House of Farnell

As it was my Christmas Prep Week (trademark) and most of my prep was done, I decided to take my mother on a little journey to the House of Farnell. This is a Danish shop and café, tucked away in the back roads of Angus, where I live. The ‘house’ is an old school building and every year there is a Christmas fair, selling lovely baubles and Christmassy knick-knacks. It always makes me feel festive whenever I visit.

This year, as I say, I took mum along for a nosey. It had been snowing, which made the scene even more idyllic. The roads can be a bit treacherous in the bad weather, but I took my time and we got there safely.

Firstly we had a look at the shop, filled with traditional Danish Christmas decorations. Lots of hearts, candles, pixies and gingerbread houses. I wasn’t tempted to purchase anything – this time!

We had a bite of lunch, a warming bowl of creamy winter vegetable soup and crusty bread. And to follow, I had a delicious thick hot chocolate and some Æbleskiver – a traditional Danish pancake, in the shape of a ball. Very light and fluffy, these were served hot with lovely jam and sugar. Mum plumped for a gorgeous looking Danish pastry and a Chai Latte.

We took one last look around the decorations, before leaving and feeling even more in the Christmas spirit!

Trifle Layer Cake

One of the most popular bakes I have made here on Cakeyboi are my Trifle Cupcakes. These comprised all the elements of the beloved Christmas dessert trifle – sponge, jelly, fruit, custard and cream.

When I had a few friends round recently for a festive evening, I, of course, had to bake a cake for the event. And I thought that this would be the prefect time of year to try out the cake version of my cupcakes, an idea that had been swimming around the recesses of my mind for a while.

The sponge fingers, usually used in trifle, would be victoria sponge cake, The custard would be a custard flavour buttercream which I had used before in my Nanaimo bars and Double Stuff Custard Creams. The jelly layer would be prepared in the cake tin which the cake was baked in, so it was the same diameter as the sponge cake. Lastly, instead of cream which I thought would be quite predictable, I decided to make a baked meringue topping, like you would find on Lemon Meringue Cake. And as I sprinkle Flake chocolate on my trifles, I decided to fold this through the meringue. Let’s get started…

Ingredients:

Jelly Layer:

One sachet (23g) rspberry jelly

A handful of raspberries

Sponge Layer:

200 grams unsalted butter, softened

200 grams self-rising flour

200 grams caster sugar

4 eggs

Custard Buttercream:

120 grams unsalted butter, softened

4 tablespoons of custard powder

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

450 grams icing sugar

4 tablespoons milk

Meringue Topping:

100 grams crumbled Flake (or grated milk chocolate)

1 teaspoon cornflour

4 egg whites

Pinch of Cream of Tartar

225 grams caster sugar

Method:

Jelly:

In advance, make your jelly following the instructions on the pack using only three quarters of the water recommended. Pour this into one of the cake tins you will be using for the sponge cake. Place some raspberries into the jelly and place in the fridge to set. Once set, remove from the cake tin carefully. I tried to remove it in one perfect disc, but it collapsed. I should probably have lined it with foil! Still, the pieces could still be used…

Cake:

Pre-heat your oven to 180^oC. Grease, line and flour two 8” cake tins and set aside.

In a mixing bowl, cream together the butter and sugar until pale yellow in colour. Add the eggs and beat until the mixture thickens slightly. Sift in the flour and stir to combine. Divide the mix between the two cake tins and place into the oven for 20 to 25 minutes, until golden brown, or when a toothpick comes out clean from the centre. Allow to cool a wee bit before removing them from the cake tins and cooling fully on a wire rack.

Buttercream:

In a mixing bowl beat the softened butter with the custard powder, vanilla and milk. Add the icing sugar and slowly mix to combine fully.

Meringue:

Crumble the Flake bars and coat with the cornflour, set aside. In a mixing bowl, beat the egg whites and cream of tartar until frothy. Slowly add the caster sugar and beat on high for 5 minutes. The mixture should be thick and voluminous. Carefully fold in the chocolate.

Assembly:

Take one layer of sponge cake and place on a baking tray. Wrap a length of foil and wrap around the cake, this will prevent it from burning. Mound the meringue mix on top, swirling into a pleasing shape. Place into a 180^oC oven for 20 minutes. Remove from the oven, unwrap the foil and allow to cool completely.

Take the bottom layer of the sponge and spread on half of the buttercream. Do not coat the sides. Place the jelly disc (or pieces in my case) on top of the buttercream. Coat the top of the jelly with the rest of the buttercream (I piped this on with a disposable icing bag). Place the top layer of the (cooled) cake with it’s meringue topping on top of this. This is a tall cake, so to steady, I place a couple of bamboo skewers into the cake to hold it together. Place into the fridge until ready to serve.

My guests loved the cake and said that it actually tasted like trifle, albeit in cake form, which was my intention. The crusty meringue on top really finished it off perfectly. It is really festive and would be a nice alternative to this years Crimbo dessert. Give it a try!

Christmas Cartoon Time - Christmas Cake

And Christmassy Cartoon number one...

Gingerbread Boi

Well, it’s Cakeyboi’s first Christmas and I wanted to make something that would reflect both the baking and cartoony element of the blog.

I have lots of ideas up my sleeve for Christmas bakes, but this particular one I could almost make Cakeyboi come alive. I had picked up cupcake shaped cookie cutters a few weeks back (TK Maxx, where else?) and thought cookies in the shape of our cupcake hero would be fun!

I looked at a few gingerbread recipes and one I came across which really did look like an interesting make, was one by Nigella on a random American site. Only trouble was, it didn’t contain any ginger. I experimented by adding some and they were delish – and I could now legitimately call them Gingerbread (just!!). They are quiet firm cakey textured cookies (quite apt) and I decorated them with some royal icing and a jelly tot for the nose. I also made a small hole at the top of each one to thread some sparkly red cord through, ready to hang on the tree.

Recipe (adapted from Nigella’s Edible Tree Decorations)

Yield: Depends on size of your cutter!

Ingredients:

200 grams plain flour

¼ teaspoon salt

1 teaspoon baking powder

1 teaspoon ground cinnamon

1 teaspoon ground ginger

¼ teaspoon ground cloves

1 ½ teaspoon ground black pepper

115 grams softened unsalted butter

100 grams dark brown sugar

2 large eggs

90 grams runny honey

Method:

In a bowl sift together the flour, salt and all of the spices, Set to one side.

With a food mixer (or by hand) mix the butter and sugar together until creamy. Add the eggs, one at a time, incorporating after each addition. Add the honey and mix through.

Slowly add the flour mix until it has all combined and no streaks of the flour can be seen. If the dough appears too soft and sticky, add a little bit more flour until it is easier to handle. Separate the dough into two mounds, wrap each in plastic wrap and flatten to make discs. Pop them into the refrigerator overnight.

When you are ready to bake, pre-heat your oven to 180^oC. Line two baking trays with greaseproof paper. Take each dough disc and roll out until an 1/8 inch thick. Cut out whatever shapes you desire and place onto the baking trays. I used an icing bag tip to cut out a small hole in the top of each cookie, enough for a piece of string to fit through.

Pop them into the oven for 10-12 minutes, or until lightly browned. Remove and allow to cool completely.

Now this recipe is not only appearing on Cakeyboi’s blog. My foodie friend Stephanie over at Kitchen Frolic is having a Cookie Advent Calendar throughout the season and she very kindly asked me to share a recipe with her readers. So I chose this one...Pop over to say 'hi', get some more great festive cookie ideas, as well as my own thoughts on the season!

Christmas Bark

So this is Christmas- yay! I will be blogging a little bit more than usual during December, as I've so many ideas going on in my head. Oh, and like the Starbucks cups, the Cakeyboi header is going red, but only for the season...

It’s mine and Disneyboi’s favourite time of the year. When it’s okay to be a big kid and get away with it. In fact, I probably love the build up to the big day, more than the day itself.

Every year I take the first week of December off from my work and call it Christmas Prep Week! Truth be told, most of my prep is already done, I’ve written the cards (In October?!), bought and wrapped most of the pressies and the decorations are up. I just bake and watch Christmas TV movies.

I do festoon my home with Christmas decorations – in fact if you ‘Like’ the Cakeyboi Facebook page, for December I will be having a ‘Cakey Christmas Countdown’, a different decoration from my home every day – just a bit of advent fun. Pop over if you are so inclined!

My first festive bake isn’t really a bake. More of a melt and chill. It’s Christmas Bark. You may have seen my Great British Bark and Halloween Bark already, but this is where it all started. I have made my Christmas Bark for years now. If I didn’t make it my family and friends would be sooo disappointed.

Ingedients:

450 grams white chocolate, chopped

60 grams rice krispies

12 peppermint candy canes

20 grams white mini marshmallows

Method:

Line a large cookie sheet with greaseproof paper and set aside. Crush the candy canes in a food processor until they are in small pieces, but not dust! Chop the mallows in half to make even smaller.

Place the white chocolate in a heat proof bowl and place this over a saucepan of simmering water (make sure the water doesn’t touch the bottom of the pan). Melt the chocolate, stirring all the time.

Once fully melted, stir the rice krispies through the chocolate until it is all combined. Pour this mix on to the prepared cookie sheet and spread out with a knife until it is one thin layer. Next, sprinkle the candy cane pieces evenly over the mix and then the mallows. Take another sheet of greaseproof paper, place this on top of the bark slab and smooth it all over with your hands, pushing lightly to embed the canes and mallows into the chocolate. Pop into the refrigerator to set completely. I left mine overnight.

Remove from the fridge and using your hands break into random shards. The size is totally up to you. And there you have Christmas Bark! I placed mine in little plastic take-away cartons, lined with red and green cellophane. Kids and adults love this stuff, with the white chocolate krispie crunch, peppermint chew and melting mallows.

Enjoy!!

Don't forget the Cakeyboi 2013 Calendar Giveaway - open until 24th December...

Cakeyboi 2013 Calendar Giveaway and November Cake Meet

It's the Cakeyboi 2013 Calendar Giveaway!! I have 3 wall calendars to give away to three lucky visitors. The calendar features a different Cakeyboi cartoon each month, some old favourites and some not yet seen on the blog.

The giveaway runs until 24^th December – Christmas Eve, so someone will get a great gift for the New Year (unless you live outside the UK and shipping may take longer!).

If you would like a chance to win the one of the calendars, simply leave a comment on this post.

However If you would like extra entries:

1. Follow Cakeyboi on Google Connect or Networked Blogs (down the side panel) and leave a second comment to say you have done so.

2. Follow @MrCakeyBoi on Twitter and leave a separate comment to let me know you have done so.

3. Tweet the competition using (I'd love to win a #Cakeyboi 2013 Calendar! #win #giveaway) and leave a separate comment to say you have done so.

4. Like the Cakeyboi Facebook Page and leave a separate comment to let me know you have done so.

If you add everything into one comment you will only get one entry, so remember to write a separate comment for each entry. 

(Some visitors have mentioned difficulties when trying to leave comments. If you do, email me at mrcakeyboi@gmail.com and I'll try to help.)

The giveaway runs until midnight on Monday 24 December 2012. I'll announce the winners soon after. This giveaway is open worldwide!

 Good luck!

November's Cake Meet

Yes, it has been quiet on the cake club front recently. What with one thing and another I haven’t had the time to go along to the past two. But I made room in my calendar for this month's meeting. The theme was Petit Fours, which were right up Cakeyboi’s street.

My recent bake of Pumpkin Cake Doughnuts was a perfect take-along (especially as host Becca from Becca Bakes specifically requested them!) and luckily I managed to find a few more tins of pumpkin (In TK Maxx of all places!!).

The venue was Duke’s Corner in Brown Street, Dundee. It's a great pub, open til late with amazing food, host to lots of DJ's and gigs – I think The View started out there - and of course a great selection of drinks. We were given a cosy, shady area behind a dark curtain , which made the whole event seem even more surreptitious than usual!!

The selection of bakes was, I can honestly say, my favourite since I started attending the cake club. There were chocolate and pomegranate petit fours, almond cupcakes with amaretto frosting, macarons with chocolate frosting, lemon and peppermint creams, peanut butter truffle brownies, salted caramel cupcakes, mocha cupcakes, chocolate and caramel mini éclairs, and more besides. Now, I have never tried macarons before, because I have never been a fan of almond flavour, but I am a convert. These are delicious. Made by our other host - Jac from Tinned Tomatoes blog - they were my favourites along with the salted caramel cupcakes. Disneyboi came along with me for the first time and he was stuffed to the gunnels and so was I, despite neither of us having dinner beforehand!

A fab cake event as ever, great to meet new folk ( I even met an old Uni chum whom I hadn't seen for more years than I care to remember). I can’t wait for the next!

Cartoon Time - Cakey Breaky

My youngest nephew got a bit excited on a trampoline this weekend and broke his leg!
So, this one's for him - Get Well Soon Jamie!!