Little Bites of Yumminess

I finally got my Baking Bible in the post (mini yay required) and was so excited about baking from it that I made biscuits the same day for friends who were coming round for dinner.

I decided on the Lavender biscuits purely because it was the first recipe I saw in the book.  I also have fresh lavender growing in the garden and really wanted an excuse to use it.

So we were already off to a good start … Till I realised that bees really like lavender! I’m slightly scared of them and it was a terrifying experience trying to get enough lavender without them coming near me.  There was a lot of shrieking and running involved – definitely not a pretty sight.

I did manage it however and got enough to start on the biscuits. I whisked together the lavender and the butter and added the sugar.  The flour was stirred in and kneaded together with my hands.

I then split the mixture in half and rolled out a sausage type shape that was roughly 15cm long (I know because I actually used a ruler!). Each of these were rolled around in the Demerara sugar and wrapped in foil and put in the fridge to harden.

After about an hour, and two cups of tea later, I turned on the oven and brought out the biscuits.  As I unwrapped the foil I could already get a hint of lavender smell, which for some reason got me extremely excited, easily pleased person that I am!

I had to cut the sausage-shaped mixture into small slices and placed them on the baking tray and wacked them into the oven for 15 minutes.

 

45 minutes later the biscuits were cooked.  Now I don’t blame Mary Berry for this, but actually I think my oven door wasn’t working very well and was letting out a lot of heat.

It was definitely worth the wait though.  I couldn’t wait much longer so sneakily ‘taste tested’ a biscuit while it was still hot, as in literally straight from the oven. So I had a burnt mouth too, but it was so worth it.  The biscuit is beautiful; there is no other word.  The hint of lavender works really well against the crispness and sweetness of the sugar.

 

This will definitely be a staple part of my diet in the future. I don’t think I can live long without these in my life. A great start to the book.  Well done Mary Berry!

Strawberry Daiquiri Anyone? It’s edible!

It was my birthday recently and apparently there is a rule that all bakers have to bake their own cakes, although I’ve never heard of such a thing.

So I asked ‘what should I bake?’ and the vast majority said Strawberry Daiquiri cupcakes … hmm …  OK! After the great success with my mojito cupcakes last year (also during my birthday – does anyone see a pattern forming?), I was excited about trying these out.

I started by mixing the rum and some of the sugar and letting it reduce by about half; the strawberries were then chopped into small pieces and soaked in the rum for about 30 minutes. I thought I didn’t need anymore more strawberries so took a quick break to munch my way through the rest of the pack. Yum!

Once the strawberries were soaked long enough I started on the rest of the recipe; mixing together the ‘dry’ ingredients with the butter to create a crumb like mixture and whisking together the ‘wet’ ingredients.  These then get mixed together bit by bit.

I then drained the strawberries and put a few into each cupcake case.  The batter went on top they all went into the oven for about 15minutes.

Once out I drizzled the remaining rum reduction over each cupcake and left them to cool while I prepared the icing. This is when I read the ingredients for the frosting and realised I needed the strawberries I had recently eaten. Dammit! Time for a quick run to the nearest shop! My tip of the day therefore is:

Make sure you don’t need any spare ingredients before you start eating them!

With a new pack of strawberries in tow, I started making the icing by mixing the butter, icing sugar and lime zest.  4 teaspoons of rum reduction and 4 teaspoons of milk were then whisked in until it was soft and fluffy. I went for the traditional ‘Hummingbird Bakery Swirl’ with a few slices of strawberry on top. Et Voila! Alcoholic cupcakes that didn’t last 5 minutes in the office.

They were beautifully soft and creamy with a gentle kick of alcohol.  The strawberries also provided a nice difference in texture. I do, admittedly, prefer the mojito version; however I think this is due to my preference to the alcoholic beverage rather than my preference in cake.

Who Needs A Coffee When You Have an Espresso Cupcake

So the second set of cupcakes I baked for the ‘Volunteer Reading Help’ cake sale at work were the Espresso Cupcakes from the Hummingbird Bakery Cake Days book.

For the first time in a long time, I was smart enough to read the recipe a while before I started baking; so I knew that I needed to warm the milk first in order to dissolve the espresso powder and let it cool again.

A definite great start! The recipe then follows the standard Hummingbird route: mix all the ‘dry’ ingredients with the butter, then the ‘wet’ ingredients together, and finally whisk these in in two batches.

The batter was filled into cupcake cases and put into the oven for about 20 minutes. You can tell the cupcakes are ready when your kitchen starts smelling like a coffee shop!

 

While the cupcakes were cooling, I heated up some more milk and mixed in some espresso powder, ready to make the icing once it had cooled again – this time I was less patient and put the milk mixture in the fridge for 10 minutes.  The icing was made by mixing the butter and icing sugar and gradually adding the milk and whisking on high until smooth.

I used a Wilton 2D nozzle to create a whipped twirl effect on the cupcakes.  A while ago I was asked to make videos of how I ice cupcakes but I have either forgotten, not had the equipment or created rubbish videos.  For once, I managed to make a half decent video, which you can find here. Hopefully, it’ll give you a better idea on how I managed it.

For the final touch, I used small pieces of dark chocolate on top of the twirls.  The cupcakes were packed and sold the next day at the cake sale.  I actually bought one of these (as it just seems wrong to take one) and really enjoyed it.  I’m not the biggest fan of very strong coffee so was intrigued how these cupcakes would turn out and was pleasantly surprised.  The coffee flavour nicely offset the sweetness of the cupcake, the dark chocolate also giving it a nice kick.

The more of these coffee cakes I bake the more I like them. They are a great alternative to the really sweet options out there.

A Piper’s Dream

We had a charity cake a few weeks back and I was one of the many people who decided to bake for it.  I wanted to do something a bit different, i.e. try out some piping skills, so decided on a big vanilla sponge with a difference.

I used the vanilla cupcake recipe in the Hummingbird Bakery books and doubled the amount, put them into 3 cake tins and baked them for roughly 40 minutes. I had some batter left over so made some small cupcakes as well.

While the cakes were cooling, I used some white and green fondant and cut out a selection of big and small flowers and leaves and left them to set and harden.

I cut the top off all three cakes to make a really straight, smooth surface to work on.  I doubled the Hummingbird Bakery buttercream icing recipe and started assembling the cake.  I put a layer of icing inbetween each layer and made a ‘crumb coat’ around the outside of the cake. This is essentially a thin layer of icing to pack in all the crumbs.  I left this to harden a bit before I started to decorate.

Now, I’ve been a follower of Arty Cakes for a while and absolutely love what they do with their piping. So I used their basket weave concept as inspiration for this cake.  I started by spreading a thicker, and hopefully smoother layer of icing on the top of the cake.  I’m absolutely rubbish at this and even with a straightening tool had a lot of trouble getting it perfect.

I then split the rest of the icing and coloured the larger portion pale green.  This went into a piping bag with a basket weave decorating tip; I used Wilton’s no. 47.

To start the basket weave, pipe a vertical line on the cake.  Then, start at the bottom and draw a horizontal line across the vertical one.  Leave a space the size of the nozzle above and pipe another horizontal line above that etc. till you get to the top.  You then draw another vertical line next to the first one and pipe horizontal lines in the gaps (I hope this all makes sense!). You continue this all the way around the cake.

Now my biggest problem was my improvised piping bag.  I currently only have a large piping bag, which was too big for the nozzle I was using, so I used a sandwich bag with the corner cut off instead.  When you squeezed the piping bag, however, a small hole would often appear, which made it really hard to get any icing out at all, let alone evenly. My poor dad was there with the duck tape, taping any holes as they came!  With his help I finally managed to finish the basket weave and started on the top edges.

I used the Wilton 17 nozzle with the remaining buttercream icing to tidy to outside edge of the cake.  To achieve this effect hold the piping bag horizontally, squeeze quite hard while holding the bag still and gently remove pressure as you move the bag sideways.  Again I had problems with my piping bag and couldn’t squeeze too hard in case the bag decided to explode!

To finish the cake off, I stuck the fondant flowers and leaves onto the top of the cake with a little buttercream in whatever arrangement I thought looked good. This was at 2am however so my idea of ‘good’ may have been a little off at the time!

The last job of the night was to decorate the cupcakes. I used the Wilton 2D nozzle to make little roses in the centre of the cupcake and used spare fondant flowers and leaves to decorate the side.

Both the cupcakes and the big cake went down a treat at the bake sale and lots of money was raised for ‘Volunteer Reading Help’. A job well done and a hell of a lot of fun with the piping – only next time I might have to invest in some better piping bags!

An apology

Dear Everyone,

Welcome to the new (and hopefully improved) Diary of a Bake-a-Holic.

I want to start with an apology.  I’ve not been the most frequent blogger for the last month or so.  As we all know, life has a funny way of catching up with us and throwing in new surprises along the way. I’ve recently had a change in career and job and have been juggling so many balls that an octopus would have trouble coping! The blog has therefore been one of the many things that I’ve regretfully had to put aside to be able to manage.

BUT – and yes it deserves capitals – I am back with a brand new mission! To bake anything and everything I can get my hands on. There won’t be a Hummingbird Bakery challenge, although the recipes left to complete will definitely be tested at some point. My new mission, as accepted by myself, is:

To attempt any recipe that is weird, wonderful or wacky; healthy or unhealthy; intriguing or intensely tasty-looking.  If I can find it, I will try it.

 

So please accept this little, incredibly cute, cakelet as an apology and prepare yourselves for…  CAKES!

Apple Streudal Cake

Apple crumble is one of my favourite puddings and I was saving this cake for a time that I could enjoy it; preferably a time when we didn’t have too many people to have to share it with!

This week, I promised my brother a cake in return for a lift and he called the favour in with this cake.

The cake had three different layers: the sponge, the apples and the crumble.  I didn’t listen to the recipe and started off by chopping up the fruit.  I was supposed to peel, core and slice 3 Granny Smith apples; but by then end I think there were about 2 apples worth of slices left (I had taken the ‘one for me, one for you’ method of chopping fruit).

The crumble is simply made by chopping up the butter while cold, and rubbing it in with the cinnamon and flour till it looks like breadcrumbs.  Then you stir in the sugar and tra-laa.

The sponge followed what I consider to be the standard recipe.  Mix the wet ingredients together and sift in the dry ones.  I poured the batter into the pre-greased tin and started place the slices on top in concentric circles.  The cake went straight into the oven to cook.

Forty-five minutes later, the oven bell went and everyone started on at me to get it ready to eat.  The cake smelled amazing and I quickly heated some custard to accompany it.  OK, so it was ready made custard, we’re taking baby steps here!

 

The cake tasted amazing.  I am incredibly happy with this recipe, it’s my two favourite things meshed into one: cake + apple crumble = beautiful.  The cinnamon in the crumble gave it a nice kick and it went beautifully with the custard.  The apples were cooked perfectly, still a tiny bit crunch but really sweet and juicy.

I’d definitely suggest this to everyone and anyone. It’s a great treat and is something a bit different from your average cake or apple crumble.  Officially another favourite!

A 5 Minute Apple Tart Concoction

I was going to my lovely friends house yesterday (who has a brilliant food blog – check it out here) with the promise that she would make me something amazing and new. Essentially she was treating me like a test subject.   So, naturally, I thought it would only be fair that I bring her something baked.

So I looked in my cupboard/fridge and found some left over puff pastry.  Hmm… After a quick Internet search I found a great recipe that I altered to suit my needs (click here to get the original recipe).

Essentially all you do is place the pastry on a baking tray lined with greaseproof paper (I only had foil).  Also I decided to roll out the pastry a little more to make enough for three good-sized portions of tart.

 

Then you core, half and thinly slice any apples of your choice – I used some royal gala apples – and put them in a bowl with a cup of sugar.  Err… a cup of sugar? This is a quick treat, not a heart attack!

So this is where I changed it up. I used a small measuring cup (200ml size) and filled it up to the 100ml line with dark brown sugar.  I also put in a pinch of salt and a pinch or two of cinnamon.

 

These go in the bowl with the apples and are stirred together till all the slices are covered.  I then placed these down the middle of the tart and into the oven for 10-15 minutes.

They tarts came out smelling delicious.  But I had a tiny problem when trying to get them off the baking tray.  Because I rolled the pastry out, it had become ridiculously thin and very hard to get off.  Basically they broke in half. Damn. And I’ve promised them a tart now.

 

What did I do? I gave these three to my dad to taste test and went to the supermarket and bought more pastry of course!  This time I didn’t do anything silly and managed to get all the proportions and measurements right.

I somehow managed to wrap it up and get it to my friend’s house without eating it on the way.  After a beautiful dinner of chicken and chorizo paella, I warmed up the tart served it hot.  It was delicious and definitely not something you could believe took 5 minutes to prepare.  If ever you have some puff pastry going spare, this is definitely a recipe I would suggest, and it’s something that can be adapted for any fruit you feel like using.

So here it is. My adapted recipe for a quick apple tart:

Ingredients:

1 pre rolled sheet of pastry

1 egg

4  medium sized apples

1 cup of dark brown sugar (I used a 200ml sized measuring cup)

½ teaspoon cinnamon

¼ teaspoon salt

Icing sugar for dusting

 Method:

1.) Preheat oven to 170C.

2.) Dust both sides of your sheet of pastry with icing sugar and place it on greaseproof paper on your baking tray.

3.) Separate the egg white and brush the pastry with it.  Then fold each side to create a small border.

4.) Core, half and slice your apples.

5.) Mix your sugar, cinnamon and salt in a bowl and put in the sliced apples.  Stir this together till all the apples slices are covered.

6.) Place the apples in whatever pattern takes your fancy, I did it in a straight line.

7.) Place in the oven for 10-15minutes or until the pastry rises and is golden brown.

8.) Once out of the oven, dust with icing sugar and serve hot.

Nuts Anyone?

I’ve been on holiday to Iran and have developed a taste for everything nutty.  Iran has a plethora of beautifully tasty treats, many of which incorporate nuts. So what did I spend my time doing? Eating them all, naturally.

I came back and the first question everyone asked me is “What did you learn to bake?” Erm … I didn’t learn to bake anything, I was too busy eating it all!

So, to make up for my lack of Iranian baking knowledge, I made the Mixed Nut Slices, as it’s a dessert that could definitely be Iranian if it wanted to.

I started off by preparing the dough for the base – my first ever dough! The experience wasn’t as terrifying as I imagined.  Although I did realise that my baking tray is quite a bit bigger than the recipe’s and had to add another half portion of everything to make it work.

The dough was pressed into the pre-greased baking tray and put in the oven for 20minutes. Now I know all about baking beads and still haven’t purchased any. The recipe didn’t indicate the need for any baking beads so I put my trust in the recipe.

The dough came out quite puffy (damn it, should have used baking beads!) but went back down again to its original shape after I squished it down a bit.  I also was a bit stingy on the making a ‘lip’ on the sides but figured it would be fine.

While the base was cooling I set about chopping up and preparing all the nuts.  The pistachios and almonds were roasted (and very slightly burnt) in a non-stick saucepan by tossing them over a medium heat.  The nuts were then placed on top of the pastry, ready for the topping.

The topping was made by melting the butter, sugar and golden syrup in a pan and adding the eggs once it had cooled slightly.  This was poured over the nuts and put in the oven for 20 minutes.

Because I didn’t make a proper lip around the sides of the tin, some of the topping spilled over and made the pastry look a bit burnt, when in fact, it was just cooked well – I promise! Otherwise it turned out really well.  I left the pastry to cool before cutting into slices and shipping it off with my parents to take to a dinner party with the promise that they’d take photos and save me a slice.

They didn’t. Grrrr. But they did bring back lots of thanks and requests for more so I can imagine that it tasted good?!  I was later told that it was really crunchy and rich and something that goes amazingly with tea after dinner.

So, although I can’t give you a better description of taste, I can say that it was an easy recipe to make, will very likely last a while if stored correctly and is a great side to have with tea.

Strawberries and Cream … and Cheese … and Biscuits!

It was my dad’s birthday recently and I wanted to bake something special.  Everyone has been getting a bit sick of the constant cupcakes, and I still haven’t managed to find the right pie dishes, so I decided on the Strawberries and Cream cheesecake.

I started off by making the base for the cheesecake; I love doing this mainly because I means there’s digestives in the house, but also because I can bash the living daylights out of them! The crushed biscuits got stirred in with the melted butter, squished into the cake tin and put into the oven for 30minutes.

Then came the hardest part of the recipe – chopping and cooking the strawberries without eating them all. I’d definitely suggest buying and extra box of strawberries for you to nibble on while you work, to save enough for the actual cheesecake.

The chopped strawberries were put into a saucepan with sugar and a little water, boiled and reduced by half.  I think I put in a bit too much water but left it as it was.

While this was cooking, I realised I didn’t put the right measurement of strawberries in… damn.  I let the first batch cook and took out the strawberries once it was done.  I then put in the rest of the strawberries into the simmering sugar water, added a tiny bit more sugar and cooked that.

I then prepared the cheesy bit of the cheesecake by beating the cream cheese and sugar and adding the eggs one at a time.  I stirred in the strawberries but left a little of the juice left, so that the consistency wouldn’t be too runny.  This went into the oven with a water-bath on the shelf underneath for about 30 minutes.

Now my biggest problem with cheesecakes to date have been cracks; cheesecakes are meant to have bit of a wobble in the middle once it’s ready but I always overcook it for fear of it being too wobbly and undercooking.  This time I stuck to the recommended time exactly, and it didn’t crack! Well, that’s a lie, there was a tiny crack but a huge improvement to the Lime and chocolate cheesecake!

This was left out to cool and then to chill in the fridge overnight. The next morning I started on the cream part of the cheesecake.  I whisked together the mascarpone and sugar in one bowl and the double cream in another.  I then folded the two together and spread it over the cheesecake.  This went back into the fridge to chill until after the birthday dinner.

After dinner, I chopped up a few fresh strawberries and added a candle to come out – this year my dad was officially one (we only had one candle!). I was a bit worried it would be too sweet and I’m  not the biggest fan of cream. But I had nothing to worry about, all the different ingredients complimented each other really well and everyone really enjoyed it, especially my dad.

 

Be aware that this is quite a sweet treat so some people might not be the biggest fans. But don’t be put off – this is definately a great dessert and will be something i’ll bake for Wimbledon season. If you want a really nice, indulgent cheesecake that’s not too heavy, then I’d definitely suggest you try this!

A Healthy Snack?!

I don’t know about you but I always thought muesli bars were ridiculously healthy.  OK they have lots of nuts and dried fruit but that’s good energy, right?! A colleague from work requested I made something nutty and healthier than your average cupcake so I immediately went for this recipe.

I’ve finally managed to learn that you have to read the ingredients and the recipe before you start, as I normally would realise I was missing an ingredient or had to chop up everything in halfway through making the recipe!

I knew there would be lots of chopping with the muesli bars so I didn’t start until everything was prepared.  There is a LOT of different fruits and nuts in the recipe.  I put in desiccated coconut, dried apricots, cranberries and dates, cornflakes, sunflower seeds, walnuts and oats.  The recipe also called for raisins but I completely forgot about them – It’s not because I hate raisins … honest!

After what seemed like hours of chopping, I could start putting everything together.  I melted the butter, golden syrup and sugar in a large pan and set it aside to cool slightly.  There was a lot of butter in the recipe and I was starting to worry about how buttery the taste would be, but I figured there were so many other ingredients, the buttery taste would balance out.

Then, all you literally do is put everything in a big bowl, mix it, stir in the butter mixture and put it in the lined baking tray. Then I pressed the mixture down with the back of a tablespoon to compress it.

 

The most intriguing part of the recipe was to cover the mixture with greaseproof paper and cover with jam jars and tins so that it compresses even more. That definitely earned me some disapproving looks from the folks when they got home!

Once cooled, I put the mixture in the fridge overnight and cut it up in square slices to take to work.  My compression skills weren’t too great and the muesli bars tended to break apart quite easily.

The taste test came the next day with a cup of tea and a muesli slice for breakfast: it was a lot nicer than I expected. I’m not the biggest fan of dried fruit (why would you ruin perfectly tasty fruit?!) or coconuts but it came together well in the muesli bar.  Furthermore, it kept me going till lunch, which was great.  BUT… it was ridiculously buttery.  It was only bearable because there were so many other flavours going on.

Overall a good choice, albeit not the healthy choice I thought it was.  It’s a recipe I would make again, however surprised I am to admit it.  When I do make it again, however, I’ll definitely put a lot less butter in it.