Cake eighteen - Gingerbread decorations

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I’m sure you’ll find more than one recipe for gingerbread cookies, but all in all they’re more or less the same: some use golden syrup, others honey or treacle. Most of them must be prepared a day ahead and rest for the night. I’ve also found one recipe though which can be made in one day. Anyway, this is my favourite one and it’s the German recipe for "Lebkuchen" - Gingerbread cookies in German. 

200 g butter

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

Combine butter, honey, sugar, spices and cocoa powder in a saucepan and heat to boiling. Let cool. Add flour, baking powder

and eggs to the honey mixture. Mix well using a wooden spoon and then turn the dough into a foloured surface and kenad well. Shape the dough into a ball, wrap it tightly in aluminum foil and cover it with a bowl. Let rest at room temperature overnight.

Turn dough onto floured surface. Knead until smooth. Roll the dough into a thin sheet and cut out different shapes with cookie cutters. Place then on parchment paper-lined baking sheets and bake for around 8 min. 

Let cool on the baking sheets. 

Simple icing 

125 g icing sugar

food colours to your taste

 2 teaspoons water

Mix sugar and water well, then add some drops of colour until you reach the shade you want.

Have fun!
Also visit:
http://time-for-a-cake.blogspot.it/2013/01/cake-eighteen.html

Cake seventeen - Christmas Fruit Cake

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This is undoubtedly my favourite cake! It’s good, easy to make and can take any shape you want. I usually make three or more of them for Christmas: a square one decorated as a gift, a star, a Christmas tree and smaller ones in the shape of trees, stars or snow flakes.You can make it one month ahead, you only have to wrap it up well in aluminum foil and then decorate it the day you need it. The longer you keep it wrapped, the better all the ingredients blend together.                         

In my family, we love to have the smaller Fruit Cakes at breakfast during the whole Christmas holidays. 

I also make some smaller ones with margarine as my daughter is intolerant to lactose and they taste delicious anyway!

250 g butter

250 g sugar

5 eggs

juice and rind of 1 lemon

2 cl rhum or vermouth

250 g flour

1/2 teaspoon cinnamom

1/2 teaspoon grated nutmeg

150 g cherry candies

400 g raisins

100 g.  finely cut candied oranges

100 g. finely cut candied cedar

100 g chocolate chips

(if you don’t like candied fruit you can put more chocolate)

Beat butter and sugar in a bowl with electrtic mixer until creamy, and white. Add eggs one at a time and don’t forget some flour after each addition. Beat in rest of flour cinnamon, nutmeg, raisins, cherry candies, candied oranges and cedar and chocolate chips. 

Pour mixture into lightly greased mould. Bake at 180° for 1 hour or more depending on the size of mould. 

Decoration

You can decorate the cake as you like or simply leave it without any decoration, as it looks nice too. It all depends the day you’re making it for. 

For Xmas Day I like it all white (glacé or royal icing- at your choice) or all black (ganache).

Glacé icing

320 g icing sugar

1 teaspoon butter

2 tablespoons hot water, approximately

Sift icing sugar into small heatproof bowl, Stir in butter and enough of the hot water to make it a thick paste. Place bowl over small saucepan of simmering water. Stir until icing is spreadable

Royal icing

240 g icing sugar

1 egg white

1/2 teaspoon lemon juice

Lightly beat egg white in small bowl with electric mixe, add icing sugar a tablespoon at a time. When icing reaches frim peaks, beat inn juice.

Dark Chocolate Ganache

200 g dark chocolate, chopped coarsely

125 ml cream

Bring cream to the boil in a small saucepan, remove from heat. When bubbles subside, add chocolate. Stir until smooth.

also visit: http://time-for-a-cake.blogspot.it/2012/12/cake-seventeen.html

Cake sixteen - Prince Charming & Fruit crumble

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It’s a kind of love at first sight with this cake. You don’t know why exactly you like it but if you try it you’ll be charmed, I’m sure. 

You can make it with fruit and jam, or you can add some cream cheese. The result is in both cases delicious! 

100 g sugar

125 g butter or margarine

1 egg

190 g flour 

3 teaspoons baking powder

a pinch of salt 

apricot jam

4 apples 

(250 g cream cheese)

Beat butter and sugar in a bowl with electrtic mixer until creamy, Add the egg with some flour. Beat in the rest of flour, baking powder and pinch of salt. (Add cream cheese if you want.)

Line a 24 cm round cake pan with parchment paper. Spread mixture into cake pan. Warm up apricot jam and spoon over mixture. Peel core and cut apples into small pieces. Spread apples evenly over jam. Grate crumble mixture over the cake. Bake at 180° for about 40/50 minutes.

Crumble topping

100 g butter or margarine

100 g sugar

170 g flour

Beat butter and sugar with electric mixer. Add flour. 

If you like the taste of the topping you wanna love this lighter and quicker version of the cake.

Fuit crumble

5 large apples 

or for a richer taste: 2 apples, 2 peaches, one apricot and two pears.

Grease 24 cm round oven-proof dish. 

Wash and peel fruit. Cut it in small pieces. Spread fruit into prepared dish, sprinkle evenly with crumble mixture. Bake at 180° for about 30 minutes.

also visit: http://time-for-a-cake.blogspot.it/2012/11/cake-sixteen.html

Cake fifteen - Early Autumn Cheesecake

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It’s a delicate cake, which marries beautifully cream cheese and grapes. You should use white grapes as dark ones taste a bit sour sometimes. Meringue on top gives the cake a festive look and a richer taste. It doesn’t take too long to make it but you have to bake it twice and then you need the time to whip the egg whites until stiff, so all in all consider two hours’ time.

200 g flour 

125 g butter/margarine

100 g + 75 g sugar

2 eggs

250 g cream or ricotta cheese

2 tablespoon semolina

500 g white grapes

75 g apricot jam

2 egg whites

80 g sugar

Sift flour and sugar into bowl, rub in butter. Add one egg yolk. Press dough into a ball, knead lightly on floured surface until smooth. Cover refrigerate for 30 minutes. 

Combine ricotta or cream cheese with semolina, add one egg yolk. Beat egg whites with electric mixer until soft peaks form, gradually add sugar and beat until stiff. Fold into cream cheese mixture in three batches.

Line 23 cm round pie plate with parchment paper.

Roll dough on floured surface until large enough to line 23 cm pie plate. Lift dough into pie plate, gently ease into side of plate, trim edge. Bake at 180° for about 10 min. Cool. 

Poor cream cheese mixture into pastry case, Bake at 180° for other 30 min. Cool.

Meringue

Beat egg whites with electric mixer until soft peaks form, gradually add sugar and beat until stiff.

Wash grapes and place on the cake. Warm jam in small pan, brush evenly over grapes. 

Spoon meringue on top. Bake in very hot oven for 5 min. until lightly coloured.

also visit:
http://time-for-a-cake.blogspot.it/2012/11/cake-fifteen.html

Cake fourteen - Scary Halloween

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I’d have never thought a graveyard could have been a cake decoration! But it is and it also tastes  delicious! I find the tombstone particularly good and the grass is incredibly yummy....

Cupcakes really set your imagination free!!! 

For this cake we’ve chosen two recipes: lemon and choco cupcakes.

I think chocolate is the best choice both for the colour - as brown as the ground - and for the flavour combinations.. 

The cream cheese frosting we’ve used here is definetely my favourite topping.

Quick Choco cupcakes

150 g self-raising flour

75 g plain flour 

35 g ccoa powder

165 g sugar

185 g softened butter

3 eggs

125 ml milk

Put all dry ingredients into a medium large bowl, add remaning ingredients. Beat with electric mixer on low speed until ingredients are combined.. Increase speed to medium and beat until mixture is smooth and has changed to a paler colour. 

Fill paper cases to 2/3 full so as to have nice mound-shaped cakes. Bake about 20 min at 180°.

4 choco cupcakes

1 quantity cream cheese frosting

80 g white fondant (see recipe in cake twelev

green,, yellow and red food colouring 

8 ‘Pavesini’ cookies

100 gr chocolate

Cream cheese frosting

100g cream cheese

50 g icing sugar

Put all the ingredients in a bowl and beat together with a wooden spoon until smooth and creamy. Cover and chill for at leat an hour to firm up slightly before using..

1) Grass

Put two tablespoons of the cream cheese frosting in a small bowl, you’ll use it to decorate the tombstone.

Beat green food colouring into the remaning frosting, add a little at a time until the desired shade is reached. Spread the frosting over each cupcake. 

2) Tombstones

Carefully cut two straight sides off each Pavesino. In the meantime melt 80 g chocolate in a bain-marie. Dip each Pavesino in the chocolate both sides, leaving the bottom end free.. Refrigerate them for at least half an hour. Put the reserved frosting in a paper bag and pipe a thin line of frosting around the edge of each cookie, then a second line and a small cross in the middle of the ‘tombstone’.

3) Arms

Take a little piece of fondant and mould it into a sausage shape about 3 cm long. Flatten one end to shape a hand, pinch in at the wrist. Cut out finger shapes using a toothpick. Make a hole into the middle of each cupcake. with the back of a teaspoon or your finger and then press the arm into this hole.

4) Finishing touches

Make a hole into the frosting behind the arm and press a tombstone there. Grate some chocolate over the grass mound, pressing it down gently. Sprinkle more chocolate over the hand area. 

Colour some of the remaining fondant in yellow and red and make tiny balls for the flowers, which you will position on one side of the mound. Use some green cream cheese frosting to decorate the edge of each cupcake. 

also visit:

http://time-for-a-cake.blogspot.it/2012/10/cake-fourteen.html

Cake thirteen - A Flowerbed

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Cupcakes are the most versatile of cakes to be used for any occasions and design. Close your eyes think of what you like most and there you are.... with some ability you can have your cupcake the shape you like! That’s what my daughters made for me. 

Choose your cupcake recipe, I often choose lemon cupcakes (see recipe - cake five simply add some grated lemon peel) as decoration and/or frosting are already rather sweet..

150 g white fondant (see recipe in cake twelve)

1 quantity yellow glacé icing (see recipe in cake twelve- add some yellow food colouring)

1 quantity choco frosting

5 cupcakes

yellow food colouring

Choco frosting 

100 g dark chocolate

2 tablespoons milk

50 g butter

75 g icing sugar

Put the chocolate, milk and butter in a small saucepan and heat gently, stirring frequently until the chocolate and butter have melted and are evenly distributed.

Remove fron the heat and stir in the icing sugar until the frosting is smooth and shiny.

1) Anemone petals

Crumple a sheet of aluminum foil and place on a small baking sheet (the folds of the foil will enable the petals to set in curved shapes). For each anemone rollout one-fifth of the white fondant on a surface lightly dusted with icing sugar. Cut out five disks using a 3,5 cm cookie cutter. Lift up one of the disks (lightly dust your fingers with icing sugsr before!) Press your thumb into the centre, mould the edges of the petal to look more realistic.Place on the cumpled alumium foil so the folds of the foil support the fondant petal. Repeat with the remaining 4 disks. Make four more sets of petals in the same way plus a few spares out in case of breakages. 

Beat yellow food colouring into a small ball of fondant. Make five balls, and flatten them into the shape of a corolla. Leave for several hour to harden.

2) Preparing the cupcakes

Spread the choco frosting generously over the cupcakes.

3) Finishing touches

Arrange five petals in an overlapping circle on each cupcake, leaving a small gap in the centre. Press the petals carefully down into the frosting, then pipe some yellow glacé icing in the middle of the flower. For the stamens, use some sugar decoration.

Happy Birthday writing

Use some yellow glacé icing to write Happy Birthday Mum or what you like.

also visit:
http://time-for-a-cake.blogspot.it/2012/10/cake-thirteen.html

Cake twelve - A solitary Penguin

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When decoration is more important than the cake itself.

Not all cakes need an elaborate decoration, some don’t have any at all and look gorgeous anyway, it all depends on the recipe and most of the times on the occasion we’re making them for. Cupcakes are very often the hidden structure of creative decorations which sometimes look like works of art. But here comes a big problem: how can you eat your creation after all your efforts? 

Any cupcake recipe is fine, I always choose vanilla cupcakes (see cake five) and add some grated lemon peel.

Decoration 

You need to make some fondant for the penguin, some royal icing for the penguin’s island and then some glacé icing for the nearby rocks and to cover all with snow.

I must say I was pretty scared to make fondant, I thought it was a kind of ‘mission impossible’, but with much patience and my younger daughter’s help I’ve made it! I’ve discovered kind of another galaxy of cake decorations: I’m a true fan of fondant now!

Fondant 

1 tablespoon egg white

1 tablespoon glucose syrup or light corn syrup

about 180/200 g icing sugar 

Put the egg white, syrup and about a quarte of the icing sugar in a bowl and mix to a smooth paste. Continue to mix in more icing sugar until it becomes too stiff to stir. Turn the paste onto the work surface and knead in more icing sugar to make a smooth, stiff paste. (don’t make it too soft or sticky, you’d have some difficulty when working it).

Add any coloring you need and wrap tightly in several thicknesses of plastic wrap, unless you’re going to use it immediately. It’s gonna be more difficult to work if it’s summer or you live in a hot country!

Royal icing

1 egg white - 200 gr icing sugar 

Put the egg white in a bowl or in a and whisk lightly to break it up. Work in the icing sugar until the icing has a thick and smooth consistency that just holds its shape.

Glacé icing 

200 gr icing sugar - 4 teaspoons water 

Combine icing sugar and water until smooth. Add water a little at a time until the consistency is smooth and the icing just holds its shape.

Making the penguin

What we need to make one penguin:

4 vanilla cupcakes

one teaspoon of orange jam

1 quantity glacè icing 

80 g black fondant

small pieces of orange, white and red fondant

1 raspberry gummy drop

black food colouring

1) The Penguin’s Island

Take one cupcake and spread it with some orange jam using a small spatula. Spoon some royal icing on top of the orange jam and spread to the edges. Drag a little icing over the side to form an icile-shaped point and then continue all around the edge of the cupcake creating iciles of varying lengths.

2) The Penguin

Divide the black fondant into two pieces, a bigger one of about 60 g and a smaller one. 

Mold the biggest piece of black fondant into an oval shape (lighlty dust your hands with some icing sugar). Flatten the base lightly and put it on the cupcake..

Draw one wing on parchment paper. Then divide the rest of the fondant into two pieces and roll them out thinly on the work surface. Place the wing template on the rolled fondant and cut two wings. Secure the wings in place with a damped paintbrush.

Now take a pea-sized piece of orange fondant and cut in half. Flatten each half and make two indents using a sharp knife. Position the feet in front of the body. For the chest, thinly roll out the cut fondant and cut an oval shape (3 x 3 cm). Secure to the front of the penguin with a dampened paintbrush.

3) Face

Shape a small triangular beak in orange fondant and secure in place with a dampened paintbrush. 

Make two tiny balls of white fondant, flatten them a bit and push them into the black fondant either side of the beak for eyes. Paint the centers of the eyes using a paintbrush and black food colouring. 

4) Hat and scarf

Make a small ball out of the red fondant, flatten the base and secure it to the top of the penguin’s head with a little of the glacè icing.
Thinly roll out the rest of the red fondant and cut out the scarf. Wrap around the neck and press gently. in place. Cut out two shorter lenghts of red fondant for the scarf ties. Cut decorative tassels at one end of eacj lenght, then secure to the front with a dampened paintbrush. 

5) Rocks and Snow

Use the other three cupcakes to make other rocks around the penguin, leave some space around the penguin to give better the idea of the sea. Cover the rocks and the areas around them with glacé icing.

also visit:
http://time-for-a-cake.blogspot.it/2012/10/cake-twelve.html