Jubilee Tart & Banoffee Cupcakes

Where has this week gone? I was supposed to write this post on Monday, but the days have just slipped away!  I’m on ‘half term’ at the moment, which is British for ‘a whole week off from work in the middle of the school term’, and I’m not complaining one bit. Half term coincided with the Queen’s Diamond Jubilee, which for all you non-Commonwealth folk is the 60th anniversary of Queen Elizabeth II’s accession to the throne. You could hardly walk out your front door here in England without seeing Union Jack flags, bunting, and blue, white and red balloons waving in the breeze. The Husband and I were invited to a Jubilee barbeque/party on Sunday afternoon, and I thought I’d get in on the Jubilee action and make some Union Jack-inspired treats myself.

I was in an enormous hurry while I was baking these, mainly because *cough*I-forgot-to-buy-eggs-and-had-to-run-back-to-the-supermarket-halfway-through*cough*, so by the time I was back I was majorly running out of time to get everything done. I ended up using store-bought pastry (come on, you’ve done it too) and a tin of ready-made caramel filling for the cupcakes, because I didn’t have time to deal with making the caramel and waiting for it to cool down. Nevertheless, we got there in the end!

I decided on Banoffee cupcakes because I figured I should do something quintessentially British, and I was relatively sure that people would have eaten their way through enough Victoria sponge cakes already. Banoffee pie was supposedly created in East Sussex (which is actually where The Husband and I currently live), so it fit the bill perfectly! It’s a gorgeous mix of banana and toffee, and I was really excited to put it into cupcake form. Plus, I’d bought this ridiculously adorable cupcake decorating set the previous week, which I was desperate to use:

First up, let’s look at the Jubilee Tart. I saw this on the cover of a magazine at my local supermarket and I couldn’t resist! The recipe is ridiculously quick and easy (especially if you use ready-made pastry) and the tart itself is light, fresh and fruity. Yum!

JUBILEE TART

1 sheet shortcrust pastry

375g mascarpone cheese

225g low fat creme fraiche (or sour cream, if you can’t find creme fraiche)

1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract

2 – 3 tablespoons icing sugar

400g strawberries, hulled

150g raspberries

300g blueberries

1. Place the sheet of shortcrust pastry, lightly pricked all over with a fork, on a baking tray lined with baking paper and bake in a preheated oven at 190 degrees Celsius (375 degrees Fahrenheit or Gas Mark 5) for 15 – 18 minutes, until cooked and light, golden brown in colour.

2. Remove the pastry from the oven and allow to cool.

3. Meanwhile, whisk together the mascarpone and the creme fraiche until smooth and combined. Add the vanilla extract and the icing sugar (start with 2 tablespoons and taste it before adding a third!) and whisk to combine.

4. Dollop heaped spoonfuls of the mascarpone mixture onto the cooled pastry and spread it out with a spatula, leaving a 1 – 2 cm gap around the edge.

5. Arrange the berries into the shape of a Union Jack: use the strawberries for the centre cross, raspberries for the smaller arms and blueberries for the blue background.

6. Enjoy!

And now for the Banoffee! The banana cupcake recipe is a slight variation on the one from the lovely Marian Keyes’ Saved by Cake, and the cream cheese frosting recipe is my usual one.

BANOFFEE CUPCAKES

125g butter, softened

125g caster sugar

125g self raising flour

2 eggs, lightly beaten

4 – 5 ripe bananas, mashed

1 x 397g tin of ready-made caramel/dulce de leche

1. Preheat the oven to 170 degrees Celsius (325 degrees Fahrenheit or Gas Mark 3) and line a muffin/cupcake tray with 12 cupcake papers.

2. In a large mixing bowl, cream the butter and the caster sugar together until they’re fluffy and light in colour.

3. Add the beaten eggs and mix well to combine.

4. Add the mashed bananas to the mixture and mix gently.

5. Add the sifted flour and fold into the mixture.

6. Spoon the mixture into the prepared cupcake cases and bake in the oven for 20 – 25 minutes (the banana seems to make the cakes take a bit longer to cook!), checking after 15 minutes and removing when the cupcakes are lightly golden in colour and a skewer inserted into the centre comes out clean.

7.  Once the cupcakes are cooked and having completely cooled, you need to hollow them out to fill them with caramel.

8. Take a sharp paring knife and cut a cone-shaped circle out of the middle of each of your cupcakes.

9. Place a dollop of caramel into the hole.

10. Replace the top of the cupcake so that it acts like a lid to hold the caramel in.

CREAM CHEESE FROSTING

125g butter, softened

225g cream cheese

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

5 cups icing sugar

1. Using a stand mixer or electric beaters, beat the butter and cream cheese on high speed for 3 – 4 minutes, until light, fluffy and combined.

2. Add the vanilla and half of the sifted icing sugar and beat for 2 – 3 minutes, until light and fluffy.

3. Add the remaining sifted icing sugar and beat again for 2 – 3 minutes.

4. Place the frosting into a piping bag and attach a large, open star tip. Pipe swirls of frosting onto your cupcakes and decorate however you like. I added some red, white and blue sprinkles and used the cupcake toppers from my decorating kit.

5. Enjoy!

Chocolate and Raspberry Brownies

I know that I’ve used raspberries in a ridiculous amount of recipes over the past few months, but after seeing the latest cover of BBC Good Food magazine, I couldn’t resist this one …

I seriously couldn’t pass them up.

…except, well, I’m too cheap/forgetful to actually buy the magazine to use the recipe (whoops!). So, I ended up adapting a recipe in Marian Keyes’ Saved by Cake cookbook, which I hadn’t had a chance to use yet.

And let me tell you, these are gorgeous. Moist, chocolatey goodness with just the right amount of gooeyness-to-cakeyness ratio and a tart, raspberry tang to balance it all out. I don’t know what it is about them, but these brownies are that little bit more grown up than the originals…maybe it’s the addition of one of your five fruits a day which make them more justifiable? Whatever it is, you need these in your life. Immediately.

So, without further ado (I mean, y0ur taste buds must be quivering in excitement. It’d be positively offensive for me to make them wait!), I give you…

CHOCOLATE & RASPBERRY BROWNIES

200g dark chocolate, roughly chopped

225g butter

2 eggs

2 egg yolks

200g soft brown sugar

170g plain flour

2 tablespoons cocoa powder

1/4 teaspoon baking powder

pinch of salt

150g raspberries

MAKES APPROX. 16

1. Heavily grease and/or line a 20cm (8in) square cake tin (I couldn’t find a square one in the cupboard, so I had to settle for a round one…you can do this if you have to!) and preheat the oven to 160 degrees Celsius (that’s 325 Fahrenheit or Gas Mark 3).

2. Melt the chocolate and butter together, either using the microwave (heating in 30 second blocks and stirring between each block of time) or in a heatproof bowl over a saucepan of simmering water. It should be lovely, smooth and glossy once it’s melted.

3. In  a large mixing bowl, beat together the eggs, egg yolks and brown sugar until they come together and the mixture is golden brown.

4. Now add the melted chocolate to the egg and sugar mixture, stirring gently until combined.

5. In a separate bowl, sift together the flour, cocoa powder, salt and baking powder and then pour into the chocolate mixture.

6. Gently fold the flour into the chocolate until just combined, making sure that there are no flour pockets hiding in the mixture.

7. Add the raspberries and fold them very gently through the brownie mixture and pour the mixture into the tin.

8. Bake for 20 – 25 minutes, then remove the tin from the oven and place it on a wire rack to cool for an hour or two before turning the brownies out onto a board. I cut the edges off mine to square it out into a normal brownie shape.

Enjoy! x

The Ultimate, Award Winning(!) Chocolate Raspberry Cake

It’s been a good week.

Reason One: Remember those job interviews I mentioned? I went to the first one, and I GOT IT. Huzzah! This is an excellent thing; jobs mean a reason to get up in the morning and, of course, money. And money equals the ability to finally start planning for The Husband and I to move into our own place. Oh, yes!

Reason Two: Do you also remember that I told you I’d ordered the new cookbook by the amazing Marian Keyes? It arrived, and it’s AMAZING. There are so many things in there that I’m desperate to try. I honestly can’t wait to have an excuse to get baking! Seriously, get your hands on this if you can. Not only is it a treasure trove of awesome recipes, but it’s also scattered with honest, witty, hilarious, devastating and heartbreaking insights into her battle with depression. As someone who has had to deal with and continues to deal with similar, though markedly milder, mental health issues, I cannot recommend this enough to everyone.

Reason Three: Finally, do you remember me saying that I had another reason to bake last week? Well, here it is. I entered a cake baking competition. Not something I’ve ever done or even considered doing before, but it all went fantastically well. My friend Jo and I discovered that Bodiam Castle, which is only about 1.5 hours away from where we live, was holding the competition. We’re both not-so-secret history geeks, so this seemed like the perfect excuse to drive out there – bake a cake, drop it off, fill in an entry form and then wander around the castle for the rest of the afternoon. Perfection!

What I WASN’T expecting was to win. YES, WIN. Me. I pretty much never win anything, so it came as a huge shock to me!

I’ll apologise in advance for the state of my photography in this entry; it was all a bit rushed and pictures were being snapped as I flung myself around the kitchen in a desperate bid to assemble the cake before we had to leave.

THE ULTIMATE, AWARD WINNING(!) CHOCOLATE RASPBERRY CAKE

For the cake:

400g dark chocolate

400g butter

2 tbsp instant coffee

170g self raising flour

170g plain flour

1⁄2 tsp bicarbonate of soda

400g dark brown sugar

400g castor sugar

60g cocoa powder

6 medium eggs

170ml sour cream

250g raspberries

curled/shaved/grated white chocolate, to decorate

curled/shaved/grated dark chocolate, to decorate

For the ganache:

230g dark chocolate

260ml double pouring cream

2 tbsp castor sugar

Grease and line two 10 inch cake tins and preheat the oven to 140 degrees Celsius (fan oven) or 160 degrees Celsius (conventional oven) (280 degrees Fahrenheit or Gas Mark 2). Meanwhile, break up the dark chocolate into pieces and place in a large, heavy-based saucepan. Cut the butter into pieces and add to the broken up chocolate, then mix the coffee into 250ml of cold water and add to the saucepan. Heat over a low heat until everything is just melted, stirring occasionally to help combine.

In a large mixing bowl, mix together the self-raising flour, plain flour, bicarbonate of soda, brown sugar, castor sugar and cocoa powder, combining with your hands to remove all the lumps. In another small bowl, whisk together the eggs and the sour cream.

Pour the melted chocolate mixture and the whisked egg and sour cream into the flour mixture, stirring well to combine. The batter should have quite a smooth, runny consistency. Divide the mixture evenly and pour into the two tins, then bake for 85 minutes – 90 minutes, until the top of the cakes are firm and a skewer inserted into the centre comes out clean. Leave the cakes to cool in the tins for 10 – 15 minutes before turning out onto a wire rack to cool completely.

While the cakes are cooling, make the ganache. Break the dark chocolate into small pieces and place in a heatproof bowl. Pour the cream into a saucepan, add the castor sugar, and heat on medium heat until just before it boils. Take the cream off the heat and pour it over the chocolate, leaving it to stand for 1 minute. Stir until the chocolate has melted and the mixture is smooth.

Now, assemble the cake. Place one of the cakes on a serving platter and spread one quarter – one third of the ganache over the top, leaving a narrow gap around the perimeter of the cake.

Arrange two thirds of the raspberries over the ganache in a circular pattern, placing them around the outer edge of the cake and working your way in, making smaller and smaller circles of raspberries until you reach the centre of the cake.

Drizzle 2 – 3 tablespoons of ganache lightly over the raspberries.

Next, place 3 heaped tablespoons of ganache on the other cake (on the side which is going to be sandwiched onto the bottom layer) and spread it so that it lightly covers the surface, once again leaving a gap around the perimeter.

Place this cake on top of the first, ganache side down, and press down very gently to sandwich together.

Pour the rest of the ganache over the cake, pushing it towards the edges with the back of a metal spoon and letting it fall down the sides of the cake.

Decorate with grated/curled/shaved dark and white chocolate and top with remaining raspberries in the centre.

That’s it!

After the super quick cake assembly, Jo, The Husband and I all bundled into the car and headed for Bodiam. After a fun filled drive getting completely and utterly lost down the narrow, winding country lanes and wasting a good hour trying to find our way back to the main road, we arrived – cake miraculously intact!

And here’s my trophy!

A big thank you and congratulations goes out to designated driver and fellow competitor Jo, whose cake made it into the final seven!

xxx

Summer Berry Tart

The Husband and I are officially moving to England in six days (yes, SIX. Where has the time gone…?), and we’re therefore taking full advantage of our last week in decent, Australian summer for what may be a long time.

The thing about summer is that you’re never really in the mood for heavy, dense food. You want to feast on things which are light and colourful, and I think this tart is the perfect summer treat. It can be eaten in late in the morning with a cup of tea, during the afternoon when a vistor drops by, or after dinner, sitting outdoors in the warm evening air. Or, you know, jammed into your mouth as quickly as possible during a midnight fridge raid. Whatever works for you.

No matter what time of day you eat it, you’re bound to fall in love. The pastry is buttery and delicate – almost like shortbread. The custard is silky and packed with vanilla, and the summer berries add a beautiful, tart juiciness to the creamy custard. Even if you’re up in the Northern Hemisphere, shivering your way through January, give this tart a try – one bite and you’ll be transported straight into summer. June will be here before you know it…

SUMMER BERRY TART

SHORTCRUST PASTRY

250g plain flour

125g butter

2 tablespoons caster (superfine) sugar

Iced water

1. Place flour, butter and sugar into a food processor and process until the mixture resembles breadcrumbs.

2. Add iced water, a tablespoon at a time, and process until the pastry has come together. You should only need between 2 and 4 tablespoons of water.

3. Remove pastry from the food processor and knead lightly into a ball. Cover in plastic wrap and refrigerate for an hour before use.

CUSTARD

1 cup cream

1 cup milk

2 tablespoons vanilla extract

4 egg yolks

1 tablespoon cornflour

1/3 cup caster sugar

1. Combine milk, cream and vanilla in a saucepan and heat, stirring constantly, until steaming hot but not simmering. Remove from heat.

2. In a separate metal bowl, whisk together the egg yolks, cornflour and sugar until well combined.

3. Whisking constantly, pour the hot milk mixture into the egg and whisk well.

4. Quickly pour the custard mixture back into the saucepan and return to a low-medium heat, stirring continuously until the custard becomes thick. Don’t let it boil as the custard will curdle.

5. Chill finished custard in the fridge until cold.

ASSEMBLY

I used frozen berries for the topping – I find that they hold their shape better than fresh and often have more flavour. Suit yourself, though!

2 tablespoons raspberry jam

100g raspberries

100g red currants

100g blackberries

100g blueberries

Juice of ½ an orange

1. Preheat the oven to 180 degrees Celsius (350 Fahrenheit).

2. Roll out chilled pastry on a floured bench top until it is the size of the pie/flan tin you’re planning to use.

3. Use the rolling pin to gently lift the pastry and place over the tin. Press down lightly to fit to the shape of the tin and cut off any excess.

3. Pierce pastry all over with a fork and then bake in the oven for 15 – 20 minutes, or until lightly golden.

4. Remove from oven and allow to cool to room temperature.

5. Once the pastry has cooled, warm raspberry jam in the microwave for 20 seconds to soften. Spread softened jam over the bottom of the pastry case.

6. Pour chilled custard into the case, on top of the jam.

7. If using frozen berries, remove from the freezer and place in a bowl to defrost for five minutes. Skip straight to step 8 if using fresh berries.

8. Once slightly defrosted, squeeze the juice of ½ an orange over the top of the berries stir gently to coat them.

9. Lightly sprinkle berries over the custard and garnish with mint leaves. Serve immediately if you want to avoid the colour of the berries running into the custard! Otherwise, return to the fridge and eat whenever you like.

Baked Berry Cheesecake

Last weekend, The Husband and I had ten people over for dinner as a last hurrah for our house sitting stint at my dad’s place. We got everyone to bring a dish with them for dinner – a sort of potluck arrangement – and we were in charge of dessert. Two nights earlier we’d watched a rerun of an episode from Nigella Lawson’s Kitchen series and The Husband (being completely smitten with Nigella, obviously) set his heart on us making her Chocolate Peanut Butter Cheesecake.

It was all settled (and I’m still not totally sure how it happened) but at some point while we were writing up our shopping list for the ingredients, The Husband’s casual suggestion of ‘hey, how awesome would it be if we made TWO cheesecakes?’ suddenly became the plan of action.

I didn’t really fancy making two of the same (because that would make my life far too easy, right?), so I decided to wing it and just make up my own baked cheesecake featuring berries…pretty much because we had strawberries in the fridge and frozen raspberries in the freezer.

And that, my friends, is how we ended up with two baked cheesecakes hurriedly prepared in the space of one afternoon.

The Nigella Chocolate Peanut Butter Cheesecake can be found here, but here is the lovely new…

BAKED BERRY CHEESECAKE

200g Digestive biscuits (though similar plain biscuits would do)

150g butter, melted

375g cream cheese

1/2 cup caster sugar

1 tablespoon vanilla extract

2 eggs

3 tablespoons plain flour

200ml sour cream

1/2 cup roughly chopped strawberries, washed and hulled

1 cup frozen raspberries

Preheat the oven to 160 degrees Celsius (325 Fahrenheit or Gas Mark 3) and line a 20cm (8 inch) round springform pan with greaseproof baking paper.

Place Digestive biscuits in the food processor and process until finely crushed. Add the butter and process again until well combined. The biscuit mixture should feel slightly damp and should press together and hold easily when pressed down with your fingertips. If it appears too dry, add a little more butter (20g at a time) until it reaches the desired consistency. Pour the biscuit mixture into the lined pan and press down firmly with your fingertips, spreading the mixture to cover the base of the pan. Bake in the oven for 10 – 12 minutes.

In the meantime, beat the cream cheese, sugar and vanilla extract with an electric mixer to combine. Beat in the flour and then add the eggs one at a time, beating well after each addition. Beat in the sour cream until just combined.

Using a wooden spoon, gently fold the strawberries and 2/3 of the frozen raspberries into the batter.

Pour the batter over the base and then gently drop the remaining frozen raspberries evenly over the surface of the mixture.

Bake for 50 minutes (though start checking after 40). The cheesecake is ready when the top is firm and there is a slight wobble in the middle of the cake.

Technically, you ought to let it cool in the oven with the door left ajar for an hour or so to prevent the top from cracking, and then transfer it to the fridge to finishing cooling. Honestly, though, I was in such a rush to get this finished (I pulled it out of the oven ten minutes before our friends arrived) that I let it cool for 20 minutes out of the oven before chucking it in the fridge to get cold. The top cracked (unsurprisingly!), but really…who cares? It tasted absolutely gorgeous, and I’m happy enough with that!

I must apologise for my dodgy photography – it was hard enough to snap a picture before it was devoured completely! You get the idea, though.

Let’s face it; this is by no means the most aesthetically pleasing cheesecake in the world. The top is cracked and the colour could certainly be more vibrant…but honestly? The flavour is ridiculously gorgeous, so it’s easy to overlook the outward imperfections.

The rich, buttery base is beautifully complemented by the smooth, creamy filling studded with sweet strawberries and the slight sharpness of the raspberries. This is the perfect summer dessert – deliciously decadent while still having a fruity kick. Though realistically, is there ever a bad time of year for cheesecake? I think not…

White Chocolate & Raspberry Cupcakes

Things have been pretty insane lately. My husband and I are in the process of applying for a visa for me to move back to his home country (England) in January. Who knew it would be so draining? We’re exhausted and frustrated. There’s one good part, though – stress makes me want to bake. A lot. There’s just something so soothing about beating the hell out of the butter you’re creaming, you know?

And so, after a rather stressful afternoon which was blighted by a maddening lack of progress, I pulled out the baking equipment.

We’re currently house sitting for my dad, who has only recently moved in here and therefore has several distinct gaps in his collections of cooking utensils/bakeware/basic ingredients. I’ve brought a few bits and pieces with me from home – my electric hand-held beaters, cupcake papers and piping tips – so I had a bit of a rifle around in the kitchen cupboards. After eventually finding self raising flour, muffin trays, vanilla extract, brown sugar and a large jar of raspberry jam, my lovely husband traipsed to the supermarket to fetch me some white chocolate buttons, white chocolate chips and icing sugar.

While he was gone I did a quick Google search (the one key thing I forgot to bring with me was at least one recipe book – drat!) and found a recipe to use as a base for my idea: White Chocolate and Raspberry cupcakes. Let’s face it, it’s a great combination; our wedding cake was actually a White Chocolate and Raspberry Swirl Mudcake, so I think I’ll always have a bit of a soft spot for it!  The following recipe is my take on the gorgeous kitchen goddess Nigella Lawson’s original recipe.

WHITE CHOCOLATE & RASPBERRY CUPCAKES

250g salted butter, softened

2/3 cup brown sugar, firmly packed

2 eggs

1/2 cup milk

1 tablespoon vanilla extract

1 1/2 cups self raising flour, sifted

4 heaped tablespoons raspberry jam

2/3 cup white chocolate chips

Preheat your oven to 180 degrees Celsius (350 Fahrenheit or Gas Mark 4) and line one 12 hole cupcake/muffin tin with cupcake papers.

Melt the butter in the microwave in a heatproof bowl, keeping an eye on it to make sure it doesn’t bubble up or burn. Once the butter is just melted, whisk in the brown sugar and leave the mixture for a minute or two to allow it to cool. Add the eggs one at a time, whisking to combine, before adding the milk and vanilla. Slowly add the flour and whisk very gently until just combined, then fold in the jam and white chocolate chips. Don’t worry if the mixture appears rather dark; it’s just the brown sugar!

Spoon the mixture into the cupcake papers, filling around 3/4 full. Bake for 12 – 15 minutes (though have a peek at them after 10 minutes – once they get going they cook quickly!) until a skewer inserted into the middle of the cupcakes comes out clean. Remove from the oven and allow to cool in the tin for 5 minutes before turning the cupcakes out and placing them on a cooling rack to come to room temperature.

Makes 12-14 medium-sized cupcakes.

WHITE CHOCOLATE BUTTERCREAM

200g salted butter, softened

8 cups icing sugar, sifted

1/2 cup milk

1 tablespoon vanilla extract

150g white chocolate buttons, melted

Cream the butter with an electric beater for 2-3 minutes, until light in colour and creamy. Add the milk, vanilla extract and half of the sifted icing sugar and beat again for 3-5 minutes until the mixture is soft, light and fluffy. Add the remaining icing sugar and repeat. Place the chocolate buttons in a microwave-safe bowl and heat in 30 second intervals, stirring and returning to the microwave until the chocolate has melted. Be careful not to overcook it!

Working quickly, add the melted chocolate into the icing mixture and beat until well combined.

Frost cooled cupcakes with the buttercream and decorate with White Chocolate Hearts.

WHITE CHOCOLATE HEARTS

150g white chocolate buttons

Using the same melting method as above, melt the white chocolate buttons in the microwave. Then, using a piping bag fitted with a round-hole piping tip (I used Wilton brand #5 Round Tip), pipe lines of the melted chocolate onto a baking tray covered in baking paper, topping each stick with a piped heart-shape. Don’t worry about making them perfect – they’ll look adorable, I promise! Allow to cool to room temperature before gently sticking each completed heart into the frosted cupcakes.

I was a little concerned when I first pulled the cupcakes out of the oven. They were much darker around the edges than I would have liked them to be, which I put down to the sugar content – although I’d actually decreased it compared to the original recipe I based this on! However, once they were frosted and I cut into one, I saw that they’re not actually burnt at all, and they taste lovely. The cupcakes themselves are actually beautifully fluffy with a lovely, subtle raspberry tang, and the buttercream has just the right hint of white chocolate without being sickly sweet. Yum!

As a side note, today was the first time I’ve stepped out of my piping-tip-comfort-zone and used a closed star tip. Shock, horror! I must admit that I was a little nervous, as I love my usual open-star tip, but I’ve seen so many photos lately of pretty, ruffled frosting that I wanted to give it a go. I only did half with the closed-star ruffle tip, though – I couldn’t quite shake off the urge to go back to my open-star safety blanket. What can I say? Old habits die hard. I am pleased with the closed-tip results, though. I think I’m in love with the ruffled look!