Glittery Cupcakes

Glittery Cupcakes

My housemate who co-creates most of our novelty cakes was having her 21st birthday at her parents house so I knew they'd be getting her a cake. So as not to interfere we decided to make cupcakes instead.  I had recently just got a cupcake stand as a present and some gorgeous black foil cupcake cases so we were ready to roll. We knew she was wearing a black dress with red shoes so we thought about making red and black cupcakes. We mixed the icing up but for some reason the colours wouldn't work. The black was too grey and the red was too bright. 

So after we threw out an obscene amount of icing we decided to do something simple as we did not have time to pipe any icing. So we mixed up normal icing i.e. water and icing sugar and poured it onto the cupcakes. I had some green/pink edible glitter so we just sprinkled it on top of the cupcakes and voila! We had created simple tasty and pretty cupcakes. It certainly was a change from our usual creations. My other housemate created the top cupcake using edible gold stars and silver sugar balls. 

Mini Glitter Cupcakes

Another example of using the glitter was for another friends 21st in their house where once again I knew the parents would be providing the cake. This time we made mini cupcakes using silicon moulds which meant they had no cases but that didn't matter as they were bitesize. This time we did pipe un-coloured buttercream icing and then decorated the buns with the glitter and balls etc. Making and decorating mini cupcakes is quite time consuming so I invited some friends over to help decorate them. It is great fun and you can have a chat while doing it. The guys are particularly good at it.

I ♥ Macarons!

Homemade Rose Macarons

Yes I did! They weren't perfect but way better than I expected considering all the hype about them! I first came across Macarons when my French mate brought some over for my housemate as a present and I just happened to be at the table at the time and it would of just been rude of me not to try one. They were from Ladureé. At first we were like did you bring these from Paris! But no Ladureé have a counter in Brown Thomas in Dublin. So I tried a rose flavoured one and it was devine! I was hooked and armed witha a voucher for Brown Thomas I had, I bought a big box of Macarons from Ladureé. One of every flavour. Nom Nom.

The Perfect Macaron after Seriouseats.com

A friend of mine who is an excellent cook told me she had got a book on macarons but said she was disapointed as the language wasn't great and it resulted in a not so perfect macaron. Now I think she might of been talking about I ♥ Macarons the must have book on macarons but it is translated from Japanese and supposedly mainly just pretty pictures. So after alot of reading of blogs and so forth I decided to give rose macarons a go, following the advice of this guy, David Lebovitz, who seems to be the dude when it comes to pastries or something like that. He refers to a 'foot' which is the bubbly looking bit on the bottom of the macarons. See the photo above. I didn't achieve this but heres hoping I will next time!

Pencil Marks for the Macarons

Powdered Almond, Powdered Sugar, Granulated Sugar and Egg Whites

Anyway I started off by drawing circles that were about an inch in diameter on some baking paper to act as a guide when I piped the mixture out. I drew 30 of these circles, 15 on for each baking tray. I had ground almonds already but I ground them some more so they were more powdery. However this made the almond clump together. This meant I had to roast the almond on a baking tray to dry it out. I put it in the oven for 10mins and hoped for the best. In the meantime I powdered some sugar in the blender. You could use icing sugar but sometimes this has added cornflour which supposedly causes the macarons to crack. 

Mixing the Colour into the Egg Whites

I whisked the sugar and egg whites up and added the colour (half a cap of red colouring) and a cap of rose water to the mixture at this point as I was folding the rest of the ingredients in later and wouldn't be able to mix the colour at this point. I also made it slightly redder than I wanted as I knew the almonds and powdered sugar would dilute the mix. The almonds were still clumped together after roasting and it required alot of effort to sieve them into the egg whites with the icing sugar as they kept clogging up the sieve. I eventually got there. 

Piped Macarons Ready for Baking

My Syringe with a Plain Cap

So the mixture was easy to but into my syringe piper unlike butter icing which is a nightmare! Runny enough to flow out easy, thick enough to control and pipe into nice domes. I'm sure a skilled hand could spoon them out neatly if no piping bag was available. Once I'd piped them all out I had to rap the baking tray against the counter a few times to flatten the top of the macarons as they are meant to have flat tops not domes. Popped them in the oven at gas mark 1 for 15mins. They looked great. Maybe starting to golden a little which I didn't want as it would ruin the colour. I let them cool and then things went down hill a bit. 

Macarons Fresh Out of the Oven

When I tried to lift the macarons off the baking paper they started to crumble! Perfect shells had formed but there was mainly just a big void of air in the centre with a bit of gooey macaron STUCK to the baking paper! Then I realised I'd used greaseproof paper not baking paper, hence the sticking problem but not why the centre was nothing but air, my Mom thinks I should of left them in for longer. Oh well I'll know next time. Never the less out of the 30 shells as I'm now calling them I managed to salvage maybe 18 or so of them i.e. 9 Macarons. :( I was not a happy bunny but I was still excited as they looked awesome!

Homemade Rose Macarons

I mixed a bit of butter, icing sugar and some rose water up and using my syringe piped it in a circle around the outside of the bottom of the macarons. Ideally I should of filled them but they were so fragile they were cracking under the weight of the filling. It was a very rich filling anyway so it didn't matter. I didn't add any colour to the the filling as the pink and white contrast is quite pretty. I was thinking of flavouring it something different. Maybe vanilla but I was too lazy to go get some from the cupboard (Does anyone else think its strange seeing cupboard written down as everyone glosses over the p?)

Homemade Rose Macarons

Homemade Rose Macarons

So there was a lot of wastage, not a lot of sticky centre, no foot but who cares. They were delicious! I am however going to lay off the rose flavoured stuff for awhile! If you are going to make them I'd read up on it first as there are loads of tips such as leaving over night to develop in flavour. Yea about that.... Anyway if you wanna read more about my tasty adventures check out my Chocolate Fondant or if you want to see some of the costume parties I've been at try the Stretcher Race! 

More Marshmallows

Scary Coloured Marshmallows

So I attempted the marshmallows again. Tad obsessive but I want to get them perfect! This time I opted for some flavours! I split the mixture into 3 bowls and added a cap of food colouring and a cap of essence to each bowl. The green ones are peppermint, the yellow ones are lemon and and the pink ones are rose. A cap of colour was far too much and it produced gaudy colours to say the least. Also extra lemon essence wouldn't of gone astray and alot less mint! I love mint but this was just too much. The mint ones have to be stored separately as the mint started seeping into the other ones. The rose flavoured ones were perfect! 

Mmm Rose Petal Jelly aka Jam

Now rose essence is probably quite difficult to get your hands on so instead I use rose water which is more dilute and available in most pharmacies because it has many beneficial properties. It is often used as a cleanser by people with dry or sensitive skin. It can also be added to your shampoo to prevent hair loss. Just make sure it is pure rose water not rose water and glycerin as I've no idea if it tastes nice. If you are feeling very adventurous you could try distill your own rose petals. My Mom did this about a month ago and made lovely rose petal jam which is great on bread or as the filler in a cake. 

Back to the marshmallows. They were still not as fluffy as I'd like and I think this is partly to do with the whole not having a sugar thermometer and hence not reaching 130 degrees Celsius and the fact that when I separated the mixture in the 3 bowls it cooled down alot and began to set. This made it extremely difficult to pour it into the tins to let it set. Therefore I think alot of the air was squeezed out of it while scraping it out of the bowl. Also I greased the cling film with oil this time instead of butter and I had no trouble at all getting the cling film off. I enjoyed some of the mint mallows in a cup of hot chocolate last night while watching some Harry Potter in preparation for the final movie! 

So another not so perfect attempt at marshmallows as they still look rubbish but I'll get there eventually! It was alot easier this time as I'd an extra set of hands to help manage the mess and so forth. 

Marshmallow Madness!

Cover of the April Edition of 'Delicious'

So after my Mom showed me a recipe in a magazine called 'Delicious'  by BEA VO for marshmallows I've been dying to try them. Unfortunately the recipe is not on the magazine's website so you will have to make do with my instructions if you'd like to try make them yourself. The magazine suggests using strong flavours such as spices, coffee, chocolate, nuts, vanilla, liquers, berry fruits and citrus fruits and not flavours such as apple or peach. One my first attempt I used lemon juice but as I'll explain later the attempt was a complete failure. One my second attempt I was less adventurous and simply went with vanilla.

The Gelatine Sponging 

Firstly, I sprinkled some gelatine into water and allowed it to soak it up in a process called sponging..... It is not very exciting. While that was going on I put some caster sugar and golden syrup and a tiny bit of water in a saucepan. I thought I'd made quite the mess simply measuring out the golden syrup but the worst was yet to come! Now my greatest downfall has been this step. On my first attempt a couple of weeks ago a number of things went wrong. Firstly, I bought Maple flavoured golden syrup by accident. I was furious!   Grrr. Then the recipe said to cover the syrup and sugar in the saucepan with water. Me being an eijet just lashed the water into the pot which led to my mixture being too runny and not mixing properly. This resulted in a separated mess that just tasted like maple syrup and not lemon flavoured marshmallows. Straight to the bin which is saying something because my family are not ones to throw away food!

Measuring out the Golden Syrup... Messy

The tricky bit about heating the golden syrup and sugar is that you are suppose to heat it to between 130 and 140 degrees Celsius. Any less and the marshmallows won't be very fluffy. Any more and the mixture will burn. The sensible thing would be to go out an buy a sugar thermometer or whatever they are called but oh no I was like I'll totally be fine.... Yea I burnt it. I blame my boyfriend for phoning me at that exact moment but really it's my own fault. My Mom managed to do it without a thermometer so why couldn't I? What was worse that wasting time and ingredients is cleaning the pot! Basically I had made burnt toffee and it made an awful mess. I was hoping that my Mom wouldn't come into the kitchen and see what an absolute mess I'd made! A couple of boiled kettles later and no one will ever know.

Mmm Burnt Toffee

Absolute Nightmare!

So after I destroyed all the evidence of my previous mess I started again and nailed it! I brought the mixture to the boil. Then I boiled it for only 3 minutes and took it off the heat. While the mixture was cooling down I whisked the gelatine 'sponge' and then added the syrup and sugar and whisked it all up. Added a cap of vanilla essence and a cap of red food colouring and kept whisking away for ages yet it didn't seem to be getting any thicker. Supposedly, it will form a consistency like bubble gum...

Attempt Number 3: Success!

It may look nice but gelatine stinks!

So I got fed up whisking and decided to line a tin with cling film, which was greased and coated in cornflour but when I returned I noticed a sticky drip hanging off the whisk like an icicle. So I started whisking again and it finally began to thicken up and look very tasty! Poured it into the tin, covered it and put it in the fridge for two hours to set. I went off for a run to keep myself distracted and make room for lots of Marshmallows! 

Is that like Bubblegum?

Mmm Tasty Tasty

A Little Runny for My Liking

So after two agonising hours I could not wait anymore but I had plenty more work to do. Unfortunately I hadn't greased the cling film enough and it just wouldn't come off! The marshmallow was incredibly sticky! I had to douse  the place in cornflour to stop the marshmallow sticking to everything! No point trying to cut it with a knife as it just sticks to it so out comes the scissors my favourite cutting device. So once I'd cut a square I painstakingly removed the cling film from it while covering it in cornflour the whole time. This resulted in not very square marshmallows and lots of cornflour. 

Cutting up the Marshmallow into Squares

Painstakingly Removing the Cling Film

So after all the effort and mess I'd made some oddly shaped tasty marshmallows! They we still very sticky and not as fluffy as I'd like. According to the magazine the lack of fluff is probably due to not reaching 130 degrees. Although they definitely became less sticky and  more tastier the next day. The day after that I don't know as we'd eaten them all by then! Next time I make them I hope to get them even better! I'm thinking maybe rose flavoured ones. I posted the recipe here: Homemade Marshmallow Recipe or if you just want to look at more of my creations have a look at Summer Time Treats, or Yummy Biscuit Cake!

Nom Nom Nom Homemade Marshmallows

I Wanna Make Marshmallows!

My Homemade Marshmallows

Adapted from Delicious Magazine April, 2011 Edition

April 2011 Edition of Delicious

Ingredients

• 120ml liquid, cool
• 23g powdered gelatine (2 sachets of Dr. Oketer Gelatine Powder)
• 440g Caster Sugar
• 160ml Golden Syrup
• Oil for Greasing
• Corn flour for coating or icing sugar
• A sugar thermometer

Flavours

Delicious suggest using strong flavours that the sugar won't overpower; spices, coffee, chocolate, nuts, vanilla, liqueurs, berry fruit, and citrus. Not so good flavours would be apple and pear and other more subtle flavours. For fruit flavoured marshmallows use a puree or even a smoothie as the liquid in step 1. Likewise if using spices they need to be heated gently in water for 20mins to form a infusion which can also be used as the liquid in step 1 but don't forget to strain it and let it cool down first. For fatty flavours such as nuts, cocoa, or coffee and alcohol based drinks or extracts such as Baileys, or vanilla extract reduce the volume of the mixture and therefore shouldn't be added until step 5 and just use water in step 1. 

Recipe

1. Pour the liquid into a bowl and sprinkle over the gelatine and set aside to allow the liquid to soak up the gelatine
2. Heat the golden syrup, sugar and enough water to cover in a saucepan on a low heat until the sugar has dissolved.
3. Turn up the heat and bring the mixture to the boil. Wait for the mixture to reach 130 degrees Celsius and then take it off the heat and allow it to cool for a minute. (I found 4 minutes after the mixture begins to boil is about 130 degrees. Above 140 degrees it begins to burn)
4. Whisk the gelatine and liquid on a medium speed and then start to gently add the syrup down the sides of the mixing bowl. The mixture should grow in volume like a stiff meringue. (This took a long time to happen)
5. Once all the syrup has being added continue whisking until the mixture becomes really thick and cools down a bit. A bubblegum texture should form on the surface. Add any flavours now and whisk briefly.
6. Line a tin with cling film and grease well with oil and pour the mixture in. Cover and allow to cool for at least 2 hours in a cool place. 
7. When firm remove the cling film and coat in corn flour, and then chop up using a greased scissors and greased hands! The marshmallows can be eaten straightway or kept in an airtight container for upto 2 weeks. (I found they improved overnight) 

To read more about my attempt at marshmallows and to see photos of the recipe in action view my post  Marshmallow Madness or have a look at some other treats, Biscuit Cake and Summer Treats!

Tasty Summer Treats!

It is summer time and that means everyone wants light tasty treats packed full of fruit as opposed to rich tasty Biscuit Cake. First up is a strawberry and blueberry roulade. I used the following  Mary Berry Strawberry Roulade Recipe. However, I did not use any almonds or greek yogurt and I added blueberries. The strawberries and blueberries were fresh and locally grown which made for a very tasty treat. It was my first time making a pavlova mixture and I was quite happy with the results. The recipe was excellent and very clear. As you can see the pavlova cracked in places as it was too deep for rolling. This happened because the oven I was using didn't fit a normal size baking tray and I had to use a smaller one! I also over did the filling from an aesthetic point of view but no one complained about the taste.

Strawberry and Blueberry Roulade

Stork Perfect for Cakes

 I am always making strange cupcakes and cakes so I decided for once to make a simple fairy cake... well sort of. I used this recipe by Delia Smith, All in One Sponge Video which I simply spooned into bun cases instead. You need to reduce the baking time by about 5mins for buns instead of a cake.  It is best to use a soft butter that comes in a tub such as Stork Perfect for cakes which is available in the UK and Ireland. Since I did not have any of this butter I used Stork Perfect for Pastry Butter which is also soft but resulted in a more crispier than fluffy sponge as you can see from the photo. This meant that it was difficult to cut the top off the bun and make the traditional fairy cake wings. Therefore I scooped out a circle in the middle carefully so as not to break it up. Dropped in half a teaspoon of raspberry jam followed by a desert spoon of cream. Then I placed the removed sponge back on top and placed half a homegrown raspberry on top.

Raspberry and Cream Fairy Cake

Finally, maybe not quite a summer treat as these pancakes were quite thick for Irish standards and not anywhere near as thin as a crepe would be. However, they were scrumptious and a good alternative to a heavy fry for breakfast on a busy day. They are smaller than usual as the only non-stick pan left in my student house was for frying eggs but I think it was a nice touch. The shapes were cut out using cookie cutters.

The pink sugar was left over from a previous baking experience. I made it by placing ONE drop of red food colouring in a bowl and adding sugar until the desired colour was achieved. It is not uniform in colour at first due to the food colouring clumping together but if you pass it through a sieve the clumps will be removed. Be warned, you need alot of sugar to make it pink, the food colouring goes a long way. It may even be up to 500g! However, I've just been using the sugar as normal in other cakes and it has not effected the colour. Though pancakes take awhile to make and cook they are worth it. Other topping that we had were the traditional lemon and icing sugar, chocolate spread, golden syrup and bananas. Yum. Keeping on the theme of light treats this summer I also made Marshmallows!

Pankcake with Pink Sugar

Pancakes with Chocolate Spread

Badass Biscuit Cakes!

Ironman Cake

So it is tradition amoung my friends to make each other birthday cakes which are somehow related to the individual. We had a bit of a dilemma for two of the cakes as they were needed while we were staying down the country. We wouldn't have the time or the privacy (the cakes are surprises)  to make them while away and a 5hour car journey in the summer would ruin most cakes and soft icing. So the solution was to make biscuit cakes! However, we aren't ones for normal cakes so off we went to Lidl and raided the chocolate aisle. The contents of the cakes were Malteasers, Crunchie, Kinder Chocolate (those little bars), Twix, marshmallows, Mars Bars and Rice Crispies, just to name a few.

We made one cake using golden syrup and butter melted with milk chocolate and the other with condensed milk mixed with melted milk chocolate. The conclusion was that the golden syrup and butter combination set better than the condensed milk with made a very heavy cake. The bars of chocolate and marshmallows etc. were chopped into bite size pieces and then stirred into the mixtures. 

Charizard Pokemon Cake

The first cake was a Ironman head. Unfortunately, we didn't fully account for how much compaction would be required and therefore the proportions aren't quite right. The cake was formed simply by lining two saucepans with cling film and filling them up in layers while compacting with the bottom of a glass. The bases were put in the fridge and allowed to cool. The icing for the Ironman cake was from a packet of Dr. Oetker Ready to Roll Coloured Icing which is hard to find but most Tesco Stores seem to have it. The candles got out of control though!

Nom, Nom, NOM!

The second cake was not as successful. It was meant to be a mosaic of the Pokemon Charizard made from Smarties. (My friends and I are definitely of the Pokemon generation sure just look at our Costumes) The cake kind of worked but was very rough around the edges literally. The base was moulded in two small but deep oven trays also lined with cling film. Then chocolate was poured on top of the two bases while the lay side by side in order to form a smooth surface. This didn't really work since we didn't have enough chocolate and it split in the middle during travel.

To form the mosaic a picture of Charizard was printed to the scale we wanted it and the smarties laid out on top of it. Then the smarties were painstakingly transferred to the cake. The head did not really work as we didn't have the 'resolution' we needed for the detail. Finally the candles were arranged as the fire coming from his mouth and tail. There was about 30 candles but 50 would of been more effective. It still tasted good! As you can see from the photo of everyone enjoying it. Shame they didn't get to try my Marshmallows!