There's always time for Cake!

I bought "Tea & Cake London" by Zena Alkaya the other day. I'd eyed it up online before but wanted to have a flick through & double check my favourite cake shops were included in the extensive list (because to be quite honest, if they weren't it would be a pretty rubbish cake book!) Peggy Porschen's, Bea's of Bloomsbury & Hummingbird Bakery were all in there so I gave in & bought it, & how happy I am that I did! :)

With my impending post Birthday diet, it probably wasn't the wisest thing to buy as I now feel the need to eat my way around London's best cake shops. But I bought it, & it's mine & who am I to deny that poor little book it's life's purpose?!

So I opened it & started with ...

Konditor & Cook's original Waterloo branch is featured in Tea & Cake London but as we were in the area a friend & I popped into the Soho branch last weekend to kick off my final birthday celebration.
It was located in a random little cinema on Shaftesbury avenue & is open until 11pm (10:30pm on Sundays!) for late night cake emergencies, which I think everyone has once in a while & I'd have a whole lot more if I lived nearby!

We headed straight for the cake. I'd been told by a friend that the Carrot Cake & their renowned Curly Whirly cakes were amazing ... So I went for carrot, & a little mini cake off the counter that was some kind of chocolatey cherry heaven, my friend had the Almond St Clement which was this moist lemony, orangey gluten free almond cake & was delicious - They were all SO good, you definitely could not fault any of them!

To go with our amazingly good cakes we ordered a pot of tea, before noticing my next favourite thing about K&C which is the fact that they sell wine! ... Not enough places sell cake & give you the choice of washing it down with a glass of wine! So after the cake was devoured & the tea was drunk, wine was ordered & we were very happy.

I need to go back & try the Curly Whirly cake ... & the brownies are meant to be super good! There are 6 branches across London, in Soho, Waterloo, Borough Market, Chancery Lane, South Bank & The Gherkin ... all of which I now feel the need to visit! I'd like to go for lunch one day as the savoury food looked super tasty too - I'm really regretting not getting a spinach & parmesan muffin but after all the cake there definitely wasn't room!

So... a good start for my new cake bible! Where to next?!

Magical pink ombre layer cake

Last week I made my first 6 layer cake :) ... i'd wanted to try one out for AGES but to be fair, couldn't be bothered! Seemed like a LOT of effort. But finding myself with a morning of nothing to do I figured i'd give it a shot & was surprised at how simple it was!

To make one you will need...

For the cake:

Have all ingredients at room temperature

9 medium eggs - lightly beaten

18oz self raising flour - sifted

18oz caster sugar

18oz butter

2 1/2 tsp vanilla extract

For the filling:

Raspberry Jam

250g butter

400g icing sugar

tsp of vanilla extract

To cover:

500g butter

800g icing sugar

1 1/2 tsp vanilla extract

Gel colouring

Preheat the oven to gas mark 4 / 350F / 180C

Grease & line 6 8inch cake tins (I only had 2 so did 2 at a time!)

Beat the butter & sugar together with an electric mixer on a medium speed 

until light & fluffy, about 5-10mins

Turn down the speed & add the eggs a little bit at a time, 

scraping the side of the bowl after each addition

Add the vanilla extract

Once it's all well combined turn off the mixer & 

fold the sifted flour in a bit at a time with a metal spoon

Now separate the mixture into 6 bowls & colour each layer a different hue/colour, 

best to use gel colours instead of liquid food colouring as it makes them more vibrant

Transfer the mixtures into the prepared cake tins & cook for 17-18 mins 

until a skewer inserted into the middle comes out clean

Leave to cool 

Trim the tops off the layers so they're nice & flat & even

Beat the butter with an electric mixer until soft & slowly add the icing sugar,

add the vanilla extract & beat until light & fluffy (about 5 mins) 

Layer your sponges with jam & butter cream within each layer

Lightly coat the whole cake with a layer of buttercream to lock in the crumbs & pop into the fridge whilst you prepare your coloured buttercream

As before mix your butter until soft & slowly incorporate the icing sugar & 

vanilla extract beat until light & fluffy

Split the buttercream into 3 bowls & mix in the different amounts

of colour so you end up with 3 hues of the same colour

Using a piping bag with an open star tip start piping swirls of your darkest colour working from the inside out, along the bottom of the cake, filling in any gaps with a little line of buttercream as you go along

Once you've finished the first layer change to a lighter shade of your colour & repeat the swirls, finally finish the top in your lightest shade until the whole cake is covered :) 

TA DAAA! Magical ombre cake! ... my swirls could do with a bit of practice but the colours just look so pretty no-one really cares if they're a bit dodgy! Practice shall i'm sure eventually make perfect :)

It's pretty massive by the time you've finished all the layering & buttercream so make sure you have a lovely bunch of people to help you eat it! 

Peanut Butter & Chocolate Cookies

I'm a total sucker for anything involving a combination of peanut butter & chocolate, so when I came across the recipe for peanut butter & chocolate cookies in my Hummingbird Bakery recipe book a few years back it was clearly going to be a winner. 

I think this is the first Hummingbird recipe I tried out & it's been used time & time again for all number of occasions, they're literally the best cookies i've ever tasted & everyone who's tried them has just fallen completely in love, they're soft & chewy, taste amazing and are amazingly simple! 

To make you will need :

225g unsalted butter at room temperature
200g caster sugar
200g soft light brown sugar
2 eggs
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
240g crunchy peanut butter
340g plain flour
2 1/2 teaspoons bicarbonate of soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
75g dark chocolate, chopped

Method :

Preheat the oven to 170C (325F) Gas 3.

Prepare two baking trays with baking parchment paper on.

Put the butter and sugars in a freestanding electric mixer with a paddle attachment and cream until light and fluffy.

Add the eggs one at a time, mixing well and scraping any unmixed ingredients from the side of the bowl with a rubber spatula after each addition. Turn the mixer down to a slow speed and beat in the vanilla extract and peanut butter.

Add the flour, bicarbonate of soda and salt and mix well until a smooth dough is formed. Stir in the chocolate until evenly dispensed.

Arrange 6 equal amounts of cookie dough on each prepared baking tray. Make sure that the cookies are spaced apart to allow for spreading while baking.

Bake in the preheated oven for about 10 minutes or until golden brown around the edges and quite flat. Leave the cookies to cool slightly on the trays before turning out onto a wire cooling rack to cool completely. The cookies should be soft and chewy.

They're very soft when they come out of the oven so the bit about leaving them to cool slightly on the baking tray is important as they firm up as they cool down.

I also always make half the batch with chocolate & half without as I find some people are fussy about the two mixed together (I'm still not sure why I'm friends with some of these people :p they're clearly insane but I do try to keep everyone happy!)

Enjoy! 

(I know you will!)

The Waffle House St Albans

For those in & around St Albans who like a yummy breakfast/lunch I'd strongly recommend The Waffle House. I've only been there for lunch myself, but the breakfast menu looks AMAZING - think Organic scrambled eggs, free-range back bacon, sautéed field mushrooms and griddled tomatoes, or Free-range back bacon, fried banana and griddled herby plum tomato on a wholemeal waffle, thats a dribble inducing breakfast if ever I heard one!

When I last went with the boyfriend we set ourselves the challenge of devouring both a savory main waffle as well as a sweet dessert waffle - I had Hummous & Avocado wholemeal waffle - Fresh hummous layered with wild rocket, sun-dried tomatoes and organic olives, drizzled with a sweet chilli and balsamic dressing and topped with an avocado fan (It was SO good) followed by a Hot Dutch Apple Waffle - Delicious bramley apples cooked with plump sultanas and mixed spices.

The boyfriend had Ham, Cheese Sauce & Mushroom Waffle - Free-range ham layered with our Lancashire cheddar cheese sauce and button mushrooms sautéed with Tamari followed by a Spiced Fruit Waffle - Mixed dried fruits coated with sweet spices then baked into the waffle with sliced bananas & cinamon sugar.

Hummous & Avocado

Hot Dutch Apple

I would only recommend attempting both if you haven't eaten for a couple of days, it was tough going & I had to give up half way through my Hot Dutch Apple Waffle, the boyfriend however, finished off not only BOTH of his but my left overs as well. His eating abilities never cease to amaze me!

Seriously though... go, its so good, the building is set in an old watermill & has out door seating if summer ever decides to grace Hertfordshire, it's super pretty & near the park so you can go for a nice stroll  to walk it off afterwards!

Cake!

A little bit late but with last week being the Queens Diamond Jubilee and my Dad's b-day it was an obvious excuse to make some yummy treats so I made a couple of cakes for the occasion...

Piped buttercream Victoria Sponge :) 

Red, White & Blue inside - v.patriotic! 

Old school pineapple upside down cake!

I do love cake :)

Mars Bar Rice Crispy Treats

With last weekend being Easter I thought I would relive my childhood and make the rice crispy treats I used to make every year with my Grandy. I'd totally forgotten quite how good they were, but beware...  they are definitely not for anyone watching their waistline!

You'll need:

8 mars bars
Butter (approx 100g)
300g chocolate (I used dark but it's up to you!)
Rice crispies (I used about 2/3 of a packet)
A roasting tin

Method:

Chop up the mars bars and melt in a bowl over boiling water with half the butter. It will curdle a bit at first but just keep stirring it until it goes nice and smooth and glossy, add more butter if you think it needs it.

Mix the melted mars bar mix with as many rice crispies as it will cover! ... Depends how chocolatey you want them as to how many you add.
Tip - mix in the warm bowl as it keeps the melted mixture soft and easier to stir, careful though it'll be hot!

Press the mixture into a greased roasting tin

Place 300g of chocolate in a bowl over a pan of boiling water with the remainder of the butter and once melted pour over the layer of rice crispy mix

As it was Easter I put mini eggs on the top of my crispy treats as decoration but you don't have to do this, or could subsitute mini eggs for malteasers or minstrels or something else chocolatey and bad for you!

Place the baking tray in the fridge for a few hours or until the chocolate has set then slice up and devour!