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 seventeen - Xmas Fruit cake - 2013

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This cake’s undoubtedly another Xmas must have! It’s quite easy to make, but pay attention to the right baking time, Anyway it’s better to bake a little bit longer so that flavours can blend together well. Then the longer you store it the nicer it smells and tastes - one month is a good period of time, in my opinion Storing time does make the difference! I think you should try it yourself. I do love this cake, you can make it in any shape: my favourite moulds for Xmas are trees or stars, whether smaller or bigger, but if you use a square or round pan it looks traditional and if you put a ribbon around it and a decoration in the middle, something like a Xmas tree candle holder it looks quite elegant and original. 

But this cake hides another secret! You can change some of the ingredients and there you have another cake! The original recipe is with candied fruit, raisins and almonds, but I never put almonds - we don’t like them much - and use chocolate instead! And for chocolate lovers use white and dark chocolate without candied fruit or raisins. It taste delicious, believe me!

for recipe see cake seventeen 

http://time-for-cake-making.blogspot.it/2012/12/cake-seventeen-christmas-fruit-cake.html

As you see, this year, I decorated the big Xmas tree in green with little red Xmas balls using cream cheese frosting and tiny chocolate rounds. 

Cream cheese frosting

green food colouring 

300 g cream cheese or mascarpone

200 g icing sugar

Mix cream cheese and icing sugar together until they’re well blended together. Add as much green colouring as to reach the shade you like. Refrigerate for at least one hour.

Red Xmas balls

100 g White chocolate

red food colouring.

Melt white chocolate over a bain maire. Cool it. Add some red colouring until you get the shade you want. Pipe small rounds on baking paper or better on a silicon baking mat. Refrigerate.

also visit: http://time-for-a-cake.blogspot.it/2013/12/xmas-fruit-cake-2013.html

Cake twenty-five Choco Lollipops

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You don’t need special ingredients for these lollipops: you need chocolate, of course, patience, some free time, your fancy and the right moulds! They’re not complicated to make but you have to proceed step by step and be extremely precise when filling the spaces if you’re using chocolate of different colours.

These chocolate lollipos are in the shape of an egg, and they’re typical of Easter but chocolate is too good to be limited to a special time of the year... so you don’t have to wait until next year to have a go.

g 100 white chocolate 

g. 200 milk chocolate

g. 300 dark chocolate

any food dye you like

lollipos sticks

1. Make sure your lollipop mould is clean and dry.

2. Melt chocolate first of all. You can use a microwave which is faster, if you like  but I prefer the double boiler as you can better control the temperature. Set up your double boiler with a small amount of water - the water should not be touching the top pan- and warm it over medium-low heat. 

Start with white chocolate. Cut it in small pieces and place them into pan,  stirring occasionally, just until the mixture is smooth, then remove the pan from the heat. White chocolate is particularly sensitive to burning, so take extra care and stir meticulously.

3. When chocolate is melted and smooth, take a spoon and dip it into the white chocolate. Place enough white chocolate in the bottom of each cavity. 

4. Refrigerate for about 10 minutes or until chocolate is set. 

5. Melt the milk chocolate following the same procedure. 

6. Place some chocolate spoonfuls into the mould and continue to add until cavities are full.

7. Position lollipop sticks in place. 

8. Refrigerate to set. 

9. Pop the lollipops out of the  moulds. Decorate to your taste. Place them in small cellophane bags with a ribbon, for example.

You can alternatively use dark, milk or white chocolate and add any food colouring too. It’s all up to you and you fancy!

 

also visit:

http://time-for-a-cake.blogspot.it/2013/05/cake-twenty-five.html