Christmas Jars

Christmas time mistletoe and wine means it is jar time!
(And now you've got that song stuck in your head, right?!)

I love jars! I grab them whenever I find cute and interesting ones to use in my pantry.
But now that it's Christmas, it's time to find cute and interesting things to fill the jars with.

If you want to bake treats for jars, there are plenty of things that you can make.
But sometimes you're all baked out, and just need something simpler... so let the recipient do the baking!

This is a chocolate-cake-in-a-jar.
It's the dry ingredients of this recipe, but I've used brown sugar instead of white sugar for visual effect.
Layer it in a 1 litre jar with the cocoa powder at the bottom, followed by half the sugar, then half the flour with the salt and rising agents**. Repeat with another layer of sugar, then flour.
 (**Don't forget the baking powder and baking soda!).
 This jar is actually a little smaller than 1 litre, and the ingredients fit snugly.  So if you have extra space beneath the lid, pack in some chocolate chips or chopped nuts (or both) and add that to your ingredients card.

 (

The ingredients card reads:

Chocolate Cake

Preheat the oven to 180'C

Grease and line 2 x 18cm round cake pans

 or  line 2x 12-hole muffin pans with cupcake cases

Ingredients:

Cake-in-a-jar contents

and

2 large eggs, lightly beaten

3/4 cup oil

1 cup buttermilk or sour cream 

1 tsp vanilla extract

1 cup hot black coffee or boiling water

Sift the jar contents into a mixing bowl;

Add the rest of the ingredients and mix well with a whisk.

Pour into your prepared tins.

Bake at 180'C until a skewer inserted comes out

 with a few moist crumbs attached –

approx 30 minutes if you've used cake pans,

20 minutes if you've made cupcakes

  

Remove from the oven.

Allow to cool before removing from the cake pans.

Another idea that I love is this one (courtesy of Pinterest) -  a jar full of "reindeer noses"!

Use Cadbury Whispers or Woolworths Chuckles mixed in with a few red jawbreakers. So cute!

However, if you do want to bake for your jars, visit the Index of Recipes and Tutorials have a look under the Brownies, Bars and Squares; or the Cookies recipes.  There are plenty of ideas there.


Happy jar-filling!

xxM

Marbled Raspberry Bundt Cake

You know what I love about bundt cakes? Well, let me tell you:

 They can be so simple, yet so impressive. And they go a long way. 

Just the kind of thing you need to feed the extended family that have descended on you for the Christmas holidays... 

This is how simple we're going to keep it:

We're using my not-quite-a-pound-cake chocolate cake recipe; some frozen raspberries, and some icing sugar for dusting.  

And you'll need a bundt pan. (This cake was made in a silicone rosette pan from Clicks). 

That's it. 

:o)

Marbled Raspberry Bundt Cake 
Recipe by Tea, Cake & Create 

Pre-heat oven to 180'C
Grease a large bundt cake pan

Ingredients

40g cocoa powder 
60ml boiling water
320g cake flour, sifted
2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
400g caster sugar
4 XL eggs
1 tsp vanilla extract
250ml sour cream
250ml vegetable oil (canola)
100g frozen raspberries ( a mix of pieces and whole raspberries are ideal)


Mix the cocoa powder in the boiling water; set aside. 

Sift the flour, salt and baking powder into a bowl. 

Using an electric mixer, beat together the sugar and eggs until pale and fluffy. 
Mix in the vanilla extract, followed by the oil.

With the mixer on low speed, add a third of the dry ingredients, followed by half the sour cream.
Repeat. 
End with the last third of the dry ingredients. 

Divide the batter in two equal portions (approximately equal is fine!) 
Stir the cocoa mixture into one of the portions of batter.  
Fold half the frozen raspberries into the other portion of batter. 
Lay the rest of the raspberries into the base of the greased bundt pan. Pour the vanilla / raspberry portion of the batter in next, followed by the chocolate portion. 
No need to swirl the two portions together - they'll expand into each other and create the marbled effect. 

Bake at 180'C for approx. 70 -80 minutes or until a cake tester inserted comes out clean.
(If the outside of the cake is browning too fast, cover with foil and continue to bake at a slightly lower temperature; extend the baking time as necessary). 

Allow to cool in the bundt pan before turning out onto a wire rack to cool completely.

Dust with icing sugar before serving. 

Even your mother-in-law is going to be impressed!

;o)

Happy baking!

xxM 

Christmas Cake Topper

Well, that wraps up Tea, Cake & Create Christmas classes for 2016. (Wish I could say the same for my Christmas gift wrapping!)
And I did get around to using some green - even if it was very much in the background!

Christmas Teddy (and his Southern hemisphere friend) are made out of a modelling chocolate / fondant blend , but because it has been so damp and misty around here lately, I also added some CMC paste to the mix for the bear.

The ratio I use is 1:1 modelling chocolate to fondant.
And if I'm adding CMC paste (the paste, not the powder), I'll add approximately 1/4 of the weight of the modelling choc/ fondant blend.
So, if the blend weighs 100g (50g modelling choc + 50g fondant), the CMC paste added to that would be 25g (a quarter of the 100g).

The cake dummy is covered with a strip of red modelling chocolate / fondant blend around the sides, and a free-hand cut apron of white fondant to create the dripping icing effect.

It's such an easy way to cover a cake with fondant, especially if you've not worked with fondant much - no complicated draping and smoothing required. 

Remember if it's a fruit cake that you're covering, you need to have a layer of marzipan between the cake and the fondant to prevent the fruit acids discolouring the fondant. 

Here's some tips from BBC Good Food on covering fruit cakes: http://www.bbcgoodfood.com/videos/techniques/how-ice-cake

And here's the fruit cake recipe I like to use for Christmas cakes:
http://teacakeandcreate.blogspot.co.za/2012/12/christmas-fruit-cake.html

Happy baking!

xxM

Christmas Cookies 2016

Last year there were some grumbles, (no names mentioned, ahem....Tara...!) about the lack of red in the Christmas cookie palette. I'd used a deep coral pink instead, but apparently that wasn't good enough ;o)

So this year there is red!
But no green.

About 4 years ago I did so many Christmas cookie classes that I couldn't bear to look at the combination of red, white and green afterwards.  I'll get over it eventually, I'm sure. (I do want to travel to Italy sometime, after all!).

Reindeer plaque inspired by Dolce Custom Cookies 

But for 2016, the colours are the same as I used for Christmas cupcakes 2 years ago. (That's how I'm measuring time, now ... in terms of class themes!)

 It feels a little odd making all these snowy creations in southern hemisphere's mid-summer, but it's a colour palette I love working with!

Snowman's scarf cookie inspired by SemiSweet Cookies 

Do you want to see a couple of work-in-progress shots? Heres the snow globe taking shape...

Flooding the background, but leaving a gap for the snowman and filling him in later, gives the cookie an interesting dimension, I think.  Just right for a snow globe... 

You'll find a post on reds here ... (and it just happens to be the last Christmas cookies I made with thattraditional trio of colours!) 

Happy Christmas decorating!

xxM

Kokeshi Figurines

If I'd thought ahead, I could have thrown myself a Kokeshi-themed birthday party this year: a garden full of paper lanterns; platters of sushi; these cookies, and these fondant figurines on a cake  - wouldn't it have been great?!

 But I didn't.
I should at least have made a cake, though. Maybe then my birthday wouldn't have been the non-event that it was!

Let me tell you about it (this was yesterday) - the morning was spent ferrying my son and some of his classmates to their end-of-year school outing; and the afternoon in the Xray dept. Not for my son, but for my daughter who'd fallen badly (with a little help from her brother), and cracked her collarbone.
It was a "special" day, but not for the right reasons! I was very grumpy. Not very Zen!

Today's been better. I've realised that spending the day with my children (despite the challenges and injuries) was a great privilege. So, there - my Zen is back. And besides - after 30 you only need to celebrate the decades, right?!
Kokeshi party 2024...
;o)

 Happy decorating!
xxM 

Kokeshi Cookies

I've really loved the cookie classes we've done over the past few months. So many of them have been themes that I've been meaning to do for a while, and I finally scheduled them ... all of them, it seems!

Now I have to go back to the drawing board and think of what to do next year. Maybe it's time to go back and re-visit some of the early themes.
Re-visit, re-do, and re-move those old photos from the archives... pretend they never happened!

 I cringe when I go back and look at some of the cookies things  I decorated that I was so proud of 4 years ago! And I starting teaching classes while I was still learning myself! (I'm thinking of this kind of cookie... No, no - don't go and look!) Shudder!

 In my defense, there was no-one else around in this area doing it - so I was still offering an interesting experience! Anyway - we learn and grow.Thankfully!

This is the latest set:  Japanese Inspired Cookies. 

Sweetsugarbelle has a great post on how to decorate Kokeshi Dolls here; and for some inspiration on wet-on-wet cherry blossoms (as on the blue fan), watch Haniela's video here.  

Happy decorating!

xxM 

Black and White Ganache Birthday Cake.

So, what do you do when you've got to make a cake for your niece who is turning 18, and the weather is absolutely dismal - 99% relentless humidity. 99% impossible to work with sugar.
(I know...  I talk moan about the weather a lot in spring. And truly, I am grateful for the rain after the drought. But really - this mist could just contain itself a little, you know?!)

Anyway... Chloe's cake.
She's a lovely, easy-going young woman who had requested something yellow, black and white. "But really - whatever, I don't mind".

You'd think that an open invitation like that would make the creative juices flow, but really - it's impossible in this weather! 

So, I settled on a simple ganache'd cake, with yellow flowers and a drip element. (Hoping that the drip would not include the decorations slowly melting away down the sides of the cake!)

The C would never have set by itself (yes... the weather), so it's wired for support:

The flowers dried and then wilted and then dried again - left for a few hours in a room with the aircon on high.

The black ganache is made by adding black food colouring (powdered) to dark chocolate ganache.

The cake itself is layers of alternating dark chocolate and sour cream vanilla, sandwiched together with cookies and cream icing.

I was going to take a picture of a slice, but the monkeys got in and destroyed everything that was left over. Another spring problem... Oh, the joys!

Happy (spring) baking!

xxM

Chocolate Cupcakes with Amarula Ganache Centres

One day I'll write an Ode to Ganache, like there's an Ode to a Grecian Urn.
Ok, so maybe not.
But ganache is always going to be one of my top choices for cakes and cupcakes.
Yes, because of the taste, (and we could just stop there because that would be enough, right?)  but also because it's just so simple to make.
I don't ever whip it though, I bear too many ganache-separating-on-me scars to go there again; besides I'm happy enough with what it does in spread-able form.

So, these cupcakes are not decked with whipped ganache. The ganache here is hidden inside. And also added to the frosting (which happens to be another top favourite - chocolate cream cheese icing)

Amarula ganache
Recipe by Tea, Cake & Create

180g white chocolate, broken up into small even-sized pieces.
60g Amarula**

**Yes - grams. Just weigh your chocolate, and pour the Amarula on top and keep pouring until you reach 60g.... or 1/3rd the weight of the chocolate.
It's a simple 3:1 ratio of white chocolate to Amarula, just like normal white chocolate ganache.

Microwave for 30 seconds.
Stir until smooth.
If some of the chocolate has not melted, microwave again for a few seconds only.
Allow to cool down and set slightly.
Stir occasionally to prevent a skin forming on the surface.

This is enough ganache for 12 cupcakes and some to spare, because you want to (you do, you do!) add any leftover Amarula ganache to the chocolate cream cheese icing.

Chocolate Cream Cheese Icing:
Recipe by Tea, Cake & Create

100g butter
80g sifted icing sugar
250g cream cheese (use a dense cream cheese, like Philadelphia, Lancewood or the Woolworths brand)
50g sifted unsweetened cocoa powder
1 tsp vanilla extract

Cream together the butter and icing sugar.
Beat in the cream cheese, followed by the cocoa powder and vanilla.
Mix until smooth.

How to assemble Amarula Ganache / Chocolate Cupcakes:

Bake your favourite chocolate cupcakes (this is a great recipe here, or here).

Allow them to cool, then use a piping bag fitted with a long plain round icing nozzle to squeeze the ganache into the centre of the cupcakes.

Follow with a swirl of Amarula ganache fortified chocolate cream cheese icing. What a (delicious!) mouthful!

If you like the combination of Amarula and chocolate here's another recipe - http://teacakeandcreate.blogspot.co.za/2014/06/sour-cream-and-amarula-chocolate-cake.html
and another one
 http://teacakeandcreate.blogspot.co.za/2013/11/amarula-chocolate-torte.html
and let's not forget this Amarula Mascarpone Icing! 

Happy baking!

xxM

Halloween Finger Cookies

 Anyone for finger food?
*cackle cackle*

Halloween gets greeted with mixed emotions here in SA, for a variety of reasons, which I understand. But...
It's such a fun theme to decorate!
 And it's really the only time you can get away with a black, purple and orange combination... Which my inner rock-chick loves (once a year is probably enough of that, though!)

Despite wanting to, I wasn't planning on baking any Halloween treats this year because of time constraints. But then I got this idea from the Pick 'n Pay Fresh Living Magazine. And I just happened to have a little left-over cookie dough in my freezer that was perfect for the task.


Halloween Fingers

All you'll need is cookie dough and pumpkin seeds. (The Fresh Living Magazine suggested using almonds, which also make great nails: quite ogre-ish; these are more zombie or witch-like, perhaps?!). 

And some coloured chocolate if you want to make them bloody. 

Roll out a sausage of dough

Use your fingers (or your 6 year old baking assistant's if yours are busy taking photos) to roll indentations into the dough for knuckles

Place a pumpkin seed onto the tip of the finger for a nail. Push it in firmly. 

Use the blunt side of a knife to score creases on the knuckles. 

Bake for 10-12 minutes at 180'C (or until just starting to turn golden). 

Allow to cool. 

Optional - colour a small amount of white chocolate red (use red powdered food colouring), and drip over the severed ends of the fingers. 

And if you don't do Halloween, then maybe they'll work for your next Walking Dead party. But maybe you don't do Zombies either! 

Happy (Halloween) decorating! 

xxM 

Tropical Flower Cookies

My timing of classes over the past few months has been a little off.
I distinctly remember thinking that I should do a monster cookie class for halloween this year, and yet I scheduled it for August. (?!?)
And all these summery, holiday mood classes (Florida Fun Cookies, and More Florida Fun Cupcakes) have been taking place on decidedly un-summery days. I'd take a picture to prove it to you - but just look at a piece of soggy cotton wool, and you'll get an idea of the misty damp conditions outside my window. Nice weather for reading and hot chocolate. Not for sugar work. Grrr!

So, we'll just have to get our rays from a happy sun cookie instead!
:o)

Here's how I made those hibiscus flower cookies:

I don't have a tropical flower cutter, so I just used a normal 5-petal cutter and

a small leaf cutter to change the shape of the petals (any gently curved edge would do). 

Once the cookies were baked and cool, I outlined with royal icing,

then flooded them;

immediately piped a white splodge onto the still wet icing (wet-on-wet); 

added a bit of yellow (wet-on-wet, with flood-consistency icing) 

and used a cocktail stick / scribe tool to drag the white and yellow icing outwards 

Once that background layer was dry, I added another outline and a stamen, using detail-consistency royal icing.

Allow to dry completely before packaging. 

You'll find a recipe for royal icing, and details about consistency here http://teacakeandcreate.blogspot.co.za/2012/07/royal-icing.html

Happy baking!

xxM

Moving on and Banana Bread

And life goes on... Which is how it should be, shouldn't it?
Especially if you have children. (They aren't made with a pause button - major design flaw!).
People have asked me how my two are doing since my mother passed away. They absolutely adored her. But they're just fine - we were honest with them from the start. And they could see for themselves how the person that they loved was no longer there, from months before the end.
Children are resilient.
Or perhaps they're all just mini psychopaths with limited capacity for empathy!


So, one day this week my son reported that his favourite school lunch was banana bread. That really surprised me, because my daughter loves banana bread, and the two of them are chalk and cheese when it comes to food.
So, of course I rushed to make banana bread for school the next day. Only to be told, well, he doesn't actually eat it, but his friends love it so he likes to share it with them.

Aargh!

Anyway, here's the recipe. I used a bit of almond flour in it because I wanted to add nuts, but that child says he's allergic to nuts (in the same way that he's allergic to broccoli and homework...)
But you can substitute it with normal flour.

Banana Bread 
Recipe by Tea, Cake & Create 

Preheat the oven to 180'C
Grease and flour a loaf pan

Ingredients: 

180g sugar
120g butter
2 large eggs
3 ripe bananas, well mashed
60ml sour cream
160g cake flour
100g brown flour
40g almond flour **
1 tsp baking powder
1tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
1 tsp vanilla extract

Cream together the butter and sugar.
Add the eggs, one at a time. Beat well, and scrape down the side of the bowl in between additions.
Beat in the mashed bananas, sour cream and vanilla.
Sift in the flours, salt and raising agents.
Mix well.
Pour into the prepared pan, and bake for approx. 1 hour or until a cake tester comes out clean.

** replace with normal flour if desired. 

Add chopped up pecan nuts, some blueberries, or even chic chips for a few delicious variations. 

Happy baking!

xxM 

PS. Thank you to everyone who has sent messages of condolences - your words and wishes have truly warmed my heart. xxx