United Cakedom: tea cake

Showing posts with label tea cake. Show all posts

Cherry Tea Cakes!!

Recently I've started looking in alternative places to baking books for fun easy yummy recipes. My iPad is great for free or relatively cheap food apps. A while back I downloaded a Betty Crocker app (same as the website) for free and found a recipe for these Cherry Tea Cakes!!

I couldn't resist making them. Mine did not turn out as pink even using 3-4 drops of food color. In fact since they were hardly pink at all I’d probably just leave it out in the future. These were very easy and very sweet! If you don’t like maraschino or cocktail cherries then you won’t like these.

I personally love cocktail cherries so I might be a bit biased when I say I love these teacakes. There are no eggs in these cookies so I would make sure your butter is very soft otherwise you get a sand like texture (learnt this from experience) or add more cherry liquid very little by very little until you get a dough you can roll easily into balls.

There are a handful of other good-looking recipes on this app so you’ll probably see a few more in the upcoming weeks! These are perfect for a lunch box, after school, or teatime treat!! Enjoy!!

Cherry Tea Cakes:

1 cup powdered sugar

1 cup (228g) butter or margarine, softened

2 teaspoons maraschino cherry liquid

½ teaspoon almond extract

3 or 4 drops red food color

2 ¼ cups all-purpose flour (plain flour)

½ teaspoon salt

½ cup drained maraschino cherries, chopped (cocktail cherries)

½ cup (100g) white vanilla baking chips

Heat oven to 350°F/180C. In large bowl, beat powdered sugar, butter, cherry liquid, almond extract and food color with electric mixer on medium speed until blended. On low speed, beat in flour and salt. Stir in cherries.
Shape dough into 1-inch balls. On ungreased (I lined mine) cookie sheets, place balls 2 inches apart.
Bake 8 to 10 minutes or until edges are light golden brown. Remove from cookie sheets to cooling racks. Cool 20 to 30 minutes.
I melted my 100g white chocolate chips in a microwave safe bowl by stirring after every 10-20 seconds. Then drizzled over with a spoon. You could put melted chocolate in a piping bag or plastic baggy to get a more controlled drizzle.

notes: Betty Crocker website – one thing I love about the site is that it has all the nutritional information for most of the recipes! This link also shows you a picture of the very pink cherry tea cakes...

Bipartisan Cake {apple crumb cake}

Hello. Last night I baked Bipartisan Cake (Apple Crumb Cake) from Baked in American by the David’s owners of Outsider Tart (London). Having already baked a several things from the book I won’t be sharing the recipe with you, but it’s yummy to look at!

I didn't just choose the Bipartisan Cake (pg 126) because of the apples (of course I did). I choose it because the David’s conceived the cake the week Barack Obama first took office 4 years ago. Obama has a thing for caramel apple cake apparently? It also evolved from an Alaskan recipe, where Sarah Palin is from. Hence why the cake is called Bipartisan (Bipartisanship involves trying to find common ground) Cake. Now that Obama has just had another victory I thought I’d make it and share it with friends, but unfortunately not with you…. unless you have the book. Sorry, I am mean like that.

The cake is has a caramel apple filling mixed in a cinnamony cake batter, topped with lots of crumbs mixed with pecans (or walnuts your choice). I like this cake, it’s perfect with a cup of coffee or tea which ever your preference is! It also works as a dessert cake: top it with ice cream or cream (again depending on taste or culture preference), caramel drizzle or a simple glaze.

Nigella's Buttermilk Scones!! #AugustBreak

I have been baking for a while now and have lived in the UK even longer. Yet, I have never made scones before. Before this weekend that is. These turned out great! Way better then the store bought ones! They were very easy to make! If you own Nigella's Kitchen you'll find the recipe in there on page 283. If you don't I think you should. It's one of my favorite cookbooks ever, it has the best of everything! It's also available on the BBC website. I had my copy of Kitchen signed!! Check it out here!

Rock Cakes!! {Happy Birthday Harry}

Unlike Hagrid’s rock cakes, which were quite literally as hard as a rock, these are very light and delicious! Perfect accompaniment for a cup of tea!

There are lots of recipes for rock cakes out there, but after reading Marian Keyes intro to these cakes in her book Saved by Cake, I knew I had to use her recipe!

Rock Cakes:

225g self-rising flour

1 tsp bakig powder

115g butter (about 1 stick)

115g sultanas

50g mixed peel

75g caster sugar (superfine sugar)

1 egg, beaten

3 tbsp milk

3 tbsp demerara sugar (for decorating)

Line a baking tray with baking paper and preheat the oven to 200C/400F/gas6.

Sieve the flour and baking powder into a large bowl, then rub in the butter (like when making pastry) until it resembles bread crumbs. Mix in the sultanas, mixed peel, caster sugar, and the egg. Mix until you have a stiff dough. Add the milk by the tablespoon if the dough is too stiff. Marian reminds us that you can always add more, but can’t take it out if you’ve added too much!

Using two spoons or a spoon and a spatula – one for scooping, the other for scooping off – place golf ball-sized mounds of the mixture on to the prepared baking tray, leaving space for spreading. Marian also reminds us to leave these looking rough, the whole point of calling them rock cakes is so they look like rocks!

Sprinkle the top of each mound with demerara sugar, and then bake for 15-20 minutes or until the cakes have gone golden brown. Cool on a wire rack and eat them up!!

Tomorrow Harry will be 32!! Crazy. He's older then me! ;0)

Have a look tomorrow to see what I've created for his special day!

Marian Keyes Saved by Cake and Harry Potter's age

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)

Teacake Whoopie

taken from The Whoopie Pie Book by Claire Ptak

I was first introduced to whoopie pies by Sainsbury's Magazine where I made a couple batches with good success. So, when books started to be published I couldn't resist to get a hold of one. I choose this one out of all the others because the author is an American married to a Brit and living in London. She has her own bakery called Violet (it's on my list for the bakery tour!).

She based this whoopie off of a popular tea cake called Tunnock's Tea Cakes, I first had a Tunnock Tea Cake when I went up to Scotland to meet my husband's extended family. Recently my husband made a trip up and I made these to have him take with.

lake of marshmallow goo

But they didn't turn out as I wanted or expected. I obviously didn't whip the marshmallow filling* long enough to make it stiff enough. I should have stopped when I knew it was too gooey, but it was late and I didn't want the hassle of doing it in the morning. Taste was not affected very yummy but extra gooey and not easy to eat because of it. The recipe also had a lot of extra chocolate glaze and marshmallow cream so I took a silicone ice cube tray and made chocolate and marshmallow squares!!

still very yummy

for the cake makes 9 large or 24 mini (I had 12 medium)

280g plain flour
1/4 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp bicarb of soda
A pinch of salt
150g unsalted butter, softened
125g caster sugar
3 large egg yolks (save the egg whites for the marshmallow filling)
50ml double cream
1 tsp vanilla extract

In a bowl sift the flour, baking powder, and bicarb. Stir in salt. Set aside
In the bowl of freestanding mixer (or big mixing bowl) cream the butter and sugar. Add the egg yolks one at a time and mix well. Mix cream and vanilla together then pour into butter mixture and beat until combined. Add dry ingredients until just incorporated (don't over mix) Chill for 30 minutes
Preheat over to 180*C/gas 4. Line two trays with baking paper (I have whoopie pie trays- useful but not necessary)

fluffy marshmallow filling (makes a lot!!!)
3 egg whites
150g caster sugar
2 tbsp golden syrup
pinch of salt
1 tsp pure vanilla extract

Weigh all the ingredients in a heat proof bowl and place over a saucepan of boiling water. Whisk by hand until sugar has dissolved and the mixture is frothy and slightly opaque (10-15 minutes) *this is where I might have gone wrong as I thought it looked frothy and opaque just under ten minutes!
Remove from heat and whip on high speed in a freestanding mixer. I don't have a free standing mixture I used my hand held one....which might have also been my downfall as my arm got tired! ;0) Whip until white and holds it's shape!

Back to the cakes......
drop large or small scoops of batter onto prepared trays and bake in the middle of the oven 10-12 mins for large ones and 8-10 for small. When touched with a finger a slight impression should be left.

chocolate glaze
500g of milk or dark chocolate
Melt half in a bowl over a bowling pot of water take off heat and melt the rest.
This makes a lot of chocolate I'd half it at least I think next time.

Now fill the cooled cakes with marshmallow filling and glaze them!