A food and travel blog by Phoebe Ashley
From beautiful beaches to sobering mountains and wild landscapes, together Islay and Jura provide a truly memorable Scottish Isle experience. Continue reading “The Ultimate guide to Islay and Jura’s whisky distilleries”
We’ve all been there; you buy a fresh bunch of bananas with all the best intentions, turn your back for five minutes only to find them looking a little sorry for themselves.
Instead of looking on such a sad state of affairs with an air or dismay, instead I see this all too common kitchen occurrence as an opportunity to get creative. This is how this recipe for my white chocolate salted caramel muffins was born:
Makes 12
Preparation time: 10-15 minutes
Cooking time: 20-25 minutes
INGREDIENTS
For the cupcakes:
3 ripe bananas
85g butter
2 eggs
120g light brown sugar
1tsp Nutmeg
1tsp Cinnamon
1tsp Vanilla bean paste
Bicarbonate of soda
260g Self raising flour
70g white chocolate – chopped up
For the caramelised bananas
2 ripe bananas – sliced
Icing sugar to coat
For the salted caramel sauce
75g butter
200g Light brown sugar
300ml Double cream
METHOD
Begin by preheating your oven to 160°C.
Start by mashing your bananas until pulped. To this add your butter and sugar and using either a manual or electric whisk and cream together until light and fluffy. Next add your eggs individually, ensuring they are well combined before adding the next. Then whisk through your vanilla bean paste. Regular vanilla essence will also work just as well.
Once all the eggs have been added, sift in your flour, bicarbonate of soda, nutmeg and cinnamon and fold into the banana mix. Finally stir through your white chocolate chips. Once you are happy that the batter is smooth, evenly divide the cake mixture between 12 cupcake cases. When each have been filled, gently tap the cupcake tray on a hard surface to knock the air our – this will ensure an even rise.
Place your cakes on the middle shelf of your cooker and bake for around 25 minutes, or until a skewer comes out clean. Once baked, remove and let cool on a wire rack.
To caramelise the sliced bananas, simply place some icing sugar in a bowl and coat each banana slice. Placing these onto a baking tray, simply bake at 160°C for around 10 minutes or until they are bubbling. Before they cool completely place them on top of your cakes – be careful as they will be hot, but if you wait for them to cool they will become stuck to the baking tray.
Finally to make the salted caramel sauce, simply melt your butter and sugar in a heavy bottomed saucepan. Once all the sugar has dissolved, let the mixture bubble for a few minutes before slowly adding your cream. When adding your cream, be sure to mix continually so not to solidify or cause the sugar to crystallize. Once in, let the caramel simmer for a further five minutes, add a generous pinch of salt and let cool.
Once everything has cooled slightly, simply pour the caramel into a serving jug, pour over the cupcakes and your away! Banana heaven!
And voila, over ripened banana crisis averted!
My love for baking started as most of them do – standing on a stool next to my mother in the kitchen. It has to be said probably often more interfering with sticky little fingers rather than helping at all. However, it was during this fortnightly ritual that somewhere along the lines I fell in love – lock, stock and barrel – with that emotive combination of butter, sugar, eggs and flour!
Since these early days, this love of cake – the eating or baking off (I’m not fussy) – has only grown and over the past couple of years I really have honed my skills. It was this honing that actually inspired the creation of this blog and my Instagram account (@alittletasty). I wanted space where I could document my creations and experimenting.
Since starting both of these, I am lucky enough to be in the position that I have started selling my cakes and bakes. Consequently, it only seems right that I should do a how-to blog post on how you too can create your own show stopping cake – I promise they are easier than they look! You just need a few tips and tricks to make a cake look impressive.
And so, in what follows is a complete – all secrets exposed – step by step guide to recreating one of my signature bakes: A vanilla sponge cake with a chocolate and raspberry buttercream and a raspberry sauce centre, finished with a chocolate ganache flowers a fruit. Perfect for all occasions!
Please note the following recipe is divided into the cake recipe, the icing recipe, the raspberry sauce recipe, the ganache and finally instructions to assemble!
If you want to have a browse of my other cakes, head on over to ‘My Cakes’ page, or follow me on the Insta 😉
Makes enough to serve 15 happily.
Warning: This is a time-consuming recipe and I normally complete it over two evenings.
INGREDIENTS
325g Self-Raising Flour
325g Butter (plus extra for greasing)
325g Light Brown Sugar
6 Eggs
2 tbsp of Vanilla Bean Paste
1 tsp of Coffee Dissolved in 75ml of Warm Water
1 tbsp of Plain Yogurt
1 Pinch of Salt.
METHOD
Begin by greasing three 20cm cake tins and pre heating your oven to 180°C. If you don’t have 3 cake tins, grease two and you can always reuse one!
Firstly beat the butter and sugar together until light, fluffy and smooth in appearance using an electric whisk. For this recipe, I use light brown sugar as I think it gives the cake a richer and more caramelly flavour.
Once combined, add the eggs one at a time and whisking on a high speed after each addition. After you’ve added the last egg, add in one tbsp of flour – this will stop the batter from curdling.
Next, sieve in the flour and salt and beat well. Once fully mixed together, add the yoghurt and vanilla bean paste. I know this paste is considerably more expensive than the extract, I promise you it will be worth it.
After all the ingredients have been combined and you are left with a smooth batter, spoon into the three greased cake tins. Each tin should have around 500g of batter.
Bake for about 25 minutes at 180°C – or until a knife comes out clean!
Remove from tins and let cool using a wire rack.
*Please note that this recipe is taken from The Hummingbird Bakery‘s ‘The Hummingbird’ Cookbook. I have slightly adapted it to suit this recipe by swapping out their addition of milk for 200g of raspberries. This gives the icing enough moisture to loosen it, whilst giving it a slightly sharp and refreshing zing!
INGREDIENTS
450g Icing Sugar
150g Butter – at room temperature
60g Cocoa powder
200g Raspberries
METHOD
Begin by beating your butter in a freestanding electric mixer on a fast speed for about five minutes – or until pale in colour. This is a very important step to making any buttercream frosting and will ensure the end result is both smooth and light in texture.
Next, combine your icing sugar and cocoa powder together loosely. Whilst the whisking all the time, add your one tablespoon of this mixture at a time. You may indeed have to use a spatula and scrape down the sides occasionally to ensure that all the butter is combined. Once it has all been added you should be left with a mixture whose texture resembles dry soil! Don’t panic – this is exactly what you are looking for!
Once this has been achieved, again on a high speed, gradually add in the raspberries. The balloon whisk fitting will break these down to ensure that they combine well. Once all added, leave your mixer whisking for a further minute.
INGREDIENTS
200g Raspberries
200ml Water
4 tbsp Caster Sugar
1 tsp Vanilla Extract
METHOD
In a heavy bottomed saucepan, combine all the ingredients and bring to the boil. once boiling, let the mixture simmer and reduce for a further 10 minutes or until it has thickened and easily coats the back of a spoon.
Remove this from the heat and pass through a sieve using a spatula to separate the jam and the pips. Let cool and voila!
INGREDIENTS
200g Good Quality Dark Chocolate
150ml Double Cream – chilled
1 tbsp Butter
METHOD
Melt your chocolate either using a bain-marie or in the microwave via 30-second intervals. Once melted add your cream and give the ganache a stir.
Next, add the butter to give it a lovely sheen. It should be thick and spreadable in texture.
Once the sponges have cooled, it is important to level your cakes. This ensures that your final cake will be straight. To do this, simply take a bread knife and carefully slice off the tops of your sponges where they dome.
Next, using a palette knife and spatula, sandwich the cakes together with a dollop of icing and drizzle of raspberry sauce.
Once sandwiched, ice the sides; take a spatula and again dollop all around the sides – especially in the joints of the layers. Then, using a palette knife vertically, go around the edges of the cake until smooth. You may need to add more icing in patches. Also, ice the top in a thin layer. As this is just the crumb coat it doesn’t have to be perfect! (For a tutorial on how to do this, watch this video from HowCast.)
After you are happy you have iced your cake and it’s a smooth and level as possible, place the cake in the fridge for a couple of hours – or overnight. This will allow your icing to firm up so that when you apply the ganache it won’t melt and enable you to get the best finish possible!
Add the ganache by pouring on the top and allowing to slide down the sides. When sliding, using your knife in the same way you did the icing, smooth the sides and top.
Before placing back in the fridge add your decorations. I think seasonal berries, some coloured gold using powdered gold food colouring, and flowers are the most effective. But get creative and use what you like.
It is at this stage that you are able to truly create your own distinctive style, which in the very competitive world of cakes is crucial! It’s like art, you want people to spot one of your cakes a mile off!
So there you have it, your very own step-by-step guide on how to make your own showstopper layer cake. I’d love to see your interpretations of this recipe, tweet me your cakes at @alittletasty123 or tag me in them on Instagram @alittletasty
All there’s left to say is happy baking!
It was over 2000 years ago that the first (hot) chocolate was believed to have been enjoyed by the Aztecs, and by 1400AD it was a beverage firmly cemented in their culture. Jump forward 600 years and the drink is prolific:
Hot Chocolate is one of those things that is a true classic; timeless, effortless and completely loved by all. It’s a rare trait to find in a drink; one that can and is enjoyed by all ages, types of person and importantly at all hours of the day and night!
This, however, is not to say that every single hot chocolate is the same. On the contrary, hot chocolate comes in as many sizes, flavours, strengths and textures as the individuals do that drink it.
Consequently, I have spent the last few weeks trialling – and not so much erring – to come up with 4 slightly different hot chocolate recipes for you to try this festive season.
Drink responsibly!
First things first, to make any hot chocolate taste amazing, what you need is the perfect base. for mine see the recipe below. Although this is intended as a base for the ensuing recipes to build upon, it makes a perfectly delicious hot chocolate in its own right!
INGREDIENTS
(Makes enough for 2 large hot chocs)
100G Dark Chocolate – chopped – plus extra for topping
800 ml Whole Milk
1 Cinnamon Stick
1 tbsp Muscovado Sugar
1 Vanilla Pod – 1tsp Vanilla Extract will do as a substitute
Whipped cream
METHOD
Warm the milk gently on a low heat in a heavy-based saucepan. Once warm to the touch add the cinnamon stick, vanilla and sugar and whisk.
Next, slowly add the chopped chocolate and whisk until all melted and incorporated into the milk. Leave on the heat to simmer for 2-3 minutes. Let cool slightly and serve with a topping of whipped cream and shaving of dark chocolate.
I know it sounds mad to attempt this recipe after admitting I, unfortunately, have an utter distaste for chilli chocolate. However, ever since seeing the film Chocolat I have had a distinct hankering to try a real homemade chilli hot chocolate. If you haven’t seen it then stop reading this and watch it now! (then, of course, come back!) This is because there is one particular scene in the film when a lady is given an incredibly silky looking dark chocolate chilli drink, and every since then I’ve been hooked on the idea. Following, once embarking on my hot chocolate adventures it seemed the best place to start!
I will warn you, whilst testing this recipe I did meet a few errors with regard to the amount of chilli. I know 1/4 of a teaspoon doesn’t sound like much pepper to be adding, but it certainly is enough. You don’t want this to blow your head off, but something a little warming – especially with the rum in there too – serves as the perfect post-Christmas walk warmer!
INGREDIENTS
1 Batch of base Hot Chocolate – see above!
1/4 tsp of Cayenne Pepper – trust me this will be enough!!
1tsp Mixed Spice
1tsp Grated Nutmeg
1 Splash of Spiced Rum – 2 if you’re feeling festive!
METHOD
Simply, add the above ingredients to your batch mixture whilst still on the heat, stir through and voila!
Now, this may sound crazy, but a pinch of sea salt really can elevate your winter warmer to lofty new heights. Although this was my more experimental recipe, for those that love the synchronised sweet and salted taste experiences then this is for you: The salt cleverly balances the sweetness and bitterness from the dark chocolate in a simply marvellous way. This is furthered by a luxurious topping of whipped chocolate cream…like the sound of this then read on!
INGREDIENTS
1 Batch of base Hot Chocolate – see above!
1tsp of Sea Salt or Pink Himalayan Salt
1tsp Cocoa Powder
1tsp of Vanilla Extract
100ml Double Cream
METHOD
Simply whip the cream with the vanilla, cocoa powder and 3/4 of the salt until it’s a light and fluffy consistency. Then to your batch mixture, top with a generous dollop of this cream and lightly sprinkle with the remaining salt and voila!
Now I know what they say, you shouldn’t have favourites. However, often in life, this proves to be easier said than done and unfortunately this is one such moment and so forgive me for saving the best until last! If like me you prefer your hot chocolate slightly on the bitter side, this is the one for you.
With a subtle aromatic almost herby flavour, this particular recipe is a sure fire knock-out – if I do say so myself!
In the same way as before, all you will need to do is add in the extra ingredients to your batch hot chocolate whilst its still on the heat. However, with this one, it to important to take extra care when serving that people are not given the cardamom pods themselves.
INGREDIENTS
1 Batch of base Hot Chocolate – see above!
3 Medium Cardamom Pods – crushed
1/2 tsp Nutmeg
For the topping:
To your simple whipped cream – made with 100ml of double cream – add 2 tbsp of Irish Cream for a festive twist!
METHOD
Simply add the above ingredients to your batch mixture whilst still on the heat, stir through. add your topping and voila!
So there you have it, 4 easy peasy lemon squeezy ways to jazz up everyone’s favourite winter drink this festive period. Another tip, if you’re looking for a slightly more adult topping – add a splash of rum or Irish cream to your normal whipped cream topping! It really packs that extra punch – perfect if you’re coming in from the cold!
A little Tasty 