Baking with Elliott

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Lemon and Blueberry Cake

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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:

  1. 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.
  2. To make the cake, place the butter and sugar into your mixing bowl of choice and beat together until well combined.
  3. 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.
  4. 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).
  5. 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.
  6. 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.
  7. Place them into your preheated oven and bake for 25-30 minutes (or until risen and golden brown).

Simple syrup:

  1. 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.
  2. 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.
  3. 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:

  1. 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.
  2. 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.
  3. 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:

  1. 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.
  2. Scrape down the sides and bottom of your bowl.
  3. 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.
  4. 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.
  5. Beat that in, then scrape down the sides and bottom of your bowl again. Then set aside until needed later on.

Assembly: 

  1. 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.
  2. Check that you’ve got all your bits: the cakes, simple syrup, blueberry jam and buttercream.
  3. 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.
  4. 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.
  5. 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).
  6. Sandwich the cakes together, using a little firm push.
  7. 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.
  8. 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

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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:

  1. Place your biscuits into a food processor or food safe bag and blitz/beat until the biscuits become a sandy consistency.
  2. 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.
  3. 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.
  4. Place in the fridge, so the base can firm up and you can get on with making your cheesecake filling.

Cheesecake:

  1. To start, get yourself a large bowl and place your soft cheese, peanut butter and icing sugar.
  2. 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.
  3. 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).
  4. 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.
  5. 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:

  1. 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.
  2. Transfer the mixture into a piping bag fitted with a closed star piping nozzle.
  3. Place a few tablespoons of chocolate peanut butter into a piping bag, with no tip.
  4. Cut a few peanut butter cups into 4’s and place into a bowl.

Assembly:

  1. 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.
  2. 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.

White Chocolate & Fudge Cookies

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If you’ve come looking for a recipe on how to make these super simple white chocolate and fudge cookies, I’ve got you covered.

As stated above, these cookies are super simple to make and don’t require a lot of either time or ingredients. These cookies are perfect for almost any cookie craving, it starts with the perfectly baked cookie, which has a generous amount of white chocolate chips and fudge pieces studded throughout them. Oh yeah, did I forgot to mention that they have a fudge filling? That’s right, even more fudge packed into them, what’s not to like?

I understand that you might not be able to find white chocolate chips or fudge pieces where you are, so feel free to improvise by using a chopped up bar of white chocolate or chopped up soft fudge. For the fudge centre, I recommend using butter fudge as this is softer than other fudges and works perfectly in this recipe but feel free to use whatever you have or can get your hands on.

Anyway, the mixing process doesn’t require a whole lot, a little time and effort and you can have yourself a batch of amazing cookies! The longest thing in the whole process is actually the baking period, why must you take so long to bake?! This recipe wasn’t intended for this week, but they were really tasty and thought I should share these with you as soon as possible.

All jokes aside, you don’t need any fancy equipment and these would make the ideal recipe to make with kids. To start this recipe, you’ll want to do some prep work. Preheat your oven to 180˚c/350˚f, weigh up all of your ingredients (this saves you time and prevents you from making a mistake with the exact amounts) and prepare your baking tray by lining it with either baking parchment/greaseproof paper and set that aside until its needed a little later.

To start the cookies, you’ll want to get your mixing bowl of choice and place your butter, granulated sugar and light brown sugar into a bowl and beat them together over a low-medium until they are well combined, you can tell once its done as there won’t be a trace of a single ingredient. Once the mixture has come together, add your egg and vanilla and mix that again on a low-medium speed until the egg and vanilla are very well incorporated. Give your bowl a good scrape down and then add in the plain flour and baking powder and mix them in over a low-medium speed until the dry ingredients are almost fully incorporated, then add in your white chocolate chips and fudge pieces and fold these in using a spatula, do this until the cookie dough has become clear (no traces of a single ingredient, all fully worked in to one another. You can then give your counter a wipe down and get your prepared baking tray ready.

Once you’ve got your cookie dough ready and baking tray, you’re good to go. The dough doesn’t need to be chilled before being used, so you can use it straight away. Scoop up 2 balls of dough per cookie, onto one of the dough balls, place a piece of butter fudge and place the second ball of dough on top of that one and round them up using the palms of your hands and then place them onto your baking tray. I places 6 cookies onto a standard baking tray but feel free to configure how many you can place onto a baking tray. Bake in the preheated oven for around 15-18 minutes or until golden brown.

As soon as you remove from the oven, place a generous amount of white chocolate chips and fudge pieces on top of each cookie and allow to cool slightly before eating them. Transfer the cookies to a cooling rack, allow to cool for as long as you’d like (or can resist) and then enjoy them. They are best enjoyed once out of the oven for around 10 minutes – they are best enjoyed with milk or alone.

I will leave all the ingredients and measurements down below along with a brief version of whats above, if you want to save yourself some time reading exactly what you have to do.

Ingredients:

75g Butter.

75g Granulated sugar.

75g Light brown sugar.

1 Egg.

1 tsp Vanilla.

175g Plain flour.

1/2 tsp Baking powder.

50g White chocolate chips.

50g Fudge pieces.

12 pieces butter fudge (or other variety of soft fudge).

Methods:

  • Start by preheating your oven to 180˚c/350˚f, weighing up all your ingredients and lining your baking tray with baking parchment/greaseproof paper.
  • Start by getting your mixing bowl ready and placing your butter granulated white sugar and light brown sugar into the bowl and beating over low-medium speed until its combined.
  • Once combined, you can add your egg and vanilla and beat that over a low-medium speed until they have been incorporated into the mix.
  • Scrape down the bowl and add in your flour and baking powder. Mix this in on a low-medium speed until its almost fully combined, then add in the white chocolate chips and fudge pieces and fold these in by hand using a spatula. Do this until a clear dough has formed.
  • Once a dough has formed, get your prepared baking tray and scoop up your dough. For each cookie, you’ll want to get 2 scoops of dough, onto one half of the dough place a piece of butter fudge and place the second dough ball on top, then round them off using the palms of your hand. Place onto your baking tray and fit around 6 cookies onto a standard baking tray.
  • Place your cookies into the preheated oven and bake for 15-18 minutes (or until golden brown).
  • Straight out the oven, place a generous amount of the white chocolate chips and fudge pieces on top of each cookie and allow to cool slightly on a cooling rack before eating.
  • Once cooler, enjoy by itself or with a glass of milk.

 

Mini Madeira Loafs

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If you’re looking for the best and most simple Madeira recipe, I have it right here. I’m making them into mini loafs but feel free to make it in a standard loaf pan.

Madeira is denser than a sponge cake but still light and delicious, I used vanilla in mine but feel free to play around with the flavours and find a match that works for you best. I think almost everybody has tried this cake at least once in the past, why not enjoy it in a more finger food size? Doesn’t that just mean you can have 2? Hmm…

This recipe is so easily made, you don’t need to be a master at baking to get it right. I used my stand mixer, but if you don’t have one, don’t worry. You can use either an electric hand mixer or even a wood spoon, it may just take a little more effort but completely worth it in the end. One other thing I should mention, is that the mini loaf tin that I’m using was picked up from a supermarket, if you don’t have one, feel free to use a large loaf tin and adjust the baking time (to around 45-55 minutes, all depending on your oven).

Just before you get into making these, there is some prep work that’ll save you time and from making mistakes. Start by preheating your oven to 180c/350f, weighing up your ingredients and preparing your tin by buttering and flouring the tin and setting that aside while you make your cake batter.

So, to start the mixing process you’ll want to place your butter and sugar into your bowl of choice and beat them together until they are well combined. You’ll know once you’ve achieved this, the mixture will become lighter and fluffier in colour and consistency. Once you’ve achieved that, give your bowl a good scrape down, this will help to incorporate any bits that wasn’t fully worked in earlier on. You can then start by adding in your eggs, one at a time beating well in between each addition, you’ll want to repeat this for the remainder of your eggs and once they are fully worked in, give your bowl another good scrape down (you will notice a pattern with me scraping down the sides of my bowl whenever I incorporate another ingredient).

Once your bowl if fully scraped down, you can then start with your dry ingredients. Over your mixture, you’ll want to add around half of your flour/baking powder, first passing it through a sieve. Mix that in over a low-medium speed, just until its incorporated, then add in the boiling water, a tablespoon at a time. Repeat this stage with the other half of your dry ingredients. Don’t forget to scrape down your bowl again, to incorporate any flour that has worked its way up the sides.

You’ll then want to place the cake batter into the prepared tin and bake in your preheated oven until baked (or until a tester inserted comes out clean. All ovens are different and require different baking times and temperatures). Once removed from the oven, allow to cool in the tin, then once fully cooled, remove from the tins by running a knife down the sides of each loaf and enjoy them there and then or store in a airtight container and eat within 3 days.

Ingredients:

150g Butter.

200g Granulated sugar.

1 tsp Vanilla bean paste/extract.

3 Eggs.

225g Plain flour.

1 1/2 tsp Baking powder.

3 tbsp Boiling water.

Method:

  • Start by preheating your oven to 180˚c/350˚f, weighing up all of your ingredients and preparing your tray by buttering and flouring each cavity.
  • Into your mixing bowl of choice, place the butter and sugar and beat them together over a medium-high speed. You’ll know once they are well combined, they’ll become lighter and fluffier in colour and consistency. This normally takes a few minutes.
  • Once you’ve achieved light and fluffy, give your mixing bowl a good scrape down. This is to incorporate the bits that may not have been fully worked in.
  • You can next start adding your eggs, one at a time beating well in-between each addition, then add the vanilla and mix to combine. Scrape down the sides and bottom of your bowl.
  • Next add in half the amount of dry ingredients and mix on a low-medium speed until incorporated, at this point add your water a tablespoon at a time until its fully incorporated. Repeat this stage with the manning ingredients.
  • For convenience transfer your cake batter to a piping bag and pipe into your prepared tin, on the other hand if you don’t have piping bags, don’t worry. Just spoon equal amounts of batter into your tin and level them off as best you can.
  • Place into your preheated oven and bake for 15-18 minutes (or until a tester comes out clean when inserted). Allow them to cool completely before intending to remove them from the tin. Once cool enough, run a knife around the edge and they should come away from the tin with ease.
  • Enjoy that day or within 3 days on its own or with custard or ice cream.

Thank you so much for checking out this post, please check out my others. If you have any suggestions for future blog posts, feel free to let me know and I’ll see what I can do. I just want to say a massive thank you to my friend Rukh, she deserves this thank you for all the support she’s given me!

Scone Recipe

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If you’re looking for a simple and straightforward recipe for plain scones, I have the perfect recipe for you right here.

These are really quick and simple to make, you can whip a batch up in under 60 minutes, what’s not to love? Incase you haven’t ever tried a scone before, I’ll give you the rundown on what they are exactly. Scones are a slightly sweetend confection, which are that interesting on their own, however, when they are partnered with clotted cream and jam it makes them a whole lot more interesting.

These scones are smaller than the ones you’d get in tearooms but are roughly the same size as the ones you’d find in supermarket bakeries here in the UK (which is still a decent size, it’s bigger than bitesize but smaller than the giant versions). The filling is also pretty simple, it’s just clotted cream and jam (I went with strawberry jam as I think this is the most traditional plus it’s what I had made not to long before this recipe) and depending on where you are will depend on whether you place the jam first or the cream first… To be honest, it doesn’t really matter at the end of the day, you’re still going to eat it either way.

The process behind these scones isn’t hard at all and best of all, you don’t even need any specialist equipment. All you need are your hands, this is the best way to make them but feel free to use a food processor if you have one.

To start, you’ll want to weigh up all of your ingredients, preheat your oven to 200˚c/400˚f and prepare your baking tray with greaseproof paper/baking parchment.

place your milk into a small-medium bowl and add in the sugar and mix until the sugar is fully dissolved, then set aside (ideally in the fridge, until you need it. Try and keep the cold ingredients as cold as possible). Into a large bowl, add the flour, baking powder and salt and give a brief mix, then add in your cold cubed butter and work it in by rubbing the butter and flour together until they come together. To tell if this stage is done, you’ll notice a slight change in colour (a slight yellow-ish tint) but the most noticeable change would be the consistency, it will become more of a bread crumb or sandy texture. Once the correct consistency has been achieved, you can then add in your milk/sugar and mix this in using a spatula or you can do this by hand. Try not to overmix at this stage, as it’s very easy to do, so once a dough forms, you can stop mixing it.

Generously flour your counter, then add your scone dough onto the floured surface and knead a bit of the flour into your dough if its sticky. Just knead until the dough becomes smooth, try not to overmix as this will result in a tough textured scone. Roll out your dough slightly, it won’t take many rolls to get it to the right thickness (the right thickness would be around 3cm) you can then cut out your scones, I chose the plain edge but feel free to use the crinkled edge if you want to (use the 2 1/2 – 3 inch cookie cutter). Transfer your cut outs onto a baking tray lined with greaseproof paper and brush the tops of the scones with egg wash (the egg wash I recommend using is simply a egg beaten in a small bowl) and then bake them in your preheated oven for around 15-20 minutes, they should be golden brown once they are fully baked. Once baked, allow to cool on the baking tray for a few minutes before transferring to a cooling rack to cool completely.

Once they have cooled completely, you can then slice them in half and place your clotted cream onto once half and the jam onto the other half. Sandwich the two together and finish the scones with a dusting of icing sugar. They are really that simple, nothing to complex about them at all, so I really hope you get to make a batch soon!

 

Ingredients:

250g plain flour

3 tsp baking powder

Pinch of salt

45g butter

45g sugar

150ml milk

1 egg (for egg wash)

Methods:

  • Start by preheating your oven to 200˚c/400˚f, weighing up your ingredients and preparing your baking tray with greaseproof paper.
  • To start the scones, place the milk into a small-medium bowl and add in the sugar. Whisk the two together until the sugar is dissolved in the milk, you can then set this aside (I recommend placing it into the fridge until you need it).
  • Into a large bowl, place your plain flour, baking powder and salt and give it a brief mix.
  • Into the dry ingredients, add in the butter and rub the dry ingredients and butter together until they become combined. You can tell when this stage is achieved but checking the colour of mix (if it’s got a slight yellow-ish tint, then you’re good) or the most obvious way is to check the consistency. If its a bread crumb or sandy texture, that’s what you’re looking for.
  • Once you’ve reached the correct consistency, you’ll want to add in the milk/sugar mixture and stir it in using a spatula just until a dough forms (try not to overmix at this stage, otherwise it will result in a tough textured scone).
  • Roll out your dough so its roughly 3cm thick, then using either a plain or crinkled edge cookie cutter (thats between 2 1/2 inch and 3 inch works well) cut out your shapes and place on a baking tray (if you re-roll the dough, make sure you only do it once, you should yield between 8-10 scones.
  • Once your scones are on the baking tray, brush the top of each scone with the egg wash and then place in your preheated oven and bake for 15-20 minutes or until golden brown on top.
  • Once baked, remove from the oven and allow the scones to cool for a few minutes on the tray before transferring them onto a cooling rack to cool completely.
  • Once fully cooled, slice the scones in half and top one half with the clotted cream and the other with your jam and sandwich them together and finish with a dusting of icing sugar.
  • Make yourself a hot drink and enjoy your freshly finished scone.

 

So thank you for reading my blog post today, I hope you enjoyed. If you did, please show your support by sharing this recipe with your friends and family. If you do make any recipe of mine, don’t forget to share your pictures with me!

Gluten Free Vanilla Layer Cake

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If you are looking for a simple recipe on how to make a vanilla layer cake which is gluten free, then you’ve come to the right place.

This cake is gluten free and I’ll be honest with you, only a small percentage of my baking experience is gluten free but after a few attempts, this cake has been mastered. It’s not too different to any normal cake recipe, apart from the ingredients you use, they’ll need to be gluten free.

The only different ingredients I had to buy were the flour, baking powder and sprinkles. After a few attempts at making this cake, I found that adapting my traditional vanilla cake recipe to suit gluten free had the best end result. I simply switched out the ingredients which contained gluten and swapped them with the gluten free alternatives, which are pretty easy to find in most supermarkets and specialist food stores in the UK (if you live outside the UK or can’t find them easily, a quick search on the internet will guide you in the right way).

Through the various attempts I made, I found that the self raising flour that contained xanthan gum worked the best. It meant I didn’t need to add any additional xanthan gum, however I did add 1/8th baking powder but feel free to leave this out as it doesn’t make a whole lot of difference. Just make sure the flour and baking powder you use are gluten free.

This cake is sweet and simple, perfect for any of your celebrations and can be enjoyed by everyone.

Before we get into making the cakes, you’ll want to do some prep work. Start by weighing up all of the ingredients you need, this will save you so much time in the long run and prevent you from making mistakes with inaccurate weights. Prepare your cake tins whichever way you like and preheat your oven to 180˚c/350˚f. There is one more thing you could make at this stage that will save you time later on, the simple syrup.

To make the simple syrup is really easy, place the sugar and water into a saucepan and leave over a medium-high heat until it comes to a boil, once is reaches a boil remove from the heat and allow to cool completely using it. If you’d like to flavour the simple syrup for this cake, add 1 tsp of vanilla bean paste or extract to the saucepan – this will enhance the vanilla flavour.

Making the cake is straightforward, its made using the creaming method. This is where you cream the butter and sugar together for around 5-7 minutes over a medium high speed until they have become well combined and lighter in colour and consistency, scrape down the sides and bottom of your bowl then start adding your eggs, about 1 at a time beating well in-between each addition. Once all of the egg is incorporated you can once again scrape down the sides and bottom of your bowl, this is just to incorporate any bits that may not have been fully worked in (If your mixture looks slightly curdled at any point, add a small amount of your flour mix to fix it). Add in your flour, baking powder and salt, passing them through a sieve first (this is just to remove any lumps or bits too big to pass through a sieve. Sieve in your dry mixture and mix over a low speed and then add in the water (or you can use milk) and mix until combined. Try not to over mix  at this stage.

You’ll want to split your cake batter between your 4 prepared tins, you can do this by eye or to get more accurate weight for each tin, you weigh the entire amount of cake batter using a pair of scales and then divide the amount by 4 and place that amount into each of the tins and then smooth it out as best you can using either a small cranked/offset palette knife or a spoon and then place the cake tins into your preheated oven and bake for around 25-30 minutes (or until a tester comes out clean, times vary per oven). Once fully baked, remove from the oven and allow to cool in the tin until you handle the tin, then remove from the tins and allow to cool completely on a cooling rack before you do anything else.

While the cakes bake in the oven, feel free to make your buttercream. One thing to add before To make it place your butter into your mixing bowl of choice and beat it over a medium-high speed until its lighter in colour and consistency, around 7-10 minutes should do the job. Once the butter has become lighter in colour and consistency, you can add in around half of your icing sugar and mix that in, start on allow speed working up to a high speed once its incorporated. Scrape down the sides and bottom of your bowl and add in the other half of the icing sugar and repeat the mixing process until its fully incorporated, just before you scrape down the sides and bottom of your bowl again, don’t forget to add in your vanilla, I used bean paste but feel free to use extract. You can use this straight away or place into a container and place in the fridge until you intend to use it.

Once your cakes are fully cooled, feel free to level them off and trim the sides (I didn’t remove the sides but its recommended to remove as much of the caramelisation as possible), I levelled all 4 of my cakes and then brushed them all with a generous amount of the simple syrup I made. I then got myself a cake stand, my cake layers, vanilla buttercream and some jam and I’m ready to start stacking my cake.So, I take my cake stand and pipe a blob of buttercream into the centre and spread it out using a small cranked or offset palette knife and place the first layer of cake onto the buttercream and press it down to secure it in place. Onto the first layer of cake I pipe a good amount of buttercream and level it using the small palette knife, then add around 1 tablespoon of jam (you can choose the flavour of jam, I went with strawberry) and place it in the centre and spread it out using the spoon and repeat these steps with the remaining layers until you have all your layers complete. Take a small amount of the buttercream and place it into a separate bowl, this is for the crumb coat. The crumb coat is a thin layer of buttercream which locks in the crumbs and prevents them from ruing your final coat. Apply a little at a time and spread it about, scraping away the excess buttercream and chill in the fridge for around 30-60 minutes or until the buttercream is firm to the touch.

 

Once the buttercream has become firm to the touch, remove the cake from the fridge and apply your final coat of buttercream. Be generous with the amount of buttercream you use, don’t forget to do all around the cake as well as the top and to smooth it as best you can using a scraper and get it as smooth as possible. You will then want to place this in the fridge for a further 30-60 minutes or until the buttercream is firm to the touch again. Once ready, you can make your chocolate drip which is really easy and only requires 3 ingredients… Perfect right?

For the chocolate drip, you’ll want to get yourself some white chocolate and chop it so its in smaller pieces and set aside (check on the back if its gluten free, if it isn’t, you should be able to find a bar in the free from aisle in the supermarket. Pour your cream into a small saucepan and place over a medium heat and bring to a boil, then pour the hot cream over your chopped white chocolate and allow to sit for around a minute. After roughly a minute stir the two together and mix until it becomes smooth, it’s at this stage that’ll you want to add any colourings in. I used the Sugarflair colour pastes as I already had these in and they are gluten free and can be used to colour chocolate, they are widely available in the UK, both online and in hobby stores. You’ll just want to add a small amount of colour to start out with, then add more if needed, just keep stirring until its fully worked in.

Once you’ve got your white chocolate ganache (for the drip) and your chilled cake out the fridge, you’ll want to do your drips around the edge, you can do this using one of 2 methods. Placing the chocolate into a squeeze bottle or using a spoon, either will work well, however I opted for the squeeze bottle as this is the method I prefer. Depending on your preference, you can make the drips vary in length, its all about control and personal preference. To finish, I pipe some rosettes on top of the cake and sprinkle some 100s and 1000s onto the rosettes.

Ingredients:

Cake:

300g Butter.

400g Granulated sugar.

2 tsp Vanilla bean paste or extract.

6 Eggs.

500g Self raising gluten free flour.

1/8th tsp Gluten free baking powder.

90ml boiling water or milk.

Bake at 180˚/350˚f for 25-30 minutes (or until a tester comes out clean).

Buttercream:

500g Butter.

1kg Icing sugar (check if its gluten free, some producers add starches which aren’t gluten free)

2 tsp Vanilla bean paste/extract.

Chocolate Drip:

100g White chocolate, chopped (check the ingredients for any gluten, you can find bars of 100g in the free from aisle).

100g Double cream.

Food paste (use a brand thats suitable for using with chocolate, gluten free and concentrated).

Methods:

Cake:

  • Preheat your oven to 180˚c/350˚f and measuring out all of your ingredients.
  • Place the butter and sugar into your mixing bowl of choice and beat over a medium/high speed until lighter in colour and consistency.
  • Scrape down the sides and bottom of the bowl to incorporate any bits that wasn’t from earlier on.
  • Start adding your eggs in, a little at a time until they are well incorporated.
  • Scrape down the sides and bottom of your bowl again, to incorporate any bits that didn’t quite mix in.
  • Sift your dry ingredients into the bowl and mix over a low-medium speed until its starting to incorporate, then start adding your water or milk 1 tablespoon at a time. Repeat until all your ingredients are incorporated.
  • Scrape down and incorporate any ingredients that haven been worked in so far.
  • Divide the cake batter between your 4 cake tins, either by eye or weighing the total amount of batter and dividing that by 4 and having more accurate amounts in each tin.
  • Bake in your preheated oven for 25-30 minutes or until a tester comes out clean.

Buttercream:

  • While your cakes bake in the oven, you can make your buttercream.
  • Start by placing your butter into your mixing bowl of choice and allow it to beat for 7-10 minutes until its lighter in both colour and consistency.
  • Once you’ve noticed a difference in the colour, scrape down the sides and bottom of your bowl and add in around half of your icing sugar and mix together. Starting on a low speed, working up to a high speed. Once fully combined add the other half of icing sugar into the bowl and repeat the process.
  • Give the bowl a good scrape down and add the vanilla, giving it all a good mix.
  • Place into a container with a lid and set in the fridge if you don’t intend on using straight away.

Chocolate Drip:

  • While your cake chills in the fridge, make the ganache for the drip.
  • Place your double cream into a saucepan and place over a medium-high heat and bring to a boil. While you wait for it to come to a boil, roughly chop the white chocolate.
  • Pour the boiling cream over the white chocolate and allow it to sit for around 60 seconds. Then give it a good stir until its well incorporated.
  • Add in a small amount of paste colouring and stir that in until its one solid colour.

Assembly:

  • Get yourself a cake stand or plate and pipe a small amount of buttercream onto it, in the centre. Place your first layer of cake onto the buttercream and press down to secure it in place. Pipe your buttercream onto the cake and spread it out so its a more consistent layer, then add a heaped tablespoon of jam and spread that out using the spoon. Repeat for the remaining layers of cake.
  • Once your cake is stacked, you’ll want to apply a thin layer of buttercream, this is the crumb coat. This layer of buttercream will lock in all the crumbs and keep your final coat looking the best it can.
  • Chill in the fridge for 30-60 minutes, this gives the buttercream time to firm up, ready for the final layer.
  • Once out of the fridge, apply the final layer of icing and be generous with the amount of buttercream, as you can remove the excess when you scrape the sides to get them smoother.
  • Once you’ve scraped down the sides and the top is sorted, place back in the fridge for a further 30-60 minutes. Just before you intend on finishing the cake, make your chocolate drip.
  • Apple the chocolate drip, I place my chocolate ganache into a squeeze bottle (you can also do it with a spoon or palette knife and do your drips.
  • Place in the fridge for the drips to firm up, then slice and enjoy.

So that’s how I make my 4 layer, gluten free cake, which can be made and enjoyed at any celebration, especially if you’re coeliac. I really hope you get to make this, whether its for a birthday, christening or you just fancy a cake – I’m sure it will go down a treat!

Cream Tart Recipe

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If you’ve come looking for a recipe on how to make these interesting biscuit tarts, look no further, I certainly have you covered.

After seeing these all over Instagram, I thought I’d jump on the bandwagon and make one. When I was researching what exactly these were and to be honest I didn’t get very far. I could’t find the exact name or a basic recipe for them, normally when something like this trends you can find the name and a recipe pretty easily, but I had my work cut out for me on this one. After about 3/4 day’s on Instagram I found the most common name/tag was ‘cream tart/s’ and I was amazed at how artistic some of the people had got with these.

The best thing about making these is that they don’t require a lot of time or ingredients and can be fully customisable to suit you and your occasion. You can decorate them using just one thing like chocolate or mix it up by using

After seeing all the creative and over the top varieties online, so I opted to keep mine simple. I decided that a linzer biscuit would be ideal for this recipe, it’s a simple biscuit but it has a great taste and a softer crumb than most other biscuits. For the filling, I went with what was most common but with a little twist. In place of the standard whipped cream I opted for a sweetened version instead, I know for sure that this would compliment the biscuit and fruit very well. For the decoration I kept it simple, just fruit, I chose with strawberries, blueberries, kiwi and lime.

 

Before you get into making the biscuits, make sure you have all your ingredients weighed up in advance and preheat your oven to 180˚c/350˚f. To make the biscuit part of the tart, you’ll want to place the butter and icing sugar into your mixing bowl and beat the two together over a medium-high speed until they are well combined. Once combined, scrape down the bowl and add in the egg and vanilla and mix them in on a medium-high speed until well incorporated, then scrape down the sides and bottom of your bowl again to incorporate any bits that may not have been fully worked in. Sift your flour into the mixing bowl and mix on a low-medium speed until a clear dough has formed. *Be careful not to over mix at this stage, otherwise your biscuits will be tougher in texture.

Seeing as the dough doesn’t require chilling before use, split the dough in half and roll it out until it’s about 1cm thick and cut out the shape, I opted for a 6 inch/15cm round. To get the shape, I used the base of a cake tin and used a small, sharp knife to cut around it. I repeat that stage one more time and then transfer the cut outs onto a line baking tray and bake in your preheated oven for 15-20 minutes, remove from the oven and allow to cool completely before finishing. Talking of finishing these tarts, you’ll want to prepare your filling, which is a sweetened whipped cream. Place the double cream, icing sugar and vanilla into a bowl and whip it up until you achieve stiff peaks, then place into a piping bag with a 1cm plain tip nozzle and keep it in the fridge if you don’t intend on using it straight away.

Finally, depending on what you’ve chose to decorate with, you’ll want to get it prepped and ready to use once you’ve piped your cream on. This is best eaten on the same day as it’s made or the following day.

Biscuit Layers: 
• 300g Plain flour.
• 200g Butter.
• 100g Icing sugar.
• 1 Egg yolk.
• 1/2 tsp Vanilla bean paste/extract.

Filling:
• 300ml Double cream.
• 100g Icing sugar.
• 1 tsp Vanilla bean paste/extract.

Decoration:
Feel free to use whatever you’d like whether it be fresh fruit, flowers, chocolate or macarons. Feel free to mix it up and use a variety of different bits and pieces

Method:

Biscuit:

  • Before you get into making, you’ll want to do some prep. Weigh up all of your ingredients, preheat your oven to 180˚c/350˚f and line your baking tray.
  • To start the biscuit dough, place the butter and icing sugar into your mixing bowl of choice and beat them together for around 2-3 minutes over a medium-high speed until it comes together and is well combined.
  • Scrape down the sides and bottom of your bowl, to incorporate any bits that wasn’t fully worked in.
  • You will then like to add the egg and vanilla, incorporate them over a medium-high speed just until they are incorporated.
  • Scrape down the sides and bottom of your bowl again, just to incorporate any bits that wasn’t fully worked in.
  • Next you’ll want to add in the flour, making sure that you’ve sifted it first. Add all the flour in and mix over a low-medium speed until a clear dough has formed. *Don’t over mix your dough at this stage*.
  • Seeing as there is no need to chill the dough, cut the dough in half and roll it out on a floured surface until the dough is roughly 1cm thick.
  • Once your dough is rolled out, you’ll want to cut out the shapes. To make your cut outs, place a 6 inch/15cm circle shape on top and cut around it, I used the base of a cake tin and cut around it with a small sharp knife.
  • Move the cutouts onto your lined baking tray and use a smaller cutter to removed a hole in the middle of each cutout.
  • Then place the baking tray in the oven and bake for 15-20 minutes (or until they start to colour around the edges).
  • Once baked, remove from the oven and allow to cool completely before using.

Filling:

  • To make the sweetened whipped cream, place the double cream, icing sugar and vanilla into a bowl of your choice and whip it until stiff peaks form.
  • Transfer the whipped cream into a piping bag which has a 1cm plain tip nozzle. Place in the fridge if you aren’t using it straight away.

Decoration:

Depending on what you have chosen for your topping, you may need to prepare it. If you have decided to use fruit, feel free to cut/shape it however you like. These can be fully customised to suit your occasion or the person who’ll be receiving this.

Then place whatever you’re using on top, either following a pattern or making it look decorative, whichever you choose. Whatever you do use on top can add a lot of colour to these.

If you do use flowers, please make sure you’re using flowers that are safe for human consumption, double check that they won’t have any harm to yours to others health.

Don’t forget, if you make anything using my recipes, feel free to share your creations with me over on Twitter and Instagram!

Trifle Cheesecake

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Today’s recipe is for another no-bake cheesecake, it could be considered two desserts in one. Who doesn’t want more dessert?

This recipe is perfect if you’re currently experiencing the warmer weather, its no bake, so you won’t be getting hot in the kitchen while you make this. You can get this cheesecake made in under 60 minutes and seeing as it doesn’t require baking, you only need to chill it in the fridge for a minimum of 4 hours or overnight for the best results.

I’m not going to lie, this was a random accidental creation. I saw the trifle kits in the supermarket and was buying the ingredients for a cheesecake and thought about doing a combination of the two a trifle x cheesecake but wasn’t sure how I was going to make it work. I got home and spent sometime working out how I could incorporate the different elements to make this combination work, not long after I had got the idea of how to make it work.

So, working from the bottom up, it would compromise of a traditional buttery biscuit base, topped with a vanilla crème pâtissière/pastry cream cheesecake filling, which is topped with a strawberry jelly topping and finished with freshly whipped cream and sprinkles. It’s a completely different flavour to what I’d normally do but thought why not try a combination?

Before you can consider making the cheesecake, there is some prep work to be done so that everything can be made in order. You’ll want to make your crème pâtissière/pastry cream in advance so it has time to cool, this is pretty simple to make and doesn’t require many ingredients. Start by placing your milk and vanilla extract/bean paste into a saucepan, giving it a whisk together, then allowing to come to a boil. While you wait for your milk to come to a boil, place your egg yolks and sugar into a bowl and whisk them together until lighter in colour and thicker in consistency then add in the flour and whisk until well combined. Once your milk has reached a boil, add between a 1/3 and 1/2 the milk, whisking constantly, this is to temper the egg yolks and prevent them from curdling. Add the other half of the milk giving it a good whisk, then return the milk mixture onto the heat, lowering the temperature a little and constantly stirring the mixture until it thickens. Take the time to stir this as you don’t want it to catch on the bottom of the pan, this will ruin your pastry creme. Remove from the heat and transfer to a bowl or to a baking tray, covering the pastry cream with cling film (so it doesn’t form a skin) and allow to cool completely before using it (the thinner you can spread it out, the quicker it will cool). Don’t forget to line the sides of your cake tin, regardless of the type of tin you’re using.

For the cheesecake part, it’s just like any of my other cheesecakes. You’ll want to make the base first, followed by the filling and then the topping, pretty simple right?

The base is made up of 2 simple ingredients, digestive biscuits and butter. You will want to break the biscuits down until its become a crumb or sand like consistency, either using a food processor or a plastic food bag and rolling pin. Next you’ll want to melt the butter. You can do this 2 ways, either placing the butter in the microwave and microwaving until its melted or you can melt it in a small saucepan over a medium heat and stir it to help it melt, regardless of which method you use, allow it to cool down slightly before you intend to use it. Add the melted butter into your biscuit crumbs and mix the two together until they are well combined, it will look like wet sand. Place the buttery biscuit mixture into the base of your 8″ cake tin and press it down using a cup measurement to get it compressed but feel free to use a spatula or spoon. Place in the fridge while you make your filling.

To make the filling, you’ll want to place the soft cheese, pastry cream, icing sugar and vanilla into your bowl and beat them together over a medium/high speed until it’s well combined, seeing as the custard powder you’d get in the trifle mixes would come out a yellow-ish colour so I added enough yellow food gel to get a brighter yellow colour but feel free to leave this out if you don’t want to include it. Scrape down the sides and bottom of your bow to fully incorporate any bits that wasn’t from earlier on. Add in all of your double cream and whisk together over a medium-high speed until the mixture has become thicker in consistency. Scrape down the sides and bottom of your bowl again, then remove your base from the fridge and place the cheesecake filling on top of the base, levelling it off as best you can using a small offset spatula, spoon or spatula and then set in the fridge while you make the jelly topping.

This is probably the easiest step to do. get yourself a strawberry jelly from the supermarket, I found mine in the dessert section in the supermarket. I just followed the instructions on the back of the package which was just to dissolve the jelly in boiling water, stirring then adding cold water and stirring again, it’s really that simple. I then pour this mixture on top of the cheesecake and chill for a minimum of 4 hours or overnight for the best results.

The following day I removed the cheesecake from the fridge and removed it from the tin. I then place the cheesecake onto a plate of choice and then you can finish it using a small amount of freshly whipped cream and some 100s and 1000s. Then slice yourself a portion and enjoy it!

Ingredients & Methods:

Pastry Cream:

250ml Whole milk.

1 tsp vanilla extract or vanilla bean paste.

60g Egg yolks.

50g Granulated sugar.

30g Plain flour.

Pastry Cream Method:

  • Place the milk, vanilla extract or vanilla bean paste into a saucepan and bring to a boil over medium-high speed.
  • While you wait for the milk to come to a boil, you can whisk the egg yolks and sugar in a separate bowl until they have become thicker in consistency and lighter in colour. Once you’ve achieved that, add in your flour and mix until smooth.
  • Once your milk has reached a boil, pour in between 1/3 and 1/2 and whisk the milk and egg mixture together, this is to ultimately ‘temper’ the eggs then add the remaining milk to the mixture, whisking well. Then transfer the mixture back to your saucepan and return to the heat, lowering the temperature slightly.
  • Once you’ve got your saucepan back on the heat, constantly stir it using a silicon spatula or a whisk until the mixture has become thicker, then remove from the heat.
  • Off the heat, you’ll want to transfer your pastry cream to a bowl or baking tray (the thinner you spread it out, the quicker it’ll cool down) and allow cool completely. Don’t forget to cover the pastry cream with cling film to prevent a skin from forming.

Cheesecake Base & Filling:

250g Digestive biscuits.

100g Butter, melted

 

600g Soft cheese.

The pastry cream you made.

100g Icing sugar.

1 tsp Vanilla extract/vanilla bean paste.

Yellow food gel/paste. (optional)

300ml Double cream.

Cheesecake Base & Filling Method:

  • Line the sides of cake tin and melt the butter either in the microwave or on the hob, set aside to cool slightly.
  • Crush your digestive biscuits down until they reach a crumb/sand consistency, using either a food processor or a plastic food bag and a rolling pin, then add the melted butter and mix until it resembles wet sand.
  • Place the mixture in to the bottom of your prepared cake tin, compressing it down using a cup measurement or something similar. Set in the fridge while you make your cheesecake filling.

 

  • To start on the cheesecake filling, place the soft cheese, pastry cream, icing sugar and vanilla into your mixing bowl and beat them together on a medium-high speed until they are all well combined. It’s here that’ll you want to add your yellow colouring, if you’re using it.
  • Scrape down the sides and bottom of your bowl, to incorporate any parts that may not have been fully worked in.
  • Pour in all of your double cream and incorporate this by whisking it on a medium-high speed until the mixture has become thicker in consistency.
  • Scrape down the side and bottom of your bowl again, then transfer the filling into your cake tin, on top of your buttery biscuit base. Level/smooth off as best as possible using a small offset spatula or spoon.
  • Set in the fridge while you make the jelly topping.

Jelly Topping & Finishing:

1 package of strawberry jelly (follow package instructions for the best setting results).

A couple of sponge fingers, chopped.

 

150ml Double cream.

100s and 1000s (or your choice of sprinkles).

Jelly Topping & Finishing Method:

  • Make your jelly but following the instructions on the back of the package, this will achieve the best results.
  • Pour this mixture on top of your cheesecake and place a few bits of the chopped sponge fingers into the jelly, pushing them down into the cheesecake so they’ll stay in place.
  • Place in the fridge and chill for a minimum of 4 hours but I recommend leaving it overnight or for around 8 hours for the best results.

 

  • Once you’ve removed your cheesecake from the fridge, remove from the tin and discard the parchment/greaseproof and place onto your place or stand of choice.
  • The finishing of the cheesecake is completely up to you, I piped small amounts of freshly whipped cream onto the cheesecake but feel free to spread an amount of it on top instead, if you wanted to get a more authentic trifle looking finish. I then sprinkle on some 100s and 1000s and I’m done.
  • Cut yourself a slice and enjoy.

This recipe doesn’t require a lot in all honesty, its just the time it takes to set which is the major downfall, however its all worth it.

 

Black Forest Cake

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If you are looking for a different take on a black forest gateau, I have you covered. This recipe is perfect for sharing with your friends and family.

This cake was for a family members birthday and whenever I ask them which cake they’d like, its always a black forest gateau. However, I thought I’d play around with the idea and see what I could do. Instead of the cake being the traditional round shape, I chose a rectangle. You may not like the idea of a rectangle cake but it works surprisingly well, plus you can cut the cake to make generous portions regardless of how big or small you cut it.

Anyway, less about that and more about the cake itself. The cake is made up of 3 layers of chocolate sponge cake (that can be brushed with simple syrup, I did one layer with simple syrup but forgot to do the rest… Oops!) which are layered with sweetened whipped cream and home made cherry jam, then coated in the same sweetened whipped cream, which is the crumb coat. Then its given a generous coating of the whipped cream and coated with the chocolate (I used grated but feel free to use your preference), I then normally set it in the fridge to firm up a bit before I finish it off. Once the cake has been in the fridge or around 30-45 minutes, I remove it from the fridge and pipe some rosettes on top and top each rosette with a maraschino cherry (feel free to use whichever cherries you can get your hands on).

Making this cake isn’t that hard, the hardest part is probably making and baking the cake, let me be honest with you. To start the cake you’ll want to make sure you’ve got all of your ingredients weighed up in advance, your oven is preheated and your tray prepared (you can do this 2 ways, either lining the bases with greaseproof/parchement paper or generously buttering and flouring your tins, just make sure you’ve tapped out a majority of the excess flour). Once you’ve done all of your prep work you can start on your cake batter. Start by placing your butter and sugar into your mixing bowl of choice and beating the two together until they are well combined, they’ll be lighter and fluffier in consistency and colour. Once you’ve got your butter and sugar well combined, you can then start adding the egg. You’ll want to do this gradually so you don’t curdle the mixture, a little at a time will help you from doing this.

In a separate bowl, add in your dry ingredients and give them a good mix before adding into your mixture. Add all of your flour into your mixture but pass it through a sieve first to remove any lumps. Mix the dry ingredients in over a low/medium speed, to loosen the mixture slightly I added slightly cooled down boiled water and add it in a tablespoon at a time but feel free to use milk if that what you’d prefer (I will leave all weights and measurements down below). Mix in all your water and make sure there are no traces of any single ingredients.

Once you’ve got your cake batter made, you’ll want to place it all into your prepared tray and spread it until its one consistent level. I used a small cranked/offset spatula to do this but feel free to use whichever utensil you like, a large cranked/offset spatula or silicon spatula will work very well also. Place the baking tray into your preheated oven and allow to bake for around 30-35 minutes (time will vary depending on your oven). Once fully baked, remove from the oven and allow to cool completely before removing from the tray and cutting it up for the three slices that you’ll need.

Once the cake is cooled, you can cut it up into 3 layers and set aside. It’s at this point you’ll want to simple syrup the layers if you’re deciding to do it. In your mixing bowl, pour your double cream, icing sugar and vanilla and whip them together until they have reached a stiff peaks stage, be-careful not to over whip at this point. If you decide to make your own cherry jam, it’s really simple to make, place the cherries, sugar and water into a saucepan and place over a medium heat and leave it for 12-15 minutes until thicker in consistency, if the fruit is still quite large, quickly blitz it in a food processor to break it down a bit, allow to cool before using.

To assemble the cake, get your board or plate of choice, I went with a placemat I’ve never used as it was the perfect size for my cake, but use whatever you have and works well. Spread a small amount of the whipped cream on the base and place your first layer of cake on top of it and press it down a little just to secure it in place, then you’ll want to spread a generous amount of the whipped cream on top of the cake layer, followed by the cherry jam and repeat the process with the next layer of cake. leave the top clear for now, as you’ll want to do a thin layer of the cream to act as a crumb coat and chill in the fridge for 30-45 minutes. Once its firmed up after about 30-45 minutes, you’ll then want to spread a generous amount of the whipped cream onto the top and sides, then coat with a copious amount of chocolate, I used grated as that’s what I prefer but use whatever you can get or prefer. Then you can finish the cake.

Place some of the whipped cream into a piping bag which has a open star tip nozzle at the end and pipe on your rosettes, I went for 8 but feel free to add more if you’d like, its completely up to yourself. To finish the cake completely, add a maraschino cherry on top of each rosette you’ve piped out.

Ingredients:

Cake:

280g Butter.

360g Granulated sugar.

6 Eggs.

360g Plain flour.

50g Cocoa powder.

3 tsp Baking powder.

4-5 tbsp Boiling water/milk (whichever you prefer, either works well).

Decoration: 

500ml Double cream, whipped.

 

Method:

  • Start by weighing up all your ingredients, preheating your oven to 180˚c/350˚f, preparing your tray and making your cherry jam if you’re making it.
  • To make the cherry jam, place the cherries, water and sugar into a medium saucepan over a medium heat and leave for 12-15 minutes until thicker in consistency. If it’s still quite chunky, blitz it in the food processor. Set aside and allow to cool completely before using.
  • To start on the cake batter, place your butter and sugar into your mixing bowl of choice and beat them together until they are lighter and fluffier in consistency and colour. This normally takes about 7-10 minutes depending on the speed you’re using.
  • Scrape down the sides and bottom of your bowl and start adding your egg. Add a little at a time, this is the best way as it prevents scrambling of the mixture. Beat your eggs all together before you intend on adding them, this will allow you to add smaller amounts, rather than a whole egg each time. Repeat this step until all of your eggs have been added.
  • Scrape down the sides and bottom of your bowl, the sis just to incorporate any bits from earlier on that may not have been from earlier on.
  • Place all your dry ingredients into a bowl and mix them together, then pass the through a sieve just to make sure there aren’t any lumps. I sieve my dry ingredients directly into the mixture bowl, feel free to do the same.
  • Mix the dry ingredients in over a low-medium speed. While the flour is incorporating, you’ll want to gradually add the water/milk, make sure it incorporates fully before adding more liquid. Once you can see the flour and liquid are fully incorporated, you can then turn the mixer off and scrape down the sides and bottom of the mixing bowl.
  • Transfer the cake batter into your prepare tin and spread it out as evenly as possible. I used a small cranked/offset spatula to get it as level and smooth as possible but use whichever utensil may work best for you.
  • Place the tray into your preheated oven and bake for around 30-35 minutes or until a tester comes out clean. The time will depend on your oven, so the time may need to be adjusted.
  • Once fully baked, allow to cool completely then slice up into your equal layers, you’l want to make 3 equal layers. Set aside until needed.
  • Whip up a batch of the whipped cream, placing the whipped cream, icing sugar and vanilla into your mixing bowl and whip until it reaches a stiff peak. Try not to over mix at this stage as it will ruin the cream. If you’re making a batch of the cherry jam, place the cherries, sugar and water into a spacepan and place it over a medium heat and leave for 12-15 minutes until its thicker in consistency, you may need to pulse this in a food processor if its still quite chunky. Allow to cool completely before using.
  • Take your board/plate and spread a small amount of the whipped cream onto it and gently press a layer of the cake on top of it. Repeat this stage with the next layer of cake but for the final layer keep it plain.
  • Next you’ll want to do a crumb coat using a small amount of the whipped cream. This is to lock in those pesky crumbs that now won’t ruin your final coat of whipped cream. Once coated, place in the fridge for 30-45 minutes until firm.
  • Once it’s firmed slightly, apply a generous final coat, here is the perfect time to use a majority of the whipped cream.
  • You’ll want to coat the outside of the cake with the grated chocolate (use whatever you have or prefer). Make sure you use a good amount of the chocolate on the finishing. Once fully coated, place in the fridge for 30-45 minutes.
  • To finish the cake you’ll want to pipe out rosettes on top, I did 8 but you could pipe more on there easily. Top each of the rosettes with a maraschino cherry and enjoy.

This cake is best enjoyed on the day its made but can also be enjoyed the day after.

Viennese Whirls

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I have the the best and most straightforward recipe for viennese whirls you could possibly need.

If you’re from the UK then you probably recognise these from a well known cake brand, which is available in in most supermarkets. Forget about those, once you make a batch of these up for yourself, you will not look back!

The biscuits themselves only require 4 ingredients, so they are cheap, quick and easy to make. They can be enjoyed on their own or with the vanilla buttercream and strawberry jam fillings, which compliment the biscuits pretty nicely and the other thing to know about theses that they are fairly bigger than the ones you’d get in the box from the supermarket (I’m a greedy git), so feel free to lower the amount of filling compared to what I used.

The mixing process is easy, it doesn’t matter if you’re using a wooden spoon, electric hand mixer or a stand mixer. It’s the piping that can be a bit difficult and this is because of the amount of flour which is used in these biscuits, it’s a lot. The dough can easily be handled with your hands but to get the signature piped look on top you need to use a piping bag and star tip nozzle, I recommend using a open/wide star tip as to a closed star. If you find your dough hard to pipe out, use the warmth from your hands to warm the dough through the bag (if you try and pipe the dough while it’s too stiff then you will be pushing too much pressure towards the bottom of the bag and it will more than likely split open plop a good amount of the dough out of the bag).

So to get started, you’ll always want to prepare your baking tray, I drew around a circle cutter so my biscuits would be roughly accurate in size to one another, this is ideal if you’re not sure on sizing them. Also, don’t forget to weigh up your ingredients and preheat the oven to  190˚c/375˚f. Now you can start by placing the butter and icing sugar into your mixing bowl of choice and beat the two together until well combined. Then add in your first weight of flour and mix that until well combined, scrape down the sides and bottom of your bowl, then add in the second weight of flour and mix it in until well combined and thats the dough done. Place a open star nozzle into a piping bag and add around about a handful or so of the biscuit dough. If the dough isn’t piping well, use the heat of your hands to warm it up just enough to pipe out your rosettes. These don’t really spread in the open so feel free to pip quite a few onto one tray and place them in your preheated oven and bake for around 18-20 minutes (or until they start to colour around the edge.

As for the filling, I have recommended using vanilla buttercream and strawberry jam but feel free to replace those if you don’t like my choice.  Make your buttercream while your biscuits are baking, start by placing the butter into a bowl and beating until lighter in colour and consistency. Scrape down the sides and bottom of your bowl and place roughly half the amount of icing sugar and beat until fully incorporated, repeat this stage with the remaining icing sugar. Once all the icing sugar is fully incorporated, add in the vanilla extract or vanilla bean paste an mix until well combined, if your buttercream is a little too thick, add a splash of milk just to get it to a more spreadable consistency. As for the jam, feel free to use whatever you’ve got, homemade or shop bought will work well here.

For the assembly of these biscuits, pair your biscuits up and onto one half of them, pipe on a good amount (or a generous amount if you have a sweet tooth) and then pipe on a small amount of jam in the centre of the buttercream and gently place the other biscuit on top of the filling, sandwiching them together. Just before you tuck into one, you’ll want to give them a justing of icing sugar to finish them off, now sit back and enjoy one of these.

Ingredients:

Biscuits:
225g Butter.
45g Icing sugar.
115g Plain flour (1).
145g Plain flour (2).

Bake them in your preheated 190˚c/375˚f for 18-20 minutes.

Filling:

Buttercream:
150g Butter.
300g Icing sugar.
1 tsp Vanilla extract/bean paste.
(optional – milk).

Strawberry jam (but feel free to switch this to a jam or spread you might prefer).

Method:

Biscuits:

  • Weigh up all of your ingredients, preheat your oven to 190˚c/375˚f and line your baking trays with greaseproof/parchment paper.
  • Start the biscuits by placing the butter and icing sugar into your mixing bowl of choice and beat them together until well combined and lighter in colour.
  • Scrape down the sides and bottom of your bowl, to incorporate any bits from earlier on. Then add in your first weight of flour in and mix that in until just combined.
  • Scrape down the bowl again to incorporate any bits that have worked up the bowl. Add in the second weight of flour and just mix that in until its just combined.
  • Prepare a piping bag by placing a 12mm open star nozzle at the end and place a good amount of the dough into the piping bag.
  • Pipe out the dough onto your lined tray (draw some templates if you want to get your biscuits more uniform), these don’t spread very much while in the oven so leave a small space in-between each biscuit. Place the tray in your preheated oven and bake for 18-20 minutes (or until they start to colour around the edges).
  • Once fully baked, remove from the oven and allow to cool for a few minutes on the baking tray, then transfer them over to a cooling rack to cool completely.

Buttercream:

  • Weigh up your ingredients in advance.
  • Place the butter into a mixing bowl an beat it over a medium-high speed until lighter in colour and consistency.
  • Once lighter, you’ll want to add in around half of your icing sugar (make sure you’ve sifted it first, to remove any big lumps) and beat that on a low speed working it up to a high speed, scrape down the bowl and repeat this stage for the other half of the icing sugar.
  • Add in the vanilla (and milk if the buttercream is too stiff, this will help loosen the buttercream down) and mix until well incorporated.
  • Place the buttercream into a piping bag with a 12mm star nozzle and set aside until its needed.

Assembly:Pair your biscuits up with