Decorating the Christmas cake

Once your cake is done, it is time to decorate it. And as it is Christmas Eve now is the time! 

Cover in apricot jam and then roll out on a surface covered in icing sugar around 500g marzipan.

Then drape over cake and smooth

Then roll out a layer of fondant icing (around 750g) again on a surface covered in icing sugar. The drape over the cake and smooth.

Once you have done this, decorate as you wish. I went for something quite minimalist and piped a simple decoration with a white water icing, but obviously you can go much bigger! 

MERRY CHRISTMAS!!!

 

Christmas Cake: Round 2

My own Christmas cake recipe which I did last year but with some improvements which should make it better than ever.

Ingredients:

500g Raisins
400g Sultanas
125g Cranberries
110g Glace Cherries
120g Mixed Peel
120ml Limencello (you can use sherry/brandy if you prefer)
225g Butter
195g Brown Sugar
Zest of 2 oranges
4 eggs
2 tbsps Orange Marmalade
295g Plain Flour
55g Ground Almonds
1 tsp Almond Essence
1 tsp Nutmeg
1 tsp Mixed Spice
1/2 tsp Cinnamon

Method:
1. Put all your dried fruit into a bowl, pour the limoncello over the top, cover and leave to soak for about an hour.

2. Preheat your oven to 150 degrees / gas mark

3. And line your tin. Now this is more complicated than it sounds... Wrap brown paper around the outside of the tin so it stands above the top of the tin by 10cm, secure with string wrapped around it. Then line the tin as normal with butter and baking paper.

4.Cream the butter and sugar together.

5.Beat in the orange zest

6. Add the eggs one at a time, beating well after each one, and then the marmalade.

7. Mix the dry ingredients together and add to the creamed mixture alternately with the dried fruit until all is combined.

8. Add the almond essence and mix thoroughly.

9. Put the cake mix into the cake tin and bake for about 3/3.5 hours or until a skewer comes out clean. If your oven is quite savage, like mine, I would advise making a hat for your cake out of tin foil to prevent the top from burning.

10. When the cake is finished wrap in foil and put into a tin immediately to cool so that the steam is trapped and keeps the cake moist on the top.

11. Then re-wrap in tinfoil, (don't cover the top this time) and return to the tin.

12. You will need to "feed" your cake with a liqueur of choice regularly in order to preserve the cake and add extra flavor.

And with that, good luck! 

Halloween Monster 18th!!

Earlier this week it was my friend Mimi's 18th birthday and I was asked to make the cake for her party which was on Halloween.

After much dithering and planning and deciding, we chose a monster cake and this is how we did it... 

All you need is one Victoria sponge and one load of buttercream in a colour of your choice. You then need a Wilton tip #233 pipons nozzle or a grass nozzle and some piping bags. 

Once you have made your buttercream, sandwich your sponges togother and cover the whole lot in a thin layer of icing. 

Then begin piping. You can either do short sharp bursts against the cake or if you just squeeze and go in random motions from  above to create a crazy hair like creation. You can do this anyway you want and depending on how stiff your buttercream is you might find different techniques to work better. 

For the eyes of your monster you can either just do roll out icing which we used for the mouths and the eyes of the smaller monster or you can do what we did and use cake pops... 

Make one batch of cake pops and cover in roll out icing. We found the best way to do this was to wrap the cake in roll out icing, then smooth with a damp finger. Then roll in icing sugar and the palms of your hands so it becomes a smooth ball. 

Then using black writing icing, draw on the pupils. 

Using cake pop sticks attach the eyes to your cake and add any other features using fondant icing. 

Then you are done! 

 

Happy Baking!
Gx

Coffee in Covent Garden

Peyton and Byrne in Covent Garden is a lovely place for tea and cake and this is what it was like.

Look how much cake they have! But it was first thing in the morning so I decided instead to have one of their blueberry and yogurt muffins. 

Next time you are in the Covent Garden area be sure to check it out. 

Halloween Cake Pops

With Halloween in a couple of days I wanted to create some easy but delicious treats that one could serve at a party or just for fun.

The basic recipe is for caramel cake pops then decorated into pumpkins, you could also design them to be eyeballs, ghosts or other such like depending on what you have.I have always associated caramel with autumn as it is such a warming flavor.

Ingredients: (for 20 cake pops)
60g caster sugar
60g butter
1 egg
60g self raising flour
1 tsp caramel flavoring (just for ease)

Preheat the oven to 180 degrees fan.

Cream the butter and sugar together.

Mix in a bit of the egg, then a bit of flour, then a bit of, then a bit of flour until all the egg is gone and there is half of the flour remaining.

Add the flavoring and mix.

Fold in the remainder of the flour, get as much air as possible in to the mixture.

Grease your cake pop tin and fill the bottom half of the mold with cake mix.

Put the lid on the cake pop tin and bake for 10 minutes so that they fill the tin.

Then leave to cool.

For decoration:
4 tablespoons Icing Sugar
1 tablespoon water
Orange gel coloring- to effect
Orange sugar crystals
Mixed peel
Green food coloring

Mix the water, sugar and coloring together so that it is thick paste. Pour over the cake pops and then cover in the sugar crystals.

For the stalk I used a piece of mixed peel which I painted green with food coloring. 

Happy Baking and Happy Halloween!

Gx

Top 5 Baking Books to Swear by....

This is a post I have wanted to do for a while but never got round to actually doing.... sorry about that.... Better late than never?

Although I make up my own recipes there is nothing I love more (other than the actual cake of course) than a good baking bible. So, whether you are looking to start a collection or just have the urge to buy more here are my favorites....

5. John Whaite Bakes by John Whaite

Most of you will know him as that guy that won Bake Off a few years ago. Well, this is the first of his currently two baking books. This is a book full of fun and simple recipes which often have a twist on an old classic. The only thing I don't like about it is the way it is organised; mood... It just doesn't make sense to me... but perhaps that is just me...

http://www.waterstones.com/waterstonesweb/products/linda+collister/the+great+british+bake+off3a+how+to+turn+everyday+bakes+into+showstoppers/8782849/

4. The Great British Bake Off: How to turn Everyday Bakes into Showstoppers by Linda Collins, Mary Berry and Paul Hollywood

For the novices among us this book could save you. Taking you slowly by the hand it gives you one basic recipe and then builds it up through three recipes until you reach the showstopper level. This is frankly, I think,amazing. Even if you're not a beginner this can give the perfect inspiration. 

http://www.waterstones.com/waterstonesweb/products/linda+collister/the+great+british+bake+off3a+how+to+turn+everyday+bakes+into+showstoppers/8782849/

3. Annie Bell's Baking Bible by Annie Bell

This was the first cookery book I bought with my own money and to be honest it is still heavily relied upon. If you look right back to the first blog posts in 2012 (what?!) I mention it constantly and I still think it is great. There are bakes which I have never heard of before but the recipes are written simply and clearly so that it is almost impossible to go wrong. Ignore the red velvet cake meat fiasco..... (if you want to see it you can find it....) 

http://www.waterstones.com/waterstonesweb/products/annie+bell/annie+bell27s+baking+bible/9180387/

2. The Penguin Cookery Book by Bee Nilson

It was published originally in 1952. Yep 1952. My edition is from 1973 but still, it's old. This book provides 995 recipes, not all of them baking, which are all gold. They are foolproof and fabulous and everyone needs one in their life. 

http://www.amazon.co.uk/The-Penguin-Cookery-Book-handbook/dp/0140460179

1. How to be a Domestic Goddess by Nigella Lawson

If you haven't heard of this book I don't know where you have been. This should be staple in any home and if you are going to buy one baking book it should be this one. I love this book so much and many of the recipes in it have often inspired my own, my Lemon Drizzle recipe was based on this one for example. Lovely Nigella covers every single base so that by the end of that book you should be able to bake anything. Yes anything. 

http://www.waterstones.com/waterstonesweb/products/nigella+lawson/how+to+be+a+domestic+goddess/10348756/

Well those are my favorites, I hope this has inspired you too shop or to bake because let's face it those are two of the best things to do in the world. Leave a comment telling me any book I have left off but other than that...

Happy Baking!

Gx

Back to School Series: Granola Bites

Now coming back to school means that I tend to eat more biscuits... if that is even possible. And trying to come across healthy biscuit/cereal bars is very difficult. HOWEVER, in Tesco they sell these things called "Seedy, Crispy, Nutty Bites" or something along those lines.

But they are ridiculously expensive for something so small and cheap to produce, thus I had to recreate them with my own little twist.

Ingredients:
100g raisins/sultanas
120g rolled oats
40g brown sugar
150g chopped mixed nuts
25g sunflower seeds
1 tbsp poppy seeds
20g desiccated coconut
115g butter
60g honey
60g golden syrup

Method:
1. Preheat the oven to 180 degrees Celsius
2. Heat the syrup, honey, sugar and butter in a pan

3. Mix all the dry ingredients in a bowl and pour the melted mixture in to the bowl and combine. If the mixture doesn't look dense enough add a tbsp more oats.

4. Shape the mixture into small balls and place on a greased tray.

5. Bake for around 8 minutes and leave to cool.
6. Allow to cool and then remove from tray.

Now, I would have a beautiful array of pictures of the end product but unfortunately there were some technical difficulties...

Anyway, although these aren't the most healthy snacks in the world, they are better for you than chocolate chip cookies so to me they are the epitome of health.

Until next time,

Gracie x

Back to School Series - New year round 2?

We are coming into a new school year, my final school year - weep, and this is the time for change and self-improvement. The second chance for all of us who have clearly failed our New Years resolutions. Remember those from January? Yeah thought not...

 Back in January I was going to run more, drink more water and be super organised with work and go to bed earlier each night. Guess how long that lasted? Approximately until the evening of January 1st when it reached midnight and I was still watching YouTube videos rather than sleeping.

For round two I am going to set myself the challenge with a deadline of sorts and a step I have taken to achieve it. I am hoping that this is a bit more effective than the random declaration "I WILL EAT MORE FRUIT" which poses the question- but how?

So let's go. New Years resolutions round 2:

Run more

I have new trainers which fit so I am hoping that this will act as a form of encouragement... Hopefully... 

By the 1st November I will have run 24 times.<- gaaaah scary 

Be in bed at 10 every single school night

I have set a timer so that my phone, iPod and laptop will turn off at 10 so that I will only be able to read and will be forced to avoid screens!

Stay organised

Normally at this point in the academic year I decide that I will do every piece of work when it is set and that will be that. This never lasts and so I have gone for a more open option which I hope will be helpful.

Blog more

I don't use this enough. This is mainly down to the fact that there is not enough time in the world to do both bake and blog. But to remedy this I am going to do a few more posts and this is the start of my back to school series over this week and next. So stay tuned for that.

Anyway- if you are going back to school, good luck you will be awesome and if it doesn't go as planned- just eat cake.

Grace x

Banana Muffins

We had three bananas just wasting a way on our counter so I was requested to put them to use as they reached the point when no one wanted to eat them. So muffins were the answer- I have slightly edited a Nigella Lawson to suit the quantities I had and the way that I wanted them. 

115g grams butter (melted)
325 grams self-raising flour
1 1/2 teaspoon baking powder
3/4 teaspoon bicarbonate of soda
1 pinch of salt
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
3/4 teaspoon ground nutmeg
175 grams caster sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 1/2 teaspoon honey
3 large bananas 
3 medium eggs
190 ml milk
30g oat

Preheat oven to 190c

Leave melted butter to cool

Mash the bananas well

Sift the flour, baking powder, bicarbonate of soda, salt, oats, cinnamon and nutmeg into a bowl. Add the sugar and mix well. In a second bowl, with a folk, beat together the eggs, vanilla extract, honey, butter and milk.

Add the bananas to the egg mixture and stir.

Make a well in the dry mixture and add the egg mixture. Stir roughly with a folk. (Don't stir too much - its meant to be thick and lumpy!)

Grease a muffin/cake tin well and fill each space with the mixture. 

Put in the over for 20-25 minutes.

Once golden brown and firm remove from oven leave to cool for 5 minutes in the tin and then 5 minutes on a wire rack.

Brush some honey over the top and sprinkle with oats. 

36 hours in Paris

Last week, I went to Paris with a friend.

We took the 08:30 train from London's St Pancras and arrived in Paris at noon. After a stressful run to the metro with our carnet in hand and a stifling journey, we made it to our hotel and dumped our bags. Then we hit the streets.

With our M&S lunches that we had bought in our country of origin we took the brief walk to the gardens beneath the Eiffel Tower and tried to get used to the idea that we had made it to Paris. We sat and ate in the glorious 25 degree sun, before getting up and having an aimless wander around.

In the process of our aimless wander we discovered "Les Invalides" and the army museum, which to be frank didn't interest us vastly, but nonetheless we went to see how much it would cost for us to see napolean's tomb which was supposed to be so impressive. After having to roughly translate what the lady behind the desk garbled in rapid french to us, we were handed our tickets for free!

So we wandered in to the church and we were met with this:

The biggest ass tomb I have ever seen, not that I have seen many tombs in my life but regardless this Napolean fellow clearly made a bigger impression than he was in size. 

Once we had decided that perhaps we had got the jist of the whole tomb thing we decided to check out "Le Pere Lachaise" Cemetery. Anyone else noticing a bit of a death theme to this day? So we hoped back on the metro and after a couple of rapid changes we arrived at the cemetery were Jim Morrison, Edith Piaf and Oscar Wilde are buried. It was impressive and strangely so.

After we had our death releated experiences, we thought we would check out Musee d'Orsay which has a lot of Degas' which I love and even though we researched it.... It was shut! So we sat out side the museum and soaked up the sun on the bank of the Seine. It was beautiful. 

We then decided to find something to eat and after sitting down in a cafe to be told that they weren't serving so after a couple of the most expensive Oranginas in the world we went to another cafe called Mucha Cafe. We ordered Omelette Complete which is basically a ham and cheese omelette and it was the biggest omelette I have ever eaten with probably 4 eggs in it and served with delicious chips. HEALTHY!

We then went back to the hotel for a little bit but we didn't stay there long as we wanted to see the Eiffel at night. After we had a couple of awful pictures taken of us by a Japanese family we were run at by a rat. A FAT BLACK RAT! It was disgusting. 

The next day we woke up early and as we didn't eat breakfast at the hotel we went to this lovely bakery and I had the nicest almond croissant that I have ever had. It was soft and sweet and almondy and delicious. 

We then headed back to the Eiffel tower to get on the Batobus but unfortunatly we were one hour early so we walked along the river in the baking morning sun. We passed lots of art and beautiful bridges and sculptures.

At the next Batobus station we were just in time and we got a day pass and got on the boat. Now, although the metro is considerably cheaper the boat is just a much more enjoyable experience. It takes you through the city rather than under it and with a day pass you can get on and off through out the day AND it stops at all the major attractions. Also in the sun and the heat with a breeze coming too it was were very nice. 

We got off the boat at the Notre Dame and before we looked at the actual cathedral we had a glance round the Shakespeare Book Company Shop which is basically a very nice old bookshop which sells English books in the centre of Paris. 

Then we moved over to the main reason you get off the boat then and that is of course the cathedral itself which we had a quick look round. We sat in the pews for a bit, listened to the choir and it was very relaxing.

We then walked over a lock bridge (not sure if it was the genuine article) and got back on the boat to take us to the Louvre.

Once we got to the Louvre we were told we could get in for free as we are under 18 EU citizens. So, WOOP WOOP! That was great and although neither of us were major art boffins we glanced around the gallery and looked at the Mona Lisa and decided we got the general idea. We also ate in the gallery cafe which was surprisingly affordable and not that busy. I had two mini salads and that was good enough for the 10 euros that I paid for them. 

So after the Louvre we walked up through the Jardins de Tulerries and made our way, very slowly with plenty of stops due to the heat, through the Champs Elysees and up to the Arc de Triomphe. 

We finished our long walk up to the arc and then got back on to the metro back to our hotel where we picked up our belongings and started our trip back to Gare de Nord. BUT, we had to make a quick stop over. 

A few years ago I went to Paris with school for the day and I discovered a chocolate shop which I had already seen in Barcelona and had loved, loved, loved, LOVED. So obviously, we had to go there as there are none, and I mean NONE, of these shops in the UK. 

The shop, La Cure Gourmande, is located at the bottom of the Sacre-Coeur on a very touristy shopping street even though the shop itself was not that busy. I am not ashamed to say that I bought three of their 100g Caramel chocolate bars for myself and then a few for my family. 

Once I had spent pretty much all of the rest of my money on very expensive (but delicious) chocolate we went and had a look around the Sacre-Coeur. It is at the top of the biggest hill in the world which is actually in the film Amelie and once we were at the top we didn't really wander round it but we just sat and absorbed the atmosphere which was very nice. 

As we had some time to kill before our train we sat on the hill in the sunshine before heading to find some food and although we had to avoid being sold beer, bracelets and Eiffel Tower key-rings by aggressive sales people it was nice to look over Paris in the afternoon sun. 

Finally, we went to the bottom of the same road as the chocolate shop and went in to a little cafe where we had crepes, because to be honest you should be legally obligated to have one when in France, with a side of pomme frites. No salad with that one.... oh well. 

Then we got back on the metro, just like to say that we are now queens of the metro, and got through security and then sat in the departure lounge watching "Julie and Julia" while we waited for our train. 

It was such a great trip and I really want to go back as I feel like we didn't see everything we could have done. Thank you Susy for putting up with me! Haha!

Anyway I know this isn't my normal blog post but it did feature food and I am trying to diversify the things I put on here. Let me know if you enjoyed reading about my adventures and back to a normal post next time. 

Grace x