Eteaket- Afternoon Tea in Edinburgh

Last week, my boyfriend and I took off to Edinburgh for a couple of days before I went back to Uni and life hit reality once more. Edinburgh is such a homely place for my family as my brother lived there for four years and it's always a favourite choice when taking a few days off.
I've heard people rave about Eteaket on Frederick Street and, having exhausted ourselves just enough for a cup of tea, knew we had to try it. I was completely taken away upon entering, the decor was just as I expected as I expected a 'tea boutique' to be. There were mismatched cushions and bright colours on the walls, it was exactly how I'd have my own cake shop!

We chose a cosy seat in the corner and ordered our goodies. My boyfriend had a cappuccino and a millionaire's shortbread which he said was delicious and, having sneaked a mouthful, I can totally agree.

Unfortunately, I was slightly disappointed with my order. I was really impressed with the wide range of teas on offer (that's totally how it should be in a tea boutique) but all I wanted was a bog standard cup of tea, something that they could not offer me. On the plus side, however, my scone was huge and I had sufficient butter and jam to slather both sides of it, wonderful!

All in all, a recommended place that did not fail to please. The mismatched china was so beautiful and I felt the need to take plenty of photos of it! The atmosphere was excellent, we were surrounded by art students drawing together, friends meeting for coffee and a lovely woman reading her book alone, soaking in the surroundings. The staff were lovely too, taking our order at the table and generally being more than willing to help.

Next time your in Edinburgh, give Eteaket a try, such a wonderful place!

N.B. I have since received a lovely email from the wonderful people over at Eteaket informing me that a new menu has been released with a 'regular cuppa' on it, yaaaaay! :)

Plum Cupcakes and a Very Big Thank You!

Firstly, my blog celebrated it's first birthday last week and I had been planning a special bake for a few weeks. My boyfriend and I, however, decided to go away for a few days so the bake turned into a quicker one in order to pack!

When I started off this blog, I only had one recipe book and rarely baked. Having been lucky enough to buy my KitchenAid, I was challenged to start off a blog by two very special people who knew how much I loved to bake. I eventually plucked up the courage and now, 1 year later, I feel I have succeeded in not only improving my baking skills, but in making a lovely blog. I've met (you know what I mean!) some wonderful people along the way and would like to thank you all for reading my posts, commenting on them and continuously supporting me through the process!! What an amazing year...

Right, soppy stuff over! Here are the 'Plum Cupcakes' I made from the Hummingbird Bakery Cake Days book. I believe they should be called 'Plum Jam Cupcakes' as that's pretty much all that's in them...

I was so disappointed with these cakes! First of all, they use brown sugar which made them heavy and really didn't work well with the plum jam that was incorporated into the mix. Secondly, there was jam in the cupcake mix, which made the cake taste delicious, but then this was ruined by the jam layer within. I followed the recipe and used the correct amount inside the batter but this was far too much and completely ruined the cupcakes. So much so, I threw my dummy out and refused to eat them!

The recipe states jam in the cupcake, as a filling and in the buttercream but this was just overkill for me and I opted for a plain buttercream in the hope it'd tone down the jam. This worked but the jam was just so bitter!

I have hope in these cupcakes yet, so next time, I'll experiment with a lighter sugar and would also omit the jam filling!

I sent these off to my Dad's work and the feedback was great, so maybe they're being nice or I'm missing something? Who knows!!


Ingredients

For the Sponge:

120g unsalted butter, softened
340g plain flour
1/2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
4 large egg yolks
360g soft light brown sugar
180ml buttermilk
270g plum jam


For the Frosting:

500g icing sugar
160g unsalted butter, softened
50ml whole milk (I used Semi Skimmed and it worked fine)
70g plum jam
plum slices to decorate, optional


Method

-Preheat the oven to 190C/375F/Gas Mark 5 and line your muffin tins with cases
-Using a hand held mixer or stand mixer, mix together the butter, flour, baking powder and salt on a low speed until well incorporated and crumb like in texture
-In a jug and using a hand whisk, mix together the egg yolks, brown sugar, buttermilk and 120g of the jam until combined. Add half of this mixture to the dry ingredients and mix until combined. Add the remaining mixture, then increase the speed to medium and mix until smooth
-Fill each paper case up to one third full with batter, then top with 1 tsp of jam, followed by a similar quantity of batter (filling each case about two-thirds full)
-Bake for approx. 20 minutes or until the tops of the cupcakes spring back when you lightly press them. Leave to cool slightly before removing from the tin and transferring to a wire rack to cool completely
-For the frosting, whisk the icing sugar with the butter on a low speed until fully incorporated and still powdery in consistency. Pour in the milk while mixing on a low speed, then increase the speed to high and whisk until soft and fluffy. Finally, stir in the jam by hand, ensuring it is evenly dispersed
-Spoon the frosting on the cupcakes once they are cold, gently smoothing the tops with a pallette knife. Decorate with fresh slices of plum

Individual Bakewell Tarts

I have so much to write about! I need to share all of my bakey type Christmas and Birthday presents and a few of the bakes I've been doing recently. But for now, here are the Bakewell Tarts I made recently.

I've made a large Bakewell before (try here for the recipe!) and, having had a really strong craving for some, attempted them again. I made some individual tarts on the day after New Year's day and they turned out perfectly and, as a result, they went down a storm. My more recent attempt, however, didn't go as smoothly.

Problems:

1) In the original batch, the pastry turned out perfectly, in the 1st of this weekend's batches it did not. Solution= grease the tins (obviously? I didn't realise pastry needed greased tins!). This worked well.

2) My largest cutter did not fill the whole cupcake tin which was fine originally but worked against me this weekend.
Solution= create a bottom and attach long strips to make sides. A seemingly clever idea, until they separated upon cooking and created a Victoria Sponge type affair!

3) I used Lorraine Pascals recipe which suggests shop bought pastry. Problem is, it's rubbish!! Solution= give up and never make Bakewells again...

Yes, they weren't problems that caused major damage and they still tasted amazing, especially covered in custard but following several disastrous bakes, my morale was at it's lowest. Keep Calm and Bake On, ey?

An Overdue Christmas Update

Happy New Year everyone! This post is completely overdue as Christmas is wonderfully hectic in my family, especially as my birthday is on the 27th December, right inbetween all of the festivities! As a result, I didn't get around to doing much baking and when I did, they didn't hang around long enough for me to take photographic proof!

As I've never made a Christmas cake, I used Mary Berry's version of Delia's all in a bag cake. I hate Christmas cake, but the smell of the fruit and the spices really got me into a festive mood!

As everything was measured for you, and pre soaked, it was the easiest way to make a Christmas cake. Unfortunately, as we've had far too many indulgences over the last few weeks, my cake is yet to be decorated or eaten, so I'll keep you all updated when it is!

We also got our new oven just in time for Christmas, and I got straight on to making festive shortbread. I found some lovely little presentation bags in Morrison's and bagged them all up, ready to hand out to friends and family.

As always, the photos for my bakes are either rubbish or non existent! Alongside Christmas cake and shortbread, I made peppermint creams and miniature bakewells, all of which were eaten so quickly that I didn't get to take any pictures! I promise that my New Years resolution is to take better pictures!

Hope you all had a wonderful Christmas and New Year, all the best!

Rocky Road

I have finally finished Uni for Christmas! I now have five weeks of obsessive baking ahead of me, once we get our oven back!

After a week of excessive studying, all I needed was some form of baking to relieve some stress. As I'm mostly limited to my microwave, Rocky Roads seemed the best option! I get the impression that, as long as they have chocolate and biscuits, Rocky Roads can have anything you like in them. Cue the creativity!

Unfortunately, pictures are limited as I made around 20 and most of them went with my dad to work. As my tray is quite small, the recipe gave me 12 decent size squares and a few in some cupcake cases. So, by the time I got up the next morning, all of the good ones had gone, hence the rubbish photos!

Needless to say, they were delicious. I've only ever had a pre-made, packaged rocky road (deprived childhood?) which are soft but these ones were chocolatey, crunchy and gooey, an all round hit!

We also got around to putting up our Christmas tree, Merry Christmas everyone!

Rocky Roads- recipe adapted from Good To Know

Ingredients:

100g unsalted butter

225g plain chocolate, broken into pieces

2tbsp golden syrup

2tbsp cocoa powder

2tbsp caster sugar

100g Maltesers

100g mixed milk and white chocolate chips- I used half choc chips and half fudge chunks

100g mini marshmallows

225g ginger biscuits, broken into pieces- I used digestive biscuits and found this was too many

Icing sugar to dust

Method:

Line a 20cm (8in) square cake tin with baking parchment.

In a small pan, heat the butter, plain chocolate, golden syrup, caster sugar, cocoa powder and stir together with a wooden spoon. Once melted together, leave to cool for 10 mins- This worked brilliantly in my microwave in 10 second bursts, painfully slow but worth it!

In a large bowl, place the Maltesers, milk and white chocolate chip, mini marshmallows, ginger biscuits and bind together with the melted chocolate sauce.
Pour into the lined tin and leave to set in the fridge for a minimum of 2 hrs.
Remove from cake tin and slice into 16 snack-sized rocky road bars- depends on how generous you are!
Dust the rocky road with icing sugar to serve.

Enjoy!

Another Office Bake

Blog posts at the minute are few and far in between, I currently do not have an oven!! This is proving most difficult, especially as I have a long list of christmas bakes up my sleeve. Luckily, I managed to fit in some baking for my brother before the oven was removed and, as a thank you, received some wonderful flowers!

As always, apologies for the useless photos! Anyway, I made a chocolate victoria sponge not too long ago and it went down really well, better than any cake I normally make! So, when my brother asked me to make some cakes for work, I decided to make another sponge.

This time, I put vanilla buttercream in the middle and chocolate around the edges. I was a bit worried that the two buttercreams wouldn't work together as the vanilla one was quite strong so I had a taste (a big spoonful of the two, I can't lie) and they were lovely! I don't think it looked as good as the first time I made it, but apparently it went down really well :)

I also made some chocolate fudge cupcakes with chocolate fudge buttercream. Overkill, maybe, but they were really lovely and the fudge melted into the cake. I used my favourite cupcake recipe and substituted the white chocolate for fudge pieces.

I put them in festively coloured cupcake cases, and topped them with Betty Crocker chocolate fudge buttercream. I know this is cheating, but its just sooo tasty!!

I'm still struggling with my icing, if i do it from the middle outwards, it doesn't cover the whole cake. If I do it from the outside, I don't get a good peak, see what I mean?

They went down a storm, which is all I can ask for, I'll just keep practising!

Chocolate Victoria Sponge- adapted from Mary Berry's Baking Bible

Ingredients

For the sponge:

2 tablespoons cocoa powder

3 tablespoons boiling water

225g softened butter

225g caster sugar

4 large eggs

225g self raising flour

2 level teaspoons baking powder

For the filling and topping: I found this wasn't enough and made separate batches for the filling and topping

50g softened butter

175g sifted icing sugar

1 tablespoon milk

-Preheat the oven to 180C/Fan 160C/Gas 4

-Grease two 20cm sandwich tins and line the base of each with baking parchment

-Mix the cocoa and water in a mixing bowl then leave to cool slightly

-Measure the remaining ingredients into the bowl and beat until thoroughly blended- I've previously found that this method doesn't create a good rise so used the creaming method which worked brilliantly.

-Divide the mixture between the tins and level them out. Bake in the pre-heated oven for about 25 minutes or until well risen. The tops of the cakes should be springy when touched

-Leave to cool in the tins for a while then turn out and leave to cool on a wire rack.

-For the buttercream, beat the butter, icing sugar and milk until smooth- I found more milk and cocoa powder was necessary!

-Once the cake is cool, sandwich the cakes together with the buttercream and spread the rest on top- or cover the sides like I did

Enjoy!

Giant Cupcake- my first ever birthday cake!

I've recently become bored of being restricted as to what I can bake. As my parents and brother are on diets and my boyfriend is a bit of a picky eater, my creativity is limited. So, when my friend told me she was looking for a cake for her daughter's birthday, I begged her to let me attempt it. We agreed that it would be a large cupcake and the rest really was down to me.

I've never made a birthday cake and making it in a situation where I wouldn't be able taste it scared me a lot! I'm also a complete novice at decorating cakes so I had planned a test bake but I never got round to it. The cake went into the oven looking most promising!

There are a lot of things I wish I had realised beforehand that a practise run would have eliminated. Firstly, I wish I'd cooked it for longer, all the signs were there for a perfectly cooked cake but, once cooled, I began to worry. This then caused me to cut it in half (at a dodgy angle) and fill it with jam and buttercream which all merged together into one slop.

This stressed me out hugely and at one point my mum even suggested I start again!! I ended up walking away and going back to it a while later, in a much less stressed state. After some icing and a bit of decoration, the cake was completely transformed and I think it turned out really well, even if it does have a bit of a pointy tutu going on!

So, not much to report and not a lot of pictures but apparently it went down really well and Jayden absolutely loved it!

Giant Cupcake- adapted from GoodToKnow

Ingredients

For the giant cupcake:

450g softened butter   

450g caster sugar

8 large eggs

450g self-raising flour

4 level tsp baking powder

2 tsp of vanilla

3 tbsp milk
Giant cupcake tin- mine was silicone and I found this incredibly easy to turn out

For the cake covering:

250g white fondant icing

Pink food colouring

Strawberry jam- I used raspberry

For the buttercream:

110g unsalted butter, softened

500g icing sugar

60ml milk, room temperature

1tsp vanilla extract

Pink food colouring

Method:

Set the oven to 180ºC and grease the tin using cake release spray or groundnut oil.

Cream the butter and sugar and add the vanilla. Beat for about 5 minutes. Add one egg at a time with a third of the sieved flour and baking powder until it has gone then add the milk and beat slowly until it is mixed in.
Place half of the mixture in each side of the tin to about ¾ full and bake for 50 minutes. Times really depend on your own oven, so start to check the cake at 50 minutes, then every 10 minutes and do not remove from the oven until the cake is springy to the touch. This might take up to 1 hr 15 minutes.
Remove from the oven and let it cool for 20 minutes before tipping out. If the cake has overflowed or has risen too high don’t worry, you can trim this with a bread knife or a cake leveller. It’s easier to do this while it is still in the tin.

Hold the cooling rack tight over the top of the tin and turn them out to cool. Once the cake is totally cool (probably an hour or 2) you can start decorating it.
Colour and roll out the fondant icing to a ¼ of an inch thick. It has to be 25cm in length and 8cm high.
Melt some jam in the microwave and leaving the cake in the upside down position brush over the base of the cake. This helps the fondant stick. Place the fondant around the cake and trim the excess. You can fold a little over the top (which is the bottom) so you have a clean edge. Press your finger round the indentations so you get the shape of the base back. Then turn the cake (not gripping too hard or you will squash it) the right way up.

Beat the butter, icing sugar, milk and vanilla together in a bowl until light and fluffy. Put a third of the buttercream in another bowl and add pink food colouring to it. Reserve this for your buttercream roses. Spread jam on the bottom half of the cupcake, then the icing and sandwich the two pieces together.

Ice the top with the rest of the buttercream in a design that suits you- I didn't pipe the icing as I was too scared, so just spread it on using a palette knife and finished with a patterned edge side scraper

Add any decoration that you fancy- I used Love Hearts, Dolly Mixtures and some raspberry sherbet

Enjoy!