33. Fill your boots – Filipino Lavender and Coconut Bibinkga Cake

Posted by aroundtheworldin80bakes in Around the World in Eighty Bakes, Baking, Food, The Great British Bake Off and tagged with Around the world, around the world in eighty bakes, baking, bibingka, burnt bibingka cake, cake, coconut, cooking, filippino, Great British Bake Off, how to make lavender sugar, lavender, MOCHIKO, over risen cake, philippines, Sugar, travelling 07/06/2012

Just to make life that little bit more difficult for my trip this month to the Clandestine Cake Club I insisted upon incorporating some international aroundtheworldin80bakes baking into the English Garden themed bake . Up for yet another challenge I searched for and discovered an unusual recipe for a cake I’ve never even heard of before! Bibinkga cake (also known as mochiko cake) from the Philippines. (Another country on my still to be visited list too).

Lavender & Coconut Bibingka

So I was aiming to create an experimental English country garden cake with an aroundtheworldin80bakes twist… Hence lavender and coconut Bibinkga cake. I won’t be shocked if you don’t know what a Bibingka cake is, in fact I am very impressed if you are familiar with this cake. I was very intrigued by the idea of baking a rice flour cake with condensed milk and sugar. The twist of lavender offered a nod to the traditional English country garden theme.

I was a bit nervous creating something so different for CCC as everyone brings such beautiful and wonderous cakes along. But I am the one who conjured up my own challenge and therefore I must stick to it. When there is a baking requirement I see an international baking opportunity! (Despite most of my friends and family’s preference for chocolate cake… )

Even with my aroundtheworldin80bakes dedication/obsession I still felt some trepidation and so baked the Bibinkga 2 days in advance… just in case of epic disasters. I must be psychic. I’m so pleased that I realised my own limitations and didn’t pin all of my hopes on this bake!

What goes into to Lavender and Coconut Bibingka Cake?

It was a fairly quick bake with a bit of whisking. Last year I made lavender shortbread (which I loved and gave to friends and family for Christmas). I learnt a really great way of introducing lavender to baking by infusing dried culinary lavender for a week or two in an airtight container filled with sugar. Just popping the lid of the sugar jar is a little breath of heaven when you’re making lavender sugar. This time round I still had some lavender stored up so infused the sugar for a week or so before baking this. It really does make all the difference as lavender can be a little too delicate to flavour a full cake.

Lavender Sugar – pre blitzing in all it’s infused glory

To ensure the sugar was REALLY lavendery and evenly distributed throughout, I threw couple of tablespoons of dried flowers into the sugar and after their infusion used my stick blender to blitz it all up together.

Frothing up nicely

This was really quite a quick bake and so the most effort required was for the whisking. I used my handheld electric whisk to whisk together the coconut milk, evaporated milk and melted butter. I whisked this up until it was a lovely creamy yellow colour and frothy, (and of course all up the walls in the kitchen) probably for around 5 minutes.

Then I whisked in the eggs, and whisked to incorporate as much air as possible.

Even Frothier

Still using my hand held whisk I added the lavender sugar and vanilla extract, and whisked it until it was a smooth runny batter. Then to gradually beat/whisk the rice flour into the batter. I added 1/2 cup at a time to attempt to avoid dreaded lumps and bumps.

After all that whisking, all that’s left to do is to pour the very fluid batter into a pre prepared grased and lined baking tin. I used a rectangluar roasting pan about 13cm by 9cm

Oven Ready Bibingka

With a generous sprinkle of dessicated coconut and a bit extra lavender for good luck the Bibingka cake was ready for a good baking for 45 mins at 190 degrees C (or 375 degrees F)

The recipe warned that the cake would look like it had risen and it wasn’t wrong. 20 minutes into the baking time there was no waft of cake floating from the oven nor any lavender perfume warming the air. Concerned, I checked the oven to discover I had created a balloon cake. One end dangerous puffed up with air and close to being frazzled whilst the other end lay calm and flat baking quietly.

Burnt Bibingka Balloon

When faced with a disproportionate cake inflation do you a) leave it alone, it may sort itself out? or b) open the oven and pop it with the closest thing to hand (usually a chopstick in my house). Being uncharacteristically sensible I did a) and now I really regret not popping the balloon with a chopstick.

Perhaps I whisked the batter into a frenzy and added too much air? I may have been a bit lazy just using the electric whisk for the entire cake creation process? Perhaps I should have folded in the flour rather than whisking it? The recipe did say that it would deflate after rising so I waited. And waited. And after 45minutes in the oven and a cooling off period. It STILL hasn’t deflated.

The final product

I clearly do not have the Bibingka skills! Once it had cooled I sliced it up into squares and had a little taste. God knows what I did wrong to this poor cake but it was utterly devoid of taste or fragrance. The complete opposite of my lavender shortbread which perfumed the entire house. It was rather dense, chewy and a bit on the greasy side for my liking. Perhaps I used the wrong type of rice flour? Perhaps it was the light coconut milk that I picked up by accident? Or perhaps my lavender had lost it’s oomph?!

Hollow on the inside, flat on the outside

Either way I couldn’t possibly take it to the Clandestine Cake Club in it’s lumpy, hollow and burnt state. Sometimes things go wrong in my kitchen, I’m not ashamed to admit it… it was fun experimenting all the same. It just meant I had some emergency baking to do and a new recipe to conjure up, quickly! Bring on the next challenge!

Things that I used to create Lavender and Coconut Bibingka Cake

2 cups rice flour
3/4 cup coconut milk (about half a can)
3/4 cup evaporated milk (about half a can)
1/2 stick of butter (1/4 cup)
3 large eggs
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 tablespoon dried lavender
1/2 cup unsweetened shredded coconut
My Russian Doll measuring cups (every chance I get to use an American recipe!)
baking tin 13cm x 9cm
190 degrees C oven for 45minutes

I found this recipe over at Kensington Kitchen’s Wonderful Blog . Thank you for sharing and thank you very much for reading.

32. Moomins Love Berry and Cardamom Cake – Finland

Posted by aroundtheworldin80bakes in Around the World in Eighty Bakes, Baking, Food, The Great British Bake Off and tagged with around the world in eighty bakes, aroundtheworldin80bakes, baking, blueberries, bundt, cake, cardamon, cloves, cranberries, Finland, Finnish, Ginger, ground spices, ikea, lingdonberry, moomin cookbook, moomin love, pestle and mortar, semolina, spicy fruit cake 28/05/2012

I spotted the amazing Moomin Cookbook on my friend Jess’s shelf. Curious to discover what moomins eat I discovered this gorgeous recipe for lingdonberry and cardamom cake. It’s a traditional Finnish recipe, yet another country I am still yet to visit.

Unfortunately the only place I have seen lingdonberries is Ikea and that was in jam form so I substituted to the extreme using a combination of blueberries and dried cranberries.

The most time consuming part was grinding the cardamom pods ( I lost count of how many I smashed to produce 2tsp of ground cardamom) and the cloves. I have a feeling I was a bit over enthusiastic with the addition of cloves but it added a wonderfully Christmassy aroma to the kitchen (and the final cake).

grinding cardamon and cloves

After my pestle and mortar workout all that was left to do was mush up the berries, then beat all of the ingredients together in one bowl. Wonderfully quick and little mess too!

If I was in less of a hurry I would have used my stick blender to blitz the berries but as I was in a rush I just used the back of fork… Not the best way to mush up dried fruit. Perhaps I should have soaked the cranberries in juice beforehand.

The recipe called for a greased and dusted (with semolina) loose bottomed tart tin. I paid little attention to these directions and subsequently forgot to add a dusting of semolina to my tin. I also forgot to use the specified tin and ended up with making use of my favourite bundt tin (again!)

To compensate for the tin difference I baked the sponge for a slightly shorter period of time and when the skewer came out clean from the cake, I knew it was baked through.

This was so much quicker and non of the hassle of lining tins with greaseproof paper. I recently indulged in a can of baking spray to grease my cake tins with (or ‘quick release spray’) as it was half price and it makes such a difference. Very quick and easy to use. Perfect for when I’m in a hurry, which is most days. No buttery fingers produced either!

I was worried that the lack of semolina in my tin would mean the cake stuck but it simply slid out as soon as I turned tin over onto my cooling rack. Effortless baking. Just how I like it, which meant I could cook tea whilst whipping this cake up simultaneously. (I just can’t stop multitasking!)

It’s recommended that you leave the cake for a day to develop the favours. I successfully managed to resist cutting into it all night. However I was a little worried that the cloves might be a bit overpowering in this recipe, having never baked with cardamon before I wasn’t sure what to expect….

I loved the combination of the spices, the cloves definitely come through first with a tingly punch, while the cardamon and ginger add gentle undertones of warmth. It went well with the terrible weather we’ve been having in England recently, rain, rain and more rain along with snow in some places! But equally now the sun is shining I could merrily munch on a slice of berry and cardamon cake with a cup of tea. Spicy and fruity and moist. What could be better? No wonder the Moomins love Lingdonberry and cardamom cake!

Things I used to make Berry and Cardamon cake.

* 2tsp baking powder
* 250g brown sugar
* 250g plain flour
* 2tsp ground ginger
* 2tsp ground cloves
* 2tsp ground cardamom seeds
* 2tsp ground cinnamon
* 50g of blueberries (pureed/mushed) – if you can find lingdonberries just use 50 g of these as a puree)
* 10g dried cranberries (pureed/mushed)
* 200ml single cream
* 2eggs
* 90g melted butter

* One bundt tin
* One oven heated to 175 degrees c
* Bake for 1 hour or until cake is cooked all the way through

* This recipe was lovingly adapted from The Moomins Cookbook

30. Beautiful Bara Brith! Welsh Tea Loaf

Posted by aroundtheworldin80bakes in Around the World in Eighty Bakes, Baking, Cookery, Everday Cooking, Food, Fruit Cake, GBBO and tagged with 2lb loaf tin, around the world in 80 bakes, Bara Brith, black tea, dried fruit, freezing fruit loaf, self raising flour, tea loaf, tea soaked fruit, tea time treats, Wales, Welsh, wholemeal self raising flour 03/05/2012

Bara Brith!

My friend Dicky who I met on Twitter asked me if I was planning any Welsh bakes recently. I’ve been thinking about baking Welsh cakes for a little while and asked Dicky for his favourite Welsh baking recipes. He very kindly shared with me his Bara Brith recipe. This is a wonderful fruity tea loaf that’s feels so healthy I don’t feel any guilt in eating a slice or three… I absolutely loved this bake!

I was worried that I wouldn’t be able to find self-raising wholemeal flour as I’ve never noticed it before in the local shops, but lo and behold I found it in the first place I looked. The stars had most definitely aligned to help me create this Welsh classic.

Tea soaked fruit

I soaked my fruit in hot strong black tea overnight. I must admit I had to improvise with the dried fruit that I had in the cupboard. I used a combination of sultanas and dried pear. (And threw in a little extra for luck!)

Unfortunately my measuring jug doesn’t have a vast amount of detail on it so I also guessed a little as to how much 2 thirds of a pint of tea is. I did add a little more freshly brewed tea to the final loaf mix later on as the fruit absorbed most of it to get it to the right ‘dropping consistency’.

For an added oomph I splashed in a little lemon juice to the tea and fruit also. I was worried that I might forget to buy a lemon to add it’s zest to the batter. (However I did remember and think the lemon zest really helps to lift the flavour of the loaf.)

The remaining tea

After soaking the fruit in tea I strained the fruit and kept the remaining tea for future use.

Mixing in all the flour, spices, sugar and zest

I added the flour, spices, sugar, and egg to the fruit and mixed it all up along with the zest of one lemon.

The perfect dropping consistency

Then I gradually added the tea to the mix until it became a smooth and shiny fruit studded paste that drops slowly, but surely from the bowl when poured into the tin. Also known as the right dropping consistency.

I had prepared a loaf tin by thoroughly greasing and lining it with greaseproof paper.

Pre oven Bara Brith

Then all it required was some 45-55 minutes in the oven at 170 degrees C. When it is risen nicely and has turned a lovely golden brown colour, it will be firm to the touch. Then ta da! A perfect Bara Brith is born!!

Fresh from the oven Bara Brith

Dicky recommended eating it, once it has cooled, with lashings of butter and it is wonderful with a proper cup of tea. It’s a gently spicy sponge with plump and juicy tea soaked fruit. The wholemeal flour gives it a great texture too. What more could you need!

Bara Brith dressed in butter

I enjoyed it for breakfast but it would be wonderful at any time of day. I must confess we also ate it with custard and bananas for pudding one night too. 🙂 Delicious!!!

Naked Bara Brith

Thank you so much for sharing your recipe Dicky. This will definitely be one of my staple home bakes in the future. I think I might even bake some and freeze them for future use! Also if you would like to follow Dicky on twitter I recommend that you do, he’s a lovely guy, training to be a chef and always baking something amazing. You can find his profile here.

If you have an international recipe that you would like to suggest or send my way, please let me know. You can leave me a comment below if you like. Thanks you so much for reading and all your comments are gratefully received.

Naughty Bara Brith dressed in custard and bananas

Things that I used

One 2lb loaf tin

Preheated oven at 170 degrees C, 350F or Mark 4

10 oz (or 285g) mixed dried fruit (I added a bit more than this for luck probably around 12oz/300g)
2/3 pint hot tea (no milk)
3 oz (or 85g) soft brown sugar
grated rind of 1 lemon
12 oz (or 340g) self raising wholemeal flour
1 teaspoon mixed spice ( I am always rather on the generous side with spices so used 1tsp ginger, 1tsp cinnamon 1tsp allspice)
1 large egg ( I used a medium egg as it was all that I had in and it worked well)

29. Messy Macaroons – France

Posted by aroundtheworldin80bakes in Around the World in Eighty Bakes, Baking, BBC Good Food, Italy, The Great British Bake Off and tagged with Around the world, around the world in eighty bakes, baking, BBC, buttercream, can you freeze macaroons, cookery, cooking, Edd Kimber, Food, gossip girl, greaseproof paper, Great British Bake Off, Holly Bell, home baking, Hummingbird Bakery, icing, Japan, lemon curd, lemon macaroon recipe, lorraine pascale, macaron, Marguerite Patton, pistachio macaroons, Recipes from a normal mum, rose macarons, Sugar, technical challenge, the boy who bakes, The Great British Bake Off, travelling 20/04/2012

In Hiroshima, I spotted shop windows stylishly displaying towers of tantalisingly multicoloured circular sandwiches, of every colour in the rainbow. At this point, a couple of yearrs ago now, I had never even heard of Macaroons, let alone tasted one. I kept promising myself one, but with all the other amazing food I never got round to it! Returning home I realised I was macaroonless.

Hello Hiroshima

I then heard more and more about Macaroons, they were everywhere, from Gossip Girl to Lorraine Pascale. (Think Blair Waldorf eating an entire box of pistachio macaroons in the bath.) Then The Great British Bake Off with Edd Kimber’s fabulous macarons. The more I heard about them the more I wanted to try them. Newcastle is not the Macaroon (or macaron – you choose which spelling you prefer, English or French?) central of the world. However my Mam happened upon them in Betty’s Tea Room and bought me an entire box! How decadent and divine, so light and sweet. I sampled the lot, lemon, pistachio, chocolate and strawberry glossy and smooth macaroons filled with delicious jam and buttercream. They feel like something French aristocrats would enjoy on a daily basis.

Betty’s Tea Rooms Handmade Macaroons – note the glossy exterior, feet and lift!

I had to attempt them myself. They are a French invention, but it seems quite a few other countries have their own variation and have adopted them too. We used to make coconut macaroons with my Mam, but they are something entirely different. (But I have bought some rice paper to have a go myself soon…)

My Messy Macaroons

You can use the Italian meringue method (which uses hot sugar syrup to cook the egg whites before drying out the meringue in the oven. I used it to create my Key Lime Pie) or the French meringue method (where the raw meringue is cooked slowly in the oven) to make the macaroon shell. I opted for the French method, as it seemed easier! However upon further research the Italian method may be more tricky but it supposedly produces more consistent results. (Next time I’m up for experimenting a bit more with this!)

I learned a few things along the way when making these. They are quite technical and a bit tricky but essentially they are a meringue and like when I made pavlova and mini meringues they require ‘drying out’ or cooking in a low temperature oven.

I chose a classic macaroon recipe to follow and adapted it to suit the flavours that I had in my cupboard. Which meant that I ended up with pink lemon flavoured macaroons. This kind of messes with your mind a little.

Whisking the egg whites

I started by whisking the egg whites and a tablespoon of lemon juice with an electric mixer for quite some time until it becomes stiff. Then gradually whisked in the rest of the lemon zest and sugar until it was fully incorporated. I also added some powdered red food colouring at this point until I reached my desired pinkness. It’s probably best not to use liquid food colourings here as you don’t want to disturb the consistency of the egg whites too much… Runny egg whites make for one flat and merged meringue. (I should know I’ve already been there and done that.)

Adding the pinkness

It can take 10 minutes or so to whisk the egg whites until they are shiny. Then you known they’re ready for the ground almonds. Using a metal spoon I carefully folded in the ground almonds, so as to keep as much air in the meringue as possible.

I spooned the meringue paste into a piping bag with a plain round nozzle and piped freestyle. Some people like Holly Bell, who are far more prepared than me, use a template of equally spaced circles (or other shapes) under their greaseproof paper to pipe equal amounts onto the tray. I however was in a baking frenzy and choose to guess. Therefore my results are somewhat less than consistent. My piping was supposed to produce little delicate rounds of meringue onto the baking tray lined with grease proof paper. Occasionally little meringue peaks formed on my macaroon circles. I quickly flattened them down again with a slightly wet finger. Good news however! There’s no need to grease the paper before piping, which is always a nice treat.

Piped onto the baking paper – all shapes and sizes

Now here’s my lesson at this point I wish that I had

a) Gently banged the tray on the worktop to make sure the bottom of the macaroons were flat.

b) Left the macaroons for 20 – 30 minutes to dry slightly and form a skin on the top before putting them into the oven. (I have since discovered that you get a more glossy finish by doing this and it helps the macaroons to form their characteristic ‘feet’(the little rugged ridge around the base of the shell) and lift up from the tray in the oven.

c) Blitzed my ground almonds in the food processor before using them to make sure they were really fine. This is supposed to help ensure a smooth and glossy finish. I may have even sieved them if I could have been bothered.

d) Used icing sugar! The recipe just called for caster sugar. Other recipes I’ve looked at use powdered sugar to get a smoother finish.

e) Froze the first batch before I filled them. Apparently freezing macaroons helps to make them look and taste even better.

Just baked macaroon shells – oh so many I ran out of trays to pipe them on! (oh and I dropped a wooden spoon on that one in the middle before it made it to the oven…)

But this is all fine and well in hindsight. I didn’t have this wisdom then. I was pleased that they held their shape (whatever shape that may be) in the oven when I baked them for 40 minutes at 150 degrees C with the oven door slightly open. However they didn’t develop the little feet or lift that they are supposed too so they weren’t as sophisticated as I hoped. They were most definitely not smooth, glossy or shiny either, but more of a pumice stone texture. Thankfully they didn’t taste like pumice stone! They were chewy in the centre and crisp on the outside, just how I like them. (I couldn’t resist trying a few straight from the oven.)

I left them to cool completely before filling them with a generous smudge of my home made lemon curd and a sneaky layer lemon buttercream. Then sandwiched two shells together.

Little and Large

This recipe was only supposed to make 15 macaroons. I ended up with well over 30, so perhaps I made slightly smaller ones than I was supposed to, but they seemed massive to me. All the more macaroon to enjoy in my opinion.

My Messy Macaroons

I took a whole box along with me on my last day in my job and they were the first thing to disappear from the buffet table, which indicates success despite their ever so rustic appearance. With the other half I wrapped the empty shells carefully in layers of greaseproof paper and stored them in an airtight container. I froze them for a month and defrosted them for my friend’s leaving do. They accompanied me to the pub in their own takeaway container.

Take away macaroons

I have a whole macaroon book to experiment with so you can definitely expect messy macaroons part 2 in the near future as I’m determined to perfect them!

Things that I used to make messy macaroons

4 egg whites (I used medium eggs)

1 lemon (juice and zest)

250g caster sugar

200g of ground almonds

Buttercream

Approx 300g icing sugar (enough to create smooth sweet paste when combined with the sugar)

1 lemon zested

1 tsp vanilla extract

250g butter

Lemon Curd

Approx 3 tablespoons of homemade lemon curd (but you can add as much or as little as you like)

Baked for 40 minutes at 150 degrees C with the oven door slightly open.

**Note to self – I also used a little splodge of the uncooked meringue mix on each baking tray to hold the greaseproof paper in place**

Mint Madeleine Brownies – A Hummingbird Bakery Wedding Brownie Experiment

Posted by aroundtheworldin80bakes in America, Around the World in Eighty Bakes, Baking, Cookery, Food, france, Hummingbird Bakery, The Great British Bake Off and tagged with alphabakes challenge, American, april, around the world in eighty bakes, baking, Brownie recipe, brownies in a Madeleine pan, cupcake brownies, freezer bag piping, French, how long to bake brownies in a Madeleine pan, mint chocolate Brownie, The Hummingbird Bakery 06/04/2012

In the midst of baking a double batch of Humming Bakery Brownies for the wonderful wedding of Jill and Jonny I got a bit carried away. Desperate to use my new Madeleine pan and the rest of the eggs that I bought I conjured up a milk chocolate version of the classic Hummingbird Brownie .

I’m not entirely sure that a Madeleine pan is intended for Brownie usage however I can recommend giving it a good go! What is baking if not a bit of experimenting with unexpected cake shapes? If you’re looking for an odd adaptation of something special I’m your gal.

The original recipe and method can be found on my previous post for Jill and Jonny’s Wedding Brownies.

My little mint plant was looking at me from the window sill so I decided to grab as many leaves as possible, chop them up finely and throw them into the mix. I substituted the dark green and blacks chocolate for a good quality milk chocolate and omitted adding additional chocolate chips to give a smoother finish. An extra slosh of peppermint extract for good luck and I spooned the shiny mix into my pre greased Madeleine pan. Carefully filling the pan only 2 thirds full so to avoid overspill. The tray needed a good wipe too before heading into the oven due to a lot of Brownie dribbling all over.

The recipe was enough for 12 Madeleine and 12 cupcake brownies too! (I used a plastic freezer bag with the corner snipped off to pipe the mixture into cupcake cases, which was far less messy!)

I baked them for 15 to 20 minutes at 175 degrees, until the skewer comes out clean, et voila!

They had to cool completely in the pan before attempting to coax them out with a knife. Even then I had to bang the tray on the table a few times as a few were a bit overly attached to the pan. Some of the brownies left a little piece of themselves stuck to the pan but I don’t mind eating the holey brownies! The fully intact mint Madeleine brownies were then wrapped up and whisked away to join in the wedding day celebrations!

I love the shape and the gooeyness of these brownies. The milk chocolate means they’re much sweeter than the normal Hummingbird variety, so probably stick with dark chocolate if you prefer a richer flavour but add more mint! 🙂

I’m also entering my Mint Madeleine Brownies intothe April AlphaBakes Challenge. Under the letter ‘B’ for Brownies. 🙂 The challenge is hosted by The More Than Occasional Baker and Carolinemakes Hop on over to @Bakingaddicts and @Caroline_Makes blogs for more information on the challenge and how you can take part too. 🙂

28. Jamaican Black (Rum) Cake – The most alcoholic cake I’ve ever baked

Posted by aroundtheworldin80bakes in Around the World in Eighty Bakes, Baking, cake decoration, Christmas, Cookery, Food, Fruit Cake, GBBO, The Great British Bake Off and tagged with alcoholic cake, angostora bitters, boozy fruit cake, brandy, browning sugar, bundt jamaican black cake, cakes with beverages, clandestine cake club, double lined tins, food processor, freezing jamaican black cake, Jamaican Black Cake, Macerating fruit, rum, storing cake, traditional jamaican black cake, Trinidad Black Cake, what size tin to use to bake jamaican black cake 28/03/2012

Jamaican Black Cake

Officially the most alcoholic cake that I have EVER baked. Jamaican Black cake is most definitely not for the faint of heart or soberest of people. Containing 2 bottles of dark rum and a half bottle of Brandy, the fumes emanating from the cake are enough to make you slightly squiffy, never mind devouring a full slice!

Dark Rum (not just any dark rum but Marks and Spencers Dark Rum)

I happened upon the idea of a Jamaican Black cake when looking for Christmas cake recipes and I spotted it for sale at the continental Christmas markets. I required a wonderful cake recipe to bake for my first ever venture into the world of Clandestine Cake Club where the theme was cakes with beverages and also something luxurious for my mam’s mothers day present too. This is how I ended up scouring shops for a ridiculous amount of prunes, raisins, booze and Angostura Bitters. Did you know that they are difficult to find despite their 47% volume and are rumoured to be poisonous in large quantities… Good job this only needed 2 tablespoons of the pink stuff!

rum soaked fruit

I soaked the mammoth amount of dried fruit in an entire bottle (1 litre) of rum for about 2 weeks. I had to split the fruit into 2 jars as I simply did not have a vessel large enough to contain the copious amounts of booze and fruit.

I probably should have read the recipe more carefully as I would then have discovered that this recipe is enough to yield 3 or 4 cakes. I had produced a Jamaican Black Cake factory!! [I’ve revisited this recipe and reduced it down to Just the one Jamaican Black Cake here if you want to bake fewer cakes.]

The recipe also did not specify the volume of the bottles of booze so I shall let you know what worked for me (and as per usual I did end up substituting something for things that I like better. I hope that doesn’t detract from its Jamicanness? (or Trinidad – ianness origin also).

Rum soaked fruit… how much can I cram in to the food processor?

I figured that soaking fruit in this sheer amount of rum as well as being highly decadent is enough to ensure a good result (or get you very drunk so you no longer care what the cake actually tastes like). The idea behind such a long soak is to help macerate the fruit and also creates a much denser and moist texture than traditional fruit cake/Christmas Cake. I also think that it might make a wonderful Christmas pudding.

Maybe a bit more…

Following the long rum soak the fruit required mushing up. My weapon of choice was my food processor. Rather dangerously I crammed the entire fruit and rum mix into the bowl and forced the lid on. It took rather a lot of whizzing to get the mix to condense down into a fruit paste but it’s a determined little processor and did a wonderful job. Adding the Angostura bitters left a pink hue to the mixer bowl for future Jamaican Black Cake memories.

Eeek! Full to capacity but valiantly managed to macerate the fruit fully

With the food processor chugging away I had a chance to get on with ‘browning the sugar’. This is a new technique for me and undoubtedly adds to the depth of the final cake colour. Light brown sugar is heated in the pan until it melts to create a caramel. Adding a little water (in total half a cup) at a time. I struggled to get the sugar to melt and in frustration tipped all the water in, which wasn’t a good idea as it crystalised into chunks and required a much more vigorous heat and stir to get a smoother caramel. And even then it was still on the crunchy textured side for my liking. But I figured the heat of the oven would help to incorporate the crystals into the cake, I’m pretty sure I was right too! No sign of crunchy sugar lumps in the final cake.

Bubbling and browning the sugar to a caramel

Perhaps I was multi tasking to the extreme as I then attempted to beat the butter, sugar and eggs together whilst macerating the fruit and drowning/browning the sugar. But hey I have 2 hands, why not use them?!

Creaming the butter and sugar

After a short while I realised I don’t own a bowl big enough to house all of the cake ingredients in. I now had 3 separate and extremely full bowls which were already overflowing!! Once I stirred the browned liquid sugar into the beaten eggs and sugar I then only had 2 massive bowls of stuff to combine…

Mixing the browned sugar into the mix

Tonnes of butter, sugar, eggs and browned butter!

A spot of logical thinking brought me to the conclusion that this was possible, I just needed to divide the mix in order to conquer it.

Emmmmm how do I combine all of this???

I poured roughly half the beaten eggs, butter and sugar into one large mixing bowl. I then decanted half of the mushed up fruit and rum on top of the batter. This meant I had some space to fold the mixture together with my metal spoon. Although some ingredients fell over board I feel I salvaged the majority of it.

Hope it doesn’t overflow…

I repeated the process in a separate bowl with the other half of the mixture. Although I’m sure my guess work is highly accurate I couldn’t help but notice one bowl of batter looked a bit blacker than the other which worried me that I had put more fruit in inequality bowl than the other but there was nothing to gain by fretting about it and these monster cakes needed a.good 3 hours in the oven so I had to plough on.

It was a bit of a tight squeeze!!

Fully combined all of the ingredients!!

I had already greased and double lined 2 round springform cake tins with an extra high collar fixed on the outside with string to prevent the cake top from burning. I used a.22cm tin and a 20cm tin and found I still had cake to spare so quickly greased my favourite bundt tin (with a very generous layer of butter as I couldn’t line the moulded tin with paper and wanted to make sure I could get the cake back out again!!) Due to its shape I also couldn’t tie a protective collar of greaseproof paper round the bundt tin so opted for a lid of tin foil over the top. This scrunched up edges to create a seal over the top of the tin and stayed put throughout the baking process.

Doubled lined and dressed in collars – cakes ready for the oven

I smoothed the tops of the cakes as flat as I could as I wasn’t expecting them to rise very much.

I did check on the cakes regularly and turned them slightly so as to avoid burning the edges. But I resisted opening the oven for at least 2 hours to keep the heat in and the cakes rising. No one wants a sunken and heavy cake…

Trio of Jamaican Black Cakes hot out the oven

After 3 hours they were definitely done and the skewer came out clean.

The final touch was to pour half a bottle of rum over the 3 cakes whilst they were still in their tins and warm.

More rum glistening on top

What a wonderful cake! It was definitely worth the extra preparation time and although it’s not traditional to ice a Jamaican Black Cake, my Mam loves marzipan and royal icing so I created a Cath Kidston -esque star design especially for her using the largest of my trio of cakes. This wasn’t the easiest cake to ice as the cake was still rather moist (and full of rum) so I struggled to get the icing to stick. Some say that it is too sweet with the layers of icing, but I actually really quite liked it. It is very similar to a Christmas Cake however it smells so much more of booze and brings a lovely rose to the cheeks.

Cath Kidston Jamaican Black Cake

The second cake which I baked in the bundt tin required some coaxing to remove it from the tin. (I implemented a cocktail stick to loosen the cake around the sides, then I let gravity do the rest of the work, turning the tin upside down on a plate.) I took this to my first ever Clandestine Cake Club and shared the cake with lots of other cake lovers. I will tell you more about this another time 🙂

Jamaican Black Bundt Cake – note the slight cocktail stick indentations… oops but rum hides all sorts of sins

The more traditional shaped Jamaican Black Cake

The Towering Trio of Jamaican Black Cakes

Things that I used to make Jamaican Black Cake…

An insane amount of dried fruit and alcohol! Although I didn’t stick completely to the combinations below I think you can play around with which dried fruits you use depending on what is available provided it all adds up to the same total amount of dried fruit. I also worked from 2 different recipes to make sure I had a good all rounder recipe and that I made it as authentically as possible.

[Since creating this recipe I have revisited it and reduced it so you can also now follow a recipe for Just the One Jamaican Black Cake if you prefer!]

Fruit Puree Base:

Soak the fruit in rum for up to 2 weeks (or at least 3 days) prior to macerating

500g prunes
500g dark raisins
750g currants
500g dried cherries
250g mixed candied citrus peel
(Total of 5 and 1/4 pounds of dried fruit or 2.4 kilograms)
1 bottle cherry brandy (I had to make do with plain old Brandy and used a 500ml bottle)
1 bottle rum and/or Bailey’s (I used a 1 litre bottle of dark rum. I didn’t include Baileys) -Other recipes also suggest using Manischewitz Concord grape wine which doesn’t seem to exist in England so I just opted for adding a bit more rum
2 tbsp Angostura bitters

Browning:

Heat the sugar in a heavy based pan until it melts and then add a little bit of the water at a time until it becomes a dark caramel. Careful not to burn it, but it will come very close to being burnt to achieve ‘browned’ perfection.

500g brown sugar
1/2 cup boiling hot water

Cake:

Beat the sugar and eggs together and then beat the eggs in one by one. (You will need a big bowl as it gets a bit messy with 8 eggs!) Add all the flavours to the egg mix.

Sift the dry ingredients together and then fold it into the beaten eggs, sugar and butter.

Then mix in the fruit puree and browned sugar liquid.

Pour into 3 greased and double lined cake tins.

Bake at 120 degrees celsius (250F) for 3 hours

500g unsalted butter
500g sugar
8 eggs
1 tsp lemon essence (I didn’t have this so used lime juice instead…)
I used the zest of 2 whole limes (but then realised the recipe said 2 tsp lime rind)
2 tsp almond essence
2 tsp vanilla
500g plain flour (I used plain white flour but you could make this cake gluten free by using your favourite gluten free plain flour or a combination of gluten free flours such as 250g cassava flour + 250g rice flour)
4 tsp baking powder
2 tsp mixed spice
1/2 tsp grated nutmeg

The Final Touch:

Pour a generous amount of rum/brandy onto the top of your cake. It should absorb rather a lot of rum at this point. The cake will get darker with the more rum that you force feed it. It may take a day for the cake to absorb the rum but it will get there.

Wait until the cake has cooled completely before removing it from the tin and pop the cakes in an airtight container. I even left one cake in the tin for a week with tin foil over the top while it absorbed the rum (and I had ran out of containers big enough to keep it in!

MORE RUM 1 500ml bottle of dark rum for pouring on the hot cakes

Keeping Your Jamaican Black Cake:

The cake should keep for (at least) a month in an air tight container. Or perhaps even longer if you can resist eating it as it’s almost pickled with that amount of alcohol in it! Tin foil is also a good idea help seal in the rum and prevent the cake from drying out.

I froze my final cake and I think it will keep for at least a month in the freezer before I decide what to do with it.

This recipe was created using inspiration from Auntie Olga’s Trinidad Black Cake and the Naparima Girls’ High School Cookbook.

Thank you for reading!

The Clandestine Cake Club Adventure

Posted by aroundtheworldin80bakes in Around the World in Eighty Bakes, Baking, Cookery, Food, Fruit Cake, The Great British Bake Off and tagged with baking, blackfriars restaurant, cakepoppins, cakes with beverages, CCC, clandestine cake club, disarano, Food, Jamaican Black Cake, lemonade cake, Liebester Blog Award, Mary Berry, nellyscupcakes 23/03/2012

March was a fantastic baking month with my first ever trip to a Clandestine Cake Club and meeting Mary Berry (will tell you more about this asap). It just doesn’t get any better than this.

Meeting Mary Berry!!!! (The full story will follow asap)

I’ve been trying to get a spot at the Clandestine Cake Club (or CCC) for the last couple of months. I secured my place at the secret club and the theme was cakes with beverages. The idea of CCC is that bakers bake a cake around a theme and bring said cake along with a cake eating friend to the secret venue. Then much cake (as many wonderful slices as you can humanly consume) along with copious amounts of tea are devoured and fabulous cakey bakey people meet and discuss cake!

I loved this night. I sampled some AmAzing cakes and met some wonderful people, some of whom I’ve been chatting to on Twitter for a while so it was wonderful to meet in real life!

Clandestine Cake Clubbers in action

There may be a Clandestine Cake Club near you, it’s now an international phenomena with clubs in Australia too. Or you could even start your own club. There’s more information on their website….

For my beverage orientated cake I took along my Jamaican Black cake with it’s 2 bottles of rum and a bottle of brandy oozing from it. I was a little nervous as I knew there was going to be some wonderous cakes and people there. And I wasn’t wrong.

My First ever Clandestine Cake Club Offering - Jamaican Black Cake with tonnes of rum

I sampled a mouth watering 6 layer limencello and orange cake, a pink lemonade cake, a coconut milk cake, a cherry disarano on the rocks cake, a gin and tonic cake! A Shirley Temple cake, an Earl Grey cake and I’m sure I tried a couple more but my memory is fading into a drunken cake haze… We even got to take home pieces of our favourite cakes for later. (So pleased I had brought extra tupperware!)

I was thrilled that my entire Jamaican Black cake got eaten up!! I was worried that it would not be very popular. (As much as I love rum and fruit I’m well aware it’s not everyone’s cup of tea) But phew! It seems that it was enjoyed by my fellow CCC ers.

Unfortunately I failed in my over eagerness to get ANY real photos of the splendiferous cake creations that adorned the table. I remembered at the end to take one of the spectacular banqueting hall at Blackfriars restaurant with it’s stag antler chandeliers and oak dining tables.

The beautiful Blackfriars Restaurant our Clandestine Cake Club Venue for the evening

However my lovely CCC friends and fellow bloggers took some wonderful photos which they’ve put up on their blogs if you fancy a look. I really recommend having a look at these ladies baking blogs too and just in case you’re on twitter you can follow them too… check out

Nelly’s Cupcakes (@nellyscupcakes),
Cake Poppins (@cakepoppins),
Baking Beautiful (@gunshotglitter_)
Just a Girl and her Kitchen Aid (@RachaelMowat),
@skankyfish and @shazb007

And also while I’m mentioning some of my favourite blogs, I was very lucky and honoured to be nominated for a Liebster Blog Award (see here for a little more information on the Liebster Blog Awards) from 2 fabulous baking bloggers!! These ladies are brilliant bloggers, very skilled and I always look forward to their next posts popping up in my inbox 🙂 IF you’re loking for baking inspiration don’t hesititate to have a read of these blogs…

Lil Ms Squirrels 366 Day Recipe Challenge (@lilmssquirrel)

Laura Loves Cake (@lauralovesbakes)

Thanks so much for reading!!!

Happy Mother’s Day Mam! Here’s a Cath Kidston-esque cake just for you

Posted by aroundtheworldin80bakes in Around the World in Eighty Bakes, Baking, cake decoration, Cookery, England, sugar craft and tagged with cake, cake decorating ideas, cath kidston, edible food glue, edible glitter, Food, food colouring, fruit cake, happy mothers day, icing, make your own edible food glue, royal icing, shape cutters, star cutters, star print, sticking decorations on cake 17/03/2012

: Happy Mother’s Day! Cath Kidston inspired cake

Happy Mother’s Day to my Mam! I wanted to bake something special, Cath Kidston -esque and chocolate free for my Mam and came up with this haphazard star cake. I will tell you all about the inside of the cake later on as it’s still a little secret (and we haven’t tried it yet!).

After some frantic last minute icing shopping I managed to get a layer of marzipan and royal icing on the very alcoholic cake in record breaking time. Fingers crossed it’s all set in place now as there was no time to let the icing dry before adding the decorative touches. Especially with the cake inside having taken 2 weeks of soaking and 7 hours of preparing/baking. I’m hoping it tastes good!

The various colours of icing and star shape cutters

I attempted to colour my own icing after failing to create purple with red and blue food colourings I managed to use some silver spoon blue liquid colouring to create the blue icing and I was lucky to have some pre coloured red icing left over from Christmas too, that needed to be used up.

Glitter plate

I rolled the different colours of icing out using my mini silicon rolling pin and used a variety of star cutters to cut out the shapes. Adding a liberal coating of glitter on each star to give it a bit more sparkle. I found tipping the glitter onto a plate and swishing the stars in the glitter made life a bit easier and a good generous layer of glitter to boot. Although the curious cat also got a bit glitterified too in the process.

I don’t own edible cake glue so I made my own with a bit of water and liquid glucose and used a knife to spread it on each star (sparingly) as I didn’t want the colours to bleed into the white icing and ruin the effect. The idea is to create just enough stickiness to hold the decorations on.

Stars climbing up the side of the cake

I got a bit carried away and put as many red and blue stars on to the cake as I could fit, including a few that are climbing up the side of the cake… I was envisaging a Cath Kidston fabric print and hope that it kind of conjures up that image but with more glitter 🙂

I’m off to take it to my Mam now. Let’s hope she likes it!

Star shaped and sparkly

All shapes and sizes

26. The 10 Minute Irish Soda Bread Challenge – Ireland

Posted by aroundtheworldin80bakes in Around the World in Eighty Bakes, Baking, Bread, Cookery, Food, Ireland, The Great British Bake Off, Travelling and tagged with 10 minute bread, @HollyBellMummy, around the world in eighty bakes, ballymaloe house, bicarbonate of soda, Bread, challenge, Holly Bell, Ireland, live yoghurt, no kneading, plain yoghurt, soda bread, South of Ireland 03/03/2012

Soda Bread

I’ve heard pretty good things about soda bread but never have I attempted to make it myself. I discovered a recipe from Ballymaloe House in Ireland, in my food processor cookbook that appeared to be very straight forward. Promising to only require 10 minutes preparation and 40 minutes cooking! I took on the 10 minute soda bread challenge and set to work.

This was actually very quick and dare I say it… Easy to bake! With very little kneading or washing up required. Hurrah!!

I literally whacked everything in the food processor…

450g of plain flour (not bread or strong flour)
500g of plain live (active/cultured) yoghurt (or alternatively you can use 350-425ml of buttermilk)
1tsp Bicarbonate of Soda
1tsp salt
1tsp sugar
A glug of double cream (just because I needed to use it up)

… and set it to high for a couple of minutes using the dough hook attachment. You could use a bowl and a spoon or even just your hands to combine it all together into a runny, floury mixture.

Once it all comes together the challenge is to remove the sticky mess from the bowl in one swoop and not get coated in runny flour mess. I failed on this count and had to deploy a spatula to encourage the mix out of the bowl.

I tipped it out onto a lightly floured surface (also known as my glass worktop protector thing). Adding more plain flour to the board until I could bring the dough together without it adhering to my hands.

Once it starts to take shape all it needs is some encouragement, folding and lightly kneading the edges into the middle to form a round dough shape about 4 cm deep.

Flattened circle

I greased and floured a flat baking sheet and plopped the smooth circle of dough (folded edge down) onto the sheet.

Challenge complete in less than 10 minutes!! Taking my sharpest knife I cut a shallow cross into the top of the loaf and teased the edges out slightly so the cross was more defined. The cross helps the heat penetrate the loaf and cook evenly throughout. Irish folklore also says that that the cross lets the evil spirits out. Good to know.

Criss Cross

Into the oven it went for 10 minutes at 230 degrees c. (gas mark 8). While the oven was heating up I popped a roasting pan in the bottom to get really hot. Then just before shutting the oven door I threw a cup of cold water into the pan to create some steam and a soft crust on the bread. Perfect! (I love this tip – thank you Holly Bell)

After 10 minutes I turned the oven down to 200degrees C (gas mark6) and baked for 30 more minutes until the crust was golden brown and the loaf sounded hollow when tapped on the bottom.

Risen

What a result!! I was astounded that a yeast free bread rose so much! It doubled in size and didn’t need any proving or strenuous kneading either! Amazing result for so little effort. It smelt amazing and tasted a bit like a cake too. What could be better than a bread/cake hybrid?!

One hunk of Soda Bread

We ate this for breakfast one weekend and I loved it. I could happily eat it without any butter as it’s so moist, but I did put nutella on it (it was Saturday after all). This loaf should serve 4 and is best eaten fresh which is a good thing as I devoured a quarter of the loaf chunk in one sitting.

with lashings of Nutella?

I loved it so much I made it again however I was obviously a bit complacent after my initial success. I used plain yoghurt which wasn’t active but a little past it’s best, assuming this would mean it had grown some cultures. I guessed wrong as this time it didn’t expand as impressively and I was a little disappointed by its lack of height. I will be baking it again but following the recipe properly next time! If you haven’t baked it before I really recommend it! And please let me know how you get on!

The slightly deflated second attempt…

*Recipe taken from Kenwood Creative Food Processor Cooking Book, by Becky Johnson. Thanks!

Irish Soda Bread

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Jill and Johnny’s Wedding Day Brownies – Hummingbird Bakery

Posted by aroundtheworldin80bakes in America, Around the World in Eighty Bakes, Baking, Cookery, Food, Hummingbird Bakery, The Great British Bake Off and tagged with around the world in eighty bakes, baking, brownies, Chocolate, hummingbird bakery recipe 24/02/2012

Jill and Johnny's Wedding Day Brownies

I’m baking a little something for my friends’ wedding day. Something that can be piled high and shared. I have baked rather a few Hummingbird Bakery things now from America but this is definitely my favourite brownie recipe. Nevertheless I still wanted to do a trial run to make sure they work (and taste good). When better to try them than at Jill’s hen weekend, this weekend.

The trial run went so well Chris requested a second batch! These Hummingbird Bakery Chocolate Brownies are rich, sweet and chewy with a delicate crumbly top. Perfect with a strong cup of coffee. A good sugar boost too to keep those energy levels up for wedding dancefloor action.

This recipe is so quick I made the first batch in less time than it took me to ruin two lots of pancake batter. The longest bit was waiting for the chocolate to melt.

I love how this recipe requires no whisking or sifting. Simply stirring everything in one bowl with a wooden spoon means hardly any washing up too! You couldn’t even whip these up and freeze them for brownie emergencies.

The entire brownie

1. Melt 200 grams of good quality dark chocolate in a bain marie along with 175 grams of butter.
2. Make a cup of tea while this melts gently over a low heat.
3. Once melted stir in 325grams of sugar until it’s all combined.
4. Then stir in 125grams if plain flour.
5. Stir in 3 largest eggs until you have a smooth paste.
6. For extra decadence stir in some chunks of chocolate. I used more dark chocolate. (Whatever amount was left in the cupboard probably about 50grams but I reckon the more chocolate the better as you get gorgeous melty chocolate surprises when you bite in to the brownies.)
7. Pour all the gooey batter into a rectangular baking tin about 23cm by 13cm
8. Bake for 30 mins at 175 degrees
9. Try to wait (if you can resist tucking into the tray with a spoon) until its cooled to chop it up and eat it as it tends to fall apart while it’s still warm… But this might be a good thing especially if you’re eating it with ice cream!

Enjoy!