2014 is officially here which means our partnership with The Happy Egg Co. is coming to an end. We’ve made a selection of delicious cakes for them over the past year and experimented with lots of flavours, palettes and designs; our last cake certainly won’t be any different! Though the new year brings with it the beginning of winter, Valentine’s Day offers the opportunity to use otherwise ‘summery’ ingredients; strawberries and champagne! With this in mind we’re very excited to announce that our very last cake with The Happy Egg Co. incorporates some of life’s little luxuries; strawberries, white chocolates, and roses all tied together with a generous helping of champagne!
For this cake our colour palette is inspired by gorgeous bouquets of roses that traditionally find themselves delivered to loved ones on Valentine’s Day. The vibrant and soft pinks of roses combined with fresh greens and delicate creams lend themselves wonderfully to cakes and other sweet treats of the season!
Valentine’s Day is right around the corner so what better way to treat your sweetheart than to some lovingly home made sweets! We’ll be offering up some recipes and tutorials that show you how you can create some delicious treats to impress your Valentine with. This week’s Shot Through The Heart Brownie Cupcakes are the perfect treats to present to your loved one. They are chocolate crammed brownie cupcakes swirled with silky smooth chocolate buttercream and finished with adorable and fun brownie hearts shot with mini arrows! Nestle these into a cupcake gift box with a little message and you will definitely sweeten someone’s day!
Brownie Cupcakes (Makes approx. 12 cupcakes)
226g self raising flour
226g caster sugar
226g butter
4 medium eggs
2/3 tablespoons cocoa powder
100g melted dark chocolate callets, baking chips
12 baking cases
1 cupcake or muffin pan
2 tablespoons hot water
1 teaspoon baking powder
Pre-heat your oven to Gas Mark 3 / 160C / 325F and line a cupcake pan with cupcake cases.
Cream your butter and sugar first. When creamy add your eggs and combine together with the flour and baking powder. Mix well until silky and pour in the melted chocolate and make a paste with the cocoa powder and water then add, mix again and fill your cases with the batter.
Bake for around 20 minutes to 30 minutes or until a cake tester comes out clean when tested.
Chocolate Buttercream
250g butter
250-300g icing sugar (keep testing when adding to make sure it is the consistency and sweetness you are comfortable with)
100g melted dark chocolate callets, buttons or chips
1-2 tablespoons of cocoa powder 808 or 809 plain round piping tip Disposable piping bag
Dice the butter and add to your mixer to cream. Then gradually add icing sugar and the remaining butter (cut into cubes) until you get a smooth, creamy texture. Add the cocoa powder and melted chocolate.
For more hints and tips see our tutorial on how to make buttercream here.
Melt the chocolate and butter together by setting a bowl in a saucepan of hot water. Keep stirring until both the butter and the chocolate are mixed and then remove the pan from the heat.
In a separate bowl mix the eggs and the sugar together until they form a creamy yellow colour.
Combine the chocolate and butter mix with the eggs and sugar and stir until fully mix.
Add the flour to the mix and stir. Mix until smooth until you get a thick and sticky texture (if you would like any chocolate chips or chunks in your brownies now is the perfect time to add them)
Pour the batter into a greased pan and bake for around 30 minutes (depending on oven) on gas mark 4 (conversions are available on Google) Leave to cool.
Once cooled cut out some hearts using a good heart shaped cutter. Remember to use a small cutter if using these to top your cupcakes with!
Cupid’s Arrows
12 toothpicks
Thick paper or card (this can be coloured or plain) or heart stickers
Scissors
Double sided tape (omit this if you are using stickers)
Cut matching triangles from some paper (around 24 for the backs and fronts). Stick small patches of double sided tape to the backs of them. To attach peel the tape backing off and press onto one end of a toothpick. Repeat this process until done.
Once the arrowheads have been created and fixed on push the toothpick carefully through your mini brownie hearts at an angle. Then you can finished them!
For the ‘feather’ ends of the arrows cut 24 rectangles out of paper or card. Snip the sides of them so that they are angled. Attached them to the toothpicks with double sided tape. Finally, carefully snip the sides to create ‘feather-like’ edging! We also added a little ribbon bow to our arrow.
Now to assemble your cupcakes generously pipe them with buttercream and adorn the tops with your brownie hearts and cupid’s arrows! You should finally be left with a batch of delicious and heart warming cupcakes ready to be admired for Valentine’s Day!
The majority of us promise to be even the tiniest bit more healthy in the new year; a delicious and easy way to do this is to incorporate fruits, nuts, and whole wheat into our diets. It’s much less scary to add chopped dried fruits into your baking and to try utilising some whole wheat flour into your batter than to subject yourself to tasteless diet food! With this in mind we’ve created this healthy yet satisfying recipe for you to re-create and enjoy at home. These fragrant Early Grey, Apricot and Sultana Scones are perfect for a quick snack, breakfast for as a treat if topped with whipped cream.
Earl Grey, Apricot and Sultana Scones
This recipe makes 8-12 normal sized scones (approx. the size of the top of a teacup).
125g plain flour
100g wholewheat flour
2 teaspoons baking powder
pinch of salt
25g caster sugar
150ml milk
60g low fat butter alternative (e.g. Stork)
50-80g chopped dried apricots
80g sultanas
2 tablespoons of Earl Grey tea
1 beaten egg to glaze Plain or scalloped circle cutters
Firstly, the Earl Grey tea needs to be infused into the butter. This needs to be done the day or night before so that the butter can reset. In a sauce pan melt the butter along with the Earl Grey tea. Leave this to simmer for around 15 minutes and stir constantly on medium heat. Once fragrant sieve the butter to remove the flecks of tea. You can leave the tea leaves in the butter, however, for this recipe we preferred to remove them. Pour the Earl Grey butter into an airtight container and chill until set.
Pre-heat the oven to 220C/425F/Gas 7. Lightly grease a flat baking tray or line with baking paper.
Mix together the flour and salt in a bowl. Then run in the butter to make crumb-like pieces. Add the sugar and then the milk. Gently mix together using clean hands.
Once the wet ingredients have been incorporated it is time to add in the chopped apricots and sultanas.
Pop your dough onto a flour dusted surface and lightly knead. Roll or pat to around 1 inch thick (to make mini sized scones). Use a 48mm cutter to cut either plain or scallop edged scones. Place around 2 inches apart on your baking tray.
Lightly brush the scones with the beaten egg mixture and bake for 12-15 minutes until golden.
Once the scones have cooled they’re ready to enjoy! Slice them in half and prepare them how you wish. We like to toast ours and smother them with home made jam! Add some extra nutrients by using a vegetable spread with extra vitamins added and devour them with a lovely cup of herbal tea!
We’re very excited to show you two of our cupcake decorating tutorials featured in the Spring 2014 issue of Cake Decoration Heaven! This issue is packed full of wonderful spring inspired projects to help create lovely Easter cupcakes, floral festooned gateaux and butterfly adorned mini cakes! Why not head to your nearest supermarket for a copy. Be sure to check pages 25 and 63 for our adorable little lamb cupcake topper (perfect for St. David’s Day and children’s parties) tutorial and our piece on how to create a glamorous anemone flower (ideal for wedding season and afternoon tea cupcakes)!
New Year parties always leave behind a bar full of cocktail left overs that either get saved for next year’s festivities or pushed to the back of the cupboard to gather dust. With this in mind we thought we’d offer up a splendid yet economical epicurean delight that will help put those booze-y left overs to good use! This week’s recipe and tutorial comes in the form of those delicate French confections; les macarons. This recipe utilises Creme de Menthe liqueur which is often a favourite boozy flavour during holiday parties. If you don’t have this lurking in your cabinets sheepishly you can always use some Creme de Menthe flavouring or crush up candy canes to add not only the sweet peppermint flavour to your buttercream filling, but a nice bit of crunch too. You can also swap the Creme de Menthe liqueur for any other type of tipple from brandy to whisky.
Basic Chocolate Macaron Recipe (yields approximately 40 macarons)
Good quality thick baking not parchment paper (don’t scrimp on this as cheap paper buckles and will ruin the shape of your macarons) Pastry/piping bag holder
Step one: Your almond flour needs to be as fine as possible so if you can grind it further before using. When ready mix the almond flour together with the icing sugar by sifting two to three times. You may have granules of almond flour left in your sieve. If this happens it would be perfectly fine to discard this if it is around one levelled teaspoon’s worth. If you have more try grinding the remaining or using the back of a spoon against your sieve to break it down enough to pass through. At this stage add in the cocoa powder. To add flavour to the shells try as best as you can to only use dry ingredients (e.g. for lavender grind down edible lavender florets or sprinkle the flowers on top before putting in the oven).
Step two: Wipe down a clean metal or glass (never plastic as plastic soaks in fats which can ruin your meringue) mixing bowl and whisk with lemon juice. The lemon makes sure that any fat and grease disappears. Dry down with a clean cloth.
Step three: Add your egg whites into the mixing bowl and mix on high speed until white and frothy. With the mixer still on sprinkle in the salt and caster sugar. These stabilise the egg whites so they whip up lovely and firm. Mix until stiff peaks are formed. If colouring your macarons add the gel paste (never liquid) colour in now and mix until incorporated but never overmix your meringue! You can test if your egg whites are ready by the traditional method of hold the bowl upside down over your head! If the mix stays put then it’s ready. Macarons can be temperamental so it may take a few practises to get them just right.
Step four: Fold half of your dry mix into your meringue mix gently until the dry ingredients are almost fully incorporated. Once this is done fold the mixed ingredients into the rest of the dry mixture that is left.
Step five: With your pastry/piping bag holder get a disposable piping bag ready and fitted with a plain round tip. The mix at this stage can be fairly runny so you would need to fold the lower/tip section of the bag over to block any mix from running out. Pour the macaron mix into the piping bag.
Step six: Prepare a cookie or sheet baking tray with good quality baking paper (don’t use cheap paper and remember to use baking paper not parchment). Step seven: Now is the time to pre-heat your oven to Gas Mark 3 / 325 Fahrenheit / 170 Celsius.
Step eight: Carefully pipe your ‘coins’ of macarons approximately the 3.75cm in diameter and around 2cm apart. Get rid of any air bubbles inside your macarons by smacking the tray down on a flat surface around 3-4 times. You should see some holes appear on the tops of some of them; don’t worry about these.
Step nine: We leave our piped macarons to rest before we even think of letting them near an oven. We’ve seen recipes that don’t call for this, but not leaving them for a while has never worked for us at Juniper Cakery. What you need is for your macaron to develop a ‘skin’. We leave ours to sit for 1 hour to 1 hour 30 minutes. We’ve experimented and left them for shorter and longer periods of time, both yielded some not very elegant results. You’ll know that your macarons have a good skin and are ready to pop into the oven when you touch the top lightly and the batter does not stick to your finger. You should feel and see a ‘skin’ has developed.
Step ten: Put your macarons on the middle level of the oven. It is ever so tempting to get as many trays in as you can, but we wouldn’t suggest this unless you’re lucky enough to have a confectioner’s oven. Macarons on the lowest shelf won’t bake as well and macarons placed on the highest will overcook and also discolour.
Step eleven: Bake for 20 minutes turning the tray around halfway.
Step twelve: Your macarons should be ready and have ruffled ‘feet’ on the bases of them. Remove the macarons carefully from the paper. Once cooled down these are ready to be filled!
Dice the butter into pieces and add half to your mixer. Once the butter is smooth gradually add icing sugar and the remaining butter (also diced into cubes) until you get a smooth, creamy texture. Add the flavour to taste. For more hints and tips see our tutorial on how to make buttercream here. Using a piping bag fitted with a plain round tip and filled with your delicious buttercream pipe half your macaron shells and sandwich together with the other half. For the best macaron experience leave these to sit in an airtight container for around 24 hours. Then after a gruelling wait of 24 hours you can now enjoy them and serve them to your loved ones or perhaps keep them all to yourself.
Here are some quick tips to help you get closer to making perfect macarons…
- Remember to smack your freshly piped macarons at least three times on a flat counter before leaving to rest. This gets rid of any air inside the mix.
- Leaving your piped macarons to rest for at least one hour helps your macarons establish a good ski. This keeps your macarons in a good shape, can eliminate air bubbles and can help create the lovely famous ruffled ‘feet’ on their bottoms.
- Good macarons have flat and ‘solid’ bottoms with not holes, air pockets, sticky residue (leave in the over for an extra minute or two if this happens), or concave features.
- Work quickly when piping as the mixture will be runny. We prefer to pipe from above, but lots of others pipe from the side.
- Adding in any dry flavour and/or colour gel paste once the meringue is ready reduces the risk of over mixing.
- Your meringue mix should be stiff, but if you scoop some up in a spoon and throw it back in it should blend back in and not sit on top. If it does sit then mix again on high speed for around 1 minute and repeat until a scooped portion blends. If your mix loses it’s stiff peaks and looks running then it has been over mixed and you need to begin again with fresh eggs.
- If you get even the tiniest amount of egg yolk in your separated egg whites before whisking them into a meringue you need to begin again.
- Don’t worry if you get a little bit of the egg’s chalaza in your mix. The chalaza is a thicker part of the egg white that helps hold the egg yolk in the middle. It can look a little more opaque too.
Once your macarons are ready to enjoy why not wrap them in tissue paper and ribbon for loved ones or enjoy them a lovely hot cup of coffee yourself!
