Love Cake

Love Cake

Made with a few simple ingredients a love cake would be made when a girl was courting. It would show her suitor that she could cook and therefore be able to look after him when they tied the knot.

Ingredients

• 225g/8oz self-raising flour
• 1 tsp cornflour
• ½ tsp salt
• 15g/½oz lard
• 15g/½oz butter
• 2 tbsp caster sugar
• 175ml/6fl oz milk, plus extra for glazing
• 2-3 tbsp strawberry jam

Preparation method

1. Preheat the oven to 200C/400F/Gas 6
2. Mix together the flour, cornflour and salt. Using your fingertips rub in the lard and butter until the mixture has the texture of breadcrumbs.
3. Stir in the sugar then gradually add the milk until a soft dough is formed. You may not need to use all the milk.
4. Lightly knead the dough on a floured surface until a smooth dough is formed (this won’t take long).
5. Roll out the dough to a rectangle measuring 50x20cm/20x8in. Spread the jam over the dough.
6. Roll the dough from the longest side as if rolling a Swiss roll. Bring the ends together and stick them together using a little milk. Shape the ring into a heart shape.
7. Make small incisions over the surface of the heart shape. Brush the top with milk.
8. Bake for 15-20 minutes until golden-brown and the base is cooked through.

I found this receipe from http://www.bbc.co.uk/food/recipes/love_cake_99793

Here’s some more romantic designs for inspiration:

 

The story of St Valentine

THE STORY OF SAINT VALENTINE Although the origins of Valentine’s Day are shrouded in mystery, many believe it can be traced back to the Ancient World. It is not certain which of three Saint Valentines the day actually honours, but it is often associated with the story of a young priest living in the Roman Empire. He became famous for continuing to secretly marry young lovers, even though Emperor Claudius II had forbidden younger citizens from marrying. When news of Valentine spread, he was jailed and sentenced to death. While imprisoned, he fell in love with the jailer’s daughter. Legend has it that, on the night of his execution, he handed her a love letter, signed ‘from your Valentine’. Valentine’s Day is celebrated at a time of year that is associated with love and fertility in pagan religions, and brides in Ancient Rome wore wreaths of picked flowers and also herbs to symbolize the same. Other flowers associated with various types of love include tulips, roses, primrose, purple lilac, jasmine, aster and balsam.

White Chocolate, Pistachio and Rosewater Cupcakes

Here is a the recipe for what I think are the the most delicious cupcakes I've ever tasted. White chocolate, pistachio and rosewater flavoured cake with white chocolate icing sprinkled with pistachio and rose turkish delight. Epic. Amazing when I ate it just freshly baked and decorated. I was blown away, I rate it my best cupcake ever. It was originally found in the New Zealand Woman’s Weekly magazine.

This recipe makes 24 cupcakes

Ingredients

190g butter

115g white chocolate

1 1/2 cups caster sugar

2/3 cup milk

1 cup plain flour

2/3 cup self raising flour

1/2 tsp vanilla bean paste

1 to 2 eggs, lightly beaten  ( I used 2)

80g roasted unsalted pistachios finely ground

2 tbsp rose water essence

Topping

115g white chocolate melted

6 cubes of turkish delight diced in to smaller pieces

Extra pistachios, chopped

Method

Preheat oven to 150c.

Combine the butter, white chocolate, sugar and milk in a bowl over a pot of gently boiling water until the sugar is dissolved and the chocolate and butter have melted. Remove from the heat.

Sift the fours together in a separate bowl then combine with the melted liquid.

Add the whisked eggs, vanilla bean paste, ground pistachios and rose water essence. Stir to combine.

Pour mixture in to the cupcake cases and bake for 20-25 minutes.

I like to fill around 3/4 full so the cake has room to rise and for me to add the icing. Thats why I use the larger muffin cases. I baked mine for 23 minutes exactly.

I think these are out of this world. Decorating them with a tablespoon or so of the melted white chocolate which should be pretty rough, and sprinkle the pistachios and turkish delight to suit you. It looks so pretty and tastes better than you imagine.

Reciepe originally found on: http://www.gourmetlovers.co.uk/

White Rose Cake

This white cake is moist and dense, and filled with aromatic and very edible roses.

Recipe by Laura Bashar of Family Spice: http://familyspice.com/

Ingredients:

• 1 1/2 cup all-purpose flour
• 2 tsp baking powder
• 1/8 tsp salt
• 6 egg whites
• 1 cup butter, unsalted, softened
• 1 3/4 cup granulated sugar
• 1/4 cup yogurt, plain Greek
• 1/4 cup milk, low-fat
• 2 TBS rose water
• 1/4 tsp vanilla extract
• 1 1/4 cup rose petals, fresh, diced, loosely-packed
• 12 oz cream cheese, room temperature
• 1 1/2 cup heavy cream

Instructions:

Preheat oven to 350ºF.

Coat 3 6x2-inch round cake pans with non-stick spray and line the bottom of each pan with parchment paper.

In a medium-sized bowl, whisk together:

1/2 cup all-purpose flour
2 tsp baking powder
1/8 tsp salt
In a small bowl, lightly whisk:
6 egg whites

In a large mixing bowl, using a hand held mixer, whip until white and smooth:

1 cup butter, unsalted , softened
1 cup granulated sugar
Add to the butter mixture and whisk until smooth:
1/4 cup yogurt, plain Greek
1/4 cup milk, low-fat
1 TBS rose water
1/4 tsp vanilla extract

In batches, alternate mixing in flour mixture and egg whites into butter mixture until combined. Do not over mix.

Gently mix in:

1/4 cup rose petals, fresh , diced, loosely-packed
Divide batter evenly into the 3 prepared cake pans and bake until golden, about 35-40 minutes.
Place the cakes on a cooling rack and let it cool completely before frosting it, about 1-hour.

To prepare the frosting, in a medium-sized bowl whisk until smooth:

12 oz cream cheese , room temperature

3/4 cup granulated sugar
1 TBS rose water

In a separate bowl, using a clean mixer, whisk until stiff peaks are formed, about 5 minutes:

1/2 cup heavy cream
Using a rubber spatula, gently fold in 1/4 of the whipped cream into the cream cheese mixture.
Fold in the remaining whipped cream.
Place one cake layer onto your serving platter.
Place along the edges of the cake strips of parchment paper. This will keep the plate clean while frosting the cake.
Place a large scoop of frosting and evenly spread over the top of the cake.
Gently place the second layer of cake over the frosting, and frost the top of the second layer of cake.
Add the final layer of cake and frost the top and remaining sides of the cake until evenly coated.

Decorate the cake with:

1 cup rose petals, fresh , diced
Slowly remove the parchment paper strips around the bottom layer of the cake.
Chill cake in the refrigerator for at least 2 hours before serving.

Tea: A Global History (The Edible Series) by Helen Saberi

I’ve just read this great little book on one of my favorite subjects, Tea!  It’s not a huge read, but very interesting so I thought I’d share it with you.

“From chai to oolong to sencha, tea is one of the world’s most popular beverages. Perhaps that is because it is a unique and adaptable drink, consumed in many different varieties by cultures across the globe and in many different settings, from the intricate traditions of Japanese teahouses to the elegant tearooms of Britain to the verandas of the deep South.     

In Tea food historian Helen Saberi explores this rich and fascinating history. Saberi looks at the economic and social uses of tea, such as its use as a currency during the Tang Dynasty and 1913 creation of a tea dance called “Thé Dansant” that combined tea and tango. Saberi also explores where and how tea is grown around the world and how customs and traditions surrounding the beverage have evolved from its legendary origins to its present-day popularity.

Featuring vivid images of teacups, plants, tearooms, and teahouses as well as recipes for both drinking tea and using it as a flavoring, Tea will engage the senses while providing a history of tea and its uses”.

Extract taken from: http://www.goodreads.com/

Cake - An introduction

Cake is a form of bread or bread-like food. In its modern forms, it is typically a sweet baked dessert. In its oldest forms, cakes were normally fried breads or cheesecakes, and normally had a disk shape. Determining whether a given food should be classified as bread, cake, or pastry can be difficult.

Modern cake, especially layer cakes, normally contain a combination of flour, sugar, eggs, and butter or oil, with some varieties also requiring liquid (typically milk or water) and leavening agents (such as yeast or baking powder). Flavorful ingredients like fruit purées, nuts, dried or candied fruit, orextracts are often added, and numerous substitutions for the primary ingredients are possible. Cakes are often filled with fruit preserves or dessert sauces (like pastry cream), iced with buttercream or other icings, and decorated with marzipan, piped borders or candied fruit.

Cake is often the dessert of choice for meals at ceremonial occasions, particularly weddings, anniversaries, and birthdays. There are countless cake recipes; some are bread-like, some rich and elaborate, and many are centuries old. Cake making is no longer a complicated procedure; while at one time considerable labor went into cake making (particularly the whisking of egg foams), baking equipment and directions have been simplified so that even the most amateur cook may bake a cake.

Varieties

Victoria Sponge Cake

Chocolate Cake

Fruit Cake

Cakes are broadly divided into several categories, based primarily on ingredients and cooking techniques.

• Yeast cakes are the oldest and are very similar to yeast breads. Such cakes are often very traditional in form, and include such pastries as babka and stollen.
• Cheesecakes, despite their name, aren't really cakes at all. Cheesecakes are in fact custard pies, with a filling made mostly of some form of cheese (often cream cheese, mascarpone, ricotta or the like), and have very little flour added, although a flour-based or graham cracker crust may be used. Cheesecakes are also very old, with evidence of honey-sweetened cakes dating back to ancient Greece.
• Sponge cakes are thought to be the first of the non-yeast-based cakes and rely primarily on trapped air in a protein matrix (generally of beaten eggs) to provide leavening, sometimes with a bit of baking powder or other chemical leaven added as insurance. Such cakes include the Italian/Jewish pan di Spagna and the French Génoise. Highly decorated sponge cakes with lavish toppings are sometimes called gateau; the French word for cake.

A selection of different cakes and garnishes

• Butter cakes, including the pound cake and devil's food cake, rely on the combination of butter, eggs, and sometimes baking powder or bicarbonate of soda to provide both lift and a moist texture.

Beyond these classifications, cakes can be classified based on their appropriate accompaniment (such as coffee cake) and contents (e.g. fruitcake or flourless chocolate cake).

Some varieties of cake are widely available in the form of cake mixes, wherein some of the ingredients (usually flour, sugar, flavoring, baking powder, and sometimes some form of fat) are premixed, and the cook needs add only a few extra ingredients, usually eggs, water, and sometimes vegetable oil or butter. While the diversity of represented styles is limited, cake mixes do provide an easy and readily available homemade option for cooks who are not accomplished bakers.

Special-purpose cakes

Cakes may be classified according to the occasion for which they are intended. For example, wedding cakes, birthday cakes, cakes for first communion, Christmas cakes, Halloween cakes and Passover plava (a type of sponge cake sometimes made with matzo meal) are all identified primarily according to the celebration they are intended to accompany. The cutting of a wedding cake constitutes a social ceremony in some cultures. The Ancient Roman marriage ritual of confarreatio originated in the sharing of a cake.

Particular types of cake may be associated with particular festivals, such as stollen or chocolate log (at Christmas), babka and simnel cake (at Easter), or Chinese mooncake. There has been a long tradition of decorating an iced cake at Christmas time; other cakes associated with Christmas include chocolate log and mince pies.

Shapes

Cup cakes

Cakes are frequently described according to their physical form. Cakes may be small and intended for individual consumption. Larger cakes may be made with the intention of being sliced and served as part of a meal or social function. Common shapes include:

• Bundt cakes
• Cake balls
• Conical, such as the Kransekake
• Cupcakes and madeleines, which are both sized for a single person
• Layer cakes, frequently baked in a springform pan and decorated
• Sheet cakes, simple, flat, rectangular cakes baked in sheet pans
• Swiss roll cakes

A decorated birthday cake

Cake flour

Special cake flour with a high starch-to-gluten ratio is made from fine-textured, soft, low-protein wheat. It is strongly bleached, and compared to all-purpose flour, cake flour tends to result in cakes with a lighter, less dense texture. Therefore, it is frequently specified or preferred in cakes meant to be soft, light, and or bright white, such as angel food cake. However, if cake flour is called for, a substitute can be made by replacing a small percentage of all-purpose flour with cornstarch or removing two tablespoons from each cup of all-purpose flour.[3][4][5] Some recipes explicitly specify or permit all-purpose flour, notably where a firmer or denser cake texture is desired.

Cake decorating

A chocolate cake decorated with icing, strawberries, and silvery sugar beads or Dragées.

A slice of strawberry cake with garnishing of strawberry.

Chocolate cake with chocolate frosting and shaved chocolate topping

A finished cake is often enhanced by covering it with icing, or frosting, and toppings such as sprinkles, which are also known as "jimmies" in certain parts of the United States and "hundreds and thousands" in the United Kingdom. Frosting is usually made from powdered (icing) sugar, sometimes a fat of some sort, milk or cream, and often flavorings such as vanilla extract or cocoa powder. Some decorators use a rolled fondant icing. Commercial bakeries tend to use lard for the fat, and often whip the lard to introduce air bubbles. This makes the icing light and spreadable. Home bakers either use lard, butter,margarine or some combination thereof. Sprinkles are small firm pieces of sugar and oils that are colored with food coloring. In the late 20th century, new cake decorating products became available to the public. These include several specialized sprinkles and even methods to print pictures and transfer the image onto a cake.

Special tools are needed for more complex cake decorating, such as piping bags or syringes, and various piping tips. To use a piping bag or syringe, a piping tip is attached to the bag or syringe using a coupler. The bag or syringe is partially filled with icing which is sometimes colored. Using different piping tips and various techniques, a cake decorator can make many different designs. Basic decorating tips include open star, closed star, basketweave, round, drop flower, leaf, multi, petal, and specialty tips.

Royal icing, marzipan (or a less sweet version, known as almond paste), fondant icing (also known as sugarpaste) and buttercream are used as covering icings and to create decorations. Floral sugarcraft or wired sugar flowers are an important part of cake decoration. Cakes for special occasions, such as wedding cakes, are traditionally rich fruit cakes or occasionally Madeira cakes, that are covered with marzipan and iced using royal icing or sugar-paste. They are finished with piped borders (made with royal icing) and adorned with a piped message, wired sugar flowers, hand-formed fondant flowers, marzipan fruit, piped flowers, or crystallized fruits or flowers such as grapes or violets.

History

The term "cake" has a long history. The word itself is of Viking origin, from the Old Norse word "kaka".

Although clear examples of the difference between cake and bread are easy to find, the precise classification has always been elusive. For example,banana bread may be properly considered either a quick bread or a cake.

The Greeks invented beer as a leavener, frying fritters in olive oil, and cheesecakes using goat's milk. In ancient Rome, basic bread dough was sometimes enriched with butter, eggs, and honey, which produced a sweet and cake-like baked good. Latin poet Ovid refers to the birthday of him and his brother with party and cake in his first book of exile, Tristia.

Early cakes in England were also essentially bread: the most obvious differences between a "cake" and "bread" were the round, flat shape of the cakes, and the cooking method, which turned cakes over once while cooking, while bread was left upright throughout the baking process.

Sponge cakes, leavened with beaten eggs, originated during the Renaissance, possibly in Spain.

Lemon drizzle cake