bakingwithelliott

Mince Pie No-Bake Cheesecake

Are you looking for a no-bake cheesecake with a difference this holiday period?

Look no further, I have you covered. This mincemeat cheesecake is both festive and weird because why not?

If you know me and my baking (or no baking) habits, you’ll know that no-bake cheesecakes are one of my favourite things to make and eat, simply because of how easy they are to make and simple they are to make.

Today’s cheesecake is well… possibly the weirdest flavour combination possible. Mincemeat is somewhat like marmite, you love it or hate it – most people hate it. I like mincemeat and cheesecake so why not have a crossover between the two? Have I taken it too far?

As with all cheesecakes, it’s all about the base. I used a spiced digestive biscuit base, I’m not sure these exist but it’s just a combination of ground spices and digestive biscuits. As usual, you blitz the two together, then add the melted butter and blitz again to combine. You can do this using a food processor or place the biscuits and spices into a food zip bag and use a rolling pin to crush the biscuits, transferring the biscuit crumb into a small bowl, adding in the melted butter and giving it a mix with a spoon or silicon spatula. Use whichever method works best for you.

Transfer the buttery biscuit base into a deep sided 8-inch cake tin, you can line the base if you’d like too. Once all the buttery biscuits are in the tin, you’ll want to press them down as best you can using either a cup measurement or the back of a spoon until its tightly packed into the base of the tin. Place in the fridge and allow to chill in there while you make the cheesecake filling.

To make the cheesecake filling is super easy, into a large bowl place your soft cheese, mincemeat and spices and mix them all together using a whisk. Keep whisking it together until it’s all come together and is well combined, then you can add in your double cream and whisk it into the mixture until it’s become thicker in consistency and can hold it’s own shape.

Place the cheesecake filling on-top of the biscuit base, once it’s all in the tin, try and level it off as best you possibly can using a small offset palette knife or the back of a spoon, once level, set in the fridge and allow to chill for around 6-8 hours (or overnight).

The next day, remove the cheesecake from the tin and place it onto your plate or cake stand of choice, now it’s time to finish/decorate the cheesecake. I kept it simple by piping rosettes of fresh cream all the way around the edge of the cheesecake and place a good amount of mincemeat in the centre but feel free to finish the cheesecake however you like, it’s yours to customisable.

Ingredients:

600g Soft cheese (full fat).

300g Mincemeat.

2 tsp Ground cinnamon.

½ Ground mixed spice.

½ tsp Ground cloves.

300ml double cream

Additional mincemeat.

Methods:

Weigh up all your ingredients and line your tin with parchment paper (if you choose to use it).
To start on your cheesecake, you’ll want to start on the base. Crush your biscuits into crumbs using either a food processor or a rolling pin and a food zip bag.
Melt some butter in a saucepan over a low-medium heat or in the microwave, then add to the biscuit crumbs and mix them together until they are fully worked together.
Transfer the biscuit mixture into the cake tin and press it down using a cup measure or the back of a spoons will work equally as well. Press down the mixture compressing it well.
Start on the cheesecake filling by placing the soft cheese, mincemeat and spices into your mixing bowl of choice and whisk them all together until they are fully incorporated.
Add in all of your double cream and whisk until the mixture is thicker in consistency, if you’re doing this by hand, you’ll notice that the mixture becomes “heavier” to mix.
Once you’ve got the filling thickened, place it on top of the biscuit base and level it off as best you can using a small offset palette knife or the back of a spoon should work as well.
Set the cheesecake in the fridge and allow it to chill there for around 6-8 hours.
The following day, I removed the cheesecake from the cake tin and set it on my plate (feel free to use a cake stand or board, if you’d prefer.
To finish the cheesecake, I pipe rosettes around the edge and fill the centre with mincemeat – this is fully customisable so feel free to make it work for you.

Thank you for checking out my recipe for this (weird) chreesecake recipe – I hope you get to make it soon.

Fresh Cream Cake

by bakingwithelliott Leave a Comment

Are you entertaining over Christmas? Need a fresh cream cake that’s fully customisable? Don’t worry, I’ve got your back.

I thought for today’s recipe, I would share my recipe for the quickest and most customisable fresh cream cake. I use a vanilla cake with sweetened whipped cream and homemade strawberry jam, what’s not to like about that?

You could use a chocolate cake or make yourself a black forest gateau (I have a recipe for this here). This cake is pretty simple and straightforward to make but when it comes to the filling and decoration, you can fully customise it to suit you or your occasion (using chopped nuts in place of the chocolate or using fresh fruit on top of the cake instead of kinder Bueno, the opportunities are endless).

For the cake I used a simple cake recipe, which will yield you two layers of vanilla cake (feel free to double the recipe and make yourself an indulgent treat) which is made using the creaming method, this is where you cream together the butter and sugar, then add the eggs and dry ingredients. So to start the cakes, place your butter and granulated white sugar into your mixing bowl of choice and beat the two together until they are well combined have become paler in could and lighter in consistency.

Once it’s become lighter in colour and consistency, give the bowl a quick scrape down (this helps to incorporate bits that haven’t been fully incorporated from earlier on) and then add your eggs and vanilla, one at a time beating well in-between each addition. If you try and add too many eggs in one go the mixture will scramble, so take care when adding the eggs.

Once the eggs are fully incorporated, you’ll want to add in your dry ingredients, passing them through a sieve first so any large lumps are caught. Incorporate the dry ingredients on a low-medium speed until there is no trace in the main mixture (there might be a small amount that has worked it’s way up around the bowl, just incorporate it by using a silicon spatula). Add your milk/water in a teaspoon at a time.

Divide the cake mixture between your prepared cake tins, I like to use digital weighing scales to get a much more accurate measurement but feel free to eye ball it (if you’re confident). Level it off as best you can using a small offset palette knife or the back of a spoon (whichever you have or works best for you). Place the tins in the preheated oven on the middle shelf and bake for 30-35 minutes (or until a tester comes out clean). While your cakes are baking, make your simple syrup which is super simple to make. Place the water, granulated sugar and vanilla into a saucepan and place over a medium-high heat and allow to come to a boil, then set aside until cool.

Once the cakes are baked, allow them to cool in the tin for around 10-15 minutes and then transfer to a cooling rack and allow to cool completely before using. Once your cakes are cooled, whip your cream up, again this is easy and doesn’t take too long. Pour all of your cream into your mixing bowl of choice (if you have a stand mixer, it will come in handy at this point otherwise an electric hand whisk will work equally as well. If you’re doing this by hand, you’re braver than me…) and add in the icing sugar and vanilla and whisk together on a high speed until you notice some changes in consistency, it will start holding its shape. Stop whisking once you reach that stage as you can over-whip cream very easily and end up with a grainy whipped cream (which isn’t pleasing on the taste or appearance), so keep checking If you’re unsure. This batch of whipped cream will be the only batch you need. You’re best to whip the cream up just before you intend on using it this ensures freshness.

Once your cakes are cooled, level the tops off using a cake leveller and give each of the cakes a generous amount of the simple syrup, then you can fill the cake with a good amount of the whipped cream and strawberry jam, then place the second layer of cake on top and start to add the whipped cream onto the sides and top of the cake, giving a generous coating as this is the only coat that we will be needed.

One the cake is coated with the cream, take your grated chocolate and add it to the side of your cake, I found using a scraper the best way to do it but feel free to wear gloves and pat on the chocolate – this is up to you. You should have some cream left over, place it into a piping bag with a nozzle of your choice and pipe it around the top edge of the cake, this helps to hide the edge of the chocolate that’s on the side and makes it look slightly better (in my opinion anyway), top the piped rosettes with chocolate or whatever you’d like to (fruit or nuts would work well here also).

I had some remaining cream left over, so piped some shells around the bottom edge of the cake, this is optional but works well with the cake.

Ingredients:

Cake:

280g Butter, at room temperature.

350g Granulated white sugar.

1 tsp Vanilla extract/bean paste

6 Eggs, medium size at room temperature.

450g Plain flour.

15g Baking powder.

25ml milk or boiling water

Simple Syrup:

250g Granulated white sugar.

250ml Water.

1 tsp Vanilla

Filling:

600ml Double cream.

100g Icing sugar.

1 tsp Vanilla extract/bean paste.

Jam (whichever you like).

Finishing:

Grated chocolate (chopped nuts would also work as an alternative).

Chocolate (or fruit would work well here also).

Methods:

Cake:

Do some prep work by preheating your oven to 180˚c/350˚f, lining your 8-inch cake tins and weighing up all your ingredients.
Place the butter and sugar into a mixing bowl of choice (I went ahead and used my stand mixer bowl) and beat them together until they are well combined and have become lighter and fluffier in colour and consistency.
Once you’ve achieved the consistency, start adding your eggs, one at a time, beating well in between each addition. This is to prevent the mixture from curdling, if that happens, don’t worry too much towards the end of adding your eggs.
Sift in about a 1/3 of your dry ingredients into the mixing bowl, then mix them in over a low-medium speed, then add in around a 1/3 of your milk/boiling water. Repeat with te remaining ingredients. Try not to overmix at this stage.
Give your mixing bowl a good scraping down and divide the cake batter between your cake tins, you can do this by eye or measuring the amount of cake batter and halving it to get a much more accurate amount into each tin – this is best done with digital scales.
Level and smooth off each cake as best you can with a small offset palette knife or the back of a spoon will work equally as well.
Place your cakes in your preheated oven and bake for 30-35 minutes (or until a tester comes out clean when inserted).

Simple Syrup:

This is quick and easy to make; the only downside is the cooling time which takes the longest.
Place the water, sugar and vanilla into a small or medium saucepan and place on the hob over a medium-high heat and allow to come to a boil, then remove from the heat and allow it to cool down to room temperature, or chill in the fridge if you don’t intend on using it straight away.

Filling:

Into your mixing bowl, place your 600ml of double cream along with the icing sugar and vanilla extract/bean paste.
Whisk them together on a medium-high speed just until it starts to hold its own shape/stiff peaks. Over whisking the cream at this stage is easily done, if you do it will be grainy and look rough.
Once it’s whipped, use it straight away or store in the fridge for up to 24 hours.
Once your cakes are fully baked and cooled, level the cakes using a cake leveller or a knife and rule. You can then simple syrup the 2 layers of cake, ensuring they have received a generous amount of the simple syrup.
Pipe or place a generous amount of the whipped cream onto 1 of the cake halves and then add a good amount of your choice jam (I went with strawberry).

Finishing:

To finish the cake, sandwich the 2 layers of cake together and then coat the top and sides of the cake with the remaining whipped cream – use a generous amount at this stage. Any left-over whipped cream can be placed in to a piping bag (fitted with your choice of nozzle).
Place your cake on to a upside-down bowl over a large baking tray or something similar and coat the sides with some grated chocolate. I used milk chocolate for this cake but feel free use white, milk or dark – whichever takes your fancy. I used a cake scraper to work the chocolate up the sides of the cake but if you’re confident you could do this by hand.
Once the sides have been coated with the grated chocolate, take the piping bag with the remaining whipped cream in it and pipe rosettes around the edge of the cake – this helps to hide the imperfections and helps to make it look more professional.
Top some or all of the rosettes with some chocolate or fresh fruit (or a mix of both will work well also).

There is my recipe on how to make a fresh cream cake. It’s fully customisable to suit you and your occasion – I hope you enjoyed the recipe.

Cadbury Dairy Milk Cookies

by bakingwithelliott Leave a Comment

I know these aren’t exactly the most festive recipe, however, who doesn’t buy or receive a bar of this at Christmas? Instead of scoffing it down, why not use them to make a batch of these cookies… I promise that you won’t be disappointed.

Who doesn’t like cookies? I mean they are so easy and tasty to make. These are perfect for using up the extra chocolate you’ve received over the Christmas period.

Short on time? Don’t worry, you can make a batch of these up in 30 minutes. The cookie dough doesn’t require chilling before being baked off, so you are free to scoop these up and bake them off straight away.

Anyway, you don’t need any special ingredients or equipment to make these cookies, which is always good news. A little prep work goes a long way – weigh up all the ingredients, preheating your oven to 180˚c/350˚f, line your baking trays with greaseproof/parchment and chopping the chocolate bar up. I used my stand mixer but feel free to use a hand mixer and a large mixing bowl and place your butter, granulated white sugar and light brown sugar and beat them all together until they are well combined.

Once the butter and sugars have come together, give the bowl a quick scrape down, then add in your eggs (one at a time, beating well in-between each addition).

Give the bowl another quick scrape down, this helps to incorporate any bits that haven’t been fully worked in. Then add in your dry ingredients by passing them through a sieve, this helps to remove any lumps from getting into the dough. Mix the dry ingredients and the chopped-up chocolate in on a low-medium speed until they are just incorporated.

Once the cookie dough has formed, take two scoops of dough and scrape a teaspoon of Cadbury’s chocolate spread onto one of the dough balls and place the second dough ball on top and squish them together and roll them until they are one single ball. Then place them onto a baking tray, lining it with greaseproof/parchment is up to yourself. Leave a space in between each dough ball as they will spread while they bake. Bake for around 18 minutes in your preheated oven (or until they are golden brown around the edge, remove from the oven and optionally, place a few additional pieces of dairy milk on to each cookie and allow to cool slightly before moving them to a cooling rack.

Once the baking tray isn’t so hot, transfer the cookies from the baking tray onto a cooling rack and allow to cool fully (if you can resist).

Ingredients:

150g Butter.

150g Granulated sugar.

150g Light brown sugar

2 Eggs.

1 tsp Vanilla extract.

350g Plain flour.

1 tsp Baking powder.

1/4 tsp Salt.

100g (1 bar) Cadbury Dairy Milk chocolate bar, chopped small.

1 small jar of Cadbury chocolate spread.

Additional bar of Dairy milk for the finishing.

Method:

Do some prep work. Preheat your oven to 180˚c/350˚f , weigh up all your ingredients and line your baking trays with greaseproof/parchment paper.
To start the cookies, place your butter, granulated sugar and light brown sugar into your mixing bowl and beat them together, just until they are combined.
Add your eggs into the bowl, one at a time beating well in-between each addition. Repeat with your second egg.
Once your eggs are fully incorporated, you’ll want to add your dry ingredients in but first, you’ll want to pass them through a sieve. Into your sieve add in your plain flour, baking powder and salt, this helps to sort out any big lumps that wouldn’t pass through.
Once all the dry ingredients and the chopped bar of chocolate have been added, incorporate them by mixing them in over a low-medium speed just until a dough has formed, try not to over-mix.
Take your cookie scoop and scoop up 2 balls of dough per cookie. Adding a teaspoon of Cadbury chocolate spread onto one dough ball, squishing the two balls together then roll the dough between your hands to round it off and place it on your lined baking tray – I got 6 onto a standard baking tray but work with what trays you have. Leave a space in-between each cookie as they do spread while baking.
You can bake these cookies straight from making them, there is no need to chill the dough first.
Place the baking tray into the oven and bake for 18 minutes (remove one they look more baked around the edges, so check after the 13-15 minute mark and see. All ovens are different and will vary with baking times so keep an eye on them.
Once fresh out the oven, place a few pieces of dairy milk onto the top of each cookie just to add some more chocolate, because why not? (do you really need a reason to add more chocolate into chocolate cookies?).
Transfer the cookies to a cooling rack to cool completely before enjoying (although they are amazing while slightly warm).

If you have made it this far, thank you for checking out the recipe – I hope you enjoy it. These cookies will be a fantastic treat to share with your family and friends.

Homemade (sweet) Mincemeat

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We have made it all the way to December already… That mean’s 2 things, Christmas is around the corner and bakemas is here.

Today I’m showing you how to make mincemeat, let’s get started shall we?

If you’re new around here, bakemas is my annual series where I uploaded various festive (and some not so festive) recipes, which will help you make and bake the best bits and pieces for your table, regardless of how you celebrate around Christmas time, there is something for everyone.

Something that most of you will have heard of is mincemeat and yes, it does sound like ground pork or beef but it’s evolved from that (in the past it has been a meat based filling) and become a fruity, sweet and spiced variety (which is much preferred by many). This is the perfect filling for mince pies or mincemeat streusel and the best thing about it? You can make it up to 6 months in advance as it matures and keeps getting better – YUM!

I recommend making this earlier than December but as long as it has about a week to mature a little, you’ll be as right as rain. When it comes to using the ground spices, feel free to change the amount of each used, that’s if you don’t like using a lot but you can’t really tell once it’s all combined, it works pretty well.

Seeing as this recipe is part of bakemas, I’ll keep the write up short and sweet as nobody has spare time around the Christmas period.

Ingredients:

185g Currants.

185g Raisins.

185g Sultanas.

95g Candied mixed peel.

35g Stem ginger, chopped.

150g Bramley apple, chopped.

125g Vegetable suet.

125g Demerara sugar.

35g Dark brown sugar.

1 tsp Ground cinnamon.

1 tsp Ground mixed spice.

1/4 tsp Ground nutmeg.

1/8 tsp Ground cloves.

165ml Brandy/whiskey (either works well).

Method:

Weigh up all of your ingredients into small bowls, this will save you from faffing around later on and prevent you from making mistakes with the amounts.
Get yourself a large mixing bowl and place all of ingredients into the bowl.
Give all the ingredients a good mix together until they are well combined.
Once you’ve got your mincemeat made, divide it between 4 sterilised jars, filling almost to the top.
Add a small circle of greaseproof/parchment paper on-top of the mincemeat in each jar, then secure the lid on and store.
You’re best to store the made mincemeat in somewhere cool and dark, ideally in a normal food cupboard or in a pantry would work well also. Feel free to make this up to 6 months ahead of time, the alcohol in the mixture helps preserve the mixture. It will mature the longer you leave it, meaning it will develop a better taste.

Devils Food Cake

by bakingwithelliott Leave a Comment

If you have come looking for a devil’s food cake, I’ve got you covered. This recipe is a classic and will go down a treat – I promise you that!

This weeks recipe is for a devils food cake and was requested by Chloe over on Instagram, so here you go – your suggestion made into a creation! If you’d like to make a request for a recipe, feel free to message me over on Instagram or twitter, comment on a YouTube video or submit a contact form and you might see your request made (currently I’m looking for Christmas and holiday themed recipes!).

Anyway, this cake has been enjoyed by many around the world over may years and I can see why. It’s a chocolate cake with chocolate icing, what’s not to love? Seriously. If you love chocolate, then this cake is for you.

Making the cake isn’t too hard, nor is the icing. The hardest thing about this cake is not wanting a slice straight away, that’s the honest truth!

To making your cake, you’ll want to do some prep work which will save you so much time in the long run! Preheat your oven to 180˚c/350˚f, weigh up your ingredients and line or butter and flour your 6 inch cake tins, if needed (set them aside until needed later on).

Start making your cakes you’ll want to combine all the dry ingredients together in one bowl and into another bowl add In your wet ingredients and combine them, set both aside until needed a little later on. Into your bowl of choice (I went with my stand mixer bowl but feel free to use whatever you have or prefer) place the butter and sugar and beat together on a medium-high speed until well combined. Once well combined, you can then add in the eggs. One egg at a time, beating well in-between each addition, then give the bowl a good scraping down, just to incorporate any bits that may have not been fully worked in earlier on.

Next, you’ll want to start adding the dry and wet ingredients by alternating between them, starting and ending with the dry ingredients. You’ll want to add the dry and wet ingredients in roughly 3-4 stages, whichever works best for you, just remember to start and finish with the dry ingredients. Try not to over-mix the batter at this stage, otherwise the cake will be tough in texture. When it comes to putting the cake batter into the cake tins, you can do it two ways. The first would be to do it by eye, just scoop roughly the same amount into each cake tin and then level it off or you can do it the other way. The other way is more accurate by far, so you get the weight of your cake batter (using digital scales) and simply divide that amount by 2 and place that amount into each cake tin. Either method will work, but for me I always use the 2^ndmethod to ensure accuracy. Place these cake tins into your oven and bake for 25-30 minutes (or until a tester comes out clean).

While your cakes are in the oven baking, this is the perfect time to make the chocolate icing filling and coating. This is easy and doesn’t take a long time at all, start by placing the butter and cocoa powder into a small saucepan and place over a medium heat and continuously stir it when it starts to melt, once it’s ready it should be smooth and glossy. Transfer the chocolate mixture into a medium mixing bowl and then add in the icing sugar and combine them together until they come together. To finish the icing, add in 1 tbsp of milk and beat it in until its fully combined, I recommend using an electric hand mixer to achieve this result but feel free to use a whisk. I used around 2 ½ -3 tablespoons of milk but the amount will vary for each person, try not to add too much milk at this stage. Once you’ve got your icing, you may think it looks a little runny? Don’t worry, place it in the fridge just until you need it and it will thicken it up a fair amount, making it a spreadable consistency.

Once your cakes are fully baked, remove them from the oven and allow them to cool down in the tins for around 10-15 minutes or until the tins are cool enough to touch, then remove the cakes from the tins and allow them to cool completely. If your cakes aren’t flat on top, feel free to level them off using a cake leveller or a ruler and knife (whichever you have and/or works best for you).

Now, we are almost done with the cake, so you can literally have your cake and eat it.

To finish the cake, take your chocolate icing out the fridge and give a mix to bring it back to a spreadable consistency and get your cake layers (plus any plate, cake stand or board you’re using to display the cake) and you’re set. Use a small amount of the chocolate icing to secure the cake in place, the add a good amount of the icing into the centre of the cake and spread it out using a small cranked palette knife until the layer is smooth, then sandwich the cakes together and use the remaining icing on the top and side of the cake, getting the layer as even as possible. For the decoration, feel free to use whatever sprinkles you’d like, I went with chocolate bits but if you wanted to add a bust of colour you could implement that with the sprinkles and right now would be the perfect opportunity to write onto the cake, if you need of course.

Andddd… You’re done! It doesn’t take too long and is easy to make, why not try it?

Ingredients:

Cake:

105g Butter.

70g Cocoa.

125g Granulated sugar.

2 Eggs.

210g Plain flour.

1 ½ tsp Baking powder.

½ tsp Salt.

120ml Coffee, cooled.

120ml Whole milk.

1 tsp Vanilla bean paste/extract.

Chocolate Icing:

175g Butter.

40g Cocoa powder.

115g Icing sugar.

2-3 tbsp Whole milk

Methods:

Cake:

First things first, do some prep work. Preheat your oven to 180˚c/350˚f, weigh up your ingredients and line your 2 6 inch cake tins with greaseproof paper if needed and then set them aside until later on.
In a medium bowl, sift in the plain flour, cocoa powder, baking powder and salt. Then give it all a mix just to combine and do the same thing with the coffee, whole milk, eggs and vanilla, mix them to combine and then set them bot aside until needed later on.
To start on the cake, place your butter and sugar into a bowl and beat them together until they come together over a medium speed, this takes a few minutes.
Once the butter and sugar are combined, add in your eggs, one at a time beating well inbetween each addition.
Give the bowl a good scraping down, to work in any bits that may not have been earlier on.
Add in around quarter of your dry ingredients and mix them in over a low-medium heat, just until combined. Then add in around third of the mixture and again, mix this on a low-medium speed until just combined. Alternate between the ingredients that you have remaining, remembering to start and end with the dry ingredients.
Split the cake mixture between the cake tins either by eye or using scales to get a more accurate measurement. Level the batter off as best you can using a small cranked palette knife and then place them into yoru preheated oven and bake for around 25-30 minutes (or until a tester comes out clean).
Make your chocolate icing while you wait for the cakes to bake.
Once the cakes are fully baked, remove from the oven and allow to cool in the tins for 10-15 minutes (or until you can touch the cake tins) and then remove them from the cake tins and allow to cool completely before finishing the cake.
You may also need or like to level the tops of your cakes off, so they aremore straight and level in the finishing process

Chocolate Icing:

To make the icing, it’s really easy. Get yourself a small saucepan and place the butter and cocoa powder into it and place the saucepan on the hob over a medium heat.
Once you start seeing the butter melting, start mixing them together so nothing burns and everything melts and comes together, it should be smooth and glossy.
Once you’ve got a smooth and glossy mixture, transfer it from the saucepan into a small mixing bowl and add in the icing sugar and give that a good mix until its fully incorporated.
Next you’ll want to add in a tablespoon of whole milk and mix until its fully incorporated. Repeat this until you mixture is smooth and spreadable, it should also look smooth.
Place the bowl into the fridge, this will help firm up the mixture a little.

Assembly:

Take your chocolate icing out the fridge and give a mix, just to bring it back to its best spreadable state and don’t forget to get your cake layers (along with any plate cake stand or board you intend displaying the cake on).
Spread a small amount of the chocolate icing onto the base and place your layer of cake onto the icing (this is to secure it in place). Add a good amount of the icing into the centre and level it off as best you can using a small cranked palette knife and then sandwich the other cake on top and finish the cake using the remaining icing.
Feel free to use any sprinkles or other decrations to finish the cake, it’s really up to you how you want to finish the cake off.

That’s it, now you can help yourself to a slice, make sure you like chocolate. Otherwise this might not be for you! Thank you so much for reading!

Sticky Toffee Cupcakes

by bakingwithelliott 2 Comments

If you’re looking for an autumnal cupcake recipe, look no further. This week’s recipe is for sticky toffee cupcakes, let’s get started shall we?

I know that normally around this time of year everybody goes crazy for pumpkin and pumpkin spice, not from me (well this week anyway, perhaps next week? 🤔).

Anyway, these cupcakes are made up of a traditional sticky toffee cake base, which is filled with a caramel pecan filling and topped with slightly salted caramel buttercream (which works very well) and finished with a drizzle of caramel sauce. Who wouldn’t want one of these?

These cupcakes aren’t exactly hard, there is step that you don’t have to do with other cakes and this is to soak the chopped dates, sultanas and bicarbonate of soda in boiling water. You may ask why you do this. Well, it’s to soften the skin on the dates as they can be quite tough in texture and it helps to make them taste less like dried fruit and have a more ‘toffee’ flavour, somewhat. Apart from this stage, the rest is the usual method.

As always, just before you intend on baking you’ll want to do some prep work. Line your muffin/cupcake tin with cases and set aside until its needed later, you’ll also want to weigh up all your ingredients (this saves you making mistakes later and stops you faffing about) and preheat your oven to 180˚c/350˚f.

The final bit of prep you’ll need to do is preparing your dried fruit. Place your sultanas, chopped dates and bicarbonate of soda into a small/medium heatproof bowl and pour enough boiling water on top to cover and leave to soak while you carry on and make your cupcake batter. Once you need them, simply pass them through a sieve and add the fruit mixture into the cake batter.

Now you’ve got your prep work done, you can start making your cupcakes. Start by getting yourself a large bowl and placing your butter and light brown sugar into it, then mix the two until they are combined. Then add in your eggs, 1 at a time, beating well in-between each addition. Try your best to not scramble the mixture at this stage, you will also notice that the consistency will change at this point, don’t worry. Give your bowl a quick scrape down before continuing.

Next, you’ll want to sieve your dry ingredients into your mixing bowl and mix on a low-medium speed until the flour is just about incorporated, once you’ve achieved this, you can add in the drained date mixture and then incorporate that by hand using a silicon spatula or whatever you have. Just mix until it’s fairly distributed, try not to over-mix at this stage, otherwise your cupcakes will be tough textured.

Divide the cake batter between your 12 cupcake cases, I used 2 spoons but feel free to use whatever you have or find easiest to work with. Then place the tray into the oven and bake for 20-22 minutes (or until golden brown and well risen, a tester works well too!). While your cupcakes are in the oven, you can make your caramel pecan filling.

To make the caramel pecan filling, you’ll want to get yourself a small-medium saucepan and place the butter, light brown sugar, double cream and chopped pecans into it and place on the hob until it’s melted and come together. Ensuring that you’re stirring constantly once it starts to melt, once everything has come together and the mixture is smooth, transfer the mixture from the saucepan into a small heatproof bowl and allow to cool completely before using it.

Depending on how much time you have left, you can start making your buttercream, this is really quick and easy. Into your mixing bowl of choice place your butter and half of your icing sugar and mix on a low speed to start with, just to get them combined, then work your way up to a medium-high speed and mix for a couple of minutes, until roughly light and fluffy. Give your bowl a quick scrape down and add the other half of icing sugar. I used half normal icing sugar and half salted caramel flavoured icing sugar (available at most supermarkets, craft shops and online). I then repeat the mixing process until I have no icing sugar left and the mixture is looking light and fluffy, set aside until needed a little while later.

Now that every element behind the cupcakes has been made, you just need to allow everything to cool completely before using anything.

When you’re ready, you’ll want to do some prep work. Get yourself 3 piping bags, 1 for the caramel pecan filling, 1 for the salted caramel buttercream (fit the piping bag with a piping nozzle of choice, I opted for the 1cm open star nozzle but choose what you like) and 1 for the caramel you’re going to drizzle over the cupcakes (for this you can make your own caramel or use some from a can, which is what I went with on this occasion). Doing this now saves you time in a little while and allows you to crack on when you’re finishing the cupcakes off.

So, to finish the cupcakes, you’ll want to start by getting your cupcakes in-front of you and using a shaping tool (or something similar), make a cavity in the middle of the cupcake. Snip the end off your caramel pecan piping bag and pipe a generous amount of the filling into the centre of the cupcakes (a small blog may appear on top, don’t worry to much about this, it’ll be alright). Now be aware and make sure that you’ve used a good piping bag and have snipped a big enough hole in the piping bag an aren’t applying too much pressure, otherwise you’ll make your bag explode and it’ll make a mess, like a serious amount. GRR!

Onwards and upwards, eh?

Fill each of your cupcakes with a generous amount of the filling and then get your buttercream piping bag ready and pipe a good amount of it on top of each cupcake, this is where you have control and can pipe onto each cupcake the amount you want, so it’s fully customisable. To finish the cupcakes, use the final piping bag containing the caramel and snip a small hole in the end of the bag and drizzle over as much or as little as you’d like onto each cupcake.

That’s how you make the cupcake, which sounds like a lot of work but when you consider that you’ve made almost all the elements to the cupcake it’s all worthwhile!

Ingredients:

Cupcake:

75g Sultanas.

150g Stoned dates, chopped.

1 tsp Bicarbonate of soda.

25g Butter.

200g Light brown sugar.

2 Eggs.

200g Plain flour.

1 tsp Baking powder.

Caramel Pecan Filling:

25g Butter.

175ml Double cream.

200g Light brown sugar.

50g Pecans, chopped.

Buttercream:

250g Butter.

250g Icing sugar.

250g Salted caramel icing sugar.

Canned caramel (for the drizzle).

Methods:

Do some prep work before you get started, prepare your cupcake tin with some cupcakes cases, use whichever you like or have. Weigh up all your ingredients and preheat your oven.

The other bit of prep you’ll want to do is placing the sultanas and chopped dates into a bowl and sprinkle over the bicarbonate of soda then cover it all with enough water so its submerged. Allow to soak until you need it, a little later in the recipe.

Cupcake:

Place your butter and light brown sugar into a mixing bowl of choice and beat until they are combined.
Add in your eggs, 1 at a time, beating well in-between each addition. Repeat this with method with both eggs and try not to scramble your mixture at this stage.
Scrape down the sides and bottom of your bowl quickly.
Add in your flour and baking powder and mix on a low-medium speed just until combined, be careful not to over mix at this stage.
Drain your fruit mixture and add into your cake batter and fold in by hand until its fairly distributed.
Divide the mixture between your 12 cupcake cases, trying to get it as equal as possible. Then place the tray into the oven and bake for 20-22 minutes (or until a tester comes out clean).
Allow them to cool completely before using them.

Caramel Pecan Filling:

To make the filling is really easy. Get yourself a small-medium saucepan and place in your butter, light brown sugar, double cream and chopped pecans and place on the hob over a medium heat.
Once the butter and sugar start to melt, make sure you’re constantly stirring the mixture so it doesn’t catch on the bottom of the pan and burn.
Once everything has melted and has combined, you’ll be left with a smooth (apart from the lumps from the pecans) mixture.
Transfer from the saucepan into a small heatproof bowl and allow to cool before using.
Once the mixture has cooled completely, you can transfer it to a piping bag and use accordling.

Buttercream:

Get yourself a mixing bowl and place in the butter and half the icing sugar, mix the two together on a low speed to start, once combined then crank up the speed to a medium-high just until it looks lighter and fluffier, then add in the second weight of icing sugar and repeat the process with the remaining icing sugar.
Set aside until later on, where you’ll want to place it into a piping bag fitted with your choice of piping nozzle.

Assembly:

Make a cavity in each cupcake by using a shaping tool or something similar, then fill each of them with a generous amount of the filling.
Onto each cupcake, pipe a good amount of the salted caramel buttercream. Use as much or as little as you’d like, it’s really up to you.
To finish the cupcakes, get your final piping bag which has some canned caramel in it and drizzle over as much or as little as you’d like.
That’s it, you’re done! Congrats – what do you think of these cupcakes?

Triple Chocolate Cookies

by bakingwithelliott Leave a Comment

If you’re looking for a triple chocolate cookie recipe, look no further, I have you covered.

That’s right, these cookies are triple chocolate, who wouldn’t want more chocolate?

These cookies contain white, milk and dark chocolate chips which are studded throughout the chocolate dough. If you like chocolate, you will LOVE these cookies.

As mentioned above, these cookies are super simple to make and don’t require a lot of time or ingredients to make a batch. You’ll have your baked cookies all done in under 60 minutes, who doesn’t want cookies that don’t take a long time to make? Who wants to spend a majority of the day in the kitchen? I know I don’t and can guess that you don’t want to either, if you use my recipe, you won’t have to!

Before you get into making the cookies, you’ll want to do a bit of prep work. Start by preheating your oven to 180˚c/350˚f, weighing up all your ingredients, this will stop you from making mistakes later on and faffing about and finally, line a baking tray with some greaseproof/parchment paper and set them aside.

To start on the cookies, you’ll want to place your butter, light brown sugar and granulated sugar into your mixing bowl of choice (I went ahead and used my stand mixer bowl but feel free to use whatever you have or prefer) and beat them together just until combined, this doesn’t take very long. You can then add your eggs, one at a time, beating well in-between each addition. Make sure you allow each egg to fully incorporate into the mixture before adding the next egg, otherwise you may curdle the mixture. Once your eggs have been fully incorporated, give your bowl a good scrape down, this is to incorporate any bits that may not have been fully worked in earlier on.

Next you’ll want to add in your plain flour, cocoa powder, baking powder and salt, passing them through a sieve first to remove any big lumps that may not pass through easily. The mix in the dry ingredients over a low-medium speed just until a dough forms, then stop, you don’t want to over-mix the dough. Add in roughly about 3/4 of your white, milk and dark chocolate chips and mix them in just so they are well distributed (reserve the other 1/4 to finish them).

Take your cookie scoop and scoop up two balls of the cookie dough and roll them together into one larger ball and place onto your lined baking tray, leaving space in-between each cookie as they will spread while baking (they don’t spread a lot but enough anyway). Onto a standard baking tray I place 6 balls of cookie dough but place them accord to your tray, you can then place the tray into the oven and bake for 12-14 minutes or until they are well spread and look a little more baked around the edge compared to the centre.

When they are baked, remove from the oven and place onto your worktop and while they are still hot/warm, you’ll want to finish them. To finish the cookies all you need to do is place the reserved chocolate chips onto each cookie, for me I place around 3 of each chocolate chip onto each cookie, but use what you have left regardless of whether its a lot or none.

Transfer the cookies to a cooling rack, to cool completely cool.

Once the cookies are cooled, you can enjoy them. They are best enjoyed on their own or with a hot drink.

Ingredients:

150g Butter.

150g Granulated sugar.

150g Light brown sugar

2 Eggs.

320g Plain flour.

30g Cocoa powder.

1 tsp Baking powder.

1/4 tsp Salt.

100g White chocolate chips.

100g Milk chocolate chips.

100g Dark chocolate chips.

Method:

Do some prep work. Preheat your oven to 180˚c/350˚f , weigh up all your ingredients and line your baking trays with greaseproof/parchment paper.
To start the cookies, place your butter, granulated sugar and light brown sugar into your mixing bowl and beat them together, just until they are combined.
Add your eggs into the bowl, one at a time beating well in-between each addition. Repeat with your second egg.
Once your eggs are fully incorporated, you’ll want to add your dry ingredients in but first, you’ll want to pass them through a sieve. Into your sieve add in your plain flour, cocoa powder, baking powder and salt, this helps to sort out any big lumps that wouldn’t pass through.
Once all the dry ingredients have been added, incorporate them by mixing them in over a low-medium speed just until a dough has formed, try not to over-mix.
Add in 3/4 of your white, milk and dark chocolate chips, reserving a 1/4 to finish them off once baked. Mix them in over a low-medium speed just until they are well dispersed throughout the dough, then you’re finished mixing the dough.
Take your cookie scoop and scoop up 2 balls of dough per cookie. Roll the dough between your hands to round it off and place it on your lined baking tray – I got 6 onto a standard baking tray but work with what trays you have.
Place the baking tray into the oven and bake for 12-14 minutes (remove one they look more baked around the edges, so check after the 10-12 minute mark and see. All ovens are different and will vary with baking times so keep an eye on them.
Once fresh out the oven, place a few each chocolate chips onto the top of each cookie just to add some more chocolate, because why not? (do you really need a reason to add more chocolate into triple chocolate cookies? Hmmm…)
Transfer the cookies to a cooling rack to cool completely before enjoying (although they are amazing while slightly warm).

Thank you so much for checking out this recipe, I hope you enjoy it and get to make it soon!

Millionaires Shortbread

by bakingwithelliott Leave a Comment

If you’re here looking for a super simple recipe on how to make millionaires shortbread, I’ve got you covered.

If you don’t know what millionaires shortbread is, its basically a layered traybake. The layers consist of a shortbread biscuit base, which is topped with a rich caramel layer and finished with a chocolate layer on top. What’s not to like about it? 🤔

Anyway, I’m going to share my recipe on how to make the millionaires shortbread. It’s quick, easy and doesn’t require many ingredients, which is always a good thing!

The process of making the different parts isn’t exactly hard, nor do they take a lot of time to do. Making the shortbread will vary, depending on the method you use. There are two ways to make the dough, method 1 is using a food processor and method 2 is making it by hand. Both methods will work equally as well but method 1 is quicker than method two, however, method 2 is ideal if you don’t have a food processor or prefer to be hands on when making doughs.

Before you get into making this, you’ll want to do a small bit of prep. Measure out all of your ingredients in advance, this just saves you making mistakes and faffing about. Also, don’t forget to preheat your oven to 180˚c/350˚f. The baking tin I’m using is 11×7 inches but feel free to use a 9 inch square.

To make the shortbread layer, place your flour, sugar and butter into either your food processor or mixing bowl and pulse/rub in until its combined. Once you see a clear dough has formed, stop mixing and set aside while you prepare your tin, lining it with some greaseproof paper. Place your shortbread into your prepared tin and press it out until you have a level layer, I found using my hands and a small cup measurement really helps to spread it out and get it level. Do whatever works best for you. Bake in your preheated oven for 20-22 minutes (or until slightly coloured around the edge. While your shortbread is baking, feel free to make the caramel layer.

To make the caramel layer, it’s really easy. Get a small-medium saucepan and place the butter, sugar, golden syrup and condensed milk and place on the hob over a low-medium heat and continuously stir it until it melts, it will then become darker in colour, it should be a golden brown colour, no lighter or darker. Once you’ve achieved the right colour, pour the caramel over the baked biscuit base and level it off as best you can using a silicon spatula or cranked palette knife. Place this in the fridge until its cooled down, it should be firm to the touch. This doesn’t take very long.

The final layer is the chocolate layer. This is probably the easiest and most simple layer to do plus you can customise it to suit you. I chose to use dark chocolate (as it was all I had in) but feel free to use milk chocolate, if you’d prefer to. All you need to do is melt your chocolate, my preferred method is to melt the chocolate in a bowl over a saucepan of simmering water and stirring it often until melted. If you don’t like using this method, feel free to microwave the chocolate on 20-30 second intervals, stirring well in-between each interval, be careful not to burn the chocolate. Pour the chocolate over the top of your cooled and firmed caramel and level the chocolate off as best you can using a offset/cranked palette knife, place the baking tray back in the fridge and allow the chocolate to firm up.

Once the chocolate has firmed up, remove the millionaires shortbread from the tin (you may need to run a knife down the sides) and cut it up into slices, I cut mine into squares but feel free to cut yours into slices that suit you best.

Ingredients:

Shortbread:

115g Butter.

175g Plain flour.

55g Granulated sugar.

Caramel Filling:

175g Butter.

115g Granulated sugar.

45g Golden syrup.

400g Condensed milk.

Chocolate Topping:

300g Chocolate (dark or milk, whichever you prefer best).

Methods:

Do some prep work now, weigh up your ingredients, this saves you making mistakes later on and stops you faffing about later.
Preheat your oven to 180˚c/350˚f.

Shortbread:

When it comes to making the shortbread, you can do it 2 ways, using a food processor or by hand. Either method will get you the results you’re looking for, I used the food processor method.
Place the flour, sugar and butter into your food processor or mixing bowl of choice and pulse/rub them together until a clear dough forms. Be careful not to over-mix it at this stage, otherwise your shortbread will be tough once baked.
Line your baking tray with a piece of baking paper/parchment and place the shortbread dough into the prepared tin, feel free to do this by using your hands or a small cup measurement, try and get the layer of shortbread as level as possible.
Once level, place your shortbread into the preheated oven and bake for around 20-22 minutes or until slightly coloured around the edge.

Caramel Filling:

I recommend making your caramel filling once your shortbread has been in the oven for round 10-15 minutes.
The caramel is really easy to make, get yourself a small-medium saucepan and place the butter, granulated sugar, golden syrup and condensed milk into your saucepan and place on the hob over a low-medium heat, once it starts to melt, you’ll want to continuously stir the mixture. You’ll notice it goes from a yellow-ish colour to a golden brown colour, this is when you know it’s done.
Once your caramel filling is done, pour it over the baked shortbread base and level out the caramel using a spatula or cranked/offset palette knife then place in the fridge to set completely cool and firm up. This doesn’t take very long.

Chocolate Topping:

Once your caramel layer has set, you can melt your chocolate. For the chocolate, feel free to use milk or dark chocolate, choose your preference.
You can melt the chocolate 2 different ways, method 1 is placing the bowl of chocolate over a saucepan of simmering water, stirring often once it starts to melt. Method 2 is placing the chocolate into a microwave safe bowl and microwave the chocolate in 30 second intervals until melted. Either method will work, I chose method 1 as this is my preference.
Pour the chocolate on top of the firmed caramel layer and spread it out using a cranked/offset palette knife or the back of a spoon and level out the chocolate as best you can.
Place back in the fridge and allow the chocolate to firm up completely.

To finish the millionaires shortbread, all you need to do is to remove it from the tray and cut it up into slices, I chose squares but feel free to cut them up however you like.

Lemon and Blueberry Cake

by bakingwithelliott Leave a Comment

If you’re looking for the easiest and best recipe for a lemon and blueberry cake, look no further as I have you covered.

As mentioned above, this cake is the easiest and best recipe for a lemon and blueberry cake. After a few tests on making this cake, I finally found one that works well. This recipe includes how to make the cake, the lemon simple syrup, blueberry jam and lemon buttercream. Although there are a few different stages to this cake, they can be done at the same time, so don’t worry if you want to make this. Don’t be put off, it’s pretty simple.

When it comes to starting this recipe, you can start with whichever stage you like, personally I do the longest process first and in this case, it’s the cake. Before I start, I do a bit of prep. I start by preheating my oven to 180˚c/350˚f, weighing up all my ingredients (this saves you a lot of time when your mixing the cake, plus it saves you from making mistakes and faffing about) and if needed, preparing your 6-inch cake tins by either buttering and flouring or lining them with greaseproof paper (whichever method works best for you. I didn’t do either method as the tins I was using are non-stick).

To make the cake, start by placing the butter and sugar into a mixing bowl of choice and beat together until well combined and lighter in colour and consistency. Once you’ve reached that stage, you’ll want to then add in the eggs, one at a time, beating well in-between each addition. Don’t worry if when you’re adding your eggs to the mixture it curdles, just add a small amount of your weighed out dry mix to fix the curdling. Once the eggs are all incorporated, sift in your dry ingredients and then mix over a low to medium speed just until the dry ingredients are incorporated. In a small bowl, place your blueberries (fresh or frozen, either works well here. I used frozen but feel free to fresh if you can get them) and add a small amount of plain flour and give it a brief mix, just to coat the blueberries, then add the blueberries into the cake batter and fold them in using a spatula just until they are well distributed. Once the cake batter is done, divide between your 2 prepared cake tins (for a more accurate measurement, use digital scales to get a more precise measurement or eyeball it, use whichever method works best for you). Once the cake batter is in each tin, you can then level them off as best you possibly can using a small offset or cranked palette knife or a spoon. Place into your preheated oven and bake for around 25-30 minutes.

While your cakes are baking in the oven, it’s the perfect opportunity to make the remaining parts for the cake. I start with the lemon simple syrup, which surprisingly is simple.

To start the lemon simple syrup, get yourself a small-medium saucepan and place the water and sugar then give a brief mix, then add in the lemon slices (I went with 4, which was perfect but feel free to adapt it to suit you). Place that saucepan on the hob over a low-medium heat until it reaches a boil, this is normally achieved in 7-9 minutes. Once it’s reached a boil, get yourself a bowl/jug and a sieve/strainer and pass the mixture through the sieve/strainer and allow the simple syrup to cool completely before using it. If you’re making this in advance, store it in the fridge.

Now that the simple syrup has been made, you can make the blueberry jam filling, which is as easy as the simple syrup. What’s not to love?

To make the blueberry jam, get yourself a small-medium saucepan and place in your blueberries, along with the sugar and give them a quick mix. Net add in the water and give a mix to quickly combine the ingredients and then place the saucepan on the hob over a low-medium heat until it comes to a simmer, mixing every now and again. You will notice as the mixture heats up, that it thickens in consistency, just remember while its hot, it’s more liquid (as it cools it thickens and the consistency will look less liquid like and more like jam). All the jam to cool completely before using it, otherwise it will melt the buttercream and ruin your cake.

Now your cakes are fully baked, you’ll want to remove them from the oven and allow them to cool in the tins until you can handle the tins, for me this was about 15-20 minutes (my kitchen is cooler, so this helps), then remove the cakes from the tins and transfer them to a cooling rack where you’ll leave them until they completely cool.

While your cakes are cooling, why not make your buttercream? The buttercream isn’t exactly hard to make nor does it take a lot of time. To start, place your butter into your bowl and beat it on its own for around 5-7 minutes, after that time you should notice a change in colour and consistency, it’ll be both lighter and fluffier. Give the bowl a good scraping down and add in all the icing sugar, seeing as I was only doing a small batch I added all the icing sugar in a single addition but for bigger batches I recommend doing it in 2 batches. Mix the icing sugar in on a low speed to start and work your way up to medium and then high over a couple of minutes, add in some lemon juice to flavour and loosen the mixture a little, feel free to use some lemon flavouring if you’d like, I found the lemon juice gave a great flavour. Beat together until it’s a smooth and spreadable, then set aside until needed later.

Now that you’ve got all the different parts done, you can start assembling your cake.

Start by getting your layers of cake and levelling off the slight domes they have, this is optional but I wanted to remove them. Onto the cake, you’ll want to generously brush over the lemon simple syrup that you made earlier on in the recipe, make sure that you are giving each layer of cake roughly the same amount (and try not to over simple syrup them). Once you’ve got the cakes coated in the simple syrup, you’ll want to apply your buttercream, you can do this a few different ways but I went with placing the buttercream into a piping bag, fitted with a plain 1cm piping nozzle and onto one of my cake layers, piped small amounts or blobs around the edge and a swirl of icing to fill the centre. Just before I sandwich the 2 cakes together, on top of the buttercream (right in the centre) I place a generous amount of the blueberry jam that was made earlier on, I then sandwich the 2 cakes together and finish the cake by spreading a good amount of buttercream on top of the cake and spread it out using my small cranked/offset palette knife and because I had a small amount of buttercream leftover, I piped 4 rosettes onto the cake and top each of them with a blueberry.

You can then leave the cake for a short while at room temperature so the buttercream firms up a bit or you can enjoy it straight away. This cake is perfect for this time of year, the end of summer and the start of autumn – so I hope you get to make this cake soon!

Ingredients –

Cake:

250g Butter.

250g Granulated sugar.

4 Eggs.

250g Plain flour.

1 1/2 tsp Baking powder.

1/2 tsp Salt.

Zest of 1 large lemon.

150g Blueberries (fresh or frozen).

Small amount of flour (for the blueberries).

Simple syrup:

150ml Water.

150ml Granulated sugar.

4 Slices of lemon.

Blueberry jam:

150g Blueberries (fresh or frozen).

50g Granulated sugar.

50ml Water.

Buttercream:

200g Butter.

400g Icing sugar.

A few teaspoons of lemon juice.

Method –

Cake:

Start by doing some prep work. Preheat your oven to 180˚c/350˚f, weigh up your ingredients and prepare your cake tins if needed with some parchment or by buttering an flouring them.
To make the cake, place the butter and sugar into your mixing bowl of choice and beat together until well combined.
Once well combined, add in your eggs. One at a time and beat well in between each addition. If you notice the mixture curdling, add a small amount of your weighed out flour to prevent the curdling. Repeat until all your eggs have been fully incorporated.
Next add in the dry ingredients, so your flour, baking powder and salt but pass them through a sieve first, this is just to remove any lumps. Then mix the flour in on a low-medium speed just until the flour is incorporated, being careful not to over-mix at this stage (otherwise your cakes will turn out tough).
Into small bowl add your blueberries and a small amount of flour, just enough to give them a good coating. By coating the blueberries in flour you will prevent them from falling to the bottom while baking.
Divide the batter between your 2 prepared cake tins (I did this by using digital scales but feel free to eyeball it) and then level them off as best you possibly can using a small offset/cranked palette knife or the back of a spoon will also work.
Place them into your preheated oven and bake for 25-30 minutes (or until risen and golden brown).

Simple syrup:

Get yourself a small-medium saucepan and place the water an sugar into it and give it a brief mix, then add in your lemon slices and place on the hob over a low-medium heat.
Keep your eye on the mix, it should reach a boil before you remove it from the heat. It will be noticeably thicker in consistency and very hot, so don’t touch or taste it.
Get a medium bowl/jug and a sieve/strainer and pass the simple syrup through it, collecting the liquid in the bowl/jug below. Set it aside and allow it to cool completely before using it.

Bluberry jam:

Get yourself another small-medium saucepan and place your blueberries and sugar into it and give it a quick mix, then add in the water and give it a quick mix to combine it a little.
Now transfer the saucepan over to the hob and place on a low-medium heat and allow to come to a simmer, stirring it every now and again. You will notice that the mixture thickens up as it gets hotter and the ingredients combine.
Once you can tell its thickened, remove from the heat and transfer to a jar. Although it looks quite runny at the moment, don’t worry, as it cools it will thicken and look more like jam.

Buttercream:

While your cakes are cooling, its best to make your buttercream. Into your mixing bowl, add your butter and beat it on its own for between 5 and 7 minutes. You’ll notice that in this time its become lighter and fluffier in colour and consistency.
Scrape down the sides and bottom of your bowl.
Add in all the icing sugar and start beating it on a low speed to start, working your way up to a medium then onto a high speed to make sure its all fully combined.
Add in some lemon juice, a little at a time. This will help flavour and loosen the mixture, feel free to use lemon flavouring if you’d like too.
Beat that in, then scrape down the sides and bottom of your bowl again. Then set aside until needed later on.

Assembly:

Just before you get into assembling your cakes, you’ll want to level your cakes as best you can. To do this you can use a cake leveller (which is what I recommend) but if you don’d have one, don’t worry. You can also use a knife (but I dont trust myself with a sharp knife), use whichever method works best for you.
Check that you’ve got all your bits: the cakes, simple syrup, blueberry jam and buttercream.
Take your levelled cakes and give them a generous soaking with the lemon simple syrup. Make sure you give each layer of cake roughly the same amount of simple syrup and most importantly, don’t over do the simple syrup.
Next, you’ll want to place your buttercream onto one of your cake layers. I put my buttercream into a piping bag fitted with a 1cm plain piping tip, but feel free use what you have or what you like. I pipe small blobs around the edge of the cake, then a swirl of icing in the middle, don’t worry too much about the middle.
Into the middle of the buttercream, you’ll want to add a generous amount of then blueberry jam you made. Make sure its completely cool before using, otherwise it’ll be a big mess… I add a few tablespoons of the blueberry jam and it move into the grooves of the buttercream and some seeps out the side (oops).
Sandwich the cakes together, using a little firm push.
You could leave the cake like this if you wanted, but I recommend using some of the left over buttercream and putting it on top the cake and spreading it out using a small cranked/offset palette knife and with the last bit, I pipe some rosettes on top of the buttercream and top each of them with a blueberry. Feel free to customise the cake to suit you, its really up to you how you decorate it.
I now recommend leaving the cake at room temperature for a while, so the buttercream firms up but if you can’t then don’t worry, have a slice straight away.

If you’d like to see this recipe, why don’t you check out the YouTube video?

Reese’s Peanut Butter Cheesecake

by bakingwithelliott Leave a Comment

If you’ve come looking for either a Reese’s or peanut butter cheesecake which is no bake, then you’ve come to the right place. The recipe I’m about to share with you is super simple and takes no time at all and best of all, it requires no oven!

As mentioned above, if you’ve been looking for the perfect peanut butter no bake cheesecake then this recipe may be for you. This cheesecake is compromised of a classic buttery biscuit, topped with the creamy and rich cheesecake, which is perfectly flavoured. The peanut butter flavour is there just right for me, it’s not overwhelming or underwhelming but feel free to adjust the amount of peanut butter to suit you and whoever you intend sharing this cheesecake with. My guess is if you’re looking at this cheesecake, then you quite like peanut butter and the amount I use will suit you well. Anyway, I then finish my cheesecake with a good amount of Reese’s chocolate peanut butter spread (if you like normal peanut butter, then this is a whole other spread, you must try asap!!), then I pipe sweetened whipped cream around the edge of the cheesecake and finish with a generous amount of quartered peanut butter cups.

There’s quite a bit of peanut butter involved, isn’t there… Oh well, just have a smaller slice. May as well enjoy it in the moment.

When I was making this cheesecake, the United Kingdom was experiencing some sort of heatwave (it could well have been summer weather but we don’t have weather like that too often, so meh. I don’t know still.) and even here in Birmingham, it was reaching highs of 31˚c/88˚f which was a little too warm for me, so a majority of baking (and no bake desserts) were being made when it was slightly cooler in the evening, it was still too much with the oven at 180˚/350˚f… Anyway, this isn’t a weather report.

If you haven’t guessed already, trying to keep a no bake cheesecake cool in the warmer weather isn’t that easy. Although the cheesecake didn’t melt completely there was a couple of close calls when I almost dropped it when transferring it back to the fridge one I had removed it from the tin or when it came to slicing it up, it kinda looked like it had been in the sun… Oops, it still tasted pretty good though, I’m not going to lie.

The process behind making this cheesecake isn’t so hard, the most difficult thing about this cheesecake is waiting for it to firm up in the fridge or deciding how to decorate it.

To make the biscuit base, you only need 2 ingredients and if you don’t have fancy equipment, don’t worry. All you need to do is crush the biscuits until they are a breadcrumb consistency or sand consistency and you can choose between the two methods on how to do it. Method 2 would be to place your biscuits into a food processor and blitz them together until they have broken down enough and look like breadcrumbs or sand and method 2 would be to place your biscuits into a food safe bag and securing the end. Then bashing the crumbs with a rolling pin until the biscuits have been bashed enough and they resemble either breadcrumbs or sand. Add in the melted butter (feel free to melt it in the microwave or in a saucepan over a medium heat until just melted) and mix the 2 together until it starts to look like wet sand (thats the best way I can describe it really. Transfer the buttery biscuit mixture from your food processor or food safe bag and place in the bottom of your 8 inch round baking tin and press it down using a cup measurement or whatever you have (a spoon works really well too!). Once the base is level, place the tin in the fridge and allow to chill and firm up while you make the cheesecake filling.

To start the cheesecake filling, get yourself a large mixing bowl (or use a stand mixer bowl, whichever you have or prefer) and place the soft cheese, peanut butter and icing sugar and using a whisk, whisk it together until its all come together and is well combined. This will only take a few minutes, depending on how quickly you’re mixing it together to be honest with you. Once you’ve achieved this, you can then add in your double cream and again whisk the mixture until the double cream has been completely worked in. This again varies on how quickly you’re whisking the mixture together. You will be able to both see and feel the cheesecake filling thicken as the double cream is worked in, it will hold its shape pretty well once whisked enough. Just be careful not to over-mix at this stage, otherwise your cheesecake will be too stiff.

Once the cheesecake filling is done, you will then want to place the cheesecake filling on top of your buttery biscuit base, getting as much as that rich and creamy filling into the tin as possible. Level it off as best you can using either a silicon spatula or a small offset/cranked palette knife (I recommend one of these, they are a life saver when it comes to baking!), I like to level the top off so its as smooth/level as possible, it makes it look better and helps when it comes to decorating. You can then transfer the cheesecake to the fridge and allow to chill for 8 hours or overnight until set (I left mine overnight, so I recommend doing this to you also).

So, the following morning I removed the cheesecake from the fridge and removed it from the tin, transferred it to a cake stand and placed it back in the fridge while I prepare my final decoration bits and pieces. I required some cream for the edge of my cheesecake, so I placed my double cream, icing sugar and vanilla into a bowl and whisked that until it was thicker and placed into a piping bag with a closed star piping nozzle. I placed a couple of tablespoons of the chocolate peanut butter into a separate piping bag, fitted with no nozzle and chopped my peanut butter cups into quarters and placed them into a bowl. Now I have all the final bits and pieces I need for my cheesecake, I can finally get on to finishing it.
To finish the cheesecake, you can do it however you like. It’s really easy to customise and make it suit your occasion. My cheesecake wasn’t for any special occasion, so I didn’t have a theme. I piped over a ‘drizzle’ effect with the chocolate peanut butter, then all around the edge of the cake I pipe small amounts of whipped cream. To finish I place a few of my quartered peanut butter cups in the centre, then place the odd quarter onto the whipped cream around the edge.

This cheesecake is really easy to make and doesn’t require a lot and best of all its no bake and can be made ahead, so why not whip one of these up soon?

Ingredients:

Base:

250g Digestive biscuits.

100g Butter, melted.

Cheesecake:

600g Plain soft cheese.

200g Peanut butter.

100g Icing sugar.

Toppings:

250ml Double cream.

100g Icing sugar.

1 tsp Vanilla bean paste.

2-3 tbsp Chocolate peanut butter.

A few peanut butter cups, quartered.

Method:

Base:

Place your biscuits into a food processor or food safe bag and blitz/beat until the biscuits become a sandy consistency.
Melt you butter either in the microwave or in a saucepan over a medium heat, then add into the biscuit crumbs and mix until the crumbs are all coated and look like wet sand once well combined.
Transfer the biscuit mixture to your 8 inch round cake tin and press it down using either a cup measurement or the back of a spoon until the base is level and smooth looking.
Place in the fridge, so the base can firm up and you can get on with making your cheesecake filling.

Cheesecake:

To start, get yourself a large bowl and place your soft cheese, peanut butter and icing sugar.
Whisk the 3 together until the mixture comes together, this may take a couple of minutes (it all depends on how quickly you’re mixing them together). You will know once its come together, it will be one solid colour and not a trace of a single ingredient.
Add in your double cream and again whisk the mixture together until it becomes thicker in consistency and it holds its shape well (you will be able to see and feel the difference once its combined. Try not to over-mix at this stage).
Transfer the cheesecake filling and place it on top of the buttery biscuit base you made earlier on, getting as much of the cheesecake filling into the tin as possible. Level it off as best you can using either a silicon spatula or my favourite, a small cranked palette knife.
Once you’ve levelled the top off as best you can, place the tin into the fridge and allow to chill and firm up for around 8 hours or overnight for the best results.

Toppings:

To start on the toppings, place the whipped cream, icing sugar and vanilla into a bowl and whisk together until its well combined and holds its shape well.
Transfer the mixture into a piping bag fitted with a closed star piping nozzle.
Place a few tablespoons of chocolate peanut butter into a piping bag, with no tip.
Cut a few peanut butter cups into 4’s and place into a bowl.

Assembly:

Remove the cheesecake from the fridge after 8 hours and place onto your cake stand or plate of choice and place back into the fridge to chill while your prepare your toppings.
Decorate your cheesecake however you like, it’s easy to customise it at this stage and feel free to use more or less of something. Make it suit your occasion best.

Many thanks for stopping by, I hope you enjoyed. Don’t forget to check out my other recipes, if you’d like.

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