Silicone Bakeware

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

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

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!

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...

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

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

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...