Petit Fours #GBBO Week 3 Desserts

Ok, before I begin you may want to grab yourself a cuppa and a slice of cake, this post is quite a lengthy one!

On seeing the bakers' challenge this week on The Great British Bake Off I couldn't have been happier, desserts. My excitement then turned to despair when I saw that the first bake was trifle, knowing that I was going to blog for The Great British Bake Off Bake Along  I panicked, I've not eaten a trifle in about 20 years, don't like them and can't remember what they taste like. Oh dear! Then came the floating cakes, cue more panic, how could I make these when I didn't even know what they were!

Finally, petit fours, my favourite kind of dessert and whilst I looked forward to the challenge I knew it wouldn't be an easy one. 

Multi-tasking was the key to getting these made but with back to school and all the chaos that goes with it I had a feeling it wasn't going to be easy. It was a labour of love but a triumphant one.

Introducing, my petit fours

All of the recipes make an abundance of petit fours!

Lemon shortbread biscuits with chantilly cream and raspberry sauce.

Ingredients

250g Plain flour

175g Butter

Zest of 2 lemons

1 teaspoon lemon juice

300ml Double cream

100g Icing sugar

300g Raspberries

Method

Combine the flour and butter until they resemble breadcrumbs

Add the lemon zest and lemon juice and mix until it all forms a dough, knead until shiny.

Wrap in cling film and leave to chill for 40 mins.

Remove from the fridge and weigh small 10g balls of dough.

Shape the dough into rounds and place on a baking tray. Bake for 14-16 mins.

 

 In a bowl, combine the double cream and icing sugar until the mixture holds its shape.

Blitz the raspberries and icing sugar together in a blender until they form a sauce.

Pipe some cream on top of the biscuits and drizzle with the raspberry sauce.

Finish with a fresh raspberry

Chocolate cake with chocolate and mint buttercream and white chocolate drizzle

Ingredients

100g butter

260g caster sugar 

2 eggs

1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract

1/2 teaspoon bicarbonate of soda

1/2 teaspoon baking powder

170g plain flour

150ml whole milk

300g Icing sugar

125g Butter

3 Mint leaves

Method 

Cake

Cream together the butter and sugar until light and fluffy

Add the eggs one at a time scraping any unmixed ingredients from the side of the bowl.

Beat into the mixture the vanilla extract, bicarbonate of soda and baking powder.

Add just half of the flour and fold in with a metal spoon

Add the milk, mix it in then fold in the remaining flour.

Bake for about 30 mins or until cooked through.

Buttercream

Combine the icing sugar, coca powder and butter until smooth.

Chop up 3 mint leaves very finely and incorporate into the buttercream, mixing well.

Cut 3 pieces of cake each measuring 3cm x 4cm, then cut each piece of cake in half horizontally through the middle.

Spread an even later of buttercream on the cut side of each piece of cake then sandwich back together

Melt the white chocolate then drizzle some across the top of each cake

Pipe a small round of buttercream on the top and finish with a couple of mint leaves.

 

Carrot cake bites with crushed walnuts

Ingredients
300g Light brown sugar

3 Eggs
300ml Sunflower oil
300g Plain flour
1 Teaspoon baking powder
1 Teaspoon bicarbonate of soda

1 Teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/2 Teaspoon ground ginger
300g Grated carrots
100g Chopped, shelled walnuts
300g Icing sugar
50g Unsalted butter
125g Cream cheese

Cake
Beat together the sugar, eggs and oil until well mixed.
Slowly add the flour, bicarbonate of soda, baking powder, cinnamon and ginger then once all ingredients are added continue to beat until well mixed.
Stir in the grated carrots and walnuts until evenly distributed.
Pour the mixture into a prepared tin and bake for 30 mins or until golden brown.
When the cake is cool, cut 3cm x 4cm rectangles for the petit fours.
Cream Cheese Frosting
Beat the icing sugar and butter together until well mixed.
Add the cream cheese in one go and beat until completely incorporated. Continue to mix until light and fluffy(about 5 minutes)
Cut the rectangles of carrot cake in half horizontally and spread evenly with the cream cheese.
Sandwich back together and pipe a round onto the top of the cake and finish with some chopped walnuts.

As promised a long post, a lengthy process but they were definitely worth it!

You can check out some other fab GBBO Bake Along makes and bakes at Mummymishaps and The Crazy Kitchen

Cinnamon Finger Buns #GBBO Week 2 Dough

Every so often the old man and I find a programme that we both really enjoy and make a point of settling down to watch it just the 2 of us and steal a nice quiet snuggle in the process. 

With me loving to bake and him loving to eat my baking we were both very happy to hear that a new series of The Great British Bake Off was back on our screens?!

With the competitors being set a new theme every week I am always encouraged to make something that fits in with the theme for my fiancé to enjoy. So you can imagine how excited I was last night when I stumbled across a blog post over at The Mini Mes and Me, a recipe for cinnamon swirls that was part of a Great British Bake Off bloggers challenge. Intrigued, I read the post very carefully and followed the links to the other blogs which contained all of the details; Mummy Mishaps and The Crazy Kitchen

That was it, I needed no more encouragement, with this week being dough week I scoured all of my recipe books and some of my own personal recipes and narrowed it down to 2.

I opted for the recipe that I hadn't made in a while and one the kids could help with, so without further a do here are our Cinnamon Finger Buns.

Ingredients

7g pack of yeast

1 cup of warm water

300g of strong white flour or bread flour

1 teaspoon of salt

3 heaped tablespoons of brown sugar

100ml oil

 3tablespoons of butter

1 heaped tablespoon of cinnamon

3 heaped tablespoons of icing sugar

Method

1) Firstly mix the yeast and cup of warm water together and set aside

2) Combine the flour, salt and brown sugar in a large bowl

3) Once the dry ingredients have been combined, mix in the yeast and warm water mixture followed by the oil.

4) Knead the dough until it has a shine to it and is smooth(approx 15 minutes)

5) Lightly flour the bowl and return the dough to it, cover and leave it to rise to around twice the size.

6) Whilst the dough is rising, grease and line a sided rectangle baking tray.

7) Once the dough has risen, put it into the prepared baking tray and press it into all of the corners of the baking tray. Using a knife, cut the dough about 2/3 deep, into lengths. Cover and leave to rise for a further 30 minutes.

8) Pre-heat the oven to 220 degrees and bake the dough for 20 minutes or until golden brown and cooked through.

9) When the finger buns are nearly ready, melt the butter and in a separate bowl combine the cinnamon and icing sugar.

10) As soon as you remove the finger buns from the oven, brush them with the melted butter(use all of the butter)

11) Generously sprinkle the cinnamon and sugar mix all over the finger buns.

Serve whilst still warm, but make sure you take yours first because once the kids get hold of them they will disappear!

Enjoy!

M xx