Baking with Elliott

Devils Food Cake

October 5, 2018 by bakingwithelliott Leave a Comment

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Ingredients:

Cake:

105g Butter.

70g Cocoa.

125g Granulated sugar.

2 Eggs.

210g Plain flour.

1 ½ tsp Baking powder.

½ tsp Salt.

120ml Coffee, cooled.

120ml Whole milk.

1 tsp Vanilla bean paste/extract.

Chocolate Icing:

175g Butter.

40g Cocoa powder.

115g Icing sugar.

2-3 tbsp Whole milk

Methods:

Cake:

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

Chocolate Icing:

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

Assembly:

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

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

Sticky Toffee Cupcakes

September 28, 2018 by bakingwithelliott 2 Comments

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Onwards and upwards, eh?

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

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

Ingredients:

Cupcake:

75g Sultanas.

150g Stoned dates, chopped.

1 tsp Bicarbonate of soda.

25g Butter.

200g Light brown sugar.

2 Eggs.

200g Plain flour.

1 tsp Baking powder.

Caramel Pecan Filling:

25g Butter.

175ml Double cream.

200g Light brown sugar.

50g Pecans, chopped.

Buttercream:

250g Butter.

250g Icing sugar.

250g Salted caramel icing sugar.

Canned caramel (for the drizzle).

Methods:

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

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

Cupcake:

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

Caramel Pecan Filling:

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

Buttercream:

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

Assembly:

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

Triple Chocolate Cookies

September 21, 2018 by bakingwithelliott Leave a Comment

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Ingredients:

150g Butter.

150g Granulated sugar.

150g Light brown sugar

2 Eggs.

320g Plain flour.

30g Cocoa powder.

1 tsp Baking powder.

1/4 tsp Salt.

100g White chocolate chips.

100g Milk chocolate chips.

100g Dark chocolate chips.

Method:

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

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

Millionaires Shortbread

September 13, 2018 by bakingwithelliott Leave a Comment

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Ingredients:

Shortbread:

115g Butter.

175g Plain flour.

55g Granulated sugar.

Caramel Filling:

175g Butter.

115g Granulated sugar.

45g Golden syrup.

400g Condensed milk.

Chocolate Topping:

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

Methods:

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

Shortbread:

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

Caramel Filling:

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

Chocolate Topping:

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

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

Lemon and Blueberry Cake

September 6, 2018 by bakingwithelliott Leave a Comment

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Ingredients –

Cake:

250g Butter.

250g Granulated sugar.

4 Eggs.

250g Plain flour.

1 1/2 tsp Baking powder.

1/2 tsp Salt.

Zest of 1 large lemon.

150g Blueberries (fresh or frozen).

Small amount of flour (for the blueberries).

Simple syrup:

150ml Water.

150ml Granulated sugar.

4 Slices of lemon.

Blueberry jam:

150g Blueberries (fresh or frozen).

50g Granulated sugar.

50ml Water.

Buttercream:

200g Butter.

400g Icing sugar.

A few teaspoons of lemon juice.

Method –

Cake:

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

Simple syrup:

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

Bluberry jam:

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

Buttercream:

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

Assembly:

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

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

Reese’s Peanut Butter Cheesecake

August 30, 2018 by bakingwithelliott Leave a Comment

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Ingredients:

Base:

250g Digestive biscuits.

100g Butter, melted.

Cheesecake:

600g Plain soft cheese.

200g Peanut butter.

100g Icing sugar.

Toppings:

250ml Double cream.

100g Icing sugar.

1 tsp Vanilla bean paste.

2-3 tbsp Chocolate peanut butter.

A few peanut butter cups, quartered.

Method:

Base:

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

Cheesecake:

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

Toppings:

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

Assembly:

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

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

White Chocolate & Fudge Cookies

August 23, 2018 by bakingwithelliott Leave a Comment

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

August 17, 2018 by bakingwithelliott Leave a Comment

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

August 9, 2018 by bakingwithelliott Leave a Comment

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

August 3, 2018 by bakingwithelliott Leave a Comment

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!

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