Ivy & Gold : baking

Showing posts with label baking. Show all posts

Saturday, 9 March 2013

Last Minute Mother's Day!

I went out today for a quick meet up with a couple of my friends and was shocked to see how many people were rushing about trying to buy last second Mother's Day gifts. Personally, I do my gift buying a couple of weeks before and anything else bought after is an extra, because I get so stressed if I don't think and plan it beforehand.

Obviously this is not the case for everyone, so due to all the panic buying done by many today, this is a post for last minute, special gifts for mum.

I did a similar post to this for Valentine's Day, and mentioned that anything gift box/hamper-like is my favourite kind of present so it was an obvious choice for my momma.

What do you get someone that has everything and has no hobbies?! Food!

I got the hamper itself for £2.99 from TK Maxx but you could always just get a little gift box from a card shop and put your gifts in there as well.

Marks & Spencers

M&S do such a good collection of food and the packaging is always perfect so their products make lovely gifts.

What I got:

Cranberry & elderflower infused tea- £1.99
White chocolate creme brulee slab- £2.69
Milk chocolate with caramelised macadamia nut slab- £2.69
Milk chocolate with raspberries slab- £2.65
Milk chocolate with salted caramel slab- £2.65

Everywhere Else

Glittered bird house card- Clintons
Candy fluff egg bath bomb- Lush- £2.95
Processco- Asda- £2.25

I loved baked goods, I was actually planning to bake my own cake but I just haven't had the time this weekend but if you don't know what to do with the rest of your Saturday then i've found out this (rather fancy) mother's day cake recipe for you! It's from Good Housekeeping Baking Book, if you're interested (:

White Chocolate Cappuccion Mother's Day Cake

Prep Time: 45 minutes

Cooking Time: 50 minutes plus cooling

Cuts into 10 slices

What you will need:

300g (12oz) unsalted butter, at room temperature, plus extra to grease.
250g (9oz) self-raising flour, plus extra to dust.
200g (7oz) caster sugar.
3 large eggs, at room temperature, beaten.
1 and half teaspoon baking powder.
50ml (2fl oz) milk.
1 teaspoon vanilla extract.
125g (4oz) white chocolate.
125ml (4fl oz) double cream.
1 and half - 2 tablespoon espresso coffee, cooled.
75g (3oz) icing sugar, sifted, plus extra to dust.
50g (2oz) plain chocolate, grated.
40g (1 and a half oz) hazlenuts, roasted and chopped.
fresh small roses to decorate (or those icing ones you can get pre-prepared)

Method:

Preheat the oven to 180C (160C fan over) mark 4. Grease a deep, non-stick 20.5cm (8 inch) cake tin and dust with flour.
Beat together the caster sugar and 175g (6oz) butter until pale and creamy. Gradually add the eggs, beating well after each addition. Add 1 tablespoon flour if the mix looks like curdling. Fold in the remaining flour and the baking powder, followed by the milk and vanilla extract. Spoon into the prepared tin and level surface. Bake for 40-50 minutes until a skewer inserted into the centre comes out clean. Cool in the tin for 5 minutes, then turn out on to a wire rack and leave to cool completely.
Cut the cake in half horizontally. Grate 25g (1oz) white chocolate, then beat together with the cream and coffee until the mixture holds its shape. Use to sandwich the two cake halves together.
Melt the remaining white chocolate in a bowl set over a pan of gently simmering water, making sure the base of the bowl doesn't touch the water. Leave to cool for 10 minutes. Beat together the remaining butter and the icing sugar until pale and creamy. Beat in the cooled white chocolate, then spread over the sides and top of the cake.
Mix the plain chocolate with the nuts and press around the side of the cake. Decorate with small roses dusted with icing sugar.

(Recipe from Good Housekeeping Baking Book)

If you're reading this and you still haven't got a thing for the main lady in your life then I suggest popping to your local supermarket as you can easily (and cheaply) make a hamper of your own and it'll look like you've made all the effort in the world. Here's my favourites.

From Left To Right/ Top To Bottom:

Breakfast in bed heart crumpets- Asda £1.00
Cath Kidston wild rose shower set- Waitrose £4.65
Calcot Manor The Country Spa retreat collection- Tesco £7.99
Taste The Difference strawberry conserve- Sainsbury's £1.60
Linden Lady chocolate hollow hearts- Waitrose £2.49
KitchenCraft 'Love' preserve jar- Tesco £1.75
Taste The Difference Belgian waffles- Sainsbury's £1.90
Mum's chocolate indulgence cake- Asda £4
V&A Istria mug set of 2- Sainsbury's £10.00
Chocolate & raspberry cupcake- Waitrose £1.09
Finest quadruple nut cookies- Tesco £1.69
Beauticology assorted ice cream gift set- Co Op £8.00 (It's actually a happy birthday gift but Co Op do lots of these sets but this one is my favourite)
Pongracz Rose 750ml wine- Morrisons £10.99
Yankee Candle small jar in vanilla cupcake- Co Op £7.99
Hearts & flowers cake- Morrisons £2.50

So, I hope you all have a lovely day with your mum and don't forget to cook her tea and do all the washing up!

XXX

Friday, 8 February 2013

Yes, No, Maybe So? Valentine's- Part One

Evenin' folks (:

As you know all know, it's Valentine's Day next week so I thought I would do a couple of posts for it! Part One, this post, will be a gift/baking and overall knick knack one. Now, i'm not a massive fan of Valentine's, I don't think there should just be one day out of the whole year to celebrate your love for someone, where people make that special effort. Personally, i'd like to be shown this kind of appreciation every day and not just on February 14th, just without all the soppy poems and pink, floaty hearts. Saying this, I also don't get people who are overly bitter about it either, I know many people that would rather rip their faces off then have anything to do with it!

However, just because i'm not it's number one fan, doesn't mean everyone else feels the same, so I thought I'd jump on the love wagon this year and help celebrate with you. I've been pottering away in the kitchen today, making some treats that are super cheap and easy to make.

FOR 12 CUPCAKES

175g butter, softened
175g caster sugar
3 eggs, beaten
200g self raising flour
3 tbsp raspberry (or natural, if you like) yogurt
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract

FOR THE ICING

Red (or pink) food colouring. Gel is best, I didn't use gel as I only have liquid (which is why it looks runny!)
225g butter
400g icing sugar, sifted
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
2 tablespoon milk

1. Preheat your oven to 180C/fan 160C or gas mark 4. Line a muffin tin with 12 large muffin cases.

2. For the cupcakes: put the butter and sugar into a large bowl and beat for several minutes so that it's pale and fluffly. Whisk in the eggs one at a time and make sure they are fully combined with the mixture. Then, gently fold in the flour in 3 parts and remember to scrap down the sides of the bowl! When combined, add in the yogurt and the vanilla extract and mix. Divide equally into the muffin cases and bake for 20-25 minutes or until golden! Easy (:

3. For the icing: Whilst your muffins cook, beat the butter and sifted icing sugar into a bowl, with a wooden spoon. When combined, add in the vanilla extract, milk and colouring. Because I had a liquid based food colouring, my mixture became quite wet which is why I drizzled it on rather than pipe, so if you want yours to look more refined then remember the gel!

4. To assemble: After your cakes have cooled, simply pour the icing over haphazardly. However, if you have a thicker and smoother buttercream then scoop the icing into a star nozzled piping bag and pipe on swirls.

FOR THE CUPCAKES
I had some batter left over from the muffins that I made above, so follow those guidelines and you'll probably get about 3/4 mini fairy cakes worth out of it too.

FOR THE ICING AND DECORATION
Option 1:

1 cup hazlenuts
1/8 cup sugar
1/2 cup semi sweet chocolate, chopped
1/4 cup butter, unsalted
1/2 cup heavy cream
Pinch of kosher salt
Any type of cake toppers. Mine are little stones of crystalised sugar (from Morrisons)

1. Preheat your oven to 170c/150 fan or gas mark 4. Line a tin with a baking sheet, spread out the hazlenuts and toast between 13-15 minutes or until they turn a dark brown colour. Remember to let them cool completely before you touch them.

2. In a food proccesor, put in the cooled down nuts and sugar and grind until you have a smooth paste.

3. In a heat prood bowl, melt the chocolate over a pan of simmering water and keep stirring until completely melted. Remove from heat, place in the butter, stir. Alternatively, place the chocolate and butter in a bowl and heat it in the microwave in short blasts. Be careful and keep your eye on it though. After this, whisk in the cream, salt and the hazlenut paste.

4. When your cakes are cool (read the how-to for the vanilla & raspberry muffins) spoon over the chocolate/hazlenut spread. Mine are ridiculously messy, because after 3 hours to faffing about I got a bit fed up. Arrange your decorations in little heart shapes.

Option 2 for those who are cut for time, or who are just lazy:

Nutella/ any other hazlenut spread.

STUFF YOU NEED

If you followed the proper recipe for the hazlenut spread above then you'll definitely have some left over
Melted dark chocolate
1/2 teaspoon of mild chilli powder
Handful of marshmallows
Handful of fresh strawberries
Mini fairy cake cases

1. To melt the chocolate, read the above recipe. Add the chilli powder after you've taken the chocolate off the heat, mix to incorporate. It's a really subtle hit, but if you want a more fiery kick then just add as much as you can handle!

2. As you're melting the chocolate (remember to keep an eye on it), cut the rounded bits of a heart into your marshmallows. I used those coconut covered ones that you can get pretty cheaply from the supermarket.

3. When the chocolate has cooled slightly, dip in your marshmallows and your strawberries (and anything else you want to use) into the mix and then place into mini cases. Sprinkle over some edible decorations if you want.

These are three, really easy recipes that you can follow if you don't have a lot of money to spend on your other half. I'm not the best baker as you can see but they taste good and they're a nice little treat! I especially love the chilli-chocolate dip as you can use most things, from all sorts of fruit to those mini pretzel snacks.

They can easily be wrapped as gifts too. Poundland do a lovely little heart shaped box especially for cakes, and you can buy valentines ribbon and wrap set from TK MAXX for £6.99.

Alternatively, there are plently of cute Valentine's printables online that you can download for free.

GIFTS

When it comes to gifts, whether it be for birthday, christmas and everything in between, you can't beat a good hamper. They're my favourite kind of presents, especially when they come in a sweetly wrapped box that hold all your favourite things. So I suppose you could use these as inspiration for any kind of ocassion, this one just happens to be Valentines.