Ren Behan - Author Wild Honey and Rye

Food Writer

Baking

Creme Egg Cupcakes

Have fun this Easter with these Creme Egg Cupcakes!

Creme Egg Cupcakes

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Creme Egg Cupcakes

Prep

Cook

Total

Yield 12 cakes

Made with Cadbury's Creme Eggs, for a egg-stra special treat this Easter. 

Ingredients

125g caster sugar
125g unsalted butter or margarine, at room temperature
2 eggs, beaten
100g self-raising flour (or plain flour + 1 tsp baking powder)
25g cocoa powder
1 tsp vanilla extract
2 tbsp milk
12 large Crème eggs, unwrapped
For the vanilla frosting
125g unsalted butter, at room temperature
250g icing sugar
2 tsp vanilla extract
2 tbsp milk
To decorate
12 mini Crème eggs, unwrapped

Instructions

  1.  Place the large Crème eggs into the freezer. Preheat the oven to 180C/160C fan/gas 4. Line a 12-hole muffin tin with cupcake liners.
  2. Beat the sugar and butter or margarine together in a bowl until light and fluffy. Slowly add in the eggs and a tablespoon of flour at a time. Sift in the rest of the flour and the cocoa powder and mix well. Stir in the milk and mix again.
  3. Put one spoonful of the cupcake mixture into each paper case. Take the Crème eggs out of the freezer and place one whole egg into the case, pressing it down gently into the mixture. Put another spoonful of the cupcake mixture on top of each egg. Using the back of a teaspoon, gently even out the cupcake mixture in the case, so that the top of the Crème egg is just showing.
  4. Bake in the oven for 15 minutes. Take the cupcakes out of the oven, let them cool in the tin slightly and then place them onto a wire rack.
  5. To make the vanilla frosting, beat the butter for a few minutes until it is pale and creamy. Slowly add in the icing sugar until it is all incorporated and beat for a few minutes. Add the vanilla, followed by the milk to loosen the mixture slightly. Transfer the buttercream into a piping bag fitted with a round-holed nozzle.
  6. Pipe the buttercream onto each cupcake and decorate each cake with one mini egg, cut into two halves.

Courses Dessert

You may also like:

Nigella’s Brownies with leftover mini eggs

No Bake Creme Egg Cheesecake 

Lemon and Poppy Seed Cheeesecake

Hot Cross Buns

Hot Cross Buns with a Maple Glaze

Hot Cross Buns Ren Behan

Hot Cross Buns, traditionally eaten on Good Friday are an Easter staple. They are fairly straight-forward to make and are well worth having a go at as they’ll be much tastier than a supermarket version. These have the added bonus of another Easter staple – chocolate!

I have also topped my buns with a delicious maple glaze and of course the obligatory cross over the top which is made with a mixture of flour and water.

A couple of tips:

  1. Yeast does not like hot liquid, so make sure that the milk and butter mixture has cooled back to room temperature before adding to the dry ingredients
  2. Adding the chocolate chunks in after the first prove will help to keep them from melting.

Hot Cross Buns Ren Behan

Hot Cross Buns Ren Behan

1 vote

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Hot Cross Buns with Chocolate Chunks and Toffee Glaze

Prep

Cook

Inactive

Total

Yield 12 buns

Hot cross buns just got better. Try my modern, tasty version, with cinnamon and dried fruit, as well as chocolate chunks and a delicious toffee glaze to finish them off perfectly.

Ingredients

Ingredients:

50g unsalted butter

200ml whole milk, at room temperature

500g strong white flour, plus a little extra for the board

7g fast-action dried yeast + 1 tsp sugar

50g caster sugar

2 tsp ground cinnamon

75g mixed peel

75g sultanas

Zest of one orange

2 eggs (one to glaze the buns)

1 tsp vanilla bean extract or powder

A pinch of sea salt

A little vegetable oil to grease the proving bowl and tray

100g chocolate chunks

For the crosses

100g plain flour

2-3 tablespoons water

For the toffee glaze

55g unsalted butter

125g light Muscovado sugar

2 tbsp golden syrup

Instructions

1. Melt the butter and leave to cool, then pour the butter into the milk and set to one side to cool.

2. Tip the yeast into a small bowl. Add a tablespoon of cold water and a teaspoon of sugar. Mix and leave to froth.

3. Sift the flour into a bowl, add the frothy yeast, caster sugar, cinnamon, mixed peel, sultanas, orange zest, one beaten egg, the vanilla and a pinch of sea salt.

4. Using a fork, stir the ingredients to combine them, then slowly add the cooled melted butter and milk mixture. The butter and milk mixture should not be hot, otherwise it will kill the yeast. Bring together using your hands until a ball of dough forms. Add a little extra milk if the dough seems dry.

5. On a floured board, knead the dough for five minutes, until the dough is smooth and elastic. Grease a large bowl with a little oil and place the ball of dough into the bowl, covering with cling film. Leave the dough to prove in a warm place for 60 minutes.

6. After 60 minutes, the dough should have doubled in size. Tip it out onto a floured board and punch the dough back to knock out any excess air. Tip the chocolate chunks onto the dough and work them in, kneading slightly again for about a minute.

7. Divide the dough into 12 equal portions and roll each ball into a bun shape, flattening it slightly. Lightly grease a large baking tray with oil and then lay the buns in the tray. They should be almost touching. Cover with a cloth and leave them to prove again for 30 minutes.

8. In the meantime, preheat the oven to 220C/200C fan/gas 8.

9. To make the crosses, mix the plain flour with water and bring it together to form a dough. Knead until smooth then roll out onto a floured board. Using a knife, cut 12 long strips, around 0.5cm in thickness and then cut each strip in half to make 24 pieces. Carefully place the dough strips onto the buns and brush the tops with beaten egg. Bake for 15 minutes, until golden.

10. To make the toffee glaze, melt the butter, sugar and golden syrup in a pan and stir well. Take the sauce off the heat. Once the buns are baked, brush the tops with the toffee sauce and serve whilst warm.

Notes

Yeast does not like warm liquid, so make sure that the milk and butter mixture has cooled back to room temperature before adding to the dry ingredients. Adding the chocolate chunks in after the first prove will help to keep them from melting.

Courses Dessert

Cuisine British

You may also like:

No Bake Creme Egg Cheesecake 

Polish Easter Babka  

Easter Tiramisu 

Easy Christmas Cake with Crunchy Apple Frosting

A light and easy Christmas cake, infused with crunchy apple, sultanas, dates, cinnamon and brandy. Recipe commissioned by Emily Crisps.

easy-christmas-cake-crunchy-apple_-3

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Easy Christmas Cake with Crunchy Apple Frosting

Ingredients

  • 150ml warm water mixed with 2 tsp honey
  • 60g Emily Fruit Crisps Crunchy Apple
  • 80g pitted dates, chopped into sultana-sized pieced
  • 200g raisins or sultanas
  • 1 tbsp brandy
  • 200g butter
  • 4 eggs
  • 100g light brown muscovado sugar
  • 100g dark brown muscovado sugar
  • 200g self-raising flour
  • 1 tsp baking powder
  • 1 tsp vanilla extract or the seeds of one vanilla pod
  • 3 tsp cinnamon

Apple Crisp Frosting

  • 500g icing sugar
  • 250g unsalted butter
  • 60g Emily Fruit Crisps Crunchy Apple (finely blitzed to a powder)

To decorate

  • 60g Emily Fruit Crisps Crunchy Apple

Instructions

  1. Pre-heat the oven to 150C/300F/Gas Mark 2. Line 2 x 9inch cake tins with baking parchment. 
  2. Boil a kettle, add 2 tsp runny honey to 150ml water. Pour over the fruit (apple crisps, sultanas and dates) with 1 tbsp brandy and leave to soak.
  3. Beat the butter with the eggs and sugars. Stir in flour and baking powder. Add the vanilla and cinnamon.
  4. Stir in the pre-soaked fruit.
  5. Pour into the cake tins, bake for 1 hour at 150C.
  6. Remove the cakes and leave to cool completely. 
  7. For the frosting, beat the butter until creamy and light in colour. Add the icing sugar and the powdered apple. 
  8. Place 1 cake layer on a cake stand. With a knife or offset spatula, spread the top with frosting. Place the second layer on top and spread the frosting evenly on the top and sides of the cake. Decorate with apple pieces and other Christmas decorations. 

easy-christmas-cake-crunchy-apple-crisps-5

For more festive treats with Emily Crisps try:

easy-christmas-cake-crunchy-apple-crisps-6

With thanks to Emily Crisps for this festive-inspired commission. #ad 

Recipe: Easter Chocolate Cake

Easter Chocolate Cake

There’s no other time of year when you can indulge in quite as much chocolate as Easter! If you’ve managed to give it up for lent, well done, you’ve got a great deal more will power than me. This is an Easter Chocolate Cake that I love making for my family and it makes the perfect Easter Sunday centrepiece. You can decorate your cake any way you like – mini eggs make the perfect topping and I’ve used some of Heston’s edible hay from the inside of one of his golden eggs, but you could get a similar effect with some shredded wheat or with edible rice paper. The main thing is to bake it, cover it in chocolate frosting and enjoy it this Easter!

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Homemade Banoffee Eclairs

Banoffee Eclairs

Spring is here! This is a recipe from John Lewis COOK Edition…

A short while ago in the food world, a prediction was made that éclairs would be the new cupcake and there are now all sorts of weird and wonderful flavours to try in the trendiest bakeries. I’m sure we’ve all had one from our local bakery – traditionally, an éclair is made from choux dough or pastry, filled with cream and topped with chocolate or fondant icing.

In this post, Love & Olive Oil set their readers a challenge to bake éclairs and they came up with some stunning entries. And I’ll never forget reading this wonderful post by David Lebovitz on Éclairs in Paris – or l’éclair – not to be missed.

The éclair originated in France in the 19th century and, as I’ve discovered this week, they can be made at home, with relative ease. I say that, because there are a couple of steps to follow when making the choux and you do have to pipe, but since the choux is later split and filled and topped with chocolate, they don’t actually have to be perfect.

If you can make éclairs then you can make profiteroles (or cream puffs) and vice versa, so they are a good thing to add to your repertoire. Plus, anyone you serve them to will be incredibly impressed!

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10 Amazing Chocolate Cakes – Chocolate Week 2014

It’s Chocolate Week 2014, which is a good thing, as I’m in the mood for chocolate. So to mark the occasion, here are five of my favourite show-stopping chocolate cakes. Click on the arrows to scroll through the slider.

Easy-Rolo-Cake

Easy-Rolo-Cake

A triple layer chocolate and caramel cake - pure indulgence in every slice!

Easy-Rolo-Cake
Salted Caramel Chocolate Cake

Salted Caramel Chocolate Cake

A four-layered chocolate cake with salted caramel buttercream - the essential show-stopping cake!

Salted Caramel Chocolate Cake
Affinities Chocolate Cake (Vegan)

Affinities Chocolate Cake (Vegan)

A tempting vegan chocolate cake from the Rococo Chocolate Cook Book

Affinities Chocolate Cake (Vegan)
Chocolate Brownie Cake

Chocolate Brownie Cake

A delicious chocolate brownie-inspired cake topped with almonds

Chocolate Brownie Cake
White Chocolate Malteser Cake

White Chocolate Malteser Cake

White chocolate fan? Try this luscious white choclate Malteser cake - why not bookmark it or practice it before Christmas?

White Chocolate Malteser Cake

 

Hungry for more?

I’ve selected some more of my favourites from around the web –

  1. A classic Chocolate Guinness Cake (firefighter approved!) by Katie at Feeding Boys and a Firefighter
  2. A sumptuous Rich Chocolate Loaf Cake by Helen at The Crazy Kitchen
  3. This simply stunning Chocolate Courgette Cake by Elizabeth at Elizabeth’s Kitchen Diary
  4. Sarah’s decadent Strawberry Chocolate Cake with Rose Tea Ganache over on Maison Cupcake
  5. And for a Gluten Free and less cakey treat try Nazima’s Gluten Free Chocolate and Chestnut Torte from Franglais Kitchen

Five Chocolate Cakes

Any of these inspiring you to bake with chocolate this week for Chocolate Week 2014? Let me know if they do!

Utterly Scrummy’s Fruit Bowl Cake

The summer holidays with a newborn and two primary-aged children were always going to be busy. In fact, I completely underestimated just how busy we would all be and suddenly, somehow, we are now in September. We enjoyed some time away; a short trip to Cheshire, a couple of weeks in North Wales and a visit to Somerset. I discovered that if you put me in a farmhouse with a farm shop within walking distance I am a very happy girl. I managed to write one blog post – June’s Simple and in Season round up, which captured the very best of what the summertime had to offer us in terms of seasonal produce and just about kept up with a few summer features and recipes for JamieOliver.com.

I’m so grateful to my blogging friends for helping me out and for keeping me awake during night feeds – the perfect time to play catch up with some of my favourite blogs. Simple and in Season went for a little holiday, too. Sally at My Custard Pie collected some tasty recipes throughout July and then Elizabeth at Elizabeth’s Kitchen Diary put together a stunning collection of even more brilliant recipes to round off August. Nazima is currently hosting a new round for September – I hope you’ll be able to pop over.

Fruit Bowl Cake

One of the recipes I stumbled across earlier on in the summer and immediately set about making was a simple and tasty Fruit Bowl Cake by fellow blogger Michelle at Utterly Scrummy Food For Families. Early days with a newborn hasn’t afforded me much time for baking, but this is a recipe I’ve rustled up with ease a couple of times now and it really is a lovely way to use up any fruit in your fruit bowl that is perhaps softening or passed its best. I’ve also made it with Victoria plums more recently and damsons from a neighbour’s garden, along with anything left in the fruit bowl to use up.  Michelle is also very close to welcoming her little baby boy to the world – if I lived a little closer to her I’d be baking her this cake and taking it round. Good luck, Michelle!

Fruit Bowl Cake

Some other fruity/plummy recipes you might like to try in September –

Fruit Bowl Cake

There are also some lovely food blog challenges going on at the moment.

1. As mentioned above, Nazima is hosting Simple and in Season September so I’ll be linking this up to her as I used British pears, nectarines and plums in this particular cake.

2. Michelle originally made the Fruit Bowl Cake for Elizabeth’s No Waste Food Challenge , so I’m entering mine to this month’s event hosted by Chef Mireille.

3. Sarah is hosting Credit Crunch Munch this month for Helen and Camilla – I love the fact that you could make this cake at pretty much any time with whatever you have to hand to use up in the fruit bowl.

Fruit Bowl Cake

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Utterly Scrummy’s Fruit Bowl Cake (Adapted)

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A simple Fruit Bowl Cake (adapted from a recipe by Michelle at Utterly Scrummy Food for Families) made with leftover fruit from the fruit bowl.

Ingredients

  • 500g of fruit, chopped (I used nectarines, pears and plums)
  • 1 tsp ground cinnamon
  • 200g plain flour
  • 1 tsp baking powder
  • 200g soft, light brown sugar
  • 3 free range eggs, beaten
  • 100ml vegetable oil, or mild, light olive oil

Instructions

  1. Pre-heat your oven to 180C/160C Fan.
  2. Grease and line (with baking paper) a 23cm round cake tin.
  3. Remove any stones from the fruit, roughly chop into small chunks.
  4. In a separate bowl, sift the flour and cinnamon and add the sugar. Pour in the beaten eggs and the oil and mix together well.
  5. Stir the fruit into the cake batter and pour into the prepared tin.
  6. Bake for 45-50 minutes, until a cake tester or skewer comes out clean.
  7. Serve with a little dusting of icing sugar, or store in a tin and serve with warm custard the next day.

Fruit Bowl Cake

Now that the children have gone back to school, I hope I’ll be able to get back to blogging a little more regularly – in as much as my napping newborn allows!

Guest Recipe: Orange and Pomegranate Cake by Diana Henry

This is Diana Henry’s recipe for her Orange and Pomegranate Cake, shared with permission, from her latest book A Change of Appetite. The cake itself is wonderfully simple to make and extremely moist.

Orange Pomegranate Cake
Photo Credit: Laura Edwards – A Change of Appetitie

Incredibly easy. Not sugar-free I know but, as cakes go, not bad. And it is for dessert. Serve thin slices with Greek yogurt. It’s very, very moist (almost pudding-like) so be careful when you’re moving it off the base of the cake tin and on to a plate – Diana Henry

Orange Pomegranate Cake

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Orange and Pomegranate Cake

Prep

Cook

Total

Yield 8

Ingredients

  • For the cake
  • 50g (13⁄4oz) wholemeal breadcrumbs
  • 100g (31⁄2oz) ground almonds
  • 175g (6oz) soft light brown sugar
  • 2 tsp baking powder
  • finely grated zest of 1½ oranges
  • 215ml (71⁄2fl oz) olive oil, plus more for the tin
  • 4 eggs, lightly beaten
  • seeds from 1⁄2 pomegranate
  • For the syrup
  • juice of 1 orange
  • 100ml (31⁄2fl oz) pomegranate juice (pure juice, not ‘pomegranate juice drink’)
  • 1 tbsp pomegranate molasses
  • 2 tbsp runny honey

Instructions

  1. In a bowl, mix together the breadcrumbs, almonds, sugar and baking powder. Add the orange zest, olive oil and eggs and stir well until everything is amalgamated.
  2. Pour the batter into an oiled 20cm (8in) springform cake tin. Put it into a cold oven and set the heat to 190°C/375°F/gas mark 5. Bake for 45–50 minutes, or until the cake is browned and a skewer inserted into the middle comes out clean.
  3. Meanwhile, make the syrup by gently heating all the ingredients together. Stir a little until the honey has dissolved, then increase the heat and simmer for five minutes. You should end up with about 100ml (31⁄2fl oz) of syrup.
  4. When the cake is cooked, pierce holes all over the surface and slowly pour the syrup all over it, allowing it to sink in. Leave the cake to cool completely in the tin. It will sink a little in the middle but don’t worry, this makes a lovely dip for the pomegranate seeds to lie in. Scatter the pomegranate seeds on top just before serving.

 

You can read more about my adventures cooking from the book on Monday and there are some equally stunning recipes by Diana Henry to be found on her column for Stella Magazine in The telegraph or on her own website.

With thanks to Mitchel Beazley/Octopus Publishing Group for my review copy and permission to share this recipe. A Change of Appetite was published on 3rd March 2014, RRP £25. 

Join me at the Lurpak Bake Club this month!

The sun is shining and I’m happy to announce that this month I am hosting the Lurpak Bake Club with a very simple challenge theme of Square Bakes. The idea behind the Lurpak Bake Club is to  inspire you to bake and to join in, by having a go at any ‘square bake’ of your choice. Or, you could have a go at my own specially created recipe as your mentor, for a Salted Toffee and Pecan Brownie Square Bake. Look out for my five tops tips, too.

Salted Toffee Brownies

To enter, all you have to do is bake (any square bake recipe) and then either Tweet or Instagram your photo with the hashtag #BakeClub, or register and upload a photo directly to the website. If you are one of the three chosen winners, you’ll receive a lovely Patissier’s Hamper, full of chocolate and baking goodies.

patissier-hamper
Image Credit: Sous Chef.co.uk

Tempted? I do hope so – it would be lovely to connect with you and to see your entry over on the Lurpak Bake Club site.

With many thanks to the Lurpak Bake Club for inviting me to mentor and host the March challenge.

Find my recipe for Salted Toffee and Pecan Brownies here.

Salted Toffee Brownies

I have been compensated for producing a recipe and for hosting the Lurpak Bake Club this month. The winner’s will be chosen by the Lurpak Bake Club judges.

If you do enter, don’t forget to tweet with the hashtag #BakeClub and also include my handle so I can pop over and see your entry @RenBehan

Vegan Chocolate Cake – Affinities Cake from Rococo

Vegan Chocolate Cake

It’s chocolate cake time, although this one counts as semi-healthy owing to the fact that it is a vegan chocolate cake and it contains prunes – so a slice of this definitely counts as one of your five a day in my view. Given my addiction and adoration of chocolate in any form I was amazed to learn (prompted by Dom’s Random Recipes challenge) that there are only two books dedicated entirely to chocolate on my bookshelf.  I was so surprised by this, that I felt the need to pop into my local book store to peruse the chocolate section to see exactly how many chocolate books I’m missing out on. There were, as you can imagine, many wonderful chocolate books that I could very easily have immediately added to my collection. Melt: A book of Chocolate by Louise Nason and and Chika Watanabe stood out, as did Eric Lanlard’s Chocolat. Of the two I found at home, the first – ‘Zlota Ksiega Czekolady’ was written entirely in Polish and the second was a fairly recent addition; Rococo Mastering the Art of Chocolate by Chantal Coady of Rococo Chocolates.

Chocolate Books

Out of the two books, my son picked Rococo as the book to cook from. He also happened to bring home a chocolate book from the school library this week, so we explored the process of making chocolate through both books. In another coincidence, we also caught Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory on television on Sunday. So all in all, it’s been quite a chocolate-filled week.

Affinities Cake

Having selected the Rococo book, the page we opened (174) depicted a chocolate cake adorned with rose petals (perfect for Valentine’s Day, too) and referred to as being so here on The Telegraph’s website. The cake is called Affinities Cake – possibly due to the affinity between the ingredients – balsamic, vanilla, salt, soda, olive oil and prune juice?

I had to flip back a page to find the recipe and found that I had most of the ingredients to hand, apart from the prune juice. I did have a large bag of dried prunes in the cupboard though, so I whizzed them up with some water to make 400ml of prune liquid. I also used Ndali vanilla powder and a gluten free flour blend, so in fact, my version of this cake ended up being gluten free and vegan. Double brownie points…

Vegan Chocolate Cake

Chocolate is a deeply emotional subject. I am obsessed, and I am fortunate enough to be surrounded by several tons of the best chocolate in the world – Chantal Coady

On a more serious note, the introduction to the recipe saddened me a little. The first time Chantal Coady came across this cake was in Grenada, when it had been made for Mott Green, co-founder of the Grenada Chocolate Company. I remember vividly the day that my friend Vanessa Kimbell wrote of Mott’s untimely death – in a tragic accident. Vanessa had spent the week with Mott in Grenada and he profoundly influenced her; so much so, that Vanessa’s personal blog is now dedicated to Mott Green’s memory. By all accounts, he was a truly great man and is missed by all who knew him and worked for him in the business of producing chocolate.

Vegan Chocolate Cake

So this post is, like dark chocolate, bitter sweet. It is a deeply seductive cake, though the headnote in the book is now tinged with loss. I hope that Mott’s legacy lives on in Grenada and around the world.

…his greatest legacy will be the super-ethical model of organic chocolate production where the growers and producers are equally paid and where the normal terms of trade are reversed ensuring that it is possible to add all the value at source and bring maximum benefit to the local economy, in this case to the people of Grenada who Mott loved – Chantal Coady

Vegan Chocolate Cake

 Recipe

Click here for the ‘Affinities Cake’ recipe 

Vegan Chocolate Cake

Changes I made –

  • I made my own prune juice by whizzing up 100g of prunes with 400ml water
  • I used soft light brown sugar
  • I used a gluten free flour blend instead of plain flour
  • I topped my cake with melted organic dark chocolate and some caramel – the caramel I used is non-vegan but you could leave it out or use a vegan version!!

Vegan Chocolate Cake

You can find more chocolate recipes by searching under the category of chocolate on my recipe index.

This post is being linked to Dom’s Random Recipes event, which this month challenged us to select any chocolate-themed recipe book and to make a randomly selected recipe from that book. This month, Dom at Belleau Kitchen has also joined forces with Chocolette, who runs the equally glorious We Should Cocoa event over on her Chocolate Log Blog.

 

Vegan Chocolate Cake

Have you come across any ‘virtuous’ chocolate cake recipes on your travels?

National Cupcake Week – Three Favourite Recipes

It’s National Cupcake Week which means you have the perfect excuse to pre-heat the oven, whip out the butter and icing sugar and get baking and frosting. Every now and again, a new craze or trend, such as cake pops or ‘cronuts’ threaten to knock the cupcake off the sweet treat top spot,  but we all know that the gourmet cupcake will prevail. Here are three of my favourite cupcake recipes to keep you going throughout the week. If you’re going along to a charity coffee morning or school bake sale anytime soon, don’t forget to take a batch along and show off your cupcake prowess, too.

1. Caramel and Cocoa Cupcakes 

In this recipe, I recommend using 60g of caramel of toffee sauce in the frosting. There’s only one way forward when it comes to caramel in a jar, and it’s Bonne Maman Confiture de Caramel, which I have spotted in a few UK supermarkets now. If you really can’t find it, an alternative is Dulce de Leche. You can also hollow out a little bit of your cupcake once its baked (with a teaspoon) and add some the caramel to the cake before frosting. I made these for Valentine’s Day – but who says you need to wait till then to treat yourself to one of these? Warning – you will eat the remainder of the jar of caramel with a spoon. If you really have any caramel left, make these Salted Caramel Chocolate Oatmeal Bars for your next hit.

Caramel and Cocoa Cupcakes

2. Raspberry Ripple and Basil Cupcakes

When the dark nights start to set in, these cupcakes remind me of summertime at the seaside, with white butter-cream or frosting drizzled with a little raspberry ripple sauce. The basil gives a very subtle flavour and also  adds an extra little bit of colour. You can also add one or two leaves into your cake mix if you fancy trying something different.

Raspberry Ripple Cupcakes

 3. Diddy Philly Cupcakes with cinnamon sugar

Finally, let’s not forget the kids. Cupcakes are a great way to get the little ones into the kitchen and you can let them get creative with sprinkles or even little sweeties to decorate the top. You can make a really simple cream cheese topping for your cupcakes with Philadelphia cheese.  If you don’t have a mini cupcake tin, just make 12 regular sized fairy cakes.

Philly Cupcakes

I hope you find the time to bake up a little treat or two!

Don’t forget to search #NationalCupcakeWeek on Twitter for more ideas.

Gennaro’s Italian Sponge Cake Recipe

I don’t know about you, but I love my local Italian deli. They’ve been in business for 35 years and are a great example of a local family-run business with a strong customer focus and a great presence in the city of St Albans – joining in with the St Albans Food Festival, fetes and fairs. I buy all my seasonal produce from my deli, Italian ’00’ flour for pasta and baking, fresh cheeses (including local cheeses) and Italian antipasti.

Bertolli are running their second annual Bertolli Spread Olive D’Oro Awards and they have asked me to share a competition with you – if you vote for your favourite deli over on their site you could be in with a chance of winning a holiday to Palma, Italy.  In return, I have a wonderful Italian Sponge Cake recipe to share by Jamie’s mentor Gennaro Contaldo – called a Torta Paradiso.

There are six categories within the competiton-

  • Best Deli Café
  • Best Deli Store Cupboard
  • Best Family-Run Deli
  • Best Produce
  • Best Deli Dish
  • Best Customer Service

See the details below the recipe or the Bertolli UK website for more information on where to vote.

Gennaro's Italian Sponge
Image courtesy of Bertolli

Torta Paradiso (Italian sponge cake with a creamy filling)

This is a traditional Italian sponge cake, sometimes known as Torta Margherita.  Over time, it has evolved and a creamy filling is sometimes added. It makes a wonderfully rich and creamy cake which is perfect to enjoy for dessert or for afternoon tea.  Using Bertolli Spread simultaneously gives both the cake and filling the creaminess it deserves and makes it lighter and healthier for all to enjoy! 

Servings: 6-8

Sponge

  • 4 x eggs, separated
  • 200 g Bertolli Spread & extra for greasing
  • 200 g sugar
  • 150 g plain flour
  • 50 g cornflour
  • 1 teaspoon baking powder
  • 1 x sachet vanilla powder
  • Pinch of salt
  • Zest of 1 x lemon
  • Sifted icing sugar

1 x round cake tin 22 cm in diameter – lightly greased and lined with baking parchment paper

For the Creamy filling (makes approximately 300g)

  • 50 ml water
  • 150 g sugar
  • 6 x organic free-range egg yolks  – make sure they are very fresh!
  • 175 g Bertolli Spread
  • Seeds of 1x vanilla pod or 1x sachet of vanilla powder

Method:

  1. Preheat the oven to 180 degrees centigrade.
  2. Whisk the egg whites until stiff and set aside.  In another bowl, whisk the egg yolks until well amalgamated.  In a larger bowl, cream together the Bertolli Spread and sugar.  Gradually add the yolks.  Gradually fold in flour, cornflour, baking powder, vanilla powder, salt and lemon zest.  Gently fold the stiff egg whites this into the mixture with a metal spoon until well combined.
  3. Pour into the prepared cake tin and bake for about 30 to 35 minutes until golden and springy to the touch.  You can check if it is cooked by inserting a wooden skewer in the centre, if it comes out dry the cake is ready.  Remove, tip out onto a wire rack to cool, then with a sharp knife carefully cut horizontally into two layers.
  4. For the Creamy filling – Combine water and sugar in a small pan, place on a low heat, stirring from time to time until the sugar has dissolved and you obtain a syrup consistency.
  5. In a bowl whisk the egg yolks and gradually add the syrup.  Leave the mixture to cool.  Then add the Bertolli Spread and vanilla seeds or powder and continue to whisk until you obtain a creamy consistency.  Place in the fridge and use when required.
  6. Spread the creamy filling over the cooled cake layers and sandwich together.  Sprinkle with lots of sifted icing sugar over the top and serve.

TIP  ~  For a really tasty filling, mix some strawberry or raspberry jam into the creamy mix!

© Gennaro Contaldo

Gennaro Contaldo has teamed up with Bertolli to call on the nation to back its best Italian delis in the second annual Bertolli Spread Olive D’Oro Awards. To vote for your favourite deli visit the Bertolli website here.

 

Disclosure: I’m happy to share the details of the Bertolli Spread Olive D’Oro Awards with you as I am very much behind campaigns to support local artisan and local family-run businesses.  I have received no payment or compensation to endorse this competition – other than Gennaro’s recipe to share.  

Salted Caramel Chocolate Fudge Cake – Great British Chefs

This cake almost needs no introduction. I called it the ‘Big Daddy’ Salted Caramel Chocolate Fudge Cake because we made it for Father’s Day. Four layers of chocolate cake with salted caramel buttercream and a chocolate fudge topping. The tallest cake I’ve ever made. Half a jar of Bonne Maman ‘Confiture de Caramel’ left to eat and a cake to feed the whole family. I know at least one ‘daddy’ who will be very happy this Sunday…will you have some time to make this, too?

Salted Caramel Chocolate Fudge Cake

Find my recipe for the Salted Caramel Chocolate Fudge Cake and the full post over on Great British Chefs here.

Here’s your ingredients list –

  • Caster sugar
  • Soft brown sugar
  • 4 large eggs
  • Vanilla bean paste or powder (I use Ndalli)
  • Vegetable oil or mild, light olive oil
  • Self-raising flour
  • Cocoa powder (I use  Green and Blacks)
  • Baking powder
  • Bicarbonate of soda
  • Sea salt (I use Maldon)
  • Plain, natural yoghurt
  • One packet unsalted butter
  • Icing sugar
  • Caramel sauce (I used Bonne Maman Confiture de Caramel from Waitrose or Ocado)
  • 200g good quality dark chocolate (I used Lindt 52%)
  • Double cream
  • Chopped fudge pieces to decorate

Off you pop to the shops!

Happy Father’s Day to all the great dads out there!

Salted_Caramel_Chocolate_Fudge_Cake

Breakfast Club: Quick Rhubarb Muffins

A quick post to say that this month, I’m joining in with Fuss Free Helen’s Breakfast Club hosted this month by (BiB’s Finalist!) Katie over on her brilliant blog Feeding Boys and a Firefighter. I’ve had lots of rhubarb given to me recently, from friends and neighbours, who are reporting great crops! The theme is Breakfast Bakes and I fancied making some rhubarb muffins so I  found a super-easy recipe on BBC’s Good Food for Rhubarb, Cinnamon and Brown Sugar Muffins. I made six large muffins rather than twelve small ones and as I wanted to make them for a quick grab-and-go breakfast, I used Agave Nectar in place of the sugar and added 50g of oats into the mixture as well a sprinkle of oats onto each muffin. Make them! Enjoy!

Rhubarb Muffins

Rhubarb Muffins

Linking up to Simple and in Season, too!

RhubarbSimple and in Season

The Great British Bake Off Series 3 – Tonight 8pm!

I’m back! Now, it may look like I have neglected my blog recently, but in fact, as well as a wonderful family holiday in Wales there has been lots of behind-the-scenes work going on with an exciting new re-design of Fabulicious Food! to be revealed shortly.  We’ve been hooked on the London 2012 Olympics, too, with much of our holiday being punctuated with watching plenty of the high-adrenalin action taking place on the world’s greatest stage. Team GB’s achievements have been so inspiring and for the first time in a very long time, my attention was completely taken away from food. That’s quite something. And now comes the void. What to watch now? How best to avoid that huge pile of washing in the corner?

bakers photo

Photo Credit: http://www.thegreatbritishbakeoff.co.uk/

The good news – now that we are so exhausted from taking in the fitness and prowess of some of the most dedicated sportsmen and women of the world, we can have a little rest (!) by taking part in the spectatorship of series three of The Great British Bake Off.  Perhaps we’ll even have a go at some of the recipes ourselves, but having been inspired by the Olympics, we can balance our baking and eating of cake and pies with a little bit of light activity, too?

Back again are Mel and Sue, along with British baking legend Mary Berry and ‘Silver Fox’, Paul Hollywood. And of course the hopefuls – 12 fresh faced ‘home cook’ contestants (none of them familiar faces, yet) ready to be put through their paces as they bake their way to the final. I think I am more excited by this series of the Bake Off perhaps than before, because I’ve really enjoyed following the progress of some of the previous years’ contestants and possibly because my own interest in baking has evolved. 

From Series One, Edd Kimbler, Miranda Gore Browne and Ruth Clemens have gone on to achieve some great things, including writing cookery books. Series Two also uncovered some incredible foodie talent, with Joanne Wheatley, Holly Bell, Jason White and Urvashi Roe all being particularly friendly on Twitter and still following their foodie dreams. You may remember that Urvashi recently hosted Simple and in Season for me – she is an incredibly talented blogger and food writer and I have loved following her journey in particular.  There are always plenty of baking tips being shared as the competiton unfolds and I’m sure there will be many more tips to pick up as we begin watching tonight.

I am excited that we’ll all be able to ‘tweet along’ with the contestants and judges and hopefully ‘bake along’ as the series progresses. The series will include challenges such as the Signature Bake, the Technical Bake and the Showstopper Bake and will include cakes, pastries and bread-making. Series Three is also supported by a new Great British Bake off book.

 

So, brace yourselves. Apparently, the infamous squirrel from Series Two now has his own agent. Some of the contestants already have blogs (which I look forward to discovering) and tonight we may see some serious rum baba action as the contestants are put through their paces.

You can follow The Great British Bake Off on Twitter via the official feed at @BritishBakeOff or via the hash-tag #gbbo

You can also ‘like’ The Great British Bake Off Facebook page.

The series begins tonight (August 14th) at 8pm on BBC Two and will run for ten weeks.

I’ve also spotted a new official iPhone app called The Great British Bake Off App available to download for £2.99 giving you access to recipes and additional features such as shopping lists and favourite recipes. I’ll be reviewing this soon.  

iPhone Screenshot 2

 

Will you be tuning in? Who has been your favourite contestant to date?

 

 

Seasonal Cherry and Almond Traybake

I love English cherries and I have just started to see some becoming available. I also have a fail-safe recipe for a traybake, given to me by my mother, which is so adaptable that it’s the only traybake recipe you’ll ever need. This recipe uses a glass of very mild oil, such as vegetable oil or a light olive oil instead of butter, which keeps the bake really moist and lots of eggs. It also just keeps on getting better each day and keeps well for up to five days, though I guarantee it won’t last that long. A little while ago I shared a recipe for an Easy Rhubarb Traybake, essentially the same recipe, but this time I used fresh, seasonal cherries (halved and pitted) and just scattered over the batter. I also wanted to flavour it with almond, so used some almond essence and added 50 grams of ground almonds, too. As mentioned before, you can pretty much scatter and stone fruit over the top or some lightly stewed apples, in which case, replace the almond essence and sprinkle in a teaspoon of cinnamon. 

I’m also very excited about the fact that some of my recipes and photographs are being used away from my blog now! This cherry and almond traybake appears in The Jewish Chronicle this week, which is available at the supermarket and online. It’s kind of funny as I actually don’t have any Jewish heritage, but my recipes do have a seasonal angel, which the food editor very much likes and also I am learning how to adapt recipes to specific dietary requirements.  I think it is fascinating to celebrate and learn about other food cultures, which I am able to do, and particularly enjoy doing, through food.

Keep an eye out too for another of my Polish inheritance recipes appearing in Delicious Magazine in the September issue…more news about that shortly!

Print

Seasonal Cherry and Almond Traybake by Ren Behan

Prep

Cook

Total

Ingredients

  • 225g caster sugar
  • 4 large, free range eggs
  • 240ml mild, light olive oil or vegetable oil
  • 1 tsp almond extract/essence
  • Zest of an orange or lemon
  • 200g self-raising flour
  • 1 tsp baking powder
  • 40g ground almonds
  • 250g or a punnet of fresh cherries, pitted, sliced in half
  • Icing sugar to dust and serve

Instructions

  1. Pre-heat your oven to 180°C. Line a square baking tin or tray (approx 20 x 20 x 5cm) with baking paper.
  2. Beat the caster sugar and eggs together for five minutes, until pale and creamy.
  3. Slowly pour in the oil and beat again. Add the almond extract and mix in well.
  4. Grate in the zest of one lemon or orange.
  5. Sift the flour and baking powder into the mixture and carefully mix (with a metal spoon, not mixer) until it is all combined.
  6. Add in the ground almonds and carefully mix again. Pour in the cake batter. Scatter the halved cherries over the top and push down, leaving some of the cherries visible.
  7. Bake in the pre-heated oven for 40-45 minutes, or until a toothpick comes out clean.
  8. Dust with the icing sugar and cut into squares or slices. Serve warm or cool. Keeps well in a tin for up to five days.

I’m seding this recipe across to Simple and in Season, this month hosted by Fleur over at Homemade by Fleur.

I’m also linking it up to Tea Time Treats, hosted alternately by Karen at Lavender and Lovage and Katie at What Kate Baked. This month the theme is ‘cake stall cakes’ and this one always goes down well!

What seasonal treats have you been cooking up?

Review: LEON Baking and Puddings (Book Three)

In case you’ve managed to miss it so far, this week is National Baking Week. The nation seems to have gone crazy for baking recently, with lots of baking programmes on TV and a whole array of new and very beautiful baking bibles to add to our collections. When Leon Baking & Puddings published by Octopus Books landed on my door mat I knew I was in for a treat.

Who wrote it?

The co-authors of this book are Claire Ptak and Henry Dimbleby. The book is very much a collaboration between the two of them, with recipes from them both. Claire used to be a pastry chef at Chez Panisse in California and now runs her own bakery in East London, called Violet. Henry co-founded the Leon chain of restaurants (along with John Vincent and Allegra McEvedy) in 2004 – with the aim of changing the face of fast food. PLEASE OPEN A LEON RESTAURANT IN ST ALBANS! 

This is the third book in the Leon series. Allegra McEvedy wrote the first Leon book – Leon: Ingredients. Henry Dimbleby and John Vincent wrote the second Leon book – Leon: Naturally Fast Food and now Henry and Claire Ptak have written the third one together – Leon Baking & Puddings.

…

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