Fat Friday #47 Cookie Dough Cupcakes

Oh yeah! Cookie dough! One of my guilty pleasures. I never eat cake batter or biscuit doughs as I want to eat the baked product. But cookie dough is another thing, if there isn't enough to make a full cookie, I will eat it. When I saw this recipe for cookie dough inside a cupcake, it was definitely one for a Fat Friday.  Although, you'll need to start the day before to make the cookie dough so they have enough time to freeze. 

Recipe (Adapted from Primrose Bakery Everyday by Martha Swift) 
Cookie Dough Ingredients:

• 50g unsalted butter
• 75g golden caster sugar
• 75g flour
• 30g dark chocolate chopped into pieces
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract

Equipment:

• Electric hand whisk/Wooden spoon
• Freezer friendly plate or tray
• Bowl

Method:
1) Place all the ingredients into a bowl and mix until combined
2) Using a set of scales (hopefully you used some to weigh out the ingredients!) weigh out 20g of cookie dough and roll into balls. (Note: they maybe a pain to roll but its worth it)
3)Put in the freezer to freeze overnight. 

Cupcake Ingredients:

• 170g unsalted butter
• 170g golden caster sugar
• 3 large eggs
• 170g self raising flour
• 45ml milk
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract

Equipment:

• Electric hand whisk/Wooden spoon
• Cupcake tin lined with 12 cupcake liners
• Bowl
• Wire rack

Method:

1) Preheat the oven to GM 4/180c/350f. Line the cupcake tin with cupcake wrapper.

2) Cream the sugar and butter until light and fluffy. 

3) Add the eggs in one at a time and mix until incorporated. 

4) Throw in the flour, milk and vanilla extract and beat again until no flour lumps are present.

5) Spoon the batter into the cupcake cases until they are 2/3 full.
6) Grab the frozen cookie balls that you made the day before, and place one ball in each of the cupcakes. You won't need to press them in, the batter should bake over them. 
7) Bake for 20-25 minutes or until the cakes are golden brown on the top. 
8) Leave in the tin to cool for 10 minutes and then transfer to a wire rack to cool completely. 

Buttercream Ingredients:

• 150g unsalted butter
• 350g icing sugar, sieved
• 100g golden caster sugar
• pinch of salt
• 60g sour cream
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 35g dark chocolate pieces, chopped

Equipment:

• Electric hand whisk/Wooden spoon
• Sieve
• Bowl
• Piping bag fitted with a large circle nozzle/ palette knife

Method:

1) Place all the ingredients in bowl and beat until combined.

2) Once the cupcakes have cooled down, pipe a swirl on top or use a palette knife to spread onto each cupcake. 

Happy Friday!

The Cake and Bake Show Haul 2015

Well I've had fun! Stuffing my face with cake and free samples. Did any of you readers get the chance to visit the Cake and Bake Show in London this year? My friend Lucy and I are making this an annual 'thing' (You can read last years post here). I was hoping that I would do a video on it... until my camera broke.

Thats right. On the one day of filming I REALLY  needed a good camera... erg. Tech. Such is life. I thought I would do a blog post on what I purchased.

Firstly, food because... food. I grabbed some Emily Apple and Banana Fruit crisps. But these are the best crisps I've ever had. They were just soft enough in texture not to be soggy but crisp enough to crunch on and not break your teeth. The flavours are true fruit flavours. Seriously, totally worth buying! 

I got a super weird gizmo. Its a peeler. BUT NOT JUST A PEELER! Its a julienne vegetable and fruit peeler with a cool attachment to make noodles from veg. Lucy was full on impressed with this, that she didn't hesitate in buying it. I was convinced to get one also and the peeler does assist me in daily cooking tasks.

I also got a new piping bag and nozzles... pretty standard. 

For my Halloween bakes this year, I got some pretty sprinkles and cupcake cases from one of my personal favourite places to shop, Scrumptious. I bought some green, purple and orange sprinkles as well as some jazzy violet sprinkles. They have a great selection of sprinkles, decorating materials and cases. I did get some adorable ghostly cupcake cases as well as some Christmasy ones (don't judge me I know its only October). 

To stuff my face with, I got marshmallows from both 'The Marshmallowist' and 'The Marshmallow Company'. From the Marshmallowist, I got strawberry and basil, blueberry and gin, lemon and coconut flavours. Now, I must be truthful, the flavours didn't really come through apart from the coconut. I haven't tried 'The Marhmallow Company' marshmallows yet but I will do and will add what I think here.

I did get some special icing sugars, like I do every year, from another one of my favourite companies: Sugar and Crumbs. I bought: 'Santa's Snowball' which tastes like white chocolate and marshmallows (yum!!), 'Christmas Punch' which tastes like mulled wine and lastly, 'Apple Crumble'... which is what you expect. They make great buttercreams, or as a substitute for caster sugar in cakes.  

Gluten-Free Chocolate Formal Suit Birthday Cake

University is finished for me, and as from yesterday, I'm officially not a student anymore (No more student discounts nooo!!!).  Now its time to play the waiting game for results. 

Lets start with good news, including my first official job as a pastry chef in London (wooo! Yes you can applaud). I can't say where I'm working at this stage, but its super fantastic, but because I'm an enigma I keeping it quiet. However, I am sad to leave my current job. All the people I was working with made it feel like it wasn't work but it was a playground of chocolate and discussing odd customers. Thank you all for making the time more fun and special.

Also, I'm doing another patisserie course in September, so by a technicality, I'll be a student (again!!) and I'll be living the grand student life, with my other half. That's right totally living the dream. So now that university is over I can focus loads more on the blog. So watch this space baking lovers!

But enough about that, how are you? I hope that you've been enjoying the summer so far. This weeks cake is a gluten-free 2 tiered cake with decorated to look like a suit. Its kind of my second attempt ever on making a novelty cake and the first time making this cake design. The cake was designed for my friend Zoe, who requested it for her boyfriend Scott, who likes a little bit of luxury in life. A guy who is smartly dressed and has good taste (especially in cake). 

So here it is, Scott's Gluten Free Chocolate Birthday Cake. 

Scott, I hope you enjoyed your birthday and you had an excellent time. Hope you enjoyed the cake. You have a lovely girlfriend who deserves a great big hug and thank-you for all her effort for organising your birthday bash!

Recipe: Makes 2 gluten free cakes with  2 layers in each cake.

·       

        460g dark chocolate at least 70% cocoa solids

·       240g unsalted butter, at room temperature

·       700g golden caster sugar

·       6 large eggs, separated

·       740g Doves Farm Gluten-Free Plain flour, sifted

·       4 teaspoons gluten free baking power

·       3 teaspoons gluten free bicarbonate of soda

    1 teaspoons salt

·       1litre semi-skimmed milk, at room temperature

·       4 teaspoons of vanilla extract

Chocolate Buttercream

·       175g dark chocolate, at least 70% cocoa solids

·       225g unsalted butter

·       1 tablespoon semi-skimmed milk, room temperature

·       1teaspoon vanilla extract

·       250g icing sugar, sifted

Decorating:

·       200g  Midnight blue sugar paste

·       Edible glue

·       500g white sugar paste

·       500g grey sugar paste

Equipment:

·       Electric hand-mixer
        Bowl x3

·       Mixer/wooden spoon

·       Measuring Jug

·       Sieve

·       Teaspoon

·       Tablespoon

·       20cm/ 8 inch square cake tin x 2

·       15cm/ 6 inch square cake tin x 2

·       Palette knife

·       Light oil spray/butter for greasing the tin

·       Silicone paper

·       Heatproof bowl

·       Saucepan filled with water

·       Metal spoon

·       Scissors

·       A4 paper

·       Pen

·       Ruler

·       Small sharp knife

·       Grey ribbon

·       Double sided tape

·       Silver board

·       Cake smoother
        Large serrated knife

For the Cake (Recipe adapted from Cupcakes from Primrose Bakery):

1.    Pre-heat the oven to 170c fan/190c/375f/Gas Mark 5 and grease the tins with the light oil spray/butter and line with silicone paper.

2.    Break the chocolate into pieces and place in a heatproof bowl over a saucepan of barely simmering water. Stir occasionally until completely melted. Set aside to cool.

3.    In a large mixing bowl cream the butter and sugar until pale and smooth, which should 3-5 minutes using an electric mixer. Put the egg yolks into the creamed mixture and beat well.

4.    Add the melted chocolate to the creamed mixture and beat well.

5.    Combine the flour, baking powder, bicarbonate of soda and salt in separate bowl all sieved together. 

6.    Combine the milk, and vanilla extract in a jug.

7.    Add one-third of the flour to the creamed mixture and beat well. Pour in one-third of the milk mixture and beat again. Repeat these steps until all the flour and milk has been added.

8.    Clean your whisk!

9.    In a clean bowl whisk the egg whites with a clean whisk, until soft peaks form.

10.Carefully fold the egg whites with a metal spoon into the cake batter.

11.Divide the mixture between the two cake tins and bake for 30 minutes. Insert a skewer in the centre of the cake and if it comes out clean it’s done.

12. Remove from the oven and leave the cakes in their tins for about an 1 hour  before carefully placing on a wire rack to cool. Once completely cool, you can ice the cake.

13. If you need to trim the tops of the cakes to make them flat do so at this stage when completely cooled. 

For the Buttercream (Recipe adapted from Cupcakes from Primrose Bakery):

1.    To make the chocolate buttercream, melt the chocolate as in step 2 of the cake recipe. In a large mixing bowl beat the butter, milk, vanilla extract and the icing sugar until smooth-this can take several minutes using an electric hand mixer. Add the chocolate and beat until all of the chocolate has been incorporated. 

2.    To assemble use a palette knife to spread the icing into the middles of each cake and around the outside of the cakes.

To Decorate (Adapted from My Cake Decorating Magazine):

1.    Roll the white icing to cover the bigger cake, trim as needed and

place on the silver board. Then roll out the grey icing to cover the smaller cake. Set both cakes aside for now.

2.    Measure the height and width of the bottom tier of the cake and,

 using these measurements as a guide, draw a triangle on a sheet of A4 paper-So one side should be the height of the cake and the other should be the width of the cake. Cut out this triangle.

3.    Knead a section of the midnight blue paste and roll out thinly. Place the triangle on top of the paste and, using it as a template, cut around it with a small knife. Repeat this until you have 8 triangles. Set aside.

4.    Roll out the midnight blue paste again and cut out 2 circles for the buttons.

5.    Roll out the midnight blue paste again. Using a cake smoother, cut a strip of paste roughly 20cm long and 6cm wide. Fold the two ends of the strip over to meet in the middle and stick them down with edible glue. Pad out the loops with kitchen paper, then pinch the strip in the centre to make realistic-looking creases.

6.    Cut a second shorter (7cm long and 4cm wide) and wrap it around the front of the bow, using edible glue to stick two ends of together at back. Allow your bow to dry or it is going to melt!

7.    Attach the midnight blue triangles to the bottom tier using edible glue-This is of course is the jacket of the suit.

8.    Using the previous triangle temple make a lapel shape. Roll out the midnight blue taste (again!!) and cut out the lapel shape. Brush with edible glue and place onto the front of you cake.

9.    Stick on the buttons that you did in step 4.

10.  Take the grey ribbon and wrap around the base of the top tier and seal with double sided tape.

11.  Carefully place the top tier onto the bottom tier with edible glue (or any leftover buttercream).

12. Finally, brush the bow tie with edible glue and stick it to the front of the top tier. Hold in place for a couple of minutes. 
13. Optional, you can pipe a birthday message or the birthday boys initials, if you like by using vanilla buttercream icing or premade icing.  

I hope you've been enjoyed reading and what's your favourite gluten free recipe? Leave a comment to let us know!

Red Velvet Cake with Blue Lace Butterfies

"Remember, Sofia has no idea about this birthday meal. Keep it quiet! So I'm thinking red velvet cake?" I read the message that my friend sent and was like: "Yessss!! Cake commission!!"

This particular cake was for a good friend who I've made birthday cakes for in the past.   

Red velvet is one of those cakes that has that luxury feel, and it wouldn't be the same without a white icing but trying to incorporate blue, (which is Sofia's favourite colour) was tough. But after a great deal of thinking, inspiration came in from an insect form. 

I was waiting for the bus when a butterfly flew past me and as I got home I was reading my cookery books for inspiration and a royal icing tutorial jumped out at me and guess what? It featured butterflies. Clearly a sign right? Or maybe just an odd coincidence? Whatever the case, the end result was worth the extra effort. 

I was very please how this cake turned out. Not because it was tasty and super sugary (because that's what you need after a heavy meal...), but more because my best friends was thrilled with the cake. 

I hope that we made your birthday really special Sofia.

These delicate butterflies are just that, DELICATE! Make extra because there will be causalities but there worth the effort in the end as they look so pretty. You have to leave these to dry overnight, so do these before you bake the cake. 

Recipe: Lace Butterflies (Adapted from Divine Cupcakes by Tamara Jane)

Ingredients:

·       1 egg white

·       Ice blue colouring paste

·       300g icing sugar

·       ½ teaspoon lemon juice

Equipment:

·       Electric mixer/hand-held electric whisk

·       Sieve

·       Bowl x 1

·       Baking paper

·       Foil

·       Paper

·       Pencil/pen

·       Edible glitter in pink

·       Disposable piping bag

·       Scissors

Step 1. Beat the egg white

1.    Beat the egg white with an electric mixer until foamy.

2.    Add the icing sugar gradually beating well after each addition.

Step 3. Colour the icing

3.    Icing is ready when peaks appear and holds shape. Beat in lemon juice and food colouring. 

Step 4. Trace a butterfly template

4.    Trace a butterfly template (use a simple one as a complex template will be tricky) onto paper and place the baking paper on top.

Step 5. Fill the piping bag

5.    Fill the bag with royal icing and cut the point off the bag so there is a 1mm diameter.

Step 6. Pipe the thin line to create the butterfly

6.    Pipe a thin line over the template. Once finish sprinkle with edible glitter and allow to dry overnight.

Step 7. Place on decorated cake 

7.    Peel off the paper and use to decorate the cake by placing around the sides of the cake.

8.    With the remaining icing pipe your message on top of the cake.

Recipe: Red Velvet Cake

·       75g unsalted butter, softened (plus a little extra for greasing)

·       300g caster sugar

·       2 eggs, beaten

·       1 teaspoon vanilla extract

·       225g plain flour

·       3 tablespoons unsweetened cocoa powder

·       1 ½ teaspoon red food colour paste

·       125ml buttermilk

·       1 tablespoon white vinegar

Equipment:

·       Wilton Tasty Fill cake pan

·       Electric mixer/hand-held electric whisk

·       Sieve

·       Bowl x 2

·       Tablespoon

·       Teaspoon

1.    Pre heat the oven to 180c/350c/ Gas mark 4. Grease and flour cake tins.

Step 2. Sift all dry ingredients together

2.    For the cake, cream the butter and sugar together in a bowl, then beat in the eggs and vanilla extract. Sift the flour, cocoa powder, bicarbonate of soda and salt into a separate bowl. Stir in the food colour paste into buttermilk.

3.    Alternately add the flour and buttermilk mixtures to the creamed mixture. Stir in the vinegar, mixing well. Pour the mixture into the prepared tins, dividing it evenly. Bake in the oven for 30-35 mins or until firm to touch. Cool in the tins for 10 mins, then turn out onto a wire rack and leave to cool completely.

Recipe: Bulk Vanilla Buttercream frosting (Adapted from Divine Cupcakes by Tamara Jane)

·       200g unsalted butter, softened

·       125ml milk

·       1 tablespoon vanilla extract

·       2kg icing sugar, sifted

Equipment:

·       Electric mixer/hand-held electric whisk

·       Sieve

·       Bowl x 1

        Palette knife

       Optional piping bag fitted with a nozzle

1.Using a large mixer, cream the butter for 1-2 minutes.

2. Add the milk, vanilla and half the icing sugar and beat for 3 minutes or until light a fluffy.

Step 3. Beat until spreadable

3. Add the remaining icing sugar and beat for a further 3 minutes or until it is a spreadable consistency.

Step 4. Spread  the buttercream into the middle of the cake.

4. Once the cakes are completely cooled you can start putting some of the buttercream into the middle of the cake. 

5. Spread the rest of the buttercream over the top and sides of the cake using a palette knife ensuring it is as smooth as you can get it. 

6. If you have any leftover buttercream (depends on how thick you like it on your cake), you can place some in a piping bag fitted with a star nozzle to swirl around the edges. 

Its not as hard as it looks and is worth the effort and the smile on peoples faces when they see a 3-D cake.