Ginger, Choc & Pear Kate Cakes | Joanna's Cakes
So, experiment number two:
I’m making Kate and Kerim’s wedding cupcakes, they’re getting married in France in September – what a task eh? Kate’s very keen on Lavender cupcakes, which I have yet to experiment with, but they also want variation to mix up the colour scheme a bit and as a contrast to the floral flavour. This recipe is based on the Peaches and Cream cupcakes in the Hummingbird Bakery Cookbook, the peaches recipe didn’t quite cut it. We decided that pear and ginger is a superior combination and topping with Chocolate makes it even more luxurious.
The original recipe tells you to layer the bottom of the cases with the peaches but this means that you don’t get the complete cupcake shape that Kate desires so I chopped up the pears and mixed them in along with some crystallised ginger and some preserved (two different batches).
The general consensus is a thumbs up – they are very moist and the ginger adds a kick – not so good for those who don’t like ginger however! I tried to make the icing as rich as possible, to give it a more sophisticated cocoa taste. I think they probably are best eaten with a little spoon, the original and this recipe are more of a dessert that a cupcake.
120g plain flour
140g caster sugar
1 1/2 tsps baking powder
40g unsalted butter
1 x can tinned pears (approximately 211g)
40-50g crystallised ginger, chopped small
pinch of salt
few drops of vanilla
120 ml whole milk
1 egg
Icing
200g icing sugar
40g cocoa
80g butter
40ml (ish) milk
Place the flour, sugar, bp and salt in a bowl and rub int the butter until it’s a sandy texture. With a hand-held mixer or similar add half the milk to the dry mixture until combined then whisk up the eggs, vanilla and the rest of the milk separately and pour in the mix, do not over beat. Stir in your chopped pear and ginger and divide between 12 cupcake cases. Bake in a preheated oven (at 170 degrees) for about 20-25 minutes, or until golden brown and spring back when touched. Leave to cool completely before icing.
Icing: Place the butter, icing sugar and cocoa in a bowl and beat to combine – add a little milk to help with the process then add the rest, adjusting as necessary. Beat with a hand-held mixer until fluffy – the longer you beat, the fluffier the icing!
Eat with a spoon preferably, or enjoy getting sticky.
Gingerbread Men & Women | Joanna's Cakes
… and a few hearts (it was close to valentines day)
I thought it was about time that Ivy and I did some proper baking together, and what better to start with than Gingerbread men – or people, to be more PC. I nearly made the recipe from the Hummingbird Bakery book but that involved leaving the mixture overnight – will try that another time. This is good old Mary Berry, but probably fairly basic.
Ivy had a go at rolling out her very bit of dough and helping with the cutting and adding the eyes. She possibly enjoyed eating bits of the mixture more however and dusting flour all over herself and the floor?
I don’t know how good at biscuits I am, I always end up rolling the dough too thin and I slightly over baked some of them! Oh well, they did taste great in the end, I even love them when they’ve been in the tin a while and are little soft. This recipe made a ton but perhaps that is partly because of the rolling out issue.
150g plain flour
1 tsp bicarbonate of soda
2 tsps ground ginger
100g Margarine (I used butter)
175g light muscovado sugar
4 tablespoons golden syrup
1 egg beaten
currants to decorate
Preheat oven to 1ª0 degrees. Lightly grease 3 baking trays
Measure flour, bicarb and ginger into a bowl, run on the marg/butter until the mixture resembles fine breadcrumbs then stir on the sugar. Add the syrup an d beaten egg then mix to form a smooth dough, kneading lightly with the hands towards the end.
Divide the dough in half and roll out one half to about 5mm thick. Cut out gingerbread men and ladies and place them on the baking traces, decorate with the currants creating eyes and mouths, buttons etc. Repeat!
Bake in the oven for about 10-12 minutes until slightly darker in colour. Cool slightly on the tray then lift off on to a wire rack.
Good fun to eat too – biting off limbs and heads.
