Hen Party Time at The Vintage Patisserie

This weekend I had the absolute pleasure of finally visiting the Vintage Patisserie for a Vintage Tea Party to celebrate the upcoming nuptials of my beautiful friend.

If you've never heard of them, then you're missing out! They are based in East London and put on the most amazing, personalised tea parties ever!!! I've been a fan for years and went through a phase of trying to make everything in the first recipe book that they published!

The day was amazing, we were plied with good food, delicious champagne cocktails and got to dress up in cool vintage accessories.

 It was amazing and I thoroughly encourage everyone to make an excuse and get yourselves down there, you'll be glad you did!

Peace & Love

xx

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Make A Wish Cupcakes!

So I've been away for a while! Over the last month I have been working, playing, travelling and baking! There is so much to update you on, but first things first, take a look at these 'Make a Wish Cupcakes.

The birthday girl had a special banquet and requested individual cupcakes for the guests. The theme was 'Make a Wish'. I've been thinking about edible flowers for a while and this felt like the perfect opportunity to try it out. I tell you though, it was trickier than I expected to find edible flowers. Unfortunately florists only really know roses to be edible so I came up against a brick wall. After going to a number of stores, it turns out the garden centre is the place to go to find them.

So now you've seen the birthday girl and the cakes, here's how to recreate them;

Vanilla Butter Cupcakes (adapted from Amy Atlas's Sweet Design Book)

makes 

1 stick/ ½ cup (114g) unsalted butter at room temperature

1 cup caster sugar

2 large eggs

2 teaspoons vanilla extract

2 cups plain flour

2 teaspoons baking powder

½ teaspoon salt

¾ cup whole milk

1. Adjust oven to 350oF/ 180oC/ Gas Mark 4. Beat together the butter & sugar until they are light & fluffy. Scrape down the sides of the bowl, then add one egg at a time along with the vanilla until they are thoroughly combined. 

2. Sift the flour, baking powder and salt together in a small bowl. With the mixer on a slow speed add the flour mixture alternatively with the milk. Beat for about 3 minutes until the cake batter is smooth.

3. Divide the cupcake mixture between the cupcake cases and bake for about 17-20 minutes minutes until the a skewer entered into the centre comes out clean.

4. Leave to cool fully before topping with a generous amount of buttercream.

Vanilla Buttercream

250g unsalted softened butter

500g icing sugar

2 teaspoons of vanilla extract

2 tablespoons whole milk

1. Mix together the butter, sugar and vanilla extract until light and fluffy. Once they are all mixed, add the milk and whisk for at least 5 more minutes to get a deliciously fluffy buttercream.

Edible Flowers (the fun bit!)

Selection of edible flowers; pansies & viola

1 egg white

½ cup golden caster sugar

½ cup granulated sugar

1. Separate the flowers from the stems, then wash and dry them.

2. Lightly cover the flowers in egg white and carefully dip or sprinkle both the sugars over the petals.

3. Leave to dry on greaseproof paper, or if you don't have time (which I didn't), put the oven on the coolest setting with the door open and leave to dry.

4. Once they are dry, add glitter to make them fabulous!

The banquet!

These bad boys are a collaborative effort with my girl, Alexia Lenoir, the talented Event Stylist. Check out her blog post for her version of the day! :) 

If you do make these, please let me know how you get on!

Peace & Love

xx

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Chocolate and Orange Torte Cake with Caramelised Oranges

Cake, fruit and chocolate are three of my favourite things. I've literally become addicted to making chocolate cake lately, I love it! I have so many recipes and this one is the latest addition courtesy of Rachel Allen's new book called 'Cake'. There's no flour or ground almonds so it's also gluten free which is a bonus if you like that kind of thing. :)

Chocolate and orange torte with caramelised oranges (adapted from 'Cake' by Rachel Allen)

150g (5oz) Kerrygold Butter
300g (11oz) dark chocolate (70% cocoa)
5 eggs separated
50g (2oz) golden caster sugar
Finely grated zest of 2 small oranges

For the caramelised orange slices to serve 
4 oranges
125g caster sugar
Water

20cm (8") springform or loose bottomed cake tin

1. Pre-heat the oven to 180oC / 350oF / Gas mark 4 and butter the base and sides of the cake tin.
2. Place the chocolate and butter in a heatproof bowl and place over a pan of simmering water to melt, stirring occasionally. Remove from heat.
3. Whisk together the egg yolks and half of the sugar until it's pale and thick. It can take about 5 mins using an electric whisk.
4. Fold in the melted chocolate and the orange zest and mix until it's combined.
5. Whisk together the egg whites and the other half of the sugar until they are stiff and glossy. I find this easiest in my food processor, but if you don't have one, use a clean bowl and an electric mixer. This takes a little longer than the egg yolks.
6. Gently fold the egg whites into the chocolate mixture, being careful not to beat to hard so that you don't lose too much air but so that it is all combined.
7. Pour into the prepared tin and bake for 20-25 minutes until it's puffed up and slightly cracked around the edges. Allow the cake to cool in the tin for 20 minutes, then carefully remove from the tin and onto a serving plate.
8. While the cake is cooling, make the caramelised oranges.

Caramelised oranges.
1. Using a small sharp knife, peel the oranges, cutting away the two ends first and then the peel and pith in a spiral until you only have the flesh showing. Work over a bowl to catch the juices.
2. Cut the peeled oranges into 5mm slices (1/4in) then add these to the orange juice.
3. Place the sugar and 75ml (3floz) of water in a saucepan and set over a medium heat. Stir the mixture to bring to the boil. Without stirring, continue to boil uncovered for about 5 minutes until you have a deep whiskey-coloured caramel. You can swirl the ban to make sure it browns evenly. Be careful to keep a close eye on this as I burnt my first mixture!
4. Pour a further 75ml (3floz) of water and swirl over the pan over a low heat, then add the oranges and juice and leave to cool.

Add the slices to the chocolate cake and serve.

This cake was tasty and lasts quite a few days. I experimented with the caramelised oranges and made a couple of batches. As I said, I accidentally burnt my first attempt so the second time around I didn't leave it that long to caramelise. The result was a light tasting juice that went really well with the cake. I then put the remaining slices & juice back on the fire and let it caramelise a bit more (maybe another 5-8 mins). It was a sweeter richer flavour and also quite nice. It depends what you like really, the cake is very rich with a deep chocolate flavour so I think the lighter juice worked best for me, but it's a matter of taste.

Anyways, I hope you try this out, you can also serve it with cream. You can also get more great Kerrygold recipes from the Kerrygold Facebook page. 

Peace & Love

xx

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