Brunch Baking

Morning all, I think 10am calls for a spot of brunch… what do you think?! This is the brunch I made for New Years Day:

New Years Day Brunch!

Enough to feed 15? More like 50! I laid on a huge spread, starting off with bagels, crumpets, spreads and dips, working our way onto cheese and crackers and crisps, then onto dessert… Fresh from the oven cinnamon rolls, fruit pastries, triple chocolate brownies, blueberry muffins, white chocolate pretzels, and rice crispy cakes, as well as chocolate and biscuits! I also added in some chocolate spoons which stirred into hot milk to create the BEST hot chocolate!

Triple chocolate brownies

Cinnamon rolls

Lots of cinnamon rolls!

Hot chocolate spoons

Berry pastry

Blueberry cinnamon crunch muffins and oreo rice crispy cakes

White chocolate covered pretzels

Healthy Baking 2

Hi Cake Snobs! As some of you may know, I’ve changed my diet since the end of August this year to try and be a bit healthier. Of course i’m still making/baking cupcakes which means still having a taste but it means that the other aspects of my diet are better. Yesterday I reached my Club 10 award in Slimming World, which means I’ve lost 10% of my body weight. I’m really happy and hope it will spur me on further! So without further ado, here’s some recipes I made for last night’s SW buffet:

Lemon Meringue Pie:

Syn free LMP

 

• 500g Quark (fat free cream cheese)
• Juice & zest of 1 and a 1/2 lemons
• 6 tbs sweetener (I use splenda)
• 5 egg yolks
• Beat this in a bowl and spoon into silicone cupcake cases or ramekins
• Bake in the oven at 180 degrees celsius for about 14 mins
• Whilst this is happening, whisk remaining egg whites (5) with a squeeze of lemon juice until it forms soft peaks, then add in about 4tbs sweetener and vanilla essence.
• Once “pies” have been baked, pipe or spoon this mixture on top and bake for a further 8 mins.
• Serve once slightly cooled.

Take a bite of pie!

Mini meringues

I’ve also been enjoying breakfast, and my favourite weekend treat is to kick back with a bowl of special porridge, which I make as normal but add a dash of cinnamon to the oats/milk/water whilst cooking. Once the porridge is made, I drizze some Walden Farms sugar&fat free caramel syrup over it and add a handful of fresh raspberries. DELISH!

Special Porridge

For a pimped up version – bake your porridge oats for half an hour, it tastes like a muffin!

Summer Sorbet

Lemon sorbet with frozen raspberries – enjoy the British summertime whilst it lasts with this deliciously easy summer sorbet!

Ingredients:

400g caster sugar
700ml water
250ml lemon juice (6-8 lemons)
1 lemon, unwaxed, zested

Method:

Firstly, freeze a handful of raspberries before making the sorbet!
Next, put the water and caster sugar in a pan and gently heat until the sugar has dissolved. Dont stir it, but you can swirl the water round to help it dissolve.
Leave the sugar syrup to cool completely before adding the lemon juice zest to the syrup.
Chuck this all in an ice cream maker and leave to churn for half an hour! Take out and transfer to a freezer dish, and scatter your now frozen berries over the top! Freeze for another 10 minutes then serve!

*Adapted from BBC Good Food

Diamonds… and chocolate are a girl’s best friends!

On Wednesday night I was the lucky recipient of 2 tickets to the Gu Puds and Nicholas James chocolate & diamonds evening.

I was promised a masterclass in both these subject, and that is definitely what I got! We arrived at Nicholas James, a beautiful contemporary jewellery store on Hatton Gardens.

Here we were greeted  by a sweet array of smoked salmon and CHOCOLATE (yes you heard right!) blinis.

However weird they might sound, they tasted delish!

We were also treated to a strong but delectable chocolate martini which we sipped until we felt rather tipsy!

We were then treated to a diamond masterclass by the founder of Nicholas James. I also fell in love with a stunning pair of diamond earrings – similar to those below (a casual £2.5k and 2 months salary for me!)

Then Gu head chef Fred talked to us about chocolate and his time at Gu, whilst we sampled gorgeous chocolate canapes that included chocolate raspberry tarts and raspberry choux pastry buns.

The sea-salt caramel edible diamonds were my favourite sweet of the evening.

We were even presented with a huge goodie bag at the end of the evening! (PS the best goodie bag i’ve ever received!)

I want to say a massive thank you to Gu and Nicholas James for selecting me to be a part of this evening, and just want to let them know i’m always free for another fabulous evening!

Gluten Free Blueberry Muffins!

New post is up on Groupon - to make these gluten free I replaced the all-purpose flour with gluten free and added a tsp Xantan gum.

Enjoy Cake Snobs!

PS: best enjoyed hot from the oven!

 

Recipe:

 

Ingredients:

1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
3/4 cup white sugar
1/2 teaspoon salt
2 teaspoons baking powder
1/3 cup vegetable oil
1 egg
1/3 cup skimmed milk
1 cup fresh blueberries
Half tsp cinnamon powder

Method:

Combine all dry ingredients: flour, sugar, salt and baking powder
Place vegetable oil into a measuring cup, and add the egg and milk
Add this to flour mixture
Fold in blueberries
Fill muffin cups right to the top
On the top of the muffins, dust lightly with cinnamon powder
Bake for 20 to 25 minutes in the preheated oven, or until done. This recipe should make about 10

Perfect for Passover Meringue Cake!

It’s that time of year again, not just Easter but the Jewish festival of Passover!

I know at this time of year I struggle (for 8 days) to bake some really good stuff, as substituting normal flour for potato flour or cake meal doesn’t always work out! Your best bet is to find a flourless recipe that can work well!

Lemon Meringue Curd cake with Caramelised Berries:

I saw this recipe on Saturday Kitchen and it looked amazing! Unfortunately mine didnt come out as well but it tasted good all the same!

Ingredients: (Adapted of course!)
For the meringue
8 free-range egg whites
200g/7oz caster sugar
For the lemon curd (Nigel Slater recipe)
zest and juice of 4 unwaxed lemons
200g sugar
100g butter
3 eggs and 1 egg yolk

Carton of whipping cream – to mix in after

For the garnish
110g/4oz white caster sugar
Variety of berries (I used blueberries and raspberries)

Method

1. Whisk the egg whites in a bowl and until soft peaks are formed. Gradually add the sugar and continue to whisk until glossy and well
combined. Spoon into a piping bag fitted with a small plain nozzle.
2. Pipe or spread the meringues to form 4 even circles.
3. Place the meringue into the oven and cook for 20 minutes, or until the mixture holds it shape. Turn off the heat and leave in the oven for
at least two hours. Once crisp, remove the meringue from the oven and set aside to cool.
4. Meanwhile for the lemon curd, place the lemon zest, juice, butter and sugar into a bowl set over a pan of simmering water. when the butter is melted, pour in the whisked eggs. Whisk occasionally until well combined and thickened.
5. Whip the cream until soft peaks are formed. Mix in the lemon curd until it is combined to your taste.

6. Spread the lemon curd-cream mixture on the meringues and layer on top of each other.

7. For the garnish, heat the caster sugar and 50ml/2fl oz water in a frying pan the sugar melts and the mixture is golden-brown in colour. I then drizzed this onto the berries placed on the cake.

Et Voila! (You may notice my cake only has 3 layers – one broke and so we used it to crumble on top!

Raspberry cream cheese white choc cakes

What a title! I was inspired to make these after sampling some yummy but slightly disappointing cream cheese cakes in Sable D’Or yesterday. I loved the cake texture but it was lacking on the raspberry-ness! So I decided to make my own…

I did some research and found out that these were basically a cream-cheese pound cake recipe. Of course I had to add a Tash/Cake Snob twist which meant… CHOCOLATE!

Basic Pound Cake recipe (From Martha Stewart – I halved it!)

• 150 grams butter (1 & 3/4 sticks)
• 1 packet (8 ounces) cream cheese, room temperature
• 1.5 cups sugar
• 3 large eggs
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 1.5 cups all-purpose flour
• I added a packet of raspberries
• I added white chocolate chips
• I added raspberry jam

Method:

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees. With an electric mixer, beat butter and cream cheese until smooth.
2. Add sugar; beat until light and fluffy, about 5 minutes.
3. Add eggs, one at a time, beating well after each addition. Mix in vanilla. W
4. With mixer on low, add flour, beating until just combined.
5. Mix in raspberries and some white choc buttons.
6. I then spooned the mixture into cupcake cases, leaving some in the bowl.
7. Then I pushed a few white chocolate buttons into the middle of each cake
8. I then topped each cake with a dollop of raspberry jam and put some mixture on top

Ta Dah….

Ooops… I left them around my mummy which means they were eaten quickly! Luckily I hid a few for friends tomorrow!