58. Coconut Choc Chunk Cupcakes

July 11, 2020 by Sophie Faulkner in Recipe

These were made to fill a complete and utter craving I had for chocolatey goodness without just eating the whole bar in one go. They’re so quick and easy to make, I made them on my work from home lunch break! They went down pretty well and didn’t exactly last long!

Makes 12 cupcakes

Ingredients

(6oz) butter, room temperature
(6oz) golden caster sugar
(6oz) self-raising flour
3 eggs
(2oz) desiccated coconut
(4oz) dark chocolate chunks
pinch of salt
1/2 tsp vanilla extract

Method

Preheat the oven to 180C and line a cupcake tray.
Cream together the butter and sugar until light and fluffy.
Add in the flour and then the eggs until well combined.
Mix in the coconut, chocolate, pinch of salt and vanilla and mix until well distributed.
Divide evenly into the cupcake cases (I found a heaped tablespoon was about right).
Bake for 22-25 minutes until risen, golden and a skewer comes out clean.
Leave to cool and enjoy!

51. Caramel Choc Chip Cookies

February 22, 2020 by Sophie Faulkner in Recipe

I just wanted to experiment with caramel today after seeing a recipe for caramel blondies in ‘The Violet Bakery Cookbook’ by Claire Ptak, so I made some caramel chocolate chip cookies. Not too hard to do at all, and a little step up from your normal chocolate chip!

Makes 15 - 20 cookies

Ingredients

For caramel shards

80g caster sugar
2 tbsp water

For the cookies

225g flour
Pinch of salt
3tsp baking powder
100g butter, cold and diced
120g light brown sugar
100g chocolate chips
2 eggs, beaten

Method

Start with the caramel, as you need to let this cool before you break it into shards to put in your cookies. Put the water in a pan and cover with the sugar. Heat on a low to medium heat until the sugar has dissolved. DO NOT STIR as this may cause the sugar to crystallise.
Once the sugar has fully dissolved, turn it up to a high heat and bubble away until it is a deep amber colour (around 170C for those with thermometers who want to be precise). If your sugar crystallises, turn the heat back down to low to medium and add some more water to dissolve the crystals again.
Pour your caramel onto a piece of baking paper (or silicone mat as I did) on a heat proof surface or baking tray. Allow to cool at room temperature.
Preheat the oven to 180C, and line two baking trays.
In a large bowl, mix together the flour, salt and baking powder, and then rub in the butter until it is the consistency of bread crumbs, then mix in the sugar and chocolate chips.
Once the caramel has cooled, use the back of a knife to whack it and create shards. Use your fingers to snap into smaller pieces if necessary, but be careful, as caramel can be quite sharp.
Mix the caramel shards into the cookie mixture, then add the eggs and mix until a sticky dough forms.
Split the dough into little balls (or just hunks, I wasn’t bothered about pretty today) and place on the baking trays spaced apart.
Bake for 10-12 minutes until starting to turn golden.
Allow to cool and enjoy!

50. Tiffin

February 16, 2020 by Sophie Faulkner in Recipe

As my rugby match today was cancelled AGAIN today, thanks to Storms Ciara and Dennis, I asked my Instagram followers what they’d like me to bake. An old friend suggested ‘best ever fridge cake’, which could only mean making some good old tiffin. Thanks Louisa (@loukdavis) for the suggestion! Mum used to make tiffin when I was younger and honestly it is the best fridge cake in my opinion, and very easy to do. Extremely doable for kids!

If you want a step by step with pictures/videos, I instagrammed the full recipe process and have it as a highlight on my Insta page. Have a look and a follow if you don’t already!

Makes 9 squares

Ingredients

100g butter, cubed
250g chocolate
3 tbsp sugar
3 tbsp golden syrup
200g digestives
Handful of raisins, or sultanas

Method

Line a small baking tin with clingfilm. This will make getting your tiffin out REALLY easy.
Melt your butter, 50g of the chocolate, the sugar and golden syrup in a pan or bain marie (bowl over a pan of simmering water).
Bash up your digestives until you have some bite size pieces of biscuit and lots of crumbs.
Add the biscuits and raisins/sultanas to the melted chocolate/butter and mix until well combined.
Press the biscuit mixture into your lined tin as flat as possible.
Melt the remaining 200g of chocolate in the microwave or on a bain marie, then pour and spread over the biscuit layer.
Put in the fridge to set for at least 2 hours.
Take out of the tin and cut with a large sharp knife into squares and enjoy!

49. Valentine's Rose Cupcakes

February 11, 2020 by Sophie Faulkner in Recipe

Not into cookies? No worries, I’ve got the Valentine’s cupcake angle sorted too! Flowers and chocolates are always nice, but why not just combine the two and make these chocolate cupcakes with vanilla buttercream roses?

Makes 12 rose cupcakes

Ingredients

For the cupcakes

170g (6 oz) butter, room temp
140g (5 oz) caster sugar
3 eggs
140g (5 oz) dark chocolate, melted
1 tsp vanilla extract
170g (6 oz) self-raising flour
Pinch of salt

For the buttercream

300g (10.5 oz) butter, room temp
450g (15.75 oz) icing sugar
1 tbsp vanilla extract
1-2 tbsp milk
a few drops red food colouring

Method

Preheat oven to 160C and line a cupcake tray
Cream together the butter and caster sugar for the cupcakes until light and fluffy.
Add in the eggs, melted chocolate and vanilla extract, with a tablespoon of the flour to help it not split.
Mix in the flour and salt, until well combined.
Place a heaped tablespoon of mixture in each cupcake case.
Bake for 25-30 minutes until a skewer comes out clean. Allow to cool to room temperature before icing
Cream the butter for the icing until light and fluffy. Add in the icing sugar in three portions, beating between each, until light and fluffy, then add in the vanilla extract and milk (as much as needed). Keep beating if not light and easily spreadable.
Split half the buttercream into a separate bowl. Colour half with red food colouring until pink. Add a few drops at a time and beat until you get your desired colour.
Prepare a piping bag with a star shaped nozzle. Fill with the pink icing first, and then create a hole down the centre and fill with the remaining white icing.
Pipe from the centre of the cupcake outwards, until you have created a rose. DO NOT twist the cupcake as you pipe, as this will lose the rose effect. Your first couple of roses may be purely pink, depending on how successful the piping filling has gone, but you should get some nice two tone roses in the bouquet!
Give to a loved one, or just to yourself. You deserve flowers.

48. Mocha Shortbread Hearts

February 08, 2020 by Sophie Faulkner in Recipe

Valentine’s Day is coming up, so I thought I’d post some themed recipes. It’s almost like I thought ahead and planned! They say that the way to a man’s heart is through his stomach, so I thought I’d test that theory with these mocha shortbread hearts as he’s a big shortbread fan. I know my boyfriend loves me anyway, but I don’t think they hurt!

These are REALLY easy to make, so if you’re stuck for something to do for your valentine, why not give these a go this week? Or look out for my cupcake recipe going up early next week in time for V day.

Makes 15-20 cookies (depending on cookie cutter size)

Ingredients

180g butter, room temperature
70g light brown sugar
1 tsp instant coffee granules
180g flour
30g cocoa powder
100g chocolate chips

Method

Mix the butter and sugar together until smooth and combined.
Mix the coffee granules together with a tbsp hot water until dissolved.
Mix the flour, cocoa powder and coffee into the butter and sugar, using your hands to bring it all together into one cohesive dough.
Wrap your dough in clingfilm and chill in the fridge for at least 20 minutes
Preheat the oven to 180C and line a baking tray.
Roll out your dough on a lightly floured surface until about 1cm thick and start cutting out hearts (or whatever shape cookie cutters you have). Transfer the cut outs to the baking tray.
Squeeze the leftover scraps into one ball and reroll out and cut again. Repeat until all the dough is used.
Bake for 10-12 minutes until the cookies are just firm and allow to cool.

44. Coconut Choc Chip Cake with Best Chocolate Buttercream

January 11, 2020 by Sophie Faulkner in Recipe

It was a colleague’s birthday at work this week, so I offered to make him a birthday cake. When asked what he would like, he ummed and ahhed, until I elicited the words chocolate and coconut fro him. That was as good a place to start as any.

But then he said white chocolate.

I don’t really like white chocolate in large quantities, as its REALLY sweet, and its not all that easy to bake with. So I made a white chocolate and coconut cake. This is not the cake pictured here. I was so embarrassed by not only the fact that the cake was ridiculously sweet (my boyfriend said he just pretended he was eating a white chocolate bar), but it was also hideous. I really messed up my ratios on the white chocolate ganache, and had been impatient when turning the cakes out and frosting so it was all crumbling and not smooth. It was not good.

So I made another cake. This one. Learning from my previous errors to make a cake that went down EXTREMELY well at work. Why not give it, or similar, a go this weekend?

Makes 1 cake and buttercream for 1 cake/12 cupcakes

Ingredients

For the cake

170g (6 oz) butter
130g (4.5 oz) caster sugar
85g (3 oz) desiccated coconut (+ some for sprinkling)
140g (5 oz) self raising flour
3 eggs
100g (3.5 oz) chocolate chips (I used white choc chips)

For the buttercream

100g (3.5 oz) dark chocolate, melted (+ some for grating to sprinkle)
200g (7 oz) butter, room temp
300g (10.5 oz) icing sugar
2 tbsp milk
a pinch of salt.

Method

Preheat the oven to 160C. Line two sandwich tins with greaseproof paper and grease the sides.
Cream together the butter and sugar until well combined.
Add in the eggs, desiccated coconut and self raising flour, and beat until smooth.
Mix in the chocolate chips until distributed throughout the cake mix, then divide into your sandwich tins. (roughly 13oz in each tine if you want to be precise)
Bake for 20-25 minutes until slightly golden, and a knife comes out clean.
Allow the cakes to cool in their tins until the tins are cool enough to hold. Tip out your cakes and allow to cool further on a cooling rack. Place in the fridge to cool down further if you intend to spread rather than pipe your icing as this will make it less likely to crumble.
Beat the butter for your buttercream until light and fluffy.
Add in your icing sugar in two gos (or else it tends to go everywhere), and beat until light and smooth.
Beat in your melted chocolate and a pinch of salt.
Fill a piping bag and pipe a border around the edge of your bottom cake, then fill the middle with icing and spread to your border. This will keep it neat.
Place your top cake on top and decorate (piping or spreading) however you like! Sprinkle on a little grated chocolate and desiccated coconut and enjoy!

38. Triple Chocolate Chelsea Buns

June 30, 2019 by Sophie Faulkner in Recipe

You know, I’m not sure these are even technically a chelsea bun. Chelsea buns are a type of currant bun, and I don’t think these buns would know a currant if they saw one.

BUT they are tasty. And use my previous chelsea bun recipe as a base for it’s chocolatey goodness.

I don’t really know why I was in the mood for baking these, but I was definitely craving chocolate, so that was a good starting point. After a couple of weeks of very little baking (bit hard to bake on holiday unfortunately!), I went all out this weekend, so you can expect a midweek recipe and plenty more coming up.

I hope the chocoholic in your life enjoys these as much as I did!

Makes 9 chelsea buns

Ingredients

For the dough

400g (14oz) plain or strong white flour
50g (1.75oz) cocoa powder
14g (0.5oz) dried yeast (2 sachets)
50g (1.75oz) caster sugar
Pinch of salt
150ml warm milk
1 egg
50g (1.75oz) butter, melted

For the filling

25g (1oz) butter, room temperature
150g (5.25oz) assorted chocolate chips
1 tsp cinnamon
1 tsp nutmeg
25g (1oz) caster sugar (or light brown sugar)

Method

Mix all the dry ingredients for the dough together in a bowl. Make a well in the middle and add in the milk, butter and egg. Mix it together well, until it starts to form a dough and then use your hands. If once it has formed a dough it feels a bit dry, add a little splash of water, or if it feels too wet add a bit more flour.
Knead the dough on a lightly floured surface until it starts to feel smooth and elastic. When done, form into a ball and set in a lightly oiled or greased bowl to prove. Cover with cling film and leave in a warm spot for an hour until it doubles in size.
Knead the dough a couple of times to knock out the air and then form into a rectangle, about 30cm by 20cm. Spread over the butter and then sprinkle on the chocolate chips. In a bowl mic together the sugar and spices and then sprinkle that over the dough too.
Roll the dough starting at the long edge to get a 30cm long sausage. Slice this into 9 equal sized rounds. Grease an 8”x8” square tin and arrange the slices in the tin. Cover with a damp tea towel and leave to prove for half an hour. Preheat the oven to 180C during the prove.
Bake the buns for 10 minutes at 180C and then decrease to 160C and bake for another ten minutes.
Allow to cool slightly before removing from the tin and serving warm or cold.

34. Cookie Sandwiches

May 11, 2019 by Sophie Faulkner in Recipe

You hungry? I’m hungry. And I have leftover icing. Let’s make cookie sandwiches.

I LOVE making chocolate chip cookies. I mean, they’re a classic for a reason. They’re quick, they’re easy, and they are DELICIOUS. I don’t know if there’s anything more moreish than a good chocolate chip cookie. Did you know that they were a completely happy accident? Someone was trying to make chocolate cookies (or cake, I forget which) and had run out of cocoa powder, so they decided to use chopped up chunks of chocolate, because they would melt and combine with the rest of the dough right? WRONG. The chocolate chip was born. Happy accidents exist!

Whilst cookies are great entirely on their own (don’t feel pressured to make the icing too, just eat these on their own for something just as yummy!), paired with Oreo buttercream icing to make a cookie sandwich? Amazing. Hits that sweet tooth so hard the dentist might suggest braces.

Makes 30 cookies or 15 sandwiches

Ingredients

For the cookies

150g (5.25oz) butter
80g (2.75oz) golden caster sugar
80g (2.75oz) light brown sugar
1 egg
200g (7oz) plain flour
2 tsp vanilla extract
1/2 tsp baking powder
Pinch of salt
150g (5.25oz) chocolate chips

For the icing

400g (14oz) icing sugar
200g (7oz) butter
6 Oreos

Method

Preheat the oven to 190C and line two baking trays with baking paper (You need two. Mine merged. I should know better by now.)
Cream together the butter and sugars for the cookies. Add in the egg, flour, salt and baking powder and combine.
Mix in the vanilla and chocolate chips.
Roll a teaspoon worth of dough into a ball at a time, place on the baking tray and slightly flatten. (If you’re slightly more anal, like me, use 22g of dough for each cookie)
Bake for 10-12 minutes until the edges start to go golden, then take out and leave to cool. (OR EAT THEM WARM BECAUSE THEY’RE TOO GOOD TO WAIT)
Cream your butter, then add in the icing sugar a bit at a time, so it won’t go everywhere. If it doesn’t quite all combine, add in a teaspoon of milk or water.
In a ziploc bag or similar, bash your Oreos to a fine crumb, then add in to your buttercream icing.
Take a cooled cookie, and cover the flat side with icing, potentially using a piping bag with a pretty nozzle.
Add another cookie on top for an excellent sandwich.
ENJOY!

32. (Not Very) Red Velvet Cupcakes

March 08, 2019 by Sophie Faulkner in Recipe

I don’t often think about red velvet when making cakes. It’s not my go to in any way shape or form. If I was at a cupcake shop and had to choose what I wanted, I would most likely not choose red velvet.

BUT turns out that other people don’t feel the same way. When I asked my coworker if he had a preference what I baked and brought in, he almost immediately said red velvet. I am just a little torn as to why. It’s neither chocolate nor vanilla, just a sort of halfway point between the two. Based on flavour alone, why wouldn’t you go full chocolate or vanilla?

HOWEVER, red velvet gets its name from its velvety texture, created by using buttermilk and oil to make a smooth batter that stays moist and rich. And when paired with a vanilla cream cheese icing? Yeah, I guess I can kinda see why someone MIGHT pick a red velvet cupcake.

So I gave them a go. Unfortunately my red food colouring didn’t really do the trick and they turned out pretty brown, but they still tasted pretty great. Hopefully yours will be redder.

So with that in mind, for all you red velvet lovers out there, here’s your recipe.

Makes 12 cupcakes

Ingredients

For the cupcakes

120g (4 1/4oz) butter
300g (10 1/2oz) caster sugar
2 eggs
60ml olive/vegetable oil
1 tbsp cocoa powder
2 1/2 tbsp red food colouring
1 tbsp vanilla extract
350g (12oz) plain flour
1 tsp bicarbonate of soda
Pinch of salt
250ml buttermilk (OR 250ml milk with a tbsp lemon juice left for ten minutes)

For the cream cheese icing

200g (7oz) cream cheese
60g (2oz) butter
250g (9oz) icing sugar
1 tsp vanilla extract

Method

Preheat oven to 175C and prep your cupcake tray.
Cream the butter and sugar together until light and fluffy. Add the eggs.
In another bowl, mix together the eggs, oil, cocoa powder, vanilla and red food colouring. Mix until well combined.
Add the oil mixture to creamed butter and mix.
Add the dry ingredients to the butter along with half the buttermilk and mix well. Once well combined, add in the remaining buttermilk.
Transfer your batter to a jug and fill your cupcake cases about 3/4 full.
Bake for 25-30 minutes and allow to cool on a wire rack.
Beat together the cream cheese and butter until light and fluffy.
Add in the vanilla and a third of the icing sugar and beat well.
Add in another third of the icing sugar, mix and then add the final third in and beat until well combined.
Fill a piping bag with your icing and ice your cooled cakes however you like.
Enjoy!

29. Vegan Chocolate Cupcakes

February 16, 2019 by Sophie Faulkner in Recipe

I’m finally settled in my new apartment, all the IKEA furniture has been built, the internet sorted, the kitchen reorganised and the oven broken in. Let’s bake.

I’d like to say I chose to make vegan cupcakes for a decent reason, but that would be an utter lie. I made vegan cupcakes because I didn’t have any butter in, so… still counts? Turns out that you can use olive oil instead of butter, swapping one fat for another. It gives you a more liquid batter, but that’s A ok. Still gives you a solid cake. The olive oil makes the chocolate taste richer than it actually is, which is extremely nice to be honest. My boyfriend had some and said they were great. Didn’t even know they were vegan. So not bad all around.

Wasn’t a big fan of the icing, but probably didn’t help that I didn’t wait for my buns to cool completely before icing. My icing melted just a little lot. Nevermind! Still tasty.

Makes 12 cupcakes

Ingredients

280g self-raising flour
200g sugar
25g cocoa powder
150ml olive oil
300ml water
pinch of salt
vanilla extract (to taste)
200g vegetable spread
350g icing sugar

Method

Preheat the oven to 180C.
Combine the self-raising flour, sugar, cocoa powder and salt in a bowl.
Add in the olive oil, vanilla extract and water.
Line a cupcake tray and fill the cases about 2/3rds full.
Bake for 15-18 minutes until they spring back.
Mix together the non-dairy spread and icing sugar in a bowl to make an icing. Flavour with vanilla extract if desired.
Pipe your icing onto your COOLED buns and enjoy!

24. Chocolate Tart

December 19, 2018 by Sophie Faulkner in Recipe

Christmas is almost here!!!!!

Anyone else excited? I’m so ready for the break from London life and going back home to see my family. Or rather, doing the rounds around all the different friends and family members who want to see me over the holidays, meaning I don’t really spend all that much time at home. Christmas is fun, but it’s definitely not restful!

I’m not a fan of Christmas pudding, or Christmas cake, so Christmas desserts to me have nearly always been chocolate based. A roulade, a black forest gateau, or just some chocolate ice cream, chocolate is a dominant Christmas time treat. That’s why I decided to make this chocolate tart in the lead up to Christmas. Maybe you guys have fussy family members like me who don’t like Christmas pudding? If so, this one’s for you!

Makes 1 tart

Ingredients

For the shortcrust pastry

200g plain flour
125g butter
50g sugar
1 medium egg
2 tsp cinnamon (optional)
Pinch of salt
OR about 400g ready made sweet shortcrust pastry

For the chocolate ganache

300ml double cream
50ml milk
50g butter
200g chocolate (preferably dark)
1 tsp sugar
Pinch of salt

Method

Cream together the butter and sugar for the pastry. Slowly add in the egg a bit at a time, mixing the dough together as you do so it doesn’t split. Add in the flour, cinnamon and salt and mix until the dough all comes together.
Flatten the dough and wrap in clingfilm and chill in the fridge for half an hour.
Preheat the oven to 180C.
Roll out the chilled dough and line your tart tin. Mine is 14” diameter. Make sure that you push the dough into the corners so that it won’t shrink like mine did!
Roll the top off using your rolling pin, then push the dough into the sides to make sure it is all lined evenly. Use the back of a knife to get rid of any excess. Put back in the fridge to rest for 5 minutes.
Pierce the base of your tart several times using a fork, all the way through! This will stop the bottom from rising as it bakes. Line the tart with either greaseproof paper or clingfilm and fill with baking beans, rice or something else suitable to hold up the edges of the tart as it bakes.
Blind bake the tart with the beans in for 10-15 minutes until the edge is golden. Then remove the beans and bake the tart for another 15-20 minutes until the base is golden as well.
Take out of the oven and allow to cool before removing from the tin.
In a pan bring the cream, sugar and salt to the boil and immediately remove from the heat. Add in the butter and then chocolate in chunks and stir until they have completely blended in. Once the mixture has cooled a little, stir in the milk.
Pour the chocolate ganache into the tart once the tart has cooled and leave to set at room temperature. If you put it in the fridge it may seize. (Mine has a slightly paler patch as my jug had some residue milk in the bottom. Oops.)
Enjoy! Decorate with icing sugar or white chocolate.

Week 6: Cake week

November 13, 2018 by Sophie Faulkner in Weekly update

FINALLY. CAKE WEEK. You would have thought that cake week would be pretty early on, but apparently not. I suppose it makes sense that on a patisserie course we focus on pastry first, but still. Cake is pretty important. In the grand scheme of life at least.

We started the week with a lecture all about dairy products which was not bad at all. We had Chef Matthew who is just great, and really tries to make our lectures fun for us which I appreciate. We got to make our own butter by shaking up jars of double cream and then eat it on bread and have clotted cream on scones. It was pretty great as lectures go.

Moving on to the exciting part of the week, the actual baking. On Thursday we made a marble loaf cake and madeleines. I’m not sure why, but I found the practical went immensely smoothly and I just had fun doing it. Often there is a little sense of panic that I might be doing something wrong or not fast enough, but cake is my home ground. I have no worries when it comes to cake. Bring it on.

Both my marble cake and madeleines were pretty tasty and didn’t last too long!

On Friday we made genoise sponge. Thursday’s high didn’t quite carry over, but it was still ok really. Genoise sponges don’t have any raising agent, and so all the rise comes from beating the eggs, which is a bit of a work out. Who needs arm day at the gym?

While my chocolate piping obviously needs work (my piping bag fell apart a bit towards the end, not ideal) I’m pretty happy with how my cake turned out. I had good reviews from my friend Jacob, who I gave it to to share with his family. I already had so much cake at home, I really didn’t feel the need for more. Especially not one with raspberry jam in.. Not a big raspberry fan.

All in all though, I think this week went pretty well! Bring on more cakes please.

P.S. I REMEMBERED TO ACTUALLY TAKE PICTURES THIS WEEK AND I AM VERY PROUD OF MYSELF.

21. Eclairs/Profiteroles

November 07, 2018 by Sophie Faulkner in Recipe

Pastries at dusk are the first three words that come to mind when I think of eclairs. When I was younger, Mum and I used to buy a two pack of eclairs from Sainsbury’s to play “Pastries at Dusk”. This was not a complicated game. We would sit at the table, with one eclair each and see if we could finish it faster than the other without licking our lips. I nearly always won. In hindsight, the licking your lips thing is only hard if it’s a sugared doughnut, but that didn’t stop the fun. I loved pastries at dawn with Mum, and have loved eclairs longer than that. So when we made eclairs at school last week, and I knew I would have to practice them for my exam, I thought why not put up an eclair/profiterole recipe on the blog? This won’t be quite the same as the recipe I was given for the exam, and also won’t be the same flavours, but it’s close enough to get some practice in!

My eclairs unfortunately deflated a bit in the oven as I opened the door a little too early and let the steam escape, so I would recommend keeping the door shut and just peering in if you can, if your oven has a light. Still tasty though!

Makes 12-14 eclairs or roughly 30 profiteroles

Ingredients

For the choux pastry

65ml water
65ml milk
50g (1.75oz) butter
A pinch of salt
A pinch of sugar
75g (2.5oz) plain flour
5 or 6 medium eggs, beaten

For the crème pâtissière

250ml milk
4 egg yolks
45g (1.5oz) sugar
15g (0.5oz) plain flour
15g (0.5oz) cornflour
1 tsp vanilla extract
A knob of ginger, chopped (optional)
A small banana, chopped (optional)

For the chocolate ganache

175g (6oz) dark chocolate
75ml double cream
15g (0.5oz) butter

Method

In a pan, melt the choux pastry butter and add in the milk, water, salt and sugar. Bring this mixture to a light boil and remove from the heat to add in the flour. Mix this well and then return to a medium-high heat for at least a minute, stirring continuously to dry it out a bit. It may start to lightly coat the bottom of the pan. Transfer the pastry to a bowl to cool.
Grease a baking tray with butter and leave to the side. Preheat the oven to 180C.
After your pastry has cooled to just above room temperature, start adding the eggs a small amount at a time. Once you have mixed in the first bit of egg so that it is all fully combined, you can add another bit of egg and repeat. This MUST be done in multiple steps or else the egg won’t mix in properly. You may not need all the egg.
Keep adding in the egg until you get to “dropping consistency”. To test for dropping consistency, get a decent amount of mixture on your spatula and hold it over the bowl to see how it drops. If it stretches and forms a V hanging from the spatula after dropping, you have reached the right consistency and do not need to add any more egg.
Put the mixture in a piping bag with a round piping nozzle. Pipe your eclairs or profiteroles onto the baking tray. Profiteroles should be about the size of a 10p, the eclairs should be about 12-15cm long.
Bake for 18-22 minutes until evenly golden brown. Don’t open the oven part way through! Take out and allow to cool on a wire rack. Not on the tray, they will stick!
Make the crème pâtissiere. Put the milk, vanilla and half the sugar in a pan and heat gently until steaming quite heavily, but not boiling. If you want to make banana and ginger cream like I did, add the banana and ginger to the milk to infuse it.
In a bowl, whisk together the egg yolks and rest of the sugar, then add in the flour.
Drain the steaming milk into the bowl, through a sieve if you added the banana and ginger, and whisk the mixture immediately so that the egg mixture doesn’t coagulate. Return the mixture to the pan and put back on the heat. Keep whisking the mixture.
Cook until the cream thickens and becomes elastic and glossy. It will “boil”, i.e. a bubble may come through the mix, which means it has cooked. Continue cooking until it no longer tastes starchy. You can only really do this by tasting it!
Put the cream on a plate or tray to cool and cover with clingfilm touching the surface to stop a skin forming. You can cool it at room temperature or in the fridge, but shouldn’t leave it in the fridge for too long or it will get too cold.
Make the ganache by melting the butter in a pan, adding the cream and bring it to a boil. Take off the heat and add in the chocolate in chunks. Stir until chocolate has fully melted and it is all well combined.
Once the eclairs/profiteroles have cooled, make small holes in the bottoms using a star shaped nozzle.
When the crème pâtissière has cooled to room temperature, or just above, scrape it into a bowl and whisk until smooth. Put in a piping bag with a nozzle the same size as you used to make the holes and use this to fill your eclairs/profiteroles. Scrape off any excess from the bottoms.
Dip the eclairs/profiteroles in the cooled ganache or spoon the ganache over.
Enjoy!

19. Chocolate Rugelach

October 21, 2018 by Sophie Faulkner in Recipe

What on earth is a rugelach? It’s a good question, and to be honest, I had to google them to make sure they were actually a thing. Turns out that rugelach are a type of Jewish pastry made with a cream cheese based dough, that looks kind of like a miniature croissant. I first came across them in Marc Grossman’s book, New York Cult Recipes, and thought they sounded amazing. And then promptly forgot about them. But then I started patisserie school and wanted to start playing around with different types of pastry, so, a cream cheese dough seemed like something fun to try. I found a number of rugelach recipes online, most of them chocolate, some of them jam filled, and came up with this. I hope you enjoy them!

Makes 12 Rugelach

Ingredients

Pastry

100g (3.5oz) plain flour
60g (2oz) cream cheese (I used lactofree. It keeps so much longer if you’re not using the whole pot in one go)
60g (2oz) butter
A pinch of salt

Ganache

25ml single cream
50g (1.75oz) dark chocolate
10g (0.5oz) butter

Topping and glaze

50g (1.75oz) dark chocolate, chopped into almost shavings.
50g (1.75oz) caster sugar
1 egg, beaten

Method

Start with the dough. Cream together the butter and cream cheese until smooth, but not fluffy. Fold in the flour and salt until it forms a dough and then wrap in clingfilm and chill in the fridge for at least 3 hours until it is completely chilled.
Next make the ganache, a bit before you take the dough out of the fridge. Heat the butter and cream in a pan over a medium heat until the butter has completely melted and it all just comes to the boil. Then remove it from the heat and throw in the chocolate bit by bit and stir to combine the melting chocolate into the cream. Your ganache should be smooth and glossy.
Preheat the oven to 170C.
Take your dough out of the fridge and on a floured surface, roll it into a roughly round shape that’s just a bit larger than a standard dinner plate. Roughly 11 inches or so in diameter.
Spread the ganache over the dough. (I think I put a bit too much on as it came out the sides a fair bit, I’d try a thinner layer if possible!)
Mix together the chopped chocolate and sugar and then sprinkle about half of it over the ganache until you have a good even covering.
Slice the round into 12 “pizza slices”. Starting from the outside edge of each slice, roll the slices into a croissant type shape. This should be fairly tight, but not so tight all your filling comes spilling out.
Place your rugelachs on a lined baking tray and brush them with the beaten egg. Then sprinkle over the rest of the chopped chocolate and sugar.
Bake for 18-20 minutes until golden brown.
Allow to cool before serving.

17. Chocolate Pear Tart

October 08, 2018 by Sophie Faulkner in Recipe

The first week of pastry school has kept me pretty busy, so sorry it’s been a week! Here’s a pear tart I made earlier… about 2 weeks ago in fact.

I’ll put up a short update post tomorrow about my first week, but today I just want to get this tart posted and done. Finally check it off the list!

I unfortunately didn’t actually get to try this pie myself, as I made it for the Macmillan coffee morning and so couldn’t cut into it. However, I heard that it was goooooood. So I’ll be making this again soon to actually try some!

Makes one tart

Ingredients

Pastry

260g (9oz) plain flour
100g (3.5oz) cocoa powder
pinch of salt
100g (3.5oz) golden caster sugar
225g (8oz) butter, room temperature
1 tsp vanilla extract
2 large eggs

Filling

4 or 5 pears
1 egg
25g (1oz) butter
50g (1.75oz) melted chocolate
50g (1.75oz) self raising flour

Method

Beat the pastry sugar and butter together until creamy. Add in the vanilla extract and the eggs and beat until smooth.
Fold in the flour, cocoa powder and salt until a dough forms.
Chill your dough in the fridge, wrapped in clingfilm for at least 15 minutes to make it easier to work with.
Preheat the oven to 175C.
Roll out your dough until about 1/8” thick to fill your tart tin. The tin I used was actually an 8” round cake tin and I used about half of my dough, so there should be enough to make a lid if you so desire.
Grease your tart tin and then line it with your chocolate pastry. Pierce your pastry with a fork multiple times and then blind bake in the oven for 15-20 minutes.
Cut your pears in half and then in slices about 1/4” thick, removing the cores as you go.
Simmer your pear slices in a large shallow pan for 3-5 minutes until tender. Drain and leave to cool.
Beat together all the other filling ingredients to make a rudimentary cake mix, and then spread this in an even layer in your tart case. Then start arranging your pear slices around the edge, slightly overlapping. Keep doing this, spiralling further and further in until you have no more space to fill. (See the pictures)
Bake your tart for 30-40 minutes at 165C until the cake batter has fully cooked.
Allow to cool before cutting.

14. Chocolate and Cinnamon Pinwheels

September 22, 2018 by Sophie Faulkner in Recipe

I’m back!!

After a much needed and long awaited holiday I am finally back in the UK with a decent wifi signal. I had a great time in Florida, but there was no possible way that I could get a blog post up without every photo taking hours to upload and process. Sorry for the radio silence!

I had planned on posting these while I was away and maybe doing a review whilst I was out there too, but all good plans. I made these just before I left and took them along to my most recent match for my team to enjoy. They seemed to go down ok.

Pinwheel cookies are just fun to make and you could do them in so many different flavour combinations, but, let’s be honest. I’ve been on a chocolate and cinnamon kick recently. I promise I’ll do something different soon! I know not everyone likes cinnamon… weirdos…

These are ideal to make with kids, cause they’re fun, easy and make PLENTY. Hope you enjoy!

Makes roughly 48 pinwheels.

Ingredients

125g (4oz) butter
100g (3.5oz) caster sugar
200g (7oz) plain flour
1 egg yolk
40g (1.5oz) plain chocolate, melted
1 tsp ground cinnamon
2 tbsp milk
Pinch of salt

Method

Start by making your cookie mixture by creaming together the butter and sugar and then add in the flour, a pinch of salt, an egg yolk and a tablespoon of milk.
Move half of the dough into a new bowl and fold in the melted chocolate. In the original bowl add in the cinnamon.
On a sheet of greaseproof paper roll out one of the doughs to be about 1/8” thick. Mine ended up being about 20cm by 40cm. Might want to try and roll them to be fairly rectangular if possible! Repeat with the other dough on another sheet of greaseproof paper. You want them to be roughly the same size and shape if possible.
Brush the top of the cinnamon dough with a tablespoon of milk and then lay the chocolate dough on top. Use your rolling pin to roll with a gentle pressure a couple of times to get the doughs to adhere, but not so that you lose the definition of the divide.
Roll the dough into a long sausage, starting at one of the longer sides. Once you have your roll, chill it in the fridge for half an hour. This will make it a lot easier to cut it into rounds.
Preheat the oven to 180C.
Slice your log into rounds, slightly thicker than a pound coin and place your pinwheels on a lined baking tray.
Bake for 8-10 minutes.
Allow to cool and enjoy!

You could try all sorts of flavour combinations if chocolate and cinnamon aren’t your thing, e.g. peppermint and chocolate, vanilla and lemon or ginger and cinnamon. If you want to get the pinwheel effect using two similarly coloured doughs, why not try using a little bit of food colouring to keep the fun?

Let me know if you enjoy them! Give them a share on Twitter or Instagram (where I’m @sophiespiblog) or on the Facebook page (https://www.facebook.com/sophiespiblog). I love hearing from you guys and whether it went well!

13. Spiced Chocolate Chip Muffins

September 10, 2018 by Sophie Faulkner in Recipe

Cinnamon is just SO GOOD. Whenever I want to make my bake a little more interesting, my hand reaches for the cinnamon just as easily as it reaches for the vanilla. Cinnamon is one of those flavours that a couple of people hate, and I simply don't understand at all. Other flavours that are bolder, e.g. ginger, coriander or aniseed, I can get why people wouldn't like them, but cinnamon is just so inoffensive. How anyone could dislike cinnamon I do not know.

With a couple of colder rainy days this week I decided that a spiced cake would help the cold feel cosy autumnal. There's a reason that pumpkin spice becomes a thing this time of year. There's nothing better than a little bit of spice to warm you up on a cold day! And I had chocolate chips to use up, so why not make them chocolate chip?

This cake also contains ginger and nutmeg to round out the spice profile, but I will undoubtedly be making my cinnamon cake with cinnamon cream cheese frosting in the next couple months to help conquer the autumn! Keep an eye out for it!

Makes 12 muffins

Ingredients

6oz (170g) butter
6oz (170g) golden caster sugar
6oz (170g) self raising flour
3 eggs
1 tsp ground ginger
1 tsp ground nutmeg
2 tsp ground cinnamon
5oz (150g) chocolate chips, preferably dark

Method

Preheat the oven to 180C.
Cream together the butter and sugar until light and fluffy.
Beat in the eggs.
Add in the flour and spices and mix until well combined.
Add in the chocolate chips and fold the mixture a couple times until they are evenly distributed.
Divide the mix between 12 muffin cases, until each case is about two thirds full.
Bake for 18-20 minutes until golden brown and when skewered, the skewer comes out clean.
Leave to cool a little, but best enjoyed warm to beat the autumn blues.

10. Chocolate Chip Shortbread

August 31, 2018 by Sophie Faulkner in Recipe

Double digit recipes. Woo!!!!

For recipe 10, I thought I'd just keep it simple. Vanilla shortbread with chocolate chips. Easy as pi. Shortbread is one of those classic biscuits that everyone loves. It's sweet and crumbly and just delicious. When I was growing up, my grandma would always buy a box of Scottish shortbread if I was coming round, even if I was just popping over for lunch. Unfortunately this stopped after I lived with her for a while. It was probably a bit too much to ask for there to be a constant supply of shortbread, but there we go.

Even now shortbread always reminds me of my grandma, and that's part of the reason I enjoy making it. I don't know if we ever actually made shortbread together in and amongst the baking we did when I was a kid, but even so, shortbread will always be linked with my grandma.

Makes roughly 24 biscuits

Ingredients

4oz (115g) butter
2oz (55g) caster sugar
6oz (170g) plain flour
1 tsp vanilla extract
3.5oz (100g) chocolate chips

Method

Preheat your oven to 180C.
Cream together the butter and sugar until well combined.
Add in the flour, then chocolate chips and vanilla extract. This should form a dough, but may be a bit short and crumbly. If this happens and it is TOO crumbly to deal with, add a splash of milk to help combine the ingredients.
Roll out the dough to about 1cm thick and use a 2" diameter cutter to stamp out your biscuits.
Transfer your rounds to a lined baking tray and bake for 15-20 minutes until just golden.

9. Marble Muffins

August 23, 2018 by Sophie Faulkner in Recipe

Chocolate and vanilla. The staples of the sweet tooth world. The richness of chocolate, the sweetness of vanilla. They just work. It's no wonder that when people think of cake or ice cream or cookies they think of these two core flavours. What's better than a classic vanilla victoria sponge or a rich chocolate fudge cake or chocolate chip cookies? Not a lot when you're looking for a readily available baked good.

So this week I decided that I would celebrate the simple stuff and just make marble muffins and chocolate chip shortbread (recipe coming soon).

I like the aesthetic of marble muffins (although mine are less impressive than some...). The mix of chocolate batter and vanilla batter to combine and create one tasty muffin is a thing of beauty. The office agreed.

Makes 12 muffins

Ingredients

6oz (170g) butter
6oz (170g) caster sugar
6oz (170g) self-raising flour
3 eggs
2.5oz (70g) plain chocolate, melted
1 tsp vanilla extract

Method

Preheat the oven to 175C
In a bowl, cream together the butter and sugar until light and fluffy.
Add in the eggs and flour, and combine.
Divide the dough in two and place half of it in another bowl.
Fold in the melted chocolate to the first batch of dough and the vanilla extract to the other.
Line a muffin tray with cases and alternate adding in a teaspoon of each mixture to each case. Chocolate vanilla, chocolate, vanilla etc.
Once done, grab a knife or skewer and gently swirl through the mixture in the muffin cases to give them the marbled effect.
Bake for 18-20 minutes.

7. Sachertorte

August 15, 2018 by Sophie Faulkner in Recipe

Isn't it annoying when you have a full weekend planned and then everything gets cancelled last minute? No, not really. Gave me more time to bake!

When I have a long weekend or any large amount of time looming ahead of me, I like to make something new, try out a new recipe. I just need to decide what to make first. A few facebook messages later, a friend suggested I make a sachertorte. It ticked a lot of boxes, something new, something a bit different and choc full of chocolate. Where was the downside? They'd even made it on Bake Off before, so it must be good.

And seeing as it had been made on Bake Off, Queen of baking Mary Berry had a recipe. What a hero.

Baking the sachertorte actually wasn't as hard as I was expecting it to be. The difficulty of sachertorte comes in the form of no raising agent. The only "rise" on this cake comes from well whisked egg whites, but once you get over that, there's very little difference from a normal chocolate cake. Oh, and that it traditionally uses ground almonds as a substitute for some of the flour, but who has ground almonds in their cupboard? (not me, but I probably should). I also added a little pinch of coffee to the icing to enhance the flavour. It oesn't taste of coffee at all, it just makes the icing taste a little rich, even a little bit boozy.

So, for Mary Berry's original recipe with ground almonds and apricot jam, click here, or continue for my slightly altered recipe below.

Makes one 8" cake

Ingredients

8oz (225g) dark chocolate
3oz (85g) milk chocolate
5oz (140g) butter
4oz (115g) caster sugar
1/2 tsp vanilla extract
5 eggs, separated into yolks and whites
4.5oz (130g) plain flour
250ml double cream
Pinch of coffee
Strawberries for decoration (optional)

Method

Preheat the oven to 180C and grease/line two 8" sandwich tins.
Break 5oz of the dark chocolate into small pieces and melt in the microwave or in a bain marie. Let it cool slightly.
Cream your butter and sugar together until fluffy, then add in the melted chocolate and vanilla extract. Mix until well combined. Then add in the egg yolks and mix.
Fold in the plain flour until well combined.
In another bowl whisk the egg whites until they just form stiff peaks. Add one third of the egg whites into the chocolate mixture and beat well. This will loosen the mixture some. Fold the remaining two thirds in carefully until just combined.
Pour into the prepared tins and bake for 40-45 minutes "until well risen at the top" (what does this mean Mary??)
Let the cakes cool on a wire rack.
Break the rest of the chocolate into small pieces.
Heat the cream in a pan until piping hot and remove from the heat. Add in the chocolate a bit at a time, mixing until the chocolate is melted and well combined. Add in a pinch of coffee. Allow to cool until the icing is a coating consistency. (Still slightly warm, but pretty thick.
Place a plate under the cooling rack to catch drips.
Pour half the icing onto the centre of your bottom cake and spread across the top and down the sides evenly. Then place the top cake on top and repeat so the cake is completely covered.
Leave to set.
If you have strawberries, cut them in half and place on top of cake.
This cake is easier to slice the day after baking. If you can wait that long.