bakingwithelliott

Toffifee Blondies

It’s bakemas 2020!

If it’s your first bakemas here, welcome. It is my annual mini-series in which I show you how to make a various Christmas themed baked goods – perfect if you want to impress your family and/or friends or if you’re hosting a festive get together.

Today I’m sharing with you my recipe a batch of Toffifee blondies!

The perfect traybake for all occasions, of course, but these little chocolates are most often seen around Christmas – so why not use up a box while you make this recipe?

A white chocolate based blondie, with added white chocolate chips. Lusciously swirled with hazelnut chocolate spread and caramel and finished with a generous amount of Toffifee.

If these sound good to you, why don’t you give them a try? I promise you when I say you’ll love these, you really will.

Anyway, let’s get started, shall we?

Ingredients:

200g White chocolate.

130g Butter.

160g Granulated sugar.

190g Plain flour.

1/2 tsp Salt.

3 Eggs.

1 tsp Vanilla extract.

100g White chocolate chips

80g Milk chocolate spread.

80g Caramel (or dulce de leche).

1 Packet of toffifee.

Method:

Before you get started on the recipe, you’ll want to do some prep work. Start by weighing up all of your ingredients, lining an 8×8 inch square cake tin with parchment paper, preheat your oven to 180˚c/350˚f and place a small/medium saucepan on the hob over a low/medium heat. Don’t forget to get any equipment you may need, such as a heat proof mixing bowl, whisk and silicon spatula.

Into a median sized heatproof bowl, place the butter and white chocolate, then place over the saucepan of simmering water and allow to melt a little. Once they start melting, continuously stir until its completely melted and smooth – it should also be well combined.

Remove the bowl from on top of the saucepan (be careful, it’ll be hot) and place elsewhere and cool for a couple of minutes. I transferred mine into another bowl, to help with the cooling process.

Go ahead and add in the granulated sugar and whisk it all together until everything has been fully incorporated.

Then add in the flour and salt, whisking until everything is incorporated – the batter will look and feel more like a dough around now, don’t worry, this is normal.

Give the bowl a quick scraping down, then add in all of your eggs and the vanilla and whisk them in until they are fully incorporated. The mixture will be thick but spreadable and flow well.

Add in the white chocolate chips and fold them in until fairly distributed throughout the mixture.

Pour the mixture into your lined cake tin, then warm your chocolate spread and caramel, until they are more liquid.

Take generous table spoons and spoon on top of the blondie batter, using both spreads. Then take a butter knife and swirl the spreads throughout the blondie batter – it should be swirly and ripply on top of the blondie batter with streaks of milk chocolate and caramel (honestly, it’s good).

Place in the oven to bake for 15 minutes and then remove and place the Toffifee on top. Place back into the oven and bake for a further 10-15minutes.

Once fully baked, allow to cool fully in the tin. Once completely cooled down, you can slice them up straight away or place in the fridge for around 6-8 hours – this will help make the blondies easier to slice up and make them extra dense… Which is perfect (as these are a white chocolate brownie, the only way to enjoy them is dense and fudgy, fight me!)

Whenever you’re ready to slice up the blondies, take a sharp knife and cut them up. You can do 8 very generous bars or 16 smaller bitesize pieces – whichever suits you or however you slice up.

These are perfect to make ahead of time and can be frozen, when wrapped well. Share these with your friends and family this year – it’s the year to show some love!

That’s all for today guys, I hope you enjoyed. If you did, don’t forget to share this recipe with your family and friends and enjoy it. I’ll be back soon with another blog post and YouTube video, so join me then. In the meanwhile, don’t forget to check out my other social’s – Facebook, Instagram, Pinterest, TikTok, Twitter and YouTube. The YouTube tutorial will be linked down below.

Easiest Chocolate Cake

by bakingwithelliott Leave a Comment

It’s bakemas 2020!

I’m sharing the easiest chocolate cake recipe, like ever. Seriously, this is my go-to recipe whenever I’m making a chocolate cake.

Whenever I get the chance to make a chocolate cake, this is my go to recipe. It’s a simple and straightforward recipe, that only requires very simple ingredients and is the very recipe I have been using for the past 8 years – so I know it works well!

When it comes to making a basic cake, using the best quality products make the cake even better… That’s a fact! That’s why I’m using Cocoa Runners cocoa powder (it is now my favourite cocoa powder).

Anyway, lets get started, shall we?

Ingredients:

Cake:

250g butter, room temp.

250g granulated sugar.

4 eggs.

1 tsp vanilla extract.

220g plain flour.

30g cocoa powder.

1 tsp baking pwoder.

up to 50ml milk.

Buttercream:

225g butter, room temp.

450g icing sugar.

30g cocoa powder.

boiling water.

1 tsp vanilla extract.

Simple syrup:

100ml water.

100g granulated sugar.

1/2 – 1 tsp vanilla extract.

Filling (optional):

caramel.

Method:

Before you get started on the recipe, you’ll want to do some prep work. Start by weighing up all of your ingredients, lining your 6 inch cake tins with parchment paper, preheating your oven to 180˚c/350˚f and grab any equipment you may need, such as a stand mixer and spatulas.

To start, I like making the cake (as this takes the longest). Grab a large mixing bowl and place in the butter and sugar, beating the two together until they are lighter and fluffier in colour and consistency – I find around 7-10 minutes on a high speed works well.

Give the bowl a good scraping down and then add in your eggs, one at a time, beating well in between each addition. You will notice the mixture change in consistency – this is normal.

Take the bowl and give it another good scraping down, just to incorporate any bits that may not have been fully worked in from earlier on.

Into a sift, add the plain flour, baking powder, salt and cocoa powder. Then sift directly into the bowl and mix on a low speed until the ingredients start to incorporate, then you can add in some milk – this is just to help achieve the perfect consistency. Try your best just to mix all of the ingredients in without over mixing the cake batter.

Give the bowl a final scraping down, just to incorporate any bits that may not have been fully worked in from earlier on.

Then transfer into your line 6 inch cake tins, split it equally (or as equally as possible) and level it out. This is to ensure even baking while in the oven – place into your preheated oven and bake for 30-35 minutes to until tester when inserted into the centre.

While the cakes are in the oven baking, its the perfect time to make make the buttercream and simple syrup.

The simple syrup is super simple to make. Into a pan, place the water, sugar and vanilla extract and whisk together. Then you can place on the hob, over a high heat and allow to come to a boil and then remove from the heat and transfer into a smaller jar/container and allow to cool fully before using.

To make the buttercream, start on the chocolate mixture. Place cocoa powder and and boiling water into a bowl and whisk until a liquid mixture forms, then leave to cool while you continue with the next stage.

Grab a mixing bowl and place in the butter. Then beat the butter on its own until it reaches a lighter and fluffier in colour and consistency – this is usually achieved in around 7-10 minutes (depending on the speed and softness of the butter).

Once you’ve achieved the right consistency, you can go ahead and add in half of the icing sugar and mix on a low speed to start, working your way up to a medium-high speed until the sugar has been fully incorporated – then give the bowl a good scraping down and repeat the process with the remaining icing sugar.

Then go ahead over a low speed, you can continue to add the cocoa mixture you made at the start. Mix until everything has been incorporated and the mixture looks fantastically chocolatey.

Give the bowl one final scrape down and then set aside until you need it later on.

Whenever you want to assemble, take the cakes and remove them from the tins and level them off using a knife or a cake leveller (keep the scraps, we’ll need them later on).

For this cake, I halved my cake layers so I had 4 layers in total.

With the cake layers, you’ll want to generously brush them over with the simple syrup.

Take your board/stand/plate and smear a small amount of buttercream into the centre and place down your first layer of cake (pressing down to secure) and add a small amount of buttercream and spread it out until you have a consistent level – don’t forget, as an optional filling, you can add and spread a small amount of caramel into the centre. Repeat this with the remaining layers of cake.

Then apply a crumb coat of buttercream, this is just a thin layer of buttercream to lock in those pesky crumbs. Smooth it out as best you can, then place in the fridge for 30-45 minutes or until the buttercream is firm to the touch.

Whenever you’re ready, apply the final layer of icing and smooth out the sides as best you can, leaving it a little more untidy on top. Using a small cranked palette knife, you can go ahead and make the swirl on top. To do this, slightly dig the palette knife into the buttercream on the outer edge, swirling the cake around on the turntable, taking the swirl into the centre.

Then to finish, simply take some chocolate sprinkles and apply them around the bottom edge, to add a flair of colour and to hide any imperfections. Then to the out edge on top of the cake, you can sprinkle some of the cake crumbs (which have been crumbled into a fine consistency) – use as much or as little as you’d like.

Then place back into the fridge until the buttercream has firmed up.

Whenever you need the cake, you can slice it up and enjoy!

Iced Fruit Cake Slices

by bakingwithelliott Leave a Comment

It’s bakemas 2020!

Today’s recipe is for a really simple iced fruit cake slice – this way you’re having the element of a fruit cake without having a whole fruit cake this is the perfect treat to make and give to friends and family wrapped up as a present or just to share with them, as it tis the season to share.

Even the people who don’t like fruit cake will like this you have a semi traditional fruit cake which is topped with a thin layer of marzipan, which is then topped with a thin layer of icing sugar and finished with a sugar paste holly leaf.

Like most people are feeling right now, it doesn’t feel very festive at all. 2020 has been the weirdest year of my life (as it has for many others), however you’re celebrating Christmas it wouldn’t quite be Christmas time without some form of fruit cake and that’s why I’m sharing my recipe today. It’s a little different he’s not a traditional it’s more of a twist on a traditional so I hope you don’t mind that.

Anyway, let’s get started, shall we?

Ingredients:

Cake:

150g butter.

150g light brown sugar.

3 eggs.

125g plain flour.

50g ground almonds.

1 tsp ground cinnamon.

½ tsp ground mixed spice.

A dash of ground ginger, cloves, all spice and nutmeg.

450g mixed dried fruit.

Decoration:

150g marzipan.

150g white sugar paste.

25g green sugar paste.

apricot glaze.

water.

Method:

Before you get started on the recipe, you’ll want to do some prep work. Start by weighing up all of the ingredients, lining an 8×8 inch square cake tin with parchment and grabbing any equipment you may need, such as a stand mixer and spatula. Don’t forget to preheat the oven to 150˚c/300˚f.

To start on the cake, grab a bowl and place in the butter and light brown sugar – beat the two together until they are combined. You’re not looking for he mixture to be light and fluffy, just well combined.

You can then add in your eggs, one at a time, beating well in between each addition. Don’t worry if the mixture curdles a little, we’ll correct it now.

Over a sieve, add your plain flour, ground spices and ground almonds and sift that into the mixture. You can then go ahead and add in the fruit.

Mix everything together until everything is incorporated – try your best not to over-mix the cake batter, otherwise the end result will be tough.

Give the bowl a good scraping down, just to incorporate any bits that may not have been fully worked in earlier on.

Then transfer the cake batter into your lined cake tin and spread/level the cake better out until its smooth and level, them place into your preheated oven and bake for 60-90 minutes or until a tester comes out clean.

Once baked, remove from the oven and allow to cool fully (while still in the tin).

Whenever the cake has cooled and you’re ready to decorate – you can remove the cake from the tin.

Dust your work surface with a small amount of icing sugar and place on the marzipan and roll it out until its big enough for the top of the cake. I eyeballed this but feel free measure and be more accurate.

Take a small amount and apricot jam and melt it in the microwave/on the hob until smooth and spreadable. Brush this generously on top of the cake and then place the rolled out marzipan on top – set the cake aside while you prepare the final layer.

Dust your work surface with some icing sugar and roll out the sugar paste to be big enough for the top of the cake. To secure the sugar paste in place, brush over a small amount of water and then place the rolled out sugar paste on top.

Roll out the green sugar paste and cut out holly leaves and dampen the back, then secure to the top of the cake .

The you can slice them up into 16 generous portions and enjoy, this is the perfect recipe to make and share with friends and/or family.

Kinder Bueno Brownies

by bakingwithelliott Leave a Comment

It’s bakemas 2020!

This recipe is for the easiest brownies in the world and when you cross them over with kinder bueno – let me tell you. It’s such a good combination!

You get the gooeyness and denseness of the brownie which is great on its own but when you add in the kinder chocolates, it adds a degree of creaminess that you wouldn’t get otherwise.

Each square of the brownie will be different to the last. You may have a mixture of bueno, chocolate chips and kinder bars or you may not and thats what Iove. Plus you can add more chocolate on top, just to further enhance the element of chocolate in these brownies.

Whether you intend on making these for yourself or for someone you love, give them a try. They are honestly my easiest brownie recipe and are perfect for sharing!

Anyway, let’s get started, shall we?

Ingredients:

140g butter, melted.

45g cocoa powder.

225g granulated sugar.

2 eggs.

1/2 tsp vanilla extract.

100g plain flour.

100g milk chocolate chips.

100g white chocolate chips.

100g Kinder Bueno (I used the white chocolate variety).

80g white chocolate spread.

80g milk chocolate spread.

Methods:

Before you get started on the recipe, you’ll want to do some prep work. Start by weighing up all of your ingredients, preheat your oven to 180˚c/350˚f, line a 8×8 inch square cake tin with parchment paper and grab yourself a mixing bowl, a whisk and a spatula.

To start on the recipe, melt your butter in the mee-crow-wah-vay (microwave) and into the butter add the granulated sugar. Whisk the to together until they are well combined – you will notice the mixture becomes more granulated but don’t worry about it too much.

Then you can go ahead and add in the eggs and vanilla and whisk everything together until its fully incorporated. You may notice the mixture has now become smooth and glossy.

After that you can add in the plain flour milk and white chocolate chips and kinder buenos and fold those in using a spatula, this will lower the chances of over mixing the brownie batter. Once your brownie batter is ‘clear’ from any single ingredient, stop mixing.

Go ahead and grab your lined cake tin and transfer the brownie batter directly into it. Spread and level it out as you need

While the brownie batter is still spreadable, melt the milk and white chocolate spread then add spoonfuls of top of the brownie batter and use a butterknife to swirl it throughout the brownies – ensuring the swirl is fairly distributed throughout the batter. Then place into the preheated oven on the middle level and bake for around 20-25 minutes or until a tester comes out clean (with only a few crumbs on).

Once theres around 5-10 minutes remaining on the baking time, remove the brownies from the oven and finish them off. To finish them off place as many (or as few) kinder branded chocolates on top, a mixture ensures variety but use whatever you like. Place back into the oven and bake for the remaining baking time.

Remove form the oven d allow to cool down fully, before placing in the fridge. This helps to firm up the brownies, making them easier to slice up and makes them extra dense – the way a brownie should be.

The following day, you can go ahead and slice them up – you slice them however you want to, I find ether 8 very generous or 16 smaller bitesize portions work best.

Once sliced, enjoy on its and trust me, you will enjoy them!

Eggnog Cupcakes

by bakingwithelliott Leave a Comment

It’s bakemas 2020!

Keeping things chilled this Monday with a batch of eggnog cupcakes.

You may remember a couple of days ago, I make some eggnog – you will need it for this recipe.

These cupcakes are super easy and perfect festive – they have the perfect boozy eggnog flavour without it being too much. Starting with a classic vanilla cupcake, which is filled with a homemade eggnog pastry cream and topped with a creamy eggnog buttercream – what’s not to like?

Anyway, let’s get started, shall we?

Ingredients:

Cupcakes:

175g butter.

175g granulated sugar.

2 eggs.

175g plain flour.

1 tsp baking powder.

pinch of salt.

uptown 50ml milk.

Eggnog Pastry Cream:

200ml eggnog.

1/4 tsp vanilla extract.

30g egg yolk.

25g granulated sugar

15g plain flour.

Eggnog Buttercream:

125g butter.

250g icing sugar.

eggnog pastry cream (as much or as little as you’d like).

Method:

Before you get started on the recipe, you’ll want to do some prep work. Weigh up all of you ingredients, preheat your oven to 180˚c/350˚f, line a muffin pan with cupcake cases and get any equipment you may need such as a stand mixer, sauce pan and whisk and of course spatulas.

To start on these cupcakes, you will want to make the pastry cream (as this takes the longest to make).

Grab yoru saucepan and place in the eggnog and vanilla extract. Place this on the hob over a medium-high heat, allowing to come to a boil.

Into another bowl, add the egg yolks and sugar and whisk them together until they are well combined – the mixture should be pale in colour and the volume should have increased. Add in the flour and whisk until its fully combined into the mixture.

By this point, the milk should have reached a boil. Pour around 1/3 of the milk mixture over the egg mixture and whisk until incorporated. Then gradually add the rest, as you whisk it in.

You can then transfer it back onto the heat and continuously whisk the mixture until its thickened considerably. Once thick and smooth, you can then go ahead and transfer into a small baking tray and spread it out until its a pretty thin layer, then cover with clingfilm, ensuring the clingfilm is touching the top of the pastry cream.

Try you best to ensure that a skin doesn’t form on top – allow to cool down fully.

While you wait, you can make the cupcakes.

Grab a mixing bowl and place in the butter, granulated sugar, eggs, plain flour, baking powder, salt and vanilla. Beat them all together until everything has become well combined and the mixture is lighter and fluffier in colour and consistency. You may find the mixture a little stiff, add in milk, roughly a tablespoon at a time until you achieve the perfect consistency.

Transfer the cake batter into the lined muffin pan and fill the cast around 2/3 or 3/4 of the ways full and then place into your preheated oven and bake for 20-22 minutes or until well risen, golden brown and when a tester is inserted into the centre, comes out clean.

Allow the cupcakes to cool fully before you try to work with them.

Now is the idea time to get started on the buttercream.

Into a large mixing bowl, place the butter and beat it on it’s own until it’s lighter and fluffier in colour and consistency – this usually takes around 7-10 minutes, depending how soft your butter was and what speed you have your mixer on.

Once you’ve achieved the perfect consistency, give the bowl a good scraping down just to incorporate any bits that may not have been fully incorporated.

Then add in the first half of your icing sugar and incorporate it over a low speed to start with, working your way up to a medium-high – everything should be well combined and almost fully incorporated. Repeat with the remaining half of icing sugar.

You’ll want to give the bowl a good scraping down, just to incorporate any bits tat may not have been fully worked in from earlier on – set aside until needed later on.

Now everything has been made and you can prepare to finish the cupcakes off.

Take the pastry cream you made earlier on and scrape it from the baking tray and into a bowl. Whisk it all together until its less gelatinous and more spreadable. Transfer into a piping bag and set aside until its needed later on.

Using some of the left over pastry cream, add it to the buttercream and just mix until everything is fully combined, then transfer the buttercream Into a piping fitted with your choice of nozzle.

Now to finish the cupcakes, core the centres out and generously fill with the pastry cream and then pipe the buttercream on top and finish with sprinkles and sugar paste snowflakes (or whatever you’d like).

That’s how you make a batch of eggnog cupcakes!

Gingerbread house

by bakingwithelliott Leave a Comment

It’s bakemas 2020!

Today I’m sharing my version of a gingerbread house.

I’ll be 100% honest with you, I haven’t made one before. I’m 24 years old and have been baking for the past 8 years properly and yet haven’t ever attempted a gingerbread house as they always seem so much more effort. Don’t get me wrong, it may cause you to panic or swear at it a couple of times but don’t worry, its all in the spirit of the holidays… right?

I can totally see why you may prefer to buy a pre-made kit and just decorate it, I do but why not try making one from scratch. My gingerbread recipe is a very stable biscuit and can be used for eating or construction and for the ‘glue’ that holds the structure together is a simple but essential royal icing (this works best as when it sets, it’s like concrete).

I’m aware the decoration looks like a 5 year old may have gone a little heavy handed but trust me, a 24 year old made it… Don’t judge too harshly.

This would honestly be a great project to make with kids, right from the dough up to the decoration. It’s the perfect time too, as Christmas is just around the corner and you could easily spend the day making this, perfect with the current situation at hand.

Anyway, let’s get started, shall we?

Ingredients:

Gingerbread:

700g plain flour.

10g bicarbonate of soda.

30g ground ginger.

200g butter.

350g light brown sugar.

140g golden syrup.

2 eggs.

Royal icing – I already have a blog post, check it out.

Decoration:

Sweets and/or chocolates, that you’d like to like jelly beans, jazzies etc.

Method:

Before you get started on the recipe, you’ll want to do some prep work. I recommend starting by weighing up all of your ingredients, line your baking trays with parchment paper and grab any equipment you may need, such as a food processor and spatulas.

For the royal icing, check out the blog post. I like to make my royal icing the day before.

To start on the recipe, take a medium bowl and add in the egg and sugar. Whisk the two together until they are combined (the mixture should be almost perfect smooth).

Into the food processor, place the plain flour, bicarbonate of soda and ground ginger and pulse them together until they are combined.

You can then go ahead and add in the butter, then pulse until its fully incorporated. It will look a little more yellow-ish, a dough shouldn’t have formed.

Now you can add in the sugar/egg mixture and then pulse until its incorporated. A dough shouldn’t form at this stage but should look different to previously.

Go ahead and add in the golden syrup and pulse that in until a dough starts to form. Once you see a dough forming, remove from the food processor and place onto a floured surface.

Then you can go ahead and knead it all together until a clear dough forms. Bring it into a fat disc shape and wrap in clingfilm and chill in the fridge for about an hour.

Once your dough has chilled, remove it from the clingfilm and place onto a floured surface and roll it out to be around half a centimetre – this is the perfect thickness to build the house with.

For the templates of the house, I used the last template here.

The ingredients will make two batches of dough, so keep them separate and then the scraps of the tow can be combined and rolled once more, that way you will have enough dough to make the sides, front, back and the roof – along with some gingerbread people.

Once you have all of your shapes done, chill in the fridge for a short while, then you can preheat your oven to 180˚c/350˚f. For the front and back bake for 15-17 minutes, for the roof and sides bake them for 10-12 minutes.

Now everything is baked, cooled and ready to go – start the assembly.

Before you get started on assembly, you’ll want to pipe on any decorations like windows, doors and patterns. Just give that time to firm up.

To start the assembly, grab your board/stand/plate this will be the base of your gingerbread house. I used my trusty Christmas cheeseboard but you can use whatever you’d like.

Take either the front or back and one of the sides, onto the side pieces edges, pipe royal icing onto both edges and then squash it to the front/back. You may need to use a small tin/jar to secure everything into place. Repeat with the other side and then press the other front/back on and secure it in place. Allow the royal icing to firm up before continuing.

Once the structure has firmed up, you can go ahead and apply the roof. On all of the exposed edges on top of the house, pipe on a generous amount of royal icing. You can then grab a jar and place it just under where the roof will sit, to help secure it in place. Then press one of the roof pieces into place, ensuring it resting on the jar. Repeat with the other side and allow to firm up fully, it should support its self.

If you made any gingerbread cut outs, now is the perfect time to decorate them, ready to use later on to decorate with them.

After a while the structure should be very safe and sturdy, remove the jars and attempt to tidy up any untidy bits with some royal icing

Attach the final gingerbread decorations, along with any sweets/chocolates that you may also want to use.

That’s it really, it’s not complex its just a process. I hope you have fun making this!

Mini Stollen

by bakingwithelliott Leave a Comment

It’s bakemas 2020!

Today I’m sharing my take on stollen – if you haven’t tried this bread before, you’re for sure missing out.

This bread is the perfect addition to any festive celebrations you may be having this year. It’s sweet, rich and indulgent – the perfect bake to bring to the table. I have taken inspiration from a traditional stollen that you’d find in Germany – it’s commonly eaten around Christmas time when it may be called Weihnachtsstollen.

Starting with an enriched dough, studded with a selection of dried fruit. A marzipan centre and finished with a generous amount of melted butter and a copious amount of icing sugar.

Anyway, let’s get started, shall we?

Ingredients:

Dough:

375g strong bread flour.

1 tsp salt.

1/2 tsp grated nutmeg.

1/2 tsp ground cinnamon.

60g butter.

45g granulated sugar.

30g fresh yeast.

175ml milk.

1 egg.

1 lemon zest

85g currants.

55g raisins.

35g mixed peel.

55g glacé cherries.

40g flaked almonds.

175g marzipan.

Finishing:

melted butter.

icing sugar.

Method:

Before you get started on the recipe, you’ll want to do some prep work. Start by weighing up all of your ingredients, lining baking trays with parchment paper and grab any equipment you may need, such as a stand mixer, mixing bowl and spatula.

To start on the bread, grab a large mixing bowl and place in the bread flour, salt, grated nutmeg and ground cinnamon. Whisk these together until they are combined.

Then you can go ahead and add in the butter, granulated sugar, yeast, milk, egg and lemon zest. Mix everything together over a low speed to start with for 2 minutes, followed by 6 minutes over a high speed. The dough will come together but will be soft, this is because it’s enriched.

When there is about a minute left to the mixing time, you can go ahead and add in the dried fruit and flaked almonds – just mix these in until they are fully incorporated and fairly distributed throughout the dough.

Transfer the dough from the mixing bowl and place onto a well floured surface and give it a brief knead, just to incorporate some flour to help with the stickiness of the dough. Bring it back into a ball shape and place into a lightly oiled bowl, covering with clingfilm and then leaving it somewhere warm to prove for around and hour or until the dough has doubled in size.

Once the dough has had its first prove, you can go ahead and remove it from the bowl and knock it back. The process of knocking the dough back is to remove the gasses that have built up in the dough during the first prove – ring the dough back into a ball shape.

Weigh the dough and divide that amount by 6 – this will be the weight for each stollen. So scale the dough to said weight and cover with clingfilm while you work on them.

Take the marzipan and divide that by 6 and form little batons – this is the centre of the stollen.

Roll your balls of dough out to be about 1cm in thickness, then on the one side place the baton of marzipan with a small space to the outer edge. Roll the dough over the marzipan until its covered and theres only a little flap on the other side (this is how I was taught to make them at college while I was there).

Repeat the process with the remaining dough and marzipan batons and then place onto lined baking trays and cover loosely with clingfilm and allow to prove until they have proved up well. While they are having the second prove, preheat your oven to 180˚c.

Now they are finished with the second prove, you can go ahead and remove the clingfilm from on top of the dough and then bake in your preheated oven for 20-25 minutes or until well coloured.

Once baked, remove from the oven and place straight onto a cooling rack and generously brush with melted butter, then you can go ahead and dredge them with icing sugar, don’t be tight with the icing sugar.

Then they are ready to eat, I’d allow to cool down before you try to eat them.

Biscoff Cake

by bakingwithelliott Leave a Comment

It’s bakemas 2020!

I’m sharing my recipe for a biscoff layer cake.

If you haven’t heard or tried of biscoff, where have you been? The flavour is unique – it’s spiced and warm, similar to a gingerbread but in its own league. You can get biscuits and spread and best of all, we use both forms in the cake!

3 layers of biscoff biscuit flavoured sponge cake, filled and finished with a biscoff spread buttercream and the finished with biscoff biscuits… Sounds like too much of a biscoff flavour, right? Wrong, it’s amazingly balanced.

If you know someone who likes or loves biscoff, this cake is honestly for them – show them how much they mean to you by making them this cake!

Anyway, lets get started, shall we?

Ingredients:

Cake:

250g butter, room temp.

250g light brown sugar.

4 Eggs.

250g plain flour.

2 tsp baking powder.

pinch of salt.

100g Lotus biscoff biscuits, crushed into crumbs.

Milk (optional).

Buttercream:

350g butter.

700g icing sugar.

200-300g Lotus biscoff spread.

Simple syrup:

100ml water.

100g granulated sugar.

1 tsp vanilla extract.

Decoration:

biscoff biscuits.

biscoff spread

Methods:

Before you get started on any element of the recipe, you’ll want to do some prep work. Start by weighing up all of the ingredients, lining/buttering and flouring your 3 x 6 inch cake tins, preheating your oven to 180˚c/350˚f and getting any equipment you may need, such as a stand mixer and spatula.

To start, make the cake.

Grab a bowl and place in the butter and light brown sugar and beat together until lighter and fluffier in colour and consistency. You will want to allow this to mix on a medium/high speed for around 7-10 minutes, that’s the amount of time I find perfect but always use this as a guideline.

You can then start adding your eggs, one at a time, beating well in-between each addition. As the eggs are incorporated, you should notice the consistency change – don’t be alarmed, this is normal.

If you find your mixture is looking curdled, don’t fret. This sometimes happens while you’re adding moisture into the mixture. If it’s particularly bad, add a spoonful of your weighed out flour into the mix and incorporate.

Give the bowl a good scraping down, this is to incorporate any bits that may not have been fully worked in from earlier on.

Now you can go ahead and add in the plain flour, baking powder and salt, passing them through a sieve first, just to remove any lumps that may be in the mixture. Don’t forget to add in the biscoff biscuit crumbs and then mix everything in until its fully incorporated. Try your best not to over work the ingredients, otherwise this will result in a tough textured cake.

You may find your cake batter isn’t too smooth and a little stiff, add in a tablespoon of milk until you achieve the perfect consistency.

Go ahead and give the bowl a good scraping down, just to incorporate any bits that may not have been fully worked in from earlier on.

Then take the cake batter and divide it between your prepped cake tins, I just eyeballed the amounts in each cake tin but for more accuracy, weigh it into each tin. Smooth and level out the batter and then bake in your preheated oven for 30-35 minutes or until a tester comes out clean when inserted into the centre.

While your cakes are in the oven, you can get ahead and make the other elements.

To make the buttercream, grab a clean mixing bowl and place in the butter. Then beat over a medium-high speed for around 7-10 minutes or until it is lighter and fluffier in colour and consistency.

Once you achieve that consistency, give the bowl a good scraping down, then add in the first half of your icing sugar. Then you can beat that in on a low speed to start with, working your way up to a high and mix until everything is incorporated. Repeat with the other half of icing sugar.

Just before you finish the buttercream, give the bowl a good scraping down. This will ensure those last bits of icing sugar will be incorporated, it’s also the perfect time to add in the biscoff spread and mix until its fully incorporated.

Now everything has been added and the buttercream is ready, give the bowl a final scraping down. If you’re using it within hours of, cover and keep at room temperature otherwise, cover and store in the fridge.

For the simple syrup, grab a medium saucepan and place in the water, sugar and vanilla extract. Give them a brief mix to combine, before transferring the pan onto the hob over a medium-high heat, allowing to come to a boil. Remove from the heat and allow to cool before you intend on using it.

Once the cakes have baked and been removed from the oven, allow to them to cool fully before you try to work with them – otherwise, it may get messy.

Now that the cakes and simple syrup are completely cooled down and the buttercream is made – you can assemble the cake.

To start the assembly, generously brush the simple syrup over the layers of cake.

Take your board/plate/stand and smear a small amount of buttercream into the centre and place the first layer of cake on top of it and press it down to secure it in place. Top that with some buttercream and spread it out until its level and consistent – repeat this with your remaining layers of cake.

Once the cake has been stacked, you can then go ahead and give the cake a crumb coat – this is just a layer of buttercream that will lock in the crumbs so they don’t ruin your final coat and look messy. Once you’ve applied the crumb coat, place in the fridge to chill for 45-60 minutes or until its firm to the touch.

While you wait, have a clean down and prepare to finish the cake off.

Apply the final layer of buttercream and get it as smooth as you possibly can, then place it back in the fridge for 30 minutes.

I always chill the cake before I apply the drip but thats just for me. I take some biscoff spread and warm it through, until its smooth and melted. Place into a piping bag an then carefully pipe small amounts on the top edge of the cake and let them run down – you can create drips of varying lengths, it looks quite pleasing to see different drips. Don’t forget to fill the top in, so the top has biscoff spread over it too!

Set in the fridge just until the drip has firmed up, then take the remaining buttercream and place into a piping bag fitted with a nozzle of your choice and pipe rosettes on top of the cake and finish with biscoff biscuits.

That’s how I make my biscoff cake! It’s quick, easy and looks pretty impressive – why not try it?

Eggnog

by bakingwithelliott Leave a Comment

It’s bakemas 2020!

Today I’m sharing my take on a basic eggnog. Whether this is your first time making eggnog or you make it every year, it’s a classic to add to your celebrations this year.

A sweet, rich and sweetly spiced beverage, which has been made over the holidays for many years. If you have never had eggnog before, then why don’t you give it try? It wouldn’t quite be an eggnog without the use of a distilled alcohol – you can use bourbon, whiskey, rum or brandy.

It’s a boozy little kick, so why not add this to your list of drinks to make for Christmas time? It may not be a fully traditional but with the us of full fat milk, cream and booze, you can’t go wrong!

Anyway, let’s get started, shall we?

Ingredients:

350ml Whole milk.

120ml Double cream.

1 tsp Vanilla extract.

2 tsp Freshly grated nutmeg.

1 tsp ground cinnamon.

3 Eggs, separated.

65g Granulated sugar.

90ml Distilled alcohol (I used whiskey but thats what I had in the house, so use what you can get your hands on easily.

Method:

Before you get started on the recipe, you’ll want to do some prep work. Strat by weighing up all of your ingredients and grab any equipment you may need, such as a saucepan, mixing bowl, a whisk and spatula.

To start, take a medium-large saucepan and place in the milk, double cream, ground cinnamon, grated nutmeg and vanilla extract. Then mix everything together until it’s fully combined.

You can then go ahead and place the saucepan on the hob over a medium-high heat until it reaches a boil.

While the milk mixture is on the hob, you can go ahead and work on the egg yolks.

Into a clean mixing bowl place the egg yolks and granulated sugar then whisk together until the mixture is pale in colour and become considerably thicker in consistency. By the time you have done this, the mixture thats on the hob should have come up to a boil.

You can take the mixture off the hob and pour in small amount into the egg yolk mixture, this is just to temper the mixture, so it doesn’t scramble once you add in the remaining milk.

Don’t forget to also add in your alcohol and whisk until its fully incorporated.

That’s the main body of the drink made but when it comes to adding the egg whites, you’ll want to this just before you intend on serving it.

Whenever you’re ready to serve, place the egg whites into a bowl and whisk them together until you achieve a consistency between soft and stiff peaks, I’m not sure if there’s a name for it.

You can then fold in the egg whites into the eggnog mixture and once it has been incorporated, pour into glasses and finish with some freshly grated nutmeg and then enjoy.

Cranberry + Orange Shortbread

by bakingwithelliott Leave a Comment

It’s bakemas 2020!

It’s midweek, so I’m keeping it simple with a batch of cranberry and orange shortbreads – they might not look a lot but they pack a might pack a mouthful of flavour.

If you look at the biscuits, they aren’t just plain, they have specks of red and orange in – from the dried cranberries and orange zest. Each bite you get a pop of flavour in each mouthful.

The flavour combination between cranberry is pretty festive too, so it fits the bill. Make a batch and share with whoever and however you’re celebrating.

Anyway. let’s get started, shall we?

Ingredients:

175g Plain flour.

120g Butter, chilled (from the fridge).

60g Granulated sugar.

Pinch of salt.

Zest of 1 large orange.

100g Dried cranberries, chopped small (or pulsed in a food processor).

Method:

Before you get started on the recipe, you’ll want to do some prep work. Start by weighing up all your ingredients, grabbing any equipment you may need, such as a for processor. Don’t forget to line a baking tray with parchment paper and when you’re ready to, preheat you oven to 180˚c/350˚f.

Into a food processor bowl, place the flour, salt and butter and pulse until combined. It won’t form a dough but the butter will incorporate into the dry mixture and make I turn a yellowish colour.

Next you can go ahead and add in the granulated sugar, orange zest and dried cranberries. Pulse these all in, just until everything is fairly distributed throughout the dough. You don’t want the dough to form in the food processor, you want it to start clumping together. Once you start to see it happening, stop pulsing and work the dough by hand.

Add the mixture onto your work surface and bring it all together until well combined, bringing the dough into a fat sausage shape (which is about 6 inches or so in length) and wrap in clingfilm and chill in the fridge for a minimum of 1 hour. When there is about 10 minutes left, preheat your oven to 180˚c/350˚f.

Once the dough has had at least an hour in the fridge, you can go ahead and process the dough. Take the shortbread dough and cut it into 12 equal parts – don’t worry if the dough breaks up a bit while you’re slicing it.

If needed, smooth out the dough cut outs and then place onto your lined baking tray and bake for 12-15 minutes or until the biscuits start turning golden brown around the edges of the biscuits.

Remove from the oven and allow to cool completely.

bakingwithelliott

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