Gravity-defying cake

 I was so excited to make a gravity-defying cake as not only do they look amazing but I believe they will be very popular in 2015.

Luckily it was my brother-in-laws birthday this weekend so it was a prefect excuse to make one. Last year I made him a chocolate cake which can be seen in an previous post 'Decorating for a chocolate addict' so this year I wanted to up my game with a chocolate gravity defying cake.

I started with a basic chocolate sponge, the recipe for this can be found here. 

I then covered it in a basic chocolate butter icing it didn't have to be very neat at this stage as it was the first coat.

As the cake was a thick layer the chocolate fingers would be too big so I chopped them in half. 

I placed another layer of chocolate butter cream around the boarder of the cake bit by bit and added the yummy chocolate fingers.

First I started by scattering giant a standard size chocolate buttons on top of the cake make sure to leave a space for the straw.

I used a wooden skewer and a straw to make the mount (illusion shattered, sorry). I used a skewer as well as a straw to make it more stable. I think a cake-pop stick would have been better but you have to work with what you've got.

Another benefit to using a straw is the chocolate butter icing sticks to it.

After I had a few buttons on there I started to dab the butter icing on the back of the buttons to help it stick.

To stick the bag on I dabbed some butter icing to one top corner of the bag and held it for a while. I made sure some buttons were in the bag to give the poring effect more realistic.

After a few more bags of buttons the cake was ready.

I was very happy with my first attempt and couldn't believe how easy it was! I now have Defying Gravity from the musical Wicked stuck in my head...but that's not a bad thing.

There are lots of ideas on the internet you can go for if you have a birthday coming up or know someone who does.

Why not give it a go?

Happy baking,

Ms B 

xx

Banana and chocolate chip loaf cake

If you are new to baking and just want to throw everything into one bowl this recipe is for you. Last week I baked an easy lemon drizzle loaf cake and I enjoyed it so much that I wanted to bake another loaf cake. I was lucky enough to come across some over ripe bananas which are perfect for baking as it will give the cake strong flavour. I looked at a few recipes but finally decided on this one as it seemed simple.

Ingredients 

• 325g self raising flour

• 100g caster sugar

• 100g soft brow sugar

• A pinch of salt

• 175g chocolate chips

• 3 tablespoons of melted butter

• 80ml milk

• 1 egg (I used a medium free range)

• 280g mashed banana (around 3 medium bananas)

• 
  

Method

First mix all your dry ingredients. I sifted the flour and caster sugar, added the brown sugar and last of all the chocolate chips (I used dark chocolate). I only had 100g of chocolate chips however there seemed to be a good balance of banana and chocolate. If you are wondering why you add the chocolate chips at this stage it's because when chocolate chips are coated in flour it prevents them from sinking to the bottom of the mix when baking.  

Add all your wet ingredients a bit at a time. The recipe states to mash the banana however I left it chunky so when you eat it you get a flavour burst.  

It does take a bit of elbow grease if you are using a wooden spoon like I was but be careful not to over mix just mix until all the flour is incorporated

Line a loaf tin with parchment paper by buttering the tin before hand, this acts like a food glue. The parchment paper help you to remove the loaf once baked.

Pour you yummy mix into the tin, give it a little tap on the top to get rid of any air bubbles and smooth the top with the back of a spoon or a spatula. 

Pop it in the oven at 180 for about an hour. I have a fan oven so I baked it at 160 and turned it round half way through.

Test the cake by using a skewer or a knife, if it comes out with a few crumbs it's ready. Take it out the tin and place it on a cooling rack. Serve warm with ice cream or once cooled just as it is.

With chunky banana pieces and less chocolate than expected I was surprised that this turned out so well. So well in fact that my partner didn't want to share with anyone else!

If you want to try an easy bake why not give this a go?

Happy baking,

Ms B

xx

Chocolate orange cake

A while a go I made some yummy chocolate orange cupcakes. I liked the recipe so much I thought I would adapt it into a cake.
So the first step I made was doubling the original recipe.

Ingredients

230g (8oz) butter 

230g (8oz) caster sugar

230g (8oz) self raising flour

2 medium eggs

Zest of 1 orange 
2 tablespoons orange juice

The method is the same (see here) as the cupcakes however, this time I split the mix in a 8" sandwich tin.
While it was baking I made some orange butter cream so the cake wasn't overpowered by chocolate. I have got into a habit of just winging butter icing. I start by using two cups of soft butter then adding twice as much icing sugar. A little bit of orange juice and some zest of orange. Using an electric mixer on full power for 5 minutes adding icing sugar until I couldn't taste the butter anymore.

Once the cake was cool I added the butter icing.

Now for the topping. I had ready made chocolate icing already open so I used that and then I added canned mandarin orange to make it pretty. I chose canned as the segments looked nicer than cut up orange.

I took it to a BBQ and I'm pleased to say that it didn't last long. The photo below was after just 5 minutes.

Have you every adapted a cupcake recipe into a cake? Or if you have ever wanted that chocolate orange taste in a cake why not give it a go?

Happy baking,

Ms B

xx

Chocolate orange cupcake

My friends and I have started hosting a 'pub quiz' style night in each others houses and with all the fun, snacks and cloudy lemonade I thought it would be the perfect excuse to bake. I love to bake (if you haven't all ready figured that out) but what I like most is sharing my bakes with friends and family.

There have only been two 'quiz nights' so far but for the first one I make some cookies and used my cookie stamper, you can fine the post about it here.

This time I make chocolate orange cupcakes. I wanted to make these as the host for that night is a chocolate orange fan and I found a yummy recipe online which you can find here.

If you are new at baking there are lots of recipes online with different difficulty ratings and if you are a bit more confident you can adapt the recipes you find by adding your own touch. 

When I first make the cake mix it looked a bit runny but they turned out good. I baked them in my silicone cupcake cases which are a good investment if you bake a lot for your friends. 

This wasn't part of the recipe but I was tight for time so I used ready made chocolate icing then cup up some of the orange I used for the sponge mix and topped off the cupcakes.

 

I made sure I saved some for work the next day and they went down a treat! 

For a different look I sprinkled some green...sprinkles on top :D  

This was a very easy recipe and it was easy to adapt. I may try it again this weekend but make it as a layer cake! Why not give it a go?

Happy baking,

Ms B

xx

Chocolate and beetroot cake

*WARNING*

 This cake is easier to make if you own an electric hand mixer and food processor! 

I know what you are thinking...beetroot?! Really?! Well, yes. For a while now I have wanted to attempt baking a chocolate and beetroot cake and the other strange thing about this cake is that it is not made with flour. I do like beetroot but for those of you that don't I have to say that you can't taste the beetroot, the chocolate over powers the beetroot and the texture is similar to a carrot cake.

I scanned the internet and found a few recipes however, I noticed the majority included espresso but as I'm not a fan of espresso. I found one that missed out this ingredient, it was a Jamie Oliver recipe. A staff meeting was coming up so I thought it would be a good opportunity to try it out.

Ingredients:

Olive oil - try find a J.O recipe without this ingredient :) 

Plain flour for dusting

300g good- quality dark chocolate (70% cocoa solids) I found some on offer

250g raw beetroot

4 large eggs (free-range if you can)

150g golden caster sugar

120g ground almonds 

1 teaspoon baking powder 

1 tablespoon of good-quality cocoa powder (not hot chocolate!)

Natural yogurt, to serve - (I didn't include this part)

Method:

I tried to measure out my ingredients however I came in to some difficulty with the beetroot and the fact that I had different size bowls for different ingredients. I would suggest having 2 large mixing bowls and a medium bowl ready, and if you don't have a food processor (like I didn't) I would suggest grating the beetroot first before doing anything else.

• Pre-heat the oven to 180 /350 F / gas 4

• Lightly grease the bottom and sides of a 20cm springfrom tin with olive oil (I normally do this with butter but thought I'd give oil a go. It works just the same so I guess it depends what you have and what you prefer to do.)

• Cut out a circle of grease-proof paper. I used the base of the tin to cut round.

• Dust the sides of the tin with flour, then tap the tin to get rid of any excess. I have never done this before as my tins are non-stick.

• Break up 200g of the chocolate (save the rest for later) and add to a heat proof bowl.

Now I have talked about melting chocolate in the microwave in my previous post. In this post the chocolate is melted over a pan.

• Place your heat proof bowl on top of a small pan of simmering water on a medium heat. (Only put a small amount of water to cover the bottom of the pan twice over). Make sure the bottom of bowl isn't touching the water. Stir now and again.

When your chocolate is melted take the bowl off the pan, tune the heat off first and take the bowl off with a tea towel or over gloves.

As I said before if you don't own a food processor I would do this step before any other. 

• I used a Y-shaped peeler to peel the beetroot but I'm sure you can use any. I kept the tops on while peeling so I could hold on to something while doing this and I also wore rubber gloves as I didn't want red hands for weeks! 

• The recipe then says to quarter them and push through the coarse grater attachment on the food processor, then tip into a large mixing bowl.

If you are like me and don't own a food processor then use the coarse side of your cheese grater. (This part is the most labor intensive).  

• Separate the eggs, placing the whites into a large mixing bowl. I separate my eggs like this, passing it to one half of the shell to the other.

• Add the yolks tot he beetroot, look at those colours! 

• Stir the sugar, almonds, baking powder, cocoa powder and melted chocolate into the beetroot and mix together well. This is where I realised I planned my bowls wrong.

• Use an electric mixer to whisk the egg whites until you have stiff peaks.

• Take your spatula and fold a quarter of the egg whites into the beetroot mixture to loosen, once combined, fold int he rest but try not to over mix!!

Looks disgusting smells divine

• Place your mixture into the prepared cake tin and bake for around 50 minuets. Mine took about 45 as I have a fan oven. You can check if your cake is ready by waiting until it has risen and piercing it with a skewer or tooth pick, if it comes out clean it's ready!

Once your cake is cool melt the remaining chocolate as above and drizzle over. I ended up pouring it all over then adding edible glitter :)

It states in the recipe to serve with nature yogurt. I didn't as the cake was for a staff meeting but I would recommend following this step. The cake tastes nice, it didn't turn out dry as I expected it too. I love dark chocolate but if you are not a fan the yogurt will take the slight bitter edge off. 

I had a positive response from the staff and I even got to bring some back home! It states that it serves 16 which I think is about right as you don't need a big slice. 

This recipe was fun to do as it had an unusual ingredient and no flour. One thing it has taught me is that I need to start saving for a food processor!

Why not give it a go?

Happy baking,

Ms B

xx

  

Decorating for a chocolate addict

We all know one and some of us are one. What a better way to feed someone's or your chocolate addiction then by making a treble chocolate cake.

In my previous posts I have shown you how to make a basic chocolate sponge  and the basic chocolate butter icing. 

Now for the decoration.

I have made this cake two different ways. The first one I made was for my boyfriend's Dad, a self confessed chocolate addict and someone who shares their birthday with Jesus Christ...and his name is Chris. As some people don't like to share their birthday I all ways make a fuss of Chris before exchanging presents with anyone else in the family. I tried to pack as much chocolate in this cake as possible I also made two layers of sponge, this was the result:

I have lots of ribbons and this one looked best on this cake. It was easy to do as you just had to press the chocolate to the butter icing for a while but I would recommend doing this as soon as you have applied the butter icing.

I have seen this type of cake going around the internet but what I like most about it is that you can change it to who you are giving it to.

Take Two

My brother in-law is also a chocolate addict and when he saw the cake above I believe he fell in love (just a little bit). He was also mortified that he couldn't have any but then promised him I would make one like it for his birthday.

I made this cake with only one sponge but it was a thick piece. I knew the amount of people eating it would be smaller so this didn't matter.

Here are a few photos of how I did it*:

As you can see I used different chocolates which shows that this cake can be versatile. He was also very pleased with the cake, if not with the number on the candles. What would you have on yours?

Happy Baking

Ms B 

xx

*apologies for the poor photo quality, I really need to start using my camera and not my phone. 

   

Basic chocolate butter icing

Those of you that bake may make your butter icing from scratch but if you are just starting out there are many brands out there that can be the perfect topping for your cupcake or cake.
I personal find these a time saver and they work well as a cake filler. However, I also find them a bit rich and sometimes the consistency is not what I am looking for.  

For a filling or a cake you can achieve this by using a whisk but if you want stiff icing for cupcakes it will take a long time by hand so I would invest in an electric hand mixer.

Ingredients: 

50g/1 3/4 oz dark chocolate (70% cocoa solids) it will state this on the back of the bar, don't be fooled it doesn't have to be cooking chocolate either.
100g/3 1/2 oz unsalted butter
200g/7oz icing sugar

As all ways I measure out my ingredients before I start and let the butter come to room temperature.
There are two ways to melt the chocolate in a bowl over a sauce pan or in the microwave. In this post I have used the microwave method.

Method:

•  Break up the chocolate and place in a microwave safe bowl. 

• My microwave is 800W so I only put the chocolate in for 30 second intervals, siring every time. When you think it's almost ready, it's ready. There is not much time between it being ready and being burnt which makes the chocolate bitter.
• Place the butter in the bowl and whisk until smooth.

• Add the icing sugar a bit at a time. If you are using an electric whisk stir the icing sugar in a bit first before putting the power on other wise your kitchen will look like a crime scene looking for prints.  
• Once all the icing sugar is incorporated add the melted chocolate and whisk again.
• If you are using an electric mixer place it on the highest setting for 2-3 minuets. If you are using a manual whisk then use some elbow geese until your hand become tired.

• If the mix looks too thick you can loosen it with a splash of milk.  
• Decorate you cake using a palette knife (a butter knife will do the same job if you don't have a palette knife  :)

I've not had a good relationship with icing sugar since my first time baking. I all ways had to buy extra even when buying packet mixes. The rule I have found that works is that you have twice as much butter as chocolate and twice as much icing sugar as butter...e.g.

2g chocolate = 4g butter

4g butter = 8g icing sugar.

This is just an example as it would be a cake crime to use this little butter icing! So why not try making your very own basic chocolate butter icing to add to your basic chocolate sponge?

Happy baking,

Ms B 

xx

The basic chocolate sponge

After playing around with a few recipes I found one that was perfect for me. 
Bake me I'm yours...cupcake was given to me on one of my birthdays and it's brilliant for cupcake design as well as having the basic sponge recipes.
This chocolate sponge mix is meant for cupcakes the book notes down how many cupcakes you can make out of the mix whether it be big cupcakes or little ones.
I have used this recipe for cupcakes but I believe it works just as well for a whole cake.
In this post I used a 10" non- stick springfrom cake baking tin which made one thick layer. (I have also used this mix with smaller tins to make a sandwich cake.)

Ingredients:

175g (6oz) of slightly salted butter (I use unsalted then add a pinch of salt)
175g (6oz) of caster sugar
115g (4oz) self-raising flour
30ml (6 tsp) coco powder (make sure this is coco and not drinking chocolate)
1.5 tsp (7.5ml) baking powder 
1 tsp (5ml) natural vanilla extract
3 medium eggs (free range if you can)

Method:

Make sure that your eggs and butter are at room temperature before you start.

• Pre-heat your oven to 170◦ (338F/ Gas 3-4)

• Line your tin with a thin layer of butter, place the tin on top of some baking paper and draw round the tin, cut out and place in the bottom of your tin. (The butter will act like a food glue).

• Measure out all your ingredients ready to use. (you can measure as you go along). 

• Place your butter in a mixing bowl, you can cut the butter up in to squares if you wish but I find it's soft enough at room temperature. 

• Add the sugar and cream them together with a wooden spoon until it becomes a pale colour. 

• Sift the flour, coco powder and baking powder (after measuring) I place all these in the same bowl to save on washing up.

• Crack the eggs into a mug or small bowl, if some shell sneaks in there and it's is easier to remove then if it was in the mix. I also add the vanilla extract to the eggs.
• Add and the ingredients bit by bit until it looks like this:  

• Dip a tea spoon or your finger (make sure it's clean!) and do a taste test. If the mix seems too dry or think add a tablespoon or warm water.
• Place in the prepared baking tin and place int he oven for 40 - 50 minuets. 
• You can test if the cake is ready by inserting a skewer or a toothpick in the middle of the cake. If it comes out clean your cakes is ready. 

It can be tricky to tell when a chocolate cake is ready as the colour doesn't change, just remember not to open the oven door too soon or too quickly as this will result in your cake having a dip in the middle!

Some people like to leave the cake in the tin to cool then remove, but I like to remove it as soon as it's out the oven. I do this by running a butter knife along the outside of the cake, release the spring tin, place a serving plate or cake stand on top of the cake and carefully tun it over. This has ended in disaster a few times and I'm sure there is an easier way to do it but this is how I do it now. The next step is to remove the parchment paper and leave to cool.

While your chocolate cake is cooling you can make a lovely chocolate butter icing, but that's another story...

Do you have a favorite chocolate sponge recipe? 

If it's your first time why not try this one and share how you got on.

Or if you are not so confident yet why not start with a chocolate cake packet mix?

Happy baking,

Ms B 

xx