Fairy Tale Baking by Ramla Khan (book review) & The Three Bears Caramel Porridge Flapjacks

As a self taught baker I have seen so many different baking books. It is how I taught myself to bake by reading book after book after book! I had two thoughts when I first glanced at this book, Fairy Tale Baking: first was “Bakes based on fairy tales, cool!” secondly I thought “I hope it’s not just cake decorating, I am not all that good with fondant.”

My first thought was correct and my second a fear that dissipated as soon as I started to read it. Not that we don’t see fondant in the book, it’s just not all fondant if you know what I mean.

Each fairy tale or classic tale picked by the author, Ramla Khan, has 4 different bakes or treats to accompany the chosen tale. Making it perfect for party planning. As she says in the introduction a few of the recipes could be adapted for other stories. All it takes is a bit of your creative thought!

The introduction gives the basic skills and techniques you will need for the recipes in the book and Ramla Khan gives us basic recipes for cake, cookies, and the different icings or frostings.  Each chapter is a tale and before we get to the tasty treats we get an expert or a shortened version of said fairy tale or classic story.

The Fairy Tales you’ll see in this book are:

Sleeping Beauty
Cinderella
Goldilocks and the Three Bears
Jack and the Beanstalk
Hansel and Gretel
Little Red Riding Hood
Snow White
Princess and the Pea
Rapunzel
The Snow Queen
Peter Pan
Thumbelina
Alice in Wonderland
Beauty and the Beast
Aladdin

For example for Sleeping Beauty she gives us recipes for a Sleeping Beauty in a Bed Cake, Spindle Churros, Bramble Tartlets with chocolate thorns, and Meringue Kisses. That’s just a teaser of the creative and gorgeous looking recipes in this book. Each recipe is accompanied by pictures of the finished product and where needed some of the techniques.

I was quite taken with Goldilocks and the Three Bears. There is a Bear Cake, Caramel Porridge Flapjack (recipe below), Chocolate Chair Cupcakes, and a Gingerbread Bed.

The flapjack are technically a no-bake recipe that is super easy and produces a sugary treat that is just right. My only niggle was that the recipe called for a 6inch or 15cm square cake tin. It’s not a size I have ever used. An 8 inch square was way too big and my circle 7 inch was just not the right size, but my 2 lb loaf tin was just right for the job!

Caramel Porridge Flapjack

115g unsalted butter
125g dark brown/muscovado sugar
3 tablespoons golden syrup
300g rolled oats

Line your 15cm/6in square baking tin or like me your 2 lb loaf tin or two 1 lb loaf tins with grease proof paper. 
Melt the butter, sugar, and golden syrup until the sugar has dissolved, it should be smooth and shouldn’t feel grainy. I would watch it closely as sugar can easily burn if it gets too hot, keep it on a low heat. Pour in the oats and stir to coat. Pour into prepared tin and smooth it out with a spatula. Leave to cool in the fridge while you make the Caramel Chocolate topping.

Caramel Topping

400g tin of dulce de leche or ready made caramel
200g white chocolate, broken up
150g icing sugar, sifted


Mix the caramel and chocolate together in a medium sized sauce pan over a low heat and stir until smooth and combined. Add the sifted icing sugar, if it’s not sifted it may cause clumps. Be sure to stir it in well before pouring it on top of the oaty flapjack base. It should smooth out pretty much on it’s own, but use a spatula or icing palette knife to make the top nice and smooth. 
Keep in the refrigerator for a minimum of 2-3 hours or over night before slicing into squares.

As these are so rich you could cut them into three different sizes one that’s bigger for Papa Bears, one that’s just a bit on the smaller side for the Mama Bear who’s sweet tooth isn’t that sweet, and one size that is just right for Baby Bears!

notes: Fairy Tale Baking by Ramla Khan published by Apple Press, Quarto UK was released late October (SRP -£12.99) It was given to me to review, no other compensation was given please see my contact/policy page (tab above) for further information.

Banana Cupcakes!!

I was never much of a crier, until I had babies… my hormones have been in chaos ever since! So, today I told myself I wouldn’t cry.

I haven’t yet. Maybe I won’t and I will hold all the tears until September when Mini-Baker is off to her “big girl school.”

Today is her last day of pre-school and for their party I signed up for fairy cakes! I made banana cupcakes in fairy cake cases. There is a difference. This recipe would normally make 12 cupcakes I managed 30 fairy cakes!

Now that it is officially summer time, as school is finally done, we need the weather gods to give us some sunshine! I won’t hold my breath! So, if you’re in England and holed up in your house you can make these!!

cupcakes:  

100g unsalted butter, room temp.

175g soft light brown sugar

½ tsp banana extract (optional)

2 (m) eggs, room temp

300g plain flour

½ tsp baking powder

1 tsp bicarb

½ salt

½ tsp ground cinnamon

140ml buttermilk

2 large very ripe bananas, mashed

1. Pre-heat the oven to 180C/350F/gas4 and line your muffin tin.
2. Cream the butter, brown sugar, and banana extract (if using, I didn’t) for 7 minutes, or until light and fluffy!
3. Add the eggs one by one, mix for about 2 minutes
4. In a separate bowl mix all the dry ingredients: flour, b.powder, bicarb, salt, and g.cinnamon.
5. Mix into the butter mixture until just incorporated.
6. Add the buttermilk and bananas and mix for a further minute
7. Divide into your paper cases in your lined tin and if you are making cupcakes bake in the pre-heated oven for 25 minutes. If you are making fairy cakes, like I did, only bake for 15 minutes or until a toothpick comes out clean. NOTE: be aware that the bananas in the cupcake could cause a toothpick to come out a bit wet so check a few cupcakes!
8.  Out of the oven transfer to a rack and leave to cool before icing!

frosting:

125g unsalted butter, room temp

300g icing sugar, sifted

1 tbsp semi-skimmed milk

1 tbsp clear honey

1. Cream the butter in the mixer until light and fluffy I found this hard, as it wasn’t enough butter for my mixer to mix properly. You may want to use a hand mixer for this icing!
2. Add the icing sugar, milk, and honey and mix for 2 minutes until well blended.

decorating:

chocolate covered banana chips

or

3 small bananas and 12 tsp honey

1. I piped my frosting on, but you could also use a palette knife!
2. I then added a chocolate covered banana chip! The recipe suggests a couple of sliced bananas covered in a tsp of honey (1 tsp for each cupcake) remember if you make fairy cakes you could use less.

I took this recipe from Love Bakery: Cupcakes from the Heart by Samantha Blears

I shared these on Homemade Hooiser's Cupcake Tuesday!!
Button on the side bar! 

Janet made Martha's Roasted Banana Cupcakes if you're looking for an alternative!! 

Cakes fit for a Queen

Mary Berry's Queen Cakes from her book Fast Cakes: Baking made easy-in minutes!

My daughter's preschool is having a Jubilee Party tomorrow and the parents were asked to help supply the feast! Unfortunately Mini-Baker will be unable to attend. Long story, but I couldn't let the other kids down after I had signed up to bring fairy cakes.

When recently flipping through my copy of Fast Cakes (my first ever baking book!) I came upon Queen Cakes. How perfect is that??

So, of course I made them. I realised though after I made them I had completely left out the baking powder so if you make them yours might rise a bit more then mine did! oops. Because of the self-rising flour they were completely fine. Still light and very good.

For the preschool I did a basic icing and tinted it red and used the golden spray I had left over from these whoopie pies to make it a bit royal! :0) I kept the decorations simple as kids are just going to eat them up and not care what they look like!

These really are fast cakes as it's about 10 minutes to prepare them and only 15 minutes in a preheated oven! Also I would say they are perfect for making with kids and you can have your kids decorate them for the Jubilee! If you don't have kids these make a perfect treat for the Jubilee!! Enjoy!!

Queen Cakes: 

4oz (100g) soft margarine (I used Flora)

4oz (100g) caster sugar

4oz (100g) self-rising flour

2 eggs

1 level tsp baking powder

Heat the oven to 400F/200C/gas 6. Have about 18 paper cases in the muffin/bun tin; the number of cases required will vary slightly if the cakes are to be iced or extra ingredients added.

Put all the ingredients in a bowl and beat by hand for 2-3 minutes or for seconds with a hand held mixer or until well blended and smooth.

Divide between the paper cases and bake in the oven for about 15 minutes until the cakes are well-risen and golden brown. Lift out and cool on a wire rack.

There are a lot of variations you can use with this simple easy recipe. If you want to ice them put a little less batter in the case so it has a rim and it makes it easier to ice. Make up 2-3oz (50-75g) icing sugar with a little water and flavoring. Pour it over the top of the cakes and decorate, as you like. I tinted my with red food dye and sprayed with an edible gold spray.

The official Diamond Jubilee Emblem

The official emblem for The Queen's Diamond Jubilee in 2012 is the winning design following a national competition for children aged between 6 and 14. It was drawn by 10-year-old Katherine Dewar, from Chester.
The official emblem is available, free of charge, for download from this website. (website no longer exists 1.2.2016)

Fairy Cakes

taken from How to be a Domestic Goddess by Nigella Lawson

125g unsalted butter, softened

125g caster sugar

2 large eggs

125g self-raising flour

½ tsp vanilla extract

2-3 tbsp milk

500g royal icing

1. Preheat oven to 200*C/Gas Mark 6
2. Put all the ingredients except for the milk in a food processor
3. Blitz until smooth
4. Pulse while adding milk down the funnel (it makes a soft, dropping consistency)
5. Fill your cases and Bake for 15-20 minutes
6. Cut off rounded tops for a flat smooth surface
7. Ice. I bought some pre-made icing packs that came in white, pink, and yellow. But you can really ice these anyway you like.

cakes and candy

Mini-Baker had lots of fun decorating and eating the decorations.

These are my Harry Potter inspired fairy cakes. I was decorating them and thinking about how excited I was to see the last movie. So, I thought I'd make them all into Horcruxes. No need to be nervous no one was murdered in the making of these fairy cakes! Nor do you need to worry about my soul being split into 7 fairy cakes!
1. Nagini, Voldermort's snake
2. Tom Riddle's Diary. I used a licorice (good n' plenty's) as the Basilisk fang.
3. The Resurrection Stone/Ring
4. This is the Hufflepuff cup. I had this grand idea to make the top look like tea and was going to print off the Hufflepuff coat of arms and put it on the case, but didn't actually make it that far. So, yeah.....
5. Harry's lighting bolt scar
6. The Lost Diadem of Ravenclaw house. It was suppose to be a crown of sorts...
7. The Locket. I just drew it on as I didn't have any candy/sweets that I though would work well.

So, please don't judge these too harshly as it was done on the fly! I think if I had more time and more to work with I could have made them better!! I have a lot of Harry inspired treats I want to make some day! If you like reading and books check out my other blog Pages of the Mind!!