Fat Friday #38 Funfetti Cake

I wasn't really sure what a funfetti cake was, until google helped out. Its a cute confetti style cake, its super colourful and bright and makes an excellent cake. Rob asked me to whip one up for his architect studio for the end of term meeting. My suggestion is to use the large confetti dots as they won't bleed into the cake batter. Decorate with lots more confetti dots for the full rainbow effect.

Cake Ingredients (Recipe adapted from Saved by Cake by Marian Keyes) :

• 8 eggs
• 400g sugar
• 400g unsalted butter
• 3 teaspoons vanilla extract
• 600g self raising flour
• 50g Confetti Sprinkles
• A small amount of jam (we used blackberry jam to cut across the sweetness of the buttercream)

Equipment:

• 8cm Cake tins x 3
• Wire rack
• Bowl
• Wooden spoon/ Handheld whisk
• Sieve
• Turntable
• Serrated knife
• Cake board
• Cranked pallet knife

Buttercream:

• Buttercream recipe and method here
• 30g Confetti sprinkles to decorate

1.Butter and line three 8cm tins. Pre-heat the oven to 190c/375f/Gas Mark 5.
2.Cream the butter and sugar together until pale and fluffy. Add the eggs, one by one, beating between each addition. The mix may curdle a little but add a tablespoon of flour if this happens.
3.Stir in the vanilla extract and sieve in the flour and fold through. Add the confetti and fold again.
4.Divide the mix between the 3 tins and bake for 20 minutes or until golden and well risen.

5. Place the cakes on a wire rack to cool for 5 minutes before removing from the tin to cool completely.

6. In theory, you should have some amazing crazy colour bits in your cake!

To assemble:

1. Level all the cakes off with a knife and mentally work out which cake you would like to assemble.

2. Place a little buttercream on a cake board and place the bottom tier of the cake on top of the buttercream to hold in place.

3. Spread a little jam on the top of the bottom tier and follow with the buttercream.

4. Place the next cake layer on top and repeat the last step.

5. Place the last layer on top and make sure its stacked straight.

6. Crumb coat the whole cake with the vanilla buttercream and place in the fridge for 15 minutes.

7. Using the turntable, coat the whole cake in a layer of buttercream. Then carefully sprinkle the confetti halfway up the cake or decorate like a crazy rainbow!

Have an excellent weekend!!!

 

Traditional Doughnuts

Hello and a great big welcome to Friday! Its not just Friday however, its Fat Friday! Where stuffing your face with food is encouraged. This week we're looking at doughnuts.

These are traditional jam filled doughnuts. Which are fluffy on the inside and have a little bite on the outside, thanks to the cinnamon sugar. I've chosen raspberry but feel free to add strawberry jam, custard or pastry cream. Doughnuts are easy-ish to make, the most difficult part is the cooking process. Doughnuts have a tendency to cook quickly and will float around all over the place. Also, hot oil is dangerous so this recipe isn't recommended for children. If you feel uncomfortable with hot oil, have someone who is more confident at cooking with it.
So with the health and safety out of the way, lets bake... I mean fry!

Ingredients: Will make 10 giant sized doughnuts, or 20 medium doughnuts (Recipe adapted from BBC Good Food Website)

• 500g strong white flour, plus a little extra
• 50g caster sugar
• 40g unsalted butter, melted
• 2 free-range eggs
• 2 x 7g sachets instant yeast
• 10g/¼oz salt
• 150ml/5fl oz warm milk
• 130ml/4½fl oz water
• 1 large jar smooth raspberry jam
• 300g sugar
• 3 teaspoons cinnamon
• Loads of oil for frying (sunflower/vegetable)

Equipment:

• Deep fat fryer/Saucepan filled with oil
• Sieve
• Bowl
• Baking sheet x 2, one lined with flour and the other lined with sugar and cinnamon
• Disposable piping bag
• (Mixer with a dough hook attachment-Optional)
• Damp Tea-towel
• Spoon
• Slotted Spoon
• Small knife

 

1.Place all ingredients into a large bowl, holding back a 1/4 of the water and stir with your hands until a dough is formed. This will get messy, so please make sure your hands are clean.

2.Add the remaining water and knead the dough in the bowl for about 4 minutes. (Or you could mix with a stand mixer fitted with a dough hook which is what I did).

3.Tip dough onto a lightly floured surface and knead well for 10 minutes, until the dough is smooth and elastic. (Again, I used a dough hook on a stand mixer and mix for 10 minutes.)

4.Place the dough into a clean bowl, cover with a damp tea towel and leave to rise for an hour. Make yourself a cup of tea, wash up or maybe watch a bit of TV.

5.The dough will have doubled in size. Tip the dough out onto a very lightly floured surface, and knead it a few times to knock the air out of it.

6.Divide the dough into 10/20 portions and shape each portion into a ball.

7.Place all balls onto a floured baking tray and allow to rise for an hour.

8.Preheat sunflower oil in a saucepan. Meanwhile get a baking sheet and mix the cinnamon and 300g sugar together on the tray.

9.Pop the doughnuts into the fat, cooking each side for about five minutes or until golden brown. Put around 3/4 in at a time to avoid them sticking

10. Remove the doughnuts from the oil with a slotted spoon and immediately roll into the sugared baking sheet.

11.Set aside and leave to cool.

12.When completely cold, cut into the side of the doughnut, reaching to the centre, this will be where the jam will go.

13.Spoon some smooth strawberry jam into a piping bag and pipe until full but not bursting.

What is your favourite jam filling? Want to share your Fat Friday food moment? Use the hashtag #fatfridays on Instagram and twitter.
Have a good weekend and happy baking (or frying..)!

Easy Peanut-Butter and Jelly Brownies

Happy 4th July to all my American readers! I hope your having a fab day and to celebrate this occasion we've got an all time U.S.A favourite: peanut butter and jelly. I hope these brownies do this combo justice. Lets get started.
Peanut Butter and Jelly, that's jam to us British, is a fail-safe sandwich filling that has been made popular by the USA (thanks for that). Who knew it could work! When I first heard of the term PB and J I thought it was a type of pyjama. But times have moved on, I think for the better. 
These brownies take about 15-20 minutes to make as they are quite easy to make. What takes the biggest amount is the baking, which is 50 minutes. The reason for this is to slow bake the brownies to gooey perfection.

Recipe: Peanut Butter and Jelly (Jam) Brownie (Adapted from The Little Book of Lunch) 

·      350g dark chocolate (I used leftover chocolate for this so use good quality chocolate)

·      200g unsalted butter, softened (plus a little extra for greasing the tin)

·      450g golden caster sugar

·      4 eggs

·      100g plain flour, sifted 

·      5 tbsp Smooth Peanut Butter

·      5 tbsp Strawberry Jam
·      1 small pack of salted peanuts 

 Equipment:

·       23cm square cake tin, greased and line with greaseproof paper

·       Electric mixer/hand-held electric whisk

·       Sieve

·       Heatproof Bowl

·       Saucepan

·       Bowl

·       Knife

·       Tablespoon

·       Teaspoon

1.    Pre heat the oven to 170c/325c/ Gas mark 3. Grease and line the tin.

2. In a heatproof bowl placed over a small amount of boiling water in a saucepan, to melt the chocolate and butter. Set aside to cool a little. 

3. In a bowl beat the eggs and sugar until shiny. Gently mix in the melted chocolate and butter mixture and fold in the sifted flour.

4. Roughly mix in 2 tablespoons of the peanut butter into the brownie batter.  

5. Pour the brownie mix into the lined tin. 
6.Drop the last 3 tablespoons of peanut butter into the brownie mix and swirl though roughly.
7. Drop the 5 tablespoons of jam into the mix and roughly swirl. This will create a marbled effect throughout and will taste fab!

8. Bake for 45-50 minutes until shiny and crispy on top. To make sure the brownies are cooked, stick a sharp knife in. If it comes out clean-ish then it’s ready (I'm sure you know that already right? You've read that enough times on the many blogs you've read before to know when a cake is done? Well... good for you!)Leave to cool in the tin.

9. Cut into small squares and moonch until you are full of peanut butter goodness.

I hope you all have a great weekend. How are you celebrating 4th of July? 

Devonshire Splits, Bath Buns and Fruit Buns. With One Dough!

Another pastry class and a week closer to another crazy assessment!
Next week I'm making a flavoured loaf which was featured in a past blog post. 
However this week I've been making a plain sweet dough. Which sounds a little boring, but the whole class made a variety of different buns. 

In the class we made Devonshire Splits. When I think of Devon, I think of my friends Leanne and Ben and secondly of traditional cream tea. Now, no matter which country in the world tries. The BEST cream tea is from the UK!

Image from: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Devonshire_tea.jpg

Traditionally clotted cream, jam are served with scones and hot tea. However Devonshire Splits aka Cornwall Splits, (there isn't a difference in the bun, but the name varies on if you put the jam or cream on first) can also be served with instead of scones.  Just would like to point out that we also made some Devonshire Splits with fondant icing on top, which look very similar to éclairs. 

Devonshire Splits made by me in pastry class

Bath buns are sweet dough buns which can be filled with fruits such as raisins and can be served with jam or cream or even both! They are always topped with crushed sugar. 

Bath buns(far left) with different shaped Devonshire Splits.(Made by me) 

Recipe: Basic Bun Dough 

·       600g Strong Flour

·       15g Milk powder

·       75g Sugar

·       7g Salt

·       60g Unsalted butter

·       30g Liquid egg

·       37g Yeast

·       300g Warm Water

Devonshire Splits with icing:

·       500g Fondant Icing

·       Whipped Cream

Devonshire Splits:

·       Whole Egg for glazing

·       Whipped Cream

·       Raspberry Jam

Bath Buns

·       Whole Egg for glazing

·       Crushed sugar 
        
Fruit Buns
· 75g Sultanas

Equipment

·       Sieve

·       Bowl

·       Jug

·       Large baking sheet covered with silicone paper

·       2x Piping bags, one fitted with a star nozzle

·       Spoons

·       Pastry brush for the egg glaze

·       Whisk for the whipping cream

1.    Sieve the flour into a bowl, add the milk powder. Rub the butter into the flour until mix resembles breadcrumbs. Mix in the salt and sugar.

2.    Disperse yeast in some but not all of the water.

3.    Make a well in the flour mix, add the yeast water and also the egg. Add most of the yeasty water but not all. Knead the dough until the dough loses it’s stickiness. Add the rest of the water if the dough feels dry. 

4.    Cut into thirds. Mix 75g sultanas into one third of the dough, cut into 4’s and shape into round buns.

5.    Cut the two doughs into 4’s and shape four into oblongs and four into round buns.

6.    Place all the buns on the large tray covered with silicone paper and leave to proof for 30-45 minutes.

7.    Glaze the tops of the buns with a little egg wash and top the fruit buns with a little nibbed sugar.

8.    Bake at 180c/350f/Gas Mark 4/  for 15-20 minutes.

9. Place on a wire rack to cool.
10. Cut the plain buns slightly diagonally fill with cream and jam.

11. Cut the oblong buns across and top with melted fondant and fill with cream. Serve with tea!

Bake On!
Penny 

The After Christmas Shock and January Blues

Happy 2013 Everyone! I hope you all had a fab New Year! 2012 was a truly exceptional year for me (and the rest of Great Britain. See the Olympics last year? That was us. *Cool shades on* Just saying.)
Sadly its that time of year again. The hype after Christmas is going down. Resolution's are getting us down. Going back to work is getting us down.

BUT NOT ME! I'VE GOT A NEW JOB! WOO! 
So January, do your worst!

What I'm hearing lately is all about diets.  
In my opinion. Diets are bad. You'd only get me on a diet if it was a dessert diet.
But if that's what you want to achieve then by all means go for it and I wish you the best of luck.
In fact, your'e more likely to lose weight if you start your diet during Spring months like March. As during the colder months like January, you still crave warm comforting food rather then diet food. Remember though no matter what shape you are, everyone is beautiful. 
I'm sick of hearing about stupid bloody diets. So enough of diets and onto some yummy foods.

My first pastry class of 2013 was based on my second assessment which will be next week which is so scary. But it has to be done and so I thought that I would put these recipes up. There ridiculously easy and simply tasty. 

These biscuits come up so lovely and soft. There easy to make and the flavour isn't overpowering. 

From the top, hazelnut biscuits, plain cupcakes and Jammie Dodgers made by me in pastry class

Recipe: Hazelnut Biscuits

•       115g butter, room temperature
•        75g icing sugar, sieved (plus extra for dusting)
•        115g Plain flour, sieved
•        75g Ground hazelnuts
•        1 egg yolk
•        Hazelnuts to decorate

Equipment:

•        Sieve
•        Scraper
•        Bowlx2
•        Mixer
•        Baking sheet lined with silicone paper
•        Knife

    1. Cream the butter and sugar together until light and fluffy.

    2. Beat in the flour, ground hazelnuts and egg yolk until evenly mixed.

    3. Roll into a sausage shape. Cut the sausage in half and then quarters. Then cut the quarters into 3 shapes.

    4. Place on tray. Bake for 10 minutes, 180c/350f/ Gas Mark 4

Sable (sab-lay) is French for sand. Not really for the texture but for the colour of the raw dough. Once again this recipe is easy and may look familiar. They bare a resemblance to Jammie Dodgers, which are sweet jam filled biscuits. But I always say, home-made is way better.

Jammie Dodgers packet from
 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jammie_Dodgers

From the bottom: Jammie Dodgers aka Sable biscuits, Plain cupcakes and Hazel biscuits

Recipe: Sable Biscuits aka Home-made Jammie Dodgers. 

•        250g plain flour, sieved
•        200g butter, room temperature cut into cubes
•        100g icing sugar
•        Pinch of salt
•        2 egg yolks
•        Raspberry jam

Equipment:

•        Bowl
•        Baking tray lined with silicone paper
•        Various cutters
•        Rolling pin
•        Knife

    1. Place dry ingredients into bowl. Using fingertips, rub the ingredients together until mixture resembles breadcrumbs.

    2. Make a well in the centre and mix until the dough forms. Turn out onto a light floured work surface and roll out to a thickness of about 0.5cm.

    3. Cut with various cutters so that you have a base and a top like a sandwich, and place on a baking tray.

    4. Bake for 10 minutes or until light golden brown, 180c/350f/ Gas Mark 4.

    5. Place on a wire rack to cool. Once cooled spread jam on bases with a knife and place another biscuit on top. 

   

   If you'd like the basic cupcake recipe go to here.

   Bake on! and Happy New Year

   Penny