but a miracle all the same. I couldn't stop looking at it, taking photos of it, dancing around it. Definitely a proud moment!

It all began last weekend when for some reason I found myself gazing longingly at beautiful photos of rainbow cakes on the internet. I casually mentioned to Nicky that I would love to make one, but didn't really think anything of it. I mean, I knew I had nothing celebratory to make a cake for, so there'd be no reason to bake a cake, right? But do you need a reason to make a cake? Stupid question. Of course you don't. So when Nicky said let's actually do this, I didn't say no. And that's how our Friday night came to be a night filled with baking. My perfect kind of night really.

Now, making a 6-tiered cake is quite a feat in itself, but we didn't stop the challenge there. No, we decided it would be a good idea to flavour each individual layer, so not only would the rainbow be colourful, but every tier would have a different taste. So eventually, we came up with 6 different flavourings that would not only colour the cake, but taste magical as well. Most of them were fruity, which actually made the sponges extra moist, but one was green tea flavour (!). And we did cheat a little on the red and green with a few drops of food colouring. The icing was a bit of a disaster as well, because for some reason the cream cheese frosting just refused to thicken, so it turned into a bit of a sloppy mess! (I have since learnt that this was because we over-mixed the cream cheese, which made all the air disappear, so it lost its shape...I'll know for next time!). After a few pretty decorations though, you wouldn't notice, and I have to say it tasted amazing! I think the blueberry layer was my favourite.

I would say give this a go if you fancy a challenge, but I think the recipe needs refining a bit first! We basically had a Victoria Sponge recipe and made just over double the quantities, which seemed just about right, then split the mixture into 6 (electronic scales come in very handy here!). And as I said, the icing needs some alterations, so I won't include that! The fruit fillings were wonderful though, but I may be inclined to cheat a bit next time and add some more food colouring to the other layers. Anyway, we had soooo much fun making it and will definitely be making challenging baking a Friday night regular occurrence I think! Nothing will phase us now, that's for sure!! 

Rainbow Cake (serves A LOT!)

Ingredients:

Sponge (basically 1 and a half times the quantity for 1 Victoria Sponge cake roughly):

550g Butter

550g Caster Sugar
10 Eggs
3tsp Vanilla Extract
550g Plain Flour
5tsp Baking Powder      

Flavourings:
Pack of raspberries
Tin of peaches
Zest of 3 lemons, juice of 2
The tea from 3 green tea bags
3/4 pack of blueberries
Handful of grapes and a few glugs of Ribena
Red and green food colouring

Method:

1. Grease and line 6 cake tins.
2. Preheat oven to 180 degrees.
3. Cream butter and sugar together in a large bowl.
4. Gradually beat in the eggs.
5. Add vanilla extract.
6. Stir in flour and baking powder so it is thoroughly combined.
7. Weigh the mixture using electronic scales.
8. Divide it by 6 and split into 6 different bowls (we actually only did three at a time!).
9. Purée the raspberries, blueberries, peaches (minus juice) and grapes.
10. Zest and juice the lemons.
11. Add each flavouring/colouring to each separate mixture and stir through.
12. Pour into cake tin and bake in the oven for about 35-40 minutes, until a knife inserted comes out clean.
13. Leave until cool enough to handle and then remove from tin and place on a cooling rack.
14. Once completely cool, sandwich together using your desired icing and ice the top and sides.
15. Decorate as you wish!
16. Cut a slice, be amazed and enjoy! 

You can see the consistency of the cream cheese frosting here...bit of a sloppy mess!

Soon resurrected though with pretty sprinkles...!

The moment of truth...

...it worked!! Yayyyy!

I can sing a rainbow....sing a rainbow...sing a rainbow tooooo!

Beyond excited. And VERY proud!

Moose

Just in case I don't get the chance to bake something this week, I thought I'd share this with you. If you ever get the chance to go to Liverpool, never mind visiting the docks or the Beatles museum...be sure to visit Moose Coffee for brunch (check out the website here) as I did this weekend. Because it was possibly the best brunch I've ever had and I'm already planning my next trip back to Liverpool, purely so I can revisit this wonderful eatery: an American-style diner that serves the most incredible breakfasts. 

I spent the weekend with my friend who's studying in Liverpool and she'd already mentioned that we might be visiting Moose before I'd even arrived. As we usually spend most of our time talking about food, it was no surprise that our weekend revolved around eating! And ohmygosh, this place was definitely worth the hype! For a start, the place was jam packed when we arrived, which just shows how popular and successful it is and secondly, it took me a good fifteen minutes to decide what to eat (although in the end, I think I would've been impressed with anything!). I chose the grande bouche, which was a brioche served with crispy bacon and maple syrup and I was certainly not disappointed. Whoever decided that bacon and maple syrup should go together does not get enough recognition in my opinion. It is a combination that should appear on menus more often! And the brioche that it was on top of was light and fluffy and there was so much of it. So basically, it was probably one of the best breakfasts I've had in a long time. Thank you, Alex, for introducing me to this wonderful place and thank you, Moose, for providing me with a wonderful breakfast. I will be back soon!

Sticky Toffee Pudding

So on a snowy Sunday night, what better way to spend an evening than snuggled up on the sofa watching a film and gorging on Sticky Toffee Pudding? That's my idea of a perfect night in right there. And that's exactly what I was doing last night. Bliss. I'd also like to point out here that Sticky Toffee Pudding is undoubtedly my favourite dessert. Ever. It even outdoes anything chocolatey-related in my opinion and I know that's quite a statement. So maybe now you'll understand why staying in was definitely my preferred place to be last night! 

Surprisingly, considering it's my all-time fave dessert, yesterday was actually the first time I'd ever made Sticky Toffee Pudding. I'm not entirely sure why, but I think I thought you had to make it by steaming it in a pudding dish and as I don't have one, it would have proved a bit tricky! But apparently, that's not always the case, as I soon found after a quick look in my Food Bible - Mary Berry's Complete Cook Book. You just make it like you would any other cake mixture and cook it like you would any other sort of cake. Easy. The only difference is that I cooked it in a square tin. On top of that, the toffee sauce is even easier to make and is oh-so-deliciously more-ish! Just extremely calorific, but we won't think about that right now! (Next time, I promise to make something a little more on the healthy side...) And actually, having said that, the sultanas (that I used instead of dates) and nuts surely go towards some of your five-a-day....? Maybe that's wishful thinking. Anyway, this dessert certainly lived up to my expectations and I can safely say that it still holds the number 1 spot in my list of favourite desserts. And as well as being light, spongy and wonderfully sweet, it warms you up on a chilly January evening! I shall look forward to another bowlful after a frosty walk home from dancing tonight. 

Sticky Toffee Pudding   (serves 8)

Ingredients:

For the sponge:

90g Butter

150g Light Brown Sugar

2 Eggs, beaten

1tbsp Coffee Extract

175g Self-Raising Flour

1tsp Baking Powder

175g Sultanas

90g Walnuts, roughly chopped

175ml Warm Water

For the sauce:

125g Butter

175g Light Brown Sugar

6tbsp Double Cream

60g Walnuts, roughly chopped

Method:

1. Grease a square tin and preheat the oven to 180 degrees.
2. Put the butter, sugar, eggs, coffee extract, flour and baking powder into a large bowl and beat until smooth and thoroughly combined (don't worry if it's very stiff and in one big blob at this point - it will loosen when you add the water!).
3. Stir in the dates and walnuts, followed by the water.
4. Pour the mixture into the tin.
5. Bake for 45-50 minutes until the pudding is well rise, browned and springy to the touch. 
6. About 10 minutes before the pudding is ready, make the sauce.
7. Put the butter and sugar into a saucepan and heat gently until melted.
8. Stir in the cream and walnuts and heat gently to warm through. 
9. Cut the pudding into 8 and transfer to bowls.
10. Pour over the toffee sauce and enjoy!

Lemon Meringue Cupcakes

 

What better way to finish off the perfect weekend than baking lemon meringue cupcakes with the housemates? And they are literally THE most incredible things ever. Which actually isn't that surprising really, because the recipe was from one of the Hummingbird Bakery recipes books, so obviously I would have expected nothing less. One of my housemates got 'Cake Days' for Christmas, which doubtless to say I am extremely jealous of (Mum, take note!) and perhaps our challenge will be to work our way through it by the end of the year. I don't know how they manage it, but the sponge is possibly the moistest I've ever tasted and it's not even difficult to make.

No words are needed to describe this book. 

However, perhaps the best part of making these cupcakes was that we got to use my other housemate's blowtorch...! Now that was exciting and it worked a treat!! And it's made them look so professional. I'm very impressed with it anyway. This is what I wished I'd had last year when I made the raspberry version of these. The blowtorch was far more effective than baking the meringues in the oven and gives them that golden finish that makes them look so attractive. 

Charlotte in action with her blowtorch!

And of course, the hidden lemon curd inside makes a delicious attempt at balancing out the sweetness of the meringue topping. Which is virtually impossible considering the amount of sugar that's in them - you could really only have one of these at once. Actually, that's a lie. I could definitely persuade myself to have another. And it wouldn't take much persuading! These will not be in our kitchen for much longer. So, basically, you must give these a go and treat yourself to a little sugary goodness to brighten up your day!

Lemon Meringue Cupcakes (makes 12)

Ingredients:

80g Unsalted Butter

280g Caster Sugar

240g Plain Flour

1tbsp Baking Powder

1/4tsp Salt

1tsp Finely Grated Lemon Zest

2 Large Eggs

240ml Whole Milk

200g Caster Sugar

4 Egg Whites

70g Lemon Curd

Method:

1. Preheat the oven to 180 degrees and line a muffin tin with muffin cases (or use silicone ones as I did).
2. Beat together the butter, sugar, flour, baking powder, salt and lemon zest until they are incorporated and resemble breadcrumbs. 
3. Break the eggs into a jug and whisk in the milk. 
4. Pour three quarters of the egg mixture into the dry ingredients and beat together (using an electric whisk if you have one).
5. Pour the remaining egg mixture in and beat again until combined and the batter is smooth.
6. Spoon the batter into the cases so they about two thirds full. 
7. Bake in the oven for 18-20 minutes until they have risen and are springy to touch.
8. Leave to cool on a wire rack.
9. To make the frosting, put the sugar into a saucepan along with 150ml water and bring to the boil. 
10. Meanwhile, whisk the egg whites until just foamy.
11. Allow the sugar to boil for 5-10 minutes, until when a drop of the syrup is placed in cold water, it forms a small ball on the surface.
12. Pour the sugar syrup onto the egg whites and beat with an electric mixer on high until the meringue has quadrupled in size and is velvety smooth. 
13. Once the cupcakes are fully cooled, hollow out the middle about 2cm deep and wide, using a knife.
14. Fill the hole about half full with lemon curd and then place the hollowed out sponge back in. 
15. Place about 1tbsp of meringue on the cupcakes, swirling it on.
16. Using a blowtorch, lightly brown the meringue so it is golden in colour.
17. Repeat with each cupcake and enjoy!

Very chocolatey chocolate brownies

New Year's Resolutions aren't usually my thing, as firstly, I can never normally think of any and secondly, I can never stick to them. But this year all that is about to change, because I'm going try and make a bit more effort to keep up with my baking and blogging, despite the fact that this term is probably going to be the busiest and most stressful yet. So I've more than likely set myself a challenge which is going to be a bit impossible to achieve, but I'm going to try and blog at least once a week. And actually, baking something yummy and having the pleasure of eating it afterwards is definitely one of the best de-stressing methods ever invented. In my opinion anyway.

So I have started as I mean to go on and yesterday, all I wanted to do was bake the most chocolatey thing I could think of. For my birthday I got Mary Berry's Complete Cookbook, which will be my food bible from now on I think, because it has literally every recipe imaginable in there. Including perhaps THE best chocolate brownies that I've ever made. In fact, she does call them 'Best-ever brownies' and I can vouch that this is definitely true. (Although I did make a few little alterations of my own to them!) Gooey and chocolatey and nutty and just so so delicious. You really have to make them and believe me, if you do, you will not be disappointed. Bake these brownies and all those stresses that suddenly appear again after Christmas will vanish instantly in a mouthful. Honest. 

 

Chocolate Brownies (makes 16)

Ingredients:

100g Milk Chocolate

200g Plain Chocolate

230g Margarine

2tsp Instant Coffee

2tbsp Hot Water

2 Eggs

250g Sugar

1tsp Vanilla Extract

90g Self-Raising Flour

150g Chopped Hazeknuts

100g Plain Chocolate Chips

Method:

1. Grease a tin and preheat the oven to 170 degrees.
2. Melt the chocolate and margarine in a pan on a low heat (in a bowl over a pan of boiling water is better if you have a heatproof one that is the right size!).
3. Put the coffee in a bowl and pour in the hot water, stirring to dissolve.
4. Add the eggs, sugar and vanilla extract.
5. Gradually beat in the chocolate mixture.
6. Fold in the flour and hazelnuts, followed by the chocolate chips.
7. Pour the mixture into the prepared tin and bake for about 40-45 minutes (until firm to the touch but still gooey in the middle).
8. Leave to cool in the tin, then cut into pieces and enjoy!

Baked Cranberry Cheesecake

Okay, so I know Christmas is only just over and right now food is probably the last thing on your minds, if the amount I've consumed in the last few days is anything to go by! But I'm going to tell you about a recipe anyway. Because I've not blogged in forever and to be honest this cheesecake is so light and fluffy that it's basically like eating fresh air (but much tastier of course!) (and well actually, it's probably not like eating fresh air at all...!). Anyway, enough of my ramblings, it tasted damn good and that's all that matters.

As much as I love all the traditional Christmas desserts: pudding, cake, mince pies, stollen, etc. etc. I do get a bit sick of them after a while and they can be quite stodgy. So I thought about making something a bit different that's lighter and less rich and I came up with a cheesecake. But to make sure that it was still vaguely Christmassy I tried it with cranberries instead and I have to admit, I'm quite impressed with the result. Thankfully the rest of the fam were too! It was loosely based on this recipe here, but I made a few alterations and it tasted wonderful. So whilst cranberries are still hanging around in the supermarkets buy some and get baking!

Baked Cranberry Cheesecake (serves 10)

Ingredients:

100g Chocolate Digestives

50g Butter

1 1/2 cups of fresh Cranberries

1/2 cup Sugar

1tbsp Crème de Cassis (blackcurrant liqueur)   

3tbsp Water

1 cup Sugar

300g Reduced Fat Cream Cheese

1/2 Plain Fat-Free Greek Yoghurt

1tsp Vanilla Essence

Pinch Salt

2 Eggs

1 Egg White

Method:

1. Wrap a cake tin with a double layer of foil around the bottom and sides and grease.
2. Place biscuits in a food processor and mix until finely finely ground.
3. Melt butter in a saucepan and stir in broken biscuits.
4. Press the mixture into the cake tin and leave to cool.
5. Place the cranberries, sugar, liqueur and water in a saucepan and boil.
6. Cook for about 8 minutes until the cranberries start to pop and the mixture becomes syrupy.
7. Cool for about 20 minutes and process in a food processor until smooth.
8. Preheat oven to 160 degrees.
9. Combine the sugar and cheese in a large bowl and beat until smooth.
10. Beat in yoghurt, vanilla essence and salt.
11. Add the whole eggs, beating well after each addition.
12. In a separate bowl whisk the egg white until soft peaks form.
13. Fold the egg white into the cheese mixture carefully.
14. Pour the filling over the biscuit base.
15. Spoon the majority of the cranberry mixture over the base and swirl together using the tip of a knife.
16. Place the cake tin in a roasting dish and pour hot water into it so it is about 2 inches deep.
17. Bake for about 40 minutes until the the centre of the cheesecake barely moves when you touch the pan.
18. Allow the cheesecake to cool in the oven for about 30 minutes.
19. Remove from the oven and run a knife around the outside edge.
20. Take it out of the tin and cool on a wire rack.
21. Chill for 8 hours.
22. Just before serving spread a layer of the cranberry mixture over the top and enjoy!

Cinnamon Swirls

My lack of blogging recently is completely inexcusable I know, but I'm going to blame it on lack of Internet (yes, we had to wait OVER A MONTH to get connected!) and the shock of coming back to uni and actually having work to do (none of that swanning around exploring France I spent most of last year doing). Anyway, I'm back and in need of catching up on all that baking time I've lost!

So the other day I decided to make some rather heavenly cinnamon swirls that I found on Edd Kimber's blog. (For those of you that don't know who he is, he won the Great British Bake Off last year. For those of you that haven't heard of/watched the Great British Bake Off, you're seriously missing out!). What a great recipe is all I can say. Honestly, eating these straight out of the oven is definitely up there with my top food loves. Crispy sugar on the outside, a soft spongy dough on the inside and then the most delicious mouthful of cinnamon at the end. Me and my housemates were in the middle of watching a film when they were ready and I made them turn it off so we could all appreciate how wonderful they tasted! And of course, the smell that wafted through from the kitchen whilst they were baking was divine. 

 

 

The only downside I suppose is that they are a bit time-consuming to make. You use a quick croissant dough, which isn't difficult, it just involves a lot of waiting around while the dough rests. Basically it's not the kind of thing to make if you've only got a couple of hours. Having said that, all the faffing around rolling out the dough and putting it in the fridge, prooving it and leaving it to rest, is 100% worth it as soon as you take a bite. Whether that's as a snack with a coffee or reheated in the microwave for breakfast, you must try these lovelies!

Cinnamon Swirls (makes 12)

Ingredients:

For the croissant dough:

600ml milk

65ml water

250g plain flour

6g dry active yeast

30g caster sugar

1/2 tsp salt

150g butter, diced and chilled

For the cinnamon swirls:

110g light brown sugar

1tbsp ground cinnamon

50g butter

granulated sugar for coating

Method:

For the croissant dough:

1. Place the milk and water into a bowl.
2. In a separate bowl, combine the flour, yeast, sugar and salt.
3. Add the butter pieces and stir through with a knife until the pieces of butter become smaller, but still remain in pieces.
4. Tip the butter mixture onto the liquid mixture.
5. Fold everything together, but not too much so that the butter pieces become too small.
6. Cover the bowl with clingfilm and keep in the fridge over night.
7. In the morning, remove the dough from the fridge and place on a well-floured surface.
8. Roll out into a rectangle roughly 20cm x 40cm.
9. Fold into thirds. 
10. Rotate 90 degrees so that the folds are facing you.
11. Repeat this process twice more so that you have turned it three times. 
12. Wrap the dough in clingfilm and leave at least for a couple of hours before using for the cinnamon rolls.

For the cinnamon rolls:

1. Grease a tray and coat with sugar.
2. Place the dough on a floured surface and roll out into a rectangle about 30cm x 35cm.
3. In a small bowl mix together the sugar and cinnamon.
4. Lightly brush the dough with the melted butter.
5. Sprinkle the dough with the sugar mixture in an even layer.
6. Roll the dough into a tight sausage and cut into 12 equal slices.
7. Place the slices onto the baking tray and lightly cover with clingfilm.
8. Leave to proove at room temperature for a couple of hours until they have doubled in size.
9. Preheat the oven to 180 degrees and when the buns are ready bake in the oven for 20-30 minutes. 
10. Allow the rolls to cool slightly before rolling in granulated sugar.
11. Serve slightly warm and enjoy!