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Showing posts with label strawberry. Show all posts
Showing posts with label strawberry. Show all posts
Thursday, 9 March 2017
British Pie Week Reci-pie: Cake Pie!
Is is a cake? Is it a pie? Why yes, yes it is!
Hooray! British Pie Week is upon us once more - and what better way to celebrate than by baking an enormous, stripy, sugary cake pie? I first made this back in July for a Pierateer celebration, and now I'm going to show you how you can make your very own version.
Warning: Depending on how many cake tins you have and how big your oven is, you might want to start this recipe early in the morning. I decided to embark on my cake pie when I got in from work one evening and ended up still in the kitchen at 1am waiting for the last cake to be ready...
The Recipe:
The first thing you need to do is make three cakes - they'll need plenty of time to cool before you assemble the pie! My cake pie was inspired by Neapolitan ice cream, so I made one vanilla, one chocolate and one strawberry - I used my favourite sponge recipe, which is:
175g butter
175g caster sugar
3 medium eggs
175g self-raising flour
For the vanilla cake - 1-2 teaspoons of vanilla extract
For the strawberry cake - 1-2 teaspoons of strawberry flavouring and some pink gel food colouring (the gel kind is much better for baking than the liquid kind, because it doesn't make your cake mix go all runny)
For the chocolate cake - take out 3 tablespoons of flour and replace it with 3 tablespoons of cocoa powder
Cream the butter and sugar together, then beat in the eggs a little at a time. Fold in the flour, then add the colouring and flavouring. Bake at 180 degrees centigrade for 25 minutes or so, until the cake is cooked through and springy to the touch.
Baking is a serious business on the Pierate Ship...
Next, you'll need to make the pastry case. I used shortcrust pastry because it's pretty solid and holds its shape well - and this is a pretty big pastry case. I lined my largest cake tin (one with high sides, the kind you'd use for a fruit cake) with pastry, then put a slightly smaller cake tin inside it to keep the pastry from falling in on itself:
As you can see, this method works pretty well!
I also made a pastry lid by cutting out a circle of pastry the same size as my cakes, then baking it in the oven between two flat baking trays to stop it from puffing up too much.
The next step is to make the icing - again, I made vanilla, chocolate and strawberry. I used buttercream -
75g butter
175g icing sugar
1-2 tablespoons milk
For the vanilla - add in vanilla extract
For the strawberry - use more of the strawberry colouring and flavouring
For the chocolate - stir in some cocoa powder and add some more milk if the icing seems too thick
Chocolate icing ready to go in the pie!
At last, you're ready to assemble your cake pie! Now it's all just a matter of layering - I started with cake, then the matching icing, then cake, then the matching icing, then more cake. Finally, I added the last layer of icing and used that to stick the lid on.
One layer of cake and icing
Two layers of cake and icing
All the layers of cake and icing with the lid stuck on - trim any excess pastry to make it look neater
And there you have it, a cake pie!
The Pierateers helped me decorate mine with some nautical accessories...
I recommend leaving the cake pie somewhere cool for a few hours before slicing it (I put mine in the fridge for a little while) so that it's nice and solid - and it should come out looking something like this:
Who wouldn't want a slice of delcious, stripy, Neapolitan ice cream flavoured cake pie?
The Seven Cs:
Colour: A lovely golden brown (and very bright inside!)
Consistency: Surprisingly good - I was worried it might be a bit dry, but it turns out that soft fluffy cake, creamy icing and crispy pastry go very well together.
Capacity: Full to the brim with cake and icing - I had to squash it a bit to get the lid on!
Chewiness: No chewiness here - just cake (and icing).
Content: Not only is it a giant pie, not only is it full of cake, but it's stripy and has three different flavours - this one is a real showstopper!
Cheapness: You'll have to buy quite a lot of flour, butter and sugar, but if you've got a well stocked baking cupboard this won't break the bank - you could also make a smaller (and cheaper) version.
Condition: Brilliant, even if I do say so myself. This sliced beautifully and there were genuine gasps of amazement from my fellow Pierateers. Just look at those layers...
The Ship's Cook
See what the Pierateers have been up to this British Pie Week in our daily Pie Diary articles:Day One – Monday 6th March 2017 Day Two – Tuesday 7th March 2017 Day Three – Wednesday 8th March 2017 Day Four - Thursday 9th March 2017 Day Five - Friday 10th March 2017 Day Six - Saturday 11th March 2017 Day Seven - Sunday 12th March 2017 Pierate is a pie review website charting a course to find the ultimate pie. For all the pies we have reviewed have a look at our Pie Rankings or find pies of a particular flavour under Pies: Categorised. Make sure you Follow @pierateers
and let us know your thoughts!
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Sunday, 12 July 2015
Anyone for tennis... pie? Strawberries and Cream Pie Review
It's a great day for tennis fans - it's the final day of Wimbledon! Which means you should very definitely be eating strawberries and cream - preferably in a pie! That's why we're SERVING you up an ACE pie suggestion which we hope will be a real WINNER!!! Having made a number of reci-pies, check out what our Ship's Cook has been up to in the kitchen this weekend:
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| Why not serve up one of these beauties? |
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| Just make sure you don't drop (shot) these! |
I searched online for strawberry and cream pie recipes and there were lots of versions, but most of them looked more like cheesecakes than pies. So I decided to just go ahead and make my own!
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| Will they be a winner with you? |
Strawberries and cream are, obviously, delicious. It turns out that they are just as delicious in a pie - possibly even more delicious because the crispy pastry works really well with them AND it saves you trying to balance bowls or plates while shouting at the tennis!
They are a bit messy to eat though....
The Ship's Cook
Pierate is a pie review website charting a course to find the ultimate pie. For all the pies we have reviewed have a look at our Pie Rankings or find pies of a particular flavour under Pies: Categorised.
Or why not check out the growing list of all the Ship's Cook Pie Recipe Reviews? Make sure you Follow @pierateers
and let us know your thoughts!
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Saturday, 23 November 2013
When In Rome... Pie Review
When In Rome Pie Hunt result from Zucchero e Farina
The local term for them was Crostatine, which were pastry base and sides, filled with jam (in my case, strawberry) and then a pastry lattice on top. The depth wasn't huge, it has to be said, but you could tell the base and the sides apart (unlike you could with a slice). What rescued it from just being a tart (another rival to pie in the culinary world and quite popular in Rome) was the pastry lattice lid, keeping at least some of the content under wraps.
The pastry was quite crumbly and I certainly felt I left far too much pie pastry on the floor rather than in my mouth! Not ideal but at least the pastry I did eat was good! While a little dry, it held together well, securely holding the filling and allowing easy transportation. The lattice lid ensured my filling did not encase the paper bag it came in, which was good as I had big plans for taking the photo below:
So the score then:
The consistency was okay, with the thick, drier pastry and the soft, moist strawberry jam holding together nicely as I bit into the pie. The content tasted fine but with it just consisting of strawberry jam it certainly didn't give me a taste sensation. I'd have preferred they did something a bit more exciting with it than just strawberry jam!
At €1,70 this wasn't particularly cheap either for an individual pie but the shop was selling in central Rome. The condition of the pie was quite good and sold in a nice paper case, but as previously stated I couldn't fully assess the capacity as sadly wasn't fully encased. The pie certainly wasn't filled very deeply with jam though, so the score is minimal. The pie (and certainly the jam filling) wasn't chewy and the colour was good.
Zucchero e Farina Strawberry (Fragola) Crostatine
Score: 4/7
[Colour 6, Capacity 2, Consistency 4, Condition 4, Chewiness 6, Cheapness 3, Content 3, Total: 4/7]
RAS
continue reading "When In Rome... Pie Review"
Please Note: This pie review forms part of the wider "When In Rome..." pie hunt.
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The local term for them was Crostatine, which were pastry base and sides, filled with jam (in my case, strawberry) and then a pastry lattice on top. The depth wasn't huge, it has to be said, but you could tell the base and the sides apart (unlike you could with a slice). What rescued it from just being a tart (another rival to pie in the culinary world and quite popular in Rome) was the pastry lattice lid, keeping at least some of the content under wraps.
The pastry was quite crumbly and I certainly felt I left far too much pie pastry on the floor rather than in my mouth! Not ideal but at least the pastry I did eat was good! While a little dry, it held together well, securely holding the filling and allowing easy transportation. The lattice lid ensured my filling did not encase the paper bag it came in, which was good as I had big plans for taking the photo below:
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| VatiCAN you see the famous landmark in the background?! |
So the score then:
The consistency was okay, with the thick, drier pastry and the soft, moist strawberry jam holding together nicely as I bit into the pie. The content tasted fine but with it just consisting of strawberry jam it certainly didn't give me a taste sensation. I'd have preferred they did something a bit more exciting with it than just strawberry jam!
At €1,70 this wasn't particularly cheap either for an individual pie but the shop was selling in central Rome. The condition of the pie was quite good and sold in a nice paper case, but as previously stated I couldn't fully assess the capacity as sadly wasn't fully encased. The pie certainly wasn't filled very deeply with jam though, so the score is minimal. The pie (and certainly the jam filling) wasn't chewy and the colour was good.
Zucchero e Farina Strawberry (Fragola) Crostatine
Score: 4/7
[Colour 6, Capacity 2, Consistency 4, Condition 4, Chewiness 6, Cheapness 3, Content 3, Total: 4/7]
RAS
See where this pie ended up in the Pierate Pie Rankings or find other pies of a similar flavour.
Make sure you Follow @pierateers
and let us know your thoughts!
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