Diamond Jubilee Petit Fours

By now it's no secret the Queen's Diamond Jubilee is coming up next week.  Over here in the UK we're in full BBQ and street party planning mode. 

To be honest, I've never actually been to a street party before - I guess they're kind of like the North American block party, although to be honest I don't think I've ever been to one of those either.  I don't think they're as popular there as they are here. 

A traditional British Street Party (Image Source)

It's being reported that there will be over 10,000 official street parties throughout England and Wales, and that's not counting unofficial parties that haven't gone through the proper approval process through local councils.

On Sunday I'm hoping to attend one of the larger parties in my area that will take place in our favourite park.  Monday and Tuesday are public holidays here, so the parties and celebrations will continue for a few more days.

In order to help make your street party look it's best all of the major stores have released their own lines of street party gear including the essentials such as bunting flags, paper plates, cups, napkins, cupcake cases, etc. 

Each of the jubilee product lines are very patriotic and obviously incorporate everything British and royal such as union jacks and crowns, but they're also very different from each other.

Lakeland was kind enough to send me some products (above) from their Jubilee range, so I've featured some of them here with my latest street party inspired creations.

My street party snacks are the perfect addition to your Jubilee table - they're patriotic, three out of the four are quick and easy, you can make them all ahead of time, they're all very transportable, and best of all they taste great!!!

I've decided to split the recipes for my Jubilee treats into two separate posts, otherwise you'd be reading this post forever!

 

First up I'll start with my Diamond Jubilee petit fours.  I've always wanted to make petit fours so when I was given some cute little London themed sugar decorations in a Waitrose goodie bag, I knew they'd be perfect to add on top.  I used the traditional Victoria Sponge recipe that I came up with last year to celebrate the Royal Wedding, but this time I replaced the strawberry jam with black current jam - something I consider very British as it wasn't something I'd really ever come across in Canada.

Diamond Jubilee Petit Fours

Ingredients:

3/4 Cup + 2 Tbsp (200g) Castor Sugar 

3/4 Cup + 2 Tbsp (200g) Butter, room temperature 

4 Eggs 

1.5 tsp Vanilla extract 

1.5 Cups + 1.5 Tbsp (200g) Self Raising Flour 

1/2 tsp baking powder

Blackcurrant Jam
Vanilla Buttercream 

Ready to Roll Fondant - I used Renshaw Regal Ice White Chocolate flavour

Liquid Fondant - (I used the Silver Spoon powdered version that you mix with water)

Liquid Glucose - optional
Red and Blue gel colouring

Decorations of your choice - I used Jubilee decorations from Waitrose and a couple of left over crowns I made for my Dome cake here.

Instructions:

1.  Pre-heat oven to 350ºF (175ºC).  Line two* square 8"x8" cake pans with parchment paper and set aside.  Beat the butter and sugar together until light and fluffy (about 5-8 minutes).

*I divided my batter up, and made 6 cupcakes for another project and used the rest in a 9"x9" pan which made 16 petit fours approx 1.5"x1.5"

2.  Add in the eggs 1 at a time to ensure they don't curdle the butter and sugar mixture.  Beat well before adding each following egg.  Beat in the vanilla extract.

3.  Gently fold the self raising flour and baking powder into the butter, sugar and egg mixture until just combined.  Don't over mix.  Divide the batter equally between the two pans, making sure that the batter is as flat and even as possible.  Bake for 20 - 25 minutes.

4.  Let the cakes cool in their pans at before lifting them out by the parchment paper. Leave the parchment paper on your cake, and wrap it in cling film before placing it in the freezer for about an hour to firm up slightly.

5.  While your cake is chilling in the freezer make your buttercream icing according to your favourite recipe. (I don't have a recipe for my buttercream - I just cream a block of butter and keep on adding icing sugar (with a nit of milk and vanilla) until it tastes right.

*The instructions below are for one 9x9 cake (as I mentioned above). If you've made two 8x8 cakes, follow the instructions below twice.

6.  Take your cake out of the freezer ensuring that the bottom of the cake is facing upwards (this ensures you'll have a perfectly flat top) and slice it in half so you end up with two layers.  I used a Wilton cake slicer, but a steady hand and knife should do the trick.  Open your cake so that the freshly cut sides are facing up.  Spread a thin layer of the balckcurrant jam on one half of the cake (remove any large currents), and a layer of buttercream on the other half (make sure it's as smooth as possible).  

Sandwich the two layers together so the fillings are in the middle, making sure that the edges are aligned.  Next, trim the edges of your cake to ensure it's perfectly square with nice sharp edges.  Spread another layer of buttercream on the top (which was once the bottom) of your cake, making sure it's as smooth ad level as possible.

Roll out your fondant so it's about 3mm in thickness.  Cut a square of fondant out the same size as your cake (you can use the bottom of your cake pan as a guide, and trim the edges later). Place the fondant over your buttercream covered cake top and smooth it out, ensuring you don't have any trapped air under the fondant.  Trim off any excess fondant so that the edges are flush, and it's exactly the same size as the cake.

Cut your fondant covered cake into small squares - once trimmed, my 9x9 cake made 16 squares.

7.  Prepare your liquid pouring fondant according to directions on the package - I added in about a teaspoon of glucose to mine to help make it spread easier.  I used Silver Spoon brand which is available in most supermarkets, but you can also buy other bands at speciality cake stores.   One 500g box was just enough to cover my 16 petit fours.

Place a 1/3 of your cake squares on a wire rack that's been placed over a baking dish.  Start by pouring a tablespoon or two of the uncoloured white fondant on the top of one of your cake squares.  Using an offset pallete knife, spread the fondant to the edges so it starts to flow down the sides of the cake.  Using the back of the knife, scoop out a bit more fondant from the bowl and spread it down each side, starting from the top.  Let the fondant run down the sides until all of the cake is covered.  

Once the cakes are covered, place a sugar decoration in the middle of each one and let the icing dry for at least half an hour.

Ignore the random white one with sprinkles!

Divide the remaining fondant icing in half an colour one half red, and the other blue.  Repeat the steps above for the rest of your cakes.

8.  After the fondant has surface dried, use your palette knife to move each cake onto a paper liner.  You can press the paper onto the fondant to help it form to the shape of the cake.

Leave your petite fours uncovered until they're thoroughly dry.  I made mine in the evening, and I don't know what on earth possessed me to cover them in a sealed container but I did, and because my liquid fondant hadn't dried completely my sugar decorations absorbed some of the moisture which discoloured them.  Obviously I wasn't thinking clearly!  

These petit fours will keep at room temperature for up to 5 days if they're properly covered with liquid fondant to prevent them from drying out.

I hope you like these petit fours - I loved them - especially with the addition of the blackcurrant jam!  I can't wait to make more of them.  Don't let all the steps detour you, because although they do take a bit of time to make them, the final results are not only pretty, but also delicious!

Check back later for my other Diamond Jubilee street party recipes!

Thanks to Lakeland for the Jubilee products (cake stand, napkins, cupcake cases and jam jar covers are featured), and to Waitrose for the Jubilee sugar decorations.

Queens Diamond Jubilee Hat Cookies

When I was living in Canada I was always a little envious of our patriotic American neighbours.    To many outsiders their patriotic enthusiasm seemed overly excessive and brash, but as a Canadian kid I looked on in amazement.  They took any opportunity they could get to plaster their flag on anything and everything, and I often wondered why Canadians didn't do the same. 

The patriotic differences really became apparent when July rolled around.  Canada celebrates their birthday with a national holiday on July 1st, while the US celebrates theirs on July 4th.  The Americans always seemed to have loads of festive activities going on like parades, barbecues, block parties and amazing firework shows, while Canadians seemed relatively unfazed by their national day.  Don't get me wrong - Canadians definitely do celebrate Canada Day with a few fireworks and the odd picnic, and as Vancouver showed during the Olympics, Canadians are extremely proud of their country, but we don't always shout about it from the rooftops like our southern neighbours do.  

Some of the patriotic things that always caught my eye were all the fun American themed desserts and products that seemed to pop up during the weeks approaching July 4th.  A large part of it I'm sure, was a result of savvy marketing, but the other part was down to sheer patriotism.  

I remember flipping through magazines (most of the magazines were American) and watching programmes like Live! and Martha Stewart and thinking how pretty the desserts and crafts that they were featuring looked in red, white and blue.  For some reason red and white (Canada's colours) never seemed as much fun.  

With the upcoming Queen's Diamond Jubilee (marking the 60 year reign of Queen Elizabeth) in a few weeks, it appears that the whole of the UK has gone jubilee crazy.  And I couldn't be more excited about it!  It's such a nice feeling to see Union Jacks everywhere - on grocery packaging, home decor, magazines and loads and loads of CAKES! 

It's so nice to see the whole country getting excited about their heritage and celebrating it with a little red, white and blue.  And I especially love it because it's the perfect excuse for me to do some fun and festive baking - just like I always wished I could have done when I was younger!

I've come up with a few Jubilee themed desserts - one of them was this Jubilee Dome Cake with red and blue flowers and a golden crown that I posted last week.  

I've also made these little Jubilee hat cookies inspired by the Queen herself!  It's no secret that the Queen is a fan of her hats - they even took bets here in England on what colour hat she would wear to Will and Kate's wedding last year!  

I got the original idea for these cookies from the fabulous book Cookie Swap, and then borrowed a few tips from Bakerella who also made them a couple years ago for Easter.  

I loved making these cookies - they were so fun and easy to make, and I really think they're just perfect to help celebrate the Queen's Diamond Jubilee.  Seriously - how cute would they  look alongside a nice cup of tea, or arranged together on a stand at your local street party.

Queen's Diamond Jubilee Hat Cookies

To make these cookies you'll need a few things:

Sugar cookie dough - I use Peggy Porcshen's recipe that can be found in this post here.

A small amount of Royal Icing - Peggy Porcshen's recipe that can be found in this post here.

Double sided pastry cutters - I used these.  

Mini flower plunger cutters - I used these. 

White fondant - I used white Renshaw brand

Sugar paste / flower paste - I used Squires Kitchen Sugar Floral Paste

White nonpareils 

Instructions:

1.  Make your sugar cookie dough according to the recipe and instructions here.  Once your dough is chilled, roll it out to the appropriate thickness (about 4 or 5mm).  Using the scalloped edge of the 68mm (2 5/8") round pastry cutter, cut out as many circles as you think you'd like hats.  These will be the base of your hats.  I think you could make at least 20 hats with the cookie dough recipe - probably more.  Next, use the 38mm (1 1/2") plain edged round cutter to cut out twice the number of circles as you did with the scalloped cutter.  These will make up the top of your hats, and each hat top requires two smaller circles. Bake according to the instructions in my original recipe post, and then cool.

2.  While your cookies are baking you can start to make the little sugar paste flowers that will decorate the brim of the hats.  Take a small amount of the Sugar Floral Paste and tint it whatever colour you'd like - I used Wilton gel paste colours.  Roll the sugar paste out, and use the flower cutters to cut out various sizes of flowers. It's easy - honest!  I used some royal icing to attach the white nonpareils to the inside of the flower, but if you don't have any nonpareils, then a dab of royal icing will do just fine. Set the flowers aside to dry.

3.  Once your cookies are nice and cool you'll need to start building your hats.  First you'll need to roll our your fondant, and use the same sized scalloped edge pastry cutter you used for the base of the cookies to cut out the fondant circles that will sit on top.  Use the end of a paintbrush or chopstick to make small indents around the scalloped edge.  Put a little royal icing on the scalloped cookies and then place the matching fondant pieces on top making sure to line up the scalloped edges.

To make the second part of the hat you'll need to glue two of the smaller circles together by adding a dab or two of royal icing on the top of one of the small circles.  Next, use another dollop of royal icing to fix the bottom of the smaller stacked circle to the scalloped fondant covered cookie base.  Using the small cookie cutter, cut out enough fondant circles to cover the tops of the smaller circle stacks.  

Next you'll need to cut some fondant strips to wrap around the stack of small cookies - use a small ruler to make sure the fondant strip is the same width as the cookie stacks, and long enough to wrap around them.  Fix the strips around the cookies using royal icing.  Use your fingers to smooth out the fondant strips and blend them into the fondant tops.

Lastly, it's time to add your sugar paste flowers - simply glue them on in whatever arrangement you like, and there you have it - little Queen's Diamond Jubilee Hats!

I'm sure it's pretty safe to say that these hat cookies will likely end up inside your tummy - but I'd really like to know what's happened to all of the Queen's own hats?  Seriously - Buckingham Palace must have one gigantic room filled with 60 years worth of the Queen's hats!

Because my hat cookies have flowers on them, I'm also sending them over to The Tea Time Treats monthly challenge hosted this month by Karen of the blog Lavender and Loveage, and other months by Kate of What Kate Baked.  This month's theme is floral, so I think they're a perfect fit!

Diamond Jubilee Dome Cake

The other day I posted my review of Peggy Porschen's new Boutique Baking book.  I was so excited when it arrived, I couldn't put it down.  I flipped through the pages over and over again, examining every recipe trying to decide what to make first.  

The recipe that stood out the most to me was a very simple, yet elegant dome cake that Peggy calls her Raspberry & Rose Dome Cake (pictured below from her book).  This cake isn't your typical cake - it's made up of a thin layer of jaconde sponge and then filled with a delicious custard butter cream that's been studded with raspberries.

I'm not going to lie - this cake is fairly labour intensive.  There's a lot of steps involved and it's best to do them over two days, but the step by step pictures are a huge asset and really do help to reassure you that you're doing things correctly.

Peggy's version of the Raspberry & Rose Dome Cake (above) is covered in pastel fondant and decorated with pretty sugar paste flowers.  I choose to decorate mine in a royal theme to help celebrate the upcoming Queen's Diamond Jubilee.  I used the same sugar paste flowers that I made last year on my Royal Wedding Cupcakes, and I also made some cute little crowns from a mould that I picked up a few months ago at the Squires Kitchen Cake Decorating Exhibition.

  

I've decided not to post the recipe for this cake because it's very long (approx 4 pages in the book) and requires a lot of steps (see the pictures above).  I don't want that to detour you from making it though.  It's not hard to make - especially the jaconde sponge (I made a similar one here, and they only take 8 minutes to bake!), it's just the assembling of the cake that takes the time.  So if you think you'd like to try baking your own dome cake, then please buy Peggy's Boutique Baking book - you won't regret it!

To make the crowns you'll need a mould like this one here from Squires Kitchen that I used.  First I took some Mexican modelling paste and tinted it a light golden colour (I used golden yellow from Wilton).  Next I brushed some gold metallic lustre dust inside my mould which helped to give it the golden colour, but also to prevent the modelling paste from sticking.  

Firmly push the modelling paste into the mould and trim off any excess with a sharp knife,  To remove the crowns simply turn the mould upside down and tap the back of the mould firmly with the handle of a knife to help shake them out.

To give the crowns their nice golden colour I mixed a bit of the gold lustre dust with a tiny bit of vodka to create a shiny gold paint and used a paintbrush to coat the surface of the crowns.  The red and blue gems in the crowns are actually just shimmery sugar sprinkles that were given to me by Waitrose in a goody bag a few months ago.

This cake calls for a dome mould (Peggy uses half of a ball pan) to give the cake it's perfect shape, but I didn't have a dome mould, so instead used a bowl.  Although the bowl worked, it didn't turn out exactly as I'd imagined.  It was a bit deeper and not as perfectly domed as I'd hoped, but I think I could have done a better job of lining my bowl with the jaconde sponge to get a better shape.  I get a bit annoyed when my baking attempts don't turn out exactly as they do in the pictures!

This cake, like most traditional UK cakes is covered in both a layer of marzipan, followed by a layer of fondant.  I'm not a huge fan of marzipan, and I honestly don't see much of a point in using both layers of covering (other than the fact that the marzipan layer makes the fondant layer a little easier to smooth out).  I almost did't bother using the marzipan, but I wanted to make the cake exactly as it's shown in the book.

I had intended on using the same fondant boarder around the base of my cake that was shown in the book, but the red fondant (Renshaw brand) I'd bought a month earlier had dried into a rock hard block before I even got a chance to get it out of the package!  Instead, I kept things simple and just used some red and blue ribbon.

Overall, I was quite pleased with my dome cake - even if it didn't turn out perfect.  Although I've done a few, I'm still fairly new to covering cakes in fondant, and really just enjoy tinkering around in my spare time making flowers and sugar paste decorations.  I've always wanted to improve my cake decorating skills, and I'm very pleased to announce I will get that opportunity this week!  


You see, last summer after I made my Peggy Porschen Baby Shower Cookies I was absolutely thrilled to receive an invite from the Peggy Porschen Academy inviting me to attend one of Peggy's cake decorating courses!!!  The only thing was, they had invited me to a course that was taking place 3 weeks after I was due to give birth to baby Jayden.  I knew there was no way I could attend a cake decorating course and leave my 3 week old at home. Luckily, Peggy's team was very understanding and told me to contact them when I was ready to take one of her courses.


A few months ago I got back in touch with Peggy's team and we decided on my course.  I'm so excited to tell you all that this Tuesday I will be spending the day with Peggy learning how to make this absolutely stunning Black and White Anemone Cake!!

I'm sooo looking forward to learning how to make this stunning cake and picking up tips from the master herself.  I can't wait to share my cake with you all when I'm done, so keep watching, and I'll post it soon!

Authentic Belgian Waffles

Photo courtesy of Nancy Brown

Ok, I have a confession to make.  Even though I was really excited about the Royal Wedding and chose to bake a few things to help celebrate it, I wasn't even in the country to watch it!   Why?  Because I had booked a 3 day trip to Brussels instead!  In hindsight I should have booked my Brussels trip to leave a day earlier so I could be back on UK soil to watch and celebrate the Royal Wedding live with everyone else, but I choose to use my Airmiles for the flights in order to fly for free, so flight availability was a bit tight.  Instead, I recorded the Royal Wedding and watched it on Friday evening when we got home.  Didn't Kate look amazing?  And did you see their cake?? 

It turns out that we went to Brussels at the perfect time.  The weather was almost perfect (except for a torrential downpour during our day trip to Brugge - but that only lasted half an hour before the sun popped out again), there were minimal crowds, and the food was delicious. But the best thing of all were the waffles!  Oooh the waffles!  I'd always thought Belgian Waffles were just a larger thicker waffle with whipped cream & berries on top - nothing really different than a regular waffle, but boy was I wrong!  The waffles that we were eating in Belgium weren't like anything I'd ever had before. They were crispy and caramelised around the edges, and the actual waffle was chewy and yeasty and full of vanilla flavour.  As far as toppings go, we had a choice from the simple yet always delicious Nutella, or the Belgian specialty Specaloos to strawberries piled high with whipped cream.  I opted for Nutella, because after seeing the ridiculously tiny fork they give you to eat your waffle with, there was NO way I could manage eating one covered in strawberries and whipped cream.  After biting into my first Belgian Waffle I just knew I had to recreate them at home.  After getting back to our hotel room and quickly googling an authentic Belgian waffle recipe I discovered that the waffles I'd fallen in love with were actually called Leige Waffles or "Gaufres de Leige" in French - but for the simplicities sake I'm just going to continue calling them Belgian waffles ok?

See those silly little forks!

The main differences between Belgian Waffles (aka Leige Waffles) is that they use yeast as a rising agent in them, and the batter is more like a very sticky dough rather than a runny batter like North American waffles are.  They also had something completely different in them that resulted in their caramelised edges - pearl sugar!  I'd never seen or heard of pearl sugar before, and instead of looking like little pearls it actually looked more like white the white little rocks you'd find in a fancy planter or walkway.  I did manage to find some pearl sugar in a Belgian grocery store.  

I've read that it can be rather hard to find outside of Belgium, but crushed up sugar cubes can be used in place of of pearl sugar if you can't find it.  The recipe I used called for 1 cup of pearl sugar, but after making the waffles I would suggest reducing that amount down to 1/2 a cup.  I thought the pearl sugar would have melted while the waffles were cooking in the iron, but most of it didn't which did result in nice little crunchy bits in the waffles, but I thought 1 cup of pearl sugar was just too much.  I opted to top my waffle off with Nutella (my favourite), even though I did have some other specialty Belgian toppings that I brought back as well.  The waffles were delicious, and very very similar to the waffles we had in Brussels.

Belgian Waffles (aka Leige Waffles)

Adapted from Food.com

Ingredients:

1 (1/4 ounce or 6g) package yeast

1/3 Cup (80ml) Lukewarm Water

1 1/2 Tbs Sugar

1/8 tsp Salt

2 Cups (250g) Flour

2 tsp Vanilla Extract or Vanilla Bean Paste

3 eggs

1 Cup (225g) Softened Butter

1/2 Cup (approx 1-2 handfuls) Pearl Sugar or Crushed Sugar Cubes

Instructions:

1.  Mix yeast, water, sugar and salt, and let develop for 15 minutes.

2.  Place flour into a large bowl and make a well in the center.  Pour in yeast mixture and vanilla and begin to knead.  Continue to knead while adding the eggs one at a time, along with approx 2-3 Tbsp of the soft butter at a time.  Make sure the dough is mixed well.

3.  Leave the dough in a warm spot to rise in the bowl until doubled - approx 1.5 - 2 hours.

4.  Gently mix the pearl sugar into the dough, and let rest for 15 minutes.  Heat waffle iron.

5.  Place about 1/3 cup of the waffle dough into the middle of your hot waffle iron and spread out slightly with a fork or spatula.  Cook the waffles on low heat for 3-5 minutes, until waffles lightly brown on top.

My waffle iron - sorry it had too many crumbs to take a photo of the inside!

6.  Serve the waffles warm with your choice of topping such as Nutella, Fruit, Whipped Cream, Specaloos, etc.

There's that tiny fork again!

I don't think I could live without my waffle iron.  Thanks to some good friends back in Canada, it was one of the first appliances we got when we moved to the UK as we got it for a wedding gift.  Waffle irons aren't nearly as common here in the UK as they are in North America, so finding a waffle iron in physical store can be kind of hard. Often if a store does carry waffle irons in stock, they will only have 1 or 2 brands or designs.  The waffle iron I have is no longer available, but if you're looking to purchase one I'd recommend the one below.

Bubble Tea! Oh How I've Missed You!

Firstly, let me just start off by saying this will likely be one of the only non-baking related posts you'll see on Made With Pink, but I just couldn't resist posting about this!  Why?  Well, for the past 3 years I've been going through withdrawal - Bubble Tea withdrawal!  Bubble Tea you ask? Yes, Bubble Tea!  I'm obsessed with it!  And what exactly is Bubble Tea?  I guess the easy explanation would be that it's sweetened tea, with some added flavouring (usually fruity), shaken with ice and served with dozens of little jellied chewy tapioca balls inside known as pearls.  Oh - and you get to use a crazy big straw so you can suck up the jelly tapioca pearls. 

Bubble Tea originated in Taiwan back in the 1980's, and has slowly made it's way around the world ever since.  It's been available in Canada for at least 10 years, and maybe even longer thanks to cities such as Vancouver having a larger Asian population who brought this fabulous drink with them.  

I hadn't had Bubble Tea since I moved to the UK, so when I found out that London was finally getting a Bubble Tea place of our own I was super excited!  I'd been missing Bubble Tea so much, I'd even resorted to making my own by mixing regular Iced Tea with tapioca pearls that I'd purchased from the Chinese Superstore Wing Yip.  Strangely Wing Yip sells the tapioca pearls in both the rainbow and black varieties (they both taste exactly the same), but they don't sell the flavoured tea mixes, or the large straws to suck up the pearls with, so I have to resort to eating them with a spoon. 

Thank goodness I won't have to resort to making my own every time I have a craving for bubble tea now.  That's because London's first Bubble Tea bar - cleverly named Bubbleology opens this Thursday April 21, 2011.  

The other night I was lucky enough to be invited to the launch event of Bubbleology where I was able to sample different flavours of their bubble teas (which were all amazing by the way!) as well as some of their delicious pastries.  

Bubbleology is run by owner Assad Khan who fell in love with bubble tea while living in New York.  He (like me) went through bubble tea withdrawal when he moved to London, so decided to do something about it and open up his own bubble tea bar. Assad has come up with a totally unique concept to make bubble tea fun and quirky.  Bubbleology is set up like a mad scientists workshop, with the staff all wearing white lab coats while they mix your drinks.

The teas come in 13 varieties and are either fruit or milk based. The fruit based teas are made with green or red tea,  and come in the following flavours:  

Lychee Green Tea 

Strawberry Green Tea 

Mango Green Tea (my favourite)

Kumquat Red Tea 

Passion Fruit Green Tea 

Green Apple Green Tea 

Ginger Red Tea  

The milk-teas, are similar to a watery fun milk-shake, and come in the following flavours:  

Taro  

Coconut 

Almond 

Cocoa 

Vanilla 

Honeydew  

In addition to bubble tea, Bubbleology is introducing something else new to the London scene that I've never seen before - the "Cruffin."  I would describe the cruffin as a designer crumpet or English muffin.  It comes toasted with your choice of spread (peanut butter, chocolate spread, etc), and (gummy bears, nuts, M&M's, etc).  These weren't on offer the night I was there, but basically what I think Assad was going for when he thought of these was a snack that's unique and English - think the English equivalent to a French crepe or a Dutch pancake.  

Bubbleology is a small little shop located at 49 Rupert Street in Soho, close to the Lyric Theatre.  They're open from 8am - 12am so there's plenty of time to get your bubble tea fix. 

Now here's the best part!  If you've never tried bubble tea before and would like to try it, Bubbleology will be giving away FREE bubble tea between 1:00 - 3:00pm on the day of their launch - Thursday April 21, 2011.

But just in case you can't make it to London for a bubble tea, you can always do what I did and try making your own.  You can purchase the tapioca pearls (see below) from Wing Yip locations or order them online.  

You'll need to boil the pearls in water that's been sweetened with sugar until they're slightly soft & chewy.  Once your pearls are the right consistency (take one out of the boiling water & chew it to test them) you'll need to drain them, put them in the bottom of a glass and pour some cold iced tea (such as Liptons) over them.  Add in a bit of ice to help cool the warm pearls down.  The only problem with this is that I haven't been able to find bubble tea straws anywhere here, so I'm forced to eat them with a spoon while sipping on the actual iced tea.  That's about as close as you're going to get to making actual bubble tea at home, but trust me - nothing beats the real thing, so if you do get a chance to visit Bubbleology then I really recommend going!

A Royal Wedding Victoria Sponge Cake

I don't know of a cake that's any more British than the Victoria Sponge cake.  When I first moved to the UK and started visiting cute little coffee shops I noticed the Victoria Sponge cake everywhere.  It jumped out at me for 2 reasons.  Firstly, because I'd never seen it before, and secondly, becasue it wasn't covered in a thick layer of rich buttercream icing like all the cakes were back home.  When I started talking to people about my love of baking I'd often ask them what their favourite cake or dessert was, and Victoria Sponge was the one mentioned most often.  I didn't really get it.  I mean, the Victoria Sponge cake looked rather plain and unimpressive, and I'd seen plenty of other cakes that were more rich and decadent that I'd rather try.  But then I realised something - UK tastes are totally different than North American tastes. Overly sweet things just aren't as popular here.  Sure, they have loads of sweet and delicious desserts here, but the Victoria Sponge cake is considered more of a lighter option.  Something that you could enjoy with a cup of afternoon tea, and that wouldn't leave you feeling overly heavy after you've eaten it. 

I'd always dismissed the "boring" looking Victoria Sponge cake in favour of other sweeter options until one day last summer I gave in and decided to see what all the hype was about.  I was pleasantly surprised.  It was actually really nice, and not overly sweet which left me feeling much lighter than a heavy piece of chocolate cake would have on a hot summer day.

For those of you not familiar with the Victoria Sponge cake it's basically two un-iced vanilla cakes sandwiched together between a layer of buttercream icing (or double cream - which is similar to whipped cream), and a layer of strawberry or raspberry jam.  Pretty simple huh?

The recipe for a Victoria Sponge cake is equally simple, and is probably another reason why this cake is so popular.  Anyone can make it!  

I had originally intended to use the recipe from Royal Wedding cake baker Fiona Cairns' book Bake and Decorate (which I reviewed here), but as I read through the instructions I was a little dubious as they said to basically combine everything in the mixer and beat them until they were well mixed.  I'd always been taught not to beat flour, so I started to research a few other Victoria Sponge recipes.  After looking at at least 6 different recipes from various recipe books and online sources, the main thing I noticed what that the majority of them called for equal amounts of butter, flour and sugar.  In the end I decided to come up with my own recipe, and I was quite pleased with the way it turned out.  Because there is no liquid in the recipe (aside from eggs), the batter will be very thick, so make sure you spread it around the cake pans equally and evenly to ensure you have a nice looking cake.  Remember - you can't fix any mistakes by covering them in a thick coating of buttercream!!  My top layer came out slightly lopsided, never the less it tasted delicious.  I choose to use buttercream icing and strawberry jam as my fillings, and I used castor sugar (granulated sugar in the US) to garnish the top of my cake.

Traditional Victoria Sponge Cake

Ingredients:

3/4 Cup + 2 Tbsp (200g) Castor Sugar

3/4 Cup + 2 Tbsp (200g) Butter, room temperature

4 Eggs

1.5 tsp Vanilla extract

1.5 Cups + 1.5 Tbsp (200g) Self Raising Flour

1/2 tsp baking powder

Vanilla Buttercream Icing or Whipped Double Cream - enough to cover the top of 1 cake in a thick layer

1/4 Cup (approx 70g) Strawberry or Raspberry Jam 

Castor Sugar or Icing Sugar to finish (2-4 Tbsp)

Instructions:

1.  Pre-heat oven to 350ºF (175ºC).  Grease (and if you choose - line with parchment) two round 8" (20cm) cake pans.  Beat the butter and sugar together until light and fluffy (about 5 minutes).

2.  Add in eggs 1 at a time to ensure they don't curdle the butter and sugar mixture.  Beat well before adding each following egg.  Beat in the vanilla extract.

3.  Gently fold in the self raising flour and baking powder into the butter, sugar and egg mixture until just combined.  Don't over mix.  Divide the batter equally between the two pans, making sure that the batter is as flat and even as possible.  Bake for 20 - 25 minutes.

4.  Let cakes cool in their pans at least 1/2 an hour before turning out on a rack to finish cooling. *Make sure that the bottoms of the cakes rest on the rack, and not the tops, otherwise you'll have ugly lines going across the top of your cake!  Once your cakes have fully cooled, coat the top of one of the cakes with a thick layer of buttercream icing or double cream, and then spread your strawberry or raspberry jam over top.  Next, place the second cake on top of the other cake so that the buttercream icing and jam are sandwiched in between the two cakes.  Finally, sprinkle with a generous layer of castor sugar or icing sugar to finish off your cake.  

*If you used buttercream as your filling your Victoria Sponge Cake will keep at room temperature for about 4 days in a sealed container.  If you're using double cream, then store your cake in the fridge so it doesn't spoil, although keeping a cake in the fridge will cause it to go stale faster than if you were to keep it at room temperature.

And since the world is gearing up for the Royal Wedding taking place on Friday April 29th, I thought the Victoria Sponge cake would be a perfect cake to bake in celebration of William and Kate's special day.  Here in the UK we've been lucky enough to be given April 29th off as National holiday, so the majority of UK residents will be off work and out of school.  All sorts of Royal Wedding celebrations will be taking place on April 29th so the public can share in the wedding celebrations.  Street parties and picnics are being organised all across the country, and what better way to celebrate the Royal wedding than to bake and share a Victoria Sponge Cake with your friends and family.  

I made some very simple hanging Union Jack flags (called bunting here in the UK) out of paper and attached them together with some thread (ok - I used mint dental floss!) and then tied them to some bamboo skewers that I then stuck in my cake to decorate it and give it a bit of a celebratory feel.  If you'd like to celebrate the Royal Wedding by decorating your own Victoria Sponge cake with these little flags, I've included a printable PDF below so you can make your own.  ** I've also included 3 additional flags in the PDF incase you'd prefer to celebrate the following 2011 holidays:

St. Georges Day - Saturday April 23rd (England's national day)

Canada Day - Friday July 1st (Canada's Birthday)

Independence Day - Monday July 4th (America's Birthday)

">Flag Bunting

** To download - click the orange download button on the top right hand corner of the PDP preview above.

Simply cut the little flags out and lay them face down on a flat surface.  Take a piece of thread (or in my case dental floss) and lay it across the back of the flags near the top.  Fold the top part of the flag over the thread and fasten with a piece of tape or glue.  When you pick up your thread from both ends each of the flags should be hanging down as shown in my picture above.  Tie each end to a bamboo skewer and insert them into the cake.  Ta Da!!!  A perfect and simple way to decorate your cake - whatever occasion you choose!