Mini Meringues

We found a pot of mini meringues in Aldi a while back and popped them in the cupboard 'for later'.  Later is now upon us (as were the meringues - they fell out the cupboard and prompted us to think of how to use them).  So, we had a few thoughts and decided on using chocolate as well.

Here's what we were going to use:- the mini meringues, some foil petit four cases and some dark chocolate chips.

The chocolate chips were melted.  We have 'perfected' our technique - Sous Chef J puts the choc chips in a small bowl and we then place the bowl in some hot water and it's left to melt. No need for huge amounts of heat for the small number of chips we melted for this recipe.

Once the chocolate was melted, it was removed from the hot water and Sous Chef J mixed it through with a small silicone spatula.

The bowl of chocolate was placed on a heat proof mat and then each mini meringue's flat bottom was dipped into the chocolate.  Meringues were sandwiched together in pairs and placed on a cooling rack to allow the chocolate to set.

Having paired all the meringues, we drizzled the remaining chocolate over.  Some colourful sugar crystals were sprinkled on by Sous Chef J.

It was then a simple job to wait for the chocolate to completely dry before placing each meringue pair in a festive foil petit four case. 

Finally, they were boxed up ready to store before we eat them over Christmas and the New Year.

Christmas Tree Cupcakes

Sous Chef J has been invited to a party. He decided be wanted to take some party food and wanted to try to make a Christmas Tree Cupcake.

So, we made a batch of cake mix - using 200g Dove's Farm gluten free Self Raising, 200g butter (room temperature), 200g caster sugar and 2 large eggs, beaten.  The butter and sugar was creamed using an electric hand mixer, then the flour and egg were added in 3 batches making sure it was all mixed well between each addition.  Next the mix was divided between 15 festive cupccake cases and baked at 170ºC for 12-15 minutes.  When a skewer was inserted and came out clean, the cakes were place, still in the tin, to cool for 10 minutes after which they were removed from the tin and allowed to cool completely.

Once completely cool, the decoration began.  We used this buttercream icing recipe

• 200 g butter, at room temperature
• 250 g icing sugar
• 1 tsp vanilla extract
• 1 tbsp fluid (we used water but milk is OK)
• green food colouring

So, the icing was added to a bag which had a C4 nozzle. 

 Then swirls of the icing were piped, inexpertly, onto each cake.  Sous Chef J then sprinkled coloured sugar crystals on (to make the baubles).  

 As a finishing touch, we used some gold dust to coat white chocolate stars and these were placed at the top of the trees.
 

We displayed them on our cupcake tree stand.









Then the cakes were placed in a 'suitable carrier' ready for off... 

Festive foody fun for all! 

Cake Decorating Done!

Having blogged about making our Christmas Cake last weekend, we thought it was only fair to show you how we got on with decorating it.

As the cake we baked turned out to have such a flat/level top, we decided to risk doing a 'proper' icing job.  Perhaps it would even make my former Home Economics teacher proud...

We'd sourced some ready to roll white marzipan and Regal Ice white icing so prepared our silicone sheet for use rolling out.  A small amount of icing sugar was sifted into a ramekin to be used to minimise sticking.

 First, a small amount of marzipan was rolled into a ball and then rolled out.  Once it formed a circle slightly larger than the top of the cake, it was placed to one side.


 Next, we used a piece of string to measure round the circumference of the cake.  A long strip of marzipan, from the block, was then rolled out to the required length and trimmed to size.

The marzipan was brushed with apricot jam that had been slightly watered down using warm, boiled water.

 An angled join was used - we found this made 'hiding' the seam in the marzipan a little easier.

 After sorting the marzipan out on the side of the cake, the top was brushed with the runny jam and smoothed down as much as possible.




Then, a piece of the Regal Ice was warmed up by rolling.  When it was pliable, using a light dusting of icing sugar, it was rolled out to a size which allowed it to be draped, in one piece, covering the whole cake.  Sous Chef J thought it looked like a ghost at this point.









The top and sides were then smoothed and the excess icing trimmed from the bottom of the cake.



 Star cutters were then used to make the decorations for the top of the cake.  As we are not artistic (that's an understatement!) we'd tweeted asking for simple decorating ideas and a lovely pal, Lynda, had suggested using stars. We already have a set of star cutters so that was a great idea.

Using a big star cut out, we dampened the surface of the cake icing and applied the star to the cake.  Then, smaller stars were similarly applied, draping around the edge of the top.



Next, it was over to Sous Chef J to add some silver baubles (the decorations we used were bought in M&S a while back and gluten was not listed in the ingredients or allergy warning). 

Finally, we added a silver cake frill and our decorating task was complete.