Home Sweet Home Bake Along (55-60!)

How was it February since I last posted? Dear me, how time seems to run away. I have been baking, quietly, in the background, although I think I'm rather off kilter with Gill!

I have baked:

A very ugly Flourless Chocolate Cake cake. Like Gill I suffered a spring-form tin water ingress issues, despite wrapping the tin in foil. Soggy edges, but a rather pleasant middle.

Peanut Butter and Chocolate Shortcakes - I changed the shape on these to a wedge (for ease) and added white chocolate chips for added excitement. These made a rather excellent Sunday night supper for The Fair Physiologist, The Pure Mathematician in Exile and me.

Chocolate Pie - this one is in fact not 57, but I accidentally made 57 here: Chess Pie when I skipped over Chocolate pie believing I had already made it (I think I had, but not during the bake through) - this is fab - chocolate biscuit crust, chocolate pastry cream/custard/pudding, whipped cream. Everything the doctor ordered.

Vanilla fudge - another somewhat dubious fudge attempt on my part - not sure if it is the sugar thermometer or me, but these needed reboiling. Jolly yummy once finished though! My squares were rather thin because I never seem to have the tins demanded by Home Sweet Home.

Cinder Toffee (Honeycomb) cupcakes. Yum. That is all.

Lemon cake. Stupidly tried to make cream cheese icing on the hottest day of the year so far. Very slide-y layers. Jam oozing. It was like the Princesstarta all over again... Still, a few butterfly sprinkles and all was well with the world again. It was well received, despite its ugliness.

Oh. Yes. I also made some espadrilles. The Kindred Spirit wonderfully bought me all the required items for production two birthdays ago. She visited this week, and I suddenly remembered that amid other projects I had forgotten to make them; so I did. And they were fun, and easy, and I have new summer shoes! Yay!

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Home Sweet Home Bake Along (53&54/100)

Sorry, another long break. Baking progress has been slow recently, I have tended to stick to things I am familiar with baking, for one reason and another.

The project is edging onwards, however, and Gill and I are in roughly the same area of the book (barring her recent accidental diversion) so I don't feel too off kilter.

First, then were grasshopper squares:

These were possibly the most well received bake I have ever made - needing a kilo of white chocolate, this is perhaps, unsurprising - although I did have to resort to a hand blender and some cold milk after splitting my ganache (white chocolate ganaches are so temperamental, and I never chop my chocolate fine enough, so it's six of one and half a dozen of the other I suppose.)

Second were rose-chocolate cupcakes:

These were surprisingly popular, given how divisive Turkish delight and rose-scented bakes can be. Probably not one I'll make again (unlike the grasshopper squares!) but not a write-off by any stretch of the imagination.

Next up, flourless chocolate cake (I think...)



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Custard Cream Cupcakes - Home Sweet Home Bake Along (42/100)

The cupcakes are definitely the best things in this book, always fun and a little bit quirky.

The recipes seem to be exactly what is in the shops, which does explain the sometimes strange quantities - as if a bulk recipe has been scaled down as small as it would go. The custard inside these cupcakes rather delighted certain colleagues, and is definitely a fun surprise!

These cupcakes aren't a quick fix due to their many elements, but they are worth it. The unusual method of mixing the dry ingredients and butter before adding the liquid, plus the tablespoon of baking powder makes a lovely soft and moist cupcake.

Ingredients:
For the Custard Cream Biscuits (this dough is so soft it was easier to spread it rather than roll it, it may need chilling in the fridge):
100g unsalted butter, softened
140g caster sugar
1 egg
200g plain flour
1/4tsp cream of tartar
For the sponge:
70g unsalted butter, softened
210g plain flour
250g caster sugar
1 tbsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
210ml whole milk
2 large eggs
1tsp vanilla extract
For the custard
220ml whole milk
2 large egg yolks
1 tsp vanilla extract
40g caster sugar
15g plain flour
15g cornflour
For the Frosting
660g icing sugar, sifted
210g unsalted butter, softened
60ml whole milk
1 tsp vanilla extract
a few drops yellow liquid food colouring (I omitted this)

Next up: Chocolate Malt Cake

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Chocolate and Coconut Cupcakes - Home Sweet Home Bakealong (35/100)

The cupcakes are always fun to come around to again - usually pretty and unusual to look at, with a quick and easy method too.

There is always far too much icing - I made 2/3 of the recipe, which was just perfect for the 12 (quite chunky) cupcakes I produced.

Like Gill I found the tiny amount of coconut milk a rather silly amount - although I keep cans in the cupboard, I didn't really want to open a can for so little, and the flavour is rather muted (in fact, I very slightly split my icing trying to add a bit more cocounut flavour!)

The cupcakes are cute to look at though, which is a redeeming feature.

Ingredients
for the sponge
70g unsalted butter
170g plain flour
250g caster sugar (I reduced this to 200g, having found previous incantations too sweet)
50g cocoa powder
1 tbsp baking powder
1/2tsp salt
210ml whole milk
2 large eggs
2-3 coconut chocolate bars (they recommend bounty, I used knock-off versions)
for the frosting
500g icing sugar, sifted (I used 300g)
160g unsalted butter (I used 100g)
60ml coconut milk (I used 35ml)
for the decoration
1-2 bounty bars (I used 6 treat size knock-off versions, and cut them in half)
60g desiccated coconut (I also didn’t weigh this out – just sprinkled)

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Jolly Jammer Cupcakes - Home Sweet Home 28/100

Of all the bakes in the Home Sweet Home book, the cupcakes are probably my favourites.

So many creative ideas, with so much fun.

The biscuits alone here went down very well. (The recipe makes far too many jam-and-cream filled delights for just the cake, so the spare biscuits went to work, and disappeared in 5 minutes flat.) They will be repeated!

The cupcakes are *really* sweet - next time I'd probably reduce the sugar, but the slight tartness of the jam makes a nice contrast and the texture was very good - pillowy and tender.

I had such fun making these.

You won't need all of the icing, unless you want diabetic coma inducing levels, piped in big swirls - two thirds of the recipe will be enough to fill the cakes, fill (all, including spares) the biscuits and ice the cakes.

 Ingredients:
For the mini jolly jammers:
100g unsalted butter
140g caster sugar
1 egg
200g plain flour
1/4 tsp cream of tartar
For the cupcakes:
70g unsalted butter
210g plain flour
250g caster sugar
1 tbsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
210ml milk
2 large eggs
1 tsp vanilla extract
For the frosting (two thirds of this recipe will be more than sufficient)
650g Icing sugar
210g unsalted butter
60ml milk
1/2 tsp vanilla extract
For the filling (of both cakes and biscuits)
100g smooth strawberry jam




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Blueberry and Amaretti Trifle Cupcakes - Home Sweet Home Bake Along (21/100)

Apart from being unseasonal (blueberry season is not for a wee while yet), these turned out to be an excellent cupcake for this weekend.

I have been to visit Mama and Papa. Papa is a fan of cake in most manifestations, but a blueberry muffin, with a bit of an homage to trifle and with just a hint of almond seems to have gone down well.

Mama and I have to keep counting the cupcakes to deter sudden disappearances.

Fearing the scrambled eggs phenomenon, I undercooked my custard initially (it was very liquid, and still had a delightful cornflour mouthfeel *bleurgh*) so reboiled it and it thickened beautifully. A whisk is essential - a spatula or spoon will result in lumps.

I'm not usually a trifle fan - I find it a rather strange experience. Think about it, you soak stale cake in alcohol to try and disguise its staleness, then add squashed fruit, and cover the whole lot in cold custard. I'm sure that is as controversial as the whole scone debate last summer, but if you can't be controversial about food, when can you be?

These cupcakes are good though - the best parts of trifle - but no stale sponge.

Ingredients:
Cupcakes:
70g unsalted butter, at room temperature
210g plain flour
1 tablespoon baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
250g caster sugar
210ml whole milk
2 large eggs
1/2 tsp vanilla extract
1/2 tsp almond extract (the original recipe only uses vanilla extract, but I felt it needed something to tie the amaretti flavours into the sponge
150g blueberries (I used frozen, as April isn't really blueberry season, unless of course it's strawberries that have turned blue because of the cold #soundofmusicreference... and yes... I just used a hashtag in a blog)
Custard Cream:
330ml whole milk
3 large egg yolks
60g caster sugar
20g plain flour
20g cornflour
150ml double cream

Decoration:
75g blueberries (I omitted these, because, as you might have seen me mention, it is not blueberry season and frozen blueberries would go all smudgy)
50g amaretti biscuits, crushed into fine crumbs



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Doughnut Cupcakes - Home Sweet Home Bake Along (14/100)

This is what we want from Hummingbird Bakery - sugary treats, filled with calories and American-style charm.

A simple concept - jam filled doughnut, but in jam filled cupcake form. Iced with a cinnamon buttercream, and topped with a little doughnut.

The recipe warns you to make extra little doughnuts as several will miss the cakes and accidentally fall into your mouth. I concur with this advice, and thankfully there is dough to make a good few more little doughnuts than you will need for topping purposes.

Another lot of deep fat frying, and I'm well out of the fear range. Armed with my sugar thermometer and copper bottomed pan I'm almost *whispers* confident!

Plus these little doughnuts were a lot quicker to fry than the Funnel Cakes, so the frying smell was less entrenched, and disappeared more quickly! I think I'll definitely be making the doughnuts again at least.

I made less icing than recommended, and would advise you to do the same - the whole recipe is distinctly profligate, but 1/2 didn't yield quite enough to ice all the cupcakes, perhaps 3/4 of the recipe would be the charm?

Ingredients:
For cupcakes:
70g unsalted butter, softened
210g plain flour
250g caster sugar
1 tablespoon baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
210 ml whole milk
2 large eggs

For filling:
100g strawberry jam (I used blackberry jelly, because, well, that's what I had!)

For the cinnamon sugar:
1 tsp cinnamon sugar
100g caster sugar

For the doughnuts:
250g plain flour, plus extra for dusting (I used bread flour, for a more bready doughnut)
1/4 tsp salt
1/2 tsp baking powder
25g cold unsalted butter, cubed
35g caster sugar
1 large egg
125ml whole milik
~1 litre sunflower oil (for frying)

For icing (I halved this and had enough for 14 cupcakes, but two had to remain un-iced, as the recipe yielded 16 cupcakes)
660g icing sugar, sifted
1tsp ground cinnamon
210g unsalted butter, softened
60ml whole milk







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