Customer Spotlight – Our Baking Competition Highlights

In February, we challenged our customers to get creative in the kitchen using Whittard products. We were blown away by the sheer amount of submissions we had, from macarons to cupcakes! When it came to picking a winner, HQ were torn and some tough decisions were made. We wanted to share with you our top three favourites and we can’t wait to make them ourselves!

Vegan Red Velvet Amaretto Cakee

Vegan Red Velvet Amaretto Cake

Time

2 hours

Difficulty

Easy to A little tricky

Serves

8-12 people

Our winning recipe, created by our customer, Sneha, who infused our Whittard Amaretto Flavour Coffee to make this delicious vegan red velvet cake.

DRY

355g Plain Flour

2 tbsp Cornflour

½ tsp Salt

2 tsp Baking Powder

1 tsp Bicarbonate Soda

140g Sugar

25g Dark Cocoa Powder

WET

220ml Plant-based Milk (room temperature)

200ml Plant-based Yogurt (room temperature)

1 tbsp Apple Cider Vinegar

¼ tsp Vegan Red Food Colouring

Almond Extract (to taste)

80ml Oil of choice

Whittard Amaretto Flavour Coffee

ICING

700g Icing Sugar

Almond Extract (to taste)

2 tbsp Plant-based Milk

  1. Line three round 6” cake tins with baking paper.
  2. Brew 80ml Whittard Amaretto Flavour Coffee in a cafetière (strength to preference). Allow to cool.
  3. Preheat the oven to 170°C.
  4. Sift the flour and whisk all the dry ingredients together in a large bowl.
  5. Whisk together milk, yogurt and vinegar in a separate bowl. Stand for 10 minutes.
  6. Whisk food colouring thoroughly into milk mixture. Followed by almond extract.
  7. Mix coffee mixture to wet ingredients.
  8. Add the oil and vanilla to the milk mixture. Whisk together.
  9. Fold the wet ingredients into the dry ingredients carefully until combined.
  10. Place equal amounts of the mixture in the lined cake tins. Approximately 350g mixture in each tin.
  11. Bake in the oven at 170°C for 24 to 30 minutes. Check with a skewer and adjust timing.

ALMOND FLAVOURED BUTTERCREAM ICING

  1. Cream the butter in a stand mixer until light and creamy.
  2. Add the icing sugar a little at a time, scraping the bowl around the sides.
  3. Add the almond extract.
  4. Add the milk if the buttercream is too thick or more icing sugar if it's too soft.
English Rose Kunafa

English Rose Kunafa

Time

1 hour and 10-20 mins prep +40-50 mins cook

Difficulty

A little tricky

Serves

8-10 people

This English Rose Kunafa, was created by our customer, Lamia. This recipe uses our Whittard English Rose Tea in the sugar syrup to add to this mouth-watering dessert.

400g Kunafa Dough

250g Butter or Ghee

Whittard English Rose Tea

1 Cup of Sugar

1 Glass of Water

Orange Blossom Water

Lemon

250g Mascarpone Cheese

250g Ricotta Cheese

Pistachio

  1. Preheat your oven to 180°C with the rack on the bottom of the oven.
  2. Coat your baking tray with some butter/ghee.
  3. Shred semi-frozen kunafa dough into 1 cm long pieces and add the remaining butter and mix with kunafa shreds to coat evenly.
  4. Transfer half of the dough to the tray and press firmly, lining sides of the tray so it will hold the cream filling and prevent it from burning.
  5. Mix the mascarpone cheese and ricotta cheese to a creamy base and add it on top of the half kunafa dough.
  6. Top with the remaining kunafa shreds evenly and press firmly and bake for 40 to 50 minutes (until golden).
  7. While the kunafa is in the oven, prepare the syrup by heating a glass of water with a glass of sugar. Once it starts to boil, add a tbsp of orange blossom water and a tbsp of lemon juice. Mix and stir for seven minutes.
  8. Prepare Whittard English Rose Tea by heating the water to 80°C.
  9. Remove kunafa from the oven and pour the syrup and Whittard English Rose Tea covering the entire surface.
  10. Garnish with crushed, semi-crushed and ground pistachio.
  11. Allow kunafa rest for five minutes and serve warm.
Chocolate Orange Tart

Chocolate Orange Tart

Time

30 mins prep +3 hours chill

Difficulty

Easy

Serves

12 people

You can't go wrong with chocolate and orange together, our customer, Mietta, used our Whittard Orange Flavour Hot Chocolate to create this tasty chocolate orange tart.

BASE

154g Oreo Biscuits

50g Soft Unsalted Butter, melted

½ tsp Salt Flakes (optional)

FILLING

100g Dark Chocolate

25g Cornflour

1 tsp Orange Extract

60ml Milk

300ml Double Cream

2 tsp Whittard Orange Flavour Hot Chocolate

30g Cocoa Powder

60g Sugar

1 tsp Vegetable Oil

BASE

  1. Crush the Oreo Biscuits in a large bowl or blitz in a food processor until you have fine crumbs. Stir in the melted butter until evenly distributed.
  2. Press biscuit mix firmly into a tart pan (23cm is ideal) ensuring the sides are evenly built up and allow to chill in the fridge for at least one hour.

FILLING

  1. Whisk the milk and cornflour in a bowl until smooth then set aside.
  2. Pour in the cream, finely chopped chocolate, Whittard Orange Flavour Hot Chocolate, sieved cocoa, sugar, oil and orange extract, in a large saucepan.
  3. Stir over a low-medium heat until all ingredients have melted together and are lump free.
  4. Remove pan from heat and add in the cornflour/milk mixture and whisk until smooth. Place pan back onto medium heat and continuously stir until the mixture thickens, this will be approximately eight minutes. The mixture is ready when it thickly coats the back of a spoon.
  5. Take mixture off the heat and allow to cool for 15 minutes. When mixture is warm but still a pourable consistency, take prepared tart base out of fridge and pour the filling in, using a hot knife to smoothly spread out.
  6. Put the tart back into the fridge and allow to set for at least four hours or overnight.
  7. To decorate, lightly dust tart with icing sugar and pipe some buttercream flowers around edges. Alternatively, decorate with real edible flowers, fresh orange slices, white chocolate flakes or anything you desire!