Thursday 19 November 2009

Birthday Cakes Galore!

Congratulations to Jon and Hannah on your engagement!!! I'm so happy for you both :-)
..
On the subject of happy occasions, Sharon asked if I would make a Birthday cake for her dad and her cousins girlfriend for a party they are had on Friday night. I jumped at the chance as it meant that I could have a play with my cake decorating stuff that's been sat in a box since January.
.
I decided to make a simple sponge cake for the bottom cake and a chocolate cake for the top tier. .
I’m also making one for Dickys Birthday and his favourite flavour is lemon so I'm making a lemon sponge with lemon curd buttercream. Kenny wants me to decorate it in red and white though (as he supports arsenal) so that's a bit boring but we'll see how it pans out.
.
I used the recipes found on the British Sugarcraft Forum, which gives you a high density cake. Thanks to everyone there who has been answering my questions this week!
.
8" Round - Portions - 20
10oz Block margarine (softened)
11 ¼ oz Caster sugar
10 oz Sponge flour
10 oz Eggs (approx 5 large eggs)
2 ½ Water (Tablespoons)
.
6" Round - Portions - 11
6 oz Block margarine (softened)
63/4 oz Caster sugar
6 oz Eggs (approx 3 large eggs)
6 oz Sponge flour
1 ½ Water (Tablespoons)
.
OVEN: Fan assist oven 150, or normal elec 180 or Gas mark 3
.
1. Cream butter and sugar
2. Add in eggs, one at a time. Also add in a tbs of the flour to stop the mixture curdling
3. Add in flour
4. Add in water
5. Put into a lined cake tin
.
For lemon sponge
Add the zest of one lemon per 4oz mixture.
You can replace the water with the lemon juice.
Once the baked cake is emptied out of the cake tin brush all the surfaces of the cake with lemon
stock syrup.
.
For 8" Chocolate Sponge
Substitute 3oz of flour with 3oz of cocoa powder
Tiny amount - less than 1/4 tsp of baking powder
.
For 6" Chocolate Sponge
Substitute 1 1/2 oz of flour with 1 1/2 oz of cocoa powder
Tiny amount - less than 1/4 tsp of baking powder
.
Simple Syrup
2 tblsp of sugar
2 tblsp of hot water
Dissolve sugar in the water and leave to cool.
.
Lemon Curd Buttercream
250g butter
500g icing sugar
5 tbsp lemon curd
.
Chocolate Ganache
1 Cup Double Cream
6 0z Chocolate (I used 3oz of milk and 3oz of dark)
.
Put the cream into a pan on a LOW heat and add in the chocolate, all broken into pieces. Mix slowly until it's all mixed together. Cool in the fridge until it's set - it should be thick like the inside of a chocolate truffle!
.
Mrs Hackneys Notes:
*Because I am a numpty, I’ve just realised that I baked all my cakes at 150 C instead of 180 C so my tip of the day is to read all instructions properly before starting! I also forgot to add in the baking powder when I made the choc sponge!
*Once the cakes were cooled, I split them, filled with buttercream and chilled. I then covered and decorated it with sugarpaste.
*It was hard work because I bought white sugarpaste from Somerfield and it was way too soft so it was hard to cover. Overall I'm happy with the end result.
*I used half block marg and half real butter as I like the richness of the butter but it was too rich using all butter.
.








.

.


Dickys Cake:

Friday 13 November 2009

Welcome to the world little baby Jack!

Hurrah! Sharon gave birth to a healthy baby boy on Friday 6th November. Baby Jack weighed 6 lb 11 oz and she had NO pain relief! Not even any gas and air – that’s amazing since she wanted an epidural and a C section! Congratulations. Baby Jack is soooooooo lush.

I must say sorry for taking so long to update the blog. I have been busy cooking as always but I have been cooking lots of things I've already put on here so didn't want to repeat myself.

I was so excited to discover that my favourite food channel I watch when I go to America is now available here on Sky! It's called food network and it's channel 262. There's a programme called 'Throwdown with Bobby Flay' where he visits places that have a popular signature dish and challenges them to a throwdown. He challenged a baker from Charleston who makes the most amazing looking coconut cake and since then I've been itching to make a layer cake.

Sueling doesnt like coconut and I'm not a huge fan either so coconut was out. I went to one of my favourite websites, http://www.marthastewart.com/ to search for recipes. I came across a devils food cake cake recipe that looked so delicious I just had to give it a try.

Recipe for Devils Food Cake
Source: Martha Stewart


· 1 1/2 cups (3 sticks) unsalted butter, softened, plus more for pans
· 3/4 cup unsweetened Dutch-process cocoa powder, plus more for pans
· 1/2 cup boiling water
· 3 cups sifted cake flour (not self-rising)
· 1 teaspoon baking soda
· 1/2 teaspoon salt
· 2 1/4 cups sugar
· 4 large eggs, lightly beaten
· 1 tablespoon pure vanilla extract
· 1 cup whole milk

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Butter three 8-inch round cake pans. Line bottoms with parchment; butter parchment. Dust with cocoa powder; tap out excess. Set aside. Sift cocoa powder into a medium bowl; whisk in boiling water. Set aside to cool.
2. Sift together flour, baking soda, and salt into a large bowl; set aside. Put butter into the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with the paddle attachment. Mix on low speed until creamy. Gradually mix in sugar until pale and fluffy, 3 to 4 minutes. Add eggs, a bit at a time, mixing well between each addition; mix until well blended. Mix in vanilla.
3. Whisk milk into reserved cocoa mixture. With mixer on low speed, add flour mixture to butter mixture in 3 batches, alternating with the cocoa mixture.
4. Divide batter evenly among prepared pans; smooth tops with an offset spatula. Bake, rotating pan halfway through, until a cake tester inserted into center comes out clean, 35 to 45 minutes. Let cool in pans on wire racks 15 minutes. Turn out cakes onto racks; remove parchment and re-invert. Let cool completely.
5. Using a serrated knife, trim tops of cakes to make level. Place four strips of parchment paper around perimeter of a serving plate or lazy Susan. Place the first layer on the cake plate. Spread the top of the first layer with 1 1/2 cups of frosting. Place the second layer on top and repeat process with another 1 1/2 cups of frosting. Place the remaining layer on top of the second layer, bottom side up. Spread entire cake with remaining 3 cups frosting.


*** To make the cake extra moist, brush each cake with the simple syrup uing a pastry brush.



Recipe for Chocolate Ganache Icing
Source: Mrs Milman (Martha Stewart)

24 ounces / 4 cups Nestle semisweet chocolate morsels
4 cups whipping cream
1 teaspoon light corn syrup (you can use golden syrup although I'd leave this out next time)


1. Place chocolate morsels and cream in a heavy saucepan. Cook over low heat, stirring constantly with a rubber spatula, until combined and thickened, between 20 and 25 minutes. Increase the heat to medium low; cook, stirring, 3 minutes more. Remove pan from heat.

2. Stir in corn syrup. Transfer frosting to a large metal bowl. Chill until cool enough to spread, about 2 hours, checking and stirring every 15 to 20 minutes. Use immediately.

Mrs Hackneys Recipe for Simple Syrup

½ Cup of Granulated Sugar
½ Cup of Water

1. Place the sugar and water in a saucepan.
2. Boil until the sugar has dissolved.
3. Remove from the heat and leave to cool completely.

Mrs Hackneys Notes:
To make cake flour, put 2 tablespoons of cornflour into a cup measurement and top up with plain flour. This gives you a cup of cake flour.

The icing takes about 4 hours to set so be patient. I didn’t have any corn syrup as this is only readily available in the US so I used golden syrup. Next time I’d leave it out as I later found out that Mrs Milman doesn’t even use this in her recipe – Martha Stewart needs to update the recipe on her website!

Overall, the cake is very moist and it hits the spot is your craving a sugar rush.

Enjoy :-)

Thursday 19 November 2009

Birthday Cakes Galore!

Congratulations to Jon and Hannah on your engagement!!! I'm so happy for you both :-)
..
On the subject of happy occasions, Sharon asked if I would make a Birthday cake for her dad and her cousins girlfriend for a party they are had on Friday night. I jumped at the chance as it meant that I could have a play with my cake decorating stuff that's been sat in a box since January.
.
I decided to make a simple sponge cake for the bottom cake and a chocolate cake for the top tier. .
I’m also making one for Dickys Birthday and his favourite flavour is lemon so I'm making a lemon sponge with lemon curd buttercream. Kenny wants me to decorate it in red and white though (as he supports arsenal) so that's a bit boring but we'll see how it pans out.
.
I used the recipes found on the British Sugarcraft Forum, which gives you a high density cake. Thanks to everyone there who has been answering my questions this week!
.
8" Round - Portions - 20
10oz Block margarine (softened)
11 ¼ oz Caster sugar
10 oz Sponge flour
10 oz Eggs (approx 5 large eggs)
2 ½ Water (Tablespoons)
.
6" Round - Portions - 11
6 oz Block margarine (softened)
63/4 oz Caster sugar
6 oz Eggs (approx 3 large eggs)
6 oz Sponge flour
1 ½ Water (Tablespoons)
.
OVEN: Fan assist oven 150, or normal elec 180 or Gas mark 3
.
1. Cream butter and sugar
2. Add in eggs, one at a time. Also add in a tbs of the flour to stop the mixture curdling
3. Add in flour
4. Add in water
5. Put into a lined cake tin
.
For lemon sponge
Add the zest of one lemon per 4oz mixture.
You can replace the water with the lemon juice.
Once the baked cake is emptied out of the cake tin brush all the surfaces of the cake with lemon
stock syrup.
.
For 8" Chocolate Sponge
Substitute 3oz of flour with 3oz of cocoa powder
Tiny amount - less than 1/4 tsp of baking powder
.
For 6" Chocolate Sponge
Substitute 1 1/2 oz of flour with 1 1/2 oz of cocoa powder
Tiny amount - less than 1/4 tsp of baking powder
.
Simple Syrup
2 tblsp of sugar
2 tblsp of hot water
Dissolve sugar in the water and leave to cool.
.
Lemon Curd Buttercream
250g butter
500g icing sugar
5 tbsp lemon curd
.
Chocolate Ganache
1 Cup Double Cream
6 0z Chocolate (I used 3oz of milk and 3oz of dark)
.
Put the cream into a pan on a LOW heat and add in the chocolate, all broken into pieces. Mix slowly until it's all mixed together. Cool in the fridge until it's set - it should be thick like the inside of a chocolate truffle!
.
Mrs Hackneys Notes:
*Because I am a numpty, I’ve just realised that I baked all my cakes at 150 C instead of 180 C so my tip of the day is to read all instructions properly before starting! I also forgot to add in the baking powder when I made the choc sponge!
*Once the cakes were cooled, I split them, filled with buttercream and chilled. I then covered and decorated it with sugarpaste.
*It was hard work because I bought white sugarpaste from Somerfield and it was way too soft so it was hard to cover. Overall I'm happy with the end result.
*I used half block marg and half real butter as I like the richness of the butter but it was too rich using all butter.
.








.

.


Dickys Cake:

Friday 13 November 2009

Welcome to the world little baby Jack!

Hurrah! Sharon gave birth to a healthy baby boy on Friday 6th November. Baby Jack weighed 6 lb 11 oz and she had NO pain relief! Not even any gas and air – that’s amazing since she wanted an epidural and a C section! Congratulations. Baby Jack is soooooooo lush.

I must say sorry for taking so long to update the blog. I have been busy cooking as always but I have been cooking lots of things I've already put on here so didn't want to repeat myself.

I was so excited to discover that my favourite food channel I watch when I go to America is now available here on Sky! It's called food network and it's channel 262. There's a programme called 'Throwdown with Bobby Flay' where he visits places that have a popular signature dish and challenges them to a throwdown. He challenged a baker from Charleston who makes the most amazing looking coconut cake and since then I've been itching to make a layer cake.

Sueling doesnt like coconut and I'm not a huge fan either so coconut was out. I went to one of my favourite websites, http://www.marthastewart.com/ to search for recipes. I came across a devils food cake cake recipe that looked so delicious I just had to give it a try.

Recipe for Devils Food Cake
Source: Martha Stewart


· 1 1/2 cups (3 sticks) unsalted butter, softened, plus more for pans
· 3/4 cup unsweetened Dutch-process cocoa powder, plus more for pans
· 1/2 cup boiling water
· 3 cups sifted cake flour (not self-rising)
· 1 teaspoon baking soda
· 1/2 teaspoon salt
· 2 1/4 cups sugar
· 4 large eggs, lightly beaten
· 1 tablespoon pure vanilla extract
· 1 cup whole milk

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Butter three 8-inch round cake pans. Line bottoms with parchment; butter parchment. Dust with cocoa powder; tap out excess. Set aside. Sift cocoa powder into a medium bowl; whisk in boiling water. Set aside to cool.
2. Sift together flour, baking soda, and salt into a large bowl; set aside. Put butter into the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with the paddle attachment. Mix on low speed until creamy. Gradually mix in sugar until pale and fluffy, 3 to 4 minutes. Add eggs, a bit at a time, mixing well between each addition; mix until well blended. Mix in vanilla.
3. Whisk milk into reserved cocoa mixture. With mixer on low speed, add flour mixture to butter mixture in 3 batches, alternating with the cocoa mixture.
4. Divide batter evenly among prepared pans; smooth tops with an offset spatula. Bake, rotating pan halfway through, until a cake tester inserted into center comes out clean, 35 to 45 minutes. Let cool in pans on wire racks 15 minutes. Turn out cakes onto racks; remove parchment and re-invert. Let cool completely.
5. Using a serrated knife, trim tops of cakes to make level. Place four strips of parchment paper around perimeter of a serving plate or lazy Susan. Place the first layer on the cake plate. Spread the top of the first layer with 1 1/2 cups of frosting. Place the second layer on top and repeat process with another 1 1/2 cups of frosting. Place the remaining layer on top of the second layer, bottom side up. Spread entire cake with remaining 3 cups frosting.


*** To make the cake extra moist, brush each cake with the simple syrup uing a pastry brush.



Recipe for Chocolate Ganache Icing
Source: Mrs Milman (Martha Stewart)

24 ounces / 4 cups Nestle semisweet chocolate morsels
4 cups whipping cream
1 teaspoon light corn syrup (you can use golden syrup although I'd leave this out next time)


1. Place chocolate morsels and cream in a heavy saucepan. Cook over low heat, stirring constantly with a rubber spatula, until combined and thickened, between 20 and 25 minutes. Increase the heat to medium low; cook, stirring, 3 minutes more. Remove pan from heat.

2. Stir in corn syrup. Transfer frosting to a large metal bowl. Chill until cool enough to spread, about 2 hours, checking and stirring every 15 to 20 minutes. Use immediately.

Mrs Hackneys Recipe for Simple Syrup

½ Cup of Granulated Sugar
½ Cup of Water

1. Place the sugar and water in a saucepan.
2. Boil until the sugar has dissolved.
3. Remove from the heat and leave to cool completely.

Mrs Hackneys Notes:
To make cake flour, put 2 tablespoons of cornflour into a cup measurement and top up with plain flour. This gives you a cup of cake flour.

The icing takes about 4 hours to set so be patient. I didn’t have any corn syrup as this is only readily available in the US so I used golden syrup. Next time I’d leave it out as I later found out that Mrs Milman doesn’t even use this in her recipe – Martha Stewart needs to update the recipe on her website!

Overall, the cake is very moist and it hits the spot is your craving a sugar rush.

Enjoy :-)