Chocolate Meringue Cake

Okay, I underestimated the ‘working blogger’ and I overestimated my capabilities as a human being, it seems I was born lazy.  

Mum and I have been scrolling through range cookers from Argos, to replace our clumsy, tepid oven. Ours is a baker’s nightmare - it’s so inaccurate that even oven thermometers are confused by it. Sponge cakes come out with domed tops or they barely rise, and beating butter and sugar until the mixer's on the verge of combustion or a new bag of flour doesn’t always work. Most of the layered cakes on here were lucky escapes (face palm). 

Homemade meringue has always made me feel a bit uneasy because it always comes out just a bit too eggy to stomach. But last week I had a thought, what if I add meringue on top of a cake, purposefully over-baking it by baking the meringue for as long as the dense chocolate cake that will be at the bottom? Perhaps the secret to abolishing the raw egg aftertaste was to over-bake it. It seems, my incompetent oven could finally be put to good use.

By the time the cake is such that a skewer inserted won't be all gooey from the mucus of an egg, you’re left with a crunchy and weightless meringue topping. There’s nothing marshmallow-y about this one, but if that’s what you’re after (and I’m not judging) top the cake with meringue 20 minutes in to the cake’s baking time. 

Chocolate Meringue Cake

Ingredients

Chocolate swirl meringue

• 4 egg whites
• 225g golden caster sugar
• 1 tsp cornflour
• 30g cocoa powder

Chocolate cake

• 200g dark chocolate
• 300g unsalted butter, softened
• 300g light brown sugar
• 4 eggs, lightly beaten
• 2 tsp coffee extract
• 150g plain flour
• 2 tsp baking powder

Cream filling

• 300ml cream
• Pinch of salt
• Cream of tarter
• A few pomegranate seeds

Lasts for three days if covered. 

Method

1. Preheat the oven to 180 C and line two 6” round cake tins with baking paper.
2. Start by whisking the egg whites until froth appears, then slowly add in the sugar whilst whisking. Keep whisking until thick and glossy, then add the cornflour and mix to combine. Spoon two heaped tablespoons into a small bowl and sift over the cocoa, then whisk to combine – don’t worry if the mixture deflates. Set both bowls aside and make the cakes.
3. Melt the chocolate over a pan of simmering water then set aside to cool. Cream the butter and sugar until pale. Whilst creaming, slowly add in the eggs. If the mixture curdles add a tablespoon of the flour, then add the rest of the eggs. Pour in the melted chocolate and coffee extract and stir through. Fold in the flour and baking powder and equally divide the mixture among the pans. Spoon the white meringue over the tops of each raw cake, using the spoon to roughly level the tops. Spoon small blobs of the chocolate meringue all over then take a cocktail stick and swirl both meringues together.
4. Bake for 40/50 minutes, or until a skewer inserted in the middle is a little damp. The tops will crack in the middle as they bake and then collapse slightly when cooling. Whip the cream with the salt and tarter to soft peaks, then sandwich the cakes together with the cream and pomegranate seeds. Use a spatula to smooth the sides of the cake and serve. 

I was contacted by Argos to talk ovens. I grew up with this brand, and we use them to buy many, many things (thank god for the store card). 

Love Em 

Chocolate Rum Éclairs

Éclairs always remind me of our “female” family gets togethers. Auntie A is on her way round, then maybe auntie B will follow suit an hour or so later and she’ll bring the custard tarts from Tesco’s whilst we might provide the fresh cream and jam doughnuts from Morrison’s. Auntie A will be pouring the stovetop Turkish Tea into our tiny glass vessels in abundance and there will always be a whiff of brewed cloves to be smelt in the air. 

There’s nothing wrong with sharing and enjoying something sweet and mass packaged whilst having a good old moan from time to time, don’t you think? 

Most of our teatime favourites have one thing in common and that’s sweetened whipped cream, with added gelatin to help thicken and plump things up a bit and worryingly prolong its shelf life.

Sickening, really, how processed cream can taste so damn good.

But it’s the beginning of April, dissertation deadline is looming so I’m steering clear of processed cream, hoping it will promote– a ‘can do’ attitude (still cant do). 

The filling in these éclairs isn’t made with coconut milk residue. Make them with a cream with the highest fat content you can find, sugar and a touch of rum to round off the sweetness. It’ll take you back to the best bitching session you’ve ever had with your family.

Orange and Poppy Seed Cream Scones

I’m a little late, but happy New Year! I lost my car keys on January 1^st and they turned out to be in my mums bag, OF ALL PLACES. 

I mean, who puts their keys in their mum’s bag at 4am on New Years Eve and then forgets? WHO? That’s not important, what happened before that incident was important. It involved flour and cream, additional flavours and the Kenwood KM330.  

So, lets kick off the year with scones, and not the kind that leave the roof of your mouth feeling scone-like. You know what I’m talking about, right - that seriously weird texture you get in your mouth after having a store bought scone? It’s the blindingly obvious indication that your scones weren’t really homemade from that seriously cute teahouse. 

Oh, the lies.

Scones were the first things I made in Food Technology (home ec) way back at the wee age of 11. I guess, the main reason why we made them had a lot to do with how darn easy they are to rustle up. Not to mention how delicious they are in that fattening and comforting kind of way.

From 2004 to 2013, scones involved cold butter, a knife and a tiny bit of elbow grease (by that I mean having floury hands and cutting shapes). In 2014, thanks to the Kenwood dough hook and the realization that you can produce a softer crumb with full fat cream instead of butter, the making of scones involves the flick of a button. Aaaaand the cutting of shapes that begged to be triangles but sadly, clearly, aren’t.

The trick is to let the dough hook run for half a second, until everything is just combined, because this is not breakfast brioche, but breakfast scones, studded with crunchy little poppy seeds and the faintest flavour of orange. You hardly know its there, but when you notice it; you’ll thank me for passively making you put it there.

If you don’t have a mixer, it should be your new years resolution to purchase one. But if you’re not buying it (geddit?), these beauts are made just as well by hand. Just pour your dry ingredients onto a surface, make a well, pour, knead and cut.  

Tres Leches {Three Milk} Cake

Lets talk about milk.

A nutritional collection of butterfat globules extracted from cows. We chug down 5 billion litre’s every year in the UK and apparently, that’s nuffin’ compared to India, the biggest consumers on the planet.

I hate milk. It makes me feel sick, before I knew that milk and me had issues, I used to think I was carrying a 10-year-old invisible fetus that just wouldn’t give. Three milk cake made by a milk misogynist? I’ll be damned if this bitch thinks its okay to keep on blogging.

Genuine reason people: my sister moved out last week, so she had first call on which cake was coming out of the oven. You know, the one that she was never gonna cook fish fingers in ever again. Big, big changes.

Tres Leches, she insisted. What the crap is that? A few pins later and I am partially informed about the cakes of the world and wanting to know how those all around the globe utilize their milk. 

This cake is an authentic, Mexican after dinner dessert, pure tradition at its height. Tres Leches simply means three milks, a plain light sponge is soaked (DRENCHED) in all three of these milks with a touch of vanilla. The cake is then coated in sweet cream. Tres leches cake has lactose written all over it, as well as sweetness, and apparently, it’s the best cake ever.

This cake can be turned on its head, flavour wise. Think coconut. Think chocolate tres leches. Think espresso or pumpkin for the autumn, ginger and cinnamon on Christmas day and a berry coulis filling next week. I think my sister was mostly excited about the milky goodness, so I stuck with authenticity. I didn’t taste it, how could I?

Tres Leches {Three Milk} Cake

Adapted from Patis Mexican Table's Pastel de Tres Leches

Ingredients

For the cake

• 9 eggs, separated 
• 1 cup caster sugar
• 1 tbsp vanilla extract
• 2 cups plain flour

For the milk syrup

• 3/4 tin (340g) evaporated milk
• 1 tin (397g) sweetened condensed milk
• 1 cup semi skim milk
• 1 tbsp vanilla extract

Topping:

• 1200ml double cream
• A bunch of pretty roses: I used roses on the cake purely for decoration. If you wanted, though, you could make them edible by crystallising with egg whites and sugar.

Method

1. Preheat the oven to 180 C. Line two 6 inch cake tins with parchment paper.
2. Pour all of the egg whites into the bowl of a freestanding mixer fixed with a whisk, or in a large bowl with an electric mixer, and whisk on high speed for 4 minutes until stiff peaks form. Whilst whisking, slowly add all of the sugar until the mixture is glossy.
3. If using a stand mixer, transfer the whites into a large bowl and set aside. Add the egg yolks to the used mixer bowl and whisk on high speed for 3 minutes until fluffy and pale. Pour in the vanilla and whisk to combine. Carefully fold the egg yolks into the egg white mixture, then fold in the flour until well combined.
4. Pour the batter into the prepared cake tins and bake for 22 - 25 minutes, or until a skewer inserted comes out clean. Turn the cakes out of the pan and leave to cool on a wire rack, then transfer each cake on a large plate.
5. In a large jug, stir together the evaporated, condensed, and liquid milk. Slice both cakes horizontally to make four layers. Pierce the cakes in several places with a fork and slowly pour the milk over each cake. Wait a couple of minutes after each pour, the cakes will hold all of the milk so keep pouring! Refrigerate the cakes for at least 2 hours to set.
6. Whip the cream until soft peaks form using an electric whisk or freestanding mixer.
7. Add 3 large tablespoons of cream between each layer and spread to the sides, then place cakes on top of each other. Cover the sides with cream and decorate with pretty roses then serve. Store in the fridge, the cake will keep for 3 days.

It's finally August! Where are we all going on holiday?! My cookbook giveaway ends in 5 days, head over here if you fancy entering! 

PS. It was so, sosososososo hot when I photographed this badboy - hence the extremely obvious stains on the doily, hellooooo milky drippings.

Love Em xx

I am really sorry but all comments for this post have been lost in Blogger's system/archive/brain somewhere and I cant retrieve them! Please forgive me x

Salted Caramel Chocolate Doughnut Cake

It was mum’s birthday this month.

Obviously, mums deserve ‘showstopping’ cakes; do you think this covers it? I pretty much copied the style of this cake from Blue Bird Kisses, as you can see, hers looks like it was sent from heaven. 

Mine? It's pushing purgatory. 

I needed the cake to be nothing short of extravagant and mouthwatering down to the last crumb - so it had to be a tried and tested recipe. Something no fail and one I’d used before to ensure an all round success. 

The Sweet ‘n’ Salty Chocolate Cake from Hummingbird Bakery was my first, last and only option. It ticks all the boxes and has about 500 different steps to it so be prepared to spend your evening by the stove. 

To go the extra mile, I soaked the cakes in the homemade salted caramel as soon as they came out of the oven, knowing full well that it would cause me a cake covering disaster. That’s love, eh?

Salted Caramel Chocolate Doughnut Cake 

Adapted from Hummingbird Bakery's Sweet n Salty Chocolate Cake

Ingredients

For the caramel 

• 200g caster sugar 
• 2 tbsp + 1 tsp golden syrup (or corn syrup)
• 120ml double cream
• 60ml soured cream
• 1 1/2 tsp sea salt 

For the chocolate icing

• 200g caster sugar
• 2 tbsp golden syrup
• 360ml double cream
• 450g dark chocolate, roughly chopped 
• 450g unsalted butter, cubed and softened
• 1 tsp sea salt, for sprinkling
• Sainsbury's mini iced doughnuts, or any tiny doughnuts you can get hold of

For the cakes

• 300g unsalted butter, softened 
• 300g caster sugar
• 140g light soft brown sugar
• 3 large eggs, at room temperature
• 100g cocoa powder
• 160ml buttermilk
• 1 tsp vanilla extract
• 330g plain flour
• 2 tsp baking powder
• 1 tsp baking soda
• 1 tsp salt

Note: You can halve the recipe for a 6 inch cake.

Recipe

1. Start with the caramel. In a medium saucepan add the sugar, golden syrup and 60ml water. Simmer on low heat for 10 minutes until lightly browned. In another saucepan bring the double cream, sour cream and salt to a boil and then immediately remove from the heat and carefully pour into the caramel. Stir until smooth, pour into a jug, cover with cling film and set aside.
2. Make the chocolate icing. In a small, clean saucepan add the sugar, golden syrup and 60ml water. Heat gently for 10 minutes until golden and syrupy. In another pan, bring the cream to a boil and then immediately remove from the heat and carefully pour into the caramel. Stir until smooth and set aside to cool slightly. Put the chopped chocolate in the slightly cooled caramel and stir until the chocolate has melted. Whisk the mixture with an electric whisk for 5 minutes, until it cools down. Carry on whisking and add the butter piece by piece, keep going until the icing takes on the consistency of softly whipped cream. Transfer the mixture into a bowl, cover with cling film and place in the fridge to set. 
3. Preheat the oven to 170 C, grease and line two 8 inch cake pans, I used 6 inch pans for a taller cake. In a freestanding mixer or with an electric whisk, cream the butter and sugars for 4 minutes.  Add the eggs one by one, beating well after each. In a measuring jug add the cocoa powder, buttermilk, vanilla and 60ml water, stir with a fork to form a thick and smooth paste. In large bowl add the flour, baking powder, baking soda and salt, whisk to combine. Add half the cocoa paste to the butter and sugar mixture and stir to combine. Fold through all of the flour and then add the rest of the cocoa paste. Divide mixture among the pans and bake for 35/40 minutes, or until a skewer inserted comes out clean. 
4. As soon as the cakes are baked pierce them several times with a sharp knife and pour a thin layer of salted caramel over each. Transfer the cakes on a wire rack to cool completely.
5. To assemble the cake, spread 2 heaped tablespoons of icing between each layer and cover the sides and top using a cranked knife. Top with iced doughnuts and serve.

 Sweet 'n' Salty Chocolate Doughnut Cake 

Love Em xx

5 Ingredient Killer Key Lime Pie

With summer on our footstep all I want to do is shove fruit in my gob and eat stuff with piles of cold, whipped cream thrown on top of it. It is really difficult though, to leave wintry desserts behind – I don’t know about you but I won't say no to a treacle pud whatever the weather.

A little warning if you’re feeling in the mood for this pie – it's expensive to make. But take a deep breath. Its worth the extra dough. 

Why? Well, quite frankly, why not? It tastes so fresh and the textures mingle so darn well together, so I think that's worth the £15 spent on ingredients, its such an effortless pie as well, plus, you can hardly taste the richness from the 8 egg yolks - So easy and SO worth it. 

Key Lime Pie

The Recipe:

Adapted from Hummingbird Bakery Key Lime Pie 

For the pie crust
500g digestive biscuits or graham crackers
200g unsalted butter, melted
For the filling
800g condensed milk (2 tins)
8 egg yolks
Zest of 5 limes
Juice of 5 limes
For the topping
300ml double cream, whipped

Equipment
23cm deep pie dish

The Method:

Preheat the oven to 170C. Put all of the biscuits into a food processor and pulse until fine crumbs form. Whilst the processor is still running, pour in the melted butter until the crumbs stick together.

Pour the crumbs into a pie dish, with a tablespoon and your fingers press the crumbs into the sides and bottom of the dish. Bake for 10 minutes until darker in colour then leave to cool slightly.

Reduce the oven to 150 C. Zest and juice all of the limes and set aside.

In a large bowl or freestanding mixer with the whisk attachment, add the condensed milk, egg yolks and lime juice and whisk until thickened for one minute. Set aside a small amount of lime zest for sprinkling on top of the pie and add the rest into the condensed milk filling.

Pour the filling into the prepared pie crust and bake for 20 minutes. Leave to cool completely. In the mean time, whip the cream until stiff (but soft) peaks form. Layer the cream on top of the cooled pie and garnish with the reserved lime zest. Pie is best served after 2 to 24 hours of 'settling/flavour mingling' time in the fridge.

Have you ever made Key Lime Pie, was it as darn simple as this beaut?!

Love Em xx

Peggy Porschen Heavenly Double Chocolate Cupcakes

For months I’ve been meaning to try out the mother of all chocolate frostings. The one that combines an ultimate taste explosion with absolutely every single fatty component you can possibly imagine. We’re talking butter, DOUBLE cream AND cream cheese - all in one semi technical recipe that is well worth the washing.

I’ve always felt positive about the fact that I am missing half of my brain, which making this recipe pretty much confirmed for me. The original ingredient list called for glucose and for some reason (the inadequate contents of my skull) I bought glycerin, after noticing the very moment the G was going into the saucepan that I bought the wrong stuff, I took a risk and just put it in and guess what? The results were still fabulous!

The Recipe:

Adapted from Peggy Porschen's Heavenly Chocolate Cupcakes

For the sponge (makes 20 cupcakes):

8g good quality cocoa

125g dark chocolate

160ml milk

100g unsalted butter

2 large, free range eggs

Half tsp baking powder

Half tsp bicarb of soda

285g light brown sugar

180g plain flour

For the topping:

450g icing sugar

200g cream cheese

200g unsalted butter

1 tbsp glycerin/glucose 

140ml double cream

160g dark chocolate

The Method:

Start with the frosting. Heat the cream until simmering in a small saucepan. Add the chocolate and glycerin/glucose into a bowl and pour the cream over the top, stir well until nice and smooth. Let cool. 

Put the cream cheese in another bowl and beat for half a second, until just smooth. 

Cream the icing sugar and softened butter in the bowl of a freestanding mixer until pale. 

Slowly pour all of the cooled ganache into the buttercream and mix until combined. 

Take a third of the chocolate buttercream and gently stir into the beaten cream cheese. 

Now add the chocolate cream cheese into the chocolate buttercream and gently stir till combined. Wrap in clingfilm and let set in the fridge. 

Preheat the oven to 160 C. 

For the cupcakes, using a saucepan (perhaps the same one as earlier?!) heat the milk, half the sugar and chocolate and bring to a gentle boil. Keep the chocolate on the lowest heat whilst get onto the next bit, occasionally taking it off heat so it doesn't burn. 

In the bowl of a freestanding mixer beat the sugar and butter till very pale. Add one egg at a time and mix till frothy. 

Put all of the dry ingredients into another bowl and stir together. Mix into the egg mixture till just combined. 

Pour the chocolate mixture into the flour mixture, scraping the bowl, making sure to incorporate every little bit. 

Pour all of the mixture into a measuring jug and line 2 cupcake trays with muffin cases. 

Gently fill the cucpake liners two thirds full with batter.

Bake for 14 minutes, until they spring back to the touch. 

Let cool on a wire rack and ice with the cooled and scrummy frosting!

Love Em xx

How to learn from your mistakes: Cream Cheese Icing & not so Curly Whirly Cake

I think there’s something in the oven/Kenwood. This time round, I’m tackling something else that has gone horribly wrong…cream cheese *sulk* icing. It goes without saying that when you make one mistake, you put it under the carpet and carry on trying. But when you make a second, (cringe shields at the ready) feelings of self-doubt start to pave their way in.

I definitely thought about avoiding this post altogether, but then I thought about how many times I haven’t been satisfied with my cream cheese icing, so it was inevitable…I just had to learn from my mistakes. The icing was poured atop the all-London Curly Whirly Cake made from a Konditor & Cook recipe found here, the picture of the cake is what I aimed for…Decoration wasn’t even an option after this disaster went down! But try not to be fooled, the cake was densely satisfying!

I’ve wrote about some of the things I think will help you not to achieve this big, runny, gloopy mess. Here we go (again):

Straining

Its absolutely necessary to strain your packets of cream cheese before you add it to the mixing bowl because extra fluid will contribute to a runny mess. Get rid of all that curdled juice by dangling the packet over the sink, your cream cheese is solid at this point (and hopefully will stay that way) so you don’t have to worry about it falling out of the packet!

Above Room Temperature 

There is no baking rule that your cream cheese has to be at room temperature, do not treat it like you would butter and eggs. As long as it’s not straight out of the fridge, you won’t have a problem like I did. Let the packets rest at a room temperature for a maximum of ten minutes.

Beating 

Now, the recipe I used instructed that I melted the butter and added it to my already whipped cream cheese and icing sugar. Naturally, you’re going to assume that that’s where I went wrong, right? Wrong. The cream cheese had already loosened into a form of gloppy-ness before I added the butter! This is because I mixed the cream cheese and icing for too long at too high a speed. You can avoid over beating by whipping room temperature butter and all of the icing sugar until pale and fluffy, and then adding the cream cheese. This will give you a thick cream cheese, but one with a dominant buttery flavour which isn’t very nice, so to avoid this altogether take a look at my next pointer.

Meringue powder 

Forget for a moment that meringue powder adds a crusting quality to your icing and listen up. Adding 2 tbsp. to 1 batch works chemical wonders into your icing, it will give it pipe-able and spreadable stability. Also, the great thing about this cheesy trick is that it won't give off any bad flavours either, it will simply stop your cream cheese icing from looking like mine does, which none of you want, surely!

Whipped cream 

Another great tip which I’ve yet to try yet is adding whipped cream to your cream cheese. This not only gives height, fluffiness and stability to your icing, but also, I think, would give a better flavour! Whip some double cream together and simply fold it into your icing. Also, if you don’t want to regurgitate a rainbow - remove 1 tsp vanilla extract from your recipe and replace with 1 tsp fresh lemon juice, this will also keep your icing from having an off-white look. 

Love Em xx