Quick no-bake Oreo cheesecake

We hadn't baked anything in class for a week or so, so to treat the 3rd years (freshman or Year 9's, depending upon in which country you live) my teacher, Miss K, decided we'd make Oreo Cheesecake. Well, technically she had planned for them to make Mandarin Cheesecake, but I couldn't help but notice that one of the other teachers was making Oreo Cheesecake with her class...  So I pleaded, and we ordered Oreos for the students (plus enough for us two to make a cake each too ;) ).

It was surprisingly easy, and after crushing the biscuits and adding melted butter for the base, we whipped up cream cheese with double cream for the filling.  Because Team Becca and I love Oreos so much, I crushed biscuits to put in the filling as well.  The Team knew I would be making this cake in class, and had requested I decorate it as a smiley face for them.  Miss K's more adult design is on the right there.

 We managed to hold off digging in until after the children's dinner, then got a sharp knife and cut decent wedges for us each.  And I have to say, it didn't disappoint.  Rich, creamy, chocolately and crunchy - taste sensation heaven!  As you can see, the Smarties faded in colour over the few hours between making and eating, and the whole cake didn't last too well over the next day or so.

This is definitely best eaten on day of preparation.  Enjoy!!

Sticky toffee pudding cupcakes with salted caramel icing...

I had been invited to the launch party of the Great Pink Bake Off, a charity event in aid of Breakthrough Breast Cancer.  It was to be held in Edinburgh in an early evening on a Thursday.  I thanked the PR lady for inviting me, but explained that as I live and work in Dundee it simply wasn't feasible for me (time and childcare issues basically).  I passed the information on to my colleagues and one was able to attend.  She brought me back a goodie bag, and I set to making these Mark Greenaway Sticky Toffee pudding cupcakes for the adults coming to our tea party (the kids got the personalised mini cupcakes).

As you can see, the recipe was a bit of a palaver, with lots of different little sections to combine.  I hadn't yet made a sticky toffee pudding, despite it being one of my favourite desserts, so I quite enjoyed doing all the necessary parts.

I found making the salted caramel sauce a little tricky.  It seemed to go from white sugar to a dark brown sauce very quickly, and tasted bitter to me.  I asked Mr Becca to try it, and whilst he agreed it tasted good it also seemed burnt/bitter to him.  When making up the icing, the required amount of cream cheese was nowhere near enough for a piping consistency, so I added more cream cheese and far less caramel sauce. Then I felt I had to add in way more icing sugar to make it sweeter.  By the time I'd played about with ingredients to achieve consistency, I ended up having to throw out a fair bit of the caramel sauce...

The end result looked and tasted good though.  The combination of the delicious sponge, with the slightly bitter-sweet icing and drizzled sauce worked really well.  All the adults loved them, and even some of the kids tried them too.  I took the spares in to work the next day, and the colleague who'd been to the launch party and tried the original version deemed them a good copy indeed!  Go Becca  :)

No-bake cheesecake rocks

I had made a cheesecake once before, wrapping it in foil and putting it in the water bath, and while it tasted great it was a bit of a bother.  So I haven't baked one for quite some time.  I loved the idea of Lakeland's PushPans, and bought a couple, but still hadn't made a cheesecake.  

Then I saw this recipe, for no-bake cheesecake, and I was sold.  (I should at this point have included the link for that recipe, of course, but I can't for the life of me recall where I saw it.  So as soon as I find it, I'll add it in for you.  Promise...........  Ok, great news, I just found it!)

It needed mini Creme Eggs which, despite it being their season, could not be found for love nor money.  Boo hoo.  Then we found some, in the last shop we tried (d'oh, of course).  And it was game on.

The girls were supposed to help me, as it wasn't a difficult recipe and we were making it for a playdate today (we made it Saturday late afternoon) and Mini-1 had a lot of fun crushing up the Oreo's.

But then when it came time to mix up the cream cheese and sugar etc, she didn't appreciate not being allowed to lick the beaters (because we still needed to use them) and her impatience got the better of her.   So we parted ways, me staying in The Kitchen, and her going off to join Mini-2 to play in the back garden.  No harm no foul, right?! 

I think she would have liked to stay around for the cutting of the eggs part... It was pretty plain sailing from there on in, and the cake rested really well in the fridge for the day and a half until it was needed.

Although some of the creme eggs did perish along the way (Mr Becca had a midnight feast methinks) but we had enough for the decoration required.  (Even though I used the PushPan and waited for a while once removing it from the fridge, there were a few little areas of adhesion to the pan, creating a hole here and there.   If you've any hints or tips on how to avoid this next time, please share)

And the taste - oh my goodness!  Fantastic!  So sweet and smooth and delicious, you've got to try it yourself.  I had mentioned it to one of the new school mum neighbours (we recently relocated Becca Towers, thus necessitating new school and new local friends) and given her the recipe, and she had made it too, for her Easter Sunday family lunch.  And texted me to say it was so good that she should have made two!  How's that for yummy??!

A gratuitous interior shot or two for you to drool over, because I'm kind like that.

Red Velvet is perfect for Christmas

Remember P and B who ordered the Red Velvet and Banoffee cupcakes?  Well, B's sister liked P's birthday cake back in the autumn so much that she ordered one for Christmas Day.  It was to be with cream cheese icing, and that needs to be refrigerated, so I couldn't do sugarpaste accents or decorations because they shouldn't be kept in the fridge.  So I went for those fabulous rosette swirls that make a cake look as inviting as a plump pillow (or is it just me who thinks it looks like you could dive right in??), with just a few white snowflakes and a sprinkle of silver glitter...  Merry Christmas gang!

It's Autumn, it's time for pumpkin

A regular customer, and friend, C decided she'd like to bring a gift to her parents and asked for a tray of brownies and 'something else'.  Ooh, what do you add to a tray of brownies?  Having been reading all those blogs and posts about apples, cinnamon and pumpkin, I had bought a small pumpkin and cooked and mashed and bagged the pulp.  It wasn't very orange, or strongly flavoured, so I did the same and added some butternut squash to it before popping in the freezer. 

However, before bagging and freezing all of it the inspired idea of pumpkin cupcakes came to me, and thus to C and her parents.  I had made them last year, and was excited to do so again.  They baked up quite moist and dense, and tasted just great with the cream cheese icing sprinkled with cinnamon and all-spice.  Mmmm, afternoon tea is served...

 

Clandestine Cake Club Dundee number 2

How exciting that we'd managed to organise another meeting of the Clandestine Cake Club in Dundee.  People seemed to have really enjoyed themselves at the first event, and this second one was no different.  Jac and I had discussed possible dates and venues and come up with last night at The Milton Inn, Monifieth.  I had chosen the venue because Team Becca had eaten there on more than one occasion and been impressed with both the quality of food and staff/atmosphere.

The theme we chose was fitting and current - A Right Royal Cake-up; red, white & blue.  Because really, the Queen's Jubilee comes only once in a lifetime.  We contacted everyone on our list, and in the end had 5 bakers and 11 in total.  This was slightly less than last time, but worked out well, as we had more people to eat less cakes.  We all still went home with leftovers and sore tummys though!

I had chosen to make a Red Velvet cake, with cream cheese icing tinged blue.  Thus getting in my required red, white and blue colours.  Or so I thought.  I had lent my Sugarflair Christmas Red paste to my neighbour a day or so ago, and hadn't asked for it back at a certain time, not remembering that I would need it so soon.  So I was all set to make pink velvet and figured I'd just apologise then I found a Dr Oetker Natural Red liquid colour bottle.  Kinda wish I hadn't...  I'm going to show you finished cake first, so you'll feel happy when you look at the colour of the interior at which point you may feel a little sad - I sure did.

Here's how I made the blue part of the swirl - I painted a stripe of blue food paste in the piping bag before I added the cream cheese icing.  So each time the icing passed the blue, it picked up a little bit.

And sadly, here's the interior.  See what I mean?  It's terracotta at best...  :(

So, to cheer you all up after that little disapointment - here are the individual cakes in close-up.  They were all soft, moist and delicious!  Mmmm

Earl Grey cake with a Rhubarb Glaze (and yes, it was very hot that day)

Devil's Food Cake with coconut and berries

White chocolate cake with cranberry & raspberry filling

Raspberry & vanilla cake.  And here we see me cutting into my own cake

Some of the other members trying out the delicious treats

And a lovely smiley group photo...

Cookies & Creme cupcakes, can we do it?

A few of the school and nursery mums know I bake, and have taste-tested goodies when I needed help to eat everything.  One of them approached me yesterday to say it was her hubby's birthday and could I possibly make some of those divine (her words) Oreo cupcakes for him?  She would have done it herself but wasn't that good at baking, and mine were so good...  With a build-up like that, how could I refuse?  Ha ha.

I had big plans for a cake for Mr Becca, for our wedding anniversary tomorrow (more on that in the next post) and had to think on my feet to see if I could slot this order in - ummmmm, yep!

I used almost double the recipe-recommended amount of Oreo's, as when I'd made this recipe in the past I'd written notes and hadn't been impressed with the content/amount of Oreo's in the mix.  As you can see above, it looks about right, ha ha.  But just in case, I added a super-cute mini Oreo on top of each uncooked cupcake in the tin.

The recipe for the icing isn't as nice as my signature one, so I don't use it.  And I feel that if you're going to have Cookies and Creme, you may as well overdo it - see how small I crushed the Oreo's for the icing?  The reason is two-fold; taste and ability to use the right icing nozzle to decorate the tops.  Larger bits of cookie sometimes get stuck in the nozzle and makes the swirls look messy.

And we don't want messy icing swirls, do we?!

Strawberries are nearly in season

Other bakers have 'ranges' of cupcakes, and business could be busier so I thought I might try out some new recipes in order to (hopefully) stimulate interest.  I can do various flavours, but people generally want vanilla with colours - which is always fun. 

And I've been doing a lot with blueberries recently, then noticed that strawberries are on offer and finally looking good.  They aren't local, so not ideal, but the girls have been asking to eat some for weeks now and I've not wanted to buy them because they aren't in season yet.  Kinda difficult concept to get over to young, hungry kids but I did my best.

So I bought a few punnets, looked through some of my favourite books and thought I'd like to do a taste comparison test, and offer the cakes around to our Facebook fans and friends for their opinions.  And, to be quite frank, the Team are getting sick of cake - shameful, I know.  Not the whole Team you understand, but some of them.  And apart from that, while strawberries are a wonder-food and healthy, by the time you add in the cake batter and icing, it's harder to agree that they're good for you.  So, to aid my health-and-seasonal based teachings, and save our waistlines - I baked up a batch of each recipe and offered one of each on the proviso that I had to receive honest feedback.  And we're off!

At the top, in the white cases, are the bases for the Strawberries and Cream cupcakes. These have crushed berries throughout the batter, and are to be topped with vanilla buttercream and half a fresh strawberry.  At the bottom, in the brown cases, are the cake part of the Strawberry Cheesecake cupcakes.  As you can see, these have pieces of fresh strawberry mixed through the batter, and are to be topped with cream cheese buttercream icing and crumbled biscuits - to resemble the layers of a cheesecake.

The cheesecake icing, naked.  I'm pleased with the swirls on these, though would like them even fatter.

And now they're dressed and ready for their close-up.

These are the naked Strawberries and Cream ones.  I got the buttercream whiter by extra whipping and a touch of Superwhite by Sugarflair.  I don't see this as cheating, rather it's a way to offset the ivory tinge caused by using real butter.

Here we see them fully dressed.  Pretty, aren't they?

Side by side, they created quite a buzz on our Facebook page.  And from the top...

I noticed later on though, that a little bit of water had run off after I'd washed the berries.  It won't affect the taste at all, just doesn't look wonderful.  What do you think?

P.S.  The feedback so far is very positive, with Strawberry Cheesecake winning at the moment.  But only 3 votes are in at this point - more to come later tonight I hope!

Hummingbird Bakery red velvet cupcakes

We were supposed to play at Felix's house this morning, but his mum got in touch to say she was feeling quite under the weather and could we please take a raincheck.  Of course, we said, then wondered what to do instead.  It was raining outside, and we'd eaten all of the brownies we'd made on Tuesday so thought, what the heck, let's bake!  Immediately the girls said, 'let's choose an apron' (yes, we have 4 child-sized and 2 adult-sized from which to choose) and I reminded them that handwashing was a necessity too.  Jobs done, it was on to the chair to watch the Kenwood Premier Chef at work.  Amidst much shoving and wriggling, we got the 2 mixes done and combined and added in all the other ingredients.  Unfortunately though, the girls got bored with all the fiddly bits necessary and wandered off (after removing their aprons and washing their hands again).  Not surprisingly, they returned as I had just finished doling out the mix into the cupcakes cases.  I have been led to believe that a sous-chef has an area of expertise, whereas a commis chef is more of a general helper.  My two are becoming experts at bowl and utensil licking...

They both get a look-in to start with

 The elder moves aside to let the younger swirl her spatula for more

Then steps up again to swirl her spoon about to catch the last bits

Here's what came out of the oven after 18 minutes (I did them in cupcake rather than muffin cases, because they were just for us so didn't need to be big). 

Then they were iced once cool.  This was the first time I'd tried the Hummingbird's cream cheese icing recipe, and it didn't work for me.  There didn't seem to be enough butter into which all the icing sugar could dissolve.  So instead of waiting until it worked, I added in the cream cheese and kept my fingers crossed.  That did go into the correct texture after a moment or two - phew!  My sous-chefs had fully retired by this stage, but came back in the kitchen at the end, to marvel over the finished product, and when more bowl-licking was required, ha ha



Happy birthday Tanya

Well, here's the reason I tried out the carrot cake in a round tin a week or so ago - it's my friend Tanya's birthday tomorrow and she requested a carrot cake as her treat.  Her daughter requested the cake be fully iced, so their wishes were my command.  And, just because I can, I coloured the orange cream cheese icing in a pale orange colour and topped it with stars and red and gold glitter. 

I mean really, if you can have edible glitter on a cake - why wouldn't you?
From an academic point of view, the taste test reviews on the practice cake were very positive so I didn't bake this one any longer than the previous.  And I nearly doubled the amount of icing made, which gave plenty to cover the cake with a layer inside too.  I sent it away with Tanya then remembered that because it has cream cheese icing, it needs to be refridgerated.  Luckily, I have her number so was able to pass on this important info, phew!

An old favourite, carrot cake

We offer carrot cake as one of the standard flavours we can make, however I haven't done one for a while.  A friend has ordered one for her birthday next month, so I felt it was high time the recipe was practiced, to make sure it'd be ready.  I've made this recipe successfully a few times, but always in a large traybake tin.  So this was a new way, in a round tin for presentation.  Luckily, after my last disaster - sorry cake, I used a deep enough tin and the mix had plenty of room to rise.  And it did, beautifully.  But I feel it'll need another 10 minutes or so cooking time next time, the lower half seems less well-done than I would have liked (proof will be in the tasting tomorrow).  Annoyingly, an inserted skewer comes out clean at this stage of cooking/baking even though the cake isn't totally done.  Makes it quite tricky to judge without tasting...  I wonder what other home-bakers do??

Then it was a case of seeing how much icing the recipe made, when translated to a round layered cake.  The height of the final product was such that it could, conceivably, be layered three rather than two times.  I just did two layers, and only managed enough cream cheese with orange zest icing to do the central layer and a thick-ish one on top.  Visual reviews are positive though, which is encouraging.  Thanks!

Hummingbird Black bottom cupcakes

I wanted to try another recipe from the first Hummingbird book and chose the Black bottomed cupcakes, coz I'd been so impressed by the one I'd had from the Bakery on my super-brief visit to London back in May. 

Mini-Becca #2 and I had some spare time this morning after chores and before lunch, so got our aprons on and started weighing out the flour and mixing it with cocoa etc.  She helped me whisk together the wet ingredients and add them to the dry - that made a very solid sticky mixture, most unlike any other recent recipe we've done.  Nonetheless, having double-checked the recipe in case I'd made a mistake (I hadn't) we soldiered on.  She licked the beater arms and I spooned the mix into 15 midi cupcake cases.  We then quickly washed some items and made the cheesecake section of the cupcake mix.  It, on the other hand, was very very runny.  Again, following the recipe I added about a tablespoon to each cupcake and put them in the oven.  Upon removal 20 minutes later, they looked like this...

Which isn't a bad way to look, but not much like the picture in the cookbook.  The consistencies of my component mixes caused this look, but I'm not sure what caused the consistency issues.  No big deal, they tasted good anyway.  Not as chocolatey as I remembered, and when I queried this on the Bakery's Facebook page they suggested that I didn't use the same ingredients, so it wouldn't taste the same.  Fair comment, really.  Me and Mini-B declared them yummy anyway!

Butterscotch cake

Despite the apparent success of the Maple Spiced Cake, I had bought the fresh double cream needed for his first request of a butterscotch cake (recipe found online, from Delicious magazine) and had spare time this arvo, due to an appointment being cancelled.  So I made it.  It calls itself a butterscotch sponge with cream cheese icing but I beg to differ.  Although it has both white and brown sugar, it tastes like a normal sponge to us but the sauce you make is great and mixed in with the rest of the icing makes it more of a sponge with butterscotch icing and drizzle.  All in all, it's lush but not tasting of butterscotch enough I feel.  See for yourself...

Jaffa cupcakes

I fancied trying something new and turned the page of one of my recipe books to find their Chocolate Cupcake recipe.  It was an unusual way of doing things, but basically chocolate (not cocoa) flour and sugar.  The end result (I only tasted one so far) was pretty darn good.  This was also their Orange Cream Cheese icing - again, basically a buttercream icing with cream cheese and zested orange peel.  We bought ourselves some new food colour yesterday, plus some more fun sprinkles, hence the need for orange zest.  The icing is delicious and smooth, can't wait to taste the whole thing together.  I feel I've been most restrained...

We just bought a new camera, and as it's all new and modern it can take better close-up photos.  Thus my experimentation with different zoom options and staging of the food.  What do you think?