Fall baking Archives - Juniper Cakery | Bespoke Cakes in Yorkshire & the Humber

15th October 2016 // 0 Comments

10 Halloween Baking Essentials For a Terror-ific Holiday!

Halloween baking is supposed to be like the holiday itself… fun. It also means that you can go super crazy and amp up the gruesome novelty element. At what other part of the year would it be OK to make a cake look like something Hannibal Lecter would relish (obviously the answer is ‘none’)? Yes, Halloween baking becomes a spooktacle of the gooey-ist blood (strawberry red tinted white chocolate ganache) drenched cupcakes and the slimiest of filled cakes (lemon lime preserve). To make home baked treats a little easier at Halloween we’ve put together a quick list of Halloween baking tools and decor ideas that’ll get your cauldron a-bubbling!

Our top 10 Halloween baking essentials!

01: Novelty sprinkles

Fun sprinkles are by far one of our favourite decorating essentials. We generally try to stay away from a lot of novelty design sprinkles when it comes to our business because we’ve stablished a bit of a simple, but gourmet look. Every once in a while when a season or holiday approaches we’ll get excited and add cool shaped sprinkles to our cupcakes, buttercream cakes and even macarons! How fun would some bat sprinkles look on purple macarons with a white candy melt drizzle? A lot.

Bat sprinkles by Culpitt

Halloween sprinkles by Wilton

02: Fun cupcake kits

Sometimes when a holiday swings around it feels like it has literally just come out of nowhere. When this happens you’ll be forgiven for utilising cupcake kits. They’re pretty fun and quick to use. All you need is your go-to cupcake recipe and buttercream recipe. Bake your cupcakes in the cases, swirl with buttercream and add in a cupcake pick. Voila! Quick baked treats for a super ghoul (you didn’t think we’d forgotten to throw in some Halloween puns no did you?) party.

Coffin Halloween cupcake kit by Meri Meri

Cupcake kit by KitchenCraft

03: Party picks for cakes

Themed cake picks (and even photo booth picks/props) can help give a quick cake more of a custom feel to it. You can whip up a naked cake filled with lime and lemon curd, smother it with lemon oil infused buttercream, splatter it with black food colouring, add skull shaped candies and florals and then add in your cool cake picks! Easy peasy.

Halloween party picks

04: Tombstone candy moulds

We absolutely love these fun tombstone candy and chocolate moulds! All you need are some white, chocolate or black candy melts, melt them down and pour into the moulds before waiting for them to fully set. Once ready you can add them to frosted cupcakes or buttercream smothered cakes ready for a spook-tacular Halloween party!

Tombstone candy and chocolate moulds by Wilton

05: Cake pops

Cake pops are one of those treat trends that a few years ago we thought wouldn’t be around for much longer… a little bit like cake-in-a-jars and push-up cakes which fortunately have seen their days. When it came to cake pops, however we were wrong. We still get asked to create them for baby showers and weddings! They’re bite sized, but are made up of just the right amount of buttercream, cake and candy for a quick flavour hit. Plus, for fun seasons you can play around and create some cute ideas… like cake pop ghosts, pumpkins or cute bats.

Halloween cake pop mould by KitchenCraft

Purple, orange & black cake pop sticks

06: Cupcake wraps

Covering your cupcakes with spiderwebs might sound awful, but what if they were fun card cut outs of spiderwebs or even of haunted house silhouettes? Wraps are still really popular for weddings with butterfly or rose designs cut out of them in lace-like patterns, but we think home made cupcakes would definitely look a treat enrobed with spooky wraps! This is definitely one of the easiest ways to snazz up Halloween baking!

Black spiderweb cupcake wraps

Haunted house cupcake wraps

07: Halloween cake pans

Bake some fiendishly fun cakes with some shaped cake pans! You can find some really cool ones that also have a recess in the design which also bakes into the cake. You can then decorate your cake using these as design guides. The skeleton cake pan we’ve linked below features a skeletal / bone pattern that after baking (chocolate cake of course as it will look similar to soil) you can pipe in the bones with white candy melts!

Skull cake pan by Wilton

Spiderweb cake pan by Wilton

Skeleton cake pan by Wilton

08: Fun utensils

Spatulas are something that, if you bake, you can’t have enough of. So being able to buy them in fun seasonal designs is pretty much a win/win situation. How about a super ghoul kitchen spatula in bright orange with spooky ghosts? Uh yes please. Mixing up zombie green chocolate chip cookie dough is somehow going to be even more hilarious when whipping up terror-ific treats!

Boo! Halloween spatula

09: Cookie cutter selection

OK. We might have one heck of a love for sugar cookies. So much so that we have around 3 drawers in our pantry filled with cookie cutters. Pumpkins, Eiffel towers, ghosts, bridal gowns and letters of the alphabet. We have a cutter for pretty much every occasion. This obsession really comes out round about now (we call this time of the year ‘cookie season’) so brace yourself for cookie bonanza! Anyway, sugar cookies are perfect for occasions because they’re super customisable, fun and tasty too. Wow your guests with gingerbread skeletons, chocolate chip bats or shortbread skulls?

Gingerdead skeleton cookie cutters

Assorted spooky cookie cutters by KitchenCraft

Day of the Dead cookie cutters

10: Cupcake cases

For instantly easy seasonal cupcakes simply pick out colour themed cupcake cases. It’s that easy. It doesn’t even matter if you don’t add picks, fondant characters or sprinkles on top. A tray or cake stand filled up with orange, red, black, green and purple cased cupcakes is a simple way to say Halloween treats! We love foil cases ourselves as they seem to hold better to more moist cakes than full on paper.

Halloween themed cupcake cases

8th October 2016 //

10 Tools and Ingredients Perfect for Autumn Baking!

Yay! It’s almost here. Autumn (or Fall if you’re Stateside) that is. We eagerly wait for it all year because seriously what’s not to love? Bright golden leaves, crisp morning air, and (of course) amazing flavours to start baking and eating! Once those maple leaf cookie cutters get brought out of their annual storage space there is literally no stopping us. Anyway, in case you’re stuck for Autumn baking ideas here’s a quick round-up of the top 10 baking tools and ingredients we stock up on once September hits. You’re bound to find some inspiration even if Fall isn’t your ‘thing’.

10 Tools and Ingredients Perfect for Autumn Baking!

01: Leaf themed cookie cutters

Novelty cookie cutters are perfect for the novice baker. You don’t need to go crazy on the royal icing because the cool cookie shape has done a lot of the decorative work for you! All you need is to whip up a few batches of chocolate, gingerbread or vanilla sugar cookies before cutting out your shapes and baking. Easy. You can either leave them plain or drizzle them with chocolates and sprinkles too for a little extra fun.

Maple leaf cookie cutter

02: Bundt cake pans

Bundt cake pans just scream Autumn and Winter to us. They’re fun and easy to use, plus they take a large chunk of cake decorating out of the equation - perfect for the inexperienced in the kitchen. All you need is a stunning bundt pan design (Nordic Ware make THE most gorgeous styles and shapes from rings of forest trees to quaint little log cabin villages) and a damn good spiced cake recipe.

Geometric bundt cake pan by Nordic Ware

03: Autumn themed food colours

You may want to create some fondant fall leaves or acorns to top some homemade spied cupcakes with or maybe you’re ambitious and have a huge pumpkin decorated cake in mind. Either way you may need a small collection of Autumn inspired food gel or pate colours to really get the right look. We use a combination of Sugarflair and Pro Gel by Rainbow Dust colours for our work. Here are some of our favourites… Autumn Leaf by Sugarflair (a gorgeous golden yellow), Chestnut by Sugarflair, Apricot by Sugarflair, Terracotta by Rainbow Dust ProGel (an earthy orange), and Peach, Cream and Caramel by Rainbow Dust ProGel.

04: Themed sprinkles

Sprinkles are the easiest way to add a bit of playfulness to your finished bake. What makes it better is that you can find a lot of great themed novelty sprinkles and different shades. Here in the UK we’ve always found cake decorating stores and craft shop shelves very much lacking on sprinkles, but over the past few years we’ve really noticed some cool shapes, styles and ranges being made more available. Shop around and you should be able to find autumn leaves, confetti, pumpkins, bats etc; all perfect for Autumn baking!

Mini autumn leaf sprinkles by CK Products

05: Fun flavours

The best thing about baking in different seasons is the variety of tasty flavours you can try out or experiment with! We never get tired of anything featuring maple bacon, pumpkin pie or tingling gingerbread spice! Get creative and try mixing it up (pun intended) with maple bacon s’more cupcakes topped with toasted marshmallow frosting or mix a little strong coffee in your gingerbread cookie dough! Our favourite flavours to stock up on once those crisp leaves fall from the trees include… maple extract by Frontier, butterscotch essence by Uncle Roy’s, apple essence by Uncle Roy’s, gingerbread flavour by Beau, pumpkin pie filling by Libby’s and NY Cheesecake by Beau.

06: Doughnut maker, baking pan or mini deep fat fryer

There are three main ways to whip up homemade doughnuts - try a doughnut maker, bake them or deep fry ’em! Each method has their pros and cons, but it’s up to you to find out which you like best. Using a doughnut maker is super convenient as all you need to do is add the batter and wait. Baking them in doughnut ring shaped pans is also an option and this also cuts out a lot of fat from the traditional frying technique. For full on doughnut flavour heaven, however, deep fat frying them is the way to go.

Doughnut Maker by Elgento

Doughnut baking pan by Wilton

Mini deep fat fryer by Lakeland

07: Adorable Autumn animal themed anything

Who isn’t going to fall (yup, another pun) head over heels in love with some utterly adorable hedgehog cookies or even a fox themed birthday cake right? Make your bakes fit into the beautiful Autumn season with some cute cookie cutters, cupcake toppers or picks!

Hedgehog cookie cutter by Formina

Squirrel cookie cutter by Eddington’s

08: Fun cupcake cases

For simple yet effective seasonal cupcakes baking with colourful cases will do the trick! We love the super cute cases by Meri Meri which you can find in chevron or dot prints and also in Autumnal colours like golden yellows or deep reds. The chevron print cases in particular are perfect for muffins. We love the idea of lemon and toasted pumpkin seeds, or even a salted caramel and pecan cheesecake flavour!

Yellow chevron cupcake / muffin cases by Meri Meri

09: Giant marshmallows

Huge marshmallows are amazing. Obviously, you can just toast them on a fire and eat them or add them to hot chocolate, BUT you can also create tasty marshmallow fondant with them or whip up Autumn themed rice krispy treats using melted marshmallows. One amazing use is to put large marshmallows on top of chocolate cupcakes just before you need to remove them from the oven. The marshmallow should melt and even toast on top making one tempting frosting alternative!

Jet-Puffed large marshmallows by Kraft

10: Pumpkin themed anything too

Bake or decorate any sweet treat with a pumpkin theme and you’ve got one on-trend Autumn bake! We adore the amazing range of cake pans by Nordic Ware (we don’t work for them, honest) because they’re fun, durable, easy to use and feature some great designs.

Pumpkin cake pan by Nordic Ware

Pumpkin loaf pan by Nordic Ware

Pumpkin cake pop cake pan by Nordic Ware

What’s your favourite Autumn/Fall treat?

22nd September 2016 // 0 Comments

Recipe: Chocolate Dipped Mocha Meringue Kisses

It’s September and the mornings are getting wonderfully crisp right now. We absolutely love this time of year. Maybe we’re strange, but we love to start work even earlier in the morning. Hello there 6am meetings with giant mugs of hot coffee and freshly baked croissants (yes, we bake croissants for power/work breakfasts when we feel so inclined). Whilst sipping on a morning latte and biting into mini pain au chocolates just out of the oven we thought of putting together a quick how-to for some tiny sugary bites… a meringue kisses recipe. This is a version of our go-to meringue recipe that is perfect for Autumn mornings; studded with bursts of coffee and dipped in creamy Belgian chocolate of course!

Belgian chocolate dipped mocha meringue kisses recipe!

Ingredients needed…

35g egg whites
70g caster sugar
1/2 teaspoon cream of tartar
2 teaspoons instant coffee granules
2 teaspoons sieved cocoa powder (optional)
A handful of dark Belgian chocolate chips, buttons or callets

01: Pre-heat your oven to 160 degrees C (fan) / 180 degrees C (non-fan) / 325 degrees F / gas mark 4.

02: One of the first things you need to do for this meringue kisses recipe is heat up that sugar. This helps it to dissolve better and quicker into the whipped egg whites which means lovely smooth and non-grainy meringues! Yay! Pour the sugar onto a baking tray and place in your pre-heated oven for 5 minutes.

03: Add your egg whites to the bowl of a stand-up mixer and mix on high with the whisk attachment until they start to look like the lovely frothy eggs above. When ready add in the cream of tartar and mix until combined.

04: Whilst on medium speed spoon in your heated sugar mix. Your meringue should begin to look gorgeously glossy and it should also begin to stiffen up.

05: Grind your coffee granules down roughly and mix in the cocoa powder (the cocoa is optional, however, as it depends on how chocolate-y you’d love your meringues). We left the cocoa powder out of ours to get a stronger hit of coffee for each kiss. Remember not to completely grind down all your coffee.

06: Add the coffee mix to your meringue and whip until incorporated. Ours looked like this, but if you’ve added cocoa powder then you should be left with a light chocolate looking meringue.

06: Spoon the meringue into a disposable piping bag fitted with a medium plain round piping tip and on a lined baking tray pipe rows of meringue drops. Make sure to space these out at around 2cm.

07: Now place them in the oven and leave them to bake for around 25 - 35 minutes. We use a convection oven (which is basically a fan assisted oven) so it took only 25 minutes for our kisses to be done.

08: Remove your tray of meringue kisses from the oven once they’re ready and set them aside to cool. We always recommend investing in a marble pastry slab as leaving your bakes to cool on marble means they’re ready in half the time!

09: Once ready and cooled down you can start melting down your chocolate. Add the chips or buttons to a microwave safe jug/bowl and heat at 30 second intervals gently stirring the chocolate at each check point until ready. Pour or dollop your melted down chocolate onto a plate so that you can dip your meringues.

10: Meringues are delicate so it’s important that you’re gentle when picking them up and dipping them into the melted chocolate. Don’t grab the very tips of them. Instead pick them up lower down close to the middles. Carefully dip them into the melted chocolate and place them on a tray lined with greaseproof paper to set.

11: Setting time can vary depending on the weather, but they should be ready when the chocolate no longer looks wet. If you live in a warm and humid climate you could be waiting for your kisses to dry for around an hour.

If you want to check your local levels of humidity (essential for anything involving sugar) then try out a handy app in the iStore or via android!

Now you can enjoy your homemade chocolate dipped mocha meringue kisses with a hot cup or coffee (or tea… or even hot chocolate loaded with whipped cream and marshmallows). These little gems are hygroscopic (they soak in moisture from the atmosphere around them) so as soon as they’re done store them in an airtight container and keep in a cool dry place. They should last for a good 2 weeks so they’re great to keep for a succession of mid-afternoon pick-me-ups!

One of the best things about this meringue kisses recipe is that you can add or leave out whatever amount of coffee you like. Add in an extra teaspoon of coffee to your mix for more of an espresso hit. Up the chocolate, add a dash of vanilla bean paste and sift cocoa powder on top for more of a chocolate-y mocha taste.

If you’re feeling super adventurous you can try adding a small amount of chilli flakes into your melted chocolate before dipping, add sprinkles of brown sugar on top of each before lightly blow torching for a coffee creme brûlée effect or even adding finely chopped toffee into the meringue before piping for a caramel latte flavour!