rainbow cake

I promise that soon I will be back in the full swing of things with plenty of travel and fashion related posts, rather than continuing to overwhelm you all with food, food and more food. But for now, here I am to make your tummy rumble once more. A couple of weeks ago my mum hit the big 50, so I went ahead and dedicated a whole 8 hours(!) to baking up a rainbow cake. I made a few mistakes along the way (always allow your cakes to fully cool before taking them out of the tin as they will crumble before your eyes), but all in all, I was one happy bunny with how it turned out. I unintentionally created a mixture of bright and pastel shades which ended up looking even better than the colour scheme I had in mind. 

For the recipe, I followed this Crumbs and Doilies video which I'd recommend to absolutely everyone wanting to give the rainbow cake a go. I'd say invest in three cake tins, so that way it will take you less time than just using two at a time (as I did) but you won't have to spend a fortune on them by getting six either. Using a cake leveller is absolutely essential to cutting away the browned parts of your cake slices and probably the most essential tool in making the cake. My other top tip is that liquid food dye just won't work for this, invest in some gel colours by Wilton and if you want super bright colours then add about half a teaspoon's worth. They may seem a little pricey but I've been using mine for ages and they are still almost full.

I estimate the cake cost around £20 in buying all of the tools and colourings needed, all of which can be used again and again so I consider them to be more of a cake making investment than one off cost. The food ingredients came to just over £10 so depending on what you already have in the way of tools and ingredients, expect to be spending around £10-30 to cook up this beauty. 

Side note: I've changed my blog name (once again!) and can now be found on all social media at: thejessicalife, I hope you are all a fan of the change.

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rhubarb meringues with ginger cream

With spring time comes two of my favourite foods; asparagus and rhubarb. I've always found the best way to make the most of rhubarb is to make a sweet and tangy compote, it's perfect for meringues and a dollop of ginger cream. I spotted a bunch of bright pink young rhubarb in the supermarket which makes this desert look even more wonderful, but you can always cheat it with a few drops of pink food colouring. 

Rhubarb compote

400g rhubarb 

juice of half a lemon (or orange)

50g caster sugar

one piece of finely sliced stem ginger

Place chopped rhubarb in a medium-sized saucepan with the lemon juice, caster sugar, a tbsp of water and the sliced ginger. Bring to the boil, then turn down the heat and simmer for five minutes if you want rhubarb pieces still intact or ten to fifteen minutes for a sauce consistency. 

Ginger cream

2tbsp ginger syrup 

400ml whipping cream

Just whip up the cream with the syrup until it's at the thickness you're after. Easy. 

Meringues

3 egg whites
150g caster sugar

Heat oven to 110°c. Tip the egg whites into the clean bowl of the food mixer and whisk until the whites double in volume and hold a peak when the whisk is drawn through them. Keep the whisk running and add the sugar one tbsp at a time and whisk until stiff peaks form and the whites are glossy. The easiest way to check if it's ready is to take a small amount and rub it between your fingertips, if you can still feel sugar granules then keep whisking until they've dissolved. 

Use a star shaped tip on a piping bag and dip a pastry brush into pink colour paste, then paint two to three large stripes from the tip to the top of the bag. Dollop your meringue mixture gently into the piping bag and swirl out nest shapes onto a parchment lined baking tray (watch this video as a guide).  Bake for two hours until they are crisp and can be lifted straight off the paper and then leave to cool on a wire rack before assembling the whole lot together. I find the best way is to fill the centre of the nests with the cream and drizzle the compote all around the sides. 

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brookies

Yesterday I finally got round to making brookies (a cross between brownies and cookies) after weeks of wanting to give them a go. They were ridiculously simple and easy to make, the dough itself takes about four minutes using an electric whisk to make up and then after a couple of hours chilling in the fridge they take just ten minutes to bake. I got the idea from seeing the recipe over on Lily's blog, so I've copied in the same method here but have halved the quantities as I found this way it made around 30 cookies which was more than enough. The only change I'd suggest is leaving your dough to rest once it's out of the fridge for around ten minutes or so, and put small truffle sized amounts onto the baking tray. 

Ingredients:

42g good quality cocoa powder

200g caster sugar

62ml vegetable oil

2 eggs

1 teaspoons vanilla extract

125g plain flour

1 teaspoons baking powder

1/4 teaspoon salt

30g icing sugar

Method:

1. In a medium bowl, mix together the cocoa, casted sugar and vegetable oil. Beat in the eggs one at a time, then stir in the vanilla. Combine the flour, baking powder and salt; stir into the cocoa mixture. Cover dough, and chill for at least 4 hours.

2. Preheat oven to 180 d c gas mark 4. Line baking trays with parchment. Pour icing sugar onto a plate using a metal tablespoon, spoon and roll mixture into 2.5cm balls coating each one with the icing sugar before placing onto prepared trays.

3. Bake in preheated oven for 10-12 minutes. Let them stand on the baking tray for a minute before transferring to wire racks to cool. 

They turned out so damn tasty that I ended up eating ten in just one day, oops.