200 Recipes! Strawberry Fairy Cakes (with Meringue Buttercream)

Happy 200th Recipe!!

Today marks the 200th recipe (technically the 201st post, but the first post I ever wrote was an introductory one), so I thought I'd do something that I've always wanted to do but have actually never done: strawberry cupcakes.

When I was in college, the canteen served these super cute pink-iced fairy cakes. They had tooth-achingly sweet buttercream, flavoured with strawberry and coloured pink, and were decorated with little pink and white heart shaped sprinkles (like the ones I buy from Lidl; I think you've been rumbled, catering company!). The cake was just simple vanilla sponge. There's something wonderful about synthetic strawberry flavour: it conjures up images of childhood, and even as an adult who knows it's cheap and nasty I just can't help but love it.

I know you're all thinking, how can you have been running a bakery blog for nearly 3 years and never have done a simple strawberry cupcakes recipe? Unfortunately, here in Ireland strawberry essence is hard to come by, and usually very expensive, so I just forgot about it for quite some time.

However, the other day I was catching up on my YouTube channel subscriptions, and saw a woman making icing using strawberry milkshake powder, and I suddenly felt like a bit of an idiot: that stuff is super cheap and easy to come by, and I actually had used it once to make icing when I was a teenager.

So, I went to the shop to buy some, and inspected the ingredients: it's pretty much all sugar, except for less than one-percent strawberry powder, and some flavouring. This makes it easy to swap out for sugar in icing recipes.

This is my first foray into meringue buttercream, and I will say, it's harder than it looks. I based my creation on this recipe, halving the butter and adding it in in thin slices instead of chunks, and increasing the sugar. It made some delicious icing, but the making of it was quite complicated. I will in the future be tampering with it and trying to find a way to make it easier: I found that it kept collapsing and I had to refrigerate it to make it whip-able.

I also decided to chance putting some jam into the middle of each cake before baking, but the jam was heavier than the cake misture, so it sank to the bottom. It still tasted nice, though!

INGREDIMENTS

For 12 large cupcakes

• 6 ounces (170 grammes) white spelt flour
• 2 ounces (55 grammes) cornflour
• 1½ teaspoons (7 millilitres) baking powder
• 6 ounces (170 grammes) caster sugar
• 4 medium eggs
• 2 ounces (55 grammes) butter, or block margarine
• 2 ounces (55 grammes) sunflower oil
• 1 teaspoon (5 millilitres) vanilla essence
• 3 tablespoons (45 millilitres) strawberry jam, sieved

For the meringue buttercream (EXPERIMENTAL; correct recipe to follow)

• 2 medium egg whites
• 2 ounces (55 grammes) strawberry milkshake powder
• 2 ounces (55 grammes) white caster sugar
• 2 ounces (55 grammes) butter at room temperature, cut into thin slices

HOW-TO

To make the cakes,

• Line a 12 hole muffin tin with large paper cases, and preheat your oven to 180°C (350°F, Gas Mk.4, or moderate).
• Make the cake mixture following this recipe (leaving out the jam). Divide equally between the 12 cases: they should be about three-quarters full. Swirl half a teaspoon of strawberry jam in each cake, and tap the pan off the work surface to release all the bubbles.
• Bake for 20 to 25 minutes, or until well mounded and springy to the touch. Take out of the oven, transfer to a wire rack to cool completely.

To make the icing,

• Put the strawberry milkshake powder, caster sugar, and egg whites in a large heatproof mixing bowl. Heat over a saucepan containing about an inch (2 centimetres) of simmering water. Stir until hot to the touch, and when you rub the mixture between your fingertips you can feel no grains of sugar.
• Take off the heat, and beat with an electric whisk until you have a super fluffy, big, soft meringue that is completely cold; it should have at least tripled in size. This can take anywhere from 7 to 15 minutes, depending on the strength and quality of your whisk.
• With the whisk still running, add in a slice of butter at a time; each slice should be no more than half an ounce (15 grammes). Once the first slice is completely beaten in, add the next one, and so on. Take it slowly: otherwise it might collapse.
• If it does collapse, no worries: finish adding the butter, then refrigerate for about 20 to 30 minutes and beat again, and it should be lovely and fluffsome.
• Put into a piping bag fitted with a close star nozzle, and pipe onto the cooled cakes as you please. Decorate with sprinkles of your choice!

As you can see in this picture, I also made some chocolate ones, which were fabulous. The meringue buttercream is much lighter and creamier than traditional buttercream, so I actually prefer it, however I need to work on my technique. Watch this space...

Lime and Coconut Cake Truffles

In her last dying throes, my oven produced a batch of completely spread out, flat as a pancake, and pale vanilla fairy cakes. Until recently, the recipe I used for the cakes would have worked perfectly every single time, but this time they were a disaster. It was then that I decided to pack up all my baking equipment and move it to my mother's house until such time as the oven could be fixed, or replaced.

But the question remained: what do I do with the leftover disastercakes? Do I throw them out? Feed them to the ducks? Or, recycle them? That's when the concept of using them to make something else sprung to mind...

I decided to have another go at the good old favourite of the 50s American housewife: cake truffles. These may be more known to people as cake pops, which are simply cake truffles mounted on sticks. These are a good way to use up any failed/slightly stale/grand once you pick the mould off (not really, obviously) cakes that you have lying around.

INGREDIMENTS
Makes 20 small truffles

For the truffles,

• 9 ounces (250 grammes) crumbled vanilla sponge cake
• 2 ounces (55 grammes) thick coconut milk
• 2 ounces (55 grammes) desiccated coconut
• Zest of 1 lime
• Juice of half a lime

For the glaze,

• 1½ ounces (40 grammes) icing sugar
• Juice of half a lime
• 3½ ounces (100 grammes) white chocolate, chopped into pieces
• Sprinkles of your choice

HOW-TO

• In a mixing bowl, mix all of the truffle ingredients until it becomes a soft paste. You may need to use your hands. Divide into 20 equally sized pieces and roll into balls. Refridgerate for about 10 minutes.
• Line a baking tray with non-stick paper, or better, a silicone mat.
• To make the glaze, mix the lime juice with water to make 2 tablespoons (30 millilitres) worth of liquid. Put the diluted lime juice, icing sugar, and broken white chocolate together in a heatproof bowl and set over a pot of simmering water. Stir continuously until melted. Don't be tempted to do this in the microwave: your chocolate will seize.
• Take the cooled truffles and dip them in the glaze, rolling around until completely coated. Gently scoop up with a fork, tapping the fork on the bowl to let the excess glaze drip off. Put the glazed truffle on the lined tray. Sprinkle with whatever decorations you like while the glaze is still wet.
• Put the truffles in the fridge to set for about an hour, then move them to little paper cases for serving.

These are nice and zingy, with a subtle hit of coconutty richness, and the unexpected lime flavour in the glaze worked quite well: it seemed to be the favourite aspect of those who tried them out...

Coffee 'Cheesecake' Gâteau

This week has been light on recipes because my oven at home has finally decided to give up the ghost. Petitions to the landlord for a replacement have been unsuccessful as of yet, and luckily enough for me my mother - whose kitchen has quite a nice oven - isn't too far away. As such, a lot of my eating of late has been stovetop based...

In better news, this is my 198th recipe, meaning that the big two-oh-oh is very nearby! I think I have something lovely planned for it, whenever it may be. This whole not having an oven thing has made baking on the regular quite a challenge.

So, this week was my brother's birthday! I cannot count (well, I probably could if I spent the time going through the list of posts) the amount of birthday cakes I've done at this point. A lot. Usually the same one every year for each family member. As convenient as that is in its predictability, it doesn't leave much room for trying something new.

This year, he asked for his two favourite cakes combined: coffee cake, and cheesecake. I decided to try and find an unusual way to mash them up.

I made two coffee sponge sandwiches as in this recipe, using 4 eggs and scaling the other ingredients up accordingly. Instead of milk, also, I used strong coffee; I split the mixture between two greased and floured 8 inch (20 centimetre) round sandwich tins. When they were baked, I drizzled them in coffee syrup, made using equal volumes of caster sugar and strong coffee, and boiled in a saucepan until slightly thickened. For this, I used 4 tablespoons each of coffee and sugar.

To add in the cheesecake element, I used a whipped cream cheese icing. I followed the same method as I did for my carrot cake with orange cream icing, replacing the caster sugar with icing sugar (for convenience's sake), the orange juice with 1 teaspoon of lemon juice, and leaving out the zest entirely.

I used a third of the icing to sandwich the cakes, then used the remainder to ice the cake, I sprinkled some cocoa powder in the middle to resemble a cappuccino, or to summon the image of a tiramisù to mind.

It was very tasty, and also gave me a bit of inspiration to try a new way of making chilled cheesecakes without all the fuss. I find that every time I make one new thing, it inspires a slew of new things; you gotta love creativity.

Rondos: Almond "Fingers" (Wheat Free with a Dairy Free Option)

Happy 2016, readers! I had a nice break, but as soon as I got back to my home, after having been at my childhood home for the Christmas celebrations, I got back into the kitchen and made some delicious almond 'fingers'!

Admittedly, they're not finger shaped. They would be if I had the special mould, but I had to improvise and use a muffin tin instead. For those of you who aren't familiar with an almond finger, this is what I'm talking about:

source

These were always a favourite of mine when we went to the shop to get cakes as a kid, so it was a joy to recreate them. When I was researching the recipe to make these childhood favourites at home, I discovered that their native Dutch name is 'kanos', or 'rondos' for round ones.

FREE FROM

☑ Soya (check for soya lecithin)
☑ Dairy (use substitute in italics for dairy free)
☑ Wheat

CONTAINS
☒ Refined sugar products
☒ Nuts (almonds)
☒ Gluten
☒ Egg

INGREDIMENTS
For the pastry,

• 9 ounces (255 grammes) white spelt flour
• 6 ounces (170 grammes) butter, room temperature, or block margarine
• 3 ounces (85 grammes) icing sugar
• 1 medium egg
• Zest of half a lemon

For the filling,

• 5 ounces (140 grammes) ground almonds
• 3 ounces (85 grammes) icing sugar
• 1 medium egg
• A few drops of almond essence

For finishing,

• 1 medium egg, beaten with a little water, for glazing
• 6 almonds, halved with skins removed

HOW TO

First, make the pastry.

• In a large mixing bowl, cream the butter with a wooden spoon until soft. Add in the sugar and lemon zest and cream again until smooth and fluffy. 
• Add in the egg and mix until fully incorporated, and then sift in the flour. Mix gently until you get a nice soft and slightly sticky dough. You might need to resort to your hands if the mixture is too stiff for the spoon.
• Divide the dough in half equally, using a scale, and then wrap each half in cling film, flattening it to make it chill faster. Chill in the fridge for at least 60 to 90 minutes, or in the freezer for about 20 to 30 minutes.

Next, make the filling and assemble.

• Preheat your oven to 160°C (320°F, Gas Mk.2½, or very moderate).
• In a mixing bowl, stir together the ground almonds and icing sugar until fine and free of any lumps. Add in the egg and almond essence, and mix until it becomes a paste.
• Sprinkle the work surface with flour, and roll out the first half of the dough to just under a quarter inch (3 millimetre). Using a round cutter, or glass, or mug, cut out rounds to line a 12 hole patty tin, or muffin tin. Keep the trimmings aside.
• Fill the cases with a rounded teaspoon of filling. Don't go mad: you want a gap of a few millimetres at the top of each case. I discovered the hard way that too much filling leads to cracked tops.
• Roll out the second half of the dough and cut into slightly smaller circles for the lids. Brush the underside with water and use them to close each little cake. Pressing with the fingers is fine; no need for a fork.
• Brush the top of each cake with beaten egg wash, prick with a fork to let air out, and press half an almond into the top.
• Gather the trimmings together and squish into another dough ball. Wrap and keep for another project: you will have a little left over.
• Bake in the preheated oven for 25 to 30 minutes. If they puff up too much and crack, it's no biggy: just put less filling in them next time.
• Remove from the oven, allow to cool slightly in the tray, and then lift them out with the assistance of a blunt, thin bladed knife (like a palette knife). Move to a wire rack to cool completely.