Welcome... to the Crystal Maze!



Aztec zone

So, although I realise my posting has been more than a little sporadic of late, I hope that this sweet little treat will make up for the radio silence. And let me tell you this. It’s a mega treat. Because, it’s that time of year again – Mr P’s birthday!

Those of you with good memories will recall that last year’s birthday celebrations provided my decorating pal Mel and I the perfect opportunity to get creative with a surprise cake based on the Plants Vs Zombies computer game, which completely blew him away. This year, we gave him a bit of a say in the creative process – to decide either the theme or the flavour. After much serious deliberation (or perhaps it was a gut reaction, since he’s been very busy applying for jobs at the moment), Mr P declared that he’d like a chocolate fudge cake.

I am utterly indebted to the marvellous Lindy’s cakes for the recipe I used – you can find their original recipe post here. Flavour-wise, Mel and I agreed that this is probably the best cake we’ve ever made. And as you probably know, I’m not a major chocolate fan, and she doesn’t have much of a sweet tooth at all, so that says a lot about the recipe. Presumably the deliciousness of the cake is inversely proportional to its  healthiness, seeing as it contains roughly a bucket of butter, chocolate and sugar and a comparative sprinkling of flour. But who am I to argue with perfection?! This cake is super moist, and stays moist very well, and is sure to go down well for any occasion.

Crystal Maze cake

 

Medieval zone

Richard O'Brien in sugarpaste form

 

As for the theme, it’s based around one of Mr P’s favourite TV shows from childhood, The Crystal Maze. I haven’t seen any other Crystal Maze cakes online, so it felt like a very original project. There are four separate 5” square cakes, each representing one of the four challenge regions from the original show – Aztec, industrial, futuristic and medieval. The research process consisted of spending two hours of my life (that I am well aware I will never get back) watching old episodes online, whilst screaming at the screen and genuinely wondering if the contestants came from another species altogether. If you don’t value your sanity, knock yourself out here.  

The industrial zone

The futuristic zone

 

Super moist rich chocolate fudge cake

Recipe from Lindy’s cakes
This makes 4 x 5” square cakes; for one 8” round cake, just halve the quantities given below.

Ingredients:

450g (16oz) unsalted butter

450g (16oz) good quality chocolate

2 tablespoon (30ml) instant coffee granules

450g (1lb) caster sugar

450g (1lb) light soft brown sugar

300ml (10 fl oz) water

8 large free range eggs

70ml (2.2fl oz) rapeseed oil (Lindy uses veg oil, but I think rapeseed is less detectable, and healthier too!)

200ml (6.8 fl oz) sour cream/natural yoghurt/Crème fraiche

250g (9 oz) self raising flour

250g (9 oz) plain flour

100g (4oz) cocoa powder

1 teaspoon (5ml) bicarbonate of soda

Method:

1. Preheat your oven to 160 degrees celsius (315 degrees F, gas mark 2-3) and line your tin/tins with baking parchment. I also like to line the outside of the tins with a few layers of newspaper as it helps the cakes to rise with a more even, rather than domed top (even though it adds to the cooking time a little). This is more important if you’re decorating with sugarpaste, but if you’re going for a more rustic look, then it’s not such a big deal.

 

2. Add the butter, chocolate, coffee, sugar and water to a pan and slowly melt together over a low heat. I know the idea of adding the chocolate and water rings alarm bells, but you just have to keep the faith here. Once these ingredients have melted together, melted allow to cool.

 

3. Add the beaten eggs, oil and sour cream to the chocolate mix and stir well.

 

4.Sift all the dry ingredients into a large mixing bowl and make a well in the centre.

 

5. Pour the chocolatey liquid mixture into well and stir in the dry ingredients, mixing well until thoroughly combined.

 

6. Pour the cake mixture into your tins and bake for about 1hr 30mins (1 hour 45mins-2hrs for an 8” round) or until a skewer inserted into the centre of the cake comes out clean.

 

7. Place the tin on a cooling rack, and leave the cake to cool inside it.

 

To finish and decorate:

This cake is so rich and moist that it doesn’t really need to be cut and sandwiched with buttercream. In fact, it tastes so rich and moist that even without any topping you it still tastes great.

A chocolate ganache might be overkill on a cake like this, but I think a vanilla or chocolate buttercream, or even a cream cheese frosting would work pretty well on top. In my case, I made some mild chocolate buttercream (not very chocolatey and not particularly sweet) – just enough to create a crumb layer on top. Then I covered the cakes with a layer of sugarpaste and finished with sugarpaste decorations.

P...p...p...pick up a penguin!

One of the great things about being known as a fan of baking and cake decorating, is that I fairly often get asked by friends to make cakes for special occasions in their families. I always love it when this happens - there's only so much sugarpaste Mr P and I can eat, so having a good excuse for an artistic project for somebody else is always welcome.

 

Most recently, I was asked to create a small wedding cake as a surpise for a friend's sister- and brother-in law. I was told that the bride and groom were both big fans of cocktails, and that the wedding invitations had been sent out on reproductions of the title pages of Penguin romantic classics. What a great brief, eh?

 

Penguin cake topper

 

So the final product was a strawberry daiquiri-flavoured cake (lime and rum sponge sandwiched with home-made strawberry jam and strawberry and rum buttercream). With the help of my trusty pal Mel (who is experienced in the subject of sugarpaste penguins!) it was decorated with detailing from one of the book covers, and a penguin bride and groom cake topper.

 

 



Penguin wedding cake

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The summer saw a couple of other good projects to get my teeth into. Mr P's Nan celebrated her 80th birthday in August with a big family get-together, so we decided to make up a batch of cupcakes to keep all of the guests satisfied. As well as a traditional lemon flavoured batch, we came up with a very popular cupcake flavour - tea and biscuits! This was done by brewing a tea bag in a dah of warm milk, and adding the milk together with just a smidgin of cocoa powder to a fairly standard sponge mix. Simple and effective! This left us with plenty of energy to focus on decorating all of the cupcakes.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

And finally, last but not least, a friend of mine recently wanted to surprise her Mum, 'Dove', with a celebration cake for her 60th birthday. As her mother had somehow managed to sleuth out each and every one of her other birthday surprises, I was especially happy to be involved in this. And happily, the first she knew of it was when the cake turned up in front of her at the end of the evening!

 

 

 

Through the looking glass...

This week saw the 'final project' of my cake decorating class. Having been ridiculously excited about this for weeks and weeks, I may have come up with a slightly over-ambitious project. In the end, it took longer than the two-and-a-half hour session to decorate this cake (quite a lot longer, actually!) but I got the chance to create the semi-gothic wonderland I've been dreaming about since the project was announced, and which has resulted in 'research' in the form of Tim Burton's Alice in Wonderland, and much time spent on google images.

Mel hosted a 'cake unveiling' yesterday, with the hope that, with help, we could limit the calorific damage of two gargantuan sugarpaste creations. However, even with the best efforts of friends and colleagues, we barely made a dent in the mountains of cake required to support the sugarpaste creations.

Ah, well. It'll be cake all round in the office next week...

Alice in wonderland cake/

White chocolate and raspberry rainbow cake with white chocolate buttercream

10" cake - provides about 30-40 servings.

Ingredients:

500g margarine (I used Stork)

500g caster sugar

500g self raising flour, sifted

250g plain flour, sifted

9 large eggs, beaten

1 tsp vanilla extract

1 orange - zest only

multicoloured sugar sprinkles

100g white chocolate, roughly chopped into chunks

For the filling:

4 tblsp raspberry jam.  I used raspberry and vanilla jam by Relish. Pricy but scrumptious!

175g unsalted butter, softened

500g icing sugar

90ml milk/soya milk

1tsp vanilla extract

200g white chocolate

To decorate (optional):

1kg sugarpaste icing, to cover (optional)

Plus extra for decorations of your choice

Method:

1. Grease and line your cake tin, and wrap four of five layers of newspaper around the outside of your cake tin. This will help it to bake evenly, without the outside edge burning.

2. For the cake, cream together the margarine and sugar until the mixture becomes creamy and white.

3. Gradually stir in the egg a little at a time. If the mixture begins to curdle, add in a little of the flour (a tablespoon at a time) to stop this happening. Keep adding the egg, little by little.

4. Coat the white chocolate chunks in some of the flour, and gradually mix in the remaining flour, white chocolate and orange zest. At the last minute, stir in the coloured sugar strands. These will give the inside of your sponge a rainbow effect. Spoon the mixture into the prepared tin, leaving a big hole in the centre. This will fill itself in as the cake rises.

5. Bake the cake at 160 degrees celcius (145 degrees celcius if it's a fan oven) for about 2-2.5 hours (checking after an hour and three quarters). Pop a bowl of water on the bottom of the oven as you bake, as this will help the cake to retain moisture. Also, put a baking sheet on the shelf on top of the cake, to protect it from the heat a little. If you feel the cake is browning too much on top, you can cover it with tin foil. The cake is done when a skewer inserted into the middle comes out clean.

6. When the cake is completely cool, you can trim it to ensure it is completely flat (the trimmed top will be made into the bottom of the cake), slice it in half and prepare the filling. Gently heat the white chocolate in a bain marie until it is completely melted. Set it aside to cool slightly as you prepare the rest of the buttercream.

7. Whisk together the butter, icing sugar and vanilla extract wth a hand whisk. Gradually pour in the milk as you are whisking, but take care not to overwhisk the mixture. Pour in the cooled, melted white chocolate, and stir with a spatula until mixed together. Then whisk until the buttercream has a light, fluffy consistency, adding a tablespoon or so or extra milk if necessary.

8. Spread the raspberry jam on one half of the cake, and spreadthree quarters of the buttercream on the other half. The place the two halves together, buttercream and jam facing inwards.

9. Use a palette knife to spread the rest of the buttercream around the top and sides of the cake. If you are not using sugarpaste, then sprinkle with some multicoloured sugar strands and serve. Otherwise, the buttercream gives a smooth surface for your sugarpaste icing to stick to.

10. If using sugarpaste, roll out to the desired thickness and cover the cake, smoothing carefully. This cake will keep in an airtight container in a cool room for a good week. Do not keep it in the fridge, or the chocolate in the buttercream will set like concrete!

The hot day was making Alice feel sleepy...

 "Oh dear, I shall be too late!" exclaimed the white rabbit.

"Why is a raven like a writing desk?", asked the hatter.

"Off with their heads!"



"You're nothing but a pack of cards!", cried Alice...



... and she found herself lying back on the bank...



... so she closed her eyes, and half believed in wonderland.

Spring has sprung!

Although I am still resolutely vegan for the remainder of lent, I interrupt the vegan-ness of my blog in recent times to present the following cake that Mr P and I just made for my mother-in-law's birthday:

 

It's adapted from the perfect Madeira recipe - adaptations being that I used no lemon zest in the mixture, instead relying on a teaspoon of vanilla extract and half a teaspoon of rosewater in the sponge. It is filled with a white chocolate buttercream, and covered in sugarpaste leaves and flowers - roses, carnations and daffodills.

There's not much more to say on that account, and they say a picture is worth a thousand words, so here's a bit of a photographic essay for you...

Happily for my husband and colleagues, not only did the cake rise epically (meaning I was left with a fair amount of sponge that I'd sliced off the top) but I was also left with quite a bit of white chocolate buttercream. Enter the food processor. Some blitzing, mixing, rolling and chocolate-covering later, and the result was these cute little cake pops. Although my resolution decrees that I can't try them myself, the reaction around the office has been pretty darn positive. Plus, they look very cute, don't they?!

... and covered in chocolate...

Blitzed, mixed, rolled and chilled...

...and ready to serve!

 

 

In the jungle...



This week's cake decorating theme... jungle animals. 'Nuff said.

Vegan for Lent

Last night was a feast of massive indulgence - a big bad naughty pancake party! I'm normally quite a conservative lemon-and-sugar type, but since everybody who came for the feasting brought some of their own yummy toppings, it would have been rude not to partake. I couldn't quite decide what delicious delights to have on mine, so I ended up with clotted cream ice cream, pecans, blueberries, raspberies, white chocolate buttons, and dark chocolate with orange. So, so wrong... but so, so right!

Anyhoo, someone asked me whether I was planning on doing something for Lent. Generally, I do make the effort to start up, or give up, something for Lent - and not for religious reasons. I just think it's a nice excuse to question your everyday habits, and to challenge yourself a bit.

As the more observant of you will have guessed from the title of this post, my answer was: "I'm going vegan for Lent".

There are a few reasons why I thought this would be a good idea: Firstly, it will make me think about my food a bit more carefully. Secondly, it will make my vague desire to experiment with vegan cakes far more likely to materialise into reality. Thirdly, I use soya milk anyway, so the only casualties are going to be cake and cheese. Heavy casualties in themselves, but not insurmountable.

Oh, and fourthly... apparently, you get Sundays off.

Seriously!

Apparently the Christian tradition views the Sundays in the Lent period as 'mini Easter' celebrations (wikipedia says so, so it must be true), which means that you can suspend your fasting on those days. Not that I'm planning to cave so soon. I just want my psychological safety net putting in writing.

So you can expect some vegan recipes coming up in the near future, and I'm excited about the opportunity for experimentation.

No recipes today, so I will leave you with you a couple of pictures from my first cake decorating class last week (yes, M and I signed up!)

P.S. The small print: Cake class activities are excluded from the 'vegan project'

P.P.S. When I told my Mum I was going vegan for Lent, she tried to forbid it. She said: "I knew a vegan once... you should have seen her!" I think she's under the impression that it's a fashionable form of anorexia. I will have to make sure that my vegan creations are super hearty.