birthday cake

So I recently had my birthday which isn't something I normally make much of a fuss about but it is a great reason to indulge in awesome food and drink. This year it was fairly low key but did involve celebrating with loved ones by drinking wine over-looking London, enjoying San Sebastian style pinchos in Soho and an awesome brunch of Turkish eggs at Kopapa in Seven Dials, Covent Garden. We also managed to fit in some tasty snacks down on the SouthBank at the yummy food market there and tea and tarts at the cafe at the Liberty department store. It was a proper foodies birthday. I felt spoilt and utterly indulged. To top the weekend off we decided to make my birthday cake rather than buying one. Nothing beats a special cake, homemade with love. The recipe is based on the same yummy chocolate fudge cake recipe I have used for some of my cupcakes (I doubled the quantities) but it was made even more special by filling the centre with rum cream and covered in a salted caramel buttercream frosting and some crumbled malteasers (whoppers). This cake was just grown up enough and truly rocked. Sorry about the blurry pictures, I blame the cocktails!

stollen

Whilst stollen may be most usually associated with German Christmas feasting it has always been part of the festivities in my family. I get a little sad if there is no stollen around at Christmas. This year I'm attempting to make my own for the first time. How hard can it be?? My version is based on a few different ones in an attempt to find the flavour I remember from childhood. As usual I've gone to Dan Lepard for some inspiration from his book Short and Sweet as well as Helga's Christmas Stollen which can be found here. Essentially stollen is a bread dough enriched with milk, butter and/or eggs with dried fruit and marzipan and spices. You can vary the type and amount of dried fruit and spices to your preferences. Many recipes have no cardamon or cinnamon, much less spice or sometimes much more. This is not set in stone. There are also some lovely sounding versions around that contain glace or dried sour cherries. Use your imagination. Be creative and come up with a stollen that satisfies your taste buds.

My recipe is not at all difficult to make so please don't be put off by the quantity of ingredients or the number of steps included. However, you will need to have a day spare to make it. Once made it will keep for several weeks if stored properly.  Very festive and super delicious.

Ingredients 

NOTE: I made 3 smaller stollen so that I could give them to my mum and sister but you could just as easily make two larger ones or one mega stollen! Just make sure you adjust the cooking times accordingly.

1kg strong bread flour

500ml milk

5 tsps fast action yeast

200g caster sugar

1/2 tsp salt

450g unsalted butter

grated peel of 1 lemon

2 tsp ground cinnamon

2 tsp ground nutmeg

1 tsp ground cardamon 

650g dried mixed fruit (I used 350g raisins, 150g currants and 150g italian mixed peel)

5 tbps dark rum/brandy/vodka/amaretto

500g marzipan

STAGE 1

1. Mix together the dried fruit and the rum and set to one side to allow the flavours to mix together. You could even do this over night if you remember.
2. Reserve about 2 tbsps of the flour to one side then put the rest into a large bowl with the sugar, salt, spices and yeast.
3. In a saucepan put the reserved flour and lemon zest and gradually beat in the milk until it is thoroughly combined with no lumps. Then bring the mixture just to the boil. Remove from the heat and place in another bowl to one side. 
4. Using the same saucepan gently melt the butter so it just becomes liquid then beat it into the milk and flour mixture. 
5. Now, make a well in the centre of the flour and spices and pour in the milk and butter mixture. Bring everything together so that you've got a sticky dough. This is easiest with your hands. Then leave for 10 minutes. 
6. For the next stage your arms are going to get a bit of a work out but turn on the radio and flour the work surface then get stuck into kneading the dough for 15 minutes or until you have a smooth dough. You may need to add some additional flour but try not to add any more than is absolutely necessary. 
7. Now stretch the dough out so that you've got a fairly large rectangle. Put the dried fruits and rum mixture on top then carefully knead the whole lot together gathering together any stray bits as needed. 
8. Divide the dough into the number of stollen you want to make then place in to separate buttered bowls, cover with cling film then leave to rise in a warm place for around 3 hours or until tripled in size.

STAGE 2

1. Punch down the dough, knead for a couple of minutes then cover and leave it to rise for another 30-50 minutes.
2. Once the dough has risen again, form each one into a rough circle and add 1/3 (or equivalent proportion for the number of loaves you're making) of the marzipan filling in a line through the centre. Fold the edges of the dough over the marzipan so that it is fully enclosed. Place on a greased baking sheet, cover and allow to rise for another hour or more.
3. Bake in the oven at 180C for about 45-55 minutes until brown.
4. Once cooked, remove from the oven, brush with melted butter then cover generously with icing sugar and pat on to the loaf to form a solid coating and to seal them.

makowiec (polish poppy seed roll)

Makowiec is a wonderful example of a festive enriched bread that is central to the Christmas celebrations in Poland. It is related to stollen and other similar enriched Christmas breads but the poppy seed filling gives it an entirely different, more complex flavour. My version is based on this one from the Polish language food blog Moje Wypieki. If you find stollen too sweet and you're not a fan of dried fruits I urge you to give this recipe a go. Although it contains raisins and mixed peel they are blended into the filling and treated more as a flavouring.

These quantities are enough to give you three decent sized poppy seed rolls but you can adjust to your requirements. I think if you're going to all this effort to make the makowiec in the first place you may as well go all out and make the full amount and either freeze the spares or give them away to friends and family as gifts. Why not spread the love?



Ingredients
Filling:
450g poppy seeds
170g caster sugar
40g unsalted butter
1 egg
4 tbsp honey
50g mixed peel
grated zest of 1 lemon
30g walnuts
30g almonds
90g raisins
2 egg whites (keep the yolks to one side, they get used in the dough)

Dough:
1 tbsp fast action yeast
750g plain flour
80g melted butter
2 eggs
2 egg yolks
120ml sour cream
130g icing sugar, sifted to remove any lumps
1 tbsp rum or vodka (I used krupnik a Polish, honey scented vodka liqueur)
1/2 tsp salt
1 tsp vanilla extract
approx 100ml warm water

Glaze:
130g icing sugar
1 tbsp water, lemon juice or rum

STAGE 1- The filling

1. Put the poppy seeds into a saucepan, cover with water bring to the boil then strain through a fine sieve. Set to one side. (As this is my first time making makowiec I'm not sure how essential this stage is. On a repeat effort I would be tempted to miss it out and see if it made any difference. I'll leave the choice up to you.)
2. Put the raisins, mixed peel, nuts and lemon zest into a food processor along with the poppy seeds an process until you have a rough paste and there are no longer any large pieces of nut or raisin. You can leave this chunky if you like but I prefer a smoother texture. 
3. In a large pan, melt the butter then add the poppy seed mixture along with the honey and leave to cook over a low heat for around 10 minutes, stirring occasionally. Then remove from the heat. 
4. In a bowl beat together the egg whites until stiff. Beat the whole egg into the poppy seed mixture followed by the egg whites.
5. Set the mixture to one side to cool while you make the dough.

STAGE 2 - The Dough

1. In a large bowl place the dry ingredients (flour, icing sugar, salt and yeast). In a separate bowl or large jug combine the wet ingredients (eggs, egg yolks, sour cream, melted butter, alcohol and vanilla).
2. Make a well in the centre of the dry ingredients, pour in the wet mixture and combine together adding additional warm water a tablespoon at a time until all the flour is incorporated and you have a rough dough.
3. Turn the dough out on to a lightly floured surface and knead for around 10 minutes or so until you have a smooth dough. Place in a bowl, cover with cling film and leave to rest for about an hour so that it doubles in size.

STAGE 3 - Putting it all together

1. Divide the dough and the mixture into the number of rolls you want to make then follow the remaining stages for each roll.
2. Take the dough and roll it out into a thin, roughly square shape. Spread the required filling evenly across it leaving a small gap all around, then roll the dough up closing the seam and the ends as tightly as you can. 
3. Place the roll onto a greased baking sheet, cover then set aside to rise for a further 90 minutes. 
4. Preheat the oven to 180C then bake for 30-40 minutes or until the exterior is golden brown. Allow to cool then glaze.

banana & rum cake

This is another wonderful cake to have with your mid-morning tea or coffee. It is very easy to make and I put it together one Saturday morning in between the various weekend chores I had to do. The cake isn't egg-free for any reason other than the fact I had no eggs in the house and I wanted to make a banana cake to use up the over ripe ones sat in my kitchen. You don't have to add the rum syrup, it's delicious and moist without but the rum helps to elevate this cake to something a little more grown-up and special.



Ingredients

Cake:
1 cup soured milk (sour regular milk by adding the juice of a lemon) or regular yogurt
1 cup oil
3 bananas mashed

3/4 tsp baking powder
2 cups of caster sugar
3 cups of self raising flour
2 tsp vanilla extract 

a little milk if too thick
Pinch salt

Syrup:
1/4 cup granulated sugar
1/4 cup dark rum
Squeeze of lemon juice

1. Grease and flour a bundt tin, and preheat the oven to 180°C, 350°F. 
2. Place all the cake ingredients in a bowl and beat together using a wooden spoon or electric hand whisk until everything is well combined, if it’s a bit thick add a little extra milk. 
3. Pour the mixture into the tin then bake in the oven for about 50 minutes until well risen and a skewer comes out clean.
4. Turn off the oven, and remove cake. Leave it to cool in the tin while you prepare the syrup by heating the ingredients together until the sugar has completely dissolved into the rum syrup.
5. With a skewer poke holes all over the cake and while the cake and syrup are still warm pour the syrup over the cake. Leave the cake to cool completely in the tin then turn out and serve.

rum balls / romkugler / rum truffles

Ever end up with just too much cake in the house? No, it doesn't happen to me often either! However, I've recently been on a bit of a cupcake making spree and had far too many around and the freezer was full. It seems wrong to me to throw anything away that still has use so I looked around to find something different to do with all this left over cake. This recipe is my version of a rum ball. Many countries have their own versions, mine is more influenced by the scandinavian approach and in particular the Danish romkugler. I know I ate these somewhere when I was younger but they just don't seem to be around anywhere at the moment. I do urge you to try this recipe. It's a proper blast from the past and delicious.

This recipe is intended to use up any regular chocolate cake, however I used my left over salted caramel chocolate cupcakes and some of the cherry filled version. As a consequence I didn't need any additional jam, just from blitzing the left over cupcakes I ended up with a fairly gloopy paste, especially after I added the rum. To thicken it up a little I added in a couple of handfuls of rolled oats and blitzed them up a bit too. This was inspired by the Swedish chokladboll. You may beed to adjust the quantities depending on the moistness of the cake you're using. The most important thing is that you achieve the right consistency.

 Ingredients 
around 800g left over cake bits
70g cocoa
3 - 4 tbsp jam (apricot or dark cherry work particularly well)
1/2 cup dark rum (or more to taste)

rolled oats if needed
150-180g dark chocolate vermicelli/desicated coconut/roasted, flaked almonds/chopped hazlenuts for coating

1. Put the cake and cocoa in the food processor and blitz until all the cake is pulzerised to fine crumbs.
2. Add the jam then pulse until thoroughly combined.
3. Pour in the rum and mix for 20 seconds or so.
4. At this stage, if the mix is too runny add in the oats and blitz. Don't get carried away by adding too much in one go. Add a little at a time and mix thoroughly after each addition until achieve a thick paste.
5. Remove the mix from the bowl and place in another container to firm up in the fridge for at least 30 minutes.
6. Once the mixture has chilled and firmed up remove a spoonful at a time and roll in your chosen coating. Place in paper cases and serve.

rum mini cupcakes with praline amaretto frosting

A grown up, sweet treat that is perfect in this smaller size. The cakes are great with or without the frosting. If you choose not to frost the cakes they would be wonderful as a dessert covered in extra, warm rum syrup and a dollop of good quality vanilla ice cream. Yum...

You can use any standard plain cake batter as your starting point. This is my usual version from Dan Lepard's Short and Sweet. I find it is sturdy enough to stand up to the gooey syrup. If you can, use a silicone cake mould to make the cakes - it helps when you come to pour the syrup over them cakes. You can use paper cases in a standard tin but it just ends up being a bit more messy.

Ingredients
125g caster sugar
125g unsalted butter, very soft
2 eggs
150g plain flour
1 tsp baking powder

Rum Syrup

1/2 cup caster sugar

1/2 cup dark rum

1 quantity of praline and amaretto frosting.

1. Preheat your oven to 180C/160C Fan/350F/Gas 4 and place 12 cases in to your tin if using. I used a silicone mini cake tray that you can see in the pictures below. In the picture below I had only made a small quantity of the mixture so didn't fill the whole tray.
2. Beat the butter, sugar and eggs together until they are light and fluffy and well combined. This will take around 3 minutes with an electric whisk.
3. Sieve in the flour and baking powder and beat the mixture again until it is thoroughly mixed together.
4. Spoon the mixture into the your cake cases or moulds. 
5. Bake in the oven for around 20-25 minutes until a skewer comes out of the mixture clean.
6. While the cakes are in the oven prepare the syrup by gently heating the rum and sugar in a thick based saucepan until the sugar is completely dissolved.
7. Remove the cakes from the oven and allow to cook slightly, around 5 minutes or so, then if you are going to frost them, pour over the rum syrup while the cakes are still in the tray then leave to cool completely. (If you are serving them as a dessert remove from the tray before pouring over the syrup and cover in syrup once they are on your serving plate.)
8. Once the cakes have cooled completely you can pop them out of the silicone mould and frost.