Basic

How To Make A Battenberg

This week’s recipe is a classic, if you’re from the UK, you’ll know it. I’ll be showing you how to make a Battenberg cake.

If you have never tried or heard of a Battenberg, I’ll give you a quick run down. A Battenberg is a vanilla sponge cake, which is coloured pastel pink and yellow. It’s held in place by apricot jam and finished with a layer of marzipan. You should have a check pattern on the inside as you alternate the layers of cake.

Making the cake isn’t at all difficult, you’ll be using the traditional creaming method (this is where you start by creaming the butter and sugar together, adding the eggs and vanilla, incorporating the dry ingredients and then colouring the cake batter.

The marzipan coating/finishing may not be for everybody, but it’s needed on this recipe. Traditionally you would use standard marzipan but I only had golden marzipan left in my cupboard (this was from Christmas and when I didn’t use it, I was going to make a Simnel cake at Easter but that didn’t happen so I needed to use it up and this was the perfect recipe for it).

As with all my recipes, before you get started, you’ll want to do some prep work. Get your ingredients measured/weighed up, prepare your tin (if you want to, I didn’t but you know your tin) and get any equipment you may need ready. Taking these few extra steps can lower the chance of making a mistake.

Ingredients:

175g Butter.

175g Granulated sugar.

3 Eggs.

250g Plain flour.

2 tsp Baking powder.

½ tsp Vanilla extract.

Pink and yellow food gel/pastes.

60-80g Apricot jam.

350g Marzipan.

Method:

Before you get into making the cake, you’ll want to do some prep work. Start by weighing up all of your ingredients, line your tin (if you decide to) and preheat your oven to 180˚c/350˚f and get any equipment you intend on using.

To start on the cake, you’ll want to get yourself a mixing bowl and place the butter and granulated sugar into it. Then beat the two together until they are fully combined.

Once they are combined, you can add the eggs one at a time, beating well in-between each addition. Once all of the eggs have been added and are incorporated, you can add your vanilla in and mix to incorporate (if your mixture scrambled a little at this stage, don’t worry. We will correct it in the next stage).

Next you’ll want to add your dry ingredients, passing through a sieve first, this is just to remove any lumps that may be in the dry mix. Incorporate the dry ingredients over a low speed to start with, working your way up to a medium-high speed (you shouldn’t be able to see a single trace of any ingredient but try to not over-mix the cake batter at this stage).

Divide the cake batter in two and colour one pink and the other yellow. I recommend that you start by adding a little and working in more, it’s easier to add colouring rather then trying to take it away…

Put the cake batter into the tin and level it out as best you can, don’t overlap/combine the colours too much. You can make a little divide using some cardboard wrapped in tin/silver foil but I didn’t do this. Once they are levelled and sorted, place into your preheated oven and allow to bake for 30-35 minutes (or until a tester comes out clean).

Once your cakes are baked, allow to cool completely before you intend on using them. Once they are cool enough, you’ll want to level the top off using a cake leveller or a knife and then trim the sides as well, this is just to remove the caramelised edges. Cut each cake in half so you end with 2 strips of pink and yellow cake.

Place your apricot jam into either a small saucepan or microwaveable bowl and warm your jam until is much more spreadable. While that warms, you can roll out your marzipan on a surface which has been dusted with icing sugar.

Once your jam is warmed, brush each of your cake slices with the apricot jam and with the remaining, brush it over the marzipan. Place the sticks of cake together and then place onto the marzipan, around 1cm away from the edge and then wrap the marzipan around the cake, applying a little pressure to ensure it stays in place.

Trim away the ugly edges and enjoy!

That’s all for this week 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 next week with another blog post and YouTube video, so join me then. In the meanwhile, don’t forget to check out my Instagram and Twitter. The YouTube video will be linked down below!

Vanilla Cakesicles (Cake Popsicles/Cake Pops)

by bakingwithelliott Leave a Comment

Today I have the simplest recipe for these pretty trendy cakesicles or cake-pops, let’s get started, shall we?

Today’s recipe is for a large cake-pop, which is made in a popsicle mould rather than a cake-pop mould. Who doesn’t mind a bit more cake? Seriously.

The recipe I’ll be sharing is for a simple vanilla sponge cake and vanilla buttercream, which when combined make the perfect ‘dough’ for the cake-pops. I opted for white chocolate to finish them, but feel free to use either milk or dark chocolate if you’d prefer. As an optional finish, I drizzled a small amount of melted dark chocolate over, but again, this was optional. Use whatever you’d like to finish them off.

There is nothing difficult about this recipe as you cake make the cake with either a stand mixer, hand mixer or with a wooden spoon. The only thing I didn’t have before I made these cake-pops was the popsicle mould, I ordered one on eBay for £3.99. If you need one, I recommend you check out eBay beforehand.

Ingredients:

Cake:

250g Butter.

250g Granulated sugar.

250g Plain flour.

1 ½ tsp Baking powder.

½ tsp Salt.

4 Eggs.

1 tsp Vanilla extract.

Buttercream:

125g Butter.

250g Icing sugar.

1 tsp Vanilla extract.

Finishing:

200g White chocolate, melted.

50g Dark chocolate, melted and in a piping bag.

Method:

Before you get into making the cake or buttercream, you’ll want to do some prep work. Weigh up all your ingredients, line your tin (if you need to), preheat your oven to 180˚c/350˚f and get any equipment you intend on using ready.

To start on the recipe, you’ll want to make the cake. Get yourself a mixing bowl and place the butter, granulated sugar, plain flour, baking powder, salt (passing the dry ingredients through a sieve, to remove any lumps that may be in the dry ingredients), eggs and vanilla.

You can then go ahead and beat this on a low speed to start with, building your way up to a medium-high speed for around 60-90 seconds, by this point the mixture will be very well incorporated and you shouldn’t be able to see a single trace of any ingredient. If the mixture is looking a little stiff add a around 1-2 tablespoons of milk (or more if needed) to help loosen the mixture.

Give the bowl a good scrape down, this is just to incorporate any bits that haven’t been fully incorporated into the mixture. Then add the cake batter into your 8 inch square cake tin and spread it out as evenly as possible, bake in your preheated oven for 30-35 minutes.

While the cake is in the oven baking, it’s best to do the buttercream. To start on the buttercream, get your mixing bowl and add in your butter and beat on a medium-high speed for around 5-7 minutes or until lighter and fluffier in colour and consistency.

Once this has been achieved, you can give the bowl a good scraping down, then add in your first half of icing sugar and beat until its fully incorporated and repeat that stage with the second half of icing sugar. Once that’s all added and mixed in, you can add in your vanilla and mix until incorporated. Place the buttercream into a bowl and place in the fridge until its needed later.

Allow your cake to cool down fully before you intend on using it, otherwise when you add in the buttercream it will melt it and make a horrible sloppy mess… Which nobody wants. I allow my cake to cool down in the tin for around 10 minutes, then remove from the tin and allow to cool fully on a cooling rack before I intend on using it.

After about an hour, I take my cake and break it in half, crumbling it between my fingers until I have got it to the perfect consistency. You will know once you’ve achieved this as it will look like breadcrumbs or have a sandy texture to them – you can also use a food processor which will do the job equally as well.

Now you can add in your buttercream and work the two together either by hand or using your food processor/stand mixer, start with a smaller amount of buttercream and work in more if you need to (it’s easier to add buttercream than to take it away). The perfect consistency is pliable and holds its shape well, you’ll know when you’ve got the perfect consistency – trust me on that.

Take your silicon popsicle mould and place a good amount of your cake ‘dough’ and place it into the mould and press it into place, flattening using your fingers/palm and repeat this step for the remaining cake-pops. Place the mould into the fridge (or freezer if you’re in a rush). Repeat until you have used all your cake ‘dough’ up.

Once all your cake-pops are chilling/firming up, place your white chocolate on a double boiler and melt the chocolate. Once your chocolate is fully melted, you can start to dip each of your cake-pops, one at a time then once dipped, place onto a cake board or cooling rack (whichever you have or works best for you). Allow them to solidify fully before you finish them off.

To finish them off I add a drizzle of dark chocolate but feel free to use whichever chocolate suits you best.

Lemon Meringue Eclair’s

by bakingwithelliott Leave a Comment

Today I present you with a recipe I made to prevent food waste – it’s lemon meringue eclairs!

I’ve taken the simple choux pastry éclair and jazzed it up by using a fresh cream and homemade lemon curd filling and topped with a lightly torched meringue topping. It’s like having a lemon meringue pie but done differently… It works well, trust me on this one.

Lemon is the perfect flavour for the spring/summer period to be honest, it’s refreshing and tangy – what’s not to love? If you or someone you know likes éclair’s and a lemon meringue pie, I can promise this is the recipe for you.

I know some people can be put off by choux pastry as it can go wrong, but if you follow my recipe it will work out for you – I promise you. Making the pastry isn’t hard or too time consuming to make and you don’t need any specialist equipment to make these.

As with all my recipes, you’ll want to do some prep work. This is to prevent you from making mistakes as you go along. Take some time to weigh up your ingredients, making sure the scales you’re using are accurate (I really recommend using digital scales if possible), line your baking trays with greaseproof/parchment and preheat your oven to 200˚c/390˚f and get ready.

Ingredients:

Choux Pastry:

300ml Water.

125g Butter.

150g Plain flour.

4 Eggs, medium sized.

Pinch of salt.

Filling:

300ml Double cream.

100g Icing sugar.

1 tsp Vanilla extract.

Lemon curd (homemade or shop bought – I haven’t shared the recipe for the lemon curd as I have a video coming soon on how I make my jams, spreads and curds).

Meringue Topping:

I can’t give you the exact amount I used as the eggs I use are probably a different size to the ones you’ll be using, however, I’ll tell you how to calculate the meringue topping.

Get the weight of 2 egg whites and whatever that is, double it for the sugar you’ll need. Easy enough to remember, the ratio of egg to sugar is 1:2.

Method:

To start on the choux pastry, get yourself a small-medium saucepan and place the water, butter and salt into it, place that saucepan onto the hob over a medium heat and allow the ingredients to melt, give it a good stir to combine the ingredients once they start to melt. Once the mixture almost reaches a simmer, you’ll want to take it off the heat and add in the flour, whisking it in until its fully incorporate, then place back on the heat and whisk continuously until the flour has been cooked out. You’ll know once the flour has been cooked out as it will leave a coating on the bottom of the saucepan, once you start to see this, get ready to take it off the heat and place it into a mixing bowl and beat it on a medium-high speed until you’re able to touch the side/bottom of the bowl.

Once the pastry has cooled down enough for you to touch the bowl, you can add your eggs, one at a time, beating well in-between each addition. The amount of eggs I have recommended was the perfect amount for my pastry, you may find you need more or less egg (eggs are all different sizes, I used medium eggs). You will want the pastry to take 5 seconds to fall from the paddle attachment, that’s how you know you’ve got the perfect amount of egg.

Once all the egg has been added to the mixture, you can then place your choux pastry into a piping bag (either fitted with a wide plain tip nozzle or not, I opted not to use a nozzle this time around). Get your baking trays (which may or may not be lined with greaseproof/parchment paper). You can then start to pipe on your choux pastry, snip a large hole at the bottom of the piping bag and pipe 5 inch lines onto the greaseproof/parchment paper, once you’re done piping them, you’ll notice they have an ugly end to them, don’t worry about this too much as you’ll correct it before you bake them off.

Now that you’ve got your pastry piped out, you can finish it off before you bake them off. Get a small bowl of water and dampen your finger and just press/smooth down the rough looking edges, this will help correct the ugly looking end and once you’ve done that, you can then go ahead and get yourself a small bowl and beat an egg, then use this as egg wash on the pastry. Once they’ve all been dabbed with water and brushed with egg, you can then place into the oven and bake them off.

While they are baking in your preheated 200˚c/390˚f oven, you’ll want to bake them at that for 20 minutes, then open the door. This is to let the steam out of the oven, this is normal for this recipe, then close the door and bake for a further 10 minutes at the same temperature. Remove them from the oven once they are golden brown and they are firm to the touch. Allow to cool on the tray for a couple of minutes before transferring to cooling racks to fully cool down. You can now freeze the eclairs if you wanted to, they are perfect from frozen as well.

While you’re waiting you can make your sweetened whipped cream filling. Into a mixing bowl add all of the double cream, icing sugar and vanilla, then beat on a medium-high speed until everything is well incorporated and the cream holds it shape. Try not to over whip the cream, otherwise it will turn granular and not have a pleasant mouth feel, place into a piping bag fitted with a small star piping nozzle and set aside in the fridge until needed.

To fill the eclairs is super simple. You can either slice the eclairs open and fill them that way or using the small star tip, gently poke holes into the bottom of the éclair and pipe the cream and lemon curd in that way. I prefer the second method as its what works best for me but feel free to experiment and see what method you like or works best for you!

Now, for the final element of these eclairs, the meringue topping. Don’t be put off by meringue, it’s nowhere near as difficult as it may appear. Get yourself a clean mixing bowl and whisk, into the bowl place the egg whites and whisk on a high speed until egg whites are frothy, then you can start adding your sugar, a little at a time until it’s all added. Once all of the sugar has been added, you can then whisk on a high speed until the sugar is fully incorporated, to test whether it is or not, get a small amount and rub it between your index finger and thumb and if you feel any granules of sugar, continue whisking and if you don’t feel any granules, stop mixing and place the meringue mixture into a piping bag fitted with your nozzle of choice.

Take your eclairs and get ready to finish them. I piped a rope of the meringue on each éclair but feel free to pipe however you like. I just liked the effect a rope had, its completely up to you. Then to finish them off, get yourself a blow torch and start to torch the meringue mixture. I made it a little darker in some places than in other but again this is optional and you can make them all a nice golden brown colour if you’d like.

That’s all for this week 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 next week with another blog post and YouTube video, so join me then. In the mean while, don’t forget to check out my Instagram and twitter. The YouTube video will be linked down below!

Quiche Lorraine

by bakingwithelliott Leave a Comment

Quiche is the perfect addition to any spring/summer evening, its light but enough with salad to enjoy.

I know, you’re seeing a savoury recipe. These aren’t too common from me as you’ll often find me making sweet baked goods. I have been trying more savoury baking recently, so you may see more of them from me in the future.

As I mentioned above, quiche is perfect for the warmer weather, with a side of salad (if that’s your thing). It’s pretty quick and easy to make, which is even better!

There’s some prep to do now that will save you faffing about later on. Start by remembering to preheat your oven to 200˚/390˚f, weigh up all of your ingredients, cook off the bacon and prepare your equipment.

The pastry I have used is my normal recipe for shortcrust pastry minus the sugar, then it becomes unsweetened and perfect for savoury use – just what we need it for.

The pastry isn’t exactly hard to make, all you need to do is place the flour, salt and butter then combine them together by either rubbing the butter into the flour or pulsing them together in a food processor (I went with the food processor method on this occasion).

Once they are combined, add in the egg and work it into the flour/butter mixture. This will bind the dough together, work them together until almost fully combined then tip out onto a floured surface to knead the pastry together. You’re looking for a clear dough, with no traces of a single ingredient. Wrap in clingfilm/plastic wrap then chill in the fridge for around an hour, this is to allow the butter to firm up and the gluten to relax.

After about an hour in the fridge, the dough should be firm. Take it from the fridge and cut it in half (keep the other half chilled in the fridge), flour your surface well with some plain flour. At this point, preheat your oven to 200˚/390˚f. Place the dough onto the floured surface and roll it out until its slightly bigger than your 8 inch pie dish. Place the pastry over the tart tine and work it into the tin, fix any cracks with the remaining pastry and trim the excess from the edges. You can then dock the pastry with a fork, this is just to stop it from rising while it’s baking, place in the fridge to chill for 30 minutes, you can then add the greaseproof/parchment paper along with the baking beans and blind bake for around 20-25 minute, it should start to look baked.

While your pastry case is in the oven baking, you can make the filling for your quiche. Start by adding your eggs, salt, pepper, milk and double cream into a large mixing bowl and whisk it all together until fully combined. You can then add in the cheese, bacon and onion and using a spatula, mix them until they are fully combined. By this point your pastry case should be ready, so once its done blind being, remove from the oven and remove the baking beans and parchment/greaseproof, then add in the filling (I had a tiny amount left over but added it once it was in the oven). Bake the quiche off at 200˚/390˚f for a further 30 minutes, it should be golden brown and firm to the touch.

Allow the quiche to cool fully before enjoy a slice, surely you shouldn’t eat quiche warm… YUCK!

Ingredients:

Pastry:

1 Egg.

225g Butter.

375g Plain flour.

Pinch of salt

Quiche Filling:

4 Eggs.

1/2 tsp Salt.

1/2 tsp Black pepper, ground.

300ml Whole milk.

100ml Double cream.

200g Cheddar cheese (or your personal favourite).

6 rashers of bacon, cooked and roughly chopped.

1 Onion, medium-large, chopped,

Bake the pastry at 200˚/390˚f for 20-25 minutes, make and add the filling, then bake for a further 30 minutes at the same temperature.

That’s all for this week, I hope you enjoyed. If you did, don’t forget to share this with your friends and family and check out the other recipes I have up on my blog. Currently working on uploading older recipes from my YouTube channel, so keep your eyes out. Until next week guys, take care.

Zero Waste Raisin Oatmeal Cookies | The Clean Kilo

by bakingwithelliott Leave a Comment

Today I’ll be showing you how to make my favourite cookies of all time, raisin oatmeal! These are a chunky variation, perfect for dunking in milk.

Today’s post is a little different to my usual as I tried a zero waste supermarket. In the past few months I’ve seen a few documentaries about how our food and plastic waste are at ridiculous levels, so I decided to make a change and cut mine down to the very minimum I can. Since January 1st 2019, I’ve managed to get my waste down by 75% and all done by making changes which were easy to implement. While buying your ingredients in bulk from the supermarket or wholesale may work out more convenient or cheaper, how much of the packaging is recyclable? How many of you are going to put the ingredients into jars/container once you’re

I had seen these zero waste shops before but never really tried one before as it seemed confusing but its far from it. The nearest one for me is in Digbeth, Birmingham and it’s called The Clean Kilo. If you haven’t visited before, you’re missing out. I would recommend taking your own jars and/or containers but if don’t have any, don’t worry, they have some you can purchase in-store.

The Clean Kilo offers a wide range of products from baking ingredients, dried fruit and eggs through to oils and vinegar, locally grown vegetables and nuts & seeds, perfect for when you may need an exact amount – the prices are very competitive.

The aim of zero waste shopping is to lower the amount of packaging wastage as well as food waste. I don’t know about you but I’m guilty of buying a certain ingredient that I may not use every time I bake, then it gets stored (and sometimes forgotten abou) and I may not need it until it’s gone past the use by date and that’s not only annoying but also wasteful. If you’re like that, don’t forget FIFO (first in first out), that’s the one super useful thing I learnt at college.

The one thing I wasn’t sure about was how it all worked I regards to weighing and getting the final price, it’s actually really simple. The day I visited the women working behind the counter was called Dominika and she was really helpful and informative which was great, she couldn’t have been more helpful. When it comes to weighing and measuring your ingredients, you’ll want to start by getting your empty container and placing it onto the scales, then print out the sticker (this sticker is simply for the weight of the container, keep this one on the container if you intend on using it again in the future, you won’t have to print another one off that way), then you go and fill your container with the product you wish, go back to the scales then scan the bar code on the sticker you printed out earlier on and reweigh the container and print out your final sticker which is the price you’ll pay. Finally you can then go and pay and know you’ve saved some packaging waste from going into the bin.

I’d seen some videos and blog posts online where people had tried zero waste recipes and this would normally be fairly hard, unless you have a local shop. If you’d like to see more zero waste recipes from me, let me know by commenting on the blog post. This is something that’s helping to prevent both packaging and food waste.

Making these cookies doesn’t take too long, to make, so you don’t need an awful lot of time to make them.

Ingredients:

100g Butter.

100g Golden Caster Sugar.

100g Light Brown Sugar.

1 Egg.

225g Plain Flour.

1/2 tsp Baking Powder.

150g Oats.

100g Raisins.

Method:

Before you start on these cookies, you’ll want to do some prep work. Weigh up all your ingredients, line a baking tray with greaseproof/parchment paper and preheat your oven to 180˚c/350˚f.
Start your cookies by placing the butter, golden caster sugar and light brown sugar into a bowl and beat on a medium-high speed until they are well combined.
Once they are all combined give your bowl a good scrape down and add in your egg and mix on a medium speed until it’s fully incorporated.
Give your bowl a good scrape down, to incorporate any bits that haven’t been fully worked in.
Sift in your dry ingredients and mix them in on a low-medium speed until almost fully incorporated, then add in the oats and raisins and give a mix until the flour is fully incorporated and the oats and raisins are well distributed within the dough.
The dough doesn’t require being chilled before use, so you can use it straight away.
Take a cookie scoop and scoop up two balls of dough per cookie, roll them together into one and he flatten them slightly before placing onto your baking tray, these cookies don’t spread very much while baking.

Place the baking tray into your preheated oven and bake for 8-10 minutes or until slightly coloured around the edge.

Once out of the oven, an optional finish would be to add a few raisins on top.

Allow to cool on the baking tray until fully cooled, then enjoy them. I had mine with a glass of cold milk!

*These cookies can be frozen before being baked, just make sure that they are flattened before you freeze them or after they are baked, just keep them wrapped in clingfilm/plastic wrap.

Lemon Velvet Cake

by bakingwithelliott Leave a Comment

Whether you call her mom or mum, make sure you make her a special cake this mother’s day.

I now that Mother’s day is on a different date depending on where you are in the world, but in the UK its this coming Sunday. Make sure you’ve got all the ingredients in and show your mom how much you love her in cake form.

The cake isn’t just any cake, its a lemon velvet cake. It’s perfect for this recipe (and for spring in general). It’s packed with a lemon-y punch and finished with vanilla buttercream, it might not sound like it but these work really well.

You have 3 layers of lemon velvet cake, brushed with a lemon simple syrup and then finished with a ombre vanilla buttercream coloured in 3 shades of purple – the colours are customisable to suit you better!

To start, you’ll want to make the macarons. These are normally something that can be difficult to make but if you use the method I have provided, you will find them easier. Into a large bowl add in the egg whites and the colouring paste of choice, then give it all a good mix until well incorporated. Into a separate bowl sift together the ground almonds and icing sugar a few times, this is to remove any big lumps that may be in the ground almonds. Once you’ve sifted them together, you can then add the dry mix to the coloured egg whites and give it all a good mix until everything is combined, set aside until needed later on.

Into a small saucepan, place the water and sugar and place a medium-high heat, until it achieves 118c/. Into a clean mixing bowl (I opted to use my stand mixer bowl), place the egg whites and whisk them up until they are frothy, then add the sugar and whisk until its incorporated and has reached soft peaks. After that pour in the sugar/water mixture (make sure you turn your mixer speed down to the lowest setting, getting this mixture on your skin would result in a burn, so be extra careful. Pour the hot mixture down the side of your bowl, avoiding contact with the whisk). On wall of the hot mixture is in the egg whites, crank the speed up to high and whisk until the mixture is smooth and glossy and the bottom of the bowl will be cool enough to touch.

Now that you’ve got your meringue mixture and coloured almond mixture, you can combine the two. Simply spoon about 1/3 of the meringue mixture in and fold it in until it’s fully incorporated, then repeat with the remaining 2/3 of meringue. The mixture will change in colour and consistency, this is normal, it’s a sign that the ingredients are combined. Give the bowl a good scrape down, just to incorporate any bits that may not have been fully worked in from earlier on. The place the macaron batter into a piping bag.

Make sure all of your baking trays are lined with greaseproof/parchment, the. You can snip the end off of the piping bag and start to pipe out the macarons, i recommend you download a free template offline and print it off, unless you’re confident. Pipe out however many you can get on your tray, then tap the tray on the countertop, this will bring any air bubbles to the surface, then leave these for 30-60!minutes, or until a skin has formed on top of the, macarons (simply touch the top and if mixture sticks to your finger, it’s not ready). While you wait for them to dry, preheat your oven to 180˚c/350˚f.

Once the macarons are ready, you can place them in the oven and bake them off for around 12 minutes (give or take a few minutes, they shouldn’t colour very much). Once out of oven, you can take the parchment/greaseproof off the baking tray an allow them to cool fully before removing from the greaseproof/parchment.

Now that the macarons are made, it’s time to start on the cake. This isn’t your typical lemon cake, it’s a lemon velvet cake – if you like a strong lemon flavour, this is the cake for you.

Do some prep work before you start baking. Weigh up your ingredients, preheat your oven and prepare your cake tins if they need it.

To start on the cake, you’ll want to get yourself a large mixing bowl and place in the butter and sugar, then beat them together until they are well combined. Scrape down the sides and bottom of your bowl, this is just to help incorporate any bits that may no have been fully worked in earlier on. The next stage is to add the eggs in, one at a time beating well in-between each addition, try not to add more than one at a time, otherwise you may scramble the mixture and this isn’t ideal (if you do happen to scramble the mixture, it’s not the end of the world. Simply add a tablespoon of the flour you’ve already weighed out).

Next you’ll want to add the colouring and flavourings, for me this is lemon yellow by Wilton and I’m flavouring my cakes with lemon zest, add these into the mixture and beat them until they are fully incorporated. Give your bowl another good scraping down.

Now you can start adding your dry and wet ingredients, don’t forget to start and finish with the dry ingredients, once they are all fully incorporated, give your bowl a final good scrape down. Then you can add in the bicarbonate of soda and then pour over the vinegar and allow to fizzle, then give it one last mix, just to work in the raising agent.

Take your cake batter and weigh it, the take this amount and divide by 3 and then weigh that exact amount into each cake tin. This is my preferred method of dividing the cake batter but feel free to eyeball it and guess how much is in each tin. Bake in your preheated oven for 25-27 minutes (or until a tester comes out clean).

While your cakes are in the oven baking, this is the ideal time to make your buttercream and simple syrup. To make the buttercream, place your butter into a mixing bowl and beat for a couple minutes until its softer and more spreadable, then scrape down the sides and bottom of the bowl, add in your first half of icing sugar then give it a good mix for a few minutes, then scrape down the bowl again and repeat with the remaining icing sugar. Once the second half of icing sugar is added and fully incorporated, add in the vanilla extract and mix until fully mixed in, set aside until needed later on.

For the simple syrup place the water, lemon juice and sugar into a small-medium saucepan and place on a medium-high heat and allow to come to a boil, then leave to cool down fully before use.

Once the cakes are fully baked, remove from the oven and allow to cool down fully.

Once the cakes are fully cooled down, you can then level the top off each cake and give them all a generous brushing of the lemon simple syrup (using lemon will only enhance the lemon flavour, great if you like a strong lemon flavour). You can then layer the cakes together with a good amount of the vanilla buttercream, once layered/stacked you can then give the cake a crumb coat, this is just a thin layer of buttercream that will lock in the crumbs and not ruin your final layer of buttercream. Chill in the fridge for 30-45 minutes or until firm to the touch.

To finish the cake, colour your buttercream into 3 colours. I opted to go with 3 different shades of purple, I start with the lightest at the bottom and finish with the darkest on top, pipe equals amounts of each onto the cake, then smooth it all out as best I can with my cake scraper, you may need to scrape the excess buttercream onto some greaseproof paper and if there are any gaps/spaces, fill them in and smooth them off until you’re happy.

You can finish the cake however you like but i piped rosettes on top (and topped them with macarons) and a white chocolate drip, the drip is optional. For the chocolate drip, I place my double cream into a saucepan and place a low-medium heat just until it’s almost boiled. Pour the hot cream over your white chcolate, allow it to sit for 1 minute, then stir until its smooth, transfer into a piping bag and use from there.

Macarons:

150g Ground almonds.

150g Icing sugar.

55g Egg whites.

38g Water.

150g Granulated sugar.

55g Egg whites.

10g Granulated sugar.

Lemon Velvet Cake:

90g Butter.

225g Granulated sugar.

2 Eggs.

Zest of 3-4 lemons.

Yellow food paste.

180ml Buttermilk.

220g Plain flour.

1 tsp Bicarbonate of soda.

2 tbsp White vinegar.

Simple Syrup:

200ml Lemon juice.

100ml Water.

300ml granulated sugar.

Buttercream:

500g Butter.

1kg Icing sugar.

Whiter Chocolate Drip:

25ml Double cream.

25g White chocolate.

Strawberry Cheesecake Tart

by bakingwithelliott Leave a Comment

Do you need a quick recipe for Valentine’s Day? Look no further, I’m share with you how to make this no-bake cheesecake tart.

This recipe is a twist on my more traditional no-bake cheesecake, after thinking about how I could improve or change the recipe. After being on Instagram and Pinterest for a short while, I saw there was the odd cheesecake tart, I didn’t follow any of the recipes that I found as I had the basics covered and that’s all you need.

So I take my simple no-bake recipe and make some changes, mostly lowering the amounts of each ingredients as I don’t need as much for this tart. If you have seen any of my other cheesecakes before, you will know that they have a thick consistency but this one was slightly less so, but it still set nicely.

Before you start working on the tart, you’ll want to do some prep work. Get the pie/tart tin ready and weigh up all your ingredients. To start the tart, you’ll want to make the base (and sides) which is super simple and only requires 2 ingredients – digestive biscuits and melted butter. You’ll want to make the digestive biscuits into crumbs (it will look like sand once ready) and you can do this 2 ways – method one is the easiest and it’s to use a food processor, blitz the biscuits for a few seconds until they have reached a crumb consistency. Method two is too place the biscuits into a ziplock bag and crush them using a rolling pin, this takes longer but works equally as well.

Once you’ve got your biscuit crumbs, you can then add the melted butter and either blitz or mix in the butter until it’s turned to wet sand colour. Place the biscuit mixture into the base of your 9 inch pie/tart tin and get yourself a cup measurement or something similar and start to compress it down, while you do that you’ll also want to press it out towards the edge and build up the sides, it may take some time to get the edges just right but it’s all worth it in the end. So take the time needed to get the base and sides as level all around as possible.

Once you’ve got the biscuit base sorted, you can then go ahead and place that in the fridge to firm up while you make the filling.

To make the cheesecake filling, you’ll want to get yourself a medium-large mixing bowl and place in the soft cheese, icing sugar and vanilla then give it all a good mix with either a hand whisk or a electric mixer (whichever you have or prefer to use). Once all the ingredients are fully incorporated, add in the jam (I used strawberry as I knew it would turn the mixture pink but feel free to use whatever flavour you’d like) and give it all a give whisk together until the jam has been worked in fully, if possible, try and use jam without bits, it will help the mixture to stay smooth. Add in the double cream and whisk until the mixture thickens up – mine was looser in consistency as it was warm in my kitchen but it set up alright.

Now you’ll want to take your tart case out of the fridge and add in the filling into and level it off as best you can, then place back in the fridge for 8 hours or overnight (which is preferred by me personally). The longer you allow it to chill, the more it will firm up.

The following morning, I take the tart out the frIdge and remove it from the tin. I set it onto my decorative plate but feel free to use whatever you have, a cake stand or normal plate will work well. One last thing before we finish the tart off, which is optional but seeing as Valentine’s Day is today, why not put something romantic on top, so I did. I piped the word ‘love’ with seedless strawberry jam.

You can then cut and slice it as your wish, this tart is like a cheesecake but in a different form – if you like cheesecake recommend trying this recipe out!

Ingredients:

Base:

375g Digestive biscuits.

150g Butter, melted.

Filling:

400g Soft cheese.

100g Icing sugar.

1 tsp Vanilla extract.

200-250g Strawberry jam, seedless.

200ml Double cream.

Decoration:

Strawberry jam, seedless and in a piping bag (with no tip).

No baking times as this is a chilled dessert, so up to 8 hours chilling in the fridge.

Chocolate Chip Cookie Cupcakes

by bakingwithelliott Leave a Comment

Do you like chocolate chip cookies? Do you like cupcakes? Why not combine the two to make these super simple and delicious cupcakes?

These cupcakes are the perfect treat at any time of year but even better around Christmas, they are the perfect treat to leave out for Father Christmas on Christmas Eve (or scoffed down on Christmas day, I’m not judging!).

Anyway, you can make either the cookies or cupcakes first but I went with the cookies. These are the same cookies I have made in the past, they have a great flavour and are the perfect size to top the cupcakes with. By combining the two simple elements, you get a very tasty treat that isn’t too complex to make or in flavour.

Before you do any baking, you’ll want to do some prep work – this will save you time in the long run and stop you faffing about later on. Preheat your oven to 180˚c/350˚f, line your baking tray with some greaseproof/parchment paper, place the cupcake cases into your muffin pan and weigh up all your ingredients into suitable size bowls. Don’t forget to wipe down the counters and get your mixer ready.

I started by making the chocolate chip cookies but you can start with either, it doesn’t matter.

To start on the cookies, get yourself a large bowl and place the butter, granulated white sugar and light brown sugar into it. Mix the three together over a medium-high speed until they are well combined and you can’t see a trace of a single ingredient. Once they’ve become fully combined, give your bowl a good scraping down – this is to work in any bits that haven’t been fully worked in, then add in your eggs one at a time, beating well in-between each addition. Add in your vanilla and give a quick mix to combine it – the scrape down the sides and bottom of your bowl again to incorporate any bits that haven’t been fully worked in.

Sieve your dry ingredients into the same bowl, then add in your chocolate chips and mix on a low-medium speed until everything has combined, once its all come together it will be a dough that will hold it’s shape well. Scrape the sides and bottom of the bowl again, then start to scoop up the dough (granted this recipe will result in more cookies than you’ll need but you can scoop each ball of dough up, then wrap them up and freeze them, or bake them all off and have a few left over to enjoy). I only used one ball of dough for each cookie and flattened it slightly then baked in your preheated oven for 10-12 minutes or until golden brown around the edge.

Once out the oven, place a few additional chocolate chips on top of each cookie then allow to cool on the baking tray for a few minutes before transferring onto a cooling rack, to cool completely.

Now it’s time to make the cupcakes and buttercream…

Making the cupcakes is super simple, start by placing the butter and granted white sugar into a mixing bowl and beat the two together until they are lighter and fluffier in colour and consistency, this only takes a couple of minutes. Once you’ve achieved that, scrape down the sides and bottom of your bowl to incorporate any bits that may not have been fully worked in earlier on. Add in your eggs, one at a time, beating well to incorporate each one. Try not to scramble the mixture, but if this happens, don’t worry, you’ll be able to fix this by adding dry ingredients very soon. Once the eggs have been fully incorporated, add in the vanilla and just mix to combine – scrape down the sides and bottom of the bowl again.

Add in the dry ingredients by passing them through a sieve first, this is to remove any lumps that may appear in the mix. Incorporate the dry ingredients into the buttery mixture over a low-medium speed to start with, working your way up to a medium speed and allow the mixture to come together until there isn’t a trace of a single ingredient to be seen, also at this point you’ll want to add in the chocolate chips- try not to over-mix the batter at this stage, otherwise your cupcakes will be tougher textured than they should be. Divide the batter between your lined cupcake cases (I used a piping bag but feel free to use two spoons). Bake the cupcakes in the preheated oven for 20-22 minutes.

While the cupcakes are in the oven baking, feel free to make the buttercream. This is so simple and it requires only 3 ingredients – what’s not to love? Place your butter into a bowl and beat it until its lighter and fluffier in consistency – this takes a couple of minutes but is totally worth the time invested. Once lighter, scrape the sides and bottom of the bowl and add in half the icing sugar, then beat on a low speed to start, working your way up to a medium-high speed for a couple of minutes, then stopping the mixer, scraping it down and adding in the other half of the icing sugar and repeat the process. Once all of the icing sugar has been worked in, add in the vanilla and give a good mix to fully incorporate. That’s how simple buttercream is. Set aside while you’re not using or place into a piping bag fitted with your nozzle of choice.

So once you’ve got the cookies, cupcakes and buttercream made, you can assemble them all together. Start by getting your cupcake and piping on the buttercream, using your nozzle of choice. Then add a few chocolate chips around the edge of the buttercream, then top each cupcake with a cookie and enjoy!

Here are all the ingredients you’ll need and a shorter, more summarised method along with the video!

Cookies:

75g Butter.

75g Granulated sugar.

75g Light brown sugar.

1 Egg.

1 tsp Vanilla extract.

175g Plain flour.

1/2 tsp Baking powder.

1/8 tsp Salt.

150g Chocolate chips.

Cupcakes:

88g Butter.

88g Granulated white sugar.

1 Egg.

1 tsp Vanilla extract.

88g Plain flour.

1/2 tsp Baking powder.

1/4 tsp Salt.

50g Chocolate chips

Buttercream:

200g Butter.

400g Icing sugar.

1 tsp Vanilla extract

Chocolate chips (optional).

Methods –

Cookies:

Prepare by preheating your oven to 180˚c/350˚f, lining your tray with greaseproof or parchment paper or generously buttering the tray and weighing up your ingredients.
Place the butter, granulated sugar and light brown sugar into your mixing bowl of choice. Beat them all together over a low-medium speed until well combined. Feel free to use a wooden spoon, electric hand mixer or stand mixer.
Once well combined, add in your egg and vanilla extract and mix on a low-medium speed until well combined.
Scrape down the sides and bottom of your bowl, this is to incorporate any bits that haven’t been fully incorporated from earlier on.
Add in your plain flour, baking powder and salt. Pass them through a sieve to remove any lumps and then once all of the dry ingredients are in the bowl, fold/stir them in using a spatula just until the flour is almost fully incorporated. Add in your chocolate chips and stir/fold these in until the dough is clear.
Once you’ve got your dough, you can then use a cookie or (small) ice cream scoop to scoop up small amounts of the dough then round them up using your hands, then flatten them (they will spread a little but not a lot while baking, you can freeze at this stage if you like).
Bake them off in your preheated oven for 10-12 minutes (I found 11-12 minutes was perfect for me).
Remove the tray from the oven and allow the cookies to cool on the tray for 4-5 minutes then transfer them to a cooling rack to cool completely. This recipe makes 24 cookies.

Cupcakes:

Do some prep work before you start by weighing up all the ingredients needed, check your oven has been preheated to 180˚c/350˚f and line your muffin tray with some muffin/cupcake cases.
Place the butter and granulated white sugar into your mixing bowl of choice and beat them together for a couple of minutes until they are well combined.
Scrape down the sides and bottom of your bowl, then add in your egg and beat it over a medium speed until its fully incorporated. Add in the vanilla and mix to incorporate.
Give your bowl another scrape down then add in dry ingredients but passing them through a sieve first to remove any lumps that may be in the mix and in the chocolate chips . Incorporate the dry ingredients in over a slow-medium speed to start, then a medium-high speed until fully incorporated – try not to over-mix, this causes the cakes to be tougher textured.
Split the cake batter between your pre-lined muffin pan, I find using a piping bag works the best but using two spoons works equally as well. Use whichever method works best for you.
Bake in your preheat oven for around 18-20 minutes (or until a tester comes out clean).
Once fully baked, remove from the oven and allow the cupcakes to cool for a short while in the muffin pan, then transfer onto a cooling tray and allow to cool completely.
Make you buttercream.
Finish the cupcakes however you like but I piped on a good amount of buttercream, added a few chocolate chips onto the sides of the piped out buttercream, then placed a cookie onto each cupcake. Serve and enjoy!

Buttercream:

The buttercream is really quick and easy to make, to start, place the butter into a bowl and beat it for around 4-6 minutes or until it’s lighter in colour and consistency.
Once you’ve achieved that, add in roughly around half your icing sugar and mix that on a low speed to start, working your way up to a medium-high once the icing sugar is incorporated and beat or a short while until fully incorporated. Repeat this stage with he remaining half of icing sugar.
Give the bowl a good scraping down and add in the vanilla then mix on a medium speed and mix to incorporate.
Place the buttercream into a piping bag fitted with a nozzle of choice or place in a airtight container and store in the fridge for up to 3 days. This buttercream can also be frozen if you don’t intend on using it straight away.

Thank you all so much for checking out the blog post (and video if you watched it)!

Homemade Mince Pies

by bakingwithelliott Leave a Comment

Whether you like them or not, its mince pie season, regardless.

These tasty little treats are sweet, spicy and fruity all in one bite. Which can be overwhelming or downright confusing, especially if you haven’t them before.

If you’re from somewhere in the world that doesn’t have these easily accessible, don’t worry. Despite the name, the mincemeat is sweet (made most of dried fruit, sugar, spices and alcohol) and doesn’t contain a single gram of meat. Many years ago they would have been meat based but they have evolved to become what we know and love today.

I thought that mincemeat was available around the world, but it isn’t. Don’t worry I have already uploaded a recipe on how to make mincemeat here (which is actually super easy, it just needs some time to mature).

Some prep work won’t go amiss here. Preheat your oven to 180˚c/350˚f, weigh up your ingredients and get any equipment you may need ready.

The pastry isn’t exactly hard to make, all you need to do is beat the sugar and egg together, then set it aside until later on. Into a bowl or food processor place the flour, salt and butter then combine them together by either rubbing the butter into the flour or pulsing them together in a food processor (I went with the food processor method on this occasion. Mostly because I as short on time and my hands are warm and often heat up the butter, which isn’t what you want while making pastry).

Once they are combined, add in the egg/sugar mix and work it into the flour/butter mixture. This will bind the dough together, work them together until almost fully combined then tip out onto a floured surface to knead the pastry together. You’re looking for a clear dough, with no traces of a single ingredient. Wrap in clingfilm/plastic wrap then chill in the fridge for around an hour, this is to allow the butter to firm up and the gluten to relax.

After the hour in the fridge, take your dough out of the fridge and chop it roughly in half, keeping half out and rewrapping the other half and placing back in the fridge until you need it later on. Roll out your dough until you’ve achieved 5mm in thickness, once achieved, cut out your circles of pastry for each pie. Use a 3 inch cookie cutter, this gets your the perfect shape/amount for each cup on the cupcake pan. I only made 6 but you could easily make around 8-10.

Once you’ve got your pastry cases in the cupcake tin, you’ll then want to fill them with a generous amount of the homemade mincemeat, you can go as far as just a few millimetres below the top of the case (the more the better I say, but go with your preference). You can then work on the ‘lids’ which is a smaller circle cut out (around 1.5 – 2 inches), then place on top of each mince pie and secure in place by crimping the side of the pastry case and the pastry lid together with a fork, repeat for all your mince pies. You’ll want to egg wash your pastry (this helps to make your pastry bake a better golden brown colour), to make the egg wash, crack an egg into a small bowl and beat until its all combined. Use your pastry brush and give the tops of the mince pies a generous coating with the egg wash.

Just before you use the last of the pastry, stab a hole into the centre of each mince pie, this is to release any steam that may build up while they bake. You can then partially cover the hole with small cut out pastry decoration, I used a small plunger cutter do this but its completely optional. Egg wash the little cut out, then place into your preheated oven and bake for 20-25 minutes or until the pastry is a nice golden brown.

Ingredients:

Pastry:

1 Egg.

90g Granulated sugar.

225g Butter.

375g Plain Flour.

A pinch of salt.w

Mince meat recipe here

Method:

Start by doing some prep work by preheating your oven to 180˚c/350˚f, weighing up your ingredients into small bowls and prepare any equipment you’ll need to use.
Start the recipe by making your pastry. Crack an egg into a small bowl then add the sugar and mix the two together until the sugar has dissolved in the egg, set aside until later on.
Into a large bowl or food processor, place the flour, salt and butter then combine them by rubbing the butter into the dry ingredients or pulsing them together.
Once they are fully combined, add in the egg/sugar mix from earlier on. Mix in or pulse together until they are almost fully combined, then turn out onto a floured surface and knead until a clear dough forms. Once you’ve got a clear dough, wrap the flattened ball of dough in clingfilm/plastic wrap and place in the fridge for an hour to chill. This give the gluten in the dough time to relax and for the butter to firm up.
After about an hour, take your pastry out of the fridge and cut in half. Keep one half out and wrap the other back up and place in the fridge until you need it later on.
Roll out the pastry on a floured surface until its about 5mm in thickness (this is the ideal thickness). Take a 3 inch cookie cutter and cut out your circles. I made 6 mince pies but with this amount of pastry you could easily make 8-10.
Take your pastry circles and place them into the cupcake tin. Work and manipulate the dough to fit into the shape of the cupcake tray, repeat until you’ve got all your pastry cases done.
Fill each mince pie almost to the top with the homemade mincemeat. Repeat this for each mince pie.
With the remaining pastry, roll it out until slightly thinner than 5mm then cut out some more circles but this time they are smaller, around 1.5-2 inches (whichever fits just right on top of the mince pies).
Crimp the pastry case and the lid together using fork. This secures the lid on top and stops it from popping off while baking. Once the lids are on, egg wash the top of each mince pie (the egg wash is just a beaten egg in a small bowl).
Stab a hole in the centre of the mince pie, this is to allow the steam to escape. Then partially cover the hole with a small pastry cut out that has been made with a small plunger cutter. This is optional but adds a homemade touch to the mince pies. Egg wash the cut outs if you use them.
Bake the mince pies in your preheated oven for 20-25 minutes or until the pastry is a nice golden brown colour.
Once baked and cooled, just before serving you can give them a dusting with icing sugar and enjoy on there own OR serve with some cream or ice cream.

Fruit Cake Recipe (2 Methods)

by bakingwithelliott Leave a Comment

If you’re here looking for a simple fruit cake recipe for whichever celebration, don’t worry I’ve got you more than covered. Today I’m sharing the 2 must have fruit cake recipes with you guys.

As soon as December comes around, everybody starts going Christmas mad (whether its food or decorations) and normally people start getting their holiday baking started, often with a fruit cake of some sort. If you wanted to make it a more traditional ‘Christmas cake’, you’d actually bake it in July and feed the cake with alcohol until you intend on serving it, however, if you’re like most people you’ll just make one in the nick of time and that’s fine.

The cakes doesn’t have to contain alcohol, so if you can’t or don’t want to use it – leave it out and feel free to make your cake closer to the occasion. If you do use the alcohol, it’s best to stick to darker coloured spirits like dark rum, brandy, whiskey or sherry.

Either of these cake recipes can be made for Christmas cakes, Simnel cake or for birthday/wedding cakes.

Anyway, here is method one –

Ingredients:

225g Currants.

70g Sultanas.

70g Raisins.

85g Glace cherries, halved or quartered.

70g Mixed peel.

50g Almonds (ground, nibbed or flaked will work well).

175g Plain flour.

3 tsp Ground cinnamon.

2 tsp Ground mixed spice.

1/2 tsp Ground ginger.

1/2 tsp Ground nutmeg.

1/2 tsp Ground allspice.

1/2 tsp Ground cloves.

150g Butter.

150g Light brown sugar.

2 Eggs.

5g Black treacle.

Method:

Do some prep work ahead of starting. Weigh up all your ingredients into bowls (there are a few different bits here’s helps save confusion later on, plus it eliminates the chances of making a measuring mistake), preheating your oven to 150˚c/300˚f and lining your cake tins with some parchment paper – set them aside until later on.
To start your cake, place the butter, light brown sugar and black treacle into your mixing bowl and beat them together until they are well combines. You are not looking for light and fluffy with this mix.

Add in your eggs, one at a time beating well in-between each addition.

Once the eggs have been fully incorporated, give your bowl a good scraping down. This is to help incorporate any bits that may not have been fully worked in from earlier on.
Sieve in your flour and spices together, straight into the bowl. combine the butter mixture with the dry ingredients just until they are combined.

Scrape down the sides and bottom of your bowl again.
Add the currants, sultana’s, raisins, glacé cherries, mixed peel and almonds and mix to incorporate – just mix until the fruit is equally distributed throughout the cake batter.

Scrape down the bowl again, just to work those last few bits in.
Divide the cake batter between the two 6 inch cake tins that you prepared earlier on.

Place the cake tins into the preheated oven and bake for 50-55 minutes (your oven may require more or less time, all ovens are different).
Once the cakes are fully baked and out the oven, allow them to cool in the tins for a short while before transferring them to cooling racks where they can cool completely.

Once fully cooled, feel free to pour over a small amount of alcohol (up to 45ml) then wrap the cakes in clingfilm/plastic wrap and feed once a week with the same amount of alcohol until you serve it.

This is much more similar to a traditional fruit cake recipe you’d see round Christmas time, it’s not exactly traditional but hey, who’ll notice?

Here is method two –

Method two is completely different, it doesn’t require you to use the creaming method (where you beat together the butter and sugar, then incorporate the eggs).

Ingredients:

300ml water.

110g Butter.

140g Light brown sugar.

170g Sultana’s.

170g Currants.

3 tsp Ground mixed spice.

2 tsp Ground cinnamon.

1/2 tsp Ground ginger.

1/4 tsp Ground cloves.

Method:

Do some prep work to save faffing around later. Weigh up all your ingredients into small bowls, preheat your oven to 150˚c/300˚f and line two 6 inch cake tins with parchment paper.
To start on the cake, you’ll want to get yourself a medium saucepan and place the water, butter, light brown sugar, fruit and the spices into it.

Place the saucepan on the hob over a medium-high heat, until everything is melted and has come together. Stir continuously once everything starts to melt. Once melted, take off the heat and allow to cool for around 10 minutes.
Once the mixture has cooled down, add in your flour and bicarbonate of soda, passing it through a sieve first. Then mix until they are fully worked in.

Then add in your egg, mix that in until it’s fully worked in.
Divide the cake batter between your lined cake tins, you can do this by weighing the cake batter out, then dividing it by two. This method is much more accurate, as long as you’re using digital scales. The other method is to simply eye ball the amount you’re putting into each tin, if you’re feeling more confident.

Place in the preheated oven and bake for around 40-45 (but check yours anytime after 40 as they may need more or less time).
Once out the oven and fully baked, allow to cool in the cake tin for a short while, then transfer to a cooling rack to cool completely.

Once cooled, you can pour over a small amount of alcohol (up to 45ml) then wrap them up in clingfilm/plastic wrap and feed once a week with the same amount of alcohol until you intend on using the cake.

So, I hope you have enjoyed this blog post, I will leave the video tutorial down below, if you’re interested checking it out!

Basic

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