Chocolate meringue torte

I made this cake at the request of my wee boy who wanted it for his seventh birthday, no doubt he wanted it due to the large quantities of chocolate involved and the extremely pretty picture in the recipe book which was all swirls and twirls of chocolate … not a finish I was able to achieve, although not for lack of trying!

We decorated the cake in the only way kids generally know how, with a range of sprinkles and a mismatch of candles, as things stand I’ve been referring to this, and I apologise for the crudity, but it’s ‘the cow-pat cake’!?  Not that it tastes like one you understand … not that I know what one tastes like!  Definitely one for the chocoholics out there though.

What you’ll need:

• 6 egg whites
• 220g caster sugar
• 140g slivered almonds
• 95g dried fruit
• 200g dark chocolate, grated
• 300g ricotta cheese
• 180g single cream
• 80ml Tia Maria
• 200g white chocolate melts
• 200g milk chocolate melts
• 200g dark chocolate melts

What you need to do:

1. Preheat your oven to 150C.
2. Grease a 24cm spring-form tin lining the base
3. Beat the egg whites in a medium bowl – if you are intending on eating the cake yourself you should probably do it by hand to burn off some of the calories you’re going to be consuming later – until soft peaks form
4. Gradually add the sugar beating it in every time you add some.
5. Fold in the nuts, fruit and half the grated chocolate.
6. Deposit mix in the greased tin.
7. Bake in the oven for around 1 1/4 hours until it’s firm, cool meringue in the oven leaving the door ajar
8. Meanwhile, beat the cheese and the cream in a medium bowl until there are no lumps, stir in liqueur and remaining chocolate, place to one side, in the fridge is good.
9. Melt the chocolate melts (in 200g gram batches) adding each batch to the cream mixture.
10. Mix the topping together well, as it cools it will begin to thicken.
11. Liberally spread the topping over the meringue centre.
12. Decorate as you wish, or not at all, and serve.

Etsy Picks: Sunshine

With all the snow that has been bombarding some parts of the world this past couple of weeks you’d be forgiven for forgetting that there is such a thing as sunshine or summer. With that in mind, we thought our readers might like a little reminder:

Bring Your Own Sunshine by DUDADAZE ~ $10

Sensational Stripes Fused Glass Plate by Kirsty Sly ~ $52

Sunshine by shopgimme ~ $150

My Sunshine (personalise) by mishmashmarket ~ $40

Click on the images to go to the shops and see more from these talented artists.

The world’s best christmas cake … ever! – Part 3

Christmas is almost upon us and we should be looking to decorate the cake in within the next few days, I suspect that I’ll be aiming for Monday, although only so I can get a post up here, otherwise I might be inclined to leave it for a couple more days and either do it on the 22nd or 23rd.

Now is the time to make sure your cakes ‘rum content’ is appropriate for the time of year, or if you prefer to ensure that the cake is good and moist.  Technically we’re talking about the ’squelch test’.

To perform the ’squelch test’ you should gently press the back of your clean hand against the top of the cake and listen for a gentle squelch and it should also feel a little moist on your hand.  If, like me, you’ve neglected to feed the cake at regular intervals now is the moment (over the next few days) to make up for lost time by adding double doses of rum!

If you’re satisfied that your cake is already moist enough don’t add any more, similarly if there are little rummy riverlets streaming from the underside you may wish to leave it well alone to allow the cake to dry out a little, either way don’t worry about it … it’s still going to be delish!

Also, if you’re making your own marzipan and icing now is the time to make sure you have the ingredients, take a look at part 2 for the details.  Part 1 and Part 2 can be found here and here.

The world’s best Christmas cake … ever! – Part 2

A little post about making marzipan and a reminder that your cake needs fed …

The world’s best Christmas cake … ever! – Part 1 can be found here.  It’s not too late to begin, but you do need to get a move on now … there’s feeding to be done!

Feeding the cake is pretty much where we left things last time, since then I’ve been feeding my cake sporadically and in varying quantities although it should amount to the same as would have been fed were I more organised and reliable than I am!  The cakes should be starting to feel moist to the touch and remember if you feel it’s getting too wet just hold-off on feeding it for a while, there’re no hard and fast rules here!

Homemade marzipan … it’s sublime.  I’ve made my own marzipan in the past, and I must be honest and say that it tastes so-o much better than the shop bought stuff.  You don’t need to make your own, indeed I won’t be making my own this year as I’ve found it to be rather expensive in the past and we’re not as affluent as we once were … not that I’m complaining you understand, life simply moves on and I’m not about to dwell on the past, be it good, bad or indifferent.

If you do decide to make your own marzipan, by all means assemble the ingredients now but don’t go racing ahead, wait until you’re going to decorate the cake and do the marzipan at the same time.

This recipe should make about 1kg / 2lb and you’ll need:

• 250g / 8oz caster sugar
• 250g / 8oz sifted icing sugar
• 500g / 1ib ground almonds
• i tsp lemon juice
• 1/2 tsp almond flavouring / extract
• 2 egg yolks. beaten

1. Combine the sugars and ground almonds in a bowl and make a well in the centre.
2. Add the lemon juice, flavouring and enough egg yolk to make a firm but pliable dough.  If you make the mix too ‘wet’ use some icing sugar to counter the effect.
3. Transfer to a lightly sugared work surface and knead the dough until it is smooth.  The marzipan is now ready for use.

It has been suggested that the marzipan can be stored for up to two days before use if it is wrapped in foil or film and kept in the refrigerator, I strongly recommend though that you make it immediately before you need it and use it then.

I will be decorating our cake on around the 20th if you wish to follow the recipe at that point you will need:

• approx. 1kg / 2lb marzipan (homemade or shop bought … it’s up to you)
• Apricot jam, for ‘gluing’ the marzipan and icing on
• approx. 1kg / 2lb of royal icing (homemade or shop bought … again, it’s your call)
• whatever decorative bits n’ bobs you want  …

If you’re making your own Royal Icing you’ll need:

• 3 egg whites
• approx 750g icing sugar
• 1 tbsp lemon juice
• 1 – 1.5 tsp glycerine (not compulsory)

In the meantime, remember to keep feeding those cakes, and don’t forget to buy (or make) something nice for your nearest and dearest :)

The world’s best christmas cake … ever! – Part 1

Not many people like your average fruit cake, most people don’t like your average fruit Christmas cake … I don’t make average fruit Christmas cakes.  And everyone like them. 

When I was little I remember Christmas cakes as being dry and largely unpalatable, the grown-ups seemingly forced themselves to partake – it was Christmas after-all – meanwhile the children were bribed by the promise of a greaseproof paper wrapped ‘thrup’nny bit’ that might lie within the fruity goodness … of course you just had to take care not to break a tooth or choke on the thing!

I’ve been making this cake for the last four or five years and it’s become as much a part of the tradition of Christmas as any other part with the cake being ceremoniously divvied up and distributed amongst the various households in the family … actually, it’s more than a tradition.  It’s a requirement.

The recipe is simple in itself, so anybody should be able to manage it, it just takes a really long time … about 2 months in total.  Although you could cut this back to about a month if you are particularly disciplined, I’m not so it takes longer.

What you’ll need to make the cake (decoration comes later):

• the finely grated rind of one orange
• the juice of one orange
• 500g/1lb seedless raisin
• 250g/8oz sultanas
• 250g/8oz dried currants
• 60g/2oz dried dates, stoned and chopped
• 175g/6oz glace cherries, halved
• at least 1/4 bottle of dark or spiced rum
• 250g/8oz molasses (dark brown) sugar
• 250g/8oz butter
• 4 eggs
• 250g/8oz plain flower
• pinch of salt
• 1 tsp mixed spice
• 1 tsp cinnamon
• 1/2 tsp of nutmeg
• 70g/2oz ground hazelnuts
• 30g/10z chopped hazelnuts

Masochists amongst you will probably wish to do this by hand … personally I prefer to use a food processor.  Also, before you start, make sure you have enough time, making the cake mix will take about 30 – 40 mins while the cake itself will take around 2 – 2 1/2 hours to bake in the oven.

Also you’ll need a 23cm/9″ cake tin, I use a spring form one … makes life an awful lot easier.

Part 1 – Stage 1

1. Put your orange rind, raisins, sultanas, currants, dates and cherries in a bowl and mix.
2. Add the juice from the orange and 150ml / 1/4 pint of rum to your bowl and mix.
3. Cover and leave the mixture somewhere for a couple of days mixing periodically (all the liquid should either coat or be absorbed by the dried fruit).

Part 1 – Stage 2

1. Line your cake tin with a double layer of greaseproof paper.
2. Cream your butter and suagr together until fluffy or chop your butter into little cubes and bung it in the food processor with sugar and leave it on until it appears light and fluffy.
3. Using your aching arm beat the eggs into your mixture orbBreak your eggs in to the food processor and whizz.
4. Meanwhile sift your flour, salt, and spices together and then fold into your mixture – sorry, you’ll need to do this bit by hand … make sure you have a large bowl for this.
5. Add the ground nuts, chopped nuts, and the fruit mixture and gently mix it all together.
6. Put your concoction in the cake tin (that you should have already lined) and level it off.
7. Place the bowl to one side for later.
8. Put a double layer of greaseproof paper over the top of your cake tin (feel free to press it gently against the mixture).
9. Bake your cake for an initial 2hrs.  I use a fan oven at 140C, in a conventional oven I’d guess about 150C-160C and in a gas oven I have no idea.
10. You now have some time to kill, get a spoon and ‘like out’ the bowl, why not have a wee rum and coke too.
11. Remove your cake from the oven and using either a skewer or a sharp knife check if your cake is ready by stabbing it, if it comes out clean it’s ready.  If it’s not ready return to the oven for 10 minute intervals and remove the greaseproof paper from the top.
12. Leave your cake to cool completely in the tin.

Burnt cake?  All ovens are a little different and  I’ve burnt the tops and sides of cakes in previous years as a result, generally though I tend to just trim off the burnt bits with a sharp knife, it’s what’s underneath that counts.  Obviously if you’ve burnt it to a cinder then best discard the whole thing!

Part 1 – Stage 3

1. Once your cake is completely cooled trim off the slightly rounded top, I use a bread knife - you can have the trimmings later with custard.
2. Taking your rum, pour a small measure into the cap (the rum we have has a tall cap) and drizzle this over the cake … we are now feeding the cake, the fruit will absorb the liquid
3. Keep your cake covered and in a cool place. I inherited a large cake tin, although a flat dinner plate with foil wrapped over should achieve much the same.
4. Repeat stage 2 every 3 days or so until a few days before x-mas.  This will give your cake a full festive flavour and also avoid the cake drying out, occasionally I’ll use a little orange juice instead of rum in order to maintain some kind of order, but the rum is key. It’s also worthwhile to turn your cake over periodically to prevent the liquids gathering at the bottom of the cake, do this maybe once every few weeks if the base is becoming saturated.  If you press the back of your hand against the cake and you get a satisfying ’squelch’ without it being wet then you can probably reduce the frequency with which you add liquids.  It’s very much a question of judgement, just think of the cake as a sponge that you want moist but not dripping.

I’ll post some occasional updates on where my cakes at, this may give you a guide to feeding your own.  Probably the most important thing though is not to worry about it too much.

Traditional Scottish Macaroon

I’m going to shoe-horn this post in here by labelling it “culinary art” … although that may be tenuous at best.  In fairness it is ‘Stuff’ and it has been ‘made’!

For those that don’t know, macaroon is a traditional Scottish sweet incorporating those well known native scottish ingredients chocolate, coconut, sugar?!  It’s final ingredient is potato … don’t let this put you off though it’s super sweet and super tasty!

What you’ll need:

• c. 4 oz cooled mashed-up potato
• c. 16 oz icing sugar (have extra on hand)
• c. 8 oz plain chocolate (have extra on hand)
• c. 4 oz desiccated coconut. (have extra on hand)
• some grease proof paper
• a large baking tray
• a freezer

Optional and recommended additional ingredients:

• a pinch of patience
• an iron will
• a blase attitude to getting covered in chocolate and coconut
• little concern for exact measurements

What you’ll need to do:

1. boil your potatoes until they’re soft.
2. mash up your potatoes and leave to cool a bit in a large bowl.
3. start adding your icing sugar and mixing it in, it’ll all go a bit sloppy sticky and just a little bit icky.
4. continue adding the icing sugar until it forms a vaguely dough like substance that’s only a little sticky, or if you’re lucky, not sticky at all.
5. tear off a sheet of grease proof paper and line your tray with it.
6. roll some of your dough-ish tattie and icing sugar stuff into short fat sausages, placing these on your baking tray.  Try not to over work the dough, warmth with make it go icky and sticky again!
7. find some room in your freezer and stick the tray in there … you may need to shift your frozen veg/meat/highly indulgent ice cream that you’ve been hiding from th kids to another shelf.
8. leave in the freezer for 20-30 minutes … exercise some patience.  If you can’t exercise anymore patience eat the ice cream, that should take a wee while (and free up some valuable freezer space) ;)
9. meanwhile gently toast about a quarter of your coconut in the oven, a low temperature for about 5 mins should do … take care not to burn it.
10. mix all your coconut together, toasted and un-toasted.
11. just before removing ’sausages’ from the freezer melt your chocolate.
12. line up your ’sausages’, chocolate, coconut and another sheet of grease-proof paper on your worktop.
13. use one hand to coat your sausage in the chocolate, drop it in the coconut and use the other hand to cover it in coconut and place on grease proof paper … don’t do as I do and get your hand mixed up, it makes things unnecessarily difficult and messy!!
14. you’ll need to work fast as the warmth of the chocolate makes the ’sausages’ revert to their icky, sticky state.
15. now leave your macaroons to set, I generally stick them in the fridge while I clean up.
16. enjoy with friends … you deserve it!

recipe based on: Lees Macaroon recipe @ Recipe Zaar

“Stained Glass” Birthday Cake

You may well be forgiven for believing that the only interest this site has is for needlework, carving, sculpting, painting or photography, yet there is another aspect to MadeStuff, stuff that we all make all the time, i.e. food!  Of course I’m not about to reproduce every recipe I ever complete on here, after-all, sausage and mash really isn’t that exciting … despite my exciting twist that I do with the potatoes … and the onions are to die for?!!!

Anyway, I was asked by a good friend if I would prepare a cake for his wife’s surprise birthday party.  So faced with a challange I thought I’d do my best to meet if not exceed expectations … people still talk about my cheesecake, although that’s for another day.

The cake itself was rather basic consisting of two elements, a basic 11″ square sponge part and a 20cm round white chocolate mud cake.

The recipe for the sponge cake is:

• 700g / 1.5lb butter
• 700g / 1.5lb caster sugar
• 700g / 1.5lb self-raising flour
• 12 medium eggs

1. Preheat the oven to 180C / 350F / Gas Mark 4 – adjust accordingly for fan ovens (I put mine in at about 160C).
2. Lightly butter and line the base of your cake tin with greaseproof paper.
3. Cream the butter and sugar until smooth and pale in colour … I’m inclined to use a food processor for this part as I don’t have muscles like a shot putter!
4. Gradually beat in your eggs … I strongly recommend you do this by hand unless you have a proper mixer designed to do this sort of task, something like a big old Kenwood would do the job.  Otherwise it’s time to build some muscles and use your wooden spoon.
5. Sift the flour into your mixture a little at a time before turning out into your cake tin and levelling the mixture off with your spoon or a palette knife.
6. Bake for about 90 minutes, if your prone to burning your cakes like me my oven is then place some tinfoil loosely over the cake allowing space for it to rise.  Check and turn the cake in the oven after 60 minutes (don’t slam the door) and adjust temperature if you think it might be about to start burning.
7. When you think it’s ready, skewer the cake with a knife (or a skewer, but honestly, who owns one?), if it comes out clean it’s done. If not, pap it back in for another 10 minutes and repeat.

Once cooked, I allowed the cake to cool for an hour or so in the tin before turning onto a wire rack and allowed it to settle over night.

Meanwhile, I prepared the white chocolate mud cake with ganache (chocolate icing ;-) ) coating following this recipe:

• 250g unsalted butter
• 150g white chocolate
• 440g caster sugar
• 250ml milk
• 225g plain flour
• 75g  self-raising flour
• 1 teaspoon vanilla essence/extract/flavouring
• 2 eggs lightly beaten

white chocolate ganache

• 125ml double cream
• 300g white chocolate
• icing sugar to thicken

1. Grease a deep 20cm round cake tin with butter and line the base with greaseproof paper.
2. Heat butter, chocolate, sugar and milk together in a saucepan at a low heat to melt the chocolate and combine ingredients without boiling.
3. Pour mixture into a large bowl and leave to cool for 15 – 30 minutes … seriously, you must do this!
4. Preheat your oven to 160C / 325F / Gas Mark 4 … adjust fan ovens accordingly, I run mine at 140-150C for this.
5. Whisk the sifted flours into your mixture then stir in the vanilla and the lightly beaten eggs (if you didn’t cool your mixture you now have something akin to scrambled eggs … you were warned!)
6. Pour mixture into your cake tin and bake for about an hour, if your temperature’s too high it’ll burn, keep an eye on it and if it appears to be burning turn the temperature down a tad and loosely cover with foil.
7. After an hour’s passed, cover cake with foil and bake for another 45minutes … the cake will look like it’s about to burn, but be bold my friend.  Be Bold!
8. Test the cake to see if it’s ready by skewering as before, if it’s not ready give it another 10 minutes and repeat.
9. Stand cake in pan for 30minutes, before turning out onto wire rack to cool (I left mine overnight for decorating the following day).

The ganache is relatively simple although getting the consistency can be a nuisance.

1. Put your chocolate and cream in a pan and gently heat until the chocolate has melted and the mixture has a smooth and creamy texture … the colour can be off putting, an off white/yellow colour.  We’ll fix that in a moment ;)
2. Cover your mixture and refrigerate for 30minutes.
3. You may notice that the mixture remains runny, although it should thicken as it cools … although I think I’d still be waiting if that was always the case.  The mixture should be a spreadable paste, if yours isn’t add small quantities of icing sugar beating furiously until you achieve something that isn’t at all unlike well beaten and softened butter … the icing sugar should also whiten the mixture substantially.
4. Using a bread knife cut the top off your mud cake if it is domed (or trim off any burnt bits), so that you have a cake as flat on the top as it is the bottom.
5. Spread the mixture over your mud cake.

You should now have two cakes, one bare spongecake awaiting filling and icing, the other an effectively complete mud cake.  At this point I set the mud cake aside and concentrated on the spongecake.

For decorating the sponge cake I used:

• Shop bought rollable icing (cheating I know, bu’hey what can you do!)
• Shop bought writing icing (it comes in little tubes)
• Raspberry jam
• Apricot jam
• 140g / 5 oz butter
• 280g / 10 oz icing sugar

1. Trim off any burnt edges and remove the top if it has domed … we had the off cust with custard, very tastey!
2. I cut the cake into quarters before arranging on my cake base and using the base of my 20cm cake tin to identify the segments to be removed, I marked these out by scoring with a knife before cutting them out properly … the picture below should give you a clue.
3. I then cut each quarter lengthwise to create four ’sandwiches’ and filled these with raspberry jam and a basic butter icing made by beating the butter until soft and then beating in the icing sugar (again I recommend a food processor!).
4. Taking one quarter at a time I rolled out sufficient icing to cover each, the apricot jam was warmed in the microwave before being pasted onto the sponge cake to act as a gluing agent … how you properly wrap the icing onto the cake is up to you, although I do recommend patience!
5. Your quarter should now be iced and you can arrange your five parts (1 mud cake and 4 sponge cakes) onto your cake base.
6. I used the writing icing to decorate, obviously your design is up to you.

For decorating the mud cake with the stained glass design I used:

• shop bought rollable icing
• black writing icing
• red / blue / yellow food colouring
• 1 stained glass design courtesy of stained glass artist extraordinaire Foley Stained Glass … the design I actually used was taken from here, or at least one corner of it!

1. The icing was rolled out to about 5mm before using the base of the 20cm cake tin to cut a circle.
2. I used the writing icing to imitate the leading from the window on the cake, obviously you shouldn’t use real lead as that would just be a little bit silly … madness and death may ensue … no really I mean it, heavy metals and food do not a happy bunny make.
3. The colours were then simply mixed and applied onto the cake with a clean brush, although I recommend testing the colours on an off cut of icing before applying to your cake.

Eventually you should have something like this … least I did!

The flowers at the bottom are inspired by Jolene’s sown trees and flowers that she has been doing recently, and as I’ve said the central image is based on the work of Fiona Foley of Foley Stained Glass fame and for whom this was for.

HAPPY [BELATED] BIRTHDAY FIONA!