Jen's Tarts

I went for two pastry bakes for the jubilee themed cake club. Two, because I had enough pastry left over from the bakewell tart to conveniently make some jam tarts..! 

Ingredients for the pastry

250 g plain flour

50 g icing sugar

125 g butter, straight from the fridge

1 large free range egg

Ingredients for the frangipane

75 g butter, at room temperature

75 g golden caster sugar

150 g ground almonds

1 medium free range egg

Other ingredients:

2 tablespoons of raspberry jam

a handful of flaked almonds

To make the frangipane:

Cream together the butter and sugar (I use a hand whisk) and then add the egg a little at a time, whisking after each addition. Stir in the almonds.

To make the pastry:

Sift flour and icing sugar and rub in the butter until breadcrumb like. Next add the beaten, large, free range egg, and mix initially with a fork, and then your hands until you have a dough.

Wrap the dough in cling film and chill in the fridge for 30 minutes. After 30 minutes, roll out the dough on a floured surface until approximately 0.5 cm thick. 

Roll the pastry into a lightly greased, loose bottomed flan tin (20cm in diameter) and press into the sides firmly. Roll the edges of the tin to remove excess pastry - there should be enough for about 6 small jam tarts! 

Prick the base with a fork then wrap in cling film and again chill for 30 minutes in the fridge. 

In the mean time roll out the excess pastry and use round pastry cutter to make jam tarts. I put mine straight in to a greased shallow bun tin, and then chill for 30 mins before putting them in the oven. 

Preheat oven to 180 C /350 F/gas 4. 

When the tart base is fully chilled, remove cling film and and line with baking paper. Add baking beans and pop in to the oven to blind bake for 10-12 minutes. After this time, remove the beans and baking paper and bake for a further 5 minutes. If you can, make the frangipane whilst the tart is blind baking. Once blind baked, the pastry case can be filled with the frangipane and jam filling. Spread the jam over the base and then add the frangipane. Decorate with the flaked almonds and bake for 35 - 40 minutes at 180 C.

Sally's Raspberry and Blueberry Jubilee Battenberg

Raspberry and Blueberry Jubilee Battenberg

Ingredients:

200g butter, softened

200g caster sugar

4 eggs

200g self-raising flour

90g blueberries

90g raspberries

A few drops of vanilla essence

1 x pkt white marzipan

1/3rd of a jar of strawberry conserve or jam.

Prepare an 8″ square tin by lining the sides and the base.  In the piece of baking paper for the base fold a pleat which will divide the cake in half.

Method:

Preheat the oven to 160c (fan)/180c/Gas Mark 4.

Cream together the butter and sugar until light and fluffy.

Add the eggs one at a time along with a spoonful of the flour to prevent the mixture from curdling.

Add the vanilla essence.

Once all the eggs are in sift in the remaining flour and fold until the mixture is even.

Split the cake mix between two bowls.

Take the blueberries and raspberries, and lightly blitz using a stick blender or mash with a fork in separate bowls.

Add the crushed blueberries to one bowl of cake mix and the raspberries to the other. Stir through evenly.

Add each cake mix to it’s own little compartment in the tin and level roughly with the back of a spoon.

Bake in the oven for 35 minutes until lightly golden brown and cooked through.

Once baked transfer to a wire rack to cool completely.

Trim the crusts off each cake and level the top.

Cut each type of cake into two even pieces.

Now it’s assembly time.

Work on a chopping board or something similar.  Position one log and coat the top and two side with jam, don’t worry about the base for now.

Add in the next piece of cake and again coat the top and the sides.

Add in the next piece on top, making sure the different cake flavours sit diagonally.  Jam….you get the gist.  It’s like building a wall.

Once assembled make sure the top and sides are coated with the jam, again leaving the base for now.

Set the cake to one side and lightly dust the worksurface with icing sugar.

Knead the marzipan until it’s soft and pliable enough to work with and roll out into a large rectangle, approx 4mm deep.

Trim the rectangle to just slightly larger to the depth and your cake and slightly wider than the measurement around the entire cake  (approx 20cm x 30cm). Check your marzipan sheet isn’t stuck to the worksurface before going any further!

Lay the sheet of marzipan onto the cake centrally.

Now carefully flip the Battenberg over onto the worksurface so that the base is now in the air.

Coat the base with a layer of jam and finish wrapping the marzipan around the sides and the top.

Trim off any excess where the marzipan meets.

Carefully turn the Battenberg over so that the seal is now underneath.

Smooth and straighten the marzipan sides.

To crimp the top use your fingertips working along each side. Either use the end of a piece of cutlery or just your finger in place of the spoon, pushing the marzipan into your thumb and forefinger.  If in doubt practice on a piece of excess marzipan first!

Prick a line for decoration along each crimp with a fork.

Finally trim each end with a sharp knife to neaten the marzipan and cake.

Tom's Jubilee Shortbread

This recipe is very simple and comes from the 1988 book of National Trust recipes:

4oz butter
2oz caster sugar
6oz plain flour

Beat the butter until soft, then beat in the sugar then flour.  Form mixture into a  ball, then roll out to chunky thickness.  As we were celebrating the Jubilee I cut out crowns, but you can cut out any shape you like.  I just used a table knife to cut, and then pricked patterns into the shapes using a fork.

Put your creations on a lightly oiled baking sheet and throw in the oven for around 45 minutes at 150°C.

Enjoy!

Stacey's Champagne Victoria Sponge

When tasked with baking a cake to celebrate the Queen's Diamond Jubilee, for me it could only ever have been a Victoria Sponge. A special, spruced up for a party kind of Victoria Sponge. So I decided to sandwich some home made strawberry and champagne jam with some champagne flavoured butter cream in between two layers of deliciously light almond sponge.

As featured in The Times Jubilee Bake Off! Eeeep!

Strawberry and Champagne Jam


Ideally the jam should be made at least a day in advance so that it has time to set, however to save time it can be made in advance. The jam will keep in the fridge for 6-8 weeks (if it lasts that long!)

Prep time: 10 minutes
Cook time: 45 minutes to 1 hour
Makes two medium sized jars (around 400g)

Ingredients:
300g fresh British strawberries
250g jam-making sugar (sugar with added pectin)
1 tbsp unsalted butter
100ml pink champagne
1 tsp lemon juice

1. Place a heavy-based saucepan on the hob on the lowest heat. Wash, hull and chop the strawberries into small pieces, then add these to the pan with the sugar, butter and champagne. Gently stir until the butter has melted and the sugar has dissolved, then leave the jam to cook on the lowest heat for a while, stirring regularly.
2. Meanwhile, place a saucer into the freezer to use later when it come to test whether or not the jam will set.
3. Once the jam begins to bubble and simmer, add the lemon juice. The liquid should have reduced and thickened slightly. After around 45 minutes, test the jam for set by taking your saucer from the freezer and dropping a teaspoon of jam onto it. After 30 seconds on the saucer the jam should be set - if not add a little more lemon juice and cook for a little longer.
4. Once the jam is ready, remove from heat and pour into sterilised jars. Leave to cool completely before placing in the fridge to set overnight. Removed from the fridge 30 minutes before serving to allow the jam to return to room temperature.

Champagne Victoria Sponge

Prep time: 20 minutes

Cook time: 30-35 minutes

Makes 18 slices

Ingredients:

600g margarine

600g caster sugar

6 large free range eggs

50ml milk

A few drops of natural vanilla extract

600g self raising flour

1tsp baking powder

For the filling:

250g unsalted butter

500g icing sugar

1 tbsp milk

A few drops of champagne flavouring (to taste)

4-5 tbsp strawberry and champagne jam

Extra icing sugar for dusting.

1. Preheat the oven to Gas Mark 5 / 190 Degrees, and grease and line two 9" springform cake tins
2. Beat the butter and sugar together in a large bowl until light and fluffy. In a small bowl or jug, beat together the eggs, milk and vanilla extract and put to one side. Sift the flour, almonds and baking powder together into another bowl. Beat a third of the wet mixture into the butter and sugar, then fold in a third of the dry mixture. Continue in the order until all of the ingredients have combined to form a smooth batter. 
3. Divide the batter between the two prepared cake-tins and level with the back of a spoon. Bake for 30-35 minutes until golden brown and springy to the touch. Allow the cakes to cool in their tins for 5 minutes before turning out onto a wire rack to cool completely.
4. Whilst the cakes are cooling, prepare the butter cream. Beat the butter, icing sugar and milk together until smooth and creamy, then add a little champagne flavouring at a time until you reach your desired taste. Put the butter cream into a piping bag fitted with a large star shaped nozzle, and place in the fridge until ready to use.
5. Once the cakes have completely cooled, assemble the sponge. Place one of the sponge layers onto a serving plate, and spread the jam over this. Pipe the butter cream on top of the jam in swirls, and then place the second sponge gently on top of this. Dust the cake with icing sugar to finish.

June - Jubilant Jubilee

Given that we were given a 4 day weekend immediately before our June meeting, we thought it would be apt to continue our celebrations of Ma'am's Diamond Jubilee by baking the best of British recipes. We also had Union Flag bunting.

The bakers really showed their sweet-tooth this month - not a savoury in sight! Catharine brought in two delicious goodies: a Home-Grown Rhubarb Cake and a Berry Cheesecake, Jen treated us to a Bakewell Tart and some Jam Tarts, Katrina wowed us with her Ice Cream Cone Cupcakes, Sally baked a beautiful Blueberry and Raspberry Battenburg, Stacey baked a rather large Champagne Victoria Sponge, Tom baked some amazing Shortbread Crowns, and new member Zeena baked an Iced Almond Cake! A feast fit for a Queen...

Stacey's Singapore Spiral Mooncakes

Well, that's a bit of a tongue twister, isn't it!

The country I pulled from the hat was Singapore and for a little while I was at a loss as it seems that rather than having it's own cuisine, Singaporean food is based on a mixture of Chinese, Malai and Indian cuisine. However, I was very lucky to stumble upon a fellow baking blogger who just so happened to be from Singapore, and this is where I was first introduced to the mooncake.

I looked at as many recipes I could find for many different kinds of mooncakes, but in the end I settled on an adaptation of a recipe found on the original blog I came across: Happy Home Baking.

Thankfully there are a number of East-Asian supermarkets in my area, so I found it quite easy to get hold of some red bean paste to use for my filling, however, I was advised by a friend that this was an "acquired taste", and I really disliked it - so just go in with an open mind!

Prep time: 45 minutes
Cook time: 20 minutes
Makes 20 mooncakes

For the filling:
400g red bean paste

For the "water" dough:
140g plain flour
10g icing sugar
50g vegetable shortening
70ml water

For the "oil" dough:
150g plain flour
80g vegetable shortening
Red, yellow and green food colouring

Flour, for dusting.

1. Start by preparing the filling: measure the red bean paste into 20g portions and roll these into balls in your hands. Place on a lined baking sheet in the fridge until ready to use.
2. Next prepare the water dough. Sieve the flour and icing sugar into a mixing bowl then rub in the shortening until the mixture resembles fine breadcrumbs. Stir in enough of the water to form a soft, pliable dough and then cover this with clingfilm and put in the fridge to set slightly, whilst you prepare the oil dough.
3. For the oil dough, sieve the flour into a bowl and then mix the shortening into it by hand, until you get a soft dough (which I found to be similar in texture to a soft playdough!). Divide this dough into 3 equal pieces, and colour these red, yellow and green (respectively). Note: you could use any combination of colours you like here. Roll each dough out into a roughly equal sized rectangle and place to one side.
4. Take the water dough from the fridge and knead on a lightly floured surface until it too resembles playdough in texture and pliability.  This is where the instructions get a bit confusing, so bear with me! I've posted a step-by-step photo collage below should you need it! Roll this out into a large rectangle and then place the three coloured doughs in the centre of this, overlapping each colour slightly. Fold the edges of the water dough (the white dough) over the coloured dough, then cover with cling film and place in the fridge to rest for 20 minutes.
5. After 20 minutes, place the dough onto a lightly floured surface and roll out until completely flat. Starting at one of the shorter ends, roll the dough into a tight "Swiss roll" style log, and trim the ends. (I hope you're still following!) Cut the dough into 20 slices.
6. Preheat the oven to gas mark 4 and line a flat baking sheet with greaseproof paper.
7. For each mooncake, take a slice of the spiral dough (which looks super pretty at this stage, might I add!)  and flatten it into a circular disk with your fingers. Place one of the red bean paste balls into the centre of the disk and wrap the dough around it, gently pinching the ends to seal. Place the mooncakes seam side down onto a lined baking sheet and repeat the process until all 20 mooncakes have been made.
8. Bake the mooncakes for 10 minutes, then removed from the oven and leave to rest for 10 minutes before returning to the oven to bake for a final 10 minutes. The mooncakes will be fairly squidgy when they leave the oven, so allow them to cool on the baking tray for 5-10 minutes before transferring to a wire rack to cool completely.

Happy Baking!