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Posts Tagged ‘Baking’

Spooky Pumpkin Face Biscuits

Monday, October 31st, 2011


If you are looking for a fun Halloween recipe to make with the kids, then why not try baking spooky pumpkin face biscuits?

You’ll need the following ingredients –

Finely grated zest 1 medium orange
175g plain flour
50g icing sugar
140g softened butter

For the filling –

25g plain melted chocolate
1tbsp icing sugar

For the glaze-

100g mascarpone
50g icing sugar

Method

1. Preheat the oven to 180C/gas 4/ fan 160C. Place the butter in a bowl and beat with a wooden spoon until smooth. Next, add the icing sugar, orange zest and flour and beat together to make a soft dough. Then knead into a ball and wrap in cling film before chilling for approximately 1 hour.

2. On a lightly floured surface, roll the dough out to a thickness of about 3mm. With a plain cutter (7.5cm), cut approximately 24 circles and put them on a couple of baking sheets.

3. Cut out Halloween faces of 12 of the circles using a small sharp knife. Then gather up the spare dough and make pumpkin stem shapes, trimming them if needed with a sharp knife. Press to the top of each biscuit with a knife to join. Make lines on the face biscuits to look like markings on a pumpkin. As the cookies expand slightly in the oven, use the edge of a biscuit cutter or a knife to cut the pumpkin lines deep into the dough to make sure the lines don’t smooth out while baking. Even though this is an easy recipe to make and you won’t be needing restaurant insurance for your kitchen, be careful with sharp objects around small hands helping you out!

4. Bake the biscuits until pale golden, for around 15 min. Leave to set, then cool the them completely on a wire rack.

5. Mix the glaze ingredients to make a running, smooth icing, adding a little more juice if needed, then set aside. For the filling, beat the icing sugar with the mascarpone, then stir in the cool, melted chocolate.

6. Spread the filling over the cooled plain biscuits, then place the biscuits with the faces on top then brush with the glaze.

You could try decorating the cookies with sprinkles or could leave the mascarpone out if you just fancy some plain biscuits. A perfect treat for trick or treaters!

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Homemade Summer Cupcakes

Wednesday, August 3rd, 2011

We all love an Eton mess and not many of us can resist a delicious looking cupcake. So, why not make a homemade batch of Eton mess cupcakes over the summer?!

If you’re interested in making these delights then read on.

Ingredients

To make the strawberry sauce, all you will need is 15 strawberries and two table spoons of soft brown sugar.
For the cupcakes, you’ll need the following ingredients; half a table spoon of vanilla bean paste or 3 drops of vanilla essence, half a table spoon of baking powder, 125g of golden caster sugar, 125g of self raising flower, 125g margarine, 2 eggs at  room temperature and optional red food colouring.

For the buttercream you’ll need, 100g butter, one tablespoon of vanilla essence and 220g icing sugar.
To decorate the cupcakes, you’ll need some extra strawberries and 1 or 2 meringues, crumbled.

Method

1.    Before we begin, preheat the oven to gas 3/140C fan/160C.
2.    Start by making the strawberry sauce, by removing the stalks and slicing the strawberries into about 6 pieces each. Then make the strawberries slushy by placing them in a saucepan with the sugar and simmering over a gentle heat for about 10 minutes with the lid on, stirring occasionally.
3.    Use a masher to squash the strawberries gently and simmer with the lid off for another 2 minutes.
4.    To remove all the pips and pulp, run the sauce through a sieve and leave to cool.
5.    For the cupcakes, lay out the cupcake cases. If you are using paper cases, place them in a bun tin to hold their shapes or if you are using silicon ones just lay them on a flat baking tray.
6.    Whisk the sugar in with the eggs for at least 4 minutes, an electric hand whisk would be best, and beat air into the mixture so it fluffs up.
7.    Sieve in the flour and baking powder and add bits of butter, bit by bit, whisking the mixture each time to ensure a smooth texture. Once fully mixed, mix in the vanilla essence or paste.
8.    Divide the mixture evenly into bowls. Mix 4 tablespoons of strawberry sauce into one bowl and if necessary, add red food colouring to make the batter’s colour look stronger.
9.    Next, take a spoonful of the white batter and spoon into the middle. Gently make a well with the base of a spoon in the middle. Repeat with pink mixture and then fill the cupcake cases about two thirds full.
10.    For about 15-20 minutes, put the cupcakes into the oven until the tops have got some colour and they are feeling spongy.
11.    Place them on a cooling rack once out of the oven, to cool down.
12.    To make the buttercream, use the electric hand mixer to cream the butter on its own for a couple of minutes. Next add the vanilla essence and beat until fluffy and light.
13.    Make a cupcake swirl, but after you have scooped the buttercream on, to gently drip on the strawberry sauce so that it makes a ripple in buttercream.
14.    For the decoration, sprinkle the crumbled meringue over the top of the cupcakes and trim the cupcakes with a strawberry.

Cupcakes are pretty to look at, you won’t need to get restaurant insurance quotes to create them as they are simple to make in the comfort of your own home! Cupcakes are also perfect for sharing, so try not to eat them all at once!

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