News and a New Video!

It's been a long time since I've posted anything on the blog. I've been busy working on something big.... I've started a new business with my friend! Its a cake business that specialises in different pastries and sweets. Its named The Pastry Girls. We're still working the website and the logo but will keep you posted as we go. But for more up to date news on events etc, you can check our facebook, twitter, Youtube or instagram. 

In other news, I have uploaded a new video to Cupcakes, Cake and Passion Youtube channel. Its video of me building my large sakura tree project I needed to go for college. It took ages to build, but the video is less than 4 minutes long. So give it a watch if you fancy it.

Happy Baking!

Fat Friday #39 Triple Chocolate Cookies

Its the cookie in its ultimate form! Dark, milk, white and caramel buttons all in one biscuit. These cookies are ideal to take into work at a party for snacks or fuel for revision. (Or do what I did, and horde them away to eat when you need a chocolate fix) 

Recipe: Makes 25 cookies (Recipe adapted from Primrose Bakery Christmas by Martha Swift) 

•      200g unsalted butter, softened
•      250g golden caster sugar
•      1 egg
•      1 teaspoon vanilla extract
•      150g dark chocolate
•      320g plain flour
•      1 teaspoon bicarbonate of soda
•      ¼ teaspoon baking powder
•      150g roughly chopped milk chocolate
•      50g caramel buttons
•      50g roughly chopped white chocolate

Equipment:

•     Baking sheets lined with silicone paper x 3
•     Saucepan with a little water
•     Heatproof bowl
•     Bowl
•     Sieve
•     Wooden spoon/handheld whisk
•     Wirerack

1.Place the dark chocolate in the heatproof bowl and place over the saucepan of warm water. This will melt the chocolate.

2. Meanwhile sieve flour, baking powder and bicarbonate of soda into a bowl and set aside.

3.Cream the butter and sugar together, in another bowl,until creamy and fluffy.

4.Add the vanilla and egg to the creamed mixture.

5.Pour in the melted chocolate until combined.

6.Lastly, add the dry mixture and fold into combine into a soft dough. Place in the fridge for the dough to firm up for 10 minutes.

7. Preheat the oven to 180c/160f/Gas Mark 4 in the meantime.

8. Portion the dough into 25 small balls and squash until flat and about 1cm thickness. (If you want to be precise, their about 28g per cookie).

9. Place 5 or 6 cookies on a baking sheet, to allow the cookies to spread. Bake for 5 minutes, turn the trays around and bake for a further 4 minutes. The cookies should be firm on the outside but still a little soft in the middle.

10. Leave the cookies on the baking sheets to cool for 10 minutes, then transfer to a wire rack.

Have a great weekend and happy baking! 

So, I won an award!

Good Morning everyone! I know its not a Fat Friday post again this week but I have some amazing news. 

Firstly, lets get the bad news out of the way. The reason I haven't been posting very much lately, especially on Fat Fridays is that, I've been very very sick lately and haven't had the energy to bake at home. At college I have been working hard on my centrepiece, which is consuming much of my time at college, so baking time is hard to squeeze in. Also, I've been financially struggling, in terms of buying ingredients to use for JUST for Fat Fridays, rather then just baking for a special occasion. 

Moving onto good news, I've finally moved onto moving video. I've started up two Youtube channels, one of which is my personal Youtube channel for this blog and the other is for my cake business called The Pastry Girls. I'll try to upload whenever I can, much like the blog at the moment. I'm still getting used to the video editing software, so the videos aren't the best but I'm working on them to improve my skills. 

Lastly, I'm very happy to announce that myself and one of my business partners were both nominated for student achievement awards for the Institute of Hospitality (Southern Branch). I'm proud to say that I got second place in 'Hospitality services' and Chloe (business partner) won in her category of 'Food service'! (You can check out my award video submission and Chloes submission video) 

Congrats Chloe, you deserved it and all your hard work was well deserved! It was a great evening (even though I was coughing and sneezing all over the place.)

That's all the news so far and I'll keep you all posted!

Have a great weekend!

Upcoming Posts

Its just a little post on an announcement on upcoming posts. I will continuing to post Fat Fridays when I can, as making and baking every week is becoming expensive. Don't worry I will post whenever I can and Fat Friday will still be a regular post. I'm also thinking of doing some videos soon. I'm in the process of learning some basic editing software (yeah good luck with that!). Not to worry I won't abandon the blog, just refreshing it! 

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!!!

 

Happy Birthday (to me!) Cakes!

Yay today is my birthday! Woo!! Happy Birthday to me! I'll be doing a follow up post on what I did for my birthday later in the month. But for the today here's my ultimate list of drool-worthy birthday that I would love to receive (hint).

Princess Mini Cakes

 

 Gluten Free Chocolate Suit Cake

 

 Red Velvet Cake with Blue Lace Butterflies

 

Gluten Free Chocolate Birthday Cake 

 Citrus Birthday Cake

 The Hidden Heart Cake

 That Burger Cake

 

Cherry Blossom and Vanilla Cake

Fat Friday #37 Sacher Torte

First of all Happy Birthday Sofia!! Its her birthday and it falls on a Fat Friday which is totally awesome! So happy birthday Sof! I'm sure she would approve of a dark chocolate sacher torte. Its more like a brownie then a cake, which makes it horrid to cut, but with the dark glaze it tastes amazing. Its not a cake that you can keep moonching on, its a rich cake so take it easy. But it IS Fat Friday so go for it!

Torte (recipe kindly provided by my pastry tutor) ingredients:

• 6oz bitter chocolate
• 3oz butter
• 4 egg yolks
• 4oz sugar
• 5 egg whites
•  ¼ teaspoon salt
• 1/3 cup of flour
•  A little apricot jam to brush on the cake and put in the middle of the cake

Glaze Ingredients:

• 6oz dark chocolate
• 1oz butter
• 2oz double cream
• Plus a little extra melted white chocolate or milk if you like to pipe on top of the cake.

Equipment:

• Whisk/handwhisk
• Heatproof bowl
• Pan of hot water
• Wooden spoon
• 9 inch cake tin lined with silicone paper
• Pastry brush
• Piping bag
• Serrated knife

Cake Method:

1. Preheat oven to 180c/Gas Mark 4/350f.
2. Combine the chocolate and butter and melt over a pan of water
3.Whisk the yolks with 1oz of the sugar until pale.
4.Beat the egg and sugar mixture into the melted chocolate.
5.Whisk the egg whites with the remaining sugar to create a meringue.
6.Combine 1/3 of the meringue to the chocolate then gently fold the remaining meringue.
7.Pour into a 9 inch cake tin and cook for 40 minutes. Once cooked leave to cool on a wire rack.
8.Cut into 2 layers with the serrated knife and, using a palette knife, spread a little layer with apricot jam. Assemble the cake back together and brush of the crumbs.

Glaze Method:

1.Combine the chocolate and butter and melt together.
2.Boil the cream and fold in the chocolate mixture.

To Complete:

1.Place the cake on top of the wire rack with a tray underneath to catch the glaze.
2.Using a spoon and a palette knife spread the glaze on the cake and let it drip down the sides of the cake. Wait until the glaze has set. 
3.Traditionally, you can pipe ‘Sacher’ on the top of the cake using extra chocolate and a piping bag.

Happy Birthday Sofia! Have a great weekend!