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There were no buns. So I lied. What can I say? I do so love a pun.
Puns and roses?
I’ll get me coat.
The roses began at 6am – fifteen heraldic roses to top
fifteen rosewater cupcakes (which I made the day before).
The theme of the latest Secret Cake Club was ‘History’ and I had
decided I was going to interpret The Wars of the Roses. You can read the details on Wikipedia of course, but it’s pretty much the way Game of Thrones
would be if there were only two families involved: the House of Lancaster, that’s
Lancaster NOT Lannister, (symbol, the red rose) and the House of York (symbol,
the white rose). Eventually, after many decades of squabbling and bloodshed, a
Lancaster prince married a York princess – they combined their family symbols
to create the Tudor Rose (his name was Henry Tudor) which is red and white. If Wikipedia history is a bit dull for you, then any of the Philippa Gregory oeuvre will tell you the story in a more engaging, if slightly less factual, way.
The white rose of the House of York is still used this day
as the symbol of Yorkshire and since I was born in Yorkshire, I feel I have
some connection to it in my personal history. I even wore my white rose pendant
(bought at York Minster) to Cake Club that afternoon.
I’ll put the cupcake recipe below, but you could decorate
any cake this way, so I’m just going to show you how to make a heraldic rose.
First cover your cupcakes with a thin layer of white
fondant. I painted the fondant with rosewater and this makes it stick to the
cake.
For the actual rose symbol, you need to have two
cinquefoils, one small and one large. A cinquefoil is a flower-symbol with five
leaves or petals which is all well and good unless your flower cookie-cutters
have six petals... I ended up having to pinch out one petal and reshape the
flower by hand.
Pinch out five small pieces of green fondant and roll them
between your finger and thumb until thin and pointed at one end – these will be
your leaves.
Stick these under your larger cinquefoil so that part of the
leaf shows in the spaces between the petal.
Stick the small cinquefoil on top of the large one. Add a small bobble of fondant to the
middle – this will be your rose’s stamen.
Starting with the small cinquefoil, curl the petals over at
the edge. Repeat with the large cinquefoil. Using edible gold food paint, colour
the stamen. Then stick the whole rose to the top of the cupcake. I was using
rosewater to do all my sticking but otherwise plain water or even milk will do
the trick.
I made seven Lancaster roses in gold cupcake cases, seven
Yorkshire roses in silver cupcake cases, and one Tudor rose which was slightly
larger than the others.
 |
| I was very proud of my Tudor rose. |
They created a really pretty effect when put all together.
Cake Club was held at The Ingredient Tree in Wembley and I
am glad to say that my cupcakes survived the bus journey. There was an
abundance of cake with most people interpreting the ‘History’ theme as ‘heritage’.
There were pandan cakes from South East Asia, Ashkenazi Jewish ‘rugelach’.
Korean crispies, and Irish-whiskey studded namelaka tarts.
My favourites of the day were Viv’s mini-pizzas which were a
welcome oasis of savoury in the midst of all the sweetness. There was a
surprise underneath the mozzarella – a fierce and concentrated Italian hit of
anchovy which I loved. I also really liked the
sticky rice cakes with the slightly toasted topping made by Terry and Alex.
So much cake, so little time. The pictures are below and I
have tried to keep the descriptions in shot where possible.
So, as you can see, lots and lots of cakes and slices and
tarts.
But no buns. Just roses.
I beg your pardon and offer a cupcake recipe in recompense.
Rosewater Cupcakes
Ingredients
1 cup golden caster sugar
1 cup butter, melted
1 vanilla bean
2 tssp organic vanilla extract
4 large eggs, beaten
2 tbsp rosewater
1 tssp sea-salt
2 cups SR flour
2 tssp baking powder
Decoration
White, red, and green fondant
Edible gold paint
Oven: 180C
Oven: 180C
Method
In a food processor, whiz sugar and melted butter until
pale. Scrape in the vanilla bean and add the vanilla extract. Process again.
On a low speed, add beaten eggs gradually until all
combined. When all eggs are in, add the rosewater.
Sieve salt, SR flour, and baking powder into a mixing bowl.
Pour in contents of food processor and stir with a wooden spoon until just
combined.
Spoon mixture into cupcake cases until about 2/3 full.
Bake in oven until golden – about 25 minutes, depending on
your oven.
Leave to cool.
Decorate with fondant or buttercream icing.
