Gluten-Free Chocolate & Raspberry Roulade

May 20, 2015

This is definitely not the quickest cake in the world, but I’ve never made a swiss roll or roulade before so it was interesting to give it a go. I learned two things, first, there is no butter or oil in roulade (until you ram it full of cream of course!) – there is chocolate in this one, but you can make it without. Secondly, its really easy. Just not so quick. But that might be me.

Here is how you make it – you will need a 33cm x 23cm (13in x 9in) Swiss roll tin.

Ingredients

175g/6oz plain chocolate, broken into pieces
175g/6oz caster sugar
6 eggs, separated
2 level tbsp cocoa, sieved

For the filling

300ml/10fl oz double cream
3tbsp raspberry jam

For the Chocolate Sauce:

100g chocolate
200ml double cream

Method

1. Lightly grease the Swiss roll tin and line with baking parchment. Preheat the oven to 180C/350F/Gas 4.

2. Melt the chocolate slowly in a bowl over a pan of hot water. Allow to cool slightly.

3. Place the sugar and egg yolks in a bowl and whisk with an electric whisk until light and creamy. Add the cooled chocolate and stir until evenly blended.

4. Whisk the egg whites in a large mixing bowl until stiff. Stir a large spoonful of the egg whites into the chocolate mixture, then fold in the remaining egg whites and the cocoa.

5. Pour into the prepared tin and give it a wobble to level the top. Bake in the preheated oven for about 20 minutes until firm to the touch. Remove from the oven, leave in the tin to cool for a few minutes, then flip it out onto some cling film. Roll it up, incorporating the cling film as you go. Leave to cool completely. This will help the cake to not crack when wrapped with the cream.

6. meanwhile, whip the cream until it just holds its shape. Once the cake has cooled, unwrap it and spread the jam and cream on top. Roll it back up, this time without the clingfilm!

7. Finally, make the chocolate sauce. This is so easy, simply heat the chocolate in a glass bowl over a pan of barely simmering water. When it starts to melt, add the cream then stir until it has all melted and combined. When you are ready to serve the roulade, pour the sauce on top. Delicious!

Life In Pictures

Dec 29, 2014

Life in Pictures is our weekly mini-gallery of what our Little Buttons have been up to over the past seven days.

10 Last Minute Christmas BAKES

Dec 23, 2014

With Christmas just around the corner we thought we’d bring you our 10 last minute christmas bakes for those of you who still need a little bit of festive baking inspiration! There’s still plenty of time to knock up these baking delights before Santa comes down the chimney!

1. Our Winter Wonderland Chocolate Cake

2. Baker girl’s Peanut Butter Reindeer Cookies

3. Our Christmas Pudding Pinata Cake

4. Chocolate & Ginger Truffles from Great British Chefs

5. Melting Snowman cookies from My Frugal Adventures

6. Ferrero Rocher Brownies from Miss Renaissance

7. Gingerbread Roll Cake from Roxanas Home Baking

8. Our Chocolate Dipped Brandy Baskets

9. Handmade Charlotte’s Snowy Chocolate Pinecones

10. Christmas Mini Muffins from BBC Food

~ Laura & Tia xx ~

Life In Pictures

Dec 22, 2014

Life in Pictures is our weekly mini-gallery of what our Little Buttons have been up to over the past seven days.

(Harper wears: Coat and boots from Zara and dress from Sainsburys. Amelie wears: Dress from M&S, Coat from Zara, shoes from Little Bird @ Mothercare)

10 Last Minute Christmas MAKES

Dec 18, 2014

Christmas is nearly here! Hooray! Wahoo! Why not create some handmade magic with our collection of the top things to make for Christmas – all nice little quick makes (those are the best kind).

1. Our Monogrammed Christmas Stocking

2. DIY Snow Globe Light Bulb by No Biggie

3. Our Button Christmas Tree Decoration

4. DIY Crayon Drip Baubles by The Swell Designer

5. Our Potato Stamp & Button Christmas Card

6. DIY Etched Wooden Ornaments by DesignMom

7. Our Christmas Tree Garland

8. Geometric Brass Ornaments from A Pair and a Spare DIY

9. Felt and Pine Cone Elves by Lia Griffith

10. Our Frozen Inspired Olaf Snowglobe

And a little bonus project!

11. Our lovely Christmas puppets for Hobbycraft

~ Tia & Laura xx ~

Our Latest Festive Hobbycraft Post

Dec 16, 2014

Our latest Hobbycraft project is a very simple little project to create 4 simple puppets with just spoons, felt and goggly eyes! So your kiddies can put on their very own Christmas panto from behind the sofa. Who doesn’t love a bit of festive theatre. He’s behiiiiiiiind you!

Head on over to the Hobbycraft website now to find out how to make them.

Laura & Tia x

Life in Pictures

Dec 15, 2014

Life in Pictures is our weekly mini-gallery of what our Little Buttons have been up to over the past seven days.

Frozen Olaf Snowglobe DIY

Dec 12, 2014

Do you Want to Build a Snowglobe?

Like 99.9% of all little girls, my 2 and a half year old is obsessed with Frozen. What IS it with that film? I now find her singing Let it Go in her sleep (cute) and find me singing it in my head. All. Day. Long (annoying).

If you’re after a cute little Christmas Project, this is a great one to do with kiddies. Obviously it doesn’t have to be Olaf, you could just make a snowman (or The Snowman!) or use a plastic figurine instead of making one from fimo.

You Will Need:

Polymer Clay (e.g. Fimo) in white, orange and black)
Jam Jar
Superglue
Blue acrylic paint
glitter & little stars

1. To make Olaf: Begin by rolling two balls of white clay and pressing together to make his body.

2. Make the head – this is probably the trickiest bit as its a weird shape – take an oval of clay and attach two smaller bits as per the image below and smooth together with your fingers.

3. Attach a little tooth and some eyeballs.

4. roll a cone of orange for the nose, some black eyes and then some eyebrows. To be honest, I slightly regretted the eyebrows. I mean, Olaf HAS eyebrows, but I think I made him look a bit worried… oh well. You can decide if you want eyebrows or not!

5. Press the head onto the body. Roll some thin strips of black for the arms and some coal buttons and press these in place. Bake as per the manufacturers instructions. When it has cooled, glue it onto the centre of the jar lid, leave to set and then paint blue.

6. Now the fun bit! Pour glitter and twinkly metal stars into the jar. Some DIY snowglobe tutorials use painted crushed eggshells for snow so you could do this, but I wanted mine to be super sparkly more than anything else.

Fill with water, then screw on the lid and glue along the edge to seal it. All done! Olaf, and his own personal snow flurry.

Tia x

Chocolate Dipped Brandy Baskets

Dec 10, 2014

Nothing says Christmas more than Brandy Snaps. Well, a few things do I suppose. But They’re so good, I think they should be obligatory on Christmas Day. Here’s how to make a batch.

This recipe is adapted from one featured in The Great British Bake Off Book.

You will need:

55g butter
55g demerara sugar
55g golden syrup
50g plain flour
½ level tsp ground ginger
½ tsp lemon juice
200g dark chocolate
squirty cream!
fruit, such as blueberries, raspberries or strawberries to decorate

Preheat the oven to 180C/350F/Gas 4. Line two baking trays with baking parchment and have a cupcake tray on standby.

Put the butter, sugar and syrup into a small, heavy-based pan. Heat gently until the butter has melted and the sugar has dissolved, about 15 mins. Don’t let the mixture boil as it may crystallise.Leave the mixture to cool slightly, about 2-3 minutes, then sieve in the flour and ginger. Pour in the lemon juice and stir well to mix thoroughly. Drop four teaspoonfuls of the mixture onto each of the prepared baking trays to make neat circles, about 10cm/4in apart.

blog 1

Bake in the pre-heated oven for about 10-15 minutes, or until the mixture is well spread out, looks lacey and is a dark golden colour. Once baked, you need to work fast to shape the brandy snaps, so its easier if you bake one tray at a time. Remove each tray from the oven and leave for a minute or so to firm up slightly, then lift from the baking parchment using a fish slice. The mixture needs to be just firm enough to remove, but pliable enough to shape. Check by releasing around and under the edges with a small palette knife.

Place a circle into the cupcake tray and press down in the middle with a spoon, to form a nest. If any of the circles on the sheet harden too much to work with, put them back in the oven for a few seconds to soften again. Repeat until all the mixture has been used.

Melt the chocolate in a glass bowl over a pan of barely simmering water, then remove from the heat and dip the baskets into the chocolate. Use a wooden spoon to ensure they are evenly coated. Leave on a wire rack to set.