Salted caramel cupcakes

To celebrate my regent engagement (hurrah!) I of course took cakes into work. I decided to make 3 different flavours of cupcakes because there would then be something that hopefully everyone would like, not that my work as ever turned down any cake. Ever.

I made white chocolate and raspberry, the recipe can be found here, snickers, which I will post in a few days and salted caramel.

I'll start with the salted caramel. I used a caramel cupcake recipe by the hummingbird bakery. To convert it to salted caramel I simply gently warmed my caramel, from a tin, and added sea salt until it had that yummy salted caramel taste. I was not convinced the caramel in the cake would have much flavour (and I still think that I was right on this) so I hollowed out the middle after baking and added a generous spoonful of the caramel.

On the top is my version of salted caramel butter cream, a drizzle of more slated caramel and some chopped up caramel buttons. The ones I used were from silver spoon and I found them in the baking isle at the supermarket.

Salted caramel cupcakes

makes 16

for the cake

80g butter
250g golden caster sugar
240g plain flour
1 tbsp baking powder
240ml whole milk
2 large eggs
1 tsp vanilla paste/extract
tin of carnation caramel
sea salt to taste

for the frosting

150g butter
375g icing sugar
2 tablespoons whole milk
leftover caramel (from cake ingredients)
caramel drops (optional)

Preheat the oven to 190C/170C FAN and line two cupcake trays with liners. If you only have one, like me, simply bake the cakes in two batches, mine turned out fine. 

Pour all the caramel from the tin into a saucepan and gently heat while stirring. Add sea salt to taste. Make sure the caramel is warm enough to dissolve the salt but it does not need to be hot. Set aside to cool.

Whisk the butter, sugar, flour and baking powder together until the mix resembles breadcrumbs. Whisk the eggs milk and vanilla together in a jug.

Pour about 3/4 of the wet ingredients into the dry and beat until they are incorporated and the batter is thick. Scrape down the sides of the bowl, add the remaining dry ingredients and 150g of your salted caramel. Beat again until the batter is smooth.

Divide the batter evenly between the cases. Fill your cases no more than 2/3 full, these cupcakes really do grow!

Bake for ~20 minutes util golden and springy. If you are baking more than one tray swap them around halfway through baking. Once baked transfer the cakes to a wire rack to cool completely.

To make the frosting beat the butter, icing sugar and milk together for ~5 minutes until very light and fluffy. Add 100g of the salted caramel and beat to combine.

Once cool remove a cone from each cake and fill with the leftover caramel. Place the cone back, trimming to fit. Pipe the frosting onto the cakes however you like. Finish by topping the cakes with caramel drops and a drizzle of any remaining caramel.

These cakes certainly look pretty, they were the ones catching peoples eye at work and everyone said that they enjoyed them.

Kremesh

This is a photo of me looking exceedingly happy.

Why am I so happy. Well I am eating baking. And not just any baking. When I watched the Hairy Bikers bakation series I fell in love with a dish called Kremesh that they ate at a cafe in Budapest. Kremesh is essentially a cross between a vanilla slice and mille feuille. It is made of layers of puffed pastry and a vanilla custard.

While inter-railing I just happened to be in Budapest, a fantastic place, you should all go, and I tracked down this cafe and had the Kremesh. It was worth the journey, it was fantastic.

I knew I wanted to make it but saved actually making it until the letter 'K' came up for alpha bakes, and finally this month it appeared.

My Kremesh tasted amazing but did not look good. The recipe said stir the custard till thick, mine was pretty thick, more thick than I would like on crumble. But it needed to me thicker, it literally needs cooking out until you could stand a spoon in it! Also my pastry puffed up too much, If I made my own I do not think it would do that, I would also consider baking it between two tray, as like mille feuille.

Still I have learnt and its definitely one I would make again.

Kremesh 

makes about 8

pack of puff pastry (350g ish)

500ml milk
Vanilla pod
150g caster sugar
75g egg yolk (about 5)
65g plain flour
75g egg white (2-3)
65g icing sugar

Each Kremesh has 3 layers. I prefer to precut the layers instead of baking th pastry and then cutting it. Cut you pastry rectangles, each kremesh needs 3 and they all need to be the same size.

Follow the pack instructions and cook your pastry until it is golden and puffed up. Set aside to cool.

To make the custard filling first gently heat the milk with the seeds from the vanilla pod until just boiling, remove from the heat and set aside to cool. 

Whisk the egg yolks with the caster sugar until combined. Whisk in the flour, a little at a time, until you have a smooth paste. Add the milk, a little at a time, whisking constantly. Make sure the milk has cooled enough otherwise the eggs may scramble.

Once all the milk ha been incorporated into the egg mix tip the whiole mixture back into the pan. Heat gently, stiring constantly until the custard has thickened. By thickened I have learnt that this means, really very very thick not just simply thickened. Remoe from the heat and set aside.

Whisk the egg whites with the icing sugar until stiff peaks form. Fold into the custard. the custard will still be warm, that's ok.

Assemble the Kremesh by layering pastry and custard.

What my Kremesh lacked presentation made up for in yumminess!  

Triple chocolate brownies

I know, another brownie recipe, I love brownies though and am always striving to find that perfect one, you know, the fudgy chewy one with the delicately crisp top?

As if a brownie were not indulgent enough I do enjoy pimping them, as it were, with cookie dough, chocolate bars, biscuits etc. These are a slightly more normal variety, the triple chocolate.

Its a recipe I have just slightly adapted from John Whaite's book. He uses different ratios of ingredients to some of my other brownie recipes, I wondered how this would affect taste and texture. Some of you may remember the apple sauce in a previous post? If that did not put you off how do you fare with the unusual ingredients in this recipe... mayonnaise  Yes that's right, the sandwich/chip condiment. John maintains that it keeps the brownies chewy. I am willing to give it a go.

I like my brownies deeply chocolate-y so have used all dark chocolate in the batter, John uses a mix of dark and milk. I have reduced the cocoa powder slightly. I have also added some coffee into the batter, not a lot, but coffee really brings out the depth of chocolate. I have also reduced the sugar very marginally, not enough to affect texture but hopefully to stop the brownies being too sweet.

Triple chocolate brownies

180g dark chocolate
125g butter
1 heaped tsp instant coffee
2 eggs
tsp vanilla paste/extract
3 tbsps mayo
125g light brown sugar
75g caster sugar
180g plain flour
2 tbsps cocoa
70ml milk
50g milk chocolate, chopped into chunks
50g white chocolate, chopped into chunks

Grease and line a brownie pan with baking paper and preheat the oven to 160C/140C FAN. 

Place the butter and dark chocolate in a heatproof bowl and set over a pan of barely simmering water. Allow the butter and chocolate to melt, stirring occasionally  When melted remove from the heat and stir in the coffee. allow to cool for a couple of minutes. Add the eggs, vanilla and mayonaise and beat in with a wood spoon until the mix is smooth and glossy. 

Add the sugars and stir to combine. Add the flour. cocoa powder and milk and stir until no streaks of flour are vissible. Finally mix through the chopped chocolate chunks. 

Pour the batter into the prepared pan and smooth the top with a sptaula. Bake in the preheated oven for 20 minutes.

Once removed from the oven allow the brownie to cool in the tin for at least an hour, this will make it much easier to remove. Using the baking paper remove the brownie from the tin, cut into brownie sized chunks and allow to cool fully on a wire rack before storing in an airtight container. 

I am an idiot. I completely lost track of time and these brownies baked for at least 5-7 minutes longer than they should. Therefore the taste is amazing, deep and intensely chocolatey but the texture is wrong. The are too cakey and not fudgey enough and this is, I think, purely my own fault.

I will be making a second batch for work, I am sure they will not complain, as a test, and hopefully I will be able to update this post with good news!

Lemon meringue cake

My parents were visiting this weekend and I always like to have a baked good of some sort to have with tea/coffee on Sunday morning. Both my parents like lemon, (Dad especially is a lemon fiend!) so something lemon based was decided upon.

I also wanted a chance to use the cooks blowtorch that they had given me for Christmas  As luck would have it I have recently bought John Whaite's book and inside was the answer to all my requirements. A lemon meringue cake!

I tweaked the recipe a smidgen as I did not need a 3 layer cake for just the four of us, and I do not think it will keep long due to the nature of the frosting. I made one cake using 2/3s of the listed ingredients and cut it in half once cooked.

Lemon meringue cake

150g butter
150g golden caster sugar
1/2 tsp vanilla extract/paste
2 and 1/2 eggs 
zest of one lemon
150g self raising flour
50g ground almonds
Juice of 1/2 lemon

lemon curd, to taste, but I used about 3 tablespoons worth

3 egg whites
1/2 tsp cream of tartar
150g caster sugar

Preheat the oven to 160C140C FAN and grease and line the base of a loose bottom cake tin. 

Beat the butter with the sugar and vanilla until very light and fluffy. Add the eggs a little at a time, continuing to beat the mix, add the lemon zest with the last bit of egg. Sieve the flour over the wet ingredients, add the ground almonds and gently fold in. Finally stir in the lemon juice.

Pour the mix into the prepared tin and level the top. Bake in the preheated oven for 25-35 minutes until golden. 

Allow the cake to cool for a few minutes in the tin then transfer to a wire rack and allow to cool completely.

Once the cake is completely cool use a sharp serrated knife to slice the cake into two layers. Spread a generous layer of lemon meringue over one of the layers, don't sandwich the cakes together just yet though. 

In a heatproof bowl, whisk the egg whites with the cream of tartar until semi firm peaks form. 

Place the caster sugar in a saucepan with 2 tablespoons of water. Heat over a medium heat, without stirring until it reaches 118C, or the soft ball stage. I used my new thermospatula from Lakeland.

Once the sugar has reached the correct temperature remove immediately from the heat. With the electric whisk on a medium speed pour the sugar syrup onto the egg whites in a steady stream. Keep beating until the meringue frosting is cool. This will take between 5-7 minutes.

Spread a little of the frosting over the lemon curd and sandwich the second layer of cake on top.

Pile the rest of the frosting onto the cake, making sure to cover the sides. I used a palette knife to create peaks and swirls but you could use a piping bag to pipe the frosting on. 

If you do not own a blow torch the cake looks pretty already. 

If you do have a cooks blowtorch then the frosting can be lightly toasted for a dramatic affect.

This cake was declared a huge success all round. I kept in in the fridge and it was just as good the next day, the frosting had kept well, probably due to the cream of tartar. 

Baguettes

The smell of freshly made bread is, I think, truly intoxicating. Besides the smell, when you make your own bread you know exactly what goes into it.

With this in mind I decided to make baguettes. Which of course meant yet another trip to cooking shops to buy a baguette tray!

I have a number of baguette recipes and decided to first of all go for Paul Hollywood's recipe in his book 'Bread'.

The recipe was easy to follow and I ended up with lovely soft baguettes with a good crust.

I was about to type the recipe out but then realised the whole thing is here. If the link disappears I will have to return and type up the recipe but sorry to say I am feeling lazy this morning!

I had the baguettes with John Whaite's 'Lone wolf baked eggs', in a word? Delicious.