Sunday Bake | Milk Chocolate & Hazelnut Praline Buche de Noel

I'm aware a Buche de Noel is a very Christmassy dessert, but while Winter is still in full force I thought it still deserved a feature! I made this first for my Flat Christmas with the guys, and then again for actual Christmas Day as it really is that good!!

The recipe is from Edd Kimber's Patisserie Made Simple which is SUCH a good book for amazing bakes. I highly recommend it! This recipe in particular is quite lengthy, but the steps are all actually quite simple. Everyone loved this dessert, as although it looks quite decadent it tastes so light! Perfect for Christmas Day when you're already stuffed with food....or any food-filled occasion really!

On with the recipe!

Ingredients:

For the chocolate sponge:
butter, for greasing

70g plain flour 

4 large eggs

100g caster sugar

30g cocoa powder

For the decoration:

125g hazelnuts, roughly chopped

For the praline buttercream:

50g milk chocolate 

125g caster sugar

1 large egg

2 large egg yolks

225g unsalted butter, at room temperature diced

4 tablespoons hazelnut praline paste 

For the hazelnut syrup:

40g caster sugar

2 tablespoons Frangelico (I just used Brandy though!)

Method:

Preheat the oven to 180C (160C fan oven/gas 4) and grease a 33x23cm rimmed baking tray and line with a sheet of baking parchment. Grease the parchment and then dust with a little flour, tipping out any excess. 

To make the sponge, put the eggs and sugar in a large bowl and, using an electric whisk, beat until pale and thick, so that when the beaters are lifted from the bowl the batter leaves a trail. Put the flour and cocoa powder in a bowl and mix together. In three additions, sift this mixture over the egg mixture, gently folding together with a spatula until fully combined. Pour this batter into the prepared baking tray and gently level out. Bake for 10-12 minutes until the cake springs back to the touch. 

Meanwhile, put a tea towel on a work surface and cover with a piece of baking parchment. Remove the cake from the oven and immediately turn it out onto the parchment. Peel off the parchment from the base of the cake, and then carefully roll the cake tightly, with the parchment and tea towel inside. Leave to cool, wrapped inside the tea towel, for 20 minutes. This will help the cake to unroll and re-roll later without cracking.

Put the hazelnuts for decoration on a baking tray and toast them in the oven for 10 minutes or until lightly browned. Set aside to cool.

To make the buttercream, melt the chocolate in a heatproof bowl over a pan of gently simmering water, making sure the base of the bowl doesn't touch the water. Leave to cool slightly. 

Meanwhile, put the sugar and 75ml water in a small pan over a medium high heat and bring to the boil. When the sugar has dissolved, cook until the syrup reaches 120C on an instant-read thermometer. When the syrup is around 115C, put the egg and yolks in a bowl and using an electric whisk, whisk until pale and thickened. Once the syrup reaches 120C, and with the whisk still running, carefully pour the syrup into the egg mixture. Continue whisking until the egg mixture has cooled to room temperature. 

Add the butter, a few pieces at a time, beating until you have a silky smooth buttercream. Once all the butter has been added, add the praline paste and the melted milk chocolate, mixing to combine. 

To make the syrup, put the sugar and 40ml water in a small pan and bring to the boil over a medium heat, then cook for 2 minutes. Remove the pan from the heat and pour in the Frangelico...or brandy! 

To assemble, unroll the sponge and remove the baking parchment, then brush liberally with the syrup. Spread three-quarters of the buttercream evenly across the sponge, then carefully roll it up tightly. Carefully lift the roll onto a serving plate and spread the remaining buttercream in a thin layer over the outside of the cake. To make the decoration, press the nuts into the buttercream, coating the cake. 

And voila! 

Let me know if you give it a try! Whats your favourite Christmassy dessert?

Aimée

Xxxx

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Recipe adapted from Patisserie Made Simple, by Edd Kimber

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Sunday Bake | Raspberry and Almond Friands

Ohhhh yes. These were always going to be a hit with me. A Bakewell Tart flavoured muffin? Yes please! These are a Mary Berry creation (obviously! Who else?), though I do have to give myself some credit as the original recipe called for blackberries. The possibility of adding raspberries to the almond sponge was too much to resist though!

I'd never eaten a Friand before making these, and I fear I may have now begun a slight obsession. The combination of icing sugar and egg whites makes for a melt in the mouth sponge and the combination of flavours could be endless! I'm thinking some sort of pistachio Friand next!

The recipe is adapted from Mary Berry Cooks:

Ingredients:
200g unsalted butter
225g icing sugar
75g plain flour
150 ground almonds
1/2 teaspoon almond extract
6 egg whites
150g fresh raspberries
25g flaked almonds

Method:

1. Firstly, grease a non-stick muffin tray and cut little strips of baking paper to make a handle. This makes your life SO much easier when you're trying to remove them from tray once baked. No body wants to lose a muffin to the tray!! Next, pre-heat the oven to 200C/180Fan/Gas 6.

2. Melt the butter in a small pan, and then remove from the heat and leave to cool a little.

3. Sift the icing sugar and flour into a bowl, and then stir in the ground almonds and extract. Or, just pour it all in if you're feeling lazy - and I mean does anyone really sift icing sugar Mary??

4. Whisk the egg whites until they are foamy, but do not hold soft peaks. It should look slightly like a bubble bath! Add the egg whites and melted butter to the dry ingredients and using a metal spoon (or silicone spatula if you don't have one like me!) fold the mixture together until just combined. Don't overmix, you'll only end up with a chewy texture!

5. Divide the mixture between the muffin holes - the mixture should come up to about 3/4 of the way up each hole. Add two or three raspberries to each one, and then sprinkle (liberally!) with flaked almonds. Bake for 15-20 minutes until firm in the centre.

6. Finally dust with icing sugar to serve and ENJOY!

How easy was that?! Best recipe ever!!

Mary states that you can make 20 Friands from this mixture, but I've only ever managed about 14. I think that may be down to me simply over-filling each hole though so perhaps be abit more stingy if you want to make all 20!

Let me know if you attempt these :)

Aimée
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Sunday Bake | Ombre Petal Birthday Cake

This week was Craig's Birthday which meant that I had a birthday cake to concoct! I've seen this 'petal' technique ALL over Pinterest recently and I just think it looks so cool! I love the effect it gives, and I love abit of ombre too so I knew I wanted to include that element as well. Mustard Yellow is Craig's favourite colour and that was the original idea, but trying to make mustard is REALLY hard! Mine turned out wayy too orange, but its the thought that counts right? I really want to make this again in a Mint Green (my favourite colour!) or a Sea Blue!

The actual cake is a chocolate and vanilla marble, which as usual I over-swirled so the marbling isn't very defined - darn it! All of the icing is a Vanilla Frosting which I just tinted with food colouring to create the ombre effect. As this cake is all about the decoration I'm not going to write a cake recipe, as you can really do any recipe and flavour that you like! But I will give a recipe and some tips on creating the petal effect.

I actually attempted this technique last year and I failed epicly because my frosting was way too runny! It needs to be quite stiff so that it actually holds its shape on the side of the cake. So I decided to use the Vanilla Cupcake Frosting recipe from the Hummingbird Bakery book Cake Days as I know that it creates a really stiff mixture. I also had to double the original quantity as this technique uses up a lot of frosting! This is definitely a technique to use for an occasion as it's definitely not light on the calories! Oops!

Vanilla Frosting:

1kg Icing Sugar (ouch!)
320g Unsalted Butter, Softened
100ml Whole Milk
1/2tsp Vanilla Essence

(Sidenote! 1kg of Icing Sugar is a hella lot of Icing, so when whisking you may end up coating yourself in the stuff! I actually made mine in two batches (500g of Icing Sugar in each batch) to make it easier for myself, but its completely up to you!)

1. Whisk the icing sugar with the butter until fully combined and sandy in consistency.
2. Add the vanilla essence to the milk and pour into the butter and icing sugar while mixing slowly.
3. Then increase your speed and using a wooden spoon mix the frosting until light and fluffy.

Now if you want to colour your frosting, separate the frosting into bowls depending on how many different colours you want to create and add food colouring. To create the above, I put half the frosting into one bowl and then halfed the remaining half and put that frosting into two bowls. Was that confusing enough?

Essentially I had three bowls of icing, one with half the original frosting as I needed more of the white icing to fill and crumb coat the cake. The other two bowls I tinted with food colouring, ensuring that one bowl was darker than the other.

Next is assembly! First, I filled the cake with some of the white vanilla frosting and then crumb coated the entire cake and put it in the fridge for about 20 minutes. This is to make it easier for you when piping as you'll have a smooth, flat surface to work with.

Now onto the piping! It really is so simple, I promise. Starting at the bottom pipe two circles with the white frosting, above that two circles of the yellow frosting and above that two circles of the 'mustard' frosting. Then using a spatula spread each circle to the right making sure to clean the spatula inbetween different colours. You then need to do exactly the same, slightly to the right of the original circle. If you want to create the ombre effect pipe the first line as normal, then on the second line pipe one circle of the darkest colour frosting at the bottom and work up as normal for that line. Then on the next line pipe two circles of the darkest colour frosting at the bottom and again work up as normal. Repeat that all the way around the cake and you will see the pretty pattern appear.

I hope you like the cake anyway and I hope this all makes sense, its actually quite hard to write down but is super easy to create! Let me know if you have any questions :)

Aimée
Xxxx

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Afternoon Tea at The Ritz!

For my birthday last week, my sister gave me the ultimate surprise day! Afternoon Tea at The Ritz!!! I was beyond excited, and when I finally found out where we going I exclaimed so loudly in the street that I think a passing girl may have lost a few lives. Oops.

We were booked into the 11:30 session and had a blissful hour and a half to eat and drink to our hearts content. Walking up the steps and through the revolving doors, I suddenly felt really nervous. Like they were going to figure out that I was actually just a commoner and would condemn me to the streets. But, I have to say everyone was really lovely and made me feel completely at ease. We were shown to our table in The Palm Court, which was beautifully decorated. The court was already quite full when we arrived and was soon completely filled. It was a lovely atmosphere, with resident pianist Ian Gomes playing delightful tunes on the piano.

We were first asked what tea we’d like to drink, I chose Earl Grey and my sister Katie chose Jasmine. The Silver tea pots were ginormous! We were practically swimming with tea by the time we left, and it really was the nicest Earl Grey I’ve ever had. I’m not sure anything else will compare now. Also, check out the swanky tea strainer!! Really want one of those now. Our cake stand was then filled with an amazing array of goodies. About 12 perfectly sized finger sandwiches, with amazing fillings (best salmon I’ve ever had!) and a selection of cakes. We had two Millefeuille’s (which I’ve wanted to try forever and were incredible), an amazing chocolate cake/slice/pastry/goodness and a macaroon topped with an amazing cream. The middle plate of our cake stand was empty, and we were informed that it would be filled with warm scones. Oh my.

I feel like the first half an hour of our time there consisted of us stuffing our faces, but the food really was incredible. By the time our scones were brought out (two plain, two sultana) I was so full but still couldn’t stop eating! There was an amazing strawberry jam and clotted cream to go with the scones – they really melted in the mouth.

I have to say also, The Ritz are definitely not stingy! They refill the sandwiches the entire time you’re there – seriously a winner!

Finally, after we felt it couldn’t get any better. A trolley came around with ‘pudding’. So we were having pudding, for our pudding. Why have I not done this before?! Pudding Pudding consisted of an amazing banana, passion fruit and coffee crème pot topped with chocolatey crunchy biscuity bits. We were also given a choice of either a slice of lemon or blackforest cake. I chose the lemon and it was divine!

It literally was such a wonderful experience – food aside, the atmosphere is great and its definitely fun to pretend to be posh for the day! As we left we popped in to the toilets to check them out, and we were given an individual hand towel to dry our hands! It was rather lovely! Haha Obviously taking pictures inside had to be done discretely - no getting out my Nikon sadly! But, I hope you like the snaps I took on my iPhone J

After this, we needed to walk off the excessive amount of food we’d eaten, so we had a lovely mooch inside Kensington Palace and gardens. We then wandered through the entire Kensington area, choosing all our future houses ;) Finally our last stop of the day was the Hummingbird Bakery – because we clearly hadn’t eaten enough cake. We sat outside as it was still such a gorgeous day and it was scrummy!

If you ever get the chance to go to The Ritz or are thinking of an extravagant place to go as a present, I’d seriously recommend checking out The Ritz. It was such a lovely day, so thank you Katie!! J Here’s the website to have a look; http://www.theritzlondon.com/tea/london-,default-en.html

Aimee

Xxxx

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