Cake Creations

Tiny fruit cakes

2011-12-22T14:48:00.000-08:00

You may have seen my earlier Tiny Christmas Cakes post, well they're all decorated and ready for eating on Sunday.

There's such a variety of ways to decorate a Christmas Cake and doing them this way I got to do them all!

You could leave plain and just have a decorative glace fruit topping and a little cellophane:

Or traditional Royal Icing:

Some fondant icing for those who prefer their teeth intact:

Beyond the simple by taking a plain iced white cake, indenting some lines to resemble brickwork and and arch you get an igloo. So simple by with a great effect. Finish off with some sugarpaste penguins to complete:

As not everyone likes fruit cake, a small amount of chocolate madeira batter and some chocolate flavoured teddy-bear coloured icing makes these little puddings:

The smaller cakes are harder to cover in fondant, and finger prints more noticeable but a good way to practice skills. I'm definately doing this next year, not loads of cake left over and plently of scope for my imagination!

Christmas Goodies

2011-12-21T14:59:00.000-08:00

Phew, so I got carried away this Christmas and got into a baking frenzy, some new things, some old favourites. I'll be blogging the new ones so stay tuned!

Anyway here is just a sample of the

-Gingerbread biscuits

-2 Gingerbread Christmas Trees

-6 Tiny fruit cakes

-2 Tiny chocolate Madeira cakes

-Chocolate covered ginger shortbread

-Chocolate buns

-2 batches of mince pies

-Gruyere cheese biscuits

I used my standard gingerbread recipe to make two gingerbread christmas trees. This used different sizes of star cutter and stacked. I iced them individually then used a small blob of icing to stick them together. It'll probably be quite messy to eat but looks nice. The silver dragees finish it off though they are tricky to stick on. I used the end of a knife to put icing on each star tip, it would be a much cleaner finish to pipe it.

There's a lot of variety with this idea, I've seen green ones with coloured sprinkles etc, or you could use licorice laces as tinsel and decorate it, all it needs is a bit of imagination.

Paris Buns

2011-11-02T15:06:00.000-07:00

Another Home Bakery favourite it seems old-fashioned bakeries are the only places that still make these. One Saturday and 4 bakeries later the only one that sold them had sold out. Most looked at me bemusedly, another told me to come back at Easter.

Anyway if you're still in the dark Paris Buns are decidedly not French and apparently a sweet bread popular in Ireland and Scotland, especially with the poor!

The recipe is actually the same as for snowballs.

9oz sr flour
4oz butter/margarine
4oz caster sugar
2oz raisins/sultanas
3 eggs
1tsp baking powder

To decorate:
Rock sugar
Chocolate (optional)

1) Mix the sugar and butter together until pale and fluffy
2) Add the eggs, one at a time until well combined
3) Stir in the flour, baking powder and sultanas
4) Drop spoonfulls of the mixture onto a greased baking sheet, leaving room to spread
5) Sprinkle the rock salt on the top in the centre
6) Bake for 10-15 min at 220C
7) When completely cool dip the bases in chocolate and leave to dry

I've put the chocolate in as optional as persoanlly I think it takes away from the bun and always preferred a plain one. You also get variants without sulatana which I always remember my mum thinking she had been lucky enough to get before having to pick them all out.

No pics unfortunately, I'll have to update next time I mak them

Snowballs

2011-10-29T08:30:00.000-07:00

I have a feeling these are called something else everywhere else as finding a recipe online came up with lots of interesting but completely different recipes. This is a family one and produces quite a similar result to the shop bought ones. If you've never had them they're light, drier sponge, sandwiched with jam and with an icing and coconut covering. Sounds weird but is lovely. A drink (tea being perfect) is reccommended due to the dryness and coconut.

9oz flour

4oz butter/margarine

4oz caster sugar

3 eggs

1tsp baking powder

To decorate:

Jam (around 1/2 jar)

Icing sugar

Dessicated coconut

Makes around 16

1) Mix the butter and sugar together until pale

2) Add the eggs in one at a time until combined

3) Stir in the flour and baking powder until well mixed

4) Draw 2in circles onto baking paper, turn drawn on side down onto a baking sheet and pipe within the circles. The circles should be well spaced as the batter will spread and if they're too close will end up joined and square. (I used a star tip as it was handy but it doesn't matter as they sort themselves out in the oven anyway)

5) Bake for 10 min at 220C until well risen and golden brown

6) Put onto a baking tray and leave to cool completely

7) Match similar 'tops' and 'bottoms' and sandwich with 1 tbsp jam each

8) Make up icing as instructed on the packet for 12 buns. Add 2 tbsp water to make it runnier as it needs to go on without tearing the cake. Dip or use a spoon to complely cover the sandwiched cake (a thin layer is enough)

9) Immediately roll in some coconut to cover

I will warn you, this gets messy! Look at the state of my kitchen, you can only imagine what my hands looked like! I can't even remember what the scissors were for.

You could reduce this a little by rolling the 'halves' in icing and coconut first then assembling once hardened, but then the jam will be more obvious and I like an as much as possible uniform look. I made a few lemon curd ones as I ran out of strawberry jam and they were nicer I think. Raspberry would be nice too.

I used a cupcake stand to display, looks cool I think and the recipe conveniently made 13 good ones and a few ...taster ones.

Tiny Christmas Cakes

2011-10-29T08:09:00.000-07:00

Hello all, yes I know it is still October and normally I refuse all mention of the C-word until at least 1st December but some things just have to be done in advance.

In the past few years I've made an 6 or 8in cake which I've shared out between family once I could bear cutting it. That said there's always enough that people get a bit fed up so this year I have made 3 small 8oz cakes from Mary Berry's book. It seems to be here normal cake scaled down so you could divide a 6in recipe by about 8 I think.

The recipe reccommends using half tins of baked beans: exhibit A

Hmm, never thought I would be putting pictures of baked beans on a cake blog!

Careful of ring pull ones though. I forgot with all of mine and had to use the tin opener anyway as they leave a ridge inside. It was quite awkward so I'd suggest using a tin opener on the bottom to get a clean edge. Also I found the Heinz tins easier as others don't seem as sturdy and they have straight as opposed to rigded sides. You prep them as normal, I used 2 layers of baking paper.The cake recipe was fairly standard. I put some dried cranberries in to give it a Christmassy feel.

And voila, 3 8oz fruit cakes

I did like only having to wait 1 1/4 hrs and not the usual 3hrs+. They also came out really easily by pulling gently on the paper cuffs. I had had visions of taking the bottoms off with a tin opener.

I'll probably make some little madeira ones in these tins for the fruit cake haters. Now just to decide how to decorate? Do I do them matching or different, I can't decide. Any ideas?

Toffee Apple Cupcakes

2011-10-29T07:39:00.000-07:00

Oh dear, I have been neglectful! Unfortunately trying to eat healthily and baking son't always go hand in hand. I have been in the kitchen though so will try and back date my posts over the next week.

First off to put us in the Halloween mood: Toffee apple cupcakes. I got the recipe from the book 'Eat Me' by Xanthe Milton, also where the ice cream cones came from. The book has some nice simple recipes with a twist though I find them a bit style over substance they do look impressive. It's a lovely book to flick through too.

On to business. The recipe can be found here:http://www.cutoutandkeep.net/projects/toffee-apple-cupcakes. Essentially it is standard cupcake mixture with diced apple for the sponge. I grated my apple in to be faster. I had been a bit worried about putting the mixture into muffin cases as I normally use these quantities for buns but the apple really bulks it up and they rise beautifully.

With the toffee topping I found it hard to get hold of plain toffees and not mixed flavoured ones in supermarkets. My corner shop though had loads of these more old fashioned sweets. The trick here is not to get too impatient and to keep the temperature low. About 1 tbsp of suace for each one covered the cake, then I topped up once needed afterwards. Also get the pot cleaned while it's still warm or it'll harden on and be a nightmare to get off!

Finally pop the stick in before the toffee sets. You can put them in before you put it on, but the sticks tend to get a bit messy. I also had trouble finding lolly sticks anywhere, even my local specialist cake suppliers. I decided in the end to use wooden dowells. A 30cm dowell gives 2 lolly sized sticks and I think it looks better.

To finish off and give a little authenticity I put them in cellophane bags and twisted to seal with some sellotape. It also stops everything getting sticky if they need transported.

Ice cream buns

2011-05-29T17:01:00.000-07:00

I seen these in a magazine and had to give them a try. They were so easy, barely more tricky than standard buns with a buttercream swirl and look great! I took them to a barbecue which seemed the perfect venue.

I used my usual bun recipe with a slight twist. It made 10 cones.

4oz caster sugar
4oz self raising flour
4oz margarine
3 eggs
1 tsp vanilla flavouring
also
10 flat based ice cream cones
1 quantity buttercream
hundreds and thousands
4 flakes each cut into 3

1) Take each of the cones and set in a cupcake/muffin tin. Use strips of foil and scrunch around the base of the cone to help keep the cones upright.
2) Cream the sugar, vanilla and margarine until light and fluffy
3) Mix in the eggs one at a time
4) Mix in the flour
5) Fill each of the cones with batter until they are about one inch from the top

6) Bake at 180 C for around 20 minutes until well risen and springy to the touch

7) Allow to cool and decorate with swirls of buttercream, sprinkles and of course a flake.

Transporting them was a bit difficult as they're top heavy but I settled for wedging them into the tin and hoping for the best. A bit of cardboard with holes cut in it would be perfect but not sure if they exist...

I had been a bit worried that these would be more style than substance, as the base would only be cake and cone, but they got good reviews. They did confuse people a bit though :) Next time I'd maybe put a little batter, some jam and then the rest. I think if I but it right at the bottom it would burn.

I do fancy trying a few variations, maybe mint choc chip, with peppermint flavouring and chocolate chips. Also some honeycomb in the cake mix would give a crunchy texture. Any suggestions?

Fifteens

2011-05-29T16:46:00.000-07:00

Sometimes the easiest things are just what you need. Fifteens aren't even baking, simply mixing and chilling but everyone seems to love them. I suppose it's the nostalgia from school dinners!

The recipe is quite simple:

15 Mashmallows cut into quarters
or 30g mini mashamllows
15 glace cherries halved
15 digestive biscuits
175g tube condensed milk
75g dessicated coconut

1) Crush the biscuits in the food processor or with a rolling pin
2) Add the mashmallows and glace cherries along with the biscuits to a large mixing bowl
3) Stir in the condensed milk, mixing well and adding a little milk if it's too dry
4) Form the dough into a log shape and roll in the cocunut. Your hands will get messy!
5) Wrap in cling film and chill for a few hours before slicing

Jammy coconut buns

2011-03-20T13:58:00.000-07:00

I made these recently as they are family favourites. Very easy and they look great. They're simply normal buns with jam spread on the bottom and dipped in dessicated coconut.

I made a dozen buns in silicone moulds, as you end up removing the wrapper anyway. Warming up some jam in the microwave for around 20 seconds makes it easier to spread. I have tried dipping these into jam, but it's much easier to use a knife. You will get jam on your fingers by the way! Turn the bun upside down and cover the sides and base, then dip into a bowl of coconut. I used about 20g of coconut, but if you have more it makes it easier to get on the bun. Mine are strawberry and lemon curd but you could use anything: blueberry, marmalade or blackcurrent for example.

Looking at these I couldn't work out what was missing, before I realised that if I can be bothered I pipe a small swirl of buttercream on the top and add a small sweetie. It enhances the pyramid shape and is sweeter to.

Mateser traybake

2011-03-14T15:11:00.000-07:00

I made these as a special request, but it was torture as I'm off biscuits and chocolate for Lent. No licking the bowl or eating the crumbs. I'll maybe make them again for Easter though...

The recipe is from my friend Ruths page over on Ruth's Kitchen Experiments. It made around 24 traybakes.

400g milk chocolate

250g unsalted butter

5 tbsp golden syrup

250g digestive biscuits

250g maltesers

250g white chocolate

1) Crush the digestive biscuits in a food processor or put them in a plastic food bag and crush with a rolling pin.

2) Melt the milk chocolate in a bain marie. I started it off in the microwave and then put the bowl over another bowl of boiling water. It's a lot of chocolate so break up into small pieces and be patient,

3) Melt 200g of butter and 4 tbsp of golden syrup into the chocloate.

4) Stir in the biscuits and 175g of the maltesers mixing well.

5) Spread into a swiss roll tin lined with baking paper (it'll look like it's too small but it's not) and squash down into the corners. Pop in the fridge while doing the topping.

6) Melt the white chocolate, 50g of butter and 1tbsp of golden syrup, stir well and spread onto the base. It'll be a bit tricky to spread, so is better to put on in small spoonfuls and join them up.

7) Crush the maltesers with a rolling pin, or pulse in a food processor and spread over the top, squashing slightly into the white chocolate topping.

8) Pop in the fridge for a few hours to set.

9) When cutting lift out of the tin and use a sharp knife to cut long straight lines. Make sure you get right through to the base or they'll stick together. I tried to cut mine in the tin but the bits at the corner stuck toegether and I had enough left over to make another bun!

***Edit, if you take them out of the fridge about an hour before you cut them they are softer and easier to cut. Any trimmings can be pressed onto the bases again***

I love the cross-section of the Malteser!

Lemon Meringue Pielets

2011-03-14T14:52:00.000-07:00

Making a proper sized lemon meringue pie recently I wondered what to do with the offcuts of the pastry (I never seem to roll in the right shape!) Remembering my contemplations on using my mini muffin pan I decided to combine the two. I made mini lemon meringue pies in a muffin tin and a mini muffin tin and named them pielets. I'm sure these exist somewhere, but I'm keeping it for now. The tiny ones are perfectly bite sized!

As these were an extra I'm not sure how the pastry/custard/meringue quantites would work out, and from what I can see you get a bit more pastry and a bit less lemon but the overall combo is still there.

A few notes on adjusting the recipe:

- The pastry was cooked for 10 minutes, not 20

- The meringue stayed in for the full time of the normal sized pie.

- I used a fluted cutter to givea nice curly edge

- Make sure the meringue touches the edge of the pastry the whole way round otherwise the top comes off. Still tastes good though.

I might try making a full set of either size to sort out the recipe and numbers. Someone suggested these would be good for a dinner party, having a trio of desserts like in a restaurant but they're a bit fiddly and time consuming only to make 4 odd of plus 2 other desserts!

Bread and butter pudding

2011-02-27T14:20:00.000-08:00

Feeling in the mood for baking but not wanting to have to spend the next week eating a whole cake I looked for some individual recipes. On Delia Smith's website I found an individual bread and butter pudding which looked lovely. Below is my slightly ammended recipe.

1 slice bread
½ oz (10 g)) maragrine
1 level teaspoon chopped candied peel
¾ oz (20 g) currants
2½ fl oz (60 ml) milk
2 tablespoons fat free fromage frais
¾ oz (20 g) caster sugar
1 tsp lemon juice

1 small egg
ground cinnamon

1) Grease the inside of the tin

2) Butter the bread and cut to fit the dish, kitchen scissors are handy. If presentation is important, you can cut the centres from 2 slices of bread, but the crusts give it a nice texture.

3) Put one layer of bread, then half the currants/peel, the second layer of bread and the rest of the fruit

4) Combine the milk, cream, sugar and lemon juice and mix in a whisked egg before pouring over the bread. Sprinkle over the cinnamon

5) Bake for about 35 minutes at 180C

I don't have any ramekin dishes but had some mini heart shaped springform cake tins which were about the right size. Note to self, don't use these again as they leak! The milk mixture seeped out the bottom but I just poured a little milk over occasionally. It might not have been as moist as it should have been but serving it with custard helped I'm sure. I fancy trying it with brown sugar to give a more caramelised taste too. Definatley one to make again though.

Banana and chocolate chip muffins

2011-02-27T08:16:00.000-08:00

After my experiment beyond my usual banana bread recipe I fancied trying some muffins, that way I could make smaller amounts rather than have to eat a whole loaf in a few days.

On a search of the internet I found a lot of recipes that used vegetable oil, but the idea of putting this in cake seemed a bit odd to me, though I know it can be a good ingredient. The BBC food website came up with one that sounded promising, so I gave it a go. It's a very useful website, where you can search by ingredient, and there are reviews etc... but personally I find the options and links a bit overwhelming. Worth a look though.

Anyway, you will need

1 large ripe banana mashed
240ml milk
1 egg
60g melted margarine*
180g self-raising flour
125g caster sugar
125g chocolate chips

* Make sure the margarine is fully melted without being burnt, mine had lumps which I had to smooth out later

1) Mix the banana, milk, egg and margarine and mix well.

2) Stir in the dry ingredients mixing as little as possible, sieving the dry ingredients helps as there are less lumps. The mixture will be quite runny.

3) Bake in a muffin tin for 20 min at 190 C

The result was a dense moist muffin with a chocolate kick. I only made half a dozen to try out the recipe and while they were tasty I might keep trying for a less stodgy recipe.

New Blog

2011-02-20T07:36:00.001-08:00

Searching for a particular recipe I came across a fantastic blog, The Godesses's Kitchen. The look is bright and colourful and the food looks so yummy. The loaf cakes, like lemon curd and blueberry and the chocolate orange look tasty and in particular I can't wait to try the plum cake. Head on over and take a look for so inspiration

Coffee and walnut muffins

2011-02-14T13:32:00.000-08:00

I've been trying to make things outside my usual repertoire, which basically is making things I like myself. I'm odd in that I don't like coffee the drink but I do like the flavour in food, so I thought the classic coffee and walnut combo would be good.

I based the recipe on my standard bun recipe, with a bit more flour to counter the added liquid. It makes 12 buns or fills 8 muffin cases.

4 1/2 oz Self raising flour

4 oz margarine

4 oz caster sugar

2 eggs

50g walnuts halves

1 tsp baking powder

2 tbsp instant coffee

1) Set the oven to 180 C and line a cupcake/muffin in with cases

2) Beat the margarine and sugar until pale and fluffy

3) Beat in the eggs one at a time

4) Mix in the flour

5) Add just enough boiling water to the coffee to make a paste and stir half of it into the main mixture

6) Crush the walnuts into small pieces with a rolling pin and stir in ***This part can be left out for those who don't like nuts***

7) Spoon into the baking cases and bake for 20 min for cupcakes or 30 min for muffins

For the decoration sieve 200g of icing sugar into a bowl. Add a little of the coffee mixture to colour the icing and add boiling water a teaspoon at a time until it makes a thick enough paste to cover the back of a spoon. Dip the cupcakes into the mixture and spread evenly. Leave to dry.

For the buttercream whip 75g of margarine with 150g of sieved icing sugar and the rest of the coffee mixture. Pipe the buttercream into rosettes and top with a piece of walnut.

Lemon yougurt cake

2011-02-13T14:53:00.000-08:00

Choosing a cake for a family celebration can be tricky. Some people don't like nuts, some aren't fond of chocolate (incredible I know!) and some don't like fresh cream. Lemon does seem to be a winner though and this lemon yougurt cake went down well at a recent gathering.

It's from my Australian Women's Weekly cakes book. It is a fantastic book with everyday and special occasion recipes using normal ingredients. I'm working my way through them! This recipe is posted here.

It's a lovely lemon cake with yougurt and coconut in it, moist in the middle and quite fluffy. The syrup poured over the cake at the end is worth making, it gives the crust a lemon kick. I only used half the recipe as I was worried about the cake ending up 'wet' but I think it could take it if left for a few hours to soak in. A lemon zester makes the decoration a lot easier too. It's also a good idea to use full fat yougurt, as most recipe books I've come across say the low fat versions affect the chemistry of the ingredients.

The baba ring tin makes the cake a bit more special I think.

Banana and Honey Loaf

2011-02-13T14:32:00.000-08:00

I do have a fondness for banana bread, it feels almost healthy because it's a bread, but I suppose I have to accept it's really cake.

Anyway, I ended up with a few over-ripe bananas and felt like being a bit more adventurous than my usual banana bread recipe. So I turned to my mentor Marry Berry, the recipe can be found here. The picture in the link makes it look really stodgy but they used 3 bananas and I used 2, so don't let this put you off. (The book recipe says 225g which I took to be unpeeled.) One important tip, squeezy honey is a lot less messy, I only managed to get it on the kettle, my sleeve and the scales for once.

The centre is nice and banana-y with the honey coming out more in the crust which is lovely and sweet. I had mine plain with a nice cup of tea, but it would go well with some butter too. Well worth a bit more effort, it might become my new standby. It smells amazing when it comes out of the oven too!

Baking?

2011-02-07T12:46:00.000-08:00

I have been pondering lately what exactly is baking? Watching 'Baking Made Easy' on BBC2 I have some issues with Lorraine Pascal's definition of 'anything that goes in the oven'. This means on her show she's made chocolate cake, mille feuille but also gammon and macaroni cheese. This just seems wrong to me, but I can't quite say why. Loads of recipes are for, say, baked fish, but I wouldn't call this baking. I wouldn't limit it to sweet things eaither, as bread is sometimes savoury. The dictionary defines baking as cooking in a dry heat in an oven so I suppose she's right. I can't help feeling cheated though when she makes something meaty!

The show itself has some lovely recipes and ideas and is usually what it says on the tin: easy. The presenter is an ex-model, who having done a baking diploma and worked in restaurants now has her own shop. She is a good teacher giving hints and tips but when I watch I just don't feel she's a pro. For example when she made chocolate cake by adding chocolate to a vanilla batter she poured it into the pan without mixing it using a flexible spatula first, so it had an unmixed vanilla bit on the top. She supplies Selfridges, so her usual quaility must be high, but when I watch Delia or someone I usually think, wow I couldn't do it as good as that, but with her I think I could. Hmm

If you're interested the page is here:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/food/programmes/b00xnbkv

and you can find all the past episodes on iPlayer.

Mini cakes

2011-01-22T10:52:00.001-08:00

I was lucky enought to get a mini cake tin for Christmas, and some bun cakes to use in them.

The pink ones are lovely and bright and I adore the sweet flowery ones. You can see them here beside a normal case.

I decided to keep my first attempt simple, using normal bun mixture. I made enough batter to do a dozen 'normal' sized buns, and ended up with 30 mini ones! So next time I'll cut the recipe down. Also I might overfill them slightly to make just 12 so I don't have to wait for one set to finish to make the last 3.

1 egg

2 oz caster sugar

2 oz self raising flour

2 oz margarine

1) Cream sugar and margarine until well mixed and lighter in colour

2) Beat in the egg

3) Mix in the flour

4) Spoon in to bun cases

5) Bake for 15 min at 180 C

I kept the decorations colourful with some chocolate and Smarties.

I also made some almond petit fours. As usual you had to lick them off the bun cases as they stick to the paper but I quite like them that way now.

The end result looked like a kids party :)

I'm trying to think of other things to do with my cake tin now. Mini cheesecakes maybe. Any suggestions?

Christmas Cake

2011-01-08T12:21:00.000-08:00

I made the actual cake back in October (which was probably a bit late) using Mary Berry's standard Christmas cake recipe, feeding it with Cointreau a few times. Unfortunately I only got a chance to decorate it on Christmas Eve so didn't have much time.

I've always loved a design in one of my cake decorating books "The Home guide to Cake Decorating". It's a fantastic book and there's a template for the Three Kings with as a piped run-out with royal icing, it also has fancy collars round the edges.

Being pushed for time I decided to paint onto the cake. I've wanted to try this for a while after seeing beautiful cakes like this from Birthday Cake Party:

I used an edible marker pen to draw on the outline using the tempate in the book as a guide. I had wanted to get black paste for the outlines, but as luck would have it , it was the only colour sold out in the shop. I'd definately use it next time to get a stronger outline.

I then used food colours to paint. These worked out okay, but the colour was a bit thin and it was a bit watery for fine work. Lustre dust mixed with alcohol made for a much more effective result. Here the blue is food colouring and the purple and gold are lustre dusts. I kept the colours to a minimum as I liked the effect. The gold came out really sparkly, I can wait to use it again. I might get some silver too!

And the finished product. I did go over the lines a bit, but I was trying not to put any more fingerprints in the icing from leaning my hand on it. I think if I had more time I'd do a better job but I'd like to give painting another go. We still have some cake left but as it keeps practically forever I'm enjoying it!

Christmas Cupcakes

2011-01-08T12:05:00.000-08:00

I am at last getting round to posting the rest of my Christmas baking, the trouble being that being so busy before these are now out of date. Maybe for next year though :)

Okay so I said I wasn't going to buy any more cutters after getting over 100 last Christmas but I couldn't resist a little holly plunger cutter. I made some chocolate buns and made them look like Christmas puddings. I think they're cute and chcoclate always goes down well. Maybe a little baking powder would have given them a more puddingy top, I'll have to try again for practice!

I even got some cupcake wrappers, they did unfortunately leave red on the cake pan and people's hands a bit, so I had to warn them. Worth it I think though.

Gruyere Cheese Stars

2010-12-12T12:25:00.000-08:00

I was having a look through the Marks and Spencer's catalogue and found a recipe for these biscuits. They looked so yummy I had to try them! They were sooooo tasty I'm going to make more (Don't worry I didn't eat them all!). The only changes I made was putting them on a greased tray, not baking paper but them came of fine, also I used rosemary on the top.

The recipe is in the free Christmas magazine, but for those who can't get hold of it here it is:

Makes approx 26

125g Plain Flour
100g unsalted butter, diced
1/4 tsp mild chilli powder
100g Gruyere cheese, finely grated
1 tbsp milk
caraway seeds or rosemary
to decorate

1. Put the flour, butter and chilli powder in a food processor and pulse until the mixture resembles breadcrumbs. Add the cheese and pulse again to bring the dough together. Shape into a flat disc, wrap in cling film and chill in the fridge for 1 hour until firm.

2. Heat the oven to 180 C/350 F/gas 4. Line 2 baking sheets with baking parchment. On a lightly floured surface, roll out the dough to 5mm thickness. Use a 5-6cm star-shaped cutter to stamp out the biscuits, then re-roll the trimmings to stamp out more.

3. Put the stars on the baking sheets, brush the milk and sprinkle with caraway seeds or rosemary. Bake for 12-15 minutes until golden. Leave to cool.

N.B. Per biscuit: 57 calories, 4.2g fat, 0.2g salt.

Practice Pies

2010-12-03T14:15:00.001-08:00

As it's December I thought I'd do a little Christmas Baking. My Christmas cake is baked and being fed regularly with Cointreau. I did skip on making a proper pudding though, as I just couldn't handle watching it steam for 7.5 hours, especially as I've never steamed anything before. As I'm a firm believer in not waiting until one day of the year to eat your favourite things, I made some mince pies.

Strangely I've never made mince pies before, so these are my practice pies. The pastry recipe I used was a bit short, so I think I'll just have to give them another go (yay more mince pies!)

I like Christmas Trees as a wee change from the usual stars too. I also bulked up the sweet mincemeat with some stewed apples. It makes a moister filling and goes further. Off to sample them now, yum...

The Great British Bake Off

2010-10-16T11:08:00.000-07:00

A bit behind the times I know, but I'm enjoying the Great British Bake Off on BBC's I Player. There were so many yummy recipes it's made me want to run to the kitchen and try out something new.

Mary Berry's Ultimate Cake book is my 'go to' book for recipes, so seeing her on the show was good. She's just how I imagined from her picture on the book, kind but takes no nonsense!

My only quibble was that for a show about baking they didn't show you much about how to bake a cake, though I suppose they don't teach you how to sing.

Wedding Cake

2010-08-04T12:09:00.000-07:00

I did my first wedding cake this year: my own! I couldn't resist the challenge and am so glad I did it.

It all started a few months before the big day. The bottom tier was fruit cake and was done under supervision by a professional baker, my grandad :) He advised (and it definately was needed) a new clean bucket as I didn't have any bowls big enough to take the volume of a 12" cake, my biggest yet.

Here's it all mixed in using a cake tin that's seen more wedding cakes in it's life than Elizabeth Taylour.

It was so heavy going in the oven! A few nervous hours later it came out smelling lovely and was cooled then wrapped up to mature.

The other tiers were a 10" chocolate madeira and a 8" lemon madeira. I made them a few weeks before and froze them undecorated. They came out fine and were filled with (a whole jar of) choclate spread and lemon buttercream respectively. In fact they defrosted in a few hours which was lucky as I had actually forgotten to take them out of the freezer the night before!

Actually stacking the cake was pretty scary but was fun. I used wooden dowells and pushed them into the fruit cake, then removed aand cut to the hightest length.The middle tier was stacked on top. My 2 tier birthday cake was a good practice for using dowells, especially as I found that plastic ones are tricky to cut as they 'squished' instead of leaving a nice flat edge. The top tier went on with pillars which were a bit harder than they looked! One of them sank into the middle tier a bit as the dowell was slightly too short but it wasn't noticable unless you looked carefully. I don't have any pictures as I didn't have enough hands.

The design was from my previous lace cake, as it was simple, easy and relatively quick. I don't think I could have handled the stress of fancy piping. I used thicker fondant than last time to remove the lumps and bumps and create a smoother effect, though I have since invested in an icing smoother that might have come in useful. The lace was also great for hiding a not so perfect edges. I also covered the top and bottom cake boards with fondant to finish the look. In the end I chose ivory as it was such a rich colour and matched my dress, plus the pillars came to match the icing.

My toppers were nearly more elaborate flowers. I'd looked in the shops for a bride and groom topper but they were all ugly in my opinion. I spotted these the week before and ordered thinking if they came on time all well and good if not I'd do more flowers. Luckily they arrived in a few days to finish it off and they're now safe on my mantlepiece.

Here's a picture of the final result. There are a few things I'd do differently if I was making another one but I love it and am so pleased with how it looked. Unfortunatley I can't tell you how it tasted, I was too full after dinner and it got eaten over the rest of the night!

Silicone Bakeware

2010-08-02T13:57:00.000-07:00

I got some silicone sandwich and loaf tin recently and am still experimenting. I do love the colours and getting things out of the tins is really easy as it just peels back. In fact it workss particularly well with ice cream type desserts. I think it's supposed to be oven microwave and dishwasher proof.

It does have its limitations though. I've found that you don't get a nice crust round the edge as the silicone doesn't heat up as hot as a metal tin would. Also they are very flexible (on purpose) meaning that for the sandwich tins you really need to put them on a baking tray or you'll probably spill batter all over the oven if its even nearly full.

I think a light mixture works well, but for anything heavier I'd stick to traditional pans, my barm brack showing the reason why. It took ages to get burnt mixture off the bottom of the oven!

Baking equipment and storage

2010-07-25T07:56:00.000-07:00

I've been looking for a solution for where to keeping my decorating equipment for a while now. It was in various small cardboard boxes and (clean) stork margarine tubs. I tried tool boxes from DIY stores and lusted after the Wilton 101 piece tool caddy before finding this in a craft shop. It has small compartments for those fiddly things and a larger bit in the bottom for cutters etc... I love being able to find things more easily now and it being all organised. The only problem is that for a hobby baker I have a lot of stuff and might outgrow it!

Raspberry and coconut muffins

2010-07-25T07:50:00.000-07:00

Well mini muffins, I forgot to buy the larger paper wrappers. I did get 20 though instead of 12 muffins.

I bought some raspberries recently and wasn't sure what to do with them and then I remembered this receipe. They include buttermilk so have a really rich flavour. I found though as last time, it's hard to make sure the berries are evenly in the cases, some ended up with 2 or 3 and some with none. I suppose it's the luck of the draw! I chose not to decorate them, partly so it didn't interfere with the taste and partly so you could see the raspberries. You can put a sprinkling of coconut on the top but I find it always goes a bit crispy and tastes burnt.

Aren't they summery looking

Choo choo!

2010-07-13T10:18:00.000-07:00

I made some more of my gingerbread teacups and saucers the other day and had enough dough left over to add to a birthday present for a two year old. I was inspired by Louise at Cake Journal's Tutorial for her cake topper. Hope you like it.

Not quite disasters but...

2010-07-09T14:51:00.000-07:00

Hmm, after baking so much for my wedding I took a break for a few months. I've slowly eased myself back in with normal routine family stuff. Recently though I've felt inspired to try out a few new reciepes and lets just say they haven't exactly gone as planned.

First there was the apple custard buns. Essentially normal buns/cupcakes with a layer of custard in the middle and sliced apples on top. How hard could it be. Except that I didn't quite read the recipe, the first instruction was 'make custard'. Strangely though how to make the custard was the last instruction. So when I combined the ingedients and they were cold and lumpy I resorted to packet custard. Except that when I put in the top layer of batter the warm custard mixed into it. The result were buns that tasted custard which was actually quite nice, but not how they looked in the book.

Then I decided to make plain, completely standard chocolate buns. However the extra large eggs meant a bit of a runny mixture. I noticed but couldn't be bothered to fix it. What came out of the oven was perfectly flat buns that stuck to the paper cases. Chocately though.

And finally my most spectacular failure ever. I wanted to make a cherry cake. I've used the recipe before a few times and had no bother. The same larger eggs went in though; also I had turned the temperature down from the chocolate buns so the oven temperature probably wasn't stable. For the first hour all was well, it rose to a slightly domed top. Coming back at the time to take it out though I was greeted with this:

To show just how much it dropped I had to take a profile shot:

Luckily I have a family that will accept almost anything and know that custard solves many ills. Hopefully I'll get out of my rut soon so I can actually let other people eat my hard work!

Hello again

2010-05-08T12:49:00.000-07:00

Hi everyone, just realising how long it's been since I last posted! I do have a good reason though, in that since then I've moved house (+ decorating), started a new job, Christmas, and gotten married. I promise some cake posts soon though, so stay tuned...

Blog traffic

2009-09-11T11:54:00.000-07:00

Hello all, I have a question. I've noticed from my google analytics that i've been getting a lot of traffic from a forum http://www.torten-talk.de/. It's in German though, and I can't find the right thread to translate it so not sure if it's good things or bad things lol. So can anyone help?

Also, it turns out that I was briefly featured on Cookies Cakes and Craft shop which i love and have bought stuff from before. Here's me second from the top under Louise from Cake Journal, another great site.

That's all for now, off to the kitchen for some baking...

Lace cake

2009-07-19T10:13:00.001-07:00

This cake was for a birthday and I wanted to use my new FMM textured lace set. It was really easy, you just use the cutter to get the edge and then push one of 3 moulds to create the pattern. I only chose the ivory icing because there was a bigger packet in the shop, but I think I prefer it, the pattern comes out stronger. It's a nice simple technique that produces a pretty result.

The inside is a chocolate madeira cake, a second attempt which worked out much better. The first was a bithday cake a few months ago. Using much higher grade chocolate of 75% cocoa solids meant a much better result.

The Big French Fancy

2009-06-20T07:44:00.000-07:00

I was actually so excited when I saw this! A huge fan of French Fancies, I recently heard that the wonderful people at Mr Kipling have gone futher to make 'The Big French Fancy'. It turns out they've been available since November. How could I have let that happen.

Ok, the covering is sugarpaste and not fondant, but I can forgive that. The only bad news is that I've no reason to buy one for weeks, and it really is too big to eat on your own (serves 10). That is of course assuming anyone finds out..

It comes in pink and yellow.

Birthday Fairy Cakes

2009-06-07T10:40:00.000-07:00

Just a few wee fairy cakes showing how 2 cutters and 2 colours of icing can make something quite pretty.

Iron Man Cake

2009-06-07T09:57:00.000-07:00

Hello all. I have been busy baking, but just things I've done before so no blogging. Recently though I made a birthday cake for someone who likes comics. I picked an Iron Man theme because it's one of his favourites, plus red and yellow were the 2 colours I had most of. It was meant to look like a stack of comics. I look a few pictures to show you all.

Using a standard victoria sponge recipe, I made 2 sheet cakes in a traybake tin. I cut each of these in two horizontally to make 4 thin layers, which I stacked in a haphazard way, using jam to 'stick' them together. The soft layers draped over one another.

Next I covered the top in black sugarpaste to be the background to the cover page of the top comic.

To create the plaque for the top, I printed out a picture of Iron Man from the Marvel website. Cutting round it created a stencil for rolled out red sugarpaste. Removing the yellow sections from the stencil, cutting them out of the plaque and creating insets from rolled out yellow sugar paste then meant I could add it to the top of the cake. The sugarpaste was also used to cover the flat sections representing covers in the pile below. I had intended to put more details on these, but ran out of time. I used white to represent the pages, running a knife down the side to show pages. This was really fiddly and I didn't realise how much time it would take until half way through. (It was only when I was finished that I noticed I'd forgotten to add coloured spines, and had used white all the way round but by that point didn't care!)

The final task was colouring in the plaque with my edible black marker pen. I copied this from the printout. This actually wasn't as tricky as it looked, and waiting for the icing to dry a bit and harden made a big difference, otherwise it created grooves in the surface.

I was really pleased with it in the end, though if I had to make it again I'd make a plain square cake without the misaligned layers and put more detail in. I have to say though. it was a bit awkward to cut but tasted good!

The final cake looked like this:

German biscuits

2009-05-27T10:50:00.000-07:00

These have always been known as german biscuits in my house, but it seems that apart from a few others, the rest of the world knows them as empire biscuits. They hail from Scotland and remind me of home bakeries. You can get them from supermarkets but they're always too dry and when I can nab them from a proper bakey I do.

What is basically two layers of shortbread jammed together with a bit of icing is more than the sum of its parts. Yum yum. The picture unfortunately isn't mine, I shamefully didn't have any glace cherries.

The recipe is slightly adapted from a few sites and makes a great moist but not sticky dough. It makes around 6 complete biscuits or 12 rounds.

6oz plain flour
4oz butter or margarine
2oz caster sugar
Jam
Icing to decorate

1) Rub the butter into the flour until it resembles breadcrumbs
OR
use a food processor like I did.
2) Stir in sugar
3) Work into a dough and roll out. Use a fluted cutter around 2in/3in wide and place onto a greased baking tray.
4) Bake for around 10 minutes at 180 C

When cool, jam together with the 'bottom' of the biscuits together. I didn't put the amount of jam because that would involved getting everything sticky measuring it and because if I did you'd all think I have a problem! Add icing and a glace cheery and enjoy!

Teapot Cookies

2009-04-19T11:33:00.000-07:00

I got a teapot cookie cutter ages ago and had yet to try it out properly. I made some gingerbread (yes again, but it's yummy) to have with what else but a nice cuppa.

I debated over how to decorate them but decided on simplicity in the end. The hearts and stars are great sprinkles, I've used them loads! I think I'll go and put the kettle on...

Easter bunnies

2009-04-15T11:00:00.000-07:00

I tried my hand at biscuits again this Easter, using some of my new cutters. I was a bit worried the bunny faces would work out a bit scary but I was quite pleased with the end result.

The vanilla recipe is as follows:

50 caster

75 margarine

125 plain flour

1 eggs

1) Rub butter into flour intil breadcrumb like in texture.

2) Stir in sugar

3) Add in whisked egg a little at a time (not all may be needed)

4) Form into a soft but not sticky dough

5) Roll out about 5 mm thick onto a floured work surace and cut into shapes

6) Brush tops of each shape with milk

7) Put into a 160 C oven for around 20 minutes until golden.

8) Decorate and enjoy!

I kept the decorations simple, and used cocunut to create a 'fuzzy' look. The duckling was first spread with lemon curd, then dipped in coconut. I think the jumping bunny is the cutest :)

Hope everyone had a happy Easter!

Easter Inspiration

2009-04-08T09:34:00.000-07:00

I always seem to post things after an event, such as Christmas, cause that's when I get round to blogging, but I'll be quick off the mark this time and offer a few ideas for Easter.

I love Bakerella'a website, and her cakepops always look great. I did attempt to make some bunny ones but for whatever reason they crumbled when dipping them into the icing. my family labelled these 'suicide bunnies' but ate them all the same. I won't distress you with the pictures. Anyway, how cute are these chick cakepops?

Louise at Cakejournal has released an e-book on Easter treats. Check it out to be able to make these lovely biscuits.

For something simple, these nests are really easy and look great!

Away from the small mammels side of things, there are a few religious Easter ideas too:

I've made an Easter Simnel Cake twice before and it's worth the effort. Can't find the pictures though. You really have to like marzipan though, as it's a fruit cake with a layer of marzipan in the middle and some on top. The 11 'balls' on the top represent the disciples (without Judas). When grilling it don't put it too near the top as you'll get lines on the cake and it really only takes less than a minute.

Hot cross buns proved to be my undoing this week. For some reason they just wouldn't rise at all, and they're supposed to at least double in size before baking. I have an inkling that the sachet of yeast was too small, but try out these from the BBC food website to see if you can improve on my attempt:

Mother's Day Cake

2009-03-27T12:36:00.000-07:00

oops, a little bit late posting this but here's the cake I made for my mum on Mother's Day last Sunday.

I used the orange madeira recipe from before, but covered it in buttercream as a change from fondant icing. The sides were originally supposed to be piped in a basketweave pattern to make it a basket of flowers, as I bought this tip a while ago and wanted to try it out. Initially it went well but the combination of a warm kitchen, warm hands and not enough icing in the buttercream meant it started to melt so I had to smooth it.. It bothers me that you can see cake in this picture.

I practised making sugarpaste flowers again and tried 'pincing' the tips of the petal shapes and really like how it makes the petals look 3D. I'll be doing it this was in the future!

I chose the colours first and then happened to see flowers that matched when I went to buy some, so they matched which was nice.

So for all of you mothers, I hope you had a lovely day on Sunday.

Happy St Patrick's Day!

2009-03-16T15:42:00.000-07:00

Hello everyone, tomorrow is St Patrick's Day and as I won't get the opportunity then I thought say it now:

Happy St Patrick's Day!

I made a few wee buns to celebrate, they feature a shamrock, a pint of Guinness and a hurley. Hope you have a good day :)

Make-a-Wish Gingerbread

2009-03-11T16:27:00.000-07:00

Hello everyone, just a quick post today. I have been busy baking tonight for a charity cake sale on Friday. It's in aid of the Make-A-Wish Foundation, a charity which seeks to grant wishes to young people fighting life threatning illnesses. It's a great cause and we hope to raise some cash to contribute!

I made gingerbread in the shape of star to match the Make-A-Wish logo/banner. Unfortunatley I burnt the first batch through carelessness, but the rest turned out OK. The decoration was kept to a minimum with pink, lilac or baby blue icing, and some silver lustre dust to add a bit of sparkle!

Red Velvet Cake

2009-02-27T10:43:00.000-08:00

Firstly a huge thank you over to Ruth at Ruth's Kitchen Experiments, for a fantastic evening doing some fun baking. We made a red velvet cake, with cream cheese frosting. I've wanted to make this cake for ages, but struggled to find a recipe which doesn't use American cups, which I don't have. I made a valiant attempt to convert them using the internet, but it proved just too awkward; then Ruth suggested a joint bake-a-thon. Her write up can be seen here.

The Red Velvet Cake is a distinctly American cake, with a bright red colour. Or should that be color? The hue originally came from the vinegar and buttermilk reacting with the cocoa, turning it reddy brown. As a more alkaline cocoa became available, this became less pronounced and artifical colouring was needed.

We used the recipe from Equal Opportunity Kitchen, with only one variant being that it makes 3 layers as shown in the pictures and not 2 as stated in the text.

Ingredients:

1/2 cup butter softened

1 1/2 cups sugar

1 tsp vanilla extract

1 tbsp white vinegar

3 large eggs

1 (1-ounce) bottle liquid red food colouring (tasteless variety)

2 1/2 cups all-purpose flour

2 tbsp unsweetened cocoa

1 tsp baking soda

1/2 tsp salt

1 cup buttermilk

Process:

1. Beat butter at medium speed with stand mixer (paddle attachment) or electric mixer until fluffy.

2. Gradually add sugar, vanilla and vinegar, beating well.

3. Add eggs, 1 at a time beating until blended after each addition.

4. Add food colouring, beating until combined.

5. Combine flour, cocoa, baking soda and salt. Add to butter mixture alternately with buttermilk, beginning and ending with flour mixture. Beat at low speed until blended after each addition.

6. Pour into 2 greased and floured 9 inch round cakepans.

7. Bake at 350F for 20 - 22 minutes or until a toothpick inserted in centre comes out clean. Cool in pans on wire racks for 5 minutes; remove from pans and cool on wire racks.

Here's what the batter looked like: That's some serious e numbers.

They didn't loose this when baked either! After cooling I flipped 2 of the 3 layers upside down, and couldn't help but think they looked like 2 burgers.

Next came the cream cheese frosting, which was a bit dissapointing. The butter had been warmed to make it spreadable, perhaps a little too much because loads more icing sugar than the recipe had to be added, and it still dripped down the sides.

1 (8 oz) package cream cheese at room temperature

1/2 cup butter, softened

1 (16 oz) package powdered sugar (2 cups)

1 1/2 tsp vanilla extract (if you want your icing to stay pure white use clear vanilla extract)

1 cup chopped pecans (optional)

Beat cream cheese and butter until creamy; gradually add sugar and vanilla, beating well.

Though I have to say, I think the final result looks pretty good!

Birthday Cake

2009-02-15T11:05:00.000-08:00

It was my first attempt at a 2 tiered cake, and proved really interesting. I ended up making 4 cakes, 2 layers per tier. To fit everything in I ended up making the top tiers on Monday and freezing them; it was a good opportunity to see how this worked. They turned out fine, I wouldn't hesitate to do it again.

The top layers are orange madeira cake with orange buttercream, and the bottom layers are chocolate madeira with umm nutella chocolate spread! The orange cake had orange juice in it and was lovely and moist. The chocolate one I'll reserve judgement on. It used real chocolate and I think it hardened a little before I got the mix in the oven, plus it was a bit dry. I might try it again and use some more milk.

Anyway, the recipes are from 'Ultimate Cake' by Barbara Maher. It's not a bad book. The instructions are well explained and the pictures helpful, but the pictures are at the front and the recipes at the back which I found a little odd. Also, though not very important I suppose, but the colour scheme is a bit weird, pale pink and green cakes make me feel a bit quesy, but maybe that's just me. I suppose the indictor of how good I think it is, is that i've had it a year or two and only made one other cake out of it. Unfortunately I couldn't find the recipes online.

In the past my cakes tend to have a camber on the top, so I trimmed the top off them both and inverted the top one before covering in jam and fondant icing. This gave a really good flat top.

I used dowells for the first time, but they weren't exactly level, so it was lucky madeira cakes are fairly sturdy! I need more practise I think.

I went for a pink and brown theme just because I think it looked nice, and as you can probably see it was for a 50th birthday.

Baking Valentines

2009-02-13T17:20:00.001-08:00

Not being a great fan of the merchandising event that is Valentines (bah humbug or whatever the equivalent is) I'm afraid I have no heart shaped cakes or biscuits to share. To prove I am soft on the inside (like a macaroon perhaps?) i'll offer this picture to all the romantic souls out there. Enjoy!

Cherry and Almond Cake

2009-02-13T16:40:00.000-08:00

I've made this cake before and remember the smell above everything else. At the time I hadn't read the last line of the instructions "leave to cool in the tin" meaning that with 1 hour until I had to leave the house I ended up sitting on the bus with it wrapped in foil and a tea towel getting odd but envious looks.

The recipe is from Australian Womens Weekly Cooking Class Cakes. I'm a big fan of the WW series, the cakes are great everyday ones with notes on how to make special variations, store and serve them. The step by step pictures make it really easy to follow and there's guidance about lining a cake tin etc... The only significant drawback is that they insist on putting the calories and fat per slice on the bottom of each recipe. That's just unneccessary, especially as 'serves 12' is unlikely to stretch that far in my house!

I'd have to say that out of all my books, this is the one I use the most.

The recipe I used can be found here, with a few small variations. The main one is that the book's recipe is for a slightly smaller cake and that there's no need to add flour with each egg. It might curdle, but the mix'll sort itself out in the oven. Don't be put off by the awful picture on the website, look at mine instead lol

One thing I always do with glace cherries is washing them and drying them with a paper towel. Without the syrup they don't sink much and make the cake less soggy.

P.S. It's worth getting different coloured glace cherries to make it look more interesting, and saving some almonds to sprinkle on the top.

Happy New Year

2009-01-01T10:52:00.000-08:00

Hello everyone, Happy New year. To be honest I'm not really that fusses about new year's, but it was an excuse to use some of my Christmas presents yay!

I was lucky enough to get a total of 127 cookie cutters! This 101 cookie cutter set was from the Cookies, Cakes and Craft shop, and when it came it was huge. I now have loads of basic shapes, Halloween, Christmas, etc... as well as ones like dinosaurs.

The 25 piece Ausstechformen set was a present from friends in Germany, and had really cute winter/Christmas ones, such as a little elf and a rocking horse. The recipe box was also a gift and I look forward to writing recipe cards from other blogs to try.

Here's my favourites, including my snowman bun wrappers, and teapot cutter (also from Cakes Cookies and Craft Shop):

I did make some biscuits to christen them, but with so much food at Christmas they ended up in the freezer for another day when we'd appreciate them more. I kept a few out, enough to say:

Gingerbread house

2009-01-01T08:43:00.000-08:00

I had wanted to do this last year, but couldn't find the time. Luckily I was off work this week, so decided to make my gingerbread house!

I found this site, gingerbread house heaven, really helpful as they provide templates and loads of advice. I based mine on the basic template, but then had to scale it down a bit, as my batch of gingerbread wasn't quite enough.

The inside of the walls was sugarpaste, to give it something to lean against, and the rest of it was put together with royal icing mix. The mix was really thick and I needed to use my hands to get it into all the gaps. I used some tins to support it overnight while it dried.

Then it was onto the fun bit: decorating!!!

I considered making it accurate, but it was more fun seeing how many sweets I could balance on it :) Chocolate buttons are great roof tiles, and I used some of the icing to make icicles. Unfortunately they just looked like the icing drips.

I bought the wee jelly figures last year, so we couldn't eat them, but I had to have Santa and a reindeer going down the chimney.

Once I made it, I had to wait a few days to enjoy it before I cut it. From being fairly sturdy assembled it came apart remarkably easily. I suspect that the thick icing was still a little wet! I used a sharp knife between the walls. I had been worried that it would have gone soggy, but the actual gingerbread was still nice. That extra spoonful of ginger really made a difference!

Christmas Cake

2008-12-28T06:59:00.000-08:00

Well, I finally managed to finish my Christmas cake and used some of the penguins from my tutorial to decorate it. It took a few goes arranging them, as at first I had them grouped round the snowman. According to my family it looked like something out of the wickerman! So, I had to make 3 of them into carolers to give a less sinister effect.

The cake itself had a very strong flavour, probably because I've been feeding it and it had quite a lot of fruit, so I may tone this down next year. Marzipan and fondant icing finished it off, with a little of the 'magic sparkles' for snow. I bought these ages ago and haven't been able to find a use for them so far.

I haven't been able to bring myself to eat the penguins yet, though I did allow it to be cut. The first year I made it I'd put so much time and effort in I wouldn't let anyone touch it for a week.

So for all who celebrate it Merry Christmas!

Sugarpaste penguin tutorial

2008-12-21T13:37:00.000-08:00

The last time I made my penguins they seemed to go down well. Quite a lot of people searched for how to make them, so I thought I'd do a little tutorial for all those who wanted to know.

They're quite take time, but aren't particularly difficult and good for decorating this time of year. What's nice is that (unintentionally) they all end up with different little personalities.

Step 1: Roll a thumb sized piece of white sugarpaste into a ball, then shape into a fat teardrop shape.

Step 2: Use a 45mm rose petal cutter on black sugarpaste and wrap it round the body like a coat.

Step 3: Roll tiny amounts of yellow sugarpaste into balls, flatten, then use a modelling tool (or cocktail stick) to make them into webbed feet. With a 30mm rose petal cutter cut out a base, and attach to the body as shown keeping some of the feet on the base.

Step 4: With a 15mm rose petal cutter make two wings and attach to the body.

Step 5: Roll a pea sized bit of black sugarpaste into a head.

Step 6: With the pointed end of a modelling tool, make an indentation in the head. Roll a tiny piece of yellow sugarpaste into a ball, then make two pointed ends. Push one end into the head.

Step 7: Flatten two balls of white suagrpaste for the eyes, then add pupils with sugarpaste, gel or edible marker.

N.B. In a FMM 5-rose petal set the largest one is for the body, the middle one for the base, and the smallest one for the wings.

You can add other decorations, such as scarves, hats etc... I 'stuck' the bits together by moistening them and holding for a few seconds. Once completed I left them to dry. You could leave each seperate component to dry, then use edible glue, but it makes it harder to make changes.

If you give them a go, let me know I love to see how they turn out.

Christmas Cake

2008-12-15T12:58:00.000-08:00

Oh dear, I haven't blogged in ages! From past history this usually means a flurry of posts and this is no change, so look out this week for some festive treats.

I've made my Christmas fruit cake (below). As usual it came out a bit bumpy on the top. Maybe I got carried away putting the fruit in. I made it enough in advance to feed it this year, but have never done this before, so hopefully I won't end up with a Cointreau soaked top on a dry bottom.

It was back to my old reliable Mary Berry's Ultimate Cake Book. I do have other ones, honest, but this one is brilliant for standard recipes. What I particularly like about this one is that in the book there's about 8 different sizes and associated ingredient lists, so it can be as big/small as you like.

http://www.goodtoknow.co.uk/food/284497/Mary-Berry--039-s-classic-Christmas-cake

I only made a little one myself this year, 6in as not everyone in my house likes it, and sometimes it can get a bit sickening. I love it though, yum yum ( I hope :) )

Next, well when I get to the shop, is a layer of marzipan, and then I'll have to actually decide on the decoration. I keep changing my mind.

I just noticed the bottle of Shloer hiding in the backround of the photo. It wouldn't be Christmas without it. I used to love have 'red or white' as a kid at the table. Why don't we buy it all year round?

Guess the weight of the cake

2008-10-31T15:16:00.000-07:00

I donated a cake for a 'Guess the weight of the cake' competition recently, and was surprised at the result. Four people (out of 40) correctly guessed the weight, measured to the nearest pound. Considering that I guessed wrong myself, I was duly impressed. No pictures unfortunatley as I forgot, but I made a fruit cake and arranged almonds in a starburst pattern on the top. I was hoping to make it more decorative, as fruit cakes, while nice to eat, don't look spectacular. I kept it undecorated as it would be more difficult to judge it by sight covered in marzipan and icing. Some people did pick it up and hold it, making me panic as it was still wrapped in the greaseproof paper (to keep it moist) and wasn't secured to the cake board. It prpably would have survived a fall, but unless there were no witnesses I couldn't pick it up and put it back on :)

The only problem with things like that are I have a nagging worry that I've put curry instead of mixed spice, or something similar, since I won't get to 'check' it myself. I haven't heard anything back, so fingers crossed!

Oh and just in case you ever need to know, a 9 in fruit cake weighs 4 lb 8 oz.

Cake Transporting

2008-10-31T15:04:00.000-07:00

Transporting a cake recently I pondered on the skills and tactics needed to bring it safely on its journey.

It really does depend on the cake. A sturdy fruit or Madeira cake for example will happily slide around the footwell of the passenger seat without coming to much harm. This is the best place for it, as it can’t drop off the seat and come to harm, and the seats usually have a camber, so decorations may slide. I have a random paranoia that it’ll slip sideways on top of the gearstick, but that may just be me :)
Delicate decorations or layered cakes usually need a willing passengers lap. Cake boards are great, provided that you have secured your cake to it (royal icing does the trick). Trays help too, as they have a lip round the side restricting it moving too much. For important occasions spare decorations and a piping bag of icing to reattach parts should be taken.

One good solution for transporting and storing cakes is to set it on the lid of the tin and put the main body over the top. That way, when you get there you don’t have to risk dropping it getting it out of the tin again. It’s usually helpful to write ‘TOP’ on the bottom of the tin, so no-one accidentally turns it ‘right-side’ up. Roses or Quality Street tins are perfect for the most popular cake sizes. I normally lose a few throughout the year to friends, but gain more (filled with sweets!) at Christmas.

If you fancy something a bit more fancy these are good, but to all intents and purposes are cardboard boxes. They do allow you to take the sides apart and slide it off however, which is a big advantage. I'm sometimes tempted to get one of these cupcake caddys, but I'd prefer something a bit more multipurpose.

The closest to disaster I came is when I was the passenger and trying to keep a pavlova on the plate. Bouncy along on the twisty back roads trying to act as a human gyroscope was no easy feat. Unfortunately in the half-hour trip, the cream softened the meringue resulting in a mini avalanche all over my arm, which I wasn’t able to get at to clean up. Luckily the rest remained intact, and was a success when we made it to our destination.

So the next time you despair at the snail-like pace of the car in front, stop and consider that, just possibly, they may be transporting a pavlova.

Christening Cakes

2008-10-31T13:47:00.000-07:00

These buns were for a family Christening. They took me ages, but mostly because I kept changing my mind about what went on the top. They are plain sponge buns, but I accidentaly dropped some cocoa in when I was prepping other ones, so they came out slightly darker and sweeter than normal, but it wasn't too much of a difference.

I think the fluted cutter really made a difference.

When I was in the shop buying the blue sugarpaste I saw this little cutie and couldn't resist. I'll have to think of more uses for it! If you can think of any, let me know.

This lead to the basic shapes here:

Once I added sugarpaste toppers, I decided I wanted to add some more detail to make them more complete. I made up some royal icing with an instant royal icing mix, and added a few details, which made them much better. I haven't done fine icing for ages, and you can tell the ones I did first, as the lines are a bit wobbly.

So cute, even if I do say so myself

Tardis Cake

2008-10-31T13:21:00.000-07:00

Apologies from the delay, but I've been busy baking so I hope you can forgive me.

I bought this cake for a birthday, and thought I'd show you all. I was planning to make it myself but seen this and thought I couldn't do much better! It was from Sainsbury's and was a jam filled madeira cake. It was cut into small bits luckily, as I'm sure the blue icing wouldn't do you much good!

Parkin update

2008-10-08T11:24:00.000-07:00

Well my update isn't as good as I had hoped. It did become a lot more treacle-y but was still dry enough to need to eat it with custard. I'm not sure what went wrong. I followed the instructions, but all the other descriptions made it sound more moist. Hmm, I think I'll chalk that one up to experience.

Parkin

2008-09-29T13:23:00.000-07:00

Parkin is... well I'm not actually sure, which is exactly why I decided to make it. I came across the recipe, and there was no picture; I was intrigued. Some (admittedly lax) research found that this is a traditional northern England, especially Yorkshire, recipe, with the principal ingredients being treacle, oats and ginger. It is traditionally eaten on bonfire night but I didn't know that then, and as we don't really celebrate it over here in Ireland, I suppose I can be forgiven for making it a few weeks early.

I set out not really knowing what it was supposed to look/be like and to be honest when finished the appearance wasn't very encouraging:

Having popped it in the oven I started cleaning up, which was not mean feat. I used my wee trick of dipping the spoon in hot water so the treacle would slide off it easily, but unfortunately the recipe specified it as a weight and not a number of spoonfulls. This meant I managed to get treacle not only on my measuring scales (bowl and base) but the worktop, the book (thankfully the cover wipes clean), my elbow, the kettle (which I didn't use) and four spoons! By this time the parkin was ready... I think. Here's how it turned out:

Traditionally you leave parkin in a tin for at least a week before you eat it, but purely for the purposes of research (it smelt too good) I decided to try a bit. To be honest I was a bit disappointed, it was quite dry and not particularly ginger. The lumpy top was typical of a fruit cake with too little 'wet' mixture, but I wasn't sure if this was the cake here. However Delia Smith advises that this will solve itself by leaving it the requisite amount of time.

I'll have to update you all about it then!

Viennese Fingers

2008-09-20T07:21:00.001-07:00

Phew, it's been a very busy few weeks for me and I'm finally getting round to some baking and of course blogging.

I learnt a few lessons this week, the first being don't bake when you're tired, as you will make mistakes! This happened making Viennese Fingers. They are a buttery, shortbread type biscuit originating from...you've guessed it... Austria. The recipe below is good, but I find that using 4 oz of plain flour instead of 2 oz of flour, 2 oz of cornflour doesn't make any difference and is much easier.

http://www.deliaonline.com/messageboard/7/29082/thread.html

The first results of careless baking were not reading the instructions properly and putting 4oz and not 1 oz of icing sugar in. This was after I'd mixed it with the butter. Subsequently I did the only thing I could, made 3x the mixture to 'even' out the ingredients. Unfortunately (OK fortunately) this meant I make loads of them, and was popular with my friends and family for a while :) The second result was in slightly burning one set while piping out yet another. The taste was only very slightly affected but they didn't look as nice. I made my close family eat these ones.

The recipe is actually very straight forward, but there are a few tricks to making them better. The most important is to use real, full-fat butter. I normally prefer margarine for my arteries sake, but it being such a principal ingrediant here calls for quality. Also, unless you leave the butter out all night until it's very soft, shaping the mixture will be like piping wet sand. A final trick someone told me afterwards was to leave the full piping bag sitting in lukewarm water when not being used, to keep the mixture inside it soft.

Here's my result:

A star shaped nozzle gives a lovely shape, which is held perfectly in the oven. Traditionally these would have one end dipped in chocolate, but the result of lesson number two (check you have all the ingredients before you start) meant I had to leave them as they were. It was no huge detriment, as the flavour and texture really are lovely. Occasionally I have created sandwich style ones using chocolate spread, but personally I think the spread overpowers the biscuit and is a waste.

Next time I think I'll try Viennese Whirls, when I have more time to play with my piping technique. On another slightly random note, I took the picture on the biscuit tin lid simply because I had something in my other hand and couldn't reach the plates, but I quite like the effect :)

Cake Wrecks

2008-09-12T12:26:00.000-07:00

Ruth over at Ruth's Kitchen Experiments found this site and I had to share; it's fantastic. It's 'professional' cakes which have gone wrong hilariously. I just hope one of mine doesn't end up there!

The link takes you to the cake that inspired the blog and had me actually laughing out loud.

http://cakewrecks.blogspot.com/2008/05/cake-that-started-it-all.html

Oh and I know I've been neglecting you all for a while but I promise some activity soon. I'm in a biscuits frame of mind...

Indulgent Chocolate Brownies

2008-08-28T08:11:00.000-07:00

Mmmm brownies. These were to celebrate my brother's fantastic exam results, so I went ahead and made the indulgent and not the (entirely relative) 'lighter' version in my trusty Mary Berry Book. Oh, making them made me feel sinful. They're basically chocolate, margarine and sugar, with a few other ingredients added in for fun; they really do deserve the name. The recipe can be found here. I omitted the nuts.

I was initally sceptical that this would stretch to 24 brownies, but they're so rich that you really couldn't eat more. I'll admit to having a sweet tooth, but was stumped. They taste better than they look in the picture.

I seem to have been focusing on chocolate recipes recently, I must try something different soon...

Holiday Food and Chocolate Buns

2008-08-13T09:23:00.000-07:00

Well I'm back and enjoyed my holiday, thanks for all your patience! My favourite things are the little jammy buns which seem to be called Madeleines, but aren't. There are some things I always miss though, and bread from home is one of them.Oh and Tetley tea.

Here are a few buns that I made for a family party before I went. They're chocolate sponge with some of the same ganache as the the chocolate cake. I spent some time on the decorations, using lustre dust to give a more natural colour. Definately time consuming and for special occasions only!

Holiday

2008-08-01T09:05:00.000-07:00

Just a note to say I'm planning a cake for the weekend, but won't be able to blog it before I go on holiday next week. I'm looking forward to some rest and sunshine and hopefully cake inspiration for when I come back! Happy blogging until then :)

Chocolate cake

2008-07-20T07:21:00.000-07:00

This was another birthday cake, but I went back to my old favourite recipe after the dissapointing outcome of the masquerade cake . The recipe for the cake and chocolate ganache can be found here.

This was a lovely cake, with light sponge layers and a (very) sweet fudge icing. The two textures went together really well. Definately an improvement. The cake itself is an easy all in one method and the only trouble with the icing was deciding when to spread it on the cake; too warm and it'll run off the cake, too cold and it'll be too hard to spread. I like to have it slightly too runny so that most of the marks on the surface settle leaving a smooth glossy surface.

I used fluted sandwich tins and added a few decorations. It was my first time using dusting powders as shading to make the flowers look more realistic and while I think I need more practise, I learnt alot too :)

Masquerade Cake

2008-07-10T06:56:00.000-07:00

My friend was having a masquerade party for her birthdayand I thought it would be fun to make a matching cake. The masks were popular for costumed balls in renaissance italy, particularly in Venice, deriving from the Venice Carnival. They're beautiful , ideally wearable, masks with amazingly intricate designs. Also they often have featers or collars, lik the ones below

I started with a 22cm/9in round chocolate cake, using the recipe from my cake decorating book. To be honest I was a little dissapointed with the outcome. It wasn't very chocolatey and was slightly more moist in the centre. I think I'll stick to my usual recipe in the future.
Next I cut it into a 'face' shape by trimming the edges. Personally I think it looked a bit like an Easter Island statue! I've seen one in the British Museum and they're really amazing things.

Before covering it with the white sugarpaste I cut it into two layers and added some Nutella (chocolate spread) to sandwich them together. I also used some jam on the top layer to make the sugarpaste stick. It was now ready for decorating!

Here it is:

The colours are rolled out sugarpaste, stuck on with royal icing. I also used the royal icing to outline some of the shapes and add some decoration to the forehead. Silver balls (dragees) added some sparkle. Sitting with the piping bag in my hand I couldn't help but add a border, I managed to stop there before I went really crazy!

The birthday girl loved it and a day later I still don't think it's been cut :

Leftovers

2008-06-30T11:48:00.000-07:00

I’ve been thinking about this recently; what to do with both recipe and finished product leftovers? Personally I hate throwing food out (or to be honest throwing anything out), so I like to have uses for that little bit it would be a waste to bin. I kept baking in mind, as I don’t do much cooking myself.

Egg whites
Meringues are the obvious solution and there’s a world of recipes out there. However did you know that egg whites can be frozen? Just pop them in an airtight container and freeze as normal. Don’t forget to label what is in it and how many though; it can be hard to work out what they are a few weeks later.
You could also make petit fours like I did here.

Egg yolks
Pastry is the normal use for egg yolks, but if a lot of whole eggs are needed (particularly successfully in a fruit cake) a yolk can be substituted for a whole egg. There’s a limit on this though, as they whites are the binding agent, I’d say no more than 1/3 should be just yolks.
Here’s a good page with recipes for eggs yolks, including crème brulee and chocolate mouse

It’s worth noting that egg yolks can be frozen, but you need to add another ingredient, as otherwise they thicken. I can’t seem to find a definitive way to do this and haven’t tried myself, so I leave you to the hands of google I’m afraid.

Eggs
Eggs are best frozen separated; the results are better and it allows more flexibility. Both parts can be kept for a few days in the fridge; I put them in a cup with some cling film over the top.
It may seem a bit icky, but don’t dismiss slightly out of date eggs as off. In most cakes they are perfectly fine, as long as you’re cooking them and the recipe doesn’t state as fresh as possible. Use your own judgement on this, but I think that a few days is ok, any more is pushing your luck.

Sponge/Cake/Buns
Either uneaten cake or trimmings from reshaping can leave unwanted leftovers. If I’m honest I normally eat them white waiting for the cake to cool, but I suppose they could have other uses.
One solution I use is to make trifle, as it’s a change from plain cake. Alternatively cake crumbs can be an ingredient in some recipes, such as this one from Cadbury:
This one for chocolate truffles, handy as you could adapt it to make as many or as few as you have cake for:
Or there’s a whole lot of ideas here.

Chocolate
The best advice for this is simply to eat it, but often Scotbloc (cake covering) is just more practical and it’s a bit nasty to eat. Unused chocolate keeps for ages, just follow the instructions on the pack. For the stuff in the bottom of the bowl, rice krispie buns are a staple, plus you can chuck in whatever other leftover decorations, e.g. sweeties you have. The biggest benefit here comes when you only have a few spoonfuls left that aren’t worth keeping.
Alternatively, make decorations for next time, like chocolate curls

Reducing the potential leftovers can be a good step. Generally this means buying smaller quantities of things you are unlikely to use, e.g. golden syrup. It can seem like a bargain to buy the big tin, but if you throw half of it out it just doesn’t make sense. For me this is buttermilk, since it doesn’t keep. It’s amazing in pancakes, so I use the leftovers to make indulgent scones and freeze them instead.
Another option is to change or vary the recipe. I have a great one for chocolate pavlova which uses the yolks to make a chocolate sauce to pour over it.

Well, those are some of the basic ones, if I can think of any more I'll post them. I know a lot here is well known and a bit of repetition, but it’s nice to have it in one place. If you have any tips, please leave me a comment and share!

Jam Roll

2008-06-30T07:32:00.000-07:00

This is my first attempt at a jam roll, but worked out quite well. I used the recipe from my Australian Women's Weekly cake book, which can be found on their website here:

http://aww.ninemsn.com.au/ARTICLE.aspx?id=40913

As I thought, the trickiest bit was rolling it. I took the book's advice and rolled along the longest layer, meaning less 'rolls' but that it didn't fall apart. Also, to make it more interesting, I spread half with the normal strawberry jam and half with lemon curd. I was lucky enought o get the half and half bit. Unfortunately there's no picture of the jam one, as it was all eaten before I got to my camera! I fancy trying a peanut butter and jam one. I think the flaw with this is firstly that it would ruin the lightness of the sponge, and secondly it would 'tear' the sponge when spread.

The lemon curd version was yummy, but I wouldn't put as much on as the jam as I did, because it's more runny and oozes out the side.

Although this is meant to be a 'light' dessert, we did add custard to make it perfect.

Oh, and I nearly forgot to mention I have a poll on favourite cake flavours. I'm just curious :)

Present Cake

2008-06-22T11:21:00.000-07:00

This cake was made for a birthday. It's a simple madeira cake, since almost everyone likes that, and is covered in sugarpaste.

The recipe and the design idea are from a decorating book I got recently "The Home Guide to Cake Decorating by Jane Price". It's a fantastic book, explaining a wide range of techniques and suitable for all levels. I plan to work my way through some of the things, such as runouts and practising my piping. The are some brilliant ideas, and all are explained well.

.
The cake itself was a lovely moist cake, probably due to the high amount of milk in it. It would be good for a novelty cake as it cut well and neatly.

The 'tag' is a piece of leftover sugarpaste written on with my ever trusty food colouring pen.

If I were to make it again, I'd probably spend more time cutting the sides to the perfectly vertical. Also, since it was my first time covering a square cake I need a bit more practise doing the corners!

Pavlova

2008-06-16T07:45:00.000-07:00

The dessert Pavlova's origins are a bit unclear. It first appeared after Russian ballerina Anna Pavlova toured New Zealand and Australia in 1926. What isn't known is who created it, and there is a rivalry between these two countries!

What is known is that it's a yummy meringue desert that's crisp on the outside and marshmallowy on the inside. You can decorate it with whatever fruit you like, though strong colours look best.

The receipe is another Mary Berry creation, and can be found here:

http://www.recipezaar.com/229113

I used dry egg whites for the first time here and luckily it turned out fine. I didn't read the instructions properly though and added the water in one go, so had to beat out all the lumps. I'd definately used them again, especially for things like this where you'd end up with lots of yolks left over.

The only part I didn't follow was that I didn't leave it to cool in the oven. It didn't crack too badly, nothing that couldn't be covered up with cream anyway, and the dinner had to go in the oven.

Also, I used my favourite combination of fruit for Pavlova; strawberries and kiwi fruit. The colours look great against the white base and taste good too.

Lemon meringue pie

2008-06-13T04:50:00.000-07:00

I made this a few days ago, but am only getting round to blogging it now. I used the Mary Berry recipe. It's my policy not to give recipes from book, but this one can be found online here:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/food/recipes/database/lemonmeringuepie_6314.shtml

This recipe does take a while, and many stages, but it's well worth it. It was one of the nicest things I've made; the only change I'd make was to use 2 egg whites and not 3 as per the recipe for the meringue. I imagine it's because 3 egg yolks are used in the rest of the recipe. If you do do this, don't forget to use less sugar!

Lemon buns

2008-06-07T05:13:00.000-07:00

It's a beautiful day here and I thought I'd make some lemon buns (cupcakes).

I used my standard bun recipe, with the addition of the lemon.
2 eggs
4 0z self raising flour
4 oz caster sugar
4 oz margarine
1 lemon

1) Cream the margarine and sugar
2) Beat in the eggs until combined
3) Finely grate the lemon rind and stir in
4) Mix in the flour
5) Spoon into bun cases and bake for around 20 minutes at 180 C.
6) When cool, use the juice from the lemon and some icing sugar to decorate.

I kept the sunshine theme going, with some cool suns. I could probably have achieved a better result using all sugar paste, but I like the taste of 'wet' icing. With the lemon inside and on the buns the flavour turned out nice and strong. I hope the sun is shinging where you are :)

Gingerbread

2008-05-25T14:29:00.001-07:00

I made one of my favourite things today – gingerbread. Not only is it really yummy but cutting the shapes and decorating them is fun too.

This is a slightly odd biscuit/cookie since it is made differently in every country. Traditionally in northern Europe it’s a softer biscuit, and further south it’s a more like a ginger snap. In the 1600’s Nuremberg’s (in Germany) Lebkuchen was so good it was used as currency to pay the city’s taxes!
While gingerbread men (and women) are commonly made, a popular use around Christmas time is making gingerbread houses. Inspiring the fairy tale Hansel and Gretel, there are some amazing creations. Here’s my favourite; I love that the decorations is almost all icing. The ‘snow’ on the roof is particularly good.

It’s from the The Gingerbread Book, Ed. Allen D. Bragdon, New York: Arco Publishing, 1984. I actually intended to make one myself for the first time last Christmas, but was too busy. I’m definitely doing this year though.

My recipe is another school book source. It makes biscuits that are quite soft, but can be made crispy by leaving them in the oven for another few minutes.

350g Plain flour
110g Margarine
175g Demerara sugar
4 tbsp Golden Syrup
1 Lightly beaten egg
1 tsp Bicarbonate of Soda
1 tsp Ginger
1 tsp Cinnamon

1) Preheat the oven to 190 C and grease two baking trays
2) Mix flour, bicarbonate of soda, ginger and cinnamon
3) Rub in the margarine, or mix in a food processor until it has the consistency of breadcrumbs
4) Stir in the sugar
5) Beat the golden syrup into the egg. If you dip the spoon into hot water, it’ll come off the spoon really easily.
6) Add this to the dry mixture and knead into a dough. It’ll seem too dry but will come together.
Normal dough on the left, treacle on the right

7) Roll out and cut out shapes.

8) Bake for around 12-15 minutes.

There’s a lot of ways to vary this recipe to suit your tastes.
Here I made half with the normal golden syrup, and half with treacle to see what would happen. What came out was a stronger molasses flavour and less gingery. Personally I prefer the original version, but would definitely make these again.

The recipe above is the basic one, but I normally add another teaspoon of ginger as I like the strong taste.

Changing the type of sugar also alters the outcome. I used Demerara, which gives quite a coarse texture and lets the ginger come through. Using dark brown sugar will give a finer texture, but might overwhelm the ginger flavour. It really depends what you like.

Here's my crowd shot

I just did a few quick decorations with chocolate and sugarpaste, but the only limit is your imagination :) ‘Hair’ can be chocolate sprinkles, desiccated coconut, chocolate or raisins.

I made a few ‘old school’ ones.

And my brother's inspiration 'Ninjabread'

Banana Bread

2008-05-18T12:54:00.000-07:00

As we had some bananas which were getting too ripe to eat, I did what I usually do and made banana bread. There are loads of other different recipes, which include milk, strong flour etc... but this is a nice quick, simple version that I got from my old school cookery book and have been using ever since.

75g margarine

75g sugar

100g self raising flour

1 egg

1 ripe banana

1) Grease a 2 lb loaf tin and preheat the oven to ~180 C

2) Cream the sugar and margarine

3) Mix in flour

4) Mash a banana with a fork and stir into the mixture.

5) Turn out into the tin and bake for about half an hour

I made 2 quantities to use up the bananas, but I have put the doubled mixture into one tin before and made a bigger loaf. Just leave it in for an extra 5-10 minutes.

Also, I used 2 x 3lb loaf tins this time so it would be easier to halve the mixture (I don't have 2 smaller tins), but I reccomend using th size given in the recipe.

It is tempting to eat it as soon as it comes out of the oven, and while it's really tasty it doesn't cut well; in fact it falls apart. To get decent slices, just let it cool down.

This freezes quite well too, though not for more than 3 months.

2008-05-13T16:15:00.000-07:00

I just wanted to say thanks to Ruth over at http://justaddeggs.blogspot.com/ for giving me the "i love you this much award." That's so sweet of you!

Sugarcraft

2008-05-09T15:07:00.000-07:00

I got some new sugarpaste colours and tools, so thought I'd play with them. I practised roses, and tried out my rose leaf plunger cutter.

Also, I made these little guys:

I'm not sure why penguins, it's just what i felt like. The pound coin is to show the size. This is my favourite one, he looks so cute!

I used an edible food colouring pen for the pupils of the eyes. This is a brilliant invention which saves so much fiddling about, I'll definately be buying a few more colours.

Macaroons

2008-05-09T14:28:00.000-07:00

I had some egg whites left over from the pastry of the jam tart, and wanted to use them up, so made macaroons. Here's the recipe I used:

rice paper

2 egg whites

225g / 8 oz caster sugar

175g / 6 oz ground almonds

chocolate for decorating

1) Heat oven to 180 C

2) Line 2 baking trays with rice paper

3) Whisk eggs whites until stiff

4) Gently fold in egg whites and ground almonds

5) Put into a large piping bag with a 1cm/half inch plain nozzle and pipe fingers 7.5 cm /3 in long. Keep separated on the tray as they expand a lot.

6) Bake for 15-20 minutes, or until golden brown.

7) Remove excess paper and cool on a wire rack before decorating.

Here's how mine turned out:

The monster shapes and sizes are because I didn't have the right size piping nozzle, so just shaped them on the tray with my hands; I was a bit generous with the quantities. Also, I couldn't get hold of rice paper, so just used greaseproof/baking paper and removed it all.

They were nice and crispy on the outside, but chewy in the middle. I'm not exactly sure how they were supposed to turn out, but I liked them :)

Jam Tart

2008-05-04T14:15:00.000-07:00

This pudding nearly turned into a disaster. I started with the pastry recipe from my Mary Berry book for glazed fruit tarts. Unfortunately when I went to roll it out it was really sticky and I needed to add a lot more plain flour to get a workable dough. I managed to save it though/

We do have a lattice cutter to create the top, but I always find this too fiddly, so I cut the remaining pastry into strips and wove them into the diamond pattern.

For best results finish with tea and custard :)

Birthday Cake

2008-05-04T13:49:00.000-07:00

Ooops, it's been a while since I blogged last, and I'll probably have to abandon it for a few weeks yet as I've been too busy to bake recently. Come the summer though, I promise loads of content :)

One of the things keeping me occupied was my birthday, and I luckily didn't have to make my cake. It was bought from Marks and Spencer, one of their yummy madeira birthday cakes. i know it's a kids cake (and I'm in my 20's) but I loved it.

I couldn't bear to eat the fairy until the cake was gone, though that wasn't very long!

Apple Crumble

2008-04-20T13:45:00.000-07:00

Today I made an old favourite, apple crumble. Easy, quick and good with ice cream or custard.

3 cooking apples
2oz margarine
4oz plain flour
10z sugar (caster or brown) + 1 tbsp

1) Peel the apples and dice. Stew in a pot with the 1 tbsp of sugar until they're soft but have a little bite.
2) Put in the bottom of a glass dish.
3) Combine flour and margarine in a food processor, and then stir in the sugar.
4) Cover the apples evenly, using fingertips to compact slightly. Sprinkle a little sugar over the top.
5) Bake for about half an hour at 180 C

I used the food processor for speed, but the rubbing in method can be used too. I used demerara sugar, as it's a more caramelised taste, but caster sugar is nice to. This is a great dessert for changing to suit tastes, pear and rasperberry is a good combination.

No pictures unfortunately, we ate it too fast!

2008-04-14T10:48:00.000-07:00

I was feeling a bit more adventurous today and tried out a new shortbread recipe. It doesn't involve rolling out a dough, which is unusual, but turned out brilliant, so I'll be using this easier version in the future.

180g plain flour
55g rice flour
150g margarine (or butter)
100g caster sugar
1/8 tsp salt
1/4 tsp baking power

1) Preheat oven to 160 C and grease a shallow 8 in pan.

2)Cream the margarine and sugar until light and fluffy

3)Sift in flours, baking power and salt, then mix into a stiff dough

4)Spread out into the tin, smoothing with the back of a spoon. Mark the surface with a fork, and slice into 8.

5)Bake for 45-50 minutes until it is golden brown. Wait a short time until it's cool enough to handle, then remove from tin. Recut into 8 while warm, then leave to cool.

I found that having a fairly low gauge tin meant it was easier to remove the shortbread, as I could 'twist' it slightly like an ice cube tray. It's slightly springy when warm, so shouldn't crack.

It tasted gorgeous, and was very short, though 1/8 is a big portion, so smaller might be better.

Brain Cake

2008-04-14T03:21:00.000-07:00

Ruth over at justaddeggs.blogspot.com sent me a link to this cake

http://www.wikihow.com/Make-an-Anatomically-Correct-Brain-Cake

It prompted me to share a few of the cakes I've come across that were just amazing.

Just google mario cake for this one

And not amazing technically, but really pretty

I'd love an excuse to make a topsy turvey cake.

Fun things

2008-04-13T10:39:00.000-07:00

Well, it's been a busy week and I didn't feel like anything that required too much thought. In fact, I wanted something easy and fun. The result was.....top hats. The E numbers and sugar hit are guaranteed to make you smile, especially if, as was the case today, only about half the ingrediants made it to the cases. I predict a sugar dip in about an hour :)

I did milk and white chocolate ones. The white ones weren't cooking chocolate, so they needed a spell in the fridge.

Also, with the left over chocolate (I'd eaten so many smarties by this point I couldn't face licking the bowl) I made dipped strawberries and cornflake buns.

Heart Cake

2008-04-06T11:41:00.000-07:00

I usually make a pudding on a Sunday, and this week I made a Victoria sponge. I wanted to try out a new cake tin I got as a gift (Thanks!) and thought I should stick to something quite straight forward as I wasn't sure of the size it should be.

I used my standard sponge recipe, in this case using 3 eggs and multiplying up appropriately.

1 egg
2 0z self raising flour

2 oz caster sugar

2 oz margarine

vanilla flavouring

Also, I decided to blog this one. My camera is now covered in jam. ooops.

I base lined the tin with greaseproof paper, since each layer would be quite thin, and I didn't want to tear it getting it out. I creamed the sugar and margarine, before adding in the eggs, then the flour. This mixture was divided in half and baked as two batches, since I only have 1 tin.

Jamtastic. I used strawberry, but lemon curd is also a nice change.

Also, I recently went to a cake decorating shop and bought some new fun things, some flower cutters and edible dust. I got snowflake lustre dust (a shimmer) and plum blossum tint (a matte colour). Unfortunatley I realised when I got home that the plum one is non-edible. I'm sure I'll find a use for it though.

I made some little flowers for the cake and added the glittery lustre dust. They looked really pretty, but it doesn't seem to have come out in the picture.

Here's the end result. Lovely with a cuppa.

Poker

2008-04-04T12:14:00.000-07:00

At the last minute today I baked some buns for a poker night. I intended to decorate them as the playing card suits with sugarpaste shapes, but couldn't get get hold of the right colours in time. So (a la Ready Steady Cook) I used the contents of my cupboard, which luckily enough included currants and glace cherries. The results weren't perfect, but looked OK.
I also made chocolate buns, which were a bit of a disaster. I somehow put too much coco in them, which made them very chocolatey. They were nice, but you definately need a cup of tea to eat them!

Petit Fours

2008-03-30T07:12:00.000-07:00

So this week I decided to make petit fours. I've only made them once before, but they were so nice i thought I'd give them another go.

The recipe is from my cake bible: Mary Berry's Ultimate Cake Book:

They turned out great, though I may not have been gentle enough when folding as they didn't completely keep their piped shape.

Luckily they were as nice as I remember them. The only problem is that they're so tiny you have to eat 4. Did I say problem, I meant good point!

Easter biscuits

2008-03-23T06:55:00.000-07:00

I decided since it was Easter to use some of the biscuit cutters I bought recently.They're German (Empire) biscuits to a recipe from an old cook book:

8 oz (225g) plain flour

4 oz (115g) butter

4 oz (115g) caster sugar

1 egg

1tsp vanilla flavouring

Jam and icing sugar for decoration

You will need 1 large, greased baking tray.

1)Cream the sugar and butter

2)Add in vanilla

3)Stir in flour and mix well

4)Add a little of the beaten egg and knead into a stiff dough. (If it is too dry and won't stick add a tablespoon of water)

5)Roll out to 5mm, or around 1/4 inch on a floured surface, and use cutters.

6)Bake at 160 C or 150 C if fan assisted for 15-20 minutes.

7)When cool, cover half in icing and sandwich layers together with jam.Here's what I came up with:

I used coloured fondant icing to save me making lots of batches of icing.

Don't forget to do two of each if using differently shaped cutters, since they have to sit on top of one another. Also, I found it helpful make one layer of the biscuit face the opposite direction. That way, when they are put together, the bottoms are hidden, making it look neater. It's especially useful if they stick to the baking tray as this can be hidden by the jam!

Happy Easter everyone.

Rubix Cube Cake

2008-03-20T10:21:00.001-07:00

These are old photos of a cake I did for an 80's birthday party. Not sure if the colours are right, but it's all I had in the cupboard.

Its two madeira cakes on top of each other. they're actually round ones cut into squares. A bit of a mad way of doing it I know, but I didn't have the deep enough square tins. We got to eat the excess bits though. It's called quailty control :)

By this point I hadn't discovered that you can get coloured fondant, and had to make do with supermarket white, painted with food colouring using a pastry brush. Also, I did each square seperatley, and then joined them together. Can't really remember the reason, possibly to have clear lines between the colours. Don't try this at home, it took ages, and I ended up with rainbow hands!

The black lines are dark chocolate matchmakers,as our local corner shop didn't have licorice laces. (how strange was that?)

A but messy and the icing was quite sickening, but the cake was yummy and looked good in the end.

Sugar Flowers

2008-03-20T05:09:00.001-07:00

After my attempt at sugar roses, I invested in some rose petal and blossum cutters, and this is what I came up with:

They're supposed to be daisies, but I think I need more practise!

The others are roses and rosebuds. The cutters were great for this, but they're so fiddly to do! Even still, i couldn't persuade everyone to eat them, they didn't want to ruin them, but I ate mine.

Examples

2008-03-19T15:31:00.000-07:00

So, a quick example of what I've been up to.

These are buns for a friend, they're vanilla sponge, dipped in chocolate, with a large fondant star and little stars in the trail. It turned out a bit like a comet with a glittery tail.

These were also in the batch, my first go at bows. I learnt not to leave them before shaping, as the icing goes hard and cracks!

And this is my first attempt at sugar roses.

First post!

2008-03-19T15:25:00.000-07:00

Hello all. I've been following some cake blogs online, and thought 'd join the fun. I've been baking for a while, but only recently started getting into decorating and sugarpaste, so bear with me! Looking forward to sharing my cakes.