Bacardi Mandarin Jelly Shots - Fly Me Away !

Fly fly me away. Soaring into a clear blue sky... just the slightest breath of wind and cotton wool clouds.

Be careful. Eat too many of these and you may join me ! I tried one. It tasted like orange and jelly and sort of like sweeties. I had another and felt decidedly light headed. Jeez - these are D.A.N.G.E.R.O.U.S. but I think they would be spectacular at a party

I don't drink. I don't LIKE alcohol..... but I don't mind it cooked into things as long as it doesn't taste of alcohol. Surprisingly, it's not bad in jelly...

I've recently been inspired by Jelly Shot Test Kitchen. They do some awesome looking jellies which really intrigue me. I've bought their book and I love it. Some super ideas. This recipe did not come from the book or their blog. It was a combination of my own that has thankfully turned out a success. The photos - well - they were a bit of a fluke, but I like with how they turned out. My husband reckons they're just odd. I prefer to think they're one of a kind :-P

 I guess you bloggers want to know how a rubbish snap shotter like me ended up with these crazy blue and orange photos....

RECIPE

This recipe was made in the 8 Dariole silicone bakeware mould.  This recipe fills approx 10 large dariole cells. We also do a smaller 12 cell Dariole mould. The smaller one is the same shape, just half the volume in each cell. It may be better for party jelly shots... unless you want all your guests drunk and disorderly after a couple of jellies !

2 cans of mandarin oranges in syrup

juice of a lime

250ml bacardi

8 to 9 gelatine leaves

packet of orange flavour table jelly

400ml water

Take your dariole silicone mould and verly lightly oil each cell. A couple of droplets rubbed into each one is more than enough. Place the dariole mould or moulds on a baking tray.

Put the 250ml of Bacardi into a bowl with 6 > 7 gelatine leaves. Leave for 5 minutes or so to soften.

Put 250ml of the syrup from mandarin oranges in a saucepan and bring to a simmer. Add the bicardi with gelatine leaves and stir to dissolve. Once dissolved remove from the heat and set aside.

Menawhile, soak 2 gelatine leaves in 200g of water to soften.

In another pan, put the rest of the water and packet of table jelly. Heat until table jelly dissolves. Add the water and gelatine leaves and stir until dissolved. Remove from the heat and set aside.

Put a tiny amount of orange jelly in each mould cell. Put the mould (on the tray) in the fridge for approx 5 mins for the thin layer of jelly to set.

Remove from the fridge. As soon as the Bacardi jelly mix has cooled, pour this on top of the first layer to 2/3 fill each cell. Put back in the fridge to chill.

Once the second layer has set, put some mandarin orange segments in the remaining cell space and top up with orange jelly. You will have used all of the syrup, but only half of the mandarin oranges. These can be used as garnish - or taste great eaten as they are !

Again, chill until set. 25ml of Bicardi in each jelly is quite a lot, so don't under estimate how strong these babies are. 

Iff yuo eat two meany youre furds might get wurdled .....

Ok - so the mad blue and orange photos.... The light indoors was dire. Outside was really bright and sunny. Nice ! The shadows being cast were a royal pain however, so I tried to get rid of them by taking some shots of the jellies on top of my mirror board. Where ever I placed them, I was getting issues with light bouncin back. Infact, it was worse than the shadows.

Last ditched attempt was on a little table right in the middle of the lawn. The blue back ground you see is just the sky. A brilliant blue on a glorious sunny day. That was yesterday. Today has been rather gloomy, very overcast and grey !

Enjoy

Sarah-Jane Nash - July 11 - www.siliconemoulds.com - massive range of silicone bakeware moulds. Suitable for jelly too.

Dulce De Leche & Coffee Set Puddings

I'm quite pleased with how these turned out. Then again, I'm also besotted with our new 8 cell recessed heart silicone bakeware mould.

These ended up rich and creamy with a richness of caramel Dulche De Leche and undertones of coffee - kind of like a Starbucks caramel latte with cream I suppose !

I'd advise serving them at room temperature. They were really easy to release from the moulds. Literally, just a little squeeze and out they pop.

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Initially however, these seemed a bit of a disaster ! I was playing with agar agar for the first time which had been sent to me by blogger friend Ann Low of Ancoo Journal a couple of months ago. I'm well stocked on agar agar now as my dear friend Zurin of Cherry On a Cake has sent me some too :-)

In case you don't know what agar agar is, it's a vegetarian jelly made from seaweed. It has no taste, so you do  need to add flavouring. It can also set at room temperature, and sets much much quicker than regular gelatine.

The instructions on the packet say to add 1000mls of water, 250g of sugar and 1 pack of agar agar plus desired flavouring. Boil for a few minutes and then pour into your moulds. In Asian countries, pandan leaves are often used as flavoring for agar agar. I like making things that are a bit different from the norm where I can, so decided to work on something that would have my own twist.

1000mls was an awful lot of jelly. I worked out that each packet had 6 tsp - so I worked with just a 1/2 quantity

Recipe

350ml water

3tsp of agar agar powder

1 can condensed milk

4 tablespoons Camp Chicory & Coffee Essence 

You could substitute the Camp Coffee for a shot of expresso. Camp Chicory & Coffee Essence is made in Glasgow, Scotland and has been used in hot milk as a type of instant coffee (and in baking) for over 100 years. It's lovely in coffee cake !

Anyway, I put the water and agar agar into a saucepan and brought to the boil for 2 or 3 minutes before adding the coffee extract.

I then removed half a cup of the mixture and set aside.

To the remaining mixture, I added the can of condensed milk and stirred off the heat before pouring in to the 8 recessed heart silicone mould. I added less liquid than the started 500ml as I figured that I likely did not need as much given the condensed milk was a 450g (approx) can and runny.

Well - when removed from the mould, they were almost like rubber blocks and really really firm. When I tried to bend it a little - it felt like it snapped in two ! The texture was not to my liking, though they tasted ok. At that point, they were just creamy and a bit of a coffee taste too.

I decided it would be best to melt them down again and add some more water, so I chopped them up and shoved them back in the pan with an extra 150ml of water on a low heat.

This is where something decidedly odd happened.....

The condensed milk started to turn into caramel on the bottom of the pan - despite the fact it wasn't really that hot. I barely got the temperature up to as high as simmering before taking it off the heat !

Pouring it into the moulds this time, it was considerably thicker than the first time. The really odd thing was that I ended up with EXACTLY the same finished volume the second time - despite having added another 150ml of water. Where on earth did it go ? I can imagine that much would evaporate in such a short time !

Thankfully, after a second set, the texture of these was much better.

With the remaining agar agar (without condensed milk) I added 2 tsp of sugar and approx 70ml of water and warmed it in a saucepan.

I then scratched the recessed area inside the heart jellies (so the next layer would adhere) and filled each recess with the liquid

That's it !

These do taste quite yummy. The textures of agar agar is however very different to conventional gelatine and I don't really know yet that I like it. I'm very tempted to recreate this using gelatine leaves at some point as a direct comparison

Sarah-Jane Nash - www.siliconemoulds.com - July 2011

Roses - Cupcake Bouquet (Tutorial)

Aren't cupcake bouquets beautiful ? So different, inexpensive to make and a lovely home made gift.

My first ever attempt was a mini cupcake bouquet. That later evolved into my idea for the rosebud fudge candy bouquet.

More recently, I had been admiring photos  last week of one a customer had made, and she directed me to some YOUTUBE videos (try searching for cupcake bouquets)

I made this on Monday (I think) - could have been Tuesday. I forget as much of this week has become a blur. Certainly, I started it one day and finished it the next ! That's what happens when you start a project at 2am. I made two lots of  the framework at some silly hour of night and made / iced the cupcakes the following morning.

To make the framework / base cupcake bouquet you will need the following :

1 sheet of green tissue paper

2 sheets of tissue in colours of your choice

1 piece of cellophane (optional)

an old cardboard box (preferably double wall thickness)

a staple gun

double sided sticky tape

glue gun (optional)

7 disposable plastic cups

1 metre length of ribbon

The first thing I did was fold the green sheet of tissue into four along the long side and then the opposite way into thirds. When cut, this gave me 12 squares. These tissue pieces were for going inside the cups to create a leaf effect.

I folded each square in half (across the diagonal to give a triangle) and each triangle in half to give a more elongated triangle. Then, snip the bottom 20mm / 3/4" off. It's just like the photos for cutting the circles - except you care cutting off the bottom part rather than the top.

When you unfold it, you will be left with a square which has a circular hole in the middle.

Originally, I tried taping them to the outside of the cup, but that did not give as good an effect. Taping them to the inside was a really slow job and very fiddly. Through trial and error, I found it was easier to do it as below :

Take two plastic cups. Put the cup base through the hole in the tissue square. Secure with a small piece of double sided tape approx 1/3 of the way up from the base of the cup. Put another piece of double sided tape on the opposite side of the cup.

Peel off the backing tape from both bits of tape. Gently squash the top of the cup with one hand. Take a second cup and insert the cup (with tissue on outside) about 1/2 way in. The tape will grip the inside of the cup and stick the tissue on the inside as you  remove the inner cup.

With all the cups done, it's time to piece them together. You have three choices here. A stapler is the fastest and easiest. It is likely to split the cups though, so put some sticky tape on them before you staple. Alternatively, you can use double sided sticky tape as I did on one of mine. It's possible to also use a glue gun - but be careful - the plastic cups melt a bit with the hot glue. I stuck my fingers together. Hmmm.

You want one cup in the middle(rim higher than the rest, and fasten the other cups round the outside

Take another sheet of tissue. Fold one corner up to meet the side across the diagonal. Cut the remaining strip off. Opened up, you now have a square. Keep folding across the diagonal and then cut the top piece off in an arch. When you open the paper up - you should have a circle (or something that resembles one !). If you want a really full and fluffy wrapped bouquet, also cut a piece of cellophane wrap in the same way

Draw round a 6" / 150mm saucer on to a piece of card and cut it out. You need to stick this to the bottom of your plastic cup to complete the frame. Glue gun works best, but I also had good success with double sided sticky tape. 

Put the glue or tape round the outside edge of the base of the cups and press the cardboard disc to the bottom. Place this on top of your tissue / cellophane circles. Bring the sides of the tissue / cello up. It's handy to have someone hold this for you - but if it's 3am and your husband is asleep.... I'd suggest a bit of double sided tape on either side to help keep it in place !

Tie the ribbon around the base to secure.

Now the base is done, all you need to make is a batch of standard size cupcakes and some buttercream icing. This mould is ideal. We also keep a wide selection of paper case cake liners. 

I used the vanilla cupcake and buttercream recipe I posted back in February here.

To pipe the roses, I used a disposable piping bag and a closed star tip..... But I believe a Wilton 1M tip gives even better results !

Take the piping bag, and using a small brush, apply some gel paste food colouring to the inside of the bag. You need only a very small amount. Rub the sides of the bag together. Snip the end off and insert the tip. You may need to wipe excess colour off the tip end with a cloth after insertion. The colour on the inside of the bag is going to create the two tone effect on the edge of the piped rose swirl.

Squeeze a little of the buttercream through. The colour will follow. After that, you can pipe the swirls. 

Start on the inside and pipe round the outside in a circle. Super video of it being done here

Once the buttercream on my cupcakes had hardened off, I popped them into the plastic cups. The cups hold them securely in place. Nothing else is needed.

I've been keeping my husband busy this week. We've been building a run for the chickens. It's not totally finished yet as the company that supplied it have not sent all the correct parts for the roof and there are loads of bits missing. Pah. They've promised twice to phone me back and sort it - nothing yet..

Chickens have been free range in our garden for almost 2.1/2 years now and give us loads of lovely fresh eggs. At this time of year, too many. Scrambled, fried, boiled, omlet, in cakes and still excess to sell. In the winter, very few.

Korma, Dansak, Tikka, Terminator, Custard, Blackie, Feathers, Henrietta and Fancy Pants.

 I really didn't want to pen them in - but the garden is pretty much destroyed. They've dug massive craters in the garden that used to be a  lawn (WHAT LAWN ??). Craters big enough they can jump in and hide.

 Open the kitchen window just a little, and they squeeze in and sit on the sink draining board. Leave the back door open for two seconds and they're in the house. In as quick as you can turn round, there will be a chicken in the living room watching tv or sitting on the sofa. I swear - they are taking over !

Korma likes to sneak in and stand in front of the kitchen cooker. We joke she's oven ready.

Well - they are going to have a massive run. Between that and Oliver's trampoline, there isn't a great deal of space left....but ..... I'm looking forward to being able to open the door again and not be falling over a rabble of chickens begging for some pasta or rice !  Shame we have to restrict their free ranging, but it's got a bit silly.

Anyway, hope you enjoyed this slightly different blog entry. It's a bit more crafty this time - but still food orientated :-)

Sarah-Jane Nash - www.siliconemoulds.com - silicone bakeware / cookware -  July 11

Rose Petal & Strawberry Jelly Filled Heart Sponges

The roses have been in bloom in our garden. Only one or two at a time. Then BAM - about 8 open on one day. Yippee - finally, there are enough to do something with. I wander down the garden with a pair of scissors and sadistically chop all the heads off..... 

These were not for a vase - they were to cook and make into a jelly (seedless jam).

Oliver was rather bemused as I pulled all the petals from the roses and then told me off for ruining them. He soon changed his tune when it came to blitzing them with a hand blender and he wanted a turn !

RECIPE FOR STRAWBERRY & ROSE PETAL JELLY

3 cups water

juice of a lemon

juice of 1/2 a lime

2 cups granulated sugar

75ml liquid pectin

200g strawberries

petals from approx 7 rose heads

First of all, remove all the petals from the rose heads and check for "wee beasties". Gently rinse under clean, cold tap water. 

Put the rose petals in a jug with the water and blitz with a hand held mixer. Rather reminds me of making "perfume" as a kid !

Put your blitzed rose petal soup into a pot and bring to the boil. Turn off heat and leave to stand for about 30mins. Strain through muslin to remove the petals (which will now look a funny white / grey colour). Put the liquid back in the pot. Add mushed strawberries, sugar, lemon and lime. Boil for approx 10 minutes.

Strain again through a muslin cloth to remove strawberry seeds and remains. Careful ! The liquid will be very hot (unless you have loads of patience and let it cool first)

Put liquid back into the pot once more. Add the pectin and boil for approx another 10 mins or until it starts to thicken slightly. Remove from heat and pour into warm, sterilised jars. Fills 3 small jars.

Use to spread on to home made scones or fresh bread. Works well for filling little cakes too !

These little cakes were made in a brand new silicone bakeware / cake mould that we now have available. The new 8 Recessed Heart Mould has heart shaped cells with a recessed heart shape internally within each one. This creates a perfect little cavity to drop in some of the rose petal and strawberry jelly....

A basic 2 egg sponge mix will fill all 8 cells nicely

Grease and flour each cell, tapping out any excess before filling with cake mix

(I use 60g butter, 60g sugar and 60g of self raising flour + 1 egg. This can be multiplied as required for a basic sponge)

Fill cells 3/4 full with sponge mix 

Bake at approx 160deg C Fan oven for around 18mins or until done.

It will look like this coming out the oven. Allow to cool for 5 minutes or so until cool enough to handle. Flip the mould over and the heart cakes will come out.

Once totally cooled, put BACK in the moulds and cut the tops off the cakes with a serrated knife level to the top of the mould. Turn the cakes back out and they will all now have neat, even bases.

Drop a spoonful of (preferably) home made jam or jelly into each cavity.

Share with a friend and some sticky fingered toddlers (that like sucking the jammy bit out the middle) and then feed your cake to a bunch of scrounging chickens that are patiently waiting on leftovers !

Thanks for posing Nicky & glad you enjoyed them :-)   The boys had fun when they weren't fighting ! x

Sarah-Jane Nash. Happy summer days - www.siliconemoulds.com  - July 11

Belgian Loaf (Tea Bread) - Dedicated to My grandmother

It had been some years since I last ate Belgian Loaf and to be honest, I've been putting off making it..

Belgian Loaf was something my grandmother made and I have lots of memories of visiting her and having this still warm from the oven or cold and slathered with salted butter thick enough you could see teeth marks in it. It's really good toasted too.

I have my grandmother's recipe book, which was very tattered and well used. Part of me has wanted to make this for some years now, but the other part wanted to keep it just as a memory. At a guess, it's been around 10 years since I last had a slice of this...

However, I also felt it fitting that Belgian Loaf should somewhere make an entry on my blog, and I think Gran would be proud if she was still with us.....

Belgian Loaf is a kind of sweet tea bread - sort of like a fruited sweet bread cross cake.

Recipe

1 cup of milk

1 cup of sugar

1 cup of raisins

4oz butter or margarine

2 cups of plain flour

1 beaten egg

1/2 tsp cream of tartar

1/2 tsp baking powder

Preheat oven to 180deg C fan

Pour milk, sugar, raisins and margarine / butter into a large pan and bring to the boil.

Leave to cool, then  add all sieved dry ingredients plus beaten egg and mix in well.

Cook in a greased and floured 2lb loaf tin or silicone loaf mould for about 50mins or until a skewer comes out clean

For once, it was a beautiful bright sunny day with beautiful blue skies. These old byplanes kept flying around from a nearby airfield.

Sarah-Jane Nash, July 2011 - www.siliconemoulds.com - silicone bakeware specialist cook shop

Giant Couscous - A Healthy Snack Bowl Lunch

Oh - I love this stuff. Giant couscous - or pearl couscous as it's otherwise known.

I searched long and hard for well over a year and could not find it anywhere. Eventually, I found it was made by Merchant Gourmet and is stocked in most branches of Waitrose.

It's much much larger than normal couscous and once cooked, swells to a similar size as tiny pearls. It's a totally different texture and not "gritty". My husband quite likes this and he hates normal couscous.

It is easy to cook, but rather different in preparation to ordinary couscous. Boil for approx 8 minutes until tender in either water or vegetable / chicken stock and then drain. I like to refresh it as you would noodles in cold water to remove excess starch and then drain again.

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This picture shows giant couscous (left), normal couscous (centre) and mograbiah (mega giant Lebanese cous cous).

I managed to get hold of some Mograbiah from www.maroque.co.uk and found at the same time that these guys also stock pearl couscous.

So far, I've had little luck cooking the Mograbiah. I found when cooking it that it was either mushy, or soft on the outside and hard on the inside. I'm going to try cooking it on the next attempt by steaming it on the rack in my pressure cooker rather than boiling in a pot like the pearl couscous.

I dressed my couscous simply in a beautiful fresh coriander and chilli oil pesto I also bought in Waitrose made by a company called STARK NAKED FOODS. The name did make me giggle ! But seriously - crunchy pine nuts, a good amount of parmesan, some fresh fragrant coriander and chilli oil. You can't get a much more healthy lunch. It's wonderful to toss a spoonful into some boiled new potatoes too.

Normally, I'd make my own pesto. However, I adore coriander and my husband cannot stand the stuff. Most of it goes to waste when I buy a bunch of the stuff. The little pack from Stark Naked has two dinky pots - individually sealed and perfect for yours truly.

I tossed this through my cooked giant couscous, added some crumbled feta and a few halves cherry tomatoes. I'll admit I added a little extra chilli oil (as I adore the stuff). It packs neatly into one of Oliver's little plastic bowls and is ideal for me to wrap with some cling film and take to work for lunch.

As I was making this on Wednesday; just before going to work; Oliver was sat watching tv (just out the bath).

Oliver : "I REALLY need a Mc'Donalds Mummy."

Oliver : " I REALLY REALLY do ....!"

Me : "How about an apple"

Oliver : "That's a good idea. Make it a big green one with a hole in the middle and the skin off please."

Oliver : "But I'll need you to make a chocolate cake later....."

He later forgot about the chocolate cake. We'll keep that for another day !

He might have the blonde hair and blue eyes of an angel, but a cheeky monkey lies within.... He knows how to make his mummy smile :-)

Sarah-Jane Nash - www.siliconemoulds.com - June 2011

Homemade Lemon Curd and Cupcakes - FOODBUZZ #5 on 28/6/11

The tang of lovely, sharp lemon curd. Thickly spread on fresh bread, in a swiss roll or as a filling for cake. Mmmm. DELICIOUS.

Lemon curd is one of my Dad's very favourite things. I made him some and sent it to Scotland with a great big jar of homemade pickled eggs in time for Fathers Day. With the rest of the lemon curd, I made some lovely lemon curd filled cupcakes, with a lemon buttercream and topped them with some pretty patterned white chocolate discs.

The lemon curd came first. It's simple to make.

LEMON CURD RECIPE (makes two jars)

200g sugar

3 eggs + 2 yolks

100g melted butter

250ml lemon juice (or 150ml lemon and 100ml lime)

zest 3 lemons

The lemons I bought looked sublime, but infact were very disappointing.... Loads of peel and very little juice.I used 5 lemons and still had to top up with 100ml of lime juice on this occasion as I ran out of lemons !

First of all, melt the butter and them add the lemon juice and lemon zest.

Whisk together the eggs, yolks and sugar in a pan, then whisk in the butter and lemon mix.

Stir continuously over a low heat until thick enough to coat the back of a wooden spoon. Put into sterilised jars and seal. 

This lemon curd recipe does not need a double boiler. Keep a sink full of cold water nearby. If it looks like it might split, plunge the pan bottom into the water and then whisk like fury. I've never had it split yet...(though I've water dunked it once or twice before).

I used the same vanilla cupcake recipe as I did here in February (see Valentines Cupcakes - February)

Once cooled. I cut out a circle from the centre and filled the hole in the cake with some of the lemon curd. I kept the top of the piece removed and placed it back on top as a plug.

For the lemon buttercream, I used 4 cups of icing sugar (sifted), 155g salted butter (softtened). Instead of adding the normal 1/4 cup of milk - I put 2 x tablespoons of lemon curd into the 1/4 cup measure and topped it up with lemon juice.  Whip it up by hand or in a stand mixer until pale coloured, light and fluffy. I normally make buttercream in my mixer and beat for about 5 minutes.

This made a really nice, fresh tasting lemony buttercream.

I'd been desperate to play with chocolate transfers for some time - and this seemed like the perfect opportunity. The transfer sheets had been sitting in my kitchen waiting around for quite long enough !

Basically, what you do is take your transfer sheets and cut them up as required. I cut mine into strips.

Place them with the rough side up (plastic face down) on to a chopping board or similar. An over turned baking tray would work fine too.

Melt the chocolate in a melting pot or in a double boiler (glass bowl over a pot of simmering water) until just melted. Allow to cool and stir in some more solid chocolate until no more will melt to temper it. After doing so, spread it over your chocolate transfer sheets.

I used a WEDGE HEAD SPATULA for spreading. I love that thing. It makes spreading chocolate, ganache and icings on the top of cakes and flat surfaces sooo easy !

Leave until semi set and then mark your shapes with a cookie cutter. Leave to fully harden (I shoved them in the fridge) before removing the backing paper.

Note - I find it much easier to temper bitter (plain) chocolate or milk chocolate. Get your chocolate too hot and you get white marks where the cocoa separates or  not hot enough and it crystallises. I wrecked my first lot due to crystallisation !

The cakes would not have survived transit to Scotland - but they were polished off by work colleagues and the next door neighbours in no time at all. I can honestly say these were some of the best cupcakes I've ever eaten.

The last one got eaten by the postman who collects our big wire crates of mail at night. It was the eve of his retirement. We were sad to see him go and wish him lots of luck and happiness.

Not forgetting Oliver - he does love licking the beaters from the icing bowl !

This picture was from a day trip to Bressingham Steam Museum that Oliver and I took a couple of weeks ago  (day or two after I made the cakes). It was a dismal and wet day, but Oliver enjoyed riding the rails on the narrow-gauge steam trains and the Gallopers carousel. That's my handbag behind him (after I got off) - he was sat on a double horse as he's too little to ride it on his own yet.

Hope you all enjoy the weekend x

Sarah-Jane Nash - www.siliconemoulds.com - silicone bakeware specialist cook shop