Nutty Sunshine Torte

Nutty Sunshine Torte

I am quite fussy when it comes to food and I don’t like walnuts in brownies but fancied creating the texture they give. One day I really wanted a sweet, nutty treat and I have decided to replace the walnuts with sunflower seeds.

When sitting and testing for the first time I had another genius moment and just spotted peanut and almond brownie laying around. Put the two together with a little bit of cream and that is how Nutty sunshine torte was made.

Nutty Sunshine Torte

Nutty sunshine torte is very easy bake and you can make it in only one bowl with a couple of utensils.

It taste a little bit like cake version of Snickers bar. Chocolatey yet crunchy, full of chewy peanuts, slightly salty, topped with delicious fluffy cream.

Nutty sunshine torte a perfect afternoon tea treat or birthday cake all depending on your creativity and imagination when decorating.

Nutty sunshine torte is an easy, simple perfect brownie Snickers cake.

Nutty Sunshine Torte

The recipe

For the first layer you will need:

  • 210g white sugar
  • 160g soft brown sugar
  • 85g cocoa powder
  • 150g plain flower
  • 1/2 tsp baking powder
  • 1/4 tsp rock salt
  • 180g sunflower seeds
  • 4 organic eggs*
  • 225g melted unsalted butter
  • dash vanilla

*TOP TIP. If you are baking with your kids let them crack the eggs. The easiest way is to open them over a sieve in case any shells breaking in. Then simply whisk it through.

Heat the oven to 175C or 155C fan.

Sieve all the dry ingredients in to a large bowl. Add the rest and mix it with a whisk or a wooden spoon until well combined.

Line 9″ spring form with baking paper and put the mixture in the tin.

Place it in the oven and bake the first layer for 30 minutes. In the meantime prepare the peanut layer.

For peanut layer

use the same bowl and utensils and mix through after adding each ingredient:

  • 120g crunchy peanut butter
  • 40g of peeled and roughly chopped monkey nuts
  • 70g melted unsalted butter
  • 130g white sugar
  • 100g soft brown sugar
  • 2 organic eggs
  • dash of vanilla
  • 110g ground almonds
  • 1 tsp baking powder
  • 1/4 tsp of rock salt

After baking the first layer for 30 min take it out the oven carefully. Try to complete the next step quickly.

Very gently top the the peanut butter mix on to brownie layer. Bake for additional 30-40 minutes at the same temperature until golden brown. Leave to cool.

The cream

  • 90g unsalted butter
  • 45g cocoa powder
  • 2 tbsp golden syrup
  • dash vanilla
  • 250g icing sugar
  • 2 to 4 tbsp milk

Put all in a mixer and slowly work to a paste then beat on high speed for a few minutes to light and fluffy.

Spread on the cake and decorate as you wish.

Nutty Sunshine Torte

I decorated mine with some toasted in sugar sunflower seeds, mascarpone and some dark chocolate sauce.

Nutty Sunshine Torte

Nutty Sunshine Torte

Enjoy!

Aggy x

Teal and rose and Jimmy Choo’s.

As the madness around our TV cake for ITV2’s Celebrity Juice continues, we thought to show you our recent cakes.

We had two totally different designs to finish and deliver on the same day.

It proved a good test of time keeping and being able to switch from one to the other. One second we are covering a four tier wedding cake. The next we are piping royal icing onto an edible shoe!

We had a beautiful four tier wedding cake to be done. The guide we had was to match the colour of the wedding and include some frills. So we sat down and got drawing changing the design probably 7- 8 times before we finally decided on a final look.dscf5157The hardest part was to match the theme colour. It was a deep shade of teal.

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A last minute stroke of genius saw Aggy draw an entwined painting of the couples initials and even incorporated a heart into it to really finish off the second tier.

 

 

 

The heart on top to be the last piece of the puzzle and we think it all fits together perfectly, to create a beautiful elegant wedding cake that fits into the decoration of the venue.

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The second cake was an amazing challenge. We needed to make a copy of the birthday lady’s favorite pair of shoes by Jimmy Choo. The set included a cake shoe box, beautiful red rose and of course an edible copy of the shoe itself. Jimmy Choo cake box

The board was made to look like cobble street which really set the whole cake off perfectly!

The shoe box was our gorgeous dark chocolate brownie cake and chocolate ganache. Stunning blend for the most indulgent of chocolate lovers!

Both cakes were delivered on the same day and really tested our smooth driving skills around the Cotswolds!Sugar red rose

TOP TIP. To really make your rose come to life you can airbrush the center of it. Simply spray with a slightly darker shade of red or dust it with edible powder.

 

Happy baking,

 

Aggy, Andy and Zara

xxx

80’s TV 7th birthday cake for Celebrity Juice Keith Lemon ITV2 Part 2

Arriving at the Celebrity Juice studio.

When set off for London all we had in our minds was “please don’t slide in the boot”! Every bump and noise from the car had us worried as we drove on. It was a two hours’, shaky drive to get to the Celebrity Juice studio. It made it even more difficult for Aggy and Beccy holding the caricatures, while Andy did his best to miss the pot holes.

When pulled up to the studio it dawned on us that we still need to get this cake out again. After some frantic running around we managed to find the correct studio and went to find help. Six ‘Celebrity Juice’ team members come out rather nervous, as they had no idea what is was going to look like. As I opened the back of the van we all breathed a huge sigh of relief.

It still was all in one piece!

As we all crowed around it to lift it out more and more people came to have a look. This only added to the pressure but with a gentle push and a wiggle 250kg of cake was on the trolley and ready to finish in the studio. As we made the long (about 25m, but felt like 4 miles) journey to the studio we could hear Keith’s voice from inside. We had two reroutes on the way because of cables and other obstacles. The cake sliding nearly dropping off the trolley at one point but we had it back stage and could start the final assembly.

Last finishing touches to the Celebrity Juice cake.

photo-23-09-2015-06-01-20-pmWhile we were working like mad to finish it, we could see Keith Lemon setting up the show and we were constantly laughing. While putting the ribbons on and painting the inside of Fearne’s nostrils we noticed Keith was stood next to us open mouthed. A bit shocked we shook hands and starting chatting cake. He loved the heads and asked if he could keep his after filming. Who are we to say ‘NO’ to Keith Lemon!!!! As we are chatting away with him we had to demonstrate where to start cutting. The way it was made you could cut straight from the top of the TV to the bottom of the screen.

The only thing nobody had a knife!

After a good long chat he had to run off to get ready for filming and with the cake nearly done we started breathing again.

Just before filming last little push around the studio to move the cake across to the other side of the stage. As we pushed it across we got nice OOOOO’s and AHHHHH’s from the audience.

A last lift to the stage!

We finally sat down!

The filming began.

The next four hours were a blur of constant laughter, watching the filming and how the show is made. How Keith Lemon has so much energy is a mystery he is always doing something hilarious.

 

After the filming, the warm up guy invited us to the after party, we were buzzing! We went back stage again with the ‘heads’ to give to their new owners.

While chatting to Chris Moyles, Tulisa, the film crew and guests we saw Leigh Francis and Gino appeared. We got talking to them, a real ‘pinch yourself’ moment but they were very cool and funny.

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While chatting we remembered we still had quite a lot of cake left, so we ran into the studio and wheeled it outside for everyone. As we were talking to the guests, Dean Gaffney walked over and started digging in..

Celebrity Juice cake, delivery Part II img_8357

The rest of the night was filled with chats with as many people as we could. The reception of the cake and heads was awesome, and we were treated like celebs ourselves by the crew and guests.Celebrity Juice cake, delivery Part II

It really was an incredible evening and finally all the hard work was over and we could have a laugh.

Was all the work worth it?

Of course! And we would do it all again tomorrow if we could. Maybe a bit of sleep first.

As we thanked everyone and said ‘bye’ we looked around and realized we still had to load the car. Then drive two more hours to get home.

There is no rest for the wicked!

 

They say you should never meet your heroes but we are so glad we did and hope to party with them again soon!!!

 

Aggy, Andy and Zara

 

xxx

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