Fraisier Cake GBBO Style

Two weeks ago, I decided to attempt my toughest challenge to date and turned my hand to the Fraisier Cake. Featured on the Great British Bake off, the Fraisier Cake is French Patisserie at its most elegant, combining a light genoise sponge, creme patisserie, marzipan and strawberries together to create visual perfection.

With it being a slightly more technical recipe than I have previously attempted, I decided to follow Mary Berry's method to a 'Tee', so if you want to find how it's done all you need to do is click Here

In terms of success, I would say that my presentation was an absolute triumph - I'm particularly proud of my chocolate swirls. However in the interest of complete honesty, I have to say that the taste wasn't exactly to my liking - perhaps it was just me but the flavours (lemons, marzipan, strawberries and vanilla) simply didn't go. At the best of times I'm unsure about Strawberry cakes, but when teamed with lemon sponge, I just believe it's a step too far. This may be my taste buds being unusual, as I know that the cake is world renowned - Perhaps I just need to develop a more sophisticated palate!

Has anyone else tried making it? What did you think? 

Let me know!

Happy Baking!

X

Profiteroles

If you're good and follow me on twitter, then you might've noticed that last week I made Profiteroles. Yes, I'm sorry I bombarded your twitter feeds with my pictutures, I was just SO happy with the result. So much so in fact, that I'm going to show you all again now, et voila...

As usual I used someone elses recipe and adapted it slightly for my own ego, and this week was the turn of James Martin. The main bones of the recipe were taken from his 2006 book Desserts which can be bought from any good book store or Amazon if you click the link here (It's actually a very good recipe book and if you're a fan of James Martin's Saturday Kitchen, then you'll find a lot of his favourite puds to try for yourself)

Back to the Profiteroles though... Here's my recipe.

Ingredients

(Serves 4 - 6, makes around 15 Profiteroles)

Choux Pastry

85g Salted Butter

4 tsp Caster Sugar

115g Plain Flour

Pinch of Salt

3 medium eggs (beaten)

Filling

600ml Double Cream

Method

1. Pre-Heat oven to 180C and line a tray with baking paper

2. To make the pastry, place the butter and sugar into a large pan with 200ml cold water and place on a low heat to melt the butter.

3. Once the butter is melted increase the heat and tip the flour in all at once.

4.Remove from the heat and quickly beat the mixture until it forms a smooth paste.

5. When the mixture is smooth put the pan back on the heat and stir with a spatula for one minute.

6. Take off the heat and immediately add the eggs, one at a time, mixing them in with a spatula.

7. Beat the mixture until it's smooth and glossy, with a soft dropping consistency.

8. Dip a teaspoon into warm water and use it to spoon out the profiterole mixture onto the baking sheet into even balls, making sure to smooth over any rough edges with a wet finger to make sure your mix doesn't catch.

9. Place into the oven and leave to bake for 15 - 20 minutes until golden brown (Slowly begin to increase the oven up to 200C after 10 minutes)

10. Remove from oven and carefully prick a hole into the bases of your profiteroles. Turn them over and return to the oven for a further 5 minutes.

11. Remove and leave to cool.

12. To make the filling, simply whip up the cream and place it into a piping bag with a circle nozzle. Pipe in through the hole in the bottom, until the profiteole feels firm.

13. Display as desired and cover with chocolate sauce (packet if you like or make your own)

And it's as simple as that really. If you have a go yourself, let me know how you get on, I'd love to see some pictures!

Until next time,

Happy Baking!

X

Victoria Sandwich

If you read my last post, you'll probably remember me saying that I was going to post a recipe for Victoria Sandwich Cake. Well, as promised, here is said recipe...

Ingredients

175g (6oz) Margarine
175g (6oz) Caster Sugar
175g (6oz) Self Raising Flour
3 Eggs (Beaten)
Pinch of Salt

Strawberry Jam
Whipped Cream (optional)

1. Beat margarine in a large bowl until soft/fluffy.

2. Add the sugar to the margarine, mix both together with a wooden spoon.

3. Beat three large eggs in a bowl, before adding them a little at a time to the margarine/sugar mixture, beating well inbetween each addition.

4. Sift the flower into the mix and gently stir in. (If the mix becomes too thick, add a drop of milk until it reaches a dropping consistency)

5. Add a pinch of salt and stir in.

6. Grease and line two sponge tins and divide the mixture between both.

7. Put in the oven for 27 minutes at 180C (160C FAN)

8. Take the sponges out of the oven, removing them from their tins (using a sharp bladed knide around the edges if necessary) Leave to cool on a wire rack for half an hour.

9. Spread Jam (I like to use almost a whole jar of Bon Maman Conserve) over one of the sponges and place the other on top, creating a sandwich. (you can add cream as well if you like!)

10. Dust with icing sugar and serve!


Happy Baking!

X

Diamond Jubilee Baking

Jubilee Cupcakes

Yesterday, to celebrate the Queen's diamond jubilee, we had a royal feast, consisting of a tea party and buffet. Since it was such a special occasion, I couldn't let it pass by without paying homage to the Queen in cake form. Here are my results...


A royal celebration, wouldn't be a celebration without the Queen's face on a cupcake and I was keen not to disappoint, so here she is in all her glory. The recipe was the usual one and I also used gold edible glitter to decorate. The toppers were from a lovely ebayer and the cases from a local baking shop.


To coincide with the cupcakes, I also decided to make a Victoria Sandwich which I'll post about in a separate entry, where I'll add a detailed recipe.

For anyone who just wants a quick idea of how to make it you do this;
Cream 6oz of margarine and 6oz of sugar in a large bowl. Beat three eggs together in a mug and slowly add to the sugar/margarine mix, completely mixing in the eggs inbetween each addition. Once all of the egg is mixed in, slowly add 6oz of self raising flour. Add a pinch of salt. Mix well. Grease and Line 2 cake tins and divide the mixture between both. Put in the oven at 150-160C for 27 minutes. Remove from oven and leave to cool. Spread Jam/Conserve on one of the cakes and then place the other on top. Dust with icing sugar.


Like I said, that's very basic, so if you want something a little easier to follow then look out for my next post which will be a lot more detailed.(I can confirm that it tastes very nice, even if I do say so myself!)

That's it on the cake front, but if you like buffets, then have a look at the rest of our delicacies...

Strawberries and Cream, Making it a truely British affair!

Pasta Salad

Our fair table!

Until next time,

Happy Baking!

X

Flutterby Butterfly Cakes

Sorry for the lack of posts recently - I've been away on holiday to Belgium... but more on that later!
To whet your appitite until my next post, I present to you my Flutterby Butterfly Cakes :)

Happy Baking

X

So I eat a lot of Cake...

Nothing else needs to be said other than...

I love the pretty spotty cases

This Yummy Cupcake was bought from Leaf on Bold Street in Liverpool, if you're in the area give it a look :)

Happy Eating!

X

What Happened When I Went Away

Last week I went on a little Holiday to the beautiful Lake District, and boy did I indulge while I was there (It's okay though because I did a mass of walking and rambling across fields to make up for it!)
Okay so a couple of highlights:

Apple Pie and Cream in Windermere: This pie was cheap and cheerful and incredibly delicious, and as I've said before - I love little jugs of cream on the side, so it was an instant winner for me! The tastes were perfectly balanced and the slight crunchyness of apple was perfectly complimented by the soft pastry.


Sticky Toffee Pudding at Heidi's in Grassmere: This was actually Cartmel sticky toffee pudding. A complete must if you ever see it in a shop. As you can see, I was a little too eager to get stuck in, and ate half of it before I'd had chance to take a photo. I always go to Heidi's when I'm in the area, because it has such a great atmosphere but this dessert just makes the whole experience perfect (and they serve ice cream with it!)

So that's all I took photo's of, but I must add a comment about some fabulous Chocolate cake I had in Hawkshead, it was perfection on a plate. For shame, I can't remember the name of the place I bought it from, but it was a cute little black and white building (which I'm thinking was maybe Elizabethan) which has been converted into tea rooms. It only has three tables inside so you have to get in there quickly at lunch times, but it's lovely.

There were other things too but these were the highlights, which have convinced me that on to the list must go; Apple Pie, Sticky Toffee Pudding, and Chocolate Cake!

Happy Baking!

X

Inspired: Carrot Cake

Thought I'd just share with you a picture of the AMAZING carrot cake, I had yesterday at The Swan with Two Nicks in Cheshire - it was absolutely delicious and even came with it's own minature jug of pouring cream! Yummy (I also love the little carrot that came on the top and even bought some of my own over the weekend!)
Seriously, go there if you're ever in the area - The food is brilliant!
I'm now thinking that I might just add carrot cake to the list of To Do's, and try a different recipe to last time!

Hopefully I'll get round to posting the completed Baking Challenge list in the next couple of weeks, but in the mean time I have a few idea's up my sleeve which I'm going to try out, as a way of preparation and also as a little bit of indulgence over the Easter break!
(Probably time to root out the Cornflakes!)

Happy Baking!

X