Christmas Cakes 2012

Christmas Cakes 2012 – I wish I had photographs of all seven of them but sadly, I don’t!
The end of 2012 became incredibly busy here.  I had a presentation/assignment to do for university, we moved house and I had 7 Christmas cakes to do.  Fortunately, the roses were started a few weeks before Christmas so they were ‘lustred’ and ready to go.  I’d used Morrisons own brand icing for most of them, then realised I needed a few additional petals, so I used a well-known professional brand icing and couldn’t have been more disappointed.  However, you live and learn!
So, house-moving day was 23rd December (Yes, I KNOW!!).  it was also the eldest’s birthday and my mom, aunty and cousin were due to visit on the Megabus!!!  School broke up late (21st) and anyone who teaches probably knows what I mean when I say that schools + Christmas = MADNESS!!  So, first night in the new house, after moving loads of furniture, I decorated seven Christmas cakes.
I’ll be honest – I hate levelling fruit cakes.  The way you get holes etc drives me nuts.  So I was a lazy minx and didn’t level them as pedantically as I would normally.  Plus time was short. (I did let family know that they wouldn’t be perfect – luckily they let me off!)
I had marzipanned and iced two days previous so it was just the decorating that needed doing.  Good job Match of the Day was on until one o’clock a.m so there was something to watch!
I would LOVE to share the recipe but I have been sworn to secrecy on this one – it is an old family recipe that only a few are allowed to know!  What I can tell you though is that I tinker with it and use Mich Turner’s rich fruit cake recipe as a ‘tinker guide’!  Lots of people also recommend Delia’s fruit cake….
Give them a try – you can’t go far wrong.

Spiced fruit cake

There are loads of tutorials for making sugarpaste roses on t’internet…all I can say is find a way that works for you. I tried a couple of techniques and found a way that works for me – I might even do a tutorial shortly.
I have discovered a passion for making roses – these were the first I’d ever made.  Call it a learning curve!

Sugarpaste roses – not perfect, but improving! Everyone starts somewhere, right?

Well, just to wish everyone a very happy, healthy 2013…  Happy Caking!

Wedding Favor Biscuits

White wedding….

I am desperate to do more sophisticated fayre…
It’s lovely having kids around the house to eat the cupcakes etc, but I am so keen to move on and try my hand at something a little more demanding, but also something clean, fresh and crisp.
There’s something about white and silver – with a little pearl lustre – that evokes the sense of weddings (or today, Christmas!).  Did anyone else get sugared with snow today?  It lay, meaning sledging was on the cards down the hill at work!  Such fun!  Don’t you just love that muffled sound that snow brings, the feathery light flakes brushing your cheeks with their icy softness?  Reminds me of dusting cakes with icing sugar, or frosting cupcakes with the lightest of italian meringue buttercream.
These biscuits would make lovely wedding favors – especially for a winter wedding.  Imagine them, all wrapped up in crisp cellophane, glittery silver ribbon nestled into glistening snowflakes, spread across the table…
I used a basic shortbread biscuit recipe… James Martin’s, actually: (Taken directly from Good Food Channel)

• 175 g chilled unsalted butter, plus more for greasing
• 225 g flour
• 60 g caster sugar, plus more for dusting
• 1 pinches salt
• 1 tsp vanilla extract
• Dice the butter and put into a mixing bowl to soften a little. Sift over the flour, caster sugar, salt and vanilla extract. Rub together with your fingertips and form the mixture into a ball.
  Lightly flour the work surface. Roll out the shortbread and cut into strips approximately 4cm wide and 10cm long. Lay the biscuits out on a greased baking sheet and prick the surfaces all over with a fork. Refrigerate for 30 minutes.
  Preheat the oven to 180C/gas 4.
  Sprinkle sugar over the shortbread then bake for 8 minutes, or until firm to the touch. Cool before removing from the baking sheet.

  When cooled – brush over a tiny amount of jam, then decorate as you wish!

  

Mummy Cake

Mummy Cake

Now I know it’s not Halloween!  Really, I do.
But it has been mega, mega, mega busy at work and blogging feels like a luxury I just don’t have these days.
Nevermind, here we are.
Better late than never.
This cake was huge fun to make.  I loved him – he didn’t even get named (unlike Sven the Skull)!  There are many, many ‘mummy cakes’ on Google images and I researched lots of them with an idea in mind, but it’s funny how your own take/style develops, even though you mightn’t think you HAVE a style.  There’s also something particularly satisfying about baking a spherical cake – maybe it’s something to do with the mysticism of the circle/sphere.  the world is a globe, Stonehenge is formed in a circle, many of the world’s most important ancient sites, when mapped, are found to line up in a near perfect circle…  I love the band ‘A Perfect Circle’, circles have no end or no beginning…  There’s something soft and gentle about a circle/sphere that makes you want to cradle it into your hands, pat it, form it.  Who doodles concentric circles whilst on the ‘phone?  I do.  Who makes spheres out of blu-tac whilst working?  I do.
Hmmmm.
We digress.  Back to The Mummy.
He is a zingy lemon sponge, using River Cottage’s lemon madeira recipe, but with added lemon zest, extra lemon juice and drenched in a lemon sugar syrup.

Lemon Madeira Cake
250g plain flour
1 tsp baking powder
200g unsalted butter, cut into small pieces and softened
Finely grated zest of 2 unwaxed lemons, plus the juice
200g golden granulated sugar
4 large eggs
Sugar Syrup
Juice of 1 lemon
Tablespoon of water
2 tbsps caster sugar
Lemon Curd Buttercream
250g unsalted softened butter
500g icing sugar
275g lemon curd
(Beat butter, then beat in icing sugar, then beat in lemon curd)

* Grease and line a spherical tin – I used Wilton’s sports ball pan.  I lined it by cutting a circle about half the size again of the circumference of the tin. (So one plus a half)  Then I folded and folded again, making a quarter of a circle shape.  I then cut down towards the centre a few times from the edge (not right to the centre), so that when it opened out, it was fanned. Then stick to the sides of your pan with butter or spray.
*  Preheat the oven to 180C/gas 4. Sift the flour and baking powder together and set aside.
*  In a bowl, beat the butter with the lemon zest. Add the sugar and beat until the mixture is very light. Add the eggs one at a time, adding 1 tsp of the flour with each and beating thoroughly before adding the next egg. Fold in the remaining flour, using a large metal spoon, then fold in the lemon juice.
* Pour the mixture into the lined tins.  Spread out evenly with the back of the spoon, then push the mixture up the sides, creating a well in the middle. This will ensure your madeira cake does not ‘dome’.  Bake for about 50 minutes, until the cake is well risen, springy to the touch and a skewer inserted in the centre comes out clean. If you are a nerd like me, then take the internal temperature with a thermometer – it should be between 195 degrees C and 205 degrees C.  Leave in the tin for 10 minutes then turn out onto a wire rack to cool.
* Add all of the sugar syrup ingredients to a pan and bring to a simmer, checking and tasting.  I like mine tart, but others may want to add more sugar.
* Poke the cooled cake all over and drench in syrup.
* Allow to stand for a while then split each half of the cake and spread with a layer of lemon curd buttercream. Sandwich the two halves with a layer of plain lemon curd.
* Carve two eyeholes into the cake.  Spread a thin layer of plain buttercream all over the cake, then refridgerate for 20 minutes.
*  Roll out strips of white sugarpaste/fondant and soften the edges with a ball tool.  Wrap around to look like bandages.  I carved an open mouth and filled with black sugarpaste, adding sugarpaste teeth on florist wire (let the people eating know though!)
* Use petal dusts to add detail.
Enjoy!

 

Mummy Cake Pops!

Mummy Pops!

These were LOVELY to make!!
I can’t say they were copied/inspired/taken from anyone in particular – they were an accumulation of internet image searches for mummy cakes!  There were some really, really cute ones, despite how scary they were meant to be…
Here are some tips I learned about making cake pops (which you probably know already):
* Don’t make them too big
* Have somewhere to put them (e.g a polystyrene block)
* Do chill them in the fridge before trying to put lolly sticks into them
* Dip your stick in chocolate or candy melts, then put them into your cake pop
* Fridge them again for a few minutes
* Don’t use too much covering in one go and ROLL the pops in chocolate, rather than dipping otherwise the weight pulls them off

I used some frozen left-over chocolate cake I had in the freezer.  (NEVER throw away scraps!)
I added a tablespoonful of butter to the crumbled cake, pulling it all together into a delicious ball.  Then I picked off pieces and rolled into cake pops.  Who needs an expensive cake pop machine?
Then I coloured some white sugarpaste with a tiny bit of ivory sugarflair coloring, rolled it thinly and sliced (using a pizza cutter) tiny, tiny slices of long sugar paste.  I secured one end to a dipped-in-white-chocolate-mummy-head with a drip of chocolate, brushed a little water along the ‘bandage’ and wrapped it around the mummy’s head. I then added two red-coloured buttercream icing eyes.  Et voila!  Mummies!
Here’s my favourite chocolate cake recipe:

Chocolate Tray Bake Cake (makes a large tray bake – quarter the recipe for a small cake to make cake-pops with)
340g (1 and 1/3 cups PLUS 2 tbp) unsalted butter
340g (3 and 1/3 cups) caster sugar
6 eggs
280g  self-raising flour (2 cups PLUS 1/3 cup) (or plain flour, with baking powder/soda added)
60g (1/2 cup) cocoa powder
60g (1/3 cup) dark chocolate
60g (1/3 cup) milk chocolate

* Preheat oven to 180 degrees C / Gas 4.
* Grease and line a ten inch square cake pan.
* Beat together the butter and sugar until light and creamy.
* Beat the eggs, then add to the butter/sugar gradually.  If it curdles, add a small spoonful of flour.
* Sift together the flour and cocoa powder.  Slowly mix the flour/cocoa powder into the butter/sugar/egg mixture until combined.
* Spoon the mixture into the tin and bake for 45 – 60 mins.  Keep checking it towards the end of baking – it is done when you can insert a skewer into the centre and it comes out clean.
* Allow to cool a little then turn onto a wire cooling rack.

CRUMBLE into a bowl, chill, then add a tablespoonful of butter until nicely pulling together.

 

Halloween Skull Cake!

What did we call him? We can’t remember! Steve the Skull? Sven?

We are almost American about Halloween in our house.
We LOVE it!
“Guess what Moo?”
“Erm… what?”
“It’s all hallows eve’s ween’s weave’s weeney weeeeeeeeeeeen!”
Maybe it’s the goth in me?  Yes, that’s exactly what it is.  Some of the costumes of the Trick or Treaters were lush – I soooo wanna be young enough to want to be a witch with flowing green locks and a spooky spiderweb dress…
Anyway, it was time to make the cake…
I used a simple madeira cake recipe – the one on Lindy’s blog is great for carving.  I won’t regurgitate it here – check out Lindy’s blog.  There are some fantastic tips and techniques.
Here is Steven/Simon/Sven/Cyril???’s split brains.  Mwahhahahaaa.

“Braaaaaiiiinnnnnnnnns”

Here’s the carving:

He looks like Jack from ‘A Nightmare Before Christmas’ right here….

I checked out some great Facebook pages that had fantastic carved skulls.  Most were made from rice krispie treats so weren’t much help in the carving BUT they looked totally fantastic and were definitely an inspiration!
Here’s one I LOVE…  Rock Cakes.  I think she’s my new cake crush!  I AM going to make a skull this brilliant one day.  Honest!  I love the use of dragees – she’s inspired me to start being a little more creative with nonpareils.  Thanks Rock Cakes!
Here’s Sven the Skull with a jaw and some eyes…

His eye and nose worms are crawling around, look… I know, you were convinced for a minute there, weren’t you?!!!

The sugarpaste was a bit tricky to cover him with – I may have rolled it a little thinly, due to my obsession with getting perfect sharp edges if I can.  Obviously, I forgot that skulls don’t have sharp edges.  Doh.
Sven worked a treat.  Or was he called Steve?  Damn.
Anyway, cue a little Fields of the Nephilim whilst creating and painting using confectioners glaze and blossom tints… After all, we WERE going to see them on October 30th!  How seriously evil… lol.

Fields of the Nephilim at Leeds 02 Academy.

Now THAT was a great gig.
But, back to Skull.  He needed detailing.  Using lots of lustre dusts, blossom tints and metallic paints, I created his eyes.  I wanted him to have a very ‘cartoon’ look, so I outlined all of his features in super-black, thinned a little with dipping solution.  (Vodka, to you and me).
Oh dear….

GONE.
And again… eyeless.  Looks like a scene from a horror film.

Ooooohhhhhhh NO!

Hope you like Skull.
Wait till you see Martin Mummy.
MWAHHHAAAAAAAHAHHAAAA!!!

Chocolate Whoopie Pies and Vanilla Italian Meringue Buttercream

Chocolate Whoopie Pies and Vanilla Italian Meringue Buttercream

Whoopie pies.  Sounds like a slip of the bottom, doesn’t it? You know – like a pump?!  However, they tasted heavenly. Like little rounds of sunshine.
I don’t like the name whoopie pies – only because of the British connotations linked to ‘whoopie’… you know, ‘whoopie cushions’ etc.  I think I prefer the idea of  ’cake sandwiches’.  Well, that’s what they are, are they not?  Little cake sandwiches.  With lush middles.  What a thoroughly British description…maybe I’ll change the title.
However, whilst pouring scorn on the US name for cakes, I’d like to wish everyone there facing Hurricane Sandy all the best – I know my dad and Ameri-mum are battening down the hatches as we speak…Funny saying, that.  Where does it come from?
Apparently it comes from nautical origins.  Ships’ hatches, (or ‘hatchways’), were common on ships and were normally either open or covered with a wooden grating to allow for ventilation of the lower decks. When bad weather was apparent, the hatches were sealed with tarpaulin. This covering was then edged with wooden strips (battens), to stop it from being blown off.  This was known to sailors as ‘battening down’.
Our thoughts are with you over the pond…
So, as for whoopies, the recipe I used was from the Joy of Baking website…
They were delicious.  Quite heavy – I wished I’d piped them smaller, but still, they really were delicious. Chocolatey and indulgent, filled with pillowy Italian buttercream, which is the rapture of buttercreams.  It really is.  Imagine soft Mr Whippy without the brain freeze…Mmmmmmm.
I have to admit, I had a whoopie pie for breakfast.  OH Yeah!  That testimony to a recipe, don’t you think?  Cereal?  Noooo.  Porridge?  Nooooo.  Grapefruit?  noooooo.  Whoopie pie?  YES, WHY DIDN’T YOU ASK SOONER?!

Chocolate Whoopie Pies
230g  (1 & 3/4 cups) self raising /all purpose flour
75g  (3/4 cup) cocoa powder
1/4 tsp (1 teaspoon if using US flour) baking powder
1/4 teaspoon baking soda (omit if using self-raising flour)
170g (3/4 cup) lightly salted butter, room temperature
150g (3/4 cup) caster sugar
1 large egg, room temperature
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
60ml (1/4 cup)  buttermilk (50ml milk with 10 ml lemon juice added and left for 5 minutes)
120ml (1/2 cup)  lukewarm strong coffee OR 1/2 cup (120 ml) lukewarm water

*  Preheat oven to 375 degrees F (190 degrees C). Line two baking sheets with baking paper.
* In a large bowl sift together the flour, cocoa powder, baking powder, baking soda.
* In the bowl of an electric mixer, beat the butter and sugar until light and fluffy.
* Add the egg, beating well.
* Beat in the vanilla extract.
* In a measuring cup, mix the buttermilk and coffee (or water).
* With the mixer on low speed, alternately add the flour mixture and buttermilk/coffee mixture, in three additions, beginning and ending with the flour.
* Pipe 2.5 – 3 cm of the batter onto the prepared baking sheets, spacing about 2 inches (5 cm) apart. With moistened fingers or with the back of a spoon, smooth the tops of the cookies.
* Bake for about 9 -10 minutes or until the tops of the cakes spring back when pressed gently. Remove from the oven and cool completely.

Italian Meringue Buttercream
Taken from Ruth Clemens at The Pink Whisk 
2.5 large egg whites
25g (2 tbsp) caster sugar
125g (2/3 cup) caster sugar
50ml (just under 1/4 cup) water
250g (1 cup) butter, softened

* You will need a sugar thermometer and electric mixer, (preferably a stand mixer – it makes life easier when handling hot sugar).
*  In a large clean bowl place the egg whites and whip.  When they reach the soft peak stage (foamy but won’t hold their own shape), add the 50g sugar a spoonful at a time.  Keep whipping until they reach the firm peak stage. Leave to one side.
* In a pan, add the 250g caster sugar and 100ml water.  Heat over a low heat, encouraging the sugar to melt to a syrup.  When  the syrup has turned clear turn the heat up to medium.  Boil the sugar syrup to 121c, this takes around ten minutes.
*  When the syrup reaches 121 degrees C,  remove from the heat.  Turn the mixer back on to slow and and pour the sugar syrup down the sids of the bowl into the egg whites, gently, in a steady stream.  TAKE CARE – it is very very hot…
*  When the sugar syrup is fully combined keep the mixer running whilst the mixture cools.  This will be about 8 minutes.
*  When the bowl is cool to the touch, start adding the butter. Add it very gradually, in small chunks.  It will start to look as though it hasn’t worked – almost curdled, but keep going.  Persevere – you want the consistency of thick cream.  It suddenly changes – be patient!
* Pipe buttercream onto one half of the whoopie pie, then sandwich it with another on top…
* Then.
* En
*JOY!

Belgian Chocolate Cake Pops

Belgian Chocolate Cake Pops

Mmmmmm, I could lick one right now!
Cake pops – not something I thought I’d ever try until the boys asked for one recently.  So, on Sunday, I decided to experiment.  I had some chocolate cake in the freezer I’d been waiting to use, some chocolate in the cupboard and a whole host of decorations.
It’s not as easy as it looks!
Firstly, I think they were slightly too big – they felt a bit heavy on the lolly stick.  BUT the technique of dipping your stick in chocolate before popping into the cake worked a treat!
Secondly, dipping smoothly is harder than it looks.  PLUS I microwaved my chocolate and wished I had been old fashioned and used the ‘bowl over a pan’ method.  The microwave left lumpy bits in my chocolate – I was NOT happy!
Thirdly, if you’re not a semi-pro or pro, what the hell do you stand these things up in?!!  The cup felt somewhat precarious!
Nonetheless, I enjoyed making these and will do again… maybe little macarons on sticks?
Maybe everything should be little, on sticks? Hmmmm.

Belgian Chocolate Cake Pops
You will need crumbled chocolate cake – preferably a good, moist sponge.  I used left-overs of this chocolate cake recipe… Obviously it didn’t have the topping on it though!

Chocolate Tray Bake Cake
340g (1 and 1/3 cups PLUS 2 tbp) unsalted butter
340g (3 and 1/3 cups) caster sugar
6 eggs
280g  self-raising flour (2 cups PLUS 1/3 cup) (or plain flour, with baking powder/soda added)
60g (1/2 cup) cocoa powder
60g (1/3 cup) dark chocolate
60g (1/3 cup) milk chocolate
Good, generous squeeze of Golden Syrup

* Preheat oven to 180 degrees C / Gas 4.
* Grease and line a ten inch square cake pan.
* Beat together the butter and sugar until light and creamy.
* Beat the eggs, then add to the butter/sugar gradually.  If it curdles, add a small spoonful of flour.
* Sift together the flour and cocoa powder.  Slowly mix the flour/cocoa powder into the butter/sugar/egg mixture until combined.
* Spoon the mixture into the tin and bake for 45 – 60 mins.  Keep checking it towards the end of baking – it is done when you can insert a skewer into the centre and it comes out clean.
* Allow to cool a little then turn onto a wire cooling rack.
* Melt the chocolate and treacle over a gentle heat in a small pan.  Allow to cool slightly.
* When the cake is cold, pour over the chocolate fudge mixture.  Ensure it is nice, thick and even.  Allow to cool.

Back to Cake Pops….
* Crumble some cake into a bowl.  I didn’t weigh mine, I just used a good couple of handfuls.
* Mix in some buttercream (I used 40g butter, 80g icing sugar).
* Make little balls in the palm of your hand.  Place on a baking sheet and pop in the fridge.
* Melt a little chocolate.
* Dip the end of your lolly stick into the chocolate and poke into the cake pop.
* Leave to set hard.
* Melt more chocolate in a small, deep cup.  Dip in your cake pop and stand in a cup or cake pop holder.  When you have dipped all of them, sprinkle with your choice of decoration!
VOILA!!

Honey and Lemon Polenta Biscuits

Honey and Lemon Polenta Biscuits

It’s been a while since I posted anything new here, especially recipe-wise.  I’ve been sorting out a second blog – one where I can showcase any slightly more ‘professional’ cakes and not just cakes that are ‘home-baking’.  I have lots of savoury recipes too – I will try and add these to the other section of this blog soon, making it a fully fledged ‘cooking’ blog!
http://thesecretsixpence.wordpress.com will soon have the Christmas Cakes for this year up… please check them out.  They will be added gradually.
We’ve also been engaging in other craft based activities in our house – I will post these pictures soon.  We’ve been collecting sea-glass and making sea-glass encrusted mirrors, making vintage mirrors using a method called ‘pique assiette’… really, it’s been a VERY busy house!  Blogging has taken a bit of a back seat but hopefully will be back in full swing soon…
In the meantime, I think it’s time for a cup of coffee and some deliciously soothing honey and lemon polenta biscuits.  An unusual texture but delicious nonetheless.  What else was I going to do with that bag of polenta sitting in my cupboard?  Sometimes, you wonder why you buy these things!
These are based on a recipe by Cookie Girl (Orange Polenta Biscuits).

Honey and Lemon Polenta Biscuits

80g unsalted butter
140g caster sugar
finely grated zest of 1 large lemon
1 large egg
1/2 tsp vanilla extract
140g plain flour
55g polenta
Spoonful of honey

Line two baking sheets with baking parchment.  Preheat the oven to 170 degrees C  

*  Beat the butter and caster sugar together until light and fluffy.  Grate in the lemon zest, vanilla and egg, beating until VERY smooth.
*  Add the flour and polenta.  Stir (or mix on slow) gently until everything if fully combined.
*  Take small lumps of the dough (Cookie Girl suggests about the size of a walnut) and roll into a ball.  Space them onto the baking sheets. Make sure you leave room for the biscuits spreading out.  Flatten slightly and sprinkle with caster sugar.
*  Bake for 12-15 minutes until golden and lightly browned at the edges.  Drizzle over honey and, I suggest, devour WARM! Bellisimo!
(Makes 12-18 cookies)

Enjoy!

The Secret Sixpence

Please go on over to The Secret Sixpence Cake Company to see some of the work I have done professionally, either for family, friends or as a commission.  No recipes, just beautiful photographs of available cakes.

Christmas Cakes…

Available in a range of colours…

Red Velvet Cupcakes with Chocolate Dipped Strawberries

Cupcakes, decorated beautifully, for birthdays, weddings, baby showers, christenings, engagements and corporate settings…

Thank you!

More recipes coming soon….  (Home-made spinach pasta lasagne)

New Name….shhhhh, it’s a secret!

I’ve been desperately trying to think of a new name for Moo’s Pantry.  I only ever called it that because ‘Moo’ is usually my online presence name.  BUT, today I have it and will be changing the blog name.  I aim to have a ‘proper’ website using this name and possibly a new blog…

KEEP checking in here for updates…I’ll be Moo’s Pantry until the new blog is live and the website is done.

So, let’s herald in ‘The Secret Sixpence Cake Company’….

The Secret Sixpence Cake Company