Ginger Cake Donuts

I suspect most people will associate gingerbread with Christmas and Winter, but for me it is one super Autumn-ey flavour and perfectly nice for this time of year. With October truly on it's way and the Cake Slice Bakers time of the month swinging around, there was no doubt in my mind what I was baking when it came to choices. 

The Ginger Cake is, as Roger Pizey in World Class Cakes, puts it "super-charged". While I omitted the Ginger Wine called for in the original recipe, the rest stayed the same. I had never heard of Ginger Wine, and couldn't find it readily so it didn't make the cut. I added a sweet cinnamon, cream cheese frosting instead. The Donuts were beautifully balanced and based on the oh-ahs that accompanied the tasters lip smacking, I trust they went down a treat. 

I had a half of one, trying to be good and not deviating too far off my build-me-some-muscle gym plan. But honestly every time I meet my trainer he's asking what I have baked this week so I can never get away from it! My work colleagues are the same. It's like they want me to bake and complain I am making them put up weight.

And I love them for it. 

Ginger Cake Donuts- 

makes 18 donuts. Adapted from World Class Cakes page 70

170g butter
200g dark brown sugar
2 tbsp corn syrup
2 eggs
160ml whole milk
290g self raising flour
2 tsp ground ginger
75g chopped crystalised ginger

Preheat your oven to 325F/160C or Gas mark 3.
Spray a donut pan with non stock spray and leave to one side.
Melt the butter, sugar and corn syrup over a low heat.
Whisk the eggs into the milk. Add this to the melted butter. Mix to combine.
Sift the flour with the ginger and add the crystallized ginger. Add this to the wet ingredients and mix until just combined and smooth.

Fill a piping bag with the mixture and pipe in the donut holes until just before the fill line. Bake in your preheated oven for 13-15 minutes until the tops spring back when touched.

Allow to cool for a few minutes in the pan before tossing out and allow to to cool fully on a wire rack.

Make the frosting.

Cinnamon, Maple Cream Cheese Frosting 

30g full fat cream cheese
1 to 2 tbsp whole milk
1 tbsp maple syrup
125g icing sugar
1/4 tsp cinnamon

Add all the ingredients into a bowl and mix until smooth. If you need more milk to make it wetter, add in one tablespoon at a time until the desired consistency is reached.

Once the donuts have cooled, dip in each one and allow to dry on a wire rack.

*** of course I don't have a picture of the finished forsting before dipping.. It was all too exciting!

Whaadya think?

Pretty autumnal right! Be sure to check out the linky below and see what the other bakers made this month. Happy baking folks!

An InLinkz Link-up

Lemon Tart

Pressure?

Pressure is for tyres my Mom will always say. There's no need to put yourself under pressure. But I don't heed her words and put myself under pressure is exactly what I did this month. I had read the recipe for Marco Pierre White's Lemon Tart, some time ago when I say it in Roger Pizey's book, World Class Cakes. I knew the minute it came up for choice with the Cake Slice Bakers, it would be what I picked. Having spotted it on June's list. I gave it no more thought.. until I came to bake it.

I picked the hottest day of the year ever to make this tart. Irish people don't get really great weather. We get pockets of sunshine here and there, but global warming stepped up a notch this week and we got temperatures hotter than the Mediterranean. I am not complaining about the weather (Irish people also do a lot of that!!) but merely stating that the heat put me under pressure...

Not great when you are trying to keep pastry cold!

Anyway... this tart was a pure delight! It has this light, lemon flavour that tasted so much better the following day. I did have some trouble with this tart from the start, but the spoils at the end were delicious.

During the baking process I dropped my bowl of zest into the filling bowl, resulting in this crazy splash spillage of sticky lemon filling. No process photos as a result but I do plan this again so will pop them in as soon as! The recipe also called for way more filling than was actually needed, I had a lot left over, even after the spillage so I have adjusted this for you in the recipe below. I also substituted my own Short Crust Recipe in for Marco's because I didn't like how the pastry sounded in the book and didn't have the 24 hours to rest it either!!

Marco Pierre White's Lemon Tart- 

adapted from page 246 World Class Cakes

Short Crust Pastry

240g plain flour

50g icing sugar

150g diced cold butter (+ a little extra for greasing)

1 large egg

Preheat your oven to 180C, 350F or gas mark 4.

Put the flour, butter and icing sugar into a food processor and blitz until looks like breadcrumbs.

Crack in the egg and bring together until a soft ball forms.

Wrap in clingfilm, pat down and leave in fridge until needed.

Lemon Filling

225ml double whipping cream

6 large eggs

240g caster sugar

finely grated zest of 2 lemons

juice of 2 large lemons

In the bowl whisk the cream and mix until it forms a ribbon.

In a separate bowl whisk the eggs and sugar until smooth.

Add the lemon juice to the egg and sugar batter and whisk to combine. Pour the mixture through a strainer onto the cream.

Whisk everything together and then add the lemon zest.

Let the bowl of filling stand in the refrigerator for 2 hours.

Take the pastry out of the refrigerator, grease up a 10 inch, loose bottom, round pie dish with some butter.

Roll out a larger circle than your pie dish and place it into your dish pressing the sides gently as you go. Cut off any excess. Chill for the remaining time on the filling.

Preheat the oven to 160C/325F or gas Mark 3.

Remove the pastry shell from the refrigerator and line with parchment paper, fill with baking beads and bake blind for about 20 minutes, or until the inside of the tart becomes golden brown.

Remove from the oven, let cool slightly, then carefully remove the beads and the parchment paper.

Turn the oven down to 120C/250F or Gas Mark 2.

Remove your chilled lemon filling from the refrigerator and whisk again. Pour the lemon filling into the warm pastry shell and bake in a pre-heated oven for about 30 minutes. There should be a slight wobble in the centre when it is cooked.

Remove from the oven and cool completely on a cooling rack.

Once the tart is fully cooled remove it from the baking dish and douse in icing sugar.

*yours will not turn out as brown as mine on the top.. My oven was too hot for the tart when I put it in. Ensure you have sufficiently cooled your oven to avoid this. 

So what do you think? Another Cake Slice Bakers success month from World Class Cakes? I think so.. despite the pitfalls and stops and starts I encountered. There wasn't much left by the time I got to photographing it.. that's a good sign I reckon!

Please scroll down to see all the beautiful cakes that were baked this month, and don't forget to check out our Facebook Page. Also, if you are interested in joining the #TheCakeSliceBakers, please send an email to Felice at thecakeslicebakers at gmail dot com, and she will send you all the information you need! We are a great bunch of bakers, happy to make new friends!

An InLinkz Link-up

Genoise and Raspberries and Cream... Oh my!!

There was no way I was going to pass up a Genoise Sponge when I saw it on The Cake Slice Bakers list this month. 

It is one of my favourite sponges, light and airy and perfect with fresh fruit and cream. I was excited to see how Roger Pizey of World Class Cakes made his and followed the instructions in earnest. 

But alas, it was pretty much the same as every other Genoise recipe I have tried. Not that that was a bad thing, but there was nothing a teeny bit special about it. I did not however, use a the sugar syrup mentioned in the recipe. I really dislike, with all my baking heart sugar syrups used on cake layers to keep them moist. My understanding is, if you have to pour sugar water onto your dried out old sponge, then your recipe is wrong. Maybe that's the novice in me and someone can enlighten... I would love to stand corrected. 

Syrups as glazes and flavours, you can proceed, but sugar water.. YUCK!!! 

What the recipe did make for though, was an exceptionally light sponge, that melted in your mouth. There was no need for the sugar syrup in my opinion. The Chantilly Cream, a basic in most kitchens was a lovely accompaniment to the raspberries, not as sweet at this time of year and which happened to be on sale in my local store this week. And good thing too as there are a lot needed for this recipe.

The recipe it self called for one 8' round. Now. looking at the pictures in the book, I did not think the cake displayed was as small as an 8 inch. But I trusted the book.. I should have went with my gut. I opted to split the batter into two 6' pans, which actually resulted in me using three 6 inch pans and then ended up with double height cakes. You will see in the pictures below, they are very deep layers. Again, not a complaint.. the cake was ate up in no time, just something that I felt coming and ignored. 

Genoise Sponge with Raspberries and Cream

6 eggs

200g caster sugar

160g plain flour

25g plain flour

30g butter, melted

500ml Chantilly cream (recipe below)

625g fresh raspberries

Preheat the oven to 170°C/325F or gas mark 3. Line two 8 inch round cake pan or three 6 inch with baking parchment.

In a large bowl, whisk the eggs until white and foamy. Slowly add the sugar and beat until the mixture has trebled in size.

Sift the flour and plain flour together and fold it, using a large metal spoon into the egg mixture, carefully.

Once incorporated, fold in the melted butter.

Pour the mixture into the prepared pans and bake in a preheated oven for 25-35 minutes or until a skewer inserted in the middles comes out clean.

Remove from the oven, allow to cool for 10 minutes in the pan and then turn out onto a wire rack to cool fully.

While the cake is cooling make the Chantilly Cream.

Chantilly Cream

500ml double cream

125g icing sugar

Whip the cream to soft peaks, sift in the icing sugar and continue to whip the cream until thick, stable ribbons form. Store in the fridge until needed. 

Putting it all Together

Once the cakes are cooled, spread a layer of the Chantilly cream on the bottom layer before arranging the fresh raspberries in circles on top.

Cover the raspberries with another layer of cream and then place the top layer of cake on the raspberries.

Spread a layer of cream on the very top (and sides if you wish) and place more raspberries. 

Serve.

So what do you think? It's worth a shot for sure.. I know it will be a hit because who doesn't love cake and cream and fruit when the summer is fast approaching!!

Have a great weekend folks!

An InLinkz Link-up

Banana Bread and Cream Cheese Frosting

For all of you who are new here, let me just introduce to you what happens round this time every month (and also do a little happy dance and extend the warmest of wishes and hellos that you are even here in the first place!). The Cake Slice Bakers are a group of bake loving maestros who choose a book and bake cakes from said book.  

This month is no exception... March has just flown by and in a frenzy of wedding cakes and birthday cakes and all other bakes, the choice for this month had to be simple! World Class Cakes by Roger Pizey is just  a wonderful book to bake from with different skill levels catered for on every page. While I thoroughly enjoy the idea of challenging myself, March was not the month for that. 

Thus the humble, yet spectacular Banana Bread was baked. I made two minor adjustments to the recipe, one because I didn't have the ingredients to hand and two because I seriously love the Cream Cheese Frosting from the book and thought it'd make a fab pairing with this recipe. Even with my adjustments the bake was a huge success. One taster remarking it was 'the best thing ever' and 'are you going to finish your piece, or will I?' (after his third piece)!!!

Needless to say, there is no excuse for not using up your ripe bananas in what is the easiest bake ever and then enjoying said bake with a big vat of tea, throwing your feet up on the sofa and regaling in your baking prowess.  

Banana Bread- 

adapted from World Class Cakes pg 65

125g soft butter
125g caster sugar
2 large eggs
225g self raising flour
50g ground almond
1 tsp baking powder
1 tsp baking soda
125ml butter milk
2 ripe bananas mashed

Preheat your oven 180C/350F or Gas Mark 4.
Line a 9 inch square pan with some parchment.
Mash the bananas in a bowl.
Add the sugar and butter into bowl and mix with an electric mixer until pale and creamy. Add the eggs and mix. Whisk the flour, ground almonds, baking powder and baking soda together and add to the wet mix. Fold through.

Add the milk and the mashed bananas and mix until fully incorporated. Transfer to your pan.

Bake in your preheated oven for 30-40 minutes, until the top is golden and crusted or a skewer inserted in the middle comes out clear.

Allow to cool in the tin for at least 15 minutes, before removing to a wire rack to cool fully before slicing.

Cream Cheese Frosting 

260g icing sugar

80g unsalted butter, softened

40g cream cheese

Beat together the butter and cream cheese. On a low speed add in the icing sugar, a small bit at a time. 

Mix on medium speed until it comes together. (You could add a little milk if you’ve reached a too stiff consistency.) Keep on mixing until soft and fluffy.

Once the banana bread has cooled, cut them up and swirl on the cream cheese frosting in a zig-zag pattern over each bar.  

I used an 8 inch tin when I made my banana bread bars.. and had enough for four cupcakes also.

I baked up the cupcakes as you normally would, rough chopped 5-6 stalks of rhubarb and stewed it for a few minutes until soft and gooey in 4 tbsp of sugar and 1 tsp of vanilla.

Once the cupcakes had baked and cooled, the rhubarb had cooled and I had opened a carton of store bought custard.. I layered the different components together in recycled yogurt jars. I had enough cupcake crumbs from one cupcake to use in one jar. Seriously easy way of using in season ingredients and making something so much more entertaining!

Need more baking inspo?? Seriously.. you couldn't get any better than the guys and dolls of The Cake Slice Bakers!

An InLinkz Link-up

Spiced Maple Pecan Cupcakes

Each month for the past however long I have been honored to bake with some of the best ladies and gent in blogland… Regulars to here will know the drill around this time each month; where The Cake Slice Bakers and I chose a cake and bake it, comparing notes and annotations, joys and downfalls. 

We are a group of bake loving maestros who choose a book and bake cakes from said book.  This month is no exception, only our New Year begins. November marks the start of a new baking venture and we get to reveal our new book… World Class Cakes by Roger Pizey.

This month I actually made two of the same recipe... One in loaf form, which was rapidly devoured and therefore not available for photo shooting but the other in cupcake! Which worked out so lovely.. I am so pleased with it. And judging by some of the other bakers choices, makes a really great cake too! 

I added a dash of spice to the cupcake version, as I felt the loaf was a little lacklustre.. The addition of the spice was great and accented the maple and pecan flavours perfectly. A great start to the baking year I will say!

Spiced Maple Pecan Cupcake
adapted from World Class Cakes 

225g self-raising flour

110g caster sugar

120g light brown sugar

1tsp baking powder

1tsp pumpkin spice

280ml buttermilk

100g unsalted butter, melted

85ml maple syrup

1/2 tsp vanilla extract

85g toasted, chopped Pecans

Pre-heat the oven to 180C/ 350F or gas mark 4 and line a 12 (or two 6) hole cupcake pan with cupcake liners.

In a medium bowl mix together the flour, sugars, and baking powder.

In a separate jug, whisk together the buttermilk, melted butter, maple syrup and vanilla. Add this into the dry ingredients and mix until just combined, don’t over mix. Fold through the pecans and scoop out even spoons to fill the cupcake liners to 2/3 full.

Bake for 18-20 minutes and remove form the oven.  Leave the cupcakes in the pan for 10 minutes then remove each one and leave to cool on a wire rack. Frost when cold.

Maple Cream Cheese Frosting

260g icing sugar

80g unsalted butter, softened

40g cream cheese

2tbs maple syrup

Beat together the butter, cream cheese and maple syrup. On a low speed add in the icing sugar, a small bit at a time. 

Mix on medium speed until it comes together. (You could add a little milk if you’ve reached a too stiff consistency.) Keep on mixing until soft and fluffy.

Using a plain piping tip, pipe rounds onto each cupcake and dust lightly in pumpkin spice.  

Pretty good looking right.. and they tasted just as good! 

Happy to be back baking with this group for another year!

An InLinkz Link-up

Death By Chocolate

The blog has been quiet. A rest was needed. Unexpected news does that to you sometimes and puts things in perspective. But life moves along in the background, and cakes needed to be made, they just don't have the same good aul' gusto I am used to giving them.

The final of The Great British Bake Off closed last week, with a theme "fit for a queen". Having Halloween smack bang in the middle of my baking, the theme took a sinister turn. Not that I wish death to any queen, more, if this was a way to go.. I think it would be fitting of royalty!

An insanely dark chocolate cake, soft, and dense. Smothered in a rich chocolate frosting, bitter yet sweet, topped with a molten meringue crown. Crisp on the outside, with a soft chew to the inside. The cake is heavy, luxurious and sinfully delicious. I hope it fits the brief for Jenny and all the other bakers in the Bloggers Bake Off. My final bake for the last BBC broadcast of the Bake Off. 

Dark Chocolate Cake

makes two 8 inch rounds or three 6' rounds like I have made here...

100g of good dark chocolate (as dark as you can handle)
225g of caster sugar
75g coco powder
225g self raising flour
1 teaspoon salt
2 teaspoons baking powder
2 large eggs
50ml hot and strong coffee (Make one for yourself too!!)
125ml of vegetable oil
125ml of buttermilk
1 tsp vanilla extract

Preheat your oven to 180C/350F or Gas Mark 4. Grease and line two 8' pans with parchment, leave to one side.

Melt the chocolate in the hot coffee. When melted, add the vanilla.
Cream the sugar and the eggs until light an fluffy. They will increase in size.
Dry mix all your dry ingredients together. 

Slowly add them to the sugar/egg combination.
Add the buttermilk and mix.
Add the oil and mix.
Finally fold in the coffee/chocolate combination.

The mix is thick but runny so you could just pour it into the prepared pans until evenly.

Bake for 20-25 minutes until the tops have raised slightly, or a skewer inserted onto the middle comes out clear. Allow to cool in the pan for about 10 minutes before removing from the pan onto a wire tray. Allow to cool fully before frosting.

Make the meringue.

Chocolate Meringue Crown

4 egg whites
1/2 teaspoon cornflour
1/2 teaspoon vinegar
225g caster sugar
60g coco powder

Preheat the oven to 110 C, 230 F or 1/2 a gas mark.
Separate your egg whites from their yolks and put into a clean, dry bowl.
Whisk together until doubled in volume. Having the egg whites at room temperature will help with adding volume.
Add the sugar a tablespoon full at a time. Wait until the previous batch has been fully incorporated and has made the egg whites shiny and sticky before adding your next batch.
At the end, fold in your cornflour and flour, then fold through the coco powder. Spoon out onto a lined baking 8' baking pan.

Make a hole in the middle, using the back of your spoon.
Bake on the bottom rack for one hour. Switching off the oven after the hour, and allow the meringue to cool completely in the oven, with the door closed.

Once cooled, carefully remove it from the pan, peel off the parchment and leave on a wore rack until needed.

Make the frosting.

Chocolate Frosting

227g unsalted butter, room temperature

500g icing sugar

80ml whipping cream

2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract

Pinch of salt

60ml sour cream

265g premium dark chocolate, melted

Put all of the ingredients, except the melted chocolate, in a mixer and mix until smooth.

Add the melted chocolate and mix again until smooth. If you feel the frosting is too soft, pop it in the fridge until it thickens (about 15 minutes) but it should be ideal spreading consistency after the second mix! Leave to one side until you are ready to assemble the cake.

Putting it all together... 

Put a smidge of frosting on an 8’ cake board (or you cake plate).

Put the first layer top down on the cake plate, and spread some frosting evenly across the cake layer. Put the second cake layer on top of the first and repeat with another layer of frosting. Put the final cake layer top-down. Cover the cake with a thin layer of frosting to seal in the crumbs (crumb coat) and then pop the whole thing in the fridge to firm up, maybe 30 minutes.

Remove and add thicker layer of frosting on the top, sandwich the meringue crown on top and either serve, or return to the fridge.  

But most importantly.. my baby boy turns four today!! FOUR! I know parents always say where did the time go, but once, just once I would like it to slow down. My boy Champ. is the kindest and most friendliest little guy you will ever meet. He loves his sister, Momma and Dadda with Bella the dog thrown in for good measure. He doesn't eat or even like cake... or cream.. or frosting but loves cookies, macaron shells and helping me in the kitchen.

He is a Lego fanatic and has a jar he is filling with pennies and change so he can take us all to Lego Land! My boy never ceases to amaze me.. his interminable thirst for knowledge and exploration coupled with a highly interactive imagination will take him great places in his life. I am so excited to be part of this journey with him!

Happy 4th birthday my boy... We love you so much.

Double Chocolate Swiss Roll (Gluten Free)

Where to even start.. last week,this week I have no idea but lets just say this wasn't the first bake I made for dessert week... it was the second. My baking shame of a mousse cake will never grace your screens, nor be spoken about here on after.

This Chocolate Swiss Roll however, yum!! This bad boy was on point! Gluten free too to boot! Now in all truthfulness, I didn't actually get a chance to catch up on Week 7 of the Great British Bake Off, but I know it was a good one from what I read online! I slowly made way through my kitchen and opted to make this cake in honour of last weeks bakes. I missed the linky over at Jenny's and the GBBObloggers bakealong but I didn't want to miss out on baking along entirely.

Hence my late post and my scattered meanderings. It's been a long week... and yes I know it's only Wednesday.

Chocolate Swiss Roll

6 eggs separated
110g caster sugar
170g dark chocolate (above 60%)
3 tbsp soft butter
60ml cold coffee
pinch of salt
1 tsp vanilla
250ml single cream
Chocolate Ganache

Preheat your oven to 180C/350 F or Gas Mark 4. Line and spray/grease a shallow baking tray, swiss roll tin with parchment. Spray the parchment. Leave to one side.

Separate the eggs, white in a mixing bowl, yolks in another.
Put the chocolate, butter and coffee into a microwaveable bowl and melt the contents on a low setting, until fully melted and smooth, being careful not to burn the chocolate (alternatively use the double boiler method on the hob). Add the yolks two at a time and mix well after each addition. Add the vanilla. Leave to one side to cool.
In the whites bowl, whisk to soft peaks and add the sugar in a steady stream. Whisk to stable, but not stiff peaks.
Add about 1/4 of the egg whites to the chocolate mix to loosen it up and transfer this back into the rest of the egg whites. Fold through until just combined.

Pour out into a prepared baking tray, smooth to the corners and cook in your preheated oven for approximately 15 minutes, or until the top of the cake springs back at you when lightly pressed.

Leave to cool on a wire rack.

Make the ganache.

Chocolate Ganache

200g semisweet dark chocolate 
200ml Double Cream

Put the chocolate into a heat resistant bowl.
Heat the cream in a saucepan over a medium heat, stirring occasionally. When the cream begins to simmer, quickly remove from the heat and pour it over the chocolate. Swirl the bowl to ensure all the chocolate is coated in the hot cream.
Cover the bowl to trap the heat and let it rest for 5 minutes.
Remove the lid and slowly whisk the mixture until you have a smooth glossy ganache.
Leave to cool before using as a filling cake.

Whip the 250ml of single cream from above, fold a couple of spoonfuls of ganache into the cream and leave to one side until you are read to use it!

Putting it all Together

When the cake comes out of the oven, leave it in the pan to cool for about 10 minutes. Using the parchment to help you, roll up the cake and remove it from the pan. In it's rolled up state, leave it to cool completely on the wire rack.

Once cold, unroll the cake and fill it with the ganache, followed by the cream and then roll it back up slowly and smoothly. Having cooled curled, you shouldn't get any cracks. Trim off the edges, place on your serving tray join side down and dust in icing sugar. 

This cake is best served on the day you make it, but it does hold when wrapped up in the fridge for about three days. I will hopefully be baking sooner, rather than later with my attempts at Tudor Week, I have no idea what to even expect here! Be sure to pop by Jenny's and the other GBBObloggers bakes to get your Bake Off  fill!