Vanilla Cake with Nutella Frosting

Happy Thursday folks! I've had a pretty relaxing day off which has consisted of nothing the least bit productive and I mostly blame that on the social media wormhole. 
I ended up watching one too many cake decorating videos on Instagram as well and let me tell you, some people are ridiculously talented and elevate icing to an art form. 
It may have given me some much needed motivation to try and learn some new skills but we shall see how that goes. I suppose I would describe my decorating skills as rustic, in other words, I'm not one for fancy decorating and that is perfectly reflected in the cake that I made for my sister last week. The whipped cream frosting and fresh flowers made it look effortlessly pretty with minimal effort and it gets extra points for being so delicious. 

I remember as a child, birthday cakes were all about insane amounts of fondant icing (with a cartoon character or two), crazy food colouring and lots of sugar. The alternative in our house was the chocolate gateaux that you would have to defrost for a couple of hours, now I'll admit that I still think that it tastes great but rather than making a trip to Iceland (the shop not the country, for those who are confused) homemade birthday cakes are just a little more special. 
For this one I decided to try a Nutella frosting as an ode to the chocolate gateaux cream and the flowers were actually an unplanned addition, as lots of people came over and with time constraints I went with a more simple decoration. But all's well that ends well!

This light vanilla sponge is also the perfect recipe to have in your baking repertoire because it is easily adaptable, seeing as it uses the 1:1 method i.e. equal quantities of most ingredients so it can upscaled for larger cakes. 

So to make the vanilla cake you will need the following ingredients:

- Margarine

- Caster sugar

- Self raising flour

- Baking powder

- Vanilla essence

- Eggs

- Milk

To begin with measure out 225g of soft margarine and 225g of caster sugar and cream until pale and fluffy.
Then add 4 eggs, one at a time, beating well after each addition. If the mixture curdles at this stage, don't worry because it will be rectified later on.

Next sift in 225g of self raising flour and 2 tsp of baking powder and mix until well combined.

Add in 2 tsp of milk and 2 tsp of vanilla, give the batter a quick mix.

Divide the mixture evenly between two round tins lined with baking paper, alternatively use a large rectangle tin. Bake in a Gas Mark 4 oven for 30 minutes or until golden brown and an inserted skewer comes out clean. Leave to cool.

To make the Nutella frosting you will need the following ingredients:

- Nutella (or other hazelnut spread)
- Double cream
- Icing sugar
- Butter
- Vanilla extract 

Begin by beating together around 3 tablespoons of butter and 3 tablespoons of Nutella together in a stand mixer fitted with the whisk attachment.

Then add in 1 1/4 cup of icing sugar, 4 tblsp of double cream and 1 tsp vanilla, whip until the desired consistency is reached. Add more sugar or cream as you see fit.

Once the cakes are completely cool begin to assemble; sandwich the frosting between the layers and over the top and sides of the cake using a palette knife. Transfer the cake to fridge to allow the frosting to set.

 The cake can be decorated as desired,  I opted for some fresh flowers and a few berries. All decorating supplies gathered from the garden!

You could also add some Ferrero Rocher, a ganache drip or using a piping bag fitted with a star tip pipe on some rosettes.
😋

Enjoy!

 Q x  

Soft Pretzel Buns

In theory I love the idea of making bread, the almost therapeutic putting together process and then the smell of the baking (has some revolutionary captured this bread bakery-esque scent in candle form yet, because if so I need) and finally the consummation aka devouring of soft, fresh, fluffy, bready goodness. In practice however I've only made bread from scratch a handful of times, mostly because I rarely have the foresight to plan in advance and also bread making can take a great deal of time and skill. A colleague of mine is actually trying to sustain a sourdough pet, admirable but something I wouldn't even consider. A couple of weeks ago however I did venture into bread territory, the reason being that it was my grandmother's birthday and I wanted to bake her something. She's diabetic so sugary things weren't an option and upon doing a little internet searching I settled on pretzels. 

This particular recipe* that I ended up using yielded incredibly soft and fluffy buns with a golden brown exterior. Now I'll be honest I've never had soft pretzels before, those small hard-baked pretzels are the extent of my culinary experience in this field, but I'll be completely biased in saying that these are the nicest soft pretzels, ever. They are also amazingly easy to make aka virtually no proving time required aka music to my ears.

So to make these soft pretzels buns you will need the following ingredients:

- Plain flour

- Fast action yeast

- Water

- Butter 

- Brown sugar / salt

- Bicarbonate of soda

In the bowl of a stand mixer begin by stirring 1 sachet of fast action yeast into 360ml of lukewarm water, allow this to settle for 1 minute before stirring in 1 tablespoon of brown sugar and 1 tablespoon of cooled melted butter. If using unsalted butter add 1 tsp of salt otherwise add 1/4 tsp of salt.
Add 3-4 cups of plain flour to the liquid mixture, one cup at a time, beating well using the dough hook attachment. Judging by the texture, add a 1/2 cup more flour if required - at the end of this stage the dough should be springy to the touch. 

Tip the dough onto a lightly floured surface and knead for a couple of minutes, once done pop the dough back into the bowl and cover with a tea towel. This rests for around 10 minutes and in the meantime we can create the bicarbonate of soda bath. To do this bring 9 cups of water mixed with a 1/2 cup of bicarbonate of soda to the boil. 

To create the traditional pretzel shape follow the picture diagram above, note that the thicker the dough rope used the more bun-like the pretzel will be. 
Then using a slotted spoon, submerge the pretzels one at a time into the boiling bicarbonate bath, remove after 30 seconds, drain as much water as possible and place onto a lined baking sheet. This treatment step is important because it gives the pretzels their golden colour and traditional flavour via the Maillard reaction (click the link for more nerdy info). 

Sprinkle the pretzel buns with your desired flavouring, I opted for salt and black cumin (also known as Nigella seeds or fennel flower). Then pop the baking tray into Gas Mark 6 oven until the pretzels are golden brown, around 18 minutes. 

Have the pretzel buns whilst their warm, either plain or slice and add a filling or even dunk in a dip of your choice. 

😋

Enjoy!

 Q x  

*recipe adapted from Sally's Baking Addiction