Langues de chat

I got a dinner invitation at the weekend (thanks T for a fab dinner!) so I thought I'd make something for my host. I was told cake was not required. As I was short on time, I decided to make a biscuit or cookie. I looked through my recipe books for inspiration. I happened to have some spare egg whites so I decided to make Langues de chat. It means "cats tongue" in French. It's really light, delicate and tasty. Why not give it a try?

125g butter, softened

125g caster sugar

3 egg whites

125g plain flour

Optional extras (choose only one of the following)

2 tsp lavender flowers/dried rose petals/fennel seeds or crystallised fruits, finely chopped

1/2 tsp ground cinnamon

1/2 tsp vanilla extract

Grated rind of 1 orange or lemon

(I used 1/2 tsp of vanilla essence for these)

• 
  
  Preheat the oven to 200C
• 
  
  Line a baking sheet with baking parchment
• 
  
  Beat the butter and sugar together until pale and creamy.
• 
  
  In a separate bowl, whisk the egg whites until stiff, then gradually fold them into the butter mixture.
• 
  
  Sift in the flour and gently fold into the mixture.
• 
  
  Fit a piping bag with a medium sized plain nozzle (or a ziplock bag with the end snipped off) and spoon in the mixture.
• 
  
  Pipe the mixture into 3inch long fingers, no thicker than 1/2inch wide, leaving a little space between them to allow for spreading.
• 
  
  Sprinkle with optional extras of your choice and bake for 5-8 minutes or until crispy and pale golden around the edges.
• 
  
  Allow to cool completely.

Iron Cupcake London February Challenge- Love

Well it's that time of the month again... the ICL challenge! I think they get better each month and this time definitely didn't fail to disappoint. Some of the cakes were seriously amazing in terms of taste and presentation. Check out the website for more information and photos of all the entries. Thanks to everyone who came to support me :)

http://www.ironcupcake.co.uk/

http://thecakedcrusader.blogspot.com/2010/02/icl-challenge-viii-love.html

Cakes loaded and ready to go :) Thanks for my lovely cupcake carrier (you know who you are!)cake, cake and more cake...

my 2 entriesour loot :) the aftermath!

It's a Rocky Road to Love

My second entry for the February ICL challenge was 'It's a Rocky Road to Love'. The cake was really light and spongy topped with homemade rocky road. It was supposed to be a marble cake but I had some difficulties getting the marbled effect. Dont think it turned out too badly though! It definitely tasted amazing :) (yes I know- obviously I will have a biased view) I'm not a huge fan of rocky road as I don't like marshmallows and cherries but these were yummy! I'm sure it won't be my first and last time making them.

Marble Cake

125g butter, softened

1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract

2/3 cup caster sugar

2 eggs

1&1/4 cup self-raising flour

1/3 cup milk

pink food colouring

1 tablespoon cocoa powder

2 teaspoons milk, extra

Rocky Road Topping

1/2 cup unsalted roasted peanuts

1 cup (200g) glace red cherries, halved

1 cup (100g) pink and white marshmallows, chopped coarsely

200g milk eating chocolate, melted

• 
  
  Preheat oven to 180C
• 
  
  Beat butter, extract, sugar and eggs until light and fluffy.
• 
  
  Stir in sifted flour and milk in 2 batches.
• 
  
  Divide mixture evenly among 3 bowls.
• 
  
  Tint one mixture pink.
• 
  
  Blend sifted cocoa powder with extra milk in a cup; stir into another mixture.
• 
  
  Leave third mixture plain.
• 
  
  Drop alternate spoonfuls of the mixtures into cases.  Pull a toothpick backwards and forwards through mixtures for a marbled effect; smooth surface.
• 
  
  Bake for approximately 20 minutes
• 
  
  Combine ingredients for rocky road topping in a medium bowl.
• 
  
  Place topping on tops of cooled cakes.
• 
  
  Enjoy! :)

Tropical Passion

The theme for February's Iron Cupcake London challenge is 'Love'.  I knew there would probably be a lot of chocolate, berries, champagne, rose or variations of these flavours. So I decided to be slightly different and came up with 2 ideas. The first is 'tropical passion' which is a passionfruit and pineapple cupcake with a lime and coconut frosting. I topped it with little pink glitter hearts and added a little umbrella for effect. What do you think? It was a really light and refreshing cake.

The batter smelled absolutely divine - I got some really nice passionfruit from Waitrose

Passionfruit and Pineapple Cupcake

90g butter, softened

1/2 cup caster sugar

2 eggs

3/4 cup self-raising flour

1/4 cup cornflour

1/2 cup crushed pineapple (well drained)

1/4 cup passionfruit pulp (about 2 fruits depending on size)

Lime and Coconut Buttercream

115g unsalted butter, at room temperature

2 tablespoons freshly squeezed lime juice

grated zest of 1-2 limes (approx 2 teaspoons)

500g icing sugar, sifted

Handful of dessicated coconut to decorate

• 
  
  Preheat oven to 180C
• 
  
  Beat butter, eggs, sugar and flour in a small bowl with an electric mixer on low speed until ingredients are just combined. Increase speed to medium, beat until mixture is pale in colour.
• 
  
  Stir in passionfruit pulp and crushed pineapple.
• 
  
  Divide mixture among cupcake cases.
• 
  
  Bake for approximately 20-25minutes
• 
  
  For the frosting - beat butter, lime juice, zest and half the icing sugar until smooth. Gradually add the remainder of the icing sugar and beat until thick and creamy.

Triple Chocolate Brownies

This is my favourite brownie recipe, courtesy of Sainsbury's. I've tried a few other recipes but always get the best feedback from these. They never seem to last long which is a good sign :) It's moist in the middle and crisp on top. Although I don't personally like white chocolate, I quite like the little bits of white chocolate in this brownie. Oh and it smells and tastes absolutely amazing! Obviously I'm biased... try it for yourself :)

Fresh from the oven

Thanks C for the beautiful plate :)

200g plain chocolate

50g milk chocolate

225g butter

4 medium eggs

325g unrefined golden caster sugar

10ml vanilla essence

200g white chocolate

150g plain flour, sifted

pinch of salt

• 
  
  
  Preheat the oven to 180C
• 
  
  
  Line a cake tin, 28cm x 18cm x 6cm with parchment paper.
• 
  
  
  In a bowl, break the milk and plain chocolate into pieces and melt with the butter.  Allow to cool slightly.
• 
  
  
  In a separate bowl, beat together the eggs, sugar and vanilla essence.
• 
  
  
  Roughly chop the white chocolate.
• 
  
  
  Whisk the egg mixture into the cooled chocolate mixture, then fold in the flour, salt and white chocolate.
• 
  
  
  Pour the mixture into the tin and bake in the oven for 35-40 minutes until the top is crisp and pale and the centre is almost set.
• 
  
  
  Remove from the oven and allow to cool on a wire rack in the tin, then cut into 20 squares.
  
  

Banana and Blueberry Bread

Do you ever find that your bananas ripen when you're not looking? They're green for a while and then yellow and before you know it they've gone black! I personally don't like to eat bananas that are too ripe so I find myself making quite a lot of banana bread as I don't know what else to do with the over-ripe bananas. This time I decided to try a slight variation since I also had a lot of blueberries to hand. I made little loafs which are so cute and so convenient. I'm having one for breakfast tomorrow :)

I had some extra batter left so I put them in a star mould and this is how they turned out

 

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
3 large over-ripe bananas

2 tablespoons lemon juice
1/2 cup (80 ml) vanilla soymilk (or apple sauce)
1/2 cup (120 ml) sugar
2 cups (240 g) white whole wheat flour (or regular whole wheat flour)
3/4 teaspoon baking powder
3/4 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 cup (240 ml) blueberries

 

• Preheat oven to 180CF.
• Mix the soymilk with 1 tablespoon of the lemon juice and let stand until it curdles. (If using apple sauce, skip this step and add the lemon juice to the bananas.)
• In a large bowl, mash the bananas and add the remaining lemon juice, soymilk, and sugar. Stir well to combine.
• In a separate bowl, combine the flour, baking powder, soda, and salt.
• Add the dry ingredients to the banana mixture, and stir just until the mixture is well-combined. Fold in the blueberries.
• Spread the mixture evenly in the prepared pan and bake until a knife inserted in the center comes out clean, about 50-60 minutes. (Reduce baking time if making miniatures such as these ~40-45mins)
• Allow to cool before cutting and serving.

 

Chocolate Chestnut Cranberry Cupcake

This is my other entry at the Iron Cupcake Challenge http://www.ironcupcake.co.uk/

I got this recipe online http://doghillkitchen.blogspot.com/2008/11/cranberry-filled-chocolate-chestnut.html

I made these for friends as a Christmas gift and decorated it with a cranberry and wafer holly leaves which looked really festive. The icing turned out smoother although I followed the same recipe.