Victoria's Cake Boutique

A wedding cake for knitters, cyclists, cat lovers and lovebirds

2012-02-05T12:52:00.003Z

Last weekend, I made a wedding cake for our dear friends, Lily and Alex. Almost every aspect of their January wedding was a collective effort, with everything from the bunting to the entertainment having been home-made by friends and family. Alex's parents grew gorgeous flowers in pots as pretty and colourful table decorations, which also doubled as favours. Lily's dad, a London-based jeweller, designed and created their beautiful rings and her equally talented mum created her stunning 1950s inspired dress. Friends had stepped in to make games, sound pieces, snowflake bunting made from Mills & Boon novels and even to perform celebrant duties during the ceremony. My job was an obvious one: I was called on to make the cake.

When Lily and Alex first approached me to make their cake, they were keen to leave every decision about style and flavour up to me. I decided that this would mean they'd miss out on one of the most fun parts of the wedding cake process at Victoria's Cake Boutique: the tasting session. It wasn't hard to convince them to change their minds, although the tasting session itself did throw up some surprises in their final choices. Lily and Alex were serving vegetarian Indian for their wedding breakfast and my cake would be pudding. Lily was sure she would opt for the citrus-y likes of lemon drizzle, but in fact, they both fell in love with my kirsch-soaked black forest torte and chestnut cake. Lily admitted later that she felt a tiny pang of regret at not choosing orange and polenta and so, as an extra surprise on the day, I made the top tier and the teacups from orange and polenta cake with orange zest buttercream as well as making two special coconut fairy cakes for a vegan guest.

In terms of design, I was more than happy to take the reigns with their blessing, with the only guidance being that "it doesn't have to look like a wedding cake" and "we're really excited to see how you interpret us through cake". I wanted the cake to have a sense of humour and to bring in some of their favourite things. They spent a year in Paris so I decided to create the cake from macaron colours. I kept the base tier simple, covering it in lemon yellow icing. I placed it on a white and lemon yellow polka dot covered base board, dressed with a doily to create a little "tearoom". Against the lemon yellow background, I created two teacups made from orange and polenta cake, which were then hand-painted with a mixture of melted cocoa butter and edible powder dyes, and placed the two little vegan fairy cakes between the cups. Everything except the fairy cake cases was edible.

The next tier up combined two of the couples' favourite activities: bicycles (for Alex) and knitting (for Lily). The bikes proved much harder than I thought they'd be. After a couple of false-starts, in the end, I printed two bicycle silhouettes off the internet, pricked the designs on in place with a scribe tool and then filled in the dots with a liquorice pen. The grass, clouds, knitting, hot air balloon and kite (both out of shot, but I'll hopefully be able to get some more photos when Lily and Alex get back from their honeymoon) were again painted with dyed cocoa butter.

This cake just had to include cats. Not only do the couple have a particular fondness for our furry friends, but Lily is very cat-like, due to her almond-eyed feline beauty paired with her ability to find the warmest, softest furnishings in the room to snuggle up in. I cut some cat silhouettes I had rudimentarily drawn out of rolled out black sugar paste, stuck them on to the cake with a light brushing of alcohol on their backs, and piped round the edges with black royal icing to get a more precise and detailed outline. I wanted the cats to look like they were jumping up to try to get to the love birds on the top tier.

The top tier was the most ornate of all the tiers, a little birdcage (without a cage door, of course!) with a swing for two little lovebirds. I covered the carved cake with sugar paste dyed apple green and made the details out of white chocolate plastique which I painted with edible gold. I added white sugar butterflies and pink blossoms and placed two little white lovebirds made from white floristry paste with royal icing piped detail.

Lily and Alex loved their cake, which was a huge relief, especially as it was a real whopper of a cake - made to feed 140 as pudding, so could be seen from practically everywhere in the reception venue. This was the first time anyone has ever left the design of their wedding cake entirely to me and it was a huge honour to be trusted with such an important job and it was great fun to be given the freedom to let my creative imagination out of its box.

Poo cakes

2011-11-28T16:52:00.000Z

I was commissioned to make cupcakes for the wrap party of Holy Flying Circus, an excellent and hilarious television film aired on BBC Four last month, but it certainly wasn't an ordinary commission. Holy Flying Circus focuses on the build up and controversy surrounding the release of Monty Python's Life of Brian in 1979. During this time, each cast member was sent a poo in the post by deranged protesters who had taken against the film's subject matter. Tony Roche, the writer whose other credits include The Thick Of It and Fresh Meat, rang me up to discuss his special cake request. He wanted me to make poo cakes for their party, but "not so disgustingly realistic that people won't be able to eat them". No problem.

We exchanged various emails about the kinds of poo possible and I suggested adding an extra layer of silliness with sugar flies. My boyfriend, Richard, also became quite excited by the idea of these poo cakes and offered to make parcel paper boxes for each cupcake that we decided must have an address and stamp for realism's sake. I made chocolate fudge cupcakes and topped them with rich chocolate buttercream. Next I made cartoonish coiled poos out of chocolate plastique and added the odd sugar paste fly with rice paper wings and shiny eyes made from edible metallic lustre and melted cocoa butter.

Richard took some very decent snaps of the cakes before they were delivered, but alas, we went on a trip to Noma in Copenhagen the next day, took lots of photos and then our camera got nicked. I hadn't downloaded the poo cake photos before we left and all the photos we'd taken of our amazing twelve course lunch were lost to us, never to be returned. So sad. Still, Tony Roche, lovely man that he is, sent me a couple of pics he took of the cakes on his mobile phone. They're not great quality, but at least they're something. Thanks Tony! So here are my poo cakes, boxes and all:

Stir Up Sunday! Triple Chocolate Christmas pudding

2011-11-20T17:25:00.001Z

Triple chocolate Christmas pudding

I can't quite believe a whole year has swung by and it's stir up Sunday again already. The full frosty chill of November might not have fully crept in yet, but the dark nights are already creating a massive internal battle in my yawning head: to resist the urge to cupboard-raid for something tasty, sweet and moreish, or to free-fall into its tempting, chocolate-y arms and say, to hell with fitting into my Christmas party frocks next month. Sugar and caffeine are dark nights' devils at this time of year, especially if you, like me, find yourself turning into a hibernating hedgehog, ready to curl up and sleep your way through the Winter. It's Sunday after all, so by all means, collapse into a cocoa cuddle by making my chocolate and espresso brownies, if you feel like it. Or, if you'd rather prevent yourself falling too far too fast with the excessive indulgence of Christmas just around the corner, why not make yourself feel useful and take your mind off your sugar cravings, by taking part in stir up Sunday. If you want to stick staunchly to tradition, you can find my recipe for Victorian Christmas pudding here, or, if you'd like to inject a slick of avant-garde glamour into this year's festive staple, why not try my triple chocolate Christmas pudding? There is certainly no skimping on the booze in this alternative and it has the good sense to keep as long as traditional Xmas pud, so you can be more productive than you thought possible by making an extra to serve as a decadent Valentine's Day dessert too.

Triple Chocolate Christmas Pudding

Enough for a 1.5 litre pudding basin.

100g soft, pitted prunes

100g dried figs

100g dried sour cherries

50g dried apricots

2 fl.oz/ 50ml Port

1 fl.oz/ 25ml brandy

1 fl.oz/ 25ml Cointreau or Grand Marnier

1 tsp mixed spice

1 tsp cinnamon

1/2 tsp freshly grated nutmeg

1 tsp ground ginger

1/2tsp ground black pepper

A pinch of salt

3oz/ 75g soft, unsalted butter

4oz/100g light muscovado sugar

2 eggs, beaten

7oz/175g plain flour

1oz/25g ground almonds

1oz/25g cocoa

3oz/75g dark chocolate

1oz/25g white chocolate, chopped into smallish chunks

1oz/25g good quality milk chocolate (I like using Green & Blacks milk chocolate), chopped into smallish chunks

8 fl.oz/ 200ml Guinness, poured out of the can so the head settles

Zest of 2 oranges and the juice of 1

Butter and flour the inside of your pudding bowl.

Chop the dried fruit and place in a bowl with the spices, Port, brandy and Cointreau, cover with cling film and leave to soak for at least 6 hours, so they all plump up deliciously.
Melt the dark chocolate in a heatproof bowl over a pan of barely simmering water and leave to cool.
Cream together the butter and sugar and gradually add the eggs, then mix in the almonds and then mix in the melted chocolate.
Sift together the flour, cocoa and salt and mix into the chocolate-y sugar, butter and eggs.
Stir in the Guinness, orange zest and juice, and the boozy fruit with any residual booze left at the bottom of the soaking bowl.
Fold in the white and milk chocolate chunks.
Pour the batter into your prepared pudding basin. Fold a piece of greaseproof with a pleat and place over the top of the bowl and secure with string. Next, cover the top with a generously sized piece of foil and place in a steamer for 3 hours.
Leave to cool, remove the foil and greaseproof and drizzle over a little brandy and top with a disc of baking parchment or wax paper, and cover in foil.
Every week, top the pudding up with a bit more booze and then pop back the greaseproof disc and cover with foil again.
On Christmas Day, take off the foil and baking parchment disc and place a folded sheet of greaseproof paper over the top of the pudding basin. The pleat should be in the middle. Attach the paper with string and cover the top with a generous amount of foil and steam for 90 minutes before serving with Cointreau custard or brandy butter.

Blackberry wedding cake

2011-09-26T21:53:00.000+01:00

Blackberry wedding cake

I made this wedding cake for some friends who got married at Dulwich Picture Gallery over the weekend. While we sat in the ceremony room, forest noises of wind, creaking trees and woodland creatures played, along with the Teddy Bears' Picnic song. This was thematic of the whole day and the cake was no exception. It was an intimate wedding and Alys and Will, the bride and groom, wanted to serve their cake as pudding. They chose a fruits of the forest torte with fruits of the forest chocolate ganache, so that their chosen design was mirrored in the flavour. The cake was gluten free as a number of their guests were wheat intolerant and Alys and Will were keen for everyone to be served the same.

Close up of the bramble thorn and blossom

I made the blackberries and foliage with white chocolate plastique - a mixture of melted white chocolate and glucose syrup, that you can model into shapes. Once I had made the thorns, leaves and fruit, I painted them with melted cocoa butter mixed with edible powder dye. This made it possible to create nuances of colour and levels of berry ripeness. The blackberry blossoms were made from floristry paste, again with painted detail and a royal icing centre and then used royal icing to stick all the decorations to the cake.

Side view of blackberries

With the exception of ribbons, structural rods and cake boards, I always try to make my cakes 100% edible. I avoid the use of wires or plastic stamens in my sugar and chocolate flowers because, in all honesty, I can't really see the point of creating decorations out of edible materials that are rendered inedible by sticking wires through them. I prefer this modern and fresh approach to cake artistry and, although I can understand the sentiment of keeping sugar flowers from your wedding day for posterity, this tradition feels less and less in keeping with the demands of today's brides.

Close up of chocolate blackberries

Fruits of the forest torte

This cake contains white chocolate, but you can't really taste the chocolate. It is used to stabilise the cake, which is necessary because the cake batter is so wet due to the amount of fruit purée used. You can use double the amount of chocolate if you want to taste the white chocolate through the tanginess of the forst fruits. This is definitely a cake which needs a cake fork - deliciously moist and fruity.

Preheat your oven to 180°C (160°C fan) and grease and line a deep 6" round tin

3 eggs, separated

A pinch of salt

100ml raspberry purée

100ml blackcurrant purée

50ml blackberry purée

125g/ 5oz caster sugar

100g/ 4oz ground almonds

100g/ 4oz white chocolate, melted

Beat the egg yolks and sugar together until pale and mousse-y. Whisk through the ground almonds, then the chocolate and the fruit purée.

In a separate bowl, whisk the egg whites with the salt until stiff peaks form and fold into the fruity mixture, being careful not to beat out any of the air. Once combined, pour the batter into your prepared tin and bake in the oven for about 50 minutes, or until an inserted skewer comes out clean. Leave the cake to cool in its tin on a wire rack before turning out.

Fruits of the forest chocolate ganache

100g/ 4oz dark chocolate

100g/ 4oz unsalted butter

125 ml of fruit purée (a mixture of blackcurrant, raspberry and blackberry)

100ml double cream

1 heaped tbsp light muscovado sugar

Melt the chocolate and butter together in a heatproof bowl over a pan of barely simmering water. Once melted, stir in the fruit purée. Pop the cream and sugar in a saucepan over a gentle heat and stir until the sugar has dissolved. Once dissolved, bring the cream to the boil and pour the cream into the chocolate mixture. Leave to cool and once cold, refrigerate until the ganache has set. Once set, slice the cake horizontally and sandwich the cake with half the ganache and use the remaining ganache to smooth over the outside of the cake.

Chocolate, lime and Szechuan pepper cake

2011-09-06T18:21:00.006+01:00

A couple of weeks ago, I was very kindly invited on a food crawl around Angel by the good people of Great British Chefs, who have created an amazing app full of delicious recipes from the UK's leading chefs. It is elegantly designed and user friendly and packed full of handy hints, tips and snappy little interviews. The app includes 180 recipes for a snip at £4.99 from iTunes. Not bad for less than a fiver!

The food crawl kick started with bubbly and canapés from the lovely ladies of Home and Pantry. Purveyors of all things rustic and cute, their shop is an Aladdin's cave of home and garden ware. Next up on this cold and rainy day was a frozen yoghurt from Frae. Despite the umbrella weather, my pot of green tea frozen yoghurt generously sprinkled with fresh raspberries was refreshing and delicious - like Mr Whippy for grown-ups AND less calories than a Kitkat (though for those unwilling to remain too saintly, you can get those calories back with a Kitkat topping*). What's not to like? After our fat free pot of frozen goodness, off we crawled to Giraffe for a generous array of dishes and drinks from cajun chicken wings and edamame beans to mini smoothies and cocktails, but not before we sampled the delights of Paul A. Young, master chocolatier. Paul welcomed us into his pretty purple premises and we all sighed with pleasure at the rich, intoxicating smell of chocolate. It's a gorgeous little shop full of treasure and we were all invited to pick one chocolate from the tempting display.

Photo courtesy of GBC, see more here

After much umming and aahhing, I settled on the lime and Szechuan pepper chocolate truffle. The chocolate was smooth and silky with a subtle but zingy hit of lime, and not until after the citrus works its magic on your tongue do you feel the warm and fragrant cuddle of Szechuan pepper at the end. I'm a huge fan of chocolate with pepper and, despite having a keen fondness for a Szechuan pepper rub on duck breasts, I'd never thought to try them out with chocolate before. After tasting Paul A. Young's delicious truffle, I knew this would have to change, and I decided to pair these flavours together in a cake. At first, I was considering just adding the flavours to a chocolate cake batter, but more and more people I know and clients I meet have gluten allergies, so I decided to make this cake the subject of another experiment I've been plotting for some time. Many of my most delicious gluten-free cakes contain nut flours, which is fine if it's only gluten you have a problem with, but not so hot for those who need more of an all round 'free-from' experience. So I decided to make this fruity little number gluten-, nut- and dairy-free to boot. In my household we are extremely partial to a plate of grilled tomatoes on socca bread for a weekend brunch and, as such, are almost never without a huge bag of gram flour knocking about in the cupboard. I've never used gram flour in a cake before but have often wondered about it, so I thought I'd give it a whirl. What's more, as gram flour is made of chickpeas it must surely count as one of your five a days too, no? So here it is, my free-from chocolate, lime and Szechuan pepper cake and I am very pleased to report that it's none too shabby!

Chocolate, lime and Szechuan pepper cake

Grease and line a 6" round tin and preheat your oven to 180°C (160°C Fan)

for the cake

6 oz/ 150g dark chocolate (best quality you can afford)

7 fl. oz/ 200 ml sunflower oil

8 oz/ 200g dark muscovado sugar

3 eggs, separated

4 limes

2 tsp Szechuan peppercorns, ground

5 oz/ 125g gram flour

1 oz/25g cocoa

1 tsp bicarbonate of soda

Pinch of salt

1 heaped tbsp caster sugar

Melt the chocolate in a heatproof bowl over barely simmering water and leave to cool.
Whisk the egg whites with the salt and set to one side.
In a separate bowl, whisk the dark muscovado sugar and oil together and then add in the egg yolks one at a time. Keep whisking until the mixture is pale and fluffy.
Mix in the chocolate, pepper and the zest of 4 limes.
Sift the gram flour, cocoa and bicarb over the chocolate mixture and whisk in. Don't worry if the mixture looks a bit peculiar at this stage.
Fold in the beaten egg white and pour into your prepared tin and bake for about an hour or until an inserted skewer comes out clean.
While you are waiting for the cake to bake, mix the juice of 2 of the limes with the caster sugar.
As soon as the cake is out of the oven, stab it all over with a skewer and pour the lime and sugar over the top of the hot cake. Leave to cool for 10 minutes in its tin before turning out on to a wire rack with the top of the cake facing up, so all the lime syrup will soak through.

for the topping

2 heaped tbsp light muscovado sugar

The juice of 2 limes

6 oz/ 150g of dark chocolate

A handful of Szechuan peppercorns

Bung all the ingredients, minus the peppercorns, in a saucepan and place over a gentle heat. Stir until the sugar has dissolved and the chocolate has melted.
Leave to cool for a couple of minutes before spreading the topping over the top and sides of the cake with a palate knife.
Scatter with peppercorns and leave the topping to cool completely before serving.

*Other toppings are available.

2011: iced

2011-05-26T14:59:00.001+01:00

For the last 10 months all my free time has been taken over by a culinary challenge I set on 6th July last year in which I gave myself exactly 1 year to cook my way through the letters of the alphabet. You can check it out here. I'd love to hear your thoughts. James Ramsden, who came to T night on Saturday, wrote a lovely review of his experience here and if you still want to read more after that, Dolly Alderton wrote a brilliant blog about her time at the letter O here.

I'm now coming to the end of Alphabet Soup, with only a few more weeks until the letter Z will be dished up and digested. It's been wonderful, it's been exhausting, it's made my clothes feel tighter and it's made my face wobble slightly more than it used to when I run in high heels, but more than anything else, it has definitely made me a better cook. On top of all of this, Alphabet Soup has also been almost entirely responsible for my shameful neglect of this cake blog. To bring cakes back to the fore for a little while, I thought I'd share with you some photos of a few of Victoria's Cake Boutique cakes commissioned in 2011.

5 tier chocolate plastique covered chocolate and Guinness and passion fruit layer cake decorated with pink and shimmering oyster blossoms

3 tiered white and dark chocolate plastique cake with chocolate roses and calla lilies

A tower of chocolate scroll dessert cakes topped with fresh red rose petals

White iced creme egg flavoured 3 tiered cake with piping details, white blossom and dusky pink sugar roses

3 tiered white chocolate scroll cake dressed with fresh red rose petals

3 tiered white iced summer garden cake with sugar roses, bumble bees, forget-me-nots and daisies

4 tiered iced and chocolate plastique cake dressed with dusky pink chocolate roses with sage green beading. This cake was collected in pieces and stacked in Devon (we didn't assemble the tiers, but whoever did made rather a wonky job of it. Still, Kirsten and Mark were very happy)

3 tiered buttercream topped rustic cake for a bride who wanted her cake to look like a cake and who had a severe aversion to fondant icing

This stack of books cake was commissioned to celebrate a group of women who had completed an OU English degree

This "trifle" cake was commissioned to celebrate the 60th birthday of a woman who has a huge passion for traditional trifle

This penguin cake was commissioned to celebrate 2 year old Madison's birthday. Her mother hates fondant icing, so this snow scene was created with desiccated coconut

This cat cake was commissioned to celebrate to marriage of a couple who wanted their pet cat on top bearing their wedding rings

A cake commissioned to celebrate the 5th birthday of Your Golf Travel. Their party was held at the top of the Gherkin

Chocolate and Lapsang Souchong Cake

2011-02-22T13:37:00.000Z

I had a lovely email from a fan of my blog from Canada to say she was planning a trip to London and would love to order a cake from Victoria's Cake Boutique during her stay. I sent her the cake list and it was the chocolate and Lapsang Souchong that she chose. I made an extra one to share with the lovely Chris Neill, who had come round for lunch and a lesson in backgammon from Richard. He writes a very funny food blog called Chris Neill's Dirty Kitchen, which I thoroughly recommend you all have a read of it. When my Canadian client collected her cake, I promised to post up the recipe so she could make the cake herself when she returned home. So here you go, Sarah, enjoy!

Chocolate and Lapsang Souchong Cake

The smokiness of the Lapsang Souchong really complements the bitterness of the dark chocolate and the fudginess of the molasses sugar in this cake. If you aren't a fan of Lapsang Souchong tea, this probably won't be on the top of your list of "recipes to try", but I urge you to give it a go anyway - this may just surprise you. This cake is also naturally gluten-free and, if you choose not to ice it, dairy-free too.

Preheat the oven to 180C (160C Fan) and grease and line a 6" round tin.

For the cake

150g/ 6oz good quality dark chocolate

3 eggs, 2 separated

75g/ 3oz molasses sugar

50g/ 2oz caster sugar

75g/ 3oz ground almonds

A pinch of salt

2-3 heaped teaspoons Lapsang Souchong tea, finely ground

Melt the chocolate in a heatproof dish over a saucepan of barely simmering water. Allow to cool slightly.
Place the egg yolks and sugars in a large bowl and whisk together until pale and fluffy.
Mix the cooled chocolate into the egg mixture and then stir in the ground almonds and Lapsang Souchong.
In a separate bowl, whisk the egg whites with the salt until it gets to the stiff peak stage.
Fold the whisked whites into the chocolate mixture a third at a time, keeping as much air in the mixture as possible.
Pour the mixture into a tin and bake for 45 minutes to an hour - this really depends on your oven - or until an inserted skewer comes out clean.
Pop the cake, still in its tin, on a wire rack to cool, before turning out.

For the ganache icing

100g/ 4oz good quality dark chocolate, chopped

100 ml double cream

2 tbsp light muscovado sugar

2 - 3 heaped tsp of Lapsang Souchong

50g/ 2oz soft, unsalted butter, cubed

Place the chopped chocolate in a heat proof bowl.
Place the cream, sugar and tea leaves in a saucepan and heat gently until the sugar has melted and the cream just begins to boil.
Strain the cream through a sieve on to the chopped chocolate and leave to stand for one minute before stirring with a plastic or wooden spatula (a metal spoon will reduce the temperature) until all the chocolate has melted.
Whisk in the butter and leave the icing to cool.
Whisk again quickly before spreading on the ganache icing on the top and sides of the cake with a palette knife.
Transfer to a serving plate and enjoy!

Green tea and chocolate ganache gateau with ginger ice cream and ginger biscuits

2011-01-07T22:51:00.001Z

I have decided to start the new year with a little cross-posting, because one of the highlights of the end of 2010 for me was being asked to write an article for the ES Magazine on a venture of mine which I have mentioned on here before: Alphabet Soup. I am cooking my way through the letters of the alphabet and although I am currently about to embark on the letter J, I am shamefully behind in my write-ups and have just posted the letter G, but I am determine to catch up so I can stop chasing my tail.

For G night's pudding, I made a gold glittered green tea and chocolate ganache gateau with ginger ice cream topped with a ginger biscuit and I thought I'd share the recipe with you here.

I wanted to make a pudding involving green tea, as I love the bitter tang it gives sweet things as well as the extraordinary colour - which is strange really, because I've always found green tea, as a drink, a bit nothing-y. I am also particularly keen on the combination of green tea and ginger, so I thought a home-made ginger ice cream would be a winner. And I was right. The addition of the little ginger biscuit added an extra little punch of aromatic warmth as well as an extra layer of texture with its pleasing crunch.

The gold glitter top received many "oohs" and "aahs" - absolute essentials for any Guy Fawkes Night and I was thrilled we didn't miss out on making these traditional noises, even though we didn't have any actual fireworks.

Gold glittered green tea and chocolate ganache gateau

Green tea layering cake

You can make a gluten-free version of this cake, by substituting the plain flour for more ground almonds.

Preheat the oven to 180 C (160 C Fan) and grease and line a large roulade tin.

3 whole eggs

5 egg whites

A pinch of salt

2 oz/ 50 g caster sugar

1 1/2 oz/ 40 g unsalted butter, melted

2 oz. 50 g plain flour, sifted

7 oz/ 175 g icing sugar, sifted

7 oz/ 175 g ground almonds

6 tsp green tea powder (matcha)

Whisk together the whole eggs and icing sugar until pale and fluffy. Add the almonds and continue to whisk on high speed for about five minutes. Stir in the melted butter and then the flour and green tea powder until fully incorporated. In a clean bowl, whisk the egg whites with the salt until they reach the soft peak stage. Add the sugar in stages, whisking in between, until you have a stiff and glossy meringue. Add a generous spoonful of the meringue to the ground almond mixture and beat vigorously to slacken it. Fold in the remaining meringue in stages and then pour the mixture out into your prepared tin. Level the top with a palate knife and bake for 10 - 15 minutes or until the cake is no longer sticky to the touch. Transfer to a wire rack to cool.

Chocolate ganache filling

I like a ganache to be rich and darkly chocolatey, but you can always substitute some of the dark chocolate for milk if your palate demands it. Personally, I have always felt that milk chocolate is sickly when used in cookery, so I've always felt much more at home on the dark side.

When making ganache, it's easiest to think metrically - for every 100 g of chocolate, you'll need 100 ml of cream.

400 g dark chocolate (at least 70% cocoa solids)

400 ml double cream

A small pinch of salt

1 vanilla pod

Icing sugar, to taste

Chop the chocolate into small, evenly sized pieces (this is a tiresome business if you don't have a sharp knife, so get sharpening) and place in a large bowl. Place the cream in a saucepan and split the vanilla pod and scrape the seeds out into the pan. I usually throw the pod in too for good measure. Heat the cream and vanilla gently until it is barely boiling and immediately take the cream off the heat. Wait 30 seconds before passing the cream through a sieve (if you stuck the pod in, you won't need to bother with a sieve if you left it out) on to the chopped chocolate. Leave the cream to begin to melt the chocolate for one minute, before carefully stirring the mixture with a rubber spatula until all the chocolate has melted and you have a thick, smooth and glossy ganache. Stir in the salt. Sift a spoonful of icing sugar into the ganache and mix it in. Taste for sweetness and sift in more sugar if needed. Leave the ganache to cool completely. It will thicken on cooling. Once cool, whisk the ganache (an electric hand whisk is best here if you have one) to aerate it and make it more spreadable.

Gateau assembly

Trim the edges off of your green tea cake and cut lengthwise into four. Using a palate knife, spread one layer of the cake with a generous layer of ganache. Place the second layer of cake on top and repeat. Once the final layer is on, smooth the top and sides with a generous covering of ganache. Sprinkle the top of the gateau with edible gold glitter (which is available from most cake decorating suppliers). Slice the gateau and serve alongside the ice cream topped with a ginger biscuit.

Ginger ice cream

This was a real hit on the night and Jane from Really Hungry liked it so much she couldn't wait for me to write up my blog post to get the recipe. If you have an ice cream maker, don't forget to pop it in the freezer the night before you want to make this.

for the custard

If you are making fresh custard as an accompaniment instead of as a component to this ice cream, you will only need half the amount of sugar and you should add a scraped out vanilla pod to the cream when you heat it or, failing that, a few drops of vanilla extract.

4 egg yolks

4 oz/ 100 g caster sugar

12 fl. oz/ 350 ml double cream

Whisk the egg yolks and sugar together in a large bowl until pale and fluffy. Heat the cream in a saucepan until it is barely boiling and pour it on to the eggs, whisking all the time. Pour the mixture back into the saucepan and whisk over a gentle heat until the custard has thickened - dip a dessert spoon into the custard and once you can draw a line with your finger down the back of the spoon, the custard is ready. Transfer to a clean, cold bowl or jug and leave to cool. Popping a sheet of clingfilm over the top of the jug will prevent a skin from forming.

to make the ice cream

1 quantity of custard (as above)

1 pot (227 g) of clotted cream

The ginger syrup from 1 jar of stem ginger

4-6 stem ginger balls, finely chopped

Simply mix together the cold custard and clotted cream with the ginger syrup and place in the fridge for an hour to get really cold, before pouring it into your ice cream maker. Follow the manufacturer's instructions, but mine takes roughly 20 minutes. Once set, add the chopped stem ginger and allow the machine to churn it through. Transfer the ice cream into a tupperware container and pop in the freezer until needed. If you don't have an ice cream maker, mix together all of the ingredients and put it straight in the tupperware box and pop it in the freezer for about 4 hours, stirring every half an hour or so to prevent ice crystals forming.

for the ginger biscuits

2 oz/ 50 g icing sugar

1 1/2 oz/ 40 g butter

1 egg white

1 1/2 oz/ 40 g plain flour

2 tsp ground ginger

Cream the sugar and butter together until pale and fluffy. Sift over the flour and ginger and mix together. Fold in the (unwhisked) egg white. Pop the mixture in the fridge to rest for 10 minutes before spreading it thinly across the baking tray. Pop in the oven for five minutes and cut out circles with a pastry cutter while the biscuits are still warm. Leave the biscuits to cool completely before serving on top of a scoop of ginger ice cream, scattered with green tea powder, next to the gold glittered green tea and chocolate ganache gateau. Serve with a glass of Grappa.

After G night was over I thought it would have been an excellent thing if I had cut out mini gingerbread men for ginger "Guys", but, alas, my brainwave came too late in the day this time. Ah well, maybe next year...

For more delicious puddings and cakes, visit Sweet As Sugar Cookies for the amazing Sweets for a Saturday link up

Christmas pudding

2010-12-14T13:59:00.000Z

Christmas is coming and the geese are hopefully fat enough by now. If you haven't made a Christmas pudding yet, you may feel that a trip to the supermarket is the only option left. Think again. This recipe has been passed down several generations of my family and slightly adapted along the way (essentially by increasing the booze content). Although, it is true that Xmas pud is always better when left for a few months to mature, even if it's as new and shiny as your freshly unwrapped Christmas presents, it is guaranteed to be far more palate-pleasing than anything you'd pop in your trolley. AND, you can make two from this mixture and keep one under your bed until next year. This is, by far, the most delicious Christmas pudding I have ever eaten and I don't feel at all shy about saying so.

I have a strong aversion to candied peel and if you do too, you're in luck! This pudding contains none of the awful citrus muck. I have a theory that it is almost entirely the fault of candied peel that others have been put off this most traditional of festive fare. I have seen many who have professed not to like Christmas pudding because of the dried fruit, forget all about their apparent fussiness when faced with a plate of mince pies. In my experience, the fussy only remain fussy when they refuse to try feared foods again. So please, if you think you don't like Christmas pudding, have another go this year and see if I can't change your mind.

Victorian Christmas Pudding

The quantities here make enough for two 2lb puddings, each feeding around 8-10. If you don't have two pudding bowls and don't want to fork out too much money, enamel bowls are an excellent and inexpensive choice.

Ingredients

Butter for greasing

1 large lemon

1 carrot, grated

6oz/150g fresh white breadcrumbs

2oz/50g self raising flour

6oz/150g light muscovado sugar

1 tsp mixed spice

1/2 tsp freshly ground nutmeg

8oz/200g currants

8oz/200g raisins (preferably Australian muscat raisins)

4oz/100g sultanas

6oz/150g ready-to-eat prunes, chopped

10oz/250g suet

2oz/50g flaked almonds

3 eggs

2 fl. oz/ 50 ml brandy

2 fl. oz/ 50 ml dark rum

4 fl. oz/ 100 ml ginger wine

1 tbsp Anostura bitters

Method

Butter and line the bases of two 1 litre/ 1 3/4 pint) pudding bowls.
Pierce the lemon all over with a sharp knife and place in a saucepan of cold water. Pop the lid on and bring to the boil. Uncover and simmer for about half an hour or until the lemon is very soft. Drain and leave to cool enough to touch.
Cut the lemon into quarters, remove any seeds and then roughly chop.
Place the lemon in a large bowl along with the grated carrot, breadcrumbs, flour, sugar, and spices and stir together.
Add the currants, raisins, sultanas, prunes, suet and flaked almonds to the bowl and thoroughly mix until everything is combined.
In a separate bowl, place the eggs, brandy, rum, ginger wine and bitters and whisk together well.
Add the egg mixture to the fruit mixture and stir together.
Divide the mixture between the two basins and smooth over their tops.
Cut out a 13" circle from a double thickness of baking parchment. Pleat the circles and place over one pudding. Repeat for the second pudding. Cover each lid in a pleated circle of tin foil.
Wrap string twice around the basin and tie to secure the paper. Use more string to wrap over and under the bowl and knot to make a handle for each pudding.
Put each basin in the top of a steamer of simmering water for 8 hours. Top up with boiling water every 1-2 hours. OR, place each pudding on a trivet (or upturned, ovenproof dish) in a large saucepan. Add enough boiling water to come two thirds up the side of the bowl. Cover with a well fitting lid and simmer for 6 hours, topping up the water every hour or so.
Once cool, unwrap the pudding and re-wrap each pudding. This way you can ensure that no water has got inside. Cover each cold pudding tightly with foil and store in a cool, dark place until ready to reheat.
On Christmas day, each pudding will need to be steamed for 2 hours before serving with flaming brandy poured over the top and generous lashings of brandy butter. Merry Christmas!

If you're behind in your Christmas cake baking too, check out my Christmas cake recipe from last year.

Diving cake

2010-12-01T16:28:00.000Z

I had a last minute commission for a diving themed 50th birthday cake last week from a woman who was organising a surprise party for her husband and so I made a little cartoon-like sugar diver, sharks, seaweed, and a clown fish - modelled on Finding Nemo. They opted for a lemon drizzle top tier and a chocolate and Guinness bottom - which they were nervous and excited by in equal measure. They emailed me earlier this evening to say they loved the cake and the birthday boy was thrilled. Hooray!

Royal British Legion poppy cupcakes

2010-11-28T23:39:00.000Z

To mark the Kent Poppy Launch in association with The Royal British Legion, I was commissioned to make lemon and poppyseed cupcakes each topped with an edible poppy. The Legion are also celebrating its 90th anniversary along with one of the veterans attending the event, so I made 90 cupcakes which were presented as a number 90 in the middle of the buffet table. The Royal British Legion do amazing work safeguarding the welfare, interests and memory of those who are serving or who have served in the Armed Forces. Although Remembrance Sunday has passed for this year, it is not too late to make a donation to the Poppy Appeal.

A few cupcakes had been eaten before the photo was taken!

Spooktacular!

2010-11-23T14:34:00.000Z

I had a last minute commission from a client who was celebrating his 30th birthday with a Hallowe'en themed party shared with two of his childhood friends. The party was set to be huge, in a private members club called Paramount at the summit of Centre Point, with panoramic views of the city. Although he was expecting 500 guests, he wanted a cake that could be cut early in the evening to share with close family and friends, but he still wanted a fairly sizeable cake that would feed up to 100. Although my design ideas had to be approved, I had free reign in my execution of them and went to town with gothic literary references, maggots in mud and spooky trees. I always feel more attached and proud of a cake when I am given the freedom by trusting clients to unleash my imagination.

Count Dracula's bleeding grave stone and buried bones

"I told you I was ill" is the epitaph on Spike Milligan's gravestone and it's always made me laugh.

Edgar Allan Poe's grave with a raven perching on top. I also made gravestones for Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde

Pumpkins, spooky trees, a big red eyed spider, worms and maggots

A bat flying through the night sky which is glittering with gold stars and an iridescent full moon.

The photos aren't great quality, but the light was very strange at the top of Centrepoint at delivery time and just before I left, I placed a number 30 sparkler in the top to be lit later.

Becoming an Observer Food Awards 2010 runner up turned me into a pumpkin

2010-11-22T14:10:00.000Z

It's been a busy few weeks. Not only have I been working with some wonderful clients on wedding and celebration cakes, I discovered that Victoria's Cake Boutique came runner up in The Observer Food Awards for Best UK Independent Retailer, 2010. Needless to say, I am completely thrilled by this news, but still haven't held the special edition of The Observer Food Monthly in my actual hands - I was on a Roman holiday when it came out - but my wonderful friends, Claire and Matt, saved me their copy.

Aside from this exciting news, I was also turned into a pumpkin for Flora's Halloween recipes. You can see my "northern lass" pumpkin in Meet the Pumpkins Episode 1: Easy Pumpkin Risotto, where I narrowly avoid getting picked as the main ingredient in Flora mum's tasty Halloween recipe. Needless to say, I am not really from the North East of England, I grew up in Kent, so my sincere apologies go out to any Geordies amongst you. You can catch me again on Meet the Pumpkins Episode 2: Magical Pumpkin Mash with Pumpkin Crisps. This time I'm not so lucky. I get roasted, sliced and mashed but, don't worry, if you watch to the end, you'll see I quite like being magical mash after all! The last time you can catch me as a pumpkin, you can find out how to make a delicious pesto and pumkin tart in Meet the Pumpkins Episode 3. This time I manage to escape the chop - phew!

Victoria's Cake List

2010-09-27T18:58:00.001+01:00

I thought I'd share with you all the Victoria's Cake Boutique top 50 cake flavours. This is the list I initially show to clients to give them a sense of what's on offer, but there is always room for more. I like it best when clients set me a challenge to see if some of their favourite flavours work together in cake form. They usually do and recent trials have been, amongst others, green tea and vanilla, chai cupcakes and pear and port. Cakes should, of course, always be delicious, but it's sometimes fun to take a flavour risk and think outside the tea room.

Rich, boozy fruit cake with home-made marzipan
Light tropical fruit cake
Victoria sponge with jam and/ or buttercream
Lemon drizzle
Coconut and lime
Passion fruit layered gateau
Coffee and walnut
Peanut butter and jelly
Coconut cake
Orange and polenta
Walnut gateau
Carrot cake
Apple and blackberry crumble cake (seasonal)
Apple and Calvados with a toffee apple crust
Spiced plum cake (seasonal)
Ginger and green tea
Cherry and almond
Lemon and poppyseed
Honey cake
Ginger cake
Toffee cake
Banana cake
Chocolate fudge cake
White chocolate and cardamom
Dark chocolate layer cake with raspberries and vanilla scented macarpone
Chocolate and orange
Chocolate and hazelnut torte with whipped Frangelico ganache
Chocolate and pink peppercorn
Chocolate and Guinness
Chocolate rum truffle
Sachertorte
Chocolate and black pepper cake
Traditional chocolate sponge
Chocolate and chilli
Chocolate and beetroot
Red velvet
White Russian
White chocolate and passion fruit
Chocolate and courgette
Spiced chocolate torte
Chocolate and Port cake
White chocolate and Mascarpone
Chocolate and Earl Grey
Chocolate and Lapsang Souchong
Chocolate and raspberry
Chocolate and Amaretto
Chocolate mint
Chocolate and pistachio
chocolate espresso cake

Alphabet Soup

2010-09-08T19:48:00.000+01:00

If, like me, you have a penchant for cake, I suspect that cake is just the tip of the iceberg. I love food. I love talking about it, reading about it, cooking it and, best of all, eating it. This is why I have set myself a challenge. A culinary tour de force, cooking and eating my way through the letters of the alphabet in 365 days. I have started a blog called Alphabet Soup. I have tackled A, B and C already and D is just a few days away.

Please have a little read and let me know what you think.

Food Network

2010-08-13T13:08:00.000+01:00

One of Victoria's Cake Boutique's wedding cakes has been featured in the Food Network's blog. Check out their funny article about a foodie's reasons for wedding envy.

Nom Nom Nom Viewers' Choice Award 2010: Go Team Greedy!

2010-08-12T18:49:00.001+01:00

Tamzin Aitken from Animal Crackers and I are thrilled to announce that we won the Nom Nom Nom 2010 Viewers' Choice Award. Thank you so much to all who voted, we greatly appreciate it and we are properly chuffed to be picking up our prizes of a Magimix, a set of five star knives from Henckles, 2 bottles of Gin Mare gin, a £50 charity donation from Justgiving AND a masterclass for five people at Chilango. Not too shabby, huh.

Tamzin and I have decided to donate the £50 from Justgiving to Action Against Hunger, an international humanitarian organisation committed to ending child hunger. They do amazing work and are well worth supporting. You can donate to them too and potentially win some amazing charity raffle prizes, including a Philips food mixer, 3 months' supply of Chilango meals and a Wusthof knife block.

Nom Nom Nom - White Chocolate and Pistachio Cake with Raspberry Mascarpone Cream

2010-08-08T15:21:00.004+01:00

white chocolate and pistachio cake with raspberry mascarpone cream

The 11th July saw Tamzin Aitken from Animal Crackers and I sweating in a hot kitchen on a Sunday morning, preparing a three course, seasonal meal for the Nom Nom Noms. We rocked up at The Cookery School at 9:30 and were greeted with strong coffee, warm cheese scones and caraway seed muffins. Om nom nom. We were then unleashed for shopping at the posh and pricey local market, before queueing outside Waitrose (yes, that's right, queueing. Outside Waitrose), waiting for the doors to open so we could perform a speedy supermarket sweep to pick up last minute essentials not available at the market. We then hot-footed it back to the cookery school for a quick health and safety chat before the kick off of the cook off.

We had two and a half hours to cook three courses for four people. One of the rules was that one of the three courses had to be raw, with no cooking involved. We ummmed and ahhhed about what this actually meant. Could we get away with dressed crab? It has been cooked... Could we get away with making a jelly? There's some gentle heating involved... We thought about ceviche, but decided it would be difficult to practise, living, as I do, with a man who is allergic to fish - although we only practised once, so I think he would probably have lived to tell the tale. We considered seasonal salads, but, in the end, we opted for a simple, tasty gazpacho. Even then, we were worried that using bread (it's been baked after all) would be against the raw rules. It turned out, the rules were much more flexible than we feared and it was clear the uncooked course was necessary due to a limit of hob and oven space and pre-cooked ingredients were happily accepted.

For pud, it just had to be CAKE! We decided on a white chocolate and pistachio cake filled with raspberry mascarpone cream - light and fruity enough for a hot Summer's day, but still indulgent and decadent. The fragrant pistachios cut through the nursery sweetness of the white chocolate to balance out the flavours and make the whole thing feel a bit more grown-up and sophisticated. The mascarpone cream is rich and creamy, cut through with fresh, sweet and tangy seasonal raspberries. The baking of the cake was straightforward enough - and I should hope so too, making wedding cakes for a living. And we thought it tasted pretty good too, although the presentation was a bit slap-dash. Again, down to our less than perfect time management skills. Poor Tamzin had to build the cake (having never done it before) while I barked instructions from the other side of the kitchen, stressing over the duck. With about a second to spare, we cut a slice and chucked it on a plate and then scattered around some raspberries in an attempt to posh up the presentation. This was definitely a case of it tasted better than it looked. We just hoped the judges agreed! And they did. I received a lovely email from The Cookery School to let me know that the judges were very impressed with our cake.

For the main, Tamzin and I cooked duck breasts with gooseberry sauce, Pommes Anna and seasonal veg. This course didn't quite go to plan. We got confused by the kitchen clock that was set to the wrong time and thought the clock was faster than it actually was, so we forgot to get our spuds in the oven as quickly as was needed. The Pommes Anna were only just cooked through and didn't have time to get really soft with a brown top. The duck breasts are usually a total breeze to cook. Pound together some salt and toasted Sechuan peppercorns in the pestle and mortar and coat the scored skins with the fragrant pepper. Then place the duck breasts, skin-side down, in a pan over a low heat to render off most of the fat and, once the rendered fat has been poured off, turn up the heat to crisp up the skin for a few minutes, before turning it over to cook for a further few minutes. Once the duck breasts have rested on a warm plate, they should be pink and juicy with a crispy, fragrantly spiced skin. I have to admit, I haven't used an electric hob since Home Economics lessons at school and have always been used to cooking with gas. The electric hobs caused us no end of trouble. I needed two hobs for the duck - one preheated to high heat and the other on a gentle heat for the rendering of the fat, but with the hobs full of the other contenders' tasty dishes, bubbling away, I had to cope with just the one. The duck didn't seem to be doing anything! The pan was still cold after 5 minutes and the clock was ticking. I swapped hobs, deciding to forgo the rendering of the fat and just go for the crispy skin, so I bunged it on a hob that had already been turned up to the max for someone else's dish, but still there was no sizzling to be seen. The hob had been turned OFF instead of UP. Disaster!

Meanwhile, Tamzin was struggling to get the greens on. They had been steaming for 15 minutes, but were still completely raw and crunchy. The hobs had worked their nasty mojo on us again - they clearly had something against Team Greedy and we weren't too keen on them either. In the end, we managed to plate up with half a sweaty second to spare, but neither of us could pretend it was the best meal we'd ever dished up. Our duck was slightly too fatty, only a little bit crispy, but still pleasingly pink and juicy. Our potatoes were underdone, but still had a nice, buttery, well-seasoned flavour. Our greens got cooked, buttered and plonked on the plate at the eleventh hour. Our gooseberry sauce reduced well, was sweet but still tart and was suitably gooseberry-y. All in all, it could have been worse, but it should have been better. And if we could get in the Back to the Future DeLorean, we would certainly ensure we had left some time for prettifying our plating-up style. Having said that, the gazpacho looked pretty in its chilled, china bowl.

We didn't win, but we had a ball. We got to keep our cookery school aprons and went home with goodie bags, stuffed full of treats. The other teams were lovely and there was a genuine sense of support and comaraderie. After the cook off we got the chance to fill our bellies with plates piled high with the delicious food cooked by all the excellent contenders. We had our glasses frequently topped up by the lovely staff at The Cookery School, so staggered home very merry little cooks indeed. Tamzin and I loved being a part of The Nom Nom Noms and were warmly looked after by the wonderful staff at The Cookery School. Particular thanks must go to Ros and Claudine for making the day such a total pleasure and a triumph to boot. Also a big thanks to the brilliant Mecca for having so much passion, not to mention uber organisational skills, to make the event such a success and for such a worthy cause: Action Against Hunger.

Action Against Hunger works in over 40 countries to carry out innovative, lifesaving programmes in nutrition, food security, water and sanitation, health and advocacy. Every year, their 6,000 aid workers help over 4 million people worldwide. Please support their amazing work by entering the Nom Nom Nom raffle. For just £10 you could be in the running to win amazing foodie prices. And while you're at it, please vote for Team Greedy in the Viewers' Choice Awards. It takes less than a minute and you can vote every 24 hours if the mood takes you.

White Chocolate and Pistachio Cake

Preheat the oven to 180 C (160 C Fan) and line a 15" x 10" roulade tin with baking parchment.

Ingredients

for the cake

150g good quality white chocolate (eg. Divine or Green & Blacks)
125g unsalted butter
4 tbsp whole milk or single cream
125 g caster sugar
3 eggs, separated
100 g plain flour, sifted
50 g pistachio nuts, blitzed in a magimix or smashed in a bag with a rolling pin.
A pinch of salt

for the raspberry mascapone cream

1 tub of full fat mascarpone
A generous splash of vanilla extract
A small tub of double or whipping cream
icing sugar, to taste
A punnet of fresh raspberries

Method

Melt the chocolate and milk/cream in a heat proof bowl suspended over barely simmering water.
Once the chocolate has melted, stir in the butter to melt and leave to cool slightly.
Whisk the egg yolks and sugar together until pale and fluffy.
Add the chocolate mixture and ground pistachios and stir briskly.
Fold in the plain flour until thoroughly combined.
In a clean bowl, whisk the egg whites with a pinch of salt until stiff peaks form.
Fold the whisked whites into the chocolate and pistachio batter and pour the mixture into your prepared roulade tin. Smooth over with a palate knife and bake on the middle shelf of your oven for 15 minutes, or until an inserted skewer comes out clean.
Leave the cake to cool in its tin on a wire rack.
To make the raspberry mascarpone cream, stir a generous splash or two of vanilla extract into the mascapone. Sift over icing sugar and mix in until you get your desired sweetness, a tablespoon or two should be ample. This must be done by hand and not with an electric whisk, otherwise your mascarpone will go too runny.
In a separate bowl, whisk the double/ whipping cream until stiff and fold it into your vanilla scented mascarpone.
Slice the cake horizontally into 3 strips, discarding any uneven edges first.
Layer the cake up by smoothing vanilla mascarpone cream over the first section of cake and top it with raspberries. Continue to layer the cake up in this way and then smooth the vanilla mascarpone cream over the top and sides. Your cake is ready to slice and serve.

Strawberries and Cream

2010-07-13T13:38:00.002+01:00

Wimbledon may be over, but this quintessentially British combination is a Summery classic that shouldn't be restricted to just one fortnight a year. British strawberries are delicious at this time of the season and what can be better than a big bowl of strawberries doused in fresh, cold cream? A big bowl of strawberries doused in fresh, cold cream on top of a CAKE, of course! I've kept this cake simple, as I don't want the natural, delicate sweetness of the strawberries to be overpowered by any unnecessarily fussy flavours. Fresh cream can only be left out of the fridge for up to 4 hours, or less in hot weather, so bear this in mind if you're planning on taking it on a picnic. The cake is best filled and served immediately, but if you do fill it in advance and stick it in the fridge, let the sponge come up to room temperature a bit before serving. If you want to make something that doesn't need to be eaten quickly or kept in the fridge, substitute the fresh cream for vanilla buttercream; it's still a cream of sorts, so it's not a total cheat.

Strawberries and Cream Cake

Preheat the oven to 180C (160C Fan) and grease and line two 8" sandwich tins

Ingredients

8 oz/ 200g caster sugar
8 oz/ 200g unsalted butter, softened
4 eggs
8 oz/ 200g self raising flour
1 tsp baking powder
A generous splash of vanilla extract
A splash of milk

A large pot of double or whipping cream
1 tbsp icing sugar (optional)
2 punnets of strawberries, washed, hulled and sliced.
More icing sugar for dusting.

Method

Cream together the butter and sugar until pale and fluffy
Add the eggs, one by one, thoroughly beating after each addition.
Mix in the vanilla
Sift the flour and baking powder over the top and fold into the creamed sugar, butter and eggs.
Add a splash of milk to slacken the mixture if necessary.
Pour the cake batter into your prepared tins and bake on the centre shelf for 20 - 25 mins or until an inserted skewer comes out clean.
Leave the cakes to cool in their tins for 10 minutes before turning out on a wire rack to cool completely.
Once the cakes are completely, whip the cream to soft, billowing peaks. If you want, sift a tablespoon of icing sugar into the cream and whisk in.
Carve each cake horizontally in half.
Fill the cakes with a layer of whipped cream and a layer of sliced strawberries, building up until the whole cake is filled.
Sift some icing sugar over the top of the cake and it's ready to serve.

If you want to make this with vanilla buttercream instead of fresh cream, whisk 8oz/200g soft, unsalted butter until pale and creamy. Sift over 8oz/200g of icing sugar and whisk in until thoroughly combined. Sift over another 8oz/200g of icing sugar and whisk this into the mixture. Add a tbsp of vanilla extract and whisk in. Add a drop of milk to slacken the mixture if necessary and whisk again.

Carrot Cake

2010-07-10T09:44:00.000+01:00

Carrot cake is a real favourite for many. Maybe because of its moist, delicate flavour and fresh, zingy cream cheese icing. Maybe it's because people feel more virtuous if their afternoon slice counts as one of their five a day. In either case, it doesn't stop this crowd-pleasing cake being utterly delicious. It's the perfect cake to bake for school fetes or afternoon teas and is a popular flavour choice for at least one tier of many Victoria's Cake Boutique client's wedding cakes.

I'm all in favour of big flavours and have an aversion to anything that tastes a bit nothing-y, so I like the levels of fragrant spice and citrus in this cake, but if it's too much for you, you can always reduce the amounts by half. I prefer using pecans to walnuts, but if walnuts are more your thing, by all means substitute them or you can leave the nuts out altogether. Likewise with the sultanas. You can substitute them for raisins, soak them in apple juice, calvados or rum if the mood takes you, or leave out the dried fruit altogether. It's your cake, so don't put anything in it that you don't like.

I've been inspired to make carrot cake this week by Caroline's Cake Company, a cake maker based in Birmingham. She makes beautiful looking cakes and has been on a mission to find a special carrot cake for a client. So, here you go, Caroline. I hope this ends your search!

Carrot Cake
Preheat the oven to 150C (130C Fan) and grease and line a loaf tin or 7" round.

Ingredients

for the cake

2 eggs, beaten
5 fl. oz sunflower oil
8 oz/ 200 g light muscovado sugar
10 oz/ 250 g (about 3- 4 carrot's worth) grated carrot
3 oz/ 75 g sultanas
The zest and juice of one orange
3 oz/ 75 g pecans, roughly chopped
7 oz/ 175 g self raising flour
1 level tsp bicarbonate of soda
1/2 tsp freshly ground nutmeg
1 tsp cinammon
1 tsp mixed spice
A pinch of salt

for the icing

10 oz/ 250 g cream cheese
4 oz/ 100 g soft, unsalted butter
12 oz/ 300 g icing sugar
The juice of a lemon and half an orange

Method

for the cake

Soak the sultanas in orange juice for about half an hour (or longer if you have it), so that the sultanas are plump and citrus-y.
Beat the eggs, oil and sugar together until completely combined and slightly frothy.
Add the carrot, chopped nuts and drained sultanas and mix together.
Sift the dry ingredients over the wet and mix.
Add the orange zest and stir through.
Pour the cake batter into your prepared tin, level the top and bake on the centre shelf of your oven for 1 - 1 1/4 hours or until an inserted skewer comes out clean.
Allow to cool in the tin for 10 minutes, before turning the cake out of its tin on a wire rack until completely cool.

for the cream cheese icing

Whisk together the butter and cheese and sift half the icing sugar over the top and whisk it in.
Sift over the remaining sugar and whisk until smooth.
Mix in the lemon and orange juice to taste.
Smooth the icing over the top of your cooled carrot cake and its ready to serve.

Citrus and Poppyseed Cake

2010-07-02T14:54:00.000+01:00

No one can deny that Summer has definitely arrived. The last couple of weeks have been HOT HOT HOT and there are plenty of lobster legs walking the streets of London to prove it. In the heat, I crave fresh, zesty flavours. The invigorating smell of citrus makes you feel you're cooling down, even when the temperature is rising. I have a soft spot for lemon and poppyseed cake, but I only had one lemon left in the fruit bowl this morning and one is never quite enough. I added the zest of a lime and an orange to make up for the lack of lemon and made some deliciously light and fluffy citrus and poppyseed fairycakes. I've made them into fairycakes this time, as they'll be feeding some miniature visitors in the form of my nephews. A whole cupcake is a bit too much for them, in the eyes of their mother, if not their own. For adult tummies, cupcakes are a more satisfying size or you can bake this in a loaf tin for soothing, citrus slices. If you want to make it as a lemon and poppyseed cake, substitute the orange and lime for another lemon.

The reason many recipes only advise a single lemon is because the acid in the lemon will start to "cook" the raw egg on contact. My advice is use as much zest as your palate demands, but finely grate the zest first and cover with clingfilm. Mix up the cake batter and at the last moment, scrape in the citrus strands and fold them in quickly before pouring the batter into your tin. This mixture doesn't like to sit about for long, so get your skates on and get these babies in the oven as soon as you can. It's no great feat as they are as fairly effortless to whip up.

Citrus and Poppyseed Cake
Makes 24 fairy cakes, 12 cupcakes or 1 loaf
Preheat the oven to 180 C (160 C Fan) and line your muffin tray with paper cases or grease and line a loaf tin with baking parchment.

Ingredients

4 oz/ 100 g soft, unsalted butter
6 oz/ 150 g caster sugar
6 oz/ 150 g self raising flour
1 tsp baking powder
2 large eggs
4 tbsp milk
Finely grated zest of 1 lemon, 1 lime and 1 orange.
1 - 2 tbsp poppyseeds

Citrus Syrup:

Juice of 1 lemon, 1 lime and 1 orange.
4 oz/ 100 g caster sugar.

Method

Place all the ingredients, except the zest and poppyseeds, into a large bowl and whisk with an electric whisk (if you have one) for a couple of minutes.
Fold in the zest and poppyseeds and spoon the mixture into paper cases or pour into a loaf tin.
Bake on the centre shelf for 10 minutes for fairy cakes, 12-15 minutes for cupcakes and 25-30 minutes for a loaf, or until an inserted skewer comes out clean.
While the cakes are in the oven, mix the citrus juices and sugar in a bowl or jug, ready to use later.
Place the cakes on wire racks and stab their tops with a cake tester and spoon over the citrus syrup while the cakes are still hot and in their tins.
Once cooled, turn the cakes and they're ready to serve. Enjoy.

Nom Nom Nom

2010-06-22T12:44:00.003+01:00

I just received an email to let me know that I have been selected as a finalist, along with my friend, Tamzin Aitken from Animal Crackers, for the Nom Nom Nom Awards 2010. This means, while the rest of you are glued to your tellies watching the World Cup Final on 11th July, we will be aproned-up and cooking our little socks off, alongside other food blogging teams for a day of friendly competition. You can find out more about the competition here: http://www.nomnomnom.co.uk and follow our progress here: http://nom-nom-nom-3.blogspot.com/p/finalists.html

While I'm on the subject of Awards, there are only three days left to vote for Victoria's Cake Boutique for best independent shop or retailer and best UK food blogger for The Observer Food Monthly Awards 2010. It only takes a couple of minutes to vote and you could win a trip to Flanders, dinner at Fifteen in Cornwall or one of a host foodie treats...

Aging always feels better with cake - 30th Birthday Cake.

2010-06-21T23:15:00.000+01:00

I love birthdays and always feel genuinely distressed at the number of people who prefer to leave the occasions unmarked. OK, so the growing older, wrinklier and creakier of joints bit isn't much fun, but that's not the fault of birthdays per se. It's the gradual work of the brutal hand of time, pointing its nasty, little, jeering finger at us, giving us age spots and making us wake up several times in the night to go for a wee. Poor old birthdays cop the flack because they make us take note and take stock of ourselves and our bodies. Forcing us to remember that this time last year we could touch our toes, sit down without making a "what a relief" groaning noise and were left unphased by overly loud music in bars. But birthdays themselves, without the weight of blame and responsibility we lumber them with, are truly wonderful things and should be celebrated as such.

You get cards and presents and phonecalls from child relatives singing "Happy Birthday" songs at you. You get text messages, Facebook messages and emails sending best wishes for a wonderful day. You get bought lots of drinks and don't get judged for drinking every single one of them. You get £5's worth of free stuff from The Body Shop if you've got a loyalty card. But, most importantly, you get to celebrate with people you really really like, in the same room, at the same time, on a particular fixed date. If ever I have tried to arrange a get together with more than 6 people, the dates are thrown back and forth and swapped about so many times, that, more often than not, it ends up never happening. This doesn't happen on birthdays, because the date isn't negotiable. It just is when it is. Granted, there are always people who can't come, but that's OK, it just means more celebrations are to be had with them at another time, and more cake can be eaten.

True to form, I have managed to have four celebrations for one birthday already this year. I like to drag them out for as long as humanly possible. The last celebration was on Saturday night and it was a joint party with two dear friends of old. We lived together as students at Leeds University and had fairly regular parties at our gaff back in the day. This time round we made mixtapes and banners, but what's a birthday party without a cake?

I made a two tier cake, iced in light blue sugar paste. The top tier was a sachertorte (a Viennese chocolate cake named after the Sacher Hotel) and the bottom tier was a chocolate and black cherry cake: a grateful nod to a childhood favourite - the black forest gateau, which gets a very undeserved bad press these days. I decorated the bottom tier with Spring/Summery flowers, bumble bees (a personal favourite addition to any cake) and butterflies. I painted the top tier with clouds, a big red kite, a "V" formation flight of birds and a big gold "30". For all the painting, I used edible powder dye mixed with melted cocoa butter. For the flower heads and butterflies I used floristry paste with royal icing centres and I used sugar paste for the bumble bees. The photo is unfortunately very dark as it was quite late at night by the time the camera came out, but in real life, the cake's colours were bright and sunny.

DIY SOS - tips for choosing and making your own wedding cake.

2010-06-10T17:02:00.003+01:00

Weddings are expensive old things and, for most people at least, the chance to practise getting it right just isn't available. We only aim to do it once after all, and even if we find that once just isn't enough, it's unlikely any aisles will be walked down enough times for the experience to become old hat. Doing things yourself can be a great way to cut down costs and make things that bit more personal, but it's worth working out how a DIY approach can work for you, before crashing in and finding yourself in a whole new world of stress and mayhem. The things that people often DIY are table decorations, flowers, photography and the cake. Lucky you if you are friends with great photographers, florists and cake makers already, but if you aren't and are thinking of doing it yourself, here's a bit of advice on the cake front.

You can find lots of articles giving you a step-by-step guide to making a particular wedding cake design, but I wanted to show you the pros and cons of different styles, to help you know which is right for you and your personality. If you're easily flappable, avoid anything which requires last minute attention, but if you work best under pressure and tend to leave everything until the eleventh hour, steer clear of cakes that require foreward planning and early preparation.

Cupcakes
Cupcakes are a popular choice and already come in neat individual portions, so the cake won't need to be taken away early for cutting, meaning you can have the cakes displayed right up until the last moment. If you want a tower of cupcakes for your wedding, it's worth considering the cutting of the cake photo op. Some couples feed each other a cupcake as a modern twist to mark this tradition, but if getting papped with a gobful of cake and smears of icing on your face isn't your idea of a memory worth keeping, making a separate top tier to sit above your tower of cupcakes is a good option and creates an elegant sense of unity to the overall design.

People think that cupcakes are the easiest option for DIYers and they certainly can be if done right, but do note that you will be giving yourself or your trusted friend/ family member a tight and stressful deadline. You can freeze them, but you'll need lots of freezer space. Personally I don't like the idea of pre-made frozen cakes as they're just never as nice as fresh. If you do opt for the deep freeze, open freezing the cakes first will help them keep their shape before you wrap them securely and pop them back in. You have to wrap them to ward off freezer burn. I wouldn't leave sponge in the freezer for longer than three weeks ideally, but then, when I'm in charge I'd always leave the freezer door shut entirely. It's your wedding day! And fresh is most definitely best.

When cupcakes are made fresh, it needs to be as close to the day they are going to be eaten as possible. Essentially they are, by their very nature, a last minute job. A scary responsibility for some. Chocolate cake tends to last that little bit longer than other sponges and most chocolate cakes actually improve if left in an airtight container for a few days. This can make them a slightly less stressful proposition than vanilla or lemon. Do bear in mind where you're going to store them though, as you will need A LOT of tins for these little darlings.

Where and how your cakes will be stored should be thought through before baking commences. Don't pack them too close or too tightly together and avoid stacking them, as you'll end up ruining the edges of the paper cases. This will not only make them look messy but will also make them harder to ice later. Don't forget to consider what you want the cakes topped with too. Perhaps cupcakes don't sound so easy when you've got to make 100 pretty things to stick on their tops? Making little sugar roses is a very pretty option, but they do take time and practise and you will need a lot of them. They can be made up to a month before (or even longer if you don't mind them becoming rock hard) and you can do a few here and there in spare moments or even on a tray in front of the telly if you like. I'll give you a step-by-step guide to making your own sugar roses in another blog very soon.

Alternatively, you can buy some ready made sugar flowers, but they can end up being much more expensive, but you will save yourself a lot of time. Steer clear of wired flowers for cupcakes, as your guests will just want to sink their teeth straight in without worrying about cutting their mouths open or breaking a tooth. Whether you choose buttercream or royal icing, make sure the cakes are properly covered, so that they aren't exposed to any air. Wedding cakes sit out for hours before they're eaten and your cupcakes will dry out in no time if not properly protected. So don't be lazy about icing right into the corners - you don't want all your hard work turning into dusty crumbs.

One last tip for wedding cupcakes is to cover them FULLY with icing, but absolutely NEVER with cream. Cream can only be left unrefrigerated for up to four hours and less in hot weather. It's worth remembering this little health and safety rule if you don't want your wedding reception to turn into a giant queue for the loo.

If multi-tiered cakes are more your style, the same last minute pressures apply if you choose sponge cakes. I set up a cake a few weeks ago and was told a horror story by the venue's resident toast master about a wedding he had recently worked at. When the couple cut their cake, the whole thing was rotten and mouldy all the way through. Clearly the cake maker had been a little too eager to tick that particular job off his/her list, resulting in the whole cake being thrown straight in the bin. The very earliest the cakes should be made is 7 days before the big day, but I still think this is too early for most sponges, especially a Victoria sponge, which can go stodgy if made too far in advance. It is always easier to ice cakes after they have been marzipanned, so it might be prudent as a DIYer to marzipan the cakes first. But, if you, like many others, turn your nose up at almonds, you will need to cover the cakes in two layers of roll out icing, allowing the first layer to crust properly before applying the second. I will outline structuring your tiers securely further down, but first, a word on delivery.

Delivery

I think it's extremely important to make a visit to the venue by car from wherever the cake will be delivered from. Take note of any pot holes in the road, steep hills or sudden declines and also check the entrance to the reception venue for speed bumps. Wedding venues seem to be particularly keen on speed bumps and they are the bane of a cake maker's delivery days. Check out with the venue's wedding co-ordinator that there isn't an alternative speed bump-less entrance; there quite often are at the bigger hotels. Pack your cake securely in a specially designed cake box and never carry anything bigger than a three tiered cake in one piece. You can get away with it, just, if you can deliver it in a van with a person sitting by it to ensure it remains in one piece, but I still wouldn't advise it. People who like watching shows like The Ace of Cakes (I'm totally with you) might think it's usual to transport cakes unboxed in the backs of vans, but unfortunately, in Blighty, red tape prevents it and food for public consumption must be fully covered during transit. That means that even if you do take it by van with someone watching over it in the back, they won't see any potential damage coming, they'll just hear a thump and hold their breath as they lift the lid off the box.

Traditional fruit cake
More and more people are opting not to go for traditional fruit cake these days, but it's certainly worth reconsidering getting fruity if you're planning a DIY job. See my recipe for Christmas cake to find the amounts for 6", 9" and 12" cakes. You can make the cakes a couple of months before the big day, wrap them up and they'll need no further attention other than the odd top up of brandy, rum or whisky. You can marzipan the cakes up to two weeks before and ice the cakes the week before your wedding date. People often make the unpractised assumption that rolling out icing and covering cakes is the easy bit. Unless you're used to doing it, easy it certainly isn't, especially when covering really large cakes. And if economy is the reason behind doing it yourself in the first place, then there's no point spending lots of time and money honing your skills before the big day.

If you're thinking that simple is the way to go, be warned, you might wish that you'd chosen a design that could cover up any air bubbles, lumps, bumps, cracks or billowing bottoms. My advice if you're icing the cakes yourself, is to be flexible with the finished design. You may well find that the smooth, polished white finish you were planning has become something quite different along the way. Don't panic though, if you follow my icing guide, you're more likely to get it right first time round. But maybe think about investing in some thick ribbon, just in case...

Victoria's Cake Boutique's top tips for a smooth icing finish:

First things first. At the baking stage, please don't be tempted to mix up the batter for all your tiers together in one go. Not only will you have to fork out for an oversized mixing bowl to fit it all in, you'll also increase the likelihood of having one incredibly deep cake, one average and one the depth of a digestive biscuit. Mix up each cake separately so all you'll have to worry about is pouring it in the right tin and levelling it out before sticking it in the oven.
Is it level? Before you ice your cakes, make sure their tops are level - this is especially important if you're planning on stacking your cakes later.
Using a little boiled, seived apricot jam, stick each cake on a thin board the same size.
Fill in any holes or dips with marzipan before covering the cake.
Brush the cake's top and sides liberally with boiled and seived apricot jam.
Knead your marzipan on a clean surface dusted with icing sugar before rolling out. I like to roll mine on to icing sugar dusted sheets of baking parchment, as it doesn't stick as easily as to the table.
Roll out your marzipan to a thickness of about 1/4 inch. Use a piece of string which has measured the size of the cake as a guide to know how big you'll need it to be.
Polish it over with an icing smoother if you have one, before lifting it with your rolling pin and placing it on top of your cake.
Pat the marzipan down and, using your hands, pat and smooth the marzipan down the sides of the cake, trying to avoid trapping any air underneath.
If you get an air bubble, use a scribe or sterilised needle to pop it, placing the needle in at an angle so you can squeeze out the trapped pocket of air.
Once you've patted and smoothed the icing down, preferably with a couple of icing smoothers for a really professional finish, trim off the excess marzipan.
Lift the cake up on to a turntable or upturned bowl and smooth the marzipan once more to ensure your edges are straight and haven't billowed out towards the bottom of the cake.
Trim the excess off using a small sharp knife, keeping it flush with the bottom of the cake board.
Leave the marzipanned cakes to "crust" for at least 24 hours before icing.
You can ice your cakes in a very similar way to marzipanning them, but instead of using boiled jam, use brandy, vodka or cooled boiled water to stick the icing to the marzipan.
Knead the icing thoroughly, but to avoid locking air into the icing and producing troublesome bubbles later on, press and fold the ball of icing under in a continuous circle, until the icing is properly pliable and any cracks or indentations will be on the underneath.
Always start with your icing in the same shape as your cake - a ball for a round, and a squared off ball for a square.
Liberally dust sheets of baking parchment with icing sugar and rub a little over your rolling pin.
Roll your icing to a thickness of 1/4 inch, but don't turn the icing over, we're keeping the "working" side on the bottom.
Use your rolling pin to lift the icing and follow the same directions as for the marzipan.
Leave the icing to crust for at least 24 hours before decorating.
If you are planning to stack the cakes, don't forget to check the tops are level with a clean spirit level.

Stacked, pillared or separated...?

Stacked

If you opt for a multi-tiered cake where the tiers are stacked directly on top of each other, you will have to create some internal scaffolding to stop the cakes from sinking into one another. Once iced, cakes are considerably heavier than you might expect and need a little extra support to prevent a sunken or capsized mess. You can buy cake rods which are either plastic or wooden, that can be cut to size with a hack saw. I insert the uncut rods (at least 6 for the bottom tier, but up to 12 is safer, depending on the cake's size) into the cake and mark where I need to cut with a liqourice pen - which is like a black felt tip, but the ink is edible. I then remove the rods, cut them to size, sand over the cut tip and wash thoroughly and dry before re-inserting them in the cake. Once properly rodded, the cakes can be placed directly on top of each other, using a smear of royal icing to secure them in place. I always (unless instructed otherwise) place the base tier on to an iced cake drum. It not only looks more polished and complete, it also make transporting the cake much easier.

Pillars

Pillars are harder to get right, and the cakes will each need to be placed on a cake drum (a thick cake board - ideally you should ice it to tie it in with the rest of the design. Otherwise it just looks like a thick piece of tin foil. Not especially attractive, I'm sure you'll agree). The iced cake drums will need to be 2" larger than the size of each cake. Using a compass, draw a circle the same size as the bottom and middle tiers on baking parchment or tracing paper and work out where you will need the pillars to go and mark them on the tracing paper circles at regular intervals. Next, place the tracing paper on top of the cakes and using a scribe or sterilised needle, prick the icing where the pillars will stand. Remove the paper and place your pillars lightly on the marked pin pricks. Take an uncut rod and press the rod through the pillar and down to the base of the cake until it hits the cake board, mark where the rod will need to be cut and repeat the process described above. The rods are what supports the weight of your cakes, not the pillars, which are purely decorative. When transporting the cakes to the venue, box them separately and wait until you arrive to arrange them on top of each other. Instead of pillars you can also use cake separators, which are glass-look acrylic tubes or squares which can be filled with petals, flower heads or glass beads. For these, rod the cakes firmly in the cake centre and cover up the hole you've made by smearing a little royal icing over the top of each inserted rod, before sticking the separator on to the cake with royal icing.

Separately presented

Separately presented multi-tiered cakes: This is the style of cake I would recommend as the least troublesome for DIYers. You don't need to think about internal structure and you don't have to worry about special boxes for transporting stacked multi-tiered cakes. The stand does the work for you and all you'll need to do is place your cakes on iced cake drums and decorate them as you wish. A ribbon and a fresh flower posey on top is a very simple and effective design. You can choose from a swan stand, an "S" or "E" stand for three tiered cakes or a "C" stand for two tiered cakes. Other vintage tearoom styles are also available, although you'll most likely have to buy one; the other styles can be hired from most decent cake decorating suppliers.

So there you have it, what is, I hope, a useful guide for choosing and making your own wedding cake. But if you decide it all looks a bit too much like hard work, Victoria's Cake Boutique will be happy to do it for you.

It's a White Russian cake, dude.

2010-06-02T18:07:00.002+01:00

I had a big birthday over the bank holiday. Not THAT big, I hasten to add. But big enough to hurl me into a new decade and, possibly, into a new ticking bracket when filling out forms. I found that the thought of getting older was more traumatic than the actuality of it - due largely to the spirit of good will from lovely friends and the good will-inducing spirits served in teapots at the wonderful Arts Theatre Club. Yes, that's right, cocktails served in teapots and drunk from china teacups. What's not to like?

After pickling my liver in hazelnut martinis on Saturday night, spending Sunday sitting around watching The Big Lebowski in my dressing gown felt like the perfect antidote. I didn't have a birthday cake this year - but I did get taken to The Fat Duck, so there are definitely no complaints from me - so I decided to make myself a belated one. After my excessive cocktail consumption and my dressing gown clad tellython, there could be no competition when it came to picking this year's perfect birthday flavour. It had to be White Russian all the way!

My White Russian cake was invented for a client who liked The Big Lebowski and White Russian cocktails so much that his friends, family and fiancee nicknamed him "the dude". The nickname has stuck in my head so firmly that I can't for the life of me remember his real name. So cheers, "dude", your commission made turning 30 on Monday a lot more palatable. And I thank you for it.

Slice of Caucasian anyone...?

White Russian Cake
Preheat your oven to 170C (150C Fan assisted)

When making this for home use (by which I mean, as a cake that doesn't need to be decorated as a tier of wedding cake or an iced celebration cake afterwards), I make it in a roulade tin, which I line with baking parchment. You can, if you wish, bake this cake in a 6" round tin, but you'll need to add about 25 minutes to the cooking time and it might be prudent to place a sheet of parchment over the top of the cake for the second half of the cooking time.

Ingredients for cake

150 g white chocolate, broken into pieces
4 tbsp whole milk
3 eggs, separated
A pinch of salt
125g unsalted butter, cut into cubes
125g caster sugar
125g plain flour

Ingredients for filling

4 tbsp of chocolate flavoured vodka or white creme de cacao
4 oz soft, unsalted butter
8 oz icing sugar
4 -6 tbsp kahlua

Method

Place the white chocolate and milk in a heatproof bowl and place on top of a saucepan of barely simmering water over a low heat. Place a foil lid over the bowl and leave to melt. Give the milk and chocolate a stir every now and then until it is melted and smooth.
Add the butter and stir until melted.
In a clean bowl, whisk the egg whites and salt together into stiff peaks.
In a separate bowl, whisk together the egg yolks and sugar until pale and creamy and immediately add the white chocolate mixture and stir thoroughly.
Sift over the flour and mix thoroughly.
Fold in the egg whites and pour out into your prepared roulade tin.
Bake on the centre shelf of your oven for 10 - 15 minutes or until an inserted skewer comes out clean.
Leave the cake to cool in its tin on a wire rack.

Method for filling

Whisk the butter until light and creamy
Sift over half the icing sugar and whisk together
Sift over the remaining sugar and whisk again.
Add the kahlua and whisk until fluffy. Taste for kahlua and whisk in extra if you feel it needs it.

Building the cake

Turn the cake out of its tin and remove the baking parchment. Trim the edges off the cake and cut the cake, lengthwise, into three rectangles of equal width.
Brush the chocolate-flavoured vodka/ white creme de cacao over the first rectangle of cake, spread over some of the kahlua buttercream, top with another rectangle of cake and repeat and repeat again.
Smooth the remaining kahlua buttercream over the top and sides of the cake and the cake is ready to serve. Enjoy.

There's nothing wrong with a sponge, but why stop there?

2010-05-19T16:46:00.000+01:00

I have been chasing my tail all week, finishing orders and meeting clients, but tiredness can never get quite so tight a grip when the sun is shining and the birds are singing outside. What has been genuinely lovely this week, is the number of clients who have got in touch to let me know how thrilled they have been with the cakes I have made for them. What I find particularly pleasing is how much they emphasise the taste as well as the look, because that's really why I started this business in the first place. I wanted to give people a place to go where they didn't have to stick to choosing between two types of sponge or a fruit cake, but where they could come for a real and thoughtful selection. I love to create new and special flavours and to be set a challenge. This must be why Victoria's Cake Boutique has 157 different chocolate cakes on the books, and that's before any other flavour. I love nothing more than inventing a new recipe, or finding a way to create delicious cakes for clients with allergies, that go beyond just substituting wheat flour for gluten-free or using oil instead of butter. They have to be created with these needs in mind, otherwise you inevitably end up compromising the taste or texture of the cake whose original recipe you altered. Taste is everything to Victoria's Cake Boutique because we can't see the point of a beautifully decorated lump of nothing and because we love flavour and don't want to bother eating anything that doesn't quite hit the mark.
With all the wonderful feedback we've received over the years in mind, I thought I'd nudge my readers in the direction of The Observer Food Monthly Awards 2010, which are now open for voting and which include categories for Best independent shop or retailer and Best food blog (UK based). You can vote here: http://www.guardian.co.uk/observer-food-monthly-awards. Just saying...

Oreo cake

2010-05-14T17:45:00.001+01:00

I was set the challenge of making an Oreo cake this week. Or, more specifically, a Haagan Dazs (Oreo) cookies and cream ice cream cake. Without the ice cream. The request came from a client who loves Oreo cookies and its Haagan Dazs ice cream above most other sugary things, so he and his fiancee thought it might be a fun idea to have an Oreo flavoured tier for their wedding cake. I must admit, I couldn't remember what an Oreo tasted like, so long ago was it that I ate one. To be honest, if it's biscuits and cookies I want, I'm more likely to make them than buy them, but on the few occasions I do cruise the supermarket shelves for tea-dunking treats, I tend to head straight for the hobnobs or chocolate digestives. Not this time.

Oreos are surprising in their lack of cocoa-richness, given their black colour, and there is something ever so slightly smoky about them. For my palate, the lack of a proper chocolate hit is slightly disappointing - if something promises to taste of chocolate, it's chocolate I want to be tasting. But it is exactly this lack of cocoa depth that is so appealing to others. Oreo cookies have a huge, international fan club and if that many people are convinced, who am I to disagree?

So, Oreo cake. Obviously, it was important for the cake to look as much like an Oreo cookie as possible, so besides it needing to be a sandwich cake with a white filling, the cake itself had to be almost black. Thinking about how I could make the cake almost black, started me thinking about molasses sugar. I love molasses, in all its syrupy, smoky blackness, but oreo cookie it ain't. It's just too strong a flavour. I decided to cut the molasses with light muscovado, so I could get the molasses colour without the molasses depth. When it came down to it though, I realised quickly that there was no way I could make an Oreo cake without some actual Oreo cookies in the mix. I blitzed a packet of Oreos (minus the two cookies I'd already eaten for, aherm, "research purposes") in a food processor, until they were finely ground. Then I adjusted the measurements of the dry ingredients to ensure the cake wouldn't become too dry. The sandwich cakes came out very dark and very moist, with a pleasing crumb - just like Oreo cookies. I sandwiched the cakes with a thick layer of sweet, vanilla mascarpone. I chose a mascarpone filling rather than vanilla buttercream, because it has a natural ice-creamy charm about it. My Oreo cake tasted very Oreo-y and my Oreo-adoring clients were so pleased that they have chosen it as the flavour for one of the biggest tiers of their wedding cake.

Oreo Cake
Preheat the oven to 180 C (160 C Fan) and grease and line two 8" sandwich tins.

3 oz/ 75 g molasses sugar
6 oz/ 150 g light muscovado sugar
3 oz/ 75 g dark chocolate
7 fl. oz whole milk
3 oz/ 75 g soft, unsalted butter
2 large eggs, beaten
A splash of vanilla
1 packet (minus 2 cookies) Oreo cookies, finely ground in the food processor
4 oz/ 100 g plain flour
1 tsp bicarbonate of soda
A pinch of salt

Method

Place the chocolate molasses sugar and milk in a saucepan and heat gently until the chocolate and sugar have dissolved. Leave to cool slightly.
Beat the butter and light muscovado sugar together until pale and creamy.
Beat the egg in a little at a time, followed by the vanilla extract.
Whisk in the chocolate-molasses milk.
Sift the flour and bicarbonate of soda over the cake batter, add the salt and whisk until well combined.
Fold in the ground Oreos and pour the cake mixture into your prepared tins and place on the middle shelf of your oven for 25 - 30 minutes or until an inserted skewer comes out clean.
Leave the cakes in their tins for 10 minutes on a wire rack before turning out to finish cooling.
Once cooled, sandwich the cakes together with sweet vanilla scented mascarpone (make half the amount specified for the chocolate and Guinness cake). If the mascarpone goes runny (this can happen with over-beating), beat in 3 oz/ 75 g of soft, unsalted butter and place in the fridge to set a bit before spreading.

Election Cakes (iv) - Popcorn caramel cake

2010-05-07T01:11:00.001+01:00

The polling stations have closed and the counting has commenced. It's exciting, nerve-wracking stuff. This is the final installment of my election cake countdown and it's the turn of The Liberal Democrats to make their cake and eat it. I don't know if you've noticed (you must have noticed, unless you are colour blind or shamefully unobservant), but I've tried to make the cake itself and not just the colour of its icing resemble the party colours, and this cake is no exception. On thinking of yellow things, the things that first sprang to mind were lemons and bananas. Too obvious. Especially given the Lib Dem's sudden and exciting power march forward as worthy and noticed contenders. Their surprising leap into the public's consciousness deserves a cake equally as attention-grabbing.

I made this cake up today. In theory, it's a salty sweet yellow slice of heaven. It's currently in the oven, and may well turn out to be a disaster, but I'm letting you in on an early trial run. If it's a masterpiece, I'll post the recipe tonight. If, on the other hand, I've got carried away with too many free-from ideas, not properly thought through, I will modify the recipe until it works as well as I am certain it deserves to and let you know. So, here it is, the last cake in my 2010 election specials is Popcorn Caramel Cake, a gluten- and nut-free sweetcorn cake (all of which may well change for future revisions) with caramel buttercream and salted caramel popcorn. You'll have to wait a few hours yet to hear the final results of the election, and most probably a few hours more than that to hear the final results of my Lib Dem cake. Let's hope all goes to plan. Here goes yellow...

Popcorn Caramel Cake

Recipe to follow...

Election Cakes (iii) - Red Velvet Cake

2010-05-06T15:49:00.003+01:00

Today's the day, so grab your keys, pull on your boots and get out there and VOTE! It's a lovely day, so there really are no excuses. Next up, in alphabetical order, in my election cake countdown is Labour. Will they stay or will they go? I think we all know the likely answer to that one. If you will be sorry to see them go, you can make this cake to take your mind off your woes and pray for a better result next time. If you'll be happy to see the back of them, you can make this cake and eat it in giant bites as some kind of symbolic statement. And, needless to say, if the political colour of any of this week's cakes puts you off but you like the sound of the flavour, make it anyway! You can always bung some different coloured icing on top if you want to. Remember, people, these are cakes, not rosettes, and blueberry cupcakes are still delicious regardless. On with this week's quest. Here goes the red team's cake:

Red Velvet Cake
Preheat the oven to 180 C (160 C Fan) and grease and line two 8" sandwich tins.

Ingredients

6 oz/ 150 g of soft, unsalted butter
12 oz/ 300 g caster sugar
3 large eggs, separated
A generous glug of vanilla
10 oz/ 250 g plain flour
1 oz/ 25 g cornflour
1 tsp baking powder
1 tsp bicarbonate of soda
2 oz/ 50 g good quality cocoa
250 ml buttermilk
pinch of salt
1 tsp white wine or cider vinegar
3 tbsp liquid red food colouring or 1 tsp of red paste dye (I only had enough liquid dye for 2tbsp, so my cake in the picture isn't quite as red as it should be)

for the icing

8 oz/ 200 g cream cheese (I used Philadelphia)
8 oz/ 200 g soft, unsalted butter
2 lb/ 800 g icing sugar, sifted
A generous few splashes of vanilla extract.

Method

Whisk the egg whites and salt together until stiff peaks form and set aside for later.
Using the same whisk (this order of things is purely to minimise on washing up), beat the butter together until pale and fluffy. A large bowl is advisable here if using an electric whisk, to prevent spraying the contents all over your kitchen. An electric whisk is also advisable for the un-beefy of arms, as this cake requires a lot of whisk action.
Add the egg yolks one at a time, beating after each addition, followed by the vanilla extract.
Mix together the red food colouring and buttermilk. This should be a very vibrant colour, so if your's isn't, add more colouring until it is.
Mix about a third of the red buttermilk into the sugar, butter and eggs and sift over a third of the dry ingredients NOT INCLUDING the bicarbonate of soda and whisk again.
Mix in another third of the buttermilk, then another third of the sifted dry ingredients and repeat until everything is mixed up well.
Fold in the whisked egg whites until thoroughly combined.
In a small bowl, mix together the bicarbonate of soda and vinegar. It will fizz up. Fold this into the cake mixture and pour into your two prepared sandwich tins.
Bake on the centre shelf of your preheated oven for 25-30 minutes or until an inserted skewer comes out clean.
Leave the cakes to cool in their tins on a wire rack for 10 minutes before turning them out.
When completely cool, sandwich the cakes together with half the icing and spread the rest over the top and sides of the cake. You can, if you wish, cut each cake horizontally across, with filling in between each to make extra layers for an even more stylish and greedy cake.

for the icing

Whisk the cream cheese and butter together until light and fluffy and add the vanilla and whisk again.
Sift over the icing sugar in batches, whisking between each addition, until it's all combined and silky smooth.
Taste for vanilla and whisk in some extra if you feel it needs it.
Slice both cakes horizontally (if you just want to make a sandwich cake, leave out this step and reduce the quanity of icing by half) and stack them together with a layer of icing in between.
Cover the top and sides with icing and it's ready to serve.

Photo to come...

Election Cakes (ii) - Pistachio Cake

2010-05-05T22:45:00.006+01:00

Polling day is fast approaching and tomorrow night will be spent chewing our collective fingernails as we wait to hear whose hands our futures will be thrown into for the next four or five years. As promised, here is my second election cake recipe of the week and, working alphabetically, that means The Green Party's next. This pistachio cake also happens to be gluten free, but with no compromises on taste or texture. Here goes green...

Pistachio Cake:
Preheat the oven to 170 C (150 C Fan) and grease and line a 9" round tin.

Ingredients

3 large eggs
8 oz/ 200 g caster sugar
125 ml olive oil (I like to use 100 ml fruity olive oil and top it up with 25 ml of extra virgin)
4 oz/ 100 g unsalted butter, melted and cooled
10 oz/ 250 g pistachios, shelled and finely ground
2 oz/ 50 g cornflour
1 tsp of baking powder (gluten free)
Finely grated zest and juice of 1 lemon
Juice of 1 orange

Method

Whisk the eggs and sugar together until pale and fluffy
Mix the cooled melted butter and oil together and gradually whisk it in to the egg and sugar mixture.
Add the ground pistachios, cornflour and baking powder and whisk again.
Pour in the citrus juices and add the zest and stir.
Pour the cake batter into your prepared tin and bake on the middle shelf of your oven for 50 minutes. The cake should still be under-done in the centre, so an inserted skewer will come out with a little bit of stickiness. The middle of the cake will set on cooling.
Place the cake, still in its tin, on a wire rack for 10 minutes before turning out. Leave to cool completely before transfering to your serving plate.

This cake is lovely just on its own, but a simple dusting of icing sugar, a scattering of strawberries and a dollop of creme fraiche topped with chopped pistachios makes for a perfect Springtime pudding.

Photo to follow tomorrow...

Election Cakes (i) - Blueberry Cupcakes

2010-05-04T19:26:00.005+01:00

The 6th of May is fast approaching and, if you're worth your weight in cake, you will make sure you find a window in your day to pop down to your local church hall, school or library to do your civic duty and VOTE. It'll be a late night for much of the UK, glued, as we will be, to our telly boxes following this year's election results. So what better way to keep your spirits up and your eyelids prised open than with a hearty injection of sugar? In an effort not to be partisan, I will post up recipes for the big 3 parties in alphabetical order over the next couple of days, plus one extra for good measure: Green. I won't go as far as making cakes for UKIP or the BNP because, well, I'm not sure I'd ever be able to think of flavours quite rancid enough.

Election cakes in alphabetical order:

The Conservative Party

Blueberry Cupcakes

I've used dry blueberries for this recipe, but you can use fresh if you'd rather. I tend to prefer reserving fresh blueberries for blueberry muffins, served warm for breakfast - not quite such an ideal late night snack. These cupcakes will last in an airtight container for about a week. If you really must insist on showing the Tories your support, you can top your cakes with swirls of vanilla buttercream dyed blue.

Preheat the oven to 180 C (160 C Fan) and line a 12 hole muffin tray with deep cupcake papers.

Ingredients

for the cake

8 oz/ 200 g caster sugar
8 oz/ 200 g soft, unsalted butter
5 oz/125 g self raising flour, sifted
1/2 tsp baking powder
3 oz/ 75 g ground almonds
4 eggs
A generous splash of vanilla extract
Finely grated zest of 1 orange
A pinch of salt
3 oz/ 75 g dried blueberries
The juice of half an orange

for the vanilla buttercream

4 oz/ 100 g soft, unsalted butter
8 oz/ 200 g icing sugar, sifted
A generous splash of vanilla extract
A splash of milk if needed

Method

for the cakes

Soak the blueberries in a bowl with the fresh orange juice in a small bowl to plump up while preparing the rest of the cake batter.

Place all the ingredients apart from the soaking blueberries in a mixing bowl and whisk everything together until fully combined and fluffy, if the mixture is very stiff, add a little of the orange juice from the blueberries and whisk again.

Using a slotted spoon, remove the blueberries from the juice and fold them into the cupcake mixture.

Spoon the mixture into the prepared cupcake cases and place on the middle shelf of you oven and bake for 12 - 15 minutes or until an inserted skewer comes out clean.

Once baked, place the tin on a wire rack for a few minutes before removing the cakes from the tin. Leave the cupcakes on the wire rack to cool completely before icing.

for the buttercream

Beat the butter until really soft.

Sift over half of the icing sugar and whisk again.

Sift over the remaining icing sugar, add the vanilla extract and whisk again for a good couple of minutes.

If the buttercream is still too stiff, add a drop of milk to slacken the mixture and whisk again.

I am having difficulty posting a picture up at the moment for some reason, so picture to follow...

Why Things Go Wrong

2010-05-03T22:39:00.004+01:00

Sometimes, even for the most experienced of bakers, things go wrong. Don't panic, it doesn't mean they'll always go wrong. Please don't let it put you off reaching for your pinny, it doesn't mean you can't bake just because your cake sank in the middle. Roll up your sleeves and try again and, whatever you do, don't let a few baking mishaps push you into the chemically-enhanced grasp of supermarket cakes. As long as you have a few basic ingredients knocking about in your cupboards, it can be just as quick to make a cake yourself as popping to the shops, and you won't even have to step out of your slippers to do it. I've put together a list in the hope that if you understand why things might have gone wrong in the first place, it will hopefully be easier to avoid more baking disasters in the future. But first, ovens. It's essential that you know your oven. For fan ovens, always remember to reduce the temperature slightly. Some ovens are like kilns and others seem to be much hotter on one side than the other. If you know what your oven is like, you can adjust temperatures and rituals accordingly. Reduce the temperature by 10 degrees or so for a very hot oven or turn the cake round halfway through cooking for ovens with hot spots. And lastly, it really is important to always preheat your oven to the required temperature before popping your cake in. So here goes the list, I hope it helps...

A BURNT TOP AND A WOBBLY MIDDLE: This is usually due to your oven being too hot, but it can also be due to a too slack mixture. For very damp cakes, such as cakes that include fresh fruit (apples, plums, etc), the cooking times often need to be increased and the temperature of your oven reduced. The way to combat this is usually as simple as placing a piece of baking parchment or foil over the top of the cake for the second half of the cooking time.
A SUNKEN MIDDLE: This can be caused by a few different factors. Too much baking powder, under baking or over-beating (causing over-aeration) can all cause sinking, but most usually it is caused by opening the oven door too quickly. Try to avoid opening the oven door before 15 minutes is up (unless the recipe's cooking time requires less overall cooking than that), so that the oven temperature can remain stable and your cake, in turn, can hopefully remain stable too. Altitude can also affect how a cake rises, but for those of us based in the UK, it's not something we have to worry about.
A PEAK AND A CRACK: Sometimes cakes peak on top and then crack, this is usually due to the temperature of your oven being too hot or (for non-fan assisted ovens) if the cake has been placed too high up. If your cake is placed on too high a shelf, it forms a crust too quickly, the raising agents continue working, the cake continues to rise and cracks its crusted top. Try reducing the temperature by 20 degrees and always place your cakes on the middle shelf, or lower for particularly large or tall cakes.
BREADY CAKE: Everyone wants their sponge cakes to be light and fluffy, but everyone has tasted a sponge that is heavy enough to do some damage if thrown at someone's head. This is down to overbeating which overworks the gluten in the flour and gives the cake a bready texture. I know it can be dull, especially when a recipe calls for a large amount of flour or cocoa, but it really is worth sifting, so you won't have to beat the mixture to within an inch of its life just to get the lumps out. It's also worth checking the use by dates on self raising flour and raising agents. People often have bags of flour at the back of the cupboard that are months or even years out of date. Checking the date becomes particularly tricky for those that like to decant their flours in other containers, so it's worth making the effort to attach a label with their best before dates. Raising agents stop working after a while and out of date self raising flour becomes inactive. All flours can become stale and are very susceptible to picking up odours from other foods, so never keep your flour in the same place as anything with a pong - onions, garlic, chilli, herbs, spices, etc. Another rather nasty potential hazard for old flour is weevils, which you will certainly want to avoid.
WON'T RISE: When cakes don't rise it is because insufficient or no raising agents have been added, the dlour or raising agents used are too old, therefore inactive (see above), the mixture is too stiff (you can slacken mixture by adding a drop of milk), or overbeaten so that all the air has been knocked out. The temperature of your oven may play a part here too as cakes won't rise if your oven is too cool.
DRY: I have a massive aversion to dry cakes. The pleasure of cake eating is lost to me when it is too dry and although icing can do something to mask the insult, it will still feel like a disappointing waste of calories. Dry cakes can be blamed on too much baking powder, over cooking or when the cooled cake is not packed immediately or if it is stored in a container which is not properly airtight.
RUNNY WHITES: Egg whites are funny old things. If you whisk them into stiff peaks and then carry on whisking for long enough afterwards, they turn back into runny liquid. If you whisk them and leave them laying about for too long before using them they also turn back into runny liquid. In both cases you will never be able to whisk them back into peaks. If egg whites get even the tiniest bit of fat in them, they will never fluff up, however long you whisk them for. This is why you have to avoid getting any yolk in with the whites. Egg yolks are the fat of the egg and the whites are the protein. Their fat content is the reason why, until fairly recently, people thought eggs were bad for you due to their cholesterol and fat content, but as we now know these fats are essential healthy fats, we can throw caution to the wind and eat them with gluttonous abandon. To avoid getting fat in your whites, make sure you are very careful not to get any traces of yolk in with the whites and make sure the bowl you use is completely clean and oil free. You can wipe half a lemon round the inside of the bowl first to remove any traces of oil if you happen to have one on hand and another good tip is to add a pinch of salt to the whites before whisking, as it becomes almost impossible to overbeat them. I can't pretend to understand the reason for this, but all I know is that it works and that's good enough for me.

Banoffee Cake. For Grandad, we miss the laughter.

2010-04-27T13:23:00.000+01:00

My grandad loved puddings. In fact his love of cakes, puddings and all things sweet helped to establish a long-cherished tradition in my family: why have one pudding, when you can have three? He was a tall, slender man, having only been on a diet once in his life. After retiring, he put on a few pounds, but he didn't opt for any faddy raw food-only or zero-carb rules. His diet involved eating a small, ordinary main meal, followed by an ENTIRE milk pudding. ALL to himself. Rice pudding, macaroni pudding, semolina, tapioca, ground rice with a big blob of jam... And, you know what? It worked! He discovered the pudding diet, decades before Uma Thurman came to it, with her post baby struggle to wriggle into her yellow, skin-tight, Kill Bill jumpsuit in time for filming.

Before the diet police start getting their tiny knickers in a twist, I'm not suggesting for a minute that sitting watching telly all day stuffing down cream horns is going to help anyone lose a dress size, but cakes come on plates made of joy and joy keeps you young and youth keeps you active and activity keeps the blubber at bay. Grandad was always extremely active, taking five mile walks daily and never missing his morning stretches. He discovered he could swing his legs higher if holding on to the bannisters at the top of the stairs and, after a particularly eager swing, he tipped himself over and managed to accidentally back-flip down the stairs. He was 78. He was absolutely fine. And, of course, he thought the whole episode was hilariously funny.

He loved nothing more than treating us to lunch out and there was always a cupboard full of goodies stacked high with cakes, biscuits and chocolate. It was great going to Nanny and Grandad's. We had carte blanche to eat party food whatever occasion, or lack thereof, but we'd always play it off in the garden afterwards.

He always used to ask me what I thought. And he always really listened and really respected what I said. Even when I was very young. And even when he disagreed with me. There was never any fear of getting anything wrong with him, it was all about asking questions and working out what I thought or I believed. He made me question everything, but never once bullied me into aligning my views with his. He told me always that I could do, be, think whatever I wanted. He told all of us that, and he believed it. He believed in all of us, waved our flags high and he made us laugh our heads off while he was doing it.

He was a great champion of women - lucky really, being the grandfather of four girls. He believed in equality and always shared household chores with my Grandmother. In the early '60's, when my mother was first applying for jobs, she came across an advert for an admin post "for men only". My Grandad's reaction was to say, "Men only? Bugger that! You could do that job with your eyes shut". So she applied and got to interview, due largely to the firm's curiosity, where they apologised for not being able to offer her the job because they only had a men's toilet. My Grandad laughed and said, "I told you you could do the job though!"

My Grandad was never the sort of man to become stuck in his ways. He embraced and interrogated all things new and got a mobile phone long before I did. He brought it to a restaurant to show us and it turned out he'd accidentally brought the TV remote along with him instead, but so what? That just meant we had something else to laugh about. It didn't surprise me at all when he told me he'd bought himself a new PC. "Have you, Grandad, what sort?" I asked. "Prostate cancer", he said. And he fell about laughing and was so pleased with his joke that there was absolutely no way to resist laughing along with him. He was 87 when he died. It was the 11th April 2003. It took him days longer than they expected for him to go, so strong was his heart, from all his walking, laughing and pudding-eating. His particular favourite was banoffee pie, so here is my recipe for banoffee cake, in memory of my Grandad - one of the greatest men I have ever known and the greatest man I have ever lost.

Banoffee Cake

This banoffee cake tries to keep as true to the structure of its pie namesake as possible, with a sticky toffee base, topped with sticky toffee butter cream and sticky toffee sauce. The top half of the cake is banana sponge with a layer of bananas, topped with vanilla cream cheese icing and a grating of dark chocolate. If time is short, you can buy a jar of dulce de leche ready made, but please don't be tempted to boil an unopened tin of condensed milk. It is extremely dangerous and unnecessary.

Preheat the oven to 180C (160C Fan assisted) and grease and line two 8" sandwich tins.

Sticky Toffee Cake

Ingredients

8 oz/ 200 g Medjool dates, chopped
1 mug of fairly weak black tea
4 oz/ 100 g soft unsalted butter
4 oz/ 100 g light muscovado sugar
1 oz/ 25 g dark muscovado
1 tbsp golden syrup
2 large eggs, beaten
1 heaped tsp mixed spice
A generous splash of vanilla extract
7 oz/ 175 g self raising flour
1 tsp bicarbonate of soda

Method

Place the dates and tea in a saucepan and place over a medium heat. Allow to boil for about 5 minutes, then take the pan off the heat and reserve for later.
Cream the butter and sugars together until pale and fluffy.
Gradually add the egg, whisking between each addition.
Add the golden syrup, vanilla extract, mixed spice and date and tea mixture and mix well.
Sift over the flour and bicarbonate of soda and fold in until thoroughly combined.
Pour the mixture into one of your prepared sandwich tins and bake for around 45 minutes or until an inserted skewer comes out clean. Remove from the oven but leave the oven on for the banana cake.
Place the cake, still in its tin, on a wire rack and stab all over with a skewer, before pouring over a few tablespoons of hot sticky toffee sauce (see below), that you will have had time to make, along with the buttercream, while the cake was in the oven.

Sticky Toffee Sauce

Ingredients

5 tbsp light muscovado sugar
2 tbsp dark muscovado sugar
1 1/2 tbsp golden syrup
4 oz/ 100 g unsalted butter
5 fl. oz/ 150 ml double cream

Method

Place all the ingredients except for the cream in a saucepan over a gentle flame and stir until the butter and sugars have melted.
Turn the heat up and let the syrup come to a rolling boil for about 3 minutes.
Turn the heat down and add the cream.
Stir the sauce over the heat about about a minute.
Turn off the heat and leave the sauce in its saucepan until you're ready to drizzle some over your cake.
Once the cake has been drizzled, allow the sauce to cool properly before using it for the buttercream.

Sticky Toffee Buttercream

Ingredients

4 oz/ 100 g soft unsalted butter
8 oz/ 200 g icing sugar (preferably sugar cane rather than beat)
A generous splash of vanilla extract
3 or so tbsp sticky toffee sauce (see above)
A splash of milk, if needed

Method

Place the butter in a large bowl and whisk for about a minute.
Sift over half the icing sugar and whisk again until combined.
Sift over the remaining sugar and whisk for about 2 minutes.
Add the toffee sauce and vanilla and whisk again.
Taste the buttercream and decide if it's toffee-y enough and add extra sauce if you wish, whisking after any addition.
Whisk in a splash of milk to slacken the mixture if needed.
Place some clingfilm over the bowl to prevent the top from crusting and reserve for later.

Banana Cake

My recipe contains ground almonds but, if you have a nut allergy or take objection to almonds (you won't be able to taste them in the cake, promise), you can substitute the almonds for more flour. The almonds help keep the cake moist and help prevent the layer of bananas on top from sinking, but the cake will still be delicious without.

Ingredients

2 bananas
A squeeze of lemon juice
4 oz/ 100 g caster sugar
4 oz/ 100 g soft unsalted butter
2 large eggs
A generous splash of vanilla extract
1 oz/ 25 g ground almonds
4 oz/ 100 g self raising flour
1/2 tsp baking powder
A splash of milk, if needed
A tbsp of demerara sugar

Method

Slice one of the bananas, place in a bowl and squeeze over the lemon juice to prevent the banana from browning. Reserve for later.
Mash the other banana and place in a mixing bowl with the butter, sugar, eggs, vanilla extract and ground almonds (if using).
Sift over the flour and baking powder and whisk the ingredients together for a couple of minutes until well combined, pale and fluffy. Add some milk to slacken the mixture if necessary and whisk again.
Pour the cake mixture into your prepared tin and smooth over the top.
Place the sliced banana over the top of the cake in concentric circles, sprinkle over the demerara sugar and place in the oven for 25 - 30 minutes or until an inserted skewer comes out clean. If the bananas on top start to catch, place a sheet of greaseproof paper over the top of the cake for the remaining cooking time.
Once baked, place the cake, still in its tin, on a wire rack to cool completely before turning out.

Vanilla cream cheese topping

You can reduce the quantities by half if you don't want quite such a billowing topping.

Ingredients

6 oz/ 150 g cream cheese
2 oz/ 50 g soft unsalted butter
1 lb/ 400 g icing sugar (preferably made from sugar cane rather than sugar beat)
1 tbsp of vanilla extract
A splash of milk if needed.
A generous grating of dark chocolate (optional)

Method

Place the cream cheese and butter in a large bowl and beat together for about 30 seconds.
Sift over half the icing sugar and whisk the mixture together.
Sift over the remaining sugar and whisk for a good 2 minutes or until everything is thoroughly combined and fluffy.
Add the vanilla, whisk again and taste for vanilla-y-ness and add some more extract if you feel it needs it, whisking after each addition.
You can add a splash of milk to slacken the mixture if necessary.

Assembly

Place your sticky toffee cake on a serving plate and spread your sticky toffee buttercream over the top.
Spread a generous helping of sticky toffee sauce on top. Don't worry if some of the mixture drips down the sides of the cake, it all adds to its deliciousness.
Place the banana cake, sliced banana side up, on top.
Spread over the cream cheese icing, making swirls with your palate knife or a fork, if you prefer.
Grate over some dark chocolate (optional), stick the kettle on to make a nice cup of tea and your banoffee cake is ready to serve.

TOP TIP!

If you have any sticky toffee sauce left over, it is excellent as a topping for ice cream or you can gently reheat it in a saucepan and pour it over some Scotch or American pancakes.

Chocolate-smeared cheeks

2010-04-06T16:57:00.002+01:00

For non-religious types, like me, Easter is only really about one thing. And one gloriously decadent and indulgent thing at that. Chocolate! Chocolate eggs, chocolate cakes, chocolate shredded wheat nests and, possibly best of all, the chocolate-smeared cheeks of children. OK, so traditionally it's Simnel cake that people make at this time of year, but marzipan and candied peel just don't cut it for the under 10s. And I'm not sure they really do for me either, if truth be told.

I can't think of many greater pleasures than bursting open a hollow chocolate egg using only the power of your jaws. Which brings me on to one of my biggest Easter gripes. Why do so many eggs, nowadays, come in two halves? That's not the point at all! You're supposed to be able to bite the top off. AND this action absolutely must contain a small element of struggle (if only in the discovery of the least ungainly approach) to maximise feelings of chocolate-conquering pleasure. Once the top of your egg's off, you can push and pull at pieces of fractured chocolate, so that some fall inside and rattle around like loose change in a piggy bank, which can, of course, only be retrieved by holding the egg upside down and shaking it over your wide open mouth. I like Easter.

This year, I cooked for 13 (including two small boys) which inevitably included various hurdles concerning dietary obstacles: allergies, intolerances and general fussiness. There were at least two options for every course to ensure that everyone there could find something to sate them. Pea and ham soup or pea and mint soup to start. Kleftico lamb with lemon sticky potatoes or rosemary and garlic studded roast lamb with Madeira gravy and gratin dauphinois, both served with various vegetables, for main. Pistachio meringues with passion fruit cream topped with fresh berries, or vanilla roasted pears (made with xylitol - a natural sweetener made from wood or berries rather than sugar cane or beat). All of this was then followed by chocolate Easter cake.

Almost everyone loves chocolate cake and those that don't can't have had a good one. It is entirely possible to go your whole life in Britain, mistaking chocolate cake for that quintessentially British abomination that I like to call brown cake. Brown cake starts its sorry little life with great potential: butter, eggs, caster sugar and self-raising flour. If, at this point in its cakey journey, a slug of vanilla extract was thrown into the mix, I'd start to get interested. But, alas, it isn't to be, as brown cake has a far less joyous fate. Instead, a dusting of cocoa is added, just enough to dye the cake a pale and pathetic shade of brown, but not enough to actually add much in the way of flavour. I can't abide anything which tastes of nothing. Lemon cakes should be lemon-y, vanilla cakes should be vanilla-y and chocolate cakes should taste of chocolate and not of the colour brown. The chocolate cake below contains actual chocolate and actual cocoa and, as a result, actually tastes chocolate-y, but don't be scared. This cake is a crowd pleaser with all, from dark chocolate lovers and children, right through to the "everything's a bit rich" brigade. In essence, this cake targets a wide demographic. It is pleasingly dark in colour due to the dark muscovado sugar, which also lends a toffee-depth to its character. The cake is sticky, but in no way sickly and it is chocolate-y without a trace of bitterness. It is a cake as happily scoffed by two year olds as ninety year olds and has converted many over the years who have professed not to be chocolate cake fans. For Easter, there could only be one appropriate topper: an egg-filled chocolate (shredded wheat) nest. I couldn't seem to get my hands on any mini eggs this year, so I had to opt for mini salted caramel sugar coated eggs from Artisan du Chocolat instead. Shame. You can stick to mini eggs if economy is necessary, but if you have got the means to splash out a little extra, I'm not sure there is a more delicious way to spend it.

This cake is incredibly versatile and has been made for countless birthdays and parties and all the other times when nothing else but chocolate cake will do. Halve the quantity for 6" sandwich tins, double it for 10" or use the amount given below for cupcakes. It will make more than 12, but this cake batter is unusual in that it doesn't seem to suffer much for sitting around for a bit and, besides, this is a fast-cooking cake and if made into cupcakes, they won't need much longer than 10 minutes in a moderate oven.

Chocolate Easter Cake
Preheat the oven to 180 C/ 160 C for Fan-assisted. Grease and line two 8" (20 cm) sandwich tins.

Ingredients

for the cake

4 oz/ 100 g good quality dark chocolate
9 oz/ 225 g dark muscovado sugar
7 fl. oz whole milk
3 oz/ 75 g unsalted butter, softened
2 eggs, beaten
A generous splash of vanilla extract
1 oz/ 25 g good quality cocoa (I used Green & Blacks)
5 oz/ 125 g plain flour
1 tsp bicarbonate of soda
A pinch of salt

for the buttercream

4 oz/ 100 g good quality dark chocolate, melted
4 oz/ 100 g softened, unsalted butter
7 oz/ 175 g icing sugar (made from sugar cane rather than beat)
A splash of milk

for the chocolate nest

2 oz/ 50 g good quality dark chocolate, melted
2 shredded wheats, broken up

Method

for the cake

Place the chocolate, 3 oz/ 75 g of the sugar and the milk in a saucepan over a low flame, until the sugar and chocolate have melted. Allow to cool slightly.
Beat the butter with the remaining sugar.
Gradually beat in the eggs and stir in the vanilla and salt.
Whisk in the melted chocolate, sugar and milk.
Sift over the dry ingredients and fold in.
Pour the batter into your prepared tins and bake for 25- 30 mins, or until an inserted skewer comes out clean.
Leave the cakes to cool in their tins for 10 minutes on a wire rack, before turning them out to cool completely.

for the buttercream

Beat the butter until really pale and creamy.
Sift over half the sugar and beat again.
Sift over the remaining sugar and beat until thoroughly combined.
Whisk in the melted chocolate and beat with an electric whisk for a couple of minutes, add the milk to slacken the mixture if necessary and whisk again.
Place one sandwich of your cake on your serving plate and spread 1/3 of the buttercream over the top. Place the other cake on top and use the remaining buttercream to coat the entire cake.

for the chocolate nest

Stir the shredded wheat into the melted chocolate, until thoroughly coated. If you get a child to do this bit, make sure the chocolate has cooled sufficiently first.
On a piece of baking parchment, shape the shredded wheat to look like a bird's nest, with a hollowed dip in the centre to rest your eggs in.
Leave to set.
Once set, carefully transfer the nest to the top of your cake and place some pretty chocolate eggs inside.
The cake will keep in an airtight container for up to a week.

The Spa Hotel Wedding Fayre

2010-03-27T14:12:00.000Z

Tomorrow, Victoria's Cake Boutique will be back at The Spa Hotel for their Spring wedding fayre. There will be plenty of exhibitors from florists and photographers to dresses and DJs and ebtry is absolutely free. The Spa Hotel is a stunning venue with gorgeous grounds, so if you're planning on tying the knot and happen to be in Tunbridge Wells tomorrow, do come down and say hello. I will be in The Royal Suite from 11 - 3 handing out samples of delicious cake!

A pint of the black stuff - Chocolate and Guinness cake

2010-03-16T15:11:00.009Z

It's St Patrick's Day tomorrow and what better way to celebrate than with a pint of the black stuff? I won't be drinking my festive tipple from a glass though. I'd much rather sink mine into a steak pie or, even better still, a chocolate cake.

Chocolate and Guinness cake is deliciously black. I've made it with other stouts but none work quite as well. The taste of the Guinness, although not overt, adds an almost smoky, spicy depth to its flavour. This cake is packed with cocoa-rich chocolate. The iron-rich smoothness of the stout manages to make the chocolate taste even more chocolate-y, whilst adding a sumptuous, squidgy dampness to the texture - plonking this firmly in the cake-fork-required category. Although rich, it is in no way sickly. It is not a particularly sweet cake, which is why the vanilla mascarpone topping compliments its dark tanginess so perfectly, as well as helping it to more pleasingly resemble a pint of the black stuff. I often like to use individual, "half pint" cake rings which, although more faffy, are playful and fun. The recipe below will easily provide enough batter for 16 half pints. Slainté!

Chocolate and Guinness Cake

Preheat the oven to 180C/ 160C Fan and grease and line a deep 9" round tin.

Ingredients

For the cake

8 oz/ 200 g good quality dark chocolate (70% cocoa solids +)

9 oz/225 g soft unsalted butter

14 oz/ 350 g dark muscovado sugar

4 large eggs, beaten

9 oz/ 225 g plain flour

1 level tsp baking powder

2 tsp bicarbonate of soda

1 x 440ml (15.5 fl. oz) can of Guinness

4 oz/ 100 g cocoa

A pinch of salt

For the topping

1.5 lbs/ 600 g full fat mascarpone

12 oz/ 300 g icing sugar

Vanilla extract to taste (about 1 tbsp)

Method

For the cake

Melt the chocolate in a heatproof bowl suspended over a saucepan of barely simmering water and allow to cool slightly.
Cream together the butter and sugar and then gradually add the beaten eggs.
Whisk the Guinness into the melted chocolate (you might want to decant this into a large jug for ease later on).
Sift together the dry ingredients and fold in about 1/3 to the creamed butter and sugar.
Mix in about 1/3 of the chocolate Guinness and mix thoroughly.
Alternate between adding the dry and then wet ingredients until everything is thoroughly combined.
Spoon the cake batter into your prepared tin and bake for about an hour on the centre shelf or until an inserted skewer comes out clean. If the top of the cake is cooked before the middle, place a sheet of greaseproof, baking parchment or foil over the top for the remaining cooking time, to prevent the crust from burning.
Leave the cake in its tin to cool on a wire rack.

For the topping

Sift the icing sugar into a large bowl and add the mascarpone and vanilla extract.
Mix together with a wooden spoon or fork until thoroughly combined, silky and billowy. Don't be tempted to speed up the process with an electric whisk as it's almost impossible not to overbeat it and you will be left with a runny goo that will drip down the sides of your cake.
Turn your cold cake out of its tin on to a serving plate and spoon the topping on to resemble the head on a pint of Guinness.
The cake will keep for up to a week in a tin.

Wedmin

2010-03-08T17:50:00.007Z

Spring is fast approaching (according to the vernal equinox, if not the weather. Yet.), marking the time of year when heightened wedding mania hits the country (and my email inbox), as planning and preparing big days and big dresses becomes the order of the season. For some, planning a wedding is a straightforward process with limited stress and upset, but for others less fortunate, wedding admin (or "wedmin" as some of my clients refer to it) creates a surge of flapping-armed panic, sleepless nights and virtual meltdown. So easily, the planning of a wedding becomes a pile of messy lists of "ways not to offend" and "things which are expected of us". It is probably one of the only times in people's lives where their style and taste are laid bare and open to the scrutiny of ALL friends and ALL family, ALL at the same time. This may well be the reason why playing it safe feels a marginally less terrifying proposition and there is certainly a strong argument for following the model that has worked for thousands of others before you. BUT, I want it to be made absolutely clear, it isn't the law to follow suit.

I have had so many clients come through my door over the years who have professed to loathe fruit cake (before actually sampling how delicious mine is, of course), but ordered it anyway, because if they hadn't, their mother/father/grandmother/Great Aunt Maud would never have forgiven them and they'd never have heard the end of it. You can always make a nod in the direction of familial expectation (by having your top tier as fruit cake and different flavours for the other tiers) just don't turn that nod into a backwards bend. Often, stress and offense-avoidance can leave couples so exhausted that they find themselves bulldozed into making compromises that leave them feeling deflated, but that they feel powerless to change. And this is especially true if they are not the ones picking up the tab. My advice is always, be gracious and grateful if parents and/or parents-in-law are helping out with costs, but it is the money and not the decision-making that they are agreeing to provide. The only tears on your wedding day should be the tiers of your wedding cake.

It's important not to lose sight of what the day actually means - the joining of two people in love. That's TWO people. Start by pleasing yourselves first and everyone else can like it or lump it. I'm not suggesting you should ignore the comfort and needs of your guests entirely. If you want to get married on a beach in a bikini, by all means get married on a beach in a bikini, just don't expect it not to go down like a bucket of cold sick, if you try to make swimwear obligatory for your guests as well. This really is where you have to think of Great Aunt Maud. But when it comes to colour schemes, flowers, what's on the menu, and your wedding cake, it's your call, not their's. Aunt Maud can put up with her hatred of raspberry red for one day if it's a colour that fills your heart with joy and birdsong. If you want love quotes, girly pinks, hearts and teddies (and amazingly enough your other half agrees to it), go for it. It's your wedding. But don't be angry or upset if people judge you on it. Of course they're going to judge you! But not necessarily negatively so, and why on earth should you care either way? They're not going to stop loving you or being your friends because you want to make your wedding day look like a 10 year old girl's bedroom. Judge you they will, but forget your wedding day, they certainly won't. And you can judge them right back on their wedding days when they choose tasteful creams with subtle injections of green, for being less memorable. The important thing to remember is, when it comes to style and taste, there are no rights and wrongs, there are only rights and wrongs for you.

There is absolutely nothing wrong with staying traditional, classic and elegant with a sit down 3 course meal, a beautiful ivory satin gown and a beautiful ivory and satin-ribboned cake. But if you want to wear black lace, give vampire teeth chewy sweets as favours and re-enact a Kate Bush video on a bouncy castle, don't let the fear of anyone else's raised eyebrows stop you. Weddings are expensive occasions - however DIY, however many helping hands and however many favours you can wangle. So, if you're going to cough up all that money, you might as well really enjoy yourselves doing it. Just remember to start out with a realistic idea of how much things cost; don't simply get a pad and pencil, write a list of things you want and then invent numbers next to pound signs to go alongside them. Do a bit of research first to avoid disappointment and/or shock. This way, you are less likely to spend all your budget on horse-drawn carriages or aerial dancers, before you've accounted for venue hire charges, food, drink, photography and, most importantly of course, cake.

Peanut butter and Jelly cupcakes

2010-02-18T00:51:00.004Z

In honour of a dear friend who has left our shores to head back to America and also in celebration of the airing of my boyfriend's episode of Secret Diary of a Call Girl on Showtime, it felt a fitting time to do a cake-over of this old American classic.

I was never given peanut butter and jelly sandwiches as a child, so this combination doesn't hold the same nostalgic charm and comfort for me that it does for so many others. In truth, I always thought PB & J sounded like a revolting proposition. Not usually, in itself, a reason to put me off trying something, but not being a huge fan of either peanut butter OR jam sandwiches in particular, it didn't feel like a combination that required my urgent investigation.

The cloying saltiness of peanut butter invaded by sweet and sticky jam sounded like the sickly work of insanity. But what did I know? I used to witness my grandfather tucking into cold rice pudding sandwiches without batting even the flicker of an eyelid and a favourite sandwich filling of mine, growing up, was ham and vinegar. Granted, on paper, it lacks romance, but in reality, the ham and vinegar together creates a deliciously pleasing balance of flavours. The same is true of peanut butter and jelly, and it is exactly what sounds so wrong about it that makes it so right.

I had no excuse for my initial and uncharacteristic reluctance, especially as salty and sweet are far from unfamiliar bedfellows; think Chinese cooking or Margaritas. Once I tried the famous sandwich, even if I wasn't hooked, I was certainly intrigued and pleasantly surprised enough to finish it and then lick my fingers for crumbs. But my main reaction to the experience was simply, "Now this would make a great cake!". And I was right. I like them best as cupcakes, decorated with a swirl of buttercream and topped with a few well placed jelly beans*, because they seem that bit more American. But, as with almost all cakes, the recipe adapts well to whatever tin you care to use, just adapt the cooking time accordingly.

I'm sure the Americans have been doing peanut butter and jelly cakes for years, but I didn't bother to find out before trying it out for myself. This is peanut butter and jelly cake done my way. And, if I do say so myself, it tastes pretty good.

Peanut Butter and Jelly Cupcakes
Preheat the oven the 180 C or 160 C Fan and line a 12 hole deep muffin tray with cupcake cases.

Ingredients

For the cake

3 oz/ 75 g unsalted soft butter
1 tbsp smooth peanut butter
4 oz/ 100 g caster sugar
2 eggs
4 oz/ 100 g plain flour
1 tsp baking powder
A pinch of salt
A splash of vanilla extract
Milk to slacken the mixture, if needed

For the icing

2-3 tbsp seedless jam/ jelly - I used raspberry because I didn't have any grape, but I believe grape is more traditional
6 oz/ 150 g unsalted soft butter
2 tbsp smooth peanut butter
1 lb/ 400 g icing sugar, sifted
A splash of vanilla extract
Milk, if needed.

Method

For the cake

Beat the butter, peanut butter and sugar together until pale and fluffy.
Gradually add the eggs, beating between each addition.
Sift the flour and baking powder over the top, add the salt and vanilla and beat together until thoroughly combined.
Spoon the mixture into the cupcake cases and bake for 10 - 15 mins or until an inserted skewer comes out clean.
Leave to cool on a wire rack.

For the icing

Warm the jam in a saucepan and spoon a little over the top of each cake and leave to set.
In the meantime, place the butter and peanut butter in a bowl and beat together until creamy.
Sift the icing sugar over the top in two stages, beating between each addition.
Add the vanilla extract and milk to slacken the buttercream if needed and give the buttercream a final whisk.
Spoon the buttercream into a piping bag fitted with either a plain or star shaped no. 10 nozzle and pipe a swirl of buttercream on each cupcake, starting from the outer edge and circling in.
Place a few jelly beans on the top and serve.

If you use a palate knife instead of a piping bag for the buttercream, you will only need half the amount, so divide the quantities by 2.

* a cupcake photo will follow shortly, once the camera lead is at hand.

Hearts and flowers

2010-02-09T16:18:00.008Z

I always thought that Valentine's Day was about sending secret tokens of admiration to people you admire from afar. Cards were absolutely NEVER to be signed with your name but always with a "?". It wasn't supposed to be a day for couples - they already knew they fancied each other - it was a day for secret confessions and exciting mysteries. It always seemed the girls (who already had boyfriends) that made a fuss about Valentine's Day were the same girls who thought teddy bears with keys were the perfect 21st birthday presents and that getting upset because their boyfriend forgot their 3 month "anniversary" was rational and justified behaviour. I knew from a very early age that I didn't want to be one of those girls.

Having said that, in all the relationships I've ever had, I've never been shy of taking part. Why on earth would I, or anyone else for that matter, snub the possibility of a nice card, present and dinner with someone you find rather lovely and who thinks you're rather lovely in return? OK, so it's all another commercially driven exploit to get us to pull our wallets out and not the sweetly romantic mystery it once was. But I'm fine with that. I like giving presents and it's always nice to send and receive cards - still signed with a "?" of course. I embrace it in the way I embrace Father's Day and all the other toshy made up reasons to get and give presents. What I DO snub is dinner out.

Dinner out on Valentine's Day means being hideously crammed in, practically sitting on the couple next door's laps, forced to choose from an overpriced "romantic" menu, where you are rushed in and rushed out as quickly as possible so they can get the next batch of loved up suckers in. One particular Valentine's Day always springs to mind if ever I'm stupid enough to consider a restaurant meal on the 14th February to be a good idea. Curry seemed a safe option, foolishly thinking an onion bhaji wouldn't be everyone's idea of the food of love. How wrong I was. The place was full to the brim and we were packed in tightly like tinned sardines. It was a set 4 course menu - this I could live with, but alongside the overpriced, smaller than usual, portions came a LIVE ACT. I think he'd come straight off a cruise ship and didn't have a single break. It felt like it went on for HOURS and was so loud it was impossible to hear yourself think, let alone engage in any conversation. The only communication possible were smirks and suppressed giggles which quickly evolved into rolling eyes and unmasked sneers. The whole debacle culminated in the docked cruise ship singer putting his foot on the table, leaning in on his thigh and serenading me with "Sweet Caroline" before, horror upon horror, placing the microphone between us, expecting us to join in with the chorus. The embarrassment came to a head when I weakly pleaded, "I really don't want to. Please don't make me", before he invaded the next table and succeeded in making them get up and dance with him. Nobody else would, despite his desperate beckoning, and the unfortunate lone dancing couple, turned their keen manoeuvres into a sort of awkward bobbing, before eventually sidling back to their tables. The memories of my dinner companion have long since faded, but the memory of that dinner will be with me for life.

Romance, to me, is in the thought and effort you make for someone else and in the thought and effort they make for you. It's easy if you've got the cash to splash out on expensive jewellery, heart shaped boxes of chocolates and a dozen red grand prix roses. You can do the whole weekend away, champagne breakfasts, diamonds and satin sheets thing. You can even get a vulgar teddy holding a heart and I won't judge you (I will). There is absolutely nothing wrong with any of it (apart from maybe the diamonds. And the teddy). It doesn't take much effort to get the plastic out if you've got the funds in your bank account. But if you haven't (or even if you have), thoughtful, home-made gifts, or indeed thoughtful handmade gifts by artisan makers, can hit the spot quicker than any teddy bear (unless you're 8 or under).

This year, Victoria's Cake Boutique have been selling "A Dozen Red Roses" in the form of petit four sized chocolate fudge cupcakes with white chocolate buttercream, each topped with a mini handmade red sugar rose. We've also been making cakes with lips, sparkly hearts, honey buns (honey cakes topped with hearts and sugar honey bees) and hearts and flowers. They all taste good, are perfect for man, woman or beast and are the perfect end to a romantic dinner IN. We've been nice and put the effort in for you, so get in touch if you'd like to get a thoughtful, delicious gift for your special someone. For those of you who want to put the effort in as well as the thought, here is a recipe for Valentine's cupcakes that you can prettily box up and give as a present, have for a Valentine's Day pudding or scoff by yourself with a cup of tea or a bottle of vodka. Delete as appropriate.

Valentine's Honey Buns:
Preheat the oven to 180 C (160 C Fan) and line a deep 12 hole muffin tray with cupcake wrappers.

Ingredients

for the cake

3 oz / 75 g light muscovado sugar
4 tbsp runny honey (I used Scottish heather honey)
6 oz /150 g soft unsalted butter
3 eggs, beaten
6 oz/ 150 g self raising flour
1 tsp baking powder

for the buttercream

4 oz/ 100 g soft unsalted butter
8 oz/ 200g icing sugar
1 tbsp runny honey
A splash of milk.

Method

Place the sugar, butter and 3 tbsp of the runny honey in a large saucepan and heat on a low flame until melted.
Allow the mixture to cool for about 10 minutes before beating in the eggs.
Fold in the flour and baking powder until fully incorporated and spoon the mixture into your cupcake wrappers.
Bake on the middle shelf for 20 minutes or until an inserted skewer comes out clean.
While the cakes are still hot, gently warm the remaining tbsp of honey in a clean saucepan, stab the cupcakes all over with a skewer or cake tester and gently pour a little amount of honey over the top of each cake.
Remove the cakes from the tin and leave to cool on a wire rack.
To make the buttercream, beat the butter and honey together until pale and fluffy and sift the icing sugar over the top. I always do this in 2 batches, whisking vigorously before each addition of sugar. If you need to slacken the buttercream at all, just add a drop of milk and whisk again.
Ice the cupcakes using either a small palate knife or a piping bag fitted with a no. 8 star nozzle for swirly buttercream or a plain no. 10 for a smooth double dollop. If you choose to pipe your buttercream, you may well need more icing than this recipe makes, so a double batch may be in order.
Decorate however you like, but I like to decorate mine with a simple sugar heart and a cute sugar honey bee.

The picture above is of chocolate fudge cupcakes with white chocolate buttercream, decorated with a sugar heart dusted with edible red glitter. To make these, follow the recipe for my spiced chocolate cupcakes, but substitute the molasses sugar for dark muscovado, leave out the spice and add a generous splash of natural vanilla extract. White chocolate buttercream can be made in exactly the same way as the honey buttercream, by substituting the honey for 4 oz/ 100g of cooled melted white chocolate.

Burns Night Supper

2010-02-01T18:37:00.004Z

I love a theme to work with. Thinking of delicious components and finding a way of marrying them together is my idea of fun. Some people like to climb big rocks or jump out of planes, I like to play with my food. There really is no accounting for taste.

We had a Burns Night dinner party on the 25th and went to town with all things Scottish, quaffing Crabbie's green ginger wine, Innes and Gunn beer and whisky by the bucketload. There were the toasts, the speeches, the drinking of whisky, the Burns poetry recitals, the haggis, the neeps, the tatties and the drinking of more whisky. And it was down to me to create a Scottish pudding fit for the occasion. Hello theme!

Firstly, came the trawling through historical recipe books to uncover some half-forgotten, precious Scottish gem of a cake as a starting point for inspiration. I must admit, although I hadn't heard of all I found, so many contained dried fruit that needed a decent maturation time that I decided to abandon the old cookbooks altogether and start thinking modern instead. So, Scottish things, Scottish things: whisky (obviously), green ginger wine, drambuie, whisky macs. And now for something a bit more solid: porridge, shortbread, cranachan, tipsy laird, battered mars bars, Scottish heather honey, tartan and, er, the Loch Ness monster? Initially, I had thoughts of a cranachan ice-cream in a tartan chocolate cone with a vertical slice of battered mars bar - the batter being made partly with cocoa powder so it would end up brown and look like a flake, thus creating a Scottish 99. But, I went off this idea quickly because, well, where's the CAKE?

I opted for a Drambuie chocolate cake, layered with Drambuie chocolate ganache, with a shortbread base, and decided the outer shell should be chocolate tartan (I won't go into the hows now, that's another blog in itself) for an extra dollop of Scottishness. I decided that individual chocolate pots would be cuter, so I built the cakes up in individual moulds: shortbread, ganache, cake, ganache, cake, ganache, cake, ganache, a raspberry. I considered sticking to the cranachan ice-cream (possibly complete with a chocolate battered mars "flake") and this obviously led all thoughts to jelly. I knew it would have to contain green ginger wine, for the colour alone if nothing else, but after some experimentation, realised that a drop of whisky didn't affect the colour much, so whisky mac jellies (heavier on the green ginger wine than the whisky to keep the colour pure) were born. In the end, I didn't have time, what with work and life, to make the cranachan into ice-cream, so I left it unfrozen and served it in custard pots, but if Burns Night suppers become an annual event at our's, maybe next year...

Shortbread
Preheat the oven to 150 C (130 C Fan)

Ingredients

6 oz/ 150 g softened unsalted butter.
6 oz/ 150 g plain flour.
3 oz/ 75 g caster sugar.
A splash of vanilla extract.

Method

Place all the ingredients into a mixing bowl and mix together with clean hands until thoroughly combined and you can form a dough.
Take a ball of dough and press down until about 2cm thick, cut out a circle using a round pastry cutter that is about half a cm smaller than the moulds you will be using for your cakes.
Place the shortbread on a baking tray lined with baking parchment and pop in the oven for about ten minutes.
If the shortbread has spread while in the oven just re-cut with the pastry cutters while the shortbread is still hot.
Leave to cool on wire rack.

Chocolate and Drambuie Cake

Ingredients

8 oz/ 200 g good quality dark chocolate.
4 tbsp milk.
5 oz/ 125g soft unsalted butter.
3 eggs.
5 oz/ 125 g caster sugar.
5 oz/ 125 g plain flour, sifted.
An exta 1 oz/ 25 g of caster sugar.
50 ml Drambuie.

Method
Preheat the oven to 180 C (160 C Fan) and grease and line a roulade tin.

Separate the eggs.
Break up the chocolate and place in a heatproof bowl with the milk and butter and suspend over a saucepan of barely simmering water, until the chocolate mixture has completely melted.
Pour the chocolate mixture into a mixing bowl and leave to cool slightly.
Whisk the egg yolks and sugar together until pale and creamy.
Immediately add the egg yolk mixture to the chocolate and stir briskly.
Fold the flour into the mixture.
In a separate clean bowl, whisk the egg whites and fold into the cake batter.
Pour the mixture into your prepared tin, level out and place in the oven for about ten minutes or until an inserted skewer comes out clean.
In a small saucepan place 1 oz/ 25 g caster sugar in a saucepan with 50ml of Drambuie and heat gently until the sugar has dissolved.
Stab the cake all over with a cake tester or skewer and brush the Drambuie syrup over the cake with a pastry brush.
Leave the cake in its tin on a wire rack to cool.

Drambuie chocolate ganache

Ingredients

450 ml double cream.
10 oz/ 250 g good quality dark chocolate.
3 oz/ 75 g softened butter.
50 ml Drambuie.
Icing sugar, sifted, to taste.

Method

Grate or finely chop the chocolate.
Place the cream in a heavy based saucepan and bring to just boiling point and remove from the heat.
Add the chocolate to the cream and stir.
Leave to stand for 5 minutes or until the chocolate has completely melted and stir again until the mixture is smooth, thick and glossy.
Add the butter and beat in.
Stir in the Drambuie. It will go quite runny at this point.
Add as much or as little icing sugar as you feel it needs. I tend to be quite frugal as I don't like things to be too sweet.
Once cool, place in the fridge to set for about 45 minutes.
Beat the mixture again and place in a large piping bag fitted with a plain no. 10 nozzle.

Whisky Mac Jelly

Ingredients

4 sheets of leaf gelatine.
200ml Crabbies green ginger wine.
50ml whisky.
1 tbsp caster sugar.

Method

Mix the whisky and green ginger wine together.
Cut the leaf gelatine into pieces, place in a heatproof bowl and soak in about a third of the whisky mac liquid for about 10 minutes.
Add the sugar to the gelatine and place the bowl over a saucepan of boiling water until the sugar and gelatine have dissolved.
Add the remaining liquid, stir and pour into a flexible ice cube tray and place in the fridge to set for about an hour and a half.

Cranachan

Ingredients

3 oz/ 75g porridge oats.
6 oz/ 150g raspberries, washed.
7 tbs whisky.
2 tbsp light muscovado sugar.
4 tbps of runny Scottish heather honey.
600ml large pot of double cream.

Method

Soak 4 oz/ 100 g of the raspberries in 1 tbsp of whisky and 1 tbsp of warmed honey.
Place the oats on a baking tray and toast in a low oven or under the grill until golden brown. It doesn't take long at all, so keep an eye on it to prevent it from burning.
In a small saucepan, place 2 tbsp whisky and the sugar and heat gently until the sugar has dissolved and then increase the heat slightly and reduce the liquid into a caramel.
Toss the toasted oats in the caramel and pour out on to the baking tray and leave to cool.
Mash 2 oz/ 50 g of the raspberries with a fork until throughly blended and smooth. You can do this in a blender if you'd rather.
Whisk the cream until quite stiff.
Add the remaining honey and whisky and stir until thoroughly combined.
Add 2 oz/ 50 g of the caramelised oats and the blended raspberries to the cream and ripple through.
Gently fold in the remaining soaked raspberries.
Save the remaining oats and the left over raspberries for plating up later.

Chocolate Pot building:

I made my chocolate pots tartan, but it's faffy and takes a fair amount of skill to achieve, so I'll leave that step out for now, but I may well post a blog about how to do that and similar another time.

Prepare your dessert moulds by cutting a piece of baking parchment that will just line the inside. You can make the parchment stick with a quick rub of butter round the inside of the mould before you place the parchment inside. Place each mould on a separate mini cake board.
Place a shortbread at the bottom of each mould, followed by a squirt of ganache.
Using the same pastry cutter that you used for your shortbread, cut a circle of cake and place it on top of the ganache. Push the cake down slightly and you can brush it again with Drambuie syrup if there's any left and feel inclined to.
Pipe on some more ganache and then repeat the process twice.
Top the final piece of cake with ganache and smooth the top with a palate knife.
Place in the fridge to set.
Once ready to de-mould, remove from the fridge and, using a blow torch or a hairdryer on a low setting, gently heat the outside of the mould so that you can slip the cake out of the mould.

Plating up

Place your chocolate pot on your serving plate (leaving room for everything else).
Place your cranachan in custard pots and top with a scattering of your left over oats and raspberries and put it next to your chocolate pot on the plate.
Remove the jelly from the ice cube tray (if it's stuck, place the tray in a shallow dish of hot water for a few seconds and dry the bottom before upturning the tray again.
Slice the cubes into thinner squares and place a few on the plate next to your cake and cranachan and your pudding is ready to serve.

Wedding Fayre

2010-01-30T16:00:00.001Z

Victoria's Cake Boutique will be exhibiting at The Royal Wells Hotel wedding fayre tomorrow, Sunday 31st January, from 11 - 4. You will be able to see some wedding cake designs in the flesh as well as leaf through my portfolio and sample some delicious cake. Come and say hello if you're around and drag any friends or family along who are planning on tying the knot.

Dark days require dark chocolate and strong coffee

2010-01-19T19:01:00.004Z

January has left me yawning and yearning for my bed. Maybe it's the lack of sunlight, maybe it's the cold weather, maybe it's the body's general collapse after the long hours and long parties it has endured over the last month or so. Maybe it's all of the above. But now that all the Christmas and New Year festivities are over and the daily grind has resumed properly, or so it has been alleged, I have found that all I really want to do is curl up in a ball and sleep until the sun comes out. Now, as I am, unfortunately, not a Blue Peter tortoise or a hibernating bear (and if you're reading this blog, I'm assuming you aren't either), going on an extended trip to the land of nod just isn't an option. Fear not, though, help is at hand and it comes in the attractive form of espresso chocolate squares.

I adore brownies, but have, of late, noticed a wanton disregard for what a brownie actually is. It seems that people think if it's brown and square-shaped, a brownie it must be. Wrong. Brownies are slightly chewy and have a crusted top that compliments their soft, nutty centre. They are not simply brown tray bakes containing the odd floating chocolate chip, cut into squares. Don't be hoodwinked by Cafe Nero and Costa Coffee's cellophane-wrapped slices. Their brownies would never get promoted to girl guides. Brownies are absolutely packed full of sugar and chocolate and that is exactly why they are so delicious, but they also contain flour. Nothing wrong with that. But I wanted to make a flourless chocolate cake to reduce the effects of the carbohydrate coma that seems to overtake me after lunch, but also for the growing number of friends and family with gluten allergies.

I created this recipe with brownies in mind, but they have, along the way, become something quite different. They still have the irresistible chewy charm of a chocolate brownie, but without the chunks of nuts or chocolate chips and with an extra kick instead. I addeed coffee in an attempt to keep the afternoon nap cravings still further at bay, and as a result they have become a bit more grown-up and will be unlikely to excite children in the same way that a traditional brownie will. Though if small children do manage to get their tiny gnashers round them, you could find these innocent looking squares excite them in another way altogether. So, if you'd rather not witness your children bouncing off the furniture, fighting like cubs and smearing chocolate hand prints all over the wallpaper, keep these cakes where the little darlings can't reach them. They can be our delicious little secret.

Espresso Chocolate Squares
Preheat the oven to 180 C or 160 C Fan assisted and line a shallow 8" square tin.

Ingredients

7 oz / 175 g unsalted butter, cubed
8 oz / 200 g good quality dark chocolate
3 oz / 75 g ground almonds
2 oz / 50 g cocoa
11 oz / 275 g caster sugar
3 large eggs
1 oz/ 25 g ground espresso coffee - the fresh coffee itself, not the drink you make with them.
A pinch of salt

Method

Melt the chocolate and butter in a heatproof bowl and suspend over a pan of barely simmering water, stirring occasionally. Do not allow the bottom of the bowl to touch the water. Leave to cool slightly.
In a separate bowl, beat together the eggs and sugar until light and fluffy.
Fold the chocolate and butter mixture into the eggs and sugar.
Fold in the ground almonds, salt and coffee.
Sift over the cocoa and fold into the mixture until fully incorporated.
Pour the cake mixture into your prepared tin and bake for about 25 minutes. An inserted skewer should come out slightly sticky.
Leave the cake in its tin to cool completely.
Turn the cake out, remove the baking parchment and cut into 16 squares.

Decadent dinner party pudding

2010-01-12T22:46:00.002Z

So, January. Here we go again. The time of year when gym memberships go up and the diet police come out full-throttle, wiggling about in leotards and wagging their bony fingers, striving to make us feel guilty at our wild abandon over Christmas. It seems to me that all this achieves is to make you want to crawl into the nearest hole, armed with a biscuit barrel and a large dollop of self-disgust. This is why I absolutely refuse, point blank, to start the year with a recipe for a low-fat cake. Instead, I am going to the other extreme and offering up an indulgent show-y off-y pudding that is all about celebrating food with the special people in your life.

There is nothing more boring than listening to someone drone on about how “bad” or "naughty" everything is for you, or how they "shouldn't really, but..." It sucks the fun of eating straight out of a room and encourages joyless picking and pursed lips from everyone else. You can almost see the unspoken thoughts of "well, if I only eat branflakes, brown rice and broccoli for the rest of the week, it'll be okay" or "if I do an extra 2 hours at the gym tomorrow...". Wouldn't it be a lot more fun, as well as ticking a few more of the diet police's boxes, if we saved rich and decadent food to share and enjoy with friends and family, rather than just cramming down a mars bar alone on the bus? Now, I’m no nutritionist, but surely it’s perfectly possible to enjoy food, not count calories, occasionally eat too much and still be healthy, fit and of an acceptable weight. I am not promoting the constant cramming of fat and sugar down your throat so that it barely touches the sides, as some kind of fingers-up to salad-munchers. What would be the point in that? There is no real pleasure to be had in mindless stuffing, and it's pleasure that I am in the business of finding and making. That is why people who bake a lot of cakes aren't necessarily the people who are on the last holes of their belts. They bake to share. When you've really enjoyed a meal with wonderful company that has ended with "oohs" and "ahhs" at an extravagant pudding, there is a sense of communal joy, not only in the eating of the pudding, but also in the experience of sharing it. You feel sated and happy and, because of this, there is no sense of having to punish yourself later. It also has the wonderful side-effect of leaving the idea of stuffing down a mars bar on your own on the bus a bit cold and stale. In essence, when good things are eaten in good company, you are less likely to eat too much, too often, as a matter of course.

I served this pudding on New Year's Eve, but the menu would work just as well for any late Autumn or Winter dinner party. My boyfriend made a delicious starter of fennel risotto and I followed it with tenderloin of venison in lapsang souchong and orange zest and then "mulled wine pudding". This is an unapologetically long-winded pudding to make in that there are several components, but fear not, none of them are particularly difficult. And anyway, so what if things take a bit of time to make? It shows you've made an effort for your guests and they'll appreciate that. It makes the evening feel more special if you show that you think the occasion and the people deserve an extra little bit of thought and time.

Mulled wine pudding
Pears poached in mulled wine, mulled wine chocolate cake, individual meringues with mulled wine caramel and blackberry cream served with mulled chocolate wine.

I poached the pears the night before and did everything else on the day, but there's no reason why you can't also make the cake and the meringues the day before too, if you'd rather.

Pears poached in mulled wine

Ingredients:

1 bottle of fruity red wine - not so cheap it tastes like you should douse your chips with it, but it needn't be a bottle of Barolo either.
a small wine glass (125 ml) of ruby Port
2 cinammon sticks
A peeled finger of ginger, chopped in 3
A few cloves
1 star anise
2 oranges, halved
3 or 4 strips of lemon peel
8 tbsp sugar
6 firm pears, carefully peeled and left whole, with their bottoms sliced off so that they can stand upright on a plate.

Method:

Place the red wine and port in a saucepan and warm up on a gentle heat.
Add the sugar, spices, lemon peel and oranges and stir until the sugar is dissolved. Taste the wine to check for spice and sweetness and add more sugar/spice if you feel it needs it.
Place the pears in the saucepan and simmer very gently for about an hour to an hour and a half.
Remove the pears carefully with a slotted spoon and place on a cold plate to cool. Retain the mulled wine for later.
If you have made them the day before they can go in the fridge overnight, but bring them back to room temperature before serving, then strain and reheat the half of the mulled wine not reserved for the rest of the pudding and reduce it to a light syrup. Place the pears back in the syrup to warm through just before serving and place each pear upright on the serving plate and pour over a little warm syrup.

Mulled wine chocolate cake

Ingredients for the cake:

6 tbsp mulled wine syrup
6 oz/ 150g good quality dark chocolate (preferably 70% cocoa solids)
5 eggs, separated
8 oz/ 200g soft, unsalted butter
9 oz/ 225g caster sugar
3 oz/75g plain flour
1 oz/25g good quality cocoa

Ingredients for the chocolate ganache:

12 oz/ 300g dark chocolate, broken into pieces
10 oz/ 250g unsalted butter, cubed
3 tbsp mulled wine syrup

Method for the cake:
Preheat the oven to 160C/ 140C Fan. Grease and line an 8" (20cm) round tin.

To make the mulled wine syrup, strain half the left over mulled wine from the poached pears into a smaller saucepan and place over a medium heat and reduce into a syrup. Leave the syrup to cool.
Melt the chocolate in a heatproof bowl suspended over a saucepan of gently simmering water. Once melted, whisk in half of the mulled wine syrup and leave the chocolate to cool for 5 - 10 minutes.
Beat the egg yolks into the cooled chocolate.
Beat the butter and 4 oz/ 100g of the sugar together until light and creamy and stir in the chocolate mixture.
In a separate bowl, whisk the egg whites until firm peaks form. Gradually, a spoonful at a time, add the remaining sugar, whisking between each addition.
Beat 1/3 meringue (whisked egg whites and sugar) into the chocolate mixture until well incorporated.
Sift over 1 oz/ 25g of the flour and fold into the mixture. Add a quarter of the remaining meringue and gently fold in. Repeat twice with an ounce of flour, followed by another quarter of the meringue, folding between each addition. Finally sift over the cocoa and fold it in followed by the last of the meringue.
Pour the cake mixture into your prepared tin and bake on the middle shelf for 50 minutes or until an inserted skewer comes out clean.
Stab the cake all over with a skewer and pour over the remaining 3 tbsp of mulled wine syrup and leave the cake to cool in its tin on a wire rack.
Once cool, take the cake out of its tin and slice in half (horizontally) with a large serrated knife. Be careful as the cake is quite easily broken.

For the ganache:

In a large heatproof bowl, suspended over barely simmering water, melt the chocolate and butter. Give it a good stir every now and then, but try not to get air bubbles in the ganache.
Once melted, stir in the mulled wine syrup and leave the ganache to cool for about 10 minutes.
Spread 1/3 ganache over one half of the cake and sandwich the other half on top.
Pour the remaining ganache over the whole cake, smoothing it over with a palette knife and leave to set.

Individual meringues with mulled wine caramel
To make 6 individual meringues. Preheat the oven to 140C/ 120C Fan

Ingredients:

3 egg whites
6oz/ 150g caster sugar
1 tsp cornflour
1/2 tsp white vinegar (although if you haven't got any, don't bother getting any in especially for this recipe, just use regular malt)
3 tbsp mulled wine syrup plus 2 extra tbsp caster sugar.

Method:

In a clean, dry bowl, whisk the egg whites into firm peaks.
Add the sugar, a spoonful at a time, whisking between each addition.
Once the sugar has all been incorporated, add the cornflour and vinegar and give the mixture a final whisk.
On a baking tray/ sheet lined with a sheet of baking parchment, place 6 dollops (about 2 spoonfuls to each dollop) of meringue, with a space between each one.
Place in the oven for about an hour and once the meringues are cooked, turn the oven off and leave the meringues in the oven to cool at the same rate as the oven.
In a small saucepan, place the mulled wine syrup over the heat with the extra sugar. Stir until the sugar is dissolved and reduce the syrup further until it becomes a caramel.
Using a spoon, flick the mulled wine caramel over the individual meringues, back and forth until prettily coated. Watch your fingers though as it will be very hot.
Leave the meringues out (or in a tin if you are leaving them for longer than a couple of hours) until you are ready to plate up.

Blackberry Cream
Blackberries obviously aren't seasonal at this time of year, but my parents have blackberry bushes at the end of their garden and they picked so many that they gave me a few bags for my freezer, so I just happened to have some knocking about. You can buy frozen British blackberries off season from supermarkets or, if you can't find any, you can get punnets of frozen mixed British berries, which will be a delicious substitute. Thaw them out on kitchen paper, hollow end down.

Ingredients:

About 2 punnets' worth of blackberries, slightly mashed
1 litre of double/ whipping cream
sifted icing sugar, to taste

Method:

Whip the cream until peaked, but not too stiff.
Tumble in your mashed berries and whisk them through the cream.
Simply add icing sugar to taste and put the bowl in the fridge until you're ready to plate up.

Mulled chocolate wine
My boyfriend made me a mug of chocolate wine as part of a meal in celebration of Valentine's Day or possibly an anniversary last year. Or possibly the year before. Either way, it was so delicious I wished my tongue was long enough to reach the bottom of the mug so I could have licked it clean. He'd had chocolate wine with a friend at Heston Blumenthal's The Hinds Head and was telling me about it over dinner. There was some left-over chocolate from the chocolate dipped fruits he'd made us for pudding, so he decided he'd use it to have a go at making the wine at home. He made his own version, without the centrifuge that the Fat Duck Cookbook calls for, but still thoroughly delicious, and he made it again on New Year's Eve but added some of my mulled wine syrup to tie it in with the rest of the mulled wine pudding. We served the chocolate wine in espresso cups as mugs might have been a bit much in this instance...

Ingredients:
To serve 6

5 espresso cups of red wine
5 espresso cups of ruby port
4oz/ 100g dark chocolate
2 tbsp mulled wine syrup

Method:

Melt the chocolate in a heatproof bowl suspended over barely simmering water
In a small saucepan, heat the wine and port and reduce it by around a third. Whisk it in to the melted chocolate along with the mulled wine syrup. Check for sweetness as it'll depend on the wine, chocolate and port that you've picked. Add caster sugar if required. Pour it into espresso cups and serve hot alongside the rest of the components of the pudding.

Plating up...

When all the components of your pudding are ready, cut a small slice of your cake and place it on your chosen serving plate (a square white dinner plate would probably be the most aesthetically pleasing, but whatever you like or, failing that, whatever you've got). Next place a meringue and an upright poached pear drizzled with a little warm syrup next to the cake and spoon on some blackberry cream. Serve the espresso cup of chocolate mulled wine on the plate with the rest of the pudding and it's ready to serve.

The photo posted at the top of this blog was taken on New Year's Eve by Alex, one of our dinner party guests. Thanks Alex!

If I'd known you were coming, I'd have baked a cake.

2009-12-29T17:34:00.007Z

I am definitely more bricklayer than princess in my food tastes. I like a sauce to be robust and a wine to be full-bodied. I drink my tea the colour of tar, eat my steak so rare it could almost walk off the plate by itself, and have never understood what people are going on about when they describe everything with flavour as being "a bit rich".

When it comes to flowers, I love the girly prettiness of them, but I can't pretend to be a massive enthusiast for the taste of them in my food. Too often the flavour ends up so soapy I feel more inclined to spritz it on my wrist, than stick it in my cake hole. I prefer oranges to orange blossom and rosemary to roses, but when I make a chocolate and lavender cake or some orange blossom and pistachio cupcakes people seem to become maddened by delight. There is something so elegant, delicate and pretty about cakes with flowers in, and although I would never personally opt for a floral sponge if chocolate and port cake was on offer, I can recognise that, for others, flowery food brings them as much pleasure as ginger does me. Both flavours are palate cleansing and after all the rich food of Christmas, something fresh and invigorating is just the ticket.

This is a great time of year for cake eaters and bakers alike, as there are still a few glorious days left before the new year, new guilt diets kick in, as well as enough visitors knocking on the door to make whisking up a batch of cupcakes an entirely necessary indulgence.

A friend of mine recently told me that she loves floral flavours above all else (I think it might be because she is named after a flower) and as it is the season of good will, I thought I would post a recipe for my lemon and rose cupcakes especially for her and all my other floral friends.

Lemon and rose water cupcakes
(Preheat the oven to 180 C/ 160 Fan and line a 12 hole cupcake tray with cupcake cases. If you don't have a cupcake tray, you can use a 6" round tin instead or double the quantities for a loaf tin).

Ingredients

4 oz (100 g) caster sugar
3 eggs, separated
2 fl. oz (50 ml) sunflower oil
2 fl. oz (50 ml) water
4 oz (100 g) plain flour
1 tsp baking powder
Zest and juice of 1 large unwaxed lemon
1 - 2 tsp rose water
1/2 tsp salt

Rose water buttercream

4 oz (100 g) softened butter
8 oz (200 g) icing sugar, sifted
2 tsp rose water
A dash of milk

Method

Place the egg yolks in a large bowl with half the sugar and whisk until pale and fluffy.
Continue whisking on a low speed (if using an electric hand whisk) and gradually drizzle in the oil. Once combined, continue whisking and drizzle in the water, lemon juice and rose water.
Sift over the flour, baking powder and salt and fold in until thoroughly combined.
In a separate bowl, whisk the egg whites until they begin the foam and froth, then add the remaining sugar and whisk to the stiff peak stage (so that when you upturn the bowl, the egg whites don't fall out).
Stir the lemon zest into the flour and egg yolk mixture and then fold in the meringue (egg white and sugar) until thoroughly combined.
Spoon the mixture into the cupcake cases and bake for 20 - 25 mins or until an inserted skewer comes out clean. Leave in the tin for a few minutes and then transfer to a wire rack to cool completely. You can make the cakes more lemon-y by stabbing the cakes all over with a skewer and pouring a lemon syrup (place the juice of half a lemon and 2 oz (50 g) caster sugar in a saucepan over a very gentle flame and stir until the sugar has dissolved) over their tops while they are still warm.
For the buttercream, beat the butter until really creamy, whisk through the rose water and then beat in the icing sugar. Add a splash of milk to slacken the buttercream slightly if need be and beat together until really creamy.
Spread the buttercream on the cupcakes with a small palette knife or pipe on with a no. 8 star or plain nozzle.
I have decorated mine with simple roll roses. You simply roll out a piece of sugarpaste (I dyed mine hot pink) quite thinly, to a length of about 6cm and a width of about 2cm. Roll the strip up, choose your favoured end for the top and pinch off the bottom, then smooth over. I also made little green leaves from more sugarpaste dyed green and pinched off and shaped little leaf shapes. Alternatively just top with a sprinkle of crystalised rose petals.

Spiced Chocolate Torte

2009-12-20T19:33:00.002Z

Although I can't possibly bring myself to agree with them, I know there are people out there who shudder at the thought of Christmas cake or anything that bats even the corner of an eyelid in the direction of dried fruit. Christmas can be a tricky time for them, faced, as they are, with Christmas cake, mince pies and Christmas pudding at every turn. It seems that a British Christmas is a veritable banquet of raisins, currants, sultanas, dates and figs. Personally I love a dried fruit, especially one that's been soaked in enough rum and brandy to keep a swashbuckle of pirates happy for a month, but hey ho. Different strokes for different folks. And Christmas is the time to draw people together, not drive them to hide food in their handbags. A time when no one should be excluded. Even if they are fussy eaters.

This is a cake that ticks all the boxes for chocolate lovers and its hit of spice has Christmas all wrapped up too. It is both naturally gluten and dairy free and so can provide a delicious Christmas treat for food allergy sufferers; although steer clear if you suffer from nut allergies. I say naturally gluten and dairy free because this is not a recipe especially adapted for the gluten or dairy intolerant, it requires no special gluten-free flours or soya "dairy", this just happens to be a cake that flour and butter were never invited to take part in, so there's no feeling of compromise in its taste or quality. I love the close-textured, fudginess of this cake, and it also has the benefit of keeping for ages without going at all dry (as long as you keep it in a properly airtight container) and freezes brilliantly.

The combination of chocolate and spice is wonderful at any time of the year, but there is something especially Christmassy about the smell of mixed spice, ginger and cinammon emanating from the oven door. This is a really indulgent and, dare I say, sophisticated, grown up cake, that works wonderfully served with strong coffee or is equally delicious as pudding with a glug of pouring cream.

Spiced Chocolate Torte
Preheat your oven to 180 C or 160 C Fan. Grease and line a 9" round cake tin

Ingredients

8 oz/ 200 g good quality dark chocolate (preferably 70% cocoa solids +)
6 eggs
7 oz/ 175 g granulated sugar
4oz/ 100 g molasses sugar
5 oz/ 125 g ground almonds
1 tsp mixed spice
2 tsp ground ginger
2 tsp cinammon
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 tsp ground black pepper

Chocolate Glaze:

1 tbsp apricot jam

150g dark chocolate (pref 70% cocoa solids)
100g butter cut into cubes or, if you are making a dairy free cake, use 40ml groundnut oil

Method:

Break up the chocolate and melt in a heatproof bowl suspended over barely simmering water. Leave to cool slightly.
Separate 5 of the eggs and place the 5 egg yolks and 1 whole egg in a large mixing bowl with the sugars and whisk until pale and fluffy.
Add the ground almonds, spices, salt and chocolate to the mixture and stir until well combined. It will be quite stiff at this stage, but nothing a bit of elbow grease can't overcome.
In a separate, clean bowl, whisk the egg whites until fairly stiff.
Place a large dollop of egg white into the chocolate mix and stir quickly and forcefully to slacken the mixture.
Carefully fold in the remaining egg white until thoroughly combined.
Pour into your prepared tin and bake in your preheated oven for around an hour to 1 hour 15, or until an inserted skewer comes out clean.
Once cooked, leave the cake in the tin on top of a wire rack to cool before turning out.
Heat the apricot jam and brush your cake with the jam.
In a heatproof bowl suspended over barely simmering water melt your chocolate and butter/groundnut oil. Once it has melted and stirred, take it off the heat and leave to cool for a few minutes before pouring the chocolate glaze over the cake, still on its rack. To prevent too much mess, place a sheet of baking parchment or greaseproof paper under the wire rack to catch the drips.
Leave the glaze to set before using a couple of palette knives to transfer the cake on to a cake board or serving plate. You can leave it plain or decorate with a dusting of edible gold glitter or chocolate snowflakes, either handpiped or cut out from rolled out chocolate plastique and dusted with edible lustre in snowflake.

Hazelnut and Grand Marnier "Hazelpan"

2009-12-08T01:10:00.009Z

Not wanting to give the traditionalists too much of a headstart with their marzipan, as promised, here is an alternative "marzipan" for the almond-shy. It has a satisying zingyness and is delicious with Christmas cake, but also works brilliantly as a covering for chocolate cakes.

Hazelnut and Grand Marnier Marzipan (Hazelpan)

(This is enough to make a 9" cake. Halve the quantities for a 6" or use the left-overs to dye and make into marzipan fruits)

Ingredients

1lb ground hazelnuts (they can be tricky to find ready ground in the shops, unless you happen to find yourself in France, where ground hazelnuts seem as common as ground almonds - lucky them. So just dry roast whole blanched hazelnuts until slightly golden, then leave to cool before blitzing in a processor)
1lb icing sugar, sifted
2 egg yolks
2 whole eggs
2 tbsp Grand Marnier (or Cointreau, Triple Sec or any other orange liqueur you've got hiding at the back of the drinks cabinet)
2 tsp fresh orange juice
Finely grated zest of 1 orange.
Method

Place the eggs, egg yolks and sugar in a large heatproof bowl over a pan of barely simmering water.
Whisk the eggs and sugar just like when you are making a sabayon or zabaglione. The important thing is that the mixture doesn't get too hot and curdle, so keep the flame low. The mixture will become pale, frothy and quite thick.
Whisk in the Grand Marnier, orange juice and zest until thoroughly combined.
Take the bowl off the heat and leave to cool.
Whisk again and pour in the ground hazelnuts.
Combine thoroughly and knead to form a firm paste.
Wrap the marzipan in clingfilm and leave to rest somewhere cool for at least 2 hours before rolling out.
When you're ready to use it, warm some apricot jam in a saucepan with a tiny bit of water. Once it's hot, you can pour it through a sieve if you like, but I often don't bother.
Roll out your marzipan to a thickness of about half an inch.
Brush your cake with the hot apricot jam and place your rolled-out marzipan over the top. Cup the marzipan around the edges of your cake with your hands and then pat it down the sides so it is properly stuck. Smooth it over with your hands or use a couple of plastic smoothers for a more even surface.
Leave the marzipan for a day or 2 (or longer) to harden. This will make icing your cake much easier.
If you are using roll out fondant/ sugarpaste to ice your cake, stick it on to your marzipanned cake with a light brushing of brandy.

Almond Marzipan

2009-12-07T17:30:00.008Z

By now, your home-made Christmas cake will have had plenty of time to be fed, fed again and then fed some more with generous pourings of your chosen tipple/s. You can, by all means, carry on feeding it some more before you ice it with marzipan. There is no rush. But, if you're the sort who likes to get things done early, so you can tick them off your "to do" list, give your cake one last drink before getting on with making your marzipan.

As I said in my last post, marzipan divides opinion and tends to draw out strong marmite-y love/hate responses. For those that love the stuff, here is the recipe I use for my own cakes. When I am making the cake to eat myself, I leave out almond extract altogether, but when making it to sell, I add just a couple of drops of NATURAL almond extract (unless instructed otherwise) because so many people love the familiarity of its flavour. If you like your marzipan to be lurid yellow, you can add some paste dye in the kneading stage, but use latex gloves or clean marigolds if you don't want yellow hands for the rest of the week. For those that can't stand the stuff, I'll be posting up my recipe for hazelnut and Grand Marnier marzipan in the next couple of days.

Marzipan
(This is enough to make a 9" cake. Halve the quantities for a 6" or use the left-overs to dye and make into marzipan fruits)

Ingredients

1lb ground almonds (either ready ground, or blitzed in a food mixer)
1lb icing sugar, sifted
2 egg yolks
2 whole eggs
2 tbsp brandy
2 tsp lemon juice
a couple of drops of natural almond extract

Method

Place the eggs, egg yolks and sugar in a large heatproof bowl over a pan of barely simmering water.
Whisk the eggs and sugar just like when you are making a sabayon or zabaglione. The important thing is that the mixture doesn't get too hot and curdle, so keep the flame low. The mixture will become pale, frothy and quite thick.
Whisk in the brandy, lemon juice and almond extract (if using) until thoroughly combined.
Take the bowl off the heat and leave to cool.
Whisk again and pour in the ground almonds.
Combine thoroughly and knead to form a firm paste.
Wrap the marzipan in clingfilm and leave to rest somewhere cool for at least 2 hours before rolling out.
When you're ready to use it, warm some apricot jam in a saucepan with a tiny bit of water. Once it's hot, you can pour it through a sieve if you like, but I often don't bother.
Roll out your marzipan to a thickness of about half an inch.
Brush your cake with the hot apricot jam and place your rolled-out marzipan over the top. Cup the marzipan around the edges of your cake with your hands and then pat it down the sides so it is properly stuck. Smooth it over with your hands or use a couple of plastic smoothers for a more even surface.
Leave the marzipan for a day or 2 (or longer) to harden. This will make icing your cake much easier.
If you are using roll out fondant/ sugarpaste to ice your cake, stick it on to your marzipanned cake with a light brushing of brandy.

TOP TIP!

I like to roll the marzipan out on to a sheet of baking parchment dusted with icing sugar, as it's less likely to stick to the surface and you'll need less icing sugar than if you roll it out directly on the table top.

Christmas Cake

2009-11-24T02:22:00.017Z

Many of you will have made your Christmas cake in October or, more frighteningly organised still, September, but I feel now is the ideal time to make it. Or at least to start thinking about making it. Having said that, when other things have taken over, I've made mine as late as Christmas Eve and it's still been deliciously rich and moist, if a little harder to slice without falling to bits.

My reason for disagreeing with "the earlier the better", is that Christmas cake is rarely eaten on Christmas Day itself. Okay, maybe a slice to follow the cold cuts in the evening, but Christmas cake is usually still knocking around in a tin somewhere come the end of January, because, well, it lasts, doesn't it? And yule logs, spiced biscuits and stollen have far shorter life expectancies. And then there are the selection boxes, giant toblerones, panettone and trifle, not to mention the tin of Roses. Always conveniently placed within reaching distance, the Roses tin doesn't even require you to get up off the sofa if you want to mindlessly scoff something naughty while "It's A Wonderful Life" or something with Meg Ryan and a Nat King Cole soundtrack is on telly.

A lot of people don't like fruit cake, or think they don't like fruit cake, because they've never had a good one, or because they hate marzipan, but I'll come to that later. These are all certainly part of the reason that Christmas cake is the last thing to get polished off. But it's also to do with the feeling that fruit cake isn't that bad for you, which, as long as you don't count the icing, it isn't. It's far better to get rid of all the other stuff that is bad for you first (by eating it really REALLY quickly), because then you can stop thinking about it and just... relax. Fruit cake is a pleasure that doesn't have as much guilt attached to it as other things, which in my opinion makes it a pleasure worth savouring, and this is the reason I am never remotely tempted to make a small one. Ever. The very idea of it is absurd.

I am a big fan of traditional fruit cake and by this I mean traditional Victorian fruit cake and not the dry old post war excuses for fruit cake that have put a lot of people off for life. For me, the crucial musts for a delicious Christmas cake are:

1) It absolutely HAS to be moist.
2) It has to be generously spiced.
and 3) It has to be boozy.

I use dark rum in this recipe because I think its natural spiciness compliments the spiciness of the cake much better than brandy (but don't worry, brandy still features for steeping later on...), but by all means substitute the rum for brandy or whisky if the idea of it horrifies you. Also it is worth noting that there is absolutely no reason to include an ingredient you don't like just because my recipe tells you to. This is how I like Christmas cake to be, but if you want to swap the dates for prunes or leave out the cherries or the stem ginger, go for your life. It's your cake. Just make up the missing ingredient with more of something you do like, so that in the end the dry ingredients weigh the same as in the recipe here. If, on the other hand, you are one of the poor unfortunates that hate all dried fruit because, like my friend who shall remain nameless (Catherine), it reminds you of rabbit poo, fear not. Christmas won't leave you out this year. I'll be posting up some festive chocolatey yummies on here for you very soon.

Right, last things last, a note on marzipan. This stuff divides people like nothing else and makes some people wrongly assume they hate almonds and anything that has almonds in it. I must admit, I am hugely fussy about marzipan and absolutely abhor that bright yellow shop bought ugliness that bears absolutely no resemblance to the taste of actual almonds and spends its horrible little life going around spoiling otherwise perfectly nice cakes. It is packed with rubbish, dyed an unsavoury shade of jaundice and flavoured with a bucket load of almond "flavouring" to hide the taste of whatever nasty chemicals and additives they've used to prolong its shelf life. This is why I prefer to make it myself, but if you buy it, it really is worth spending a bit more for the posh 100% natural stuff. If, on the other hand, you like a bit of the yellow stuff, go, as I said before, for your life. It's your cake. Of course, you don't actually have to cover your cake in marzipan if you really don't like it. It isn't THE LAW. I sometimes like to swap traditional almond marzipan for hazelnut and Grand Marnier "marzipan", but you don't have to use anything at all if you'd rather. Sure, it helps keep the cake moist for longer and makes icing it afterwards easier, but if you hate it, why spoil all your hard work? You can always cover your cake in two thin layers of roll out icing (letting the first layer "crust" overnight, before icing it with the second) for a smooth finish, or just a thick layer of stippled royal icing is lovely, especially if neatness isn't your forte or you haven't got a rolling pin.

Christmas Cake
(I'm going to give you the measurements for 3 different round tin sizes, in the hope that you won't have to go out and buy a new one specially. I have given the amounts for round cakes because I generally prefer the look of them, but if you prefer square or only have a square tin, whatever the amount for a round tin, it will be the same for an inch smaller square. So, if you are following the amounts for a 9" round, it will be enough to make an 8" square cake; a 6" round will make a 5" square, etc).

6" Round Tin:

Cook for an hour at 160 C (140 C fan), then cover the top with baking parchment and turn the oven down to 150 C (130 C fan) and cook for a further 1 1/4 hours.

Ingredients

3 oz (75 g) Currants
3 oz (75 g) Sultanas
3 oz (75 g ) Exciting seedless raisins, such as Australian muscat raisins (if you can't find any just use regular)
5 oz (150 g) Seedless raisins
3 oz (75 g) pitted dates (I like Medjool best), chopped - I just use a pair of scissors and snip them into 3.
2 oz (50 g) Natural glace cherries, halved
1 - 2 balls of stem ginger in syrup, drained and chopped
3 generous tbsp dark rum
1 generous tbsp ginger wine
2 tbsp very strong black coffee (preferably espresso)
A splash of vanilla extract
Zest and juice of half a large orange
3 oz (75 g) unsalted butter, softened
2 oz (50 g) molasses sugar
1 egg
5 oz (125 g) plain flour, sifted
1/2 tsp ground cinammon
1 tsp mixed spice
1/2 tsp ground ginger
2 oz (50 g) ground almonds
A large pinch of bicarbonate of soda

Plus extra dark rum, ginger wine and/ or brandy/whisky for steeping later.

7" Round Tin:

Bake for 1 hour at 160 C (140 C fan), then cover the top with baking parchment and bake for a further 2 hours at 150 C (130 C fan).

6 oz (150 g) Currants
6 oz (150 g) Sultanas
6 oz (150 g) Exciting seedless raisins, such as Australian muscat raisins (if you can't find any just use regular)
12 oz (300 g) Seedless raisins
6 oz (150 g) pitted dates (I like Medjool best), chopped - I just use a pair of scissors and snip them into 3.
3 oz (75 g) Natural glace cherries, halved
2 -3 balls of stem ginger in syrup, drained and chopped
6 generous tbsp dark rum
2 generous tbsp ginger wine
2 fl. oz (50 ml) very strong black coffee (preferably espresso)
1/2 tbsp of vanilla extract
Zest and juice of 1 large orange
6 oz (150 g) unsalted butter, softened
5 oz (125 g) molasses sugar
2 eggs
8 oz (200 g) plain flour, sifted
1 tsp ground cinammon
2 tsp mixed spice
1 tsp ground ginger
3 oz (75 g) ground almonds
1/2 tsp of bicarbonate of soda

Plus extra dark rum, ginger wine and/ or brandy/ whisky for steeping later.

9" Round Tin:

Bake for 1 hour at 160 C (140 C fan), then cover with baking parchment and bake for a further 2 1/2 hours at 150 C (130 C fan).

9 oz (225 g) Currants
9 oz (225 g) Sultanas
9 oz (225 g) Exciting seedless raisins, such as Australian muscat raisins (if you can't find any just use regular)
1 lb 2 oz (450 g) Seedless raisins
9 oz (225 g) pitted dates (I like Medjool best), chopped - I just use a pair of scissors and snip them into 3.
5 oz (125 g) Natural glace cherries, halved
4 - 5 balls of stem ginger in syrup, drained and chopped
9 generous tbsp dark rum
3 generous tbsp ginger wine

4 fl oz (100 ml) very strong black coffee (preferably espresso)

1 tbsp of vanilla extract

Zest and juice of 2 large oranges

10 oz (250 g) unsalted butter, softened
7 oz (175 g) molasses sugar
3 eggs
14 oz (350 g) plain flour, sifted
2 tsp ground cinammon
3 tsp mixed spice
2 tsp ground ginger
4 oz (100 g) ground almonds
3/4 tsp of bicarbonate of soda

Plus extra dark rum, ginger wine and/ or brandy/ whisky for steeping later.

You can double the ingredients of the 9" for a 12" round cake and add an extra 2 hours to the cooking time at the 150 C (130 C fan) stage.

Method

Place the sultanas, raisins, currants, dates, cherries, stem ginger, rum, ginger wine and coffee in a large pan. Cover with a piece of greaseproof paper or baking parchment before placing the saucepan lid on top.
Place over a low flame and gently bring to the boil.
Uncover the fruit and stir until all the liquid is absorbed.
Mix in the orange zest, juice and vanilla extract and leave to cool. If you want to do this stage a few days in advance you can do, but transfer the fruit into a non-metal bowl and cover the top with cling-film to prevent the flavour from tainting or the fruit from drying out.
Preheat your oven to 160 C (140 C fan).
Grease and line your tin with baking parchment.
Beat the butter until creamy and crumble in the sugar. Beat until pale and fluffy (this may take about 5 minutes and if you have an electric whisk, use it to save your arms).
Separate the egg/s and beat in the yolk/s (one at a time if you are making a bigger cake than a 6")
Gently fold the flour, ground spices and ground almonds into the mixture.
Add the cooled fruit and any liquid left in its pan/bowl. Mix well. For bigger cakes I find using your hands is the easiest method.
In a clean bowl, whisk the egg whites until at the soft peak stage.
Dissolve the bicarbonate of soda in 1 tsp of water and whisk into the egg whites.
Gently fold into the fruit mixture until well combined. I tend to add a spoonful and vigorously beat it in to loosen the mixture before folding in the remaining egg white.
Spoon your mixture into your chosen tin and smooth over the top with a palette knife and brush the top lightly with water.
Tie a double thickness sheet of brown parcel paper around the tin with string and bake on the centre shelf for the time advised above or until an inserted skewer comes out clean. You will need to leave the skewer in for a bit of time to tell (30 secs for a 6", 45 secs for a 7", 1 1/2 mins for a 9" and 4 mins for a 12" cake).
Remove from the oven and while still hot, stab the cake all over with a skewer and gently pour over some more dark rum (or brandy/ whisky)
Allow the cake to cool in the tin before turning it out and carefully peeling off the baking parchment.
Pour over a little ginger wine and wrap the cake in greaseproof paper and then foil and store in an airtight container in a cool, dry place.
Once a week steep the cake with a little more alcohol. I like to alternate between rum, brandy and ginger wine to layer up the flavour, but you can stick to one if you prefer.

I'll post up my recipe for home-made marzipan a little nearer to Christmas for you. In the meantime, happy baking.

Victoria's Christmas Cake Boutique

2009-11-17T19:56:00.000Z

Well, it's that time of year again already. I know nobody really likes to think about Christmas before there's a "D" in the month, but thinking about cake is an exception, right? I will post up some delicious Christmas cake recipes for you to try at home in the next few days, but for those of you who don't have the time or the inclination for festive home baking Victoria's Cake Boutique are now taking orders for Christmas.

If you would like to order a Christmas cake, please go to the website at www.victorias-cake-boutique.co.uk then go to the "Contact Us" page and let me know what you would like to order.

Here's our 2009 Christmas list to whet your appetites:

Traditional, boozy fruit cake with home-made marzipan and white fondant icing.
Chocolate fruit cake (a sticky, orangey and delicious twist on tradition and the perfect Christmas cake substitute or gift for those who are not fans of Victorian fruit cake) with (or without, please specify when ordering) home-made marzipan and white fondant icing.
Both styles of fruit cake can be decorated with a choice of snowmen (collection only), sparkly snowflakes or cute Christmas trees.
Spiced chocolate torte topped with chocolate ganache with handpiped white chocolate snowflakes (collection only) or edible gilded holly or Christmas trees.
Chocolate and chestnut Yule logs decorated with sugar holly: £25

There is a small extra cost for p&p or, for those of you who are London or Kent based, you can collect free of charge.

Alternatively, why not pop down to The Stour Space Christmas Market on the 12th and 13th of Decemeber from 11 - 6, where you can buy Christmas cakes and biscuits from me, as well as find lots of beautiful handmade gifts for your friends and family this Christmas.

STOUR SPACE, 7 ROACH ROAD, FISH ISLAND, LONDON, E3 2PA

Hello Cakey!

2009-11-16T13:45:00.033Z

I was given a last minute commission by a lovely actress at the end of day on Wednesday, for her daughter's 5th birthday on Saturday. As usual, I wanted to make the cake as personal as possible, so wanted to find out what her daughter was into. The answer: swimming, gymnastics and Hello K... aherm, I mean cartoon kittens that may or may not resemble a well known and heavily copyrighted 35 year old Japanese kitty.

I knew a single tier just wouldn't cut it if I was to include all of Izzy's interests in one cake and besides, the higher you go, the more flavours you can get - which is obviously much more exciting to children and greedy people like me. The flavours chosen were gooey chocolate fudge cake for the bottom tier and vanilla and butterscotch for the top.

Next: how to include everything, while still maintaining a proper sense of cohesion? I went for the sea for swimming instead of a swimming pool, partly because there are more things of interest to play around with in the sea (star fish, other fish...), but also because I could make the cake's "story" more comprehensible. I mean, who does gymnastics at the side of a pool? But on a beach? Definitely much more feasible. Probably.

After icing both cakes and a cake board with deep aqua blue sugarpaste, I covered most of the top tier in draped yellow sugarpaste for the sand on the beach. Once that was done I set to work making the cartoon sugar kittens* and fish and star fish. For the beach cats, I had one balancing on a beam, one performing ribbon gymnastics and another doing a hand stand. For the sea, I had a swimming team, two (a big one and a baby one with arm bands) in rubber rings and, of course, there had to be a Hello K... (Shhhh!) mermaid with a gold fish instead of a ribbon on her head. I piped on the sea foam with royal icing, which I also used for mermaid scales and bubbles which spelled out the birthday girl's name.

All in all, Izzy and her mum were delighted with the cake and rang me the next day to thank me, which is always a rather wonderful bonus to the job and makes all the hard work feel thoroughly worth it.

* Any resemblance to actual Japanese kittens, living or dead, is purely coincidental.

Psychologies Magazine

2009-11-12T15:24:00.002Z

Victoria's Cake Boutique is in the December issue of Psychologies Magazine (out now) with advice on how to make the perfect Christmas cake. You can find me on page 155. I'll be posting some delicious fail-safe Christmas recipes on the blog very soon too...

Flame filled fairy cakes

2009-11-09T12:35:00.007Z

The traditional cake for Bonfire Night celebrations is Thor cake, a cake made using black treacle, oatmeal and ginger, but no flour. The mixture is kneaded into a dough and rolled out to a thickness of about 2 inches, before being baked. The recipe probably pre-dates Guy Fawkes to the Celtic Festival of "Samhain" and has similar ingredients to Parkin, a cake originating from the North of England. Parkin has overtaken Thor as the cake more commonly associated with Guy Fawkes Night and is more of a cakey cake, in that it contains flour and rises on baking.

I was asked to make some festive cupcakes for my friend's Bonfire Night party at the weekend and wanted to keep some of the traditional flavours of Thor and Parkin, but with a more modern feel and lighter texture. I chose ginger cupcakes with ginger buttercream and spiced chocolate cupcakes with rich chocolate buttercream. I adore ginger, so tend to be quite heavy-handed when adding the powdered spice, but if you prefer a milder flavour, by all means add less. The same goes for the spice hit in the chocolate cupcakes; you can even just use cinammon if you'd rather make chocolate and cinammon cakes.

To make the cupcakes properly festive, I decided to make sugar flames, chocolate bonfire wood, sugar rockets and gold stars. For the ginger cupcakes, I made some with undyed buttercream topped with sugarpaste rockets and some with flames and buttercream matching the colours in the flames. I made the flames out of sugarpaste (roll out fondant icing) with yellow centres, wrapped with orange and then red. I also divided the buttercream into 4, left one part undyed, and dyed the other parts yellow, orange and red. Then, using a No. 10 star nozzle, I filled the piping bag with the three colours. The easiest way to do this is to place the bag (fitted with the nozzle) in a glass and then fold the bag down the outside of the glass. Using a palate knife, place the different coloured buttercreams vertically in 3 separate sections, so that when piped, the buttercream will be striped, like Aquafresh toothpaste. When piping with a star nozzle, start on the outer edge and pipe a ring, and then follow the ring inwards until it ends in a point at the top. I then stuck a fondant flame on top of each flame cake.

For the other half of the ginger cupcakes, I used a palate knife to smooth over the undyed ginger buttercream and then topped them with a sugar rocket (a triangular cone on a cylinder of sugarpaste in your choice of colour, with a little tail made out of black sugarpaste for the fuse and with a little gold star at the end for the spark.

I decorated half of the spiced chocolate cupcakes with chocolate buttercream and bonfire wood made out of milk chocolate plastique, and topped them with more fondant flames. I dyed the rest of the buttercream black and piped it with a No. 10 star nozzle, topped with edible gold glitter and edible gold stars (I used a tiny star cutter on chocolate plastique rolled very thinly and painted them with edible gold lustre dust). The black icing will dye your mouth black, like you've eaten a big bag of black jacks, but it doesn't last long and it's fine, and indeed fun, if everyone's eaten some.

Obviously Bonfire Night has been and gone for this year, and the cakes don't need to be decorated with flames and fireworks, but then again, I don't really think you need to wait a whole year for an excuse to make these pretty, fun treats either.

Ginger Cupcakes with Ginger Buttercream

Preheat the oven to 160C (140C if you have a fan assisted oven) and place your cupcake cases in muffin trays. The mixture makes 24 cupcakes.

Ingredients

8 oz (200 g) unsalted butter
6 oz (175 g) molasses sugar
3 tbsp black treacle
1/4 pint (150 ml) whole milk
2 large eggs, beaten
5 pieces of stem ginger, drained and chopped (retain the syrup for the buttercream)
10 oz (300 g) self raising flour
1 1/2 heaped tbsp ground ginger
A pinch of salt
2 - 3 tbsp ginger wine

Buttercream
7 tbsp ginger syrup (the syrup from the stem ginger)
8 oz unsalted butter, softened
16 oz (450 g) icing sugar, sifted
5 tsp lemon juice

Method

In a large saucepan, gently melt the butter, sugar and treacle together until the sugar is fully dissolved. Allow the mixture to cool slightly.
Stir in the milk and add the beaten eggs and stem ginger. Mix thoroughly.
Sift the flour, ground ginger and salt over the warm mixture and combine.
Spoon the mixture into the cupcake cases and bake for 20 - 30 mins or until an inserted skewer comes out clean.
While the cakes are still hot, stab the cakes all over with a skewer and, using a teaspoon, pour a little ginger wine on to each cake.
Transfer on to a wire rack and allow to cool completely.

Buttercream

Beat the butter until extremely soft and sift over the icing sugar. Mix thoroughly.
Add the ginger syrup and lemon juice and beat again until the buttercream is smooth and fluffy and ready to be dyed (if you want to), smoothed or piped on top of your cooled cupcakes.

Spiced Chocolate Cupcakes

(Preheat the oven to 180C or 160C Fan and line your muffin trays with cupcake cases. This recipe is enough to make 24 cupcakes, but you can reduce the quantities by half for 12).

Ingredients

8 oz (200 g) good quality dark chocolate (70% plus cocoa solids), broken into pieces
7 fl. oz (200 ml) whole milk
9 oz (225 g) molasses sugar
3 oz (125 g) unsalted butter, softened
2 large eggs, beaten
1 1/2 tbsp cocoa
5 oz (125 g) plain flour
1 tsp bicarbonate of soda
A pinch of salt
1 tsp ground ginger
1 tsp mixed spice
1 tsp cinammon
1/2 tsp ground black pepper

Rich Chocolate Buttercream

8 oz (200 g) unsalted butter, softened
14 oz (350 g) icing sugar, sifted
8 oz (200 g) dark chocolate, melted
2 tbsp milk

Method

Place the chocolate, milk and 3 oz (75 g) of the sugar into a saucepan and heat gently, until the sugar and chocolate have melted. Allow the "chocolate milk" to cool.
In a large mixing bowl, beat the butter and remaining sugar together until pale and creamy.
Gradually beat in the eggs and then the cooled "chocolate milk".
Sift the dry ingredients over the mixture and fold in. Mix in the salt and spices.
Spoon the cake batter into the cupcake cases and bake for 10 - 15 mins or until an inserted skewer comes out clean.
Once baked, leave the cakes in their tins to cool for a few minutes before placing on a wire rack to cool completely.

Buttercream

Beat the butter until really soft.
Sift over the icing sugar and beat again until well incorporated.
Pour the chocolate and milk into the mixture and beat until smooth and fluffy and ready to be smoothed or piped on to your cakes.

As with almost all of my cake recipes, these cakes can be baked as a whole cake in a loaf tin or 8" round/ 7" square.