Victoria Sponge for The Great British Bake Off

This past week has been just all GO! Two of our very good friends got married and trying to fit three layer cakes, 350 macaron and a Great British Bake Off post into my schedule alongside starting in my new school, being a Momma, wife and blogger was a big challenge. But a challenge accepted openly!

But I did it! And I am here to tell the tale... Who needs sleep anyway... hah.. hah ... zzzzzzzz...

First up, George and Lisa have been together since forever and yesterday, they tied the knot in a beautiful ceremony and full blown day out. I was honoured and entrusted with making the wedding cakes. That's right... CAKES!

These folk know what they like and I was going make sure they got what they wanted. The vintage style of the venue lent itself perfectly to the semi-naked, naked cake trend so popular these days and I was only too happy to oblige! There was Red Velvet, Carrot and Walnut and Lemon and Blueberry in the three cakes. We colour coded the macaron with the pastel rainbow colours of the invitation. Each colour had it's own flavour. lemon, lime and coconut, blackberry, damson plum and vanilla, cookies and cream and finally orange blossom.

After a total of 20 hours of baking... Can you guess where this post is going.. I am so SLEEPY!!

Before I even got started on the wedding cakes, the Great British Bake Off and the Great Bloggers Bake Off needed to be sorted out. Finding myself with some *spare* time on Tuesday and knowing the Bake Off was Classic and Cake week, I opted for a simple, yet incredibly effective Victoria Sponge with some pretty trimmings! Worked a charm, went down a treat and I didn't get one photo of the inside!

Taking that as a success!!!

Victoria Sponge

I made mine in 3, 6 inch tins but the recipe quantities were the same...

Line and spray two 8 inch round baking pans and leave to one side. Turn your oven to 180C/350F or Gas Mark 4.  

225g of soft butter

225g of caster sugar

40g of plain flour

210g of self raising flour

1 tsp baking powder

4 large eggs (free range)

3 tablespoons of cold milk (optional)

Cream your butter and sugar until light and fluffy. About 5-7 minutes with an electric mixer.

Dry whisk the flours and baking powder together. Or sieve them together.

Add the eggs into the butter/sugar mix, one at a time and mix until the yolk has disappeared. Repeat for the other 3 eggs. Scrap down the sides of the bowl as you go.

Add half the flour to the mixture, then the milk and then the rest of the flour, just mix until combined. 

Be careful not to over mix as you want it to stay nice and light and fluffy!

Divide the mixture between your two tins and pop into a pre-heated oven for 25 minutes or until golden on top or your cake tester comes out clear. Allow to cool in the tins before turning out onto a wire rack. 

Cool completely before filling. 

I layered my cakes with vanilla buttercream and strawberry jam.. I tried to do a fancy drip.. thing.. with the jam on the top but ended up messing the whole shebang up and just smoothed it around the edges instead!! Still tasted pretty damn good!

And if you have stayed here through all of that, I hope you don't feel as tired as I do. haha..

It's a good tired though, the one where you know every second was worth it. The smile on the Bride and Grooms faces as they walked in and saw the table.. Nothing will beat that feeling!!

As for the Blogger Bake-along, the fab Jenny over at Mummymishaps, is coordinating all of us again this year! The season set itself up to be a good one last Wednesday. I hope you'll join in as we go bake alongside the tent! Next week is biscuits... Gosh I love a good biscuit!

Lemon and Poppy Seed Macaron

The avoidance was strong this week folks.. We are now currently down to days in my thesis-handup-countdown and let me tell you this.. I am so over spellings and grammar and editing. Snooooooreee..

I needed a little break, just a teeny, tiny time to myself where I could be creative and productive and not have to think about the correct use of the oxford comma.

I had come across a really sweet, no wait for them to dry French Macaron Recipe and gave it a quick whirl last week. It worked out well. I was very pleased with the results, but needed to work out some kinks in my oven... namely hot-spots and my oven running a little too hot.

I tweaked about the recipe, changed about the oven timings, started all over again and WOW!

You guys... It's a keeper!

Lemon and Poppy Seed French Macaron

makes 50 approx...that's 100 shells!

recipe adapted from here

115g ground almonds

230g icing sugar 

140g egg whites, large free-range, room temp

70g caster sugar

pinch of salt

drop of yellow GEL food colouring

handful of poppy seeds

Pre-heat your oven to 140C/280F or Gas Mark 3.

Pulse together the ground almonds and icing sugar in a food processor, until very fine. If any big lumps remain, sift the mix through a sifter and set to one side.

Place egg whites, sugar and salt into a super clean bowl and whip with a whisk attachment on low speed (that’s 4 on my KitchenAid) for 3 minutes. It should look like foam by the end bubbly  and frothy.

Increase the speed on the mixer to medium-high (it’s about a 7 on my Kitchen Aid) for another three minutes. It should start looking like shaving foam. Finally increase the speed to high (which is an 8 on my KitchenAid) for another 3 minutes. It is going to really stiffen up and clumps into the whisk attachment.

Add in the gel food colouring and whip at the highest setting for another minute **Remember, by now if you have not reached a stiff meringue, dump the eggs  and start over with new egg whites and a washed clean bowl.**

Pop the dry ingredients into the meringue and using a rubber spatula gently fold the meringue in through the dry mix.

Use circular folding hand movements, bring in the meringue from the sides of the bowl through the powder mix and through the middle of the bowl. You will need a maximum of 25-30 folds. Stop after this, even it’s still a little lumpy.. it’s ok.

Fill up a piping bag with a couple of spoons on the batter and pipe circles onto parchment lined baking trays in small  discs with gaps of about 3-4 cm in between each.

Lift up the tray once piped and tap it against the counter tops twice, turn the sheet and give it another two good whacks. Sprinkle over a hand full of poppy seeds and pop the trays into your oven for about 12-14 minutes.

They’ll be done when the tops have crisped up and you can gently wiggle them from side to side on the parchment.

Once baked, pull them out and let the shells cool on their trays until cold. Gently remove and fill with your favourite fillings.

I filled mine with some LEMON CURD and swiss meringue buttercream I was practicing for a wedding but you could fill it with this BUTTERCREAM... and it'd be absolutely divine.

I was so impressed with the no wait version of the french macaron method this time around.

I have a super important wedding to bake for in two weeks and this recipe is going to be my life saver!!  Under 30 minutes and you have trays full of macaron... FOR REALS!! #macaronmonday is killing it this week.

Well if that doesn't bate Banagher...

Enjoy the week... I'll be keeping going with these edits. FOUR days and counting. Let's do this.

Green Velvet Cupcakes for St. Patrick's Day

In case you ever reach the end of  rainbow and meet the elusive Leprechaun guarding his pot of gold, remember I once told you this. Dropping some Irish folklore knowledge bombs on you, so listen up.

Leprechauns are little scheming, tricksters. They don't want to give you their gold. And when you get to the end of the rainbow, the innocent looking little shoe menders will be none too pleased you are there. If you can catch him, he has to grant you three wishes. But instead of capture, he might offer you one of two options; his pot of gold or one silver coin in a drawstring purse.

Looking at that gleaming, big ol' pot of gold sparkling at the end of the rainbow you might be tempted to scoff at the drawstring purse, but consider yourself warned.

The correct option is the purse.

A Leprechaun is full of mischief so keep your eyes on him. As soon as you have chosen the gold, he will disappear over the rainbow and the pot will turn to dust. Leaving you empty handed...

The one silver coin in the drawstring purse is what you need to be choosing. The purse itself, is self replenishing. As soon as you take the silver coin out, another magically appears. That's the gold you're looking for. And if you are lucky enough to get hold of such a magical item, use it wisely. Like buying all your friends something nice... and me a bakery (seeing I was the one who told you about it in the first place!!).

Until then though, keep chasing the rainbows. It's the only way you're going to catch up with the little scamp in the first place.

Green Velvet Cupcakes (Makes 12)

125g salted butter
225g caster sugar
275g self raising flour
1 tablespoon coco powder
2 large eggs
200ml buttermilk
1 teaspoon white vinegar
1 teaspoon baking powder
couple drops of green food colouring- depending how dark you want them.

Cream your butter and sugar until light and fluffy and pale, I usually leave my mixer on for about 5 minutes. 
Add in an egg, one at a time until the yolk has been disappeared.
Dry whisk or sieve your flour and coco powder together.
Add the vinegar to the baking powder and make a paste, then add this to the egg/sugar/butter combination. Fold in.
Add half your dry ingredients to the butter/sugar/egg/vanilla mix and then half the buttermilk. Mix until combined and repeat. Add the food colouring.

Be careful not to over mix the batter here as you want them to stay light and fluffy. The buttermilk helps with that too. Just make sure all the ingredients have been mixed together.

Fill your cases to two thirds full and bake in your oven at 350/180 or Gas mark 4.
Bake for 18-20  minutes. You'll know when they are done as the tops are a little crisp, have a slight spring in them when you gently push down on the top or a skewer inserted in the middle comes out clear!

You will find the vanilla buttercream recipe HERE.

Buttermilk Pancakes

American style (as in not thin and crepe like)

This recipe makes about 12 medium pancakes. I used it to make 24 little ones and still had some left over for breakfast!

225g plain flour
1 tablespoons baking powder (you could just use self raising flour/all purpose here if you didn't have plain or baking powder)
1 teaspoon sugar
30g melted salted butter
300ml buttermilk
2 large eggs
Green food colouring as above...

I dump all the ingredients in the bowl, melt the butter in the microwave and pour that in. I mix with an electric hand mixer until all the ingredients have been combined. Pour it out into a jug and let it sit in the fridge for about 20-30 minutes before cooking.

I use real butter to fry up little tiny pancakes, transfer them to a plate, pat them dry with a bit of paper towel and let them cool completely before putting them on a cupcake (otherwise it'll melt the buttercream!). 

I then just drizzle maple syrup over the top of the pancake and let it run down the side of the cupcake. 

Happy St. Patrick's Day to all my family friends and to you my lovelies! 

Thank you as always, for stopping by and gracing this little corner with your presence. I hope that whatever part of the world you are in, it's green and happy and that the luck of the Irish spreads your way...

Birthday Cake

My brother and I were born on the exact same date, 7 years apart. So a little bit like twins, we share a birthday. Every year. We have to share. And it's a good thing I am OK with sharing too because I love celebrating birthdays. With cake and tea parties and the like. 

My brother... he has a very special birthday this year. His 40th and that required a very special cake. But he's a guy with simple tastes. He likes buttercream and he likes raspberry jam. It's not much to go with really.. but I did what I could and this is what I came up. 

It was sort of my birthday cake too. So I guess the fussy outside speaks of me while the flavour combination speaks of my brother. See, that's me sharing. 

Again. 

It's not actually that elaborate. Basically it's a dressed up vanilla and jam sponge. And considering you could buy most of the toppings ready made, it's really fools play. I however made all the decoration from scratch, but that's how I roll.  If you are any way decent at putting two layers of cake one on top of the other, sandwiched with buttercream and jam... then you will be able to do this.

It's not that difficult to do.

White Chocolate and Raspberry Birthday Cake

The Cake- Makes two 6 inch, deep pan cakes- for anything bigger i.e. 8 inch pans,  I suggest doubling  the recipe.

125g salted butter
225g caster sugar
275g self raising flour
3 large eggs 
125ml buttermilk
1 tsp baking powder
1 tsp of vanilla extract

Line two 6 inch cake tins with parchment and leave to one side. Preheat your oven to 350F, 180C or Gas mark 4. 

In a bowl cream your butter and sugar until light and fluffy and pale.
Add in an egg, one at a time until the yolk has disappeared. Then add the next, scraping down the sides of your bowl.  
Dry whisk or sieve your flour and baking powder together.
Add the vanilla to the egg/sugar/butter combination.
Add half your dry ingredients to the butter/sugar/egg/vanilla mix and then half the buttermilk. Mix until combined and repeat. Be careful not to over mix the batter here as you want the layers to stay light and fluffy. The buttermilk helps with that too. Just make sure all the ingredients have been mixed together.
Fill your cake tins to about half full, each, and bake in a preheated oven on the middle shelf.
Bake for 20 to 25 minutes. You'll know when they are done as the tops are golden, have a slight spring when you gently push down on the top or a skewer inserted in the middle comes out clear. Allow to cool in the tins for about 10 minutes, then turn out onto a wire tray and allow to cool fully before filling with jam and cream. 

The White Chocolate Dripping

100ml of double cream
200g white chocolate

Break up the white chocolate and pop it into a heat resistant bowl. Heat the double cream in a small pot until just before boiling, pour over the white chocolate. Cover the bowl over with a plate and allow a few minutes for the chocolate to melt.

Stir until the chocolate and cream are fully mixed and set aside to thicken.

The White Chocolate Buttercream 

225g soft, room temperature, unsalted butter
500g sifted icing sugar
up to 60ml of the white chocolate ganche you made for the dripping.. about 4 good tablespoons

Using an electric mixer, beat the butter on high until it is very soft and pale. (TIP: pop the butter in the microwave for a few seconds until very soft.)
Add in the icing sugar a few teacups at a time.
Add a tablespoon of the ganache in until the desired texture has been reached, you might not need all of it. 
Mix the holy moly out of it until light and fluffy. The faster and longer you mix this, the lighter and fluffier it will be.

Putting it all together...

Once the cake is cool add the first layer, top side down. The underneath part is flattest. Fill with a layer of buttercream and your jam filling. Here, I picked a raspberry conserve. Add the next cake layer, again top side down. Fill in any gaps and smooth out your buttercream. Pop the cake in the fridge for a few moments, to harden the buttercream and make the cake more stable to work with.

Remove the cake from the fridge and add the buttercream to the top and sides and smooth out. I have left this semi-naked because a) I'm a tad lazy and b) that's how I like cakes to look. Using a teaspoon, spoon the chocolate right at the edge of the cake to create the drips, then fill in the middle for the top coating. Add your decorations....

• For the donuts you need look no further than HERE and the macarons look HERE... But look, honestly those can also be bought in supermarkets so if you are new to baking, pick your battles. Make the cake from scratch, buy the decorations. 

Honestly no need to be killing yourself. NO ONE is going to judge you if you roll up a  party with a cake looking like this.. and if they do! PPPffftttt... Turn your back and walk away. You got no time for that! You don't need that kind of negativity in your life. And those folk don't deserve your cake.

Zuger Kirschtorte

Back posting a little, shameful blogger, to show you what I made for December' s choice with The Cake Slice Bakers.

This is the second month with our new book Maida Heatter's Cake. I am genuinely loving this book!! I was really impressed with my last choice and I just love how the books reads. It's so straight forward and easy to understand. I do think there are some unnecessary steps, some elements don't need to be as laborious but nevertheless, it's going great!

I opted for the Zuger Kirschetorte, on page 116, and made it for Christmas Day dessert. It was fabulous, but lacked the real cherry bing in the cake layer. I think I needed double the syrup that the recipe called for. I also opted out of using buttercream to sandwich the cake.. I felt it would be too heavy after our dinner and while I am a fan of hedonism, just couldn't bear the thoughts of this being overly sweet or luscious.

This cake is such a treat! From the bottom up it is described as a layer of crisp almond meringue; a thick layer of kirsch whipped cream; a divine, light and airy, buttery sponge; another layer of thick kirsch whipped cream; topped with yet another layer of meringue, then more cream and decorated with meringue kisses.

Not for the faint hearted, definitely for the us gluttons!

Zuger Kirschtorte

adapted from Maida Heatter's Cakes pg 116

The Cake Layer

125g self raising flour
6 tbsp cornflour
5 tbsp soft butter
4 eggs and 3 egg yolks
85g sugar

Preheat the oven to 180C/ 350F or gas mark 4.
Line, the sides and bottom of a 9 inch springform pan with parchment and set to one side.
Sift the flour and cornflour together.
Cut the butter into small pieces and melt it slowly in a pan over a medium heat, set aside to allow to cool but not harden.
Put the eggs and egg yolks in a bowl and add the sugar. Whisk until the mixture increases in volume, almost tripled, it will look very pale and thick.
Sift about one third of the flour mixture into the eggs and fold in with a rubber spatula, repeat twice, gently folding in the flour.
Add the melted butter in the same way, slowly and gently folding it into the mixture, making sure you keep all the air.

Turn out into the prepared tin and bake in the oven for about 35 minutes. Once out of the oven, carefully clip open the spring form, remove the parchment and using your wire rack, invert the cake. Remove the bottom of the pan, but not the parchment.

Leave the cake upside down to cool.

Reduce the oven to 135C/275F, Gas Mark 1.

Meringue Japonaise

85g ground almonds
225g sugar
1/2 tbsp of flour
4 egg whites

Line two cookies sheet with parchment, with a pencil draw two nine each circles on each piece of parchment.
In a small bowl stir the ground almonds and 1/3 of the sugar and the flour together.
Beat the egg whites until they hold a soft shape, gradually (a few tablespoons at a time) add the other 2/3 of sugar and whisk until thick and glossy. Make sure the meringue is stiff, do not under-beat here.
Fold the almond mixture into the meringue in two additions, make sure it is evenly incorporated but do not mix more than necessary.
On your marked out parchment, create two circles using the meringue, keeping the meringue about a 1/4 inch away from the edge of the pencil line. Dollop some kisses on the baking sheets also, if you have any left over.
Pop the baking sheets in the oven for 30 minutes, rotate the baking sheets top to bottom and bake for another 30 minutes.

Turn off the oven and allow the meringue to cool in the oven completely.

Kirsch Syrup and Whipped cream

80ml of water
3 tbsp granulated sugar
80ml kirsch
500ml of single cream
2 tbsp of kirsch

Pour the water and sugar in a small saucepan and over a medium heat allow the sugar to dissolve and the mixture comes to a boil. Set aside to cool, once cooled, stir in the 80ml kirsch.

Whip the single cream to soft peaks and fold through the kirsch. Set aside.

Putting it all together...

Starting with a layer of cooled meringue, place it right side up on your serving plate. Add a thick layer of cream. Place the cake, topside down and remove the parchment piece. Using the kirsch syrup, brush it on to the cake and allow it soak through.

Add another layer of cream on top of the cake and the the remaining meringue layer. Cover the top and sides of the cake with the remaining cream and decorate with kisses.

Make sure you stop by the other bakers and see what they made... you'll find them all below!

Emily's Rum and Raisin Cake
Carlee's Cinnamon Buns
Laura's Ginger Ginger Cake
Annabel's Cinnamon Buns
Elle's Cinnamon Bun Wreath

Merry Christmas to you all!

Black Tea Sponge with Honey Buttercream and Blackberry Jam

Things I noticed...

The leaves have lost their summer green glow. The autumn hues of red, browns and gold are in abundance and some of the trees have started to loose their leaves. But the sun is beating down, big and bright? It's that weird weather where you need to bring a jacket with you in the morning. But if you're still wearing it at lunch, you will get heat stroke. Having said that, the back garden has relished the sun and rain mixture and has grown wild and of it's own volition these past few weeks... and while it's a disaster to look out upon, has grown a fine abundance of blackberries.

That were quickly gobbled up by every blackbird in the country and I got about 8 good ones.

I clearly needed more for the jam and while I am all for the experience of blackberry picking, I didn't get the time and bought the bloomin' things in the supermarket. Yes.. YES... I know they are free from every bush by the road and ditch but I just didn't get the chance to go picking. You have to leave me off this one...

Now unless you've been living under a rock; you'll know that the Great British Bake Off is over.. Nadyia won and in the next few weeks or so, the Great Irish Bake Off is due to air. It's an entire autumn/winter of baking. I can't believe it. I opted to bake the Showstopper as my final entry into the Great Bloggers Bake Off with the lovely Jenny from Mummy Mishaps.

The premise was, three cakes that are quintessentially British. Not being British, I hadn't a breeze what was quintessential so I scribbled down what "British" was to me.

It wasn't much to be honest.. we share a lot of things in common, but The Queen, cricket, red telephone boxes, Victoria Sponge, Mrs Patmore and tea came out on top. Out of those, the following cake was born...

Soft Set Blackberry Jam (I made this up and it worked out!)

250g blackberries
125g sugar
2 tablespoons of water
1 teaspoon cornflour

Put the cornflour into the water and mix through. Put all of the ingredients into a pot over a medium heat and all to simmer down into a mush. Give it a few stirs every now and then. Allow to cool and thicken.

Black Tea Victoria Sponge

I made three cakes here. The recipe below provides enough for ONE, two layered Victoria Sponge. If you want to do what I did... I double and a half-ed it.. (If you get me?)

Prepare two 8 inch cake pans and pre-heat your oven to 180 C/350F or Gas Mark 4.

125ml of hot milk
Contents of three teabags

225g soft butter
225g caster sugar
40g plain flour
210g self raising flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
4  eggs at room temperature

Heat your milk in the microwave until hot but not boiling.

Add in the contents of three teabags and stir up. Allow to cool. The longer you leave the tea to infuse, the stronger the flavour.

Cream your butter and sugar until light and fluffy. 
Dry whisk the flours and baking powder together. 
Add the eggs into the butter/sugar mix, one at a time and mix until the yolk has disappeared. 
Add half the flour to the mixture, then the milk and then the rest of the flour. Be careful not to over mix as you want it to stay nice and light and fluffy!
Divide the mixture between your two tins and pop into a pre-heated oven for 25-35 minutes or until golden on top or your cake tester comes out clear.
Allow to cool in the tins for about 5 minutes, before turning out onto a wire rack and cooling completely. 

Honey Buttercream Frosting

225g soft, unsalted butter

500g icing sugar

60ml honey

Beat the butter for a few moments until very soft and pale.
100g ish.. at a time, add in the icing sugar until completely mixed through.
Fold through the honey and leave to one side at room temperature until you are ready to frost your cake.

Putting it all together...

Sandwich the two layers of your cake together with some jam and buttercream an continue to cover the outside of the cake with another layer of buttercream.

Any left over jam... Lick it straight off the spoon, pop it on your morning toast or dip in a bread stick of two. You could put more on the cake too... I am simply providing you with options!

Clare and her absolute dote, Jacob are hosting the finals this week! Jacob is a junior baker, and his lovley Mummy Clare helps him write the blog! Be sure to stop by and see the other bakes the rest of the bloggers chose as their final entry!! It's going to be a tough choice for Jenny I am sure!

If you follow this link here... you will get all my blog posts for this years Great British Bake Off blog along! I had so much fun baking with such a talented group of bloggers.

I won Star Baker for my Croquemebouche Cupcakes and my Irish Cream Chocolate Tart. Here's hoping my Victoria Sponge can get me through finals!!