Homemade Krispy Kremes

I LOVE Krispy Kreme doughnuts, and unfortunately I've built up a bit of a reputation with the kids at school, for being able to eat quite a few!

What I don't love, however, is the price. I'm the type of person that tends to walk in a shop and think "I reckon I could do that". So I decided to give these yummy doughnuts a go!

The recipe used here is for baked doughnuts, so they are healthier than the shop-bought version too.

The recipe for the doughnut batter is taken from http://www.taste.com.au/recipes/20358/baked+cinnamon+doughnuts

Ingredients

For the doughnut batter:

• 1 cup milk
• 50g unsalted butter, melted
• 2 1/2 cups plain flour
• 1 1/2 teaspoons instant dried yeast
• 3/4 cup caster sugar
• 1 1/2 teaspoons ground cinnamon

For the topping:

100g milk chocolate
1/3 cup double cream
1 bar Galaxy caramel

Or whatever you fancy!

1. Preheat oven to 200*c.
2. Heat the milk in a heatproof bowl, but do not allow to boil.
3. Stir in 1 tbspn of milk.
4. Sift the flour into a large bowl and stir in the yeast, cinnamon, and 1/4 cup of sugar.
5. Stir in the milk mixture.
6. Turn the dough onto a floured surface and knead for 10 minutes.
7. Place the dough in a glass bowl, with cling-film over the top. Leave for an hour in a warm place, to prove.
8. Turn the dough out onto a floured surface again, and knock the air out of it by kneading again.
9. Roll out the dough until about 2.5cm thick, and cut out circles using a 6.5cm cookie cutter.
10. Using a smaller cutter, cut holes out of the middle (you can cook these middles too, if you wish).
11. Cook on a baking tray, lined with greaseproof paper, for 10-12 minutes, or just starting to brown.
12. When done, brush half of the doughnuts (if you fancy a sugar glaze), with the remaining melted butter. Douse liberally with the remaining sugar.
13. While the other doughnuts are still cooling, heat the cream in a bowl in the microwave until just boiling.
14. Break up the milk chocolate and stir into the boiling cream until melted.
15. Leave this ganache to cool and thicken, and then spread over the top of the plain doughnuts.
16. Stick squares of Galaxy caramel on top.
17. Be prepared to be very popular with your friends!

Octonauts Cupcakes

 

These were great fun to make. In fact, I got so carried away with the details of the characters on top of the cupcakes, I probably spent the best part of 3 hours making these treats. So not a quick-bake, but perhaps one for a rainy day.

 

For those of you who don't know the Octonauts...you should. They are keeping our oceans safe, and thanks to CBeebies, they are Eden's heroes. So combining the Octonauts with cake won me some serious Daddy points.

 

 

Professor Inkling. The brainbox of the Octonauts.

 

The cupcake recipe is taken from 'The Great British Bake Off: How to Bake'.

The icing decorations were made using pictures from one of Eden's books, and lots of icing sugar!

 

 

The first thing I had to read up on was how to make a flat cupcake. My cupcakes tend to rise with a little dome in the middle, which is usually great; not, however, for decorating.

 

Most of the websites I read, advised simply turning down the temperature of the oven for a more consistent bake. There is no 'one-size-fits-all' rule for this, so experimentation is needed! Alas, my first batch of six cupcakes were pushed aside as leftovers.

 

Kwazii. Brave pirate, and Eden's ultimate favourite.

 

 

Ingredients

 

For the cupcakes:

 

• 175g SR Flour
• 125g softened butter
• 175g caster sugar
• 2 eggs
• 1/2 tspn vanilla extract
• 3 tbpsns milk

 

For the icing:

 

• Ready to roll white icing.
• Either ready-coloured icing, or food colouring to add to the white icing.
• A small quantity of icing sugar mixed with water, until 'gluey'.

 

 

 

Peso. The Medic.

 

1. Preheat oven to 150*c (this lower temperature will allow for flat cupcakes).
2. Beat the butter until pale and fluffy.
3. Beat in the sugar and mix for 4 minutes.
4. Beat the vanilla into the eggs, and add this to the butter mixture a spoonful at a time, mixing well.
5. Gently fold in the flour after sifting, in 3 batches, alternating with 1 tbspn of milk.
6. Divide the mixture into cake cases and bake for 20-25 minutes, or until golden and firm.

 

Captain Barnacles. The Daddy.

 

 

7. Now for the fun bit. Roll out some of your white icing until about 1-2cm thick, and using a cookie cooker the same size as the top of your cupcakes, cut out a nice neat circle.

8. Dab a blob of your icing sugar 'glue' on the top of the sponge and press your white circle over the surface, making it as smooth and flat as possible,

9. Then use your coloured icing to construct your characters. Again, use your 'glue' to hold it all together.

10. Your cupcakes are now ready to "Explore, rescue, protect!".

 



 

Red Velvet Cake with Marshmallow Frosting

This cake looks impressive when finished, and the marshmallow frosting is something a bit more exciting and different than good old-fashioned cream!

The recipe for the cake can be found on the BBC Good Food website, and the frosting at allrecipes.com.

Ingredients

350 g plain flour, plus extra for dusting
1 tsp cocoa powder
1 tsp bicarbonate of soda
1.5 tsp baking powder
350 g caster sugar
350 g butter, chilled and diced
200 ml soured cream
1 tsp vanilla essence, plus a few drops for icing
2 eggs, beaten
Red food colouring (as much as needed to turn the mixture to a deep red. Gel is recommended as opposed to liquid colouring).

For the frosting

2 tablespoons unsalted butter       

345g mini marshmallows

55ml double cream

 

 

1. Preheat the oven for 180*c.

2. Sift together the flour, cocoa, bicarb and baking powder.

3. Add the butter, sugar and sour cream, and beat until smooth.

4. Add the vanilla essence to the eggs, and add both to the dry mixture gradually.

5. Finally, stir in your red food colouring until more red, than pink!

6. Add to a greased cake tin, with a based lined with greaseproof paper. Go for a taller tin with a smaller diameter if you want a more impressive finished article.

7. Bake for 30-40 minutes, or until a skewer comes out clean from the middle.

8. While cooling, melt your frosting ingredients in a pan over a low heat. They will quickly form a nice, runny texture.

9. Leave this to cool until a bit firmer.

10. When your cakes are cool, slice in half (or 3 layers) and smother your frosting in between each layer, and generously on top.

11. Enjoy with a dollop of thick cream!

 

Difficulty rating: 7/10

 

Wife rating: "Best cake so far!"

 

Toddler rating: Left the cake, ate the frosting.

 

 

Chocolate Cream Macaroons

 

Macaroons seem to be the treat of the season. I found them to be a bit risky, and not the easiest thing I've made; the type of baking where each step is tricky, and you find yourself checking the oven to see if the recipe has actually worked!

 

Thankfully it did, and here's the tried and tested guide, taken from the BBC 'Good Food' website.

 

Ingredients

125g icing sugar

1 tbsp cocoa

100g ground almonds

2 medium egg whites

 

For the filling:

50g milk or dark chocolate, chopped

2 tsp skimmed milk

 

 

Method

 

1. Preheat the oven to 180*c.

2. Sift the icing sugar and cocoa into a bowl.

3. Stir in the ground almonds.

4. Whisk the egg whites until stiff, and fold them into the dry mixture.

5. Spoon the mixture into a piping bag, and pipe 3cm 'blobs' onto a baking tray lined with greaseproof paper (make sure you leave a little space in between each blob, for rising).

6. Leave the blobs to dry for 15 minutes, and then bake for 15-20 minutes.

7. Cool on the paper, and then peel the now-cooked macaroon shells off.

8. Melt the chocolate over a pan of boiling water, and add the milk. Mix well, and leave to thicken and cool.

9. Spread enough of the chocolate on the flat side of the shells so that it just 'squidges' out when two shells are sandwiched together.

10. Enjoy with a cup of tea!

 

Difficult rating: 8/10

 

Wife rating: "Light and chewy- something for summer".

 

Toddler rating: Ate the shells, not the chocolate!

 

Chocolate cake pops

I've seen these treats creeping into more shops and onto more websites. They look great, although I'd always assumed they were difficult to make; especially as some of the stores in town sell specialist equipment to make cake pops.

However, after a quick scan online, I realised that cake pops are, in fact, an easy make. A perfect way to use up leftover cake, too (not that such stuff is often found in our house).

The recipe below was found on the bbc.co.uk/food/recipes site, with my own quick recipe for the sponge cake replacing the suggested fruit cake.

Ingredients
Approx 400g sponge cake:
110g caster sugar
110g butter
110g self-raising flour
2 eggs, beaten

160g milk chocolate (basics worked fine for me!)

For the cake pop covering:
300g milk chocolate
Sugar strands

1. Mix together sugar and butter until light and fluffy.
2. Gradually mix in the eggs.
3. Finally, sieve the flour into the mixture.
4. Pour the mixture into a cake tin or muffin cases (don't worry too much about presentation as this point; they'll be blitzed in a blender later).
5. Bake for 15-20 minutes in a preheated oven at 180*c or until golden brown.
6. As the cakes cool, melt the 160g of chocolate in a glass bowl, over a ban of boiling water.
7. Blitz the cool cakes in a food processor, until they resemble breadcrumbs.
8. Mix the breadcrumbs into the melted chocolate, and roll into balls, using your hands.
9. Place the balls on a baking tray lined with greaseproof paper, and press lollipop sticks into them.
10. Place in the fridge until cold and firm.
11. Melt the 300g of chocolate using the same method as above.
12. Take the now cold pops and coat them in the melted chocolate. Shake the sugar strands over the cake pops and lay them back on the lined tray, in the fridge, until set.
13. Enjoy!


Difficulty rating: 7/10

Wife rating: "Moist and chocolatey!"

Toddler rating: A whole one consumed in 30 seconds. Success.