More little cakes....

This week's baking consisted of David's favourite Victoria Sponge Sandwich with lots of home made raspberry jam and butter cream, followed by lavender shortbread and then mini coffee and walnut muffins.  The shortbread was a bit of a challenge because I decided to follow Louise Walker's Aga recipe - I didn't have any rice flour (nor could I get it in the major supermarkets) so I used ground rice which was a bit coarser.  She also rolls hers out very thin and the best way to do this is by placing the dough on a piece of bakoglide then loosely spreading a piece of clingfilm over it - hey presto you just roll on top of the cling film, no sticky rolling pins and the dough is exactly where it should be for sliding onto a baking tray!  I had some cooking lavender in my herbs and spices drawer and have been meaning to use it for ages, should have put more in than I did because I could not taste or smell it.  Will try thicker shortbread fingers next time, plus more lavender.....

Mini coffee and walnut muffins

The mini muffins were made for a Christmas Social that I went to and there were some left over so I brought them home to gorge on myself!  The beauty of minis is that you get all the flavour without having to have a big piece of cake, i.e. you eat less (in theory).

An old favourite

A couple of years ago I bought a 12 hole baking tray with loose bottoms and straight sides from Lakeland - it was quite expensive but it's non-stick and very heavy duty.  Haven't used it that much but today I made some mini Victoria sandwich cakes which is a novel way of presenting an old favourite.  They do look pretty when presented on a cake stand!  There is also a recipe for mini chocolate cakes that I will try some time.

PS The fancy plate is something David did in woodturning and the lovely tea towel is of Scottish wild flowers bought for me by my sister-in-law Nikki!!

More Baking!

Haven't done too much from the Bake Off book recently because I've been baking other recipes, some worked some didn't.....   All my adult life I have been ripping out recipes from magazines and newspapers and keeping them all in binders and folders with the intention of trying them sometime - one of my New Year's resolutions last January was to start cooking some of these!  So that's what I have been doing in the hope of discovering something really fantastic to put in my "favourites" folder.

Recently I made German Apple Cake from one of my Aga cook books - we have loads of Bramleys to use up this winter and it was very nice although I managed to give it my trademark Aga burnt top.  Basically it was a standard cake mix in the bottom, a thick layer of apples coated in sugar and butter, topped with a cinnamon crumble topping.  Nice served warm.

I also made Orange and Poppy Seed muffins - these were a bit different to usual muffins in that they had 200ml of yoghurt in the wet ingredients.  I felt that they were a bit plain so added some orange coloured tangy icing on top and that did the trick.

Orange and Poppy Seed Muffins

More Cup Cakes

I made these cupcakes just to christen my new cake stand, turned by my husband, David, who has taken his woodturning one step further by the use of mosaics.  It revolves so makes a wonderful centrepiece to an afternoon tea party - am sure I will be using it to display my baking!

My new cake stand!

Paul's Iced Fingers

This is a technical challenge using an enriched yeast dough and mine turned out more like iced "hands" than iced "fingers"!  However, they were very yummy and an absolute treat for afternoon tea.  I found the dough difficult to handle but eventually it did form a ball that I could shape.  I used my homemade strawberry jam made from last year's crop and was very generous with it (my husband's special request) so the end result didn't have the finesse of Paul's efforts!

My Iced Hands!

Chocolate Crackles

Made these biscuits after a boring day's housework due to very wet weather all day.  Very easy to make - I didn't have any light muscovado so used soft light brown sugar as I have a huge bag of that and it tends to go hard if left in the cupboard too long, so needs to be used up.

Chocolate Crackles

The biscuits turned out fine so I don't know what they would have been like with the muscovado sugar.  Will try them out tomorrow on Evelyn, a friend from Chipping Campden who is coming for a coffee and a chat.

Rich Beef Casserole with Dumplings

Made this today to eat over the weekend and putting in Guinness really gives it a good flavour.  I got the beef from David Moore's Butchers in Mickleton - great old-fashioned butchers who supply a lot of the restaurants in the area.  The meat is always good.  I was able to use onions, carrots and parsnips from the allotment.

Rich Beef Casserole with Dumplings

We decided that this recipe shouldn't be in the Bake Off book, but I guess it's the dumplings that give it a place.  They were just a bit different from the average dumpling by the inclusion of some mustard powder to give a little kick.  It was a really good casserole though, just right for a chilly September evening.