Nando's Cake

I’ve never made a cake version of savoury food before, so this was a bit of a challenge. This was a 21^st cake for one of my housemates who is quite partial to the occasional Nando’s meal! I’d like to thank Brighton Nando’s for donating the chip holder, napkins, takeaway wrapping paper and the famous Nando’s “medium” stick.

In order to make this authentic looking, I took a few shortcuts, such as using a shop bought jam roly-poly for the corn on the cob.

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Nando's Cake 

You will need:

For the decoration

• 10” cake board
• Nando’s greaseproof paper
• Nando’s napkins
• Nando’s chip holder
• Nando’s cocktail stick

For the sponge

In order to make the chicken shape, you need both a sandwich cake and a loaf cake. The amounts stated here are divided into equal amounts – one for each tin.

• 2 x 3 eggs
• 2 x 250g self-raising flour
• 2 x 500g caster sugar
• 2 x 500g margarine
• 2lb loaf tin, greased and lined
• 18in round tin, greased and lined

For the buttercream

• 140g butter, softened
• 280g icing sugar
• 1-2 tbsp milk

For the corn on the cob

• Jam roly-poly
• Yellow fondant
• Very small amount of white fondant
• Brown gel food colouring
• Small sponge brush (I used the one on the far left from an Asda paintbrush selection)
  
• Cocktail stick
• Shine spray (I used PME glaze spray, bought on Amazon)
  

For the chips

• 12 Cadbury’s Fudge bars
  
• Golden yellow fondant
• Edible glue
• Red sugar (to be peri peri salt)
  

For the chicken

• 300g pale brown fondant
• Brown gel food colouring
• Golden yellow/orange food gel food colouring 

Method: 

For the sponges

1. Heat the oven to gas 4.
2. Cream the butter and the sugar together until pale with a wooden spoon.
3. Beat in the eggs.
4. Sift over the flour and fold in using a large metal spoon.
5. The mixture should be of a dropping consistency; if it is not, add a little milk.
6. Pour the mixture into the loaf tin and gently spread out with a spatula.
7. Bake for 35-40 minutes until an inserted skewer comes out clean.
8. Allow to stand until completely cool.

Repeat these steps with the second lot of ingredients and cook in the round tin.

For the buttercream

1. Beat the butter in a large bowl until soft.
2. Add half of the icing sugar and beat until smooth.
3. Add the remaining icing sugar and one tablespoon of the milk and beat the mixture until creamy and smooth.
4. Beat in the milk, if necessary, to loosen the mixture.
   

For the corn on the cob

1. Unroll the jam roly-poly until it is about the width of a corn on the cob and discard the other layer.
   
2. Cut a slice about 10cm long.
3. Roll out the yellow fondant to about 1cm thickness.
4. Spread the sponge with a small amount of the buttercream and cover it with the fondant.
5. Scratch the shape of the individual sweetcorn into the fondant with the cocktail stick.
6. Roll out a small amount of white fondant, and cut out two round shapes (about the size of a £2 coin) and stick these onto the ends of the cake with buttercream.
7. Spray the “corn” with shine spray and sponge a small amount of brown gel food colouring onto the cake to look like charring.
   

For the chips

1. Slice the fudge bars into three slices lengthways.
   
2. Roll out the golden yellow fondant.
3. Spread a very small amount of buttercream across the fudge bars, and cover them with a fondant.
4. Repeat this over all the slices.
5. Leave the “chips” to set in the fridge.
6. When set, place the chips into the cardboard chip holder.
7. Brush the top level of chips with edible glue, and sprinkle with red sugar to replicate the “peri peri” salt.
   
    

For the chicken

1. The shape of the cake is created according to the following template.
   
2. Cut the round cake to form the body of the chicken.
3. The two edges cut off should be placed on either side of the top of the cake to build up the chicken “breast.”
4. Cut out a triangle from between these two added bits. (Shown by the black area).
5. Cut the loaf cake into the two thigh shapes, as shown by the template.
6. Roll out the pale brown icing.
7. Spread the entire cake with buttercream.
   
8. Cover the cake with icing, pressing the fondant into all of the crevices and cut away the excess.
9. Using the remainder of the fondant, make two "wings" by rolling out two thick sausage-shapes (about 10cm in length with the diameter of a penny). 
10. Fold these sausages in half, and attach with cocktail sticks to either side of the "chicken."
11. Using the sponge brush, press a mixture of brown and golden yellow gel food colouring over the whole chicken.
12. Press the cocktail stick into the chicken
    

To finish the cake

1. Assemble the constituent parts on the cake board, covered by the greaseproof paper.
2. Add the napkins at one side. 

Now grab a knife and fork and tuck in! 

Love, Chloe xx 

~  Follow me on Twitter @CrumbsCakeBlog ~

Blackforest Pavlova

I wanted to make a quick but impressive looking dessert for Valentine’s day which put a twist on the usual Blackforest flavour combination. I've added salted caramel and combined frozen cherries and fresh cherries for a mixture of textures. The marbled chocolate shards are really easy to make, and add a decorative edge. 

The best part of this dessert is that everything can be prepared in advance, and then the components can be assembled very quickly at the last moment before serving.

I always try and make some kind of plan before I make a cake, so I thought I'd include my scribbles in this blogpost as well! 

 ~

Blackforest Pavlova

You will need: 

For the meringue

• 8 egg whites
• 230g caster sugar
• 230g icing sugar, sifted

For the decoration

• 225g fresh cherries
• 200g milk chocolate
• 400 white chocolate

For the filling

• 200g salted caramel - (I used ASDA Extra Special salted caramel sauce, but you could make your own)
• 600ml double cream
• 350g frozen morello cherries
• 2 tbsp caster sugar

Method:

For the meringue

1. Preheat the oven to fan 100°C and line 4 baking sheets with non-stick greaseproof paper.
2. Tip the egg whites into a bowl and beat with and electric whisk until they form stiff peaks.
3. Begin to add the caster sugar, a spoonful at a time until fully incorporated. The meringue should look thick and glossy.
   
4. Sift a third of the icing sugar into the mixture, then fold it in. Continue to sift and fold in the remaining icing sugar a third at a time.
5. Divide the mixture between the 4 trays, spreading the mixture out into rounds.
6. Bake for 1 1⁄2hours or until the meringues sound crisp when tapped underneath and are a pale coffee colour.
7. Leave to cool on the trays or a cooling rack.
   

For the decoration

1. Cover 3 baking trays in cling film and keep to hand.
2. Melt the white and milk chocolate separately in a bain-marie.
3. Once melted, divide the white chocolate between the three trays equally and pour over. Spread the chocolate into a thin layer with a spatula.
4. Drizzle the milk chocolate over the white chocolate at random.
5. Using the handle of a teaspoon, make “swirly” patterns in the chocolate to create a marble effect.
6. Leave the chocolate to cool in the fridge.
7. Once cooled, break into fragments of different sizes and shapes. There is no accuracy to this, the rougher the better!
8. Set the shards aside until decoration.

(Unfortunately I forgot to take a picture of this stage, but the chocolate marble shards can be seen in the final photos)

For the filling

1. Using an electric whisk, whip the cream until softly whipped. Return to the fridge until required.
2. Place the frozen cherries into a saucepan and heat on the hob until fully defrosted.
3. Strain the cherries, retaining the liquid. Place the cherries aside and return the juice to the saucepan.
4. Add the caster sugar and heat very slowly until a thick syrup is formed. Place this aside until required.

(You could even add a dash of cherry brandy to the reducing syrup for a more grown-up take on the dessert)

Assembling the dessert

1. Place one meringue layer on a plate and cover with a layer of cream, followed by salted caramel and finally a drizzle of the cherry syrup.
2. Dot one third of the frozen cherries all over (as there will be none on the top layer).
3. Place the next layer on and repeat the filling with cream, caramel, syrup and cherries.
4. Repeat until the final layer is placed on the top.
5. Cover this with the remaining cream and then “stud” it with the fresh cherries.
6. Then, stand some of the chocolate shards in the cream on the surface and stick others horizontally between the layers of meringue into the cream filling.
7. Finally, drizzle with the remaining salted caramel and cherry syrup and serve!

You’re finished! This dessert is best eaten in the first 2 days after serving, as the meringue may start to get a little soggy (but if you’re anything like me – the dessert won’t last two days anyway!)

Love, Chloe xxx

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❄️ Gluten-Free Christmas Cake ❄️

This is my take on the traditional Christmas cake, with a few subtle differences (fondant icing use being one of them). This is simply for ease and I prefer the taste. You could easily substitute the fondant icing for royal icing.

This recipe is gluten-free and absolutely packed with dried fruit and nuts. I've suggested a few methods of decoration, as shown by the accompanying photos. This recipe provides the amounts to make the large, round cake shown in the photos. The smaller cake was made by halving the quantities and placing in a 1lb loaf tin.

This recipe can be made in two days, with one day of fruit soaking and making the cake on the second day, if necessary - so it is perfect for last minute baking with everything else going on at Christmas time! However, I'd suggest leaving time for a week of fruit soaking, so that they are nice and plump with brandy and fruit juice to keep the cake moist.

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❄️ Gluten-Free Christmas Cake ❄️ 

You will need:

For the fruit:

• 500g Dried fruit (raisins, cranberries, chopped apricot etc.)
• 100g  Candied peel
• 100g Glacé cherries
• 5tbsp Brandy
• Juice and zest of 1 orange
• Juice and zest of 1 lemon

For the cake:

• 125g Butter
• 50g Muscovado sugar
• 75g Soft brown sugar
• 3 Eggs
• 2tsp Mixed spice
• 1/2 tsp Ground ginger
• Juice and zest of 1 orange
• Juice and zest of 1 lemon
• 160g Gluten-free plain flour
• 1 Green apple (e.g. Granny Smith), grated
• 100g Flaked almonds

For the icing:

• 6 tbsps Apricot jam
• 200g Golden Marzipan
• 300g White fondant icing

For the decoration:

• Icing sugar
• Silver dragées in at least 2 different sizes (I used Asda's own "silver balls" and Dr. Oetker's "chocolate silver pearls") 
• Silver edible paint and paintbrush (optional)

Equipment:

• Piping bag and small round nozzle
• Silver cake board
• Snowflake icing embosser (optional)
• Icicle pattern icing embosser (optional) (Mine was free from a magazine called "Cake Decorating") 
• Ribbon (optional)

Method:

For the fruit:

1. Between 1 day and 1 week before making the cake, soak the dried fruit, candied peel and glacé cherries in the brandy and zest and juice of the lemon and orange in a shallow dish.
2. Stir every now and again to ensure that all fruits are fully exposed to the fruity, alcohol syrup which should be developing.

For the cake:

1. Preheat the oven to Gas 2/150°C.
2. Cream together butter and both types of sugar until fluffy.
   
3. Beat in the eggs, a little at a time.
   
4. Then add mixed spice, ground ginger,  orange and lemon rind & juice.
5. Fold in the flour.
   
6. Stir in the mixed dried fruits, glace cherries, mixed peel which have been soaking, as well as the syrup they have been soaking in.
7. Fold in the almonds and grated apple.
8. Place the mixture into a deep, greased, 20cm cake tin and smooth over the top.
   
9. Bake for  about 2 hours, or until golden and a knife comes out clean.
10. Allow to cool completely in the tin.

For the icing

1. Warm the apricot jam in the microwave for about 20s and then pass through a sieve.
2. Spread a very small amount onto the cake board, and press the cake onto this.
3. Spread half of the remaining jam  over the cake.
4. Roll out the marzipan and lift it onto the cake, pressing it to the sides and trimming any excess.
5. Spread the marzipan with the remaining apricot jam
6. Roll out 250g of the white fondant icing and lift this onto the cake, again pressing the sides and trimming the excess.
7. Leave the icing to set for a few hours.

For the decoration:

1. Combine icing sugar with a small amount of water until a thick, smooth consistency is achieved.
2. Place the icing into a piping bag and squeeze a thin line around the base of the cake, slowly pressing a mixture of different sized silver dragées into the icing.
3. Silver dragées can also be used to decorate the sides of the cake if pressed into small dots of icing. 

Optional extras:

1. You could fix a ribbon around the sides of the cake , attaching the ends with a little of the piped icing
2. You could press an icicle pattern embosser into the sides of the cake to decorate.
3. You could also cut out snowflake patterns with the remaining fondant icing using mould and paint these with edible silver paint.

Hope you enjoy this recipe. 

TOP TIP: Christmas cake is best enjoyed in a daft Christmas jumper and Father Christmas hat! 

 Merry Christmas!

Love, Chloe xx

~  Follow me on Twitter @CrumbsCakeBlog ~

Chocolate and Salted Caramel Cake

This is a cake idea that I came up with for a friend’s 21^st Birthday. I wanted to come up with something that looked quite sophisticated, tasted great and was easy to make (no mean feat!)

Eventually, I came up with a chocolate and salted caramel cake, decorated with fresh strawberries and marbled chocolate shards.

The richness of the chocolate is complemented perfectly by the salt of the caramel and sweetness of the strawberries. The thin chocolate shards also provide a different texture to the cake.

With simplicity in mind, I have taken a few shortcuts with this recipe, such as using ready-made chocolate fudge icing and not making my own caramel. If you wanted to (and had time), you could do these yourself, but I think it tastes just a good with a little bit of cheating! 

 

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Chocolate and Salted Caramel Cake

You will need:

For the cake:

• 175g margarine
• 175g caster sugar
• 3 large eggs
• 150g self-raising flour, sifted
• 50g of cocoa, sifted
• 1tsp baking powder
• 1tsp vanilla extract
• Pinch of salt

For the filling:

• Salted caramel (I used Asda Extra Special Salted Caramel Sauce)
• Betty Crocker chocolate fudge icing

For the decoration:

• 500g strawberries
• 150g milk chocolate
• 150g white chocolate

 Instructions:

For the chocolate shards:

1. Cover a baking tray in cling film.
2. Melt the white chocolate in a bowl over a pan of boiling water (bain marie method).
   
3. Pour the white chocolate across the baking tray.
4. Next, melt the milk chocolate in the same way.
5. Pour the milk chocolate directly over the white chocolate.
6. Taking a teaspoon, make swirling patterns through the two layers of chocolate to get a “marbled” effect.
7. Leave the chocolate to set completely in the fridge, before breaking into large shards.

For the cake:

1. Heat the oven to 180°C. Grease 2x18cm round tins with a little margarine.
2. Put all of the ingredients in a large mixing bowl and beat with a wooden spoon or a hand-held mixer for 1 minute, or until just combined.
3. Spoon the mixture into the tins and bake for 45-50 minutes. A skewer to the centre of the cakes should be pulled out clean.
4. Leave the cakes until completely cool before decorating.

For the filling and decoration:

1. Spread one of the 2 cakes with the chocolate fudge icing, then cover this with a layer of the salted caramel sauce.
2. Spread the rest of the chocolate fudge icing around the sides and across the top of the cake 
3. Taking the chocolate pieces made earlier, press onto the icing around the sides of the cake, slightly overlapping the pieces as you go – (It looks best if they are at different heights to make a more messy outline). Keep a few of the smaller shards or excess pieces to decorate the top afterwards.
4. Next, take the strawberries and remove the leaves. Slice each through the middle.
5. Place the strawberries all over the surface of the cake stalk side down at varying angles.
6. Taking the remaining chocolate, break these into small shards, which can then be stuck into the icing in and around the strawberries.
7. Finally, drizzle a small amount of the remaining salted caramel over the strawberries as a finishing touch!

The cake is now complete. It’s best to eat it as soon as possible (as if you could resist to eat it later), as the strawberry juice can tend to make the cake a little soggy after a while. 

If preparing in advance, leave the strawberries off until the last minute, and keep back a little of the chocolate fudge icing to stick each one individually before serving.

If you wanted to simplify the recipe even further, you could use Betty Crocker’s Devil’s Food Cake mix instead of making your own chocolate sponge.

Hope you enjoy!

Love, Chloe xx 

~  Follow me on Twitter @CrumbsCakeBlog ~ 

Very Pink Piñata Cake

This cake was inspired by as ASDA recipe, which can be found here.

The basic recipe can be adapted in numerous ways: sponge colour, icing colour, using chocolate and variations on the filling, so I think this is a recipe I’ll be using again and again, adapting each time!

This was a birthday cake for a friend who loves all things pretty and pink, so I adapted the original recipe with differing shades of pink icing, and a multitude of pink sweets!

~

Very Pink Piñata Cake 

You will need:

For the cake

• 460g butter, softened
• 460g caster sugar
• 8 large eggs
• 460g self-raising flour
• 4 x 20cm cake tins (or cook in batches if you only have 2 tins)
• Strawberry jam

For the icing:

• Pink Food Colouring
• Red Food Colouring
• 450g butter, softened
• 900g icing sugar
• 1 tsp vanilla extract
• Freeze dried raspberry pieces

For the filling:

• 350g small pink sweets

(I used smarties, dolly mixtures, mini marshmallows, pink sprinkles, pink and white edible pearls, pink and purple sugar hearts, pink sugar crystals, freeze dried raspberry pieces, strawberry lances chopped into 0.5cm lengths)

Instructions:

For the cake:

1. Preheat the oven to 180C/160C Fan/Gas 4. Grease and line 4 x 20cm sandwich tins.
2. Beat together 115g butter and 115g caster sugar until light and creamy.
3. Sift 115g of the flour. Beat in 2 eggs, one at a time, then add a spoonful of the flour.
4. Beat again, then fold in the rest of the 115g flour.
5. Put the mixture in one of the cake tins and level the top. Now repeat the process to make 3 more layers of cake.
6. Bake in the oven for 25 minutes or until the tops spring back when lightly pressed.
7. Remove from the tins and leave to cool completely on a wire rack.

For the icing:

• Using a spoon, mix the remaining 450g butter with the icing sugar, vanilla and 4 tbsp cold water until the sugar is just blended in, then beat with an electric mixer until light and creamy.

Assembling the cake:

1. Cut out 10cm rounds from the centres of 2 of the sponge layers, leaving the other 2 layers whole.
2. Take one of the whole layers, this will be the bottom and stick it to a plate or cake board using a little buttercream.
3. Spread some of the butter icing in a ring on top of this layer, leaving a 10cm circle bare in the centre.
4. Spread a layer of jam onto the buttercream in a ring.
5. Put one of the sponge ring layers on top of the iced bottom layer.
6. Spread icing and jam onto this ring and place the second of the ring layers on top.
7. Fill the hole with the sweets.
8. Spread icing and jam on top of this ring, then cover with the final whole layer.

Icing the cake:

1. Put 2 heaped tbsp icing in a bowl and thin down with 2tsp water. Spread thinly over the sides of the cake.
2. Divide the rest of the icing into five equal portions.
3. Put two portions together in a bowl and colour one shade of pink. Set this aside and only use for the top layer and the surface of the cake.
4. Colour the other portions in differing shades of pink with the red and pink food colouring.
5. Get four plastic piping bags and cut off the ends. Fill each bag with a different colour icing.
6. Pipe the first shade around the base of the cake, then use a palette knife to spread it around the sides of the first layer.
7. Pipe and spread the second shade of icing around the edge of the next layer, and the third shade around the third layer.
8. Pipe and spread the set aside icing around the sides of the top layer, then spread the rest over the top of the cake.
9. To finish, combine any excess icing together and colour in a darker shade of pink.
10. Pipe decorations with a star nozzle around the top and base of the cake.
11. Finally, sprinkle with a few freeze dried raspberry pieces.

Enjoy!

Love, Chloe xx

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