Irregular update: recent baking

Not been baking a massive amount recently, but here’s some of the things I’ve made recently.

Firstly, a chocolate mousse cake, taken from the BBC website here. It’s really soft and moist, and was interesting to make – putting the cake in a double-lined tray and then into a bigger baking tray with about half an inch of water in before putting it in the oven. Served up really well with fresh cream and raspberries (yes, I am a fan of these things).

My one grip is with how recipes leave you guessing; “cook in a 9″ tin”. Oh really? A round tin? A tray? If you’re not putting a pic next to it, leave us a clue, yeah?

Secondly, some pistachio and rosewater cupcakes from here. Very light, might have put too much rosewater in the cake mix as its a bit strong, but pretty good.

Cardiff Clandestine Cake Club – Meeting Three!

It was the third installment of the Cardiff branch of the Clandestine Cake Club this week; previous meetings have had a theme, but this time the challenge revolved around seven delicious ingredients we had to incorporate into our cakes: –

- Non-white flour
- Non-white sugar
- Lemon
- Honey
- A spice of some sort
- Vanilla
- Some berries

After an initial glance around some websites or blogs (and pestering my Mum!), I managed to find some recipes that had five to six of the ingredients but nothing that had all seven. I’ve always cooked directly from recipes so the idea that I was going to have to improvise was quite exciting and intimidating at the same time. I settled on this idea here, and added blackberries to the cake mix along with a dash of lemon juice – I love blackberry and apple together, it’s so deliciously sharp – and then added a light layer of vanilla frosting.

The result is something that is almost akin to bread and butter pudding, and I suspect it might be something that’s also amazing served hot with ice cream instead of icing it. It’s definitely going in my book of recipes to keep!

The event itself was served up at the amazing new Pettigrew Tea Rooms, which sits in the gatehouse of Cardiff’s Bute Park so we were not only treated to each other’s fabulous creations, we also got lovely tea in a beautiful setting! Again, I’m constantly amazed by the thought and effort all the attendees put into their creations (cous cous instead of flour? That wouldn’t have occurred to me at all) and the ingredients that were used and I’m enthused for the next project to be unveiled.

Easter….regular Wednesday…ok, I’ve been slack

A veritable smorgasbord of baking to catch up on!

I was somewhat strapped for time for my usual Wednesday baking slot so I made some mini Victoria Sponges, mostly to try and practice improving the presentation of what I make. I used the recipe for the cupcakes from here, and found both the mixture a little dry – there was no drop, so I added a little bit of milk – and there was insufficient batter to make twelve cakes (I just had enough for ten). If I made these again, I might just double the ingredients.

The idea for the decoration was simple enough – cut a piece of sponge out of the middle, fill it with jam and piped fresh cream, replace the sponge and drizzle with icing sugar. On all the cakes, the diameter of the the removed piece of sponge was too small and I should have been bolder with my cutting.

All were consumed, so no bad thing.

I also had a go a couple of new things over the Easter period; firstly was making my own ice cream! A lot of effort in beating together yolks and castor sugar (10 mins by hand over heat, 20 by beaters until cooled) and then the recipe failed me; it listed single cream, which I should beat until soft peaks formed but becuase it doesn’t have a high enough fat content single cream will not do this (believe me, I tried). So in the end I sort of gave up, mixed the single cream with the egg and sugar batter and added the bits of turkish delight which promptly fell to the bottom. To add one final mistake, the rose water didn’t get swirled through enough so was very strong in some places and barely present in others.

It’s a good recipe and I think I’ll try it again in the future but maybe attempt some basic vanilla before getting more ambitious. I searched for the same recipe online and all the other copies I could find listed fresh cream instead of single cream. Weird.

Finally, I went into Wally’s Deli and picked up a bar of spotted-dick flavoured chocolate. I loved steamed puddings, but this chocolate did not taste anything like the real deal. So I attempted my own, from the recipe on the BBC website here (and, as an aside, I’m pretty sure the puddings of my youth never had lemon peel in them). I’ve never made this kind of pudding before so it was a bit hit and miss, and I found that the hour given for cooking wasn’t enough and I left it in for another forty minutes or so which kind of overdid it.

So again, something else to come back to and practice on!

Baking will occur this weekend, as my wednesday is taken up with going to a gig.

Wednesday baking: Easter!

I like cooking seasonal or event type stuff, so it seemed logical to pick something Easter-y – and with cupcakes being the easiest thing to take into work, I made Dan Lepard’s Simnel Cupcakes (recipe available from the BBC website here)).

It’s got a double layer of marzipan, one in the middle which melts a bit whilst cooked and then a fresh disc on top. There’s meant to be eleven gold baubles on the top of the cake but I had a patience failure (mostly due to my fat fingers not having sufficient dexterity for the task. I did think of using tweezers, but then that’d break out into some awful parody of Operation).

Wednesday Baking: Stop Hitting Ganache!

Another first this Wednesday – making a cake covered in ganache. I’d seen it on the Celebrity version of the Great British Bake-Off and it looked a lot of fun to make, so I discovered this recipe on the Clandestine Cake Club website. The cakes themselves were again another new method of making a sponge – no butter, and the eggs separated, whisked and then folded back together. The results were really interesting and so very light, but the elderflower flavour didn’t really come through at all. I might try these again with a more strong flavour.

I’ve been told that white chocolate is the hardest type to turn into a ganache as it’s not really a proper type of chocolate anyway but it seemed relatively easy to make. Applying it was kind of like working really thick melted cheese and I was woefully under-prepared for manipulating it around the sides of the cake. I need to get myself a palette knife so I can have a go at working it with a bit more precision – also consider putting an initial coating around the edges and leaving it chill for a bit so it sticks a bit easier.

It set well enough which caused another problem – the tin I put it in was a little too small which meant as the ganache hardened overnight it stuck to the top; when I tried to prise it off, it pulled the top of the cake off. Whoops. All in all – fairly decent flavour, presentation needs work.

Next: something for Easter!

It’s Sports Relief this weekend – so to raise money, I organised a bake sale in work which happily coincided with my regular Wednesday evening cooking. Again dipping into the Hummingbird cake book I picked out some Raspberry Trifle cupcakes.

These started with normal, vanilla sponge cupcakes; then, the middles were hollowed out (much as you’d do with a fairy cake) and a fresh raspberry and some jam filling the middle. The lid gets put back on, then a thick custard topping goes on top. It’s kind of like creme patissiere but there’s no custard powder involved. A mix of milk, cornflour, plain flour, vanilla essence and sugar is combined to make a custard and then it’s mixed with fresh cream when cooled, and the piped on top. I had a lot of fun making this, and the cakes themselves were very popular.

I’ve got a plan to attempt something similar but with a single, large cake when there’s an appropriate occasion; and if there’s something making this cake and last week’s effort showed me it’s that I need to keep pushing myself outside of my comfort zone to get any better.

Wednesday Baking: Marshmallow Caramel Bars (aka Diabetic apocalypse)

I took in a cookbook to work this week, as a lot of my creations end up there because I know they’ll get eaten and if I just keep it around the house I’d be the size of a blimp in no time. The book got passed around (with the disclaimer of whatever gets baked has to come in by bike) and a favourite seemed to be marshmallow butterscotch bars. And here’s how they turned out.

This was great fun to cook and took me totally outside of my comfort zone. I got to make the butterscotch from scratch, first by boiling caster and soft brown sugar, golden syrup and water together and let it boil for about fifteen minutes. This time period was mostly spent by me and Rachel staring at it.

“Is it ready now?”
“Dunno. It says I should drop a bit of it in water”
“Should it do that?”
“Ummmm…….”

When it was deemed ready, butter, double cream, vanilla essence and peanut butter was added. I then poured it over a layer of marshmallows which sat on a pastry base (partly made with icing sugar) so yes, it was kind of sweet and there were reports of people being able to see through time. I cut the bars much smaller than the recipe recommended, so heavens only knows what sort of heart trauma would have occurred with the recommended dosage.

Wednesday baking: Muffin Onslaught Continues….

More muffins this Wednesday – this time Mango and White Chocolate. They were ok, though if I was to point to a problem both the main constituents of the cakes aren’t the most exciting of flavours and I thought they were a bit bland. I much preferred the fruity sharpness of the blueberry ones I made the previous week – though I expect is one of those great things about recipe books, you get to try them and see which ones are keepers!

I can recommend John Barrowman’s banana loaf (the recipe for which can be found on the BBC website here) – it was lovely and moist. Oh, and through the power of crumble I’ve rediscovered the awesomeness of rhubarb and I’ve been looking at some more recipes to use it in.

I think that’s enough of cupcakes for a couple of weeks and I think (after Clandestine Cake Club) I can face making something with chocolate in again. I’ve also found that Lakeland and Kitchens (a shop local to Cardiff) are now my major source of temptation when out shopping in the city centre rather than record shops or clothes, which is both kind of odd and kind of cool at the same time.

Wednesday Baking: Blueberry Muffins

Nothing really spectacular, but they are lovely and moist – I thought I’d botched the make by putting milk into the melted butter too soon and curdling it, but turns out my fears were unfounded. Check out the totally awesome cupcake cases – a Christmas present from Ben and El!

After all the excessive chocolate of last week, it was nice to have something a bit basic and full of fruit.

Cardiff Clandestine Cake Club – Meeting 2!

Thursday was the second meeting of the Cardiff branch of the Clandestine Cake Club; as mentioned a couple of posts ago I’d set my heart on making a roulade and, after a few trial runs, settled on a simple cream and raspberry filling. If I’d had more time I’d liked to have approached the Russian Roulade concept (vodka with the cream, and then a variety of fillings perhaps like those you get in a packet of Revells) but didn’t really give it enough thought. Thank you all for your suggestions, and to my tasters at home who get fed a variety of possible fillings!

The effort everyone had made for their cakes was staggering; it was lovely being in a room with so many friendly and incredibly talented people – have a gander at the spectacular creations below! It’s inspiring me to be better and more adventurous with my baking.

I had a dinner of cake – brilliant

Leftovers were put into tupperware which got taken to Music Geek for demolition!