BAKING: Rum and Caramel Mini Layer Cakes

So I had the fabulous idea to bake cupcakes for a friends birthday this weekend, rather than fulfilling expectation and arriving with a box of Hummingbird's finest. As is usually the case, simplicity wasn't my foremost thought. The flavour combination of Rum and Caramel came to me as if by magic and I knew there had to be caramel and rum buttercream in the middle which meant they had to be layer cakes, mini victoria sponges if you will. Being the novice that I am I wasn't really sure how to go about this, short of baking cupcakes and cutting each one in half individually. So I called in the expert, Madre Rumblings, who suggested baking a sheet cake and cutting the layers out. Voila! Dilemma solved by someone in the know.

The cake mix was vanilla, with added rum syrup and then further rum syrup was poured over the cake once it came out of the oven. Alcoholic much.

A dollop of Caramel and a dollop of rum buttercream were added to the centre of each individual cake with a further buttercream dollop on top to hold the decoration.

Edible icing bags made by Madre Rumblings over at www.cakesbyjem.co.uk :-)

The cakes were a huge success, quite finicky for me and quite time consuming, but the suprise on the face of the birthday girl and the appreciation and of course praise from the guests made it all worthwhile. And to be honest I was quite proud of myself.

PR Xxx

BRGR.CO Soho

Was treated to a lovely brunch date by one of my favourite people today.

I haven't been to BRGR.CO before. It's quite a new addition to the streets of Soho, originating in Beirut and and joins the Burger Revolution that seems to be taking over and forcing us all into beef pattie comas.

I opted for the Full Monty Brunch Burger - minus the bacon (I don't like it) and minus the egg (I have egg issues, some days I like it and some days I don't. It's very random. Today was an anti-egg day).

The burger came stacked with a hash brown, mushrooms, and tomato all in a Brioche bun (best thing to happen to burgers in my honest opinion, those Ciabatta buns are awful). Even without the bacon and eggs it was definitely still the Full Monty. Is juicy an appropriate term to describe a burger? Well that's exactly what it was. Juicy, soft, tasty, mouth wateringly delicious. Hands down the best burger i've had this year.  

No more Byron, GBK or Honest Burger for me, although they are a bit more local then Soho. Hopefully BRGR.CO will be setting up shop South of the river in the near future.

Let's not forgot about my FIRST EVER Bloody Mary! Not really sure what I was expecting. I think I imagined it to be Gazpacho in a glass... Cold seasoned tomato soup... Sounds totally unappealing, but I was willing to give it a try.

It was divine! Totally forgot Tabasco was one of the ingredients, which took me by suprise initially, especially as i'm usually a Nando's Lemon and herb kinda girl. Chilli is not my friend. Spicy, but refreshing and weirdly moreish. Delish! Obviously accompanied by a jug of ice water ;-)

If you like burgers you need to try BRGR.CO!

PR Xxx

http://www.brgrco.co.uk/

Franco Manca, Northcote Rd

When all else fails to cheer me up, I turn to food. My buffalo mozzarella, bresaola, tomato and basil starter was the taste bud tingler I needed to get the endorphins flowing. By the time i'd completed my tomato, garlic, olive, oregano and mozzarella sourdough pizza I could've auditioned for Glee Club. I would've been exceptionally unsuccessful, but my joy had definitely been restored, if somewhat temporarily. The olives were yummy although slightly scary in size and I could've done without the seeds, but that's just me always looking for the easy option. 

I'd definitely recommend Franco Manca, sadly no gluten free option, so unfortunately I won't be able to eat here too regularly :-(

PR Xxx

BAKING: Lemon and Blueberry Layer Cake

*whispers* I've never made a layer cake before. I know.. I know... Absolutely ridiculous considering the extent of the Dessert Fetish. I've obviously eaten them, but I think i've been a little bit scared if i'm honest. Not really sure why... But there is something about a layer cake that has me a little bit dubious. 

Well I woke up this morning with layer cake on the brain after watching reruns of Great British Bake Off of course. Always spurs me into, first drooling and then the uncontrollable urge to bake.

So into the tiny kitchen (it really was made for Pixies) to create the kind of havoc that I hoped would emerge into a master piece. And that it did!!

So pleased with how this turned out. Lemon sponge and Blueberry Coulis marbled through whipped cream. Hello!! 

I really should have taken a pic of the disaster scene that is now the kitchen, but instead i'm off to find a spoon and take this bad boy to bed.

Calories... Schmalories!

PR Xxx

BAKING: Chocolate Fondant & Cheesecake Brownies

So I was really nervous about this, as a Masterchef fan i’ve seen many a fondant relegated into the realms of over cooked chocolate cake type thing. Being the (scatty-at-best) novice that I am, I figured if they couldn’t do it then what chance did I really have. Nonetheless I rolled my sleeves up, dug out the recipe that made it sound the simplest (courtesy of Donna Hay) and went into battle.

Melt chocolate into butter, okay seriously even amateur fools couldn’t mess this up, but I stood over it like a Hawk watching prey, stirring occasionally waiting for the inevitable, which in my case would’ve been the chocolate ‘seizing’ and creating that stiff grainy paste you get when you over heat it. But the Hawk-like stance i’d adopted in front of the cooker kept the ‘seizing’ at bay.

Whisk eggs, egg yolks and sugar until pale… Electric whisk, bish, bash, bosh… The bosh took a little longer to arrive then I expected and I was pretty certain I missed something out as the paleness was a long time coming, but we got there eventually.

Fold chocolate mixture into egg mixture adding flour… Panic set in as the flour formed small lumps which I convinced myself were the eggs scrambling from the heat of the chocolate, I was pretty close to binning the whole mixture and claiming defeat, when like a fairy liquid bubble one of them burst and the flour poofed out like fairy dust. Whey hey!! Back to folding; over, round, through, over, round, through…. Gently so as not to remove air or some such nonsense, and no stirring – not sure why, but i’m sure i’d heard it somewhere. I spooned the mixture into 4 (out of the hundreds that clutter my cupboard) gü ramekins and packed them up to bake later.

I also made Chocolate Cheesecake Brownies for the kids (also courtesy of Donna Hay) as I figured they wouldn’t appreciate the fine dining experience that my Dark Chocolate Fondants were sure to be *ahem*. Brownies, with a cream cheese mixture swirled through it, sounded like Hummingbirds Black Bottom cupcakes to me, so I was game. It all went to plan and was pretty straight forward until it came to the ‘swirling’. Brownie mixture was thick and cheesecake mixture was runny, so ended up sitting on top, creating more of a ‘topping’ than a ‘swirl’. Although they didn’t look as pretty as the cookbook picture they tasted pretty darned good!!

When the Fondants, left in the hands of the oven timings, came out we initially thought they were over cooked, but closer inspection (a knife to the heart – lol) produced oozing melted chocolate… Result!!! Masterchef contestants eat your hearts out!!

PR Xxx

Bison and Bird, Clapham Common

The Bison and Bird in clapham is a nice pub for a chilled out Sunday lunch, especially if you want to watch the footie. I wouldn't put this roast in my top ten list though. Too much salt and no Yorkshire puddings, you have to order them separate o_O. I've never come across that before, a roast without yorkshire's is absolutely unfounded and the carrots were underdone. Sigh.

PR Xxx

BAKING: Eton Mess Cheesecake

Last weekend I had ladies night at a friends house, volunteered my dessert services and made an Eton Mess Cheesecake, my own recipe and Caramel Shortbread, taking us back to school days.

Mini-me couldn't believe her luck when I let her loose with a rolling pin and pack of digestive biscuits, which formed the base of both my desserts once added to butter and left to cool.

The Caramel Shortcake was simple enough, condensed milk, butter and dark brown sugar brought to the boil and then poured over the chilled biscuit crumb. Put in the fridge and bish, bash, bosh, back to Primary school we went... Didn't get a chance to photograph them :-(

The Cheesecake, although the brain child of my overflowing brain was suprisingly just as simple. I used the basic unbaked Cheesecake recipe of whipped double cream with mascarpone cheese and icing sugar, to which I added broken up meringue and raspberries, I then folded in some more, spooned the biscuit into champagne glasses, spooned the cheesecake mixture on top and garnished with more broken meringue and raspberries. Sounds even more ridiculously easy now that i've written it down, but it was also ridiculously delicious.

It is testament to my absolute love of dessert that I am making the time for this baking malarchy, although these recipes weren't exactly baking....

Maybe I should challenge myself to making actual food...? Hmmmmm....

PR Xxx