Lay the table » orange

Mini loaf orange and cinnamon cake with sultanas

Becs — Mon, 14 Nov 2011 22:34:46 +0000

Hurrah! We finally have some studio flashes I can use! Considering what a grey weekend it was over here I made full use of the new flashes and the inclement weather to get down to some baking and cooking. I’ve been hatching plans for a couple of weeks as Mr Lay the table and I have been off visiting our families, but prior to last weekend’s expedition we paid a visit to Lakeland in Harrogate (always dangerous to let me in there) and I came away with some pretty awesome single use mini loaf paper cases which I just knew I had to use straight away. And thus, my little loaf sponge cakes were born.

Since I used Edd Kimber’s scone recipe and read about soaking the sultanas, I thought it would be fun if I soaked these one in some amaretto I had kicking around. I just used a small handful and then splashed in some of the alcohol, with just enough to cover then strained them before I put them into the sponge mix. I then used a little of the leftover juices mixed with orange juice for my drizzle icing.

The recipe is fairly simple, first you need to rind your orange…

Then cream your butter and sugar

Add the other sponge cake ingredients, orange peel plus our strained amaretto sultanas and mix well…

Spoon the mixture into the loaf moulds and bake for around 18 minutes…

Whilst they’re baking, we need to make a drizzle…juice half of the orange we use the rind mixed with a tablespoon of amaretto. Slowly add drop by drop to icing sugar until we have a runny drizzle.

Once the cakes come out of the oven, poke holes using a kebab stick then drizzle with the icing and allow to cool

Pipe an orange zig zag onto the tops to finish

{Makes 6 Lakeland mini loaf cakes}

Ingredients

A small handful of sultanas
A good slosh of Amaretto
1 orange
&fract14; cinnamon
&fract14; baking powder
2 large eggs
85g self raising flour
30g ground almonds
115g unsalted butter
115g granulated sugar
85g icing sugar
Orange food colouring

Instructions

Soak the sultanas overnight in a small bowl or cup, ensuring that you cover the sultanas well with amaretto and you’ll have a little to spare afterwards for the drizzle icing (If you don’t have time you could them for 15-20 minutes). Strain sultanas and reserve juice.
Preheat the oven to Gas Mark 4/180°c;/350°F. Place 6 cases on a baking tray
Rind the orange and save the orange for use later.
Sift the flour, ground almonds, cinnamon and baking powder together.
Cream the butter and sugar until smooth and creamy on a medium speed, then add the eggs in one by one ensuring that they are thoroughly mixed in each time. Add in the sultanas and orange peel.
Turn the mixer down to medium/low and add half of the flour mix and mix in, then repeat.
Spoon the mixture into the cases evenly and wipe any residue from the sides.
Place baking tray with cases on in the oven for around 18 minutes. Near the end you may wish to cover with brown paper to present the tops browning before the middle is cooked. Test with a cake tester inserted into the middle before removing from the oven.
Whilst the cakes are in the oven, take 55g of your icing sugar and put in a bowl. Juice half of the orange we saved and add in a tablespoon of the amaretto. Spoonful by spoonful add this to the icing sugar until it resembles runny honey.
Once the cakes come out of the oven, place on a cooling rack. Take a kebab stick and make a few piercings in each cake, then spoon the runny drizzle icing over each (around 2 tablespoons per cake) and ensure you have fully covered each top with glaze. Allow to cool.
With the remaining icing sugar, make a thick icing (like cold custard) with water and a little orange food colour, then pipe zigzags of orange onto the top to finish!

Pimm’s No.1 Cup-cakes

Becs — Tue, 13 Jul 2010 21:47:52 +0000

Whatto, it must be Pimm’s o’clock! For me, summer is officially marked by the first Pimm’s of the season, usually shared with friends at the Royal Norfolk Show or previously on Southsea Common. I love the refreshing blend of fruits that you put in it: strawberry, cucumber, orange and mint. I’ve been thinking about how best to combine all the flavours into a cupcake and this is the result. The buttercreams all work really well, none of them overpowered each other including the cucumber which I thought would be awful because it’s quite watery. Make it into a “virgin cupcake” (no alcohol) by warming the Pimm’s in a saucepan on the hob for a minute or so. If you wanted to strengthen the flavour of the Pimm’s, then I would suggest using more than specified and reducing it in a saucepan on the hob.

Ingredients

For the cupcake

My basic cupcake recipe
60ml Pimm’s

For all buttercream

400g icing sugar
250g butter

For the strawberry buttercream

8 strawberries
1tbsp sugar

For the cucumber buttercream

30g cucumber (use skin, but not seeds in centre)
Small amount of green food colouring

For the orange buttercream

Juice ½ an orange
Rind ¼ an orange
Small amount of orange food colouring

For the mint buttercream

8 fresh mint leaves
Small amount of green food colouring

Instructions

Make the cupcakes as per the instructions on the basic cupcake recipe, adding in the Pimm’s at the end of stage 3.
Divide up the butter and icing sugar into 4 (100g icing sugar, 62g butter) and put in 4 separate bowls. Mix each until light in colour and fluffy. I recommend using a hand mixer (it saves on arm ache!)
Strawberry buttercream: Make the strawberry flavouring by roughly chopping the strawberries and putting in a pan with the sugar over a medium heat stirring often. Once softened, mash gently with the back of a spoon and leave to soften a little more (about 2 minutes). Pass the mixture through a sieve to remove seeds. Leave the mixture to cool, then mix into one portion of the buttercream.
Cucumber buttercream: Very finely chop cucumber and mix into one portion of the buttercream. Add a small amount of green food colouring, but keep it quite pale (the mint buttercream should be a stronger green).
Orange buttercream: Blend in juice and rind into one portion of the buttercream, then add a small amount of orange food colouring to give a gentle hint of orange to it.
Mint buttercream: Very finely chop mint and add to buttercream, then add a small amount of green food colouring, making sure the green is slightly stronger than that of the cucumber version.
Piping: I used a piping bag and a large open star piping nozzle to pipe. I put the nozzle in the bag, then placed it in a tall glass, spreading the top of the bag over the top of the glass. You’ll need to put all the buttercream in at once, otherwise all the colours will get mixed up.
Using a tablespoon, take a scoop of a one of the buttercream and gently push it to one side of the piping bag. Take another tablespoon and repeat with the next buttercream and so on and so forth. Once you’ve done one “layer” you can repeat again with the four colours – you don’t need to make sure each buttercream goes on the same side as the one before.
Pull the bag upright and knock out any air in the bag then twist it at the top to close it. Make your swirls, they’ll come out all tie dye! If you need help with swirls try this basic cupcake swirl tutorial.
If you want to add “lemonade” to your Pimm’s cupcakes, garnish with a ¼ slice of lemon.

Chocolate orange cupcakes

Becs — Tue, 10 Nov 2009 22:38:25 +0000

Add some zing to your chocolate cupcakes with a hint of orange!

50mins – Prep time: 35mins – Cooking time: 15mins

Ingredients

Cake mixture

200g self raising flour
170g caster sugar
170g margarine
80g dark chocolate
3 eggs
6 drops orange essence
4 tbsp juice from orange
1 tsp baking powder.
Rind 1/2 an orange

Topping

120g butter
250g icing sugar
3tbsp juice from orange
3 drops orange essence
80g plain chocolate
Ringe 1/2 an orange to decorate

Instructions

Oven temp: 180°C/320°F

Lay out cupcake cases (about 18). If you use silicon you can lay them on a flat baking tray, if you use paper ones, I advise using a bun tin to make the cakes hold their shape.
Whisk the eggs and sugar for at least 4 minutes with an electric hand whisk and beat air into the mix so it fluffs up.
Bit by bit, sieve in the flour and baking powder and add bits of butter, whisking the mixture each time to ensure a smooth texture, until fully mixed, then mix in the orange essence and rind.
Melt the chocolate and spoon into the chocolate and mix in too.
Spoon the mixture evenly into the cupcake cases, ensuring you smooth the tops down (it doesn’t have to be perfect!)
Put the cupcakes into the oven for 10-15 minutes until they feel spongey on top.
Remove from the oven and allow to cool thoroughly. Meanwhile begin make the frosting by melting the chocolate.
Mix the butter, icing sugar and orange juice and essence until the mixture goes pale and fluffy, then add the chocolate.
Pipe chocolate buttercream onto the cupcakes and finish with a few strangs of orange rind