Cartoon Time - Fruit Cake

Seeing as we are in the party mood this birthday month, how about a fiesta inspired toon? Thanks to Cakeymum for this idea...

Birthday Cake Batter Bark

I love this stuff! I’ve made it for Birthday month here on Cakeyboi, but my goodness, it would be good at any time. If you love cake batter and licking out the bowl, Birthday Cake Batter Bark is for you!

I have made various versions of my bark over the past year, and they have all followed the same sort of format, with white chocolate and rice krispies. This bark is altogether different, but just as delicious.

And it’s very simple to make, white chocolate on the bottom, a dough made from any boxed vanilla cake mix in the middle, (with added sprinkles) and a layer of white chocolate on top with more sprinkles.

Ingredients:

600 grams white chocolate

330 grams vanilla cake mix

250 grams icing sugar

110 grams butter, cut into pieces

4 tablespoons milk

Lots of coloured sprinkles

Adapted from Cookies and Cups

Method:

Line an 8”x8” square tin with foil. Melt 300 grams of the white chocolate, and pour this into the bottom of the tin. Smooth out so it is level and then place in the fridge to set, about 20-30 minutes.

In a large microwaveable bowl, place the cake mix, icing sugar, butter and milk. Do not mix this, just pop it into the microwave for 2 minutes on full power (trust me on this!). After the 2 minutes, mix the contents with a fork until you get a thick dough. At this point add about 5 tablespoons of coloured sprinkles and mix through with the fork. 

Allow to cool a little, before placing the dough on top of the cooled chocolate in the tin. I found this easiest to do by grabbing handfuls of dough, flattening it, then placing it on top, adding pieces like a jigsaw until all the chocolate is covered. Don’t worry if the chocolate melts a little again, this helps it stick to the cake batter dough. Chill this for about 30 minutes.

Melt the remaining 300 grams of white chocolate and pour over the top of the chilled dough, spreading to an even level and sprinkle on a couple of teaspoons of sprinkles. Place this into the fridge to set up, another 30 minutes. After this time, remove from the tin, carefully peeling the foil away and then cut into shards.

I liked cutting mine into wedges as they looked like little mini birthday cake wedges. These are very sweet, what with the white choc top and bottom, plus the vanilla cake batter dough in the middle. But I’m not complaining and neither will you when you try them! Enjoy!

Birthday Cartoon Time

It's May and that means one thing - Cakeyboi is one year old! It's been so fast, but it's been a blast.
This month I will bring you a couple of giveaways to celebrate and some birthday inspired treats, so stay tuned folks...

Jam Factory Jamboree!

A couple of weeks back my friend Jac from vegetarian site Tinned Tomatoes, asked if I would like to accompany her on a tour the Mackays’ Jam Factory in Arbroath. I jumped at the chance!

Aside from the factory being in my neck of the woods, I love Mackays’ product. They make a wide range of delicious marmalades, preserves, conserves and curds and I was very keen to see how they were made.

Upon our arrival at the factory, Claire, the Marketing Coordinator and our host, greeted Jac and me and gave us an insight into the history of Mackays, their products and how far the company has gone (50 countries around the globe in fact!).

Their production methods are very traditional and hands on. They use steam heated copper pans, which are made locally, to make their preserves, conserves, curds and marmalades, just like back in the day, as copper is the best conductor of heat and steam ensures an even temperature. Large paddles are used stir the fruit -which is hand weighed.

Copper Pan making jam

All the berries used in Mackays’ preserves and conserves are from Scotland, and their range of ‘Single Farm’ conserves only use berries from local farms. The raspberries and blackcurrants used in this range hail from Muirton Farm in Perthshire and the strawberries in the range come from Blacketyside Farm in Fife. Scottish berries are the best, and I’m not just saying that as I’m from Scotland, but our climate ensures a longer growth period, which gives a stronger flavour. They never compromise on using Scottish berries and even freeze some to use when berries are no longer in season.

It was fascinating to hear that Mackays are the only remaining producers marmalade in the Dundee area, using only Seville oranges imported from Spain. Their speciality is the Dundee Orange Marmalade, which celebrates the history of marmalade making in Dundee. They sell over 1 million jars of this a year. Mackays also make whiskey marmalade using brands such as MacCallan, Famous Grouse, Tullibardine, Bowmore and Glenfarclas. 

We embarked on our tour of the factory, but not before donning fetching hairnets, white coats (thankfully no photos exist) and scrubbing our hands. The fruity and sweet smells emitting from the factory were amazing - I was in heaven. We saw the 23 large copper pans, all full of fruit and sugar, bubbling away. 

In the pic above, the staff member was checking the float of the marmalade, to make sure the peel was evenly distributed. 

We moved onto the jarring area where we saw glass jars being inspected by hand to ensure none had any flaws, before being filled with marmalades when we were there and then lidded with signature copper coloured lids.  Claire explained that the copper lids had recently been designed to tell the story of the copper pan production. 

The jars were then washed and dried to clean them, ready for labelling. 

We saw the labelling process in action, which moved very quickly, and I was interested to hear that the back labels have to be changed depending on what country the orders are being exported to, to meet labelling regulations in local markets. 

The factory employs over 160 hardworking staff, mostly from the local area, and takes on more workers at seasonal times such as Christmas.

 Our tour ended up in the Mackays factory shop. This is somewhere I visit frequently. You can pick up lots of Mackays’ range, a good bargain or two and some other unexpected items. I would thoroughly recommend a visit to the factory shop, if you are ever on the East Coast of Scotland.

Mackays Single Farm Conserves are available in Tesco across the UK, and their core range can be found in Tesco, Morrisons, Co-op, Booths, Waitrose (in Scotland) and Sainsburys.  

Mackays are embracing the age of social media and can be found on Facebook, Twitter and Pinterest plus at their website you can place an order for UK delivery, or you can also visit their international page to contact the export team for information on international distribution.

Mackays kindly gave us some jars of their range to try out in recipes and I will be featuring some over the next wee while, so keep your eyes peeled (pun intended).

Lastly, a big thank you to Claire for the tour of the Mackays factory, it really was an enjoyable, fun and interesting visit.

Disclosure Statement: I have not been sponsored to write this post. I was not committed to writing a favourable review and views expressed are my own. 

The Cakeyboi Alphabet - P - What's your favourite pie??

P is for Pie in the Cakeyboi Alphabet

Such a versatile food item a pie, isn't it? Sweet or savoury, designed as a way to encase all the filling so working men could take them out into the fields, pies have come a long way.

From Lemon Meringue to Steak and Kidney, the varieties are endless. My favourite is blueberry pie (can you see the blueberry juice leaking out above?). So tell me,  what is your favourite pie??

Banana Strawberry Swirl Bread with Mermaid Cookware

I was lucky enough to be sent a hard anodised loaf tin from the kind people at Mermaid cookware. The 1lb tin is made of very strong aluminium, boasting that it is twice as strong as stainless steel.

I had a bread idea which I knew would be a good test for the tin. A banana strawberry swirl bread. I have seen swirl breads about and they all seemed to differ quite wildly. But I wanted a yeast bread, so quite unlike a cakey banana bread.

I used a recipe I found at Taste of Home and adapted this into Banana Strawberry Swirl bread, spreading strawberry jam on the flattened dough, then rolling it up like a swiss roll. The result was a delicious sweet bread, perfect for a snack at any time.

Ingredients:

60 ml milk

55 grams butter

55 grams sugar

300 grams plain flour

1 sachet fast acting dry yeast (7grams)

½ tsp salt

1 egg

2 small bananas, very ripe and mashed

200 grams strawberry jam (store bought)

Adapted from Taste of Home

Method:

In a saucepan, melt together the butter, milk and sugar. Take off the heat and allow to cool. In a large bowl mix together 100 grams of the flour, the yeast, salt, egg and banana. Add the milk mixture and mix this until a dough starts to form. Add more flour until you get a consistency that is no longer sticky and easy to handle. Knead on a floured worktop for 5 minutes before placing into an oiled bowl and covering with a tea towel. Leave the bowl in a warm place for 45 minutes, to let the dough prove. After the 45 minutes, the dough will have doubled in size. Place on a floured work surface and shape the dough into an oblong, wide enough to fit into your (oiled and floured) loaf tin. Spread the jam over the top of the dough and carefully roll this up tightly. Now the tricky bit, getting the dough into the prepared loaf tin. Use a couple of spatulas to help if the dough seems like it’s going to tear. Cover the tin with the tea towel and place in the warm place for another 45 minutes. Preheat the oven to 200^oC.

After the 45 minutes, place the loaf tin into centre of the oven. Place a baking sheet on the shelf below to catch any jam that may wish to boil over! Bake for 30 to 35 minutes. The loaf will have risen and gone a deep brown colour on top. Allow to cool in tin for 10 minutes before carefully removing it. Place the loaf on a cooling rack, upside down, until completely cool. The loaf won’t have that hollow sound on the bottom when you tap it, don’t worry.

When cooled, cut into slices and enjoy the light banana bread taste that I’m sure you are used to, combined with a delicious swirl of sweet strawberry jam. The bread actually gets better the longer it sits, but remember this is a yeast bread, so it’s shelf life is less than a cake would be. Enjoy!!

As for the Mermaid tin, it performed very well. The loaf was baked evenly. I did worry about the caked on jam but this come off, using a metal scourer, as metal won’t damage the surface. The edges of the pan are a little sharp, so to take care if any little ones are handling the tin. But a great tin to use. Thanks Mermaid!

Cartoon Time - Shortcake