Caramel Sweetness

Exam season is stressful, so as you can imagine, baking and cupcake experimenting came to a near hault. But thankfully that's finally over and now looms the ever nearing results day. 

Nevertheless, making scrumptious new creations made revision and the dreaded wait that little more bearable. These adorable caramel cupcakes were made quite a while back but with all the revision and exams I just didn't have the chance to blog about them. They were well received by my family and all my work friends and I was complimented that they looked like Starbucks frappacinos, which was not intentional but I do agree. 

As usual it was a simple vanilla sponge but the twist came with a new caramel frosting. I prefer to change the flavour of the frosting and keep the sponge nice and simple. I kinda cheated a little this time as well because I didn't make my own caramel... When you've got delicious tinned caramel readily available, there's no need. At least that's what I tell myself ;) 

For the frosting:

500g icing sugar, sifted

160g unsalted butter, softened

50ml whole milk

100g tinned caramel or dulce de leche

1. Using a freestanding electric mixer with the paddle attachment or the hand-held electric whisk, gradually mix the icing sugar and butter together on a low speed until combined and there are no large lumps of butter. 
2. Gradually add the milk while mixing on a slow speed. Add the dulce de leche and mix thoroughly. 
3. Turn up the speed and beat until light and fluffy.

I found that the frosting on its own simply wasn't enough so I used the leftover caramel for decoration. I think these are one of the most attractive bakes I've ever done. The additional caramel decoration just made them a little bit more interesting seeing as I used a simple round nozzle for the piping. They turned out great. New recipe to add to the ever growing collection ready for my dream bakery!

This recipe was inspired by one of the recipes in the Hummingbird Bakery cookbooks. I love some of the cakes they make and they always look delicious. However, I do like to use their creations as a guide and see what I can do to change them and make them something a little bit different. 

If you do try out this recipe, please let me know in the comments and if you can, send me a picture of how yours turn out. Please leave any other tips and tricks you have for baking, I would love to hear from any readers. 

Enjoy 

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It's Cheesecake Time!

My summer holiday baking began with a trip to France as part of an exchange visit. The little town of Auxerre where I am staying has some amazing little patisseries and boulangeries. While I'm here there has been a party at the family's house. Afrer hearing about my passion for baking they asked me if I could make some sort of dessert for the party - how could I say no! Knowing that they love cheesecake I thought I would put my skills to the test and bake my very first cheesecake. If I'm honest, I'm pretty damn proud of how it turned out :D 

I made a caramel apple cheesecake called 'Made in Normandy'. It's a French recipe so I had to translate it into English. So here it is:

300g digestive biscuits

80g melted butter

80g flour

80g brown sugar

400g ricotta 

500g cream cheese

1 tbsp crème fraîche

150g caster sugar

1tbsp vanilla extract 

5 eggs

6 apples (golden delicious or gala) 

10 salted caramel sweets 

1. Preheat the oven to 180°C. 
2. Crush the biscuits into a fine crumb, and then add the melted butter, brown sugar and flour. Mix the ingredients together and spread evenly into the tin. Bake for 10 minutes then cool in the fridge.
3. Whisk together the ricotta and cream cheese until fully incorporated. Add the crème fraîche, sugar and vanilla extract. Then add the eggs one by one.
4. Peel and grate 2 apples and add to the cream mixture. Cut up the caramels and add them as well.
5. Mix well and pour into biscuit base tin. Cook for 50 to 55 minutes or until golden and the middle ‘wobbles’.
6. Let the cheesecake cool and then place in fridge for 12 hours.
7. Before serving remove the cheesecake from the tin – a loose bottom cake tin helps wonders for this. Peel and prepare the apples to decorate the cheesecake. Drizzle over with melted caramels and serve. 

I'll be honest, it probably wasn't the best cheesecake I've ever had. But then again, it was the first time I've made one. The one criticism I have was that the amount of caramel drizzled on top was not nearly enough, as I would have liked it to trickle down the side a bit. So I will be trying this recipe out again and see if I can improve it. 

I hope you will try out this recipe as well and send some photos of your creations. Also, if you have any tips about baking that you would like to share please comment them below. I would love to hear from any readers.

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