After the success of the lemon meringue cake, I have been eager to get back into the kitchen, this time I decided on a chocolate chiffon cake. Whenever I watch GBBO there's more often than not a chiffon cake mentioned, the name alone has kept me intrigued for a while, as had the method for making the sponge mixture (hint - whisked egg whites where involved).
A chiffon cake is known for it's lightness, the cakes does not contain any fat, using whisked egg whites carefully folded in with the ingredients to give the cake volume.
I used this recipe posted on the Nigella Lawson site. The recipe worked well, although my cake got a bit stuck in the tin despite leaving the cake until it was completely cool and hanging the tin upside down. Although I suspect I was a little impatient and didn't leave the cake quite long enough.
Once I had managed to get the cake out of the bundt tin I covered it in chocolate frosting, although I have to say it didn't look particularly pleasing on the eye. There was a small chunk missing from the top that the tin had claimed that no amount of icing could cover, so I decided to dust the whole thing with a healthy layer of icing sugar which did the trick.
The cake is one of the lightest and most moist cakes I have ever eaten, although I would suggest only a small serving as it was quite rich.
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Next on my baking list was a lemon meringue cake. Lemon meringue pie is one of my all time favourite desserts and I always order it if it's a desert option on a menu, which got me thinking of how I could translate this into a cake.
I started off by baking three lemon sponges and then spread lemon curd in between each layer. I then covered the whole cake in meringue frosting, which was a first for me. Then using our newly purchased blow torch from John Lewis, I torched the top and sides of the cake to brown the frosting ever so slightly.
For the cake mixture I used duck eggs that I bought from our local farmers market, I'd heard they make cakes lighter than eggs from hens. The sponge was incredibly light and moist, however this might have had something to do with me leaving the sponge for a day in an airtight container before covering it in the meringue frosting.
I took the cake into work as Jason and I couldn't quite manage the whole thing by ourselves! All in all it was a resounding success, although I may have a put a bit too much vanilla extract in the frosting, a minor adjustment needed for next time!
Recipe
I adapted a Delia Smith recipe I came across online, here's a link to the original recipe, however I have included my adapted recipe below.
For the sponges -
265g Self raising flour
265g Margarine
265g Golden caster sugar
Zest of 2 lemons
2 tbsp Lemon juice
1.5 tsp Baking powder
4 Duck eggs, lightly beaten
- Grease and line three 18cm circular tins.
- Preheat your oven to 160ºC.
- Cream the margarine and sugar together until light and fluffy.
- Add in the eggs until combined.
- Add in the flour, baking powder, lemon juice and zest. The mixture may start to split, if this happens keep stirring the mixture, if it does not come together add a touch more flour.
- Divide the mixture evenly between the three tins and then place in the oven for 25-30 minutes until a skewer inserted comes out clean.
For the frosting -
As this is something that I had never attempted before and none of my recipe books had anything close to what I was after I scoured the internet for an easy-ish recipe, and I found this recipe. It's a great easy to follow recipe if it's your first time making meringue frosting.
As I made the frosting the night before and iced the cake in the morning I did as the recipe suggested and put the frosting the fridge over night. However, it did need re-whisking in the morning.
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After a somewhat hectic week with work, Jason decided to make a scrummy dinner for our date night in on Saturday. He's taken a leaf out of my book and opted to make something for pudding that he'd never made before . . . Crème brûlée.
Armed with our new cooks blowtorch we set about caramelising the sugar, however I don't think we put quite enough sugar on top as it was a very thin layer of caramelised sugar, but it still tasted scrummy none-the-less, definitely one to try again.
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I have been incredibly spoilt for Valentine's day, amongst all the loveliness Jason bought me a beautiful bouquet of peonies. They are by far my favourite flowers, and after many dropped hints I came home on Friday to a huge bouquet of twelve peonies and some beautiful pastel purple gypsophila. I have separated the bouquet into two vases which have taken pride of place in direct sunlight on our dining room table. The buds were all very tightly closed, however they have very slowly been blooming and they look beautiful . . .
Peonies starting to bloom . . .
One of the flowers decided it liked the sun rather a lot and has bloomed quicker than the others. I love all of the delicate layers of these beautiful flowers.
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I have set myself a challenge to start baking things that I've never attempted before. I've decided that I'm in somewhat of a baking rut and keep baking the same things over and over again, never attempting anything new. First on my list was millionaire's shortbread, it is one of those baked treats that always looks so inviting. I made mine using this recipe.
The tin I used was a tad smaller than the one suggested so my layers were a little thick, however I did like having quite a substantial shortbread base, just not the caramel and dark chocolate!
I will most definitely be trying this recipe out again as it wasn't a 100% success, my caramel middle was a little grainy from where I don't think the sugar had completely dissolved.
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I finally got my butt into gear and sorted out my craft room, and I'm happy to say I'm almost there! I managed to swipe Jason's corkboard and gave it a bit of a face lift and painted the boring pine frame with a cream paint.
I have since started pinning up images of all of the things that inspire me, to get my creative juices flowing, and it's worked . . . well sort of.
I got online and bought some lovely bits and pieces to start some much needed making. Amongst my purchases where these incredibly pretty pom garlands that I bought from a new website discovery Elephant in my Handbag.
Whilst sorting out my craft room I rediscovered my box of button loveliness . . .and gave them a much needed sort out, and they are now all organised into their colour groups.
I have also finished my snood, although it doesn't look like I'll be getting to wear it anytime this year owing to the mild and wet weather we've been having.
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