Key lime pie and rose and chocolate cakes

...This weekend saw the sun and a BBQ for Mr and Mrs M's housewarming. I obviously took this as an excuse to bake...!

I followed the Hummingbird Home Sweet Home recipes to the letter and produced these lil beauties... Only changes were to pipe a rose onto the rose ones. 

If I were to make these again (and I definitely will!) I'd make the custard for the key lime pie cupcake frosting the day before as even though mine was cool, if it had been refrigerated I think I'd have been able to create a better finish (swirled or piped). I won't repeat the recipe here as they're both quite long, but here are pics and notes...

Zesty goodness for the lime curd filling for the key lime pie cakes 

Lime curd for the filling, chilling! So delicious I had to keep some for putting on toast. Will definitely repeat this bit on its own!

Vanilla sponges ready to fill... Cored...

And filled...

Custardy goodness slipped on

Choccy rose sponges

Filled with (blooming delicious) rose custard

Finished! Not a bad afternoon's work :)

JB

Brioche...

I did it. I made Brioche. The bread which is such a pain in the bum that even goddess Lorraine Pascale writes 'you can freeze the dough at this stage as you may be sick of it'. 

Well, I didn't have to. Inspired by a friend of Mr B who kindly sent him home from wok with a beautiful little brick bun the other week, I did it.

I used Lorraine Pascale's recipe, but in half quantities (below). However, it was good, but not as good as I had hoped, so I'll try another next time. Anyway, it was absolutely delicious warm and dipped in coffee for a Sunday morning breakfast.

Below is the recipe, the only thing I added was a handful of raisins soaked in amaretto for a couple of hours, then floured and added after the last bit of kneading. I used a mixer with a dough hook, I don't think I'd tackle it by hand!

Makes 8

Ingredients:

• 250g plain flour
• 10g fresh yeast
• 3 eggs
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 1 tbsp sugar
• 160g unsalted butter

Method:

• Put flour, yeast, sugar and salt in a mixer bowl with a dough hook.
• Add the eggs one by one, and knead really well until a smooth (very solid!) dough forms.

• Then, add the butter, bit by bit, and knead it for a good 10-15 minutes on a low speed, until it comes away from the bowl. This took ages and I had to keep scooping the dough off the sides of the bowl.

• The dough in the picture here isn't ready yet. I added the raisins after (see above picture).
• Then, put the dough in a greased muffin tim with little bobbles on top and leave it to rise, covered in oiled cling film, for a good 2-3 hours until doubled (the fat retards the yeast so it takes a while to rise).
• Then, bake at 180 degrees C for about 15-17 minutes. If after 12 they look a bit dark, put some baking parchment or foil on them.

Yum!

JB x