From Donuts to Delirium

I was thrilled when I was offered the opportunity to review Fiona Carins’s Bake & Decorate, Tea Time Luxury, on my blog!  In all honesty, this is the type of book I’d probably buy if it wasn’t given to me. Here’s why:

• It’s about cakes and treats.
• Bake & Decorate is written by a well-respected cake decorator, whose cakes are found in only the best food retailers. Fiona Cairns’s clients include the Ritz hotel, Harrods, Fortnum & Mason, U2’s Bono and Sir Paul McCartney!
• There are loads of tempting and very girly treats to try out which range from the basics to the more advanced.
• Every recipe has a great full-colour picture. I don’t buy cook books without pictures.
• The instructions are simply written and easy to follow.

But, as the saying goes, “the proof is in the pudding.” Here, that is quite literally the case. I have taken one of the recipes for a test drive to see if the cakes in the book taste as good as they look. Here’s what I made daaaaaahlings:

Sticky Ginger Cake

Serves 10

Ingredients:

• 120g unsalted butter, plus more for the tin
• 125g black treacle*
• 100g golden syrup**
• 150ml milk
• 120g light muscovado sugar
• 225g plain flour
• 1 tbsp ground ginger
• 1/2 tsp bicarbonate of soda
• 2 eggs, lightly beaten

Preheat the oven to 180C/170C fan/350F. Butter a 20cm square tin, and line with baking parchment.

Place the treacle, syrup, milk, sugar and butter into a pan and very gently melt together. Do not let this boil or it will curdle. Remove from the heat and cool a little.

In a large bowl, sift together the flour, ginger and bicarbonate of soda. Add the treacle mixture and fold together with a large spoon. Lastly, add the eggs, mix well and pour the batter into the tin. Knock a couple of times on a work surface to release any bubbles, then bake for 40-50 minutes until firm to the touch and a skewer inserted into the centre comes out clean.

Cool in the tin for about 15 minutes, then turn out on a rack. When the cake is absolutely cold, wrap it in baking parchment and then in foil and leave for a couple of days. This will make it very moist with a slightly sticky surface.

*use dark con syrup or molasses if you can’t find black treacle

**use corn syrup or light molasses if you don’t have access to golden syrup

Salted Caramel Buttercream

Ingredients:

• 125g white caster sugar
• 80ml double cream
• 1/2 tsp salt (or to taste)
• 1 tsp vanilla extract
• 160g salted butter, softened
• 200g icing sugar

To make the caramel, dissolve the sugar and 60ml of water in a small, solid-based pan over a gentle heat, then increase the heat to a boil. Wait a few minutes, leaving the pan undisturbed but watching it like a hawk and, as soon as it changes to a wonderful caramel colour (like strong tea) and is thicker, remove immediately from the heat, stand well back, and add the cream. Be very careful as it is searing hot and may splatter a little. It will react, or ’seize’. and you may think it has gone wrong; it hasn’t. Keep stirring, adding the salt and the vanilla. Leave until stone cold.

Cream the butter and the icing sugar for at least 45 minutes in an electric mixer (or use a handheld mixer) and add the caramel.  Spread with a palate knife.

Notes: Instead of making one big cake, I made little individual cakes. I used a circular biscuit/scone cutter to cut these shapes out of the full size cake. Because the cake is a dense one, this is not hard to do, just use a sharp cutter.

Verdict: This is one of those great old-fashioned English cakes that I have really come to love. The flavour was not overpowering in ginger, despite that being the main flavour, although you can definitely taste it. With regards to the cake itself, there was a very comforting, homey quality about it. It would have been a decent cake just like that. You wouldn’t have had to put the frosting on it– maybe just a bit of powdered sugar if you like.  It really would be the perfect accompiamint to a hot cup of tea. The frosting, however, is pretty  freaking spectacular  though and really brings the gingerbread up to date, so I highly recommend it. I was so proud of myself for making caramel for the first time. It wasn’t nearly as hard as I thought it would be. The only thing is I let my caramel cool too much, and it got a bit solid. That made it hard for me to incorporate it into the frosting– and a little frosting “surgery” was involved LOL. That’s okay though, now that I know, I can be more watchfull of it for the next time (and there will be a next time ).

There are just so many cool treats in this book that I am dying to make. After making this first recipe, I have a feeling that this cook book is going to be a new favourite.