Cake twenty-eight Lilac Chic

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There’s something in the tiered cakes which attracts me a lot. It’s like a personal challenge, the kind of ‘Will I be able to make it?’, in other words a chance to test my skills. Sure, but not only! There’s also some unconscious reason which takes me back to a happy memory from my childhood: a photo of one of my first birthdays, me with my parents and a two-tiered birthday cake decorated in white with some silver pearls my mum had made for me.. 

Although decoration is very important as it’s what we see first, the choice of the cake is nonetheless relevant since it’s what we actually eat.

When making a tiered cake you should always choose a solid cake which can stand the weight of the other cakes you put on top. 

For this cake we chose three different cakes which all have, anyway, a common ingredient - chocolate. (My younger daughter loves it...)

Phase 1: Recipes

Dark Chocolate Mud Cake

250 g butter, chopped

150  g dark chocolate, chopped

440 g sugar

250 ml milk 

225g flour

75 g self-raising flour

2 eggs, lightly beaten 

2 tbs cocoa powder

150 g fresh raspberries

Put butter, chocolate, sugar and milk in medium saucepan, stir over heat without boiling, until smooth. Cool 15 minutes. Add flours, eggs and raspberries.  

Line base and sides of a 30cm-round cake pan with baking paper. Pour mixture into pan. Bake at 150° for 50 minutes. Cool cake.

White Chocolate Mud Cake

250 g butter, chopped

150  g white chocolate, chopped

440 g sugar

250 ml milk 

225g flour

75 g self-raising flour

2 eggs, lightly beaten 

2 tbs cocoa powder

150 g fresh blackberries or 150 g choco drops

Same procedure as Dark Chocolate Mud Cake.

Bake two cakes: one in a 30cm round cake pan - use blackberries; the second one in a 24cm round cake pan - use chocolate drops.

Chocolate icing

200 g chocolate, chopped

200 g icing sugar

1 egg

Melt chocolate in small saucepan over boiling water. Cool. Add egg and icing sugar. Stir until smooth.

Chocolate Butterscotch Cake

25 g cocoa powder

250 g butter

200 g 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 until combined.

Line base and sides of a 18 cm-round cake pan with baking paper. Pour mixture into pan. Bake at 180° for about 1 hour. Cool cake.

Mascarpone Cream

250 g mascarpone cheese

300ml thickened cream

Mix mascarpone and cream until soft peaks form.

Caramel Icing

60g butter

100g brown sugar

60ml milk 

240g icing sugar

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

Phase 2: Tiers

Here’s a sketch of the cake showing details of each tier.

1. Chocolate Butterscotch Cake

2. White Chocolate Mud Cake (with raspberries)

3. White Chocolate Mud Cake (with choco drops)

4. White Chocolate Mud Cake (with raspberries)

5. Dark Chocolate Mud Cake (with blackberries)

A. Mascarpone & Caramel Icing

B. Choco Icing

Phase 3: Decoration

purple and peach food colour

600/700 g ready-made white fondant

some corn starch

Assemble and decorate each tier separately. 

Bottom tier

Take the Dark Chocolate Mud Cake and place it onto serving plate.  Spread with chocolate icing.

Take the 30cm round White Chocolate Cake and split into two layers. Put one layer on top of cake and leave second layer aside for middle tier.

Dust a large nonstick mat lightly with corn starch and knead fondant until smooth and pliable.

Roll fondant out in the approximate shape of the cake. Roll fondant up around rolling pin and then place it onto the cake. You can cut out the centre of the circle if you don't have enough fondant.

Add some purple and peach food colour to some white fondant and knead until you have the colour you like. Roll it out and cut about 30 2cm wide circles. 

Decorate cake with some of the circles using some mascarpone cream to help them stick to the cake.

Middle tier

Cut the second 30cm round White Chocolate Cake layer the same size as the 24cm round White Chocolate Cake. 

Place one 24cm round cake on a plate, spread with chocolate icing and put second cake on top.

Colour some fondant the same shade as the spots and follow same procedure as per cake from bottom tier.

Top tier

Split Chocolate Butterscotch Cake into three layers. Put one layer on a plate, spread with some mascarpone cream and some caramel icing. Repeat with second and third layer. Cover cake with white fondant and purple spots.

Phase 4: Assembling the cake 

Once all cakes are ready assemble the cake and carefully put one tier on top of the other.

also visit:
http://time-for-a-cake.blogspot.it/2013/07/cake-twenty-eight.html

Cake twenty-seven alias Bread one - Multigrain Dove

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This is my favourite bread and the shape I like most: It’s a must on my Easter table, dove is in fact a symbol for this day: we do have a ‘Dove’ cake in Italy just as we have ‘Panettone’ for Christmas.

Whether you use a bread machine or not you need a few hours before your bread is ready. I don’t have a bread machine although I’ve been thinking to buy one for some years. In fact it’s quite practical and saves a lot of your time: you don’t need to knead your dough more than once which is in some cases hard work. When you make bread the old style, I mean without a bread machine, you need a whole morning considering rise and knead times - I’m speaking of yeast bread of course! Anyway I think you should try and I'm sure you'll love it! 

50 g buckwheat 

80 g pearled barley

50 g sunflower seeds

10g dry yeast

1 teaspoon sugar

180 ml warm milk

60 ml warm water

235g white plain flour

180g wholemeal plain flour

1 teaspoon salt

2 teaspoons olive oil 

1 egg yolk

1 teaspoon milk, extra

2 teaspoons sesame seeds, extra

Place buckwheat, pearled barley and sunflower seeds in small heatproof bowl, cover with boiling water, cover and stand 30 min. Then rinse and drain well.

In the meantime combine yeast, sugar, milk and water in small bowl, whisk until yeast is dissolved. Cover and stand in warm place about 20 min or until mixture looks frothy. 

Put flour and salt into a large bowl, add grain mixture, oil and yeast mixture. Mix to a soft dough. Turn dough onto a floured surface and knead well until dough is smooth and elastic (about 10 min).

Place dough in large greased bowl, cover and stand in warm place about one hour or until dough has doubled in size. 

Turn dough onto a floured surface, knead until smooth. Divide it into 3 pieces, shape each piece into a 30cm sausage. 

Plait sausages and place dough into a greased loaf pan.

Cover, stand in warm place about 30 min or until risen.

Brush dough with combined egg yolk and extra milk. Sprinkle with sesame seeds.

Bake at 200° for about 45 min

also visit: 
http://time-for-a-cake.blogspot.it/2013/07/cake-twenty-seven-alias-bread-one.html

Cake twenty-six Sicilian Cassata

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It’s a cake which steals a lot of your time and patience of course. It’s not too difficult to make, anyway: you need some practice to get to the right combination of good taste and elegant decoration but it’s well worth a try! 

Consider one day to bake and assemble it, then another day in the fridge before decoration and a couple of days before eating so that all the flavours can harmoniously blend in.

Step 1 - Sponge Cake

6 eggs, separated

250 g sugar

250 g flour

Beat yolks and sugar with electric mixer until thick and foamy. Fold in flour. In the meantime beat egg whites with electric mixer until soft peaks form. Gently fold a little of the beaten egg whites into the batter to lighten it and then add the rest of the whites folding just until incorporated. Do not overmix the batter or it will deflate. Pour mixture evenly into a 20cm-round tin and bake cake at 180° for about 30 min.  or until a toothpick inserted into the center of the cake comes out clean. 

Immediately turn cake onto a wire rack prepared with baking parchment to cool.  

Step 2 - Ricotta filling

1 kg fresh ricotta

250 g sugar 

100 g chocolate, chopped 

Should ricotta be too wet, place it on a colander for about 30 min. Then whip ricotta and sugar with an electric mixer until well blended and smooth. Fold in the chocolate. Refrigerate.

Step 3 - Marzipan

200 g marzipan 

green food colouring

Knead marzipan and some green food colouring until you get a vivid green and the colour is uniform.

Step 4 - Cake assembling

sponge cake

green marzipan 

some vermouth 

ricotta filling 

plastic wrap

Line a 30cm frying pan with plastic wrap. 

Roll out a 10cm wide marzipan stripe. Line the side of the pan as in photo. Cut the sponge cake into 1cm thick slices and use them to line the base and sides of the frying pan. Sprinkle some vermouth over the slices until they’re moist but not wet. Spread ricotta filling evenly over cake base. Top with remaining cake slices and sprinkle vermouth over cake. 

Refrigerate for at least one day.

Step 5 - Royal Icing

2 egg whites

375 g icing sugar

some lemon juice

Whip egg whites and sugar with an electric mixer until hard peaks form. Pour in some lemon juice.

Step 6 - Cake assembling

Cake in the frying pan

Royal icing 

Candied fruit: cherries, citron, a tangerine, or any fruit of your choice.

Turn Cassata onto serving plate. Discard plastic wrap.

 Decorate the cake to your taste. Refrigerate for 3/4 hours at least.

also visit:

http://time-for-a-cake.blogspot.it/2013/06/cake-twenty-six.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

Cake twenty-four - Bunnies, Bunnies, Bunnies...

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It’s a quick and easy recipe I often use for cakes with special shapes. I’ve recently made a basket for some choco bunnies and roses.. since it was Easter time and Spring. 

It was on the box of a bunny mould, no special ingredients, you’ll see, it’s the combination of butter and choco chips that makes this cake delicious. Anyway it’s a cake you should eat the same day you make it to taste its full flavour, but I never do...... I like to watch my creations....

1 egg

70 g butter or margarine

70 g sugar

a pinch of salt

90 g flour 

1/2 teaspoon baking powder

Separate the egg. Beat the egg white with half of the sugar until stiff. Beat the egg yolk with the rest of the sugar, butter and salt until fluffy, mix the baking powder into the flour and stir in. Then fold in the beaten egg white. 

Grease your mould with butter and sprinkle with breadcrumbs. Fill in the mixture and smooth out. Bake at 180° for 35/40 min. Wrap in a damp cloth after baking. Carefully remove from the mould after 10 minutes and allow to cool down.

Then set your fancy free and decorate using some glacé icing. 

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

Cake twenty three - Easter Eggs

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Patience is the secret ingredient for chocolate eggs and of course good quality chocolate!

It’s better to start from smaller chocolate eggs if it’s your first time.. 

Eggs can either be empty inside or solid, in which case you can fill them with a creamy chocolate mixture, some small meringues or crunched hazelnuts.

Plain Solid Eggs

200 g dark chocolate 

Cut chocolate in small pieces and place it in a heatproof bowl over a saucepan half filled with simmering water. Stir until it’s melted. 

Pour spoonfuls of the melted chocolate into the choco egg moulds until they’re filled up to the brim. Remove excess chocolate with the help of a knife to ensure a clean edge. Refrigerate until set. Carefully un-mould the egg halves and place them on a clean surface. Don’t touch them too much or they will start to melt from the heat of your hands. Heat a knife, take two halves, gently push them together and use the knife to stick them together. The blade musn’t be too hot or you’ll have holes in the egdes.

Follow the same procedure for bigger eggs.. 

Rich Solid Eggs

200 g dark chocolate

100 g milk or white chocolate

100 g small meringues

100 g crunched hazelnuts

Repeat same procedure to melt chocolate. Pour spoonfuls of the cholate into the mould, use a knife to scrape the excess chocolate from the mould. Give it a good vibrating shake so that all the air bubbles are gone. Scrape again. Let the chocolate sit for about 5 min, then flip the mould over allowing the chocolate to pour out. Scrape once more time to ensure the neatest shells. Flip it back. Cool a fe

w minutes. 

Now you can fill them with some melted milk or white chocolate and add some small meringues or hazelnuts to your taste. Let filling sit for about 15 minutes, then pour more melted chocolate over the mould. Scrape again to remove any excess. Refirgerate for 15 minutes. Then place in the freezer for 5 minutes and they’re ready to un-mould. Now carefully push the two halves together and use a heated knife to stick them together.

Fancy Chocolate Easter Egg

300 g dark, milk or white chocolate

Follow same procedure. Decorate to your taste.

Add some Rice Krispies when the chocolate is melted if you want to make a really special Easter Egg. 

Use Coco Pops if you’re making a white chocolate egg.

also visit: 
http://time-for-a-cake.blogspot.it/2013/04/cake-twenty-three.html

Cake twenty-two - Cheesecake delice

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I think decoration is a key point in a cake and not only a matter of ‘appearance’: it’s your personal touch! 

Berries are a must for cheesecakes, I must say, and raspberries among them all are the best choice. I particularly love them for their bright colour which gives the cake a kind of luxurious look and secondly, but not certainly less importantly, for their taste which is a mix of sweet and sour juicy fragrance which easily blends in with most of the cakes and above all with cheesecakes.
It can be a yummy birthday cake in Summer!

250 g plain chocolate biscuits
150 g butter, melted
2 tbsp brown sugar
20 g butter, extra
300 ml thickened cream
50 g milk chocolate, chopped finely
3 tsp gelatine
60 ml water
500 g cream cheese
110 g sugar
3 Mars bars, chopped finely 
200 g. raspberries
Process biscuits until mixture resembles fine breadcrumbs, add butter. Process until just combined. Press biscuit mixture over base and side of 20cm round tin. Cover and refrigerate about 30 minutes or until firm. 
In the meantime combine brown sugar, extra butter and 2 tbsp of the cream in a small saucepan. Stir over low heat until sugar dissolves, to make butterscotch sauce.  
Combine chocolate and another 2 tbsp of the cream in another saucepan stirring over low heat until chocolate melts.
Sprinkle gelatine over the water in small heatproof jug. Place jug in small saucepan of simmering water and stir until gelatine dissolves. Cool 5 minutes.
Beat cheese and sugar in a bowl with electric mixer until smooth. Beat remaining cream in small bowl with electric mixer until soft peaks form. Stir slightly warm gelatine mixture into cheese mixture with Mars bar. Fold in cream. 
Pour half of the cheese mixture into the prepared tin, drizzle half of the butterscotch and chocolate sauces over cheese mixture. Pull skewer backwards and forwards through mixture to create marbled effect. Repeat process with remaining cheese mixture and sauces. 
Cover and refrigerate about 3 hours. 

also visit:
http://time-for-a-cake.blogspot.it/2013/03/cake-twenty-two.html