Italian hot chocolate... The best in the world?

Well, when in Rome and all that... While skiing in France this week close to the Italian border, we visited la Thuille in Italy. Crappy architecture, AMAZING hot chocolate.
If anyone knows where to get the stuff to make this in the UK, I will be forever indebted. I think I may have issues not being able to get hold of this when we go home... I'd be willing to ski for approximately 4 hours to get this shiz.

Wedding cake

In September, I had the honour of making a wedding cake for my gorgeous friends, Mr and Mrs R. I've known Mr R for many a year and his lovely Mrs for a good few as well. Their wedding was beautifully styled with a classic theme of silvery purples and shimmery pearl and ivory.

The recipe I used was this one... I won't bore you retyping it all, safe to say it's a fantastic recipe. The alteration I made though was to use my Mum / Grandma's recipe for the fruit cake as it's simply the best cake recipe ever (I had four amazing tiers of it for my own wedding) and I have never met ANYONE who doesn't like it, even if they claim to dislike fruit cake. It's THAT good. one day I may post the recipe...

http://www.bbcgoodfood.com/recipes/4578/creating-your-wedding-cake

For reasons I don't get that appears not to be a link, but please go old school and copy and paste. From that page there are links to the actual recipes (see 'works well with' or something like that).

Anyway, my cake based partner in crime Mrs M came over to help me decorate. We put our creative heads together (she's far better at stuff like that than me) and came up with this little lot:

Tiramisu and Lemon Meringue Pie cupcakes :)

So I think I have certainly had over the recommended daily intake of sugar today before I've even tasted one of these bad boys. I've just spent an hour or two pottering in the kitchen making these babies to take in to work tomorrow as I'm moving offices this week. Not far, just up a few floors, but it does mean that I'm going to have to climb 6 floors of stairs straight away every morning... Lazy bones here is not looking forward to that! (BTW I'm scared of lifts. Especially the old, scary lifts they have at the hospital. So I'll take my chances on an angina attack over getting stuck in a lift and dying of malnutrition and lack of air.)

I digress. Cakes.

The recipes for these are shamelessly lifted from the Hummingbird Bakery's Cake Days book. A worthwhile investment!!!

I made a single amount of sponge mixture and split it then added vanilla to one bit and lemon zest to the other. Here is the basic recipe for the sponge, which will make 12-16 cakes.

Dry stuff:

• 80g lovely soft squidgy butter (I microwave mine on low for 30s from the fridge)
• 240g plain flour
• 280g caster sugar
• 1 tbsp baking powder
• large pinch of salt (crushed if using salt flakes)

Wet stuff:

• 240ml whole milk
• 2 large free range happy chicken related eggs

Flavoured stuff:

• Tiramisu - 1/2 tsp vanilla extract
• Lemon meringue - zest of 1 lemon

Method:

For the sponges, stick all the 'dry' ingredients (I know butter isn't "dry", but just go with me) into your freestanding mixer to whisk with a hand whisk until sandy in texture. Then add the wet and mix swiftly. Done. 

Divide into 2 if making both flavours (or ignore this part if making one) and add the flavoured stuff - obviously double the quantities if making just one flavour.

Spoon into baking cases, bake at 170 degrees C in a fan oven for 17-18 minutes. Please don't fret if they look curdled and runny and weird before they bake, 'tis all OK. Trust me, I'm (officially) a Dr.

Let them cool. Then, the fun bit... filling and frosting!!! 

Tiramisu

For these little badgers, first make a lovely syrup. Here is a cut down version if the H'bird recipe as that made enough for me to swim in, therefore contributing to my excessive sugar intake today. I can virtually feel my teeth falling apart. Below are the amounts for 8 cakes, double if making a while batch.

Syrup:

• a strong large espresso
• a couple of teaspoons of sugar
• a shot of Kahlua (or other coffee / chocolate related liqueur. I have also used amaretto before which was LUSH but let's be trad)

Mix all the above together and allow to cool. Simples.

Filling / frosting:

• 200g mascarpone
• a double shot of kahlua (50ml)
• 150g double cream
• one tbsp icing sugar

Beat the mascarpone and kahlua together until smooth. Whip the cream and icing sugar to soft peaks and fold together. Lick spoon. Restrain self from consuming entire bowlful.

Method:

OK this may sound a little odd to those of you who haven't ever cut your beautifully made cakes apart but trust in the Hummingbird. They no lie.

1. Cut a core out of your cake, approx 2cm wide but not all the way to the bottom. A la...

2. Put a teaspoon of the syrup into the hole and anther over the little cakey stub you've just cut out...

3. Put a blob of frosting into the hole over the syrup...

4. Reunite the two long lost cake parts with their new friend, mascarpone creamy wonderness...

5. Pipe (or swirl if you're arty) the rest of the frosting over the top, dust with cocoa. Gloat.

Lemon Meringue

These are simpler to fill but require italian meringue. Panic not, 'tis possible. I made mine go grainy cos I added my sugar too fast but I'm sure you won;t make that mistake...!

Filling and frosting

• 40g lemon curd
• 100g caster sugar
• 75ml water
• 2 large free range egg whites

1. Fill the cakes with lemon curd (method as before).

2. Make the italian meringue...

Place 100g sugar and 75ml water in a pan and boil for 5-10 mins until at 115degrees C or 'soft ball' stage. If you haven't got a sugar thermometer, drop a small amount of the syrup into a bowl of cold water. If it forms a soft ball, you're good to go. If not, keep heating. If at any point it turns golden or solid, I'm afraid you'll have to start again (sad face). Meanwhile, put the egg whites into a freestanding mixer or whisk them in a bowl with a handheld whisky thingy until they're all nice and frothy.

When your sugar is hot enough, DRIZZLE it into the eggs while still whisking for all you're worth, stopping as soon as it's white and fluffy and gorgeous. Voila. Italian meringue! Top each of the cakes with the meringue and use a blowtorch if you are a ponce like me or stick 'em under the grill so they look all gorgeous and baked. Wowzers.

So there we have it! And bloody delicious they are too...

JB x

Black Forest Gateau - in cupcake form!!!

Cake. Chocolate. Cherry. Cream cheese frosting. Chocolate filling. Oooooooooooohhhhh yes....... :)



OK so I had a piping bag explosion so these do look distinctly amateurish. Decorated with freeze dried strawbs, chocolate sprinkles and ridiculous red glacé cherries - I definitely think I need to do better next time with the presentation but they do taste yummy!

Ingredients:

• 125g butter or stork
• 100g darkest dark chocolate
• 340g morello cherry jam
• 2 beaten eggs
• 100g sugar
• 150g self raising flour
• 2 tbsp cocoa powder

Filling:

• either: chocolate spread or ganache made with equal weight chocolate melted into cream. Excellent for the arteries (cough)

Icing:

• 200g Cream cheese (full fat and liquid drained)
• 600g icing sugar
• 50g very very very soft butter
• (Note - this makes tons, easily enough for about 20 cakes, but it freezes really well in a tupperware)

Method:

1. Melt the butter and chocolate gently together in a pan, then remove from the heat, stir in the eggs, jam and cocoa powder.
2. Sift in the flour and sugar until just combined...
3. Divide into 12 paper cases (or maybe a couple more) and bake at 180 degrees for about 20 mins...

Then to fill them, cut a little core out and fill with a teaspoon or so of choccy stuff if you like. You can obviously fill or top these little beauties as you like but I am a fan of as much chocolate as possible in this particular scenario!

\

Squidge the top back on - doesn't matter of it's a bit messy.

Next, to make the icing, whip the butter in a mixer til it's super soft. Then, gently mix in the cheese and icing sugar, then blitz it in the mixer or with an electric whisk for a minute or so until stiff and white and gorgeously bad for you :)

JB x

Salmon en Croute

Retro alert!! Today we made a bit of a 70's classic, inspired by the success of the 70's throwback BFG cupcakes on Friday. Salmon en croute is totally delicious, and really not hard to make (if Mr B can anyone can).
Salmon with citrus herby buttery goodness all wrapped up in a lovely warm pastry jacket.What's not to love?!

Salmon en croute

Ingredients (for 2 parcels to serve 2 or one bigg'un for about 4 people)

• One side of salmon, skin on or off 
• 60g butter
• 4 teaspoons wholegrain mustard
• 10g roughly torn basil
• 5g roughly chopped dill
• zest of 1 lemon
• One pack of pre packed shortcrust pastry (or if you want please make your own. I can sometimes be bothered... :))
• 1 egg for eggy wash

Method:

1. Skin the salmon if not already done. Slice so you have 2 kinda even sized bits. Please don't skin your fingers, your insides are lovely just where they are :)
2. Schmoodge the butter together with the herbs and zest and season (make sure it's really nice and soft - in my microwave 30s on low is a wondrous thing for lazy disorganised types like me who NEVER ever remember to leave the butter out. Or where I've left my gloves. Or where my umbrella might be...)
3. Roll out  (or, cough, *unroll*) your pastry til it's about 2cm wider than one of your salmon pieces and 2 1/2 times the length (or the other way around. You're aiming to stack the salmon bits on top of each other then wrap the whole jolly lot up. Pictures will help but my bleeding iPhone is having some issues... Will follow soon!)
4. Spread half the mustard onto the bottom of one of the fishy pieces and place it mustard side down on the fish.
5. Squidge the herby butter on top of it and sandwich it together with the other fish. 
6. More mustard... 
7. Eggy wash edges, fold up, eggy wash top, score, done.

Bake it at 190 degrees C for about 25 mins or so... Will also (hopefully) freeze (unbaked) ready for the oven another day...

YUM!!

The chelsea bun appreciation society

I think I might found this organisation if it doesn't already exist. I LOVE CHELSEA BUNS. And please please please try to make them yourself, they are easily better than you can buy from the supermarket, and just as good as you might get in a fancy little bakery. And they aren't difficult, I promise!

This recipe is pretty much the regional from Lord Sir Paul of Hollywood. He can do no wrong in my eyes (except put too much product in his hair) and this recipe was a total revelation to me.

Ingredients:

• 500g strong white flour
• 7g fast action dried yeast (1 little sachet. You could use fresh yeast too - approx double the amount is usually about right.)
• 300ml milk
• 40g unsalted butter
• 1 teaspoon salt (I use Maldon flakes and crumble them up after measuring. If you're using fine salt I'd guess that 1 teaspoon would be a bit much. Probably 1/2 would be better, but up to you...!)
• 1 large free range egg from a happy chicken
• 50g more butter, really really soft and squidgy
• 50g brown sugar
• 150g sultanas
• 100g dried cranberries
• 2 teaspoons (generous) cinnamon
• zest of an orange or lemon or whatever citrus fruit is hanging out in your fridge
• Juice of said citrus fruit
• some icing sugar (3 heaped tbs or so)

Method:

1. Warm milk with butter in either the microwave or a saucepan (not a saucepan in the microwave, that would end in disaster) until your milk is warm and your butter is melted.

2. Meanwhile, mix the flour, salt and yeast in a big old bowl.

3. Beat the egg and lob it into the flour, followed by the warm buttery milk.

4. Mix together briefly with a spoon until a soft (very soft) dough forms.

5. At this point you'll possibly be cursing as you may have a messy porridgy bowlful of gunk s opposed to a beautiful, soft, elastic dough, but thrust in the Silver Fox - gently work the dough with VERY LIGHTLY floured hands on a non floured surface for 10 mins OR leave the mixer to do the work with a dough hook on low speed for approx 7 mins.

6. I promise the Hollywood is right - as the mix cools and the flour absorbs moisture you will develop a gorgeous soft dough. Once you're at this stage, plop into an oiled bowl, cover with cling film and leave somewhere toasty for an hour or so, until it doubles in size. You should now have this:

7. After proving, you will have a beautiful, pillowy dough. Plop it out onto a fouled surface and gently press the air out.

8. Mix the dried fruit, sugar, cinnamon and zest together.

.

9. Roll the dough out to approx 30 x 20cm and tack the front edge down to the surface - this will prevent it sipping while you roll it later on. Just squidge it all the way onto the top and it should 

stick.

10. Next, cover it with the nice squidgy butter, then sprinkle the filling over, giving it a good press into the dough.

11. Roll it up nice and tightly, and chop into 12 fat slices...

13. Stand them cut side up into a very well buttered roasting tin...

14. Cover with cling film, leave for 30 mins or so to prove again, getting nice and fat so they touch (just). This will mean they have a beautiful soft edge when you tear them apart.

15. When ready for the oven, bake at 190 degrees for 15 mins, check they're not catching (they can have a foil hat for the last 7 mins if they are) and bake for another 7 minutes (22 minutes total. That wa made out to be far more complex than necessary...!)

16. Again, feel smug as you remove the tray of gorgeousness from the oven. Resist as long as possible then dive in... :)

P.S. - they freeze really well too. A batch of 12 means we usually have some in the freer for an after work treat during the week - just defrost for 30s or so in the microwave and they're pretty damned amazing. ENJOY!!!!

JB xx

Celebration cake!!

Yay! Thursday I had a lovely evening. I spent it at one of my favourite people's house cake decorating and drinking tea. With it being a fasting day, I managed to avoid eating any offcuts. This may have been an error as it looked delicious.

So my lovely friend Mags was making a 40th birthday cake for one of her colleagues for a party on Friday, and called for reinforcements to decorate it. I can't take any credit for any of the baking or idea but I did roll some of the balls. We were pretty darned chuffed with the results... Enjoy the photos!

Gert Lush Chutney

 This is a recipe from Nigella's bible, How to be a Domestic Goddess.  It is really really delicious, even though it does resemble a brown mushy pulp. Trust me, your  these sandwiches, pies, ham and many other pleasures will all be the more pleasurable for it. And even better, it's ready in less than an hour including some chopping time. Wins all round, I think you'll agree!!

Ingredients:

• 500g of these lovely things - Bramley apples. It's about 3 big ones or 4 smaller ones. Peel, core, roughly chop. Simples.
• 1 onion, finely chopped
• a decent chunk of ginger, grated (approx one tablespoon when grated)
• 350ml cider vinegar ( I use Aspinalls as, lazily, they come in 350ml bottles)
• 250g demerera sugar
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 1 tsp each of turmeric, ground allspice
• 1/2 tsp ground cloves
• Either 2 red chillies, deseeded and finely chopped, or 1 tsp dried chilli flakes.

Method:

Careful, this is pretty tricky. Dump it all in a pan. 

Mix.

Wait. 30-40 mins over a medium heat, bubbling gently.

 Done! It will thicken more as it cools, so don't worry if it seems a little on the sloppy side. Spoon into clean jars (my motley selection was washed and dried, then put in the oven for 10 mins at 140 degrees, but feel free to just stick them in a dishwasher on a hot wash, wash in hot water, rinse out with boiling water etc. Just clean them - personally I don't always bother to 'sterilise' jars and I've never died yet...

 Put in cupboard. It will improve form a couple of weeks keeping and will be fine for a few months in a cool, dark place. Refrigerate after opening. Feel smug whenever it's eaten.

JB xx