Merry Christmas!!

Hello everyone,

Few days late but still within the 12 days of Christmas......so Merry Christmas i hope you all had a wonderful time and hope the new year brings you happiness and health and all that you dream of!

I hope you all enjoyed my Christmas series i didnt quite get as much up as i had origionally planned for personal reasons! However im back and will be uploading tons more recipes and all sorts of good stuff so keep posted and please send in your requests!

I am also planning on starting up a youtube channel so i can demonstrate my recipes in hope that you will all like that, my recipe itself will be up on here and the video / how to demonstration will be up on youtube, so they will work together hand in hand. More details to come when i get started which will hopefully be in the new year! 

I am also going to provide more blog posts and hopefully youtube videos on all things beauty related hence beautybakesandcakes the purpose of my blog and of my soon to be youtube channel its to provide both beauty and baking material.......recipes, reviews, how to guides such as decorating cakes which for obvious reasons will be a lot easier to show you via video on youtube! So please follow and let me know if you have any requests! 

All the best for 2014

Xxx  

Christmas Chocolate Bites

Hello guys! Hope your all well?

Today im going to show you how to make these mouth watering chocolate bites! A rich, moist, light chocolate sponge topped with creamy chocolate buttercream and edible decorations. Perfect for the holidays especially for those who aren't a fan of traditional christmas cakes and mince pies these are a great alternative and are bound to get your chololate loving guests coming back for more! 

  

You will need:

For the sponge:

6oz granulated sugar

6oz butter or margarine

3 eggs

4oz self raising flour

2oz cocoa powder

1tbsp hot water

For the frosting and edible decorations:

1tbsp butter or margarine

500g (aprox) icing sugar (you may need more or less depending on consistency)

2-4tbsp milk

1tbsp cocoa powder

Green fondant

Red fondant

Holly leaf cutter (or cut by hand)

Edible decorations of your choice im using christmas coloured sprinkles and edible silver pearls

 

Method:

For the sponge:

Cream together your butter and sugar until light and fluffy

 

Beat in your eggs one at a time 

Add in your flour and cocoa powder and gently mix until combined

 

Add in your hot water and mix until combined! Dont over mix at this stage only mix until combined

Grease a 7inch square cake tin with butter, spinkle a tablespoon of cocoa powder into the tin and shake the tin until there is an even layer of cocoa powder covering the tin

Place in your batter and bake in a preheated oven at gas mark 4 for aprox 25-30mins or until a skewer inserted comes out clean, once cooked leave to cool for 10 mins in the tin, turn it out and leave to cool for a further 30 mins

 

For the frosting:

Mix together your butter, icing sugar, cocoa powder and 2 tablespoons of milk, your looking for a smooth thick consistency, you may need more milk to thin it out or more icing sugar to thicken it

Next roll out your green fondant, using the holly cutter cut 16 holly leaves and roll small balls of red for the centre of each leaf

Once your cake has cooled, spread on the top a thin layer of the buttercream 

Cut the cake into 16 small squares, TIP everytime you run yoir knife through the cake wipe it clean that way crumbs dont end up stuck to the buttercream

Using a piping nozzle create a swirl in the centre of each cake! No piping nozzle no problem.....spoon a small amount of buttercream in the centre of each cake and use a fork to give it swirl effect

Stick on your holly leaves into the centre of the swirl (you dont have to use holly leaves you can use sweets, mini candy canes, chocolate buttons, whatever you have on hand)

Finish with some edible sprinkles and decorations, top with icing sugar to give a snow effect

What i love about this recipe is you can really decorate it with whatever you like, you dont even have to decorate it, sprinkle some icing sugar on the top and they will look amazing and taste even better!

Hope you are all enjoying my festive recipes! Have you tried any? Any recommendations? Let me know in the comments or follow me on twitter @BeautyandBakes thanks for stopping by :) 

Happy baking

Xxx

 

Cupcake Wreath

Hello everyone,

Hope your all well? Todays a quick post  to show you how to create this simple but show stopping cupcake wreath.....perfect for your holiday table, even better instead of having to slice one cake into individual portions, your guests can simply just pull a cupcake from the wreath!

You will need:

18 cupcakes (see my vanilla cupcake recipe) 

Green frosting

10inch cake board

Mini candy canes 

White fondant

Red fondant

Christmas sprinkles

Firstly arrange your cupcakes onto the board as shown above

Pipe a green swirl or spread the frosting onto each cupcake, joining the cupcakes together, any gaps fill with the frosting

Cut out snowflakes using the white fondant and either use a snowflake cutter or a knife 

Place the snowflakes, candy canes and sprinkles onto the cupcakes

Finish with a red bow, using the red fondant cut out a bow shape, their will be a detailed tutorial soon on how to create a 3d fondant bow so stay tuned for that

Hope you guys enjoyed this quick and easy tutorial, any recommendations please let me know:)

Happy baking

Xxx

Non alcoholic eggnog

Hello everyone, hope your all well?

Today im going to share my recipe for eggnog:) 

You will need:

1pint of full fat milk

3 large eggs

1oz sugar

1tsp cinnamon or nutmeg 

A few pinches of cocoa powder (for sprinkling)

Place your milk, eggs, sugar and cinnamon into a saucepan and whisk together 

 

Place your sausepan on the hob on very low, stir consistently for aprox 10 mins until it thickens enough to coat the back of a spoon, dont let it boil

  

Once thick run your mixture through a sieve

Finally you can at this point pop it in the fridge and either drink it chilled or reheat it later on, or you can have it now while its nice and warm, when you serve it spinkle some cocoa powder on the top and your done! 

Of course you can omit the cinnamon if you like and add your favourite spice like nutmeg, cloves, vanilla and so on , and if you wish to spice it up a bit add a splash of rum or your favourite alcoholic beverage!

Hope you guys enjoyed this recipe, any recommendations? Have you tried this?

Happy baking

Xxx

 

Cinnamon and raisin bread

Hello everyone,

Hope your well? Well its here....December that is and im so excited to start the festivities! Yesterday i opened the first window to my advent calendar (i maybe 23 but its not Christmas to me without an advent calendar hehe), we put up some decorations and the tree and wrapped some presents and to top the day off my family and I even had a turkey dinner! But the most festive and homely part of my day was making this incredible bread! 

To create the festive bread you will need:

500grams strong white bread flour

40grams unsalted butter

1tbsp olive oil

12grams dry active yeast 

1.5tsp salt

300ml warm water

2tsp ground cinnamon

A good handful of raisins ( you could use currents or sultanas too or a mixture)

First add in your flour, butter, salt, cinnamon and yeast to a mixing bowl and stir until combined (when adding the salt and yeast, place the salt at one end of the bowl and yeast at the other, direct contact of the salt and yeast will kill the yeast) 

Next gradullay add your water until a smooth dough is formed, you may not need all of the water, fold in your raisins

Take some of the oil and lightly grease your work surface, take out your dough and knead for aprox 10 mins until the dough is smooth and elastic, your raisins may fall out just keep popping them back in

Use the remaining oil to lightly grease a mixing bowl, place your dough into the mixing bowl and cover the bowl with cling film and leave in a warm place to prove for about an hour or until doubled in size

Once doubled, punch out the air and shape the dough however you like here is an example of a few shapes

If you would like detailed tutorials on ways to shape bread please let me know,

For this recipe i find it best to place the dough into a greased loaf tin, if you dont have a loaf tin mould a ball shape and place the dough onto a greased baking tray

Cover the dough and leave to rise in a warm place for about an hour or until doubled in size 

Pre heat your oven to gas mark 7

Once doubled in size if you like you can slice small slits in the dough to create a diamond or cross pattern then place the dough in the oven for aprox 30 mins or until golden or when turned upside down and knocked it sounds hollow 

Hope your guys enjoyed this blog post, let me know if you have tried this or have any requests!

Happy baking

Xxx