Make, Bake & Celebrate! E-Book

Annie Rigg

• Herausgeber: Ryland Peters & Small
• Kategorie: Lebensstil
• Sprache: Englisch
• Veröffentlichungsjahr: 2014

Beschreibung

Queen of cakes, Annie Rigg knows how to celebrate. This step-by-step book will inspire you to create something special, no matter how new you are to cake decorating. Most of the cake recipes in the book are adapted from one of The Basics where you'll also find frostings and decorating techniques. The chapter For Birthdays will tick all the boxes, from a pretty Meringue Tower to the German Chocolate Cake. If you've always wanted to make your own cake For Kids but have never had the confidence, Annie's step-by-step Chocolate Polka-dot Cake will persuade you to try. Mother's day, Father's day, baby showers, weddings and Valentine's day - all occasions For Someone Special. A special day deserves a special wedding cake, and the three-tiered chocolate cake embellished with storebought French macarons looks so impressive. Everyone needs inspiration For the Holidays, such as a Stack of Stars for Christmas. Annie's simple ideas and step-by-step photos will encourage you to make, bake and celebrate today.Annie Rigg is an experienced freelance food stylist and writer. She has worked on numerous books and best-selling magazines, such as Sainsbury's Magazine, Olive, Delicious, Country Living and Good Food Magazine. She has worked with a number of top chefs, and used to cook for world-famous singers and bands on tour, including Tom Jones, Paul McCartney, Pink Floyd and The Rolling Stones.

Leseprobe

Make, bake & celebrate!

How to create beautifully decorated cakes for every occasion

Annie Rigg

photography by

Kate Whitaker

LONDON NEW YORK

Senior Designer Iona Hoyle

Commissioning Editor Céline Hughes

Production Gordana Simakovic

Art Director Leslie Harrington

Editorial Director Julia Charles

Prop Stylist Liz Belton

Indexer Hilary Bird

First published in 2012

by Ryland Peters & Small

20–21 Jockey’s Fields

London WC1R 4BW

and

519 Broadway, 5th Floor

New York, NY 10012

www.rylandpeters.com

Text © Annie Rigg 2012

Design and photographs

© Ryland Peters & Small 2012

Printed in China

10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2

The author’s moral rights have been asserted. All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying or otherwise, without the prior permission of the publisher.

eISBN: 978-1-84975-322-7

ISBN: 978-1-84975-221-3

A CIP record for this book is available from the British Library.

Library of Congress Control Number: 2012932675

notes

• All spoon measurements are level, unless otherwise specified.

• Ovens should be preheated to the specified temperature. Recipes in this book were tested using a regular oven. If using a fan-assisted/convection oven, follow the manufacturer’s instructions for adjusting temperatures.

• Recipes containing raw or partially cooked egg, or raw fish or shellfish, should not be served to the very young, very old, anyone with a compromised immune system or pregnant women.

• All butter is unsalted, unless otherwise specified.

contents

sprinkles & sparkles

the basics

for birthdays

for kids

for someone special

for the holidays

index

stockists & suppliers

sprinkles & sparkles

When I think of parties or celebrations, I think of friends, family, good times – and of course, cakes, which in truth, feature top of the list. Any excuse – birthdays, weddings, Halloween and Christmas – and my mind starts racing with thoughts of layer cakes, cupcakes, tantalizing flavours, luscious frostings and myriad decorations.

In this book you’ll find a collection of recipes that are far from the everyday run-of-the-mill cakes; these are crowd pleasers and cakes with wow factor, cakes that require a special occasion, a party, a celebration! This kind of cake demands that you bring out your best table linen and fancy chinaware to set the table with. These cakes, being something special, shout “look at me!” and really should be placed centre stage in the middle of the table, served on cake stands and eaten with delicate silver cake forks.

Some of the simpler cakes in this book need nothing more than a crown of candles, while others need a couple of days’ advance planning and preparation. All of the more elaborate cakes can and should be, in part, prepared in advance.

Most of the recipes are large enough to feed a crowd: a triple-layer cake will happily feed 10 people, and a triple-tier rich chocolate wedding cake will feed around 60 guests.

It’s probably not every day that you make cakes for special occasions, so set aside plenty of time to plan and bake your creations – they are definitely not to be rushed and knocked out in an afternoon. Some triple-tier cakes can be baked over a couple of days, so plan backwards from the day you plan to serve it. For example, you can make any gum-paste decorations up to a week before you finally decorate the cake; this gives them plenty of time to dry. The brandied cherries in The Ultimate Black Forest Cake can be made a few days before the cake – in fact their flavour will improve over time.

There are a few simple rules to follow with cake baking, and as most of these cakes can take time, it will help to take note.

I always use good-quality cake pans. It really does pay to spend a little extra for better quality – they’ll last longer, bake evenly and won’t misshape or buckle in the oven.

If you’re making multi-layered cakes, I would recommend that you make sure all the baking pans you use are the same brand and exactly the same size. This way the layers will stack up perfectly.

As always with baking, you really must use the best and freshest ingredients that you can afford: free-range, happy eggs, pure vanilla extract, unsalted butter and good, pure chocolate. Dried fruit and nuts should be fresh – old nuts can give your cakes a rancid and bitter taste. Wash and dry citrus fruit before grating the zest and always use fresh, firm fruit. If you don’t, it will be hard to grate, and the zest and juice will lack punch.

I always keep an oven thermometer in my oven. It’s very difficult to be accurate without one, and it helps to determine where your oven is the hottest.

So, from now on, you have no excuse to let an event or celebration pass without cake. Take your best frilliest apron, get creative with the frosting and pull out all the stops with the piping bag. In my mind, a party is not a party without cake!

the basics

basic cake recipes

For the best results when embarking on any baking, there are a few golden rules that you’d be wise to follow.

Make sure that you weigh and measure the ingredients accurately. Use measuring spoons where necessary as regular cutlery can vary enormously in size – the teaspoon that I use to stir my tea is not necessarily the same size as yours.

Prepare your cake pans according to the recipe before you even start to mix the cake ingredients. I use unsalted butter and nonstick baking parchment to grease and line my pans and sometimes a light dusting of flour if necessary.

If you are using moulded or kugelhopf pans, which are harder to grease, I suggest that you pop the empty pans into the fridge for 15 minutes before brushing the insides with melted butter and dusting with flour. This will help you to be certain that every corner and fold has been thoroughly greased.

When making traditional fruit cakes, I recommend that you wrap the outside of the cake pan in a collar of a double thickness of either brown paper or baking parchment and tie it securely with kitchen twine. This will prevent the outside of the cake browning too quickly during the longer cooking time.

Preheat the oven to the correct temperature using an oven thermometer if possible. This will give you greater accuracy and is all the more important if your oven is on the temperamental side. Position the oven shelves at the correct height in the oven for your pans.

Have all your ingredients ready at room temperature – this generally applies to any dairy produce such as butter, buttermilk, sour cream, milk and eggs.

I find it easier to make my cakes using a stand mixer. It not only makes light work of creaming butter and sugar together, it also whips up beautiful meringues, and in a fraction of the time than it would take by hand. Failing that, you can also use an electric hand whisk.

Rubber spatulas are also an essential part of a cake baker’s kit, making it easy to scrape down bowls and to ensure that every last spoonful of cake mixture makes it into the cake pans, and not onto the fingers and into the mouths of any willing helpers/washer-uppers you may have around.

If you are making multiple cake layers from one batch of mixture, I would suggest that you weigh the batter evenly into the prepared pans to ensure that each cake layer will be the exact same depth once baked.

When you are planning to stack layers of cake or make a cake that should be completely flat on top, if the baked cake has risen, you will need to level it off using a long serrated knife to create a perfectly flat surface.

basic vanilla cake

350 g/2⅔ cups plain/all-purpose flour

3 teaspoons baking powder

1 teaspoon bicarbonate of/baking soda

a pinch of salt

225 g/2 sticks butter, soft

350 g/1¾ cups (caster) sugar

4 large eggs

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

250 ml/1 cup buttermilk, room temperature

two 23-cm/9-inch or three 20-cm/8-inch round cake pans, greased and baselined with greased baking parchment

Preheat the oven to 180°C (350°F) Gas 4.

Sift together the flour, baking powder, bicarbonate of/baking soda and salt.

Cream the butter and sugar in the bowl of a stand mixer until really pale and light – at least 3–4 minutes.

Lightly beat the eggs and vanilla together. Gradually add to the creamed butter in 4 or 5 additions, mixing well between each addition and scraping down the bowl from time to time with a rubber spatula.

Add the sifted dry ingredients to the bowl alternately with the buttermilk. Mix until smooth.

Now turn to the relevant recipe and continue with the instructions, or if you want to bake the cake, divide the mixture evenly between the prepared pans and spread level with a palette knife. Bake the cakes on the middle shelf of the preheated oven for about 25 minutes or until a skewer inserted into the middle comes out clean.

Let cool in the pans for 3–4 minutes, then turn out onto a wire rack to cool completely.

basic chocolate cake

125 g/4 oz. dark/bittersweet chocolate, chopped

300 g/2⅓ cups plain/all-purpose flour

25 g/3 tablespoons cocoa powder

2 teaspoons bicarbonate of/baking soda

½ teaspoon baking powder

a pinch of salt

125 g/1 stick butter, soft

200 g/1 cup (caster) sugar

200 g/1 cup packed light brown soft sugar

4 large eggs, beaten

2 teaspoons vanilla extract

225 ml/1 cup sour cream, room temperature

175 ml/¾ cup boiling water

two 23-cm/9-inch or three 20-cm/8-inch round cake pans, greased and baselined with greased baking parchment

Preheat the oven to 180°C (350°F) Gas 4.

Melt the chocolate in a heatproof bowl set over a pan of barely simmering water, stir until smooth, then let cool slightly.

Sift together the flour, cocoa powder, bicarbonate of/baking soda, baking powder and salt.

Cream the butter and both sugars in the bowl of a stand mixer for 3–4 minutes.

Gradually add the beaten eggs to the creamed butter in 4 or 5 additions, mixing well between each addition and scraping down the bowl from time to time with a rubber spatula. Add the vanilla and melted chocolate and mix again until combined.

Mix one-third of the sifted dry ingredients into the mixture, then half the sour cream. Repeat this process and finish with the last third of dry ingredients. Mix until smooth. Slowly pour in the boiling water and mix until smooth.

Now turn to the relevant recipe and continue with the instructions, or if you want to bake the cake, divide the mixture evenly between the prepared pans and spread level with a palette knife. Bake the cakes on the middle shelf of the preheated oven for about 25 minutes or until a skewer inserted into the middle comes out clean.

Let cool in the pans for 3–4 minutes, then turn out onto a wire rack to cool completely.

whisked almond cake

50 g/3 tablespoons butter

50 g/½ cup ground almonds

150 g/1 cup plus 3 tablespoons plain/all-purpose flour

1 teaspoon baking powder

a pinch of salt

6 large eggs

150 g/¾ cup (caster) sugar

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

two 23-cm/9-inch or three 20-cm/8-inch round cake pans, greased and baselined with greased baking parchment

Preheat the oven to 180°C (350°F) Gas 4.

Melt the butter and let cool slightly.

Sift together the ground almonds, flour, baking powder and salt.

Put the eggs, sugar and vanilla in the bowl of a stand mixer and whisk on medium–high speed until the mixture has trebled in volume, is thick, pale, very light and will leave a ribbon trail when the whisk is lifted from the bowl.

Using a large metal spoon, gently fold the sifted dry ingredients into the egg mixture. Pour the melted butter around the inside edge of the bowl and gently fold in.

Now turn to the relevant recipe and continue with the instructions, or if you want to bake the cake, divide the mixture evenly between the prepared cake pans, spread level and bake on the middle shelf of the preheated oven for about 20 minutes or until golden, well risen and a skewer inserted in the middle comes out clean.

Let cool in the cake pans for a couple of minutes before turning out onto a wire rack to cool completely.

light fruit cake

100 g/⅔ cup undyed glacé cherries

50 g/⅓ cup blanched almonds

50 g/⅓ cup mixed candied peel

75 g/½ cup dried cranberries (optional)

500 g/1 lb. mixed dried fruit (sultanas, [golden] raisins and currants)

grated zest of 1 lemon

grated zest of 1 orange

275 g/2¼ cups strong white bread flour or plain/all-purpose flour

50 g/½ cup ground almonds

1 teaspoon baking powder

a pinch of salt

225 g/15 tablespoons butter, soft

150 g/¾ cup golden caster/raw cane sugar

75 g/⅓ cup golden syrup/light corn syrup

3 large eggs, lightly beaten

2 tablespoons brandy or milk

deep, 20-cm/8-inch round cake pan, lined with a double layer of greased baking parchment

extra baking parchment

kitchen twine

Preheat the oven to 150°C (300°F) Gas 2.

Wrap the outside of the cake pan in a double thickness of baking parchment and secure with kitchen twine.

Rinse the glacé cherries under warm water, thoroughly pat dry on kitchen paper/paper towels, cut in half and tip into a large bowl. Roughly chop the almonds and add to the bowl along with the mixed candied peel, dried cranberries, mixed dried fruit and the grated lemon and orange zest. Mix well and set aside.

Sift together the flour, ground almonds, baking powder, and salt.

Cream the butter, sugar and syrup in the bowl of a stand mixer until really pale and light – at least 3–4 minutes.

Gradually add the beaten eggs to the creamed butter in 4 or 5 additions, mixing well between each addition and scraping down the bowl from time to time with a rubber spatula.

Add the sifted dry ingredients to the bowl using a large metal spoon. Add the dried fruit mixture and the brandy, stir to thoroughly combine and spoon into the prepared cake pan, scraping the mixture from the bowl using a rubber spatula. Spread level and bake just below the middle of the preheated oven for 1 hour 40 minutes or until a skewer inserted in the middle of the cake comes out clean. If the top of the cake is browning too quickly, loosely cover with a sheet of baking parchment.

Let cool completely in the cake pan on a wire rack. When cold, wrap in clingfilm/plastic wrap until ready to decorate.

classic rich fruit cake

150 g/1 cup undyed glacé cherries

200 g/1⅓ cups raisins

200 g/1⅓ cups currants

200 g/1⅓ cups sultanas/golden raisins

100 g/⅔ cup mixed candied peel, finely chopped

100 g/⅔ cup roughly chopped almonds

2 teaspoons mixed spice/apple pie spice

2 teaspoons vanilla extract

grated zest and juice of 1 lemon

grated zest and juice of 1 orange

200 ml/¾ cup brandy, marsala or whisky

200 g/1⅔ cups plain/all-purpose flour

50 g/½ cup gound almonds

1 teaspoon baking powder

a pinch of salt

250 g/2 sticks butter, soft

200 g/1 cup light muscovado sugar

50 g/3 tablespoons golden syrup/light corn syrup

4 large eggs, beaten

deep, 23-cm/9-inch round cake pan, lined with a double layer of greased baking parchment

baking parchment

kitchen twine

Wrap the outside of the cake pan in a double thickness of baking parchment and secure with kitchen twine.

Rinse the glacé cherries under warm water, thoroughly pat dry on kitchen paper/paper towels, cut in half and tip into a large saucepan.

Add the dried fruit, almonds, spice, vanilla, grated orange and lemon zests and the juice and brandy to the saucepan. Set over low–medium heat and warm until the liquid is just below boiling. Immediately remove from the heat, stir and leave until cold and the fruit has become plump, juicy and has absorbed almost all the liquid about 3–4 hours. Stir the mixture every 3 minutes or so while cools.

Preheat the oven to 150°C (300°F) Gas 2.

Sift together the flour, ground almonds, baking powder and salt.

Cream the butter, sugar and syrup in the bowl of a stand mixer until really pale and light – at least 3–4 minutes.

Gradually add the beaten eggs to the creamed butter in 4 or 5 additions, mixing well between each addition and scraping down the bowl from time to time with a rubber spatula.

Add the sifted dry ingredients to the bowl using a large metal spoon. Add the dried fruit mixture and any remaining liquid, stir to thoroughly combine and spoon into the prepared cake pan, scraping the mixture from the bowl using a rubber spatula. Spread level and bake just below the middle of the preheated oven for about 2 hours or until a skewer inserted in the middle of the cake comes out clean. If the top of the cake is browning too quickly, loosely cover with a sheet of baking parchment.

Let cool completely in the cake pan on a wire rack. When cold, wrap in clingfilm/plastic wrap until ready to decorate.

basic frostings & fillings

No self-respecting celebration cake is complete without its finger-licking frosting and filling. And for some eager cake-eaters that I know, the frosting is the best part and they will happily scoop up spoonfuls without needing even a crumb of cake! I’m mentioning no names… Most of these frostings can be piped into elaborate swirls and rosettes or simply spread in generous swooshes using a palette knife. Or eaten straight from the bowl if your name is Kate.

Once the cake is baked and you’ve made the frosting, it’s a good time to get the kids involved. Only attempt this if you are happy for your cake to look a little less refined and a little more lovingly homemade! If it’s a surprise for Father’s Day or a a birthday, for example, kids will love to help out and get messy with a piping bag. Start with something very simple, like the Lemon Poppy Seed Cake on page 28, or let them roll the Mini Iced Gem Cakes in the sugar strands/jimmies on page 62. Older or more confident children might like to try piping the rosettes around the Chocolate Dazzle Drop Cake on page 50. However, do be wary of letting children lick the spoon if the frosting contains raw eggs.

chocolate ganache

This rich chocolate frosting is an ideal partner for a more sophisticated cake. Give it the quality it deserves by using chocolate with 70% cocoa solids.

200 g/6½ oz.dark/bittersweet chocolate, finely chopped

225 ml/1 cup double/heavy cream

2 tablespoons light brown soft sugar

50 g/3 tablespoons butter, diced

Put the chocolate in a medium bowl.

Put the cream and sugar in a small saucepan and heat until only just boiling and the sugar has dissolved. Pour the hot cream over the chocolate and let melt for 5 minutes. Add the butter and stir gently until smooth. Let thicken to the desired consistency before using.

cream cheese frosting

Always use good-quality cream cheese for frosting, as some brands are more salty than others, and add the honey or maple syrup according to taste.

300 g/10 oz. cream cheese

50 g/3 tablespoons butter, soft

2–3 tablespoons (clear) honey or maple syrup

1 teaspoon vanilla extract or the seeds from ½ vanilla pod/bean

Tip the cream cheese into a bowl, add the butter and mix until smooth. Gradually add the honey or maple syrup to taste. Add the vanilla and mix until smooth.

chocolate fudge frosting