Ja Roulade

I'm a bit late on updating with the latest hip hop bake off, like Ja said ''Im not always there when you call but I'm always on time...'' or not quite. Anyhow it was the Size? christmas party on Sunday evening and I thought I had better treat the playas to some treats starting with the milk chocolate yule log/ roulade...

Now I was gonna use a Nigella recipe however unfortunately I didn't have any dark chocolate and I had already been to Tescos once on Sunday so googled a Dairy Milk recipe, kept it OG and used the Cadburys recipe which can be found here. 

Going to be honest I'm not sure it was my best bake-off, although it looked aesthetically pleasing when I took the sponge out of the oven it wasn't very thick and the majority of the log is cream and milk chocolate icing. Thats another thing I also added in whipped double cream as I wanted to make it like one big cadburys mini roll, the reviews were good but I wouldn't say it was one of my most exquisite bakes.

Also what is quite good about this dessert is it doesn't take long to make which leaves quite enough time to get your rap on, its best to have a partner for this bake as you need some one to be Ashanti/ J-Lo/ Christina Milian. The J-Lo remixes album always reminds me of my dad as he had it in his car and used to try and sing/rap along when I was about 14, I thought he was pretty hip and then when he lost it man he kicked off! Also who didn't love this video and wanna be J-Lo...J to the L O..HELLO!!

Sorry but it had to be a double whammy for this duo, Velour tracksuit...check yo bad self J-lo.

Rolo Deeps

I woke up Saturday morning pretty hyped after a lovely week catching up with friends and gallivanting around from Bristol to London, a week filled with playas, tea, cakes, a few runs and some christmas window decoration ending with an evening with my lovely friend Jen in Tunbridge Wells. I have previously mentioned Jen as my number one surviving cancer bad ass biatch and its been a couple months since we've seen each other so thought I had best whip up some treats to take along with me for the stay.

Now not technically hip hop baking, I slightly verged towards grime but hey who's judging so here I present ''The Rolo Deeps''.

You will need:

For the Cupcakes:

8oz Butter

8oz Caster sugar

6oz Self raising flour

4 Eggs

2oz Cocoa Powder

a pack of Rolos

For the Icing:

3oz Butter

3 Tablespoons of milk 

3 Tablespoons of Cocoa

12 oz Icing Sugar

Large Milky Buttons

Method:

Now these are simple and easy much like the KRS Sponge, its just an easy quick sponge recipe with a little surprise in the middle and treats on top. I am all about the exquisite kinda flavoured cakes but sometimes you can't go wrong with a chocolately delight. Simply mix the butter and caster sugar to a cream adding the eggs one by one, slowly sift the flour in and fold the mixture making sure it gets a fair bit of air so they rise nicely. There is nothing worse than a flat cupcake yo. 

Add in the Cocoa, making sure the mixed is all combined and spoon into the cupcake cases. I'm lucky enough my good pal Lizzie Brown treated me to some Great British Bake Off cases for my birthday and this was their first test run...it might seem trivial but the correct case is essential. Cheap ones just collapse and leave you with a spongey messy with no room to decorate, not ideal, however the bake off ones are nice and sturdy as well as offering 4 different patterns for a playa...what a treat. This is the best bit and you could use a variety of different fillings depending on the hip hop bake but just pop a rolo into the middle of the cupcake case and cover with mixture else it will just sit at the top of the cake and burn. Now bake for 25 mins on 150c or until risen and the sponge is bouncy. 

Whilst these are cooling you can make the icing heating the butter, milk and cocoa in a pan until melted. This will take a couple of minutes and you can then beat the icing sugar in and swirl on to the top of the cakes topping with a chocolate button or perhaps another roll..though I'm pretty sure they have been discontinued as I had great trouble finding more than 1 packet?!

Get your tunes on and oven heated as these bad boys only take around an hour to bake, make and decorate so shake a leg and get in the kitchen playas.. also I hope Wiley does another Christmas track, last years was hilarious. 

KRS Sponge

I got a bit lazy lately with baking, I was making things but it was all half hearted, I didn't even blog about it cos it wasn't worth my time however no more. I felt tip tops after the gym yesterday and returned to have a bake off with the king KRS One, now I took things back to basics as I just needed to reassure myself I still had my sponge game on lock and damn straight it was the baddest sponge in the game. Here I present KRS Sponge...

You will need:

For the sponge:

 4 eggs

10oz butter

10oz sugar

8oz self raising flour

3oz cadburys drinking chocolate

Couple of dashes of milk

Spoonful of Nutella

For the Icing:

Woman and Home chocolate fudge recipe... here

Smarties

Method:

So I borrowed (when I say this I mean I will probably try my hardest to keep it) Mary Berrys baking bible from my nan the other day, it was sat on the side and I just said ''Can I have it?'' I think she was taken aback so just said yes though I feel a little bad for just going ahead and stealing it however I was looking for some christmas recipes and then saw a recipe for the chocolate cake, it wasn't the one above but after looking at old Mary Bezzas, it used milk and I thought hey she's a certified G in the baking game I'm gon try it. I kind of just winged but with spectacular results. 

Yesterday was actually the first day of my holiday off work and I literally did all my favourite things in one day, gymed it up, baked this bad boy killa, made some cards and saw some lovely ladies for wine and dancing, this is how I see my week proceeding to continue. 

So back to the sponge, simply beat the butter and sugar together to the creamy light consistency. Beat in the eggs one by one as well as a few dashes of milk, I went for the free pour so I can't be sure of the exact amount. Once all mixed together sieve the flour and drinking chocolate into the mixture. Quick note, usually it says use cocoa but I didn't have any so thought hey cadburys has gotta do the trick and it worked fine. I then added a massive tablespoon of Nutella in the mix just for good measure and baked on 150C for 30 minutes. The icing recipe I acquired from a Woman and Home magazine, sometimes I don't know who I think I am sat in the kitchen rapping browsing the Ideal home and such magazines. The OG Playa housewife vibes. Anyway you can follow the link above to grab the recipe then a nice piping job on the top equipped with plenty of smarties and you can't go wrong. 

The reviews have been great on this, in fact there is one slice left. Lizzie popped over and had a slice with her tea and gave me a strong ''light sponge, delicious'' comment which is a compliment coming from an exquisite playa who knows fine cuisine. 

Simple yet effective and of course you need the beats for the bakes. Gonna be a playa pleaser here but gotta say I would get the Keep Right album on for this bake off...

Pherrero Williams

I had been wanting to bake these for absolutely ages but just hadn't got round to it however I had to provide something for Amy this week as we were taking a little road trip for works and I couldn't let my partner in promotional crime get something from a service station, not on my watch. With regards to recipes I usually mix a combination of the OG sexy mama Nigellas vibes with various recipes I have found online so I come up with something pretty original or I just mix what I have in the cupboards and hope for the best! However with these I stuck to one recipe precisely as I wasn't sure how the middle would present itself if I was to mix things up.

Gotta shout out the Size? homies for the name, we were discussing the recipe pondering a hip hop name saying ''Ferrero Ferrero Ferrero'' over and over again when we collectively all went ''Pharrell, Ferrero!?'', obviously super haps I had a pun for the bake off I skipped home listening to that dreamboat of a man singing Angel to me obviously pretending I was in the music video whilst he serenaded me along the m27. Plus Pharell has a bad boy banger called ''Keep it Playa'', he definitely needed a shout out in hip hop baking world yo!

Pherrero Williams

Think it would pretty lame to just write out some other baking playas recipes so instead I will just put the link here Fererro Rocher Cupcakes ! 

The reviews have been top notch for these, Amy had one on our journey..there was a 5 second silence as she took a bite and then she exclaimed (thats not even an exaggeration) ''TREAT'' followed by ''That was cracking''. Bryony and Bega also gave me strong reviews claiming there was nothing Frontin about them cakes, real deal delish right there. Gotta warn you though, it is not christmas therefore I was subjected to paying £7.49 for a box of Ferrero Rochers, this was not ideal in the slightest but to be honest I don't think you can scrimp on cake ingredients. 

So the big shout is what Pharrell track to post, I mean I don't know anyone who doesn't love that guy... I probably love him a little too much, when I saw the advert for the Magna Carter album which features both him and Jayz I cried with happiness..honestly I didn't know what to do I was so excited. I'm gonna post the track that stands out to me and probably every female playa out there, who didn't wanna be the girl at the door saying ''Is Pharell here?'' so get the tunes on and let the bake off commence...

Pusha Cream T Cakes

You will need:

6oz Butter

6oz Caster Sugar

3 eggs

6oz Self raising flour

Vanilla Extract

Raisins

Almonds

For the topping:

Clotted Cream

Raspberries

Almonds

Raspberry Dark chocolate

This recipe is perfect for the remix of ''Trouble on my mind'', No Pusha I got ''Baking on my mind'', as you can imagine there are various lines I changed in the track whilst whisking away but I think its fair to say Pushas verses were a lot better than mine. So you will need to beat the butter and sugar together to a nice creamy texture, adding the eggs one at a time. Now simply sift the flour into the mix making sure you fold the mixture. You can see I just used a simple sponge mixture and then added a few extras for the afternoon tea vibes. a couple of handfuls of raisins and then also a few cheeky almonds remixed up with a couple spoonfuls of vanilla extract and you can spoon these into the cases. Go hard in the filling of these cupcakes as you will need to slice off the top later yo! Bake on 170C until golden brown.

Once cooled you can then slice the tops off to create a nice flat base to work that Clotted cream onto, now the decoration is pretty much dependable upon your personal taste, I went for Clotted cream, raspberries, almonds and a grating of raspberry dark chocolate...yeah I don't mess around!

I kinda wanted to post the track ''Kitchen'' from ''Still ya Pusha'' that I was listening to yesterday but then thought  I better go for a club banger plus I did love this video when it came out...mainly cos I was mad crushing on Tyler at the time, over that now thank god!

Foxy Brownies

You will need:

9oz Peanut butter

3.5oz Dark Chocolate

3.5 oz MilkyBar

9oz Sugar

3 Eggs

3.5oz Self raising flour

Cinnamon

As you can see from the ingredient list there is nothing low fat about these big bad mamas...you will need to set aside some peanut butter and chocolate for the drizzled topping, totally optional if you go white or dark chocolate, I'm personally about the milky kinda chocolate on all levels y know?!

Melt the majority of the peanut butter, sugar and combo of chocolate into a pan until the sugar is melted. Best to use brown sugar in the mix for this one. Once all melted beat the eggs in one by one and sift in the flour and pinch on cinnamon. 

Whack in a baking tray and melt the left over peanut butter to drizzle over the top. Bake em for 30 minutes on 180c and leave to cool before you melt the chocolate over them for ultimate playa status. 

Now gotta say I would've loved to try one of these however I'm on a super running and clean eating vibe before my best friends wedding, one of these and I would have to run another 10k and my little flyknits are already undergoing serious kilometres this week. Jay said it I gotta keep that ass tighter than Versace yo! However Amy gave me a strong 10 and claimed they were nothing less than exquisite. 

The ultimate tune to play whilst baking  isn't a solo foxy flex but the banger with my number one... The outfits are too much!

Def Jam Ripples

You will need: 

4 1/2 oz Plain flour

5oz Caster Sugar

1 1/2 tsp Baking powder

1 1/1 oz Butter

4 1/2 oz Whole milk

1 Egg

1/4 tsp Vanilla Extract

1 1/2 tsp baking powder

A good quality pot of jam

For the Icing:

 1 Tablespoon of jam

4oz Butter

14oz Icing sugar

2 tsp Vanilla extract

2 Tablespoons of whole milk

few cheeky strawbs for decoration.

Preheat the oven to 170C, Now I used the Hummingbird Bakery recipe for these cupcakes which was a bit of a shocker for me as I am so used to starting with butter and sugar but hey if you can't beat them which I definitely can't, join em. So put the flour, sugar, salt, baking powder and butter in an electric mixer and beat until it is all combined. You will then need to pour in half the milk and mix until it is one consistency. 

It is a right old palava this Hummingbird malarky cos they you'll need a separate bowl to whisk the vanilla, egg and remaining milk in. Once sufficiently mixed which will take a few seconds add to the mixer and beat until smooth. Now Bake for 20 mins yo. You know what even though I was two bowling it the electric mixer gave my arm a nice little break from its usual bake off work out, more time for throwing shapes whilst rapping to my bake off. 

When these cooled I kind of looked at them with what mart part-e would describe as a ''look of great distaste'', I thought '' I can't deliver these looking like that to a pregnant playa, they need the finer things in life through this 9 months'' so I scooped out a teaspoon full of sponge from each cake just like a dip in the middle and filled with jam before commencing on the icing.  Still on that lazy Hummingbird electric mix vibe I mixed together the butter, icing sugar, vanilla extract and milk in one whack along with a a tablespoon of Jam and hey presto get yo ass a piping bag and nozzle and ice that up!

Totally optional but you can also add some strawberries to the top to make them look that bit more exquisite. Now had great reviews on these and I even decided to sample one as it was a special occasion celebrating the mini lush babe and I gotta say they were pretty divine, a mixture of Hummingbird x Full Time Playa is clearly the way forward. 

It would be super hard to choose my favourite Def Jam artist and whack a tune on here so instead I will post a classic that was released under Def Jam Records back in 1994. Just hit the east side of the Strawberry, on a mission tryna find Mr Warren G...

Vanilla Ice Slice

You will need: 

For the puff pastry:

8oz Plain Flour

1/2 tsp salt

7oz Butter

5 fl oz water

For the vanilla custard filling:

                                                              8oz custard powder

8oz sugar

32 fl oz milk

2 tsp vanilla  

For the Icing:

                                                                       5 tsp water

7oz icing sugar 

Dark chocolate melted or if you're a playa with no cash monies like me just use a bit of Nutella

Method:

Right Pastry is for playas and it is probably a lot easier to just buy some sheets of puff pastry however if you want to whip some up it isn't actually that hard, just longs out the baking session so depending on your full time hustling schedule you can bake or buy. If you are to make your own then you'll need a large bowl and begin with mixing the flour and salt together, rub in about half of the butter into breadcrumbs and then the remaining leaving lumps. You then bind the pastry together using the water and its quite easy to see when it has reached playa status, it may not even need all the water stated. 

Now you need to roll the pastry out on a (this is key) floured surface else you're gonna end up in stick to the side central. Once rolled out to around 2.5cm thick you then third the pastry and fold the bottom up to the middle and the top to the middle kind of like you're making a paper aeroplanes. Place the pastry to chill in the fridge for ten minutes. Now this gets a little monotonous but you need to roll it out and third the pastry again and then place it back to chill for another ten minutes, in total do this 3 times to achieve the perfect playa pastry.Slice into two piece and bake for 10-15 minutes or until golden brown and then leave to chill.  

Now for the custard filling place the custard powder and sugar into a saucepan and whisk well, add the milk and heat the mixture on a medium heat until it is stiff and hard to stir. Once you are happy with the consistency of the mixture add the vanilla in, to be honest I just free poured but thats cos I was rushing 

around tryna get the bake down before I started work.

Spoon the mixture onto one of the slices of cooled pastry and sandwich together with the other slice, now for the icing you'll need to sift the icing sugar into a bowl and add the water and dash of vanilla essence, then smooth this over the top and add the decorative melted dark chocolate or as mentioned if you're a wannabe baller like me just use Nutella, every playa should have this in the cupboard.

Leave to chill in the fridge and voilaa you got that ice ice baby down yo. Now of course you know what tune it is and check out them badboy hip hop hoe hairstyles at 22seconds into the video...DAYM GURL.

 

Grandmaster Flapjack

You will need:

6oz Butter

6oz Sugar

6oz Golden Syrup

A large bag of Porridge oats

Pinch of Cinnamon

Pinch of ground ginger 

 Optional:

3 mars bars (photo above) 

Simply melt the butter and sugar today stirring slowly, add in the golden syrup now I know I said 6oz but I usually add a bit more as I like it when the flapjacks are extra sticky. Once all mixed together add the porridge oats into the mixture and the pinches of Cinnamon and Ginger. Slowly pour the mixed ingrediants into a greaseproof paper lined baking tray. Now this is when you can add some playa steeze into the mix, I usually add chunks of mars bars or any other divine chocolate bar just to give them that extra touch.  Bake until golden brown with the oven at about 160C. Now you will need to let these little bakes cool down for a while before cutting into slices, chunks, squares whatever shapes you wanna throw! Get your bake on, no scratching, strictly mixing to this...

Mississippi Elliot Cupcakes

You will need:

6oz Butter

6oz Sugar

5oz Self raising flour

80g dark chocolate

1/2 Packet chocolate Oreos

3 eggs

For the topping:

150 ml Double cream

Fudge pieces

A bag of mini marshmallows

20g Dark chocolate

1/2 pack of Oreos

Method:

Preheat the oven to 180C. Beat the butter and sugar together in a bowl, now make sure you use a large one as there are quite a lot of ingredients involved in this not so simple sponge. Crack the three eggs into the bowl, and beat the mixture until light and fluffy. Now Oreos seem to come into my baking a lot, its probably cos I live with Sam who is totally obsessed by them and fully takes advantage of Tesco's offer of 49p per pack...EVERY NIGHT! Anyway use half a pack of chocolate Oreos and crush them up, maybe imagine they're someone who's been hating on yo playa game and then trust me you really go in on the smashing flex, once smashed add to the mixture and stir well. Sift the flour in and fold the mixture carefully. You then need to melt the chocolate and add to the mixture before pouring into cupcake cases. 

Cook for 25 minutes and then remove the cakes from the tray and leave to cool ready for the ultimate Mississippi topping. 

Whip the double cream, now if you have read any previous posts you'll know my wrist has had some pretty big workouts of late but luckily I have got the electric one now and its strictly gym for arm action from here on. This wont take long and once whisked to a thick state you can add in the fudge pieces, marshmallows and some more crushed Oreos. Spread the cream over the cakes and drizzle melted dark chocolate over the top to achieve that biscuity chocolate dream cream icing. 

Again its hard to choose the ultimate Missy track but this one definitely reminds me of being a teenager with my Adidas track top on and thinking I could two step my way to hip-hop hoe status.

Berry J Blige Cupcakes

You will need:

4.4 oz unsalted butter

4.4oz caster sugar

2 large eggs, beaten

1/2 tsp vanilla extract

4.4 oz self raising flour

2 tsp baking powder

2 tsp milk

For the topping:

4 tsp clotted cream

a handful of raspberries

a handful of strawberries

blueberries for decoration 

Method:

One thing I always forget is PRE HEAT. Yeah this is pretty key and I tend to be having a rap off with myself and totally forget you gotta warm that oven yo. So Preheat the oven to 180C.

Cream the butter and sugar together until light and fluffy, add each egg one by one, don't get all eager beaver and throw them in because you need to make sure the mixture is stirred well between each addition of ingredient. Stir in the vanilla extract and sift the flour and baking powder into the bowl until the mixture is smooth. Spoon the mixture into the cupcake cases it should make around 12 depending how generous you are, if you're like me it will make more like 10 because I like the cake case to look full, its not about a half stepping job. 

Bake for 20 minutes and let them cool on a cooling rack so the sponge has room to air. 

Now for the topping I was racking my brains and raided the fridge and came up with this summer berry topping which compliments the simple vanilla sponge really nicely. Simply mix the clotted cream with the crushed raspberries and strawberries and swirl over the top of the cooled sponges, add the blueberries for the full berry bonanza. 

Listen to this whilst you bake and not only will you bake some pretty vibing cakes but you will probably feel pretty haps about life too...