'Old Fashioned' Brownies

I'm back! I know, I've been gone soooo long. I've been consumed by a life of new hobbies. Since my last post I've been doing a lot of running, I have been baking but I've just not documented any of it so expect a lot of posts and recipes over the next few days. I've also been lapping up the fantastic weather we've had over July/August and I had taken up gardening too. My life has been a haven of therapeutic activity.  I'd never give up baking. Baking is my heart and it's done wonders for my tired mind and soul. However, it has been nice to indulge in a few other activities and for once I've chosen two new hobbies that have been helping me shed the pounds rather than pile it on lol. That's right I'm exactly 13lbs lighter (hooraaah!) I've even featured as a guest on my amazing friend Julie's blog where I wrote a piece on my relationship with running and baking, it's called 'You can't have your cupcake and eat it' on the super-successful blog 'The Fat Girls Guide to Running.'

Anyway back to everything food related. As you all know I LOVE baking for my other-half. He's one of my biggest fans! And as he is fast becoming a cigar and spirit connoisseur his new favourite drink being an Old Fashioned' cocktail, it set my mind to thinking about what flavoured sweet-treat I could conjure up and make for him. Please bare in mind that the first time I came across this cocktail was when he stumbled into bed drunk and all I could smell was Christmas breathing on the the back of my neck. An Old Fashioned is a combination of sugar, orange peel, aromatic bitters and Whisky. So not only is this recipe inspired by the hubby but also my love of all things Autumn/Winter. I got to thinking what flavours I would use and how they'd represent the flavours of a quite harsh but warm and spicy drink without it being to overpowering. So in this recipe I have used a good quality Natural Dark Chocolate (72%) because it's very chocolatey, which is essential for any brownie recipe, but with a bitter after-taste so this would represent the aromatic bitters. I've used orange zest which represents...? You guessed it! The fragrant orange peel used in the cocktail, a dash of Whisky, Ginger and Chilli Powder just for the added spice and a bit of a kick. The Chilli Powder really does give the brownies the warmth you get in your stomach after drinking Whisky, it's a little tingly on your tongue. Anyway less chatter, more recipe! I'd like to apologise to my friends and followers in the US for my measurements. Everything is in grams, I'm ridiculously hopeless when it comes to using cups and sticks but I promise I'll try next time :)

Old Fashioned Brownies

Ingredients
75g Plain Flour
200g Good Quality Dark Chocolate (65%-75%)
225g Butter
3 Large Eggs
175g Soft Dark Brown Sugar
80g Light Brown Muscovado Sugar
1tsp Vanilla Extract
70g Dark Chocolate Chips
2 tsp Ground Ginger
4 tsp chilli 
Medium Orange
60g Chopped Walnuts
Dash of Whisky (Balvenie)

Method
-Preheat oven to 170 degrees.
-Line baking tray.
-Melt chocolate and butter together, (I melt my chocolate in a Pyrex bowl over a pan of hot water)
-Once the chocolate and butter is melted set it to one side and let it cool slightly.
-In a large mixing bowl, or mixer combine together eggs, sugar and vanilla, gradually mix in the melted chocolate. You should have a lovely, chocolatey, paste-like mixture, quite thick in texture and smooth.
-Fold in the flour, then add in chilli powder and ginger, mix again.
-Add in the zest of 1/2 an orange, 40g of chopped walnuts, dark chocolate chips and a dash of your favourite Whisky then mix together using a wooden spoon.
-Into your lined baking tray add in 2/3 of the mixture then on top of that sprinkle the remaining walnuts and grate 1/2 of the remaining zest onto the mixture.
-Add the rest of the mixture then smooth over allowing some of the walnuts to peak through.
-Place the baking tray into the over and bake for 35-45minutes.
-Your brownies are ready when a skewer inserted comes out clean.

These brownies taste AMAZING with Salted Caramel ice cream and a little bit of honey.

And obviously everything tastes better when eaten from a heart-shaped plate!

This recipe is my own so please if you repost on your blog can you reference or provide a link please. Thank you.

Stepping outside my comfort zone

This week has been a really busy one for me, this is why I'm updating so late. I've been baking what feels like non-stop. This week I'd been asked to create a cake that I've always avoided (until now) or I just plain don't feel comfortable doing *Cue dramatic music* a two-tiered, fully edible engagement cake (eeeeeek).

I'm usually really confident making round cakes and stacking them. But I knew there was a little more to stacking two fully-edible cakes, i.e dowels, measuring etc. I have stacked cakes before, in fact the first ever cake I had made was for my niece and it was a two-tiered princess cake, but I was (until now) only confident using one edible tier and one dummy tier. I received the message asking if I could make a two-tiered, fully edible engagement cake and my nerves were just gone. I wanted to so badly to say no but the person who asked me is super-lovely and I really didn't want to turn them down since it was a compliment in itself that I was the first person they came to. Without even thinking of the hurdles I'd have to face I accepted. After-all how hard could stacking cakes possibly be? The weeks in between making the cakes I tried not to over-face myself with thoughts of what could go wrong and in my mind the cake had already come out perfect. I had decided not to do too much research into cake stacking and to just kind of go with the flow, you know? Use my initiative. My common sense. I mean I more or less started baking using my initiative, I wasn't taught, so it was just a case of going back to basics. I knew what materials I needed and I had a rough idea of how to do it so I went ahead and did it. And it turned out better than I'd anticipated. I have to admit while my cake was in the oven I had a glance over 'The Cake Decorating Bible' by Juliet Sear of Fancy Nancy, she has wonderfully put together a few pages on how to stack cakes. I didn't read into too much detail just looked over the pictures and skimmed because I was too afraid I'd have forgotten to buy something or had the technique wrong in my head. Needless to say I overcame my hurdle and will most definitely not be letting this nor anything else get in my way again. 

Chocolate and Marshmallow Cupcake Recipe

Tonight I had an impulse bake, an impulse bake that I am very thankful I was semi-prepared for. My ingredients-shelf is very much full 90% of the time, for those 'just in case' moments. Unfortunately for my better half I was missing one key ingredient for this recipe and as usual I called upon him to nip to our local Tesco for some granulated sugar (he's such a hero!) I'm a bit shocked actually because sugar is one thing I have a lot of and as for granulated sugar I can't remember a time we didn't have it in. Coming to think of it, we have been trying to cut down on our sugar intake so maybe my Mum just decided to toss it out, you know, to avoid temptation. Well there'll be no hiding from temptation in any kitchen that has these yummy cuppies lying around.

This recipe is from The Primrose Bakery Book by The Primrose Bakery and in complete honesty although this was the first recipe that caught my eye, (because of the gorgeous images used in the book) I had avoided baking them for such a long time. Purely because I had a been put off baking any sort of marshmallow frosting. I thought it would involve way too much hard work. Not that I am lazy, I just like easy going and fun bakes. I've seen so many youtube tutorials of how to make marshmallow icing and it's always seemed so nightmarish. They'd completely put me off with the boiling of sugar to the perfect degree. Anyhow this recipe only calls for a few ingredients and I thought, with so little this can't be too difficult. It actually states in the book, before you start that the method to making this icing really isn't difficult at all. And The Primrose Bakery App (which is amazing) actually rates the recipes for you, this has 3 stars. So instead of avoiding this recipe like the plague, I could have been indulging in mountains of flumpy, sweet marshmallow fluff! I absolutely LOVE marshmallows (can't you tell by how many times I've said the word?) I love the stuff so much it's almost like that episode of Sabrina The Teenage Witch when Sabrina (also my name) becomes addicted to pancakes and the maple syrup lady is randomly following her around. It's exactly like that! When Ben came into the kitchen I had mallow-fluff all over my face, my hands and arms were so sticky I was sticking to my t shirt!

 

So in a nutshell. I love this recipe it's simple, it's tasty and I am so pleased with the fact the recipe calls for 2 eggs and says it'll make 16 cupcakes. Although I made 12 there was more than enough mixture to make 16. Same goes for the mallow icing recipe. My advice is to definitely bake your cupcakes in advance as the mallow icing is best used as soon as it's made. It's easier to work with and keeps the smooth glossiness of proper marshmallow fluff. Hope you all enjoy!

Ingredients

For the Cupcakes

115g Dark Chocolate

85g Butter

175g Soft Light Brown Sugar (I used dark brown)

2 Eggs (seperated)

185g Plain flour

3/4 tsp Baking Powder

3/4 tsp Bicarb Soda

Pinch of Salt

250ml Semi-Skimmed Milk

1tsp Vanilla Extract

Method

-Preheat oven to 190 degrees/gas mark 5 (I cooked at 160degrees.) Line muffin trays with cases.

-Melt the chocolate in a bowl over a pan of simmering water, or in the microwave. Leave to cool slightly. (I prefer to use the pan as I find I burn the chocolate to easily in the microwave. And the smell of melting chocolate on the hob just adds to the whole baking experience.)

-Cream together the butter and sugar until pale and smooth. Slowly add the egg yolks and beat well. 

-Next add in the melted chocolate and beat again.

-Sift flour, baking powder, bicarb and salt together into a separate bowl and stir together.

-Measure out milk and stir in vanilla extract.

-Gradually add alternate amounts of the flour-mix and the milk-mix to the butter and sugar, beating well in between.

-In a clean bowl using a whisk, whisk the egg-whites until they form stiff peaks. Then using a spatula carefully fold the whites into the main batter until everything is combined.

-Spoon the mixture into the cases and bake for 20-25 minutes. A skewer poked into the cakes comes out clean. 

-Leave the cakes to cool in their tins for 10 minutes then turn them onto a wire rack to cool further.

 For the Icing

120g Granulated Sugar

80g Golden Syrup

1 1/2 tbsp water

2 Egg Whites

1/2 tsp Vanilla Extract

Method

- Put the sugar, golden syrup and water into a pan and cook on a high heat for around 2 minutes. The mixture will thicken and turn golden and should slowly drip from a spoon. (The soft ball stage). 

-Whisk the egg whites until soft peaks start to form then keep beating while you slowly pour the hot sugar mixture into the bowl. 

- Continue beating at a higher speed until the mixture becomes thick, glossy and cool. Add the vanilla extract towards the end. (I added a drop of Wilton Rose food colouring at this point, then mixed in on a high speed until the icing was pale pink.)

Decorating

The mallow icing looks so cool when pallet-knifed on, I used this method and also used a large, plain piping tube (along with a piping bag) to create an even fluffier look, then topped with pink and white fondant flowers and finished with a sprinkle of edible, hologram glitter.

Heart-Shaped Chocolatey, fudge cake

This recipe is one of my own. I decided to bake this cake for my Fiance seen as how he’s super supportive of my baking madness and he shells out a lot of money for kitchen-goods which keep me very happy. So what better way to thank him than to whip up a cake using some of his favourite flavours. I think there is a lot of science to baking and not following a recipe can make things quite complicated. It's undeniable that certain ingredients won’t work together, but ideally if you have a good base I think it’s always good to experiment with flavours and you’ll find that 9 times out of 10 it’ll turn out just right. I say this all the time, probably because it's been said to me so very often, but it really is trial and error. I often feel like George from Roald Dahl’s ‘George’s Marvellous Medicine’ when making my own recipe. There’s usually sugar in my eyes, flour all over my face, just a mess. I jot down flavours, textures, smells and most importantly how what I’m doing makes me feel at that time. Anyway, less rambling, more recipe! Here goes:

Ingredients

For the cake

4 Large Eggs

190g Butter

150g Golden Caster Sugar

40g Brown Sugar

150ml Milk (or Elmlea double cream)

1/2 tsp Baking Powder

210g Flour

30g Caramel Syrup

30g Cocoa Powder

Pinch of cinnamon

For the buttercream

140g Butter

240g Icing Sugar

15g Cocoa Powder

4 tsp Caramel Syrup

2 tsp Milk

Method

- Preheat oven at 160 degrees

-Line mould with greaseproof paper and lightly grease with butter

-Cream together syrup, butter, sugars on a high speed until you have a nice fluffy mixture  (on my notes here it says ‘Smells lovely.’ The mixture should smell like a lovely toffee, caramelly sweetness.)

-Sift in flour, baking powder, cocoa powder and cinnamon.

-Mix on a low speed adding milk/cream until you get a nice smooth mixture.

-Spoon mixture into lined mould

-Bake for 25-30 minutes or until a skewer inserted into the cake comes out clean and cake is springy to touch.

-Leave cake to cool down a little then transfer to a wire rack to cool completely.

Let’s crack on with the buttercream!

Method

-Beat butter until soft. Add half of the icing sugar and beat until smooth.

-Add remaining sugar, cocoa and milk and beat together.

-Add in caramel syrup and beat mixture until smooth and spreadable

Once the cake has fully cooled down sandwich the cake and spread a generous amount of the buttercream.

Place on top layer and sift on some icing sugar for decoration

Voila!

I got a little bit too friendly with the icing sugar!