Rose Petal Shortbread Recipe

I have chosen to make rose petal shortbread because I have a slight obsession with all things rose at the moment, the smell, the taste, the look. And prior to making these I had been to see my Nan who was burning the cutest rose candle, it smelled absolutely delicious. It's funny, because I've never really been fond of rose until now. In fact I found it quite sickening. Rose and Lavender were probably my two least favourite fragrances and now I really do like both, rose a little more.

This is a deliciously, simple recipe by Laura Scott of 'How to cook good food'. I have always wanted to make shortbread but I remember a year or so ago watching Kirsty Allsop's tv series and the method seemed so technical. In all fairness she was entering some kind of competition and was being taught by some kind of shortbread enthusiast.

This particular recipe is quite simple and the method is easy. I am sure there is some perfect way to making these biscuits however we'll keep it simple and darling and we'll have fun with it. Even if you aren't a fan of rose, I know some people can find it too fragrant, you can tone it down by using less essence and if I'm being honest the rose flavour works really well the buttery, sugary taste of these biscuits. So do give it a go I'm absolutely positive you'll like it. I went rose crazy after making these and enjoyed mine with a cup of Rose Earl Grey tea the flavours work equally as well with Rose Pu-Erh tea (you'll be able to find reviews of both teas by clicking the tea link on the menu bar.)

Dried rose petals can be bought online from a trusted website for example a whole foods store. A lot of people do grow and use their own flowers in baking, I have done and will continue to. However homegrown rose petals can be hard to find in the middle of winter so for this recipe I stuck to sourcing them from a specialist. I have also used a few dried petals and buds from my Rose Pu-Erh tea jar.

Enjoy x

 Ingredients

175g plain flour
125g butter, at room temperature
2 tsp dried organic rose petals, finely chopped

1 tsp rosewater (optional)
50g caster sugar (Plus extra for sprinkling)

Method

- Preheat oven to 160C/325F/gas mark 3, grease a baking tray and line with parchment.

- Place the flour, chopped-up butter, rose petals, rosewater (if using) and sugar in a bowl and mix it together with your hands until the mixture begins to form a ball of dough, alternatively you can use a dough hook on a medium speed until mixed together, however still make use of your hands for combining the mixture into a dough.

- Roll out the dough on a lightly dusted surface and cut out your desired shapes, this can be done free-hand or with a cookie cutter. I used a medium sized heart-shaped and round cutters. Once done, place onto your lined baking tray and sprinkle with lots of caster sugar.

- Bake for 15 minutes, then turn up the oven to gas mark 6 and cook for another 5 minutes to give  a lovely golden-brown colour.

- Once removed from the oven sprinkle with more sugar and leave to cool for ten minutes.

- Transfer biscuits onto a plate or wire cooling rack and leave to cool. (We ate a fair few with a cup of tea while they were still warm.)

Marshmallow Recipe

I thought I'd quickly add the Marshmallow recipe along with some pictures of the cake, just so you guys could get an idea of how to decorate and what the mallow should look like. This recipe is from the Primrose Bakery and is absolutely one of my favourite cake toppings to make. It's really easy to and I always use my leftovers to dollop in my coffee or hot chocolate,  just as a little treat mind. The mallow will keep in an air-tight container for a good 3-5 days. After that I do recommend dis-guarding.

Enjoy x

Ingredients

240g Granulated Sugar

160g Golden Syrup

  2tbsp water

  4 Egg Whites

1 tsp Vanilla Extract

Food colouring of your choice  

Method

- Put the sugar, golden syrup and water into a pan and cook on a high heat for around 2 minutes. The mixture will thicken and turn golden and should slowly drip from a spoon. (The soft ball stage). 

-Whisk the egg whites until soft peaks start to form then keep beating while you slowly pour the hot sugar mixture into the bowl. 

- Continue beating at a higher speed until the mixture becomes thick, glossy and cool. Add the vanilla extract towards the end. (I added a drop of Wilton Rose food colouring at this point, then mixed in on a high speed until the icing was pale pink.)

Salted Caramel Chocolate Cake

Guys! It's been forever, how are you all doing? Firstly, let me apologise for being so lazy, I haven't posted in like, FOREVER! The reason being, I found myself a new full time job and had really started struggling to find the time to bake. I absolutely could not dedicate any time around my job to large orders and waiting for customers to come and collect. I found I was letting people down frequently because I was too tired or had loose ends to tie up at work which meant getting home late resulting in me having to cancel or rearrange customers. I HATE letting people down. Darling Cupcake is my little empire so I definitely haven't given up instead I've decided to dedicate my free time to helping others with their baking journey by sharing my advice and techniques. Getting to know you all has been an uplifting and amazing journey for me so there's no way I could give that up. I've made some really good friends with amazing talents. I'd like to thank you all, you probably don't even know what you've done, your kind words, help and all round interest in Darling Cupcake has really inspired me and has really kept me going. Bloody Nora, I'd be brilliant at the Oscars wouldn't I? I told you guys I'm 100% dra-ma queen. But hey! What good is a life with no drama? It's entertaining and it's fabulous (as long as you aren't mean.) Anyway back to baking. I've got so many recipes to share and I have been meaning to start with this chocolate cake recipe, I wanted this to be my big comeback recipe especially since it had such a big response over on instgram. I actually have to thank a very lovely instagrammer for asking me for the recipe because it was just the kick up the bum I needed to pull my finger out and start blogging again.

I'll admit I'm not a huge fan of chocolate cake but this recipe is delicious. I do believe it's a really good base to start with especially for adding your own frostings and hints of flavours to. I've used this cake recipe to make a chocolate marshmallow cake and a chocolate orange cake, I've also used this recipe for last years chocolate Christmas cake recipe which I decorated ... you guessed it, PINK. I will post pictures and recipes for those too. 

I was a little bit skeptical about this recipe at first purely because it has 'water' as an ingredient and in my experience water can dilute the taste of certain things. In this case it absolutely does not. The flavour is still there, the water just adds a texture and moisture to the sponge and unlike most cakes this does not dry out when stored in the fridge. 

This cake is AMAZING with Earl Grey Supreme tea, no sugar. You can find tea recommendations on the Tea page of this blog. The Salted Caramel is to die for. The recipe is by Nigella Lawson, however as always I made some adjustments which I will note in the recipe below. I actually wanted to drink it straight from the jug while it was hot and obviously I did! I drank enough to rival the chocolate monster that is Augustus Gloop! At one point I pictured myself in lederhosen, stuck in my dear Mother's already dodgy kitchen pipes crying, while two engineers from Dyno Rod tried to get me out. My imagination is so vivid because although this seems like something that couldn't possibly happen, in my world things like this happen on a regular basis. Anyhow bake, share, enjoy! (I use the term 'share' very loosely).

This recipe will make two layers in 8/9inch sandwich tins. I divided the quantities by half then added it on to the recipe to make a 3 layer, just for the cake. The quantities for the buttercream and caramel is enough to decorate a 3 layer.

Recipe courtesy of BBC Food and Nigella.  and Darling Cupcake.

Ingredients

For the Cake 

 225g plain flour 

350g caster sugar 

85g cocoa powder

1½ tsp baking powder 

1½ tsp bicarbonate of soda 

2 free-range eggs 

250ml oz milk 

125ml vegetable oil 

2 tsp vanilla extract 

250ml boiling water

For the Salted Caramel

 150g best-quality unsalted butter 

100g soft light brown sugar (I used Dark)

100g caster sugar 

100g golden syrup 

250ml double cream 

1 tsp Fleur De Sel

For the Salted Caramel Buttercream

125g Lightly Salted Butter

300g Icing Sugar

50ml Salted Caramel 

1/2tsp Coarse Sea Salt.

Method

For the cake

1. Preheat the oven to 180C/350F/Gas 4. Grease and line two 20cm/8in sandwich tins.

2. For the cake, place all of the cake ingredients, except the boiling water, into a large mixing bowl. Using a wooden spoon, or electric whisk, beat the mixture until smooth and well combined.

3. Add the boiling water to the mixture, a little at a time, until smooth. (The cake mixture will now be very liquid.)

4. Divide the cake batter between the sandwich tins and bake in the oven for 25-35 minutes, or until the top is firm to the touch and a skewer inserted into the centre of the cake comes out clean.

5. Remove the cakes from the oven and allow to cool in their tins for 15 minutes before turning out on a wire rack to cool, before icing. 

For the Salted Caramel

1.  On a medium heat melt butter, sugars and syrup and butter in a small heavy based pan and let simmer for 3 minutes, swirling every now and again with a wooden spoon.

2. Add in the cream and Fleur De Sel and mix, give the caramel a taste to as you may want to add more salt, it will be hot so be careful. 

3. Pour into a jug and leave while you move on to the buttercream. 

For the Buttercream

1. Mix the butter on a high-speed until it is nice and smooth.

2. Add in half of your icing sugar and beat again on a high speed. Gradually add in the rest of the icing sugar. I like for my icing sugar to be stiff from the get go, so it gives me more to work with, so if the mixture isn't stiff add in a little more icing sugar.

3. Slowly add in the caramel mixture, turn the mixer down to a low speed and pour in gradually. The buttercream should be a nice smooth, spreadable texture. Not too sloppy. If you want to add more caramel then do so, but remember to keep it smooth. 

4. Add in the Fleur De Sel and mix. 

Finale

1. You will now want to go back to your cakes, level both before adding a nice thick layer of the buttercream. On top of the buttercream drizzle a little of the caramel mixture. (The caramel may have thickened up as it cooled, if so pop it into the microwave for a few seconds to soften it up. Make sure you are using a microwave safe bow, such as Pyrex.) 

2. Add the second layer of your cake, and more buttercream on top of that. Smooth out using a palette knife then add the popcorn. 

3. Once the popcorn has been added, drizzle the caramel over the whole cake you can even have some dribbling down the side of the cake, makes it look all the more delicious.

4. Serve, I like to heat up some Salted Caramel and pour over a slice of the cake, it's so tasty and lovely when it's warm. The cake can be stored in the fridge. I wouldn't recommend an airtight container as the buttercream can melt and is much nicer when it's a little solid. Enjoy!

For the marshmallow version to this cake please see the recipe for my chocolate and marshmallow cupcakes. Double the ingredients for the marshmallow topping and you'll have enough to decorate this yummy chocolate cake. Instead of popcorn use mini-mallows to decorate.