Baked: XXL Jammie Dodgers

The Great British Bake Off is back and the nights are drawing in, This can mean only one thing - my baking addiction is back in full force.

This Friday night I opted to stay in and get my bake on for my friend's charity fair on the Saturday. I usually opt to bake cupcakes for special occasions but inspired by the biscuit towers on The Great British Bake Off I decided to give Jammie Dodgers a go but with a twist... they were to contain custard and be bigger than your average biscuit.

How I did it:

I decided to use Edd Kimber's Custard Cream recipe which makes very short biscuits with custard powder in the biscuit mix. These are very tasty biscuits but not overly sweet which can be an issue when you then layer custard buttercream and jam inside.

Due to the size I was making my biscuits I had to make a couple of batches of these custard creams but it is quite an easy recipe to follow so this wasn't a hardship.

I then cut small heart shapes into half the biscuits so that the jam could poke through typical of a Jammie Dodger. For the jam I just used a homemade raspberry jam but you could use any jam depending on your preference.

These biscuits are very crumbly so a steady hand is key and so is patience. A couple of my early tries went wrong because I didn't let them cool completely and was heavy handed with the pallette knife when spreading the custard buttercream on. I opted to do a thin layer of custard buttercream topped with a generous layer of jam.

Unfortunately, due to a continued bug since my trip to Tunisia I didn't get the chance to try the biscuits once assembled just tasted the mix as I went along. However, judging by people's faces during the charity fair I think they were a huge success (no pun intended!)

The only downside to these biscuits is that they are just too big to dunk in your cup of tea!

What biscuits would you like to see made bigger?

Mojito Cupcakes - a Father's Day Treat

This Sunday is Father's Day but as I am a bad daughter I will be spending this Sunday recovering from a hangover after a Flat Crawl on Saturday night. So, to redeem myself, I visited my Dad last weekend and baked a batch of the Hummingbird Bakery's Mojito cupcakes.

My Dad is a massive fan of mojitos and the sun was shining on Saturday so these were the perfect treat enjoyed outside with a pot of tea. I was surprised I liked them - I am not usually a fan of alcoholic sweet treats but the zingy lime and fresh mint off set the rum really well.

And... they aren't too tricky to make either... although I did deviate slightly from the recipe choosing to cut my lemon and lime zest into small cubes instead of grated as I like to get that sharp taste of lemon or lime in a hit rather than dispersed throughout the cupcake. I also chose not to decorate the top with caster sugar coated mint leaves as suggested but instead opted for more cubed lime zest and a mint leaf - sometimes you can just have too much sugar!

Mojito Cupcakes!

Makes 12 medium sized cupcakes or 20-30 mini cakes

For the sponge:

100ml White rum
170g Caster sugar
40g Unsalted butter, softened
120g Plain flour
1/4 tsp Salt
1 1/2 tsp Baking powder
1 tsp Grated lime zest
1 tsp Grated lemon zest
1 tbsp Finely chopped mint
1 large egg
120ml Milk
1/2 tsp Vanilla essence

Preheat oven to 170deg C and line a muffin tin with cases

In a saucepan bring the white rum and 30g of the sugar to the boil, reduce by half and set aside.
Beat together the butter, flour, salt, baking powder, lime and lemon zest, mint and remaining sugar. Mix until you have a crumb like consistency.
Mix together the egg milk and vanilla in a jug and gradually pour this into the dry mix mixing until you have a smooth batter.

Spoon cake batter into the cases up to 2/3 full. Place in the oven and bake for 12-15 min's for mini cupcakes or 15 to 20 for bigger or until the cakes are a light golden brown and springy to the touch.

While the cakes are still warm spoon the rum reduction over them (1/2 tsp for mini cakes 1tsp for bigger approx) Then leave to cool completely!

For the frosting

80g Unsalted butter
250g Icing sugar
1/4 tsp lemon zest
1/4 tsp lime zest
4 tsp milk
4 tsp White rum

1tbsp caster sugar
1 tsp chopped mint or lime zest

Using and electric whisk, beat together the butter, icing sugar, lemon and lime zest until combined in a sandy consistency. Stir together the milk and rum and pour this into the butter mixture while still beating, whisk until light and fluffy.
Divide the frosting between the cakes. To finish, mix together the caster sugar with either 1 tsp of mint or lime zest and sprinkle over the top.

This recipe is from the Hummingbird Bakery's Cake Days and one of my favourite cake recipe books. My only niggle is the typical over use of butter icing or frosting which seems to be typical of american cupcakes but that can be easily substituted for a cream cheese or yoghurt frosting.

Now to try the Pina Colada cupcakes...