Blackberry and Lemon Cakes

Hello again! Sorry it's been so long since I last posted but it has been a busy year. These were a rather impromptu bake after having been blackberry picking. I improvised a recipe for these because I've never been particularly experimental or adventurous with flavours and thought that lemon would make a good addition to the blackberries.

I started by making a basic cake mix using a tip I learned recently: After creaming the butter and sugar, gradually mix in the egg with a little flour to prevent the mixture from curdling. In other words, if the mix looks weird or porridge-like when mixing in the egg, add more flour (from the measured amount, not extra). To this cake mix, I then folded in 2 lemon zests and 1 1/2 handfuls of chopped blackberries. This wasn't really enough blackberry though so I would recommend 2 or more handfuls of blackberries. I then used an icecream scoop to divide the batter between the cupcake cases, a handy tip from the new episode of The Great British Bake Off, and baked them for about 18 minutes at 180 degrees c.

While baking, I made the lemon sauce/syrup/drizzle/topping (what do you call the lemon drizzle topping?) by mixing the juice of 2 lemons with 3 tbsp of caster sugar. While the cakes are still warm from the oven, poke holes with a fork and spoon on the lemon juice; approximately 2-3 tsp per cupcake. If you want the crystalised sugar effect on the top you can also sprinkle on more caster sugar. I then waited for them to cool and decorated with a piped drizzle of pink icing and a halved blackberry.

For an experimental bake, I was quite happy with my blackberry and lemon cakes although the flavours were not as prominent as I would have liked. I included an increased amount of blackberries in the recipe below, let me know how it works out :)

(Sorry about the poor quality picture, I had to use my phone instead of the camera)

Ingredients:

• 6oz butter
• 6oz caster sugar + 3tbsp for topping
• 6oz self raising flour
• 3 eggs
• 1 tsp baking powder
• 2 lemons
• 2 - 2 1/2 handfuls of blackberries + extra for decoration
• Icing and food colouring (if desired)

Chocolate and Marshmallow Cupcakes

Just a quick one today as this is quite similar to the previous chocolate cupcakes I did. These were a different recipe though. Please ignore the recipe of chocolate cupcakes in the other entry! I made them from that once again and they came out very dry, I think I got one of the quantities wrong. Very sorry! The recipe for chocolate cupcakes 2 was very good though (link below), don't be tempted to add extra baking powder, they don't need it! Although the recipe only makes 8 cakes rather than 12.

I adapted it to have less frosting with a small piped dollop of marshmallow on top, in a similar style to the previous ones. To make it, I used 2 egg whites and 100g sugar. Whisk over simmering water until it forms stiff peaks (takes ages, about 8-10 minutes)and then carry on whisking off the heat until it reaches room temperature. They were supposed to have a chocolate star on top as well but I had trouble with the make-shift baking parchment icing bag so they all looked like a bit of a pigs ear!

 I also used a cake plunger to pull out some of the centre of the cupcake and fill that with marshmallow too. Yummy! The light, creamy filling really works well in these!It took me a couple of goes to get the hang of the cake plunger. Press it in quite deep, most of the way down, and you have to twist it before pulling it out again for it to work. Then cut the very top of the removed part off to place back over the filling. The buttercream is fairly standard but make sure it's not too thick so that bits of cake don't get caught when trying to spread it.

All in all, putting marshmallow in chocolate cupcakes is a good idea!

Chelsea Buns

I made these apricot and cranberry chelsea buns based on a couronne recipe on a blog for food tech coursework.  For those who don't know, a couronne is kind of like a big chelsea bun ring so that wasn't a big change (I almost follwed the recipe, honestly!). The recipe is based on Paul Hollywood's classic couronne recipe but using cranberries instead of raisins. Its yummy! Mine were a little dense because I didn't have enough time to let them prove properly but they're still very good.

 The units are slightly unusual; most of the ingredients are given in grams and cups but then you get to 1/2 cup cranberries. I am not in the slightest familiar with using cups (the system makes no sense to me!) and was not sure how big a 'cup' should be (cups come in different sizes, which one are they referring to?!). The apricot definitely dominated the flavour and could have done with more cranberries, but that was probably due to my guess work in quantities. 

Thre only other thing I changed was adding a honey glaze to the top after baking, definitely recommended! Overall good recipe. 

Recipe: http://www.notderbypie.com/apricot-cranberry-couronne/

Mini Banoffee Pies

These had their ups and downs. I used Mary Berry's banoffee pie recipe for a whole pie and used  a muffin tin to make them smaller. The only problem I had with the recipe was the pastry, it turned out strangely short and flaky. And that was despite using slightly more water than it said to so I think that there was not enough butter (or too much flour, depending on how you want to look at it). Its not bad, but has a strange texture for shortcrust pastry.

The toffee worked well, there is far too much for making mini pies though. I have a whole pot left over! (what a shame!) Its wonderfully thick and creamy and is very forgiving on any hole or cracks in the pastry because it doesn't seep through.

Problem no. 2 I had was with the cream (not with the recipe though), I made this for food tech coursework and we're supposed to make changes to the recipe we use so I thought I'd add vanilla to the cream but it curdled. The double cream whipped amazingly quickly and I don't think I over-whisked it. Does vanilla essence curdle cream?? (Probably something I should have checked before adding it!) I had to leave the cream out but they're still yummy.

Overall, not the most successful bake but they still taste good so can't complain!                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                            

Millionaire's Shortbread

 This is a recipe from Ultimate Sweet Treats and is really yummy! The caramel is particularly chewy which definitely forces you to slow down and chew (probably a good thing!) We'd run out of soft brown sugar for the caramel so I used some golden caster and some demerera sugar instead. I've never made this type of caramel before so i'm not sure how chewy or dark it's supposed to be or how the different sugar affected it but it still tastes good so i'll say it can't matter too much!

Definitely another recommended bake! Easy to make but has to cool after the caramel goes on and again with the chocolate so does take a while. Of course if you're impatient like me then you can stick it in the fridge.