sugar cookies; chocolate, brown sugar gingerspice, butterscotch pecan and chocolate earl grey sandwiches with white chocolate ganache

Daring Bakers: Dobos Torta

just a note....blogger is driving me nuts, merging all my text! ack!
August's Daring Bakers' Challenge was hosted by Angela of A Spoonful of Sugar and Lorraine of Not Quite Nigella. They chose the spectacular Dobos Torte based on a recipe from Rick Rodgers' cookbook Kaffeehaus: Exquisite Desserts from the Classic Caffes of Vienna, Budapest, and Prague.

sponge cake layers
6 large eggs, separated and at room temperature
1 1/3c icing sugar, divided
1tsp vanilla extract
95g plain flour + 17g cornflour
pinch of salt
2oz shelled pistachio nuts, quite finely chopped

chocolate buttercream
4 large eggs, at room temperature
1c caster sugar
110g dark chocolate
250g butter, at room temperature

caramel topping
1c caster sugar
180ml water
40ml lemon juice
1tbsp sunflower oil

finishing touches
whole, shelled pistachios
5oz shelled and roughly chopped pistachios

methods...
sponge layers
1. position racks in top and centre thirds of the oven and heat to 200C

2. cut 6 pieces of baking paper to fit the baking sheets - using a 9" cake pan draw a circle on each...as I made lots of mini tortas I drew round a 4" tart ring 6 times on each sheet. thus each tray would be for one cake, I made 6 mini cakes in total. make sure you turn the paper over...pen ink cake is not good!

3. beat the egg yolks with 2/3c icing sugar, and the vanilla in a medium bowl with a mixer on high speed until the mixture is thick, pale yellow and forms a thick ribbon when the beaters are lifted a few inches above the batter, about 3 minutes.

4. in another bowl, using clean beaters, beat the egg whites until soft peaks form. gradually beat in the remaining 2/3c icing sugar until the whites firm stiff, shiny peaks. using a large rubber spatula, stir in about 1/4 of the beaten whites into the egg yolk mixture, then fold in the remainder, leaving a few wisps of the white visible. combine the flour and salt. sift half the flour over the eggs, and fold in; repeat with the remaining flour...at this point I folded in chopped pistachios and a little green dye...

5. line one of the baking sheets with a circle-marked paper. using a small offset spatula, spread about 3/4c (I used about 1 1/2tbsp for my mini ones) of the batter in an eve layer, filling in the traced circle on one baking sheet. bake on the top shelf for 5mins (mine took about 3mins). keep repeating this process with the other papers and cake mix. when the cakes are done invert onto a flat surface and carefully peel back the paper, slide the cake layer back onto the paper to cool. trim each layer into a neat round using a sharp knife, I used a large cookie cutter to trim mine to about 3".

chocolate buttercream
1. prepare a double boiler

2. whisk the eggs with the sugar until pale and thickened, about 5mins

3. fit the bowl over the boiling water in the saucepan. cook the egg mix, whisking constantly, for 2-3mins until it thickens a bit. whisk in the finely chopped chocolate and cook, stirring, for a further 2-3mins

4. scrape the chocolate mixture into a medium bowl and leave to cool to room temperature. it should be quite thick and sticky in consistency

5. when cool, beat in the butter, a small piece at a time, using an electric hand whisk. you should end up with a thick, velvety chocolate buttercream. chill while you make the caramel topping

caramel buttercream
1. choose the best looking cake layers for the caramel tops

2. line a baking sheet with parchment and butter, place the cake layers on the paper and divide into 6 equal wedges (if doing the one large cake, using just one layer and split into 12)

3. stir the sugar, water and lemon juice in a small saucepan. bring to the boil over a medium heat stirring often to dissolve the sugar. once dissolved into a smooth syrup, turn up the heat to high and boil without stirring, swirling the pan by the handle occasionally until the syrup has turned into an amber-coloured caramel

4. pour, very quickly and evenly, over the cake wedges, spread with a spatula to get an even coverage

5. leave to cool the cut our the wedges with a sharp knife

assembling the dobos
1. spread a layer of buttercream on one of the cake layers, repeating til you have 5 layers stacked up. cover the sides and top of the cake...repeat with the remaining mini cakes! this took AGES! damn my mini-cakes!

2. press the chopped nuts round the sides of the cake

3. propping a pistachio under each wedge so the it sits at an angle, arrange the wedges on top of the cakes in a spoke pattern

4. refrigerate until icing is set, about 2 hours, let slices come to room temperature for best possible flavour

strawberry milkshake cupcakes

two weeks away from my kitchen has left me with a huge baking need...so far I have made a giant moussaka, a spinach pie (spankopita), the below yummy cupcakes and as I type this there are some brownies a-bakin' in my oven....wheeee! these cupcakes are pretty great, I do have to say, I used fresh strawberries with no other flavourings and they were so full of that yummy strawberry-ness. perfect.

pecan blueberry cinnamon rolls

oh heaven! these were my first rolls, and they were sublime! The smell that filled the house was just too much, mouth-wateringly good. They went down a treat at work in the morning, delish! The recipe is from the lovely Leila Lindholm. and then I went to Greece....bliss...

daring bakers challenge: teacakes! ...(mallows)...

The July Daring Bakers' challenge was hosted by Nicole at Sweet Tooth. She chose Chocolate Covered Marshmallow Cookies and Milan Cookies from pastry chef Gale Gand of the Food Network. time and life stopped me make the milan cookies, saved for a later date for sure, but I did conquer the mallows!

totally splendid, was pretty nervy about the marshmallows but was really happy with them. I think next time I will have a bit more confidence to make sure the mallow top covers the cookie nicely - was more worried about getting it all over the place so think I may have been a bit over cautious - but that did result in more mallows! Mallow...teacake, for the brits...Recipe For the cookie base 3 cups plain flour

1/2 cup caster sugar

1/2 tsp salt

3/4 tsp baking powder

3/8 bicarbonate of soda

1/2 tsp ground cinnamon...which I forgot! darn.

170g unsalted butter

3 large eggs, whisked together

homemade marshmallows - as below

chocolate gaze - as below

1. blend the dry ingredients in amixer

2. on a low speed add the butter and mix til sandy

3. add the eggs and mix to combine

4. form the dough into a disk, wrap in clingfilm and chill for at least 1 hour - up to 3 days

5. line baking trays with baking paper

6. preheat oven to 375F/180C

7. roll out cookie dough to 1/8" thick, on a lightly floured surface. use a 1 1/2 inch cookie cutter - or a small plastic tube

if you are me - to cut out small rounds of dough

8. transfer to the prepped pan and bake for 10 minutes or until light golden brown - let cool to room temperature

9. pipe a 'kiss' of marshmallow onto each cookie. let sit at room temperature for 2 hours

10. line a cookie sheet with baking paper

11. one at a time, gently drop the marshmallow-topped cookies into the hot chocolate glaze

12. lift out with a fork and let excess chocolate drip back into the bowl

13. place on the prepped pan and let set at room temperature until coating is firm, about 1-2 hours

marshmallow recipe

1/4 cup water

1/4 cup light corn syrup - i used golden syrup

3/4 cup caster sugar

1 tbsp powdered gelatin - I could only find sheet gelatin, 4 sheets of which I softened in water, drained and added to the

syrup off the heat

2 tbsp cold water - omitted due to use of sheet gelatin

2 egg whites, room temp

1/4 tsp vanilla extract - omitted, I split the mixture and added 1tsp rose water with pink dye to one half, and 2tsp cocoa

in 1tbsp water to the other

1. in a saucepan, combine the water, syrup and sugar, bring to "soft-ball" stage (235C)

2. sprinkle gelatin over the cold water and let dissolve - if sheet gelatin like me, soften in water for 10 mins

3. remove syrup from heat and add gelatin (drain first if using sheets)

4. whip the egg whites until soft peaks form and pour the syrup into the whites

5. add the vanilla - or as I did, rose water or chocolate - and continue whipping until stiff

6. transfer to piping bag - I piped the rose half, and poured the chocolate half into an oiled and icing-sugared tray to set, for cutting int o squares and tossing in cocoa

chocolate glaze - I made half with milk chocolate and half with dark...yummy!

12oz chocolate

2oz vegetable oil

1. melt the 2 ingredients together in a bowl set over simmering water

happy birthday flake cupcakes

cherry french royale tart

the sun has returned after a rather soggy few days and has put me back in the baking mood after the mammoth cake weekend. spent far too long in bookshops yesterday looking at cook books, two of which are now squeezed in on my bulging kitchen bookshelves...hee!

the recipe for these beauties is adapted from one of the books i could not resist, a piece of cake by leila lindholm, which is one of the most beautifully put together books i have perused in a long time. it is one of those lovely recipe books that you can just read as it is and it is almost as good as baking itself, brilliant. the recipe calls for curd cheese, which i was unable to get in my local shop, so i substituted with cottage cheese that i drained and creamed first. i used cherries in my tarts as i am obsessed, but you should definitely get the book to have a look at the numerous other variations suggested.

safari birthday cake

a cake created for Cap'n Pete's birthday, a glorious joint effort by baking accomplice Lucy and me!

three-layer chocolate fudge cake

cherry blossom cupcake tower and topper...happy birthday jen!