Podium Cake

Hellooo! I know i'm just a tad bit late on the Olympics front but I made Podium Cake.  I'm just gonna say it's to celebrate Valerie Adams finally receiving her gold medal a little over a week ago YAY!

Here is a screen shot of what the entire cake looks like in my bakery.  I decided to decorate and photograph the whole cake this time because it has a few different decorative elements and it would've been weird for me to just fondant a little slice of cake haha.

So this is my Podium Cake.  I've never worked with fondant before so this was quite fun for me.  I guess I cheated because I used a ready-to-roll packet of fondant but moulding all the elements and putting them all together in the end took ages for me (or maybe i'm just really slow haha).

I started off by making a double batch of a basic vanilla cake, split the batter into two bowls and then coloured one with pink food colouring and the other with blue.  I baked them separately and left them to cool completely.  

After the cakes had cooled, I cut them up and arranged them into the appropriate levels to resemble the podiums.  I made a basic buttercream frosting to sandwich the two different coloured cakes together and coated the whole cake structure with the buttercream so that the fondant would have something to stick to.  

The fondant is quite easy to mould, it's like working with playdough.  I bought a plain white fondant and coloured it with gel colouring.  I find gel colours the easiest to work with because you only need a small amount for an intense colour (I think normal food colouring might affect the consistency of the fondant too, i'm not too sure).

I looked up tutorial videos on YouTube to learn how to make the flowers and with the rest, I sort of winged it LOL.

I like how fondant give cakes such a nice finish and there is so much you can do with it.  It's no that nice to eat though haha.

Next week: Pecan Pie

♡ B

Eclairs

I had a week off from work and since I had nowhere to go and no one to go with...I baked.  With all this extra time on my hands, I wanted to bake something that I thought would be a little bit challenging so I chose Eclairs.  I didn't think Eclairs would be too hard to make until I watched an episode of "Chelsea New Zealand's Hottest Home Baker" where they had to make choux pastry and they were all nervous because apparently even the best pastry chefs have trouble with it.  My baking skills are pretty average so I was prepared for an epic fail.

I don't know if you can tell from this picture but this is the first batch that went into they oven.  They puffed up perfectly and it looked like they were burning so I took them out early and they deflated like balloons lol.  Making the pastry is a pretty simple process but it's the baking part you have to worry about.  When I put in my second batch, I decided to cover them with a sheet of tin foil about halfway though to stop them from burning but still allow them to continue baking.  I learnt that the pastry has to dry out on the inside so it doesn't collapse.

My second batch turned out better but to be honest, no one is going to care if the pastry is flat when you fill it with the cream and coat it with chocolate NOM! These are dangerously addictive.  Picture is slightly out-of-focus because it was about 5pm and I didn't have a lot of daylight left but I HAD to take a photo of it because my family was home and the eclairs would've been all eaten before the chocolate had time to set. No joke.  I think I messed up the chocolate part (too runny?) because I didn't read the instructions properly. My bad.  It still tasted good, I mean, it's pastry, cream and chocolate...how could that not taste good?

I even had a little bit of pastry left over to make some cream puffs.

Eclairs Recipe

Ingredients

For the Choux Pastry

1 cup flour 

a pinch of salt
1 cup cold water
80g unsalted butter, cubed
3 large eggs, lightly beaten

For the Cream Filling

500ml cream

1/4 cup sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla essence

For the Chocolate Icing

150g dark chocolate
60g soft unsalted butter
1/4 cup boiling water

Method

1. Sift flour and salt onto a piece of paper. Place the water and butter into a saucepan and heat until butter melts.
2. Bring liquid to a boil then quickly put in all the flour at once. Remove the pan from the heat and beat just enough to bring the mixture together into a smooth dough.
3. Turn the mixture into a bowl and leave to cool for 10 minutes. With an electric mixer, beat the eggs, in small amounts, into the cooled mixture. Continue beating until the mixture is very glossy.
4. Preheat oven to 200ºC. Line two baking trays with nonstick baking paper.  Sprinkle trays with cold water to create steam during cooking as this will help the choux pastry rise.  Spoon or pipe onto prepared baking trays.
5. Bake for 15 minutes until puffed, then reduce oven to 180ºC and cook for a further 30 minutes until dry inside and golden brown.
6. Remove from the oven and using a knife, pierce a hole in the base of each choux puff. Cool on a wire rack.  
7. For the filling, whip the cream, vanilla essence and sugar together.
8. For the icing, melt chocolate and water together over very low heat until just melted. Beat in softened butter. 
9. For the assembly, carefully cut each eclair in half, fill with whipped cream and spread a thin layer of icing onto each eclair.

Enjoy :)

♡ B

Lemon Meringue Pie

Hi!
Told ya i'd update this week haha.  I made Lemon Meringue Pie for the very first time years ago, like maybe 7 years ago? Man, that makes me sound/feel old LOL.  I like how the meringue is all fluffy and it looks so light and crunchy.  So with that in mind, I made this Lemon Meringue Pie and I was looking forward to that crunchy top but it was soft when it came out of the oven!  My younger self was obviously disappointed and at the time, I just put it down to my fail baking skills and never attempted to make it again haha.

Now, in the present day, I like to think that my skills as a baker have slightly improved over the years so I was ready to attempt the Lemon Meringue Pie again.

The pastry turned out pretty good, a little burnt but it wasn't too dry or crumbly.  The lemon part set perfectly and had a good flavour.  All in all, it turned out quite well and all the flavours kind of balanced each other out BUT my meringue stayed soft and spongy and it burnt. Sadface.  Is there some Lemon Meringue Pie expert out there who can tell me if the meringue is supposed to go crunchy?? Because I know the meringue part of a pavlova goes crunchy...I don't know, maybe thats a different kind of meringue...Anyway, this is a quick and easy pie to make (if you pre-make the pastry) and it looks really nice (if you don't fail the meringue like I did lol).

Lemon Meringue Pie Recipe

Ingredients

For the Pastry

• 175g plain flour
• 100g cold unsalted butter , cut in small pieces
• 1 tablespoon icing sugar
• 1 egg yolk

For the Lemon Filling

• 2 tablespoons cornflour
• 100g caster sugar
• finely grated zest 2 large lemon
• 125ml fresh lemon juice (from 2-3 lemons)
• juice 1 small orange
• 85g butter, cut into pieces
• 3 egg yolks and a 1 whole egg

For the Meringue

• 4 egg whites, room temperature
• 100g caster sugar

Method

1. For the pastry: Put the flour, butter, icing sugar, egg yolk (save the white for the meringue) and 1 tablespoon of cold water into a food processor. Pulse until the mix starts to bind. 
2. Tip the pastry onto a lightly floured surface, gather together until smooth, then roll out and line a pie dish. Trim and neaten the edges. The pastry is quite rich, so don't worry if it cracks, just press it back together. 
3. Prick the base with a fork, line with foil, shiny side down, and chill for half an hour to an hour (or overnight).
4. Preheat the oven to 200ºC. 
5. Bake the pastry case 'blind' for 15 mins, then remove the foil and bake a further 5-8 mins until the pastry is pale golden and cooked. Set aside. (Can be done a day ahead if you want to get ahead.)
6. Lower the oven to 180ºC.
7. While the pastry bakes, prepare the filling: 
8. Mix the cornflour, sugar and lemon zest in a medium saucepan. 
9. Strain and stir the lemon juice gradually into the pan. 
10. Make orange juice up to 200ml with water and strain into the pan. 
11. Cook over a medium heat, stirring constantly, until thickened and smooth. 
12. Once the mixture bubbles, remove from the heat and beat in the butter until melted. 
13. Beat the egg yolks (save white for meringue) and whole egg together, stir into the pan and return to a medium heat. Keep stirring vigorously for a few minutes, until the mixture thickens and plops from the spoon. (It will bubble, but doesn't curdle.) 
14. Take off the heat and set aside while you make the meringue.
15. Put the egg whites in a large bowl. Beat until soft peaks form, slowly add caster sugar a little at a time, beating well until thick meringue is formed.  
16. Quickly reheat the filling and pour it into the pastry case. 
17. Immediately put spoonfuls of meringue around the edge of the filling then spread so it just touches the pastry. Pile the rest into the centre, spreading so it touches the surface of the hot filling, then give it all a swirl. 
18. Return to the oven for 18-20 mins at 180ºC until the meringue is crisp and slightly coloured. Let the pie sit in the tin for 30 mins, then remove and leave for at least another half hour to an hour before slicing. 

Wow! 18 steps makes it seem like an epic recipe but if you have pre-made pastry, it saves a lot of time.

Ok I need sleep now.  Bye!

♡ B

Cinnamon Rolls

Hello!
Yes, I suck at updating.  I was totally going to post this on Saturday but my day went like *snaps fingers* and then it was time for me to sleep.  I think all this baking is starting to make its mark on my belly...that and just sitting around watching Dr. Phil and Dr. Oz on my days off isn't helping lol.

Anyway, I made Cinnamon Rolls yay!

Look at my first batch LOL! Lucky I decided to make a double batch so I could afford to experiment and fail with presentation of the cream cheese frosting.  It looks like cheese sauce haha!

I was really happy with how they turned out.  I think if you drizzle chocolate or whatever sauce on something, it somehow makes it look more appealing.  I didn't have any cinnamon sticks lying around and one cinnamon roll on the plate looked lonely so I gave it a friend.

You can find the recipe here I was totally sold on this recipe though the photos (especially the last two) I wish mine turned out that golden and delicious looking plus I couldn't really look past this recipe when she calls them the "Best Ever Ever EVER Cinnamon Rolls".

Don't forget to read the recipe carefully.  They take a while to make because you need to wait for the dough to rise but if you have the time and patience, they are worth the effort.

I will update next week, promise!

♡ B