Bakemas 2019

White Chocolate Rocky Road

It’s officially Bakemas 2019! 🎉

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

I wish you a very Merry Christmas – hope you’re celebrating with those you love this holiday! Today’s recipe doesn’t actually involve any baking as its a no-bake recipe! I’m going to be showing you how to make a batch of white chocolate rocky road!

Today is the final bakemas 2019! It feels like its gone so quickly this year but I’ve had a fantastic time bringing you a selection of recipes -I’ll be back in the New Year with more baking recipes/videos for you to enjoy!

Anyway, let’s get started, shall we?

Ingredients:

150g Butter.

50g Golden syrup.

300g White chocolate.

120g Party ring biscuits.

150g Mini marshmallows (I chose the white ones but feel free to use the pink and white ones).

100g White chocolate malt balls (the ones I used are from Poundland, thats here in the UK).

150g Custard cream biscuits.

White chocolate spread.

**I opted for fillings which fitted the ‘white chocolate’ version of this rocky road, please feel free to alter the ingredients to suit you and others who may be eating this.**

Method:

Before you get into making this rocky road, you’ll want to do some prep work. Weigh up all of your ingredients into bowls (breaking the biscuits up into smaller pieces), line your 8 inch square cake tin with parchment paper and get yourself a medium saucepan and wooden spoon ready.

Into your saucepan, place the butter, golden syrup and white chocolate and place that on the hob over a medium-high heat, allowing the mixture to melt and come together. Stir together until they have all melted and come together.

While your mixture is coming together on the hob, get yourself a large mixing bowl and into it place the party rings, mini marshmallows, white chocolate malt balls and custard creams. Give them a brief mix, juts to incorporate all the different bits and pieces.

Once your white chocolate mixture has come together, pour it over the assortments of bits in the large mixing bowl. Give the mixture all a good mix to ensure that all of the fillings have been fully coated and incorporated. This doesn’t take very long.

Now that the rocky road is ready, you’ll want to chill it but before you do that take your 8 inch lined square cake tin and pour the mixture into it. Levelling it off as best you can with a spatula and then transferring it to the fridge to chill for a minimum of 3-4 hours (or overnight, if you’re not in a rush).

Finally, once the rocky road has been chilled, you can remove it from the fridge and finish it off.

To finish off the rocky road, take some white chocolate spread and melt it in a microwave (don’t melt for longer than 10-12 seconds at a time, otherwise it might melt), once melted, pour directly on top of the rocky road and level it off so there is a level coating of the white chocolate spread, the place back in the fridge, just until its firm to the touch.

Finishing time! You can now take your knife and cut these up, how you do this is completely up to you. I went with 8 more than generous portions, which could easily be cut in half and make 16 generous portions but again, this is up to you.

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

Cookie Dough Cake

by bakingwithelliott 2 Comments

It’s officially Bakemas 2019! 🎉

Today I’ll be showing you how to make my take on a cookie dough cake, this is the perfect cake if you’re not a fan of fruit cake and I’m sure Santa would rather a slice of this cake, just to take a break from mince pies.

If you’re not sure what this cake consists of, I’ll tell you. It starts with two layers of chocolate chip cake cake, which is sandwiched and coated in a simple vanilla buttercream. Finished with edible chocolate chip cookie dough, chocolate chips and a drizzle of Nutella. Is there anything else you’d like?

This cake is super easy to customise, for example, wapping out milk chocolate chips for dark chocolate chips or using chocolate buttercream in place of the vanilla buttercream.

Anyway, let’s get started, shall we?

Ingredients:

Cake:

250g Butter.

250g Granulated sugar.

3 Eggs.

250g Plain flour.

1 tsp Baking powder.

Pinch of salt.

100g Milk chocolate chips

Vanilla Buttercream:

250g Butter.

600g Icing sugar.

1 1/2 tsp Vanilla extract

Edible Cookie Dough :

150g Butter.

100g Light brown sugar.

50g Granulated white sugar.

150g Icing sugar.

1 tsp Vanilla extract.

50ml Milk (I opted for whole milk but use whatever you like).

270g Plain flour.

100g Milk chocolate chips.

Methods:

Before you get started on making the cake, you should do some prep work. Starting by preheating your oven to 180˚/350˚f, weighing up all the ingredients, lining your 2 x 6 inch cake tins (if its needed) and get any equipment you may need ready in advance.

Personally, I start on the edible cookie dough as it’s the step that takes the longest. To start, place the flour on to a baking tray and get it as level as possible. Place into your preheated oven and bake the flour for around 10 minutes (after that, remove it from the oven).

while the flour is in the oven, start on the mixing. Into a mixing bowl, place the butter, granulated sugar and light brown sugar together until they are combined.

Now that the mix is ready, add in the milk and vanilla a little at a time. If the mixture scrambles a little, don’t worry about it.

Then go ahead and add in the icing sugar and mix that in until fully incorporated. Once that is done, give the bowl a quick scraping down.

Once the flour is cooler but still warm, add it into mixing bowl, along with the chocolate chips and ix until a cookie dough has formed, giving the bowl one final scrape down.

For small balls of cookie dough, take one scoop of cookie dough and round it off, then place onto a baking tray and place in the fridge until needed. For larger balls, take two scoops and round them off. I only ended up making small balls as I didn’t have any need for the large ones.

To make a start on the cake, take a mixing bowl and place the butter and sugar into it and beat until the two are fully incorporated. You’ll know when this is as the mixture will be lighter and fluffier in colour and consistency, about 5-7 minutes should do the job.

Next, you can start to add your egg. One at a time, beating well in-between each addition. If the mixture becomes loose in consistency or even a little scrambled, thats okay. It will be corrected at the next stage.

Give the bowl a good scrape down, just to work in any bits that haven’t been from earlier on.

Add in the dry ingredients, passing through a sieve first to remove any lumps that may be in the mix. Add a tablespoon of plain flour to the chocolate chips and coat the chocolate chips in the flour and set them aside for the time being.

Start to mix on a low speed to start, working your way up to a medium-high speed. Just before you stop the mixing, add the chocolate chips into the bowl as the mixer is going, mix just until the chocolate chips are equally distributed.

Give the bowl another good scraping down, just to incorporate any bits that haven’t been fully worked in.

Then you cake take your cake tins and divide the cake batter between them, I eyeballed it but feel free to make it more accurate by weighing up the amounts.

Bake in your preheated oven for 30-35 minutes or until a tester comes out clean. All ovens are different, so use my timings as a guide.

While the cakes are baking, you can make your vanilla buttercream. To start, place the butter in a mixing bowl and beat on a high speed for 5-7 minutes or until the colour and consistency are lighter and fluffier. After that time, give the bowl a good scraping down, then add in your first addition of icing sugar (roughly about half the amount). Start the mixer on a low speed, working your way up to a high speed, gradually, otherwise you’ll have a heck of a mess to clean up. Repeat with the other half of icing sugar and add in the vanilla extract.

Once thats done, give the bowl a good scraping down just to incorporate any bits that haven’t been fully worked in. Transfer to a smaller bowl and store at room temperature if you’re using that day or in the fridge and use within 5 days.

Don’t forget to let your cakes cool, then go ahead and trim them and brush over with simple syrup.

To finish the cake, layer the cakes together with the vanilla buttercream and give the cake a crumb coat of icing. This is just to lock in those crumbs, then place it in the fridge to firm up for 30-45 minutes.

After that time, give the cake its final layer of buttercream and decorate. I used chocolate chips around the bottom edge of the cake, to take away some of the bare feeling and on top, I place enough cookie dough balls to cover the top. Finally, I drizzle over some Nutella. Place the cake back in the fridge for 30-60 minutes, then enjoy.

White Chocolate & Salted Caramel Profiteroles

by bakingwithelliott Leave a Comment

It’s officially Bakemas 2019! 🎉

We are almost at the end of bakemas 2019 already… Today I’ll be bringing you my recipe for salted caramel and white chocolate profiteroles – these will honestly be a very welcome addition to any table this Christmas.

If you’re not sure what a profiterole is, well… It’s a choux pastry bun (depending on where in the world you are depends on what you know this pastry as. The most common names are choux and pate a choux, it’s basically the same thing), which is filled with either whipped cream or custard. What’s not to like?

Anyway, let’s get started, shall we?

Ingredients:

Choux Pastry:

300ml Water.

125g Butter.

150g Plain flour.

4 Eggs.

Pinch of salt

Filling:

300ml Double cream

50g Icing sugar.

1/2 tsp Vanilla extract.

Salted caramel sauce (in a piping bag for convenience).

Topping:

White chocolate spread, melted.

Methods:

Before you get started on the recipe, you’ll want to do the prep work first. Preheat your oven to 200˚c/400˚f, weigh up all the ingredients, line a baking tray with greaseproof/parchment and get any equipment you may need ready.

To make the choux pastry, place the water, butter and salt into a medium saucepan and place over a medium-high heat until its melted, stirring them together well.

Remove from the heat and add in the flour, mixing in the flour in until it’s fully incorporated. Return to the heat and continuously stir it to cook the flour out. You’ll know once the flour is cooked out as the bottom of your pan will have a layer of the flour/pastry there, once you’ve achieved this, take it off the heat and transfer to a mixing bowl.

Mix the choux pastry on a high speed to cool it down. This takes a couple of minutes to achieve

Once you can touch the bottom of you bowl, start to add your eggs. A little at a time until you reach a stage where the pastry takes between 3-5 seconds to fall from the beater – the amount of egg you need may depend, you may need more or less.

Place the pastry into a piping bag with a 1cm plain tip nozzle and pipe out small amounts on the prepared baking tray, I got 12 on a standard tray. Push down any peaks using your finger which has been dipped into some water, then egg wash each of the choux buns to get a perfect golden brown colour on top.

Place in the oven at 200˚c/390˚f and bake for 20 minutes, then open the oven door to remove the steam that’s built up, then place back in the oven and bake for a further 10 minutes then remove from the oven.

While the choux buns are in the oven baking, you can make your whipped cream filling. Into your stand mixer bowl, place the double cream, icing sugar and vanilla extract and whisk on a medium-high speed until they are all combined and the mixture holds it’s self. Either place the whipped cream into a piping bag with a plain tip nozzle or in a bowl covered with clingfilm (use within a few days

Allow the choux buns to cool for a few minutes on the baking tray before transferring to a cooling rack to cool down completely.

Once your choux buns are cooled, you can fill them with your whipped cream and salted caramel sauce, then store them in the fridge until you are ready.

For the white chocolate topping, melt the white chocolate spread in the microwave or on the hob.

Dip the top of each profiterole into the chocolate topping and allow it to set before you serve and enjoy them.

Peanut Butter & Chocolate Chip Cookies

by bakingwithelliott Leave a Comment

It’s officially Bakemas 2019! 🎉

Today I’ll be sharing with you a recipe for peanut butter and milk chocolate chip cookies – this is easily a win-win recipe. You have the winning combination of peanut butter and chocolate in a cookie?! Name a better combination, go on, I dare you to!

Although this recipe isn’t overly festive, doesn’t mean it can’t be made during the holiday period. It will make for a much appreciated break away from the over the top Christmas goods.

Anyway, let’s get started, shall we?

Ingredients:

75g Butter.

75g Light brown sugar.

75g Granulated sugar.

25g Peanut butter.

1 Egg.

175g Plain flour.

1/2 tsp Baking powder.

Peanut butter.

100g Milk chocolate chips (plus extra to finish the cookies with).

100g Peanut butter chips (plus extra to finish the cookies with).

Method:

Before you get into making the cookies, you’ll want to do some prep. Weigh up all of your ingredients, preheat the oven to 180˚/350˚f, line your baking trays with greaseproof/parchment and get any equipment you intend to use ready.

Into a large mixing bowl, place the butter, granulated sugar, light brown sugar and peanut butter and then beat them together on a medium-high speed until they are well combined.

You can then add in the egg beat until it has been fully worked in. You’ll notice a change in consistency as they are worked in, this is completely normal.

Add in the plain flour, baking powder, milk chocolate chips and peanut butter chips and mix on a medium speed to start, working your way up to medium-high speed. Mix just until a clear dough forms, being careful not to over-mix the dough, otherwise the cookies will be quite tough.

Give your bowl a good scraping down and incorporate any bits that haven’t been fully worked into the dough earlier on.

Grab yourself a cookie scoop and take 2 scoops of cookie dough per cookie, flattening both balls of dough. Onto 1 half of the cookie dough pipe some peanut butter and secure that in place with the other ball of cookie dough, roll together and place onto your lined baking tray.

Before you place the cookies into the oven to bake, flatten the balls of dough and round them using a cookie cutter (this is to help them bake round).

Place the cookies in the oven to bake for around 12-13 minutes (or until they are golden brown around the edges).

Once baked, remove from the oven and finish with an assortment of chocolate chips and peanut butter chips on top of each cookie, the transfer to a cooling rack to cool fully.

Mince Pie Brownies

by bakingwithelliott Leave a Comment

It’s officially the start of Bakemas 2019! 🎉

I know what you’re thinking, another mince pie recipe? Heck yeah it is!

Brownies are always a good idea, let’s be honest. So, when you combine an all time favourite with a love it or hate it festive treat, what do you get? a great treat! If you don’t like mince pies or mincemeat, this recipe may not be for you.

These brownies are a slightly adapted take on my usual recipe. It has mincemeat in place of the chocolate chips and is topped with mince pies – this will make the perfect addition to any Christmas table this year – I promise.

If mince pies aren’t you sort of thing, I have Terry’s chocolate orange brownies and a salted caramel brownie tart for you to try something different. There is also some mince pie blondies incase you’re a mince pie fan.

Anyway, let’s get started, shall we?

Ingredients:

210g Butter, melted.

65g Cocoa powder.

3 Eggs

1 1/2 tsp Vanilla extract.

125g Mincemeat.

100g plain flour.

Roughly 4-5 mince pies, chopped into quarters.

Method:

Before you get into baking the brownies, you’ll want to do some prep work. Weigh up all your ingredients, preheat your oven to 180˚c/350˚f, line your 8×8 inch square baking tray and get any equipment you intend on using ready. Taking these steps can help prevent making mistakes later on.

To start on the brownies, melt the butter either in a saucepan on the hob over a medium heat or in the microwave, either way works well. Add the melted butter into your medium mixing bowl and add the cocoa powder. Whisk the two together until they are well combined, the mixture should be smooth.

Then add in the granulated sugar and just whisk it in until it’s fully incorporated. You will notice a change in the consistency, it will become more granular. This is normal and will change as you work through the recipe.

Directly into the mixture, add your eggs. One at a time beating well in-between each addition, then you can add in the vanilla and give it a good whisk until it’s fully incorporated.

Add the mincemeat and give it another whisk, just to incorporate it into the mixture.

Soon after you can add the plain flour fold it in using a silicon spatula, just until they are fully incorporated, try not to over-mix at this stage, otherwise your brownies will be tough in texture.

Take the tin and pout the brownie batter in, level off as best you can, the place it in the oven and bake it at 180˚c/350˚f for 30-35 minutes (depending on your oven, seeing as all ovens are different to one another, a tester should come out mostly clean).

When there is around 10 minute remain on the baking time, pause the timer and remove the brownies from the oven. Take your chopped up mince pies and start placing them on top, I went and added them so it works out each brownie gets 2 pieces of mince pie, but if you cut yours into bite size squares over rectangles, they’ll only get 1 each.

Place the brownies back in the oven and restart the timer and bake for the remaining 10 minutes or until baked enough.

Once they are out of the oven, allow them to cool fully in the tray, then you can remove them later on. Slice them up into either 8 rectangle or 16 squares portions.

Fruit Cake (Made with Tea)

by bakingwithelliott Leave a Comment

It’s officially Bakemas 2019! 🎉

Is it even Christmas without having a fruit cake?

I know that a fruit cake is more traditional and not is overlooked because people don’t like them that much. This is a different take on the cake, it’s not such a traditional recipe but a very welcome addition if you need a quick fruit cake this holiday season.

This isn’t your conventional type fruit cake, as you will use the hob and different ingredients. It’s slightly lighter than a traditional variety but equally as tasty.

I’ve made a traditional fruit cake and have a blog post showing you how to make fruit cake 2 ways – don’t forget to check them out if you’re interested. If you know someone who likes fruit cake, it would make the perfect gift. Simply make the cake (decorate if you’d like) and place into a festive themed box or tin.

Anyway, let’s get started, shall we?

Ingredients:

175g Butter.

450g Dried fruit.

175g Light brown sugar.

200ml Strong tea, cold.

1 tsp Bicarbonate of soda.

3 Eggs.

300g Plain flour.

2 tsp Ground mixed spice.

20-30g light brown sugar.

Methods:

Before you get into making the cake, you’ll want to do some prep work. Weigh up all of your ingredients, prepare your 8” cake tin (if its needed), preheat your oven to 150˚c/300˚f and get any equipment you intend on using ready.

*I recommend making the tea a day in advance, giving it time to cool fully. Simply make 200ml strong tea.

To start on the cake, take a large saucepan and into it place the butter, light brown sugar, mixed dried fruit and tea. Place that on the hob over a medium-high heat, bringing to a boil, then allowing it to simmer for around 10-15 minutes. Doing this allows the fruit become more plump and the mixture to be thicker and richer.

Once it’s achieved the nice and thick consistency, take off the heat and allow to cool down for 10 minutes.

After the 10 minute period, add in the bicarbonate of soda and give it all a good mix, you’ll notice a change in the mixture and this is what you want. It shows that it’s all working properly.

Add in the eggs, all at one go and give it all a good mix until the eggs are fully incorporated. You’ll notice a change in consistency but this is normal.

Now you can add the plain flour and ground mixed spice, stirring until they are fully incorporated, like with any cake try not to over-mix the mixture. Once there’s no trace of a single ingredient, stop mixing.

Take the cake batter and transfer into your cake tin and spread/level it out using the silicon spatula or offset spatula.

Sprinkle over the light brown sugar, this is just to add a crunchy texture on-top but feel free to leave this out if you don’t want a crunchy top.

Bake in the oven for around 60-75 minutes in your preheated oven, a tester when inserted should come out clean. If it doesn’t, place back in oven and bake for a further 10-15 minutes.

Allow the cake to cool down fully in the cake tin, then remove from the tin and slice it up or wrap it up on clingfilm and consume within 3-5 days.

Toffifee Muffins

by bakingwithelliott Leave a Comment

It’s officially Bakemas 2019! 🎉

Today’s recipe is my take on a batch of Toffee muffins. Although they are available all year round, I only ever buy them at Christmas – if you’ve never heard or tried them before, where have you been?!

So, a toffifee consists of a caramel cup, filled with nougat, caramel and a whole hazelnut then topped with a round of chocolate. They are a very welcome addition to any baked good at Christmas.

My take on a toffifee in a muffin form starts with a chocolate chip muffin, filled with a caramel sauce and then topped with a blob of hazelnut chocolate spread (I used Nutella but feel free to use what you have or can get hold of).

Anyway, let’s get started, shall we?

Ingredients:

MUFFIN:

150g butter.

100g granulated sugar.

3 eggs.

120g plain flour.

30g cocoa powder.

2 tsp baking powder.

Pinch of salt

100g milk chocolate chips.

FILLINGS:

Nutella or hazelnut chocolate spread.

Caramel (homemade or shop bought).

TOPPING:

Toffifee to finish/decorate

Method:

Before you get started on the recipe, I recommend that you do some prep work. Start by weighing up all of your ingredients, preheating your oven to 180˚c/350˚f, get your muffin/cupcake cases ready and prepare any equipment you may need now. Taking these steps can help you prevent making mistakes

To start on the muffins, start by getting yourself a bowl and placing the butter and granulated sugar into it and beating them over a medium-high speed until they are well combined.

Add in your eggs, one at a time, beating well in-between each addition. As you add the eggs, you’ll notice the consistency change and become more looser but this is normal.

You can then go ahead and give the bowl a good scraping down, this is just to incorporate any bits that may not have been fully worked in previously.

Next, add the plain flour, cocoa powder, baking powder and salt, passing through a sieve first (this is just to remove any lumps that may be in the mix, especially as cocoa powder has a tendency to be lumpy). Along with the dry ingredients, add in the chocolate chips.

Incorporate the dry ingredients and chocolate chips by hand, folding them in using a silicon spatula. Try not to over-mix, so once there isn’t a trace of a single ingredient, stop mixing.

Transfer the muffin batter into piping bags (or you can spoon the mixture into the cases) and get your muffin cases ready. Fill the muffin cases about 2/3 of the way, then place in the oven and bake for 20-25 minutes (a tester should come out clean when fully baked).

Allow them to cool fully before you finish them off.

Once they are fully cooled, get some caramel sauce and Nutella into separate piping bags. To finish the muffins, take something like a cake decorating tool or similar and make a hole in the centre of the muffin, this is for the filling.

Take your muffin with the hole in the centre and fill each muffin generously with the caramel sauce, allow the caramel to overspill a little. Then top that with some nutella or hazelnut chocolate spread, piping a generous swirl on top. Finish the muffins by topping each of them with a whole Toffifee.

Mince Pie Cookies

by bakingwithelliott Leave a Comment

It’s officially Bakemas 2019! 🎉

Today’s recipe is for the first batch of cookies during bakemas this year, here is the recipe for a batch of mince pie cookies… They are a festive take on a cookie but just as welcome.

If you like mince pies, these cookies are going to be perfect for you. These would also be ideal at a Christmas party or get together. So, these cookies are studded with raisins and sultanas, filled with mincemeat and topped with a quarter of mince pie on-top and finished with a dusting of icing sugar.

Anyway, let’s get started, shall we?

Ingredients:

75g Butter.

75g Granulated sugar.

75g Light brown sugar.

1 Egg.

1 tsp Vanilla extract.

175g Plain flour.

1/2 tsp Ground mixed spice.

50g Raisins.

50g Sultanas.

Mincemeat (a small jar will be more than enough).

Mince pies, cut into quarters.

Icing sugar, to dust.

Method:

Into a large mixing bowl, place the butter, granulated sugar and the light brown sugar and beat them together on a medium-high speed until they are well combined.

You can then add in the egg and vanilla and beat until they have been fully worked in. You’ll notice a change in consistency as they are worked in, this is completely normal.

Add in the plain flour, baking powder, ground mixed spice, raisins and sultanas and mix on a medium speed to start, working your way up to medium-high speed. Mix just until a clear dough forms, being careful not to over-mix the dough, otherwise the cookies will be quite tough.

Give your bowl a good scraping down and incorporate any bits that haven’t been fully worked into the dough earlier on.

Grab yourself a cookie scoop and take 2 scoops of cookie dough per cookie, flattening both balls of dough. Onto 1 half of the cookie dough place some of the mincemeat and secure that in place with the other ball of cookie dough, roll together and place onto your lined baking tray.

Place the cookies in the oven to bake for around 12-13 minutes (or until they are golden brown around the edges).

Once baked, remove from the oven and place a quarter of mince pie on top of each cookie, the transfer to a cooling rack to cool fully. When you intend on serving them, dust them with a light coat of icing sugar.

Salted Caramel Brownie Tart

by bakingwithelliott Leave a Comment

http://bakingwithelliott.com/wp-admin/edit.phpIt’s officially Bakemas 2019! 🎉

Let’s be honest, chocolate and salted caramel is always going to be a winning combination and it’s no exception in this tart.

Starting with a chocolate shortcrust pastry crust, with a generous layer of salted caramel sauce which is topped with a brownie layer and finished with a drizzle of salted caramel – tell me this tart isn’t good!

If salted caramel isn’t you sort of thing, feel free to use plain caramel (but the salted caramel works so darn well!) and if you don’t like caramel at all, this recipe isn’t for you at all. If you’re looking for more traditional brownies I have recipes for Terry’s chocolate orange brownies – perfect for Christmas.

Anyway, let’s get started, shall we?

Ingredients:

Pastry:

1 egg.

90g Sugar

225g Butter.

325g Plain flour.

50g Cocoa powder

Filling:

Salted caramel sauce.

Brownie Layer

140g Butter, melted.

225g Granulated white sugar.

2 Eggs.

1 tsp Vanilla extract.

45g Cocoa powder.

75g Milk chocolate chips.

100g Plain flour

100g Milk chocolate chips

Methods:

Before you get into making the tart, I recommend doing some prep work i advance. Start by weighing up all of your ingredients, preheating your oven to 180˚c/350˚f and prepare any equipment you may need.

Pastry:

To start on the pastry, place your egg and granulated sugar into a bowl and beat them together until they are well combined, you should notice that the mixture will lighten in colour when fully combined. Set it aside until it’s needed a little later on.

Take a food processor and in the bowl, place the flour, cocoa powder and salt. Pulse on a low-medium speed just to combine the ingredients.

Then you can add the butter in little chunks and pulse on a low-medium speed until a sandy consistency forms, then add in the egg/sugar mixture and pulse until a dough has formed. Try your best not over mix the dough at this stage.

Flour a surface with some plain flour and place the pastry onto it, kneading until the smooth. You can then take it and wrap it in some clingfilm/plastic wrap and set in the fridge for at least 30 minutes (you can make it in advance at this stage and use within 5 days).

I generous flour my worktop again, then take my dough from the fridge and unwrap it and place onto the floured surface. I then start to roll out my dough using a rolling pin until its 5mm thick.

I roll the pastry up back onto the rolling pin and then place it on-top of the pie dish and press the dough into place. Once it’s all in place, you can then trim away the excess (ball the dough back up and use it on another tart or wrap in clingfilm and freeze it).

Place the pastry case in the fridge to chill while you make the brownie layer.

Brownie:

Into a medium mixing bowl, place the melted butter and cocoa powder and whisk the two together until they are well combined. The mixture will be thick and glossy when combined.

Add in all of the granulated sugar and whisk until it’s been fully worked into the mixture. You’ll notice a change in the consistency of the batter and that it’s more granular. This is normal and will become smoother as the other ingredients are incorporated.

Then you can go ahead and add your eggs, one at a time, beating well in-between each addition. As you add the eggs, you’ll notice that the consistency will become less granular and more liquid.

Chuck the plain flour and milk chocolate chips into the mix and fold them in until they are incorporated. The less you can mix them together the better it is for the brownies, they will be dense rather than cakey.

Assembly & Finishing:

Take the pastry cake you prepared earlier on out of the fridge and into the bottom pour the salted caramel sauce and spread it out using the back of a spoon – on-top of the caramel, pour the brownie batter over and level if needed.

Place in the oven and bake for around 35 minutes (or until a tester inserted into the centres comes out with only a few smudges on) but this time will vary depending on each oven.

Once it’s out of the oven, allow it to cool (this is soooo nice when slightly warm but you can always place it in the microwave if you’re eating it once its completely cooled down), then slice it up and drizzle over some more salted caramel and enjoy.

Kinder Bueno Cake

by bakingwithelliott Leave a Comment

It’s officially Bakemas 2019! 🎉

Today’s recipe is showing you how to make a Kinder cake. Most people, at some point at Christmas have a cake. More traditionally a decorated fruit cake or a plain fruit cake but if you’re not a fan of them, this cake is the perfect alternative for chocolate lovers.

The cake consists of 2 layers of chocolate sponge cake, filled and coated with a Nutella buttercream and finished with a selection of Kinder chocolates. I know it’s not all that festive but will make a good replacement.

Don’t forget to check out the videos for my other Christmas cakes, both traditional and alternatives. Starting with the more traditional fruit cake and fruit cake 2 ways or for other alternatives, check out chocolate celebration cake, fresh cream cake and snowflake cake.

Anyway, let’s get started, shall we?

Ingredients:

Chocolate cake:

250g Butter.

250g Granulated sugar.

3 Eggs.

210g Plain flour.

40g Cocoa powder.

1 1/2 tsp Baking powder.

Pinch of salt.

Simple syrup:

100g Granulated sugar.

100ml Water.

1 tsp Vanilla extract.

Nutella Buttercream:

250g Butter.

650g Icing sugar.

250g Nutella.

Milk (to help loosen the consistency, to be more spreadable).

Decoration/finishing:

Kinder Bueno’s (Both the milk chocolate and white chocolate variety).

Kinder chocolate bars.

Kinder happy hippos (I used the hazelnut milk flavour but feel free to use the cocoa ones if you’d prefer).

Methods:

As with all of my recipes, I recommend that you do some prep work, especially before you start (it will help eliminate the chances of things going wrong). Start by getting your 6 inch cake tins and lining them with greaseproof/parchment (if needed), preheat the oven to 180˚c/350˚f and weighing up all the ingredients.

Chocolate cake:

Start by getting your mixing bowl of choice, I went with my stand mixer bowl but feel free to use whatever you would normally use. Into the bowl, place the butter and granulated sugar and beat on a medium-high speed until they are fully incorporated.

Next you’ll want to give the bowl a good scraping down. This is just to incorporate any bits that may not have been fully worked in from earlier on.

Now you can add the eggs, one at a time, beating well in-between each addition. As the eggs are added, you’ll notice the consistency change – don’t be too alarmed, this is normal.

A repeated step but give the bowl another good scraping down, just to incorporate any bits that may not have been fully worked in.

After the bowl has been scraped down, you can add the dry ingredients. Make sure you pass them through a sieve first, this helps to remove the lumps from the dry ingredients, especially the cocoa powder.

Incorporate the dry ingredients on a medium speed to start and then work your way up to a medium-high speed, adding a splash of milk if needed to achieve the right consistency.

Right away, take the cake batter and divide it between the two 6 inch cake tins, levelling them off using an offset palette knife – then you can place in the preheated oven and bake for 25-30 minutes or until a tester when inserted comes out clean.

While the cakes are in the oven baking, now would be the best time to make the simple syrup and buttercream.

Simple Syrup:

The simple syrup is the easiest thing to make.

Take a small/medium saucepan and place the water, granulated sugar and vanilla extract and give it a mix until its combined.

Place the saucepan on the hob over a medium-high heat and allow it come to a boil. Once it reaches a boil, take off the heat and allow it to cool down fully before you use it.

If you’re making this in advance, store in suitable container in the fridge and keep chilled – use within 2 weeks.

Nutella Buttercream:

To make the buttercream, get yourself a mixing bowl (I used my stand mixer again) or feel free to use whatever you’ve got. Place the butter into the bowl and beat on a medium speed to start and once it’s going, crank the speed up to high and beat for a further 5-7 minutes or until the butter is lighter and fluffier in colour and consistency.

Once the butter is done, give the bowl a good scrap down, then add your first addition of icing sugar. Start the mixer on a low speed to start and once the icing sugar is incorporated, crank the speed up to a medium-high and beat for a couple of minutes just to fully work in the icing sugar. Repeat with the remaining icing sugar.

After the second batch of icing sugar has been fully worked in, you can add in the Nutella. I slightly warmed the Nutella so it was easier to get out of the bowl and works into the buttercream easier. I used a fair bit of Nutella but I really wanted the have a strong flavour.

If the mixture is a little stiff, add a splash a milk (and maybe more if needed), make sure it’s at a spreadable consistency.

Place the buttercream into a bowl and set aside until it’s needed later on.

Assembly & Finishing:

You can start to assemble the cake once the cakes are baked and cooled, the simple syrup is completely cooled and the buttercream has been made.

To start assembling the cake, take your cake board, plate or stand and into the centre place a small but generous amount of buttercream and spread it out in a circle and place your first layer cake on-top of it, applying a little pressure just to secure it in place.

Next, you can add a generous amount of buttercream on-top of your layer of cake and spread it out using a cranked palette knife, just so its level. Then top the buttercream with the second layer of cake, sandwiching the cakes together.

Give the cake a generous coating of the buttercream, this is the crumb coat. This coating of buttercream does exactly what it says, it’s a layer of buttercream to lock in the crumbs from the cake. Once you’ve done the crumb coat, place in the fridge and chill it for 45-60 minutes.

After the cake has chilled, you can take it out of the fridge and apply the final layer of buttercream. On a normal cake I’d like to get the buttercream as level and perfect looking but for this cake I went a little more rustic and didn’t make it all that perfect. I actually quite liked how it wasn’t perfect, it kinda of added to the appearance of the cake… I know thats weird to say.

Now that the cake has been iced, you can finish/decorate the cake. I used a mixture of Kinder branded chocolates. Started with some of the hazelnut happy hippos, then some of the kinder bars (I’m not sure what these are actually called) and finished with pieces of the buenos, both the milk and white chocolate varieties.

I place my cake back in the fridge for around 30 minutes, just to firm up.

Bakemas 2019

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