Chocolate Covered Strawberries and Chocolate Buttons.

I've just moved into a new flat and I had some girlfriends over to celebrate and to have a snoop around. The girls brought a whole load of snacks to see us through the evening and I did chocolate covered strawberries!

They were delicious, and unsurprisingly I bought both the strawberries and chocolate from Lidl. The strawberries were huuuuge and both were really cheap!! Plus they're great for if you have a friend who is gluten intolerant.


1 Punnet of Strawberries
400g Chocolate

1. Break up the chocolate and place in a bowl over a pan of simmering water.

2. Wash the strawberries and carefully pat them dry.

3. Once the chocolate has melted, remove from the heat. Hold the strawberries by the stalk and gently dip into the chocolate. Let some of the chocolate drip off. Once suitably covered, place onto greaseproof paper to harden.

4. Once hardened, place them onto a plate and pop them into the fridge.

Sarah's Tips

Use any chocolate you like. I used normal milk chocolate and it was totally fine.

If you hate cold strawberries, take them out of the fridge and let them come up to room temperature before eating.

You do need to use a lot of chocolate so you can dip the strawberries sufficiently enough. 

Which brings me onto.... I had a lot of left over chocolate and wanted to use it instead of just throwing it in the bin. 

So either using a teaspoon or pipping bag, make little chocolate buttons on a silicon mar. Once hardened, peel each button off the silicon mat and place in an airtight container. It really is that simple!

Okay so I've been really bad at keeping up with my blog. I have quite a few things I want to post - bakes all the way back to February. I promise to post these blogs soon! So be patient...just a little bit more patient!

Jus-Rol Apple Danish

Im still on the Jus-Rol pastry bandwagon and this time I 'made' Apple Danish!

I still can't really claim this is baking - all you do is take the pastry out of the tin and put it in the oven.

I must admit I was a little disappointed with the Apple Danish. The apple sauce REALLY tastes like Apple Sourz shots. I HATE Apple Sourz shots. I feel like im going to be sick (damn my student days!), so this Apple Danish really didn't float my boat. I won't be making these again and I wouldn't recommend them. Although, that is my personal taste - so if you like Apple Sourz then these Danish' are for you!

Once again its a pretty fool proof recipe..

1) Pull the corner of the red label down to the left.

2) The can will open itself, then twist the can to remove the dough.

3) Unroll the dough and separate into pieces where perforated. 

4)Fold two opposite corners into the centre of the pastry overlapping the points by approximately 1cm.

5) Press down firmly to seal and prick wit a fork to secure their folded shape when baked.

6) Place 1 tsp of the apple filling on top of the forked area.

7) Place on the middle shelf of the oven and bake for 12-14 mins or until golden brown.

For a deeper golden colour, brush dough with lightly beaten egg before adding the fruit filling.

For icing, simply mix 4 tbsp of icing sugar with 2 tsp of water and stir well to separate any sugar lumps, allow Danish to cool, slightly drizzle the on top and enjoy! 

Sarahs Tip

As you can see, some of the apple sauce spilled onto the tray, so I just spooned it back onto the Danish. Im pretty sure it spilled over because I didn't press down hard enough - so the pastry really puffed up! Oops!

Three Tiered Birthday Cake

My blog has been pretty quiet for a while now and its all due to a cake I made in February. I haven't done ANY baking since and I've only now gotten round to writing about it. A colleague of mine asked me to make a birthday cake for his wife and I thought 'Sure! That will be fine! Its not that hard to make a birthday cake!' Oh how wrong was I. The cake had four specifications and it had to be:

- A 3 tiered sponge cake
- The top tier had to be a love heart
- It had to be adorned with sugar flowers
- It had to say 'Happy Birthday Tina'

The rest was up to me and here is the final product....

I was exhausted when I finished this cake. So much time and love went into creating it. In total it took me over 2 months to prep, constant colour scheme changes, various chats with one of my colleagues who loves baking and various trips to my local baking shop for tips and ideas!

I had also made my grandads 80th cake the week prior, so for never doing anything like this before, I had really jumped in head first. Just like my grandads 80th cake, I started off with deciding a theme. I have never met this lady and I don't know her personality, so I kept to white icing and pastel colours. Nothing too bold. For the ribbon I went for a pastel green colour, shrinking in size with each layer. Deciding on the colours of the pastels and the ribbon did take quite a long time, as trying to match what powders I could buy, varying size in ribbons and lettering was quite time consuming.

Next my attention turned to the sponge cake. I tried and tested various sponge cake recipes from Mary Berry to Good Food to other baking bloggers views from the depths of the internet in order to achieve which recipe best suited each layer. Each layer was a different size with different cooking times which caused quite a few disasters! I tried to cook the bottom layer as an all in one and then cut it in half. However I found the cake quite dense and stank of egg. So after many and various attempts, once again, Jane Asher's Easy Celebration Cakes book comes to the rescue!

I decided to cook the bottom layer as 2 separate sponges. This method meant the sponge was well risen and light, something that was not guaranteed with the all in one method and most certainly didn't reek of egg! Using the same amount of mixture, for one of the bottom layers, the middle layer was an all in one method in a deep tin. Once cooked, the sponge was cut in half to create the 2 layers. Having a deep tin for the middle layer meant that it had a really good rise. Finally, the top tier only required half of the mixture of one of the bottom layers.

For The Sponge

Ingredients for one sponge:

125g Butter
125g Self Raising Flour
125g Caster Sugar
2 Eggs
1 Teaspoon Baking Powder

1) Preheat oven to gas mark 4/180c/fan assisted 160c. 

2) For the first layer of the bottom tier (9 inch tin), grease and line the tin. Put all the ingredients into a food processor or bowl and mix with a wooden spoon - or process on high speed - for about 2 minutes, or until smooth. Pour the mixture into the tin.

3) Cook for approx 25/30 mins. Definitely keep an eye on it from the 20 mins mark. It may only need 25 mins or it could need 35 mins. Once cooked, place on wire wrack to cool.

4) For the middle tier, grease and line the tin and using the same amount of sponge mixture again,  repeat stage 2 and 3. Once cooled, cut the cake in half using a cake slicer.

5) For the second bottom tier (9 inch tin) grease and line the tin and using the same amount of sponge mixture again, repeat stage 2 and 3.

6) For the top love heart tier, grease and line the tin. Half all the ingredients and repeat stage 2 and 3. Be careful not to overfill the tin with mixture- only go to about half way, you will have mixture left over. Even though the tin is considerably smaller, it still needed at least 20 mins in the oven for me - if ever in doubt use a metal poker and place it in the cake, if it comes out clean then its ready. Once cooled, cut the cake in half with a cake slicer.

Now you have your required sponge cakes.

For the Butter Cream

4) Put the butter into a bowl with the milk and mix together. Beat in the sifted icing sugar a little at a time, until the mixture is light and creamy. You can store this in an airtight container in the fridge until needed.Bring to room temperature before using.

6) Spread the butter cream on the bottom layer and then top with jam. Gently place the top layer onto the bottom layer and cover the top and sides in butter cream. Repeat with the middle and top layer. Leave to set - I left mine over night in a cold room.

Assembly

7) Take the butter creamed sponges out of the cold room and let them slightly warm up to room temperature. For the royal icing, I used ready rolled icing from Dr Oetker - my preferred ready rolled icing. Unroll the icing very gently and using a rolling pin, lift it up and gently place it down on the cake. Using your hands smooth down the sides fixing the icing into place. I used an icing smoother/polisher to achieve the sharp clean sides and top, gently apply pressure and work your way around the cake.  Once satisfied, cut around the bottom of your cake. Repeat with the middle layer and top layer.

8) Gently place each tier on top of the other and place a ribbon around the edge. Fasten at the back with pins, gently pushing them into the cake. Try and get the pins in a nice neat line going down the middle back of the cake.

Decoration

9) Time to decorate. Obviously decorate the cake in which ever way you want. But I started with the 'Happy Birthday Tina' lettering on the middle layer. I cannot pipe at all, so using plastic letters was the next available option. I bought mine from Cake Craft World. Using edible glue, I glued each letter to the cake. I started with 'Birthday' as that was the focal point in the middle of the cake, once I had that glued down I moved onto 'Happy' and 'Tina'. These are definitely fiddly but with some patience I got there.

10) Next was the sugar flowers. Cut off some paste and using a small rolling pin, roll it out. It should be unbelievably thin to the point you can see through it. Using various moulds and cutters, mould your flowers. I used moulds for the Hydrangea flowers and Petunia flowers. You can get them easily online or down your local baking shop.

11) For the moulds, once the paste has been rolled out, using the cutter, cut the flower out, place it onto the mould and press the mould together. Voilà, you have a flower! It really is as simple as that and you don't have to be arty farty to do this!

12) Place the flower onto a foam pad, to allow it to get some body and shape. Once dried, colour your flowers. I used powder for mine. Don't forget, if your making flowers, you NEED to make leaves! Otherwise the cake looks really odd! Plus the leaves bring in extra colour and more dimensions. For this cake I made lots and lots of flowers/leaves as I wanted to be able to pick and chose flowers on the day, plus you have extra if there are any breakages. I think I broke around 5 on the day, which wasn't many, but having so many flowers and leaves prepared really took the stress off.

I used cream coloured paste as the plain white paste is really quite stark. The sugar flowers started at the top right of the cake, along with a butterfly and swirled round to the bottom. Once again, I used edible glue to stick the flours to the cake. Sticking them to ribbon is quite hard, you have to hold the flowers there for quite some time.

Once you have the flowers attached, your cake is done! Time for  a cup of tea!

Im so very proud of myself for making this cake. Im not a particularly creative or arty person so I was genuinely surprised at myself!! Although, for a number of days afterwards I told my family and colleagues that I am not baking anything for a while! It has totally put me off!! Which is true It has been over a month since I've baked anything.I am thinking about getting back into baking especially with Easter arriving soon! Who knows, watch this space...

Sarah's Tips

It took me 2 days to make this cake, so don't do this in a rush. The first day consisted of making all the sponges, smothering them in butter cream and jam and then allowing them to set over night. Just baking the sponges took a crazy amount of time to do! The second day consisted of placing on the royal icing and decorations.

On the third day I transported the cake to work. I put it in the foot-well of the passenger side of my car, in a cake box (buy these at your local baking shop) and wrapped a blanket around it. I also took a spare butterfly, flowers, leaves, a paintbrush and some glue, just in-case anything broke on the journey. Thankfully the cake was totally intact!

Have everything absolutely ready. While my first sponge was in the oven, I weighed out everything else for the other 3 sponges! That way I wasn't wasting time constantly re-weighing everything. I also started making the mixture just as the previous sponge in the oven was nearly done, so when that sponge came out the oven another tin went in!

If you are wondering why I baked 1 sponge for the bottom layer, then the middle and then the second sponge for the bottom layer. It was all about time, while the middle sponge was in the oven, I was washing up the bottom layer tin.

If you are struggling to cut your sponge in half with the cake slicer - using the imprint from the slicer, take a bread knife, slice a few centimetres in to get you started, then continue with the cake slicer

For those of you who have a ThermaPen, the correct temperature for a cooked sponge cake is 95 to 98 degrees. You cannot test it when the sponge is still in the oven or by the oven door, you need to move it completely away to get an accurate reading.

If your sponge cake, particularly the heart tier, looks somewhat volcanic, no worries, just cut the top of the sponge off until its nice and flat.

I found on my trial run, the top heart shape tier wasn't so heart shape looking. So using a knife I cut a bigger 'V' into the top of the heart.

Once I had done the butter cream, I put all the sponges into my cold conservatory overnight. This allows the butter cream to harden and set, making it more likely to stick to the royal icing without moving around too much.

Don't worry if your royal icing looks messy around the bottom - the ribbon will hide it!
Equally, if you have any blemishes with the icing, don't place that section as the back of the cake! I accidentally tore some of my icing so I placed that section to the right hand side and covered with flowers! They'll never know!

Which brings me to cut your nails! I nicked my icing with my nails on my grandads 80th cake. So for this cake I cut my nails really short so I couldn't tear the icing!

Put the cake layers on top of each other BEFORE you put on the ribbon and let it sit there for 10 mins. I didn't do this, I put my ribbon on each individual layer and then stacked the sponges... this meant my cake had a slight muffin top!!!

You can make the sugar flowers up to 2 months in advance - keep them in a container, however air must be able to get in. Do not put them in an airtight container as it will cause them to go soft - the total opposite of what you want to happen! I made my flowers within 2 weeks or so prior to the day the cake was made. I also made a surplus amount so when I was decorating the cake I had a choice - plus I broke about 5 flowers on the day, so its always good to have spares! When choosing the theme and colour scheme for the flowers, play around with the different coloured powders. I used more than 1 colour/shade on each flower/leaf and extra sparkles.

Do a full trial run! You need to work out the theme, colour scheme, sponge sizes, sponge cooking times etc. It is incredibly time consuming so leave yourself a lot of time and a chance to to a whole trial run!!!

Grandad's 80th Birthday cake.

So it was my grandads 80th birthday last week and I was asked to make the cake. As terrified as I was at the time, I said yes! I was very excited and yet nervous because I wanted it to be absolutely perfect.

The first thing I did was was pick a theme. I knew about 10 to 15 people were going and the biggest tin I have is a 10 inch circular cake - so that saved the debate on round or square. I wanted to keep it somewhat simple so this was not going to be multiple tiers! Just the one cake will do! Then came the colour scheme, I went for silvers and royal blue plus anything sparkly! I didn't want the cake to be overcrowded so I opted for a cake topper, 'Happy Birthday' writing and of-course the necessary candles. My grandad doesn't drink so no small bottles of champagne were going to appear on this cake! It was going to be simple yet effective and I'd like to think it was!

My friend kindly gave me Jane Asher's 'Easy Celebration Cakes' for Christmas and oh my god, it has been a godsend!! Both the sponge recipe and the butter cream recipe  come from the book and from now on I will always use the butter cream recipe. It is the best one I have tried so far.

Sponge Recipe 

375g Soft Butter
375g Caster Sugar
375 Self Raising Flour
5 Eggs
3 Teaspoons Baking Powder

Butter Cream Recipe

200g Butter
1 Tablespoon Milk
300g Icing Sugar, Sifted

1) Preheat oven togas mark 4/180c/fan assisted 160c. Grease and line the single 10 inch tin.

2) Put all the ingredients into a food processor or bowl and mix with a wooden spoon - or process on high speed - for about 2 minutes, or until smooth. Pour the mixture into the tin.

3) Cook for approx 1 hours 15 mins until golden brown and coming away from tin.Once cooked, place on wire wrack to cool.

For the Butter Cream

4) Put the butter into a bowl with the milk and mix together. Beat in the sifted icing sugar a little at a time, until the mixture is light and creamy. You can store this in an airtight container in the fridge until needed.Bring to room temperature before using.

Assembly

5) Take the single sponge and cut it in half to make 2 sponges. If need be trim the top of the cake to make it even - if needed. Now you have your sponge and butter cream.

6) Spread the butter cream on the bottom layer and then top with jam. Gently place the top layer onto the bottom layer and cover the top and sides in butter cream. Leave to set - I left mine over night in a cold room.

7) For the royal icing, I used ready rolled - preferably Dr Oetker. I tried the Tesco own rolled icing and it was much thinner and tore a lot easier. Even though the Dr Oetker ready rolled icing is £3.80 a pop, I would never use anything else. It is really good quality royal icing. Unroll the icing very gently and using a rolling pin, lift it up and gently place it down on the cake. Using your hands smooth down the sides fixing the icing into place. I used an icing smoother/polisher to achieve the sharp clean sides and top, gently apply pressure and work your way around the cake.  Once satisfied, cut around the bottom of your cake.

8) Time to decorate. I placed a royal blue ribbon around the bottom which instantly started transforming the cake. Next I placed the cake topper in the middle towards the back. This enabled me to place the writing in a crescent moon shape with an '8' and a '0' candles in the middle. I topped it off with a sparkler each side.

I don't have any pictures of the actual cake on the day - as I was the one who presented it. However I do have pictures of my trial run cake - which looked exactly the same except for the 80 candle - they were old ones we had in the cupboard. For the actual cake, we bought new blue sparkly candles!

The picture directly above is the actual cake on the day - as you can see - much better '80' candles!! We also put on a few other blue candles around the edge. The sparklers worked really well - one each side was enough  as they were quite powerful!

Sarahs Tips
Both the sponge mix and butter cream mix will change colour when ready. They will both change to a much lighter colour so keep mixing until you achieve that.
I used a cake cuter to cut the cake in half - an absolute essential to achieve the perfect cut. I borrowed mine from a friend but you can easily buy them in stores or online. They're like a giant cheese cutter!
I used a whole jar of jam for the centre.
When covering the cake do not go mad on the butter cream -a light covering will do. If you put too much butter cream on, you will have a very hard time with the royal icing - trust me.
Don't worry if your royal icing doesn't look so neat around the bottom when you've cut it, just use a ribbon to hide it!
If your royal icing tears then gently apply pressure and stick it back together - use a little bit of water if needed as a glueing agent. Then very gently with your finger stroke the tear until it is smooth.
A cake topper is a fantastic item to transform your cake! I bought mine online from Icing On The Cake at http://caketoppersonline.net/ The cake topper was absolutely beautiful and handmade by a lady called Alison. Once placed into the cake you can then spread out the stars as you wish - giving the topper some body.

Most importantly, the best advice I can given is DO A TRIAL RUN! I have never cooked a 10 inch cake before - the first time I cooked the sponge for the trial run it was a total disaster - it sank in the middle!! It sank quite badly and it had an egg stench - Jane Asher's recipe suggested 6 medium eggs, so for my second trial run I decided to only put in 5 eggs which worked - the cake stayed risen.

My second issue was the royal icing. I have had a lot of practice recently with royal icing - the Christmas cake and a three tiered birthday cake (which will be my next post) and for those cakes it was successful...however for this cake it went a little wrong!!! I put on too much butter cream. And then some of the icing tore and thinned out and then my fingernail nicked a bit of the icing and every time I tried to patch up the icing more butter cream spilled out. I got a little bit stressed out...and had to leave the room for a breather. I wanted the icing perfect  and it wasn't going that way... When I came back my dad did his best plastering techniques on the cake and actually fixed the hole. Eventually with the both of us, the icing looked respectable. Thank goodness the ribbon was quite thick! It hid a few blemishes!

A trial run lets you play around with colours and themes. I decided to use sparklers - on the trial run we lit one and realised they were quite powerful so one each side would do. Plus these sparklers had been in the cupboard for quite some time and had gotten damp so they took forever to light, so new sparklers were needed. I bought my ones from my local baking shop and they were totally safe for cakes.

I cannot pipe to save my life. So for the lettering I used small plastic letters. They're fantastic for for anyone who like me, can't pipe. They give a really professional finish with minimal effort. Just arrange them as you wish and using edible glue stick them to your cake! I got mine online from Cake Craft World :  http://www.cakecraftworld.co.uk/shop/products/id/cbp51.htm

Im pretty sure my grandad was really pleased with his cake! I must admit it did taste pretty good. You can't go wrong with a good sponge cake!

Jus-Rol Cinnamon Swirls

I can be such a lazy baker. Ever since being introduced to Jus-Rol baking products I have fallen in love with them... and my laziness has reached a whole new level. Last time I made their chocolate croissants, this time its the turn for cinnamon swirls! I LOVE CINNAMON SWIRLS. And my laziness is so great I didn't even cut the dough... my mum did! All I did was arrange them on the tray and then make the icing.

You literally cannot go wrong with this recipe...Simple, easy and delicious. They even provide the little pot of icing sugar for you! I've decided from now on I will stock these DIY cinnamon swirls in my fridge, they are so quick and easy to make and perfect for those days when unexpected friends drop in. 20 mins later you will have warm and yummy cinnamon swirls fresh from the oven, sitting on the table for your guests to enjoy. A new firm favourite for me.

1) Preheat the oven to 200c or 180c for fan/gas mark 6. Line a baking tray with non-stick baking parchment. Pull the corner of the red label down.

2) The can will open itself, then twist the can to remove the dough.

3) Using a knife, slice the rolled dough into 6 equal slices.

4) Place the slices on a tray lined with non-stick baking paper.

5) Place on the middle shelf of the oven and bake for 11 - 14 minutes or until golden brown.For a glossy appearance slightly warm 2 tablespoons of apricot jam and brush on top of freshly baked swirls, allow to cool slightly, then drizzle the icing on top and enjoy.

Icing Preparation

1) Empty the pot with icing sugar into a bowl, add 1 to 1 1/2 teaspoons of water, stir well to separate any sugar lumps. 

2) Allow cinnamon swirls to cool slightly, then drizzle the icing on top. 

I cannot give you any tips on this recipe...you really can't go wrong with it!!! So Enjoy!!

Sultana Scone Ring

On the 11th January I posted my New Years baking resolutions. I am glad to say I am still keeping it up through the help of Paul Hollywood's British Baking. The first bake was from the South East of England and was delicious Kentish Huffkin Rolls.

The next stop on my bake around Britain of course had to be Scotland. 25th January is Burns Night (I only remember the date because its exactly a month after Christmas) and my mums side of the family are Scottish, so what more of an excuse to chose Scotland was there?! My mum already had dinner sorted, so I started flicking through the recipe section for Scotland and tried to find a nice quick and easy afternoon treat.  I stopped at the Sultana Scone Ring and thought 'Yep, you'll do!'

Now this is truly delicious with a spread of butter and a cup of tea. A perfect afternoon treat leading up to The Burns Night Supper. Slightly cooled once taken out of the oven but still warm enough to melt the butter. This will make anyone feel happy and warm on a winters day.

Paul says 'Scone rings are traditional in Scotland and the North. In the past they would have been made from oatmeal or barley, both of which thrive in Scotland. Shaped into a round and marked into triangles for baking, these scones retain moisture well and are particularly soft and fluffy when pulled apart.'

Recipe

250g Strong White Bread Flour
A Pinch of Salt
40g Unsalted Butter
40g Caster Sugar
60g Sultanas
1 Medium Egg, Plus 1 Egg To Glaze
2 Tsp Baking Powder
125ml Milk

1) Heat the oven to 220c/gas 7/fan 210c . Line a baking tray with baking parchment.

2) Put 225g of the flour into a bowl with the salt. Add the butter and rub it in with your fingertips until the mixture resembles breadcrumbs. Add the sugar, sultanas, egg and baking powder and mix gently with a wooden spoon.

3) Add half the milk and keep turning the mixture gently to combine. Add the remaining milk a little at a time, bringing everything together to form a very soft dough. You might not need all the milk.

4) Dust a work surface with the most of the remaining 25g flour. Tip the dough out onto it and sprinkle the rest of the flour on top. The mixture will be wet and sticky. Fold the dough in half, then turn it 90 degrees and repeat. Do this a few times until the remaining flour is all incorporated and you have a smooth dough. It will also introduce air into the mixture, which will make the scones light. If the mixture is too sticky to handle, dust your hands with flour. Try not to overwork the dough.

5) Form the dough into a rough circle about 2.5cm thick and lift it onto the lined baking tray. Mark it into 8 triangles, cutting deeply through the dough so the knife touches the baking tray.

6) Brush the top of the dough with beaten egg to glaze and bake for 20 mins, until the scones have risen and golden brown.

Sarahs Tips

The salt really does lift the flavour of the scone ring so don't leave it out!

I didn't use all my milk - add a little at a time as you can't take it back.

I had absolutely no problem kneading the dough on my work surface. It wasn't overly sticky or wet (be careful with the milk), so if you follow the recipe you should be fine.

Paul recommends that if you have a fan oven then to reduce the temperature about 10 to 15 degrees - I put my oven to 210 degrees.

My scone ring isn't a perfect circle but I don't care - it enhances its rustic charm!

Don't be scared cutting into the dough to make the eight sections - really go for it! It joins back up when baking but still creates the 8 sections.

I think I should have left my scone ring in the oven for a few minutes longer but due to the egg wash, it turns the dough quite dark. Don't feel intimidated about the dark colour - otherwise you might take it out of the oven too early - leave it in there, it is not burnt!