Salted Caramel Pralines

It is a while since I made pralines, so I thought to do some to use up my leftover caramel from the banoffee cupcakes. I have a numerous chocolate moulds but I have to say I prefer the hard plastic ones over the silicone, but I gave it a go. You can use any filling you like this time I choose the new hit: salted caramel. At the first time I made this salted caramel chocolate the filling was too salty, so be careful not to overdone the saltiness. Also it was the quickest ever and would make a nice Christmas present for family. For a detailed guide how to temper milk or white chocolate(to have a nice, shiny cover) I used this website.

Salted Caramel Pralines

Ingredients 

150 g dark chocolate (I used 70,4% cocoa solid one from Callebaut)

1.5 g cocoa butter(1% of your total chocolate amount)

120 g caramel (I used Nestle Carnation)

pinch of sea salt

You will need a chocolate mould (either a silicone or hard plastic) a digital thermometer a paint brush and a pyrex bowl over simmering water in a pan. 

Place 2\3 of the chocolate in the pyrex bowl over simmering water in a pan. In order to get accurate reading from the digital thermometer watch out that the end of the probe should be in the chocolate mass but without touching the bottom of the bowl. So you checking the temperature of the chocolate and not the bowl. Keep stirring with a silicone spatula until it reaches 115 degrees Fahrenheit (46C).

When it reached the right temperature take off from the heat and immediately place the pyrex bowl in a bigger bowl filled with cold water. Add the remaining of the chocolate and stir gently to incorporate. When it is mixed add the cocoa butter and keep stirring until the mix temperature drops to 84 Fahrenheit (29C).

Return the chocolate above the warm mater and until the temperature reaches 88 Fahrenheit (31C), now the chocolate is ready to pour into the mould. The mould should be clean and dry, preferably cleaned with a muslin cloth.

I used the paint brush technique because I don't like wasting expensive chocolate. 

Basically there are two techniques when it comes to moulding: melt enough chocolate to fill all cavities to the top(double the amount of chocolate I described), leave it to create a shell around the mould and pour off the excess(therefore creating a lot of leftover chocolate/and unless you going to use it for something else it is too expensive just to use it for hot chocolate etc. In the chocolate factories it doesn't matter as they going to use it anyway, but at home....

So I used the paint brush technique: melt only the necessary amount and pour it to the mould. Using a simple brush start spreading the chocolate to the top of each mould cavity. Keep repeating the process until you think the shell around the mould is thick enough. 

This is the part where you have to experiment. The time required depends on your chocolate, your mould and the temperature in your kitchen. If you pour out the chocolate too soon the shell won't hold the filling and will break, but if you leave it for too long the chocolate shell will be too thick and the ratio of the filling to the chocolate will be unbalanced. I did both at the beginning, but it is all about learning. Now I generally have a feeling when it is right, usually it only needs 2-3 minutes.

When it is ready turn the mould up side down (place the chocolate bowl beneath it) and tap to the side of the bowl a couple of times. Scrape off the excess chocolate and place the mould into the fridge to harden.

In the meantime you can prepare the filling. This time it was easy: I took the ready caramel heated a little in the microwave and added a pinch of two sea salt. Don't be tempted to add more as the salty flavour will intensify with time. I did this mistake as well at the first time, I made a caramel sauce that was just deliciously salty...by the time I take it off from the mould it was more than pleasantly salty.

Pour the filling into a plastic piping bag and place it to the fridge to cool down.

When the chocolate is ready pour the caramel filling to 2/3 of the cavities, leaving enough space to close the chocolates. Put the mould back to the fridge.

When the caramel filling hardened the only job left is to close the chocolates. Somebody repeats the whole tempering process........well I just reheat the chocolate if needed to the right temperature(31C) and spread on top, scraping off the excess -nobody going to watch the bottom of the chocolate but if you quick enough you should manage the whole process with the tempered chocolate still at the right temperature so it will be shiny.

Hint and tips:
If you don't like salted caramel you have numerous other options>
My old favourite filling is the rum-soaked raisins and sweet chestnut puree. In Hungary we have a sweetened chestnut puree, what we defrost and pass it through a potato mash, eating with whipped cream on top (truly delicious). 
Just add 100g sweet chestnut puree to about 80ml whipped double cream and rum soaked raisins................hmmmm.

Some of the other fillings I used to make: Amaretto soaked apricots with marzipan, chocolate cream with pistachio, lemon curd, peanut butter and raspberry jam. Below is a picture of my very first try featuring the flavours I mentioned above made by my plastic moulds:

Lemon and Raspberry Cupcakes

It was my 1 year' anniversary at my workplace and I made some cupcakes to celebrate this. I made some banoffee cupcakes and raspberry and lemon cupcakes from my new book from Peggy Porschen. I have to say I struggled to get 12 cupcakes from the amount she described so I increased the measurements slightly. I also found the icing ever so slightly sweet, so I added less icing sugar. BUT even with the sweet frosting it was more than delicious.

Lemon and Raspberry Cupcakes

 For the decoration

12 raspberries

For the frosting
120 g full-fat cream cheese
100 g unsalted butter, softened
220 g icing sugar, shifted
finely grated zest of 2 unwaxed lemons

For the sponge

120 g unsalted butter

120 g caster sugar

pinch of salt

finely grated zest of 2 unwaxed lemons

2 large eggs

120 g self-raising flour

2-3 raspberries per cupcake so 24-36 in total

For the sugar syrup

70 ml freshly squeezed lemon juice

70 g caster sugar

To make the frosting

Place the cream cheese in a mixing bowl  and beat until smooth and creamy. Place the butter and icing sugar and lemon zest in a separate bowl. Cream together until very pale and fluffy.

Add the cream cheese, a little at the time, to the butter mixture and mix at medium-high speed until the frosting is combined. Add the banana purée and chill until set.

To make the cupcakes

Place the butter, salt and lemon zest in a mixing bowl and cream together until pale and fluffy.

Beat the eggs lightly in another bowl and add slowly to the butter mixture while whisking quickly. If the mixture starts to separate or curdle, stop adding the egg and beat in  2-3 tablespoons of flour. This will rebind the butter.

Once all the egg has been incorporated into the butter mixture, shift in the remaining flour and stir until the batter is just combined. This will ensure the sponges stay light and fluffy. 

 Using a piping bag or a tablespoon, carefully place the batter into the cupcake cases until two-thirds full only. Drop 2 or 3 raspberries into each cupcake. Bake for 12-15 minutes, or until the inserted wooden skewer comes out clean.

To make the sugar syrup

While the cupcakes are baking, prepare the sugar syrup for soaking. Place the lemon juice and sugar into the saucepan and bring to the boil. Simmer until all the sugar dissolved then set aside to cool down slightly. 

Once the cupcakes are baked, let them rest for about 10 minutes outside the oven. Using a pastry brush, soak the tops of the cupcakes with sugar syrup while they are still warm: this allows the syrup to be absorbed faster. Leave to cool on a wire cooling rack.

Fill the chilled frosting in a plastic piping bag fitted with a large pain round nozzle and pipe a swirl of frosting on top of each cupcake.

To finish, place a raspberry on top of the frosting for each cupcake. 

Banoffee Cupcakes

It was my 1 year' anniversary at my workplace and I made some cupcakes to celebrate this. I made some banoffee cupcakes and raspberry and lemon cupcakes from my new book from Peggy Porschen. I have to say I struggled to get 12 cupcakes from the amount she described so I increased the measurements slightly. I also found the icing ever so slightly too sweet, so I added less icing sugar. BUT even with the sweet frosting it was more than delicious.

Banoffee Cupcakes

For the decoration

50g sugar florist paste(different colours)/marzipan

pink or white pearls

1 banana

For the frosting
120 g full-fat cream cheese
100 g unsalted butter, softened
220 g icing sugar, shifted
1 banana mashed 

For the sponge

120 g unsalted butter

120 g caster sugar

pinch of salt

seeds of 1 vanilla pod

2 large eggs

120 g self-raising flour

40 g plain chocolate (minimum 53% cocoa solids), chopped into small pieces

For the sugar syrup

70 ml water

70 g caster sugar

scraped vanilla pods

For the filling

100 g soft caramel 

Make the decoration at least a day ahead.

Kneed the sugarpaste or the marzipan with a small amount of paste food colour, if using, until smooth and pilable. Roll out the paste to a thickness off approximately 2mm.

Place the blossom cutter on the paste and press firmly. Lift off the cutter and release the blossom. Cut a few at a time. Lightly dust the blossom veiner with icing sugar and one by one place each blossom shape in the venier and press. Carefully bend the venier outwards to release the shaped blossoms and place in a well of palette or on a foam pad. Leave to set for at least a few hours or preferably overnight. 

Once dry, you can add shades of colour to your blossoms by brushing with a tiny amount of petal dust using a fine artist's bush. With a brush place a small amount of edible glue in the middle and place a pearl in the middle with a tweezer.

I also made some banana decoration. I sliced one banana then covered the surface with sugar. With a blowtorch caramelise the surface...and that is it:)

To make the frosting

Place the cream cheese in a mixing bowl  and beat until smooth and creamy. Place the butter and icing sugar in a separate bowl. Cream together until very pale and fluffy.

Add the cream cheese, a little at the time, to the butter mixture and mix at medium-high speed until the frosting is combined. Add the banana purée and chill until set.

To make the cupcakes

Place the butter, salt and vanilla seeds in a mixing bowl and cream together until pale and fluffy.

Beat the eggs lightly in another bowl and add slowly to the butter mixture while whisking quickly. If the mixture starts to separate or curdle, stop adding the egg and beat in  2-3 tablespoons of flour. This will rebind the butter.

Once all the egg has been incorporated into the butter mixture, shift in the remaining flour and stir until the batter is just combined. This will ensure the sponges stay light and fluffy. Fold the chopped chocolate through the batter using a rubber spatula.

 Using a piping bag or a tablespoon, carefully place the batter into the cupcake cases until two-thirds full only. Bake for 12-15 minutes, or until the inserted wooden skewer comes out clean.

To make the sugar syrup
While the cupcakes are baking, prepare the sugar syrup for soaking. Place the water, sugar and vanilla pod into the saucepan and bring to the boil. Simmer until all the sugar dissolved then set aside to cool down slightly. Discard the vanilla pod.

Once the cupcakes are baked, let them rest for about 10 minutes outside the oven. Using a pastry brush, soak the tops of the cupcakes with sugar syrup while they are still warm: this allows the syrup to be absorbed faster.

Leave the cupcakes to cool down completely then using a melon baller, scoop out the tops of each cupcake.

To add the filling, decorate
Using a fork, crush the ripe banana and then mix it together with the caramel cream. Place the banoffee mixture into a plastic piping bag and use to fill the scooped-out holes of the cupcakes.

Fill the chilled frosting in a plastic piping bag fitted with a large pain round nozzle and pipe a swirl of frosting on top of each cupcake.

To finish, place a sugar blossom or a slice of caramelised banana on the top of the frosting for each cupcake.

"Mum to be" Battenberg Cake

I made a cake for my colleague who had her leaving presentation this week, to start her new Yummy Mummy life. We didn't know the sex yet so I made a cake topping with generic colours, try to avoid the blue or pink. I made a battenberg cake as that is Ali's favourite, which was the first for me: also for baking and tasting. It turned out quite good, and the team demolished the cake in a short space of time. I used the battenberg recipe from the BBCgoodfood website.

"Mum to be" Battenberg Cake

Ingredients for the almond sponge

175 g very soft butter

175 g golden caster sugar

140 g self-raising flour

50 g ground almond

1/2 tsp baking powder

3 medium eggs

1/2 tsp vanilla extract

1/2 tsp almond extract

Ingredients for the pink sponge

1 X ingredients for almond sponge

pink/red food colouring 

For the cake decoration

200 g apricot jam

500 g marzipan (I used golden marzipan)

little icing sugar, for dusting

250 g brown icing (for the teddy bear)

some different coloured icing ( I used Renshaw Funky Flavoured Sugargough, as you can have 4X100g in a pack at all different colours)

edible writing pan

You have to prepare the decoration at least two days ahead as the icing needs time to harden. I  just used a video on youtube- to find a tutorial: just type in: fondant bear. Actually is like playing with play dough. It isn't difficult, as you can see the bear, duck and the train is recognisable and actually this is my very first try with icing sculpting.

So I prepared the toppings two days in advance and just left in the living room to harden. 

Heat the oven to 180C and prepare a round baking pan. To make the almond sponge, put the butter, sugar, flour, ground almonds, baking powder, eggs, vanilla and almond extract in a large bowl. Beat with an electric whisk until the mix comes together smoothly. Scrape into the tin, spreading evenly and bake for 25-30 minutes-when you spoke with a skewer, it should come out clean. Cool the tin for 10 minutes, then transfer to a wire rack to finish cooling while you make the second sponge.

For the pink sponge, prepare another round tin. Mix all the ingredients together as above but don't add the almond extract. Fold in some pink pink food colouring then scrape it all into the in and bake as before.

To assemble level the cakes(cut off the top if you have a little dome) and cut the sponges in half (all sponge layers should be the same height). Depending on the high of your sponge layers(sponge circles should be the same with and height) start cutting out sponge circles. For this cake I had 5 sponge circles. 

When you finished cutting one sponge layer lift out every second sponge circle, place it on top on the others and use it as the template. To make up the battenberg layers just use a pink, then a almond sponge till you made up the whole sponge layer. 

To assemble, heat the jam in a small pan until runny, then sieve. Brush the sponge layer with jam , than lay another layer on top but reversing the order of sponges.

When you finished with the cake, brush the surface with the remaining jam. Roll out the marzipan on a lightly dusted surface with icing sugar to just big enough to cover the cake. Carefully lift the marzipan and smooth over the cake. 
Place on top the decoration and serve:)

And this is the cake while cutting. I apologise as I don't have the best mobile to take a picture and in the office we don't really have proper knifes to slice a cake sharply.