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Vanilla Cake and Chocolate Dipped Cookies



BIG CAKE RECIPE/CUPCAKE RECIPE
Ingredients
Plain Flour 250g
6 Medium Free-Range Eggs
Granulated Sugar 200g
Butter 250g
1½ tsp baking powder
1½ tsp vanilla extract
1 tsp lecithin or 1 shot brandy/rum; for preserving (not necessary depending on the length of time the cake will be kept for)

Preparing the cake
·         Start off by creaming the butter and sugar. Using a mixer, mix the soft butter (i.e. the butter is not to be refrigerated) and sugar till the mixture is completely soft/smooth i.e. the sugar is very much incorporated in the butter, such that you can hardly feel the grains of sugar. Another sign of course is that the colour becomes sort of creamy. This step takes 30-45 minutes and at most 1hour.
·         Rub all the sides/edges of the cake pan with butter, to ensure that the cake does not stick to it as this will cause the cake to break. You may also sprinkle some flour slightly into the pan to aid the greasing in preventing the cake from breaking.
·         Turn on the oven to 150̊ C and leave to heat while you whisk all the eggs together till it’s completely smooth.
·         Add the whisked egg to the creamed butter and sugar and mix again using a mixer till it is soft.
·         Add the vanilla extract to the mix (you may use other flavours) and add the rum/brandy if you wish to keep the cake for some time. If it is Lecithin you want to use, wait and add it at the next phase to the baking powder and flour as it is in a powdery form (carefully mix it well)
·         Add baking powder to the flour already sieved using a sieve or sifter. Afterwards, add the sieved mix in bits to the ingredients above till it is completely incorporated and smooth.
·         Next, pour the cake mix into the pan and level it using a cake leveler (I use Wilton’s cake leveler). Or you may shake and drop the pan till it looks quite levelled. After this, place the cake on a rack in the oven to bake. It takes 1½ or 2hours to bake a proper cake (SOGGY CAKES ARE NOT MY THING)

·         After this time, gently dip a knife into the center of the cake to check if it is done/well baked. If the knife comes out clean, then it is. Bring the cake out of the oven and drive a knife around the edges of the cake to ensure the cake is not stuck to the pan.
·          After few minutes, turn the pan upside down onto a clean surface to bring out the cake neatly. Leave to cool.




FOR CUPCAKES;

It is the same process in all. However, you will use cupcake trays which usually come in 12 cups and at most 16 (THAT I HAVE SEEN LOL…THERE MAYBE 100 WHO KNOWS…:P LOL). In those trays, clean and dry; line the cups with cupcake liners and pour the cake mix into each cups, but halfway of the cups and not full as you don’t want the cake to over rise and form a wrong shape. Afterwards, place in the oven and leave for about an hour to an hour and a half. A cupcake usually doesn’t take much time to bake as a big cake in the pan. And that’s it!!! Levae to cool and waiting for decoration.

BUTTERCREAM ICING RECIPE

Ingredients

Softened Butter 300g
Icing Sugar 500g
Half cup Milk
Food Coloring
Cooking Chocolate 50-90% cocoa 250g

Preparing the Icing
·    Place the butter in a bowl and add icing sugar to it in bits. Beat the mix step by step until it’s completely smooth.
·      Add 2 tbsp of milk to the mix and beat until completely smooth. Separate the mix into two.
·     For the CUPCAKES, using the first half of the icing, before adding any coloring, you will divide the icing into 3 portions and add 2drops of vanilla and red coloring to two portions of the icing and mix till it is well blended. For the last chocolate icing, you will need to melt the cooking chocolate. This is done by breaking the chocolate bars into tiny pieces, placing them in a bowl and putting them in a microwave for 2minutes. Stir until the chocolate is melted.
·     After this, mix a bit of the melted chocolate with the last portion of icing and your chocolate icing is ready.

In decorating the BIG CAKE, you will need a spatula, but first:

Mix a large portion of the melted chocolate with the second portion of the icing.
Place the cake on the serving board, adding a large amount of icing on the center of the cake.
Spread icing across the top of the cake and toward its edges; making smooth the cake’s top using a spatula. Brush the edge of the spatula from the circumference of the cake to its center and lift it off to remove excess icing. Place excess icing back in the bowl.
Spread icing on the sides of the cake and smoothen it by holding the edge of the spatula upright against the icing and sweeping round the board without taking the spatula off the icings surface.
Spin the cake slightly and repeat the process from the start to the end. To make smoothing easier, you may add 3 tbsp of corn syrup to make the icing spread easier or constantly dip the spatula in hot water, dry it and continue work.

For the white chocolate sprinkles, I grate some bars of white chocolate in a place and sprinkled on the edges and top of the cake (Be generous with the chocolate)

USING A PIPING BAG AND PIPING NOZZLE

Set your nozzle to fit into your piping bag with the tip poking out the bottom of the bag          

Fill the base of the back with icing using a wooden spoon or spatula

Roll on the top of the bag with the nozzle directly on top of the cake or cupcakes, gently squeeze the icing out of the nozzle in an anticlockwise manner. And Ce Fini.        


CHOCOLATE DIPPED COOKIES RECIPE
P.S: My cookies are so ugly..it was done in a rush…I bet you can do much better than that.
Ingredients
3 cups Plain Flour
Softened Butter 200g
1 tsp Vanilla
Chocolate chips 115g
Granulated Sugar 170g

Preparing the Cookie
·         In a large bowl, mix the butter, sugar and vanilla with spoon. Mix with flour
·         Heat the oven to 170̊ C.
·         Sprinkle flour on a neat surface. Roll the dough half an inch thick on the surface. Cut the cookie into shapes using cookie cutters.
·         Place the cut cookie onto cookie sheets and put in the oven to bake for about 15-20 minutes. Bring cookie sheet out of oven and leave to cool for few minutes.
·         Put chocolate chips into a bowl and microwave until completely melted and smooth.
·         Dip a side of each cookie into the melted chocolate and leave on wax paper until the chocolate is solid.
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