Baby Sized Baby Shower Swiss Roll

 

Earlier in September we were thrown a wonderful Peter Rabbit themed baby shower and I was told not to bring anything!... But well, the invite said pot luck and when am I ever going to turn down a chance to bake something new!?

 

For my birthday I received a swiss roll pan (jelly roll pan) that I had been wanting for a long time.  I've never made one of these myself, but have been thinking about it a while.

 

I started simply, with a plain sponge, filled with strawberry jam and then, as I wanted to decorate it with some fondant pieces I knew I wanted to make I also covered the swiss roll in a vanilla buttercream.  Here's the recipe, and photos of the finished product!

 

Ingredients:

 

4 large eggs

4oz golden yellow sugar

4oz self-raising flour

 

Method:

 

1.  Preheat the oven to 400°F.  Lightly grease a swiss roll pan (or cookie sheet with high edges) and line the bottom of the pan with parchment paper, leaving the paper hanging over the edges.

 

2.  Using a stand mixer (or electric beaters), beat the eggs and sugar in a large bowl on high speed for 5 minutes, or until light and foamy.



 

3.  Sift the flour into the bowl and fold in lightly and quickly. 

 

 

4.  Pour the mixture into the prepared tin and smooth the surface.  Bake for 8-10 minutes, or until the sponge springs back when lightly touched.

 

5.  While the swiss roll is baking, lay a sheet of parchment paper on a tea towel.

 

6.  Once baked, turn the sponge out onto the paper, remove the original parchment paper from the bottom of the cake, and starting from a short end, roll up the sponge with the paper, using the tea towel as a guide.  Cool rolled up for at least 30 minutes.

 

7.  While the cake is cooling prepare your buttercream filling and decorations.  I made enough buttercream for a thin spread inside the roll and a thick spread on the outside.  (12 oz icing sugar, 9oz butter, 1 tbsp milk and 1 tsp vanilla essence beaten together).

8.  When the cake has cooled, and the filling is ready carefully unroll the sponge and spread with buttercream.  Add some spoonfuls of seedless strawberry jam and spread with a palette knife leaving a border at the edge of the cake so it doesn't all fall out of the sides!

 

9.  Carefully re-roll the sponge, and spread over the buttercream.  Smooth the edges and wipe away any excess on the platter.  I chose to already put the swiss roll on the platter it would be served on - I thought it would be best to decorate this way! 

 

 

 

10.  Add your decorations and enjoy the cake!

I used these great baby shower cookie cutters and used them with fondant.  I love how these imprinted cookie cutters work with fondant (check them out on my Baby Boy Elephant Cupcakes, and Zebra Birthday Cake to see the other times I've done this!)

And the finished product...

 

 

 

But why did I call this post baby sized?!  Well.  MAJOR melting problem.  I was stupid and left the cake out in a sunny car for longer than I should have done and the left hand side of the swiss roll definitely was not a pretty sight.  So, a good chunk had to be cut off but I was persuaded by my wonderful husband that I should still take some of it along.  BOO huge error.. Now, even in the middle of a Canadian Winter I will not be leaving anything buttery in the car!  At least the taste wasn't effected and I'm pretty pleased with how my first swiss roll turned out - now to try out lots of other flavour combinations, I feel like the possibilities are endless with this cake!

 

Here's a final snap of the dessert table - the fact that my swiss roll was baby sized did NOT matter one bit - just look at the amount of sweets there were, as well as the incredible Peter Rabbit cake and cookies that were made for us :-) 

 

 

 ... And now, the countdown is on!  More baby posts coming soon!

Triple Lemon Cake for my Birthday!

Hello there - nice to see you again this year.  As I did last year, I made Hannah a delicious (?) birthday cake again this year, so here is me blogging about what exactly I did.  If you all remember, last year I tried to make a cake based on Hannah's favourite things - specifically Cadbury's chocolate and Tetley's tea.  So this year both those flavours were out, because I will not be a flavour repeater.  Hmmm what does Hannah like... LEMON!

This year's cake was a delicious triple lemon cake based on a recipe by Martha Stewart.  Why triple lemon?  Because it is a lemon sponge, doused in lemon syrup, and covered in a creamy gooey meringuey lemon frosting. YUM!  Let's get down to it.

Ingredients (Serves 12): 

 

1 cup unsalted butter, room temperature, plus more for pans

2 1/2 cups all-purpose flour (spooned and leveled), plus more for pans
2 large eggs plus 3 large egg yolks (save the whites for later!!)
1/2 teaspoon baking powder

1/2 teaspoon baking soda

1 teaspoon salt
1 tablespoon lemon zest
2 cups sugar
1 cup buttermilk
1/4 cup plus 2 tablespoons lemon juice
1 lemon, thinly sliced and seeded (this means very thin! Thinner than I did!)

Directions:

1. Heat oven to 350°F.  Butter and flour two 8-by-2-inch cake pans, tapping out excess flour.  In a medium bowl, whisk together flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt, and lemon zest.

2. In a large bowl, using an electric mixer (trusty Kitchenaid!) beat butter and 1 1/2 cups of sugar until light and fluffy.  With mixer on low, beat in eggs and yolks, one at a time.  Beat in 2 tablespoons of lemon juice.  Alternate adding flour mixture and buttermilk, beginning and ending with flour mixture (I did 3 additions of flour, 2 of buttermilk).  Mix just until combined.

3. Divide batter between pans; smooth tops.  Bake until cakes pull away from sides of pans, 32-35 minutes. (This was really cool and easy to know when it was done, because it did clearly and visibly shrink around the edge a bit where I could see a gap between cake and pan.  Great foolproof plan for novice bakers.)  Let cool in pans 10 minutes.  Run a knife around edges of pans and invert cakes onto a wire rack.

4. While cakes are baking, bring remaining 1/2 cup of sugar and 1/2 cup of water to a boil in a saucepan.  Add lemon slices and simmer for 25 minutes.  Using slotted spoon, transfer lemon slices to a waxed-paper-lined plate.  Stir remaining 1/4 cup of fresh lemon juice into syrup.

5. Using a toothpick, poke holes in warm cakes on rack.  Brush with lemon syrup.  Let cool completely.  Frost cakes (more on this coming!) and top with candied lemon slices.

So this is a triple lemon cake.  That means the frosting needs to be lemony as well, so I took Martha Stewart's whipped frosting and added lemon juice to lem-it-up!
 

Whipped Frosting:
 

3 large egg whites (remember them from before?)

3/4 cup sugar

pinch of salt

1/3 cup water

1/4 teaspoon pure vanilla extract (or in our case 2 tablespoons lemon juice)

 

Directions:

1. In a heatproof bowl set over (not in) a saucepan of simmering water, combine egg whites, sugar, salt, and water. 

2. Cook over medium heat, stirring constantly, until sugar has dissolved, 3-5 minutes. 

3. Transfer to a large bowl.  Using an electric mixer (Kitchenaid again, with whisk attachment), beat on medium-high until glossy, stiff peaks form, about 3 minutes.

4. Reduce speed to low, add vanilla (lemon!), and beat until just combined.  Use immediately.

So there you have it.  Lemon cake, with lemon syrup to make it moist and delicious (even a week later), and lemon whipped frosting on top.  Word to the wise, be sure to whip the frosting until the peaks truly are stiff.  I don't think I went quite far enough with that, so the nice fluffy frosting you see below was a bit less fluffy when Hannah got home from work to eat the cake, and had almost dissolved completely by the next evening.  Magical disappearing frosting!
 

The only other advice I would give would be to slice the lemons with a mandolin, if you have one, so that they candy properly and stack more prettily on top of the cake. I did it as thinly as I could with a knife, and it wasn't quite thin enough.

See you next year!



Farm Fresh Rhubarb Cake

Hi hello!  It is good to be back!  We've had a crazy few months, with buying, selling and moving house, followed by an amazing holiday away to Estonia and England exploring and visiting family... Before coming back to our incredible new house to make it our home :-)

So the blogging had a little break, and so did my baking while everything was packed up in boxes for a month or so which was super sad, but I'm happy to be back baking - and made up a little bit as I baked twice in two days which is just perfect!! 

Our new home is just down the street from a local farm, with pick-your-own seasonal fruit and veg, and a farm market, so before baking this week I wanted to pick up some farm fresh rhubarb, because why not buy local?!  And it was so worth the taste!! 

 

So here I am - super excited to be back baking and blogging.  Super relieved that our new oven worked and baked the cake through evenly.  And SO happy and excited to be in our new home and for all the adventures that are coming up!

 

We had the big cousin Summer bash last weekend, where I have made a citrus cake, and nautical themed cake in past years, but this year went a bit more rustic and fresh with a Rhubarb cake (inspired by all the rhubarb flavours we tasted while in Europe in various cakes!), with almond buttercream and fresh strawberry filling.

 

I am totally in love with this new recipe (firstly inspired by The Transplanted Baker) and how it turned into a deliciously moist and tangy rhubarb cake, with the sweet almond buttercream and fresh strawberries.  A perfect dessert!

 

First came a test run in muffin form that were for an event I had signed up to make 12 muffins for.  It was great timing to try it out, and I had plenty of rhubarb! 

 

And then the next morning it was time for the full on cake ready to take to the party! 

 

Here's the recipe, and finished product photos at the end.  I'll DEFINITELY be making this recipe again :-D

 

Ingredients:

 

6 stalks (450g) fresh rhubarb, sliced into 1cm pieces

200g sugar

225g unsalted butter, softened

2/3 cup buttermilk

3 eggs

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

280g all purpose (plain) flour

3 teaspoons baking powder

1/2 teaspoon salt

Some more coarse sugar for sprinkling

 

and for the buttercream:

6oz unsalted butter, softened

18oz icing sugar

2 tablespoons milk

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

1 teaspoon almond extract

 

Method:

 

1.  Preheat the oven to 350°F and grease two 9/10 inch sandwich tins.  Line the bottom with a circle of parchment paper.

2.  In a large mixing bowl (I used the stand mixer) - cream the butter and sugar.

3.  Add the buttermilk, then the eggs, one by one mixing until well blended.  Add the vanilla.

4.  In a medium bowl, mix the flour, baking powder and salt.

5.  Incorporate the dry ingredients into the wet, until everything is combined.  Then fold in the sliced rhubarb.

 

6.  Fill the prepared pans with the batter, and smooth the top with a spatula.

7.  Sprinkle the top with the coarse sugar.

8.  Bake in the middle of the oven for 40-45 minutes, checking to test if it is done with a cake tester/skewer.  The top should be golden brown and should spring back when touched.

9.  Leave the cakes to cool on the rack.

10.  While cooling, you can prepare the buttercream in the mixer - cream together the butter and icing sugar.  Add the milk and extracts and beat until well whipped. 

11.  Slice the fresh strawberries and when the cake is cooled fill and decorate with buttercream and strawberries.

 

 

This cake was a really great, easy recipe, that was perfect for a summer's day - fresh and sweet.  And there were NO leftovers!  Good and bad right?!  I hope you find some deliciously fresh rhubarb somewhere and get a chance to try this out - I'll for sure be making it again later this Summer!... And there's still some rhubarb left in the fridge... expect another rhubarb bake coming soon :-)

 

I also just noticed this is my 100th post!!  YEY!