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vanilla

21st September 2017 // 0 Comments

Royal Albert x Juniper Cakery: Cherry & White Chocolate Cake!

Cherry and white chocolate cake recipe by Juniper Cakery for Royal Albert

When Royal Albert contacted us to say our cakes and treats were a perfect fit for their gorgeous range of tableware designed by Miranda Kerr obviously we were beyond flattered! The range manages to be luxurious yet fun and definitely on-trend (those pink peonies are a fashion favourite). Definitely something we aim to be with every sweet we create! With this in mind and to really make the most of those last few days of summer we’ve put together one super pretty cake you can re-create too! Cherries are available in late summer, but they always remind us both of Autumn too (hello fruity cherry conserves and cinnamon cherry strudels!). Adding in a good Madagascan vanilla along with a creamy white Belgian chocolate helps give this cake a wonderfully comforting feeling! To whip up this cake at home keep reading!

Cherry and white chocolate cake recipe by Juniper Cakery for Royal Albert and Miranda Kerr

Cherry, vanilla and white chocolate cake recipe by Juniper Cakery for Royal Albert and Miranda Kerr

Love the stylish Royal Albert and Miranda Kerr ‘Gratitude’ cake stand and ‘Friendship’ tea plates we used to help show off our Royal Albert inspired cake? Follow the links to shop them! They’re so vibrant and beautiful. We’re huge fans of the large peonies, gold accents and pretty colour palette.

Cherry cake recipe by Juniper Cakery

Cherry and white chocolate cake recipe!

Ingredients needed for the cake:
(this recipe makes approx. 3 x 8″ circle cakes)

Step 01:

Pre-heat your oven to gas mark 3 / 140C (fan) / 160C (non-fan) / 325F. Butter and line your cake pans.

Step 02:

Cream together the butter and sugar in a good stand-up mixer. Don’t over mix as this adds air into your batter which can lead to a sunken mess.

Step 03:

Add in your flour and roughly mix this into the creamed butter and sugar. Again don’t over mix! Mixing too much once your flour has been added overstimulates the gluten which can make a rather dense and chewy textured cake. Not nice.

Step 04:

Now add in your eggs and Madagascan vanilla. Mix until incorporated. Then pour evenly between three 8″ cake pans! Bake each layer/pan for approximately 30 mins. Test your cake with a clean knife or cake tester. If it comes out clean your cake is ready! If not and batter sticks to the blade or tester bake for another 15 minutes checking again at the halfway mark!

If you want to bake all three layers at once place in your oven and bake for approximately 40-50 minutes. Remember to test your cakes. If they’re not ready bake for another 10-15 minutes and test each 5-7 minutes into your extra baking time!

Step 05:

When ready remove from the oven. Quickly and carefully turn out onto a clean surface to cool. We use chocolatier marble slabs to help our cakes cool down a little quicker.

 

Ingredients needed for the vanilla and white chocolate buttercream:

Step 01:

Cream the butter in a stand mixer. Scrape the butter back down to the bottom of the bowl using your spatula. Try not to mix the butter too much or this can lead to pesky air bubbles and an odd textured buttercream! It’s so tempting to just leave the mixer going while you prep other things, but don’t!

Step 02:

Add in your sifted icing sugar (also known as powdered sugar or confectioner’s sugar in the US) and mix until incorporated. Remember not to over mix though!

Step 03:

Now add in your Madagascan vanilla bean paste along with your 100g of melted white chocolate and a little pink food colour. Mix together.

Pink vanilla and white chocolate buttercream by Juniper Cakery

Tip! When it comes to adding in colour do this a little at a time. It’s so much easier to add more colour if needed then remove any once mixed in!

How to make a cherry, vanilla and white chocolate cake

Ingredients and materials needed to fill and decorate your cherry and white chocolate cake:

  • Cherry conserve
  • Fresh cherries
  • Pink candy melts by Wilton
  • Fresh and washed pink roses in posy picks
  • Trex or Crisco vegetable shortening
  • Macarons, candy, homemade marshmallows or meringue kisses to decorate
  • Cream puffs (if you’re feeling adventurous) - We have a Strawberry Milkshake cream puff recipe here. Just omit the strawberry essence from the whipped cream filling and add a tablespoon of blitzed cherry conserve into the double cream when whipping!
  • Your go-to ganache drip recipe - we added our signature gold sequin drip to our cherry and white chocolate cake. To simplify this cake you can leave the drip out!

Step 01:

When cool your layers are ready to work with! You never want to sandwich with warm cake as it will begin to melt your fillings. Sloppy, warm buttercream or ganache is not a good look. With a large serrated knife level each layer. You can definitely use a cake leveller for this tip if you like. We make so many cakes that we’ve developed a knack for levelling cakes by eye!

Cherry conserve filled cake recipe by Juniper Cakery

Step 02:

Now it’s time to fill and sandwich your layers! Add a ring of your pink vanilla and white chocolate buttercream leave a circle in the centre for your cherry conserve. When ready spoon in your fruity filling. Carefully add your layer on top and repeat this entire step for the next layer. Once all three cakes have been sandwiched you can add your pretty pink buttercream!

How to cover a semi-naked cake by Juniper Cakery

Step 03:

For an on-trend semi-naked look smooth or pipe your pink buttercream around the sides and top randomly. Scrape and remove any excess using a good icing scraper. Place in your fridge to chill.

Step 04:

Yay! Now for the fun part! If you’re braving a ganache drip then now it the time to add it! Drips work best on a nice chilled cake. The coldness of the cake helps the chocolate to set quicker giving you much more control over it. You don’t want every drip to pool at the bottom of your cake board or stand. We added a white chocolate drip to ours studded with edible sequins and painted gold. That’s an entire tutorial altogether though!

Pink dipped cherries by Juniper Cakery

Pretty pink candy melt dipped cherries by Juniper Cakery

Step 05:

For cute pink dipped cherries add approx. 100g pink candy melts to a microwave safe bowl and melt down. We heated ours set at 2 minutes and checked every 30 seconds until done. Add in around half a tablespoon of your vegetable shortening until a smooth molten texture. Now dip in your cherries and leave to set on some parchment paper!

Step 06:

To decorate add in your pretty pink roses first. These are your focal decorative items and your largest so it helps to map out your design with these. Our roses have been washed, cut down, then inserted into posy picks before added to our cake.

Cute gold splattered cream puffs by Juniper Cakery

Step 07:

Then you can add whatever other sweets and treats you have to your cake! We added pink candy melt dipped cherries, cherry cream puffs, and pretty macarons to ours!

Cherry filled cake with white chocolate buttercream by Juniper Cakery

Pretty in pink cherry cake for Royal Albert

White chocolate and pink cherry cake for Royal Albert

To really add the wow factor to this cherry and white chocolate cake why not treat yourself to something sweet from Royal Albert and Miranda Kerr’s collection!

31st March 2014 // 5 Comments

Honey, Vanilla & Lavender Beehive Macaron Cake!

One of the perks of our job is that when either one of our birthdays makes its way around we end up creating a hell of a cake for ourselves! This Honey, Vanilla and Lavender Beehive Macaron Cake is by no means an exception. To celebrate Krystle’s (the Welsh half of Juniper Cakery) 28th birthday we set to work designing, baking and decorating this impressive beehive inspired macaron tower. 

The cake itself is vanilla filled and iced with a wildflower honey buttercream whilst the macarons that adorn it are honey, vanilla and lavender flavoured. The bottom tier is covered with gold painted fondant ‘sequins’.

Being Welsh, an outdoors-y woman and harbouring a life-long fascination with bees this was an obvious cake for Krystle. We took inspiration from beehives, botanical illustrations, anything and everything golden and glamorous and full bouquets of seasonal blossoms to design this cake.

After affixing the honey, vanilla and lavender macarons to the cake tower we embellished them with handmade ivory sugar gum paste roses and leaves, gold painted fondant bees and soft lavender hydrangea blossoms.

The ‘sequin’ tier took an excruciating amount of work and time to create! For a while we kept spotting fondant sequin cakes doing the rounds on various blogs and online magazines from across the pond and we had been itching to re-create this! It took the both of us over 10 hours to make!

The cake board was fun to decorate too! The large hexagon shaped board was covered with a cream fondant then embossed with a honeycomb pattern, brushed with gold lustre dust and dotted with gold painted fondant bees!

The top of the macaron cake tower was finished with a gum paste finial that was then hand painted gold. The design was influenced by pollen, floral petals, the abdomen of a honey bee and by the finials that perch atop historical buildings.

We added a little bit of fun by attaching some gold painted fondant bees onto a few blossoms as well as clustered onto the macarons.

This cake took so much time and effort to create, but it was worth it! This cake is the perfect combination of both of our personal styles. It incorporates our love of nature, food (of course!) and even architecture.

11th February 2014 // 4 Comments

Valentine Tutorial: Pink Champagne Cupcakes!

With Valentine’s Day literally just days away here’s a lovely cupcake recipe and tutorial for you to re-create at home for that special someone. We had such fun whipping these up in the Juniper Cakery kitchen and studio as you can imagine; cue lots of champagne, gold hand painting, miniature champagne bottles from fondant and decadent swirls of lovely vanilla buttercream! These adorable little pink champagne bottles nestled into silky vanilla buttercream atop soft rosy champagne infused cupcakes are bound to be a show-stopping hit with loved ones; they definitely were with ours! If you’re feeling extra adventurous why not paint, indent or pipe the recipient’s initials onto each bottle label for a sweet and impressive personal touch.

[yumprint-recipe id=’4′]As an alternative to using real champagne, as this can get costly, in your cupcakes why not try utilising 6-12 drops of champagne essence.

[yumprint-recipe id=’5′]

Miniature Fondant Pink Champagne Bottles

You’ll need…

Pink or a dark green fondant / sugarpaste if creating normal champagne bottles
White or ivory fondant / sugarpaste
Raspberry pink fondant / sugarpaste
Edible glue
Paintbrush
Gold lustre dust or edible metallic paint
Vodka
Small plunger cutters (optional)
Blade tool
Candy melts
3mm thin ivory ribbon
Disposable piping bag
Fondant rolling pin
Icing / confectioner’s sugar

Step one: Take some fondant the colour you wish your bottle to be and roll into a ball then a tapered oblong and shape carefully into a bottle whilst it is stood up on a flat surface.

Step two: With a approximately 2-3 drops of vodka added to some gold lustre dust OR some gold metallic edible paint hand paint the neck of the bottle. This may need a few coats if your bottle if a dark coloured fondant.

Step three: Take some 3mm ivory ribbon and cut to a length that fits around the bottle’s neck and crosses at the front well. Attach with a few tiny dots of melted candy melt (melt these quickly by filling a disposable back with the melts and microwaving until ready before snipping off the end of the piping bag). Hold gently until set.Step four: Roll out some white or ivory fondant / sugarpaste to 2mm thick onto an icing sugar dusted surface

Step four: With the blade tool cut out a rectangular shape an appropriate size for the front of your champagne bottle. Attach using a little edible glue. Imprint or add any detail to the label now.

Step five: Take a small amount of red or pink fondant and roll into a ball then into an oblong shape.

Step six: Shape into a dumb bell or bone-like shape by rolling the middle of the red fondant oblong with a finger.

Step nine: Take the dumb bell / bone shaped red fondant and carefully pinch in half into a heart shape. Smooth the centre over a little.

Step seven: With a little melted candy melt attach the heart where the ribbon crosses and meets at the front of the champagne bottle.

Step eight: Repeat all above steps until you have the desired amount of champagne bottles.

Now all that is left to do is to pipe your cupcakes generously with vanilla buttercream, add any decor you wish (edible glitter, sprinkles, sugar pearls etc) and nestle your tiny champagne bottles atop at a jaunty angle!

After all your hard work you should now be left with an array of delicious and adorable cupcakes waiting to steal the heart of all who cast their eyes upon them. If you’re making these for yourself, however, we really wouldn’t blame you at all!

9th December 2013 // 0 Comments

Bellini Cupcake Recipe for The Devilled Egg

Every year the fun filled winter season tempts us all with decadent desserts and luxurious liqueurs. This year is obviously no different as we present this grown up gourmet Bellini cupcake; perfect for celebrations and soirées! This light and fluffy Prosecco cupcake is filled with home made peach and brown sugar confiture, generously swirled with vanilla pod infused buttercream and finished with a sweet (no pun intended) white chocolate and Prosecco ‘snowball’ truffle. We created this cupcake recipe especially for Bristol based culinary school, The Devilled Egg. This festively frivolous cocktail inspired cupcake is sure to make you a hit on the dinner party circuit! Why not make your way to The Devilled Egg Kitchen Academy’s blog for our full recipe!

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27th November 2013 // 0 Comments

Winter Tales Recipe and Tutorial: Vanilla Snow Queen Cupcakes

As cold, frosty mornings set in across the land here in the UK it’s time for the Snow Queen to begin her reign. What better way to see in the chilly season with these Vanilla Snow Queen cupcakes; soft and light vanilla cakes filled with luxurious white chocolate ganache, swirled with white vanilla buttercream and finally finished with a beautiful, sparkling crown! Display them atop a lovely silver platter or a pristine white tiered cake stand sprinkled with edible glitter for an extra frosty look. The wonderful thing about these particular cupcakes is they manage to be both fun for the kids yet full of glitz and glamour for more grown up sophisticated parties!

Vanilla Snow Queen Cupcake by Juniper Cakery

Vanilla Cupcake Recipe (makes approx. 12 cupcakes)

226g self raising flour
226 butter
226g caster sugar
4 eggs
1 bourbon vanilla pod

Pre-heat your oven to Gas Mark 3 / 160C / 325F and line a cupcake pan with cupcake cases. Cream your butter and sugar first and when ready add your eggs and vanilla. Once combined add the flour, mix well and pour your batter into your cases. Bake for around 20-30 minutes or until a cake tester comes out clean when tested.

White Chocolate Ganache Filling

200g white chocolate callets, chips or buttons
100ml double cream
Glass bowl
Whisk
Saucepan of hot water

In a glass bowl pour in the chocolate with the double cream and set into a saucepan of hot water. Stir gently with the whisk until melted and incorporating together. Remove from the hob and leave the bowl of chocolate and cream to set either in a refrigerator or on a windowsill in cold weather (cover with cling film if doing so). The ganache will be ready to fill your cupcakes with when it has the consistency of peanut butter.

Vanilla Buttercream Recipe

250g butter
250-300g icing sugar (keep testing when adding to make sure it is the consistency and sweetness YOU’D like)
6-12 drops of natural vanilla essence
Icing and buttercream whitener

Add half of the of butter diced into pieces. Cream the butter in a mixer. Then gradually add icing sugar and the remaining butter (cut into cubes) until you get a smooth, creamy texture. Add the flavour to taste and add a few drops of icing whitener at a time until you’re happy with the colour.

For more hints and tips see our tutorial on how to make buttercream here.

How to Make the Snow Queen’s Crown

You will need…

Gray sugarpaste / fondant (we used coloured plain paste with liquorice gel paste food colour)
Tylo powder
Lustre dust
Fondant rolling pin
Straight edge blade tool
Ball tool
Edible glue
Paintbrushes

Step one: Add some tylo powder to your white or gray sugarpaste / fondant. You should only add a small amount; around 1/4 of a teaspoon per 250g.

Step two: Using a fondant rolling pin roll out your paste until around 3mm-4mm thick. With the straight edge blade tool cut out an elongated crown shape around 5-6cm in width at the bottom (but growing larger towards the top) and height.

DSC_0078_578

Step three: Using the blade tool cut out a series of un-regimented ‘spikes’ along the top of the crown. Still using the blade tool indent ‘spikes’ along the crown’s bottom.

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Step four: Roll out some gray fondant and cut a small strip. Cut ‘spikes’ along the top.

Step five: Using some dabs of edible glue attach the jagged strip from step four along the middle of the crown.

Step six: To create the pearls on the Snow Queen’s crown indent sections of the crown with the ball tool. Roll up some small white fondant balls and attach by adding a dab of edible glue into the indentation and lightly pressing the small ball into it. Alternatively you could use pearl beads.

Step seven: To shape your crown carefully stand it upright and paint the edges with edible glue before gently pressing together. Leave to set.

Step eight: Once your crown is set brush generously with silver lustre dust (avoiding the white fondant balls you’ve just attached). Leave for a few minutes and then dust once more.

Step nine: To make the pearls shimmer lightly brush them with a new paintbrush and some pearl lustre dust.

Once your crown is ready you can assemble your Vanilla Snow Queen cupcakes! Pipe each cake with your vanilla buttercream, gently nestle your crowns into the frosting and sprinkle generously with snowflake sprinkles! You can also add some edible glitter for some extra sparkle if you wish.

Voila! Congratulations on your collection of gorgeously glimmering Vanilla Snow Queen cupcakes; perfect for the frosty festive season.


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