Great British Bake Off Teacakes - Silicone Semi Sphere Moulds

I guess lots of you have been watching the BBC2 Great British Bake Off television series. Rather unmissable watching for any aspiring baker ! Paul Hollywood and Mary Berry set the bakers some rather tough challenges indeed. There has literally been blood, sweat and tears put into the series.

One of my favourite episodes was when they made chocolate teacakes. Teacakes are a thin chocolate shell filled with a light marshmallow creme and finished with a digestive biscuit as the base.

The 6 cell semi sphere / half round moulds required to make these are available for just £5.99 each here

The bakers had to make these on the hottest day of the summer. Many had problems getting the chocolate to temper and set, as the ambient temperature was higher than the setting temperature of the chocolate. A challenge indeed ! I'm rather glad it wasn't me making them that day.....

Anyway, I decided to have a go at making these delicate orbs. Not faced with a blistering hot summer day or the pressure of a competition, they really were quite easy to make. Aside from the disruption of a not-quite-four-year-old practically flooding the bathroom whilst I was in the process...

If you don't know how to temper chocolate, I did write a short guide.

The recipe as used on the program can be found on the BBC website via this link 

Always the one to attempt something a little different, I had a play at spattering white and gold coloured cocoa butters into the molds prior to creating the chocolate shell by flicking it from the end of a brush. This gave them a sparkly and almost cosmic appearance and I was delighted with the finish.

The GBBO recipe calls for 400g of dark chocolate, whereas I used 200g of milk and 100g of 70% dark chocolate with plenty left over. I poured a small amount of tempered chocolate into each cavity and simply held the mould at different angles until the inside of cell had the thinnest coating of chocolate, letting any excess run back out into the chocolate bowl for reuse.

I will admit - I was rapidly running out of time trying to complete these BEFORE going into work, so I did cheat and used a chocolate digestive biscuit as the case and sealed it in with more chocolate.

The packet biscuit was a perfect size and thickness for the job, but it was a bit on the hard side - I think homemade would have been better without doubt. The marshmallow creme was also a bit over sweet for my liking and there was easily enough to fill 12 shells rather than 6 as stated....I intend having another go at these and will be making the biscuits this time and playing around with the marshmallow creme filling !

Happy Baking to any of you having a go at the baking challenges. 

Sarah-Jane Nash - www.siliconemoulds.com

Blueberry Financiers - Pretty Little French Almond Teacakes

If you have never before eaten a financier, you don't know what you are missing !

These are actually quite simple to make. They have a shocking amount of butter, which when browned, makes them very luxurious with a rich nutty taste. Highly calorific too I'm afraid .... that's the bad bit.

For these financiers, I used our 12 cell sponge finger silicone bakeware mould.

I sprayed the inside with a little cake release spray and rubbed it in to the corners before pouring in the batter

Recipe

70g ground almonds

105g icing sugar

35g flour

92g of salted butter - that way I needn't bother adding salt !

92g of egg whites (that worked out exactly on 3 eggs)

1/2 tsp of baking powder

1/4 tsp of vanilla extract

small double handful of fresh blueberries

Preheat fan oven to 230deg C

Brown the butter to a nut brown.

Sift the dry ingredients together and mix in the egg whites and vanilla. I used an electric hand held mixer. Add the hot butter, mixing in quickly followed by the blueberries in the last few strokes.

Cook in the oven for 5 mins, then turn down the heat to 200deg C. Cook for a further 5 mins. Turn the oven off and leave for 4 mins more before removing from the oven.

I dusted the tops with some icing sugar as soon as they came out the oven for some nice sugary tops.

Allow to cool until about hand hot before releasing from the moulds.

These are actually best served the next day. They seem to mature when left overnight

Happy Baking !

Sarah-Jane Nash - July 2012 - www.siliconemoulds.com - silicone bakeware molds / moulds

Raspberry & Lemon Friands

Friands are delicious little teacakes that originated from the French financiers.They are made mainly with ground almonds, egg whites and very little flour which makes them moist and extremelly moreish too !

I made financiers recently and was bowled over with how nice they were. Zurin from Cherry On a Cake made some too.

Friands are seriously popular in Australia and are found in cafes, beach huts and even McDonalds all over the country. They are much more popular there than muffins and cupcakes. Once you've tried these you'll want to eat the lot ....

The heady and seductive aromas of fresh summer raspberries and fresh smell of lemon filled my kitchen. Oh - if only that smell could be bottled ! These won't hang around long so neither will the smell..... :-(

Oval Friand Cake tins or pans seem to be really hard to find, which is why we've made some in flexible silicone bakeware. The cakes release beautifully with ease leaving a perfect oval form.

You don't want Friands to rise too high and the top should be domed but not cracked. There is no inclusion of any baking agents in this recipe. Friands are also very easy to make and supposedly keep and freeze very well. Needless to say, I've not tried freezing them.

With financiers, you need to cook the butter until nut brown. Australians it seems skip this step with Friands and just melt the butter..... brown it if you like !

Recipe

175g melted butter (I use salted)

210g icing sugar

60 g plain flour

120g ground almonds

5 egg whites

zest of 1/2 a lemon.

20 large, juicy raspberries

Sift icing sugar and flour. Add almonds and stir. Whip egg whites to break up until they start to foam, but well before they reach peaking. Add the eggs and mix. Quickly mix in warm / hot melted butter.

Pour into greased and floured Friand mould.  Each cell should be approx 3/4 full. This mix is enough to make 10 - so you may want to put the remaining batter into a couple of silicone baking cups or a muffin tin / mould. Top each cell with a couple of raspberries and some lemon zest.

Bake at 190deg C fan oven (210deg normal) for 15 > 20 mins until springy to the touch.

With the remaining mix, I made another couple of snowflake shaped friands but without the addition of rasperries. The doming on the top was useful for propping the friands up to show the snowflake design. I love these !

Sarah-Jane Nash - http://www.siliconemoulds.com/ July 2010