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.

Quick and Simple Fruit Loaf

Autumn is here and the workload on the allotment and in the garden is much reduced, so the Aga is back on and I am once again in the kitchen!

Yesterday I made Quick and Simple Fruit Loaf and it certainly was quick and simple.  We sampled it today with morning coffee and it was nice but I felt it could have had a teaspoon of mixed spice in it.  The butter and sugar are melted together then added to the other ingredients and mixed well so you can see it is very quick.  David is very pleased that there is now homemade cake in the cake tin once again.

Quick and Simple Fruit Loaf

It's going to be a big baking session over the next few months....

A bit of a delay!

Apologies to all my readers for the lack of recipes but it's far too hot to cook cakes and I have been away on holiday twice this month!  Also the allotment and garden need me far more than the kitchen.... Normal service will be resumed asap!

Double Chocolate Chip Cheesecake

I think the description of this is a little misleading when it says "not too rich" - it contains 500g of full fat cream cheese and 250ml of soured cream amongst other things....

Double Chocolate Chip Cheesecake

It was quick and easy to make although it took a little longer than an hour to set.  Unfortunately I am the only person in the house who eats chocolate desserts so had to have a slice every day but I've put the rest in the freezer and hope it keeps OK.  It's a lovely chocolatey cheesecake and would be a perfect end to a dinner party where the first 2 courses were quite light.

Home made buttery croissants

This is another 2 day job!  I've always wanted to have a go at making croissants and have to report it's a real faff - much easier just to buy them, especially fresh from the bakery.  I wanted them for breakfast but this recipe doesn't allow that, and so they were a little stale for next day breakfast.  I checked in my Aga cook book and Mary's recipe says all the folding and chilling is done one day, dough is put in a plastic bag in the fridge overnight so shaping and rising can be done first thing in the morning (need to get up early though!) and hey presto you get just-cooked croissants for breakfast.

I did sample one when they came out of the oven and they were lovely - crisp outside and doughy inside.

Quick Apple Tarts

Have not been doing any baking for a couple of weeks due to illness and the need to get on with the garden and allotment.  However, this morning I made these tarts using bought ready rolled puff pastry and they turned out well - quite professional looking.  Incredibly easy to make and you could do any shape or size out of scraps of puff pastry.  David had his with ice cream as suggested and it was difficult for us to stick with one - they are very moreish and really light.

Quick Apple Tarts

Cooking with the twins

Over the last few weeks I have been doing some baking with my twin grandchildren, Lucie-Mae and Sam (aged two and three quarters).  We have made chocolate crispy cakes, carrot cake muffins, fairy cakes, butterfly cakes and jam tarts.  Like all children, they enjoy taking part in mixing and licking out the bowls and of course eating the end result!  I'm trying to get them interested in cooking from an early age.

Warm Chocolate Mousse Cake

It was my turn to cook a meal for my ex-Lloyds Bank longstanding friends (including one current disgruntled employee!)  We started with caramelised onion tartlets with salad leaves from my pot in the greenhouse, then it was Salmon Teriyaki on a bed of noodles and vegetables, followed by the mousse cake.  This was really good - very light and chocolatey and it was still nice cold the next day.  As the recipe says, loads of bowls (therefore loads of washing up), and I found it took one and a quarter hours to set but maybe my oven is a little slow and also my tin was slightly less than the 23cm stated.

Warm Chocolate Mousse Cake

I would have liked a picture in the book to see if mine was OK because it sank and ended up a bit like a baked cheesecake.

A Good Rustic Loaf

More like a bad rustic loaf!  Another disappointing experiment with yeast.

A good (?) rustic loaf

Texture

I used a special artisan stoneground spelt flour but the results were disappointing, a very dense loaf albeit moist.  It seemed to go wrong from the beginning - I accidentally measured out 3 times as much flour than I needed for the starter dough so had to add more yeast and water which made enough starter for 6 loaves!  Began it about 10.30 one night and it took all the next day to go through the various rising stages, one of which I caused because I could see the loaves were spreading on the baking sheet and would have been more like flatbreads so I re-shaped them into 2lb loaf tins and they obviously had to rise again.  I was told the final result resembled a couple of house bricks and maybe the local builder would like them.....


PS my bread machine is the easier option - open a packet of mix, add water and press the button!  But that's not what Bake Off is all about.


A COUPLE OF DAYS LATER

I used one of the extra starters that I had in the fridge and just used ordinary strong bread flour, kneaded it in the food processor, proved it, knocked it back, shaped it and proved it again.  Then baked it and hey presto I got a half decent loaf!

A good rustic loaf!

Walnut Crumbles

I made these biscuits to have with coffee before playing Scrabble yesterday with friends - Pat, Marilyn, Crid and Marilyn's lovely Dad Jim.  We declared them delicious; buttery and crumbly, the flavour of walnuts was very evident.  The recipe did 24 and there weren't many left........  Regarding the actual making, when it said "flatten the balls with a fork" I wasn't really sure how much to flatten them and I think I should have been a little firmer as they turned out quite thick.  Ah well, next time!

Walnut Crumbles

We all get together at each other's houses to play Scrabble every few weeks followed by lunch, sometimes deli-style, other times a hot meal.  Yesterday it was Moussaka, garlic bread and salad (leaves from my greenhouse) followed by Gooseberry Fool.

Cherry Bakewell Cup Cakes

Made some more cup cakes over the weekend but these were a little different to last week in that the recipe uses the "all in one" mixing method.  I had too much mixture so made a couple extra - they appeared to be rising too much but then sank back down to allow enough room for the topping which is glace icing rather than butter cream.  They are like little Bakewell tarts without the pastry.

Cherry Bakewell Cup Cakes

I tried them with a nice cup of freshly ground coffee and they are gorgeous - really gooey and sweet but with the tang of lemon juice in the icing.  David also really enjoyed them and said how pleased he was that I was baking my way through a cake book!!

Rich Vanilla Cup Cakes

Something quite easy this week - cup cakes.  Years ago, we used to call these fairy cakes albeit they were smaller; cup cakes were similar but icing was poured over them very generously so you couldn't see any of the cake.  The Bake-Off book refers to them as "the glamorous big sisters of fairy cakes".

Rich Vanilla Cup Cakes with Easy Vanilla Frosting

I topped them with Easy Vanilla Frosting and they turned out really well - very heavy on the butter though!  It's fun to use all the different pretty cake cases, colourings and decorations so I'm looking forward to making the next batch.

Lemon Ice Cream Meringue Pie

This is from the Puddings and Desserts section and is labelled "easy for kids" but I think they would need to be quite old to deal with all the different stages of this recipe.  It's a 2 day job!  The end result was really very nice - possibly best as a Summer dessert.  The base was crushed cornflakes, then lemon ice cream topped with little meringues.  David loved it and had 2 helpings - we'll probably be having this for dessert for the next few nights! 

Lemon Ice Cream Meringue Pie

I found it a little tricky to remove the dish from the flan case but once the first piece was cut it got easier.  Definitely important to leave in the fridge for a while to "come to" before attempting to serve.

Palm Leaves

I had some left over puff pastry in the freezer so did an easy recipe today, Palm Leaves.  A great way to use pastry trimmings - I used the Bake-Off tip of adding some cinnamon to the caster sugar whilst rolling out and if I had drizzled icing on the top they were almost Danish Pastries!  They were lovely and crispy and very nice with a cup of coffee for a mid-afternoon snack, although mine were a bit smaller than the recipe because I didn't really have enough pastry to make them full size.



Palm Leaves from left over pastry

Have spent the last 5 days either on the allotment or in the garden so it was a nice change to do some baking.....

Blueberry Bakewell Tarts

This week's challenge was a Best of Bake-Off - Blueberry Bakewell Tarts.  There are 3 parts to this recipe - making the blueberry jam, sweet dessert pastry and finally frangipane.  Rolling out the pastry between 2 pieces of cling film certainly made it more manageable, but it was quite tricky to line the muffin tins with it because first you have to cut a round base then strips to line the sides, then seal the join.  As the sides are cut at only 1cm deep I think it would be possible to cut a larger circle and line the tin with one piece.  I've got some left over pastry so will have a go.

Blueberry Bakewell Tarts

I tried these tarts out on David and my friend Caroline who came for a coffee this morning and we all agreed they are extremely nice and more-ish!

Simnel Cake

Have never made an Easter cake before so it seemed appropriate to do this one at this time of the year.  Basically it is just a fruit cake with marzipan, it stays nice and moist because there is a layer of marzipan in the middle which is cooked and just seems to disappear into the cake.

Simnel Cake

Traditionally this cake was made by young girls in service in large houses to take home to their mothers on Mothering Sunday.  These days it is decorated with balls of marzipan to represent the 11 disciples and is eaten on Easter Day.  We have been eating a slice every day over the last few days - very enjoyable!

Beef and Red Wine Pie

Beef & Red Wine Pie

This weekend's challenge was shortcrust pastry made into Beef and Red Wine Pie.  It took 2 days because the recipe said the pie filling was best cooked the day before - I made sure the gravy was reduced and thickened enough to coat the meat, this is very important otherwise the pie could have a soggy bottom.

I decided to do the pastry in the food processor - so quick and easy - it turned out very well and because I cooked the pie on the floor of the roasting oven in my Aga the base wasn't soggy.  I used half butter and half Trex (white fat) and this makes superb pastry.  We both enjoyed the pie - it was much better than anything you could buy and well worth the effort!

Cheese & Onion Tear and Share Loaf

This is a "Best of the Bake-Off" recipe so I made it yesterday morning to have with soup for lunch.  It took over 3 hours so lunch was late! (Not the first time this week - Easter Sunday Lunch was late too because we forgot about putting the clocks forward.....)  It was a bit fiddly to make - had to do 19 small dough balls each filled with prepared onions and grated cheese then arrange them in a honeycomb structure.  However, the end result was pretty good, a pity there was only the 2 of us to share it - served as an accompaniment it would feed 8.  We felt that the onions for the filling would have been more appetising with a little colour - next time I will brown them.



Cheese & Onion Tear and Share Loaf

I used fresh yeast from Sainsbury's in-store bakery - as a guide you need twice as much fresh yeast than if you were using a 7g packet of easy blend, say 15g.  Recipe says allow to cool completely - we ate them warm and they were fine.  Bread-making was the perfect thing to do on a very cold and windy Bank Holiday Monday.

Chocolate Chunk Cookies

Have spent some quality time with my Mum in Inverness over the past week (not actually as cold up there as here in The Cotswolds) and we made these cookies together.  Freshly baked they were delicious - crispy around the edges and softer in the middle with lots of chunks of 70% chocolate oozing out of them and we took a basket over to Kirkhill to share with Susan, Colin, Amy, Julie and Keith.  Next day the cookies were a bit soft but still tasted good.

Chocolate Chunk Cookies

Amy

I met little Amy (my great-neice, six months old) for the very first time and she is gorgeous.  She wanted to try the biscuits but had to settle for a Farley's Rusk instead!

Mary's Coffee & Walnut Battenburg

This was another technical challenge and I enjoyed making it, despite tons of washing up!  I was interested to read that the original pink and white Battenburg cake was made to honour the marriage of Queen Victoria's grand-daughter to Prince Louis of Battenburg in 1884.  They say you learn something new every day.....

Coffee and Walnut Battenburg

You just have to keep your eye on the maths (equal quantities of both sorts of cake mixture, the length and width of the marzipan).  I found I didn't have quite enough coffee butter cream but I was probably a little too generous in my first and second applications.  Also my cake wasn't perfectly square as you can see, but that's because it rose more in the centre than at the outsides.

It's an extremely sweet cake and ideal for serving at an afternoon tea party when you want to put out something a little different.

PS There are plenty of off-cuts to nibble while you are assembling the cake!

Mincemeat Lattice Tart

Last weekend I made Mincemeat Lattice Tart out of the "Celebration Cakes" section, as I am tackling a recipe out of each chapter rather than starting on Page One and working through the book.  It would be a gorgeous dessert to serve at a Christmas Dinner Party because the filling is a combination of mincemeat and cranberries.  The pastry is unusual as it has full fat cream cheese in it as well as butter, but I don't really know why, for me it didn't add anything extra to it (dread to think how many calories in each slice!)    I found that the cream cheese pastry was a bit hard when cold - lovely when warm though.  In fact I think sweet dessert pastry would have been better.  David had his tart hot with custard and he said it was definitely the right option......

Mincemeat Lattice Tart

It took me several days to find any frozen cranberries and eventually I got them at good old Clopton Farm Shop.

Pavlova

Mango and Passionfruit Pavlova was this weekend's dessert and very nice it was too.  I made the meringue base a day or so earlier, set the oven timer for one and a quarter hours, went outside in the lovely sunshine to start work in the garden, and promptly forgot about the meringue so it had an extra 40 minutes or so!  That meant I didn't get the marshmallowy centre but by the time I had loaded it with cream and fruit it didn't really matter - the end result was yummy.

Mango and Passionfruit Pavlova

Mango and passionfruit are a wonderful combination - a really good winter alternative to the usual strawberry or raspberry versions we have in summer. 

Raspberry Millefeuilles

Yesterday I had a go at Millefeuilles with Raspberries.  Must admit I was tempted to use Ready Made Puff Pastry that I had in the freezer but I thought no, the idea is to be a better baker so I did it from scratch and it actually turned out pretty good!  The creamy custard filling with zest of orange and orange liqueur in it was gorgeous - it could easily be used in other recipes such as orange and chocolate trifle.

Millefeuilles with Raspberries

It seemed to take all day to make because there is a lot of cooling and chilling to be done.  I used frozen raspberries picked from my allotment last Autumn and they tasted great but were a bit soggy and runny, fresh ones would have been better.  David liked this so much he had 2 helpings!

Mary's Tarte au Citron

This is another "technical challenge" recipe and the challenge for me was working with sweet pastry which I always find difficult.  It's so fragile and this time was no exception!  Two or three years ago my husband treated me to a cookery day at Raymond Blanc's Le Manoir and I remembered that the pastry chef said if we had a problem with the pastry breaking, to shape it in the tin just using fingers and thumbs - don't try to roll it out too much - so this is what I did.  Also my flan tin has quite high sides so I wasn't able to trim around the edges half way through cooking.

Tarte au Citron

The recipe takes six eggs - a lovely way to use those produced by my girls.  The end result was wonderful - good texture and nice and lemony.   I had cooked a lamb and apricot tagine this morning so we ended up having a gourmet meal on a Thursday evening!

Making Bread

This week I attempted bread-making.  Yeast cookery has never been one of my strong points and today was no exception!  Although the loaf rose perfectly and looked beautiful I did not like the texture - it wasn't light and fluffy, more dense and almost waxy.  I used fresh yeast so am going to have another go and see if I get better results with easy blend.  However, it makes fantastic toast and I am sure the chickens will enjoy the leftovers!

White Loaf

PS If you use cling film to cover the bowl whilst proving be sure to oil it (doesn't say this in the recipe but I have seen it recommended elsewhere) as my dough stuck to the film and I lost some of it.

Mary's Brandy Snaps

Yesterday I attempted this technical challenge and although I closely followed the instructions I didn't get that very thin lacy finish that I hoped for.  The brandy snaps tasted wonderful and had a nice crunch, not too hard, but didn't really have any holes in them.  I would love someone to tell me what went wrong then I could have another go at them sometime.  I decorated mine with milk chocolate (to please my husband, David) and toasted chopped hazelnuts.  I came home at lunchtime today to find there were only 2 left!  It seems David and his friend Ian had taken a fancy to them.

Brandy Snaps

I quite like the idea of making a batch of brandy snap baskets which could then be used to create a dessert by filling them with a scoop of ice cream, some summer fruits and a dusting of icing sugar.  You would need to oil the outside of some individual pudding basins or ramekins and shape the brandy snap mixture over them.

Ready, Steady, Bake!!

This is my second cook book project - a couple of years ago I cooked all the recipes in Delia Smith's Summer Collection and blogged the whole experience.  It took me about 18 months but I learnt a lot and hope to do the same with this project.

Victoria Sponge Cake

I started off the other day with the classic Victoria Sponge Cake recipe and all went well.  I usually do the all-in-one mix using soft cooking marg but this is the luxury version with a whole pack of real butter!  I loved Mary's tip on how to soften butter if you're a little short of time - she cuts it into cubes and pops them into lukewarm water for 10 mins and then drains them.  Hey presto - nice and soft and squidgy.