Cake forty - one alias Bread Two - Bread Bunny & Sheep

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Bread making needs time and patience. Waiting time is often long and it’s of highly importance for the good result of our bread. I particularly like to make bread as it’s a type of dough which leaves free space to your fancy, you can use any kind of mould or if you’re more like an artist type you can model it any shape you want. This is one of the many recipes for white bread which is good with the big variety of ham and salami we have for lunch at Easter in Tuscany. 

This year I added some sheep to the traditional rabbits. 

500g flour

15g yeast

300ml lukewarm water

60ml lukewarm milk

a pinch of salt 

Put yeast and 150ml lukewarm water in a small bowl and mix until dissolved, then add remaining lukewarm water Sieve flour and salt in a large bowl and make a well in the centre. Make a small dough using your hands Rest 20 minutes or until mixture resembles a creamy foam. Put small dough back into large bowl and pour in the lukewarm milk. Bring the dough together. Turn dough onto floured surface and knead for about 10 minutes until it looks smoothy and silky. Sit the dough in a clean, lightly oiled large bowl. Cover with cling film and a tea towel and put it somewhere warm for it to rise for an hour and fifteen minutes. It should double in size. Now knock back the dough, knead the dough again for a couple of minutes. Roll dough to 18cm x 35cm rectangle, roll up from short side like a Swiss roll, place on greased moulds. Cover with oiled cling film and stand in warm place for further 30 minutes. Remove cling film, cut a diagonal slash across top, dust with flour. Stand 15 minutes, then bake at 230° for 15 minutes, then reduce temperature to 200° and bake for further 20-25 minutes. Turn bread onto wire rack to cool.

also visit: http://time-for-a-cake.blogspot.it/2014/06/cake-forty-one-alias-bread-two.html

Cake forty - Easter basket and decorations

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Appearance in baking is of top importance, cakes look different but recipe maybe the same! Shape and decoration deceive our sight and sometimes a different shape may also result in a different taste. 

I particularly like the idea of an edible basket and I’ve tried several recipes, over the years, I made it using same recipe as for a stand up bunny, which is another must on my table, but this is the one which gives the best result. It’s more like a sweet bread than a real cake. 

You can try them both and see which one you like best!

Easter Basket 

500g flour 

25g yeast

1 glass warm water

1/4 luke warm milk

50g almonds

100 g diced orange and lemon peel 

150g raisins

1cl rhum

100g butter (melted)

50g sugar 

1 egg

1 pinch salt

grated lemon rind

Combine yeast, sugar and warm water in small bowl, whisk until yeast is dissolved. Cover bowl, stand in warm place about 10 minutes or until mixture is frothy.

Combine fruit and almond with rhum in small bowl. Cover stand 30 minutes.

Place flour in large bowl, make well in the centre and add yeast mixture. Make a small dough. Cover and stand about 15 minutes. Add melted butter salt, egg, salt and lemon rind. Beat dough vigourously. Stand about 20 minutes. Stir in almonds and fruit. Cover and stand further 15 minutes. Grease a round shaped pan. Place dough. Put a small round saucepan in centre. Bake at 180° about 40 minutes. Remove saucepan after 20 minutes.

When basket is still hot melt 25g butter, brush top of basket and sprinkle with 25g sugar. 

I’ve found it difficult to find the right mould for the basket and even more difficult to make it hollow inside! After many trials I got it right!

I made a small Easter wreath with some leftover dough! 

Stand up Bunny

1 egg

70 g butter or margarine

70 g sugar

a pinch of salt

90 g flour 

1/2 teaspoon baking powder

for procedure please see: 

http://time-for-cake-making.blogspot.it/2013/05/cake-twenty-four-bunnies-bunnies-bunnies.html

also visit http://time-for-a-cake.blogspot.it/2014/06/easter-baking-cake-forty.html

Easter baking - Cake thirty nine Chocolate eggs, chocolate lollipos

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I’m certainly not a maître chocolatier and I still have to learn a lot about the universe of chocolate making. Anyway I love working with chocolate and every year I make something new. I use pure chocolate for the animals and the small eggs and food colouring to make a change. As for the bigger eggs I like to mix it with cereals - rice Krispies for dark chocolate and coco pops for the milk and white one. You need a lot of time and patience, you work and work for a whole afternoon and what do you get at the end? Only a handful of chocolates and an Easter egg! Rather frustrating if you consider quantity but fully satisfying for quality and good smell!

Colourful Tiny Chocolate Eggs

200g white chocolate

pink, green and purple food colouring

200g milk chocolate

200g dark chocolate 

Melt chocolate carefully over a bain marie, to prevent it from seizing through overcooking. If you want to make colourful eggs, add some food colouring to the white chocolate to reach the colour you like. Pour chocolate into mould while it’s still hot. Fill the mould to its rim, use the back of a spoon to smooth the chocolate into the corners, tap the mould briskly on the table to settle the chocolate into designs in the cavity and to force out bubbles. Scrape off the excess using a knife. Tap the mould once again. Put mould in the freezer for five minutes. Turn eggs over on parchment paper slightly tapping on the bottom  of the mould to help release them. Eggs should just fall out of the mould.

Use some melted chocolate to join the egg halves, scraping off the excess chocolate. 

Easter Chocolate Egg

see recipe http://time-for-cake-making.blogspot.it/2013/04/cake-twenty-three-easter-eggs.html

Chocolate lollipos

see recipe http://time-for-cake-making.blogspot.it/2013/05/cake-twenty-five-choco-lollipops.html

also visit:http://time-for-a-cake.blogspot.it/2014/06/easter-baking-cake-thirty-nine.html

Easter baking - Cake thirty eight Hot Cross Buns

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Like other Easter specialties they’re half way between bread and cake. I love the taste of the raisins and orange peel inside! They’re not too sweet and are good hot at breakfast with a cup of coffee or tea and why not some jam on top. They need some resting time so I find it impossible to bake them the same day for breakfast! So I make them the day before and heat them up, but they lose some of their fragrancy. 

14g dry yeast

55g sugar

250ml warm milk

600g flour

1 tsp cinnamon

60g butter

1 egg, lightly beaten

125ml warm water

250g dried currants or raisins

80g orange peel

1 tbs apricot jam

Combine yeast, sugar and milk in small bowl, whisk until yeast is dissolved. Cover bowl, stand in warm place about 10 minutes or until mixture is frothy. Sift flour and cinnamon into larghe bowl, rub in butter, then stir in yeast mixture,egg, water and fruit. Cover and stand in warm place about one hour or until mixture has doubled in size. Turn dough onto floured surface, knead about 5 minutes or unitl smooth and elastic. divide dough in 16 portions and knead into balls. Place buns into greased 23cm square slab cake pan, stand in warm place about 20 minutes or until dough has risen to top of pan.

Flour paste

75g flour

1tbs sugar

80ml water

Combine flour and sugar in small bowl, gradually blend in water, stir until smooth.

Place flour paste into piping bag fitted with small plain tube and pipe crosses onto buns.

Bake at 200° 10 minutes, reduce heat to 180° and bake about a further 15 minutes. Turn buns onto a serving plate and brush with warm apricot jam. 


Flour paste was too much for the Hot Cross Buns and I've used it to make a Bunny. Bunnies are never enough at Easter!

Also visit: http://time-for-a-cake.blogspot.it/2014/05/easter-baking-cake-thirty-seven_31.html

Cake thirty-seven Easter baking: Smart Bunnies

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Simple ingredients - butter, flour, sugar eggs and raisins - easy to make: simply delicious! 

It’s actually surprising how many different cakes and cookies you can make with the same ingredients.  

I’m sure that if you try them they’ll be among your favourite cookies.

100g butter

75g sugar, plus extra for sprinkling

1 egg

225g flour

1/2 tsp mixed spice

1/2 tsp cinnamon 

80g raisins, plus 12 extra for eyes

2 tbsp milk

Cream butter and sugar until fluffy, until the egg and whisk again. Add the flour, spices and raisins  and mix well. Lightly knead, then roll out to a 5mm thickness. Use bunny cutters to press out about 12 cookies, rerolling the dough if necessary. 

Line 2 baking trays with baking paper, arrange the cookies there and brush with milk. Make eyes with extra raisins and sprinkle over the extra sugar. Bake at 200° C for 12-15 minutes. Cool on the baking sheets for a few minutes until transferring to a wire rack to cool. Tie ribbons around the necks of bunnies. 

Also visit: http://time-for-a-cake.blogspot.it/2014/05/easter-baking-cake-thirty-seven.html

Cake thirty six - Easter Gingerbread Cookies

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I’d long associated gingerbread cookies to Christmas, considering the main ingredients like honey or the spice mix more wintry. Easter is usually the time for chocolate and cookies which taste more like sweetened breads. But if you try these cookies you’ll change idea, for sure, as I did! These chocolate gingerbread cookies are special, the right taste for Easter! 

125g butter, softened

165g brown sugar

1 egg

225g flour

35g raising flour

1 teaspoon ginger powder

25g cocoa powder

Beat butter, sugar and egg with electric mixer until combined. Stir in ginger powder, flours and cocoa in two batches. Knead dough on floured surface until smooth. Roll dough between sheets of baking paper until 5mm thick. Refrigerate 30 minutes.

Line oven trays with baking paper.

Using Easter cookie cutters, cut cookies and place them onto oven trays. Bake cookies from 10 to 12 minutes depending on size. 

Green Glacé Icing

125g icing sugar

some drops of water

green food colouring 

Mix icing sugar and water until spreadable. Add some green food coloring.

Decorate cookies to your taste!

also visit: http://time-for-a-cake.blogspot.it/2014/04/easter-baking-cake-thirty-six.html

Cake thirty-five Harjeet Coffee Cake

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It’s a cake I usually make when I feel blue and rather nostalgic. It’s easy and quick. The only thing you must pay attention to is coffee: if you don’t have any coffee left and make it fresh you’d better wait until it’s cool or batter would curdle. It tastes delicious with a good cup of coffee and milk in the morning or a cup of tea in the afternoon. This time I wanted to make it richer and have added strawberry jam inside and sugar sprinkles on top.

260g margarine or butter

300g flour

225g sugar

3 eggs

1 teaspoon baking powder

3/4 large spoonfuls coffee

strawberry jam 

sugar sprinkles

Cream margarine and sugar until very light in colour and fluffy. Add eggs - one at a time, adding some flour after every addition. Stir in remaining flour and baking powder.

Line a medium-sized rectangular mould with baking paper. Pour in half of batter, spread strawberry jam and cover with rest of batter. Add some sugar sprinkle on top.
Bake at 180° for about 35 minutes.

also visit: http://time-for-a-cake.blogspot.it/2014/03/cake-thirty-five.html

Cake thirty-four - Black Sand Castle

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This is a cake which is good for breakfast or a tea break. I love Bundt cakes and don’t know why I associate them with castles... You’ll discover why I’ve called it black sand castle while making and then eating it, anyway it's black for the chocolate, sand ‘cause it melts in your mouth just like a sand castle does when the sea water covers it and castle for the hole in the middle and the secrets it hides - it’s a red marble cake, with chocolate chips, strawberry jam and poppy seeds.

150 g poppy seeds

200 ml milk 

250 g butter or margarine

200 g sugar

4 eggs

1 lemon - grated rind

375 g flour 

75 g starch

125 ml milk

60 g marzipan or almond meal

1 packet baking powder

150 g chocolate chips

1 teaspoon red food coloring

150 g strawberry jam

200 g dark chocolate

Bring 200 ml milk to a boil and leave to soak for 10-15 minutes. Cream butter or margarine wi

th an electric mixer, then add eggs, lemon rind, flour starch, baking powder and chocolate chips and .stir in 125 ml milk alternately.

Grease a 20cm Bundt cake pan, then dust with fine, dry bread crumbs as Bundt cakes tend to stick to these pans. Pour in 2/3 of dough. 

Mix the remaining dough with the poppy seed milk mixture, the strawberry jam, and the marzipan/almond meal until all ingredients are well combined. Then add the red food coloring and mix well until color is homogeneous. Pour dough into the pan and with a fork make spiral movements to slightly mix the two doughs.

Bake at 180° for about 60/70 minutes. 

Turn cake pan upside down onto a serving plate, wrap a wet tea towel around it and leave to cool. Remove cake from pan. Melt the dark chocolate over a bain marie and cover cake with a thick layer of chocolate.

also visit: http://time-for-a-cake.blogspot.it/2014/02/cake-thirty-four.html

Cake thirty - three NIght & Day

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This is a cake you cannot make in 5 minutes which doesn’t mean you need a special expertise but the point is you need time to prepare the cakes, the cream, and the icing and must calculate some waiting time before you can assemble and decorate it. Anyway it’s defintely worth your time and patience!

It’s a cake for special occasions, the last time I made it it was for my son’s birthday and it was a success! I personally like the matching of chocolate, mascarpone and chocolate ganache and but the caramel icing is the winning touch.

Chocolate cake  

25 g cocoa powder

250 g butter, softened

200 g dark brown sugar

2 eggs

1 tbs golden syrup

185 g self-raising flour

125 ml milk 

Beat cocoa, butter, brown sugar, eggs, golden syrup, flour and milk with electric mixer on a low speed until combined, then increase speed to medium and beat until mixture has changed in colour.

Line a deep 20cm-round cake pan with baking paper.  Pour mixture into pan. Bake at 180° about one hour. Stand cake 10 minutes, then turn, top-side up, onto a plate to cool for about one hour.

Mascarpone Cream

250 g mascarpone cheese

300 ml thickened cream 

Whisk mascarpone and cream in a small bowl until soft peaks form.

Chocolate ganache

300g dark chocolate, chopped coarsely

250 ml cream

Combine chocolate and cream in a small saucepan. Stir over low heat until smooth

Caramel icing 

60g butter 

100g dark brown sugar

60 ml milk

240 g icing sugar

Heat butter,brown sugar and milk in small saucepan, stirring constantly, without boiling. until sugar dissolve. Remove from heat. Add icing sugar and stir until smooth. 

Assembling cake

Using a large knife, split cake into three layers. Center one layer on serving plate. Spread with a third of the mascarpone cream and a third of the caramel icing. Put second layer on top, spread with half of the chocolate ganache, a third of the mascarpone cream and of the caramel icing, the rest of the chocolate ganache. Top with remaining cake layer. Cover top with remaining mascarpone cream and drizzle with remaining caramel icing. Refrigerate about 1 hour. 

Also visit: http://time-for-a-cake.blogspot.it/2014/01/cake-thirty-three.html

Cake thirty - two Xmas Cookies

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Gingerbread cookies or Lebkuchen, as they’re called in Germany, are kind of a family. There’s not only one type. There’s a recipe with cream, and one with molasses instead of honey, you can use butter or margarine and according to the percentage of honey you use the cookies change. Then there’s a variety of delicious cookies which are typical of Xmas time, the ones we call Swedish Sugar Crystal Cookies or  the Starry Night Cookies,  for example.

Gingerbread Cookies (German traditional recipe)

200 g butter or margarine

500 g honey

250 sugar 

2 teaspoons spices (ginger, pepper, nutmeg, cinnamon)

15 g cocoa powder

1200 g flour 

1 packet baking powder

a pinch of salt

2 eggs

for procedure see:

http://time-for-cake-making.blogspot.it/2013/01/cake-eighteen-gingerbread-decorations.html

Gingerbread Cookies (with cream)  - this recipe is in cups

2/3 cup whipping cream

1 cup sugar

2/3 cup maple syrup or molasses

11/2 tbs ginger

1/2  ts grated lemon zest

1 tbs baking soda stirred into 2 ts water

3 1/2 flour

Lightly whip the cream. Add the sugar, syrup or molasses, ginger, lemon and soda. Beat for 3 miutes. Add most of the flour, kneading well. Cover and let rest at room temperature overnight. 

Turn dough onto floured surface. Knead until smooth. Roll the dough into a thin sheet on a floured surface. Cut out different shapes with cookie cutters. Decorate with sugar pearls or chocolate grains. Place them on parchment-lined baking sheets. Bake at 180° on the centre oven rack for around 7 minutes.. Let cool on the baking sheets. 

If you use molasses the cookies will be of a darker brown and of a slightly more chewy consistency.

French Gingerbread cookies 

3/4 cup margarine or butter

3/4 cup sugar

1/2 cup maple syrup or molasses

11/2 tbs ginger

11/2 tbs cinnamom

1 ts baking soda 

1 cup chopped almonds

2 1/2 flour

Beat the butter, sugar and syrup or molasses, until light and fluffy. Gradually add the dry ingredients and almonds. Mix well. Turn dough onto floured surface. Knead until smooth. Divide in half and form thick logs. Wrap each log in plastic and refrigerate for several hours or overnight.

Cut into thin slices with a knife, use heart-shaped cutters to give cookies a nicer look. Place them on baking sheets. Bake at 180° for about 10/12 minutes.

Norwegian Xmas Rings
3 eggs
1 yolk
160 g icing sugar
250 g butter
350 g flour
1 yolk 
crystal sugar
Boil eggs for 10/12 minutes. Cool and peel eggs. Sieve boiled egg yolks and mix with fresh yolk and icing sugar. Soften butter and slowly add butter to mixture. Fold in flour and knead until smooth. Wrap dough in aluminum foil and refrigerate for at least 3 hours. 
Divide dough into walnut sized balls and roll out each piece into about a 10 cm long dough snakes. Lightly scramble egg yolk and use it to stick the two ends of the snake so as to make a ring. Cover rings with yolk and crystal sugar. Place cookies on baking sheets and bake at 190° for about 10/12 minutes.

Swedish Sugar Crystal Cookies

250 g butter

120 g sugar

1 egg

400 g flour

1 ts baking powder

1 egg white

1 pinch salt

1/4 cup crystal sugar

174 cup cinnamon

Cream butter, sugar and egg until light and fluffy. Fold in flour, salt  and baking powder. Mix well. Turn dough onto floured surface and knead until smooth. Wrap dough in aluminium foil and refrigerate for 3 hours.

Divide dough into three parts. (Keep the dough you don’t use in the fridge.). Roll dough into a 3 mm thin sheet on a floured surface. Cut out 6 cm circles and place them on a baking sheet. Slightly mix the egg white and spread on cookies. Cover cookies with sugar and cinnmon. Bake at 180° for about 8/10 minutes.

Starry Night Cookies

300 g flour

150 butter

100 g icing sugar

1 egg

4 tbs apricot jam

chocolate icing

glacé icing (100 g icing sugar - some teaspoons water)

Make a mound of flour on a work surface, add butter, sugar and egg. Knead until smooth. Wrap dough in aluminium foil and refrigerate for 2 hours. Roll dough into a 3 mm sheet and cut out your cookies using cutters in the shape of stars and moon. Place them on baking sheets. Bake at 180° for about 10/12 minutes.

Cool cookies. Divide cookies into two groups. Sandwich the cookies with heated jam. 

Melt chocolate over a bain maire and spread over some of the cookies.  Make some glacé icing by mixing icing sugar and water. Cover the rest of cookies. Decorate with sugar sprinkles.

also visit: http://time-for-a-cake.blogspot.it/2014/01/xmas-cookies-2013.html