Macaroons

Wednesday Experiment - Macaroons.

Something spring green for Easter.

There are dozens and dozens recipes for macaroons. I am still looking for the fool-proof one so I am not sharing any recipe in the blog yet. Although I do believe that when you make macaroons, there is a lot of luck involved, too.

This time I made three batches. Using exactly the same recipe and doing everything exactly the same way three times. Still, the first batch turned out just about perfect, the second not quite and for the third everything came out cracked.

If you have a fool-proof recipe, please share it with me!

The fillings were perfect, though. The brown one is half and half melted milk chocolate and cream cheese, the green one is half and half lemon curd and cream cheese with a drop of green gel food colouring.

Round Donuts

Wednesday Experiment #2 -  Round Donuts. (as I normally bake just the ring sugar donuts)

The ones with lime green icing are plain, pink ones are filled with raspberry jam and whipped cream and purple ones with blackberry jam.

This was about playing with colours, too, as I recently bought some new pastes and wanted to try them.

For recipe, see my recipe for Sugar Donuts in this blog. Just make balls instead of rings.

Cake #212 - Bunnies and Bananas Swiss Roll

Bunnies and Bananas - Chocolate Swiss Roll with banana, whipped cream and chocolate bunnies.

Although it is nearly Easter, the cracked egg look on the cake is not deliberate...

Bake a Swiss Roll base, like this one. For the filling, chop two big bananas and mix them with 200 ml of whipped cream. Spread on the base and roll. Decorate with chocolate bunnies like I did or cover with whipped cream - like I should have done to hide the cracked look...

Yummy and so easy!!

Cake #211 - "Dublin Donut", v. 0.1

Dublin Donut, v. 0.1.

A dear friend suggested that I should start baking Dublin Donuts - whatever they may be, it is to be developed. A giant donut cake was probably not what she had in mind, but this is what I started with. Giant 'Dublin Donut', filled with lemon curd and whipped cream.

V. 0.2 will certainly be and look something totally different...!

You can find this recipe for a giant donut sponge here. My daughter is lucky to have one of those silicone moulds to bake a giant donut cake but, to be honest, I am not a friend of silicone moulds. This worked out quite well, though. What comes to creating a Dublin Donut - I do have an idea now. 

To be seen within a few days!! Stay tuned!

Cake #210 - Blackberry Cake

Friday Feast - Victoria Sandwich with Fresh Blackberries and Cream Cheese and Whipped Cream.

Victoria Sandwich

Sponge

200 g soft butter

200 g granulated sugar

4 eggs

200 g self-raising flour

1.5 tsp baking powder

2 tbsp cream or milk

Filling

200 g fresh blackberries

200 ml fresh cream, whipped

200 g cream cheese

2 tbsp sugar

1 tsp vanilla sugar

icing sugar

1. Heat the oven to 190 degrees C (375 F) and grease and flour a Ø 24 cm cake pan.

2. Mix together the dry ingredients.

3. Cream together butter and sugar.

4. Add eggs and mix well.

5. Add the dry ingredients and cream or milk.

6. Pour the mixture into the pan. 

7. Bake in the oven for 35-40 minutes until solid in the middle.

8. Let cool completely on a rack.

9. Whip the cream together with sugars and beat in the cream cheese until smooth.

10. Cut the sponge in half.

11. Spread the cream cheese mixture on the bottom layer, then place the berries on the cream.

12. Place carefully the other half of the cake on the filled half. Do not press - otherwise the cream and berries will come out...

13. Finally, sift icing sugar on top.

Cakes #208 and #209 - Buns and Bananas

#208 Dallas Bun Boston Cake* (and some Dallas buns).
#209 Spicy Banana Bundt Cake.

*sweet buns filled with a mixture of quark, syrup and vanilla - and a cake made of the buns. In Finland those buns are called Dallas buns and a cake made of sweet buns (they can be cinnamon buns as well) is called a Boston cake so the sweet bun cake must therefore be called Dallas Bun Boston Cake...

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Dallas Bun Boston Cake

Dough
300 ml  lukewarm milk
25 g fresh yeast (or 1 bag / 7 g fast action dried yeast)
100 ml sugar
½ tsp ground cardamom
1 egg
100 g melted butter
about 1 litre plain flour

Filling (simply mix all ingredients together)
200 g quark
100 g butter, melted
50 ml dark syrup
100 ml granulated sugar
2 large eggs
2 tsp vanilla extract or 1 teaspoon vanilla sugar
2 tbsp plain flour

1 egg for glazing

1. Dissolve yeast in warm milk.
2. Add sugar, cardamom and egg and mix well.
3. Start adding flour gradually.
4. After you have kneaded in about half of the flour, add melted butter.
5. Knead in more flour until your dough is not sticky any more but still soft. It is better to leave the dough a little too soft than make it too dense as the cake will be too dry and hard after baking.
6. Leave the dough to rise in a warm place until double in size, for about half an hour.
7. Line a springform pan ( Ø 28 cm) with baking paper. My favourite way to do this is to wet a piece of baking paper and crumple it into a ball to get rid of the excess water and make it softer so it is easier to line the form.
8. Roll your dough into a rectangle, about 0,5 cm thick.
9. Spread the filling evenly on the base.
10. Roll the dough into a cylinder and then cut it into slices of about 5 cm / 2" long.
11. Place the slices in the pan, side by side but not too tightly to leave some room to rise.
12. Let the cake rise for about half an hour.
13. Preheat the oven to 200 C.
14. Glaze your cake with egg and bake in the oven for about 30-40 minutes.
15. Let the cake cool completely - it is easy to remove the cake from the pan either by removing the sides of the springform or just carefully lifting the baking paper together with the cake.

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Spicy Banana Bundt Cake

150 g soft butter
200 ml granulated sugar
50 ml soft brown sugar
2 eggs
1 tsp vanilla extract
3-4 soft (overripe) bananas, mashed
100 ml corn flour
400 ml plain flour
2 tsp baking powder
1 tsp bread soda
1 tsp ground ginger
1 tsp ground cloves
1 tsp ground cardamom
1 tsp ground nutmeg
1 tsp ground cinnamon

1. Preheat oven to 175 C and grease and flour a 2-litre bundt cake pan.
2. Combine flour, baking powder, bread soda and spices in a bowl.
3. Cream together butter and both sugars.
4. Mix in eggs and vanilla extract.
5. Add the dry ingredients together with the mashed bananas and mix well.
6. Pour into the pan and bake about 1 h in 175 C.
7. Let cool completely before cutting into slices.

Cakes #206 and #207 - Chocolate Feast

Tuesday Chocolate Feast!

#206 White Chocolate Mud Cake with Almond.

#207 Marble Cake.

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 White Chocolate Mud Cake with Almond

150 g butter
100 g white chocolate
250 ml caster sugar
125 g ground almond
½ tsp baking powder
3 eggs

1. Preheat the oven to 170 C and grease and flour a 22 cm springform cake pan.
2. Melt butter and chocolate together and beat in sugar.
3. Fold in the flour mixed with baking powder and eggs.
4. Pour into cake pan and bake in the oven for about 40 minutes so that the middle of the cake is still a little moist.
5. Let cool in the pan before placing the cake on a serving plate.

***

Marble Cake

300 g butter
400 ml granulated sugar
4 eggs
600 ml plain flour
2 tsp baking powder
150 ml cream

100 g dark chocolate
3 tbsp cocoa powder

1. Preheat oven to 175 C and grease and flour  a 2-litre bundt cake pan.
2. Combine flour and baking powder in a bowl.
3. Cream together butter and sugar.
4. Mix in eggs.
5. Add the dry ingredients together and the cream and mix well.
6. Melt the chocolate.
7. Take about 1/3 of the cake mixture and fold in the melted chocolate and sieve in the cocoa powder.
8. Fill the cake pan with the plain and chocolate cake mixtures alternately to get the marble effect. If you want to create a proper marble effect take a skewer and swirl it around the mixture in the pan.
9. Bake the cake 50-60 minutes in the oven and let cool on a rack before removing from the pan.