Perfect Recipe

Christmas Cake Pops

Ingredients:

Cake:
1/2 and 1/4 cups unsweetened cocoa powder, plus more for dusting
1 and 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1 and 1/2 cups sugar
1/2 tbsp baking soda
1/2 and 1/4 tsp salt
3/8 cup vegetable oil
1/2 and 1/4 cups buttermilk
1/2 and 1/4 tsp pure vanilla extract
1/2 and 1/4 tsp baking powder
2 large eggs, lightly beaten
1/2 and 1/4 cups hot water

Buttercream:
4-ounce(110g) cream cheese, room temperature
1/4 cup unsalted butter, room temperature
1/2-pound (225g) confectioners’ sugar
1/2 tsp pure vanilla extract

Chocolate coating bark ou candy melts
Sprinkles, for garnish

Directions:

Cake:
Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Butter a 13-by-9-inch baking dish and dust with cocoa powder; tap out any excess; set aside.
Sift cocoa, flour, sugar, baking soda, baking powder, and salt into the bowl of an electric mixer. Transfer bowl to mixer fitted with the paddle attachment. With the mixer on low, beat in oil, buttermilk, vanilla, eggs, and hot water, one at a time, blending well after each addition. Beat until smooth, about 2 minutes.
Pour batter into prepared baking dish, reserving any remaining batter for another use, such as cupcakes. Bake, rotating pan halfway through baking, until a toothpick inserted into the center of the cake comes out clean, about 45 minutes.
Transfer cake to a wire rack to cool for 20 minutes before inverting to remove. Let cool completely on rack before using.

Buttercream:
Place cream cheese and butter in the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with the paddle attachment and beat until creamy, about 30 seconds.
With the mixer on low, slowly add sugar, scraping down the sides of the bowls as necessary.
Add vanilla and increase mixer speed to medium. Blend until frosting is fluffy, about 1 minute.

Cake Pops:
Line a baking sheet with parchment paper; set aside. Trim about 1/2 inch from the perimeter of the cake. Working in batches, crumble cake into the bowl of a food processor; process until fine crumbs form. Transfer to a large bowl and add 1 cup of frosting; blend together using the back of a spoon, until well combined, 5 to 10 minutes. Roll mixture into 1 1/4- to 1 1/2-inch balls; transfer to prepared baking sheet. Cover with parchment-paper-lined aluminum foil. Transfer to refrigerator until chilled, about 2 hours or to a freezer for about 10 minutes.
Meanwhile, melt chocolate in heatproof bowl set over (but not touching) simmering water. Line another baking sheet with parchment paper; set aside. Remove cake pops from freezer. To make lollipops, insert a lollipop stick into the bottom of each cake pop. Let chocolate set, 15 to 20 minutes.
Dip the cake pops into the chocolate and place right-side up on prepared baking sheet or stick lollipop sticks into a Styrofoam square. Let dry completely.

Santa Hats
Hats: Red Candy Melts and White Candy Melts
Fur: white sugar crystal sprinkles
Balls: white coated expresso beans, gumballs, yogurt covered peanuts will work
Paper Lollipop Sticks

Make the Hats: Make a cone shape instead of a ball. Put in the freezer until firm. Then, holding the top part of the hat, dip the bottoms in white candy melts, insert the lollipop stick and set in a styrofoam block to dry. Once dry, dip the tops in red candy melts so that it meets where the white ends. Gently place the balls to the top of the hat while still wet. Let them dry. Then, use a toothpick to generously dab more white candy melts all around the bottom of the hat. While still wet, sprinkle the sugar crystals on.

Blackberry Vanilla Cupcakes
±12 cupcakes

Ingredients:

For the cupcakes:
1 cup flour
2 tsp. baking powder
1 tsp. salt
6 tbsp. unsalted butter, at room temperature
1 cup sugar
2 eggs
1 teaspoon of vanilla extract
1/2 cup milk
1/2 cup blackberry coulis

For the frosting:
8 oz. cream cheese, at room temperature
3 cups powdered sugar, sifted
2 tablespoons blackberry coulis
Blackberries for decoration

For the blackberry coulis (Makes about 150ml/¼ pint):
250g blackberries
50g golden caster sugar
½ tsp vanilla extract

Directions:

To make the coulis:
Put the blackberries and sugar into a small pan with 100ml/31⁄2fl oz water. Bring to the boil, then simmer for 5 mins until the fruit is soft. Stir in the vanilla, remove and cool a little.
Tip the contents of the pan into a blender or food processor, and whizz to a purée, then strain through a sieve, rubbing it through with the back of a ladle or spoon. Serve warm or chilled. Keeps in an airtight container in the fridge for up to 3 days, or freeze for up to 3 months.

To make the cupcakes:
Preheat the oven to 180c. Line a cupcake pan with paper liners. In a small mixing bowl, stir together the flour, baking powder and salt. Set aside. In the bowl of an electric mixer, cream together the butter and sugars on medium-high speed until light and fluffy. Add in the eggs one at a time, scraping down the bowl between additions.

In another bowl or liquid measuring cup, whisk together the milk and blackberry coulis. Add half of the dry ingredients to the bowl of the mixer and mix on low speed until just combined. Mix in the blackberry coulis/milk mixture. Mix in the remaining dry ingredients on low speed just until incorporated. Do not over-mix.

Divide the batter evenly between the prepared paper liners. Bake 12-15 minutes or until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean. Allow to cool in the pan 10-15 minutes. Transfer to a wire rack and allow to cool completely.

To make the frosting:
Combine the cream cheese, powdered sugar and blackberry coulis in the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment. Mix on medium speed until smooth and well blended. Frost cooled cupcakes as desired and garnish with fresh blackberries.

Cheesecake with Blueberry Coulis

Ingredients:

Base:
140g digestive biscuits
56g brown sugar
84g unsalted butter

Filling:
500g cream cheese
170g sugar
2g salt
140g eggs (±3 eggs)
14g egg yolks (±1 egg yolk)
75g single cream
3ml vanilla extract

Blueberry Coulis:
1 cup blueberry
2 tbsp sugar
1 tbsp lemon juice

Directions:

Preheat the oven to 330°F/165°C.

Base: Line the base of a 20-23 cm springform tin with a baking paper ( Wrap the outside (bottom and sides) of the springform pan with two layers of aluminum foil to prevent any leaking). Crush the Digestive biscuits finely, mix with sugar and melted butter. Press the biscuit mixture onto the base of the cake tin. Place into the fridge for 10 minutes.

Filling: To prepare filling, beat cheese with a mixer at high speed until smooth. Combine sugar and salt, beat well. Add eggs, 1 at a time, beating well after each addition. Stir in vanilla extract and single cream. Pour cheese mixture into prepared pan.

Bake the cheesecake in a water bath for 1h and 15min. Bake until the filling is more or less set (it shouldn’t wobble too much, when you lightly shake the cake tin). Remove from the oven and cool for 6 hours.

Topping: To prepare topping, combine blueberry, sugar, and lemon juice in a large saucepan; bring to a boil. Cook 5 minutes. Remove from heat and run through the blender. Cool to room temperature. Cover and chill. Serve over cheesecake.

Removing from pan: When cheesecake is done, remove springform pan or cheesecake pan (if using) from “water bath” in oven. Carefully remove larger pan with water in it from oven. It will be very hot. Discard water when it has cooled. Remove aluminum foil from sides and bottom of pan after your cheesecake has cooled completely in the refrigerator. When you are ready to release sides of springform pan, or remove cheesecake from a cheesecake pan with removable bottom (if using) and cheesecake has cooled in refrigerator at least 4 hours or overnight; this is the best time to remove aluminum foil.

Banana Ginger Muffins
12 muffins

Ingredients:

300g self-rising flour
1 tsp ginger powder
115g brown sugar
75g crystallized ginger, chopped
60g unsalted butter
2 tbsp honey
125ml milk
2 eggs
240g mashed banana s

Topping:

125g cream cheese, softened
2 tbsp confectioner sugar
2 tsp lemon zest

Directions:

Preheat oven to 390 degrees F (200 C). Grease a 12 cup muffin pan. Sift the dry ingredients.
Melt the butter and the honey. Beat the eggs with the milk. Mix the dry ingredients with the butter, the eggs, the crystallized ginger and the bananas with a spoon.
Fill greased muffin cups 3/4 full. Bake for 20 to 25 minutes until golden brown and wooden pick inserted in center of muffin comes out clean. Let stand in pan for 5 minutes before turning out onto wire rack to cool completely.

Pound Cake

Ingredients:

2 sticks (225g) unsalted butter, softened, but not quite room temperature
1 8 ounce (225g) package of cream cheese, softened slightly
1 1/2 (285g) cups sugar
4 eggs
1 1/2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract
2 cups (250g) unbleached all-purpose flour
1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
1 1/2 teaspoons kosher salt
confectioners’ sugar for dusting

Directions:

Preheat oven to 325 degrees (165 degrees celsius). Spray four mini loaf pans with non-stick cooking spray, and place on a cookie sheet.
In a mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, cream together butter and cream cheese. Pour in sugar and mix until smooth. Add in eggs, one at a time, mixing well until each is incorporated.
While ingredients are mixing, whisk together four, baking powder, and salt in a separate bowl. Slowly add flour mixture to the wet ingredients.
Distribute batter evenly among the four pans and bake until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean, about 50-60 minutes. Let cool and dust with confectioners’ sugar. Wrap any extras tightly in plastic wrap and freeze for up to one month.