Eat: Double Chocolate Roulade

Hey foodies, 

With summer on its way, desserts are getting lighter. I have plenty of space for warm, sticky puddings with lashings of custard, in my heart, but on bright summer evenings, sometimes a lighter, cold dessert best fits the occasion.

This is one of my ultimate favourite desserts. I've been making variations on this recipe for years. It's quick and easy, but looks professional and it is even coeliac friendly!

I always get asked to describe a what a roulade is like and 9 times out of 10 I just say eat some! I put roulades on a scale between swiss roll and meringue. It's like a super light swiss roll, as it contains no flour, but also like a soft meringue with a slightly firm outer shell. The fact of the matter is you have to try it and after one mouthful, I'm sure you'll be hooked!

Ingredients

200g (7oz) plain chocolate (54% cocoa solids plus preferably), broken into pieces
150g (5oz) golden caster sugar
5 medium eggs, separated
1tsp vanilla escence
2-3tbsp icing sugar, sifted
100g (4oz) white chocolate, broken into pieces
284ml (10floz) double cream
150g (5oz) raspberries or blackberries for decoration
Extras may include white or dark chocolate curls, icing sugar for dusting etc.

Method

1. Heat a fan assisted oven to 180°C (350°F, gas mark 4). Melt the plain chocolate in a bain marie (bowl over a pan of simmering water). In a separate bow whisk the sugar and egg yolks for around 4 minutes, until pale and thick, before folding in the melted chocolate.

2. In another separate bowl, whisk the egg whites until stiff. Then, carefully beat 2tbsp of the egg whites into the chocolate mixture. Proceed by gently folding in the remainder egg whites, being careful not to overwork the mixture.

3. Line a swiss roll tine (33 x 23 cm/ 13 x 9in). Pour the mixture onto the parchment and bake in the oven for 15 - 20 minutes, until risen and firm to the touch.

4. Whilst the meringue roulade is baking, melt the white chocolate in a bain marie and leave to cool for 5 minutes. Then, whisk the cream until forming soft peaks.

5. When the roulade is ready to be taken out of the oven, prepare a large sheet of greaseproof paper sprinkled with icing sugar, for the roulade to be turned out onto. Once turned out, cover with a clean damp tea towel and allow to cool.

6. Return to the cream and white chocolate and combine. Sometimes you may need to rewhip the cream slightly to keep the stiff texture.

7. Once the roulade has cooled, remove the tea towel and smoother with the white chocolate cream. Some people like to add some raspberries/blackberries at this stage to the filling of the roulade, however it is just as delicious to use them more for decoration.

8. Using the greaseproof paper as a guideline, roll the roulade from one long end to the other. Between rolls use the greaseproof to tuck the roulade right under itself, shaping a neat roll and don't worry if it cracks, this is a rustic dessert after all! Once rolled, roll up in the greaseproof and tighten the ends, before chilling. This will keep it in perfect shape ready for serving.

Variations

White Chocolate & Raspberry
Replace the dark chocolate with white chocolate and use 250ml creme freche and a punnet of crushed raspberries for the filling, for a slightly lighter delight!!


Black Forest Roulade
Make the chocolate roulade as above. Once cooled drizzle two tbsp of Chambord (raspberry liqueur) or Kirsch (cherry liqueur) over the roulade. Use double cream, whipped like before but scatter 100g of chopped morello cherries over the cream before rolling. Decorate with morello cherries and dark chocolate curls.

Share your baking adventures with us on Instagram, Twitter and Pinterest @RedVelvetBaking.

Say it with roulade this summer.

Love & warm wishes,

Jess xo

Eat: Maple Biscuits with The Biscuiteers DIY Valentine's Royal Icing

Hello foodies :)

It's been an incredibly busy week, baking up all kinds of sweet treats. With Valentine's Day fast approaching, like many foodies, you're probably looking at all the sea of delicious chocolate hearts, cookies, flower piped cupcakes etc., but what about doing something a little special and making it yourselves.

With a bit of encouragement from the fantastic team at Biscuiteers, I spent last weekend piping little love inspired biscuits. What screams love more than homemade!

I took the biscuits into work and the feedback was heart-warming!

"Confession – I scoffed the last 3 of these this afternoon! Can you share the recipe please? Absolutely delicious, and for some reason they brought back a flood of really early memories, of home and infant school and Christmas and all sorts of nice things. Quite unexpected!"

This makes baking all the more worthwhile.

I adapted this biscuit recipe from the Biscuiteers Pistachio biscuit recipe, which is equally tasty!

Maple Biscuits

These biscuits are soft and sweet, with a lovely golden crispness round the edges. As I used a smaller cutter, this recipe made absolutely loads of little biscuits, so you may want to buy a BIG box to fill with your lovely homemade treats.

Ingredients

167g Salted butter

167g Caster sugar

167g Maple syrup

2 Large eggs

470g Plain flour

127g Self raising flour

Method

• Preheat the oven to 130°C

• In a large bowl combine the butter, sugar, maple syrup, eggs and using a hand held mixer or stand mixer, mix at a slow speed until all the ingredients are combined. When the ingredients are mixed together, increase the speed so that all the lumps disappear.

• Sift in both the flours and mix together until the mixture forms a smooth dough. Wrap the dough in cling film and place in the fridge for 30 minutes.

• Place the dough on a sheet of parchment and begin by gently squashing the dough down with a rolling pin or your hands. Cover with a second sheet of parchment and then use the rolling pin to roll out properly. The top sheet of paper may crinkle from time to time, just peel it off and smooth it down gently before starting to roll again.

• You can use any shaped  cutter, but as it's the month of love I used a small heart shaped cutter and a round cutter, to cut the dough. If you can't find a cutter, you can always try free hand by using a sharp knife. This technique looks a little more rustic and homemade. Place on a parchment paper lined baking tray, ready for the oven.

• Bake in the middle of the oven for 26 minutes or until the biscuits are slightly golden in colour. my biscuits took less time, due to being slightly smaller, so bare that in mind when you're walking out of the kitchen!

• When the biscuits are evenly cooked remove the trays from the oven and transfer the whole sheet of parchment to a cooling rack. Do this carefully as the biscuits will be quite fragile and hot!

• Make sure the biscuits are completely cool before starting to ice.

Royal Icing

The Biscuiteers suggest one of three royal icing recipes, which can be found on their blog. I chose to use their egg white recipe, but be wary because it makes a lot! In fact, I refrigerated mine to use on other baking projects the following day.

Ingredients

4 Egg whites

900g Icing sugar

Method

Royal icing is incredibly simple to make and so satisfying to watch the bright white ribbons as it whisks.

•  Place the egg whites into a large mixing bowl. If using a stand mixer, make sure the bowl is compatible.  

• Add the icing sugar and whisk or for about 5 minutes using an electric whisk or stand mixer. If you want to do this by hand, use a wooden spoon and you may need to beat it for longer. Make sure you start whisking quite slowly, to avoid clouds of icing sugar coating you and your kitchen! 

• Continue whisking until the ingredients form a thick, smooth paste that is bright white in colour and has the consistency of toothpaste.

Note: At this stage you can whisk in your favourite colours! I recommend gel colours, which interfere less with the consistency. Also, it you're not using the icing straight away, make sure you cover the bowl and refrigerate, to avoid the icing drying out.

Let the Piping Begin...

• Fill your reusable piping bag with a few spoonfuls of your chosen colour and cut the tip of the piping bag to create a small opening for the icing to flow through. Alternatively, you can place a small writing tip in the piping bag. I would recommend Wilton nozzles 1 or 2.

• You need to pipe an outline on each of the biscuits, so that the smooth flood icing remains contained. Make sure there are no gaps in the outline!

• Leave the biscuits for around 5 minutes to dry, before using the flood icing.

• Flood icing is a little looser than the royal icing used to create the outline. You can loosen the icing by gradually whisking in water. I was extremely cautious here and ended up not loosening my icing enough, which made the flooding more difficult. It is good to be cautious, but you want it to be runny enough to move fluidly when poured.

• Once the flood icing is sufficiently loose, place it in a squeeze bottle or reusable piping bag and flood each biscuit, following the outline of the shape inwards. Make sure to use a cocktail stick to carefully remove any air bubbles or gaps and give the biscuit a tap against a hard surface, to even out the coating.

• Once evenly coated, place the biscuits back onto the baking tray and into the oven at 50C or the lowest setting your oven will go. Leave them to set in the oven for around 30 minutes and serve them once cooled.

Check out the Biscuiteers online tutorial.

LOVEly Designs

If you're up for a bit more of a challenge, why not try the Biscuiteers polka dot biscuit, with white spots of royal icing piped onto the base, whilst wet. You can also pipe over the dry designs with writing, like seen in my pictures. SweetAmbs has some other Valentine's inspired designs too!

Feeling Lazy?

If you're not up for handmade treats this year or you haven't got the time, why not check out the Biscuiteers online shop for a quick valentines biscuit delivery!

Keep calm and spread the love <3

Jess xo

Eat: Double Cream Fudge

Hey foodies,

So like I mentioned on my previous post, I'm testing fudge recipes for a new business venture. I've been running little focus groups with each type, just to get the gist of what all you fudge eaters are looking for in your favourite fudge. It has been a battle between, texture and flavour, with a few tests still to go.

As you may know, fudge is made by bringing milk, sugar and butter up to about 114c. The question is, which milk product or sugar type makes the best, tooth achingly sweet fudge.

The first in my trials was a double cream recipe. A particularly simple recipe, if a tad indulgent, this fudge was soft and creamy. You couldn't eat a lot though, it was rather rich. Nonetheless, it was gone rather quickly! 

Check out the recipe below and give it a go yourself!

Keep calm and get your wooden spoons ready!

Love,

Jess

Creamy Fudge 

Adapted from All Recipes UK

Ingredients:

• 400ml double cream
• 450g golden caster sugar
• 50g butter
• 1tbsp liquid glucose
• 1tsp vanilla extract (optional)

Method:

Prep: 15 min | Cook: 15-20 min | Cooling: 3 hour (min)

1. Grease and line the base of a square 20 cm cake tin
2. Combine all ingredients in a heavy, deep saucepan, over a medium heat and stir until the sugar has dissolved.
3. Put your thermometer into the mixture and increase the heat to medium-high, bringing the mixture to a rolling boil. Keep the mixture at a rolling boil, stirring occasionally to stop the mixture catching the bottom of the pan, until the temperature reaches 114 degrees C - 116 degrees C. This is known as soft ball stage, if you don't have a thermometer, you can test by dropping a little of the mixture into cold water, if it's ready, it will form a soft ball. At this stage, remove the pan from the heat.
4. Once the temperature has dropped to 110 degrees C, about 5 minutes cooling time, beat the mixture with a wooden spoon. Keep the thermometer in, to watch the temperature drop to 60 degree C. This should take about 10 minutes and there is a noticeable difference in the fudge, going from a glossy texture, to more granular. The fudge should also feel a lot thicker and start to move away from the sides of the pan.

Note: This is the most important stage, as during cooling, small crystals form, which when beaten, create a smooth texture. Without this, your fudge may be granular.

      5. Once thicker and loosing shine, you have a small window at which to get the fudge into your prepared tin and leave to cool until set. Once set cut and package or serve.

Note: Do not be tempted to rush this stage, as putting fudge in the fridge actually prevents the fudge from setting properly and can cause it to loose its firmness, becoming sticky and difficult to cut.


Enjoy!

The Start Of Something Inspiring, As The Best Is Yet To Come.

Evening my lovely foodies,

It has been a while, I know, but the world of food just does not stop! In my last post I said I'd recently visited London and well now, I am back in the Capital again! But this time, it really is all about the food.

In June, George and I visited as 'tourists' and spent time going to the London Zoo, watching the Lion King at the theatre, which was phenomenal! George even shed a tear. Bless! We had some fantastic food and indulged in some decadent, but naughtily delicious cake in Selfridges. I do love a good city break!

 At the Thames :)

 Show time at the theatre.

 We found NEMO!

Me as a puffer fish ;)

 CAKES!

 Beautiful cake cabinet at Fortnum & Mason.

 Treating myself to sugared rose petals and lavender. 

Clearly mine is the chocolate one!

Being back down in the big city this time, however is a lot different. With 6am starts and 4 hours of traveling, all in the name of delicious food and future promise. It can only be Leiths. If you follow my social media, you will all be drooling at some of the delicious delights I have been creating, under my short course training at the famous cookery school. It is absolutely amazing and I am sure it will be life changing. There is more to come and I promise with a smaller time delay, keep posted and get in touch!

Brownies, ofc!

 Traditional fish pie.

Roast beef sirloin and all the trimmings.

New business email, which is rather exciting so send the love to jessica@redvelvetbaking.co.uk.

Keep calm and follow your heart.

Mine always says chocolate fudge cake.

Love, as always,

Jess

xox

Harrogate Speciality Food Show :)

After a few years of wanting to go, one year of being away when I received tickets, I finely got to indulge in the Harrogate Speciality Food Show. I had looked at holding a stall there myself, but after experiencing its delights, I now know it is not the place for me, but a great place to pick up on mainstream trends and business success in the speciality food industry. Ps I cannot resist saying look at my cute little ticket (above), so easily excited.

I met a lot of first timers at the show and it was wonderful to see all the young, fresh, talented individuals that are helping to food industry thrive with the 'shop local' schemes. Everyone was so passionate about their field and supportive of the other stalls, working together to create a fantastic atmosphere. There were demonstrations too and we caught the 'make the most' out of food that is past it's best. Always plenty to do with bananas, but unusual and tasty ways to cut down tremendously on food waste, utilising your fridge contents to the best of the ingredient ability, no matter the skill of the chef in hand! See the picture above and below of the delicious treats that were made.

As you can imagine, the sweet stalls took most of my attention and below is a gorgeous chocolate stall. Most of the businesses were looking for wholesale buyers, rather than individuals, which is why Red Velvet Baking was not as well suited, doing bespoke orders, however it was nice to see the range of products out there and to see more artisan and 'homemade'  products are beginning to take the market by storm, as  mass production loses the personalised, luxury feel of products.

As we got horrifically lost on the way to Harrogate, we arrived quite late and I had an order due in shortly after too! We did however, make it in time to see the Dragon's Den style talk, where some of the stall holders presented their products to a chef and several market retailers. It was fantastic to watch and the first guy, with his Greek meze range, from The Olive Branch, was really good and the product tasted very authentic.

Meze style dip or marinade, shame it was on a ritz cracker so flavour was a little lost!

These two ladies, mother and daughter, really touched my heart, being really new to their business, promoting home made marshmallows. Over the past couple of years, marshmallows have really hit it off. I am really not sure why, but when you taste a home made one, alongside a Princes, £1 for a full bag one, you quickly realise that we have been eating them wrong for years! These lovely ladies got criticised for poor branding and quickly learnt that to compete in this kind of market, they have to raise their game. I did swing by to their stall before leaving and offer a few tips on branding, PR and marketing, I just couldn't resist! I do wish them the best and suggest you go find a local marshmallow stockist and try a REAL marshmallow!

It was a fabulous experience and I plan to go again next year, but it is more for finding local sources for good quality chocolate and containers, rather than gaining business for me. I stand by bespoke and personalised and would hate to go national too quickly with RVB, but one day, you never know, I could be coming to a town near you!

Keep calm and shop local.

Love and warm wishes,


Red Velvet Baking

xox

Business Better Than Usual...

Afternoon Foodies :)

I have had a fabulously busy week and I am so excited to be starting my second semester of 2nd year tomorrow! I'm hoping all you foodies have faired ok during the UK snow blanket, it has been rather slippy! The girls and I went into the back garden and built a snow man! If you have any snow pics send them in and share your fun...sadly our snowman's head fell off during the night :( and now he is barely a twig, amongst the grass in the garden.

This week I started my internship with Faye, from Keep Your Fork, Sheffield. What an amazing and truly inspiring individual and I am so lucky to have the chance to work with her. My eyes have been opened to the world of PR and journalism, from not just a business perspective, but from a female business perspective, with the rise of women in business. On Tuesday, I was lucky enough to attend the Natwest Inspiring Women talk, at Sheffield Hallam University, where the female speakers spoke about their work -life balance and struggles in a very male dominated sector. It brought tears to my eyes when one Olympic Table Tennis Champion discussed her struggles against haters, becoming a teacher and an athlete, having two children at home! These people are truly remarkable and I am so honoured to hear their story. Keep an eye out for these events and get yourself along! It is so inspiring...I felt like I needed to get up there and then and start doing something ambitious and life changing! Watch this space, yeah?

In addition, on Thursday I went to a Business for Breakfast meeting, however it was a ladies lunch! We had some fabulous food and I got to meet a selection of local business women, striving to push their business beyond personal contacts, to people in need of their help and services. I had to do a 60 second business pitch, which was ridiculously daunting, but I got a wonderful round of applause and a client wanting a pearl wedding anniversary cake!! Orders and support, what more could a girl want!

To show my respect I also attended a charity auction, last night. It was amazing and I met some beautiful people and lots of money was raised. The charity, Golddigger, is run by two truly inspirational young women, raising money for female trafficking in Sheffield, from girls as young as twelve years! A heartbreaking cause, but it was fantastic to see how many showed up and supported the auction. Get involved yourself at Golddigger Trust <3

Today is National Chocolate Cake Day - so whats on your chocolate cake menu? Vote at the poll above and let us know what you created!!! Yesterday was National Potato Day and I celebrated with little Jersey Potatoes...very yummy! My diet suggests highly against Chocolate Cake, but I must admit...theres always need for cake <3

Keep calm and Bruce Bogtrotter that cake,

Love & Chocolate filled wishes,

RVB

xox

Living it Large in London, till Reality Hits Home...

This August I visited London with my best friend, Beth, and we lived it up, large. We visited the usuals, buying Hello Kitty teddies in Hamleys and sampling chocolates in Harrods. What more could a girl want?

Convent garden was beautiful as usual, I spent the entire trip spying on cake craft shops and indulging in the inspiration of others. London really just has the spark for me.

In addition to cake spying, we went to see The Woman in Black at the theatre and my gosh it was spectacular! I'm more of a musical lover myself, being a singer, but it was a masterpiece, cleverly devised to create tension and release, atmosphere and fear, with merely two actors. Unbelievable.

August disappeared with the summer sun and now we are nearly through September. It's scary really. I'm going into my second year of university, with a business kicking off, pursuing my interest in food journalism, whilst juggling a job in fashion retail. A challenge is really key to anyones success, I believe, so bring it I guess! Any of you foodies face a challenge? Embrace it, whats the worst that can happen? Email your inspiration and aspirations...jessicaaleisha@hotmail.co.uk...I find it so uplifting to see peoples efforts and achievements. :)

Red Velvet Baking wise, we have completed our third market stall, this time in Sheffield City Centre. Although a very slow day, I feel we learnt a lot from the experience and have gathered some more ideas for future stalls. I am excited! We are aiming for Chatsworth Christmas Fair 2013 and we really want to be ready to hit home with our delicious cakey goodness. 

Presently, we are working on flavour combinations and looking at new and interesting ideas to visually inspire and engage you, our beautiful audience. So keep your eyes peeled and watch this space, because there can never be enough cakey scrummyness in your life.

Keep calm and enjoy the rest of the summer sun, before winter sets in :)

Love & delicious wishes, 

RV xox

I Am Still Alive...Promise :)

Evening foodies :)

Long time, no blog and I am so sorry!! Work gets the better of me it seems! But, we have a busy month ahead and I'm sure to keep you all updated on the crazy antics of Red Velvet Baking...can you keep up?

June has been busy, but July, well...it's going to be major! This June Red Velvet Baking has panelled alongside a local rival, baked up a storm on the business plan front and taken a Bulgarian vacation...with ice cream involved and plenty of suncream.

I will do a full panel dedicated post tomorrow - there truly is that much to say - but for now I shall mention just how exciting things have been in Bulgaria and how the business is beginning to take shape.

Bulgaria, Bulgaria, BULGARIA! It may sound daunting, but believe me it was amazing! It was one of my favourite girly holidays so far, with beautiful beaches, glorious 35degree sunshine and best of all, gorgeous people. I believe I have made friends for life. Young, clubbing, lively holiday - Bulgaria is the new place to be - check it out guys. Oh - and the ice cream is out of this world, massive, mouth watering masterpieces of flavour and texture. I wish I was there now!

Back on to the business side of things, it is all running smoothly, before July 27th's take off date. I have a close University friend of mine helping me with the financial planning and my beautiful best friend, Beth, designing some potential cake prototypes, to give you an idea of my scope, passion and edible potential. It is all very exciting. 

All I will say is that the panel went well ;)....keep posted for the real results tomorrow foodies!

Keep calm and carry on eating cake <3

All my love,

 Red Velvet

After rain, there is always sunshine <3