Peanut Butter Brownies

It's been a long time since my last blog post and I'm sorry about that. I really have been very busy.

Not only have I had a birthday (I'm in my early twenties and that's as specific as I'm prepared to be), but I have also moved house and run in my first ever vaguely competitive event.

Pretty much since my birthday, I have spent every minute thinking about the 10km that I finally ran on Sunday. I avoided alcohol all week (no mean feat, for me), chewed my way through endless slices of peanut butter toast, drank water like it was going out of fashion and planned everything from my pre-run breakfast to my route to the race.

After all that, the feeling of crossing the finish line was amazing, despite this photo, which would have you believe it sucked:

I then enjoyed a day of eating, drinking, wandering about complaining that my legs hurt and refusing to remove my medal.

When I woke up on Monday, my legs REALLY hurt. Selfishly, my friend Elena had refused to massage my calves the night before and now fhey had complefely seized up. I thought I was going to have to start a Royal Society for the Protection of Ellie's Legs, or RSPEL for short.

Vaguely remembering something about protein repairing muscles, I found some peanut butter and prepared to apply it liberally to my achy thighs and calves.

Luckily, my sister, who knows a lot more about these kind of things, intervened. She explained that protein in the form of peanut butter does not find its way to your sore muscles by way of osmosis through your skin - you have to actually eat it.

Understandably, I was disappointed. Who doesn't want to smear peanut butter all over themselves given the slightest excuse? Except people with peanut allergies, of course.

But I soon decided that if I couldn't cover myself in peanut butter, the next best thing was to eat it in the form of chocolate brownies. What could be better than the combination of salty, savoury, peanuts contrasting with sweet, rich, dark chocolate?

This recipe is adapted from the Hummingbird Bakery's chocolate brownie recipe and makes about 12-16 brownies, depending on how greedy you are.

You will need:

200g dark chocolate
175g crunchy peanut butter (preferably no added sugar)
325g caster sugar
130g flour
3 eggs
25g roasted salted peanuts
90g white chocolate
1 deep rectangular baking tray, lined with greaseproof paper

1. Preheat the oven to 170C and set the dark chocolate and peanut butter in a bowl above a barely simmering pan of water. Leave until melted, stirring every now and then.

2. Remove the bowl from the heat and stir in the caster sugar.

3. Stir in the flour.

4. Beat in the eggs and spread the mixture evenly in the tray. Scatter over the peanuts and press them in gently. Bake for 30-35 minutes.

5. Remove the tray from the oven and melt the white chocolate in a bowl over a barely simmering pan of water. Either spoon it into a piping bag or use a teaspoon to drizzle it all over your tray of brownies.

6. Go all Jackson Pollock on your brownies.

You're done. Delicious, protein-rich brownies. The food of champions. Totally worth every twinge of pain, every time I thought I was going to puke on the track and every burst of speed I had to put on to overtake someone I'd been behind for two laps.

Bye,

Ellie
xxx

Easter Egg Custard Tart

If you are lying on the sofa near-comatose after an Easter Sunday dinner, the remains of an Easter egg smeared around your mouth, this is not the blog for you.

Put the phone or tablet down, step away from the computer and go slump in front of Poldark (other television programs are available).

I do not specialise in light desserts and I saw no reason to make an exception for Easter. So here it is:

Egg custard tart, spiced with nutmeg and decorated with a chocolate nest filled with chocolate eggs.

I had planned to use mini eggs but had to buy some different chocolate eggs as the shops had run out. You could use any kind of chocolate eggs - foil wrapped or otherwise.

This is adapted from several different recipes and the tart is filled with a baked custard, but should be chilled before serving. Will serve at least 8 and should serve more, unless you are all very hungry.

You will need:

For the pastry:
165g plain flour
25g ground almonds
120g chilled unsalted butter, in cubes
55g caster sugar
1 egg
30cm tart tin (recipe also makes 2x20cm pastry cases)

For the egg custard:
3 egg yolks
250g whole milk
1 tbsp cornflour
half a freshly grated nutmeg

For decoration:
100g plain chocolate
1 handful small chocolate eggs
an upturned dessert bowl, with the base wrapped in cling film
piping bag (optional)

1. Mix together the ground almonds and flour, then add the cubed butter.

2. Rub the butter into the dry ingredients with your fingertips until it resembles breadcrumbs.

3. Mix the caster sugar into the mixture.

4. Mix the egg in with your hand to form a soft dough, then knead into a ball, wrap with cling film and refrigerate for 30 minutes. After chilling, roll out the dough and use to line the tart tin.

5. Trim away any excess pastry with a sharp knife and use a piece of spare dough to press the pastry into every corner. Return to the fridge and preheat the oven to 200C.

6. Make the custard by whisking together the egg yolks, caster sugar and cornflour.

7. Bring the whole milk to the boil in a small saucepan, then pour into the custard mixture, whisking all the time to stop the egg yolks from scrambling. Return to the saucepan and whisk over a low heat until the mixture thickens and the whisk leaves traces in it. Pour into the pastry case and sprinkle over the nutmeg.

8. Bake the tart for 30-45 minutes until the custard has domed slightly but still wobbles a little in the middle. If you are worried the pastry is browning too much, cover it in foil and lower the temperature to 180C.

9. While the tart is baking, break the chocolate up and set it in a bowl over a pan of barely simmering water until it melts, stirring occasionally. When the chocolate has melted spoon it into a piping bag, or use a teaspoon, and pipe it in tight spirals onto the base of the cling film wrapped bowl. Then pipe or drizzle lines outwards like the spokes of a bicycle. Put the bowl into the fridge for the chocolate to set.

10. Once the custard tart has baked and been chilled, invert the cling film wrapped bowl and carefully remove the chocolate nest, then peel away the cling film. Place on top of the tart, fill with chocolate eggs and serve immediately.

And if that has turned your stomach after a day of chocolate punctuated only by a roast dinner and short walk, then I'm sorry, but you were warned.

Happy Easter, hope you had an eggcellent day and that this cracking blog post only makes it egg-stra special.

Sorry,

Ellie

xxx

Novelty Cake Tips

As some of you may know, I am part-way through moving out at the moment and so all my baking gear has been packed away in boxes for the last couple of weeks.

This makes me very sad. What am I supposed to do to destress? Without my piping bags, cake lifter, icing nozzles, spatula and madeleine tray I am nothing.

By way of compensation, I'm going to write a blog post I've been promising to do for a while. You may have noticed that although I sometimes make novelty cakes, I rarely blog about them. That's because when I construct one of these marvels of confectionery, my process is less a meticulously planned operation than a panicked, buttercream-spattered flurry of activity.

By the end, I won't know what quantities of ingredients I used, because I'll have run out and had to go to the shops so many times I've lost count. I’ll also be a nervous wreck and will have to go and lie down in a darkened room for a while.

It’s worth it though, because it results in cakes like this:

So as I don't tend to record individual recipes I'm going to lay out a series of tips to help you make your own novelty cakes. Because after all, the best novelty cakes are unique.

Design

• I always sketch my novelty cakes before I start trying to make them. It helps me work out what ingredients I'll need to get hold of, which types of techniques I might have to use, how I might decorate the cake and what shape baking tin is closest to the final shape of the cake.
• Have a Google around and look at cakes similar to what you want to make. Chances are, someone will have made something similar before. That's how I found out that ice cream cones covered in sprinkles made perfect turrets for a castle cake.

Sponge

• Don't get over-ambitious with the kind of sponge you're going to use as the basis of your novelty cake. Just like a building, your cake must be structurally sound. Use a simple recipe, something that is easy to slice and has a consistent texture - try not to add anything like fruit, nuts or chocolate chips that could change the texture. Victoria sponge is a good bet, as is pound cake.
• If you're making a cake in a novelty shape you may want to carve it out of a larger cake. Use a deep baking tin and fill it with sponge mixture to bake a large rectangular cake. Pop it into the freezer until needed and start to carve it carefully into shape with a knife while it's still cold.

Additional materials

• You may not be able to make all your cake out of sponge. In the above picture, the dragon's neck is made of rice-crispy cake, while its legs and tail are cake pop mixture, which I also used to round out the shape of the body. 
• For cake pop mixture, blend an equal amount of buttercream icing and sponge together to make a paste which can then be moulded into shape. 
• Rice-crispy cake is great option in cases where sponge won't be strong enough. Melt 45g butter and 300g marshmallows and mix in 180g rice crispies then mould into desired shape and pop in the fridge to set. 

Icing

• Choose your icing to suit your cake. If you're making an animal cake, like this orangutan, use buttercream and fluff it up with a fork for fur. If you're making something with a smooth texture, ready made sugarpaste (sometimes called regal icing) or royal icing might be better. For a scaly texture roll out sugarpaste and cut out tiny circles.
• If using sugarpaste you will need to stick it to the cake with a thin layer of buttercream spread underneath. If you are sticking one piece of sugarpaste onto another, for instance in overlapping scales like the dragon cake, you will need to use edible glue or make an adhesive out of water icing or similar.

Finishing touches

• Attention to detail can make a novelty cake really special. This cake I made for my friend Sophie looked a bit rubbish until I piped buttercream clouds onto it and covered it in edible silver stars and glitter. For all my animal cakes' eyes I use white chocolate chips with a tiny bit of dark chocolate piped on for pupils. The squares of sponge with peppermint icing grass and white chocolate fence-posts, complete with smears of mud, make the sheep cake into a proper little scene in a field. The dragon cake comes with a hoard of chocolate money - need I go on?

Above all, don't be afraid to experiment, adapt others' recipes and buy way way more ingredients than you think you need - you almost certainly will run out. Unless you're going to have about 2 days to make your cake, make what you can in advance. Sponge and buttercream icing will both freeze well as long as they are kept separate. Do not store either in the fridge - trust me on this!

And don't make your life harder than it needs to be. Sometimes a plain old cylinder is the right shape for your novelty cake. 

And a novelty cake doesn't have to be a montrously huge confection either. Sometimes a few little touches can transform cupcakes into magical creations.

Go forth and bake, my pretties.

Ellie

xxx

Dinky Dunking Doughnuts

This week I made another foray into the world of baked doughnuts. I've made doughnuts about four times, with varying degrees of success. They've always tasted good, but size, shape and texture haven't always been quite right.

On my first attempt, I made yeasted doughnuts and put them in my mini doughnut pan and they ballooned to massive proportions. So I covered them in sugar and pretended they were never meant to be ring doughnuts.

Another time I managed to make glazed ring doughnuts of perfect size and shape, but the texture was a bit tight and I can't for the life of me remember how I made them. And I've also made yeasted filled doughnuts, which were very nice but also very hard to fill.

This time I decided to use the cake doughnut method, using baking powder or bicarbonate of soda as a raising agent. The rationale for this was that the batter produced would be runny enough so that I could pipe my doughnuts into the pan. They were perfect - fluffy inside, round and flavoured lightly with nutmeg.

But I decided they needed something more. If you have ever been to Spain, you may have eaten churros. These are long, piped doughnuts, fried until crisp and golden on the outside, dunked in sugar and handed to you in a rolled paper cone like chips. They're divine. I've eaten them for breakfast at a cafe in Madrid, wolfed them down at funfair and even had them here in London, at Mexican restaurant Wahaca.

Churros are often served with a hot chocolate dipping sauce. It's so thick you have to eat it with a spoon if you have any left over, so rich that you'll probably regret it if you do. So I decided to make a similarly thick, chocolatey sauce, flavouring it slightly with coffee because coffee and doughnuts is one of my favourite clichés.

I prefer my doughnuts dusted with cinnamon and sugar, but you could easily whip up a glaze for these, using icing sugar and a little water. Maybe also a little cocoa if you like chocolate glazed doughnuts.

The only unfortunate thing about this recipe is you really do have to have a doughnut pan to make ring doughnuts. There's no other way it will work. If you don't, they will be just as delicious in cupcake cases, especially if you brush the tops with butter and then dunk them in your bowl of cinnamon sugar.

You will need:

For the doughnuts:
150g plain flour
¼ tsp bicarbonate of soda
½ tsp lemon juice
75g caster sugar plus enough to dust all the doughnuts
½ tsp freshly grated nutmeg
½ tsp salt
1 tsp cinnamon
2 tbsp butter, cubed, plus extra to brush over
65ml milk, heated until small bubbles appear
65ml plain yogurt
1 tsp vanilla extract
1 beaten egg
a piping bag

For the sauce:
200ml double cream
200g dark chocolate
2 tsp instant espresso or strong coffee powder (I used Azera)
1 tsp vanilla extract

1. Preheat the oven to 180C and grease your doughnut tin with butter.

2. Sift together the flour, sugar, salt, bicarbonate of soda and nutmeg. Add the cubed butter and rub in with your fingertips until the mixture resembles breadcrumbs.

3. Make a well in the middle of the mixture and add the wet ingredients. Fold until just combined.

4. Spoon the mixture into a piping bag and fill each doughnut hole about two thirds full, then bake for eight to ten minutes until risen and light golden brown.

5. While the doughnuts are baking, set the ingredients for the sauce in a bowl over a pan of barely simmering water. Give a stir every now and then until the chocolate melts and the mixture is uniform in colour, then remove from the heat and set aside.

6. Put your cinnamon and extra caster sugar in a small bowl and mix well to combine. Melt your extra butter, brush a doughnut all over with it, then dunk it in the cinnamon sugar - first one side then the other - and place on a cooling rack or sheet of greaseproof paper. Repeat this process with each doughnut, pausing to reheat the butter if it solidifies.

7. Serve the doughnuts with the chocolate dipping sauce (and some napkins, it might get messy).

Really, really good. And small enough to be a little bit of what you fancy without being as calorie and fat-laden as your average Krispy Kreme.

Unless, you know, you eat the whole batch yourself. I won't judge you.

Happy baking!

Ellie
xxx

Swirly Vanilla and Jam Cupcakes

Cupcakes are how I got into baking. It crept up on me - my parents bought me a cupcake recipe book and all of a sudden I was "the girl who makes all the cakes". That became my thing.

An afternoon on a cupcake decorating course and I was unstoppable. I made coffee cupcakes, vanilla cupcakes, chocolate and mint cupcakes, even banoffee cupcakes. And then, suddenly, I hit a wall.

If you're an athlete, you might know how it feels. You feel that you can't go on. Your legs are leaden, your muscles are jelly. You simply cannot lift another whisk or fill another piping bag.

I'm exaggerating. A bit. But I was sick of the sight of cupcakes, sick of the taste of buttercream and most of all, sick of baking them.

Luckily, by now I was into all things baking, so I turned my attention to bread and other things for a while. By the time I returned to cupcakes, I was able to make them without totally freaking out and crying because I'd run out of icing sugar. I still don't eat them very often because they are very very sweet and sometimes make me feel sick and give me a cake headache. It feels much like a hangover.

But cupcakes are trendy, cupcakes are pretty and they are not that difficult either. Put them in a white cardboard box (easily obtainable from eBay), tie some colourful ribbon around and they make a perfect present.

I've been dying to use my duo icing set (thank you, Lakeland) so a friend's birthday gave me the perfect opportunity to crack out my cupcake skills to make something both tasty and decorative.

It's easy, you can do it to. Come on, I'll show you how. This recipe makes a batch of 12 jam-filled vanilla cupcakes.

You will need:

For the cakes:
250g caster sugar
250g butter
250g plain flour
3 medium eggs
1 tsp baking powder
1 tsp vanilla extract
1 jar seedless jam in your favourite flavour (fruit curd would also work)
12 cupcake cases
12-hole cupcake or muffin tray

For the icing:

3 large egg whites

250g caster sugar

1 tsp vanilla extract

300g softened butter

1 tbsp jam or fruit curd from the jar you are using for the cakes
duo icing set (optional)
OR
normal piping bag fitted with star nozzle
OR
palette knife or baking spatula

1. Preheat the oven to 180C and put the cupcake cases in the baking tray. Beat together the butter and caster sugar for the cakes until light and fluffy.

2. Weigh out the flour for the cakes and beat in the eggs one at a time, adding a tbsp of flour with each one to ensure the mixture does not curdle.

3. Add the vanilla, baking powder and mix in, then fold in the rest of the flour.

4. Distribute the mixture evenly between the cases and bake for 10-15 minutes until risen and golden brown. Take out of the baking tray and leave to cool.

5. Prepare the icing by setting a large bowl above a pan of barely simmering water and whisking the egg whites and caster sugar until the sugar has dissolved. Remove from the heat and whisk to stiff peaks (I often use a handheld electric whisk or even my standing mixer to do this).

6. Add the softened butter, a bit at a time to the bowl whilst continuing to whisk. When the mixture reaches a point of being stiff enough to pipe, stop and if you're using a duo icing set, divide icing into two equal halves.

7. If you are using a duo icing set add a tbsp of jam to one half of the icing and beat until uniform in colour. Then fill your icing bag with the jammy icing on one side and normal on the other. If you are not using a duo icing set add a tbsp of jam to the icing and swirl through so the mixture is streaky rather than uniform in colour. Then put in your icing bag.

8. When your cupcakes have cooled, cut a hole in the middle with an apple corer or small, sharp knife. Warm the remainder of your jam gently in the microwave or in a saucepan over a low heat until it is runnier in consistency. Spoon jam into the holes in your cupcakes with a teaspoon until they are all filled.

9. When the jam in your cupcakes has cooled and set, pipe a little splodge of icing in the middle. Then, starting from the inner edge of your cupcake case, pipe a spiral of icing. You should pipe inwards and upwards and just lower your nozzle slightly before lifting it away from the peak of the cake to break the icing away from the nozzle.

You're done! Step 10 is to have a nice sit down and bask in the reflected glory of your cupcakes.

Mmm, glory.

More baking soon,

Ellie
xxx

Fluffy Scotch Pancakes

This recipe isn't quite baking. Like the crumpets I made a few weeks ago, it involves making a batter, using bicarbonate of soda as a raising agent and then cooking said batter in a frying pan.

"But this is supposed to be a baking blog," is what you're saying now, in a rather whiny tone. Look at my face. Is this the face of a woman who cares about your narrow definition of the word 'baking'? No, this is the face of a woman who wants to eat pancakes.

Usually on Pancake Day I would go for the humble crepe, no questions asked. A French style pancake, crisp round the edges and dressed in lemon and sugar is still my favourite. But it's also what I have every year, so I decided to make scotch pancakes this year. I'm glad I did, even if it means I didn't get to showcase my skills as a champion tosser.

A tosser of pancakes, that is.

There are the last of my batch of pancakes, which I finished Friday morning with a drizzle of honey, blueberries and my daily americano. They very nearly made up for getting up at 6:30 to do the early shift at work. Nearly.

Like crumpets, scotch pancakes are something you can either eat warm from the pan or keep and refresh in the toaster before serving. I'd recommend eating them with maple or golden syrup, honey, fruit or just butter. This recipe makes 6 and is based on a recipe by Nigella Lawson.

You will need:
110g plain flour
150ml milk
half a tsp white wine vinegar or lemon juice
2 tsp bicarbonate of soda
1 egg
1 tbsp olive oil

1. Put the milk and vinegar into a jug and whisk in the egg and oil.

2. Weigh out the flour and whisk into the wet ingredients along with the bicarbonate of soda.

3. Leave uncovered for 20-30 minutes, then whisk again.

4. Heat a large frying pan over a medium flame without oil and use a ladle and the jug to ladle large dollops of batter into the pan, spreading them quickly into 6-8cm circles with the back of the ladle.

5. When bubbles appear in the pancakes and the undersides are golden brown, flip them with a spatula and cook until the other side is the same golden brown.

6. Serve.

Easy, quick and results in pancakes that are crisp on the outside with a warm fluffy centre. Lovely!

I will bake 'properly' again soon, promise.

Ellie
xxx

Raspberry Mousse Heart Cakes

I rather think I aired my grievances about Valentine's Day a couple of years ago on this same blog, so I won't go into it now.

Let's just say I never pass up an opportunity to make cake. There's a charity bake sale at work tomorrow so I have dutifully churned out nearly 20 of these little cakes.

Aren't they cute? You know they are. And surprisingly easy to make. You may in fact recognise some of this recipe from my raspberry and chocolate entremets, which I made for French patisserie week of the Great British Bake Off. Bake smart, not hard.

I ended up with a lot of raspberry mousse left over - it is lovely by itself or with the remaining cake bits after you've cut out your heart-shaped sponges.

You will need:

For the sponge:

250g softened butter

250g caster sugar

4 medium eggs

200g plain flour

50g cocoa

1 tsp baking powder

A splash of milk, if needed

2 shallow rectangular baking trays, lined

small heart-shaped biscuit cutter

For the mousse:

225g raspberries

1 sachet gelatine or vege-gel

500ml double cream

70g icing sugar

1 piping bag or cone of greaseproof paper

To decorate:

handful of raspberries

icing sugar, to dust

1. Preheat the oven to 180C. Cream together the butter and caster sugar with a wooden spoon.

2. Weigh out the cocoa, flour and mix together with the baking powder. Begin beating the eggs in one at a time, adding a tablespoon of dry ingredients with each egg to stop the mixture from curdling.

3. Fold in the remaining flour and if the mixture is slightly stiff (it should ribbon off the spatula or spoon) beat in a little milk to loosen the mixture.

4. Split the batter across the two baking trays and spread it evenly with a spatula or palette knife. The mixture will look thin but don't panic - we want that.

5. Bake the sponge for 8-10 minutes until risen and cooked through (check the middle particularly carefully) and leave to cool.

6. While the sponge is cooling, mix together the raspberries, gelling agent and icing sugar for the mousse together in a own and leave to simmer for 10 minutes over a medium heat.

7. When the mixture has simmered down to a fruity red liquid, force it through a sieve to remove all the pips.

8. Meanwhile, whip the cream for the mousse to soft peaks.

9. Once the raspberry mixture is lukewarm, fold it into the cream until fully combined.

10. By now the sponge should be cold. Use the biscuit cutter to cut heart shaped sponge layers out of it. 

11. Place the biscuit cutter on top of a sponge heart and use the piping bag or greaseproof paper to fill the space with mousse, then smooth it down with the back of a teaspoon and carefully lift off the cutter. Repeat until half the sponge hearts are topped with mousse.

12. Put the remaining sponge hearts on top of the mousse layers on the other sponge hearts, forming sandwiches with mousse as the filling. Scatter around some raspberries on the serving plate and dust with icing sugar.

There you have it. A perfect romantic treat and if you're single, all that means is there's no one to judge you when you scoff three in a row.

As this recipe contains fresh cream, remember to refrigerate your cakes if you're not eating them straight away and eat within a couple of days. If they hang around that long. 

Happy Valentine's Day,

Ellie

xxx