Vanilla cake with white chocolate mirror glaze and raspberries

 

Ive been seeing a lot of mirror glazing posts on instagram lately and I thought to myself “I want to do that !” But I do have to admit I was quite scared to try this new technique, but to my surprise it was super easy ! You just need to get the consistency right and you’re good to go !

The main elements of this cake are:

• Vanilla sponge
• Vanilla buttercream
• White chocolate glaze

What I have learnt from my experience in the kitchen is that you need to be patient ( which i am still learning )  and to read the recipe thoroughly ! One step at a time is key and to never rush ! So lets get to it !

Vanilla sponge

225g Caster sugar

225g Self-raising flour

2 tsp Baking powder

225g Margarine

4 Eggs

1 tsp Vanilla paste ( any type you can get will do fine)

Vanilla sponge method

The very first thing i do before i make a cake is line my tin with baking parchment. You dooon’t want to make the cake batter and let it sit because the longer you let it sit the higher the chance something may go wrong, for example the the cake may not rise as much as it should. So to be safe ( and prepared) line your cake tin before you start.

1. Weigh your dry ingredients and margarine into a mixing bowl.
2. Add your eggs.
3. With your paddle attachment on your mixer mix till nice and smooth, making sure you scrape down the sides.
4. Once smooth pour into your 20cm round cake tin and pop into the oven at 170 degrees Celsius for about 30 minutes.

Try to avoid opening the oven before hand because the cake will sink, trust me i know ! To check if its ready just instert a clean skewer and if it comes out clean its ready ! Once its ready let it cool in the cake tin for about 5-10 minutes then you can take it out of the tin and leave it to cool on a cooling rack.

Easy right !? Let’s keep at it 🙂

 

Mirror glaze 

19g Powdered gelatine

125ml Cold water

350g White chocolate

200g Sweetened condensed milk

300g Caster sugar

150ml Water

 

Mirror glaze method

1. Place the powdered gelatine with 125ml of cold water in a small bowl and let it bloom and absorb the water.
2. In a saucepan put the condensed milk, caster sugar and water and bring to the boil
3. whilst that’s coming up to the bowl weigh out the chocolate in a bowl
4. Once the mixture has boiled mix in the gelatine till it has dissolved
5. Pour the mixture onto the chocolate till nice and smooth
6. You can now transfer the glaze into a clean container or jug and its ready to use later.

 

Vanilla buttercream 

320g Very soft unsalted butter

900g  sifted icing sugar

100ml whole milk

1/2 tsp  Vanilla paste  ( or whatever you have)

2 punnets of raspberries

1. Weigh out the butter , icing sugar and vanilla in a mixing bowl
2. Add the milk and with your paddle attachment beat on a high speed till the butter and icing sugar are white and fluffy.

** TIP** If your free standing mixer doesn’t have a splash guard I recommend using a clean tea towel to  put over the bowl area so you don’t have a mist of icing sugar all over your kitchen ! I learnt this the messy way 😀

 

Lets assemble this little baby !

So your cake should be cool ✅

Glaze made ✅

Buttercream white and fluffy ✅

 

With your sponge you are going to cut it in half so you are left with a top and bottom. Now you are going to spread some buttercream on the bottom slice of the cake and add your raspberries around the edges so you are left with a circle of raspberries !! Add a bit more butter cream in the circle of raspberries and spread nice and evenly.

Now put the top slice of the cake on top and you can start icing your cake ! Make sure you ice it nice and evenly leaving a nice layer of buttercream around it. My mistake was icing my cake with a thin layer of butter cream ( almost still naked ) then when it came to pour over the glaze you could see through the glaze. ! Ugh it was annoying ! So i stripped off the chocolate and iced it with butter cream AGAIN and glazed it AGAIN! What can i say though practice, practice and more practice! Once you’ve given it a nice smooth coating let it sit in the freezer for 5-10 minutes.

Once you’ve taken your cake out of the freezer you can put you cake on a cooling rack or on an upside down mug with a baking tray underneath to catch the excess glaze, which you can scrape up and use again!  You can now put your glaze in the microwave on 10 second intervals, checking the consistency and mixing each time you put it in the microwave. I think the most i put mine in the microwave was twice. The consistency should be like runny honey ( or just a taaad thicker) before you pour the glaze on your cake give is a nice good mix with a spoon. Start to pour from the middle making your way to the edges, keep pouring till it’s completely covered. Once your happy with your coverage give it a nice good shake to get any excess glaze off and just let it sit for 5 minutes.

Now its ready to be decorated with the raspberries !!! Design it however you please ! I hope you enjoyed making this cake as much as i have !

 

P.s…I’ll try to have progress pictures next time i post !

 

Keep on baking !

 

 

 

 

 

Sweet Pastry Recipe

Here I go, my very first post !

Today I’d like to share with you a sweet pastry recipe. Sweet pastry was one of the first things i learnt whilst i was studying professional cookery so it would make sense this recipe would be the first thing I share with you. I love making sweet pastry because it’s  the base of making any sweet tart for example – lemon meringue tart, chocolate ganache tarts and bakewell tarts etc.

So lets get to it !

Sweet pastry

250g unsalted butter

250g icing sugar

8 ( 160g) egg yolks

550g plain flour

 

TIP * Be sure to weigh out all the ingredients before you start !

Method

Step 1 : Put the butter and icing sugar in a bowl of a free standing mixer. Using the paddle attachment you want to “ cream” these ingredients which basically means you want to mix till the butter and sugar become smooth and creamy. Make sure you scrape down the sides so you get all the butter incorporated. You will want to have a medium to high speed on your mixer for this step.

Step 2: Once your butter and sugar is nice and creamy add your egg yolks one by one with the mixer still running. Let it mix for 1-2 minutes, the mixture should become nice and fluffy !

Step 3: This step can get a bit messy so I suggest using a clean tea towel if your mixer doesn’t have a splash guard . So now you are going to add all the flour into the mixture on a low speed setting mixing till it just comes together.

Step 4 : Now you are going to scrape the mixture on to a clean work surface dusted with some plain flour. ** This step is very important because if you add too much flour the pastry becomes too dry and is very crumbly and hard to work with **  You are now going to pat the pastry with your hand till it forms a nice ball ( sprinkling flour when needed).

Step 5 : Now that your pastry is in a nice ball divide the pastry in 2 batches. You are going to flatten out each batch of pastry on some cling film then wrap each of them in some cling film tightly not letting any air in. You can store one in the freezer to use on a later date and you can store one pastry in the fridge to use sooner, its really up to you.

Step 6 : Once you’ve left your pastry to rest in the fridge for about 30 minutes it’s  ready to use !  On a clean work surface start to work your pastry till it is easier to work with. Dust your work surface with some flour and start to roll out the pastry with a rolling pin till it reaches the thickness of a 10 cent coin. When rolling make sure you keep dusting under your pastry and moving the pastry around to avoid getting stuck on the bench.

Step 7 : Transfer your pastry to a pastry case and press the pastry into the case making sure the pastry is nice and snug. Leave excess pastry hanging over the edges. Let the pastry rest in the fridge for another 20-30 minutes, this will avoid any shrinkage.

Step 8 : Once the pastry has rested you can now put the pastry in the oven to bake at 160 degrees celsius for 20 minutes or until golden.

And there we have it ! You should now have a lovely tart case and you can fill it with which ever filling you’d like ! My absolute favourite filling would have to be lemon curd ! As you can see from the pictures below you can make many many types of tarts !

I hope you enjoyed my first post ! If you do make this recipe let me know how you go !

Thanks again !

I’ll be posting again really soon so stay tuned !!

 

Un- Baked Pastry Case

Lemon meringue tart

Chocolate Ganche tart with Meringue

Poached Quince tart with pistachio and rose water

Lemon Meringue tartlets